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Several people have asked how I would respond to some of the questions I raised in last week’s post called, “Are you ready for this person?”

Last week, I posed 10 questions that are representative of the type people would ask me when I was pitching EE-based design/development services over the last few years. The questions were intended to be just a little less than perfect in order to reflect that the person asking them may not have a very good understanding of EE or my company.

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The answer to Q8 is a keeper, as are all the answers.

Some sales savvy, and a little practice help too I’m sure.
Don’t be afraid of rejection, and follow-up even on those to maybe turn the tables.

thanks kurt.

I’d have to say…Q4 (the nephew web designer) would be a huge red flag for me. 

I’d naturally want to ask why the nephew isn’t doing the site, and be afraid that every project decision is going to be second-guessed in the same manner that the CMS choice already has.

Q4 is just a big can of worms. My first question would be the same as Michael.

Michael - I worked on a project where the nephew could code circles around me, built beautiful sites, and had some pretty big clients in town.

The first time he “helped” I put his 100% validated code into 8 different browsers and sent screen shots to the site owner. Then, in a carefully worded email, asked if it was more important for the site to be written in cutting edge code, or for it to work for as many people as possible.

The nephew couldn’t get his code (and it was beautiful too, text-book beautiful) work in all the browsers at the same time for this site, and we had let the site owner know that we were not about to debug someone else’s code.

After about a 6 week delay in the project waiting for some 100% valid code that would work across all browsers, we were given permission to do the unthinkable, and the site was launched a week or two later.

While the nephew is a red-flag, most of the time the nephew is out of the scene pretty quickly once the client experiences the difference between the nephew’s customer service and ours.

Probably the most interesting part for me, was that the nephew, is now the webmaster, and we get along pretty well.

Typo Alert, Red flag Kurt 😉

That will teach me to post pre-coffee! Thanks.

Thanks for these harboring words, kurt. Learned a lot from
previous thread (michael) and this one…
(iz on quest for a new sales team so need sales-pitch-angles
and time to do coding az well. me-z more gfx guy and danzurus in codez)

Did i scare you? (no more replies)

I have been using EE since Jan. 2005 and I use it for four websites. I do enjoy it and enjoy all the support perks, but the biggest downside for me is…

Little to no templates (i.e. wordpress, dreamweaver, etc…).

I built each website that is running EE, but to be honest that’s not my strength.

Why after so many years is the template arena for EE so empty? The few that can be found are dated or too simple for most sites.

If anything makes me leave EE it will be this reason.

Why after so many years is the template arena for EE so empty?

Mainly for two reasons…Most build/design custom sites with a unique look/feel and secondly, one can basically use any template they find out on the net and just replace the static text with EE tags. For the latter, using the installed templates as a guide for what tags and where works well.

“Mainly for two reasons”

So using the current number of 50,000 users, what if there was say 3% to 5% of users who wasn’t into creating custom sites, EE becomes a turn off as they see the hundreds of custom templates for wordpress (just as an example) and they go elsewhere.

“just replace static text with EE tags”

I have done this many times for my sites and trust me unless the site is built with CSS forget it. Adding EE tags breaks static templates.

Don’t get me wrong, I love EE and for CMS it’s always performed well for me and my clients…but having to rework a site purchased from say monster templates or projectseven and make EE work is frustrating. I’m not a web developer and maybe that’s the problem - maybe EE is for the full time developer who has the artist touch as well as the programming skills to create beautiful sites using EE.

You can see the sites I created (or put together) at

lannom.org
randyandgerri.com
coffeecountylibrary.org
westsideupc.org

I was so looking forward to the build it project from jambor-ee this past year as I was hoping it would help me (and others like me) learn EE from a “build it” approach, but of course that fell through and was a huge let down. I hope it will come back one day.

I sometimes get the itch to move to another CMS, but it’s the support forum and friendly people at enginehosting that keeps me here.

My opinions only…

So using the current number of 50,000 users, what if there was say 3% to 5% of users who wasn’t into creating custom sites, EE becomes a turn off as they see the hundreds of custom templates for wordpress (just as an example) and they go elsewhere.

Go to the second option, or, yep, that 3-5% just isn’t right for using EE.

unless the site is built with CSS forget it

Well, Ummmm. Hmmmm, It is 2008 ya know. If ya want to live back in the table days of 2000, EE probably isn’t your thing. The sites you list are built with CSS, not tables.

I was so looking forward to the build it project from jambor-ee this past yea…but of course that fell through and was a huge let down. I hope it will come back one day.

Ya, me to. Don’t quite understand why EllisLab promotes JamborEE as they have fallen through and failed (let everyone down) 2-3 times.

I sometimes get the itch to move to another CMS

Like what? What would give you as mush and the flexibility?

I agree that EE gives the developer the most flexibility. That’s why I haven’t left…

But for me…and maybe it’s just me, I wish I had more templates and a wonderful book(s) on how to use EE to the fullest that for me would make EE perfect for me.

If you’re willing to learn and edit that static-templates. then a good starting point is Boyink’s site, “building an EE site” series.
http://www.boyink.com/splaat/weblog/category/building-an-expressionengine-site/
He also uses a static-template and goes step by step into making an EE-driven site with that template.
(plug)That series is now also available in a easy book at http://www.train-ee.com/ (/plug)