Things that website owners should do.
There are a variety of things a website owner can do to protect themselves and save some money. You've worked hard to earn the money to pay for your website, you should be able to keep it and assist in the development.
ALWAYS own your domain name. Unfortunately there are a vast number of less than scrupulous people out there. Web designers are no exception. Yes it is convenient to have somebody else register and renew your domain name and send you bills. Yet what happens if your relationship sours, for whatever reason, with your developer. Suddenly your site comes down and the domain name you have used in all your advertising no longer works. We have seen this happen too many times and is completely avoidable. Again, ALWAYS own your domain name.
The same for your hosting. You can accept advice and help from your developer but you want to set up and pay for the hosting yourself. Almost every hosting provider allows you to set up a FTP user with their own password. This way you can give access to a developer and maintain control. Once the site is up and running you will want to download the entire site to your computer. Even burn it to a CD that you can store. There are many, many free FTP programs that you can use to download with. Again, this is for your protection. If you and the designer part ways you aren't left high and dry without a website.
Participate. You know your business better than we do. Make suggestions for the titles and descriptions. Tell the designer what you do and do not like. The sooner the better. Discuss your seo, social media goals and target audience. If you have an Ecommerce website make the products available for pictures. All these sound pretty simple and basic but we have had clients where getting this information was like pulling teeth. The more your designer has to research your industry the longer, and more expensive, your website deployment will become. If you are going to have extensive gallery areas try to take as many of the pictures as you can as large as you can. From a variety of angles. This will save time and travel for the designer that you won't have to pay for.
