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Mock-ups (samples). Be careful not to give too much away, just enough to give client a good idea of what site will look like. Ensure copyright notices and intellectual property statements are in place.
Maintenance. Summarise an offer of ongoing site maintenance or implications of client deciding to update or maintain site themselves after it has been established.
The above points are usually sufficient to put together a professional web design proposal for a small to medium project. If drafting a proposal based on criteria given to you by prospective client; be sure to address all points. If client suggests proposal documentation be a certain format, respect that. In culling process, first proposals to be binned will be ones that do not address all criteria client has laid down.
Bear in mind that not all web design proposals you submit will be accepted. Be prepared to do some heavy revisions to satisfy your clients and to find a middle ground where all parties feel comfortable. A prospective client asking for revisions is a good sign - they are genuinely interested. Also remember that some companies will ask you for proposals purely to use as a comparison against another designer that they are interested in utilising; so try and limit amount of time you spend on draft until client gives indication of serious interest.
Michael Bloch michael@tamingthebeast.net http://www.tamingthebeast.net Tutorials, web content and tools, software and community. Web Marketing, eCommerce & Development solutions. _____________________________________________
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Michael is an Australian Information Technologies trainer and web developer. Many other free web design, ecommerce development and Internet articles, tutorials, tools and resources are available from his award winning site; Taming the Beast.net (http://www.tamingthebeast.net)