Alex Du is a lawyer at the Toronto law firm of McMillan Binch and a member of the firm's KNOWlaw(tm) Group.

Being on the Internet isn't always as easy as it looks. A website that doesn't accomplish your goals - whether those are simply marketing your business and its products and services, or carrying on an e-commerce business - can do more harm than good.

Many companies turn to professional website developers to make sure their websites are effective and creative. Think of your website development agreement as providing the framework for you and the developer to communicate and collaborate with each other towards the completion of the site.

When you're negotiating your agreement with a developer, keep the following basics in mind:

Know what you want

This may sound obvious, but start by listing what you want your website to do. Even if this changes as you go along, it's a good starting point to help determine what services you'll need, how much the website will cost and whether the developer has the required skills and experience.

Know what the

developer has to do

In the agreement, specify clearly what services the developer will provide and when. Services may include:

* coding and web page layout including graphic design and creation;

* creating online games, puzzles and other entertainment elements;

* developing an e-commerce infrastructure including order and payment mechanisms;

* collecting, tracking and analyzing information about customers

* maintenance and support of the website and training.

The agreement should set out a delivery schedule of dates or time frames for certain events or items to be completed or delivered to you for your approval.

Know what

you have to do

If you want the developer to include your content on your website, you'll need to provide it - whether it's existing material, text, contact information or simply images the developer will use to program new animation or other new content.

Your agreement should set out what you will provide to the developer and any restrictions on how the developer can use that material.

Decide in advance, too, who will be responsible for creating and updating the content on the website and when.

Payment

Just as your list of what you want your website to do may change over the course of development, your budget will likely change too. But your agreement should have a starting budget, a mechanism for calculating compensation for overtime, and additional services.

You will probably want fee updates for work completed at regular intervals, as well as a cost estimate for completion.

The payment schedule should set out how much will be paid and when. You will likely want the trigger for payment to be completion of certain steps, rather than specified dates, and you should consider a holdback amount payable upon final acceptance.