Everything You Need to Know to Get Started
I work at an hourly rate of $50 / per Hour (with a reduced rate for my Community @ $40/ hour). A rough estimate for the whole cost of a site could be between $1000 – 2000. I can get a lot of work done between 20 – 30 hours of work. Ultimately, the entire cost of the site varies upon the amount of work and scope of the website project.
In order to begin a project, I ask for a down-payment of between $300 – 500 to begin work on a site. I ask for periodic payments in $400 – 500 increments until the site is completed, at which point I expect to be paid in full.
It can take about a month to begin and complete a site. Sometimes faster, truly depending upon the amount of time spent honing, tweaking, editing, cleaning, polishing.
Why Wordpress?
Wordpress is a fantastic tool for you – the client – because it allows you a level of freedom of owning your website once the site is completed. It allows you to login and edit / tweak the content to your heart’s content with a user interface that is almost as easy to understand as Facebook or your basic email system. The wordpress back end is super simple and intuitive, and allows me – the web designer – to rapidly and efficiently create a cutting edge design that I can hand over to you and give you the tools necessary to fully own your site without having to come back to pay me for additional work to edit and update your site. It also allows you to have an integrated blog on your site, as well as other options such as an E-Commerce store and Photo Galleries. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions!
What I Need From You
- Getting Clear On What YOU WANT: Your Vision, what you’re wanting to Create
- Getting the Web-Hosting / Domain Name stuff – Please Get Your Web-Hosting through HostMonster : That will probably cost around $70 per year
- I need all the Web-Hosting Emails sent to you with info about the Control Panel & FTP
- Sit down and write out a SITE OUTLINE – Create a Hierarchy / Structure of your site, imagining main headers and sub-headers. Think in terms of how to organize your site, as I will most likely be using Drop-Down Menus.
- What is your COLOR SCHEME – what is your palette, what are the images you would like to use?
- Create your CONTENT – gather your writings, photographs, videos, links, EVERYTHING. Organize it into your Site Outline.
- Find the Template you’re most Magnetized Towards: On THEMEFOREST : That will probably cost around $30
- Write out a short Description (1 to 2 sentances long) describing your site. This will be used in the Meta tags for SEO.
- Write out 20 – 40 Keywords that you would like to be the words that people would find your site using a Search Engine.
- Find a Font for your Logo : MyFonts.com • FontSquirrel.com
- Less Is More.
What I Do
- I listen to your big vision, try to hone in on what you want.
- Try to get clear on your visual aesthetic / color scheme – and try to imagine into what it is you’re trying to create. (Really this is the hardest part!)
- I take the Out-of-the-Box “Premium Wordpress Theme” from Themeforest, and customize it and make it look Rad. I don’t work with PHP or do any web developing; my work is design, customizing the template, content organization, making it all look amazing. If you want to see a Before and After of a customized template, look at the template I used to make this website: Eagle Theme – Even though the templates out of the box reduce a huge amount of my work, I still have a lot of work to do in order to take it from a skeleton to a fully fleshed, fully realized, fully customized site.
- I will work alongside you every step of the way, in close communication with you, in order to create (to the Best of my Abilities) what you want.
- I will show you the work in progress and ask for your feedback and requests.
- Help you deal with all the tech / geek stuff that doesn’t make any sense to you.
- Will problem-solve & deal with technical glitches and issues as they arise.
- I try to establish a working relationship of trust and positive communication throughout the creative project.
Just Say No » To Godaddy!
If you are making your first steps towards getting a website, paying for domain registration & hosting, please consult an expert first (ie someone with significant experience in the realm of building websites!) There are LOTS of Domain Registration & Web Hosting companies, but for some reason people just keep getting sucked into Godaddy.
Godaddy Preys upon the masses of people who don’t know better and haven’t done enough research to look elsewhere for domain registration & hosting. They make the job of webdesigners, like me, a freaking HELL. Their Tech Support & Control Panel is atrocious. Dealing with Wordpress / PhpMyAdmin / Databases, alla that stuff through their Control Panel, which is labyrinthine, is often a tech support, hair-pulling nightmare. Please Please Please do not get seduced by Godaddy’s gimmicky marketing schemes. If you are coming to me asking me to design your site and you’ve already paid for web hosting, and it’s through Godaddy, and I look at you cock-eyed and start making extreme warbling noises and start salivating at the mouth. This is not a good sign. Don’t take it personally. Just change your web hosting!
Again, let me PLEASE Suggest you get your Web-Hosting Through HostMonster! I have found them to be one of the most excellent webhosting companies EVER. Fantastic Control Panel and Tech Support!
