The Process

The way I start out is getting some information from you then I work up the first page (home page) of your site.  I put it in a test folder and send you link to view it, making sure it's what you want before proceeding to make the rest of your site.  This is because, for consistency and professional polish, each other page will be the same layout, colors, etc.

My motto is, "It's your site, you must be 110% happy with it."  Nothing will hurt my feelings.  If I put something together and you hate it totally, always let me know and I do another.  If you like some aspects, but not others, I make changes.  We work the one page until it's exactly what you want.  I usually get some sort of vision after talking and/or e-mailing with you then start tying it together with other elements, etc.

I'm in constant contact with you, usually every step of the way.  We learn from each other this way.  However, if you don't want that much involvement, I can put it all together without prior approval each page, step, etc.  I will have many questions that come up but please know I work on YOUR schedule.  If it takes you a couple minutes to respond or a day, that's okay with me.  I work as efficiently as I can (day & evenings) but I understand people have different schedules and don't freak out when I don't get an immediate response.  I want to get your site up in as timely a fashion as possible for you but you are at liberty to take what time is needed without me hollering :o)

First contact what I usually ask is if you have an existing theme (business card, logo, etc.) and we work from that.  If you don't have a logo or anything else yet in place for your  business I can work something up to see if it suits you.  You just let me know what colors you like, a little about your tastes and we'll go from there.

If you don't yet have a site, we have to then come up with a domain name (your site name - name of your business which would be www.myname.com) and make sure it's available (always good to have 3 different names in case one is already taken, or use .net or other extension instead of .com); we then get hosting (hosting is the service that allows us to publish your site pages to the world wide web).  I have always used GoDaddy due to price (can find coupon codes for discounts) but would recommend checking out HostGator pricing as I have heard a lot of good about them.  You can also use any other hosting service - it's all up to you, I just give recommendations if you're not familiar with the back-end setup.  I can give you a step-by-step how to purchase your domain name & hosting or you can give me card information and I go in and do it for you (once purchased you receive all information to access the account and I throw away the card information).  I prefer Linux hosting over Windows hosting (programs and software sometimes require Linux or won't work - like custom forms, chat support, etc.) but that is up to you as Linux does cost a tad more.

If you do have a site, I will need the FTP login and password information so I can publish what we do to the web.

Barring any problems outside my control (hosting issues, awaiting information from client, etc.), should be able to have your complete website done inside a week.