No hassle, No Fuss, just websites made easy

- Why are you so much cheaper than most other design companies?

-What do you mean by 'static web page'?

-What information do you need to start designing my website?

-What if I only want 2 or 3 pages? Do I still have to pay your standard fee?

-If that's the case, why do additional pages cost so much extra?

-If I pay your standard site fee, will I have to pay anything else on top of that?

-What do you mean by 'register your domain name'?

-What is 'web hosting'?

-What is 'URL masking'?

-I can get a better price for domain name registration / web hosting / URL masking from
www.somewhereorother.co.uk. Why can't you?

-So what if I register all my details myself and get you to put my site on my own web
space. What's stopping me just refusing to pay you?

-What happens when my site has been designed and I want to change it? What happens
then?

-Why does it take you 15 minutes to (say) change an email address or telephone
number?

-OK, now I have my website. What next?

Why are you so much cheaper than most other design companies? We keep our costs down in a
number of ways. We don't put together fancy (and often unnecessary) animations or complicated
menu systems - our fee is based on creation of striking, professionally designed static web pages. We
are based at home, so we don't have expensive office overheads, and we base many of our designs
on popular templates, which cuts development time. We're not aiming our service at corporate bodies
and large companies who can spend thousands on a significant web presence - we're aimed at the
small business and home user who wants a good value, efficient service. We also have a small
turnover, so do not need to be registered for VAT.

What do you mean by 'static web page'? A static web page contains information that is fixed. As a
contrast, a forum or chat room page is dynamic, because the contents of that page can change
automatically. Similarly, on-line ordering systems, shopping carts and searchable product catalogues
are all dynamic. We have a small number of standard pages that are not strictly 'static' that may be
incorporated into your site as part of the standard fee. For instance, you could have a gallery page
that displays thumbnail photographs along the top of the page, and clicking on a thumbnail displays a
larger version of that photograph. We also have a diary system, where a list of one, two or more
upcoming events can be displayed depending on the current date; only future events are displayed,
so the user never sees past events listed. We are always willing to consider adding new types of
pages to this list; if you have a specific idea in mind, please get in touch to discuss your requirements.

What information do you need to start designing my website? We can start designing your site with
some basic information about colours, logos, names and style. If you have a particular logo, we can
use that and match the buttons and site colours to that logo. If you don't have a logo in mind, we can
design a simple logo for you for a small additional fee. We then need to know what pages you want.
For example, if you are selling a product or service, you may have an introduction page, a page
describing the product or service in more detail, a list of frequently asked questions, a list of
comments from previous customers and a contacts page. If you don't have specific details in mind, or
you're not sure what you should put on your site, then we can help you plan your site. We need as
much information as you can gather - leaflets, advertising literature, photographs, letters from
customers etc. We will then design your site based on the information you supply. We can scan a
small number of printed photographs as part of the standard fee (a maximum of 2 photograph per
page). If you require a large number of photographs on your site, we can scan these for you for a
small additional fee. We have a form available for you to complete if you want to commission a
website.

What if I only want 2 or 3 pages? Do I still have to pay your standard fee? Yes. The majority of the
development time goes into developing the basic site structure and graphics, so a 2 or 3 page site
takes almost as long to develop as a 5 page site.

If that's the case, why do additional pages cost so much extra? We've found that as sites grow larger
than 5 pages or so, the page content generally becomes more and more complex, and it becomes
harder to maintain the consistency of and links between the various pages. The price reflects this
additional complexity. If you want a large number of additional pages, however, contact us to discuss
your requirements further.

If I pay your standard site fee, will I have to pay anything else on top of that? Yes. You will need to
pay to register your domain name, though we can take care of this too for an additional fee. We
recommend one of 2 web hosting companies, depending on your specific needs. Both offer free
hosting , another reason we can keep our costs down. Once the site is up and running, we can hand
all the access details to you or carry on managing the data as requested. More details of that below.

What do you mean by 'register your domain name'? Your domain name is your unique internet
address - for example, site-write.com. There are many companies that will register your domain
name for you. We currently use godaddy; they charge Ł10.08 for 2 years for a .com .co.uk or .org.uk
domain. You may wish to register your own name, or we can do this for you at no extra charge; we
will just add their fee to your invoice. You could even choose a free domain name from the webhost,
something like sign-write.beebly.com. In this example, the host company (beebly) will pop its name
into the address as a form of advertising.

What is 'web hosting'? Once your site has been built, you need somewhere to put it. A web host is an
on-line company who will store your website data and show it to anyone who logs onto your domain
name. As stated before, we use one of 2 web hosting companies. We chose them for the sheer
simplicity for us, and you, the end user. Both companies allow e-commerce, blogs and a whole host of
features you would normally expect to pay a lot for.

What is 'URL masking'? The URL is the physical location of your site, and URL Masking is a way of
utilising the free web space provided by your ISP without revealing to the user where your site is
hosted. As well as looking more professional, it means if you need to move your site to a different
host, the move will be transparent to the user. Use godaddy, and for as little as Ł10.08, you can have
your own .com address.

I can get a better price for domain name registration / web hosting / URL masking from
www.somewhereorother.co.uk. Why can't you? We probably could, but we currently use godaddy.
Apart from being one of the biggest of their kind, they provide an efficient, good value and reliable
service. If you prefer to arrange these aspects of your site yourself with a cheaper company, that's
fine; if you want us to arrange the details for you, that's fine too!

So what if I register all my details myself and get you to put my site on my own web space. What's
stopping me just refusing to pay you? We ask that if you register your own domain name, you let us
have the appropriate passwords, and we will redirect the registered email address for that site to our
own account while we set up your site. This makes it easier for us to sort out any problems that may
occur when we first make your site live. Once we have received payment, we will reset the account
back to your designated address and hand control back to you. If you prefer not to do this, we will
simply ask that you pay for the site design up-front.

What happens when my site has been designed and I want to change it? What happens then? Once
we've built your website, it becomes your site. If you want to maintain and modify the site yourself,
we're quite happy for you to do that. As part of our fee, we will provide simple guidelines on how to
modify certain aspects of the site. We can also provide additional consultancy if you need more
information on how the site has been constructed. We will also be happy to make subsequent major
modifications in the future if required, but this is provided any updates you make to your site yourself
have followed our guidelines. Alternatively, if you don't have the time or the knowledge to maintain
your site yourself, we can do it for you. We don't charge a set monthly or yearly maintenance fee;
instead, we charge Ł30 per hour for modifications to the site. Most modifications are simple and may
take as little as 15 minutes, so we will keep a record of time spent modifying your site, and only
invoice you at the end of every complete hour.

Why does it take you 15 minutes to (say) change an email address or telephone number? A simple
change may only require a 1 line edit, so may only take 30 seconds to actually modify the file.
However, there are a number of overheads involved: your site is restored onto our development
machine from our backups, the change is made, the site is checked for errors, uploaded onto the host
and then archived. It is therefore much more economical to make a number of changes at the same
time.

OK, now I have my website. What next? What you do then depends on what you want your website
for. If you site is a personal site, you will probably just want to email or write to friends and relatives
giving them the URL (web address) so they can keep up to date with what you are up to. Similarly if
you're a club, you may just wish to let your members have the address so they can keep up to date
with what's happening. It's also a good idea to add the address to any advertisements, posters,
newsletters or flyers that you produce. If you're using your site to advertise a product or service,
there are a number of things you can do to get people to visit your site. See our Introduction to
Internet Marketing page for more ideas. Again, this SEO (search engine optimising) is a service we
are happy to provide at a nominal fee.