- Why Should I Have a Website?
- Should I Create My Own Website?
- Why Should I Hire Marilyn Fenn Design?
- What Will You Do for Me?
- Can You Work Remotely?
- How Much Does a Website Cost?
- What Are Your Rates?
- What Are Your Rates for Graphic Design and Illustration?
- What Are Your Payment Arrangements?
- How Do I Plan for My New Website?
- What Should I Consider When Choosing a Domain Name?
- What Should I Look for in a Web Hosting Company?
- What is Your Design Process?
- How Long Does it Take to Create a Website?
- Can You Add e-Commerce to My Site?
- Can You Do Flash and Should I Use it on My Website?
- Should I Use a Database?
- Do You Design Databases?
- How Do I Update My Website?
- How Do I Get Traffic to My Site?
- How Do I Know Who is Visiting My Site?
Why Should I Have a Website?
Having a website is like having your business or organization open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year long, to a worldwide audience (without you having to be there or pay an employee to 'mind the store'). Anyone at anytime can find out about you, your company, your products or services at their convenience. Your website can help your existing customers as well as attract new customers. A website is a relatively inexpensive form of advertising your products, your services, your artwork or music -- whatever the special thing is that you do.
Should I Create My Own Website?
That depends. If you are a graphic designer or have a flair for good design, and if you are technically inclined and patient enough to learn the intricacies of website coding (and debugging), and if you have a lot of time, you may want to consider it.
You will also need some basic knowledge of HTML or a strong desire to learn it, a good graphics software package, such as PhotoShop or Fireworks, and a good website design software package, such as Dreamweaver. Did I mention patience?
Why Should I Hire Marilyn Fenn Design?
I am a professional website designer, with over 20 years of related education, experience, knowledge, and skills. I work quickly and accurately, and am quite good at creating just the look and function my clients seek.
My rates are reasonable. I will give you a detailed estimate of what I would charge to do your site and how long it should take, and I will stay in close communication with you throughout the design process, to be sure that the project is on track, on budget and will meet your expectations.
For more detailed information about my background and qualifications, see this page: About Marilyn Fenn Design. View my portfolio to see select examples of my work.
What Will You Do for Me?
I will create a site that best suits your wishes, your tastes, and your personal, business, or organizations' needs. For a more detailed list of the technical issues I will address, see this page.
Can You Work Remotely?
Whether you are located near or far, I can work with you to fulfill your design needs.
Should you desire it, the design process may be handled entirely via email and phone calls. I have very successfully created a number of designs for clients whom I have never met in person.
If it's geographically feasible and if you prefer, I can meet with you face-to-face. If you're located in the Austin area, we can meet at my office, your place of business, or somewhere in-between.
How Much Does a Website Cost?
There are usually three types of expenses involved in the total cost of a basic website: registering a domain name, hosting your site files on a server, and the design and development of the site. Domain name registration and website hosting are ongoing expenses, usually paid annually, while the design of your website is more or less a one-time charge, and maintenance is charged only as needed. (See below for more information on domain names and web hosting.)
The cost of the design and development can vary greatly, depending on such things as the size of the site, the complexity, features, the quality of advance planning, how much of the required information and assets are in a ready-to-use format, the number and type of changes made after the design process has begun, etc.
Although I have heard of quotes for small business sites costing as much as $20,000, most sites that I create range from about $500 to about $3500, with the majority falling into the $1000-$2000 range.
What Are Your Rates?
My rates are competitive or better. Some discounts are available; for websites, I can offer a discount on the initial design, if you sign up for a monthly maintenance contract.
What Are Your Rates for Graphic Design and Illustration?
My rates are competitive or better. I usually charge by the hour for most types of illustration work, but I will be happy to give you a bid for any project.
For logo and other graphic design projects, I usually charge a flat fee, depending on the project.
For logos, I will provide you with 3 comps from which to choose, with up to 2 revisions to the development of a design of your choice. I will provide you with a variety of file formats in both a black-and-white version and a simple color version for print, and an enhanced color version for the web.
What Are Your Payment Arrangements?
Payments options vary, depending on the type, size and scope of the project. The work begins after receipt of a down payment with progress payments as the work progresses, and a final payment due upon completion.
Maintenance payments are billed monthly, at the beginning of each month, due upon receipt. For maintenance, I charge a minimum of 15 minutes for each time I work on your website, up to the actual hours worked. I also offer a discounted maintenance rate if you sign up for a monthly maintenance agreement.
I accept Paypal, cash or personal checks.
How Do I Plan for My New Website?
Good question! How good your site will be depends in part on the information you provide to me. Here is a detailed list of things to consider when planning for your website).
What Should I Consider When Choosing a Domain Name?
Now that you've decided to start your online presence, choosing a name for your website, and more specifically a domain name (the URL people will type into their browser window to find your site) can be harder than you think. You want something that people will associate with your business, that's easy to remember or easy to type. Here are some more tips about choosing and registering your domain name.
Once you've selected a domain name, I can help you to get it registered, or you can register it yourself.
What Should I Look for in a Web Hosting Company?
Once you've made the decision to start your website, selecting a good web host is extremely important. Your hosting service will provide you with server space where your website files will reside, as well as standard features, such as email, and possible extra features, such as e-commerce, scripts or multiple domains. The speed at which your website is seen by your visitors starts with a good web hosting service.
Here is more information about choosing a good hosting service, or I can help you pick one. Contact me if you would like help selecting a web host.
What is Your Design Process?
My design process begins first and foremost with our collaboration to decide upon a good design plan to follow. That way we both know exactly how things should proceed, where we are in the process, and what ultimate end result to expect. Once we have agreed on a plan, I will send you a detailed Statement of Work (the plan) that will serve as our contract, with details of the estimated time and charges.
For a more thorough description of the design process, read this page.
How Long Does it Take to Create a Website?
Depending on my previous commitments, and everything that will be involved in the creation of your website, most average size websites can be created within about 1-4 weeks, or up to 2-3 months for more extensive sites, once we have settled on a plan.
Can You Add e-Commerce to My Site?
Yes. I can add Paypal, which is an all-in-one kind of e-commerce solution, combining the functions of a shopping cart, electronic payment gateway and merchant account into one easy to use system for a fraction of the cost of a full-blown e-commerce solution. Customers can use any credit card without having to sign up for a Paypal account, and the transactions are, as they say, "fast, easy, and secure."
If you have a large inventory, however, you will probably want to consider using a database with a third-party shopping cart, and signing up for a merchant account. Paypal or a third party gateway, such as Authorize.net, can be used for the secure electronic payment gateway.
Can You Do Flash and Should I Use it on My Website?
Absolutely. I have created everything from simple Flash web ads to a 500-page website built entirely in Flash.
Whether you should use it on your website is another issue altogether. In my opinion, it is best used to illustrate concepts that would otherwise require pages of text and/or illustrations to explain, or for interactive features primarily for entertainment purposes. Mostly it depends on your purposes and how well it is done. Will it help or hinder you in reaching your intended goals?
There are good uses of Flash, and there are ways to do it well. Should you decide to use Flash on your site, I will employ the best practices to create your Flash content.
But before you decide, please read some more detailed information about some things to consider before making the investment to add Flash to your website.
Should I Use a Database?
There are many instances where having a database on your website is the best thing to do. Some of the most useful sites on the web employ relational databases, such as Amazon.com, IMDB, and Netflix.
If you are selling products online, if you need to track the progress of a project, or if you have any sort of large inventory which changes frequently, designing at least a portion of your site to be database-driven may save you time and money in the long run.
If you think you will want a database-driven website, either now or in the future, keep that in mind when choosing your web hosting company, to be sure they offer the technologies you will need.
Do You Design Databases?
I do not, but I partner with several colleagues who are excellent at designing databases.
For two small examples designed by one of my colleagues, see my fine art site: one database serves up random artists quotes on every page, and one dynamically serves up my full-size artwork pages.
How Do I Update My Website?
There are several options, depending on your needs, your technical comfort level, and whether you prefer to update it yourself or to have it updated for you.
Whether you require frequent or occasional updates, I will be happy to maintain and update your site for you. Should you wish it, you can sign up for a monthly maintenance agreement, in which you would get a minimum of one hour of maintenance every month at a reduced rate.
For small bits of text, I can create an 'include' file that you can edit and upload to your server as needed.
You can invest in Macromedia Contribute software (about $150.00) to enable more extensive edits (though there are some cautions about its use).
For large primarily text-based content that you might want to update frequently, we can also consider adding a blog to your site.
How Do I Get Traffic to My Site?
The first step begins when I create your site with proper coding to aid in natural search engine searches.
I will also hand-submit your site to the major search engines (which should be done monthly - I will do it initially, or monthly, if desired); additionally I can create a Google Site Map of your site and submit it to Google.
Another very useful thing to do is to have your site linked from other websites, as Google's search algorithm works by considering the number of external links to a site as indicative of the site's relevance to the search; the more links to your site, the more relevant it is seen to be, and hence, the higher up in the search engines it will appear.
Look for free (or paid) online directories that list your type of site, and ask to be included -- be willing to trade links with other similar sites.
You can also invest in pay-per click advertising, which has worked well for some of my clients, particularly Google Ad-words.
Of course, advertise your site whenever and wherever you normally advertise your business.
How Do I Know Who is Visiting My Site?
Most web hosting companies provide you with some type of web statistics that will show you several detailed views of such things as: history of visits on an hourly, daily, weekly and monthly basis, as well as what domain and country your visitors are from, what browser and platform they used, the color-depth and resolution of their monitor, etc.
My personal favorite stats package is Awstats, which shows a wealth of interesting information besides the usual, such as search keywords and search keyphrases, which versions of which operating systems and browsers have been used, which search engines have visited, how many visitors have added your pages to their favorites, and more.
Adding Google analytics to your site's pages will also show you some fascinating results.
If you'd like, I can help you understand what the results mean, and if some tweaking to your website might help to bring in more of the clients you are looking for.