Q & A: About the Process
If you have questions about terminology used here, visit my Website Glossary.
Q. How much does it cost?
A. The mainebabyboomer.com introductory package is currently $950. This is based on a rather tight timeframe that we can meet by working together and by letting me be your tour guide through the process. I use GoDaddy for domain registration, and currently use JaguarPC for your host company.
Q. Will there be other costs besides the package cost?
A. There are 3rd party costs for your domain name and your hosting fees. Domain name registration will be around $12 per year. Hosting will be about $5-10/month, depending on whether you pay for one, two, or three years.
Q. Will you set up the domain name and the hosting?
A. I’ll do most of the process, then give you directions about how to sign on and fill out your credit card information for payment (I prefer not to handle your credit information).
Q. Do I get a contact form?
A. As part of your package you get one Wufoo contact form of up to 10 fields. Wufoo is a 3rd party provider with a form admin that you’ll be able to use yourself to make future changes to your forms. The free form does have Wufoo branding on the result page. You can preview this when you fill out my contact form. There is also a paid version that does not have Wufoo branding, or for a slight additional cost I can build you a form hosted on your own site. We’ll discuss your choices as we proceed to a work agreement.
Q. What about design?
A. Designs that are included in the package price are pre-designed WordPress sites. They are simple clean designs that can showcase YOUR product or service. By branding with your logo, your content, and your images, we can get your site up and running to start you off with an affordable web presence, while concentrating on increasing the visibility of your business. See Samples.
I would be happy to discuss a custom design if you prefer. Price would be negotiated separately.
Q. I don’t know where to begin on site content. Can you help?
A. Writing content will probably be your biggest time commitment for your site. You know your business better than anyone else, and I will share advice on your information architecture (your site outline and navigation) and on other aspects to keep in mind such as search engines. You’ll send me your final version of site content based on our agreed upon site outline in an electronic document such as Microsoft Word and I’ll populate the site and build out the pages with that final content. The package can have up to 15 pages, with a slight charge for additional pages.
Q. Will you edit my content?
A. Only if I see a glaring error or two in spelling. The content as delivered should already be proofread and finalized for the build. After site is turned over to you, you will be able to continue with any edits after that.
Q. How do I use WordPress when you turn the site over to me?
A. You’ll receive about an hour of training, and I’ll also provide links to tutorials. The best training will be regular use of the friendly wordpress admin pages. If you would like additional training I would be happy to provide it at regular rate of $50/hour.
Q. I’m thinking of selling things directly from my site. Is that included?
A. While e-commerce is not included, I can work with you on simple solutions like paypal. Further conversation would be needed to estimate cost.
Q. What if I later need an update to the structure that I’m not comfortable making myself?
A. I would be glad to do that for you at the regular rate of $50/hour.
Q. How will I know how often my site is visited?
A. As part of the package, I’ll add Google Analytics to your site and link you to a resource on how to use it.
Q. How soon will my site appear in search results? Will my site appear at the top of the Google List?
A. There is an entire science built around trying to move up the search results list. It may take a while before your site appears at all and you should not expect to immediately be at the top of the list. In addition to the starter information I’ll provide, an excellent resource for working on improving the listing is http://maine-seo.com.