Stages of building your site

Stage 1 - Agreeing the brief
This can be done over the phone or via instant messaging and E-mail services (Hotmail, Skype, Yahoo and MSN) to discuss in depth what you want from your web site. I can suggest ideas that will meet your objectives, offer a creative basis to proceed and talk you through any special requirements that you may need. You'll be advised on costs and given a range of pricing options. Time will be spent with you to get the brief right. After that I can offer a complete service to provide content, images etc or you can produce your own.

Stage 2 - Look & Feel
Two or three designs will be provided for you to choose from. The site will be previewed on a live demo area so you can see immediately how it will look on the internet. Between us we will work together to produce the right look and feel for your site. Usually once the initial design is agreed the rest of the site evolves quickly.

Stage 3 - Web Site Build
At this point, you will need to provide all the content for the web site, all text must be in electronic form. Images should ideally be electronic form, but it may be possible to use scans from printed material. Help can be provided if you have any problems producing the content e.g. copy writers, photographers.

Stage 4 - Testing and Amends
Once the web site is completed, final tests will be under taken on different platforms to make sure the web site functions and looks good to the majority of users. E-mail, forms etc will also be tested. During this time you can check the site for any amends. Then the web site will be put live. You will then be billed for job completion.

Stage 5 - Maintenance
If your web site needs maintaining, an agreement can be drawn up, also if there is any training. this can be organised at this stage or during stage 4 (before the web site goes live) as required. As a matter of customer service you'll be informed of any technological advances, which may improve the performance of your web site. Also see Maintenance below

Maintenance

Clients often need help and support after their web site is live. To neglect a web site once it is live often leads to an unsuccessful web site. At the initial launch of the site it will be submitted to all the main search engines. I always build web sites in such a way as to improve their ranking. Although as part of the service, you'll receive help and advice on how to maintain and update your web site and also how to re-register with the search engines, this process can prove time consuming. If your do not have the time to continue regular re-submissions I'm happy to provide this service as part of a maintenance agreement.

'Lick of Paint' maintenance contract

As well as offering a full maintenance contract (see below) there is a fixed fee 'Lick of Paint' maintenance contract available. This is a quarterly service where we will make any minor amends to the web site's content and re-register with all the main search engines, as well as checking the current search engine positions and providing a stats report (where available). I'll also inform you of any developments which may help in the growth or promotion of your web site. If your web site requires extensive updates this service will not be suitable, it's only intended for web sites which need minor amends and update every 3 months, if this service is not suitable see below.

If required this service can be combined with a marketing strategy.

Full maintenance contract

It is important once your web site is live to keep it looking fresh and the content current. There is nothing worse that seeing 'last updated Aug 1999' or trying to using the contact section of a web site and finding the information is out of date. There are few ways to prevent this.

If your web site requires regular updating for example it includes latest news stories or a seasonal product range, you may choose to have an automatic update system, which through a simple ASP admin screen you can easily make changes to your web site without knowing HTML.

Basic HTML training can be provided for you or your staff to be able to update the web site them selves. This is only recommended if the changes are likely to be small changes i.e. updating existing information, rather than adding pages or new sections.

The third solution is to take out a maintenance contract. This means I'll undertake your web site upkeep and you simply e-mail any changes, amends or updates and they will be dealt with in most cases immediately (or with in 24 hours of receiving them) if it's a larger job, you'll receive a time scale for completion. This is an annual contract which is billed quarterly. It's a fixed hourly rate and charged in half hour blocks. A time sheet is kept and available by request at any stage. Full terms and conditions available on request.