Signature Series Websites, and Signature Series Web Site Design

First of all, let's talk PRICE.

If price is your first and foremost consideration, might I suggest typing in "cheap web site designer" into Google.  There are a million-million shingles out there banging away in the Internet breezes, and they are just begging for you to bite.

If you are NOT looking for cheap, first and foremost, let's move on.

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So what exactly IS a website?

A website is a four-dimensional interactive experience and an object which moves in and out of existence and time.

"Huh?" (Are you scratching your head?)

A website has a goal, a hierarchy, a plan, a presentation, and both a real world and an electronic existence.  Just like 4-D space, though, everything inside is also outside, and vice versa, (any given page must lead, ultimately, to all other pages)  with the caveat that it can (or should own the capacity to)  expand exponentially to infinite size and level of detail as desired and needed, without having to redesign the entire project.

A website does not, for all intents and purposes, exist if no-one visits it.  It doesn't perform, using up resources (time and bandwidth)  when it's not being used or worked on.

Website Projects I Will Do, and What I Cost, Part I

I do small websites — projects, not full, extravagant launches.  (Huge portals and websites of thousands of pages like The Deepening require a full team of five or more people.  There's one of me doing Signature Series websites, yours truly.)  So (drum roll, please), the cost for a standard website is from...

$0 (for a projects I believe in and that benefit my own pet projects and/or the world)

to $10k...usually.  Sometimes more, depending on how many times you make me take it down, rearrange the rooms, repaint the walls, and buy new furniture.

...Like LMN.  This is that website's fifth incarnation (Notice there's no content yet?)  Yes, that's right.  It's gone through five different versions...and counting.

How about "easy for you to add content and maintain your website yourself" without knowing much of anything at all?

Well, yes, of course it's possible, with some big, hairy qualifications:

If you know how to, let's say, set up your own email accounts on your computer (not with a program or by inserting a disk your ISP gives you, but all by yourself, including getting down into the ACCOUNT OPTIONS area), and you know how to right click/control click, chances are that it's possible...depending on what you want to do.

And you will have to be willing to learn at least a bit of the language and/or a lot of the software interface, probably both.  What kind of web site you want will determine the learning curve — gentle, moderate, or steep.

Forum websites, like the OLA forum, are pretty easy to use (add content, manage the basic administrative jobs).  Exceptions to "easy" are forums using VBulletin like JSGuitarForum.com.  Blogs are easy, too.  Portals or CMS (content management systems)  such as the above-mentioned ClimateCAN.org, Best-Online-Fiction.com, both of which use Joomla, require a great deal of effort to learn to DIY (do-it-yourself)  once the initial build is completed.  Those are the facts.

FYI: HTML websites, like the The Deepening, the OLA main pages, the Best-Online-Fiction.com main pages, zentao.com, zentao7.com, LMNbuilders.com, womblin.com, and hoards of others I have set up (though their owners or lessees usually fail to keep them upgraded), require a LOT of knowledge to maintain if you are constantly rearranging and changing content.  However, HTML (XHTML)  with CSS are, in fact, some of the most SE (search engine)  friendly, if well-designed and optimized for proper ranking.  The Deepening doesn't rank as well as it should because I openly use SSI delivery (Notice that almost all the pages, except the home page, end in .shtml rather than .htm or .html).  Rather than hedging the SSI delivery with a line added to an .htaccess file to make it seem like straight, plain HTML.  I, along with several other web masters, leave them .shtml.  Why?  Because we are trying to make the SEs recognize that SSI is just as pertinent as .txt, .html or even .php and .asp, all SE favorites.  In fact, .php USES SSI to deliver its pages, but, unlike SSI pages where the content is all in text files, speeding the load, .php uses MySQL database delivery, which requires cooperation of at least two different servers.  That's why .php pages (blogs, forums, portals...your online newspaper) load slowly in comparison to SSI or straight HTML.

Now let's talk about size added to DIY maintenance.

The bigger the web site, the more labor intensive it's going to be...for both you (the content provider)  and for the web designer.  The bigger and more extensive it is, the more expensive it is going to be to design, build, and maintain.  And all websites have to be maintained — their code upgraded, patched, or brushed up...by a web master, not you — usually at least once a year if not once a month or more.

Again, it depends on what kind of web site you have.

Anything driven by PHP and MySQL is going to require constant monitoring because its code is vulnerable to security breaches, and PHP-driven web sites are now the majority (blogs, shopping carts, forums).

By the way, if you use Dreamhost, a hosting service I use and recommend, then you can DIY your own upgrades and patches if you use their one-click installs.

Website Design Projects I WIll Do, and What I Cost, Part II

Here we have price and the details IF I agree to take your project (always IF, depending on my schedule and whether I agree with your goals.)

For most, if you can tell me what you want it to look like (your business card, brochure, an example website you found on the Internet, or a mock-up done in Word), a template set that includes:

• your home page,
• a main content pages template,
• a contact us form,
• a secondary content pages template
• and the ancillary pages template
• with instructions on how to add content to them

is going to run you about $1500 for XHTML and CSS.  That's paid to me via cashier's check or PayPal, half down, non-refundable, balance due upon completion.  After I get all my money, I upload them to your server or send you the pages so you can upload them yourself, your choice.  Of that $1500, I get $1000 to put bread on my table...after paying server fees, my telephone bill and other utilities.  The rest goes to Uncle Sam.

If you need an extensive form, similar to this one, they cost from $200 to $750 each...usually.  Forms that comprise pages and pages I simply don't like to do.

If I have to add your content for you, it's going to run you a lot more.  (Hourly charges at $60/hour.)

If you want me to come up with a design for you, it's going to run you more — $3000 for each major design you decide you want me to build for you to try.  (Yes, that's right.  The LMN website mentioned above has cost the company plenty.)

If I have to design your logo, redraw your logo, and/or do extensive graphics, it's going to skyrocket accordingly, usually starting around $5000 per design.  (Hourly charges apply to graphics.)

If it's going to require using a CMS or some dynamic delivery engine, be it .cgi or .php, you get charged according to the number of hours and days it takes me to set it up, skin it, do the seamless integration....

Want custom programming?  No.  Go hire a programmer who wants to do a full development.  I don't.  I'm not interested anymore.  At all.  I've killed all the websites like that which I built and maintained because, quite honestly, you have to constantly ride herd on them.  The Internet changes so quickly — browser compatibility, user compatibility, security, SECURITY, SECURITY, that it's just not worth the heartburn and headaches.

Websites I'll Think About Working On

If you have moral integrity and good ethics, plus legitimate wisdom, knowledge, opinions, creativity and/or expertise to share, sell, or trade, I might consider your project, depending on whether I have, A, time in my schedule, and, B, we "hit it off," which, of course, goes both ways.  (You might not like me.)

WARNING: If I agree to help you (...because that is what I do — help — committing my time, effort, and heart to your project), and then I spend the time in hours corresponding, brainstorming, and speaking with you (via telephone or face-to-face on your dime), if, when it's time to move on the project, you blow me off (don't answer my email or return my calls), don't ever approach me again.  The only exception to that rule MIGHT be: you had a death in the family, a divorce, or health issues.

Artist's websites, one of my specialties, (and, no, I won't give you links to any because that's part of my secret in getting good ranking for them and blowing out their competition), will usually run the serious artist from $5 to $10k, half-down, half upon completion.  (My goal in design is to match your unique style.  Don't have a unique style?  You're in trouble already.)

Writer's websites, another one of my specialties, usually cost around $2 to $4k, sometimes more, sometimes less. (I'm going to design to your genre, category, and audience, with a big, big nod to your desired public persona.)

Animal Welfare and Earth Preservation websites.  $0 to $10k, depending on whether

• your organization or campaign is limping along or well-funded
• how effective you are doing what you claim as your commitment in real life
• how much of the money you collect actually goes to helping animals and the Earth, locally, regionally, nationally, or globally.  (Let the big, well-established organizations do the regional, national, and global assaults.  You concentrate on helping locally.  That's a hint.  Here's another: operating and administrative costs shouldn't exceed 10%, total.)

VA websites and similar retired U.S.  military, social consciousness, and human help networks (cancer recovery, etc.)

"Grand Old Men" and "Grand Old Women's" craft or shared knowledge websites: $0 to $10k

Small e-commerce websites...maybe, depending on a lot of decisions you have to make.

Websites I Won't Touch

If you lack moral and ethical integrity, and/or if your only purpose is to create a website to line your pockets at your customer's expense, I won't touch your project.  (One of my clients has a daughter.  Get this!  She would find the hottest craze going, run down to WalMart, buy up all they had, then turn around and sell them for double her money on Ebay.  Nope.  That's unethical.)

Big e-commerce websites

Children's, "tween" and teen websites.  (Too many legal hassles.)

Musician's websites (well, mostly not, anyway.  Why?  Musicians tend to be hot and cold, on and off, thrilled, then angry...for no discernible reason.  So do artists and writers, but musicians even more so.)

"Martial Arts" websites — NO.  Meat head mentality reigns supreme with the large majority, especially those "promoting" themselves on the Internet.  I won't promote, sanction, or even so much as acknowledge anyone who doesn't practice what I know from long study to be a true martial "way," which means attitude, philosophy, world view, life way, as well as their physical expertise.

"Entrepreneurial" websites.  Not.  No.  Never.  (I don't help scammers, MLM's, spammers, or anyone else just out to drive a buck to their door.)

Vendetta websites.

Websites which promote hate, cruelty, bigotry, hunting, porn, pedophilia, or anything else I find despicable or depraved.

Websites for whiners, cry-babies, bad boys, bad girls, arguments — you get the picture.

If I don't like your attitude or your content, I'm not going to help you.

The Bottom Line in Signature Series Website Design by DLKeur

I'm picky, just like you should be.  I do a good job.  I believe in my clients.

If you want a good website, and you're a good person with something valuable to share with the world, IF after reading this, you think we might work well together building your dream website, you can contact me.  (First contact is ALWAYS via this form.  Once we correspond a bit, then you get address, phone number, and private email address...in reverse order.

Other Questions Answered

Will it cost extra for me to maintain your website?  Yes. $30 per hour, minimum charge of $30 a month, even if I don't have to do anything except check the website everyday to make sure it's still up and working well.

Will I host your domain on my space?  No.  Will I buy domain space for you?  At more than you could pay yourself, yes.  Best thing to do: Buy your own space from Dreamhost if you want low cost, but very good service on shared plans.

If you want dedicated hosting?  Well, you can use Dreamhost, but there are lots of good alternatives out there.  All dedicated hosts cost about $400 a month and up.  Pay less than that, and you are buying long term headaches, which means it will cost you through the nose when all is said, done, and paid for.  Then you'll be out shopping for another service.

WANT YOUR OWN DOMAIN & HOSTING?  $7.95 a month GETS YOU ALL YOU NEED AND MORE.

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