WEBSITE SERVICES
In addition to design fees, there are additional services that are often necessary or desirable for maintaining a web site. Below is a description of each service along with the standard cost. Please note that some are optional, although strongly recommended. I'm happy to arrange each of these services for you as part of your web design package. Also, please note that some of these costs are per year, some per month.
Required services
~ Domain name registration: The domain name is your web site address. Your web site address is set up through a separate company known as a domain registrar. The cost with a reputable registrar is about $20 per year, less if you register for more than one year. (pairNIC (whom I've worked with for years) charges $19 per year or as low as $13 per year for five years.)
~ Web site hosting: A web site host is simply a company that has a special computer, known as a server, connected to the internet. This is where your web site files reside. A reliable hosting service is about $6 - $20 per month, which is suitable for most small businesses. Hosting for much larger sites may cost more. After domain registration is completed and has been recognised (a day or two), I can transfer it to my server space (pairNetworks) for hosting or yours. If you already have a domain, it can be transferred easily to my server or another. Unlike most designers, I do not charge for hosting because adding your site to my server space is inexpensive with one caveat: you will not be able to personally access the space via FTP, telnet, etc because, since it is under my space, I would have to give you my passwords! If you prefer to have full access pairNetworks does have very affordable rates, as low as $6/mo. Look around pairNetworks to see the many options. Of course setting it up to give you access can be easily done at any time in the future. If all this confuses you, I would be happy to do this for you.
Optional services
~ Site updates & maintenance: If you or your staff has the capabilities, I can show you how to make minor updates to your site. If you prefer, I can do the updates for an hourly rate, or we can enter into a maintenance contract. Depending on the amount of work, I can bill you by the month or quarter.
~ Search engines & web site promotion: Any web site I design is optimized for good search engine readability. Generally, the results are pretty good. However, for those who desire it, more expensive and advanced services are available from Search Engine Optimization firms (SEO's). We can discuss your options.
~ Visitor tracking: to start, you may establish a Google account if you currently do not have one and then sign up for Google Analytics for free. This is a highly recommended optional service. Visitor tracking monitors the number of visitors to your site, where they came from, when they visited, where they went, etc. The cost is $50 for me to help set up your Analytics account and add the Analytics code to all your pages. This information can be very useful for making your site work better for you in reaching your customers. Many similar services are available costing a bit more (like Clicky) or alot more and you may also want to consider that.
~ Customer purchasing options: Will you need a full-blown shopping cart with many options for making a sale or will a simple PayPal button do as well? Anyone can use PayPal regardless of whether they have a PayPal account and is a good easy option and no more expensive than a typical merchant account but with more limited information gathering capabilities.
~ Email newsletters can be a very effective way to keep in contact with old customers and attract new ones. But doing it on your own is tricky as you must be very careful to not be seen as spamming. I suggest a service such as iContact, among others, to manage such a mailing list. I can help you get set up and also design a spam-safe message template. Depending on the number of addresses you will have in your list, a service like iContact can be as inexpensive as about $9/mo.
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