Web Solutions and Design for Central Illinois and surrounding areas |
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I spend a majority of my time simply designing websites and flash applications for businesses who want to create an online presence. However, I also have the ability to write small computer applications, design custom logos for your business, and create attractive forms or newsletters for your growing company.
In addition to designing websites, I also can make site updates for a very small fee. Sorry, I only update websites you've had designed by me. Updates can usually be made within 24 hours of a request.
Why does my business need a website?
With an overwhelming percentage of today's American households connected to a high-speed internet connection, a website has become the most practical way to promote your business to a worldwide audience. Some companies can afford to employ a full time web developer, but those on a budget benefit by paying a freelance designer like myself a one-time fee to bring their company online.
A restaurant owner could incorporate a menu section on his website where guests could view colorful lunch and dinner menus. A hotel owner could request a feature on her website that would allow visitors to submit reservations easily online. Business hours, directions, specials... with a good website, business owners can deliver an unlimited amount of information to their customers that no other medium can provide.
Web site designs are charged by the hour. During my first few months online, clients will pay only $15 per hour if they agree to be featured in the portfolio section of this website (click here for details). Standard design charges are $20 per hour. The client is responsible for the cost of the host and any domain names he or she desires. A simple ten page site as this one can take anywhere from six to ten hours to design, so your cost would be about $150, plus the cost of the host and any domains. Site updates cost $1 per minute, with the typical homepage update taking about five minutes to complete.
The cost of any other web design or desktop publishing service will be estimated after the request has been reviewed.
When do I pay for my website or other service?
You do not pay a cent until your website has been designed to your liking. Once I have accepted your website request and you have provided me with all of the required information, the design process will begin. During this process, screenshots of your website's progress can be made available for your viewing. With these screenshots, you will be able to provide me with suggestions through the entire design process until the design has met or exceeded your expectations.
Once you are satisfied, a price will be set for the website which will include the cost of a hosting package (unless you prefer to go with a free hosting plan). To make your website available to the public, simply mail a check for the exact price to my PO Box here in Macomb, Illinois. Once your check has been received, your hosting package and domain name will be bought, your website will be uploaded, and the process will be complete. You will be provided with the login information for your host and domain name as soon as your package has been purchased.
You refer to "hosts" and "domain names." What are these and how much will they cost me?
A web host is simply a company that sells space on their servers to customers for monthly or sometimes yearly fees. You can upload the web pages you (or I) have created to this space making your pages accessible to anyone over the World Wide Web. Web hosts can cost from anywhere to $4 to $10 a month. The package I recommend from iPower is $7.95 a month with the purchase of a 12 month plan, coming to just under a hundred bucks. Plus, a domain name is included in the cost.
A domain name is what many people refer to as a ".com" or address. For example, the domain of this website is NicholasHowe.com. It's what your visitors will need to remember to see your site, so keep it short and sweet. A domain name usually comes free with the purchase of a 12 month hosting plan. Purchased separately, a domain name will cost you from $4 to $10 a year (assuming your domain name has not already been bought by someone else).
I suggest all of my clients go with one of the packages from iPower. It is the host I am most familiar with, and the features included are unbeatable. However, if you prefer to go with a host you're more familiar with, accommodations can be easily made. Take some time to research all of the hosts out there and decide which one is right for you.
What features does iPower offer with its packages?
One of the big reasons I prefer iPower over all of the other hosts out there is its impressive list of features. Blogging tools, a simple form builder, and phpBB Bulletin Boards are just a few of them. Everything is easy to find in your user control panel and even easier to install (although I can do that for you).
With iPower's "Pro Plan" package, you get 300 GB of storage space for your web pages, a 3000 GB transfer limit, and of course a free domain name. In addition, you'll get 2500 e-mail accounts with your domain name as the extension - for example, mine is owner@nicholashowe.com. Every account is password protected, and with 2500 of them, you'll have more than enough for your entire staff and whoever else.
For more information on iPower's packages, visit www.ipower.com. Check out the interactive control panel demo while you're there, too.
What if I don't want to pay for a host or domain name?
If you are on a budget, there are companies out there that offer free hosting of your web pages. Yahoo! provides such a service at www.geocities.com. If you already have a Yahoo! account, you can use your existing username and password to sign up.
There is a catch, however. In most cases, these companies will throw an ugly banner at the top or side of your pages. In addition, you won't get a domain name included with any of these free hosts. Instead of www.yourwebsite.com, your visitors will be visiting www.hostswebsite.com/yourwebsite.
How hard would it be for me to create my own website?
To be honest, most of what I learned about web design I learned from books. A majority of the classes I've taken seemed to be nothing other than a review of what I had already learned from books available to anyone.
Learning to write the code for your own website is much like learning a foreign language (only easier, in my opinion). HTML, CSS, PHP... all of these are nothing other than languages recognized by internet browsers. If you can learn to write code in these languages, the hard part is over. All that's left to do is the fun stuff: creating the images for your site and deciding how your site should be arranged, for example.
If you are interested in learning to create and design your own web pages, I suggest you start out with HTML 4 for Dummies written by Ed Tittel. After you've mastered the skills taught in that book, check out CSS Web Design for Dummies written by Richard Mansfield. When combined, these books provide all the information you need to start writing your own web pages.
What will I need to create my own website with HTML and CSS?
If you've already learned to write in HTML and CSS, you'll be glad to know that you probably already have all you need to start creating your own website. Although there are programs out there like Dreamweaver that make web design a lot easier, the same thing can be accomplished with a program pre-installed on every copy of Windows.
With Notepad, you can write your style sheets and webpages with relative ease. Once you've finished editing your webpages in Notepad, simply save your files with a .htm extension as opposed to the default .txt extension (save as .css for style sheets). When it's time to start creating images for your website, Microsoft Paint (which is also pre-installed on most versions of Windows) can be used.