FAQs
About John
Nope! I work with clients all over the world.
Absolutely! I have unique processes in place that will educate and help you make informed decisions along the way. The last thing we want is for you to be uncomfortable or overwhelmed.
No, never. All of my work is performed by me whereever in the world I may be.
I have an idea for a website but it’s not exactly a small business. Should I still contact you about my project?
Never. I never purchase pre-made themes or templates to cut costs. I handmake every single one of my websites according to the unique needs of the business. Even my semi-custom websites are custom made. They’re just not fully custom because I make them based on best practices and my best judgement, rather than as the result of thorough discovery process.
Cost, Pricing, & Services
The cost of a website can vary depending on various factors, just like the cost of a house may vary. Though our website projects generally start in the $2,000 range for basic business sites and range upward depending on your unique needs.
The time it takes to produce a website depends on the size and complexity of your site and the quality of content that you have ready to go. A basic website typically takes around 4 weeks from beginning to end.
On average, we shoot for a six to eight week turnaround, but the pace of any project is set by each client. How much input you can provide during the initial stages, your availability with feedback, how soon the content is ready – all this affects the speed of completion. The functionality needs may also play a role – more complex sites will take more time to develop.
There’s not one single answer to this question. A website design is quoted based on the needs of each individual project. Every website is unique and requires different components; we design and develop custom websites specifically for your small business. We’ll ask a lot of questions, assess your needs, and give you a quote based on that assessment. Most of our sites run in the $2,000 – $5,000 range, but can be more or less depending on needs.
I offer a variety of payment options, varying from a one-time, up-front payment to six automated monthly payments. I understand that this is a big investment and want to help you budget for the expense in whatever way possible.
I accept checks, Venmo, PayPal, and all major credit cards.
A custom website can be a big investment and not all small businesses have the budget for you. We offer a budget package that will help get you online with a nice looking website fast.
Websites come in all shapes and sizes, just like cars. You’ll find quotes ranging from a few hundred dollars all the way up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. My websites are designed to be the perfect balance of features and price for small businesses. I keep my prices affordable by reducing overhead and streamlining our process. My finished product often exceeds the quality of agencies charging ten times more than us.
Mh primary focus is working with service-oriented business-to-consumer (B2C) small businesses. I have experience with creating websites within almost every major industry. Contact me and I’ll consult with you to see if we’d be a good fit.
Yes. Many design companies won’t mention recurring costs before starting your project. At a minimum, you’ll need monthly web hosting and an annual domain name registration.Myr website plans are a single-rate solution which includes monthly hosting, domain name registration along with managed maintenance to keep everything running smoothly.
I accept checks, PayPal, Venmo, and all major credit cards. Our payment processing is handled by PayPal and Stripe, so I never store payment information outside of their secure system.
Website Design
Never fear, that’s why we are here. You can learn about our time-proven process in our process section.
Yes it will. All the websites we design work on all devices. Depending on your requirements we can design and develop your site using responsive design so that the site is optimised for mobile devices.
Yes!
We don’t directly write your content, however if you need help with this we can put you in contact with a copywriter who specialises in writing for the web.
We focus on what we’re good at – designing and building websites, however if you need someone to creating your logo for you we have relationships with several graphic designers who specialise in logos and branding.
Yes! We love it when our clients take control of their website and learn to manage it on their own. We’ll provide you with a set of comprehensive video tutorials to help you learn your way around, as well as provide you with a training session to help get you on your way. (Note: We love to answer your questions!)
A lot! Your input and feedback is crucial to this process. I’ll start with a lot of questions about your needs, your likes, your wants and work with you to develop just the right look and functionality.
Usually, that is you. You are the expert on your business, so it’s usually best if it comes from you. I will offer some editing depending on the amount you require. If you need help, I can help you find a copywriter who can help clean up or write original content for you at an additional cost.
Of course. I retain no ownership of the website once it’s paid for. It’s yours to do whatever you want. You’re free to hire anyone else to make changes to it. Since your website is built with WordPress, you can transfer it to almost any website hosting company.
No. We can get started by using placeholder content while you work towards completing your content. We’ll even provide you with a content outline to follow to make things easier. This gives you guidance on the type of text and images that would perform best on your website.
For my semi-custom websites, I allow for two rounds of revisions. For my custom websites, I allow for 5 rounds of revisions. I limit the rounds of revisions because I find that my clients are more thorough in the feedback they give in each round, allowing us to reach the desired refinement much more quickly than if I were to allow for unlimited rounds of revisions.
For each round of revisions, you’ll be able to provide feedback about your website with “sticky notes” that you pin directly to where you want changes. I’ll go through and make them. If I have any questions, I’ll ask you.
Care Plans
Yes, I provide all our clients with training on maintaining their website.
Yes! As part of your project, we can include social media and email marketing services.
The answer is yes. Your WordPress website requires continued maintenance to run properly, o so it can continue to function and serve you and your clients without issue.
For a little more in-depth information on why you should be concerned with maintaining your website, I have written an article that you can read here: Why WordPress Maintenance & Security is important
My support plans are more in-depth than the regular maintenance plans that don’t come with premium hosting. They are designed to help improve your business and keep it moving forward with preventative measures, content updates, and development hours.
At this time, I do not. My support hours are (excluding holidays) Monday to Friday, 10 am – 6 pm CST.
However, since WPMUDev hosting is being utilized for all of my support plans, you may use their 24/7 customer service if you’re experiencing issues with the site and it is outside of my working hours.
Once you have chosen your support plan, I will send over an intake form along with the contract for you to sign.
If your site is currently hosted elsewhere we will need to migrate it over and some credentials will be collected on the intake form for this.
If you are hosting a brand new site then not much is needed on your end, I’ll provide you with all the login details once it’s setup.
Rest assured any plugin updates that break your site will be fixed and/or rolled back to a working version while the plugin developer fixes the problem.
The majority of issues are addressed free of charge. However, I cannot be held responsible for any user caused errors, custom code from another developer, or the addition of conflicting plug-ins by someone on your team, etc. Time to fix these errors will come out of the allotted support time for the year, or if you’re on pay-as-you-go you will be contacted regarding any issues and provided with an estimate for fixes.
I will contact you before billing for any additional work.
In the event your website is hacked, the Hack and Malware Removal service is included with ALL packages.
I’ll continuously monitor your website with ongoing security scans. If there is an issue I will be notified. Your website is also manually checked once a month while performing regular WordPress updates. Unfortunately, even with proactive monitoring, no one can catch every security issue. In the event a breach does take place, my goal is to respond immediately within business hours. Valid security concerns take precedent over any and all other development tasks I may be working on.
If you currently have your own hosting, we will need to migrate your website over to my hosting, at which time you can cancel your current hosting plan.
If you do not wish to switch your hosting and instead stay with the provider you are with, you will not be able to utilize these support plans, as they are customized to the hosting environment. That being said I do offer simplified maintenance services with reduced features.
You certainly can! Since support is done month to month if you wish to upgrade, the upgraded services will apply to the following month and every month thereafter.
If you would like to upgrade the support level on your website please contact me directly to get started.
Of course! I’ve no desire to trick you into signing something that you might later regret. What I do want, is what’s best for both of us, now and in the future.
The cancellation policy is as follows:
You may cancel your monthly website support at any time by providing notice in writing 30 days in advance. John Boland may cancel services at any time when support matching payments made have been delivered by providing notice in writing 30 days in advance.
WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS) that you can use to power your website on your own hosting plan. WordPress makes creating a blog, landing page, online store, forum or other website possible for users around the world.
Contact me immediately. If your site is hosted with us, we can almost always resolve the issue with a single phone call or email. If you’re hosted with a third-party, it’s possible the issue could be on their end. In these instances, we’ll let you know the source of the problem so you can contact the third-party host.
As long as you’re on a monthly plan with us, there is no charge for technical support.
Yes. “Fully-managed” web hosting is included with all of our plans. Simply put, I take care of everything for you.
WordPress
If it’s not causing any issues or opening up any security flaws, there is no reason to jump to something else. That being said the plugin will be monitored monthly, and should an issue arise I will contact you regarding the severity of the problem and most likely suggest an alternative.
If a new plugin is needed, time to install/configure it will come out of the allotted support time for the year, or if you’re on pay-as-you-go you will be contacted and provided with an estimate for the upgrade.
The key difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org is who’s actually hosting your website.
With WordPress.org, you host your own site (we recommend this).
With WordPress.com, on the other hand, it’s WordPress.com that takes care of all of this for you (easier to start, less freedom). And that’s the major difference.
WordPress itself is a free, open-source web software but to use it you will need to invest in a web hosting plan. You can find hosting for as little as $1 per month on a shared hosting plan, but we recommend spending a bit more on a managed WordPress hosting plan to make setting up and maintaining your website easy.
You can add a variety of features and functionality to you WordPress site with plugins. A WordPress plugin is essentially an add-on for your website. Plugins typically add new features or functionality to your WordPress website with little effort on your part. Just install and configure the plugin settings.
WooCommerce is a plugin that integrates easily with your existing WordPress site, turning your site into a fully functional WordPress e-commerce website with just a few clicks. It comprises 26% of the eCommerce websites on the internet, while Shopify comprises 21%. Over 99% of WordPress ecommerce websites use WooCommerce.
Yes. WordPress is a great content management system that now powers more than 38% of the web. Its huge market share is due to it’s flexibility and ease of use. Don’t worry, we’ll teach you how to manage it and help you along the way.
Technical Information
Yes, you need your own domain name, but I’d be happy to help set that up for you.
You’re welcome to get your hosting and I’d be happy to build your website on whatever hosting you use. However, I only maintain websites that are on hosting that I provide.
A Content Management System is a tool that allows you to maintain the pages of your website yourself, without the need for any technical skills. A CMS allows you to edit and add pages, images, products or blog entries to your website. No additional software is required – all you need is a web browser and an internet connection.
Search Engine Optimisation is all about getting your website higher up in the search results on search engines such as Google. The higher up the results you are the more traffic (and customers) you’re likely to get.
There are many aspects that go into achieving good SEO, and one of the most important is the copy (words) on your website. Focus on well written, keyword rich and appropriate content is the key.
A domain name is your address on the internet. Typically this would be something like yourcompany.com.au
Web hosting is a service that allows your website to be viewed on the Internet. It’s basically a computer housed in a data centre that runs your website and email.
Hosting is super important! When it comes to hosting, you get what you pay for. I’d recommend you get your hosting through me – WPMU Dev – if you’d like my support services. However, if you’d like economy hosting, my recommendation is SiteGround.