Below you will find answers to our most frequently asked questions. Have a question that isn’t outlined below? Contact us and we will get back to you asap.
Each project is priced on an individual basis. It’s like asking how much a car costs, there is no one answer. We don’t produce template websites, so we cannot offer set prices. Each website is approached with a fresh set of ideas and insights. Feel free to send us an email, or fill out our contact form, and we will be more then happy to compose an estimate. Please make sure to include any criteria you have. The more info we get, the more accurately we can quote.
It all depends on the complexity of the website and what technologies/features are involved. We do work quickly, but good design can’t be rushed. If there is a deadline to meet, we will work accordingly to ensure that it is met. We will work closely together to make sure the project is on track and on time, with full disclosure the entire way. Communication is key.
Not at all; our estimates are based on the time it takes to complete a project.
Content, content, content. Content is king, and without it your website will be useless (but very attractive).
We usually start out with an initial meeting to get a feel for the project and the client. During this meeting we assess the client’s needs, project details, target audience, budget, timeline, etc. Once the project has been agreed upon and the paperwork has been inked, we begin design. In the design phase we present our client with “looks & feels” and further refine the design until it’s signed off. Next, we begin production by transforming the design into proper xHTML/CSS and inserting it into a framework on our development server. Any programming, data entry and content formatting is also done in this phase. Once all the pages have been constructed and the development is complete, we move onto testing. We test the site in many browsers and operating systems to ensure it reaches the audience the way it was designed to. Final approval from the client is the last step before launching the website.
We use an excellent project collaboration and management system called Basecamp. Our clients receive their own accounts where they can communicate directly with us, check up on progress, view the latest designs for approval, comment and request changes, download and upload files, and collaborate on documents.
We use the time management system built into Basecamp. We log our hours very meticulously and keep hour logs of all billable work.
We work on an industry standard 50/50 structure. Once we agree upon a price, we ask for a 50% retainer and 50% upon completion/launch.
Generally, if we are doing a smaller project we would log our time and bill based on our hourly rate. If it is a larger project, or if you need to know the costs upfront, we would produce a lump sum quote.
There is no monthly fee for website design and/or development. There is a monthly fee for website hosting though, or as we prefer, an annual fee. This has to do with the costs of keeping a site online and providing the auxiliary services such as e-mail, ftp, spam filtering, scheduled backups, etc.
Overselling is a term that is used by the web hosting community to describe what happens whenever a web host oversells their services. This means that if the web host has 1,000 GB of bandwidth per month and the host sells 20 packages that include 1,000 GB per month of data transfer, then this totals 2,0000 GB of monthly bandwidth and thus the web host has oversold itself. Of course, these web hosts are hoping that you will not use your allotted amount of bandwidth or else the web host will become unsustainable. Otherwise the host will have to pay an overage cost and if they cannot do this they go into debt, resulting in their service being suspended, your web site being offline and in then end your host may even go out of business with your one year of prepayment.
Of course, this is something that you do not want to happen to you. Therefore, you need to understand that cheaper is not always better. Instead, the best idea is to go with a respected, high quality web host. Yet, you may still be wondering why a company would do this anyway? Simply put, this is a marketing strategy. If everyone that is on the host does not use up all of their allotted space there is going to be a lot of unused space. For this reason, a lot of web hosts decide to take the risk of overselling. This is like betting though. Herein the web host is betting that not all of the customers are going to use all of their space.
For instance, you do not want to pay only $4.99 per month for 50 GB of disk space as you can clearly see that this web host will not be able to make any profit. Of course, web hosts exist to make a profit, just like any other business does, so you can be sure that this is a host that is in the practice of overselling.
Information taken from http://www.overselling.com
Base-10 Design & Development Inc. does not oversell their hosting services