Learn to maintain your site yourself after I build it for you...
Make it easier on yourself! Lessen the learning curve! It's like cheating death only there's no messy parts ;). I've known plenty of people who bought Front Page or a similar program with the intention of building their own site from scratch and then were so overwhelmed by learning the software that they never built their site at all. So their dream of a site was never realized because the software was intimidating. Who has time to work full-time (and then some) running their own business (or a side business) to learn everything they need to know to build a site before they can even actually build a site? Here's the deal: I'll build your basic site and get you up and running while you use my step-by-step instruction package to learn how to simply and easily maintain and add to your website using MS Front Page. Once I'm done, you can take over the maintenance of your site whenever you're ready. Empowering
You...
I create these sites with the
intention that they may eventually be taken over by their owners. It's not mandatory that you take over your site, but I want the option to be there for you should you ever decide you want it. Whether you are teaching yourself web design or you are taking my classes, you can take over the maintenance of your site at any time after the initial site we agreed upon is finished -
whenever you feel you're ready. I create most of the sites
in MS FrontPage because it has the shortest learning curve of
WYSIWYG editors and is the least expensive product in it's class.
Because it's a Microsoft product, it has the familiar interface
Windows users are accustomed to which makes navigating the program
feel fairly intuitive - which means you'll learn faster because
you don't have to learn the interface AND the program. If
you're a Windows user, you know the interface already. However, very soon I will also develop your site with NVU or Dreamweaver, if you ask. NVU is an open source software like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. It was still free last time I checked. Dreamweaver is a much more difficult interface to learn than FrontPage or NVU - it's also more expensive. Which one do I recommend? If you have zero experience with web design and are not a long time veteran on the web who is accustomed to learning different software programs, I recommend FrontPage or NVU. Both are relatively easy to learn. I'd save Dreamweaver for people who already have experience with Macromedia products. That said, anyone who has experience with Macromedia products probably doesn't need *me* to build them a website :D. Do I expect everyone to take over the maintenance of their own site?
Nope, I sure don't. In fact, most of my clients don't maintain their own sites. They want to focus on their business rather than get their hands dirty with site maintenance. I'll host your site for you for as long as you're a site maintenance client. If you choose to maintain your site yourself, will I still host it for you?
Nope :D. Hosting for other people is a pain in the ass, so I just don't do it. I only host on sites where I'm the only one mucking around in there, which means specifically that I will only host if I am doing the maintenance on your site. Why? Because very often newbies misunderstand what is a hosting issue and what is their own problem. This inexperience results in a deluge of email to the host, some of which, is not so nice. The fact of the matter is that if the servers are up (and they are like 99.9% of the time) then most any "site" problem is user error, which is a hard pill to swallow for most newbies. However, this is not due to some vindictiveness on the part of the newbie, but due to inexperience. They do not know what they do not know and so cannot even imagine how they could have any responsibility at all for their site not working. This phase passes if the person continues to gain more experience as a web designer. Until then, however, the newbie can burn through a lot of hosts. Sooo... to avoid any of this unpleasantness, I just don't host for other people who are maintaining their own sites. If I'm maintaining your site myself, then it's just me mucking around in there, I don't have to fix mistakes, and I don't get any hate mail. Much better! Who's a good web host?
If you choose to maintain your site yourself and don't know who would be a good host, I'm happy to share the identity of my host with you. I use WBWS (www.wbws.net). They have great prices and the support is top notch. Tell Brandon that Cynthia sent you. No, I don't get any kick-backs from recommending them. They are who I currently use and I've been with them for years, so I can't recommend them highly enough! For Rates...
Check the rate sheet. Questions? Write me and all will become clear... |
