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Services
Everyone has different needs - perhaps you need a website which, for the most part, will remain exactly the same once it's set up. Then again, perhaps you need a website which you can update constantly, any time, day or night. You may be looking for something that's almost entirely static HTML, or maybe a website (or intranet, for that matter) built off user content, requiring access to a database, as well as all the extras that come along with that.
There are many ways to build a great website, for a countless number of purposes. Whatever your needs, I can work with you to come up with the best website for you, and your business.
Static Website
The simplest, and cheapest, possible option. If all you need is a few pages to represent your business without a need to update regularly, this is the option for you.
Example
Victoria Johnson hired me to put together a simple yet elegant website to improve her online presence and properly represent herself to the masses. Fairly straightforward, with only a half dozen pages or so, it encapsulates her business without chewing up all of her time and effort.
Suggested uses:
- A small or local business that simply needs a online presence.
- A website which, once launched, rarely needs to be updated.
Dynamic Website
The most common type of website I build, it has some kind of dynamic content, often linked to a database, like a Shopping Cart or a more complex image gallery, which can be updated through an administration page on the website.
Example
GracieDesign.com was originally built by someone else, who's shopping cart was not only far to intricate for the client's needs, but also required far more work and time for the client to add new jewelry to her site. When I came in, I rebuilt the site from scratch, including a new design, and built a custom shopping cart that the client can manage with ease - one page prompts for the appropriate information, a name, description, price, image, etc., which is then processed (including resizing the image to the right proportions) for display in the categories the client chooses.
Suggested uses:
- An online photo gallery or website with a browsable images section.
- An online store, which you can manage and update yourself.
- Content that needs to be updated fairly reguarly.
Other Projects
If you have another idea for a website, but you don't think it falls cleanly into any of thse catagories, send me a message with your ideas. More than likely, I'll be able to help you out, and even if not, I can give you some advice on other places to look, and how to best get started.
Regarding Payment
I never accept a percentage of profits as payment. That's final. You may have a brilliant idea for a new social network or online business, but I will not build a massive site for you in the blind hope that it becomes successful. If you have a great idea, go ahead and run it by me if you'd like - I'm happy to give you my opinion of the project - but the first step in starting a business like that is to get venture capital funding, and from there you can hire developers.
Webmaster / Site Management
I don't disappear as soon as the project is done - I will be on hand for updates, improvements, security issues, and all general management issues. In other words, I will run your site for you. I try to make my clients as self sufficient as possible, because I honestly don't like spending all my time updating content; but I am always on hand if you need me, no matter what the reason.
In addition, if you already have a working website which you are happy with, I can come in and manage, update, and optimize it for you. If you're unhappy with your current support, there's no reason not to switch! Digital Gemstones will provide fast updates to reflect the needs of your business, or implement tools so you can update urgent content yourself, without having to worry about the code behind the scenes.
Extra Tools
Every site I build or manage, no matter how simple or complex, also has the option of utilizing several additional tools and services that I either provide or can set up.
Google Email
Google provides services for private domain names, most notably their world famous gMail mail client, free of charge. I set this up for any clients that want to use their domain for email. gMail is a great email client, fights spam as if a human being checked your email before you did, and presents a more professional look and feel for your website - when was the last time you felt comfortable providing your credit card information to a website who's support email is @aol.com?
One Last Note
Maybe, despite my best efforts, you still aren't interested in hiring with me. There are thousands of other website building, maintaining, and programming companies out there, all trying to get your business. Some are run by a middle aged man who just discovered Microsoft FrontPage and thought he could make some extra money. Some are run by the people who build the web standards themselves, members of WASP and the W3C. Most fall somewhere in the middle. But how can you figure out which company to trust, and which ones to run away from as fast as you can?
Believe it or not, there is an extremely simple test that, in my humble opinion, will filter out almost every single person who doesn't really know what he or she is talking about. It's called the W3C's Markup Validation Service, also known as an HTML validator. Simply enter the URL of a web design/development company, and see if it validates (big green bar if it does, big red bar with list of problems if it doesn't). Any company that cannot build their own website to follow international development standards cannot be trusted, or even expected, to build a quality website for you either.