Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do you charge for an initial consultation?
   Nope, I offer a free 30-minute consultation so that I can determine the scope of what it is you need done, possibly offer some suggestions, and basically gather what I need to provide you with a quote. If you need some more time to throw ideas back and forth and nail down the scope, then I am happy to do that for you at my hourly rate.
2. Do you charge for proposals?
   In almost every case, the answer would be no. However, if your project requires a great deal of emails, phone calls, and research just to nail down precisely what it is that you need done and how we should go about doing it, then it would fall under the category of product development above and beyond the 30-minute free consultation. Of course, I will always let you know before you start incurring product development fees. If you did incur these fees, at the very least, you would end up with a scope of work that would leave you with a better sense of what you need done.
3. I know that you specialize in working with agencies and graphic designers. How are you different than one of those low-cost PSD to HTML services out there?
   Although it’s a cliche, it’s been my personal experience that you get what you pay for – every time.  The truth is, websites are often complex projects and not simply a matter of filling out a form as though you were ordering a book on Amazon.com. My clients rely on me to provide a world-class product, answer their calls and emails promptly, walk them through the best solutions based on my years of experience, communicate clearly, and ensure that their reputation in the industry continues to improve. I’ve had to clean up bug-ridden code from low-cost HTML coders while the agency owners had to stress over a looming deadline and an anxious client. And who wants even the possibility of that, really?

   It is my goal to integrate into your business as though I were an employee who’s worked with you for years. My pledge is to do every single thing within my power to make sure that you walk away thrilled by the experience of working with me, and if you take a look at my testimonials page you’ll see that I’ve been able to pull that off on a regular basis.

4. What’s your hourly rate?
   Unfortunately I can’t go into this here on my website as this is competitive data, but I will tell you that I’m not the cheapest, nor am I the most expensive. However, I do believe that I can absolutely knock it out of the ballpark for you, so my focus is more on value than price. I’ll be happy to provide you with me hourly rate once you contact me.
5. How much does it cost to built a website?
   This is also a tough question to answer here on my website, as I really need more information before I can give a fixed quote. To illustrate, it’s really like asking “how much for a house?” Is it a one bedroom, a two bedroom, is there a swimming pool? Likewise, options such as e-commerce, a multitude of page templates, JavaScript slideshows, etc all affect the fee for my services.

   To give a very general idea, for a simple website that’s designed and coded from the ground-up, it’s going to run you at least $3,000. Modifying an existing WordPress theme such as those seen on sites like wpbest.com is a middle of the road solution between the fully custom sites and my packages. The theme customization route is one which has worked for many of my clients as well, but of course, prices vary widely depending on the features you need added. If you need something on a very tight budget and are willing to “get your hands dirty” with some technology, I suggest you check out my Launch and Learn ($325)package.

6. Do you accept credit cards?
   Sure do! I use PayPal as my payment system, so you can pay with your PayPal account, and if you don’t have a PayPal account, you can still pay via PayPal’s credit card form.  Of course, old-fashioned checks work too.
7. What if I need rush work done?
   Projects that require to work overtime to meet a deadline are charged at +50%. If your deadline is not doable within my normal working hours of Monday through Friday from 9:30AM-6:30PM Pacific Time, then I will let you know and we’ll try to come up with the best possible solution to get everything done on time.
8. Can you get my website to the top of the Google search results?
   If I could guarantee you a top spot on Google, then I’d be a very rich man! In a nutshell, search engine optimization (SEO) is a matter of consistent repeated effort and boils down to a popularity contest. Unless your website goes beyond saying how great you are, and instead, actually provides content that would make other sites look good by linking to you, then you will probably have a tough time hitting the number one spot. The good news is that the WordPress system I use does a great deal to help you with SEO right off the bat.
9. On your homepage, where it says “…valid, semantic, and browser-proof websites”-what does that mean?
   It means that your site will be built to the standards established by the The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and that boils down to benefits such as faster page load time (which help SEO), accessibility for the visually impaired, and reduction in maintenance costs to name just a few. In addition, the code will be semantic, which means it will make sense to future generations of browsers and mobile devices, as well as future generations of web developers who might work on your site. Browser-proof means it will look good on all of the web browsers that are currently used by a significant percentage of the online population.