Some of the most commonly asked questions and answers.

Ok so how much will it cost me for you to build me a website?
How long is a piece of string? No seriously, until we have spoken about what you want I can’t really say.

I like to be honest and open about what a job is going to cost. I could do a menu of charges and then fit each customer in to one of the packages but what I would rather do is discuss your requirements with you then give you a fixed price based on that. I’ll then give you some time scales and work to the agreed spec to deliver within them.

How quickly can you do my site?
There are some limitations here,
1) getting the domain registered and set up can take up to 48 hours
2) my diary, I work on several projects at one time so I have to fit in around that
3) work life balance
Depending on how much work I have on you would be looking at maybe 5 – 7 days to get the first iteration of your site up and running.

But I need it really quickly
The same 3 factors are relevant regardless of how quickly you want your site.
1) Nothing will speed up the domain registration, there is no fast track for this.
2) You will need to give me a good reason to push your work to the top of the pile.
3) If you really need the site in a rush then I can work outside of my normal hours but you will pay for this.

What about the content?
I can help you with the content and layout but I don’t write it, you know all about your business and clients and what they need to know so you are ideally placed to write content.
I build you a beautiful website and you provide the content. I can copy & paste the content in for you if you provide it in electronic format, obviously this will affect the cost, or I can show you how to add your own content to the site once it is complete.

Is Open Source software reliable? I don’t want something that stops working next year
Yes open source software is very very reliable, it is very well supported by developers around the world.

Is Open Source software free?
Mostly yes. You can download the core files for most OS software for free, you may have to pay for some modules or plugins from some developers, but on the whole it is free to download and use.

So if it is free why do you charge me?
I charge you for my time in advising you, setting up the site and hosting it. If you feel you have the skills to do this yourself then you don’t really need to be speaking to me do you? Don’t get me wrong I love our little chats but I don’t want you to waste your valuable time speaking to me if you don’t need to.

So which Open Source platform do you recommend?
It all depends on what you want from your site. I use WordPress for about 90% of the sites that I build and recommend this as a CMS to most of my clients. There are a number of other OS platforms available, I’ll list them all separately at some point.