Vermont Website Design

What Can I Expect When Working With Stonedam Design on a Website?

First, you'll want to share details of yourself, your business and your needs in the intake form. I'll reach out to schedule a phone call where we can ask one another questions. Sometimes the conversation reveals we aren't a good pairing! If we are, I'll prepare a Proposal PDF and email it to you within 1-2 days.

You'll review the Proposal, email me with any questions, and if everything looks positive I'll next email you a Contract for e-signature. (Don't worry, you don't need special software to complete this) My Contracts are about 6 pages long, and contain dates for various mid-project deadlines, as well as a schedule for installment payments. Small projects are generally divided into 2 installments, larger projects will have 3; in each instance, the first installment is due along with the signed Contract in order to begin work.

Each client has a different relationship with technology; if it works for you, we'll use a Google Drive to collaborate on the images, text, and other details of your project. In the first few weeks you'll have a worksheet or questionnaire to complete, and you'll be asked to compile and upload 'assets': that might be head shots, a biography for your About page, things like that. You'll also be given the choice of setting up your own hosting account, purchasing your domain, etc OR providing Stonedam Design with a credit card to make these purchases on your behalf. If you need a custom email address, we'll get that established.

During the build of the website we'll focus first on designing the Home page. We will run through a few rounds of edits to ensure your website has the visual style, tone and voice you want to convey. Once that is done, I'll work on the rest of the website pages. There will be a few more rounds of edits. During this time you may be tasked with providing any loose-ends/assets.

When the site is ready for launch, we remain 'on board' for a week to address glitches, run tests, upload your site map to Google, and configure basic SEO settings. Remember that for a brand-new website, it can take up to 30 days after publication for search engines to 'see' and map your website.

Stonedam Design will then provide you with all usernames, passwords, a project summary and more so you can self-manage your website. This is important: I will provide written and/or video instruction on how to make 2-3 common edits to your website, but I am not able to spend the hours and hours it would require to train you on the software in general. This system works well for businesses and non profits who only need to update specific areas of the website, but it is not recommended for a client who plans to regularly make major design edits.

Vermont Website Design and Webmaster Services

Stonedam Design is available on an hourly basis for webmaster and web editing tasks. The fee is $60/hour, an invoice is emailed on the 1st day of the month. There is no contract, no minimums. Several of my clients average 3-4 hours a year! It is important that someone with some WordPress know-how logs into your accounts at least every 6 months to confirm everything is running smoothly. Websites are not a 'set it and forget it' entity: bits of software might need to be manually updated to a newer version, for example. If you have a friend or family member who is capable of taking on this task, you can keep Stonedam Design in your back pocket for emergencies