Questions regarding the building and maintenance of a website, including design, development, website hosting, domain names and “The Tiny Web Ninja” business practices.
Q. Where do you work?
A. In the office at my horse farm, in Pittsboro, NC. Keeping overhead down will keep my fees down.
Q. As a ‘freelancer’ how do I know you are dependable about working?
A. Because I have bills to pay.
I worked for the design firm Roaring Aardvark for 9 years before the owner retired. I liked my job. I liked getting a paycheck even more so I was pretty dependable and usually well behaved.
Not only do I live here but I own another business (Starting Point Equestrian). I’d hate to get any kind of bad reputation about my ‘work ethic’.
Q. What are your hours? Do you take walk-ins?
A. I am truly a freelance website worker.
Because I am a independent contractor, and a business of one, I am not always available during normal business hours, because I’m using outside working on my horse farm.
From time to time I also get sick, have a doctor’s appointment, need to take my car in for service, take a lunch break, need to run errands, take a vacation, or observe federal holidays.
Walk-ins are not welcome, not because I’m lacking in Chatham County charm, but because I honestly operate out of a working horse farm. There are times I am simply not here or available. If you want to come visit me I’d be more than happy to schedule an appointment with you.
Q. How long have you been doing website related work?
A.In 1997 I got a job working for KSA Advertising in Tampa, FL converting their print advertising media to websites. So the answer is, a long time.
Q. How much does it cost to build a website?
A. That is a really good question. It is like asking how much it costs to build a house.
The answer is, it just depends.
If you are on a tight budget, like a $250 budget, I can help you get a no frills (but useful) website presence that will be the internet equivalent of a business brochure (who you are, what you do, how to be contacted). This is about a 3 page website with some photos, good text and a modest search engine optimization. No harm in starting modest, you can always improve & grow the website over time.
For about $300 – $500 that will get you a larger static website with some functionality like a photo gallery, email forms, a calendar.
For $450 – $700* we can get you into a WordPress website with *unlimited functionality possibilities (calendars, photo albums, latest news, blog). You’ll have the means to manage ALL the content of your own website, any time of day or night with any modern computer and access to the internet. The upward price limit depends on your wants and needs.
For $800 – $1,200 we can get you into a ‘full of bells and whistles’ WordPress website with a LOT of content entered for you (2 dozen pages, photos that need editing, and a lot of mind changing along the way).
Q. What are the costs associated with owing a website?
A.
- The cost of actually creating it
- The yearly cost of your domain name (your.com)
- The yearly cost of hosting
- Any updates you want done that you can not do yourself
Q. What are your hourly rates?
A. See our RATES page.
Q. What forms of payment do you take?
A. Checks, Venmo or PayPal.
Q. What kind of website development and design work do you do?
A. I enjoy helping small and “local” type businesses.
Q. If I have you work on my website, are we ‘married’ for a specific amount of time?
A. I’m not the cell phone company. If you’re tired of working with me, well then, why not part ways?
For all work, either building a new website or updating an existing website, I do use a short and modest contract that basically says if you ask me to do the work, you’ll pay me to do the work. If you don’t pay for the work, you don’t get to have the work that was done.
You ask, I work, you pay. You ask, I work, you pay. You don’t ask, I don’t work, and you don’t have anything to pay. If you ask, and I work and you don’t pay, you don’t get the work I’ve done. That’s our working ‘website development’ relationship.
If you decide to host your website with me, that is a slightly different relationship. You pay for hosting for a year and your website will reside on the server for a year. However, if you want your cousin Fred to take over your website (see our hosting information about refunds) you can walk away, Renee.
Q. What is hosting?
A. Web hosting is the service of keeping the files that create a website on a ‘host’ server (mega computer) that has a super connection to the internet.
Q. I’ve seen cheaper hosting, why host with you?
A. You are right. You can find cheaper yearly hosting, and I’ll still happily build and / or work on your website. The catch?
I have to collect payment up front for any updates or maintenance I do on websites not hosted @ The Tiny Web Ninja.
Why? because some not-so-nice people have not paid their bills in the past. Then I cried and ate Ramen noodles for a week.
If something goes wrong with your website in the future, do you want to call your host provider’s technical support? Why do I ask? Because access to your hosting account requires me having your user name and password, then I’ll have to have my memory wiped clean, which always results in me forgetting where I left my car keys. So you’ll have to create a user account specifically for me and give me authorization on your account to call technical support on your behalf. And this requires you contacting technical support anyhow.
I am pretty familiar with my hosting set up. I’ve been using it for quite a while now. Familiarity = efficiency = economical savings.
I only charge a few dollars a month more than the ‘Big Cheap Guys’ (unless the ‘B.C.Gs’ are having a sale or new customer special, but when your term expires they’ll charge their full/normal pricing again). And if something goes wrong you will only have to contact me.
Q. What is a domain name?
A. That is your website address. Your URL, Uniform Resource Locator. The phrase with .com after it. Look upward on the screen, mine is TinyWebNinja.com .
Q. In the end, do I own my website?
A. When you pay the final bill, why yes, yes you do.
Upon completion and final payment I will create a .zip file of all your website’s files at the time it goes live and give you a link to download the file.
I hope you will not mind a small, very tiny small link to my website at the very very, very bottom of your website (as most developers / designers do). Having it there in no way implies I own your website.
Q. Do you work with clients outside of Chatham County, North Carolina?
A. Yes! I have built many websites for people I have never had a face to face meeting with, so it doesn’t matter if you are located in Pittsboro, or Chatham County.
Q. Do you ‘outsource’ your work?
A. No, all labor is done in-house, in country. I pay my taxes, and I use my income here in our local and national economy.