The process of creating a website is new to a lot of people and that's ok. We'll cover some of the basics and you can contact me for additional information. A website is an extension of you and your business. It serves a specific purpose. The first step in creating a great website is figuring out what the purpose of you site is. For some this may simply be to advertise a service such as Real Estate, Phycology, or Contracting. For others, it could be an entire online store front. Once we find your sites purpose, we're much closer to creating a great website. These are also referred to as 'requirements' in subsequent development phases.

Budget

Next, we need to determine the budget you'd like to keep your project within. From here I'll recommend what tools you will need to launch your site. For the budget minded this could be as simple as setting up a Joomla site with some cosmetic modifications. For those that want a more customized, we can estimate your desired functionality and maintain budget constraints. Once we've determined these basics we can move onto how your site will look.

Design

Some clients use the services of Public Relations and Marketing professionals. These services help a client create a 'brand' or an 'image' for their business. As well, they will set a course for the look and feel of the website. I work with these professionals to create a website that matches the campaign they're creating. Let's face it, not every business has a PR firm to call on. Depending on your needs, I can create a professional look and feel for your site. If you're in need of custom graphic design, I work with many professional in this area as well. Together we can create a new logo, or an entire theme. If you already have your own graphics, fantastic! I can use those existing graphics to create a custom site that engages your users for increased traffic. I also provide Flash for fantastic photo presentations and other site effects. Flash does takes more time, so I try to use Flash for support rather than entire site. For initial design projects I provide free consultation and detailed estimates. Projects are estimated using an average per hour with required functionality and design. As long as there are no major changes in requirements along the way, the estimate is usually accurate.

Development

Once we have agreed upon a design and estimate, work will begin on your new site. I will provide a 'one-sheet' page for you to review during the design process. The one page will not be a functioning site, but just a snapshot that allows us to fine tune the look and feel. This process might take a few iterations to get all the details covered. Once we're set on the site appearance, we move on to add all the bells and whistles.

Similar to the one sheet design process, once the functionality is added I provide a working 'test' site for you to review. This gives us the opportunity to play around with everything before the public sees it. We can make changes when they're needed during this process to ensure that your users have the best experience possible. Once you're happy with the overall look and functionality of your site, we can move onto the deployment phase.

Deployment

This is where the magic happens, your site goes live! This process involves getting everything we created set up on a 'host' that serves your domain name (www.myfuturesite.net) to the public. What's a host you may ask? A host is a server that provides a way to connect your domain to the Internet. Some companies run their own server, and everything works from there. That's a costly endeavor and should be approached with caution. In most cases a third party host is needed. I provide hosting capabilities to all of my web clients. I too, use a third party for this. Hosting costs, if needed, are included in the estimate. We can also work with many other hosts as long as they provide PHP/MySql.

Some clients run a Windows Small Business Server in their offices for email. We can make all needed changes to the configuration to make sure this serve is used for your email activity. We don't suggest running your website off of this server for many reasons. Often these servers are simply plugged into the wall or a surge protector. If your office loses power, not only is your email down, but your site is down as well. If you need help maintaing that Small Business Server, visit my IT services page or contact me.

Once your site is live, I can provide maintenance for your site at a reasonable rate. When available, I also maintain the test site we created in previous phases. This allows us to continue to grow your site and release stuff only when it's passed through a proper test review. Users should not have to worry about their experience on your site! Please contact me for a consultation.

Technical Stuff

I use a development framework called CakePHP. This is a framework built using PHP, a leading web scripting language. What this framework allows is the 'rapid development' of functionality while maintaing industry standards. I design custom MySQL databases to meet your data needs. We also work with quality third-party products. Most of these products are 'Open Source' i.e Free. If a third party product is needed for your project, that does require a cost, it will be noted in the original estimate. Take a look at my 'targeted content management system' page to see example of my custom CMS functions. I provide clean, standards based code with PHP, Javascript, HTML/XHTML, XML and all other needed languages.