MarkWorks

A purpose, some ideas about the content; and the willingness to work with us on a budget to build it.

What will go on each page… text (information), images (photos, art or product examples, for instance).

That depends on the purpose of your site. Minimum is four:

1. a Home page: the one people will probably first land on unless they've bookmarked a page within your site. Ideally, it should contain a few words or a brief sentence summarizing who you are and/or what you do. It can be simple, minimal, or dazzling, complex - a storefront, even.


2. a Contact page for visitors to reach you; it may also carry your street address and phone number(s) etc. When a visitor has sent a message or query to you via a web-based contact form, this
   triggers a 'Thank you' or Results page indicating to your visitors that their message has been sent successfully.


3. a 'Services', 'What we do' (or similar) page that describes what you offer, how your business works, what you sell, a mission statement, artist's philosophy, etc


4. an 'About me (us)' page describing who you are and what you do. This source suggests that an ‘About’… page contain: a couple of brief paragraphs at the top of the page with details of you/your organization's goal(s) and main accomplishments. A short 'Fact sheet'. This elaborates on key points and other essentials about you/your organization; it can be placed at the bottom of this page or makes a useful page on its own. A photo of yourself, your employees, your place of business, studio, etc is suggested

Especially in the case of businesses, you may also want to add pages: a testimonials page; online shopping area with products and pricing, a way to pay for your goods or services on line; receipt
page; privacy statements; more extended details of your services and/or products; examples of your work 'in action'; graphics of your work, products and/or business etc.

Of course! MarkWorks can help write your text for you; we can make suggestions for you to do it yourself, or - with your input - write it for you; we can prepare rough copy for presentation on your site. We have staff to shoot, record and otherwise source still photos, video and audio if you need these.

We offer you multiple design styles and we encourage you to find sites online that have elements that you may want in your site.

Yes and Yes! We are constantly adding to the bank of available designs. That way our clients keep up with design trends. We also provide choices for varying tastes. The layouts you see are as 'blank slates'. Colors, text style, text size, placement of graphics and images, and many features (FaceBook and Twitter feeds, ’Light-box', 'Accordion', 'Popups', 'tickers', 'scrollers', 'galleries', 'streaming video', news feeds, blogging software etc) are available to enhance the way your site appears and works for you.

That depends: a couple of weeks at most for a simple 'calling card' site of half a dozen pages or so. It can take a few months for a more complex site and/or one that requires more features, product lines and carts, or more extensive testing than usual. We try to match the pace of our work to your needs. If it's a priority to you to be up and running 'yesterday', it's a priority to us to work round the clock for you. If you're comfortable with a more reflective and relaxed pace, we will set up a more leisurely schedule.

We certainly can. We'll design, build and maintain your site based on your needs. We use trusted, reliable, always-available hosts on state of the art servers. Or you may simply need MarkWorks to set up an e-commerce section of your existing site. Or advice on optimizing your present site for search engines. Whatever your need, we'll meet it: no more; no less.

Again, that depends largely on what you want. Our rates are extremely competitive because of the experience we have; and thanks to the versatility and reliability of software tools that we will be using to build your site. We create a contract which either contains a detailed scope of work or references one - based on precisely what you have indicated you need.

We require your signature before we start the actual building. It sets out what we do, what we'll need from you (content), plus how and when we'll complete each stage. You'll know exactly what to expect before we touch a key or move a mouse. And so will we.

In addition, we offer extremely reasonable maintenance contracts to do your updates, additions/deletions so that your site is always current. We have per page pricing, hourly rates, and site packages. We're happy to send you specific figures when we have a basic idea of your needs. This typically works out to between $50 and $100 per page or per hour.

Whatever suits you. We can read (almost) every format. We accept data via email, on CD/DVD, on a thumb drive etc. We can provide you with an online ‘drop box’ into which you can securely drop content as we build your site if you'd prefer. Needless to say, we fully optimize any graphics (and spellcheck any text) that you provide.

Not at all. We specialize in optimizing your pages for the highest ranking in the shortest possible time. After the launch of a recent site, it took only two weeks for it to appear as the first site in Google for its area of business.

Yes. We show you how to do it, Yes. We can also build in a personalized and simple web-based Content Management System that allows you complete and secure control over your content 24/7.

Of course. We are experts at branding; we undertake logo design; we can register your unique domain and routinely maintain that side of things - for example when renewal payments are due.

Of course. We can take care of all domain name registration, payment, renewal and so on for you.

Yes! Several of us in MarkWorks have backgrounds in education. We consider it core to your success that you - as a paying client - really understand what you're paying for. No question is too 'basic' or simple for you ever to be afraid to ask: ‘stupid questions’ are the ones never asked.

If your question isn't answered here and/or your own particular needs not catered for, do get in touch. We'll be pleased to help you through what can be a bit of a maze - with no jargon whatsoever; and that's a promise!