Web Development

How do I get started?

Do your homework - I apologize right up front for emphasizing so strongly what you need to do to make a cost effective web site. I am doing this for you as you will be, by far, the happiest when your site comes in at the price you were hoping for.

Formulate what you want

• Who am I - Defining a web site is like making your first business card or letterhead - all of a sudden you're not sure what you want to say and how you want to say it. Do I want to be a consultant or a storefront? Am I focusing on dietary health or the whole body mind experience?
• Initial Brainstorm - As a professional I can help you with this, and an hour or two spent with me on the best way to present your message and what the web is really best for, is always time well spent. But this entire process can take days (if you're lucky). This is not something you want to spend your limited resources on having me figure out what you want to say.
• Get Help - What usually works best is to sit down with me and let me help you decide what the major issues are you need to think about. Then you go home and get as much of this work done yourself as possible. Your friends and associates can usually help you as much as I can once you've got the basics figured out.
  
• Let it happen? - Sometimes a site just has to evolve as it is being worked on and as we start to see better where we're going. I'm fine with this and usually that's just the way it ends up. We're in a pay as we go mode though if this occurs and all estimates are off. This will work out fine as far as costs go, it always has, but it's even more important for you to do as much work yourself as you can. If I have to look on the internet for pictures or sounds and check with you again and again, the hours and days will add up.

Making it Cost Effective

• You or me - Obviously the more work you do and the less I have to do, the more likely we'll hit your budget. Get help as someone in your field or personal circle knows a lot more about what you do than I do.
• Give me examples - The easiest and most cost effective method by far is to have you look at what I've done and pick out exactly what elements you want.
  • I want the front page to look like Rachel Victoria's but with a lighter background motif. Some water or wood texture would be great.
  • I want movement like the torches on NHLDEF but with clouds and wind.
  • I want a song to play on each page, or some kind of sound (wind, the ocean, a river), and here's the track off of this CD that I want to use.
• Layout your content - Figure out what pages you want to have on the site (Bio\About, Services, Articles, Awards, Contact ...) and create complete text for every single page.
• Give me the text - Type into a word processor or text editor all of the text that you want on the site. The more you do of this and the better organized it is the easier it will be for me. Writing your story together, with me, can be very, very time consuming.
• Choose your pictures - Organize all the pictures and photos that you want to use for the site. Go to Google and search for pictures, that's pretty much what I do. I've often spent a whole day looking for pictures only to have the customer end up not liking anything. If we proceed on a ""pay as we go"" route, everything I spend time on will cost you.

• Artistic license? - I of course very much enjoy creating new effects or looks for a web site. Check with me if you want something new as it might be very simple. But the pages I have already done are of course the easiest to replicate. Send me a link to a site you like and I can sometimes even just copy the format they are using. I can at least see what you want and tell you how difficult it will be.
• Animations - the ultimate touch - I really like animated GIF's (which I have on most of my sites), but these can take a lot of time. I'm not any kind of cartoon artist and usually start with something someone else has already done, and then animate it.

What Costs

• Picture Cleanup - By far most of my time is spent taking photographs, sizing and cleaning them up, and putting a nice frame or effect around them. Pictures really bring a site to life and you have to have them, but the better quality a photo is the less cleanup I have to do. And of course 100 pictures takes twice as long as 50 to incorporate into a site.
• Animated GIFs - A great, complex one can take a day or more. But if you like the effect, it adds a lot of movement to a site and can make it really stand out. There is a web site called Animation Factory that has a lot of packaged animations at a reasonable price. Too many of these can make a site cartoonish which is why I generally like to create my own, but I have used theirs, especially for holiday themes.
• Changes - I can spend a day organizing a web site only to have someone change their mind and decide they're going in a different direction, or dislike their original concept. An extra day's work on a 5 day site is going to add to the cost.