Some reasons why to get a web site in the first place: If you are mailing out brochures, particularly where printing and shipping costs are noticeable, you can reduce the volume you have to physically send out by 90+% while increasing circulation 200+% simply by digitizing the current brochure, or having one created and posted to your web site for download and/or viewing. The site should also provide additional details about the product line that may not even be on the brochure as well as the fact that indeed, it can replace any print brochure all together if created correctly. If you are having to make calls long distance, utilizing email and site scripting more will significantly reduce your phone bill, another advantage of using them is the fact that you have a written record for future reference. Do you have a retail outlet? A retail location is stationary, it's relying upon random people that frequent a general area to notice it's locations existence, or through paid advertisement, which as any business owner knows, can be quite expensive, and you are still taking a gamble upon if it will work. On the other hand, a web site, once it's completed, can be duplicated, copied, listed, and publicly viewed by such a significantly larger volume of people at once, no retail, or business anywhere could ever have a greater presence through any other means. "this gives the little guy the chance to compete with the big boys" and gives the "big boys" a way of getting noticed in a big way. You do have to pay a very minimal fee annually for your domain name registration and hosting, since once the web site is built, you do not need to continuously pay your webmaster just to keep it available for public viewing. Do you do sales, especially cold calls? With a properly designed and marketed web site, your clients will seek you out, providing their contact information and specific questions. The ability to convey information through a visual interface, backed up with links to relevant data expands upon present sales techniques since you are able to convey your message, for digestion to your pending clients 24/7 without having to manually explain it to them. You no longer have to simply put in everything you have on a 2 dimensional plane, such as audio only, one way advertisements, brochures, etc. Being able to provide something visual and interactive presents the image of a more tangible product and/or service as well as expedites sales to a much higher degree then simply using a manual process. Why go through Webwise-Direct.com? You can teach programming skills, but you cannot teach creativity. We pride ourselves upon being able to generate quality, creative layouts that not only reflect what the client has envisioned, but are able to produce work based upon a very limited or very extensive amount of input. This means, if you are prepared, and have content and a look in mind, something can be created to suite your needs. Yet, if you are like many people, you don't quite know what you want it to look like, we can of course generate a design that will both impress you, as well as allow room for modifications and adjustments along the way taking smaller steps within the design process in order to develop something strictly based upon the individual's approval. Our skills go beyond simple building nice looking web sites, we also install and configure back end scripts to allow additional functionality to the site. Creating chat rooms, shopping carts, forums, guest books, etc. can allow further involvement by your site visitors as well as further facilitate direct sales, we can even set up scripts to allow the client with very little technical expertise to adjust content to the site themselves. Rates are quite competitive, all projects can be quoted to an exact figure for the entire projects total cost before commencing with the design, this insures there are no "hidden" charges. We do charge monthly for our web site design, as maintenance is required, but, it's at the most competitve rates. We offer free training for all clients that wish to learn how the web site is put together, and show them how to adjust the very source code to the site itself, which is good if you are willing to learn, or are on a budget and can only afford the basics. A few things to keep in mind that we recommend as a rule to any site design: Make it easy to navigate, i.e.. don't make people have to search for hidden, or obscured buttons or links.   Keep in mind, the average user is on a dial up modem connected to the web at 28.8k, so the general layout should be easily loadable from that speed of connection, if not, provide an alternative set of web pages. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. We also, expand upon this by explaining to people that indeed, we do build e-commerce, flash, script driven web sites, but don't recommend the world in back end scripting for a simple informational brochure type web site, yet at the same time, if you need elements that are rather extensive to program, they very much can be delivered.
Surf the web, start by looking at web sites that are similar, or selling the same product as you, these are your online competitors, and may or may not be the standard to be shooting towards. The web is still a rather new thing for many fields, so people still may not take their online presence seriously enough to hire a real webmaster to build their site. This in no way may reflect the actual demographic, but in this field, it may be the standard at present thinking to take/not take their web site and web presence seriously, then again, you should set your own standard of expertise to display, if anything to show a positive example of your company. After reviewing enough web sites, even ones outside of your field, relay them over to us, this gives us a good idea as to your tastes. It's best to detail what you like about the sites or features that you want incorporated with yours, it's simply to give us a starting point, nothing more, we do NOT duplicate other web sites, it's just a good starting point to work within. After reviewing the example sites, we can negotiate a price for the project. Since each web site is unique, layouts, features, etc. all require separate time frames and levels of expertise to assemble, we at least have a starting point. In addition to this, these are some common questions asked: 1. How many pages? This is the number of web pages the web site will require, keeping in mind, there are limits to the length each page can be unless it's a very simply formatted section of text, supplied in digital format by the client. 2. Exactly which features are going to be necessary to install and configure using back end scripting? This can vary depending upon the application, small programs, such as a contact form, or a hit counter are easy enough and require very little time for us to configure into the site and normally don't charge extra for these, yet other more extensive programs, such as a shopping cart, chat room, auction etc. would require more time to configure and install in order to get it to display the layout and content relevant to the web site correctly. 3. How extensive, graphically as well as interactively the web site is going to be, paying particular note to what is displayed at the home page? We can build an extensive, high tech flash intro, layouts, and promotional materials, yet, not all web sites require them. The difference could extend from a simple $20.00 per page web site to several $ just to assemble the intro. With flash, we do not display set prices on these since it's such a broad, versatile program that allows for almost unlimited options, yet, can set a beginning rate to incorporate some time into adding just the right visual appearance you are looking for. 4. Is content ready for the web site? We prefer to have all text content in digital format, i.e. something that can be send and edited from one computer to another or posted to a web page, this saves time having to manually type it from regular print. We can help with the content area's as well by researching the subject, and assembling something intelligent as well as relevant to the web site at $70.00 per page, font size 10, printed page 8" by 10", or the equivalent. 5. Are all graphics, pictures, etc. that the client requires in the site edited, scaled to the proper size, and ready to be incorporated within the site? We can take your raw digital photo and/or printed media and adjust it to be used within the site. We have scanning services available as well. These issues addressed, will pretty much determine the exact cost for the project. FAQ How do I determine what kind of a design to go with? Browse the web, especially your competitors web sites, if something catches your eye, relay me the url as well as a description of what you like. I won't duplicate another web site, but will get a better understanding about what you have in mind. The more examples you send me, the better. Another way that helps would be to fax me a sketch of what you have in mind as well. Ok, I can't find anything out there that I like do you have other options? Yes, what I can do is work on a development basis with a minimal amount of information at my hourly rate. How does the design process work? To begin with, I try to extract as much information from the client as possible, we then must come to some kind of agreement determining what features, graphics, details, scripts, etc. are going to be required as well as a budget to work within. I then build a preliminary design, keeping it simple and send a copy and/or post to the web for their approval., After acquiring input from the client about it, I move onto stage 2, which is adding more detail and/or making changes to the over all look depending upon the input given. It is then submitted for a secondary approval and adjusted if deemed necessary. Once it reaches that point, upon the 3rd stage, the design factor is complete, most web sites require the same design for all pages in order to keep it symmetrical, so it is crucial to make any modifications and changes within these 3 preliminary steps. After it is complete, it is duplicated, content added to the additional pages as well as installing and configuring any scripts necessary. What do you mean by scripts? Many tasks can either be automated, or handled better by installing scripts instead of manually hand coding everything, for example; If you are selling 100 products through your web site, it will be most cost effective to simply pay me to install and configure a script so that it will auto duplicate the cart pages simply by adding products through a form that parses it. Additional scripts perform various tasks, such as contact form data processing, guest books, chat rooms, forums, etc. How much do scripts cost? My first recommendations will always be to use free scripts, this way you are not paying for something that you may, or may not need, I charge for my time to install and configure them to fit your web site as well as address any issues necessary for them to function properly. If you require something more robust, the charges and transaction is something that you have to work out directly with the author of the script. Do you write your own scripts? No, and there really is no need to since that would be like reinventing the wheel, I recommend typing in free scripts in any search engine for ideas along that area, you will be surprised what they can do for your web site. What kind of time frame and budget are we looking at? It really depends upon what is being ordered as well as how organized the client is. I build custom web sites from scratch and have a limited amount of templates offered at this site, mainly because each client requires a different look, feel, and features. Keep in mind, you are not only hiring a web designer, you are also hiring a graphic artist, internet marketer, as well as all around technical consultant. I'd like to update the web site myself, can you help me do that? Yes, I not only offer training, but utilize scripts that help ease the process.