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Because a Website is something very different to each person we ll need to collaborate to design the website you want.

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Fresh Page Web Design Gary Nanos www.FreshPageWebDesign.com email: FreshPage@comcast.net phone: 720-502-5007 fax: 303-785-8047

This guide to “What you Need to Know About Website Building” is offered in an effort to begin an excellent working relationship. Its goal is to demystify the process, to minimize, as much as possible, any surprises either of us may encounter in the website building process and let you know what you can expect from me.

Because a ‘Website’ is something very different to each person we’ll need to collaborate to design the website you want.

Your Satisfaction

You won’t be asked to pay for any of my time or services until you can see the finished product. If you aren’t satisfied with it and I’m not able to make changes to your satisfaction there is no charge from me for my time or services.

Design / Development Process Overview

I’d like to offer an overview of the process of building your website in an effort to minimize misplaced expectations. You’ll want to peruse the ‘Design Gallery’ at my website to get a basic idea of various layouts and styles that we can incorporate into your website. Then we’ll spend time on the phone. I’ll try to answer as many questions as you may have. I’ll also ask questions to understand if you have a clear understanding of what you want so I can determine if I can price your website accurately and if I am the right designer for your needs. Many designers are excellent at some aspects of website building and not so good at others. If your site is not something I am peaked at I’ll let you know that and you’ll be better served finding a developer more aligned to your particular needs. I may need to do some research if you need a website feature I haven’t built in the past.

Assuming we are both happy to move forward the next step will be to create a brief written summary of your requirements. Once the summary is approved by you, and based on how detailed you are about

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your site specifications we’ll agree on a pricing method; either a ‘final price’, a ‘not to exceed price’ or an ‘hourly rate price’.

Next you’ll write your sites textual content, and gather assets such as your logo and site photos or graphics; I can direct you to resources if needed for this step.

Then my work and our collaboration begin. We’ll have scheduled phone times each week when you’ll review my progress most likely accomplished by me remotely sharing my screen to yours. Because you’ve not been charged anything for my time spent so far in the process your weekly participation is required for work to continue. This is a way to ensure you’ll have a final product you’ll be happy with and keeps me from spending weeks of work time on a website that you are unhappy with. When the website is ‘finished’ (meaning it can be viewed on the web using my temporary ‘development’ domain name and looks as it will once its moved to your permanent domain name), you’ll be asked to give your final approval by paying for your website. At that time I’ll deliver the files that make up your website to you for final loading onto the hosting service of your choice.

Payment

Payment is due upon YOUR acceptance of website completion. An invoice will then be send to you via email. Forms of payment accepted are by check or credit card (Master Card, Visa, Discover, American Express, Switch, Bankcard, or Solo credit or debit cards or your PayPal account), by entering your credit card information at my website. Once payment is received and cleared (if by check) I’ll deliver the files that ARE your website to you via email for your safe keeping and ownership. You will then work with your hosting provider to put those files (and therefore your website) on to the internet. If we’ve previously agreed and with your permission I may assist with the final step just described.

Fees You Should Expect

Fees you’ll pay to me are for ‘building’ your website.

If we are working together using a ‘final price’ or ‘not to exceed’ pricing model changes you request AFTER our written agreement of your website specifications incur additional fees at my current hourly rate, this is in addition to the agreed upon ‘final’ or ‘not to exceed’ price. If we are working together using an hourly rate you may make as many changes as often as you like. Please think through what you want ahead of time so we can keep your costs down.

Incorporating your text, photos and other assets into your website design is included in the price. If you require ‘custom design’ that is beyond what is offered in the design template of your choice the rate is my current hourly rate. Existing elements which can be moved, copied, or modified easily are done for free. Custom design would be creating a design element (such as a button, a graphic, or a logo) from scratch. If you decide the button you want is of a specific size, shape, color, texture, theme, etc. there will likely be additional development time involved. Simple changes such as colors, shadows, sizes or

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placements to most existing elements do not involve additional development time. Feel free to ask about specific changes you may want, I will be able to tell you if your desired change will be fee based or free. By starting from professionally made designs you won’t pay for any additional development fees unless custom re-design (as described above) is involved. All of the design time that went into the design template is free to you and a way we significantly keep your costs down.

Other services you may choose to purchase (after your initial website purchase) might include ongoing updates, repairs, changes or enhancements to your finished website.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) requires additional development work on my part as well as some additional text writing on your part. If you will be referring all of your site visitors to your site you may not need SEO development. I include this extra feature (as defined later in this document) free of charge.

Beyond what you’ll pay me and depending on the features we build into your website there may be other fees you may need to pay to other service providers that you should be aware of. These fees are paid by you directly to the service provider, not to me. Here are examples that are common, but may or may not necessarily apply to your specific website …

Every website needs;

• Hosting – this is a monthly fee (generally around $8/mo.) you pay to your hosting company to host your website once it’s developed.

• Domain Name – this is a yearly fee you pay to a domain service (generally around $10/yr.) to assign your website’s address to you for your exclusive use.

Some websites need;

• Photos & Clip Art – this is a one-time fee you pay when you buy a photo or clip art (generally around $2 - $10 per item) to be put onto your website. I can help you understand which will work well on your website, as well as point you to places on the web where these assets can be purchased. Your own photos that you may provide are free.

• Content Management Services (CMS) – CMS are ‘back end’ computing services required to accomplish something you may want to implement on your website. For instance if you want to password protect a given web page allowing only certain visitors to see it, with each visitor having his own specific password, back end computing is needed to assign, maintain, and approve these visitors. These services are typically provided by a third party and involve ongoing fees, generally paid monthly and varying by website. Depending on the level of protection you need and the particular hosting provider you pick there may be a fee. You should let me know before we begin development if you know that you’ll be needing password security on your website. Many websites can be built free of these services, some

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cannot, depending on the features you want and need. If you expect to have an

E-commerce or a ‘web store’ – some are free, more sophisticate stores (with multiple items or catalogs of items) or advanced features (like multiple product categories) or assigning customers their own log-ins or their own individual discount level, or using credit cards to process payments, etc. typically charge a monthly fee. As for Blogs – many are free; others with fancy or specific designs or membership features typically charge a fee. As for Forms (or ‘ Contact Forms’), having your site visitors contact you by sending you an email is ‘free’. If instead you want them to fill out a form (or survey), this typically involves a third party service. Many are free (up to 100 contacts/month) then charge a fee beyond that. • Logo – if you want one, you’ll need to provide a logo or have one designed which I will

incorporate onto your website. If you don’t have one and want a basic logo I will

make/include one free, it will consist of your company name against a square background with the color of your choice.

• Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate – sites that sell items to website visitors generally have an E-commerce store of some sort. That E-store usually features a shopping cart as well as an extra layer of protection for credit card purchases in the form of encryption. If the E-store you choose doesn’t include SSL or encryption you may need to purchase this feature from your hosting provider or other third party (generally around $75/yr., or it may be included in your hosting agreement).

• Blogs – if you already have a blog site I can likely ‘reflect’ it onto your website. Often this can be done with little effort (depending on your particular Blog). If so there is no additional fee. If instead you would like to start up a blog I can help. That development effort (and any training you may want for the Blog’s ongoing maintenance) is fee based and charged at my current hourly rate.

• Travel – my work motion is designed to save you money, working by phone, email and if needed screen sharing, therefore, it doesn’t include on-site visits. If you feel an on-site visit is necessary it is available at my current hourly rate, calculated from when I leave my office until I return to it.

There are many more possible website features not mentioned here, some have fees, some don’t. If you have one in mind please feel free to ask about it and I will look into it for you or help by directing you as to how you can investigate it. In general many ‘free’ services provided by third parties are ‘paid’ for by allowing the third party to place ads or their company name on your website, or alternately they will have a ‘premium’ version of the same service which is free of ads but has a monthly fee that you would pay directly to them.

Resources from third parties

Based on your website’s requirements you may need to pick third party providers (as described above) in addition to the service of ‘website building’ that I will be providing. Examples would be a hosting provider, a domain name provider, a forms provider, a security/password provider, an E-commerce

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store provider, an email provider, etc. Over time these providers may change their product offerings or pricing, which could change how their product appears or performs on your website. Be aware that Fresh Page Web Design has no influence over, nor support responsibility for these third parties. If a third parties product offering changes and creates an issue on your website I’ll be glad to advise you as to your course of action as best as I can.

Payments for these third party services are from you to that provider. The choice of provider is yours. Any fees, refunds or cancellation fees assessed by a third party are between yourself and the third party. I can help in many cases by pointing you towards providers I may know of or may have used in the past. In many cases you can find these services by doing a simple web search. In any case you should check with me before making these purchases so we can assess if they will currently work with your website.

How we’ll Work Together

My goal is to save you money where possible. Accordingly, in lieu of expensive face to face meetings we’ll be exchanging emails (on an ongoing basis) and talking via phone at predetermined pre-scheduled times. You should plan to put 1-2 hour blocks of time aside at least weekly until your website is

completed. Being more available will get it done more quickly. Also I may need to ‘share my screen’ (to your screen) on occasion. This service is free. You’ll occasionally be sending website design assets (such as a photo you may have purchased) to me via email. I will send your final website files (i.e. your website) to you via email.

What You Must Have

To keep your cost down we’ll need to work as efficiently as possible. In order to do so we’ll be working remotely from each other. To achieve this you’ll need to have access to an up to date computer connected to the internet, with an up to date operating system, up to date web browser and email installed and working, as well as a working telephone or cell phone near your computer. If you want to convey an image you’ve drawn by hand, such as a page layout you’ll need a fax machine, digital camera or scanner to send it to me via email or fax.

Know What You Want

Websites have endless features, such as contact links, maps, forms, surveys, photo galleries, article libraries, downloads, music players, video players, social media connections, E-stores, blogs, etc. Take time to get a sense of what you are trying to convey to your target audience and therefore what we need to build into your website. If you know what you want to accomplish I’ll be glad to give suggestions as to how we can get there. Visit my Gallery of Designs as well as any website(s) on the web and make a list of features you’ll want/need. This will allow me to quote a price for my service with little or no additional fees added later if you require new features added or design changes which we didn’t originally discuss or agree upon in our written agreement. If your design varies as to placement of

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elements (compared to our starting design template) you’ll sketch out a sample page (using simple boxes and lines) with the new rough placement of elements. You’ll need to type the text you’ll want on each page into a Word or similar document, or in an email. If you want Search Engine Optimization (SEO) features (which I include for free as described above) you’ll need to type them out also (in the format described above). Website development won’t begin until you’ve gathered or authored all of the words and photo, etc., and organized them on a per page basis.

‘Finished Work’ versus Ongoing Changes, Updates, and Future Enhancements

You are purchasing a finished product from me. Your payment for it acknowledges your approval of its finished state. After your review of the finish product, and once payment is received I will provide your website files to you via email. Future updates, enhancements or repairs (as required by the action of a third party) are not included in the purchase price. Since you will be holding your website files (i.e. your website) you may contract with any party you wish to do ongoing updates, repairs, enhancements, etc. I offer this type of work. My rates are explained in the ‘Fees’ section of this agreement.

Since it can be difficult for one developer to do, undo, re-do or understand the development work of another developer as a practical matter if/once you choose a different party to do ‘update’ work on your website you should plan to continue to use that party going forward. Re-publishing your site after a change I have made is included for free.

Self Service (Client based) Website Updates – built into your website design

Some clients may want to make ‘simple changes’ to their own website (particularly if they have text that needs to change frequently), other do not and would rather leave all changes to their website designer (me). If you want to do your own simple changes (to the extend made possible by the technology that’s available at the time of your websites creation) you will want to express that desire as we do the

planning for your website so as to avoid redesign fees to install that capability in the future. Together we can look at what information you’ll want to be changing yourself and discuss the known options to achieve it. Knowing this in advance may affect how we design your website (possibly to include a blog, calling it ‘recent news’ or ‘recent updates’ or ‘this week’s specials’ for updates) and/or which hosting company we pick to host it. Clients who do NOT want to do their own updates are welcome to engage me for such services.

Fees

My hourly rate is $50, with a $25 minimum. This rate applies to all work except for ‘simple changes’ (for my existing customers).

My rate for ‘simple changes’ (for my existing customers) is $25/hour, with a $25 minimum. A ‘simple change is defined as substituting or correcting text for existing text or adding text to existing text so long

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as doing so doesn't require a ‘design change’. The ‘simple change’ rate also applies to replacing one photo with another of the same size (including simple photo rotation, cropping, sizing and resolution reduction to the new photo) so long as replacing the photo doesn't require a ‘design change’. If a design change is required then my normal hourly rate applies. An ‘existing customer’ is one who has purchased the website that requires updating from me.

Permissions and Releases

We agree that you own the rights or will be responsible to obtain any permissions or necessary rights for any image or asset that you provide to me for use on your website. I can help by providing a list of web based resources for sourcing images.

Variations in Screen Appearance

Unlike the printed page where a given printer prints at a given resolution on a given sized page the World Wide Web is displayed by various versions of several different operating systems using various versions of several different web browsers onto screens of various sizes, shapes, resolutions and typeface sets. It’s inevitable; due to this unlimited number of variations that a web page viewed on one ‘platform’ will look different than on another. Also, while your website may look and work perfectly now, future changes made by other providers such as operating system or web browser providers on occasion may prove to be incompatible with pre-existing websites. This is not uncommon and is not considered to be a website defect. Future repairs of such issues are not considered to be part of this website purchase and may be offered for a fee.

Desktop, Tablet, Mobile Smartphone

More websites are being viewed on mobile devices with smaller screens than is traditional on a website page designed for a desktop computer screen. Our development method uses a technology called ‘Viewport Scaling’ which helps mobile devices (each with their own inherent scaling capabilities) to scale larger ‘desktop’ sized pages down to a generally viewable, if not optimal viewing experience on their smaller screens. With that said not every ‘desktop’ downsized page may meet your expectations. While most tablets handle ‘desktop’ sized pages very well, smartphones with their much smaller screens will have less success in this area. Good design dictates that pages designed for smaller screens have less content on them (to lessen the amount of scrolling needed) and relatively larger buttons to be more easily seen and to be activated by finger touch as opposed to by a mouse pointer using a ‘click’ action. Unless your target audience is solely smartphone users, I suggest that you have a ‘desktop’ sized

website built. If it doesn’t meet your needs for a smaller screen experience a separate website (a subset of your larger site) can be designed and built leveraging the assets of your larger site, thus saving development costs.

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Your Original Website

Many websites I build are replacements for existing websites. If this is your situation AND you will be keeping your original hosting provider and web address (URL) your new website will be over writing your original website. You need to be aware that I have no means to restore your original website in the unlikely event that you would want to do so. Keeping a copy of your old/original website is an

arrangement between yourself and your previous designer, or whatever means you used to create your original website. When we are completely done designing and installing your NEW website I will email a set of files to you that will allow you to reinstall it, in its current state, if needed in the future.

I have read and understand this guide. Let’s get to work …..

Printed Name _______________________________________________________________ Signature _______________________________________________________________ Date _______________________________________________________________ Rev 11-8-14

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