Frequently Asked Questions
How much will my website cost?
It all depends on what you need.
There are three levels at which you can work with us on web design:
- A powerful one-page WordPress website that can scale up as your service-based business grows. $1000 and up
- A full WordPress website with all of the essentials that a service-based entrepreneur needs. $3000 and up
- A Custom WordPress Site, based on your specific needs. Starts at $5000.
If you believe that a custom site is what you will need, the best way to determine what your costs and create a design plan will be is to schedule a Website Planning and Strategy Session HERE.
In our chat, we will talk about the nature of your website, how much graphic design you will need (such as logo design or redesign), how much interactivity you desire, if you will want to create a membership site, etc. Once we know what you envision for your site, we can give you a fair and accurate estimate.
Why should we hire Liz Lee Media?
There are many reasons to hire Liz Lee Media to design your website, but here are three good ones:
1. Liz loves what she does. She doesn’t consider what she does “work” at all. She takes great pleasure in making your project the best representation of you, your business, and your talents.
2. Liz’s greatest tool on any project is her intuition. Many of her clients have said that her work reflects exactly what they were envisioning or even better. While you can find any number of highly skilled web designers out there, Liz is one of the few who is able to really tune in to what you want.
3. Liz not only loves her work, but she really loves her clients! Take a look at their testimonials and see what they have to say.
Another company says they can build our website for $500 or less. Why shouldn't we use them?
A lot of hard work goes into creating a quality website. Someone who charges so little is not likely giving you the functionality and design you deserve. Our team at Liz Lee Media works around the clock to build you a unique website that reflects exactly what YOU want. This takes time and attention, and we will charge reasonably and commensurately with the work that we do for you.
I have a Facebook page. Isn't that all I need?
We are huge fans of social networking and all the marketing opportunities it provides. That said, we believe social networking sites are analogous to public gathering places: while you would spend time networking in public places, you would not live in them. The fact is that you need a home on the web where you are in control of your media–a place you own and don’t have to worry about someone else changing, altering, or eliminating completely. If you’re not convinced, take a look at this article.
Do you offer free consultations?
At this time, we do not offer free consultations. However, you can schedule a Website Planning and Strategy Session.
The first step to any website design or redesign, this intensive session will help us get clear on design and content strategies to implement moving forward. We will hold this session via Zoom video conference and the session will be recorded for your reference. The cost of this session is deducted from the final cost of the project.
Will you come to my office/business?
I wish we could work face-to-face with all of our clients around the world, but until we learn how to teleport, we will work remotely via phone, email, video chat, and a host of powerful online tools to serve our clients. đ
Do you arrange payment plans?
We understand that a website can be a sizeable investment and work with our clients to create flexible payment plans when needed.
Please note that all projects must be paid in full before launch.
How involved can I get in the design process?
We want you to be as involved as you want to be. Sure, it’s great to have a client who says, “Do what you want–just make it look good!” but we know that you want designs that reflect who you are and what you are all about. We will take all of your wishes into consideration and we will work diligently with you to get the result you want. If there are website designs, logos, backgrounds, colors, etc. that you like, please tell us before we begin and we will tailor our designs to your unique taste.
What is the process of building my website?
1. We will have an initial consultation with you to get an idea of your desires with respect to style and function.
2. Based on your needs, we will draw up a proposal and present it to you.
3. Once you have decided to move forward, we will draw up an agreement with you including our responsibilities and your responsibilities as well as the terms of a payment plan if you choose that option.
4. We will accept an initial payment from you to reserve our time. Depending on the project, this could be 30% to 50% of the design fee.
5. If you do not already have the domain of your choice, we will help you through the process of obtaining it and âpointing itâ to our server.
6. We will present you with a list of assets that we need from you, including photos*, videos/video links, and website copy.
7. If you need a logo designed, we can also provide this service (this is a graphic design service that is invoiced separately unless you have chosen one of our packages that includes it).
8. We will have been performing foundational SEO work while building the website, making sure to add the proper metadata to each page and post.
10. Depending on the Website Care and Support Plan you choose, we may give you tutorials on how to manage and edit content, or you can leave the maintenance up to us for a monthly fee.
12. Once you are happy with your website and have paid in full for the build and hosting (if you are hosted on our server), we will proudly launch it.
*You must own the copyright to any photos you submit to us to place on your website. As the end user, you are ultimately responsible for any copyright infringement. If you would like for us to use stock photography, we will charge an additional $100 per full website to cover photo licensing fees.
If my website breaks, whose fault is it?
As your web designer, it is our responsibility to provide you with a working, bug-free, and professional website upon delivery.
Your web hosting company should provide a hosting environment that is running updated software, applying security patches, and making regular backups of your site.
As a website owner, it is your responsibility to secure website care services to keep your website updated and protected.
When all three of these pieces are in place, the likelihood of a website “breaking” is greatly reduced. We commit to making sure our responsibilities (web design and in some cases, hosting) are covered and strongly encourage you to keep your website maintained, whether you do it yourself or hire someone to take care of it.
I tend to change my mind a lot. If I see something I don't like, will you change it?
Of course we want you to be satisfied, and to ensure your satisfaction with our work, we create a master plan that outlines the structure of the site (how many menu items, dropdowns, pages, etc.) and what features we will be installing (blogs, forums, videos, etc.). We draw up an agreement on what we promise to do and what we will need from you to do it (your content–pictures, bios, company information, music, videos, etc.). We decide on a timeline and a launch date. If you need any revisions completed after the launch date, you can hire us on an hourly basis, or you can sign up for one of our monthly maintenance plans. Before the launch date, we allow two master plan revisions once the plan is created. For any major revisions beyond that, we will charge our hourly building rate above and beyond your original website building fee.
We strongly encourage you to really do some research (and soul searching!) about what you want from your site before we create the master plan. We can show you a lot of possibilities in our initial consultation, but ultimately it is about what you want (and with all due respect, not what your mom, sister, brother, dad, uncle, cousin, best friend, etc. wants). You need to have a clear idea of what you want before setting our wheels in motion, because once we build our creative momentum, it’s hard to stop us!
Let us give you an example: Let’s say we work with a musician to create a master plan that includes pages for a bio, audio, video, tour dates, photo gallery, etc. Then the musician decides she wants to include a blog as well. The blog was not on the original plan (although we suggested it), so adding and installing it counts as the first of his two allowed major revisions. Then, let’s say this musician decides that she wants a store in which to sell her CD’s. Well, this was not on the original agreed-upon plan either (although in reality we would encourage such a client to have both a blog and a store from the very first meeting!), so that would be the second revision to the plan. After looking at her store, she realizes that she wants to scrap it and simply create a page with all her merchandise and have “Buy Now” PayPal buttons under each item. This, being the third major unforeseen revision request, will need to be completed under an hourly building agreement that is separate from the original website building fee.
If you have any questions about what constitutes a “major revision,” just ask us.
Please know that we will do our part to make you aware of all the possible features and structures for your website as we create the master plan. We simply want to create a solid and workable plan that we can all commit to and follow to fruition without getting sidetracked and slowing the process of getting your dream website launched.
Will I be able to edit content on my website?
Some people are very “hands-on” and want to have this capability, while others are “hands-off” and would rather leave it to us. We have solutions for either preference.
Hands On: With each website launch, we now include a WordPress In-Site Session⢠covering the basics of editing content such as loading media, updating news, managing calendars, etc. and also tips on how not to “break” your site. đ
Hands Off: We offer Website Care Plans where we will be available to update content as you need us to.