FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

WHERE DO I START?

We will guide you through the entire process. Whether you're a small business or an established company we offers a full range of services that can help your business. Here's what you can do to start:

• Note what you want to accomplish with your site. Do you want to reach new customers? Service existing customers?
• Research other sites. Look at similar businesses but also consider other sites you really like. Consider the features you like as well as their designs and layout
• Put together all materials that might be relevant: logos, pictures, images, text, business cards, etc. then contact us for a free estimate.

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HOW MUCH DOES A WEBSITE COST?

There are no simple answers to this question. We build sites that fit almost any budget, but prices vary depending on how many pages, how much content and how much time is required to put it together. A simple, single page web site could be built in a matter of about an hour and that would run you just $40. An attractive, unique four to five page web site can usually be built in about ten hours, and that would run you about $400. The best way to find out is to for a free, detailed quote that will match your particular needs.

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BUT, YOU'RE THERE AND I'M ... HERE!

That's the great thing about the Internet - our clients are easily accesible whether they live in the next town or across the state. You can have your site designed in Wisconsin, have it hosted in New York and access it right in your own hometown.

We create web sites for clients who are local to NE Wisconsin, but have worked with clients across the United States, as well. Local is good if you need onsite photography or in-home training, and MadBee Web Design does offer those services. Thanks the Internet, e-mail and the telephone, we can also communicate with clients anywhere!

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CAN YOU TEACH ME TO BUILD MY OWN SITE?

Unfortunately no, but here are a few sites to get you started if you're so inclined: HTML Goodies, W3Schools, and HTML Made Really Easy.

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CAN I UPDATE THE SITE MYSELF?

If you feel comfortable making minor changes to the site, there is no reason why you shouldn't. We will provide you with all the files for your site on a CD. All code, text, and images that are part of your web site will be included. We also provide you with the information you need to log in to your hosting site. However, if you intend to update the site yourself, we suggest that you're familiar with all the technologies used and we reserve the right to remove our name as web designer if the changes you make don't measure up to our design standards.

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HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO HAVE A WEBSITE DESIGNED?

That depends on on the size of your website, the amount of pages, graphics, scanning, complexity, etc. Once all the necessary materials are received including approval of the site layout, content, and payment, your website could be live in as little as two weeks. However, these times are entirely dependant on the customer's level of involvement, and our current workload.

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HOW MANY REVISIONS WILL I BE ALLOWED TO MAKE?

MadBee Web Design makes every attempt to accommodate your revisions without increasing your final cost. Some revisions only need a few minutes, while others require several hours. We encourage clients to give us feedback so that we can get the website established as soon as possible. However, we do charge on an hourly basis. If you request too many changes to your site design, or if you change a design after the entire site has been formatted with the original design, you may incur more charges.

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WHAT IS "SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION"?

According to Bear Canyon Consulting, "Search engine optimization is making Web sites search engine friendly." Simply uploading your site is not enough to get noticed, so all of our projects are optimised to ensure they achieve the best results. We design with Search Engine optimization in mind from the start and it's included in your design package.

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I AM HOSTED WITH ANOTHER HOSTING COMPANY BUT WOULD LIKE TO SWITCH. HOW DO I DO THIS?

Here are six easy steps on exactly how to do this:

1. Find your new host. Ask for recommendations for hosting companies, or find out what hosting company is being used by sites you admire.
2. Register your new hosting account, and submit your payment. It may take as little as a half hour or as long as a day to set up your new hosting space.
3. Find out how you can upload your website before the DNS values resolve. It can take DNS about 48 hours to propogate. If you don't understand what this means, you just need to know that people won't be seeing your site on the new host for up to 2 days after you make the final switch. Many hosts have ways (such as uploading by IP, or uploading into your username web folder) so you can have your site completely on the new host's server before the propgations takes place.
   
   Change the DNS on your domain name to point to your new hosting company. You MUST be able to login to your domain name at your registrar in order to complete this step. If you don't know the username and password for your registrar account, you will need get it, such as by using the "Request your password" feature. When you login, choose the option for domain name management and select the domain name you are switiching hosts for. Then you should see the section for updating your DNS nameservers. It will be clearly labeled as something such as "Change Your DNS Servers" or "Change your Nameservers". You will need to change the DNS servers to the ones your new hosting company provide. There will be two, named something like ns1.example.com and ns2.example.com. This is likely in your welcome email, and you can probably find the information on the hosting company's help section as well.
4. If you are unable to complete this step check to see if you are your domain name's administrative contact.
5. Save your DNS changes and logout of your registrar.
6. Within 48 hours, you will be seeing your site on the new server.

About a week after you change hosts, it is safe to cancel your old hosting account. Don't cancel it right after you have signed up with a new host, because while most people will see the new host within 48 hours, some stragglers may take 72+ hours.

Or you can just sign-up with MadBee Web Design and we will take care of everything. We will transfer your domain name along with all of your existing web sites content for no extra charge.

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WHAT IS A DOMAIN NAME?

A domain name is your Internet Address. A basic web address looks like the following:

http://www.madbeeweb.com

If the address to a specific site is known, simply enter this address into the address box and press the Enter key on the keyboard.

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WHAT IS WEB HOSTING?

After your website is created, you must have a place for it to where others can see it. That "place" is a computer called a "server", which is connected to the Internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The company that owns this server is your web host. There is a monthly fee that you pay to have your site accessible on the Internet.

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WHAT IS SITE MAINTENANCE?

Site maintenance provides minor changes to your web site after it goes live. This usually doesn't include the addition of new pages or major changes. You will pay a fee to keep your site updated with new content that you provide. Most good web sites have new content updated regularly.

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WHY CAN'T I FIND MY WEB SITE IN THE SEARCH ENGINES?

Once you site has been uploaded to your host, it can take several weeks, or even months to actually show up in a web search. How fast your site is listed depends on how well your site was optimized and how often each individual search engines updates.

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WEB SITE CONTENT - WHAT DO I PUT ON MY SITE?

• Site Map - Keep it simple. Put the link at the bottom of the web page, so when people get lost, you help them find their way.
• Navigation Bar - Good navigational tools should look the same and be consistent on EVERY page of the site. Home and Contact Us should be visible, preferably on the bottom - and sometimes the top - of every page.
• Contact Page - Put all your relevant contact information, as well as a Feedback Form (see below) on this page.
• Feedback Forms - Give your customers the opportunity to contact you with questions and/or comments.
• Specific Product or Services Content - It's more important to have a professional-looking website, than it is to have a humongous, cluttered website. Make a list of your products/services on one page, include asome information about yourself and what makes you qualified to do what you do on another page, and list your clients on a third page. These three, plus a home page, make up four pages and that's a pretty good start to a web site.
• Frequently Asked Questions - The old FAQ is still a useful tool and everybody understands what it is used for. Many people look for it.
• Good Graphics - Don't overdo it. Is your total web page, including graphics, 50k or more? That's too much. Search engines can't read graphics, so you sholuld have lots of content
• News Page - Let your visitors know you haven't abandoned your site. Keep them up to date. Update with the latest product news, etc.

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WHO OWNS MY SITE WHEN IT'S DONE?

You do! Once the initial design is complete we create a CD for you of all your website's files. If you decide not to work with us anymore, all of the design work you have paid for is yours, but we do request your permission to display information about your web site in our portfolio.

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I KNOW SOMEONE WHO KNOWS HTML. COULDN'T THEY MAKE MY WEB SITE FOR ME?

It's entirely possible that you know someone who can design your web site. But do you really want to trust an amateur with something so important? Would you let them design your newspaper ad, or direct your television or radio commercial? We spend more than forty hours a week creating web sites. Web design goes beyond knowing HTML, MadBee Web Design also takes visual layout, writing style, search engine positioning strategy and client style into consideration. If the person you know can take all of this into consideration and design a professional website for your business, then by all means, let them do it. It may be tempting to have "someone who knows HTML" do your websites, but you WILL end up with a site that has the word AMATEUR written all over it. Clients won't buy from amateurly done sites, count on it.

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TELL ME AGAIN WHY SHOULD I CHOOSE YOU TO DO MY SITE?

Like any other profession, web design has many levels of expertise. Just because we own a WaterPik® doesn't mean we can pull your teeth. If an inexperienced person creates your website, you will have a website that looks, and gets results, like an inexperienced person created it. Bottom line, we take pride in every site we design. We don't use templates, so each site is unique. We are price-competitive. We believe websites should be fast-loading, easy to use and easy to get around. And most of all, we aren't happy until you're happy.

© 1999-2005 MadBee Web Design