questions

before you decide

• all my work comes from word of mouth.

  good, that’s the best kind. and when someone passes your name along, the next thing that person does is look you up. the site is where the recommendation either holds or dies. that’s the whole job of it.

• i paid a guy once and got nothing.

  that’s why you see the finished site before any money moves. you’re not buying a promise from me, you’re looking at the thing and deciding.

• i don’t have time for this.

  you send your business name. later i email you some questions and it takes about fifteen minutes to answer them, whenever suits you, nine at night after the trucks are parked is fine. that’s your whole involvement.

• what if i hate it?

  then you say so, and you owe nothing. two rounds of changes are included before you decide, so "hate it" usually turns into "fix these four things" first.

• can we just get on a quick call?

  no, and that is deliberate. calls are how a week disappears. write me a paragraph and you will get a better answer than a call would have produced, in writing, that you can re-read.

the money

• what does it cost?

  $1,490 for the first year, everything included. no setup fee, no monthly bill. the year after is $400 to $600 to keep it running, hosted, refreshed and edited, agreed before that year starts.

• why one price instead of monthly?

  because a monthly bill is a thing you have to keep deciding about, and small companies cancel those first in a slow month. one payment, one year, no decision to revisit.

• when do i pay?

  after you have seen the finished site and said you want it. not before.

• is there a contract?

  a short plain one, and it says the domain is yours and you can leave with a full copy. nothing in it is a surprise.

what you end up with

• who keeps it up to date?

  i do. every three months i go through it, refresh it and improve it. you do nothing and it doesn’t cost extra.

• do i own it?

  your domain is yours, always, registered in your name. if you ever stop, the site runs to the end of the year you paid for and i hand you a complete copy to take anywhere.

• can i edit it myself?

  you can, and most owners would rather not. email me the change and it is done in a few days, which is faster than logging in and remembering how.

• what about google?

  the site is built so google can read it: a page per service, a page per town you drive to, your name address and phone consistent, and the technical parts done properly. that is the honest version. anyone promising you a ranking is guessing.

about me

• why is it this fast?

  because it’s one senior designer and a lot of machinery, instead of six people in a meeting. i do the thinking, the computer does the typing.

• are you an agency?

  no. one person. the person who reads your email is the person who built the site.

• what did you do before this?

  twelve years designing software, including the part of goodnotes where money changes hands, and the admin side of a maths program used in american schools.

• do you have client reviews?

  not on this page, no. when a real client of mine says something real, it goes here with their name on it and not before. an invented testimonial is worse than an empty space.