For your Web site to exist on the Web, you need a domain name, a host, and an SSL certificate.

Domain names, such as webdesignbuild.biz, are not actually owned. They are leased. You can lease a domain name for up to 10 years at a time (we recommend annual terms only). Regardless of term, you must pay in advance. For annual payments, budget $20 per year per domain name.

Your Web site must have a place to live out there in the ether. These places are called "hosting plans" and are available from a wide array of vendors. WDB most often recommends InfoQuest or Pair Networks. Budget $20 per month for hosting, $14 to $17 per month if paid annually.

SSL certificates secure a Web site by encrypting its traffic. Budget $95 per year. However, free options are available at an increasing number hosting companies, including InfoQuest and Pair. Expect free or very economical SSL pricing at more and more hosts as time goes on.

The total for budgeting purposes for a single site, excluding SSL: about $225 per year.

While SSL certificates are getting less expensive as the Web moves towards a fully-encrypted model, domain name registrations - and especially hosting plan fees - are rising. We have reached the point where hosting companies can no longer depend on rapid expansion in volume and must instead raise prices.

Pricing updated December 1, 2021. Please consult us about current pricing.

WebDesignBuild.biz builds custom sites, precisely tailored to your specific needs. As such, the cost varies from client to client.

We assess your requirements in advance and issue proposals with flat fees. You'll know up front exactly how much the project will cost and, unless you ask for changes along the way, that's exactly what you will pay.

For some guidelines, please see our Pricing page.

Whatever you can.

The more you can give us, the more we will have to work with and the quicker Cheri will be able to develop concepts for your site's design.

Don't worry about quality or any other issue with the art. Just give it to us. We can often use pieces that you thought had no value and sometimes we can extract something from a particular piece that works within the design.

We cannot emphasize this enough - don't hold back. Give us everything.

Yes. Cheri has extensive experience with logo design and will be happy to work with you.

Logo design is not part of our package pricing but rather a separate task with its own fee.

You do.

Unlike many Web design companies, WDB does not hold your artwork hostage. We are happy to provide the original documents (e.g., Photoshop or Illustrator files) we used to build your site.

If desired, we can add a SiteCommander module that holds these files in a repository and allows you (or us) to download them at any time.

Yes. SiteCommander supports a full range of media, including:

• Photo albums
• Product photo galleries
• Slideshows ("sliders")
• Audio (podcasts)
• YouTube videos - linked from YouTube
• Video - embedded into the site *
• Product or Services portfolios *
• Documents - Word, Excel, PDF, Text, etc.

All the items listed are supported by all full-priced SiteCommander installations except for those marked with an asterisk, which require a modest additional fee.

Most hosting companies prohibit file sharing systems on their servers. However, as long as the users of your Web sites cannot upload files to the site, there is usually no problem.

Yes. We can provide light eCommerce solutions based on simple PayPal buttons or  the shopping cart service e-junkie (recommended).

We can also build full eCommerce solutions based on the Authorize.net payment processor. In this case the shopping cart system will be built to your specifications. We can handle time-sensitive orders, such as a fast food orders for pickup as soon as possible or at a specific time.

We build sites to your specifications, which means if you want a responsive site we will build it for you.

However, we have some very good reasons why responsive design is not always the best choice. An example is a site with content containing very fine detail, which may be hard to see in context on very small displays. In such cases a specialized version of the site targeted specifically to small devices may be a better choice, co-existing with your main site.

We're happy to discuss this with you.

SSL is an acronym for secure sockets layer. That's geek-speak, of course. You can identify a Web site with SSL because all the Web addresses (URLs) begin with https instead of http. The "s" means secure.

To secure a site, a set of codes must be acquired and that is the SSL certificate. The certificate is installed in your hosting plan.

When a site is secured with SSL, all data sent between a visitor's browser and the site is encrypted.

SSL certificates usually involve an annual fee but free solutions are increasingly available. WebDesignBuild only recommends hosting companies that offer free certificates.

WebDesignBuild.biz recommends SSL certificates for all sites. If free options are available at your hosting company, we will see that your site is covered.

If your site is using any sort of eCommerce solution, SSL is required. Payment processing systems will not accept transactions from sites that are not secure themselves.

We believe that in the next few years SSL certificates will become the norm, not the exception. Everyone will want to secure their sites.

SSL note updated September 20, 2020.

Insurance.

If a site secured with an SSL Certificate fails to secure your Web traffic and your site is somehow compromised, the insurance can help offset your costs of recovery or any liability claims.

There is absolutely no technical difference between free and high-priced certificates. If your site has a certificate, its traffic is encrypted. Period. Your willingness to pay a fee should be based on your assessment of potential liability.

A placeholder is a one-page Web site designed to provide a presence on the Internet, usually while a full Web site is under development. It is almost always the case that a placeholder site is replaced, but some clients have been happy to have the presence alone.

We can usually have a placeholder site up the same day you hire us.

For clients with no previous Web presence who have hired us to do a full site, the placeholder is included in the price.

A landing page is a one-page Web site. Unlike a placeholder, it is a complete Web site, with all the content a client wants crafted into a single page. It is often used for single-product "Buy Now!" Web sites but some businesses have made it their entire Web presence.

While WebDesignBuild.biz agrees that single-page sites can be useful in a single-product marketing context, we believe that one-page Web sites work against the best interests of our clients. The tracking we employ on your sites, Google Analytics, can capture the behavior of visitors to your site and thus expose their interests and intentions. No such inferences can be drawn when there is only one page.

Cheri, Will and our associates operate independently. You will receive proposals from each and you will pay each separately.

While Cheri and Will prefer to collaborate, you are free to engage them individually as you desire. The same goes for our associates.

Cheri and Will set their terms individually. In most cases a down payment is required at the beginning of the project, with the balance due when the project is complete.

Proposals will specify the exact terms and conditions, including time & materials charges for work that is outside the scope of the proposals.

WDB's associates set their own terms but due to the nature of their work T&M billing is most likely.

No.

We are downright cheap given what we deliver. It's almost unfair to the other guys.

Because we build self-service sites, you will be able to maintain the content of your site without further charges from us, a significant savings. If desired, site maintenance is available on a time & materials basis.

Yes. We are available for ongoing content management on a time and materials basis.

SiteCommander is a content management system (CMS) developed by Will to meet the needs of small business Web sites and allow clients to manage their own content. We believe SiteCommander is simpler than other content managers because it is focused on data management, not layout and formatting.

All the sites Cheri & Will build together are based on SiteCommander. Please feel free to get in touch with any of the clients represented in our Portfolio, all of whom maintain their own sites with SiteCommander.

We will be happy to arrange a remote demo via the service of your choice..

Yes. SiteCommander is the copyrighted product of Will Fastie.

However, each client is granted a no-nonsense, perpetual license to SiteCommander that includes every bit of SiteCommander's source code. Any competent Web developer familiar with PHP and MySQL can quickly learn what is necessary to add to the system or modify it.

The license to SiteCommander travels with the domain name. In other words, if a client sells the domain name, the license to SiteCommander must be transferred as well or is voided.

Yes. Here it is. Short, simple, no-nonsense.

The license to SiteCommander™ is granted in perpetuity. There is no initial or recurring fee for the SiteCommander™ license. You accept the license terms when accepting our development proposal and the license is granted upon payment for the development project.

When your site is completed and any time major work is done on it, a complete archive copy of the site will be made available to you at no charge. An archive contains everything, including all SiteCommander code, a database backup, and all your user files including gallery images. Archives are delivered electronically on Microsoft OneDrive and you are expected to make your own local copy.

Backups of the database can be created in SiteCommander with one click and then downloaded to your local computer, also with one click.

Backups of images loaded into galleries can be accomplished via FTP and are always present in archives.

Archives can also be prepared on a USB memory stick and mailed to you via USPS for a fee of $25 (international shipping slightly more). We do not keep USB sticks in stock; please allow 7-10 business days for delivery.

Web sites live in the ether, without regard to geography. We will accept clients from anywhere in the United States and we are happy to explore opportunities with overseas clients.

We therefore conduct our business in a virtual fashion, without in person meetings. This keeps our overhead low, which is reflected in our low prices. Using contemporary video conferencing technologies, we can easily meet face-to-face when needed.

Meetings in the Baltimore metro area are possible.