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Website Development (7)
Content pertaining to the technology and systems of modern website development.
Content Management Systems (CMS) account for 30% of all websites in the world. A CMS will provide a sound foundation upon which to build websites for business, community groups, or large geographically distributed organizations. We work with WordPress and Joomla. Let's discuss your needs see which works best for you and why.
Choose from among these popular add-ons to a website.
If you don't see it, ask!
Extra Pages
Additional webpages are developed at the rate of $75 per page providing that artwork and content is supplied is supplied in a workable form. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
Webforms - $135 for 7 fields, additional fields are extra
Web forms prices will be quoted following a discussion to develop a spec. Pricing depends on the number of fields, price per field goes down with the number of fields. Pricing also depends on what is done with the data once the submit button is clicked. Does it go to a database? An email? Do you need a client app to view the data?
Ecommerce - priced per quote
Ecommerce can get expensive fast. There are certain features that will kick you up into new levels of expense, security needs, and effort required to maintain and manage. If you are new to ecommerce we can start you off with a simple shopping cart using PayPal checkout. You will learn what is involved in running ecommerce on a small scale. If you make money we can plan to scale the operation up to a larger operation.
Images for Content - priced per quote
If you do not have images for your site we will find them for you from stock photo providers. We will charge you for the cost of the images and in some cases for our time. If you are particularly picky and do not want to spend the time to research the images yourself then you will be bill for the go arounds.
Artwork Development - priced per quote
Special artwork such as logos, banners, headers, and the like that are beyond the basic package and/or require special design requirements will be billed separately.
Video - priced per quote
Video can be an influential contributor to your SEO effectiveness. We can help with simple video or recommend a professional. For the most part we set you up with integrated YouTube account and embed the video in your content. This is a good thing for SEO.
Photogallery - priced per quote
We have a lot of experience with photo galleries of all sorts. From a few photos to a gallery of over 10,000 images we have the right solution for the job.
Newsletter - $225
A newsletter/email blast system is a great way to drive traffic to your website. There are several different solutions out there and we can implement the right one for you. We will repurpose your artwork, develop a template, import your contacts, setup user subscription management, and show you how to read the statistics.
Newsfeeds - $50
Get your content streaming out to the internet to content subscribers.
Content Development - priced per quote
Nothing has a more positive effect on your SEO ranking than fresh content of good quality. If you need help developing content and, in particular, blog postings and news items we can assist with that or provide it outright. Regular blog postings and news updates are two of the more significant things you can do to improve your search engine ranking.
Social Networks Setup and Integration - $175
Registration for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Like buttons setup on your site. Integrated with Google Analytics. We put it all together and do it seemlessly.
Mobile Devices Optimization - priced per quote
All our sites are “responsive”. They build themselves in response to the device that is requesting to view the site. They DO NOT SCALE DOWN in size to fit. It’s a completely different site. Many sites do not need any special customization at all but many do. Especially for “brick and mortar” business.
User Login - $50
Will you have users manage parts of the website and update content? Do you need to give access to employees, contributors, or managers? We can configure your users into groups so that they only get access to the features of the site they need to complete their tasks. This is a very cool feature of content management systems. It makes it much safer for employees to use.
Members Area - priced per quote
There are many reasons to have a members only area. Perhaps there are subscriptions to keep up to date, or bills to pay, or support tickets to log. Here are three popular members only features.
Forums - priced per quote
Forums are a great place for customer support, member discussions, announcements, and inquiries from the public.
Communitity - priced per quote
Add in your own private social network. We can build you an entire “mini-Facebook”. This is good for community based groups.
Project Management -priced per quote
If you have teams working on projects we can deploy a project management solution on your website. Features include project dashboard, gantt chart, time-sensitive milestones, task lists, todo lists, timesheets, and group discussions.
Database - priced per quote
Your website runs with a MySQL or PostgreSQL as it’s database. We can write a client application to access the data in your site and we can build a separate database on your site if needed. We have done this for contact data for membership.
Administration - included in our hosting plan
We include the following services as part of our hosting plan. Daily backup, monthly archival, security, traffic monitoring, and basic SEO analysis.
If you are not on our hosting service then we highly recommend you talk to us about these important tasks. If you don’t have daily backup from your current host then you are not on a professional hosting service.
Training - priced per quote
We can provide training on all aspects of your website.
Choose your base plan and add-ons!
All of our sites start with the following features:
- Responsive design versions for mobile devices and tablets.
- Performance tuning for fast page load times.
- Daily backups.
- Security software and intrusion tripwires installed.
- Backup software for archival and site relocation.
- SEO software for optimization.
Base Website Plans
Make your website work for you! Enhance it with add-ons that will engage your visitors. Photo galleries, forums, online community, ecommerce, and members only areas are just a few examples of what we can do.
Drupal is a very powerful content management system suitable for large organizations where departments or teams each maintain their own content. Universities are such an example. Keeping in mind that simple is not powerful and powerful is not simple Drupal entails a level of complexity that is typically outside the range of small to medium business owners. In our experience, and it contrast to both Joomla and WordPress, it is neither easy nor simple to work with. We find Drupal in larger organizations with a staff devoted to their website maintenance and it is very popular in the Boston area.
Drupal has a very strong community of developers and support. There are many plugins to choose from with which to extend and support your website. However Drupal has something Joomla and WordPress does not have and that is what is called a “distribution”. A distribution is like a version of Drupal that has been customized for a particular purpose. For example there's a "distro" for conference organizing. It provides all the features for event registration, session schedulings, session reviews, etc. Some of the other popular distros are:
- CivicCRM - designed for constituent relationship management. Maintain relationships with constituents including fundraising. Used by more than 8000 organizations.
- Confernence Orgainizing Distribution - used to organize and manage a conference.
- Open Atrium - described as "an intranet in a box" it allows teams to form "group spaces" within which to collaborate and discuss a project including document management.
- RedHen CRM - designed for contact relations management. It has the features for managing detailed information on contacts and organizations, membership services, event registrations, and constituent engagement. This is a more generalized package than CivicCRM.
We enjoy working with Drupal distributions though we don't do Drupal development from scratch. Contact us to discuss your needs.
Joomla is a powerful content management system with built in features not found in WordPress. It was designed from the ground up to be a flexible content management system with which to build websites and web applications. Like WordPress, Joomla is a collection of scripts and not an application.
Joomla scales quite well to accomodate larger numbers of users who will be working with it.
Here's what we like about Joomla.
- Easy to use, maintain, and update for single users up to many users.
- Access Control Lists (ACLs) allow for the creation of user groups where just those group members can access the features.
- Has many plugins for extending the functionality of your site.
- Has great “core” plugins for backup, security, SEO, and URL customization and management.
- Has an excellent forum for support.
- There is a strong community of professional level developers of templates, extensions, and frameworks.
Here's what we don't like about Joomla.
- Extensions page organization is somewhat cumbersome.
There’s not much to dislike about Joomla.
WordPress is accepted by most as an easy to use website development platform. WordPress, like all CMS systems, is a collection of scripts. It’s not an application within a single file. These scripts are written to perform a particular function that, when combined with the other scripts of the WordPress installation, make up the WordPress experience. This is important to know not only for WordPress but for any CMS. These scripts are written by a lot of different people and it’s crucial to security to keep these “scripts” up to date. It’s also crucial to understand when you extend your WordPress site with plug-ins, themes, and any other software that the plugin scripts might not be compatible with the latest version of WordPress.
WordPress is widely regarded as an easy to use platform for your website. It can be. It can also be quiet complex and most people can spend a week or more setting it up. WordPress was originally designed as a blog engine but now it may not have a single blog page.
What we like about WordPress.
- Easy to use, maintain, and update for single users or business with a small number of users.
- Has many plugins for extending the functionality of your site.
- Has great “core” plugins - backup, security, SEO, and URL maintenance.
- Has a good plugin page showing important statistics for the plugin.
- Has a great forum for support.
What we don't like about WordPress.
- Does not scale well to larger numbers of users.
- Does not have built-in Access Control Lists (ACLs) which permit the assignment of users into groups which then are given access to only the features they need to see.
- Features that are built into the core of Joomla or Drupal are provided as a plug-in. The difference being that with Joomla or Drupal you have an organization maintaining the code vs. a single developer who may move onto something else. For example, to take WordPress offline you need to install a plugin that does that.
- Plugins are sometimes not updated and are obsolete. Compatibility with current versions of WordPress may not be maintained.
- Does not have the ability to include some of the more powerful features needed by larger businesses.
We like using WordPress for photographers, lawyers, real estate offices, and similar sole proprietorships. We don’t like using it in environments where several people will be making occasional updates to the site and these people have no interest in becoming proficient in WordPress. WordPress does not allow the administrator to "hide away" features not useful to those managing content.
We should add that WordPress does have one unique and powerful feature and that is the multisite feature. If this is an option for you we can discuss it.
30% of all websites in the world are based on a Content Management System (CMS). A CMS will provide a sound foundation upon which to build websites for fun, business, community groups, or large geographically distributed organizations. There is a system for everybody and some are better fits for you than others. After getting a sense for your needs we will use one of three.
WordPress is the most popular content management system on the web today accounting for about 54% of all CMS based websites. It's the easiest to install and configure. There's many very good themes to select from as your site design. Developers have supported it with a large number of widgets and plug-ins. It's also very easy to customize and update with new content. It's the simplest of the CMS systems and it's simplicity may very well be the limiting factor. No software can simultaneously be simple and have a complex set of features though their marketing would have you believe it. It is designed to be a blog though often times we use it for a site where we don't use the blog feature. It's a good choice for a professional person such as lawyer, photographer, labor trades, and of course writers. We find WordPress an ideal choice for fun websites that won't have many users.
Joomla! is the second most popular content management systems used today. Approximately 9.2% of the world's websites that use a CMS use Joomla! With Joomla! you can build web sites and powerful online applications. It's ease of use and extensibility have made Joomla! the best choice for most small businesses. Examples are corporate websites or portals, intranets, extranets, online magazines, newspapers, publications, e-commerce, online reservations, non-profit and organizational web sites, community based portals, school and church web sites.
Joomla! is an "industrial strength" system that is easy for users to understand and work with. It is the perfect choice for integrating an e-commerce solution such as Virtue Mart or Magento. If you don't need an e-commerce solution that complicated then there are many others to choose from. Contact us to discuss Joomla! in more detail.
Drupal is the third most popular CMS in use today. It accounts for approximately 6.7% of all websites that use a CMS. Drupal is an "interesting" product. It has a following of very dedicated devotees. It may very well be the more sophisticated of the the three top CMS systems and, perhaps, that is what keeps it from being more widely adapted. Those who spend some of each day working with a CMS find it easy enough to work with but those who just want a website and simply want to make the occasional update find Drupal more difficult to learn and work with. The bottom line for us is if you have a staff and can have someone devote some time to learning Drupal then this is a good solution. If not then choose one of the other two.
Add-on Features
SEO
Search Engine Optimization will yield results.
Contact us to discuss an SEO program to meet your goals.