Since there is a post about logo designs, thought I would start one on web site designers and web hosts.

1. Who designed your web site?
2. Do they maintain it (make changes, etc.) or do you?
3. Who hosts your site?
4. If you wish to share - what was the approximate cost of having it built, and/or hosting?

Last but not least - Any web designers want to talk to us about costs, etc.?

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To answer the questions:

I use www.siterightnow.com.  Originally I designed my own, but then had them design one for me.  Cost was $200 (a special they were running a couple years ago).  They also host the site, around $30 per month.  I've been with them since I started, so probably 12 years or so.

That said...I am not totally happy with the web site.  Not sure what needs to be done, but I think I am ready for a new look.  Any suggestions?

www.puppetshoppe.com

Ms Puppet

*Na - from right here on Puppets and Stuff - designed my website. I maintain it but Na is available to help me when I need it! I couldn't be happier with what she designed for me! I have gotten SO many compliments on it!
www.pocketsfulloffun.com
*I use West Host to host my site. Recommended by Shawn!

1. I designed both my sites, although Beatriz provided the initial design idea for School of Puppetry (I recently redesigned the layout to improve navigation). I've redesigned Puppets in Melbourne a couple of times over the years and am currently working on a new one to match an upcoming change in my puppet designs.

2. I maintain it. I use a free blog platform that I install on my site. It means I don't have to do much in order to run it; just login and post some stuff. The design/template does most of the rest.

3. I use an Australian company (this influences #4, since Aus. companies are far more expensive than those in the US). Note I buy my domain names from a different company than where I host my site, as the former is cheaper than the latter is on domain names at least.

4. I spend almost nothing on web design. I won't reveal the cost of the original SOP design that Beatriz made, since I don't know how comfortable she is with that. However, for web hosting it's pretty expensive: about $40 (AUD) per month: ***however*** I am a 'reseller', which means I can host up to 10 websites on my account. I currently host another two sites for other people as well.

Web design costs vary, but you should expect at least a $20 p/hour cost for any professional. The people on Etsy who do $50 per page, or $300 for a whole site are WAY undercharging, probably because they do very limited things (ie. they only use Wordpress and only design pages that are 'about us', ie. not complicated to design). The reason design is so expensive is all about labour: it's time consuming to make something from scratch. Most designers will nowadays work using a free program (ie. Wordpress, Drupal, or something similar) because the coding is already done; the rest is about creating a template and modifying the code to suit their needs. This also makes things cheaper.

MODIFIED TO ADD: I should note that I have not mentioned that what I did for LJ was a 'mates rate', heavily discounted web design purely because I'm new to doing it and wanted to get some design work under my belt hoping that I could produce a portfolio to show to local design companies. I didn't charge what was quoted above, but that's an expected cost based on my readings on the topic.

Web hosting is different: American costs I'm not 100% sure of, but you should definitely look at relocating. $30 is expensive and you could easily find a better deal elsewhere. By far, the best thing to do is to research various companies and price comparison. (Different hosts offer different packages; unlimited bandwidth and storage sounds good, but I suspect you can get the same services for cheaper)

As for your own website: my immediate thoughts is that it looks quite good. I would get rid of any flashing text- it's distracting and hard to read. Other than that, I'd get some better resolution images: pixelation is usually not a good thing. You should also double check your images, because there seem to be quite a few gone missing ... I clicked on the 'peepers characters' category, and got taken to a page where a bunch of puppets are shown: but at the bottom there is a complete description of 'Squirm' and a purchase button. Which confused me, because I'm either on a category page or a product page, or both.

The 'in stock' page seems to be redundant: does it imply that all the puppets on the catalog page/s are not in stock? Separating your catalog from your policies might be a better idea.

The events page is nice, but if the images go missing or someone can't read it, then they won't be able to know what your event is.

Your 'like us on Facebook' should either be actually linked to a Facebook page (it's not) or you should have a like button/box which can be obtained from FB and added to your site.

Having said all of that, I think the basic layout is quite good, and it's certainly easy to browse.

My biggest thing would be what I said to LJ: you have a fabulous new logo, but the graphics/quality of the site doesn't quite match it.

(Your web host's own site is dated and the menu hard to read: that's usually a hint that they're not going to be the best people to hire for future designs)

... Ahem, not to be blunt or anything

If you don't mind me asking, do you get lots of sales and/or hits to the site?

Thanks Na. I know zero about this kind of thing really.  I do get a lot of sales, not as many as I would like, but I stay fairly busy.

The girl that actually did the web design for me is no longer with the company.  They just added my logo, but I am not happy with the way it looks, seems grainy to me.

All the other things you mentioned should have been taken care of by them (see what happens when you do not check your own site often and click on the buttons).  I will see about getting those items fixed.

I do not keep everything in the catalog made up. It is made as ordered, unless it is under "In Stock."

I have already decided that I need to get someone to take pictures that knows what they are doing.  I am not a photographer either!

I will start checking out other hosting companies.  I want to check the one LJ uses, as well as any others that may be recommended.  Of course, switching hosts is going to mean a complete redesign of the site.  

My cousin is a web designer, and she has done a lot of sites. She has not done anything like mine, however. She does tourism stuff for different cities, etc.  I have not talked to her about it at all. I am not really big on mixing business and family.

LJ - I love your site.
Thanks again.

T

Thanks Na. I know zero about this kind of thing really.  I do get a lot of sales, not as many as I would like, but I stay fairly busy.

No probs. I was exactly in the same position as you, I mainly learned this stuff by researching it on my own. As for sales, I find it tough too; and often seasonal.

The girl that actually did the web design for me is no longer with the company.  They just added my logo, but I am not happy with the way it looks, seems grainy to me.

It looks fine to me, perhaps it depends on your screen resolution.

All the other things you mentioned should have been taken care of by them (see what happens when you do not check your own site often and click on the buttons).  I will see about getting those items fixed.

This may depend on your hosting package: but do you have access to the files yourself? If so, perhaps a short lesson in how to edit your files is in order. If not, well, this is one of the reasons many designers now use free programs. In this way, the client is not reliant on the designer/host to update things, they are able to do most of it themselves. For instance, Lisa's site, 95% of the images, text, files, etc can be changed by Lisa. If there's something that she can't do herself, it takes me about two seconds to update for her.

But there are other things to consider too: providing low resolution photos to the designer/web host will mean low res. on the website. So you need to make sure that your photos are high quality, because they can't do anything about it from their end. Generally this doesn't mean having a pro photographer; it just means that the image file has a certain number of pixels (300 dpi - pixels per inch - is usually recommended for printing companies for instance). I can take high res photos myself - although really, they're not fabulous.

I do not keep everything in the catalog made up. It is made as ordered, unless it is under "In Stock."

I only mention it because it doesn't logically make sense to me. When I am interested in reading someone's policies, I don't expect to have a catalog of products beneath. As a browser, it makes more sense to put the catalog (even as a separate sub-page) in with the rest of the puppet sales pages. Navigation is less about what makes sense to you, and more about what makes sense to the buyer. As a buyer, I wouldn't think to look for a list of 'in stock' puppets under a section on purchasing policies.

I will start checking out other hosting companies.  I want to check the one LJ uses, as well as any others that may be recommended.  Of course, switching hosts is going to mean a complete redesign of the site.  

I can't speak to hosts, but by far the best advice is to look not just for good prices/service, but to look for good customer service too. People underestimate how important customer service is, and if the host offers cheap prices for overinflated services, then they're more than likely going to have a lot of problems giving what they've promised. I've had this happen to me (and am working out a problem with one of my domain registrars at the moment) and I can tell you a higher price is worth it if it comes with excellent and trained staff.

As for switching hosts and needing a redesign: not necessarily. I have taken a quick look and can tell that your site is made with a 'site builder'. It's basically a program where you choose a page format and some colours, add in some text/images and press a button: and voila! A website. This makes transferring things a little difficult, but anyone with a little knowledge should be able to make a backup of the files (and indeed, a good web host should be able to provide you with a backup function) and then all you need to do is to upload them to a new host.

You may not be able to use the same site builder and from a brief look at the code it might not be possible to transfer all of it (the code refers to a lot of in-built files and other codes that are related to the site builder: remove the builder and the site stops working), but that doesn't mean you have to lose the layout.

I've had to design a template based on someone else's file before, it's a bit messy for the designer, but it does end up looking exactly the same and working as intended.

Personally, I'd recommend avoiding using the same site builder (even if you do keep the layout, the basic underlying code should be different), despite the possible increased cost, for one reason: it makes things harder for you to update.

One thing I like about my site/s is that I can set up a template and not have to fiddle. When I need to edit something, I don't need to know code - even though I do - because there are buttons to add things, much like there are buttons on this site to add an image, or a smiley, or a youtube video. All I do is type some text and add an image via a button, and press publish. If I need to change something, it's exactly the same.

By far, the best benefit of this is that you have more control over how you present things and you don't have to rely on designers/hosts who may disappear or change hands or not be as useful as you need them to be. I can change things on my site on a whim, whether it's adding a new page of content, changing the content itself, or rearranging what goes where. (It's just a very complicated blog, despite the design. The template is coded in such a way that it just doesn't *look* like a blog) Less time spent doing these things means more time spent focusing on your marketing.

My cousin is a web designer, and she has done a lot of sites. She has not done anything like mine, however. She does tourism stuff for different cities, etc.  I have not talked to her about it at all. I am not really big on mixing business and family.

It may be better that way. I know a lot of pro designers complain about having to do sites for friends/family, but I think that's mainly because of the expectation of "you're family, do it for free". Which of course, may rile some people who prefer to get paid

But you never know, she may be interested.

A bit more poking around your site Ms Puppet, and there are a great many faults with the way it's been coded that might prevent people from using it. A lot of how they've done it is out-of-date with current standards (not just design, but in terms of keeping it simple for people who have disabilities, etc) and a lot of stuff there that is just plain no-no's and so basic that most people who spend 2 seconds learning to code should know.

... But anyway, my original return here was to say: I've had some thoughts on how you could improve the look and have mocked up something. I hope you don't mind me taking the liberty, I have no idea if it might be something along what you'd like... But if you want to check it out, let me know and I'll email it to you. If nothing else, it might get some discussion going or ideas for what you do want/don't want.

Shawn designed my logo and did the layout of my website I put in the content.

Well I am pretty sure you all know that I do my own site stuff. Like Na I even do it for other folks sometimes.

This site and all sites I own are hosted with WestHost. Yep that is an affiliate link so if you decide to use WestHost I get credit for it. I've been with this company from the start and used them on the advice of Rose Sage who created the Puppetry Home Page. Like Na said support and reliability is important in a hosting company and that is something WestHost is good at.  They have had their issues in the past but have always been very fair with their customers. In fact I think they have spoiled us to some extent.   You might find some complaints out there on them but you have to remember that you hosting company is just providing a place to hold your website. You are still in charge of it.

See if you can find out what your current host is using as a platform for their services. For example WestHost now uses cPanel to let their customers manage their sites. If your current company uses cPanel also it makes moving the site really easy since the systems "talk" the same language. I don't know if they are offering it right now but from time to time WestHost will run specials where they will move your site form an old host company to your new account with them free of charge.

Like Na I use a separate company for registration of my domain because it is cheaper.

I am always happy to help out my puppet friends if they have issues with their site. Guidance ect is free, real work of course I would charge for.

Our site is hosted by a friend.  He set up the initial template and added the logo, but I add all the content.  Let me just preface that by saying I know that is not my gifting. LOL  Hosting is extremely low only because it's a friend.  When we first started the business most of our sales came from conferences and referrals from conferences, so paying a monthly hosing fee as well as gateway fee was out of the questions.  Hence the site we have now.  

It has many oddities as NA was so kind to point out.  Love honest friends.  Along with me being too wordy, thanks again NA.  I had another honest friend point out the same thing. LOL  

There are unnecessary things on the homepage, features I can't remove.  Honestly I'm not sure how many customers we are loosing because of the site, but we have more than enough who push past all the oddities.  We are currently booked until the end of September.  Again...a very large percentage of our customers (churches, schools etc) base are referrals so they are probably more forgiving of the weirdness.  The other percentage of our customers are puppet builders who have found us through here, other puppet sites, Google etc or they are commercial puppet companies or mascot companies.  That being said...most of my online purchases through commercial sites have shown me that all sites are different and have their oddities.  That's not an excuse, just my experience.

Thanks to Na and advice (comments) from customers we have started looking into another hosting company (our friend only doing us a favor, not his full time career).  I have almost 100% decided to go with www.volusion.com.  When I first looked into hosting companies I'd say most offered comparable services, but all were confusing and not beginner friendly.  I recently found Volusion because they host another very well known puppet company.  www.puppetsinc.com

Let me say I really like Volusion.  First they have a 14 day free (really free...no CC upfront, no pressure only lost of help)  The most important thing I like about Volusion is their knowledge base and video tutorials.  Even if I didn't go with their company the blogs are fantastic for any online company whether your selling a product or not.  Watch the videos  http://support.volusion.com/build  The features are fantastic.  

This is the pricing structure  http://www.volusion.com/ecommerce/web-hosting/  Keep in mind if you are taking payments on your site you will have an additional gateway fee as well as statement fees, cc fees etc, but that is with any company. We are thinking of the Bronze package, but the advice I received was to go with the Gold package for the first 3 months because they have what they call Onboard Coaching which means someone will answer all your questions about walk you trough any problems.  After that there is still help available also.  There are no long term contracts you can change between plans if you decide you need more or less.  

I will say that this is not for everyone because of the cost.  Until now I would not have considered spending this much because we try our very best to keep cost down so we can provide the lowest cost products available.

The design work is VERY expensive in my mind, but a lot of free templates come with the service.  We hope to start making the transition this end of this year and have it up and running next year.

MSPuppet I know of a photographer near you if your interested.  We are going to be using him also for the new site.  I have used him for some of our more recent custom puppet photos.  The problem is usually by the time I finish a custom job I have to ship it quickly to meet the deadline. So, no photos except my poor attempt. LOL

Oh...another thing...It really helps to have others take a look at your site from time to time because they can see it from a different perspective and can be objective.  Don't get offended by what you hear, just get a few opinions and glean what you can.  Bottom line is what can you afford and what will work for you now.  You can always grow and get a better looking site in the future.

Julie

This is the pricing structure  http://www.volusion.com/ecommerce/web-hosting/  Keep in mind if you are taking payments on your site you will have an additional gateway fee as well as statement fees, cc fees etc, but that is with any company.

Actually, it depends: if you simply login to Paypal, you can find all sorts of codes for buttons and so forth. You shouldn't have to pay extra just because you add a Paypal code; I suspect what they're charging for is a shopping cart system (like what you're using, which is Cubecart) or a custom system the company has designed.

There is an important point here: there are many free shopping cart systems available to use, and many web hosts don't charge for them as they often come part of a larger 'free to install' package that hosts offer. (Ie. Fantastico or Softaculus) As Shawn says, if you go with a company that uses cPanel, those free programs should come as part of the service. *However*, 90% of the shopping cart systems are trial versions, which means they come with limitations; and then you have to pay money to the program developers (not the web host) in order to upgrade.

I mention this only because there's a difference between what Julie is talking about and other options that are also available.

You need to weigh up the costs versus the flexibility of what you're offered and how best it will fit what you need the site to do.

Until now I would not have considered spending this much because we try our very best to keep cost down so we can provide the lowest cost products available.

I know what you mean: hosting takes up a huge chunk of my monthly income (er, breaking even... no, actually, barely making even at the moment). But I think people often forget that a website is often as much of a calling card of 'professionalism' as your business card, flyer or anything else. The easier your site is to use, the more likely people will find what they want and buy. The nicer-looking it is, the more likely people will have an impression that what you sell is worth the money. It seems silly, but people really do make snap judgements about products based on what your site looks like.

I highly recommend this site:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/category/design/
which has a lot of excellent articles (easy to understand even for non-designers) about websites and how to increase sales.

The design work is VERY expensive in my mind, but a lot of free templates come with the service.  We hope to start making the transition this end of this year and have it up and running next year.

Free templates are a good place to start, and I recommend if you use a particular website builder or shopping cart system, to find the FAQs on the support site of how to modify their templates. They're usually provided for free and are quite excellent for learning how to do basic things in order to make the site look less like a copy of someone's design and more like your own.

Also, the above link often has lists or links to free templates.

@Julie, if you need any help let me know.