It’s amazing how fast the world of business, and seemingly the world in general, has changed in my lifetime. This is, of course, heavily due to first the personal computer revolution, and secondly the internet boom. I graduated from Boston University in 1987 with a graphic design degree which gave me the ability to hand-paint fonts! Needless to say, it quickly became obvious to me that unless I started learning how to use computers I would be left behind as an artist and a designer.

In addition to designing and developing websites I also run a small business, which has opened up a whole other area of evolution and education for me. I interact directly with every client, and when I am approached by a potential customer some of the first questions are generally:

• “Help me understand the process of building our new website.”
• “How long does it take?”
• “What are the costs involved in this?”

So let’s hope this post will begin to illustrate one of Bitclone’s basic processes – developing a WordPress CMS-based website. It should provide something of an overview, and help you get started in thinking about your project and some of the questions you’ll need to answer. We feel it is important to point out that every job is different, and part of our goal is to help you maintain your company’s unique identity among your competition. Having said that, there are some common points of focus we have identified through experience, and can discuss here.

The initial consultation or discovery phase.

We love hats!

First off, we need to define your basic needs and expectations regarding your website, and come to a conclusion about the scope of the project. Most of our initial consultations are done via email. The first discussion focuses on some basic questions (examples below) covering information that will help us to clarify the parameters of the project. We prefer to do this initial question and answer session by email if possible, as we are a small company, and our two employees wear many different hats (we actually love hats!).

Phone conversations quite simply take our focus away from our numerous daily tasks, some of which are time sensitive. Email allows us have this conversation at the most convenient times for both of us, as well as providing a paper(less) trail surrounding the project. If you prefer the telephone, we of course want your business and will take your call! We are always happy to accommodate your communication preference, and through experience we have found the medium of email to be most efficient for your time and ours. Your responses to some of the preliminary questions can help us narrow down our focus of conversation, making contact more efficient and on point.

1. Do you currently have an existing website?
2. If so, do you have any dynamic applications running on your website such as WordPress, or other custom php applications?
3. Do you currently have ownership of a domain name, and hosting for your website?
4. If you don’t have a website does your company have branding in place? By this we mean minimally logo and color scheme.
5. What is the expected timeline of this project? Would you deem it a rush job, or something planned with ample time for development and testing?
6. Will you be providing all of the initial content for your website? (copy, images, pdf’s, etc.) We find this is an often overlooked element by clients seeking a new website.

After you have contacted us and answered the initial round of questions, you will receive an email response (usually within 2 working days) in which we will let you know if we feel we can complete your job in the timeframe you have outlined. Depending on how much information you have provided, we might be able to provide an initial quote for our services, or we may request more information. Once we have agreed on a quote for services and a timeline, we can move on to discuss contracts and schedule, if necessary. For many small website maintenance jobs a verbal contract is fine, however, we like to be as professional as possible and get everything ironed out in writing so both of our expectations are clearly defined and kept in check. At this point in the new client website build process we also like to get 50% of our estimated fees in advance, allowing us to commit to adding you to our schedule.

Ok, on to the fun stuff now!

Design and Development Process.

I love design and development; it’s what we do best, and must be part of why we are still in business after 6 years! We love building and improving processes, which is integral to a successfully  designed website or application. 15 years of designing, directing designers as an art director, and developing for the web have taught me a few things about what a good design for the web should accomplish. There are certain elements that are simply standard design practice for us at this time – clean, easy to locate, consistent navigation site-wide, for example. If you have specific art direction or styles you would like to offer to the process, now would be the time to input those! If not, don’t worry, we have plenty of experience to help guide you in the right direction. We can visit some of your competitors, discuss your industry, and develop the right stylistic approach to best help brand your company.

In some cases we will ask clients to provide images, or we might need to visit some online stock agencies to help develop the best design. Fortunately there are plenty of very affordable choices these days thanks to sites like iStockphoto. We will initially present you with one or two design comps for review, and we can then have a meeting or a phone call to discuss final revisions. We find this presentation of two design possibilities based on initial client input is adequate for most clients, however we can extend this design process as necessary.

Next we move on to the website development process, which can be handled in a few ways depending on your hosting situation and whether or not you have an existing website in place. If your existing website is static, we can usually build your new WordPress site right on your server in a subdirectory. This allows us to switch over to your beautiful new site very quickly once we are ready to launch. In other cases we will set up a development server, where we will develop the initial code and transfer your existing content to the development site. Then we will back-up and replace your existent site with the new WordPress driven website. Working from a development server and then transferring the site usually causes a few hours of downtime, so we schedule the move for when your site is off peak hours.

How long does it take?

This depends on a few key variables including the scope of the project, getting the required materials from the client in a timely fashion, and how busy we currently are in-house with other commitments. We can design and code an entire small business website from scratch generally within 2 weeks from the start date, provided we have full client cooperation.

How much will it cost?

With every project we get better at estimating just how long the job will take, which allows us to provide you with an accurate cost quote. Estimating hours is a bit of a science and a bit of an art – we strive to make it more of a science each time. To design and develop a brand new custom WordPress based website from scratch usually runs $1500-$2500 depending on the depth of the site and the customization involved.

One of the great things about using an open-source platform like WordPress is that there are many additional plug-in functionalities already developed and available. This helps us keep the costs down, and allows more focused time on getting you a great brand and design. We are a small and efficient company, we do all of our work locally, and we never outsource to overseas companies. My philosophy on this is simple – I do all I can to support local growth in my community and the internet is simply another business tool for our local economy. Our clients remain satisfied that we can personally offer them continued intimate support and service, maintaining and evolving their websites over time.

Maintenance.

This brings us to the final point in our process, maintenance. Once your website is complete we will have a final one hour consultation with you (if necessary) to instruct you on how to use your new and exciting dynamic site and system. Then you’re off and running, however we will always be here if you need help with system updates, further customization, or adding content…part of the added benefit of working local!