WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT
What platform do you use?
WordPress is used by over 60 million people or 34% of the web uses WordPress, from hobby blogs to the biggest news sites online. Extend WordPress with over 54,000 plugins to help your website meet your needs. Add an online store, galleries, mailing lists, forums, analytics, and much more.
How much does a website usually cost?
It varies. We have created websites for as little as $2,000 (simple “brochure” of several pages (home, about us, products, services, contact, social media links, etc.) to upwards of $15,000 (complicated eCommerce websites with lots of bells and whistles, various features, multiple product offerings, subscriptions, etc). These costs do not include hosting, domain, software, premium plugins, ongoing maintenance and other outside vendor fees which are additional and incur a 15% agency fee*.
For example, an e-Commerce website varies drastically, starting at $5,000 up to $12,000+ based on the number of products (and variations) offered and other e-Commerce features and benefits (secure checkout, bank set up, email notifications, product set up, testing — all of which can be quite time consuming to accurately set up. Add subscription and/or membership options to the mix, and you’re closer to the higher price range.
Setting up a real estate website ($7,500 range) with IDX integration also requires many hours to set up (featured properties, sold properties, search, etc.). Our websites take into consideration the importance of SEO (search engine optimization), so we properly tag our pages and products (especially in the case of e-commerce sites) to help you get found in web searches.
Once all requirements are finalized, a final quote will be executed before work begins. We work with our customers and their budget to ensure they get the best bang for their buck. We also can work in phases to get you started and add more bell and whistles over time. Finally, see the Website Maintenance section below.
What are your terms?
View our full terms and services here.
What’s the process?
View our Website Project Planning & Prep section to better learn the process, the phases involved and get a sense for what it takes to build out out your site. If interested in moving forward, please contact us so we can offer a formal estimate based on your specific needs.
Once we have agreed to terms, you can expect a website to take anywhere from four to six weeks (simple website) to three to four months (intricate e-Commerce website) depending on your requirements (and how responsive you are). We use Basecamp as our project management system (or UpWork if we work together via that platform) which serves as a repository for project details, project updates, reference links, design elements, emails, requests and other project-related resources.
WEBSITE HOSTING
What hosting service do you use?
Bluehost is a leading web hosting solutions company. Since their founding in 2003, Bluehost has continually innovated new ways to deliver on their mission: to empower people to fully harness the web. Based in Orem, Utah, Bluehost provides comprehensive tools to millions of users throughout the world so anyone, novice or pro, can get on the web and thrive with our web hosting packages. Their vast team of 750+ is dedicated to helping customers around the clock, 24/7 in order to be the best web hosting company to customers at all times.
Finally, their in-house team consists of dedicated WordPress experts to provide the best customer support whenever you need answers. They even dedicate engineers on their development staff to full-time WordPress CORE development. No one powers WordPress better or understands it more than Bluehost.
View Bluehost’s self-help resources here.
How much are my hosting fees each year?
Bluehost hosting fees start as low as $9.95 per month ($119.40 /year) billed on a recurring, annual basis*.
Although website specials from various hosting services may entice you to sign up, please note these are only “specials” and not their ongoing rate (hosting fees typically rise substantially at the one-year renewal). Transferring your website to another hosting service is billed at the current hourly rate; please request an estimate based on your needs. Same goes for domain names.
What happens if I don’t pay my hosting fees on time?
After 60 days past due, your website will be hidden from the search engines. In order to show your site again on the web, full payment is required and a $50 reinstatement fee is charged. After 90 days of no payment, your account will be terminated and your website will NOT be able to be retrieved after this point.
How do I access my hosting control panel (cPanel)?
Go to http://www.yourdomain.com/cpanel and enter the username / password given to you at launch. If you have lost your login details, please contact us.
How much are my domain fees each year?
Current domain fees are around $17/year per domain. Although you may see domain name specials from various domain services to entice you to sign up, please note these are into specials. Your fee will rise at renewal, so don’t be fooled into thinking the intro offer is the renewal rate.
What happens if I don’t pay my domain fees on time?
As a courtesy and acting on good faith, Hammond Media Group automatically renews domain names for accounts in good standing. Any domain names that have not been paid in full by your upcoming annual renewal will be terminated and your domain name will NOT be able to be retrieved after this courtesy one-year renewal period.
WEBSITE BACKUPS
Is my website backed up?
As a courtesy to new customers, Hammond Media Group automatically downloads a zip file of your website backup that is emailed to you to keep on your computer. We also go the extra mile by installing the Updraft Plus plugin on websites (with two separate backups) as well as saving the HTML for all your primary, original website pages (created at launch) in a secure location so that should a catastrophe occur, we can easily recreate your original website (for a fee) in a worst-case scenario situation by getting the main pages of your website back up and running in a shorter amount of time. Finally, Bluehost runs weekly backups (however, they do NOT guarantee these backups).
In a nutshell, we highly recommend all customers create and manage their own backups. We recommend that you make weekly (if your website frequently changes) or monthly (for more stagnant websites) backups and store them locally on your home machine or burn them to disk.
To backup your files and folders you can use the Site Backup Pro tool, located in the File Management category within your cPanel. Choose “Download or generate a full website backup” button and then first, generate it…then download and save it to your computer; see screenshot below.
WEBSITE MAINTENANCE
What are WordPress plugins and why do I need to update them if my site if functioning fine?
WordPress is an open-source platform where developers across the globe create “plugins” that allow you to add functionality to your website. There are thousands of plugins, some are awesome and many are not. We have a standard set of WordPress plugins we use (from Akismet Spam and Slider Revolution to Shortcodes Ultimate and Login No Captcha reCAPTCHA), and we will work with you to get the right plugins that not only work seamlessly with your WordPress theme, but are updated regularly by the creator.
If WordPress plugins are not updated, your site can be at risk for a security breach. Updates to WordPress core, plugins, and themes increase security by patching vulnerabilities and strengthening against attacks. To reduce the risk of your site being hacked or compromised in some other way, update.
When any expert talks about WordPress security, one of the first things they mention is to install updates. Hackers and other malicious parties watch the release notes. As soon as they learn of a vulnerability, they start exploiting it which is why you need to update as soon as possible to reduce the time that your site is vulnerable. 83% of hacked WordPress websites had not been updated.
Additionally, plugin updates allow the developer to fix bugs and/or add features and functionality.
Can you just handle all this website maintenance stuff for me?
Yes. We actually recommend you leave the updates to us. Otherwise, you may be calling us when you get that ‘white screen of death.’ If you want Hammond Media Group to handle backups, update your plugins, etc. View our full list of website maintenance services here. You can retain our website maintenance services on an annual or semi-annual basis.
Our current maintenance fee ranges from $120/month (basic maintenance fee) to $300/month+ depending on the size and complexity of your site.
How do I set up my email in Outlook?
How do I set up my email in Mac Mail?
How do I access my email remotely?
Go to your webmail (http://www.yourdomain.com/webmail) and enter your email address and password you used when setting up your email.
How do I add an email to my account?
Go to the Mail section in your cPanel (http://www.yourdomain.com/cpanel), choose “Email Accounts” and follow directions.
How do I add an email forwarder to my account?
Go to the Mail section in your cPanel (http://www.yourdomain.com/cpanel), choose “Forwarders” and follow directions.
I can’t send or receive emails?
At times, you may not be able to send/receive emails. First, you should send yourself an email to test to see if you receive it and/or it sends. We have found that if you find yourself in this situation, just wait several minutes (ie. 30 minutes) and the problem resolves itself. See potential reasons below; if the problem persists, please contact us.
There are several things which could be affecting your email:
- Bluehost has a technical problem
Check your server status here — just enter your website domain. - There’s a problem with your email account
If you haven’t done so already try sending yourself some test messages. If these all work the issue may be with your email software or device. - An issue with your email software or device
If you can log into your account, but can’t send or receive emails, your email server settings may have been changed, so you’ll need to check these. Check out our post: “Setting Up Your Email in Outlook”. - A large email is being sent
Large email attachments can cause your mailbox to lock, but it will unlock itself within 20 minutes. If the problem keeps happening, try deleting any emails over 3MB. - Your email account is full
Log in to your online email access. Then try deleting any emails you don’t need – particularly those with large attachments.If you use a mail client (e.g. Outlook) and find that the mailbox on the server fills up, the client can be set to stop a copy of emails being left on the server, or reducing the amount of time they are stored. To do this in Outlook 2007 or 2010:- In the Tools menu (or File tab in 2010), click Account Settings.
- Under Name, select the POP3 e-mail account that you want to change, and then click Change.
- Click More Settings.
- Click the Advanced tab, and then under Delivery, remove the tick from the Leave a copy of messages on the server check box.
- Incoming emails are being identified as spam
If you’re having problems receiving some emails, they could wrongly be being tagged as spam. The sender will get an error code 550. - Microsoft Office 365 upgrade ?
Upgrading to a new email service powered by Microsoft Office 365 could have caused some disruption to your email.
*All third-party provider recurring and one-time fees (e.g. hosting, domain names, themes, plugins, backup services, etc.) will include an additional 15% agency fee to cover costs of account setup and ongoing management.