Questions, Questions, Questions
Things we’ve been asked…
What do I need in order to have a website?
There are two things you will need before your website can be built: a domain name and a hosting account. We can advise and help you with the domain name setup. We provide hosting for sites we build/manage.
Then, of course, you need the site built out. This is our specialty!
What should I expect to pay?
Design & Build
Design and build costs can differ greatly. We’ve heard of small businesses paying up to $25,000 to have their (small) site built. The companies building sites for those kinds of prices usually have big staffs, a lot of overhead, and some processes that are inefficient.
PressTeam doesn’t work like that. We are small and super-efficient. Our sites start at $1,000. Even if your site is really large, we really doubt it would cost you $25,000 for us to build it.
But hey, if you want to pay us that much, we won’t turn it down…
Domain Registration & Hosting
Domain name registration and hosting are ongoing costs that are usually paid annually. Domain name registration can run from $10 to $50 per year, depending on the domain type and who you register it through.
Hosting can be confusing. If you look at some of the big-name hosting companies you will likely see a great “introductory” hosting fee, sometimes as low as $4 per month. What they don’t tell you is that when you need to renew, those costs go way, way up.
They also don’t tell you that these hosting accounts are pretty bare-bones… you get the lowest amount of bandwidth, storage, and resources on a shared server that can be affected by other websites’ issues. In addition:
- you have to make all your own system updates (PHP and WordPress Core)
- you have to make your own backups and do your own restores if something goes wrong
- you have to provide your own security
If you want any of these services to be provided by your big name hosting company, your hosting costs will be dramatically higher (ask us what we went through with one of the biggest hosting companies a few years ago). You could end up paying $50 per month, or more, for hosting with security and backups, and you still would need to do all your own system updating. And that would not include fixing things if your site gets hacked. That service is usually a per hour charge with most companies and can run $120 per hour, or more.
PressTeam fees are $25 per month for hosting and $20 per month for the maintenance plan. That covers everything, all of the above… we don’t like hidden, unexpected fees, and we bet you don’t either!
Why should we have PressTeam do our website?
Because we want you to be successful… we will do our best to make sure your website is exactly what you want/need.
We have over 25 years of website-building experience. Making websites is our passion (well… one of our passions). If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be doing this as our side gig, we’d be doing other stuff… like maybe skydiving, and deep-sea diving, or racecar driving, or collecting snake venom…
Well, something else, anyway.
How do I know if PressTeam is the right website company for me?
That’s easy… we listen to you. Really, really listen.
When you decide you want to work with us, we meet with you so you can tell us your hopes, dreams, and aspirations for your site. We present our best ideas based on what you’ve told us, and then you decide if we are destined to be website BFFs.
I don't live in Winona, how can we work together?
That’s also easy… Technology!
We use Zoom to meet with our clients, wherever they might be located… even in Winona when circumstances keep us apart (or if our places are a mess!).
That means we can meet and discuss your site no matter if you are at home, at work, or on a nice vacation to a sunny, warm location (which is a big thing for Minnesotans!).
As long as you can get on the internet, we can meet with you.
Once we start working on your site we set up a way to share files. We use OneDrive, DropBox, and Google Drive, so you can pick the one that works best for you. You’ll get access to a folder where we will share documents back and forth between us.
Once we start building your site you will have access to a private version of your site. You will be able to log in and see the site under construction and give us feedback at key points of the build.
Other things you might want to know…
A.K.A. Things we wished you would ask us
How long will it take?
Creating your website can take as little a month or as long as 6 months.
Once we know what work will be done for your site, we will propose a timeline for building, reviewing, making changes, reviewing, finishing up, and going live.
Staying on track relies on all of us meeting our deadlines. Don’t worry, we set realistic timelines because no one wants more stress added to their lives (and we don’t want any of us to look bad!). We talk about obligations and responsibilities in our get-to-know-us meetings, so nothing will be impossible for any of us to manage.
And if things change, if life gets in our way, as it often does, we revise our timelines.
Our goal is always to get your site up and running in a timely manner.
What do I need to do?
We need you to be open, honest, and forthright about your concern, ideas, worries, budget, opinions, and needs.
We need you to give us feedback at each stage of the process. None of us wants big surprises at the end of the process.
We need you to respect our knowledge and experience. We won’t lead you astray.
We rely on you to provide content – or at least the ideas for the content. You are the expert on your business.
What we really want you to know…
We know that a website is a necessary part of helping your business/organization to be successful, but…
Websites can be expensive. We know the process can be stressful – especially when you feel like you don’t understand all this web stuff. We know that keeping things up-to-date (the site content and the technology) can be a rigorous, overwhelming undertaking for anyone.
We want you to be able to trust us to create your website. We operate a totally transparent website design and hosting company. You won’t get a shocking bill from us – EVER – we lay out all the options and costs for you at the beginning of the process. If there is no scope creep (changing horses in mid-stream, as our grandmothers would say), the price we quote you at the beginning is the price you will pay.
We want to make the process easy and, dare we say it… fun for you.
Along with the building of the site, we can help with all the other things that need to be done to get a new website up and running.
Once your site is live, we take care of all the technology updates (if we host your site) as part of our service plan, so no worries there.
We can also help with content updates if you need us to, billed on a per-hour basis . And we offer blocks of hours at a discounted price for content work.
See, that wasn’t so hard now, was it?