Questions

Pre-Sales
Support
Email Setup

Pre-Sales Questions

How much does a web site cost?

Building a web site is very much like building a house. You can build a small house, a large house, a simple house, a smart house, five rooms, 20 rooms, frame, brick, stucco, energy efficient — the variations are almost limitless. Web sites are the same.

The first thing we will do is discuss your needs and your budget with you to determine the best solution for your business. We will lay out a few possible solutions and you can choose the one that is best for you.

We can also help by offering you a choice in payment options.

Are there any hidden costs?

No. We will provide you with a written estimate up front. The estimate will include design cost, hosting cost, maintenance costs, and domain name fees, if applicable. It is common for the scope of work to change over the course of a project. This may require adjustments in project pricing. If this occurs, you will be notified of the additional cost and will have the option of proceeding with or declining the additional work.

What are the required components for a web site?

There are three primary components that are required to have a web site: (1) A domain name, (2) web site files and (3) hosting.

How long does it take to build a web site?

Depending on the size and complexity of the site, the planning and development stages can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months.

Can you build a mobile web site that is compatible with smartphones?

Yes we can. Most web sites we build now are responsive (device-friendly).

Will I be able to make changes to my web site?

That depends on the platform used to build your site. Please visit the Design page for an explanation of the formats and their features.

Can I sell products on my site?

Yes. Regardless of which platform you decide is best for you, we have shopping carts that allow you to sell everything from tangible products to electronic files (music files, digital books, images). Our shopping carts can collect payment information for manual processing or we can link them to online payment processing companies like PayPal and Authorize.net.

What is the best way to provide content for my web site?

Good organization is important for content. It makes the project flow more smoothly and helps minimize delays and errors due to misunderstandings and misinterpretations. We prefer content, graphic images, and photos in electronic format.

Text for your site should be in one or more of the following formats:

Graphic images and photos can be sent in a wide variety of formats. If you are unable to provide photos and you are in our service area, we can take photos for you as an additional service. Below are a few things you should keep in mind when selecting images and photos for your web site.

What payment options do you offer?

The first rule of hiring a contractor (of any kind) — Never pay the full amount of the contract up front. If any web designer asks you to pay the full amount up front, you need to find another designer. Requiring full payment up front generally means the designer has no confidence in their work and you could find yourself with an unsatisfactory or unfinished web site.

We have developed a range of payment plans that fit almost every situation and budget. The Preferred Minimum dollar amounts listed for each plan are simply our preferences and can be adjusted, if needed. If none of the existing plans are suitable for your situation, we are flexible and willing to work out a better arrangement with you.

plan preferred
minimum
down
payment
remaining
payments
payment
amount
date
due
50/50 none 50.00% 1 50% on completion
33/3 $1,000 33.34% 2 33.33% monthly1
25/6 $1,500 25.00% 5 15.00% monthly1
20/12 $2,500 20.00% 11 7.27% monthly1
15/18 $5,000 15.00% 17 5.00% monthly1

1 Monthly payments begin 30 calendar days from the initial down payment. Each monthly payment is due 30 calendar days from the previous payment due date.

Can you...?

Chances are...we probably can. We find solutions. We aren't limited to whatever canned solutions are available. So go ahead and ask. We can look into it and give you an estimate on time and cost, and even suggest alternatives that may work for you and save you money.

Can you make my site show up at the top of the search engines?

The only truthful answer you will ever get from anyone is 'maybe.' The battle for good search engine rankings rages every second of every minute of every day. If anyone promises you a Top 10, Top 20, or even Top 30 ranking, hold onto your checkbook. I have personal experience working with search engine 'optimization' companies. They are like politicians — they make a lot of promises and deliver on very few.

20 years of web development experience has given us insight into things that can help to improve your search engine rankings. We will incorporate all of those techniques into your site to get better rankings. For some sites we have been successful at getting consistent Top 10 rankings for certain keywords. Others have been more challenging.

What is hosting?

Here is an analogy. Let's say you want to open a retail store. You choose a name, incorporate, buy inventory, and hire employees. What's missing? A building. You need to lease a building to house your retail store. This is similar to a hosting server. You can have a domain name and all of the files that make up your web site, but you still need a place for those files to reside and for the domain name to point to. The most cost-effective way to do this is to lease space on a web hosting server. The hosting server has all of the software necessary to operate your site, process email, etc.

Can I pay my hosting annually?

Yes you can. AND, you get a discount if you pay annually. If you want to pay your hosting annually, simply and tell us you want to pay annually. All annual billing is done on December 1 so if you tell us in March, you will get a pro-rated bill for the remainder of the current calendar year.

Support

I can't access my web site or email. What's wrong?

One of two problems is likely. Either there is an Internet outage somewhere between your computer and the server or your IP address has been blocked by the server. If you have multiple failed login attempts, the server may view that as a hacking attempt and will block your IP address. It will automatically clear within 24 hours or we can remove it from the block list manually. If you are unable to access your email, please contact us by phone/text at 479-806-3660. Please make a note of any error messages you receive. Error messages help to narrow down the issue and to reach a solution more quickly.

How do I access web-based mail?

Go to www.yourdomain.com/webmail. You will have to enter your username (email address) and password. There are three choices for web-based mail. We STRONGLY recommend RoundCube. We provide full support for RoundCube and it is the most user-friendly of the three choices.

Can I use web-based mail as my primary access to my email?

Technically, yes, but web-based mail is not intended to be a long-term solution. It is intended to temporarily give access to your mail while you are away from your main computer. Web-based mail databases can grow large and difficult to manage. If they get too large they can become corrupted and you will lose all of your email.

Do you provide on-site support?

Yes and no. We have clients across the United States. It is not feasible for us to provide on-site support except locally. Almost all problems can be solved at the server level or, in some rare cases, by remotely accessing your computer. We use a remote desktop application called TeamViewer. If a problem arises that requires us to access your computer, we may ask you to download and install TeamViewer. Remote support charges may apply.

On-site support can be scheduled. We do not provide emergency on-site support but we can recommend someone. WebSite Warehouse does not provide IT support. Our support is limited to your web site and email only.

When did you move to new servers?

In June 2018 we moved all web sites we host to a new server. The new servers are bigger, better, faster, and more reliable with more capabilities.

Email Setup

How do I set up my email?

Information necessary to set up your email on almost any device is below. For device-specific instructions, there are many great tutorials and resources on the Internet. Google "email setup [your device name]". We can set up your email for your for a small fee. Please contact us by phone/text at 479-806-3660. If you have a working email account, you can send an email to .

pop incoming email (standard)

POP (Post Office Protocol) is the most commonly used type of connection to retrieve your incoming email. If you choose to leave your mail on the server for a few days you can download it onto multiple devices (desktop computer, tablet, phone, etc.) Below is the information you need to set up a POP connection in your email program.

IMPORTANT!
For a POP connection you must make sure your email program is set to REMOVE MESSAGES FROM THE SERVER after they are downloaded. Typically, this can be set to delete messages immediately upon downloading them or after a specified number of days. We recommend setting this number to no more than seven (7) days. Your email storage space on the server is limited. If you reach the storage limit of your email account, you will no longer be able to receive email. If you need assistance we can change these settings for a small fee.

Username: you@yourdomain.com (your full email address)
Password: Your password
POP Incoming Server: web1.websitewarehouse.com
POP Incoming Server Port: 995
Connection Security: SSL or SSL/TLS
Authentication Method: Normal password

smtp outgoing email

For outgoing mail you have only one choice — SMTP.
SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.

Username: you@yourdomain.com (your full email address)
Password: Your password
SMTP Outgoing Server: web1.websitewarehouse.com
SMTP Outgoing Server Port: 465
Connection Security: SSL or SSL/TLS
Authentication Method: Normal password