Getting Started

All projects are somewhat unique and will have different sets of criteria to them.  However, below are some general guidelines for all projects as far as what we do, how we do it, the timeline we do it in and the process of getting started with us.  For more details contact us anytime.   Most website projects are $4,000, if you require complicated additions then this price can go up.  Please contact us for a proper quote.

Project Details

All projects include:

  • Custom graphic design built to match your current branding concepts and ideas.
  • Coded and cross-tested in all major browsers for a completely professional look.
  • Responsive design so that your site works well on phones, tablets and computers.
  • Installation of necessary and recommended plugins for additional functionality.
  • We will custom build out 15 pages of content for you.  You have the ability to create as many pages as you like however.
  • Social media integration with your website.
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Full tutorial of how to manage your website and add your content.
  • Lifetime free support.

Design Credit

We will need a simple link on the footer of the site that gives design credit to Kickstart Media and leads (in a new window) to our site. Since this is our primary way of developing new clients if you would like the link removed and no credit given please add $500 to the price. **PLEASE NOTE: This may seem excessively high but think about it from our perspective. We derive all of our new clients from recommendations from current clients and design credit footer links. If we let everyone take off our design credit links and claim our work as their own we would be loosing an awful lot of future work… Honestly, we would prefer the design credit link. It small, unobtrusive and if you’re as happy with our work as all of our other clients, you’ll be probably be happy to help us out by leaving the link.

Revisions

The above price quote includes a reasonable amount of design revisions. Extra revisions, other added elements (especially more Flash or video) will add to the cost. We will ALWAYS discuss cost with you and we will agree on price before doing any work. There will be no surprises… (except how good your site looks…)

Hosting

The client is responsible for setting up a hosting account. Please send us your log-in information once you do so. We highly recommend BlueHost.com, Host Gator or Host Monster. They are cheap, very reliable, and have an intuitive cPanel with built in Word Press support. If you are not using one of these three hosting services we add a $100 service fee onto the overall price as it takes much more time for us to interact with them.

Other Fees

There are no other fees involved and no monthly maintenance fees or anything.

Timeline

When we receive your project deposit we will send you a confirmation email with a projected start date for your project as well as an idea of how long it will take. We operate on a first come, first serve basis and schedule work in the order deposits are received.   This is a non-refundable deposit.  We are generally 1-2 weeks out from starting a project and the project will normally take between 1-2 weeks to finish.  Plan on 4 weeks from start to finish.

Contracts

We do not use contracts.  We simply do what we say we are going to do and we expect you to do the same.  Web design contracts in our opinion are widely used to protect people who don’t do good work.  We operate on a verbal handshake and our good reputation.  Trust us when we say, we have far more to lose than you do if we do not follow through with what we promise.  If you absolutely require a contract then you are free to create one and send it to us and we will charge our hourly rate to look it over, sign it, fax it, etc back to you.

Getting Started

1. We work on a 50% down, 50% completion.  To get started make your 50% deposit payment. This is a non-refundable deposit.

Once you have made a deposit we will ask you to:
2.  Send us your domain name. If you do not have one yet go to godaddy.com and purchase one. This should not cost you more than $7-12 a year!  Do not be fooled by all of the extra stuff they may try and sell you- buy only the domain name…
3.  Send us links to three websites that you like. These do not need to be in your field or genre, just three designs you like. This will enable us to save you time and money by learning your tastes.
4.  Send us any logo information or business title information you may have or any hard copy (print) ads you may have currently.

We will then start your project and:
5. Create a “mock-up” design then code the actual site on our temporary server so that you can see it and we can see it.
6.  We are working on layout, page structure, functionality and look and feel of the content area at this point.  We will again go back and forth with you on this and attempt to make you happy and satisfied.

Finishing Up:
7.  At this point final payment is due.  Once we have received that we will send you the login passwords for the site and it will be yours.
8.  We will schedule a phone tutorial with you and show you exactly how to use the backend of the site to add pages, content, pictures, etc.  We can add this content for you for a nominal fee however we very strongly recommend that you do this yourself.  By doing so you will beat the “learning curve” of using your new site very quickly and will alleviate a lot of potential frustration later.  Remember…we will assist you during this time!
9.  You are welcome to add all of your content and get your site “ready” while it is on our server.  When you are ready to go live we can simply move it over to your domain for you.  Please note, as described above, if you do not use one of our recommended hosts we will charge you $100 to move the site and configure your hosting platform.  (Use one of them…we know what we’re doing and we recommend them for a reason…)
10. We will need your hosting companies name, web address where you log into your account, cPanel login info (if applicable) and your FTP information (if there is no cPanel.) If you have questions about what we need please ask!
11. In order for your site to go live you will need to forward your domain nameservers to your hosting account. Please do so before we are asked to move your site unless your host can set you up on a temporary url (like Host Gator does for example.)

Special Note for Customers That Are Switching to a New Hosting Company:
12. Please make sure that before you switch your nameservers over you back up all current content. You will lose this content once the nameservers flip.
13. Please make sure you set up your email addresses with your new host before you flip the nameservers or you will drop emails.