Party at our place. You bring the potato salad, we bring the burgers. Have Uncle Bill bring dessert (I’ve heard he makes a mean berry trifle). That is, if potato salad means “content” and burger means “really awesome web design, customized just for you”. And party means “finally launch your business right”. And berry trifle means…berry trifle. (Really, we’ve got to find a way).
LiteSites grew out of the realization that a lot of our readers were people who were boot-strapping it. They didn’t have a ton of money to put into a from-the-ground-up design, but they needed something beautiful and strategic. They did have money to invest in their online presence, but it wasn’t enough to hire an experienced, professional web designer to create something from scratch.
So we created LiteSites. Because of the way they’re designed and the way you share some of the workload with us, you get the personal design process without the huge investment.
The LiteSites
LiteSites are designed to be sticky — which means that the right people will come back to your site over and over. Ultimately, that means you’ll consistently get more clients, more customers, and you can stop living in “feast or famine” mode. They’re also designed to be beautiful and unique — your site will not look like a WordPress template. It will look like it was made for you. (Click on the buttons below for details on each LiteSite design.)
Here’s how it works.
When you start thinking that a LiteSite might be just the ticket, you get in touch with us. We take a listen at what you’re doing to make sure that a LiteSite is indeed what you need (we’re not fans of taking on a project if it’s not going to make a huge difference for you).
Next, John will get you set up in our online project management system (it’s Basecamp, for the curious). He’ll upload your design brief, your client checklist, a place for you to share designs that you really like, and several other things that we’ll need along the way. He’ll also send you your invoice (half of the total), which you can pay online to get you officially on our calendar.
After you’ve gotten that taken care of and have looked over your checklist, you give me a date that you can submit your pre-design stuff (that would be your design brief; any images that you want us to incorporate into the design — your headshot, for example; and a list of content that you will be creating for the site).
With that, I map out our milestones for the entire project, from start to finish. The dates are flexible (I am not a calendar Nazi), but they give us a place to start from.
Then we get to work. While Julianne and I are working on customizing the LiteSite that you chose, you are writing the content for your website, asking whatever questions you have along the way. (Sidenote: This is a good place to answer the question “How customizable are LiteSites?” We get that one a lot. Think color, typography, header elements, and sidebar elements. The layout and the overall design are fixed; so only get a LiteSite if you love the design. If you have a specific question about a LiteSite and what can or cannot be changed, get in touch with us.)
Next, we submit the initial concept. If you love it, we continue refining it (you get a total of three concepts/revisions, including the initial concept). If you’d like to explore a different LiteSite, we create a new concept. For nearly everyone, three concepts/revisions is plenty, but if you need more, you can purchase them easily and inexpensively.
When we get to the final round and you give your approval, that’s when we need all of your login information. Any hosting, domain, FTP, newsletter services, RSS feed services…we need it all (and don’t worry, we’ll explain what that stuff is if it blows your mind).
Then, Leah starts coding it out in WordPress. The lovely thing about WordPress is that you will be able to easily change and upload new content all on your own. I’ve tried every major professional content-management system out there, and none comes close in the client ease-of-use department. And the easier it is for you, the more you’ll keep it current and effective.
Once we have the test site ready, we’ll give you your username and password so that you can go in and upload all the content that you’ve written. We’ll have all of the pages created; you’ll basically copy and paste them in, and then play around with the formatting. If you have questions about how your new site works, you can ask them along the way. At this point, you’ll also receive your invoice for the final half.
And finally, we launch. This means moving it from the test location to the actual, live site. If you have old content from another site that needs to be migrated, we take care of that. We make sure that everything’s functioning properly, and then we hand it over into your capable hands.
The details
The total cost for a LiteSite is $2,000. You pay half up front and half prior to launch. The design and development process usually takes 4 weeks. We are currently available to start the design process on May 4th, but we would get you set up in the system right away so that you can get on our calendar and get started on your checklist.
Need some additional strategizing?
If you want the major strategizing work that goes into a from-the-ground-up site, but absolutely adore one of the LiteSites and don’t need your website built from scratch, we can do that, too. Just ask about pricing when you get in touch.
So what’s the next step?
Get in touch with us. We like to get a feel for the project and give our input so that you can decide if it’s the right next step for you. Fill out the form below, and it’ll get to us lickety-split. Or email moc.yarbjharasnull@olleh.
