Something on your mind?

People have questions, that's only natural. Here are a few of the more common questions that I know get asked. Some have been directed at me, others have been suggested by other web developers. If you have a question that is not covered here, please send it to me via my contact page. Who knows, if you ask an exceptionally good question it might end up here!

Do I really need a website?

Whether you are a band, a restaurateur or a small business you have probably been asked whether you have a website. If you haven't yet, then you probably will be soon, especially if you are starting to make a name for yourself in your chosen profession!

These days the first place a person will look for information about almost anything is the internet. As a musician or a band you need to keep your fans up to date on upcoming gigs and releases or even offer track downloads. As a bar, restaurant or music venue you need to make everyone aware of your location, menu, gig listings and no end of other things. These all require constant updating and maintaining.

In todays technology driven world, things like flyers, printed advertisements and posters don't have the same impact as they did a few years ago. Although I wont deny that there is still a place for them, you can reach a far wider audience through the internet. Not only that, but you save yourself the printing and distribution costs of other methods of advertising. Not only that, with a website you can provide instant access to things that other types of advertising cannot provide, such as downloads, photo galleries, video clips and much much more... See my services page to see just what you could have!

I already paid a graphic designer to make my site, why do I need you?

There's no better place to go for a logo and design that a professional graphic designer. In fact, I use a professional graphic designer myself for clients that require a full site design from scratch.

If you have used a graphic designer then you probably have a awesome looking website, great! However, if any of the following applies to you then you could easily benefit from the services I offer:

If you want to change the content on your site you have to pay them extra?
Do your requested updates take weeks to appear on your website?
Do you find that you update your site less regularly than you would like because of the hassle involved?

As already mentioned, when I make you a site, you can update it whenever you like, from wherever you like, with no extra charge. All you need is access to the internet! Not only that, but I can almost always ensure that your site looks almost exactly the same as it did before - taking your existing logos, images and styles and recreating them for you.

Another consideration is those beautiful flash menus you may have on your site. Yes they look great, but they are useless to people with a mobility or visual impairment. I am sorry to say that I will not use Flash for menus. In fact, if it's possible to do something without Flash, then I will do it without. Javascript, particularly jQuery, is capable of a great many flash-like things these days, so I prefer to use that. However, I do not mind making Flash landing pages or video clips if you truly desire them!

But I already made my website with one of those online site builder services

Good on you! If you have done this and you are satisfied with the resulting site, then by all means, keep it! The last thing I'm going to do is try to sell you something that you don't think you need! However, these "build your own site" sites lack something, don't you think? If nothing else, they lack originality - you wont be able to completely tailor the site to your own needs. It is often the case that you wont get that unique, personalised site you were hoping for.

There is also another far more important problem with many of these online site builders. While not immediately obvious, many of them create sites that are almost impossible to use if you are:

Blind and use a screen reader to browse the internet.
Partially sighted and need to increase the text size on a page.
Unable to use a mouse and therefore need to use the keyboard to navigate.

Every site I make is designed to meet your own unique identity and visual requirements. Not only that, but they all take into consideration the W3C accessibility guidelines, making them easier to navigate for people with disabilities. For more information on this subject see my accessibility policy.

I know how to use Dreamweaver/Frontpage and I can do FTP, do I need you?

I know how to use Dreamweaver and Frontpage too. It's good, but I still use my own content management system to update my website. Why? Because this means I can make changes from anywhere in the world - no special software required. You don't need an FTP client and you don't need your licensed version of Dreamweaver or Frontpage.

Not only that, but if you run your own company, maybe you want to be able to delegate responsibility for parts of your site to other members of staff? This is no problem. My system allows you to add extra users to your site, whilst restricting their administration privileges to areas of your choosing. In other words, you don't have to give them your FTP username and password and risk them changing more than you want or worse, breaking your site.

Don't forget that my websites can include many other dynamic features, such as a calendar of events, RSS news feeds, photo galleries, forums and much more. All of them can be delegated to other users if you are too busy to do it all yourself. For a full list of available features, see my services page.

But surely a MySpace or Facebook page is enough for a band?

To begin with, sure it is! My band only had a myspace page to start with, but as we progressed, we decided we want a more professional, personalised site that really conformed with our identity. MySpace is a great tool for getting your music heard by potential fans, and it's free! So you should definitely get one.

On the other hand, because it's free every band in the world has one. How many times a week do you find yourself fielding friend requests from bands you've never heard of before? It can become irritating.

If you are a function band in particular, it is significantly more professional to have your own bespoke website, tailored to your own needs and style.

But if I get my own site too, isn't it just another place I need to update my gigs?

Not if you don't wish to. I can create your site so that it's gig listing is taken directly from your MySpace page. I can do the same with blog posts if you would rather too. This means that you need only update your gigs in one place, no hassle! Don't forget that any site I create is updateable at any time, from anywhere, it's easy!

Can I host my site somewhere else?

The short answer to this question is yes. However, there may be a setup fee, depending on the exact specifications of the hosting you wish to use and the technology choices made for the creation of your site. For example, if you wanted your site made using Django, I would need to examine your hosting package and possibly install some extra software. This would incur a small charge.

However, I think my hosting charges are reasonable, so I will of course endeavor to convince you to use mine! If you wish to use your own hosting service to host your site, please inform me of this before I start making your site, as it may effect the technologies I choose to use in creating it.