I guess I should let you in on a little secret...I can't do this alone.
As it turns out, I'll be needing your help to make your website a complete success. If this is disappointing news to you...I'm sorry.  But, on the bright side, I truly believe once you get into it, you'll find it very exciting and satisfying to take part in the process and see your website materialize.  Just follow the easy outlined steps below and you'll be marveling at your accomplishment in no time!

	First off, you'll need a domain name (.com) and a hosting service.  I recommend Hostway.com  There, you can register your domain name (or transfer an existing one), and sign up for your hosting package.  Choose the economy standard package (Windows, not Linux) for $17.95 a month (the discount if you pay annually) and set up your account.  This keeps everything in your name and keeps your costs down since I don't have to bill (i.e. mark-up) your hosting and domain expenses.
	Now you need a logo.  If you already have a logo...wonderful!  You should also have it on a disc or on your hard-drive that you can send to me (in it's original un-compressed form).  If you can't find it, perhaps you can contact the designer who created it for you.  It is your property after all and they are obligated to send it to you, or me with your permission. Scanning your logo is a last resort...It is very hard to get a nice clean image of a scanned logo vs. a photograph.  If you don't have a logo, this is an important detail for me to know up front.  I can re-make it if I have to.
	Photos.  If you currently use a hardcopy brochure, and/or you've had professional photos taken of your business or organization, I'll need those on a disc in their original, uncompressed form.  If you don't have photos on a disc, I can scan them from your brochure. Unlike a logo, photos can scan very nicely. (If scanning is going to be required, this is another important detail to let me know). Now, I don't claim to be a professional, but if you live in close proximity and you have just a few photos needed, I've got a pretty good camera and a pretty good eye.  Stock photos are also an option...Check out rubberball.com as a terrific source for royalty-free digital stock photos available online. I'll just need proof of purchase.  If you just plain prefer not to use photos, there is no reason why you can't have a very professional website without them. Even cheesy clip art, when implemented properly, can make a nice visual difference. It's entirely your choice!
	Key Words.  These are the words that are tucked into the source code of your pages and are a very important search engine strategy.  Click on the 'Getting Noticed' section of this website for more information on key words, meta tags and descriptions.
	An Outline of your business or organization is imperative in architecting and navigating your website.  Start with Home and Contact...those are the two easy ones.  Now you probably have a product or a service, and you'll want people to know more about your company.  Your outline doesn't have to be perfect, it can be random thoughts that I'll piece together.  I can be clever with your naming conventions or we can go with a more conservative route. It's your call.  When you are developing your outline, you may have sub-categories (or 2nd level landing pages). Just let me know so I can construct the most intuitive and seamless navigation.
	OK, here comes the hard part.  Copy.  Many clients find it very difficult to write the copy for their websites.  If you already have a hardcopy brochure, that's a huge start.  If you want to embellish on current materials that you have, I can do that too. If you feel comfortable with writing the copy for your website, start on a fresh word document and go to town, but, If you are positively paralyzed and can not get a single word written down,  I can put you in touch with great people who specialize in that.
	The Look and Feel of your site. Ideally, I would like to meet you in person and learn as much as I can about you, your business and your industry. Website development is very diverse and this allows me to translate your 'hardcopy' self and business into your online persona.  If it's not geographically possible to meet, I still want to get to know you. Send me to your competitor's sites as well as the sites that you personally enjoy visiting.
	What kind of Functionality do you want your site to have? As I've mentioned throughout this site, my forté is online brochures, but maybe you want to have shopping cart and e-commerce capabilities.  Well, even though that is out of my realm, what I can do is develop your site to compliment your hardcopy identity as a catalyst from which to build off of.  You can still be live and in color with a 'coming soon' section. When you're ready for programming, there are many options out there to choose from.
	Finally, choose a Timeline.  I generally say 4-6 weeks because it requires 2-3 weeks for you and 2-3 weeks for me. If you can gather everything on this list prior to asking for this quote, you'll be amazed at how well this process goes.  While 2-3 weeks out of your busy schedule, I know, is asking a lot, delegate some tasks out and you'll be done in no time...but please, don't drag this out.  It's frustrating for me to go back to a partially finished site and it's frustrating to feel guilty and pressured to get it done. (Plus, you paid your 50% down.) You gotta trust me on this one...don't drag it out!

Okeedokey, on to the next building block...See how easy this is?

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