graphic and web design by Michael J. DeLuca
Frequently Asked Questions
> How hard is it to make a website? (How much do I need to know to run one?)
> Can you teach me HTML?
> How long does it take you to make a website? (How much is this going to cost?)
> Do you sell domain names or server space?
> What kinds of features can you provide?
> How do we get started making a site?
> What the heck is a sunwurm?
> How hard is it to make a website? (How much do I need to know to run one?)
The more you know, the easier it is and the more cool-looking interactive stuff you can do. But these days, you can almost get away with just knowing how to read and how to type, especially if you've got a good web designer to back you up.
That said, it helps a lot to know a little HTML.
> Can you teach me HTML?
As Miyagi said to Daniel-san in those Othello ads in the 80s: "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master."
Seriously: yes, I can teach you HTML. It isn't hard to learn the basics. As long as you know how to use a computer, in an hour or two, you can learn enough to be able to create pages with simple formatted text and images in not much longer than it takes to do the same thing in a program like Microsoft Word.
Unfortunately, HTML, not unlike a real human language such as English, was created back in the dark ages of the internet by people with a far different set of tools and capabilities than what we have today. As time went on, things kept getting added and tweaked and modified until HTML's original simplicity and vision were left far behind. The hybridized, mutated thing we use today has a lot of pitfalls. The grammar and syntax of HTML are full of special cases and exceptions to the rule, strange and archaic holdovers that are still in use only because so many people know them that it's too late to change.
Luckily, the advent of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) has made it possible to get back to the good old simple HTML by moving all the complicated formatting stuff into a separate file. Unluckily, the CSS part of the code is still pretty hard to understand. Luckily, if you can find a good designer who will build you a CSS stylesheet, you don't need to worry about it and can stick to the easy, straightforward HTML. I've found this system to work great, and I use it a lot.
> How long does it take you to make a website? (How much is this going to cost?)
It depends on the site: how complicated it is, what kinds of features, what you're hoping to get out of it. I'm flexible on rates, but I usually charge between $20 and $25 per hour. I always come up with a personalized estimate once I've worked out the details for a particular job. But if you're looking to budget things before getting started, here are a couple of benchmarks that might help you make an educated guess:
The Sunwurm site, the one you're looking at right now, took me less than a day. It's fairly simple: only five different pages, the logo, some text.
The Chessmaine site in its original form took a week to set up. I based it on the MovableType blog software, with some heavy template modifications, some plugins, customizations, etc. With all the modifications I've done since, I'd say the hours I've spent add up to about a month.
As for cost, my rates change with the times, and more features means more money, but the average site seems to come in at just under $200.
> Do you sell domain names or server space?
No. I haven't got the hardware to maintain a reliable server, and there are so many affordable and professional places that offer these services it just isn't worth my time to compete. I will gladly sign you up for a domain name and a server and set everything up, but you'll be paying the subscription fees to a third party, not to me.
> What kinds of features can you provide?
I can do all those flashy Flash animations that take forever to load and do more to annoy and obfuscate than they do to help people find what they're looking for, but (in case you haven't guessed) I am not exactly a fan of them. I do lots of customized blog applications complete with feature-rich and easy-to-use web-based authoring via software like MovableType and WordPress. I'm familiar with several different flavors of customizable wikis and shopping carts, secure credit card purchases, customer and product databases, downloadable and or/streaming audio and video. You name it, I can do it. Within reason.
> How do we get started making a site?
First we talk about what kinds of features you want, how you want your site to look and how much you want to spend.
Once we've hashed this out, I provide you with an estimate and you provide me with any photos or graphics you'd like me to use, and (if you have one) the login information to your site server. Then I go away and make a mockup of the layout for you to approve.
When you like what we have, I get down to the nitty gritty. I get everything online and running on my testing server, then I send you to it to verify that you still like it. Lastly, I move everything over to the real server, and you give me the moola.
Sound good?
> What the heck is a sunwurm?
A sunwurm is a wingless magical flying dragon of the kind found in Japanese folklore. It takes great pleasure in hiding itself from human sight in the glare of the sun, and thus is often inadvertently exposed to view during solar eclipses.
I owe the idea for the sunwurm name and logo to my creative collaborator, Michael Purpura. We needed a name for the production company we were creating to produce our series of children's stories on audiobook. When he comes around asking for it back, he'll get it.
