A domain name is your web address (www.mycompany.com) and it is purchased in one (1) year increments. You need a domain name in order for people to visit your website. Consider it as vital as having a home address.

For your convenience we bundle this service in with your web design for you. We will purchase your domain name on your behalf for a period of one year, register it in your name and handle the technical setup. Future renewals will be facilitated between you and the Domain Name company at their renewal rate.

If your domain name is already registered elsewhere we will transfer it to our Domain Name company for free if you sign up for two years of Website Hosting, saving you the industry-standard $19.95 transfer fee. This will ensure that as your website's dedicated IP changes that your website experiences no down time; as your domain name settings will be automatically updated when the changes are made.

Our domain name offer is valid on .com, .net, .org, .biz, .us and .info domain names. Due to their cost, specialty website extensions will incur a fee.

If a domain name is the equivalent of your home address, then website hosting would be your residential neighborhood. Consider your server your block, with your website being your house and the other websites hosted on the server as your neighbors. The value of your house is affected by your neighbors. When a search engine robot reviews your website for page rank (value) it will take into consideration your neighbors and more specifically your block. Is it on a well value server, a poorly secure one or filled with "bad" neighbors? Since most website designers and website hosts are less discriminating with their client base, your website may end up on a server with websites deemed as inappropriate or of a lower quality. This will affect the value of your website, and thus your page ranking in search engine results.

Shared website hosting is definitely one of the cheapest forms of website hosting. It can also be some of the slowest and poorest in terms of service. Why? Well because it is setup to allow anywhere from several dozen to several hundred websites to share one server. An example of a shared website hosting provider is GoDaddy. Shared website hosting is very affordable but you must be sure that it will support the scripting languages, applications, etc that you need to make your website a success and most of the time it doesn't or you have to purchase add-ons so it will.

Dedicated website hosting is considered more sophisticated when compared to shared website hosting. Unlike the situation in shared website hosting where lots of websites share the same server, with dedicated website hosting you are allowed to rent an entire server or separated portion thereof and use it all by yourself. An example of a dedicated website hosting provider is WestHost. Dedicated website hosting is designed to give customers a better form of hosting as it provides more reliable service.

Once you determine whether the type of website hosting you require is shared or dedicated you will also have to decide the type of platform you will need. The two most common ones are Linux and Windows. Which operating system you run on your computer is irrelevant in making your decision. This means that if you are running the Windows platform on your computer, you can still choose Linux. Let's learn a bit about both of them.

Linux is an open source system and is therefore more cost effective to operate and maintain; making it cost far less than Windows. Linux also has a reputation for stability and speed which means that Linux web servers will crash less often and run most processes faster than Windows web servers. Linux supports a wide range of software, applications, languages, and databases such as PHP, Perl, PostGre, MySQL, PostgreSQL and many others making it very scalable.

On the downside, Linux is not fully compatible with some Microsoft technologies. So if you are using Access, ASP, MS SQL, or VB development tools then Windows would be a better bet. Odds are that your ecommerce website will not need a database, but if by chance it does, as long as it won't require MS SQL you can spare yourself the expense and headache and opt for website hosting on a Linux web server.

By now you have probably figured out that your ecommerce website will require dedicated website hosting on a Linux web server. Now don't worry, you don't have to shop around in what could easily be described as a confusing market. Why? Well, as with your domain name we spare you the trouble and expense by bundling one of the best website hosting plans available in with your web design. Now how's that for service?

In terms of email, there is probably nothing as unprofessional as a business that has a stellar looking website and a free generic email address from Google, Yahoo or worse yet, Hotmail. You're a business and as such you are probably a little unknown to the majority of your website visitors. Therefore you want to portray your company as the most put together, stable, professional and well oiled machine in your industry. How do you do that with a generic email address? Well quite frankly, you don't. Not when the majority of online visitors will assume that you either can't afford decent website hosting that includes email service or you're a fly by night company with an untraceable easy to close email account.

Now there's nothing wrong with generic email addresses and we thank our buddies at Google, Yahoo, Hotmail and the like for providing this invaluable service. But in regard to your ecommerce website you have to keep in mind that this isn't the tangible world. There's no brick and mortar for your website visitors to feel, rather they have to go by instinct and unless you need your visitors' assistance in transferring $10 million dollars to Nigeria, you really should decide early on to not use a generic email address for the sake of your business reputation.

We know what you're thinking, what now? How do I get an email address linked to my domain name? How much will use of an email server cost? Naturally we have you covered and unlike some other web designers, we don't charge you to conduct business with your website visitors. You can have up to 10 email accounts and receive as many emails as you like. We'll even provide you with the information you need to check your email on your computer, your phone and best yet online when you are away from the office. We told you, we have you covered. :)

Now here's one feature that never gets thought of until you receive a bill for it. In our opinion, it's pretty awful for a web design company to charge you for talking to them about a project that you are already paying them for, but some web designers do it anyway. Jendee Web Design Services includes unlimited strategic consultation for your web design project. How else are we suppose to communicate with you to develop it? Telepathy would be nice, but we're still a ways off from that. ;) So until then, you may email, live chat and call us as often as necessary and although our office hours are Monday - Friday 8am to 5pm and Saturday 8am to 12pm we can always arrange to discuss your web design project when it is most convenient for you.

Out of all of the features we include for your ecommerce web design, this one is probably the most valuable. Planning and layout is where we invest a big bulk of time to research your industry, and most importantly your competitors. You see, we're not in the business of just making ecommerce websites. We're in the business of making ecommerce websites that help our clients beat their competition because if we don't fully aide your efforts to increase sales and enhance brand imaging how can we ever expect you to refer us to our next client? ;)

Planning entails figuring out everything that works and doesn't work for existing websites in your industry. Layout is where we put those ideas to work in a visually appealing manner. We will initiate the web design process by taking your requests, your average website visitor's requirements, and the insight acquired from researching your industry to create a distinct and custom web design layout. This will act as the starting point for what will most likely be a very enjoyable exchange of ideas between you and us.

There are two ways a web designer can develop your website; the easy way that utilizes a WYSIWYG program or the more difficult method of hand coding. WYSIWYG is an acronym for "what you see is what you get" and is used by inexperienced web designers who use drag and drop programs, also known as graphical editors or compilers. It enables them to manipulate a website's layout without having to type or know layout commands. You can check the source code of a webpage by opening the page in your browser, clicking on VIEW in the toolbar and then SOURCE or PAGE SOURCE. If you were to view the source code of a WYSIWYG produced website you would see something like this:



Hand coded websites require more skill and your ecommerce website is a big benefactor of that skill because hand coding allows for the use of features, refinements and control of semantics not supported by WYSIWYG graphical editors or compilers. In addition, the production of more elegant source code helps with maintenance and integration but above all else it produces a smoother and better functioning website. If you were to view the source code of a hand coded produced website you would see something like this:



The first visual difference is that the first image has a lot of extra white spacing. Search Engine robots don't have time to read countless blank characters before getting to your next line of content. They have millions of web pages to index. When they see too much of nothing, they do what anyone would naturally do... they leave, never to fully index your website. If your website isn't indexed it won't rank well and if it doesn't rank well it won't appear very high in a search result. By now you have most likely come to the conclusion that we offer hand coded websites. Unfortunately, there is no Rosetta Stone for this and so learning all of the commands is very similar and just as difficult as learning another language and while it can be very tedious to write out every individual character we just don't see the point of developing a website that will be ignored by search engines. Do you?

Most logical people would assume that web design includes all the bells and whistles. Unfortunately, the majority of web designers don't think like the rest of us and so they charge you additional fees for having animated navigation menus, security validation on your website forms, and fancy popup windows. Thankfully we don't think like most web designers.

We want your ecommerce website to shine; we also want it to be completely functional regardless of whether your website visitors are using a MAC, desktop PC, smartphone or tablet. Whether they decide to use Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome or some other type of internet browser will also affect their experience on your website.

So where do we begin? Quite simply, we rule out Adobe Flash and instead use CSS Stylesheets, HTML / XHTML / DHTML, JavaScript, JQuery and PHP. Like your Linux web server, these are open source applications and scripts; making them not only more universally accepted but also less expensive to write and configure. That's why we'll include them for no additional charge and if your requested programming is extremely complex we'll put together a very reasonable proposal to develop it for you.

The best part of using a universally accepted scripting language like JavaScript is that it runs off your visitor's computer and not your web server. This makes a call to action a lot quicker. It also means that by avoiding Adobe Flash altogether Jendee Web Design Services can provide you with some really great features without displaying the annoying to your website visitors in place of your valuable content.

Let's be honest, in the age of scams, spam, hacking and the like, would you click on that icon to download a program you are not compeltely sure of just to view the website of a company you may have never heard of before? We didn't think so.

So we agree that your layout is pretty spectacular and you love all of the enhancements we have incorporated but now you are in need of content. It can be tough for some people to sit down and write content for the web. We understand; after all there are so many variables involved like your company's reputation, brand imaging, and search engine optimization. The fact of the matter is while you may offer the best service or product in your market, "USE US" does not scream professional, neither does "We're Rated #1 by blah blah blah". Anyone can make those claims. Who really checks out those sources anyway?

To ensure your company's reputation is not tarnished for the world to see, that your website has a consistent theme and incorporates your brand imaging and that your keywords and phrases are placed where they will garner the biggest impact we will professionally check and edit when necessary the text you provide prior to placing it on your website at no additional charge. If you need us to completely write your copy content from start to finish, we'll gladly offer a very reasonably priced proposal for this service.

Well your website is coming along beautifully. We just love the layout, and what great content you have there. Oh yeah, it's a little boring. Remember when we made a correlation between your website and your house? Well think of your content as your furniture and your graphics and images as your artwork. People will naturally look for the images on your website - that is if you have nice ones and if they load quickly and correctly. Ever visit a website that screams 1999? One of the major reasons it does this is because of its graphics. They tend to be poorly optimized, grainy and well frankly "cheap" looking. They lack the contrast, crispness and modern look of today's images.

There are several graphics and images we include with the design of your ecommerce website. For starters, we'll design and install a custom Windows-Vista-Quality favicon. Favicons are displayed in the browser address bar, links bar, desktop internet shortcuts, favorites menu, browser tabs and next to blog feeds in RSS readers. The reason why we mention it is Windows-Vista-Quality is because when placed on a desktop it won't look awkward, boxy and old. Instead it will be sharp and have a transparent background allowing it to blend beautifully with your website visitor's desktop settings, no matter what they are.

In addition, you will need custom bullets, buttons and dividers to compliment your web design. Your web design will also most likely require the creation of some custom artwork and graphics and on some occasions even the purchase of stock images from reputable sources such as GettyImages or iStockPhoto. Aside from those types of graphics and images, you will probably also want to include your own; perhaps of your brick and mortar setup up, services and products. These particular images will naturally have to be cropped, enhanced and optimized for the web. Don't assume your web designer will include this additional work in their proposal. Odds are if it's not explicitly stated, you will be billed for it later. By now you have probably come to the conclusion that we include these services in our price. Guess what? You're right! :)

Unlike other web designers we do not charge $5, $10 or $25 for every prepared document (i.e. letter, form, and excel sheet) or video you want placed on your website. Jendee Web Design Services will provide unlimited uploads during the design phase to the extent of server space. We'll even personalize your PDFs with your store information, if required and necessary.

Just like when you visit a large facility there are maps, signs and sometimes even a help desk to ensure you have a successful experience, the same concept should be applied to your ecommerce website. The first thing we develop is a custom visitor sitemap that contains an index of accessible public web pages on your website. If your web visitors have a difficult time locating what they are looking for, this friendly visitor sitemap which can be accessed from every page will show them the way.

Larger ecommerce websites may require more than a visitor sitemap. They may need their own product search engine and if your website requires this feature we will include it as well. To add a more professional touch to your ecommerce website we will design one (1) web page that will include a generic yet custom Copyright Statement, Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for your website or if you prefer we will upload your provided Online Notices on this page.

Now that we have the majority of your web design accounted for, we need to turn our efforts to taking your website to the next level - making it a fully functioning ecommerce website. Ecommerce websites require specific modules to make it successful. First, you need to display your products and you will have an unlimited amount of categories and sub-categories with unlimited product potential at your disposal. Then you'll need a way for your shoppers to purchase them.

You have several methods at your disposal for accepting payments. They include Check, Money Order, COD, Credit Cards, or Customer Pickup. Built-in automatic payment processing merchants include PayPal.com, 2 Checkout, and Authorize.net. With auto processing, the customer is taken directly to the merchant and payment is made. To use these merchants, you will need to setup an account with them. Additional fees will apply payable directly to the merchant. Using this feature is optional.You can also accept credit card payments using your own merchant account. Your store comes with a built-in secure server to collect and store credit card details. You can then login, retrieve the data and process it manually through your own merchant account; such as a credit card machine at your store's physical location.

Your ecommerce website will also need to calculate shipping. Thankfully, your setup will come with a built-in calculator for USPS or UPS and it provides real time shipping rates. Other customizable options are also available. For those of you who collect sales tax, an automatic calculation of the amount of sales tax due on a purchase is also configurable. Your ecommerce website will also come equipped with the ability to offer coupons, discounts and store credits. Multiple automatic coupon codes and discounts can be configured. Store Credits allow you to apply a dollar amount to a customer file that they can use during checkout as payment on the order.

For added sales we can setup for you a recommend feature, which allows you to display additional products that you would like to also recommend to your shoppers who may be interested in a particular item. This tool is great for add-on sales! Finally you may want to manage inventory control and print or save product and customer lists. That too is included in your ecommerce website. The ability to maintain your ecommerce website in the future is completely up to you. If you feel confident enough to do it, we can provide you with a step-by-step booklet on how to utilize the various tools within the web-based editing manager. If you feel that you would rather leave it to the professionals, we would be more than happy to work out a proposal based upon your requirements and budget.

It's important that after all of this professional web design that we make sure your ecommerce website renders properly across varying browsers. If it doesn't then your web visitors will simply close the browser window or worse yet make their way to one of your competitors. To prevent this from happening, we will install specific code into your source code to manage website compatibility with Internet Explorer 8. We'll also do the same for Google Chrome.

Once that is complete, we will make sure that your website's source code is validated according to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The W3C guides the development of the internet to ensure that all web technologies are compatible with one another. The effectiveness of your ecommerce website is dependent on whether or not its source code is W3C validated. As a supporter of the W3C, we carefully hand code our websites to ensure they are compliant with universal standards.

If you're lucky enough to have had all of the above features included in your web design, odds are your good luck ends here unless of course your web designer is Jendee Web Design Services. For the sake of simplification, search engine optimization is all about improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via "natural" or "organic" and "algorithmic" methods and we do not charge additional exorbitant fees for this service. How could we? After all, good web designers address most of these items as they are designing your website, if they are designing it correctly that is.

Remember that market research we talked about in Planning and Layout? Well that comes into play here as well because it provides us with the insight needed to develop twelve (12) properly formatted Meta tag attributes. These are used by search engine robots to scan, index, categorize and rank web pages. Earlier we mentioned hand coding your website and that helps us to optimize your source code which removes barriers from the indexing activities of search engine robots. If you recall, in Website Enhancements we mentioned all of the ways we can take your website to the next level, but the truth is all of those scripting languages can bog down the reading and rendering of a web page. To prevent that from happening, we will remove complex scripts from the source code and have them called to action within the web page instead.

In Graphics and Images we discussed the importance of good quality web images. We also touched upon optimizing them. Graphics and images for websites must be carefully optimized to decrease page weight which produces quicker loading times and we know exactly how to strike that careful balance between quality and compression. Search Engines don't like websites that contain spam, deceptive practices or worse yet viruses. The best way to tell a search engine robot that your ecommerce website is "safe" is to have it registered, scanned and verified by Symantec. Websites who receive Symantec's approval are more likely to be visited by people and search engine robots.

Most importantly, we will create a custom robots text to inform search engine robots which directories of a website can be indexed. We will also create a custom XML sitemap, similar to the visitor sitemap mentioned earlier, and this document will tell search engine robots which web pages of a website to index and the last time they were modified. Yes, you guessed it. Every time we modify one of your web pages we will update this file. Finally, we will submit and register these two items with Bing, Google and Yahoo. Once confirmed, these search engines will provide us with special verification tags that we will install into your source code.

You didn't really think we were going to not double check our work, did you? Before "going live" with your website, we will perform a comprehensive proprietary 50-Point Quality Assurance test and correct any minor errors we may have made along the way. By now you know how much we love to talk, or in this case write, but on this subject we don't have much to say except to reiterate one keyword - proprietary. However, you can feel confident that your ecommerce website will not have cross browser or cross platform problems.

Surprise, we're not quite done yet! You need to inform search engines that your ecommerce website is open for business. The best way to do that is to have Jendee Web Design Services manually submit your website to over 25 of the highest rated search engines. This will ensure that everyone who wants to find your store will find it! :) If you require a custom and professional email marketing signature we will be happy to put one together for you at no additional charge. Email marketing signatures get automatically attached to your outgoing emails and act as a powerful marketing tool for your store.

On occasion, we will further your store's reach by including, mentioning and advertising your store to our social network, which currently reaches over 20,000 people daily. If you require further marketing assistance, such as brochures, business cards, banner placement or pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns let us know. There are many cost effective methods of advertising your website and store that we would love to talk to you about.

You should know us pretty well by now. We never leave anything unfinished. We also believe in providing our clients with the best possible experience with their business website. To do this we have to look long term and try to assess what your needs will be long after your website is finally live. Unfortunately, assessment is difficult to do because every business has its own pace and its own amount of information, press releases, etc that it will want to share with the public.

To offer an unlimited amount of website maintenance hours would exponentially increase the cost of web design for all of our clients across the board. Now that's not really fair for small startups who don't need and further can't afford this much service. It's also not fair to not include any maintenance labor hours at all, because at some point every business website will need something modified. So a great compromise is for us to calculate the average amount of annual hours our clients utilize for website maintenance. The magic number is six (6). So we are including, above everything else mentioned, six (6) maintenance labor hours for your first year free with your web design.

Additional hours will be billed separately at $35 per hour and to save you even more money we'll round your website maintenance requests to the nearest quarter hour (15 minutes). Furthermore, we'll provide free content protection by regularly scanning and monitoring the internet to locate infringement of your content and we'll even assist you with removing the duplicated content. How does that sound?