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Client Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How much will this cost? Building Costs - A website can cost anywhere from $500 to $5,000 and more depending on how much you want to do with it. Many sites can be created for under $2,000. Hosting Costs - These range from $5 a month to $50 a month.Some of the cheaper firms are "here today - gone tomorrow." We can use your current host or recommend one to you for about $100 a year. Domain Name Registration - Annual costs range from $5 - $30 depending on the firm you use. Some of the cheaper companies are much like the hosts described above. (See #3 below). Updating Costs -These are different for every site. At the beginning you will need to decide how much of your content will be "evergreen" (lasting a long time) and how much will be refreshed frequently. Online Credit Card Processing - If you are planning to run an online catalog or accept donations, the best course is to use the services of your own bank. If they do not provide online processing services other reputable firms can cost up to $500 in the first year. This involves a set up fee, monthly charges and small transaction fees. If you already process credit card transactions at your place of business your cost will be much less. Moonshell Productions can work with which ever company you choose. 2. What is a domain name? This is also called your web address or URL. For example our domain name is: moonshell.net 3. What can I do to protect my domain name? Purchase your domain name from a reputable company like Network Solutions and pay the bills yourself. Never leave this up to a website developer. If they leave town your site could be out of service indefinitely or someone could buy your name out from under you. It is very complicated to restore service and almost impossible if your name has been bought by someone. If you pay for multiple years you can save money, but your organization might not remember it, or miss the reminder. You can pay for domain registration through your host as well. Which ever you choose, be sure this is attended to annually, and keep a print copy of your user information. 4. What are my copyright responsibilities? Content used on the internet is protected just like in any other area of publishing. "Fair use" of another author's work only allows for a few phrases or sentences in quotations with a proper reference to the original work. Fair use of recorded music generally includes a "sample" which is essentially one bar or just a few notes which can be repeated. It must be clear that the final composition is substantially new. As the owner of your website you are responsible for providing materials (writing, photography, artwork etc.) that belongs to you unless you have the written permission of the author to use it on your website. Works in the "public domain" include those that are at least 100 years old and have not had copyrights expressly renewed by the author's estate. They are also those works that have been given to the public expressly for free use. The safest course is always to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material. Read more about copyrights and responsibilities at: www.copyright.gov Moonshell Productions uses fully licensed software but from time to time makes use of coding that is freeware or "open source." When these scripts are used they include proper attribution that may not be visible to the ordinary site visitor. 5. What if I don't have any pictures or I need help with the writing? Stock photo sources are available at reasonable rates, but there is no guarantee that you won't see these pictures on someone else's project. Some folks are very good with an inexpensive personal camera to get photos we can make use of. Moonshell Productions can recommend a professional photographer as well as provide fine art or graphic alternatives. Copy writing is also a service provided by Moonshell Productions. Please inquire about help in this area. 6. What exactly does the host do? How is this different than my Internet Service Provider? The host is the company that has the computers that your website files will actually physically sit on. They connect your site to the internet. They provide email services using your domain name in the addresses as well. Internet Service Providers (the company you use to dial up the Internet from your office like AOL, Earthlink or locally Delmarva Online) might also provide all these services. Some clients prefer to keep all their cost in one place. However not all Internet Service Providers have the same level of service for the price that companies who specialize in hosting do. 7. How will search engines find me? Once completed your site will be posted by Moonshell Productions on Yahoo and Google, through their free submission service. This takes several weeks to take effect. Once on these search engines all the rest will find you. You can pay to have your site come up at the top of the list in the sponsored results area of those pages. You will need to make direct arrangements with those companies for this service. 
8. What are those funny names you use to describe the parts of a website layout?Header or Masthead - Standard information at the top of every page. This might include your logo, organization name and address. Footer - Standard information at the bottom of every page. This usually includes a copyright disclaimer and links back to your most basic pages: Home, Site Directory, Contact Us etc. Toolbar or Tools - Standard links to your website. These might be in a list on the right or left of your page or be included as part of you header. Some also call this the website menu. Body - Each web page has its own unique content in the middle somewhere between the other elements. This is the body. Blog or Weblog - A content management system that uses a data base to serve up content. Base Pages & Articles - When you use a content management system like a blog you will have one page that serves up many articles. For example in an events calendar the base page would have a list of events with links to each individual event. Each of those links opens an article devoted to just that event. More Resources
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