Website Maintenance Labs FAQs

General:

Website Update Requests:

Web Site Hosting:

Approval Process:

Website Makeovers:

Design and Programming:

General

What does do?

provides website maintenance, website updates and website design for your small business' web site. If you already have a website for your business, we take care of changing content on it to help you meet your business goals. Simply pick one of our fixed monthly rate plans, and submit Update Requests. Your site will be updated accordingly, with a minimum amount of hassle and expense. Outsourcing your website maintenance provides a significant savings over in house or project based work.

We also offer other services to help you meet your goals, such as Social Media services, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

How is different?

Focus: We're here to provide long term support for your business and web site as a partner. We're not a web design firm who sidelines as a management company. We're built from the ground up to provide small business Webmaster, Website Management, and Website Maintenance service, with our change request workflows, pricing model, ease of communication, and service offerings.

Pricing: We don't work by the hour. We don't care about number or pages, number of words, how many images, etc. By offering our services at a fixed monthly rate, we remove these hassles and expenses.

We update web sites every day. We'd love to get started on yours.

Website Update Requests

What is an Update Request?

An Update Request is a request to change content on your site. Anything that is not design or programming can be included in an Update Request. An Update Request is adding or removing pages, text, photos, videos, links, forms or documents provided by you. An update must be sent to us all at once- as in a single call, email, fax, or Update Request submitted through your Account Dashboard. For example, an email requesting changes to your site can have up to 5 unique changes to text, attachments, and requests to change things on your site. For example, you can ask us to add a new page, edit 3 other pages, and upload 5 new images.

If we perform an update and you think we've made a mistake or misunderstood you, the errors will be fixed immediately as part of the same update.

An Update Request cannot include requests for patches, security updates, design or programming. Design is considered to be altering the overall "look and feel" of your site, or coming up with artwork or custom graphics. Programming is anything other than placing and orienting text and graphics on a page. We'll add new pages to your site, but requests such as adding a blog, new module to a CMS site, adding a shopping cart, etc. will be considered programming.

If your site is built using a CMS (such as Wordpress, Drupal etc) then it will be common to need security patches or functional updates applied from time to time. We happily provide this service to existing clients at $30 per update or patch. Full version upgrades (ie upgrading from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7) are quoted and performed at our hourly rate.

We understand that there is a thin line between "layout" and "design." Decisions concerning updates, and whether or not they consist of design or programming work, will be made on a case by case basis. If you would like design work, please see our Website Makeover service. We may consider offering blocks of design or programming time to our services if there is enough demand.

What information will you need to update my web site?

For basic html sites, we'll need your FTP username and password. You can provide this information to us in your secure account dashboard on this site, or by contacting us.

For more advanced sites, such as a database backed ecommerce site or content management system, we will need a username and password to login to the site directly and make changes. Note that in order to perform updates in the safest way possible (changing content on our own systems, them posting them live when ready), and to provide complete backups for your site and we will need access to the site's database. The easiest way to do this is to provide us access to your web host's "Control Panel."

Why do I have to send my update in a single communication?

Once we receive your update, it is entered into our system and assigned to one of our engineers. If we get another update from you 20 minutes later, work may have already begun and it is difficult to backtrack and compare the two Update Requests to see if they are conflicting with each other. It makes the update process overly difficult and overly time consuming. Therefore, we will consider your second email to be a second update.

If we perform an update and you think we've made a mistake or misunderstood you, the errors will be fixed immediately (as part of the same update).

What if I have the Basic Maintenance or Pro Maintenance Plan and need an additional update during the month?

If this happens, we will contact you before making any changes to your account or performing the update. Additional updates are available individually for $30, or you may upgrade your plan to the Pro or VIP Maintenance plan.

Web Site Hosting

What kind of sites are eligible for Free Hosting?

Free Hosting is offered for basic html sites and simple database driven CMS sites (such as WordPress, Joomla!, or Drupal). If you aren't sure what kind of site you have, please contact us and we'll take a look.

We cannot offer free hosting for sites that require Windows hosting (ASP or .NET) or eCommerce sites that use an SSL certificate. We are able to host these types of sites for an additional fee, please contact us contact us for more information.

If I host my website with , will I still have access to everything?

Of course. We're not here to control anything, but to provide you with excellent service. All of your passwords and IT related details are available securely in your Account Dashboard on this site.

We're not opposed to others working on your site while we're providing management services. You may wish to hire a web design or SEO company to compliment our services, which is fine. We'll coordinate our updates with them to make sure we don't step on each others toes.

Approval Process

How do I request the approval process?

If you are requesting an update through your account on this site, simply check "Approval Requested". If you are emailing, faxing, or calling in your update, you must indicate that you are requesting approval, by mentioning something such as "Approval Requested" or "I want to approve these changes before going live" or put "Approval Requested" in the subject line of your email.

How does the approval process work?

Once we complete your update (on our systems), you'll receive an email letting you know that we're waiting for your approval. Then login to your account on this site, and click the link shown under "Waiting for Approval." If the site/pages were what you were expecting, click "I Approve" and we'll post the update live.

After the first update or two, many of our clients abandon the approval process altogether for the speed and simplicity of having a single email get their site updated.

Website Makeovers

How long does the Makeover take?

The makeover generally takes 7 business days. Since there is some back and forth communication with you, and design decisions being made, the process may be shorter or longer than 7 days. This will also depend on the complexity of your site and how much information it has.

What kind of sites are eligible for the Makeover?

The pricing offered above is only for a basic html site. Currently, we do not offer the makeover plans for dynamic sites with customer logins, shopping carts, blogs, forums, etc. If you aren't sure about your site's eligibility for a Makeover, please contact us and we'll get you an answer right away.

How does the Makeover work?

  1. Choose your update plan, sign up, and enter the Temaple ID you have chosen in your Account Dashboard
  2. We'll present you with the initial rebuild of your site (revision 1)
  3. You may request design and/or content changes
  4. We present you with revision 2 of your site
  5. You may request design and/or content changes
  6. We present you with revision 3 of your site, launch, and enjoy
  7. Makeover complete

In order to keep development costs down and everyone happy, we will only provide 3 revisions of your new site, as detailed above.

Design and Programming

Do you offer design, development, and programming services?

Yes, please see our additional services.