These days, anyone with the right software can call themselves a web designer, so it’s often challenging to separate one-man hobbyists from full-service agencies. Here are a few factors that tend to separate the cheap from the pricey:
1. The size of the team. Obviously, small outfits are cheaper, but really small operations are going to be plagued by people wearing too many hats, or staff that might be jacks of all trades and masters of none. Go with an organization that is too big, and you might be dealing with unnecessary overhead and less personal attention.
2. The amount of hours devoted to a project. Many firms will limit
the number of concepts or revisions that you get. Make sure you know
what that is up-front.
3. The quality of the design/designers. A really seasoned designer, one that has a solid portfolio, and a fine arts degree, is going to charge more for what they do. That said, having a degree does not mean you’re talented, so trust your gut when evaluating a firm’s portfolio. Design is incredibly subjective, so just like buying artwork for your home, pick what you like and what feels like the best reflection of your style.
4. Keep in mind, the amount of content you have for your website, if you will be supplying the images or will After Dark Grafx be taking photos of your products or location for you.
5. Do you need a database created?
6. Is your site going to be ecommerce? And if so, how many products will you have and what advanced options would you like on your shopping cart?
Pricing really depends on many factors. Consider this analogy:
You're in the market for a new car. You phone up a car dealership
and say, "How much for a car?" Before the salesman can answer
he or she needs to know things like... "What kind of car do you
need or want? What are you going to use the car for? What about options?"
Is all that you are really looking for at this point is a price range?
Depending on the different dealerships you contact, you'll get responses
ranging from $10,000 for basic transportation to $450,000 for prestigious
luxury car.
Buying websites is similar to buying a new car in this manner. The
price range varies according to what you want, site function and quality.
In order to give you an accurate price range for your project, we'll
meet with you - in person, online or over the phone - to determine
several key issues like:
- What are your business/website goals?
- How large will your site be? How many pages? How much content?
- Do you require our copywriting services or will you supply copy?
- Do you require the site to be optimized for search engines?
- Will there be dynamic elements like database of products?
- Do you want a content management system so you can make changes
yourself?
- What about marketing? Maintenance? Traffic and ranking analytics?
All of these factors influence our website quotations. Our typical
prices range from $500 for a basic, very well built website. Ecommerce
sites may start from $1,500. Complex database driven sites are often
$3,500 and up. All Custom Built sites are developed to a very demanding
standard.
The time frame is determined by the size of your web site, the complexity of your site design, and our current client design schedule. A fairly straightforward web design project could be completed in as little as 2 to 3 weeks or less. We have worked night and day to develop a few websites in under a week - completed at a premium price. Smaller sites have been developed in as little as 3 business days. A complex site involving a database or ecommerce applications might take several months.
Yes we do. We offer an Initial 30 minute consultation FREE of charge to understand your company and your project. In addition, we also offer more in-depth consultations for a fee to those companies that need help in formulating their e-strategy.
You can contact us and speak to our
Sales Department Toll Free 1-888-578-8300 for more
information.
Please submit additional questions via e-mail.
You may make changes to your website in the following ways:
1) If you had After Dark Grafx initially build your website into a
CRM software, then you can make edits to your website yourself by
following the instructions provided to you upon activation of your
website. If you would like your website built into a system like this,
Please contact us. You can and speak
to our Sales Department Toll Free 1-888-578-8300
for more information.
2) You can access the site with any of the available FTP programs
on the market, download your website, make the changes necessary with
your HTML software OR hand coded and place the files back onto the
server. If you would like a list of programs to use, please contact
us.
Web Hosting (also known as Web site hosting or Web hosting) is the business of housing, serving, and maintaining files for one or more Web sites. In a sense, you rent space on a computer to hold your Web site. Your host, the computer where your Web site files are stored, assigns an address (IP) for your files to your domain name so that anyone can find your Web site on the Internet by typing in your domain name.
I am currently hosted with AnotherFirm.com and would like
to switch over to After Dark Grafx Hosting. How
do I do this?
Just fill out an inquiry and we will
take care of everything. We will transfer your domain name along with
all of your existing web sites content.
We offer turnkey solutions - that means we do all the work for you. We want you to concentrate on what you do best - growing your business. You can contact us and speak to our Sales Department Toll Free 1-888-578-8300 for more information.
Shared Hosting simply means that there are more than one website on a particular server. We never put more accounts on a server than will utilize 50% of it's resources to ensure optimal performance. Dedicated Hosting means that you control a whole server, configuring one or as many websites as you choose on it. Access to Dedicated Servers is gained by either Webmin, a browser based contol panel, or Telnet/SSH. Unless you have a large company with a high traffic website or are a web developer wanting to host multiple websites, a Shared Plan will probably fit your needs. Still have Questios? You can contact us and speak to our Sales Department Toll Free 1-888-578-8300 for more information.
No. Your website will physically be on a server with other websites but only your specific login info will access your website files.
For a smaller sites with little traffic, not so much. Your needs in this case can be met with 100 to 500MB of disk space and 1 to 10 GB of data transfer per month. (Be aware that movie and sound files will eat up a lot of disk space and bandwidth.) If your web site is text-based, you needn't worry about this technical stuff - text takes almost no space at all - not even really big font sizes!
If you're planning to sell something online, you will need Shopping Cart Solution and a secure online payment system. Choosing a large web space with a high bandwidth allowance is a good idea in this case.
In this category, 1GB of disk space or more is advisable. Bandwidth allowance really depends on how many visitors you're expecting and how well you promote your web site. For most sites, 5 to 50 GB should suffice. You can contact us and speak to our Sales Department Toll Free 1-888-578-8300 for more information.
Our graphic design services are varied and comprehensive. We provide logo design, brochure design, hand drawn and computer rendered illustrations, 3D graphics, graphics for web sites, direct mail design, marketing, stationery – including business card, letterhead, envelope, mailing label, and presentation folder design, wide format banners and any other printing your business may require. Give us a call at 1-888-578-8300
We thoroughly discuss the project at hand with our client from the beginning. We encourage the client to bring in any samples, color combinations/swatches, and ideas they may have. During the design process, the client is asked to approve certain milestones before work continues. At the conclusion of a project, the client may request the artwork in various formats.
The client is kept abreast of the progress of their job through our approval process. We present the project to the client at certain stages, or milestones, and wait for approval before we continue work. We find that this process keeps the client involved and prevents any breakdowns in communication. In between these milestones, the client is free to call in to get an update.
A finished project is yours upon receipt of final payment. At your request, we will supply the electronic files to you on CD, Download, or through e-mail. We also keep a copy of your project on file for later updates or should you lose your copy up to one year.
Copyright is yours upon receipt of final payment. We do, however, reserve the right to use any work for promotional purposes.
We first discuss the client's needs, target market, and uses for this logo. We then ask for samples of existing logos that the client likes or dislikes to get an idea of their taste. Sometimes the client already has a design concept in mind. Other times, they have no idea what they want. Either way, our designers make sure they've collected enough information before they begin work. Our logo design service is very flexible. If you'd like to see only a few concepts or if you need many, our service can be priced according to your needs.
We can usually accommodate your rush job depending on how full our production schedule is. To be fair to other clients, if a job already in production is interrupted by a rush job, we reserve the right to add an additional 50% on top of the normal price.
Call us at 1-888-578-8300. We'll listen to your needs and tell you what your options are. A project may seem overwhelming until you have the right experts helping you out. We can put things in perspective and offer solutions that you may not have even considered.
Our apologies, but we do not work with companies dealing in harmful, unlawful, adult, or questionnable material.
Web images and print-quality images are different. They do not look different at first glance, but they are different formats. The web, video, and television use images that are 52–72 dpi (screen resolution). They also use the colors red, green, and blue (RGB) to make up the colors that you see. Printers use the colors cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) to print images and require a much higher resolution (300–1200 dpi) to print with clarity.
Our Web Site Interface Design style is only limited to the requests of our clients. We design for a diverse range of businesses and services and invite you to view our portfolio.
Following discussion on the style and layout you have in mind and the navigation required, we will present an interface option as per your brief plus one alternative for your approval. The interface will have a distinct design to establish your online identity and direct visitors directly to the section of the site they are most interested in.
We anticipate a certain amount of tweaking and corrections at the design stage however as we work at an hourly rate we will discuss costs involved if this exceeds time quoted.
We will require all photos and graphics used within the site in a digital
format (on CD) before we can proceed.
For more information on Web Development or to request a meeting please
contact us.
Yes we do, and ask you to make your requirements known as well as invite you to view our portfolio.
Yes we do. Please view a recent sample of Banner Advertising we have designed.
Yes. We can design your documents such as application forms, catalogues and instruction manuals to name a few. They can then be downloaded from your web site to be printed or can be emailed direct to your clients.
Offset printing is a widely used printing technique where the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate first to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface. Based on the repulsion of oil and water, paper obtains ink from ink rollers, while the non-printing area attracts a film of water, keeping the nonprinting areas ink-free.
Digital printing is a widely used, plate-less system that involves the reproduction of digital images on a physical surface, like a copier. Each cycle of the printer transfers a fresh image – same or different – to the substrate.
If you have a very short run project, i.e. a handful of specialty posters, digital printing is a more affordable, effective option. Because digital printing does not require plates, initial set-up costs are much lower. This is especially the case when your short run project involves 4 or more colors. In addition, digital printing makes it possible to print variable information from print to print, which conventional printing cannot do.
For other projects, offset printing provides many distinct advantages, including:
- Consistent high image quality on short and long run projects
- Usability on a wide range of printing surfaces in addition to smooth paper (e.g., wood, cloth, metal, leather, rough paper)
- Quite simply, the beauty of ink on paper
Process color is a common shortened form of the term "four-color printing process." Process color (and similar terms) refers both to a method of reproducing colored images on printing presses and to the specific ink colors used. Other ways of referring to this printing process include "four color," "CMYK," "full process" and "full color."
The four-color printing process is based on mixing pigments of the four following colors in order to make other colors: cyan, magenta, and yellow, plus black (abbreviated as "K" for "key"). Using black ink provides shadow detail and reduces the amount of the primary colors needed to print dark hues.
Full-color printing relies on qualities of color mixing and human color perception. It is the dominant method of printing that is capable of reproducing a full range of color, required for reproducing color photographs in newspapers, books and magazines.
Web images and print-quality images are different. They do not look different at first glance, but they are different formats. The web, video, and television use images that are 52–72 dpi (screen resolution). They also use the colors red, green, and blue (RGB) to make up the colors that you see. Printers use the colors cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) to print images and require a much higher resolution (300–1200 dpi) to print with clarity.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing the volume and traffic to a web site from search engines such a Google, Yahoo, or Live Search via "natural" ("organic") search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical markets.
As a marketing strategy for increasing a site's relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site's coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Other, more noticeable efforts may include adding unique content to a site, ensuring that content is easily indexed by search engine robots, and making the site more appealing to users. Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO , use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that tend to harm search engine user experience. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques and may remove them from their indexes.
The initialism "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers", a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimization firms may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.
After Dark Grafx builds all custom made websites to be search engine friendly. Even though some of our clients do not wish to have their website optimized for search engine rankings, their websites are built to be search engine friendly in case they wish to have their websites optimized at a later time.
Submitting your website to major search engines like Google and Yahoo, is only the beginning of good promotion. Submittal does not guarantee top or quick placement into search results. A strong promotional campaign requires SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) and Marketing. We can help you to be very successful in promoting your services and in making your website a lead generating mechanism.
You should update your listings in the major Search Engines and Directories (Yahoo, Lycos, Altavista, HotBot, Excite, etc.) if you have made any significant changes to your web site such as: changing your domain name, changing file or directory names, moving pages to different directories, adding or deleting files, or making significant changes to the text on a page for which you want your listing updated quickly. To update your listings with the Search Engines, you can re-submit the URL of your index page and let their spiders 'crawl' through the rest of your site or you can re-submit the URL of each of the pages that has changed. You can delete an old listing for an outdated URL by submitting the URL of the old page once that page has been removed from the web server. When the Search Engine tries to index the non-existent page, it will get a "File Not Found" error and will delete any entries it has for that URL.
It is estimated that over 85% of people use the Internet to search for products or services with the intent of purchasing. SEO makes sure your website has all the necessary criteria to position high in search results. Without a ranking in the top 20, your website has no chance of being found by potential customers.
Each search engine is different. Generally, it takes anywhere from 3-12 weeks for search engines to index (spider) your site.
We submit your web site to the top search engines AltaVista, AOL Web Search, Ask Jeeves, Teoma, Google, HotBot, IWon, Lycos, MSN, NetScape Search, ODP , Yahoo! just to name a few. Then we also add your listing to the regional, industry specific, and international search engine or directories.
Search Engine Optimization can drastically transform the profitability quotient of your business by increasing the visibility of your website and directing targeted traffic to it. Whether you are a pure online marketer and rely completely on selling products or services through web portals or an entrepreneur using the internet as an ancillary tool, SEO is essential for sustained long-term gains. A top-10 ranking as compared to a Top-30 ranking has a considerable difference in the number of visitors to a site. With a Top-10 rank you can expect 300-400 clicks per day for a popular product or category. However, the clicks may reduce to 10-15 only if your website ranking drops from top-10 into the top-30s. The difference is drastic. Proper Search Engine Optimization methodologies can reap great profits for your business when applied effectively.
You can take care of your website and online business yourself provided you have the determination, patience and know-how to handle a search engine market. You also need to be aware of search engine algorithms. So, if you are ready to work consistently on your website and employ the right techniques, you will not need an SEO firm for web promotions. Else, it is best to seek professional help.
After Dark Grafx provides dedicated SEO services in comparison to its competitors. A majority of other firms adopt generic or outdated methods that compromise your rankings. After Dark Grafx employs the latest techniques and believes in a systematic approach customized to meet the requirements of its clients in order to achieve demonstrable improvement in search engine rankings and website visibility.
Search engine rankings are almost guaranteed if you choose After Dark Grafx as your service provider because our experts keep themselves up-to-date on the algorithms adopted by the Search Engines. Results on popular search engines testify to the professionalism and expertise of our consultants. We do guarantee 100% customer satisfaction with regard to improved search engine rankings and have realized top ten listings for 98% of our clientele in the past 5 years.
Paid inclusion is condition where the search engine company charges fees to include a website in their search database. Paid inclusion services are offered by most of the search engine companies. However Google does not offer paid inclusion services.
Results may start appearing within the first month itself in Search engines like MSN and may be also on Yahoo. This is because Yahoo and MSN includes your website quickly in their database listing. Google generally takes a little longer before the results starts appearing.
By optimizing your web site for top search engines, they can index and easily locate it from among the billions of web pages. Nowadays, information seekers don’t waste much time in searching and go no deeper than four or five pages. If your web page is embedded deep in the search results, it is unlikely that any person would visit the page for specific information. So, you need to make your site search engine friendly, and promote the traffic levels and search engine rankings.
Meta tags are vital for good search engine placements. These are HTML codes used to assist some search engines index the web pages.
Meta Keyword tags are used in web sites to achieve top search engine positioning.
Meta description tag is a short summary of the web site that shows up in the search engine results.
Meta tags, Meta keyword tags, and Meta description tags play an important role in search engine page ranking.
SEO tools are used to optimize web sites by improving the available website positioning strategies and enhancing the recent search engine marketing efforts. Some of the SEO tools are keyword research tools, search engine position checkers, link popularity checkers, keyword analysis tools, and Meta tag generators.
Simply put it's the ability to sell products or services online from your website. The shopping cart is a common metaphor (from the original grocery store shopping cart) where a visitor can browse your products and make selections to purchase. Typically, the visitor checks off any products or services that wish to purchase and then simply "Checks Out" by proceeding to a page where information such as billing, shipping and payment method is collected and the order is placed and confirmed.
The technical answer is pre packaged programming that provides a website with the ability to build a catalog of products, build its associated database of characteristics such as size, color, price, weight, product code, technical components, etc. and integrates this into pages on the website to provide a visitor with the ability to browse and purchase is known as shopping cart software.
A business bank account. A merchant account. The name of your business listed on the website. Your products and prices listed on the website. A return/cancellation policy listed on the website. Shipping time listed on the website. Customer service telephone number listed on the website. Privacy statement listed on the website.
An eCommerce website can bring you a host of benefits including access to a global market, greater customer satisfaction, reduced marketing and sales costs, better customer information, and streamlined business processes.
Absolutely - one of the key benefits is that an eCommerce website gives you access to new markets and customers with only a small investment. It's an excellent way for businesses to grow without having to employ sales staff or negotiate distribution deals.
That depends on how complicated the site will be. It's possible to have one up and running in as little at 5 days but usually two to three weeks depending on complexity.
1. Social Security Number or Tax Identification Number
2. Direct Deposit Account and Routing Number (your bank should have
this info)
3 . Average Ticket (Cost of your Most Expensive Product)
4 . Estimate Average Monthly Volume
After Dark Grafx is a certified Merchant Account Provider. Contact us to discuss the options.
A merchant account is the bank account that tracks and transfers all of the monetary transactions that occur through your website. It allows you the ability to accept visa, mastercard, amex, etc. A Merchant Account can be added to your service at any time.
Talk to an After Dark Grafx consultant about ways to setup a merchant account with your banking institution.
Yes we do, from shopping carts to customized information sharing. We have e-commerce packages that start at $29.95. The costs all depend on your requirements. We also offer secure merchant gateways and merchant accounts to transact business in real time with automated fulfillment. Our E-commerce packages can handle any type of electronic processing from credit cards to checks and other electronic transfers.
In order to accept credit cards, you must have a merchant account. When accepting or processing credit cards online, it must be done with the highest security and encryption, using a 128-bit SSL Secure Server Certificate. In addition, payment processing software is used to deposit the funds into your merchant account. After Dark Grafx can provide you with everything needed to accept credit cards online.
The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol has become the universal standard on the Web for authenticating sites and for encrypting communications between users and Web servers. Because SSL is built into all major browsers and Web servers, simply installing a digital certificate or Server ID enables SSL capabilities.
SSL server authentication allows users to confirm a Web server's identity. SSL-enabled client software, such as a Web browser, can automatically check that a server's certificate and public ID are valid and have been issued by a certificate authority (CA) — such as VeriSign — listed in the client software's list of trusted CAs. SSL server authentication is vital for secure e-commerce transactions in which users, for example, are sending credit card numbers over the Web and first want to verify the receiving server's identity.
An encrypted SSL connection requires all information sent between a client and a server to be encrypted by the sending software and decrypted by the receiving software, protecting private information from interception over the Internet. In addition, all data sent over an encrypted SSL connection is protected with a mechanism for detecting tampering — that is, for automatically determining whether the data has been altered in transit. This means that users can confidently send private data, such as credit card numbers, to a Web site, trusting that SSL keeps it private and confidential.
After Dark Grafx can support a wide range of store types including: general merchandise, clothing, music, software, food products, automotive products, books, computer products, etc.
No, PayPal is also a merchant account, once you have one setup with them. The processing fees are usually higher but there is no monthly fee for their service.
"I was a little afraid of computers but knew I had to get my business online. Miva Merchant was so easy to use and After Dark Grafx made the whole process easy for me to understand. No Tech Talk just answers! I love it! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" -- Anna --
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