Our Say…

Renu’ Skin Care & Day Spa, located in Harnett County, just 40 minutes from Raleigh, outside of Dunn, NC has gone from this:

Old Design

To THIS!!!!

Brand new design!

I’m going to take a moment and take the stand on one of my primary problems with WEB DESIGN companies everywhere.

To say this particular issue makes me a bit hot under the collar is an understatement.

Let’s start with the basics.

When you have a web site (aka a domain www.mydomain.com), you need to have it hosted online so that people can view your web site.

Simple.

You buy a house (a domain) but you will have to put that house somewhere (a host is the somewhere you put your house.)

There are about a gazillion hosts out there for you to choose from and if you aren’t technically inclined, the choices are overwhelming.

So, the next question is: How do you choose a host that’s going to be the best fit for your needs?

Here comes the part that really makes the idealist in me just want to shout “UNFAIR!!!”.

There are web design companies that provide hosting services along with their design services.

That’s great and fine but when I see the PRICE that they are charging people, who are depending on them to guide them in the right direction, to help them spend their money or help them SAVE as much money as possible, I do not know how they can look themselves in the mirror and be okay with this particular practice.

Their customers are paying almost DOUBLE than what is necessary for about 60% of the businesses out there that need a web site.

Sure, I don’t have a web design business because I’m a complete altruistic idealist, but I do have ethics and very high standards on what I am willing to do and what I’m not willing to do, as a business.

I’d like these companies to justify WHY they are charging around $150.00 per year for “hosting services”.

Especially, when I can sign our clients up with a host that has more bells and whistles than most web sites will actually need, that has stellar customer service, and has been around for more than 10 years for less than half that per year!

Are these web design companies pocketing your extra money for going to the “trouble” to provide hosting services to you???? Or is there some magical hidden extras that you are getting for that extra money? For those company’s sakes, I hope they are getting something pretty special for that extra bit of money.

The economy is not great. Every business, especially smaller businesses, are having a difficult enough time making ends meet and staying in business.

They do not need a web design company that comes in and takes advantage of them and tries to take a “cut” off of every aspect of what they are doing for the company they are “helping”.

Down in the Harnett County area, there are TWO web design companies that are charging just that: $150.00 per year, for hosting.

Signing you up for a host takes approximately 10 minutes.

Here is what one site tells you what you receive for that $150.00 per year hosting, PAYABLE UP FRONT:

The company that we have used for over 10 years offers these different plans:

Space	500MB	1GB	2GB	5GB	7GB
Mysql DB	5	10	15	20	25
Addon Domains *	5	10	15	20	25
Email	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited
Dedicated IP	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Bandwidth	10GB	15GB	20GB	25GB	30GB
SSH	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
PHP 4 or 5	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
MYSQL	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Mailing Lists	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Awstats	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Spamassasin	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
FTP Accounts	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited
Imap	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Parked Domains	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited
Subdomains	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited
Email Forwarding	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes

I’ll step off my soapbox for now.

Renu’ Skin Care & Day Spa wanted a redesign and I’ve got it nailed down and it’s almost ready to launch! I love it and she loves it.

I don’t know who is more excited about it though: me or her!!!!

We’re also in the process of designing (Kevin does the print stuff) a logo for her own personal line of skin care and make up products.

We are always looking for places to go and things to do out in the community and we decided to check out Cary’s Lazy Crazy Days in Downtown Cary this past Saturday.

We arrived and found parking (good luck with THAT!), and made it in time to hear a bit of the Cary High School Band perform and watch the performance of the Cary High School Floor Element.

I don’t have a teenager in high school right now but when my oldest was in school, going to the school games and functions was always a lot of fun. They have such dedication to what they’re doing and it’s refreshing to see so much enthusiasm.

We had the chance to watch a performance by the Cary High School Floor Element at the Lazy Crazy Days in Cary on Saturday.

This girl, on the right, in particular, did an OUTSTANDING job. You could tell that she was completely enjoying herself and what they were doing. If she was nervous, she hid it well.

This young lady, as well, did a wonderful job.

Part of the flag routine.

Members of the Cary High School Band.

While we were there, we also happened to find the Shadow Players Stage Combat Group going rehearsing. My daughter was especially taken with them.

Rehearsal before their show of the day!

Erica was ENTHRALLED with their practicing.

Cheralyn Lambeth aka Caitlin Stewart aka pirate 'Killdevil Cate'

Michael Wengenroth aka pirate Sebastian Bellamy

Steve Whetzel aka pirate Mantise Sevalle.

From left: Steve Whetzel & Michael Wengenroth

Even during their practice session, they were not too busy to stop and take a photo with Erica. She loved it! Thanks everyone!

It was great to see all the vendors but it would have been nicer if everything was not so smushed together. It was hard, with all the people, to actually get in and look at the Vendors booths that were there.

In the end though, I think it was a success for them and we really enjoyed going out and spending time at the festival.

Google and the other search engines have very sophisticated ranking engines and if they find “fake” pages that your web designer has advised you to put on your web site because they say the MORE information you have, the MORE keywords you have, the BETTER.

Google will actually penalize your website and you will continue to find your web site ranked at the bottom of the heap.

The only way to get higher rankings is to have a web site that contains information that is relevant no matter what day it’s read or by who reads it. In other words: REAL CONTENT and lots of it.

Please don’t be fooled into bad online advertising tactics.

As a business owner, we have several options to choose from in how we get the word out to the consumers about the services or products we earn our living from.

And after working in the newspaper world for so long, knowing the prices for both print and internet, they are not cheap and you are penalized if you don’t sign a long term contract, that forces you to spend a certain amount every month.

As a small business, we can’t afford that type of advertising at this point. The best prices for advertising on the internet, I’ve found, are at The Daily Record. Funny, it’s located in Dunn but has viewers (over 12,000 unique visitors per day) from Raleigh, Fayetteville, the local areas it serves, and out of state readers. For a small town newspaper, their internet is doing very well.

We’ve placed an internet tile ad (300×300 pixels in size) to run for a month, for under $40! Without having to sign a contract.

After the month is up, we’ll see if it produces any results but at a time when budgets are at their tightest, it pays to check out all your options.

Having a web site is your first step but if nobody knows you HAVE a web site, it’s not going to help you at all.

Several of our customers are also having great results from other targeted marketing campaigns that we have underway.

Before you decide that you should be in the yellow pages or in the newspaper or any other special publication, make sure you check out the more unconventional options that are free or have more manageable fees per month and also can prove that you are getting results from the service.

After a complete redesign of our own web site, we can now refocus our efforts and proceed forward with all of the other projects.

This is a Wordpress blog. I think using Joomla or Drupal here would have been a bit of overkill.

The design is a premade template that is provided as the default design by Wordpress. I’m in the process of tinkering with a different design now.

We received a lovely customer testimonial today:

“Tree Time Design completely re-designed Still Meadow Village Apartment’s website and I couldn’t be more satisfied with the outcome! I was kept updated on any changes or modifications and they really listened when I told them what I wanted. My account was handled quickly and professionally. Thank you Renee & Kevin! And best of luck in the future.

Sincerely,
Paula Heath, Manager”

How cool is that? We’re always thrilled with happy customers.

Welcome to the TTD Playground!

This is going to be about anything we want to post. That’s the beauty of a blog.

I plan on doing some critiquing of the places we go to eat out, services in the area, and other stuff.

Kevin? He’ll be on here doing his own thing as well. There’s no telling what that will entail but it should be interesting.