Website Creation Procedures

There is a lot of work involved in finding out what a website client wants and needs and collating that information before one bit of website development is started. The following exchange demonstrates a portion of the conversations that could occur between a website design company and a new business owner wanting a website (or in this case 3). Its important to point out that on top of this conversation a full project proposal was completed and two meetings conducted before work commenced. The conversation also demonstrates the initial limited information request for a website quote and how much information is actually required before a quote can be given.
[Business Manager] I recently started up a small business and was simply wondering if you would be able to give me a quote on building 3-4 websites please. The first would be an ecommerce website, the second a graphic designer’s portfolio website, And the third a main company website for the whole business. The fourth website is still a possibility but I am undecided on it’s exact content.
Would you be able to send a copy of the quotes to myself please?
[Delicious Webdesign] We will be glad to give you an idea of what you will need for your 3-4 website project.
Due to the general nature of your request I can give you a general / ballpark figure or estimate of what you are looking at, as you are thinking of multiple sites you will qualify for a ‘multi-site discount’, you will be pleased to know.
Ecommerce sites – vary enormously and you can have a site that sells 3 things that never change and we can apply one solution or you can have a full ecommerce solution that has full back end database and admin functions to allow you to control your store and stock. estimated cost £1500 – £4000. Happy to give you some example ecommerce websites that we have developed.
Static business brochure sites (suitable for a porfolio site you mentioned) comes in 4 sizes and they are detailed here depending on your exact requirements >>
https://www.delicious-webdesign.com/business-website-choices.html
estimated cost £399 – £1299
We can give you a healthy discount for multiple site and think it would be valuable to have a chat about your plans for your business and how we can ensure this is a success for you. There is loads to consider at this early juncture and will need to chat to you to tell you more about the process and whats involved and to get a better idea of your requirements.
[Business Manager] I am not able to call you to speak further about my plans tonight, however you can probably expect the call tomorrow. I hope some of these examples of the sort of thing I was hoping for. For the graphic design portfolio site, something like this (website example) only with pages that have other designers, who are on my team.
The E-commerce shop website I hoped would be something like this: (website example) in terms of the number of pages and the way in which the site has been set up, however I had a more modern look in mind and 1 that has a similar style to the main company brand site.
The main company brand site is sometthing I need to explain if you need more information because I can’t find a suitable example. It is a rather simple site though. I will fill in your website project specification questionnaire.
[Delicious Webdesign] Thanks for the completed questionnaires, this is looking a real interesting ‘brand’ building multiple website design project. Here are some further questions, assumptions and points before we give you some quotations:
Graphic Design Portfolio website.
Each designer requiring a page and a gallery / portfolio of their work, which will make the page total between 10-15
Initial Impressions: Need small amount of webcopy (5 pages?) on a Standard Business brochure website.
E-commerce website
State that you would outsource the webcopy here but what would be required as this is an ecommerce site and you would probably need to provide the standard ‘about us’ ‘company history’ and product info on each product.
Initial Impressions: Full ecommerce solution (allowing you full stock / site / admin control of your customised jeans) With a Blog and SEO project
Main Company Website
Can we see your logo? assume its blue / white like the site colours you want
Initial Impressions: for your requirements here is for a 10 page CMS Website (website that you can update and maintain yourself, – can add pages, alter the menus by yourself also)
Assumptions:
You are responsible for the webcopy
You will be creating heading banners / Logos for the sites
Galleries of work are required for each design on portfolio site
Images / text provide where appropriate
You have the domain but havent it hosted anywhere yet
All sites Targeted at UK Market
Points to Think about:
1, You mention 3rd Party advertising (assuming you want google ads on your site) I wouldn’t recommend this for new sites as even popular sites dont gain much from this, example a site with 5000 visitors per month and the income from ads is only about £20 per month.
2, the ecommerce site domain names you suggested are taken but two others are available, we Would need you to sit down with our designer to get a graphical representation of what you want for the ecommerce site
3, The ecommerce site has the potential to list / stock / display thousands of products in multiple categories and gives massive room for expansion but if you were only to have a few products, that dont change and have a firm cost then we would suggest selling online via a paypal cart option which would work out cheaper for you.
4, All three sites can be started together at anytime but a priority list would be required
5, In terms of development effort / time the ecommerce one would take longest, the other two would be a similar development time (for interest here is the development lifecycle https://www.delicious-webdesign.com/web-design-process.html )
Good stuff
CMS, Blogging and Ecommerce website applications used will be industry leading solutions.
As you will have multiple sites I will apply a discount on hosting in the 2nd and subsequent years
All sites hosted in UK (award winning fast / reliable / modern) servers.
[Business Manager] The graphic design portfolio site has changed slightly, I have decided to remove 2 of the designers, and now it will only be 2, and as they are both starting Off they don’t have a huge amount of work to advertise. 1 or 2 pages each would be enough, in my mind each designer’s page would have small pictures of each piece of work, and when a visitor hovers the mouse over the work it enlarges, if that is possible. I don’t intend to have much web copy at all for this site, More images than anything. As stated earlier just a simple design is fine.
If it is possible for the ecommerce site, I wanted to start off with a smaller amount of stock and on a monthly basis for example, update the stock and probably add more to it. I have registered the domain but I haven’t hosted it. Photos of stock is something I can supply myself in time,
And I have modelling shots lined up and I will supply you with those shortly as well, but the design of the site in terms of menu and the general design, is something I will have to discuss with your designer. I can supply the web copy on company history and the ‘about us’ if it is easier, or if you want, I can give you the details.
The product info is something that I can do as well, as many of the product to start with will be designed by me and my team, and I will Know more about the product.
I can send you the logo, it will be a jpeg format if that is ok, it wont be with this email however, as it is saved on a different drive. It is blue and white, just a simple logo, may update in time, but I will keep the basic colours and style.
Most of your assumptions are correct, the logo I may need some help on, and the name for the portfolio site still hasn’t come to me, apart from that, everything else is correct.
I agree with your point about 3rd party advertising, so I will leave that one out. The stock list again, will probably start off low, as I will only really be selling customised clothing for the first month or so, and I aim to gradually add more, therefore the paypal cart system makes sense to me and I agree, but perhaps in the future, we can add more payment options.
I have had a look at the development process and I agree with it, in terms of priority website wise, I believe it will probably be the following
E-commerce, Main Company Website then the Portfolio website.
However there is a possibility it may change, but that is the probable order.Thank you and hope to hear from you soon
[Delicious Webdesign] I would say its best if you don’t buy any more domains as we may have to transfer then and sort out the hosting and sometimes hosting companies charge to transfer away domains (what company have you registered the domains with ?) As soon as we get your go ahead we can register / transfer all 3 domains.
The big decision in this email is the decision to go full ecommerce or brochure site with ecommerce.
The brochure website with ecommerce can be created easily and quickly and upgraded at a later date but all items / prices are hardcoded and each button is created separately so if you intend to create lots of products in time and want full control / reporting and admin of the ecommerce side then it would make sense to go for this option
More info about the ecommerce admin side:
The Administration Tool is used to configure the online store, insert products for sale, administrate customers, and process orders. The Administration Tool is protected by a login mechanism which only allows verified administrators to login and to administrate the online store. You can use paypal initially (for free) and then if business takes off you may want to get an Internet Merchant Account (monthly fees incurred here)
[Business Manager] I believe that the brochure site with ecommerce sounds like it suits me more. All the points about the brochure site match what I am after.
I will try to send you my logo for the company brand later today,  hopefully this will help you in choosing a style that compliments the logo with it.
[Delicious Webdesign] Ok great, so your ecommerce site will be a static brochure site with added ecommerce functions. If this is the case and you realise that the products need to be put on the site by us, by creating paypal buttons from your paypal account then we can do this with a standard business brochure site, if you want to be able to change these buttons you can do it with a CMS system website where you have the potential to change your products yourself, otherwise we are happy to maintain your website going forward (standard website maintenance changes will apply)
Logo style always dictates what the site looks like and look forward to seeing what you have got.
[Business Manager] I hope you got the logo I sent you, is that any help towards the style you may have had in mind? The brochure website with added ecommerce sounds fine, with the paypal buttons. I was just wondering, with this system I assume I can still delete certain products, or would I need the CMS system for that?
[Delicious Webdesign] To delete the products that we setup with a brochure website yourself you would need this to be on a CMS webpage, alternatively you can ask us to delete it for you.
[Business Manager] I will try sending it again later today, I sent the logo and a possible business card template. I believe it was in a photoshop or Jpeg file, a sent it on Friday evening from my other email address if it helps.
The reason I would want to delete certain products is because after I run out of stock in that item I may not want to continue selling the product and therefore will want to delete the product, do you think this would be easier to do myself with the CMS or ask you to do it? I would preferably
Want the control myself but if it is an easier and cheaper process for you to do it, then the other choice would probably be better.
[Delicious Webdesign] It depends on the number and amount of products you envisage you need to add / change and delete, if you had a full ecommerce system you can set stock levels and add / remove as you see fit, if you have a cms site you can add the buttons and delete them yourself and if you have a static business brochure site we can do this for you, we can delete buttons in about 10 mins for you once you email us the instruction.
[Business Manager] Ok, the logo is still just a draft, but I think it will look very much like that, if you have any problems let me know. Well I think that the static business brochure site sounds the best option for me, but if say after 6 months I find I need the CMS system is it possible to update it, or is it, once it’s static, it’s static for good?
[Delicious Webdesign] Yes after any time the site can be upgraded / updated to be a CMS site and then it can be updated to a full ecommerce site also if you decide that is the best route for you.
If you have a static site we can update it for you (normally takes no more than a few hours)
Just got your other email, regarding meeting up, good idea and happy to meet at any time, why dont we meet on a Saturday to save yourself having a day off?
[Business Manager] Ok that sounds like the right choice for me then. I can’t do this Saturday I’m afraid, I am a bit busy the next one too, and I’m going away the next!  If your available in three weeks on Saturday that would be good for me, I know it is a bit far away so circumstances might
Change, but the 18th is probably the soonest weekend I’m afraid
[Delicious Webdesign] Ok, things we could do before meeting on the 18th include:
1, We can transfer the domains and sort out the hosting
2, We can purchase any new domains and sort out hosting etc
3, If you give us guidance notes for the webcopy that could be started
Updated site overview:
Graphic Design Portfolio website.
Each designer requiring a page and a gallery / portfolio of their work, which will make the page total about 14 ish.
Need small amount of webcopy (5 pages?) on a Standard Business brochure website.
Static (or CMS site) with E-commerce
A standard site with paypal ecommerce
Company main website – 10 page CMS Website (website that you can update and maintain yourself, – can add pages, alter the menus by yourself also)
Updated Assumptions:
Sites all can be upgraded standard brochure brochure site  > CMS site > ecommerce site
SEO projects can be performed at any time.
You are responsible for the webcopy
May need webcopy created for Graphic designer portfolio
Need a domain name for Graphic designer portfolio
You will be creating heading banners / Logos for the sites
Galleries of work are required for each design on portfolio site
Images / text provide where appropriate
You have purchased the domains
All sites Targeted at UK Market
Logos received
Photos of stock to be sent
Priority site order 1,E-commerce 2,Main Company Website 3,Portfolio
Deposit can be paid via bank transfer / cheque / paypal
Previous Domain Registrar access provided to transfer domains.