Okay, so maybe that title's a little much. While what we do isn't really unique, how we do it is. I'm proud of our accomplishments and stand by our services, but I know that Firewind Productions is a little fish in a great big pond.
There's a lot of website designers out there. However, there's also a lot of misinformation out there. What do you believe? Who do you trust? What company will really give you the value you're looking for in a website?
You could dig deep in your pockets and go with a large, multi-national website development company. For example, Firespring. Formerly known as Digital IMS, Firespring is a website provider that largely markets mostly to the sign & printing industries. They've been around for awhile and have some pretty compelling packages -- or at least that's how things appear on the surface. Let's take a look at their sign industry marketing site, SignPresence, and see what they have to offer.
First, let's talk about the pluses of going with a large multi-national. Unlimited tech support & customer support. You can update your website as often as you want. Industry-specific marketing tools. A website that comes with a bunch of content already pre-loaded, so you don't have a lot of work to do. Website setup in 10 days. Sounds great, huh?"
Well, wait a minute. You can pick from eight pre-designed templates, or have a custom-designed site -- for a fee. You have to go with the website colors and logo placement from the templates, or you can pick different colors -- for a fee. You can update your website instantly, as often as you want, right? Well, sort of. You can update your "blog section" (called "Hot Off The Press") but you're limited to a certain number of main pages that are set up when the site is designed. Want more main site pages? That'll be another fee. Want a new rotating banner for your front page? Whoops, another fee. Want a favicon (a 16 pixel x 16 pixel graphic that shows up in your browser's bookmarks)? That'll be $50. Need another domain name? $50. What's $50 here and $150 there, anyway?
That's enough talk about fees (even though there are others). Let's talk about prices. For their "full-featured" sign website, you'll talking $1,500 for the initial setup and $150/month. For their "full-featured" printing website, you'll shell out $6,000 for the initial setup and $300/month. Ouch. That works out to an investment of almost $10,000 for your first year! That's a pretty big chunk of money, but it's worth it, right? Well, let's give them the benefit of the doubt for a bit. Let's see what they have to say about custom website developers like Firewind Productions:
SignPresence offers you a fully-functional website with hundreds of pages of content already developed for you. It would take you weeks to gather the information you receive instantly with our solution. A website with this content, functionality and customer tools would cost you at least $5,000. That doesn't include any content changes you want to make to your site. A web developer will charge an hourly fee for every change made.
Wow, that's an unfortunate characterization. According to Firespring, you can't get a custom website without shelling out $5,000 and paying outrageous hourly fees when you need to update your site.
Well, we beg to differ. Our Big Easy Package ($899/yr) gives you a fully functional, custom designed website that you can update as often as you want, whenever you want, however you want. We go the extra mile during the design & development period to make sure that you have all of the content your website needs to get started -- custom content specific to you, not a bunch of extra pages common to every other Firespring customer's website, but real, unique, valuable content that gets your visitors excited, content the search engines just love to get their jaws into.
But that's just the starting point. You can create an unlimited number of articles, an unlimited number of main website pages, an unlimited number of polls, links, and other content. You can upload photos, music, videos, and other rich media to your heart's delight -- you'll get more space as your site grows. You can easily accept safe file uploads from your site visitors -- up to 100MB at a time. Yes, you can change your site -- you don't need to pay me to do it! What's more, you can edit and update your website as easily as working in your favorite word processing program. As your site grows, you can upgrade to other packages and add features as you need them. No hidden fees, no content police.
Let's see what else Firespring has to say about custom developers like us:
Web developers generally have a development cycle of 60-90 days. Then when it's time to update your content, you can expect at least 24 hours if not more. With SignPresence you or your staff can make changes anytime, from anywhere with internet access. You can have your new products and services listed instantly.
Firewind Productions does have a normal site design & development period of two weeks to a month or so, but we also offer a rush service where we can develop and launch your website within ten days, guaranteed. When you want to update your site, you can do it yourself, on your own website, instantly. You don't need to pay me to do it, and there are no hidden fees, period.
Wait, they're not done with their awful characterization:
A web developer will charge you for any changes made to your website, and within 18 months your site technology would be completely outdated. SignPresence listens to feedback from our client network and regularly updates the technology, features and functionality as part of your monthly service package. Regularly, we add new designs so you can get a new look for a very reasonable price.
We don't charge you for changes to your website content (but I already said that). What about technology, the backbone of your website? Let's talk about the nuts & bolts. Firewind Productions is constantly working to improve our site packages and services. We're always working, behind the scenes, to ensure that your site is up and working beautifully. We're constantly adding new features (at no cost to you). We maintain a strong link to the open source development community, so that our website packages always have the highest level of security and new features. Your yearly subscription includes these security and feature upgrades, so you don't have to worry about your site technology becoming outdated. Furthermore, we also offer new site themes and layouts for a reasonable price -- not cookie-cutter templates, but a completely custom redesign.
But wait, let's talk about support. What good is a powerful, dynamic website if you don't know how to use it?
Many web development companies walk away after the sale, or charge you an hourly fee for any support you may need to keep your site updated. With SignPresence you will have a team of experts ready to tackle your toughest questions. Receive unlimited training and a 24-hour online support area to answer your questions when you need them answered.
Your No Worries Website from Firewind Productions includes personal phone/email tech support from yours truly or one of my skilled subcontractors. I also make myself available for personal, one-on-one training at your location, or even classes for your entire staff. There are no hourly fees for website training/tech support, period.
One more thing. What about your content -- the information you post to your website? You own that, right? Many big website companies don't think so. From Firespring's Order Terms (and I quote):
By submitting this form, (I)(we) accept a non-exclusive license to use the design, text and other content comprising the PrinterPresence website for so long as Firespring provides (me)(us) the website and related services. After that period, (I)(we) will no longer have the right to use the design, text or other content.
Double, triple ouch. They're basically saying that you can use their templates and other website content as long as you're paying them, but if you want to take your website elsewhere, you lose all rights to everything you've posted to your website. They're also saying that your design isn't exclusive to you. They can resell it to as many other websites as they want. Nice, huh?
At Firewind Productions, we would rather you stay with us because you want to stay with us, not because you have to. In the unfortunate (and unlikely) event that you decide at the close of your contract to take your site elsewhere, we give you an exit clause (clearly laid out in our Terms of Service) that gives you full rights to all content you post to your website, and the custom website design we come up with for you during the Design & Development period. That kind of freedom is unheard-of in this industry. It makes the big companies nervous.
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