About my services
“If you are looking for a new website, or the redevelopment of an old website to bring it up to date; you have come to the right place. Many of my clients start here, but are worried about the process; not sure what to do. I am here to give you the assurance and information you need. To explain the things you need to know to deliver a great site which will represent your organisation accurately, and help to generate interest for you. “
Navigating the Maze
If you have decided to either look for a new website, or are considering redeveloping your existing website then you will be familiar with some of the potentially high costs involved. Some commercial companies will charge over £1000 for a small website, and charge more than £100 a year to host it.
This can represent a barrier to entry to many organisations. You may have the added problem that nobody in your organisation knows anything about web design, development, maintenance, hosting and email. Can you even specify what you need? Will it meet all of your requirements? In addition to the initial expenditure are there any potential unknown costs after the site has been delivered? Who is going to edit it? If you go back to the developer, some charge £70/hr.
In a Nutshell
If you want to be in control of your site, manage it, and edit it without any special tools, then WordPress as an open source solution that may be worth considering. The costs associated with hosting and the development of the site are not very high, and maintenance and updating can be managed at little to no additional cost. All editing is done through a web browser, if you know what a web browser is, and you know what a Word Processor is (e.g. Microsoft Word) then you already have the skills to edit your site.
I also provide access to a services website where there is a lot of information on editing sites including video tutorials, and articles about how to set up mail, how to troubleshoot problems and ideas on saving costs and fundraising through your site. This resource is available 24 x 7 online. So like the majority of my client base, you do not need to be an expert, just keep an open mind, and take each step at a time, initially guided, but eventually you will find that much of the world of the web and small office IT runs like a utility. It does not need constant attention.
Services
There are a number of different ways Wingrove-Media can help you. The following reflects the typical projects that I handle on a day to day basis.
Site Transfer
If you have an old website that is in need of a facelift, or it is costing you a lot of money to keep it updated, or perhaps you have forgotten how to update your site; then transferring your site to WordPress may be a solution for you. This will give you the opportunity to keep what is valuable from your existing site and bring it up to date in a flexible and easy to edit framework placing you back in control.
New Sites
If you do not have a website, and are not sure where to start, most of the groups I work with have been in a similar position. By applying a few simple rules it is easy to create a basic extensible framework to allow you get started. You may add pages later as your needs change, or you can come back to me and I will help you develop the website further. Unless there are special requirements the majority of components used are free, you pay for the development time taken to put the site together and test it.
Off the Shelf Sites
Primarily aimed at supporting selected charities I can offer “out of the box solutions” for Home-Start and NACCC regional charities. These sites respectively describe the organisations in a generic way and each is customised and localised for the region where the charity is operating. This is a very cost efficient way of getting your organisation on the web quickly using branding from the parent organisation. Costs for a new site start at £220.
This concept is also available to other charities that operate regional offices through out the UK. Contact me to find out more. Off the shelf sites can start as low as £220 and contain everything you need to get started.
Managed Hosting
Part of the package available includes hosting for the website and email. This provides a turnkey solution for most people that do not want to be responsible for setting up their own sites and email.
I offer high performance hosting that is optimised for WordPress websites. The hosting and all of the data is hosted in the UK. All sites are checked periodically and report back to a central email address on activity and security messages.
Where I have designed and built your website and you are hosting with me; sites are backed up once per week on an eight week rolling cycle. The backups are retained off hosting. I take responsibility for getting you back on line if something goes wrong. I also keep the infrastructure of your website up to date. You are responsible for the content in your site.
DIY WordPress
Not everyone is looking for someone to build a site. I will also host self build sites. The way this works is I provide a block of hosting and install WordPress and then you can run from there. This minimises your ongoing costs to just the hosting annual fee.
In this case you are responsible for your website security, maintenance and development.
Add on accounts
In some cases people may wish to run other services or second websites. If you have your main website with me, I can provide a second isolated account at a reduced cost for add on sites such as CRM systems you may also need.
Shared Development
I have three example websites where I have acted as a consultant to a set of volunteers. Many small organisations have only small levels of discretionary budget and large websites. From time to time these will need updating. In several cases over the last 4 years I have worked with a small group of volunteers and trained them on editing. This enabled them to take a cloned copy of their current site, place it in some temporary hosting and rebuild it with my help. Using this model you can get a brand new up to date site, and the process also carries the benefit that your volunteers are trained to a higher level of skill to carry on with updates and maintenance. Contact me for more details.
