Armadillo Studios is excited to announce we have now adopted “Paypal”:https://www.paypal.com as a new form of payment for all of our client transactions.

Not that this is a relatively new concept, but in effort to improve our clients bottom line and our own; we are excited to give our clients this avenue of payment. While, we will still accept the tradition methods or payment; here are some of the benefits to our clients by using Paypal.

# *Convenience and Speed* – Instead of mailing or arranging a time for a drop off, you can now pay the remainder of your invoice online through any major bank account or credit card.
# *Take Advantage of your Credit Card* – We understand that finances with small businesses or start-ups can be a rocky road, but with Paypal you can now clear your invoice instantly through your Credit Card. Even better you can use this transaction to gain some valuable Business Reward points for Travel or other expenditures.
# *Paperless Transaction* – In this green age, sometime it’s nice to do all that we can for the environment. While this won’t dramatically change the world, this is something we can do to limit the amount of Paper used in a transaction. Because Paypal is an online transaction, you will receive an email detailing the entire transaction.
# *Security* – Paypal is an “industry leader”:https://www.paypal.com/ca/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Merchant/popup/WaxAboutPaypal-outside and an internationally renowned client for secure transactions.

Starting February 1st, Armadillo Studios will be implementing Paypal as a new method of payment. If you would like to move forward with this form of payment for all transaction, please contact us.

Welcome to the final installment of our “Shopping for a Web Site? Series”:http://blog.armadillostudios.ca/article/shopping-for-a-web-site-part-1.

This week, we’re finally getting down to the quantitative issues of Web Site building. We’re going to be talking about potential time lines for building Web Sites and also ‘other’ costs associated with building a Web Site.

So let’s get started.

5. How Long Does it take to Build a Web Site? I Need Mine Up Tomorrow!

Again, we’re going to be very vague with our answer, but on average it’s going to take a few weeks or a couple of months to go live with a web site.

We understand your outrage at the moment, but hear us out.

The reason the process takes so long is two fold.

First, _web design_ is a complex art. Building a web site is never as simple as _I need five pages and I want it to be green_. The smallest error or set of changes can take hours of troubleshooting to resolve. The layout design process alone takes hours. There are dozens of aspects that need to be considered with every design decision. Far more than you’ll probably expect. Things like font size, the color of links, and compatibility with older browsers.

Secondly, a good designer will include their client’s opinions and suggestions into the design process. This whole process of feedback, drafts, alterations and meetings unfortunately takes time. Not that it is anyone’s fault; setting up meetings, writing content, making revisions are all time consuming activities.

We suggest that when you start the process of looking to build a web site keep these two items in mind. It will greatly help with the process and also allow for a good working relationship with your web designer.

Just understand that the entire process takes time and that being prepared before hand will speed things up.

*Armadillo Tip*: _Some companies will have a RFP (Request For Proposal) that will provide you with an idea of the information and questions that your web designer will need to get started. It’s a good idea to use this tool before your first meeting._

_If you want to get an idea of what a designer may ask you feel free to “download and use our RFP”:http://blog.armadillostudios.ca/file_download/7. It will provide a basic understanding of the types of questions a web designer/studio is going to ask you._

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6. What Other Costs Should I Plan For?

There are four major costs associated with a building a web site.

1) Web Domain Registration. _$10-15 per year per address_
2) Web Hosting _$100-$250 a year for basic packages_
3) Web Site Development and Design _See our first tip in “part 1”:http://blog.armadillostudios.ca/article/shopping-for-a-web-site-part-1 for more info_
4) Stock images, extra fonts and potentially copywriting services.

Now, some studios and some designers include registration and hosting in their initial set-up fees. While smaller ones, like Armadillo Studios, do not.

The reason for this is that Web Hosting is a completely different animal that straight Web Design. So, many smaller companies will stay away from this venture. Web Hosting involves far more technical, security and database support than most companies are willing to take on.

In our experience we highly recommend two companies for all your hosting and domain registration needs:

1) “Domainsatcost.ca”:http://www.domainsatcost.ca for Canadian and General Domain registration.
2) “Dreamhost.com”:http://www.dreamhost.com/rewards.cgi?conturner for all Web Site hosting. (Plus Dreamhost includes “free customized Gmail support”:)

You might also need to be aware of the potential cost of *Stock Photography*, *Custom Fonts* or even the services of a *Copywriter*.

Now, we understand that these are costs which most people won’t even think about, but they are critical to the entire process. If you want to make your web site standout above your competition, you will need to use all the tools at your disposable. That includes the best fonts and the best images.

A perfect font or a perfect photo that encompasses the vibrancy of your business will push your web site into a different stratosphere. Unfortunately, most designers will only have a limited collection of fonts and photos at their disposal. So they might have to add an additional cost for purchasing a font for your web site. In addition, that perfect photo might have to come from a stock photography company (i.e. Veer.com or Istockphotos.com) while these costs are some what unexpected, using these images will cost far less than hiring a professional photographer to capture that exact same image.

The final cost that might appear during the process is the services of a Copywriter.

Copywriters are professional writers that provide custom content for your site. While we all would love to believe we can eloquently write our own content, sometimes your content is better left for the professionals. In those instances a Copywriter is the best solution.

*Armadillo Tip*: _Copywriters are a good investment._

_Hiring a Copywriter will save you valuable man hours and it will give you that extra bit of professionalism. In our experience, for every page of text a client needs, they will probably spend 5-6 hours writing and editing. On the other hand a Copywriter will be able to churn out the same (if not better) content in a quarter of the time. While the cost might be a little more than you expect, the stress and time savings are far greater._

… And with that we conclude our three part *Shopping For a Web Site Series*. We hope you’ve enjoyed our tips. If you have further questions feel free to contact us. We would love to hear some feedback and even ideas for future articles.

Contact us at info@armadillostudios.ca if you have any questions.

Cheers,

The Armadillo Team.

Armadillo Studios is proud to announce that we will be participating in two very important Industry events in the 08-09 calendar.

First and foremost, Armadillo Studios is heading back to Austin for “SXSW Interactive 2009”:http://sxsw.com/interactive. This will be our second straight SXSW and third overall. We’re looking forward to seeing some old friends and getting involved in the international Interactive Community.

Secondly, we will be attending the Calgary Events for “National Media Digital Day”:http://www.irefreshforcontent.com/learn-more.html this Thursday. This includes a meet and greet hosted by “Digital Alberta”:http://www.digitalalberta.com/national-digital-media-day-september-25 and also the “10th Edition of DemoCamp”:http://barcampcalgary.com/2008/09/23/democampcalgary-10-this-thursday/. It should be a great evening and hopefully it brings some much need exposure to our growing local industry.

So if you happen to be in Austin in March of next year or better yet happen to be at Melrose this Thursday, pop by and say hello. We’ll be glad to see have a chat.

We’re pretty sure that there are dozens upon, dozens of articles dedicated to this topic. And we’re sure advice on building and purchasing a web site has been covered at nausea by “dozens of companies”:http://www.cairril.com/articles/webdesigner.html. But we here at Armadillo Studios thought we’d provide our own little spin on the topic. So here is the first part of our three part series:

*Shopping For a Web Site? Six Useful Tips for Businesses Looking to Set-Up a Web Site.*

1. What Should You Look for in a Designer/Studio?

First and foremost when looking to hire a Web Designer/Studio, you have to remember that you are not paying for the Web Site itself, but for your _Design Studio (or Designer’s) experience and time_.

This is probably the biggest conceptual block we run across when people inquire about our services.

It is a given that most of our economy functions by paying for physical products. For example, a basic white T-shirt has universally accepted cost of about $15 dollars, so you expect to pay anywhere between $10-20 dollars for your basic run of the mill white T-Shirt. If you pay $1.50 for the T-shirt you know its bad quality and you would only pay $200 for a white T-shirt if it was something really, really special.

Unfortunately, Web Site Design is *a service* rather than a product based industry. Sure your Web Designer/Studio will produce a product (_A Web Site, Business Cards, Banners, etc.,_), but the price you’ll be paying is for the _service the company provides_, rather than the web site itself. While that might appear to be the same thing as the T-Shirt examples, the truth is that they are two different ideas.

So with that in mind, a web site from a large established design firm is going to cost you far more than the same web site from a struggling freelancer. It could be the same amount of pages, content and functionality, but again you’re paying for *their* experience, expertise and time.

It’s best to find a studio/designer that you feel comfortable with. Explore their portfolio and previous work. Visit the sites they have previously built. Look to see how active these sites are? Are the current customers using these sites on a constant basis? Search the designer/studio’s name in your favorite Search Engine. Do they have any published articles or blog posts that explain some of their philosophies?

*Armadillo Tip*: _The business cards of any potential studio/designer are a great gauge of the type of product you can expect._

_The swankier and more detail orientated the appearance of the business cards the greater likely hood of a decent product. Rounded corners, imaginative colors, a good stock quality, and a nice finish will demonstrate their commitment to detail. Also be sure to check their email address. Is it a generic email address (hotmail.com, gmail.com, or yahoo.com) or is it a company email address. A studio/designer with their own domain and email address is more likely to provide you with a great product. Plus, if they can’t even create-up their own email account, what makes you think they’ll be able to set-up an account for you?_

2. So How Much Should You Spend on a Web Site?

The first thing you’ll notice about every _studio/agency web site_ is that they *never* reveal their rates and or have a *fixed price for a web site*.

It may seem like that we only do this to be elitist and mysterious; but the truth of the matter is you can’t put a standard quantitative price on our industries services.

For example a four page web site can potentially require far more billable hours than a 10-15 page web site. It all depends on the features, layout, requirements and design. Therefore most reputable companies won’t provide a flat rate, but will charge a hourly rate based on the requirements.

Does that answer the question? Not really? Okay.

So if your looking for a good quality web site, one that will let you standout above your competition, expect to pay somewhere in the *thousands rather than hundreds*. Be very weary of any company that promises a site and hosting for $500. It will be a waste of money, a major headache and you’ll eventually have to contact a more established studio/designer in a few months.

Trust us on this we’ve rescued a few clients in the two years that we’ve been operational.

*Armadillo Tip*: _If you need a web site and you don’t have that much money to spend, we suggest that you stake out your nearest Art College/Graphic Design school._

_Hey! Art school is expensive and those plus those kids are dying for experience. They’ll be able to provide you with some high quality work for a little bit of cash and another piece to bump up their portfolio_.

The 2nd article in this series will discuss “The Difference between Flash & HTML web sites and What Trends you need to know about”:http://www.armadillostudios.ca/shopping-for-a-web-site-part-2/.

A couple of weeks ago we posted an article detailing the potential importance of the “Apple’s Iphone to our Canadian customers”:http://blog.armadillostudios.ca/article/iphone-arrives-in-canada. Well, with Mondays iPhone news at the “WorldWide Developers Conference”:http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/0806wdt546x/event/index.html it looks like the next release of the iPhone will have far more impact on your business then we thought.

In simple laymen terms, it looks like Apple is poised to take a bite out of Blackberry’s dominance on the Business Wireless Device market. With the release of iPhone 2.0 software, the iPhone will _now_ contain Enterprise software comparable to Blackberry offers. So what does that mean for your business?

Essentially, this news solidifies the iPhone’s future cultural importance and will open your business up to an entire group of _new users_ that will have a greater access to wireless Internet. In particular, it means that your *web site will need to be compatible with the iPhone’s internet browsers* or you will be missing out on a slew of vital customers.

And as one analyst has already pointed out – “we’re witnessing the birth of a third major platform, after Windows (PC) and OS X (Apple Computers)”:http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/06/liveblog-steve.html.