These are some Joomla support tickets (client's identities remains
private) where you might find some answers to you Joomla or regular
website design and hosting problems. Best way to find what you are
looking for is to do a searh on this listm with the keywords and you
might find an answer to your Joomla questions.
Thank you, Bruno, for your impressive, detailed response.
I'll review
your notes and make a decision soon on which option to choose.
Best wishes,
Here are a few brief answers to your
questions:
"My current website is not effective,
nor is my web hosting firm
able to meet my expectations which include great service,
responsiveness and innovation.
I've been looking for a reliable,
affordable Canadian web hosting
alternative with CMS (probably Joomla). In reading through
your
website, I get the impression that your main market is the
US. Is that
correct? And I gather that I would have to pay in US dollars,
rather
than Canadian?"
- My hosting solution is from one of the
largest hosting companies
in the world. I don't maintain my own servers but am a reseller. You
could get about the same price as I do on your own on the hosting but
then the CMS installation would not be free and you should issues arise
it would be very difficult for you to address them. I know the system
administrators level III's name by heart and issues can usually
resolved within minutes if not hours. There aren't many problems I
haven't seen and solved. ;)
- I usually charge Canadian clients in
Canadian dollars and US
clients in US dollars, I am Canadian myself and is a way to offer my
compatriots a better rate.
- Joomla won best CMS many years in a
row. It is the best option
hands down for the majority of developers out there. I can give you a
multitude of reasons why but basically the available 4000 extensions,
versatility, expandability and huge community of developers make the
choice of millions from small business owners to Fortune 500 companies
and governments.
"I will also require some help
1) re-designing my website and
2)
developing a second website, linked to the first.
I would like to do this project in two
steps
- A) Develop the new
website and get it online;
B) re-design my current website .Both
projects would likely be in CMS (likely Joomla)."
Not a problem at all.
"I'm not a techie, but I want the
projects to reflect a focus on
excellence so that I am better able to inform, attract and keep new
clients."
Focusing on excellence is conversion,
attracting clients is
promotion, keeping clients is "stickiness". All can be done with a well
planned marketing strategy.
"How would I get started with Anon
Solutions, if I were to choose
you? I want to begin the design of my new website (I have
already
registered the domain) as soon as I have found the right Canadian
webhosting/design company."
- Once(if) you decide to go with us, we
need to have a solid
strategy and make sure that we both know exactly what you are ordering
and you will be getting. Making things clear from the start insures
there will be no surprises from both the client's perspective and the
developer alike.
What costs might I be looking at for the
ground-up design of the
first CMS website?
- That is really a very broad
question...like walking into a dealer
and saying "how much is a car?". Numerous parameters are involved but
ball park you are looking at around $500-$2000 on average (rough list
at http://www.anonsolutions.com/Joomla_Design_Rates.html, this is only
a guideline) depending on options.
I also need to know your industry, what
kind of website and
features you want and an approximate budget.
Do you have references/testimonials that
I could contact?
- Yes I have references available
including Google (#1 position for
"Joomla Expert Canada", can provide you with them if required.
Hello,
We would like a cost estimate for website maintenance services and the
addition of specific features to the website. Our website
backend is
currently managed using Joomla and we require some regular maintenance
in the form of random small tasks when they come up. We would
also
like to integrate our PayPal module into our current subscriber list
database so that when people register using PayPal they are added to
the list. We would also like some direction on manipulating
the lists
and adding demographic data fields to our current database
module. We
would like to discuss this proposal at a meeting Wednesday evening if
possible so please do not hesitate to contact me if I can provide you
with any additional information.
Regards,
President
UBC Real Estate Club
well, my URL is not going to be much help to you right now as I have
done something to make my website completely unvisable when
I tried to reload my template. I had chosen the template for
the
various options it offered, but when I uploaded it the options within
the menus of the control panel would not open with
or without the sample data.
In a nutshell, I am trying to create a website for women and dragqueens
to createnetworks exchange formal dresses, costumes, etc. I am
beginning to think this may be too complicated for me to do.
Anyways, thanks for getting back to me.
ta,
May I have the URL of the website please
or can you show me or
email me the template?
Sometimes some templates don't work very
well for what you want
them to do, might be the case in yours. A template often needs to be
chosen according to the objectives of the website.
What kind of site are you working on and
what functionality/options
are you looking to implement?
There is no problem with hosting. It is just that my informal helper (a
friend and student) cannot choose the right template. He is overwhelmed
by the many choices.
So it is all about choosing the right template for the design I want
(very simple, attached).
What time and costs would that tak
The problem is that the hosting makes a big difference, Joomla hosting
is very different than other hosting solutions...with my hosting I can
have everything online working 100% in minutes, I sometimes setup 10
Joomla sites a day. But with the other hosting it could take hours if
the servers are not set up properly...this might be why you are having
some problems getting the Joomla site to work properly.
When you say student, do you mean you are a teacher?
Please give me more details about your situation, what you are trying
to achieve and an approximate budget and then I will recommend the best
solution for your Joomla project.
I already have a hoster. A friend set up a template (don’t know if it
is the right one though), so I should be working from that starting
point.
I can set him up a Joomla website for free with standard default
template if you book hosting for a year. The only cost is the monthly
we hosting at $19.95 per month for full service hosting to make his job
even easier at first. I can also email him some free tools and
tutorials to make his job easier.
I can have his site up and running in a few minutes after payment.
what do you charge for creating the start up of a new simple Joomla
website, so that my student-assistant can continue developing and
filling it? He has trouble creating the kickoff.
I work for the Town of Canmore and we already have a Joomla
Site. We
need somone to look at the template and resolve any issues with
it. It
was a hack and slash we would like it to be a proper
template. Also
would like to have some simple buttons made. ex. click here, download..
and so on. I would like a quote for how much it would cost. Static is fine with me, in the future if business gets better we could
always migrate to a dynamic infrastructure, I always create upgradeable
fluid designs.
Now about the price being lower than 10 000? Mmm, this is pretty much
the minimum, regardless if it's 1, 3 or 5 pages because the layout will
be based on the template I will create, this is the index file of the
website, the root, the foundation. 80% of the work is on the first
page, 100 pages of course makes a difference but the first five is
nearly the same amount of work as 1-3. Actually I would recommend you
have at least 5 pages for search engines to take you seriously. You
will need to provide me with the text for these, I will also need
images. I would recommend this site hierarchy:
- Home page (introduction to your guest house)
- Rates
- Rooms
- About Us
- Contact Us
I like to build good quality for my reputation and portfolio so it's
pretty hard for me to cut corners on my base price, it's already way
lower than my Canadian rates, nothing gets done for under $500 USD for
my North American clients...
However...there might be a way that I can go lower, I could give you a
discount on the monthly hosting for the website if you pay a year in
advance.
A website needs to be hosted, just like a tenant needs to pay rent ;)
I have 2 hosting options available, $9.95 a month self serve and $19.95
a month full serve. The main difference between the 2 is management and
maintenance. If a problem occurs with self serve you will need to
contact the server administrator to resolve the issue, security updates
and basic maintenance is also done by you. Full serve I take care of
everything, if there is a problem I deal with it immediately with the
server administrators and you will never even know anything happened at
all, I also do basic maintenance and security updates. Your site will
be hosted in the Texas USA with servers of the highest quality and
world class infrastructure and technology, NO Thai company can even
come remotely close to competing with that, so the choice here is
pretty clear.
So should you go self serve or full serve? This is a little like
insurance, if everything goes ok (and mostly always does) self is fine,
but if some major problems occur you'll need to solve it yourself, pay
me or/and the server administrator by hour to fix the issues. With full
serve it's all included and no surprises are possible, the site gets
backed up weekly and there is a monitored 99.9% uptime guarantee.
Either option is fine with me.
What I could do for you is give you a 50% discount on either the self
serve of full serve hosting plans as long as you pay the year in
advance. This would bring the cost of the website itself lower.
Hi **********,
First of all I'd like to say that this is nothing personal. I suspect
that maybe you don't really understand what work is involved here so I
will try to explain it to you without sounding abrasive or greedy...
I will fix the front page parameter but it is not a flaw, there
basically are no flaws on this site except for some template and
software limitations. You can't just buy a Jaguar and say "the 12
cylinder costs too much in gas, please cut off 4 cylinders to make it
6..."! The Joomla platform is developed by hundreds of thousands of
people, very few flaws and limitations but of course not perfect.
About the changes, the welcome appearing twice is fine for me to
change, so is the menu order, text from your edits, phone numbers and
so on. The problem is that you have not done your editing properly
before hand and made me do things again... This is the way it works in
design:
- You look at your text VERY carefully and make sure it's 100% how you
want it, same thing for email addresses and contact numbers, I put
them in the site and we are done. Additional changes you have to pay
for. I have never, ever did so many changes to a draft for free, some
are ok but this is way out of hand. I have over 50 hours invested in
this project, you are a professional and I'm sure that you can agree
that (at the price you are paying for) the time spent on the site is
numerous times cheaper than it should be
(http://www.anonsolutions.com/Joomla_Design_Rates.html). Ok, you asked
for a single page site and I gave you the full package, but still...the
small website might have taken even longer because of all the constant
changes.
- I can't wait for your sister to look at the site for input, I made
the site for you and not her. Why did I spend numerous hours fixing
things up with you for her to disagree and have me do it all over again?
- Consultations in person are not usually free, an initial 30 minutes
consultation is included and maybe an additional hour or so for final
meeting. I have spent numerous hours with meetings at no cost, even in
Thailand tech calls are 1000 baht per hour. My rate is $45 per hour.
- I've done the Photo shoot (albeit not a very good one...) at no cost.
- I have counted the emails correspondences from you and there over
well over 50....emails. This take time, this one for instance took 45
minutes alone, time is money and numerous hosting/design companies
charge $20 per support ticket...I can't just answer emails to
perpetuity with daily changes.
- "On the numbers, I really think you need to spend some time to
research
this as it cannot be right that a 3rd party can infiltrate a site that
you designed in the way it has."
I'm sorry but I'm afraid, this is incorrect, no designer can or should
modify a site design's for Spype, what about VoipDiscout, Yahoo Voice?
What if they had a phone number plugin? Could you change digits to
please every VOIP telecom in the world? Of course not, and what if
Skype changes their algorithms, should I be required to fix my whole
network of over 50 sites to please them?
Waiting for your sister is not really fair for me, I have spoken to
numerous people about this. The changes are done Charlie. I have
already set up the email, I don't want to change it again, we have went
over the text for hours, I don't want to change it again. You have
given me the menu layout, don't want to change it again.
If you are fair, please pay a little extra and I will wait for your
sister to give her input, I will then need a consolidated list of ALL
changes in one email and will do them one by one in a single session
either on spot at your place or over here but on an hourly rate.
Otherwise I simply fix the "double welcome" problem in person at your
place and maybe a couple of other minor changes (not 10 of them!), I
get paid and we are done ;) No hard feelings, simply business.
This should work fine but before I start we have to be clear on what
you will get, did you look at all the packages?
I think that you want the $500 package? ( http://www.anonsolutions.com/Joomla_Design_Rates.html
) Please confirm. Then I will point you in the right direction to find
the template you like for the site, you will need to choose the brand
new Joomla 1.5 version, this is the best and the same price as using
the old 1.0.X version. I will integrated Virtuemart Shopping cart in
that package and teach on how to manage and use your website yourself,
change prices, discounts, what kind of payment to accept and so on.
I have a testing site (no design just for demonstration) so that you
can see how your ecommerce component will work over here:
About the auction button, unless I install a full auction component
(that would bring the price up), I could simply make a button and a
link that sends you an email with the bid. Then you can see who bids
higher and sell him the item.
After you look at the rates link and you fully understand what you will
be getting for your money I will send you a contract to sign and we'll
get started. The $500 package can be done in a week, the $1000 might
take up to 2 weeks.
Hi *********,
Can do this no problem. Do you have any idea on the design that you
need?
Custom design is roughly $1000 per site but I will need more
information as to what kind of design is required
I
am inquiring about getting a pair of Joomla websites configured and
built using the JReviews plugin (http://www.reviewsforjoomla.com/).
Both sites are (obviously) product review websites.
The first site is AirsoftRev.Com, and is a product review website for
Airsoft equipment, accessories, and gear. Please see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airsoft for further information regarding
Airsoft, essentially, it is an action sport similar to Paintball.
The second site is GearRev.Com, and is a product review website for
Military, Law Enforcement, and Outdoor gear and equipment. Products
such as backpacks, holsters, outdoor clothing, multi-tools, etc. will
be items found in this site.
Both sites will
be very similar in the layout and functionality, I would like to do
different color schemes and home page pictures/logos on each site to
differentiate them however.
Both site require
a customized or custom made template and need to be integrated with the
JReviews plugin, and the plugin configured with the categories,
sub-categories, review criteria, etc. etc. which I will provide. I do
not need any products added to the sites, as we will be filling them
out, I just need the basic configuration and template/design done.
If this is something you think you would be able to do for me, please
let me know other information you will need and an estimate if possible
on the price for each site, as well as a timeframe.
Data entry goes either by the hour($45 an hour) or by the piece (has to
be determined once the task is clearly defined).
Another way is for me to design a script that does it automatically
with macro automation, this is a one time set up fee (to be evaluated
once I know what needs to be done) and after that unlimited items can
be added by us or yourself (with brief training), this is often the
best options for numerous items. I will train you/your staff to fully
control your product so you can change things as you like
SEO is a very broad field and depends on thousands of factors and
parameters. Nobody can truthfully and honestly grantee you first
page...if they do there is something wrong. Nobody but Google controls
Google after all...however, some steps and strategies can be taken to
considerably increase the odds of getting top placement.
An SEO strategies will depend on 2 major factors. Budget and
competitiveness. If you want to use"blue dressers from Concord Ontario"
as keywords, executing SEO for your website will be both very cheap
and easy because of lack of competitiveness and minor effort to get on
top of search engines.
However, if you wanted to target "Manhattan Real Estate" the
competition would be fierce and since you could gain hundreds of
thousands if not millions of dollars for conversion, the SEO cost would
be very high but a good investment.
So basically it comes down to two things:
- How competitive is your industry
- How much would SEO make you
I think that the first step would be to revamp your site to increase
your conversion ratio (make people buy), the site I will build will
already be "optimized" for search engines.
I see that you have a "real" bricks and mortar location, this is a good
thing. A good website will improve you brand and customer
service/satisfaction resulting in more sales. A good website will also
protect you from the ups and downs of the economy and should help you
retain loyal clients for years regardless of your location.
Another short cut to SEO is PPC (Pay per click) management. I can
train you to do it or do it for a management fee.
We're trying to redesign our website featuring followings and would like to know how much and how long it will take? - Shopping Cart with credit card and PayPal transactions - User account - Shipping cost given item weight and postal code (possibly Zip code for US) - Sale price - Bonus points (like Shoppers Drug Mart Optimum card) - Coupon - Multiple picture display for each item - Easy to update with admin console - Stock info for each location (not necessary but nice to have) It's basically, a commerce website with nice design and search engine optimized. To get some idea, you can visit our current website
Sorry about that! I'm renovating a whole bunch of websites this month
and trying out different form components because the new sites are now
the upgraded Joomla 1.5 from 1.0...
Problem is that some forms work and some don't, configuration is nearly
impossible to redirect because of compatibility reasons, so some old
pages that still get traffic can't accept the new form format...yet...
Another problem is form validation issues, some components make it too
hard for the client to go through the whole filling out process and that
could result in lost clients.
How about this? Over the next few days I'll send you leads in a variety
of formats available, the ones you like the best let me know and I'll
try to implement them across the board.
Another issue is also what kind of email client you use, they probably
look different how you see them from what I see, HTML or plain text? You
email client is set to receive in what format?
Let me do some testing and you tell me what works best, but still for
the next few days they'll come in various formats until I fix things up.
I logged in the back end and everything looks fine. I think it would
be an idea to consolidate everything to work natively in Joomla instead
of depending on the Heroku platform (if possible).
A combination of Virtuemart and Community builder might work fine and
would also integrate the Paypal module with ease. Then everything would
be fused into a single database making things easier to manage.
This is only a brief evaluation of what needs to be done and I will
need more communications/information to give you a quote but to give
you a rough idea my rate is $45 per hour.
If we stick to standard Joomla extensions with stock/default
funtionality and behavior the cost can be kept to a minimum. Extensive
customization can get more expensive, I recommend sticking to well
developed, tested and established Joomla extensions.
Targeting local is a very good choice and the easiest and best solution.
About the consulting, my design/service/consulting rates are $45 per
hour with a 2 hour minimum. Skype is best since it's free and combines
phone, web cam and chat.
My availability in your time zone is around 7pm or very early morning.
What I was actually looking for was ongoing advise on how to seo my site. India has its advantages..one of them being price..but the downside is time change and language barrier. I
am looking for a company that will offer consultation on a monthly
basis..review my site..and tell me what I can change to get better
ranking. I would prefer to do the actual changes myself. I am targeting local business only. Basically if somebody is looking to send flowers to Winnipeg, I want to be seen.
I can set him up a Joomla website for free with standard default
template if you book hosting for a year. The only cost is the monthly
we hosting at $19.95 per month for full service hosting to make his job
even easier at first. I can also email him some free tools and
tutorials to make his job easier.The problem is that the hosting makes a big difference, Joomla hosting
is very different than other hosting solutions...with my hosting I can
have everything online working 100% in minutes, I sometimes setup 10
Joomla sites a day. But with the other hosting it could take hours if
the servers are not set up properly...this might be why you are having
some problems getting the Joomla site to work properly.
Thank you for the great instructions, what you want done is very clear
and this is very good.
It seems that what you need is a custom Joomla template with positions
that suit your needs.
I can have a carbon copy of the screen capture you sent me, fully
Joomla functional, everything will work perfectly as you need it to and
more.
I will need more details but the cost for this is approximately $1000.
I'll throw in 1 year full service hosting for free also ($239.40 value)
if you want because it will make things much easier all around, but I
will leave that choice to you.
When you say student, do you mean you are a teacher?
Please give me more details about your situation, what you are trying
to achieve and an approximate budget and then I will recommend the best
solution for your Joomla project.
Joomla component to interface with existing Joomla site and virtuemart
Features:
* Ability to manage operations of multiple facilities from Corporate Office * Centralized database with local backup capability * Highly flexible pricing for units with option to collect Deposit * User-definable Fees & Charges and Discounts * Option to specify billing type and billing cycle at unit level during Move-in / Pro rata rate calculation * Maintain rental history of units in the form of Tenant Ledger * Ability to reserve units in advance * Waiting list for tenants to specify their choice of units to rent in future * Merchandise Sales with Inventory Management * Move-in, Move-out, Transfer and make Payment using the color-coded dynamic site map * Online and Automatic Credit Card billing using a secure payment gateway / Virtuemart * Schedule Move-outs with option to set automatic reminder * Ability to lock delinquent tenants at the gates and charge Late Fee and Lien Fee automatically during End of Day / Gate system to be advised * Generate Rental Agreement, Auction Letters, Notices and Custom Invoices * Advanced Revenue Management module with automatic rent change capability for rented and vacant units * Secure login with multi-level access based on user rights / Standared Joomla ACL * Management and accounting reports with option to export to Word, Excel etc. * Interfaces with Gate Access equipment / To be advised * Online Reservations, Rentals, Account Review and Payment interface / Virtuemart * Driver's License Scanning interface / to interface with standard scanner * Customer interaction module - Video Chat / preferably Skype - its free. * Analytics interface / Overview * Invoicing system * Quoting system * If possible to be able to integrate with Microsoft accounting
Online Customer / Virtuemart to handle most of this
* Rent or Reserve a unit online right from the comfort of your home or office. * Make payments online at your own convenience without the need to visit the facility and on time to avoid any Late Charges. * Wide array of choice of locations and unit sizes to choose from that best suits your needs and convenience. * Customers can review their accounts online and keep track of charges incurred and payments made
Facility Manager
* E-mail notification and Alerts on new reservations, track reservations efficiently and ensure prompt follow-up with customers on their reservation requirements. * Reduces the number of customer visits for making payments and work of Managers towards the month end. * Experience drastic drop in customer calls and inquiries at the Facilities and at the Information Desk.
Administration
* Highly secure with multi-level access by User based on user rights * Wide range of management reports providing statistics on effectiveness of online rentals and reservation conversions. * Ability to manage information display concerning Facility features, Specials on Offer and Reservations from Corporate Office.
1) when taking a booking from the call centre for a storage unit we must be able to search for a unit by size price and area or facility name and process the booking for the customer. 2) The booking system must accommodate VAT at 14%. 3) An admin fee to be defined by the administrator must be added as a separate fee to every booking automatically. 4) Interest calculation and charge for late payments. 5) Define type of customers when adding customer example:cash, credit card or debit order. 6) when booking customer out ability to specify if a deposit has been refunded or not. 7)Blacklist a customer