Frequently Asked Questions

Click headings and questions for more information

General Information:

• Q: What separates you from other web developers?

  My professionalism, integrity, and customer service set me apart.

• Q: How do you charge?

  I bid websites based on an hourly rate and programming projects on an hourly or daily rate, depending upon the size.

• Q: Do you work alone?  Are there other employees in Blue Bridge Development?

  I'm a freelancer, however I frequently team with graphic designers, web designers, and project managers.

• Q: What can I expect if I contact you?

  Unless your project solely requires web development, at some point I will forward your information and my recommendations onto a project manager. This is so that they can talk to you, structure the project, and submit a bid with recommendations. If it is primarily programming oriented, we'll discuss your requirements until I have enough information to submit a proposal.

Info if you need a developer for programming:

• Q: What makes you exceptional at coding?

  I'm passionate about my work and have a kaizen-like mentality about constantly improving my coding style, my development practices, and my knowledge of the intricacies of the languages I employ.

• Q: How technically well rounded are you?

  I listed my main programming skills on the home page (web development skills). In addition, I'm a veteran of setting up, modifying, an extending dynamic sites. The majority of the sites have been Joomla CMS's and Wordpress Blogs, but I've also worked on several Wikis (MediaWiki, DokuWiki) and shopping carts (Magento, Zencart, CRE Fully Loaded). I'm experienced with several popular frameworks including CodeIgnitor on the server side and Dojo and MooTools on the client side. I'm comfortable using XML and interacting with popular web service API's (Google Checkout, PayPal, and Flickr), as well as using JSON for Ajax transactions. I work in a Linux environment and use Bazaar (CVS) to keep track of my code and SimpleTests to ensure a high level of quality as I create it.

• Q: What's the significance of being a Zend Certified Engineer?

  Zend is an international company that was formed by several of the key contributers to the PHP programming language.  The certification is received by passing a test designed by thought leaders in the language's community.  Being Zend certified demonstrates an expert level understanding of the language and its use.

• Q: My programming project is quite large. Are you capable of handling it?

  If it's both large and needs to be done quickly, probably not. Otherwise, ask me. I am quite comfortable saying, "No," if I feel that I am not capable to the task or that employing me to complete it would not be the best decision for your business.

• Q: My programming project is small. Do you have a bottom limit on work you take?

  Yes, I do. Ask me anyways. I love to tackle programming problems and may take yours on regardless.

• Q: How do you structure projects?

  It depends upon the size of the project.  Generally speaking, I break larger projects into smaller, results-based, iterations and do smaller projects outright.

• Q: What information do you need to determine your bid?

  It's completely project dependent. The common elements I need to start the conversation are a project overview, project goals, hosting environment information, a deadline, and a budget.

• Q: What happens if there is an error in your coding, or a problem occurs?

  I use development methods that integrate quality assurance into the development process, however, should an error make it into a live environment, I will first determine if it actually was caused by my coding. If so, I promptly fix it free of charge, regardless of when the project was completed (3 hours or 3 years). If the error is due to an external factor I advise you of the situation, how it occurred, and will explain what it will take to fix it.

• Q: Are you willing to work on-site?

  Absolutely.

• Q: Are you willing to work under XYZ arrangement?

  Possibly. I value my independence as a business and respect my responsibilities to other clients and projects. I make business arrangements weighing these factors.

• Q: Can you work with our designer? Do you have experience working with designers?

  Yes.  When I started out on the web development path, I'd originally intended to be a designer and trained in Photoshop, html, css, and graphic design.  Once I transitioned to pure web development, I formed working relationships with other web designers and gained an additional perspective of what they want and need from their developer.

• Q: I have this unique idea for a web site/service that will generate a ton of traffic and revenue. Are you interested in partnering with me to bring it to life?

  No.

Info if you're planning a website:

• Q: Do you do both development and design?

  No, I do not. For website projects, I focus solely on building the structure and writing the code for the site to function.

• Q: What's the difference between web design and web development?

  Generally speaking, a web designer focuses on creating a design and applying it code with html and css. A web developer focuses solely on code and is adept in creating advanced functionality. However, when I partner with web designers, I typically take on all the code (including the html and css) and they focus on creating a well designed site and structuring the project. I often use the metaphor that the designer is the architect and I'm the builder.

• Q: So if you don't do the design, do I need to find a designer if I want to hire you?

  You have the option of providing a designer, however it's not required. I have several professionals I partner with, as needed, in order to deliver a high quality product.

• Q: How much will a website cost?

  It depends upon the site's purpose, size, and function.  Most of the small business sites I've built tend to fall into the $2,500 - $5,000 price range (total - including a designer's work). While the adage, "You get what you pay for," isn't entirely true, the sites I develop are worth every penny.  They feature custom design work that is market focused, supports business goals, and is a pleasure to look at.  They're all built on the world's most popular content management systems and are easy to use, giving the owners' complete control over the content on the site.  They're also set up to track your site's traffic so that you can see what people are interested in and how they found you.  To put it simply: they're not just a websites— they're powerful business and marketing tools.

• Q: Are some types of sites cheaper/more expensive than others?

  Yes. E-commerce sites and social platforms are more expensive and blogs (used solely for blogging) tend to be much cheaper.  Template based sites are also significantly cheaper, but not my recommendation if you can afford better.

• Q: Will the price be affected by how many pages I need?

  Probably not. I've seen page based pricing from web designers, but it doesn't make much sense to me, because once a design is created and coded, it can be applied to an arbitrary number of pages. More likely, the price will be affected by your design needs(logo work, main/sub-page design, branding, collateral, etc) and the functional needs of your site (contact forms, maps, calenders, blogs, forums, shopping carts, and etc.)

• Q: What is the pay schedule for a site?

  It depends upon the site's requirements. I typically use a 30-30-40 split throughout the life of the project (up front, after the design is approved, after the site is built and prior to the launch).

• Q: Do you do Flash? What about Actionscript?

  No, I don't do either. I do not recommend building entire sites in Flash, however for clients who need a component of their site to have Flash, I partner with other professionals who can provide it.

• Q: Do you build database driven websites?

  Yes, all of the sites I build are plugged into MySQL databases.

• Q: Our business is far away from Portland, Oregon— will that be a problem?

  No, it will not impact the development process much except to make all payments and contracts deliverable via snail mail.

• Q: What about product photography? What about marketing collateral? What about SEO and SEM? What about logo design? What about...?

  I have relationships with other professionals who can take care of all of these items and more. However, for projects that require a multi-faceted approach, I will make my recommendations to the project's manager.

• Q: Why do you use a project manager?

  In one word: quality. Using a project manager releases me to focus on the technical aspects of the project. I enjoy interacting with my clients, answering questions, and providing recommendations. However, because I tend to be very busy, doing so on a continuing basis removes me from my primary expertise of writing code. Project managers specialize in these types of interactions and by using one I ensure that I'm working in my strongest area and my clients are benefiting from a project manager working in their strongest area.

• Q: With a project manager— will that mean three people will be working on my site (designer, developer, manager)?

  Not necessarily. Most of the designers I partner with have training and experience with project management and take on a dual role.  In fact, if your site is multi-faceted and involves professionals with additional specialties (photography, branding, etc) you may have four or more of us working for you.

• Q: Do you provide hosting?

  No I do not. However, I'm happy to provide hosting recommendations and set it up for you.

Info for web professionals who need a development partner:

• Q: What makes me a good partner?

  I'm reliable and provide high quality work. I get my portion of a project done on time and I'm easy to work with. I will never under-cut your bid or engage in other poor business practices. If you ask me to represent your company, I will take care to do my work under your company's banner and always act as if your business were my own.

• Q: What is important to you(me) from a partnership?

  It's important to me that you're ethical and do good business.  It's also important that you take on the role of project manager. That means that I expect you to properly vet and manage our clients.  I require that you are assertive and maintain the scope of the project and when problems occur you are aggressive about solving them.  Because managing projects is tough, I also expect you to calculate it into your pricing and to feel comfortable requesting help from me when things get tricky.

• Q: What is your business model (Are we a good match)?

  I provide quality web development to clients who need and can afford it. I don't compete on price and I'm not interested in a high volume approach.

• Q: Can I use you to provide support for one of my existing clients?

  I don't currently offer ongoing support. I am considering on changing this to provide a higher end support package, however I haven't yet decided. I currently refer post-project support to a small web design agency that does offer support (and great customer service).

• Q: Can you work in my studio?

  I can, however I prefer not to. I do my best work when unattended and working within the systems I have created. I'm confident that when you see how reliable I am and how I make myself available when needed that this will quickly seem to be a non-issue.

• Q: I work out of Timbuktu. Will this present a problem?

  Nope.

• Q: Will you meet with our clients?

  Yes, although I prefer to be left out of the loop when meetings will not impact development.

• Q: What do I need to give you to come up with a bid?

  It depends upon the project. However, for almost all projects I need a budget. If a client demurs from providing a budget, I will not give a bid. Instead, I will provide a price range you can expect to see the bid fall in. The reason the budget is so important is because there are varying ways to accomplish most projects relating to money, time, and quality.

• Q: Why does the budget have such an impact on the bidding process?

  When I bid projects, I plan them from start to finish. It requires a significant time investment on my part and in order to remain efficient I want to know whether our total bid will likely fall into the client's budget. With a budget I can be somewhat assured that the my planning is not wasted. Then, while I'm planning, every time I come to a choice that will impact time, money, or quality I can make an informed decision based upon that budget.

• Q: For skinning my theme/template... what would you need?

  I need the the design in a psd and jpg format. While I'm skinning it, I may request certain slices of the design in an alternate format. If the design is intended to be comprehensive, I need examples of all the styling variations. If an element is not planned for in the design, I will not implement it in the code.

• Q: How will the design impact your estimate/bid?

  Bids are always project dependent. The cost of templating or theming a design will be impacted by the complexity of the design, the number or separate or fluctuating elements, and the number of layouts. For example, a blog with two layouts (category view and post view) is going to be much cheaper than a Wordpress installation that has five layouts (category "home", category "a", category "b", page layout, and post layout) and a bottom element that only shows up in category "a" and category "home".

• Q: What can I do to keep a bid's cost down?

  You can ensure a tighter bid by promising to deliver a package where all the elements are complete and ready. In other words, the site is all but built— all the content has been written, all the photography is done, all the design layouts are in separate psd's, and there are no changes and no scope creep. This is easier said than done, and really only possible for small projects, but it makes my process significantly quicker.

• Q: What kind of html and css will be used in the template?

  The template will be valid and error free xhtml. The css will be for a fixed layout unless you request a bid for an alternate style.

• Q: Do you have a minimum bid amount?

  Yes, it's $500. I will most likely waive this for clients that are repeat business.

• Q: Do you require a contract between us?

  I don't require any form of contract for work in the $500 - $1000 range. Over a $1,000 in development, and I will want to know that you have a contract with our client and that my interests are well represented in it.

• Q: Will you sign a contract with me/our client?

  I have no problem signing most contracts. With or without one, I keep my agreements.

• Q: What are your typical payment terms?

  I typically request payment throughout the life of our projects; often this is a 30-30-40 split, however for larger projects I expect more than three milestones. Whatever the deliverable happens to be, I require the final payment before the complete product is delivered.

• Q: Do you ever work on spec?

  No.

• Q: How do you handle direct requests to you for design work?

  I forward them to the most appropriate partner for the client's needs. I try to be as fair as possible about reciprocating the work I receive through my project managers and designers.

• Q: Why do you use Joomla? Why not Drupal, Wordpress, Expression Engine, etc.?

  I use Joomla because it's the most popular CMS in the world (right now). It's popularity ensures active development, plenty of useful extensions, longer shelf life and relevance for my clients, and more flexibility for clients if something should happen to me (i.e. more Joomla developers to work with). I've also found that Joomla is very easy for my clients to administer when set up appropriately. It doesn't hurt that Joomla is extremely well designed and built on a solid object oriented code base either.

• Q: Why do you use Wordpress? Why not Joomla, Drupal, Expression Engine, etc.?

  I use Wordpress because it is an excellent blogging platform. It has an enthusiastic and growing community behind it and works well for common content management tasks. It also has a large number of extensions available for it and is growing at a breakneck pace.

• Q: What types of sites do you use Joomla for?

  I recommend Joomla for sites that need to be set up quickly and that may need to scale in size or functionality. The more control a site owner needs, the better a candidate Joomla is.

• Q: What types of sites do you use Wordpress for?

  I use Wordpress for blogs. Also, if a future site owner has experience with Wordpress or primarily needs a site for blogging (but will have some other items on it), then I feel that Wordpress is an excellent candidate. Many designers only feel comfortable if a site is set up in Wordpress. That's no problem, however the more functionality that is required from a site the faster it will be set up with Joomla. In other words, you scale in power faster with a true CMS and because time is money, my bid will be higher for setting up Wordpress with more non-blogging related function.

• Q:What about e-commerce?

  I use Magento for sites that are primarily oriented towards selling products. For sites that have a limited number of products and need significant content management, I use Joomla with Virtuemart.

• Q:What should I know about e-commerce sites?

  They cost more to develop and maintain. The idea of selling online is attractive to lots of people, but it takes much more to pull off than a normal site. E-commerce sites are more challenging to template for and have to interact with 3rd party services, like payment gateways and shipping companies, which means longer set up and testing phases. They also require more from a hosting environment and annual fees a normal site doesn't have (SSL certificate and dedicated IP address). To keep transactions entirely on the site, the clients need to have an e-commerce merchant account and a payment gateway account. Finally, in order to ensure good ROI, clients need to have some form of marketing that is directing traffic to the site (on or offline).