Personal website design & hosting services
In conversations with scholars recently, we’ve heard many versions of the phrase “I should make a website.” It can reflect a desire to make your ideas accessible to a wider audience, to build a platform for your book, to post job-hunting docs—or it might just be that you want to acquire “yourname dot com” and then throw a few things on there to make it look respectable until you get a chance to use it.
We also realized that this issue is related to our nonprofit mission, and that for many of the folks we work with, time is so tight that even finding someone else to do it can be a barrier.
In response to all of this, we’ve designed a service package aimed specifically at academics who don’t have time or energy to deal with website setup and management. Our aim is to get you a personal–professional site that looks great, is low-maintenance, can be launched ASAP, and is affordably priced, with minimal energy expenditure on your part.
What we’ve come up with is a base package using WordPress, some helpful yet optional add-ons, and an annual support plan if you want to be able to basically throw money (but not too much) at the problem and get support specifically geared toward your needs.
Our personal website package costs $600 and includes:
- guiding you through the red tape of registering your domain and subscribing to ongoing hosting
(if you use our hosting service, we can handle this) - consultation about themes and the desired look of your site
- creation of up to 4 page templates (e.g. home, about, CV, and blog pages)
- processing of up to 10 images (including featured images and custom backgrounds)
- loading of up to 5 blog entries (provided within 30 days of project start)
- proofreading of all text
- up to 2 hours of training so you’ll be ready to go forward after the project is done
- guided transfer of all materials to you
- 1 hour of follow-up tech support as needed
Add-on design services ($150 each)
- in-depth personal “brand” and website design strategy session with AWS team (up to 2 hours)
- your first year of annual hosting support
- Laura’s intensive workover of your site’s content (up to 3 hours)
Annual Support Program
Once you have a website, it requires a certain level of maintenance. At minimum, you need two things to keep it going: an active domain registration (i.e., keeping legit right to use your domain name) and hosting (i.e. storage of the site’s contents). Typically, the site owner has to pay annually for these services, either with the same company or separately depending on the setup.
If you enroll in annual support with us, we’ll keep your site up and running by keeping your domain renewed, hosting your site under our “umbrella,” keeping your WordPress software updated (including plug-ins), and providing up to 4 hours of additional customer and technical support. That means you can send us new blog entries and we’ll load them up for you, get on the case if your site’s formatting gets all wonky, or any number of other things you might need. The idea is that we’ll keep things running smoothly so your website does not have to be another thing burdening your mind.
And also, if/when you end up offboarding from this support setup, you will get the same gentle handoff that we offer in the initial development package.
Our annual support program is $250 per year ($150 for your first year with the development package).
Fine print about annual support:
- We will be subcontracting your hosting with Dreamhost, so enrollment in our annual support also involves understanding and agreeing to their terms.
- While Berkeley our designer does embrace his nerdy side, and while we will be thrilled if your site grows over time, please be advised that we are offering to maintain what’s essentially a fairly basic setup. So, for example, you’re welcome to link to your research, upload your cv, write as much as you want, and so forth, but not, for example, to add a shopping cart feature, or to actually conduct your research via this site.
Already have a WordPress website but think this sounds like a great setup? We may be able to transfer your existing site to us for free or a nominal fee, depending on the complexity of your site and hosting situation. Ask us for a consult!
Interested in learning more? Ready to get started?
(Times are tight for all of us. Contact us if you’re interested in this service but the costs are prohibitive. As a nonprofit, we can offer reduced rates if you need them.)
