Church & Ministry Website FAQ | Facts About Church Website Design

General Questions

Do you require a contract?

No, we do not require any type of contract. We believe that you will be happy with our services and if you are not we would not want to hold you captive to a contract. You will pay month to month. If you payment gets behind we reserve the right to take it down if you do not communicate with us in a timely manner.

Who owns the website if we don't want to keep using your service?

Whatever content you have put on your site belongs to you. Any graphics or layout that we have designed for you must be under our maintenance services for 2 years. After 2 years have passed, you can take your design and the graphics on your site, but any components that we have working on your site cannot be moved. We cannot allow our competitors to get any of our components since we have paid to have them developed. It would be to easy for someone to use us and our service, only to take the site and leave afterwards. We have to have a way to protect ourselves from ths.

What is the difference between a premade and a custom design?

We offer two types of website design. The difference between premad and custom design only lies in the setup price. You can see our pricing list here.

Pricing:

The monthly maintenance is the same for both and will just vary by package choice.

Process:

When setting up a custom site you will pay one third of the payment up and then you will start to work with one of our graphic artists. When you agree to your new custom design then you will pay your 2nd installment. We will take that and code it into a live site and connect all of the components into your site and database. We will help you get your content in and then when the site goes live you will owe your last setup installment and your first months maintenance fee.

When setting up a premade template you will choose from either our designer premade templates or standard premade templates. You can see them here on our pricing page. You will pay all of the setup up front. We wlll setup the template on a demo server and then work with you to tweak the premadet template with your logo, color choices, menu layouts, and content. When the site goes live you will owe your first months maintenance.

Why do you charge a maintenace fee?

Our maintenance fee is not just hosting. We build our sites in a powerful content management system. That means that when server software is upgraded then issues can occur behind the scenes that need to be updated as well. We also take care of any updates and backups without you having to worry about anything. Each package comes with unlimited technical support. Build A Church Website is a one stop shop.

Do we need to give you photos or do you supply them?

We can incorporate your photos into the design if you desire, but they must be in a really good quality resolution. Our preference would be for you to just let us supply the photos. You can have input throughout the process however for piece of mind.

How long will it take from payment to a live site?

This will depend on many variables. For a custom site it generally takes about 5 weeks and for a premad site about 1 to 2 weeks.

Pricing

Why do you charge a setup fee?

All of our sites involve many hours of customization. We cannot do that kind of work without being paid for it. Anyone who gives you a website for free is either giving you a cookie cutter site that is being spit out by a computer program or they will not be in business for long. A custom site takes between 70 and 100 hours to build while a premade can take up to 20 hours or so to customize and impliement. Our prices are very reasonable.

Can we host the website somewhere else?

No, becuase our sites are not just flattened brochure type sites there is a lot of functionality behind the site that the visitor is seeing. Our servers are top of the line servers that are optimized for our systems and components. There is no way for us to keep quality control or copyrights on our comonents without having control of the site ourselves.

Can I Upgrade to a different pricing package?

Yes, you can upgrade at anytime. You wiil have to pay the difference between the package you have and the one you want to upgrade to's setup fee and then your monthly maintenance fee will go up the following month.

What is included in my monthly maintenance fee?

This fee will cover unlimited tech support and use of our propritary components as well as our content management system. We give unlimited training as well. Of course each package comes with a domain name and hosting on a monthly basis.

Do you offer any type of refund?

Our setup fee is not refundable since we have put our time into the site. We do guarantee our sites however so our promise is to work with you as we guide each other to a final product. Our monthly fee can be cancelled at any time, but no refunds will be given since services are already rendered at time of payment.

Domains & Hosting

What if we don't have a domain name?

If you don't have a domain name then we will pay for it for you. We will reserve a .com, .net, or .org domain for you if you let us know which name you want. You can check some registars at anytime to find your desired domain name. We recommend Enom as that is our wholesale registrar. Please do not register the domain, just check to be sure that it is available. You can then fill it out on your order form.

What if we already have a domain name?

That is fine...we will need your registrar name, username, and password. We can login and redirect your domain to ours servers. We do all of the leg work for you.

What type of servers do you use?

Our servers are top of the line xeon quad core servers with Raid 5 techology and 4+ gigs of ram memory per server. These are mega servers in everyway. We pay extra for top of the line servers so that our customer sites alway perform with their maximum potential.

Do we get FTP access or just the cms control panel?

We will give you access to your cms control panel as well as your ftp server if you need it.

Email

How many email addresses do I get?

It will depend on your package. Our premier and premier commerce packages ome with unlimited email addresses.

Can we get to our email online?

When your site goes live we will give you information as to how to access your webmail online from any browser location.

Can I use my favorite email program with my new email address?

Yes you can sync your new email address with your favorite program.

Can I transfer my email addresses when I switch to your service?

Yes, you can transfer any emails you have setup on your domain name at the time the site goes live. We will help you through the process should you have any questions.

CMS - Website Manager

What is a CMS?

A CMS or website manager as we call technically stands for Content Management System. Our sites are built in a database and are dynamic. The CMS is the manager or administrator that helps you manage that content from any internet connection. It is what allows you to manage your site without having to know a bunch of html or having to own a bunch of different sotware packages. A site that is not built in a CMS is really limited in what it can accomplish and how quickly it can expand.

What about training? Is it required or needed?

Training is something that varies from user to user. We generally give a phone training through a web conferencing software so that you can actually see our screen while we explain to you the thinking behind our system. This training generally takes between 30 to 60 minutes. 80% of what you will need to do like chaning a page or uploading and event or sermon can be learned in 5 minutes. We offer you unlimited tech support with your monthly maintenance so you never have to worry about being alone with your website. We are always here for you when you need us.

What about user access and can people edit their own info?

There are 4 different groups a super administrator can assign to people, 3 of which can edit content on the site:

Registered: CANNOT edit or submit content to the website. This is the user group automatically assigned to users who register through the front end of your website. This is usually for your normal church member. They CANNOT see the front end control panel.

Editor: Can submit and edit events to the website, but the submissions will not go live to the site until they are approved by the administrator.

Publisher : Can submit and edit events to the website instantly without any approval

Author: Can only edit the page you assign to them and nothing else

This is explained in more detail in the documentation. Sometime in 2010 when the next version of the CMS is released, you will be able to create as many user groups as you desire and set different permissions for each one.

Can you update my custom design later?

We offer a re-design service to all of our existing customers. All of your information will move over without having to reformat all of your content. The cost for a custom re-design is only $1350, which is half of the cost of our most popular Premier Package.

What if I forget how to do something after my initial training?

No worries! We will train you again if needed. We also offer video tutorials in your website administrator that you can watch so that you can be shown step by step how to do some of the most popular things in your CMS. We are there for you so again... NO WORRIES!

Step 1...Brainstorm	Step 2...Design	Step 3...Implement
Time - 1 To 2 weeks Coordinate Church Website Ideas Implement Ideas Into Design Unlimited Proofs Customer Approves Template	TIme - 1 To 2 Weeks Transform Template Into Website Connect Desired Components Church/Ministry Input Throughout Streamline Church Content	Time - 1 To 2 Weeks Customize CMS Backend Connect Backend To Frontend Check All Elements Turn Website Over To Church

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