[Hidden-tech] who is local who does website ux/ui/branding ?
Sam McClellan
sam at itabix.com
Mon Feb 8 16:25:49 UTC 2021
Hi Rob,
Thanks for asking! I've been doing web development since 1998, and
started Itabix in 2000 because I was frustrated with the division
between development and hosting where, for example, if your site got
hacked, the hosting company would threaten to shut you off in a day or
two (or would actually just suspend you) and often the web designer
wasn't available or didn't have enough tech savvy to fix it. If a site
we're hosting breaks we fix it inexpensively, or free if you're on our
managed hosting. And we do things like track the domain names we host to
make sure they don't expire or get hijacked.
Itabix is a distributed company. Right now I'm the only one in our
office in Hadley, everyone else is remote. We have 24/7 first tier
support. We've gradually grown to be a one stop shop for pretty much
everything needed for a web presence for small to medium businesses. So
far we've never advertised, and depend on word of mouth entirely which
is one reason our prices are so low.
> Website security
* We have a great server management team in the UK, and I also have
the servers security audited every few months by another firm.
* Our servers all have colo level DDOS protection and are hosted in
major multihomed telcos.
* We use CloudLinux which is great at managing resources so one site
doesn't take over the server
* We use LiteSpeed for the web server which is fantastic, lowers the
server load by about 300% in my experience along with speeding it
up, and their free caching plugin for WordPress works with the
webserver (the webserver actually does the caching, the plugin just
manages it) and is as good as WP Rocket without the $49/year.
* We use ImmunifyAV+ which imo is the best antivirus/antimalware
system for Linux webservers and changed my life. It just takes care
of everything, we have had very few malware attacks that needed
manual attention since we started using it several years ago.
* We back up sites daily using JetBackup which is much better than the
default cPanel backup - much lower server load and great to use.
Backups are kept for at least three months.
* Hosting servers are optimized for WordPress.
* We have 24/7 first tier support.
* For high load websites, especially those with a history of being
hacked, we usually recommend Sucuri which does CDN at least as well
as Cloudflare and have a much better firewall along with actually
fixing issues if they come up, for a lot less.
* For websites we manage, we typically use the All In One WP Security
plugin along with keeping the site up to date and watching out for
possibly insecure themes and plugins, making sure all directories
aren't readable, and we can also do various things like disabling
file editing inside WordPress, securing wp-includes, etc.
> technical SEO within general SEO, Local SEO, PPC search vs. display,
> ROI planning
I would say this is our weakest area. We aren't going to be nearly as
good as a specialized firm such as yours, but for a lot of our clients
getting most of their top 10 keywords onto the first page of Google is
typically about all they want and can afford, and my SEO guy has done a
great job with that. That being said, I'd invite you to talk more about
your team -- I'd love to have someone to refer any higher need clients to.
> website design
I've been doing web development and design for 23 years, and I do most
of the design work but I do have a designer on our team that is very
good, although a bit mainstream for my taste, and we also happily work
for/with/partner with outside designers.
I'm very focused on UX. I've studied psychology and done a lot of
research on how people respond to website UI and the unconscious drivers
that can make a website feel pleasant and engaging or frustrating and
tiring. Along with the normal readability (consistent style, appropriate
contrast, readable font face and size, balanced whitespace, word and
line spacing, etc.) and navigation issues are things like presenting to
the three major learning styles, designing for the visual cortex, using
visual anchors so people don't have to keep re-finding their place,
presenting easily grasped paths for different subjects or learning
styles, avoiding "buckets" where you have to use the browser back arrow
to get to the next thing, etc.
> website coding
I've hired individual programmers around the world (US, Russia, Ukraine,
Serbia, Brazil, India, Bangladesh) for most of our history, but in 2014
I found a truly great programming team in India with an extremely savvy
manager who is also a very good, very honorable person. I've yet to find
anything they can't do well with websites, plugins, mobile apps and,
lately, video conferencing. We have three dedicated full time
programmers right now and can call in others as needed. We specialize in
WordPress and PHP but we've got people who can work in pretty much any
popular language or platform.
I hope this answers your questions.
Best,
Sam
*Sam McClellan*
**
*Itabix, Inc*
**
*one place for all things **web***
**
*sam at itabix.com*
**
*https://itabix.com*
**
*Main - 413.587.4600*
**
*Toll-free - 877-7ITABIX (877.748.2249) *
On 2/8/2021 8:52 AM, Rob Laporte wrote:
> Hi Sam,
>
> Wow, Itabix does a lot. Years ago my search marketing firm began
> extricating ourselves from any web dev, to focus on our core expertise
> in search marketing and conversion rate optimization, and to avoid the
> burgeoning complexity, risks, and potential /legal liabilities/ in web
> dev and hosting. We often refer clients and prospects to firms we
> like. I have a few questions I share with the HT list here, so all may
> know. I suggest putting such answers on your About Us page.
>
> Who is on your team, and what are their specialties and backgrounds?
> I’ve found that these days, and increasingly, adequacy, to say nothing
> of excellence, requires ever more specialization. Website security,
> technical SEO within general SEO, Local SEO, PPC search vs. display,
> ROI planning, website design, website coding (even in WP), and more,
> increasingly demand one dedicated pro for each.
>
> If your team can pull off adequacy in all the services on your
> website--and for the incredible prices you cite--your team and
> management systems must be first-rate, and worth Western Mass knowing
> about.
>
> Take Care,
>
>
> Rob Laporte
>
> Chief Business Development Officer | Founder | Chairman
>
> DISC - Making Websites Make Money
>
> 413-584-6500
>
> rob at 2disc.com <mailto:rob at 2disc.com> | LinkedIn
> <https://www.linkedin.com/in/2disc/> | 2DISC.com <https://www.2disc.com>
>
>
> *NOTE:* Emails can be blocked by spam filters throughout the web. If
> you don’t get a reply within an expected span of time, please call.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net>
> on behalf of Sam McClellan via Hidden-discuss
> <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 2, 2021 1:27 PM
> *To:* hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
> <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net>
> *Subject:* Re: [Hidden-tech] who is local who does website
> ux/ui/branding ?
> Hi Rich,
>
> Sorry I haven't answered until now, lots going on. It's a bit
> difficult question to answer accurately just based on your
> description. It seems like they would be simple sites - I'd venture a
> range between $700 and $1500 depending on how much we'd need to
> customize the WordPress theme and how we'd connect and display the
> data sources. And if you wanted multiple sites that use features from
> the first site, that would lower the cost for the additional sites.
>
> I can give you some examples of sites we've done along with their cost.
>
> https://connectingpoint.nepm.org/ <https://connectingpoint.nepm.org/>
> We just finished doing a complete redesign for New England Public
> Media's Western Mass television news show. The site was originally an
> archival site, they wanted to switch it to be more interactive and
> live and they wanted something very clean and light to highlight the
> images and video feeds. We switched to a different theme (Divi is our
> go-to these days). We needed to script the blog pages and the slider
> to allow for using either an image or a video from either YouTube or
> their proprietary system.
> The site includes a timer function, at midnight on Friday it shows a
> countdown to 6pm along with information information and images about
> the episode along with buttons for adding you to their mailing list
> and another to be put on a reminder list for upcoming shows. When the
> countdown ends at 6pm it refreshes the page and shows the live feed
> and hides the episode information, then at 6:30 it switches back to
> the normal site. $2,500.
>
> https://presencia.nepm.org/ <https://presencia.nepm.org/>
> Also for New England Public Media, we developed this bilingual website
> for their show. Similar issue with displaying the blog post videos or
> images. $1730.
>
> https://www.aomtheatre.com/ <https://www.aomtheatre.com/>
> Converted the existing WordPress site and set up a custom ticket
> selection system. $1400.
>
> https://mitsuwa.com/ <https://mitsuwa.com/>
> We develop this site for a Chicago advertising agency that has
> Mitsuwa, a national Japanese grocery store chain, as their client. The
> ad agency gives us the design and we implement it. We converted their
> site to Divi, as well.
> We developed a complex system for them where they can import a batch
> of products in an Excel spreadsheet (and upload images) to display
> their products for each of the stores, for a video feed in their
> stores, for upcoming sales and for vendors and management to preview
> upcoming sales before they go live. In addition, they can set up
> banner images and events with images and text. All of these (product
> batches, individual banners, and individual events) are set to display
> in any particular store according to an assigned date range.
> They keep adding functions so I'll just say the conversion to Divi and
> basic functions I described were approx. $10,000. We're also currently
> working on a shopping cart system that organizes pickups and
> deliveries for $5760.
>
> https://www.kimata.com/ <https://www.kimata.com/>
> Another site we developed for the Chicago advertising agency which
> supplied the design. A personnel site in English and Japanese
> displaying available jobs in the US and a separate site for Mexico. We
> created a backend system for managing both applicants and companies.
> $7500.
>
> https://inner-act.com/ <https://inner-act.com/>
> Converted an existing site to WordPress and re-developed it and
> created the animations, they supplied the logo. $1700.
>
> Simpler sites we developed and created the logo for:
> https://oilco-op.com/ <https://oilco-op.com/> - also developed the
> slideshow, and developed a custom member signup and management system
> with three different tiers and different pricing depending on the
> month you sign up. $1900.
> https://wellspringneuro.com/ <https://wellspringneuro.com/> $650.
> https://adimech.com/ <https://adimech.com/> $650.
> https://optimalbrain.com/ <https://optimalbrain.com/> $650.
>
> best,
> Sam
>
>
>
> *Sam McClellan*
>
> *Itabix, Inc*
>
> *one place for all things **web***
>
> *sam at itabix.com <mailto:sam at itabix.com>*
>
> *https://itabix.com <https://itabix.com>*
>
> *Main - 413.587.4600*
>
> *Toll-free - 877-7ITABIX (877.748.2249) *
>
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