Blog Design and Development FAQ

Through the years of providing quality blog designs and web site designs to hundreds of our clients across the great world wide web - we’ve found one thing to be a complete certainty: not one single project is the same as the next and each project is individual to the needs of the site owner. Currently, we provide you with a quote based on your individual project needs and quote on a per project basis only, based on the specifications you’ve provided to us in your initial request. We have tried the route of “package pricing’ and found that 9 times out of 10, our packages don’t fit what people are looking for, requiring us to adjust the packages we’ve had listed. Your design project will be quoted based on your individual needs.

Based on what you, the client, communicate to us about your site, what you need, how much content you’re expecting to have, graphic/logo design, custom illustrations, etc - we will be very happy to provide you with a detailed estimate for your project. All price quotes do include blog installation and design, as well as the installation of your blog design on your server. Again, as stated above - our order form is the best place for you to start the process with us!

It’s always a good idea to bring your ideas to the table. The blog or website we design for you is done according to the specifications you give to us - so spending some time deciding what you like and don’t like is an excellent place to start! Our Order Form is in place to help get you started. It asks you some detailed questions on what you’re looking for in your blog design, or website set up.

The order form asks questions about the look and feel you’re going for, color schemes, layout, use of imagery and examples of sites that you like. These examples help give us an idea of your design tastes, we will not copy any designs of sample sites you provide, so please do not ask us to - this is only a tool for us to get a feel for your design likes and dislikes.

As a general rule of thumb, our designers work hard to provide your site in a timely and efficient manner. Typically, we target for a turn around time of approximately 30 business days for completion (this excludes weekends and US holidays). However, understand that this is an estimated time frame. Building your custom designed blog and/or website is a detailed process - once the graphic design portion is completed, it still needs to be coded and styled, implemented and tested. This process can take anywhere from 20 days to 2 months, depending on the complexity of your needs. Your designer will be able to give you a turnaround time at the time of your order, based on your needs. On average, we are completing projects on a 20-30 business day time line.

We process our client’s design orders on a first-come-first-serve basis. Our estimated turnaround time may fluctuate and change depending on the amount of client projects we have in our active queue. Our turnaround time is not always a reflection on how long it takes to create and design your project, rather a reflection on the amount of active projects we currently have in our queue. When you submit your order - your project gets accepted and placed into our queue for completion.

Due to the current demand for our servers, we are unable to accept ‘Rush’ jobs without a 45% markup on over all design project fees. This increase in fees makes up for the amount of overtime our designers would need to work in order to accomplish your project sooner than our quoted time line.

You bet we do! We own and operate our own blog hosting division called Blogs About Hosting where we proudly host over 500+ client websites and blogs. Our hosting services have a strong focus on blogs and bloggers - being bloggers ourselves, we fully understand the specific and unique needs that face bloggers today. We also offer affordable domain registration services - check us out! Clients hosted with us at Blogs About Hosting receive an automatic 10% off all design fees — now THAT’S a deal! (in order to get the discount, you will need to sign up for hosting before placing your order)

Most of the artwork and images used in our designs come from stock art or stock photography sites - or in some cases, from an artist who has give our clients permission to utilize their work on their blog design or website design. We do not currently offer custom illustration services - however, we do have an arsenal of GREAT illustrators that we have worked with many times that we would be happy to provide a referral for. For instance, the cute illustration you see at the top of this page (the blonde sitting on the pink rug) is a custom illustration by Samantha Wise - she provided that cute illustration of me just based on a few suggestions from me on the color, clothing, hair and pose of the character — great job, Sam! We also highly recommend our own Leanne Wildermuth for her talented illustration work. Just let us know, in your initial inquiry, that you are looking for custom illustration or artwork and we can help you make it happen!

Once you’ve clicked the “Submit” button on the order form - a new ticket is automatically created in our Client Desk. You will receive a confirmation email that the order has been entered in our Client Desk, with a link that will allow you to access your project information.

Orders are processed during business hours only. (Hours: Mon. - Fri. 10am - 8pm - excluding US holidays - CST). Once your order is received and reviewed - you will receive a confirmation and detailed cost estimate of your order via a response in the Client Desk.

This confirmation and estimate will include a review of your design specifications, the items that are included in the project quote, an estimated time frame for project completion.

All blog design and/or website design projects are billed up front - and the time frame for completion of your projects starts from the date of payment.

Projects are not placed in our completion queue until payment has been made.

The following are steps we take in your blog design or website design process once your project payment has been received:

1. Development of the overall concept and layout of your design work, based on the specifications you have given to us in the order form you filled out. This phase may also require further communication with you to nail down all of the specifics or clarify anything we may have questions on.
2. Creation of the custom graphics that make up the foundation of your blog design, including the header graphics, any navigational graphics, button, banners, etc.
3. Your designer will provide you with a graphical mockup of the design work they have completed for your project. A maximum of two design revisions of the graphic composition will be included at no extra cost to create the visual look and feel that is desired. The original graphic mock up is created based on the specifications that you have provided to us in your original order form. The second mock up can either build and expand upon the concepts presented, or you can request a completely different look than the one we originally presented. It is important to know that our designers create your design based on the specifications you’ve provided to us (i.e. color scheme, number of columns in the layout, use of artwork/imagery,etc) - so it is important for you to be as specific as possible in your original request so that we are able to provide you with just the look you’re going for. Further revisions may incur additional fees.
4. Creation of the custom style sheet (CSS) that makes up the foundation of the format and layout of your blog/site design
5. At this point, the graphic design phase is complete and the really fun part begins! Putting the graphics and style sheet together with the appropriate coding needed to make it a fully functional theme, compatible with the blogging platform of your choice. (At this point of the project, if you require further revisions to the graphic design work that you did not mention earlier, the project may be subject to additional fees).
6. We perform the above phase on a development domain that we own. We use that domain to work on client projects. On the estimated completion date of your project, you will receive an email from your designer with that domain information and necessary login information so that you can login and review your design work. The project will be a fully functional blog set up for you to review in a ‘live’ environment, click around and see how the different elements work (and look) together.
7. Once we have received final approval from you on the your new theme - we will then install the custom blog design or website design on your domain for you. After that is completed, we review the work with you and when you’ve given the final OK, you will then receive a “Project Sign Off” notice from us with all the notes and instructions you will need to utilize your templates.
8. Minor updates and changes to your project is allowed for up to three (3) days from the completion of the blog design or website (this includes up to a half-hour per page total). Minor updates, changes, modifications and/or revisions to the blog design or website after the 3 day period will incur additional fees .

Email consultation in provided to you free of charge - Up to two hours total general blog orientation and design consultation is included in the initial quote. Additional education and consultation is billed at the normal hourly rate

Phone consultations are available, however, incur additional fees.

We are available to provide design fixes, yes. However, if your project is more than 3 days past the final sign off - Any additions or fixes after the fact will incur additional fees . We always, always recommend keeping a back up copy of your new templates on your own computer. That way - if you add something fun and exciting to your blog - but then load it and it doesn’t load correctly, you can restore your template back to working form.

It is the sole responsibility of the client to obtain support from the software company for the software program you are using to power your site and/or blog. E.Webscapes does not provide ongoing technical support for these blog software programs. We will be happy, however, to provide you with useful links to the software’s knowledge base, support forums or other online documentation that may be helpful in getting you started using the blog software you have chosen.

In regards to your specific design project, we are happy to answer each and every one of your questions regarding your design work via email through our Client Desk until you are satisfied that we are able to meet the needs of your individual project

Email consultation in provided to you free of charge - Up to two hours total general blog orientation and design consultation is included in the initial quote. Additional education and consultation is billed at the normal hourly rate

Phone consultations are available, however carry an additional cost.