Hiring Montague WebWorks: How it Works

The first step in hiring Montague WebWorks is to call 413-320-5336 (or fill out our contact form). MWW owner Mik Muller will answer the phone and find out what kind of business or organization you represent, and what you need your website to do for you.

The website software we use is our own RocketFusion, which you can read about here. Mik will discuss the options and content modules available in RocketFusion (photo galleries, file libraries, news, online forms, etc) and how it works. He will also list the fees we charge for our work. He may also give website examples for you to look at.

The Process: Your Next Steps

Congratulations! You've hired Montague WebWorks, and we are now heading down the road to production, and the eventual "go live" of your new website.

Here are the steps we will take:

1. We agree on the price, and you agree to pay a deposit of 50% of the project total (the set up fee, plus first year hosting fee) by check. We will not start any work until we have a check in hand. Some clients choose to pay for the whole job up front. We love that!
2. We choose a website template / layout. If you're not getting a custom template, where we need to bring in our designers, you just choose from an existing one. We show you a few that could work for you, and what they could look like with new imagery and logos, etc, and you choose one. Pre-existing templates save you money, and they look great.
3. We agree what pages to start with, such as the homepage, an "about us" page, various services pages, a photo gallery or two, the contact us page, etc.
4. We give you "homework", which will involve gathering photos for the homepage carousel and photo galleries, as well as the text content for each page.
5. We set a date for our next meeting, where we go over what work MWW has done so far, and what's still left to do, and set up another meeting, if needed, for training and steps to "go live."
6. We contact your previous webmaster. If this is a re-do of an existing website, it is basic common courtesy to let them know of an impending move. We want to stay on good terms with them if we need access to your existing website's back-end. Also, if you are moving your website because your current webmaster is unresponsive, we will need all the time we can get to get in touch and deal with the transfer. Sometimes this can take months.
7. You begin your "homework": gathering your photos and text together. This would typically be done by creating a new folder on a thumb drive or on DropBox, with the following sub-folders: photos, pages, files, etc., based on content.
   • PHOTOS: If you want several categories of photo galleries, make a sub-sub folder for each category. All images should be JPG files. Giving each photo a proper filename, such as "Sally & Joe at the Fair.jpg" instead of "img 0234.jpg" is preferred. This will save you a LOT of work later on.
   • PAGES: Pages you want, such as About Us, Services, etc, should each be in a separate Word doc or text file. We will copy and paste that in for you at setup. If you need help in writing your content, we have writers on staff.
   • FILES: If you have meeting minutes, or press releases, or other downloadable files, in PDF format, keep them in category-specific folders so we can just upload them in groups. Proper filenaming conventions are equally important here. Please do not name your files "minutes.pdf" because that means nothing to anyone. Name them something like "MCTV Board Minutes 2015-10.pdf"
   • FORMS: If you are going to have online fillable forms, place the Doc or PDF files in a separate folder, and we will convert them for you. First few are free. If there are a lot, we will discuss who will do them all.
   • NEWS, CALENDAR: News items and Calendar items should be in separate folders, with separate Doc files for each one so we can quickly just copy and paste and get them up online.
   • BUSINESS LISTINGS: If you like to list your vendors or customers or what have you.
   • FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: If you have a list of FAQs on your site, or want them.
   • OPEN GOVERNMENT: If you are a Town and need to manage your boards, members, agendas and minutes.
8. Once all your content is up, you need to proof the whole site, looking for typos, modifications to colors and placement of the various content containers, etc. Make sure it's what you want. It can always be changed later, of course, but it's good to start off right.
9. Go Live. Pay the balance. Subscribe to MWW's mailing list to hear about new features and upcoming classes. Attend free training classes.

And that's it.

The more content and the more complicated your site, the more there is to do, obviously. If there are not too many files to deal with you can simply email them to us. The more work you do up-front, like putting all your content into file folders on a thumb drive, the quicker our job is done, and the less you have to pay.

There may be more details to deal with, like email address and possibly bringing over any old emails from your old email server.

Getting Started

Ready to go? Call Mik at 413-320-5336 and make an appointment to meet, either via Zoom or in downtown Greenfield.

Call now! 413-320-5336

Posted: Thu, Apr 2, 2015 10:38 AM
Updated Thu, Feb 16, 2023 12:00 AM