Frequently Asked Questions

Here are a few of the FAQs we get. Click on one of the links to jump down the page, or just scroll down.

What are the basic web design plans?

Our primary customers are small farm owners, so our basic plans are designed for them. As a side note, we can customize prices and plans for other users as well.

Our basic plan is a 5 page plan. This includes a main page, contact page, sales page and 2 category pages (for goat farmers, it is bucks and does). These pages all include graphical headers (or banners -- not to be confused with an advertising banner), a navigation bar, pictures (3-5 depending on the page) and all of the text you can submit. For the 5 pages, you will pay only $99. For more details on this plan, click here.

Our primary add-on (only valid at the time of purchase) is a 10 page addition for $49. This includes 10 basic pages (see below for the definition of a basic page), and we will link the pages from either the sales page or the category pages.

What is a basic page?

A basic page typically includes a graphical header, generally describing what is on the page. On a goat page, it would likely be the goat's name. For a page with a variety of things on the page, it would describe them (like a page for wethered goats would have a "wethers" banner). The primary thing to note about basic pages is that if they are part of the 10 page special, or part of the maintenance plan, they will not be pages that require a change to the template (namely adding a button to a menu). Any changes to the template will automatically cost $9.99 (this fee is included in some of the options, like the Links, Guestbook, Map and Chat pages).

If you have made it this far without looking at the Services Page, please go back and review it as well.

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Can the templates be changed?

Yes. On our templates / examples page, we have a number of patterns for pages, and we are more than willing to make changes based on your desires. Typically, we will change the colors of the page, and optimize the page for quick loading. Two examples come to mind. We did the Bluebird Ranch using one of our templates, and changed the template base color from a wooden cream color to a light blue (for bluebird), and when we used the sunset template for Red Creek Farm, we changed from the rugged burlap to a smoother sunsety color. On the sunset, we also made the banner at the top with the sunset picture a lot thinner, making the Red Creek page load much quicker.

Additionally, we will customize the templates to your site, replacing our pictures with yours. Think of them as a pattern, and look for a pattern you like. If you see a different site on the Internet that has a look you are trying to achieve, let us know and we will custom craft one for you based on your desires. There may be a small fee involved for us to create a brand new template for you like the pages we did for Circle K Boer Goats, Ringwood Acres Boer Goats and Whistling Dixie Pygmy Goats.

Any changes made to the template during the initial build of the site are included in the base price. Any changes after the site has been produced will incur a fee (typically $20), since we have to go back, make the change, and then upload to all of the pages.

Would my template be available to other customers of yours?

Yes, unless you want to buy the template out for an additional $50.

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OK, let's do it. I want a site, what do you need from me? (Probably the most frequently asked question).

Pictures, pictures and more pictures.

Hopefully you have a good digital camera. If not, go get one. We can scan pictures, but if you want to be on the internet, you should really have a digital camera -- it will save a whole bunch of time, and you can make changes at a much quicker pace. If you still don't get it, let's do the math. You have an animal you want to sell. You take a picture of him. You will need to finish a roll of film (and assume you get the shot you want). Let's say it is the best case scenario and you get that award winning picture. So, you take the pictures to get them developed at one of those one hour places. After you get the pictures back you put then right in the mail. Three days later (maybe), the pictures arrive at our house, and we scan them, then put them online. At the best case, you just paid almost $10 (with film / developing / shipping) to get the picture, plus our scanning fees. Worse case -- the pictures didn't come out well, the mail delivery is delayed, it takes too much time, costs too much money...

So buy a camera and get new batteries for it (or charge it fully before taking the pictures to prevent blurred pictures).

Then take as many pictures as you can. Since you have seen what plan you want, you should know how many pictures we need. Take that number and triple it! You can send the minimum, but if we have a lot to work with, I can guarantee you will get a better result. On the initial site build, we will not charge you extra for sending us a bunch of pictures -- in fact, you will often get pictures added for free. Just decide who you want featured on your pages (well bred goats, goats for sale, dogs), make a checklist, and start clicking away.

So, what kinds of pictures do you need?

Let's say this is for a goat farm. Get lots of pictures of the animals. We like pictures that are close-ups and of the goats' faces. Get right in there and take some pictures. Oblique angles work well (not head on, and not at the side, but in the middle). Pictures taken at their level work well, too. We know you also normally want to show the full body of the goats (especially for sale), so get some of those also.

Then get pictures of the landscape. When we design your site, we might fabricate some pictures to showcase the beauty of your animals and of your land. So get pictures of the trees, fields, grassy areas, water features (ponds, streams, lakes) and structures (houses, barns). Get those pictures at a variety of distances (the farther the better, normally). You can also get a few pictures of your herd of goats all together. ("Now Enhancer, we need you to move a little to the left...Venus, how about if you move to the front row?....")

Be conscious of the sun lighting. Pictures on a sunny day are often better than on a cloudy day, but too much sun, may mean too many shadows. Keep the sun at your back if you can, and try to stay out of shadows that partially cover your subject (fully covering is not too bad). Try different times of day and try different days (sometimes you get decent pictures on days with less sun). I use the flash on all pictures (indoors or out). The best distance for using the flash is 6-10 feet (too much closer may wash out the subject, too far will not show up). If you are not sure, take some with the flash and some without. The beauty of digital is that you can take 100 pictures, trying to find a couple of good ones.

We will fix your pictures up, so don't worry about them. Here are some examples of fixes we did. The ones to key in on are at the bottom. We took a generic picture of a pond, and enhanced a generic picture of a goat to produce a very good picture for the home page. To get a general idea of other things we can do look at the humorous page which shows our goats all over the world. Or, if you are worried that your pictures are not going to be good enough, we have some more fixes on our image correction page. I also recently added a new "desired pictures" page.

So get out and take as many pictures as you can. The animals may not cooperate, so be patient. If you have a list of a couple of animals that you need pictures of, you can work you way around the pasture until you get what you want. Remember, even if the background is not good, I can erase it and put in a different landscape. If you can, try to get them to look at you (or near you) or move around to them (remembering your lighting). Don't use too much zoom (optical zoom is OK, digital zoom takes away from the quality of the picture). Don't crop the pictures -- send them full size. Use a higher quality setting. The better the quality, the better your pictures will look. Most likely you will send these to use by e-mail, but don't worry about the pictures being too big for that. Generally speaking, your pictures should be 800 KB (give or take 200 KB).

So, let's review the rules:

1. As close as you can get to the animal – particularly for pictures we are going to manipulate for the default page and the template.

2. Oblique angles make for good / different pictures. I understand that you want to show as much of the animals as possible for sales purposes, but we are also looking for variety to make the site stand out.

3. If the sun is out, try to position yourself with the sun at the photographer’s back. If at all possible, try not to have shadows partially covering your subjects.

4. Just be patient. You may get 1 in 20 pictures good, but the 1 will make a difference. Look at it this way, you currently have 21 pictures on your site. We want those to be the best they can be.

After you take the pictures, download them to your computer and try to give them descriptive names -- it will save time later on. If you know what page you think they should go on, use that in the name. For instance, b-enhancer-1.jpg would indicated picture number 1 of Enhancer to go on the buck page. Or fs-Juliet-0002.jpg would be picture number 2 of Juliet for the For Sale page. The naming convention we have been using for the sites we design is: page-date(month-day-year)-name-sequence.jpg. One more example: main-02-15-04-duke-2245.jpg. If all of that is too much work, then at least get the animals name on there.

What else do you need?

Words. Think of the text you want on your main page. Check out other sites like yours and see what they put. Generally speaking, in the first couple of sentences we want them to know who you are, where you are and what you are selling. After that, pedigree stuff is good, brief history of your farm is good, more details about what you are selling is good and so forth.

Then, accompanying each picture we will need words. We said send a bunch of pictures, but don't worry about having to describe each picture. Think more along the lines of the pages. Let's say you want a page to show off your Livestock Guardian Dogs. Write and introductory paragraph, and a sentence or two about each of the dogs you are going to display. For animals for sale, again, the more information, the better. Name and sale price are a must. Percentage and breed are good. Birth date and availability date (if not immediate) are good. Dam and Sire (and pedigree if from good names) are good. Remember, this is not a store like in the mall where you can walk around and ask people if they need any help. You have to give them as much information as possible so they can make up their minds.

The only other things we need are the desired template, which options you want, your domain name (see below) and your requested e-mail address (more on e-mail address below - but essentially, what do you want for your username to go in front of your domain name -- like pat@motesclearcreekfarms.com is Pat's e-mail address.). And of course, you will have to pay for your services (see next). We have a good worksheet you can use to determine anticipate prices.

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How do I pay?

Our preferred method is through PayPal, where you can pay with your credit card. We will send you an e-mail with a customized button, which links to the PayPal site. PayPal is a reputable and secure financial transaction company. If you would prefer to send us a check or cash, we can receive payments that way as well.

How much do I have to pay up front?

Typically, $80, which will get you a domain and allocate the space required for the web. This fee is non-refundable, but will ultimately go toward the cost of your site. Click here to pay the upfront fee.

What is a domain name? How can I choose one?

A domain name is your web site's address on the internet. Our domain name is motesclearcreekfarms.com. No two web sites throughout the world have the same domain name. So, what you want may already be taken. To choose one, you can go to any of a number of services out there that can tell you what domain names are available. We normally use www.whois.com. We will recommend a name to you based on the information you give us.

How long will it take for my site to be online?

Typically it will take between 24-48 hours for your domain name to be recognized by all of the Domain Registrars to update their Domain Name Server settings. If a domain name is available, theoretically, you could have customers at your site within 2 days.

How long will it take for you to design my site?

Assuming you send us all of the pictures we need, it should not take more than a week.

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How do I get to my site?

Several ways. The most common is to type the full URL (Uniform Resource Locator) into the address bar of your browser. You can type it in four different ways. Here are the examples using our domain name:

http://www.motesclearcreekfarms.com
http://motesclearcreekfarms.com
www.motesclearcreekfarms.com
motesclearcreekfarms.com

Can I make changes to my site?

Under the basic plans we have, the answer is, "Not directly". Certainly with one of the maintenance options (see below), you can send us an e-mail with appropriate direction and attachments and we will make the changes.

If you want to have full control over your site (for instance you want us to design it and get it online, then you desire the ability to change / add pictures and pages at will - without incurring a maintenance fee), we will set you up with your own hosting plan, and you could have complete control over the site (with a FTP login / password etc.). We can set you up with a host we deem reliable, and can provide you a cost structure for that. Just from our research, you can expect to pay between $150 and $300 for a reliable host with bannerless hosting and the appropriate level of support, equipment and services. We advertise that we can get you set up on a good plan (advertised at over 99.9% uptime) for $199. If you see a company you would like us to evaluate, just let us know and we will provide a recommendation of level of service and our price with a modest overhead. We cannot guarantee the same level of service with a different host, since different hosts require different programming languages. We use a Windows based host so we can run Active Server Page scripts written in Visual Basic. Hosts that use UNIX servers may be cheaper, but may not have all of the options available in Windows based servers.

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What are my maintenance options?

There are two ways to add to the pages. One is a flat-fee monthly maintenance arrangement in which we will make changes/updates twice a month, allowing you to add/change unlimited text (which you write), up to 10 new pictures, plus you have the option to add two free "basic" pages to your site each month if you have the content; the current cost of this is $24.99 a month. Pages which cause a change to the template (by adding a button in the menu on the left) will generally cost more. If you agree to the monthly maintenance, you will get a regular bill for the service on the first of each month regardless of whether you have provided enough content to meet your allowable maximums. Generally, the amount of pages / pictures will not rollover to the next month.

The second method would be a change-by-change arrangement; each additional "basic page" (which includes 2 images and a banner) would cost $8.99 and each additional image would cost $1.99. Honestly, we would make more money this way, but we prefer to "push" the monthly service because of the predictability of service. Ultimately, we believe that adding individual pages, images and changes will be cost prohibitive, and therefore the monthly plan is generally better.

A third method is if you just have one page you will want changed monthly. The best example of this is a for sale page. For $9.99 a month, we will change up to 12 pictures (with appropriate text) on a single page. We will do this up to four times in a single month (normally Sundays).

Another method is that you can tell us in advance what sorts of changes you will require monthly, and we can quote a fee based on the amount of work you request.

Will the maintenance fees ever rise?

Potentially. We will inform our customers at least a month out if we have to raise our rates. We would raise them depending on the cost of our doing business and the level of work we are providing. To lock in the monthly rate, though, you can sign up for a year's worth of maintenance service for $250, which gives you two months for free.

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How do I get my web page to show up in search engines?

The best way is to get visitors. We get well over 1000 visitors a month, and every month, our "status" in the search engines seems to rise. The more visitors you have, the more you will be recognized on the internet. I know that sounds like the age old question about how do I get job experience if I cannot get a job (because they all require experience). Well, this is a bit different.

First, there are some services you could pay hundreds of dollars to register your name on search engines. Most search engines have those services. We don't use any pay services, and our name comes up with a fairly good frequency. Each of our pages have some code written into them called "Meta Data". That is a line of code that lists keywords and has a description of the page. So, when you type in "Boer goats for sale in Tennessee" in a search engine, or page should be near the top, because we have the keywords "Boer" "goats" "for sale" and "Tennessee" in the meta data. Over time, all of the search engines will register those keywords into their databases (the pay services may get rid of the "over time" part). The best way we have found to get our sites higher on search engines is that, first, they are written well (using error free code and having the keywords match the content of our pages). If you look at some of the text on our pages, we use the words people would use to search for our pages. If someone wanted information on raising boer goats or general boer goat care, they would go to Yahoo (or another major search engine) and type in "Raising Boer Goats" or "Boer Goat Care". Therefore, on our articles page, we have the words "raising boer goats and boer goat care" right at the top of the page. It is written within the context of the page -- because it is relevant to the page. We also have keywords for "Raising Boer Goats" and "Boer Goat Care" in our meta data. We also have the key words and phrases sprinkled throughout our index page -- which adds to the searchability.

The second way is that we invite people to our site. The more people who visit us, the more likely the search engines will direct future people our way. We are members of a number of goat related e-groups, and when we ask people to come to our site (or one of our clients), it typically draws over 100 visits to the site. For more information on the e-groups, check out the article on e-groups.

The bottom line: Without spending any additional money, there are ways to code the page (through meta data, titles and keywords) to make your page more likely to come up (and we will do that for you to a certain degree), but you have to have visitors to the site to get it to the top and keep it there.

It does take time, though. For example, after we designed a page for the Bluebird Ranch (www.thebluebirdranch.com), we added a link on our index page mentioning the site to anyone who came to our page. We used some of the free sites which submit your site to search engines, and submitted directly to Google and Yahoo. It took 7 days before a search for the phrase "Bluebird Ranch" came up on Google with a reference to his page -- but it came up as a link from our page, not from its own domain. It took 3 weeks for Bluebird Ranch to come up on its own. After 6 weeks, when we typed "Goats For Sale in Tennessee" into the Google search engine, Bluebird Ranch came up in the top 10.

With that said, we did advertise his site on a number of mailing lists we belong to, and within 36 hours he had offers to purchase 5 of his goats, selling them for $1225. He had 147 people visit his site in the first week. Like I said, we have over 1000 people visit each month and have a hard time keeping goats and dogs on our sales pages. The more people who visit, the higher your presence on search engines.

We also wrote an article about marketing in our articles section. This article includes tips for online success.

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Why do I need a "Links" page?

This ties in with the earlier comment that you need visitors. You also need other domains to link to your site. Every link you have from a domain pointing to your site is registered within the search engines. Most sites have links pages, and demand a "quid pro quo" relationship with their links page. I will link you yours if you link to mine. Most of our visitors come from search engines, but there are a few sites out there that link to us which regularly provide traffic to our site. Now, if we didn't link to them, that equates to potential customers lost. Every time you click on a link going to a different domain, it will get categorized in the search engine. So, if you click on Boer Goats for Sale or Anatolian Shepherds for Sale, it will be good (in terms of search engine values) for those sites - particularly since it will categorize the words in the link with the page on which they refer. (They were a couple of our customers, so click away).

Why do I need a "Contact" page?

You would like to think that people who want to contact you just could send you an e-mail or call you. For the first 10 months of our web business, we just had our e-mail address and phone number. We were able to generate business this way. But, then we added a contact page with a form -- really not asking for much more information than people already provided with an e-mail. Since it was automated, I guess people are more at ease filling it out, than they would be about opening their e-mail program and sending an e-mail. Our clientele nearly quadrupled after we inserted a contact form.

On your page, we will design a simple contact form. We can make minor modifications to it at no charge (great modifications will incur an additional fee). Whenever someone fills out the contact form, you will receive an e-mail to whichever addresses you want to receive it. We currently have our contact forms sent to three separate addresses, which gives each of us the opportunity to see what information is being requested. Click here to see our contact form.

Why do I need a "Guestbook"?

This is a great place for testimonials. People who visit the site, or do business with you, can post a message telling you (and others) about your site and service. Oddly, some people are more comfortable with filling in the guestbook than they are with filling out a contact form. We don't judge them, but are happy to have any and all interaction with our visitors. If you sign up for a guestbook, we can delete entries that you find objectionable. You will also receive an e-mail whenever someone signs your guestbook.

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Why do I need a "Hit Count"?

Simply put, it will give you a generalized number of people who visited your page. The numbers won't be exact, but it gives a decent estimate. If you go with this, we will tell you how to visit your page without incrementing your hit count. We can also reset your hit count prior to an advertising campaign. For instance, prior to us posting about a major change to our web site, we reset the count so we can tell how many people reacted to the campaign.

Which "Hit Count" is best?

When hit counts were in their heyday, you found them on every page. It was sort of like bragging about how many people you had come to your site, as if to give credibility to your site. Of course, just like starting a checking account with a higher number on your checks (to give the impression you have used the account for years), you can manipulate the hit count the same way. We offer three types of hit counts. The one we recommend is the "hidden" hit count. For only $5, whenever someone goes to your page, a "secret" page which only has a number on it, is incremented by one. You can save that page in your favorites, and when you want to know how many people have come to that page, you just click on the page on your favorites (or bookmarks).

For people who want other people to know how many visitors they have had (as in, "You are visitor number 14002 on this page"), we can do that as well, either it can be inline text, or we can use an image (like it is some sort of scoreboard). It is up to you. (Plain text costs $10 and the scoreboard version is $15). Again, we recommend the $5 option on you index page and maybe on your sales page as well (we have one on 5 of our pages).

Why do I need a "Chat" page?

Not really sure. It is kind of neat to have your own chat page. We use chat to talk with our kids. At one point last year, we had kids (and grandkids) in Kuwait, Iraq, California, Florida and Missouri. At several points during the year, we had at least 4 people online, able to chat back and forth. Many companies (including the military) block chat sites for bandwidth reasons. Since these chats used a different protocol than Yahoo, AOL, ICQ or other chat services, our chats were not blocked (results may vary). So, we offer the chat setup as a service of ours, because chats have brought our family closer together across the miles.

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What information does the Site Report contain?

Our host provides the Webalizer service. Here are some of the definitions from the Webalizer site:

1. Hits represent the total number of requests made to the server during the given time period (month, day, hour etc.).
2. Files represent the total number of hits (requests) that actually resulted in something being sent back to the user. Not all hits will send data, such as 404-Not Found requests and requests for pages that are already in the browsers cache.
3. Tip: By looking at the difference between hits and files, you can get a rough indication of repeat visitors, as the greater the difference between the two, the more people are requesting pages they already have cached (have viewed already).
4. Sites is the number of unique IP addresses/hostnames that made requests to the server. Care should be taken when using this metric for anything other than that. Many users can appear to come from a single site, and they can also appear to come from many ip addresses so it should be used simply as a rough gauge as to the number of visitors to your server.
5. Visits occur when some remote site makes a request for a page on your server for the first time. As long as the same site keeps making requests within a given timeout period, they will all be considered part of the same Visit. If the site makes a request to your server, and the length of time since the last request is greater than the specified timeout period (default is 30 minutes), a new Visit is started and counted, and the sequence repeats. Since only pages will trigger a visit, remotes sites that link to graphic and other non- page URLs will not be counted in the visit totals, reducing the number of false visits.
6. Pages are those URLs that would be considered the actual page being requested, and not all of the individual items that make it up (such as graphics and audio clips). Some people call this metric page views or page impressions, and defaults to any URL that has an extension of .htm, .html or .cgi.
7. A KByte (KB) is 1024 bytes (1 Kilobyte). Used to show the amount of data that was transferred between the server and the remote machine, based on the data found in the server log.

The areas that I look at are:
Total Unique User Agents seems to be a fairly good gauge for how many people visit.

Top 30 Total URLs show which pages are getting the most activity.

Entry and Exit pages are normally good for telling how people are getting to the site (and how they are leaving) -- but this first report is kind of skewed.

Top 30 total referrers is a good way of seeing who has links on their page to get to your page.

After a few months, the search strings will come up -- that will help refine keywords and see how people are searching to get to the site. It does take 2-3 months before this one appears.

Keep in mind, that if you know you had about 150 visitors in a month (based on hit count), you can look for metrics that are around or above 150.

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Do I need an e-mail address with my domain name?

Yes. First, it is free (we will give you up to 5 for free). Your new e-mail address will be yourname@yourdomain.com (like mine is motes@motesclearcreekfarms.com).

Having an e-mail address with your domain name provides a number of benefits. The primary one is that when people see your e-mail address, they are reminded of your internet page. If they have saved your e-mail address in an address book, or see it posted online in a discussion group, they can easily discern the address to your page. It is very professional. You also have a larger limit on the amount of mail you can have in your e-mail address than you likely have in a free account. Hotmail allows 2 MB, Yahoo 4 MB, and we will give you 15 MB. We can give more if you need it. That will reduce your likelihood that an e-mail will get "kicked back" because your account is full, and could facilitate us sending pictures back and forth.

How do I check my e-mail?

We have a support page with details, click on it for more (after reading this answer).
http://www.motesclearcreekfarms.com/asp/design/support.asp

Generally, there are 2 ways to get your e-mail. First is through web mail (which is the same way hotmail, yahoo and others have for accessing your mail). To do that, follow the directions for Web Mail. You will want to save the login page as a favorite, and then each time, you will have to enter your e-mail address and password to get to the mail. You can send and receive mail from that site.

The preferred method, though, is using Outlook Express. If you have a computer that has Windows 98 or later, you should have outlook express installed with the operating system. There is a link on the support page which goes to a page with pictures and instructions for using Outlook Express, and the support page has all of the information you need to fill in the Outlook Express wizard. If you use Outlook Express and have a good anti-virus program (updated regularly), you will reduce the likelihood of getting viruses through your e-mail. As always, never open attachments on e-mail unless you were expecting them. This is the only sure-fire way to prevent viruses. Even if you get an e-mail from an address you recognize, do not open the attachment unless you were expecting one.

The e-mail support page also has a link to the page to change your password. We will give you a username (e-mail address) and will give you a temporary password, you can go to the link on the support page to change your password to something more secure (and easier for you to remember).

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Can you do any drawings of my goats for logos?

OK, I confess, not really a frequently asked question, but I wanted to get it in somewhere. Yes, we can draw your goats. We have two pages that have some of the things we can do.

This first page is pure tracing -- really fairly easy when you know what you are doing.
Transparent-Goat-Drawings

This next one is much more difficult, but the results are very professional.
Goat-Paintings

Ultimately, these will make decent logos if you were so inclined. Just let us know and we will work out a price ($10-$30 depending on level of difficulty).

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