Greetings – welcome to Starrlight Media. I’ve been building websites on a part time basis for almost 20 years. The last 10 years or so primarily with WordPress sites. (I’m also a professional cat photographer as Starrlight Photography).
Services:
Currently, I’m building and supporting websites mostly on wordpress.com. I’ve written a detailed blog post on the reasons for this. I’m not a WordPress developer (just experience with CSS coding and child themes). I’ve built “self-hosted” wordpress.org sites (and still maintain several) but prefer the wordpress.com platform for most of my clients, which provides less “backend” maintenance for security and updates. I’m happy for you, the client, to make updates to your site, at any level you’re comfortable with. Some clients may make simple updates to design and content of pages as well as making blog/news posts. Other clients will only make blog posts, which are extremely easy on wordpress.com. There is even an option to do “posts by email”, meaning you can create a new post on your blog/website just by sending an email with attached or embedded photos – no need to log in to the site. I’m currently in the process of creating user-friendly instruction sheets to help my clients edit their sites if they wish. Of course if you are not comfortable making any updates yourself, I’m very happy to do them for you.
Most of the sites built are for folks in the cat fancy, hobby breeders, etc, and I manage a cat breeder directory. I’m not a graphic artist by profession but create logos and graphics and am experienced with photo editing. Most of my past working experiences have been in customer/technical support and writing user documentation. I have a lot of experience with organizing and presenting information in a clear and concise manner.
As of Jan, 2020, I’m also doing part time WordPress support for www.makin-hey.com . If you’re interested in a more involved business site that needs development and marketing, let me or Allen at MakinHey know.
Pricing:
Charges for StarrlightMedia web services are typically $30/hour. Building a “simple” new site, using a wordpress.com theme with “basic customization” to design and navigation (included with the theme) will be on average around $500 plus the cost of the WordPress.com plan you choose. A typical site might consist of a blog/news page, a “static” home page, an “About” page, “Contact” page, inquiry form, plus an additional 2-4 (or more) content pages. Social media links, etc included. Additional customization with CSS coding for design, extensive photo editing, or content writing will be additional cost. Some basic training and assistance on learning to edit the site is included but I’m also available for remote or possibly in-person tutoring. There is almost no maintenance needed on the “backend” for wordpress.com sites so after initial set up I only charge, on an hourly basis, for requested content and design updates. No updates – no charges (except for the yearly WordPress account fee).
I do not host sites but have the client sign up for a wordpress.com account where the website is hosted. There are 6 plans available at wordpress.com, including a free plan. The free plan will include a wordpress url (address) for example “starrlightmedia.wordpress.com” and WP will put small ads on your site. If you want to use a custom domain (either new one or existing) and eliminate ads on the site, you’ll need to get at least the personal plan which is $60/year. A custom domain is free the first year, then $18/year, or if you already have a domain managed elsewhere, it is $13/year to “map” it to your WordPress site. Any of the paid plans include support from the extremely helpful folks at WordPress. For a site that needs additional customization not included with the theme, you’d need at least the premium plan for the CSS coding feature. For information on pricing see wordpress.com/pricing/ .
If you are interested in a website at wordpress.com, be aware that there is no option to serve email from there. So if you use emails with your domain name and/or host emails along with your webhost account, you’ll need to host them elsewhere, Gsuite is a good option.
Feel free to check out the “Examples” page and contact me if any questions.
Thanks for your interest! – Diana
