Services:
I’ve been building websites on a part time basis for over 20 years and with WordPress since 2008, initially with the standard installation and more recently on WordPress.com. (I’m also a professional cat photographer as Starrlight Photography). I’ve also done a bit of work lately with Shopify sites. I’m not a WordPress developer (just experience with CSS coding and child themes). I’ve built and maintain a number websites with the standard WordPress installation but often recommend the WordPress.com option for my clients’ hobby sites, which provides less “backend” maintenance for security and updates.
Some of my clients make their own updates to page content and create blog/news posts. There is 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.
Most of the sites I build are for folks in the cat fancy, hobby breeders, etc, and I manage a Bengal Cat breeder directory. I’m not a graphic artist by profession but create logos and graphics and am very experienced with photo editing. Most of my past working experiences have been in customer/technical support and writing user documents.
As of Jan, 2020, I’m also doing part time WordPress support for Makin-Hey, www.makin-hey.com . If you’re in need of a website that needs advanced development, e-commerce, and/or marketing, let me or Allen at Makin-Hey know.
Process & Pricing:
Charges for StarrlightMedia web services (including website build, updates, content writing, site backups, and/or photo editing) are $35/hour. Some assistance on learning to edit the site is included with new sites I built, but I’m also available for remote tutoring. There is little 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, and site backups. If you do these tasks, there are no additional charges on my part.
If you go with a wordpress.com account, the website is hosted there. There are 5 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. (I don’t recommend this option.) 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 $48/year. A custom domain is provided by WordPress 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, or the business plan in order to use plugins. For information on pricing see wordpress.com/pricing/ .
* Note re email: If you are interested in a website at wordpress.com, be aware that setting up email via WordPress they will charge an additional fee. If you currently use a webhost that also handles your email, and you drop that webhost to start with wordpress.com, keep this fact in mind.
If you decide you want to go with the standard WordPress installation on a self-hosted site, you’d need an account with SiteGround, BlueHost or another webhosting company (I do not host sites myself). This option entails more setup time and overall maintenance but it does give more options with design and functionality than the lower-end WordPress.com sites do.
Feel free to check out the “Examples” page and contact me if any questions.
Thanks for your interest! – Diana