How do we work together?

Learning how to design your own website is time-consuming. The easiest way to obtain your own presence on the world-wide web is to have someone else do it for you. The beauty of the web design business is you can view examples of a designer's work right on your computer!

It can be quite confusing, however, reading price lists of different packages designers offer. And it's so expensive! That's why ArtStu Design Services charge by the hour. Our philosophy of helping you keep your costs down is simple: The more organized you are (i.e., the more text files, graphic files, sound files, etc. you provide us at the outset), the less time it will take us to create your site. If the website is for a company, it will be more efficient to designate one person to represent the desires of that company. This avoids there being "too many cooks in the kitchen" so to speak.

As domain name registration and web hosting services are in a constant state of flux, we will consult with you on where to take your site once it's ready. Many designers will charge a fee for these services sometimes well above what is really necessary.

If you would like to hire ArtStu Design Services for your web designing needs, drop a line at info@artstu.com. Before you decide, however, please study the suggestions below. It will help you understand how you can get organized.

Reference

The most comprehensive reference and best organized site we've found on building your own site is through Lycos' site at http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/.
http://www.wpdfd.com/wpdhome.htm is another wonderful place to go for help, especially after you've been creating your pages a while. Links to places for graphics, backgrounds, etc. exist here.

Finding a place to park your site You may be wondering what you can do once you've "finished" your site (one never really finishes once they've started). There are basically three possibilities:

ISP Free Space. Many Internet Service Providers (ISP), as in AOL, Earthlink, Compuserve, etc., will provide their members free space on the web in which to upload their site. This is a great place for newbies to go since there is no additional cost involved and is more convenient then most options. The drawback is you won't be able to have your own domain name, but instead will be using what is referred to as a "sub-domain" name. For example, if ArtStu Design Services had an account with and used the free space at the ISP America Online [FYI it does not], its address would be http://members.aol.com/ArtStu/. Other places require you place a tilde before your name. If AOL required this, the address would be http://members.aol.com/~ArtStu/.
Web-based Free Space. If your ISP does not provide you free web space, there are other alternatives. Many sites, such as http://www.tripod.com and http://geocities.yahoo.com/home/ offer free space in exchange for your allowing pop-up ads to accompany your site. As a matter of fact, if all you needed was a simple page, these sites have page building programs online. You have to construct your site while online, however, so its much easier to have become familiar with the process before hand. You can also upload pages you've made to these sites.
Web Hosting Services. The third, and most expensive, way to go is obtaining your own domain name and finding a "web hosting" service. There are two issues involved here:
- Registering your domain name with Network Solutions at http://www.networksolutions.com. The cost for 1 year is $35 at the time of this site's update. Some web hosts (i.e., http://geocities.yahoo.com) includes site registration with their hosting plans.
- The unavoidable cost, which can range from $8.95/month to $700+ a year, is finding a web hosting service for your domain name. We strongly suggest you ask around and see where friends and colleagues are going, read articles in places like http://www.cnet.com, and use search engines like http://www.altavista.com or http://www.ask.com to find a web host.

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