Payment Obligations, Renewals, and Cancellations
- Website Development and/or Social Media Project Payment Obligations: A NON-REFUNDABLE down payment is required to begin development of your website or social media campaign. The outstanding balance on your website or social media project are due when a website or social media campaign has been launched. Final payment is due regardless of whether all content for the pages has been sent by the client. After FINAL payment, Invoke will still post outstanding content and make minor edits AT NO CHARGE for 45 days. After the forty-five days have expired, content posted to site will be billable at our current regular hourly rate. If design and/or navigation changes are requested by client after they have been specifically approved by the client, these changes will be billable at our current regular hourly rate.
- Website Development or Social Media Project Cancellation: If site design and development work or social media campaign has already begun (such as creating a design concept and setting up an editorial calendar), the down payment is non-refundable. Invoke may elect at its sole discretion to offer a partial refund depending upon the circumstances.
- Stock Photography Payment Obligations: Stock photography includes most photos and/or images not provided by the client. Stock photography purchased on behalf of client for use in website development is billable after the $100.00 (one hundred dollar) built-in credit is absorbed. This amount is separate from the amount quoted for website design and development. Some pictures are more expensive than others, in which case we will solicit client approval and communicate the cost to purchase photos before purchasing.
Description of Ongoing Costs
- Domain name registration/renewal: This cost recurs annually. Domain name registration gives you exclusive rights to a certain name, such as www.mybusiness.com, so that you can use it for your web-based purposes. You are NOT required to register a domain through us. If you have registered your own name, make sure you have yourself as the Registrant and Administrative Contact with a current, easily accessible email address. This will help to ensure that your domain can be renewed or transferred should the need arise. Domain name registration fees are not refundable.
- Hosting: This cost recurs annually. Hosting places the website on a server connected to the web. If your website is not hosted, it does not actually sit on the internet to be viewed. You are NOT required to host through Invoke. Hosting comes with domain-based emails, bandwidth, storage space, database and security tools, and other features.
- Hosting Transfer Payment Obligations: If you wish to transfer your hosting to another provider Invoke can, upon request, assist with this. There may be charges related to any transfer that cannot be easily facilitated by providing c-panel access and/or ftp access.
- Sites NOT Hosted by GoDaddy Pro: Invoke hosts with GoDaddy. Should you decide to host on your own server, Invoke cannot guarantee that all elements of the site will work. We will make a reasonable effort to research the problem on the foreign platform to let the client know what we think the problem is. However, we cannot take responsibility for problems caused by or on another hosting server, including but not limited to email, FTP, SSL, database, server software, and site security issues.
- Website Maintenance: Website maintenance fees can range from as little as $10/month to as much as $250/month.. Most people do some work on their site every year, for which we offer several plans. We make certain parts of your site easily updatable by you through the addition of a custom Content Management System in your website. Any additional work we do on the site (post 45 days) after going live, we charge on an hourly basis. If you expect that maintenance will be a regular occurrence, you can buy a prepaid maintenance contract that affords a discounted hourly rate. If need be, we can customize a maintenance plan for your needs, but no plan is required.
- Website Maintenance Payment Obligations: Depending upon the nature of the website changes, prepayment may be required. Should the client be invoiced after the changes are completed, the invoice is due upon receipt. If payment is not received within 30 days, the maintenance changes may be taken down until payment is received. After 60 days, there may also be a reposting fee added to the outstanding maintenance invoice balance.
- Third Party Applications: Oftentimes, third party plugins are required for certain website functionality. These are costs to the client. Additionally, costs to social media platforms such as Hootsuite, HubSpot, Sprout Social, MailChimp, etc are passed on to the client.
Development Process
- Homepage Design – Once the site design is approved by the client, the design is considered ready for implementation. Should the client wish to make changes to a design they have approved, those changes are billable at our standard hourly rate.
- Navigation – Once site outline/map is approved by the client, the site navigation is considered ready for implementation. Combined with the approved graphic design, this becomes the site structure. Once we build this structure per client approval, any subsequent changes are billable at our standard hourly rate.
- Content – Provision of content is customer’s responsibility, unless specifically negotiated ahead of time as part of the project proposal.
- Text content – Copy for all website pages and links needs to be delivered digitally and should be carefully proof-read by the client. Two rounds of revisions will be provided free of charge. Subsequent revisions will be billable at our regular hourly rate.
- Copy development – Should client wish Invoke develop content for the site, website copy is billable at our regular hourly rate. Development of copy is accomplished via our interviewing the client about the topic areas to be addressed on their web pages. Invoke will compose appropriate copy, submit to the client for review, edit, and approval. Approved copy is then posted to the web pages.
- Graphical content – Images outside of the website design must be provided in digital form or in a form that can be easily scanned, unless otherwise provided for in customer’s contract. Subsequent revisions will be billable at our regular hourly rate.
- Database Implementation – Entry of data for database applications is considered client’s responsibility. Entry of data by Invoke is billable, unless otherwise provided for in customer’s contract.
- Email – GoDaddy offers ONE YEAR free domain-based email accounts to our clients as part of any hosting contract. If site is not hosted by GoDaddy, we take no responsibility for setting up and troubleshooting email problems.
- Training – For websites with administrative control panels or content management systems, a three-hour Basic Training (Editor Access) will be provided. Additional training and/or Advanced Training can be scheduled at an additional fee.
- Technical Support – We offer local and long-distance phone support to our clients.
Training and Tutorials
Because customer service is in integral part of our business strategy, our projects include a one-time complimentary training session in order for our clients to better make use of their new web technology. Additional training hours can be purchased at our standard hourly rate or applied against your existing maintenance contract.
Domain Transfers and DNS Management
For domains not originally registered with GoDaddy, there may be a fee to either transfer to the domain into GoDaddy registration platform, or to transfer-out to another registrar. Some clients elect to keep their domain name in one location and simply point the domain name to the IP address of the new website. This can be completed at no charge.