Hope’s Trail Website Makeover

01 – General Information

BPATTS will always do our best to fulfill your needs and meet your expectations, but it’s important to have things written down so that we both know what’s what, who should do what and when, and what will happen if something goes wrong. In these policies and procedures, you won’t find any complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text to try and trick you into something that you might later regret. What we do want is what’s best for both parties, now and in the future.

What do both parties agree to?

You: You agree to give us the assets and information we request that we’ll need to complete your project. This will be done in a timely manner and provide it in the formats we ask for. You’ll review our work and provide feedback and approval in a timely manner too. Deadlines work two ways, so you’ll also be bound by dates we set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule set out at the end of our contract.

Us: We have the experience and ability to do everything we’ve agreed with you and we’ll do it all in a professional and timely manner. We’ll endeavor to meet every deadline that’s set and on top of that we’ll maintain the confidentiality of everything you give us.

02 – Design Process

When building websites, we create beautiful designs and flexible layouts that adapt to the capabilities of many devices and screen sizes. We create designs exclusively within the WordPress framework. Also, we won’t waste both parties time mocking up every template or page as a static visual. We may use visuals to indicate a creative direction (color, texture, and typography), but again we will not be mocking up, wire framing, or prototyping every item within your site.

You’ll have plenty of opportunities to review our work and provide feedback. We’ll either share a Mediafire, Dropbox, or Google Drive folder for file sharing during the build process. If requested, periodically throughout the design process we will share previews of the build on our development site as well.

If, at any stage, you change your mind about what you want to be delivered and are NOT happy with the direction our work is taking, you’ll pay us in full for the time we’ve spent working with you until that point and terminate your contract. (NOTE: The first half “upfront” payment that’s required to begin work is non refundable.)

03 – Site Content

Unless agreed separately, we’re not responsible for creating text or language for your website. We suggest you reach out to a professional copywriting and editing service if you need help in this area. If you’d like us to create new content or input content for you, we can provide a separate estimate for that.

Graphics and Photographs

You should supply any desired branding and graphic files. Branding files are preferred to be sent in a PSD or in an editable, vector format. You should supply photographs in a high-resolution digital format providing the best quality possible. If you choose to buy stock photographs, we can suggest stock libraries and providers. When creating custom graphics for you, we will utilize our own stock subscriptions. We also have the right to deny use of any image we deem inappropriate or feel doesn’t line up with the values of our agency.

04 – Browser Testing

Browser testing no longer means attempting to make a website look the same in browsers of different capabilities or on devices with different size screens. It does mean ensuring that a person’s experience of a design should be appropriate to the capabilities of a browser or device.

We test our work in current versions of the major desktop browsers including Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox. We’ll also test to ensure that people who use the very latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows gets an appropriate experience. We will NOT test in other older browsers unless we agreed separately to do so. If you need an enhanced design for older browsers, we can provide a separate estimate for that.

05 – Mobile Browser Testing Mobile browser testing using popular smaller screen devices is essential in ensuring that a person’s experience of a design is appropriate to the capabilities of the device they’re using. We test our web designs in:

● iOS: Safari, Google Chrome

● Android: Google Chrome

We won’t test in Blackberry, Opera Mini/Mobile, specific Android devices, Windows, or other mobile browsers unless we agreed separately. If you need us to test using these, we can provide a separate estimate for that.

06 – Technical Support / Site Maintenance

After a site is completed and live, BPATTS will provide technical support at no cost up to 14 days, in order to fix any issues or bugs that may be found with the site. This does NOT include things like adding additional content, creating new pages, and further styling. (These types of things can all be done though our monthly maintenance care plans.)

You may already have professional hosting and you might even manage that hosting “in house”; if you do – great! If you don’t, we can set up an account on our premium hosting and maintenance care plans. This will give you premium hosting and some hours of work on your site each month. These care plans are on a monthly basis in terms of work and payment.

* If you are needing technical support and are not on one of our care plans, the rate is $100/hour for work to your site, or an agreed upon fixed amount for the work needed.

This work will be completed during our normal business hours (see below).

07 – Office Hours & Contacting Us

ALL work & support on your project will be conducted during our hours of operation only. This includes all phone calls, online conferencing, tech support, Slack discussions, emailing, etc… If contacting BPATTS outside of normal business hours, we will contact you back the following business day.

BPATTS responds only to clients who use the approved channels of communication. This does NOT include things like text messages and connecting through social media platforms – especially outside of office hours.

Office hours are 10:00AM – 5:00PM, Monday – Friday.

08 – Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

We are NOT an SEO company. We do not guarantee improvements to your website’s search engine ranking, or provide professional SEO services. That said, the web pages we develop are accessible to search engines and are SEO ready. We ensure that by implementing Yoast SEO or another SEO plugin into your site. We then are willing to work with you to integrate any additional SEO items you would like us to, in order to further assist in making your site even more SEO ready. We recommend you hire a 3rd party to provide full and professional SEO services.

09 – Changes and Revisions Before Completion

We don’t want to limit your ability to change your mind. The investment price for your project is based on the total amount of time that we estimate we will need to accomplish everything you’ve told us you want to achieve, but we’re happy to be flexible. If you want to change your mind or add anything new, that won’t be a problem for most scenarios during the creation process, but if the requests become too much or beyond the scope of the original agreed upon work, then we’ll have to charge extra for those additional items.

10 – Domains, Plugins, & Themes

During a site build, our agency makes many purchases on your behalf to complete your project. Primarily this includes your domain name, your site’s theme, and plugins used to provide specific functionality outside of the WordPress framework and your theme. The cost for these items is incurred by our agency, and so by default we hold the licensing rights for those items.

In terms of us purchasing and registering your domain name, you have the option to purchase that on your own and at your own expense, and then simply provide us the info we need regarding your domain name. If you’ve requested us to do the work for you regarding your domain name and we have purchased it, then we legally own it. However, you have the option to have it transferred out of our agency’s account into an account you create which transfers ownership of the domain name fully to you. Most registrars charge around $10 or less to do this. That transfer fee will be at your expense if you want to transfer it out. You are also responsible for paying the yearly domain name renewal fee if we are hosting you and have registered your domain on your behalf.

In terms of themes, we use various themes that we deem best for your site. They are the general framework on which we build your site, and they range in pricing. Most are around $60, which we pay for. That means we own the licensing for that theme. If you would like to own the licensing, then you have the option to purchase the theme we deem best for your project, and then simply provide us the theme files and licensing info for theme activation and installation. Licensing only last one year unless renewed for almost all themes.

In terms of paid plugins we purchase plugins for you, so we hold the licensing for them as well. Plugin developers provide updates and support for the plugin generally for 6 months to a year. If we have purchased the plugin for you, we are not required or obligated to update or renew the licensing for that plugin on your site. If you have chosen to purchase the plugin on your own and have sent us the info for it, then you have the ability an option to renew the plugin on your own and have it updated. Otherwise, updates to premium paid plugins are NOT required to be renewed and updated by us at the additional costs required to do so by the plugin developer.

11 – Payments Methods & Policies

We’re sure you understand how important it is to us as a small business that you pay the invoices that we send you promptly. We issue invoices electronically, and prefer that invoices be paid by primarily by check for work over $500. For payments below $500, they can be paid online via PayPal or Cash.me.

11A – Rush Work

If your project(s) are requested to be completed within a 72 hour window, this work is considered “rushed”. Because of the short time frame, there is an additional 20% fee added to the total cost of the project.

● EXAMPLE: If the cost of your project was $100 and within the 72 hour “rush” window, the total invoice for the project would be $120.

11B – Payment Times for Work Rendered

ALL payments must be made BEFORE receiving your design files, or your site made live (depending on your payment structure). Once files have been provided to, there is no assurance for payment at that point. For this reason, payments must be made BEFORE you receive your files.

● EXAMPLE: If you went to the grocery store to acquire something you need, payment would be required for that item BEFORE you left the store. The grocery store would not allow you to take $200 in groceries without paying for them.

11C – Late Payments

If an exception has been made to pay after files are sent due to extraordinary circumstances, payment is required within a certain time frame. If you are paying online, the payment is due within 72 hours of the work being completed. After that, a late fee will be added to the invoice of 5%. If payment has NOT been made within 10 days, a late fee of 10% will be added.

● EXAMPLE: Imagine going to a restaurant to eat and running up a $100 tab. Then you leave the restaurant and do not pay for the meal for days or weeks later – maybe never. Paying immediately after the meal is the expected time for payment, and this time frame ensures business/customer integrity and strong business relationship. Same holds true for design services – payment is due and expected at the completion of the work.

11D – Paying Online

If electing to pay for design work online – other than for our Care Plans, there is an additional fee of 3% added to your invoice total. This fee is to cover the online payment processors fee (PayPal or Cash Me). If you wish to avoid paying this fee, then you will need to make arrangements to pay by check.

11E – Paying By Check

Please make checks written out to:

Brandon Patterson
403 Patterson Road
Kings Mountain, NC 28086

12 – Payment Schedule The total financial investment for the site makeover is $3,000. A special $1,000 discount for the ministry has been given and applied, making the total for this project $2,000.

We prefer to have the financial investment amount broken up into four (4) $500 payments over the 8 weeks it will take to build your new site. Payments can be made via the methods and policies set above in Section 11 (check, PayPal, and Cash.me).

* PLEASE NOTE: — Your site will NOT be made live after the project is completed until the final payment to BPATTS has been initiated.

13 – Annual Fees – Web Hosting / Domain Registration

In terms of annual expenses, all you will have is the domain name renewal fee and the web hosting if you are acquiring those through us. If not – then there are no annual expense from us.

For Hope’s Trail, we will host the site for you at the rate of $10/month. That’s $120/year and is paid annually. This will give you the best hosting available and includes features like SSL certificates for added security, automatic site backups (WordPress does not do this by default), site updates for the theme and any used plugins, site caching for increased site speed, and more. SSL certificates are now being required from Google, and sites that don’t have them get their page ranked lowered (and Google also pushes them down further in search results)!

If interested in our “Standard Care Plan” that includes the great hosting just explained, and up to 1 hour a month professional maintenance by BPATTS – the discounted cost for Hope’s Trail is $59/month (normally $99/ month).

For more info visit: https://bpatts.com/careplans

Legal Stuff

We’ll carry out our work in accordance with good industry practice and at the standard expected from a suitably qualified person/agency with relevant experience. That said, we can’t guarantee that our work will be error free, and so we can’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings, or other incidental, consequential, or special damages – even if you’ve advised us of them. Also remember that you are responsible for thoroughly checking and proofing our work! While we will always do our best, but mistakes can happen. It is ultimately your responsibility to catch those before sending printed work to the printers, or publishing your site(s) online.

Intellectual Property Rights

First, you guarantee that all elements of text, images, or other artwork you provide are either owned by you, or that you have permission to use them. When you provide text, images, or other artwork to us, you agree to protect us from any claim by a third party that we’re using their intellectual property.

We guarantee that all elements of the work we deliver to you are either owned by us or we’ve obtained permission to provide them to you. When we provide text, images, or other artwork to you, we agree to protect you from any claim by a third party that you’re using their intellectual property. Provided you’ve paid for the work and that this contract hasn’t been terminated, we’ll assign all intellectual property rights to you as follows:

You’ll own the website we design for you plus the visual elements that we create for it. We’ll give you source files and finished files if you request them, and you should keep them somewhere safe, as we’re not required to keep a copy. You own all intellectual property rights of text, images, site specification and data you provided, unless someone else owns them.

We’ll own any intellectual property rights we’ve developed prior to, or developed separately from this project and not paid for by you. We’ll own the unique combination of these elements that constitutes a complete design and we’ll license its use to you, exclusively and in perpetuity for this project only, unless we agree otherwise.

Displaying Our Work

We love to show off our hard work, so we reserve the right to display all aspects of our creative work, including sketches, work-in-progress designs, and the completed project on our portfolio, as well as in other websites, magazines, books, social media networks, and any other form of media.

Conclusion

Just like a parking ticket, neither of us can transfer our final contract to anyone else without the other’s permission. We both agree that we will adhere to all relevant laws and regulations in relation to our activities under our contract and not cause the other to breach any relevant laws or regulations. The contract we will put in place stays in place and need not be renewed. If for some reason one part of the contract becomes invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts of it remain in place.