Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. 100%. You are the owner. I am the contractor working on your project. The website is not a physical possession – it “resides” virtually on a host server (see “Technical Questions”) – but you own it and everything on it.
Legally, it is considered “intellectual property” because it is a creation of the mind and not a physical product as such. You also own the copyright to your own site and material (see next question).
No. Coding is the work of web developers. With modern design platforms, web designers like me can create very robust designs and load tons of content without coding skills. If there is ever a need for more technical knowledge, I have some good expert consultants for that.
After the initial setup, not much. Your involvement doesn’t have to be daily, by any means, but the more involved you are the more I can do for you. Involvement can range from the most time-intensive task (writing your own blog posts) to the least time-intensive (supervising someone else’s postings). Content is key to creating and keeping interest in a website, so, as a general rule, you should be thinking regularly about what you want people to see on your site, and I’ll do the heavy lifting of putting your ideas into a practical and attractive form on your website.
I provide a ton of services, but everything has limits, including my energy and time! To be specific about what I cannot provide:
- I cannot do your promotional or marketing work for you, but I will happily give you a few ideas and references about how to do it.
- I’d be happy to set up a social media account or two for you, but I cannot manage your social media for you from that point on.
- In general, I do not provide writing services because of the time-consuming nature of professional writing.
Yes. As one professional to another, I’ll just tell you up front what doesn’t work for me:
- Micro-management. Please don’t do this. I am entirely accountable to the client, and you get 100% quality work from me at all times.
- Disengagement. This is the opposite of micro-management. It is when the client drops the ball and lets his own project fall by the wayside. If your website turns out not to be important to you, it will cease to be important to me as well.
- “Ghosting”. “Ghosting” is a Gen Z term for ignoring someone who wants (or needs) to communicate with you. You’re busy, I get it, but please don’t ignore my communications if you’ve asked me to do a job for you. I don’t ask for instant responses, just that you give responses in a reasonable timeframe when I need your input.
Yes, you can trademark your site’s name, but it is generally unnecessary to do so. Just the act of publishing it gives you the standard copyright protections. Exceptions to this would be if you are large company that would have a legitimate reason to be afraid of someone stealing your name or corporate assets. This is unlikely with private blog sites and non-profits.
The larger threat may be that someone wants to damage your mission and thus launches a copycat site using the same or a similar name with a different extension that you don’t own (.com, .org, .net, .us, etc). To minimize this possibility, it is always best to purchase your same website address with those extensions so that someone else can’t easily create a copycat.
- Your own: Basically, once you publish or post something of your own (text, audio, or visual), it is legally copyrighted to you. Post away! The same applies to a website. This is why you’ll usually see in the footer of most websites a line like this: © 2024 RND Development LLC. All rights reserved.
- Material on the Internet: You can’t just cut and paste other people’s content into your website or articles without their permission, but you can link to other people’s content with no restrictions. And don’t forget, you can always just ask them for permission to use it. Most people are flattered that their work is getting attention.
- Excerpts and quotes: You can generally use quotes and excerpts from other people’s work up to 250 words via the “fair use” doctrine, but bear in mind that this is not an absolute rule, and if someone prohibits you from using their material entirely, you are bound to refrain. When in doubt, check with the copyright holder, who may not be the author of a piece but the publishing company.
- Images/electronic media: Image use and electronic media is the wild west of the Internet these days, and the general rule is that you cannot use content that other sources have created and posted unless you have permission to use them. It’s always best to use free and fee-based stock image resources for the images you want, or post your own. (See next question.)
- Plagiarism: It goes without saying that taking someone else’s written word and reproducing it as your own is unethical as well as legally risky. (Beware: It’s very easy to identify cut-and-pasted text through internet searches these days.) Everyone except Joe Biden is held accountable for plagiarism, so it’s best to avoid this altogether.
Not for everything. But good, high-quality images are a standard part of websites these days.
Blog posts (writings and articles) are usually accompanied by some imagery to enhance your message. You can send me the images you want or, to reduce the burden of you having to sift through lots of images, I can choose images for you that I believe work best with your message.
If you have specific images you want to include in your design (or for photo galleries of events, etc.), please send them to me. Even if they are not high-quality images, we can find a way to incorporate them into the design or find reasonable alternatives.
See “Copyright Questions” (a category on the bar above) for information about where to find copyright-free stock images to use on your site.
There are a ton of free, copyright-free, and royalty-free websites that provide imagery for the internet. However, these things are all different.
- Free and clear: Most of these sites are subsidiaries of big media companies and allow you to use their images without cost and without attribution to the creator. However, they are always trying to get you to upgrade to a paid plan. (Best sites: Pixabay, Pexels, Unsplash, among others.)
- Copyright-free: Means you can use their images without fear of a copyright infraction. However, they ask you to cite the source when you use it (Best: Wikimedia Commons).
- Royalty-free: The name with “free” in it is deceptive because you have to pay for the use of these images, but you don’t have to continue to pay royalties to the creator when you re-use the image. (Best sites: Getty Images, iStock, Adobe, Shutterstock, Alamy, 123RF.com, among many others.)
Only if you want to. I can teach you how to do that if you wish. It’s not very hard. However, posting your content on a regular basis is part of the package, so I’m prepared to do it all for you. It’s my mission to offer busy clergymen the most time-effective way to use a website for their missions. You have souls to save – which is much more important work!
I’d also be happy to work with a colleague of yours who can do the posting in house to retain full control of the process. I can train him or her to do the work.
You generally need a logo for a website, but it doesn’t have to be professionally designed. Good logos done by a professional graphic designer can be expensive and time-consuming to get the design you are comfortable with.
A logo identifies (or “brands”) your ministry and can be used in many formats, so you want it to express your mission clearly. It can be as simple as your name in some decorative script, or a dynamic image, or an image combined with text.
Yes. I am not a professional graphic artist, but I’ve been known to design some excellent logos! In fact, it’s part of the package.
No. My own writing projects keep me extremely busy, so I cannot offer that particular service. I’d be happy to edit anything you or your colleagues wish to put up on the site. See next question.
Yes, I have much experience editing, and I find the task both easy and enjoyable. My work is “touch-up editing” and is limited to the following:
- Amending typos and minor grammatical glitches.
- Smoothing out syntax and phraseology for clarity.
- Suggesting or adding items that may add to the impact.
The operative principle, however, is that your words are entirely yours, and the editor only enhances what you have written.
Absolutely, no problem at all. Platforms nowadays make it easy to post YouTube and Vimeo videos, as well as upload your own mp4 files. They key is to be careful about copyright issues (see “Copyright Questions” on the bar above).
The same as videos. Any digital file can be posted and designed for maximum effect on your site.
No problem. It happens! My entire mission is to craft a website to best serve your mission. (See the “The Design Process” article and document on the Services Page.)
A website has to fit like a comfortable shoe. If you really don’t like what I’ve created, we’ll scrap it and start over. Or, we’ll just work on one design after another until you are fully satisfied. It’s all about your mission.
My job is to save you from having to worry about those dimensions of your website because you have to spend your time saving souls, which is a much more valuable work for the Kingdom. As noted, if you or I encounter any technical problems related to the website, I will call on tech consultants to resolve the issues in record time.
The “front end” of a website is what shows on the internet, but every website also has a “back end” which is where the design work takes place. You will have full access to that through a “Specifications” document I will create for your site (a full list of access codes and technical information you need for your website.)
This information will be critical not only for you but also in the event that you decide to move to another designer or service provider in the future.
Very little nowadays. In the late ‘90s and early 2000s blogging was the primary way for people to interact in cyberspace. Today, social media has usurped that function.
Nowadays, what is called a blog is usually just an element of a larger website. Think of it as the dedicated page on a site where you post articles hoping that someone will read them and respond with feedback. It’s less a forum for interaction than a place for posting articles.
Sure can. There are some technical issues to deal with, so please see the “Re-Designing A Website” article and document on the Services Page for more information on this subject.
You need a domain name to have a website because the web address is what makes it possible to find you on the World Wide Web.
The services that provide domain names are called domain registrars because they register these URLs with the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is the gateway to the Internet. This very interesting article tells you all about it if you want to learn more.
If you don’t have a domain name, I can obtain one for you or you can obtain a domain from one of the numerous providers, which we can then connect to your website so people can find you on the web.
You can obtain a domain name from many sources (GoDaddy is probably the most recognizable provider). I generally use a service called Namecheap because, as the name suggests, it is the cheapest place to buy domain names (generally $11-16 per year vs. other registrars that might charge twice that amount).
The major problem, however, is not where to get a domain name. The problem is finding a name for your site that isn’t already being used. See the next question.
If the domain name you want is already taken, there are many ways to adopt similar names:
- By adding hyphenation or periods in the name (www.father-jenkins.com or www.fr.jenkins.com)
- By going with an address ending in any alternative suffix that isn’t already taken for that name: .org, .com, or .net (fatherjenkins.org; stmaryparish.net; pro-lifewarriors.com)
Another very effective way to do adopt a similar name nowadays is by adding “my” to the front of a name that’s already in use (www.mycatholicshop.com, an actual client of mine!)
If you give me three to five of your best domain name prospects, I’ll search and see which is available.
No matter what registrar your domain is listed on, we can connect the domain to your website’s hosting service and make sure that the URL (domain name) always directs to your site. This is a technical matter which does not cost anything.
In the case of a defunct site, the simple matter of redirecting the domain name to your site makes the URL work again and the defunct website will disconnected and have no effect on the future operation of your website.
A web host is a company that holds your website on its server. Pure and simple. Good web hosts provide the technical support necessary to keep your website safe from hackers and viruses, and provide other services such as:
- Updates for WordPress and plugins (virtual tools you can add for specific functions you need on the site—called plugins because they “plug in” to the existing platform);
- Backups of the site and database;
- Site security and file monitoring;
- Spam detection and blocking;
- Site repair if hacked;
- Dedicated email accounts for your domain; and
- Other types of technical support when needed.
Some years ago I began to work with Bluehost, which is one of the larger and more reputable webhosting companies. It provides all of the above services, a large database of documentation for the user to learn the system better, and a 24/7 help line for any technical need.
Absolutely! WordPress has a very user-friendly e-commerce function called WooCommerce, which is handy and can be easily tailored to your needs and style.
Yes, the phenomenon of responsive design is the standard for web design nowadays. The name indicates that a website’s design responds, that is, expands and contracts, according to the various screen sizes on which it will be viewed.
Since something like 60% of people now access the internet through their phones, this is a necessity. As part of the design process, we will test your site on all screen sizes available to us before we launch just to make sure that it is functional and beautiful wherever it is viewed.
Because of modern web security protocols and tools, this almost never happens any more, but it is still possible. My approach is one of regular vigilance over your site: a combination of prevention, regular monitoring, updating of security measures, and immediate technical fixes when problems become evident.
I don’t know, but I wouldn’t doubt it. It’s always good to presume that Big Brother is watching. But then again, so is our Heavenly Father. We are still a free society, so be yourself and live out your full mission without fear.
