Q: Is there a minimum charge for training, consulting, and assistance for clients who do their own Joomla administration?

A.There is no minimum time or charge. Helping people to become self sufficient in Joomla (and training on other web design and marketing topics) is one of the main services that we offer, and we don't limit training and consulting to large blocks of time. If you've got a 10 minute problem you need help with, we're happy to just bill 10 minutes of our time, when you need it. For those who need free assistance with Joomla we have produced a large quantity of training videos and other free resources. There are also additional free resources for Joomla in the project's documentation. Many challenges can also be solved by referring to the Joomla support forum (with tens of millions of users, if you've struck a technical challenge, chances are that someone has already posted the solution online)

Q: I have a site already - can I get Clarica to redesign it in a CMS like Joomla, or to be more search engine friendly?

A. Yes! A large portion of our work involves taking sites that are performing poorly on Google or that aren't turning clicks into calls, and rebuilding them in a way that achieves both.

Q: I'm not sure what should be included on my website. Can you give me some advice?

A. Absolutely. Most of our clients are experts in their own fields. We're experts in web marketing, web design, usability and copy writing, so we have prepared some resources to help our clients through the process of developing the content for their website. We also offer copy writing services at an affordable price.

Q: Do I get a copy of all the files for my website?

A: Yes. They will be uploaded to your hosting server, and you may additionally request a CD be burned with a backup copy of your site, or a zip copy emailed to you if size permits. We can also provide training on how to regularly backup your own website.

Q: Should I backup my website regularly.

A: Yes. Whilst most hosting companies have robust backup procedures, they usually only keep backups for 7 days (we keep hosting backups for 30 days if you host with us) so you should always keep your own up to date backups offline. The most common examples where people lose there websites are where they change their contact details and are unable to get reminders to renew their hosting and their host eventually shuts down their service for non payment, or where a website gets hacked with malware in a way that's not obvious, so that after 7 days (or however long your host keeps backups) the last clean backup gets overwritten with an infected one.

Q: Will I get training on using my website?

A: We can provide training on all aspects of maintaining a website at the same hourly rate as our design services upon request. We also have produced a lot of resources and training videos on maintaining websites based on Joomla, the world's most popular content management system for business users.

Q: Will I be locked into long term contracts or a technologies that other designers can't work with?

A. Not at all. We code websites using xhtml and css and industry standard design tools. We don't try to lock you into any long term contracts. We prefer to keep you as a client by completing work that really helps you to market and grow your business. Our aim is that you will come back to Clarica for more advanced services when you need them because you value what we offer. We also use popular industry standard software tools for applications such as content management systems and shopping carts, rather than trying to re-invent the wheel with expensive custom built solutions that can sometimes be a bit of a mystery to anyone but the person who built them.

Q: I've seen websites designed in Flash. Do you design your websites in Flash?

We recommend only using flash for things like galleries, banner ads, feature boxes and other appropriate applications but do not recommend building whole websites in flash. Sites built mostly with Flash are severely disadvantaged in search engine rankings, and many visitors turn Flash off to avoid annoyance. Whilst the purpose of traditional advertising is to distract you and grab your attention, you should remember that once a visitor is on your website, you already have their undivided attention, and if you distract them, you are distracting them from your content, not someone else's. We prefer to build sites that focus on marketing effectiveness, usability and fast loading times, which tends to require minimal use of flash.

Q: Will I be able to make changes to my site once the design has been completed?

A: Yes. For sites built in HTML & CSS we can show you some open source tools you can download for free that will help you to make updates to your site. Complex sites such as shopping carts may have some elements you can change very easily like product information and some information pages, and other areas which require technical skill. If you think you will need to make frequent changes to your website or will need more than one one staff member to have the ability to update the website, we would recommend a Content Management System (CMS) such as Joomla to allow you to edit most parts of your website yourself without needing technical expertise.