The Setup Process

 Our process is very simple and pain free.
  1. The first thing you should do is contact us in person and ask any questions you might have. Comfort is very important to us and we want to be sure you understand the process.
  2. Sign our contract. Its main job is to make sure that you are responsible for the content of your site. We don’t police your content, so this very simple document just makes it clear that you shouldn’t do anything naughty with your shiny new website. It also has your pricing on it so everything is clear and there are no surprises.
  3. Upon receiving your signed contract we will send you an invoice. You need to pay for only half of this amount at the outset of the project. The remainder will be due when the site goes live (or within 30 days, whichever comes first). Note that we can be flexible here if you have a reporting requirement and want to look your best. Normally a site takes around four weeks from start to finish, but if you want to take longer on the content, you can feel free to do so.
  4. We will get your campaign email operational immediately so you can start speaking from an official looking email address (example: scottd@voteforme.com). We give you around three or so addresses at no additional cost, and if you need a few more it isn’t a problem. For those that want to cover a larger group with campaign email, we charge $2 per address/month. Note that aliases are free, meaning if one person has many addresses; there is no additional cost for those. For example, you have scott@ and you also want volunteer@, info@ and donations@ to come to you, those are aliases and only count as a single email account to us.
  5. If you plan to use our donation and volunteer management system, we can toss up a holding page with your donation and volunteer links on it. That way you can start getting the support you need while the rest of the website building process is underway. There is no charge for this.
  6. Send us photography. This step should be a lot easier than it seems to be in reality. If you are running for office, you really need to have some professional shots taken, as you will need in countless media situations, so stop trying to use some awful digital camera shots your friend took and get some career shots done. After all, you are running for office here and you need to look your best. The photos need to be high resolution of at least 2400 pixels on the longest edge (a modern digital camera will produce this on its highest setting). We prefer much, much larger but we can work with something that small. If you are in the Milwaukee area we can also do the photography for you! Here is a quick article you can read for some basic campaign photography tips if you are going to try and do this yourself.
  7. You can also select additional photos from iStockPhoto.com. This site is great for photos that help dress up the site and complete the look you desire. If you think this will help, contact us and we can give you three free credits to use on your website (even if you don't need our services). This offer only works if you are not an existing iStockPhoto customer.
  8. If you have a logo, send it to us. If you do not have a logo, we can make one for you for a nominal fee. Any logo we make will be usable on signs and printed materials as well.
  9. Give us some ideas on what you like and the colors you prefer. Red, white, & blue are popular of course, but there are no rules here, so let us know what you think you might like to see.
  10. Once we have your photography, logo, and ideas on what you want, we will work on a site concept and send you a mock-up of what the front page of the site might look like. Typically this takes 5 business days or so, but can be expedited if you need it in a reasonable time frame.
  11. Critique what we send you and let us know if you want anything changed. Modification of the design at this point is easy, so we don’t mind changing things in the least. If you just hate the design, let us know, but we have over a 98% acceptance factor with the work we do. That means that in 100 different sites, only 2 will have issues with the design!
  12. Once you like the design and are golden with it and any changes we have made, we will put your site into a “sandbox.” In this hidden location, you will be trained on how to use the Ideal Campaign content management engine to load your message, photos and other content. You can play in here until you feel you are ready for the site to go live.
  13. During the time that you load your content, we will be adding support graphics to the site to help people get to the most important issues. We call this “prettification,” and we just want to make sure the site is perfect when it goes live. Since we base these graphics on the content we see on your site, we have to wait to see what you put in there before you will see these come into play.
  14. On your signal, we will make a change to the domain name servers and your site will be live. From that point forward, you should keep the content fresh and give your supporters the news and campaign information they crave. At this point you should also toss a check into the mail to cover the remaining amount of your setup fee.
  15. If you need support, additional training, or advice, just call. Support is always free.
  16. You will receive an invoice for the monthly hosting fees, which you can pay via check.