Bulletproof Pixels
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info AT bulletproofpixels DOT com
We build websites that work. For your users. For you.
Bulletproof Pixels - Everything Web
Bulletproof Pixels has evolved over several years of trial and error, working to determine the best valued core service products we could possibly offer clients.
We don't pretend to be able to build any Web system you may have in mind. What we do offer, however, is solid, experience and knowledge-based professional work in our core strength areas. Learn more about these services under What we do.
We take great pride in our work, and guarantee your satisfaction. We live and work by a simple creed - No Excuses.
Contact us today. Let us know what you have in mind, what your needs are. We are excited to see how we can help you build your business identity on the Web. Take a look at our design process or sample contract to learn more about us.
Thanks for visiting - have a great day.
What We Can Do For You and Your Business
The list below is not comprehensive. If you have any questions at all, please contact us.
- FREE Website Quality Assessments for small businesses and individuals - We will assess the all-around quality of your existing site.
- Website Design or Redesign - Starting from the ground up, or improving an existing site. Here is our design process.
- Blog Integration - We can help you get a blog up and running on your site. Please contact us for more details.
- PSD to XHTML/CSS Pixel Perfect Conversions - You provide your layered Photoshop design, and we will turn it into a pixel perfect XHTML/CSS template. Designers! This means you no longer have to struggle with implementing the technical portion of sites you design.
- Site Organization, Architecture, Taxonomy - The right structure and organization of your content; Increase the 'findability' of your content. A free assessment might reveal this is the only area that needs attention and a full redesign may not be necessary, saving you money.
- SEO & Accessibility (WCAG/508) Consulting - Get 'found' and be accessible to all users. In our experience SEO 'experts' are not required to help get your site optimized for search engines. It begins with the structure of your site's HTML and a few other simple things you can do to help your site be Search Engine Friendly. SEO 'friendliness' is part of our standard services when creating a website for you.
- Functional Enhancements - Making your Web interface more interesting and engaging. Often all a website might require is a 'functional facelift'. Ask us about a free assessment to find out.
- Aesthetic Enhancements - Dressing up the interface for more aesthetic appeal. Like functional enhancements, perhaps all your site needs is a 'visual facelift' - not a full redesign.
- PayPal Integrations - Helping you earn money online. We have found PayPal to offer the best platform for online sales for small businesses. No database security issues for you, a wide range of payment options, including multiple currencies, and more.
- Project Collaboration - Partnering on a contract basis with other firms. We have experience working with others on various projects - in particular designers not interested in the technical aspects of implementing their designs.
Pricing is on a per-project basis, normally starting around $1400. Contact us about our questionnaire which will help us create an accurate cost estimate for your project. Consulting and Collaboration rates are $85/hr.
Why Should You Hire Bulletproof Pixels?
In the world of "brick and mortar" small businesses who have a presence on the Internet, there are three primary types of websites: informational, brochure and e-commerce.
Informational websites, for example a services business such as a house painter, can provide a list of services, a portfolio of completed work, perhaps pricing and any other information to win the user's decision to call you over the competition.
Brochure website is an informational site that provides a catalog of goods and services along with pricing. Examples might be a hair salon or dentist. We have talked with store owners who do not have a website because they feel that, because their inventory turns over so frequently that it would not be practical - but in this case a site that showcases brands they offer could be helpful to bring people into their shop.
E-commerce websites serve primarily to sell products online. They employ a shopping cart system where users can add several items to a single purchase.
Bulletproof Pixels can help you build any one of these types of sites as either a new site from the 'digital ground' up or help you make improvements to your existing site. See our list of services to see what we can do for you.
One crucial aspect shared across all of these types of websites is the degree to which they impress users enough to do business with you - "you do not get a second chance to make a good first impression". Research has shown that the average user spends only 4 seconds deciding on whether or not to stay on your site. If they begin to navigate and cannot find something relevant to the reason for their visit within a maximum of 3 clicks, they will leave. There are too many poorly designed websites out there. If yours is one of them, we can help. If you don't want to risk wasting your money on a poorly designed site, we can help.
Contact us today and let us help you get started on a fantastic Web presence.
What our Clients Say About Us
If you are a client, please share a review of your experience with us. Please use the form on our contact page. Thanks for sharing!
Bulletproof Pixels is a wonderful company to work with! They are extremely professional, as well as being personable and easy to communicate your needs to, which is very important when creating a website that portrays who you are to the world. They listen attentively to the vision you want to create and are meticulous in helping you achieve this vision.
Not only was I impressed by the web page they created for us. I was also impressed by the articulate manual they gave us, that explained, step by step, how to edit certain aspects of the site on our own.
They went above and beyond my expectations and would recommend their services to anyone!
--D.R.
Working with Bulletproof Pixels was a great experience. They set up my painting website in no time with attractive features and design work that represents me well. They listened to what I wanted and suggested other ways for the sight to run more efficiently. They knew what it would take to create a unique website for my line of work that would stand out above my competition. I couldn't be happier! Thank you Ken and Erin!
--K.L.
Examples of Our Work
Bulletproof Pixels Design Process
Initial Contact:
After you first contact us, we will send you login credentials for an online questionnaire. Though this questionnaire is lengthy,
the more information you provide us, the better.
We will look over your information and provide you with an initial quote.
Initial Acceptance:
After reveiwing our quote and detailed list of what is covered by that quote, you may either amend your list of needs, in which case
we will provide an adjusted quote, or choose to move into a contract with us for the job.
Contract:
After we have agreed upon the project specifications and costs, we will send you a link to our contract by email.
This will need to be printed out by you, signed and posted back to us along with the retainer fee.
Initial Retainer and Content:
Along with the signed contract, an initial retainer fee of 20% (made by check and after the check clears the bank or cash)
and the web site content (text, photos, etc. delivered via email) will be required before we start on the project.
Initial Design and Revisions:
We will provide our design for you to look over - either in PDF or PNG or HTML format. You will then have up to two rounds of
revisions. Please see our sample contract (opens in a new window), section III for more
detailed information.
Template Construction and Preview:
After your approval of a design we will begin coding the HTML. When we have finished with this stage,
we will upload the static version (this constitues the HTML/CSS templates referred to in our contract, section IV)
of the site to our server so that you may look it over and request
any further changes or corrections (pursuant to
the contractual agreement concerning changes at this stage).
Site Construction and Preview:
If you have contracted with us to implement your site (upload it to a host server), there will be a stage of coding whereby we
translate the HTML templates into a fully functional PHP templated version of your site. This is the version that will be uploaded
to the server and becomes you 'live site'.
Final Payment:
At this point either the HTML templates are ready for delivery or the site is ready to be installed on the your host server.
In either case, we will require the remaining 80% of the quoted price (by check or cash) before delivery or installation.
Maintenance:
After your site has gone live, we will offer to do the maintenance of your site for you. Should you wish to use our
maintenance services, just let us know and we will make a separate agreement based on our standard hourly rate.
Frequently Asked Questions
+How long have you been in business designing and creating websites?
Ken has 13 years experience building Web User Interfaces in several capacities from developer to supervisory roles. Erin has been in the the technology industry for over 15 years as a Build Engineer and process quality control.
+Do you do all of the work yourself or do you sub-contract portions of the work?
All of our work is done by us - Ken and Erin Douglass. We do not contract out any portion of our work. This means we are intimately familiar with all aspects of your project and can answer your questions and concerns first-hand.
+What makes you better than the other guy?
The websites we design and create are 100% hand-coded, not created using software (which is analgous to the difference between custom built kitchen cabinets and assembly line machine made cabinets).
We also strive to beat our competitor's pricing without sacrificing quality. If you can provide us with a documented quote from a competitor, we will beat their price or admit defeat.
+What do you charge for your services?
Pricing is on a per-project basis, normally starting around $1400. Consulting and Collaboration rates are $85/hr. We feel our pricing structure is highly competitive and we stand behind our work.
Feel free to ask us about our discount pricing.
+Do you spend time doing research for each project?
Yes. We survey comparable businesses' websites and do market research into the given industry or type of business. We want to know your competition and strive to find areas where we can make you more competitive within the Web space.
+How easy are the websites you create to use?
We create sites based on a principle of user centered design. This means our focus is on the user - how they visually percieve your site, how they may seek to navigate your site, and how intuitive they find your site. We help you organize the content (information architecture), create logical taxonomies for your content for easy navigation, and work with you on the presentation of your branding to create a usable, intuitive and consistent experience for your users.
We believe a user centered design presents the best foundation upon which to build business goals. In other words, it is our philosophy that the two - user experience and business goals - are very interrelated. To achieve one is to achieve the other.
+If I have an existing website, how does that affect your approach to a new design?
We will do an analysis of your current site's statistics and first determine what aspects of the site need to stay and where improvements can be made. We do not believe in re-inventing the wheel if the wheel is working correctly. But our experience has shown that there is usually some room for improvement.
+How can a new website improve my business?
This is dependent on your goals for the new website. Let us know what your goals are and what you expect and we will work with you to deliver according to your needs. If we cannot, we will tell you so. Our own goals begin with one - we will only produce a high quality product for our clients, both in terms of current Web design trends and best practices and what our client values and expects from our work.
+How long does it take for you to build a website?
This is dependent on several factors: Approval of the design, size of the site, complexity of the site, other jobs in our queue. We work diligently to keep the "time to launch" at a minimum.
In general, the simplest project (for example the bulletproofpixels.com site) takes at least 8 weeks from start to finish. This includes research time and communication back and forth between us and the client (you) on varying details.
Here is the process we follow in the design and deployment of your project.
+Can you help us find a host and/or domain name if we do not already have one?
Yes. We can refer you to a site that rates hosting businesses and help you choose one that best suits your needs. We can also help you find/determine a domain name for your site as well.
+Who maintains the site after it is built?
We use a strategy when building the site where, with a very minimal use/knowledge of basic HTML, you can, through your hosting service, edit your content. We have done this for other clients with great success - providing them with an HTML "user guide" tailored for their specific site which allows them the flexibility to edit thier content in many ways regarding not only the textual content, but various display aspects as well.
If you do not want to make such changes, or you forsee your changes as infrequent, we offer various plans for doing the work for you (typically at an hourly rate of $35/hr, one hour minimum.
+How will my new website rank in search engines?
With the ever-changing rules in which search engines rank sites, there are no guarantees toward getting a website to rank, say, in the top 10 for any particular search query. We strive to keep current on what the latest strategies are and build your site to be 100% search engine friendly*.
Beyond making the site SEF, things like search engine submission, Google Adwords, etc. are all areas where we can offer help.
*Search engine friendly means semantically structuring the HTML on each page, tailoring page titles, headings and descriptions to be keyword optimized.
More information about SEO can be found here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291
Ken Douglass, Engineer
Ken has over 13 years experience building Web User Interfaces. In his professional
career he has held positions as a User Interface Engineer for an online publishing company, Production Engineer for
Digital Foundry, a Business &
Software Consulting company in Tiburon,
California and
a consultant for the Santa Rosa Police Department in Santa Rosa, California.
Ken is also the Owner/Engineer of joggoon.com, a growing source of free public domain literature.
Bulletproof Pixels is Ken and his wife Erin's freelance Web Design and Consulting business. Together they form a partnership dedicated to helping small businesses gain a stronger presence on the Web.
Erin Douglass, Designer
Erin has over 15 years experience in the technology industry. She served 8 of those years employed by Cisco Systems as a Software
Build Engineer with emphasis on improving process, quality and communications. In addition to filling the roles of Business and Project
Manager for Bulletproof Pixels, Erin works as a contract Market Research Analyst for a firm headquartered in San Diego, gathering
data on the Web and
organizing that data for presentation. She also serves as the primary conversion specialist for joggoon.com and collaborates with her
husband on the creative and functional aspects of the website, helping to build a large library of free public domain literature.
Bulletproof Pixels is Erin and her husband Ken's freelance Web Design and Consulting business. Together they form a partnership dedicated to helping small businesses gain a stronger presence on the Web.