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WEBSITE DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT |
INSPARROWATIONS helps wildlife clubs, associations and individuals make efficient use of the internet.
Who are we? Insparrowations is a consultancy based in Montreal that grew out of the need of local wildlife groups for good, simple web site design and management services. These organisations, probably like yours, do not have money to throw away and so were looking for an economical solution to their needs. They wanted a web design and management service that understands the message they need to convey. The skills that we developed in that environment are now available to help you make your web presence work - at a price you can manage. Any organization, be it involved with wildlife matters or not, must communicate effectively with its members, supporters, customers, clients or just people interested in its field of activity. Traditionally this has been done by means of mailings, flyers and press advertisements but those are expensive, slow and resource demanding. These days, the public - your potential clients, members, supporters, customers - are more and more frequently turning to the internet for their primary sources of information, often it is their only source. If your organization does not have an effective web presence you could well be overlooked. At the very least you will not reach as many potential supporters as you might otherwise do and those you do make contact with will cost you more in both money and time than need be the case.
Designing for the web The big national organisations and companies can afford to hire full-time staff or expensive design services to create their huge interactive sites. Their operations are often big enough to justify it. For the rest of us we have to either do it ourselves or find a more economical solution tailored to our special needs. That's where Insparrowations comes in. Frankly, anyone can build a web-site. A basic text book in html coding, the free software provided by Netscape Composer and away you go. Many successful sites have been created this way and if you feel confident enough to take on the task we would not want to dissuade you. Nevertheless, some truly awful creations have been launched on an unwary world, just because it is so easy. Green type on a pink textured background, links that don't work, huge image files that take ages to download, scroll bars and frames eating up the page and many even worse things. We've all seen them and shuddered. Do they say to the world that yours is a professional organisation? Do they help your members and visitors find the information they seek? We don't think so. Or you could turn to the thousand and one design consultancies, fundamentally like our own but run by technicians. They may well - unless you keep a firm control over them - build you a site full of flashy animations, bells, whistles and the wow-factor - what they perhaps won't (or can't) do is design you a site. They will doubtless be fairly expensive to deal with and not particularly responsive to your needs, all too often being more interested in the mechanics of the site and their profits than its content and purpose. There are, of course, plenty who are lovely to deal with and who will build you just what you need - but can you afford them? How are we different? One feature about Insparrowations is that it is run by a professional biologist (PhD and a few other letters besides) with proven web-design skills rather than by someone who can't tell a Chickadee from a Chicken. This doesn't restrict us to only taking on clients from the wildlife world - far from it - but it is our starting point. It means that we approach the web from the point of view of someone looking for specific answers to specific needs (yours) rather than with a specialized skill set looking for problems that can be manipulated to fit. It means we think like you, our client, does. We are committed to the causes of wildlife protection, conservation, education and research. Admittedly, we need to cover our costs but we are not in the business to empty your bank account and move on to the next contract. We understand your subject and want to work with you for a long time. We can present your material in the most effective manner possible …….. and we do it cheerfully and responsibly. Our watchword is effective simplicity with a belief that good design matters - and that good design works. Our sites include ….. What should you expect to get by using our service? We would build you a web site which can vary from one or two pages to one or two hundred. We would register a unique domain name for your site (such as www.oursite.ca ) and can set up e-mail addresses so that your customers, supporters etc can contact you simply and easily (for example information@oursite.ca ). We will work with you to design a site that looks the way you want it to and will help you avoid the obvious pitfalls that make so many sites a huge turn-off for visitors. People coming to your site will want to stick around and see what you have to offer. We work from Quebec so if you want a bilingual site we know how to organise things so that they work (but we don't offer translation services - sorry). We can incorporate all the necessary links to make your site easy to navigate and add graphics and photographs of your choice as appropriate. Some things we may need to charge an additional fee for (for example, complex graphics design, photograph optimization etc) but we won't surprise you by hiding the extras before hitting you with a big bill. We will manage the site, fix problems, make changes to pages as and when you ask for them and generally take the day to day hassle away from you. You will get monthly reports on how often your site has been visited and who by, which pages were most popular etc. We will also "optimize" your site so that search engines are more likely to find it and direct visitors to you. We will be honest and up-front about how things are going. We will charge you a fair and competitive price and will help you achieve your goals. How much does it cost? We have two very simple packages -
Why not get in touch and discuss your projects with us - we are only an e-mail away.
You can see some of our completed websites and what they look like by clicking here [PORTFOLIO]
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