1. Website Development Payment Conditions: A down payment is required in order to begin development of your website. This is usually 50% of the upfront design fee, unless an alternative contract or proposal specifies a different amount. The outstanding balance on your website is due after the design, navigation and pages have been approved and built. Final payment is due regardless of whether all content for the pages has been sent by the client. This provision is in place to encourage the client to get content submitted promptly so that their site can go live. It also ensures that Ablesource gets paid for performing their duty under the proposal, despite tardy content from the client. After payment, Ablesource will still post outstanding content AT NO CHARGE for 2 months. In the event an “under construction” page is posted due to missing content, Ablesource will post ONE copy of any text/pictures on existing pages only, for up to 2 months after publish date.

2. Website Development Cancellation: If site design and development work has already begun (such as creating a design concept), then the down payment is non-refundable. Ablesource my elect at its sole discretion to offer a partial refund depending upon the circumstances.

3. Stock Photography Payment Conditions: Stock photography includes most photos and/or images not provided by the client. Stock photography purchased on behalf of client for use in website development is billable at a minimum of $10 per picture. This amount is separate from the amount quoted for website design and development. Some pictures are more expensive than $10, in which case we will solicit client approval and communicate the price before purchasing.

4. Description of Ongoing Costs: There are 3 types of ongoing costs: domain registration hosting and general maintenance.

1. Domain name registration: This cost recurs annually. Domain name registration gives you exclusive rights to a certain name, such as www.mysite.org, so that you can use it for your web-based purposes. We recommend that you procure your own domain name as it is a piece of property that is best owned by the individual or business.

2. Hosting: Hosting is covered under the monthly fee. You are NOT required to host through us, but we strongly PREFER that you do. Hosting comes with bandwidth, storage space, database and security tools, and other features. Projects that involve custom programming must be hosted with Ablesource to ensure the programs that we write will work. If you want to host your site on another server this must be disclosed before we begin programming.

3. Hosting Transfer Payment Conditions: If you wish to transfer your hosting to another provider Ablesource can, upon request, download your site into a zip.file and will be sent to you via email. The cost for this service $50 per copy. FTP access to your site is not available for transfer purposes.

4. Limited 30-day Money Back Guarantee on Hosting: If you are not completely satisfied with our services within the first 30 days from the opening of the account, you will be given a refund on your hosting fee excluding setup fees and time accrued from setup date. If paid by credit card, refunds will be issued to the original credit card provided at the time of purchase. If your account has been cancelled by us due to a breach of the terms and conditions on your part, you will not be eligible for a refund. Domain name registration is non-refundable.

5. Sites NOT Hosted by Ablesource: Should client decide to host their site on another server, Ablesource cannot guarantee the all elements of the site will work. Ablesource will make a reasonable effort to research the problem on the foreign platform to let the client know what we think the problem is. However, we cannot take responsibility for problems caused by or on another hosting server, including but not limited to email, FTP, SSL, database, server software, and site security issues. If Ablesource believes it will take a significant amount of time to fix the problem, we will advise the client before proceeding. In most cases, fixing problems on a foreign hosting server is billable and not covered under our regular monthly plan.

5. Website Maintenance: Maintenance is covered under the monthly plan and includes cosmetic changes only (pictures and text). 5-6 changes are allotted for each month at no extra cost. Most people do some work on their site every year, for which we include in our $49/month plan. We can make certain parts of the site updatable by you by implementing a custom Content Management System, or installing a blog. Monthly plan of $49 is a required part of our Ideal Website package and is must be paid for the first year in order to recoup the cost of building the site. The monthly fee is required for the first year, in order to cover the subsidized cost of the website. If the client wishes to have the site without the monthly fee, they would need to pay for hosting, and any changes to the site would be subject to our normal hourly rate ($45/hour).

Development Process

1. Homepage Design – Once the site design is approved by the client, usually via email consent, the design is considered ready for implementation.

2. Navigation – Once site outline/map is approved by the client, usually via email consent, the site navigation is considered ready for implementation. Combined with the approved graphic design, this becomes the site structure.

3. Content – Provision of content is customer’s responsibility, unless specifically negotiated ahead of time as part of the project proposal.

• Text content – Copy for all website pages and links needs to be delivered digitally and should be carefully proof-read by the client. Two rounds of revisions will be provided free of charge.

• Copy development – Should client wish Ablesource to develop content for the site, website copy is billable at our regular hourly rate. Development of copy is accomplished via Ablesource Web Development interviewing the client about the topic areas to be addressed on their web pages. Ablesource then composes appropriate copy, submits to the client for review, edit, and approval. Approved copy is then posted to the web pages.

• Graphical content – Images outside of the website design must be provided in digital form or in a form that can be easily scanned, unless otherwise provided for in customer’s contract.

4. Database Implementation – Entry of data for database applications is considered client’s responsibility. Entry of data by Ablesource is billable, unless otherwise provided for in customer’s contract.

5. Technical Support – We offer local and long-distance phone support to our clients. We do not normally bill for technical support depending on the source of the problem, its severity, and our time invested. If Ablesource is not the source of the problem, technical support may be billable.

Domain Transfers and DNS Management

For domains not originally registered with Ablesource, there will be a $25 fee to either transfer to the domain into our registration platform, or to transfer-out to another registrar. If your domain is not registered with Ablesource, DNS management and troubleshooting tasks are billable at our hourly rate.

Websites with Proprietary Source Code

Should client contract with Ablesource to write custom code for a website application, this code is not transferable to a new developer or host.  Custom written source code is considered the property of Ablesource Web Development and cannot be shared with other developers. Clients are granted a license to use custom software code while on Ablesource servers only. Ablesource Web Development retains ownership of the code.

In some cases, Ablesource will install software for the client’s use that has been built by a third party. Examples include WordPress blog software, FCK editor software, shopping carts, photo galleries, etc. In these instances, clients will be subject to the terms and conditions of the third party who owns the software, and may use the software as a licensee only. No ownership rights of any kind are transferred to the client.

Access to or transfer of proprietary source code could result in a security risk to Ablesource and its clients who are running similar pieces of code.  In order to provide custom software development services, clients give us access to private and/or sensitive information, trade secrets, proprietary pricing and business methods.  If clients believed that we may be sharing this information with outside developers, they could lose faith that we are protecting their proprietary information.  Therefore, neither access nor transfer of any code built for any purpose that is unique and not commonly and publicly available can be granted. Should client want us to build software to run on another server, it must be disclosed upfront and specifically contracted for.

Website components that ARE transferable to another host include html code, graphics, logos, pictures, navigation, text, and the data residing within a database (but not the code).  Hourly fees will apply for any special work that needs to be done to transfer those parts of website that do not violate the other paragraphs in this section.

Non-Domain-Based Troubleshooting

Ablesource Web Development maintains and troubleshoots the websites we develop for our clients. We do NOT assume responsibility for upkeep or provide non-billable troubleshooting on our clients’ ISPs (Internet Service Providers), ISP-based email accounts your home or office internet connections, or any other non-domain-based issues outside Ablesource Web Development’s realm of service. Provision of non-domain-based troubleshooting services will be billable at our normal hourly rate.