Why a hand-built website comes with care
I build websites by hand.
No page builder, no plugin that updates itself at 2am and takes the contact form down with it. That's why they load fast on a phone in a parking lot.
It also means there's no dashboard for you to log into, so keeping the site current is part of the deal, not an upsell. Every site I build carries the care plan, and I tell you that before the work starts.
The trade is a good one for most owners. You send me the new photos, the price change, the holiday hours. I make the change, check it on a phone, and it's live, usually the same evening. You never have to learn a content management system to change your own hours.
What's on the list
Daily backups that I actually test, because an untested backup is a hope, not a backup.
- Hosting and the security certificate, on my infrastructure, at no extra charge.
- Small content changes as they come up.
- One update a week: a new photo, a price, a paragraph, a product.
- Bigger jobs, like a whole new page or a long list of products, get quoted first so there's no surprise.
- And the standing rule that if the site ever goes down, I fix it and restore it free, because that's what care means.
It's $100 a month plus Kentucky's 6% sales tax on sites I built. On a site somebody else built, it's $150, and the first month includes a proper look under the hood: what platform it's on, what plugins it's carrying, what's out of date, who actually owns the domain. Both are month to month.
What it isn't
It isn't a marketing retainer. Posting to your Facebook page, running ads, writing SEO pages every month, answering reviews in your voice: that's the monthly plans, starting at $297. The care plan keeps the website you paid for working and current. If you want the site to grow, that's the next conversation, and I'll tell you honestly whether you need it yet.
Everything the care plan covers.
Hosting + SSL, included
Fast hosting and the padlock in the browser, on my infrastructure. You never get a separate hosting bill.
Daily backups, tested
Every day, and I check that they restore. An untested backup is a hope.
One update a week
A photo, a price, a paragraph, a new product. Send it, it goes live, usually that evening.
Small changes, no ticket
Holiday hours, a new phone number, a typo. Text me. Done.
Fix-and-restore, free
If the site ever goes down, I put it back. No hourly clock, no argument.
Bigger jobs quoted first
A new page or a forty-item product list gets a number before I start. No surprise invoices.
The website care plan, in published numbers
| $100/mo | On a site I built, plus 6% KY sales tax — month to month |
|---|---|
| $150/mo | On a site I didn't build — first month includes a full look under the hood |
| 1/week | The update cadence that's included; bigger jobs quoted |
His fall line arrived Tuesday morning. It was live that night.
Harley's Handmade is a Kentucky woodshop whose site I built and keep on the care plan. In early September he emailed me the photos and descriptions for his fall line one Tuesday morning. That evening the new product pages were built, checked on a phone, live on his domain, and submitted to Google. He didn't log into anything. He sent an email from his shop and went back to work.
That's what the plan buys. Not a dashboard. Somebody who answers.
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