I build WordPress sites for a wide range of clients — solo professionals, artists, in-house development teams, and mid-size businesses. What they have in common is not their size or their budget. It is that they want a hands-on developer who takes a genuine interest in the outcome, not just the invoice.
Projects include digital portfolios, brochure websites, event registration, and large ecommerce storefronts. The build is sized to what you actually need, not to what a template package happens to include. That distinction matters more than it sounds.
Who you are working with
I have been building WordPress sites for a long time now, long enough to have watched a lot of trends arrive and quietly leave again. What has stayed constant is that the sites which hold up are the ones built on a clear idea of who they serve and what they are for. Everything else is decoration.
I work hands-on, which means the person you talk to at the start is the person building the site at the end. I take a genuine interest in the outcome, not just the invoice, and I will tell you when something you have asked for is not worth the money. That is not a sales technique. It is just how I prefer to work.
A well-designed website can’t overcome lack of business strategy.
When people talk to me about making a website for them, three patterns come up again and again.
The first is skipping the strategy conversation and going straight to “what theme should we use?” You end up with a site that looks fine and does nothing in particular — no clear path for a visitor, no obvious next step, no reason for anyone to come back.
The second is budgeting for the build and forgetting the years that follow. A website is not a statue. It is closer to a car: it needs fuel, occasional servicing, and someone to notice when a warning light comes on. A site that launches beautifully and is never touched again will be slow, insecure, and out of date within eighteen months.
The third is newer, and it is showing up more every month: deciding to skip the developer entirely because AI can generate a website now. And it can — genuinely. Ask a chat assistant for a five-page site and you will get something that looks like a five-page site. The allure is obvious. It is fast, it is cheap, and it removes the part of the process most people dread, which is talking to someone about what they actually need.
The part AI cannot help with is the part most people underestimate: maintenance. A generated website still needs updates, still needs backups, still needs someone to notice when a plugin conflict takes the forms offline on a Friday. The time saved on the build does not disappear. It moves to the years after launch, where it is less visible and more expensive to solve. Many people discover this the hard way, usually at the worst possible moment.
What a basic build website includes
- WordPress install and theme configuration
- Page build using the block editor or a lightweight page builder
- Contact forms
- Basic on-page SEO: titles, meta descriptions, clean URL structure
- Mobile and cross-browser testing
- Launch and a 14-day bug-fix window after go-live
What the features actually do
A short translation of the list above, because the words do not always explain themselves.
Theme configuration is the part that decides how your site looks and behaves before a single page is written — fonts, colors, header, footer, how pages stack on a phone. Get this right and the rest is mostly filling in pages. Get it wrong and you fight the theme for the rest of the project.
The block editor is the standard WordPress editing experience, and it is what most clients should be using after launch. A lightweight page builder is worth considering when a site needs complex layouts that would be tedious to assemble by hand. The trade-off is real: page builders are easier to design with and heavier to load. I will tell you which one your project actually calls for.
Contact forms are the quiet workhorses of most small business sites. The form itself takes minutes. The important part is what happens after someone clicks submit — where the notification goes, how spam is filtered, whether the sender gets a confirmation. A form that silently fails is worse than no form at all, because you never find out.
On-page SEO at this level is housekeeping, not magic. Page titles, meta descriptions, and clean URLs. It will not get you to page one on its own. It will keep a well-built site from being invisible for reasons that were entirely avoidable.
Mobile and cross-browser testing means checking the site on real phones and in the browsers your visitors actually use, not just the one on my laptop. This is where a lot of “it looked fine in the mockup” problems get caught.
The 14-day bug-fix window is exactly what it sounds like. After launch, if something is broken because of how it was built, I fix it at no charge. It is not a maintenance plan — see the Annual Care Plan or Website Maintenance for that — but it does mean you are not left holding a broken site the week after go-live.
Other features we can add
- Translations
- eCommerce
- Advanced contact form workflows
- Event registration
- Booking forms
- Integrations with other platforms
- Custom code to solve plugin conflicts or add small enhancements to the site
Each of these has a personality of its own. eCommerce needs a payment processor, tax logic, shipping rules, and a plan for what happens when an order goes wrong. Event registration needs capacity limits, confirmation emails, and a refund policy. Booking forms need to talk to a calendar you actually check. None of it is difficult, but none of it is free of decisions either. We will scope these honestly rather than discovering them halfway through.
What this does not include
- Copywriting and editing (you provide final text)
- Logo design or brand identity work
- Premium stock photography
- Advanced SEO, content marketing, or paid advertising
- Ongoing maintenance beyond the 14-day post-launch window (see Website Maintenance or the Annual Care Plan)
The copywriting exclusion is the one that trips people up most often. Writing your own site copy is entirely doable, and many clients do it well. It does take longer than expected, and the build cannot finish without it. If writing is not your favorite activity, budget the time accordingly — or ask about copy support before we start.
Typical project types and price ranges
- Brochure site, 5–8 pages: $1,000–$2,500
- Event registration site with forms and payment: $2,500–$5,000
- Ecommerce storefront, small catalog: $3,500–$7,500
- Artist portfolio, image-heavy: $1,500–$3,500
Timeline: 1–2 weeks for brochure sites, 3–6 weeks for ecommerce or event registration, depending on content readiness and feature complexity. In practice, the variable that moves the timeline most is not the code. It is how quickly the content arrives.
Who this is for
Clients who want a credible site without a full custom-design budget, and who are prepared to supply copy and images on a defined schedule. That last part is not a formality. Projects move at the speed of their content. If you can commit to a content schedule, the build will keep its promise. If you cannot, we should talk about that before the deposit rather than after.
Not sure what you need?
Plenty of people arrive here somewhere between “my site is fine, mostly” and “I think I need a rebuild but I am not certain.” If that sounds familiar, a consultation is the cheaper first step. We look at what you have, talk about what is not working, and you leave with a straight answer — even if the answer is that you do not need me.
How to get started
- Send a short note. Tell me what the site needs to do, roughly how many pages, and whether you have copy and images ready or not. A few sentences is plenty.
- Have a conversation. We will talk through goals, scope, and the features that actually matter. This usually takes 30 minutes, and you will leave with a realistic range and timeline even if you decide not to hire me.
- Approve the quote. You get a written scope with deliverables, exclusions, price, and timeline. No surprises buried in the fine print.
- Pay the deposit and we begin. The first invoice is 50% of the project total. Work starts once it clears.
If you are not sure whether you need a build, a consultation, or a rescue mission on an existing site, say so in your note. The first conversation is free either way.
Process, milestones, and payments
Milestone 1 — Kickoff and deposit (50% of project total)
We confirm scope and timeline, I set up the development environment, and you begin gathering or finalizing content. Deposit is due before work begins.
Milestone 2 — Design and structure
Theme configuration, page structure, and a first look at the homepage. You review and we adjust before the remaining pages are built. Catching a direction problem here is cheap. Catching it after every page is built is not.
Milestone 3 — Build
Remaining pages, forms, and any agreed features are built out and populated with your content. This is the longest phase, and the one most sensitive to content delays.
Milestone 4 — Review and revisions
You review the full site on desktop and mobile. One round of revisions is included at this stage. Further rounds, or changes to agreed scope, are quoted separately.
Milestone 5 — Final approval and launch (remaining 50%)
Once you approve the site, the second invoice is due. On receipt, I launch the site, hand over access, and the 14-day bug-fix window begins.
Payment terms, plainly stated
- 50% deposit to begin, 50% on final approval before launch.
- Invoices are due within 7 days of issue.
- Work is scheduled once the deposit clears. The timeline starts from that date, not from the date of the conversation.
- If the project stalls because content has not arrived for more than 30 days, I will pause the project and we will agree a restart date. Projects paused longer than 60 days may be re-quoted, since rates and availability do move.
- Scope changes are welcome. They are quoted before they are built, so there is never a surprise invoice.
- The 14-day bug-fix window covers defects in the build. It does not cover new requests, content changes, or third-party plugin failures after launch.
Frequently asked questions
What happens after launch?
Launch day feels like a finish line. It is closer to a starting line with a nicely painted stripe.
Three paths open up at that point. You can do nothing, and accept that the site will slowly drift out of date — some clients choose this deliberately for a simple site with a short lifespan, and that is a legitimate choice as long as it is a choice. You can take the Annual Care Plan, which covers your software licenses and routine updates for a flat yearly fee and requires nothing from you. Or you can add a retainer for ongoing content and feature work, which suits sites that change regularly.
Most clients land on the Care Plan for upkeep and buy retainer hours only when they need them. Whatever you choose, the decision is yours, and the site belongs to you either way.
How long will my site take?
Brochure sites typically run 1–2 weeks from kickoff. Ecommerce and event registration run 3–6 weeks. In practice, the variable that moves the timeline most is not the build — it is how quickly content arrives. Projects move at the speed of their content.
What do you need from me to start?
Final copy, your logo files, any images you want used, and a decision on hosting and domain. If you have none of that yet, that is fine — we can talk about sequencing. But the deposit date and the content date should be reasonably close together.
Do I own the website when it is finished?
Yes. You own the domain, the hosting account, and the site itself, and I hand over full access at launch. The premium software licenses are held on my account and covered by the Annual Care Plan. If you ever leave, you keep the site and start fresh with your own licenses.
Can I update the site myself after launch?
Yes, and most clients do. The block editor is the standard WordPress editing experience and it is learnable in an afternoon. If you would rather not touch it, the Annual Care Plan and Website Maintenance exist for exactly that reason.
What happens if something breaks after launch?
The 14-day bug-fix window covers defects in the build at no charge. After that, routine fixes are covered by the Annual Care Plan, and one-off issues are billed hourly.
Do you write the copy?
No — copywriting is excluded. Writing your own is entirely doable and many clients do it well, but it takes longer than expected. If writing is not your favorite activity, ask about copy support before we start.
Can you work with my existing site instead of rebuilding it?
Often, yes. A consultation is the right first step. Sometimes the honest answer is that a rebuild is cheaper than a rescue, and I will tell you that rather than sell you the more expensive option.
What if I need something that is not on the list?
Ask. The feature list is representative, not exhaustive. Translations, integrations, booking forms, and custom code all come up regularly, and each is scoped honestly before it is built.