About - Ackadia

Ackadia: who, what, when, where, why and how?

Who?
Paul, or Ack.
Most folk use the latter, or Nordic, but that goes back several decades to my first, or second IT company. Suffice it to say I’ve been into computers for as long as there have been computers. I had a computer shop come internet cafe in the mid-90s’ and have been designing web sites since, so I’ve been at this game for as long as it’s existed.
If you want the longer version, hop over to the other Ackadia: about.

What?
Obviously, I’ll be offering web design and hosting, but will also review people’s sites if they ask. Free. I used to have a site for this some years back (reviewmysite.com, I think), so I’ll revive its form here.

When?
I already run or support a number of sites and have done so for some 25 years, so really this is just extending beyond close contacts.

Where?
I’m based in St Helens, so primarily I’m interested in the surrounding area, Wigan, Widnes, Warrington, (all the WWW ), so Merseyside and the North West in general. But I don’t travel and it’s the Internet, so there are no borders. I used to live in Lincolnshire for a while and in British Columbia, so where you are isn’t a great concern.

Google map of the North West — { Catchment area focus is the Northwest of England. (Link takes you to Google maps). }

Why?
Basically, I got asked to help with a site and it was a mess: slow, clunky, and horribly insecure. I didn’t have a good word to say about the web designer responsible. It was so bad I got to the point of refusing to help unless I took over. Which I did. The site now loads a lot faster, gets updates, support and additions the same day and yet costs them at least one-tenth as much. (It’s a charity; now they only pay for domain fees!)

In the latest update (a new post) I was checking the link to one of their partners and it didn’t look good: “Warning: Potential Security Risk Ahead.”

The why then is too many people do a shoddy job and it annoys me.

How?
Depends?
A copy over and ‘don’t mess with the look’ is straight migration (though I will disable anything that’s insecure!) In this scenario, you like things as they are, and want better support and faster page loads. It’s not the best use of my abilities, but it’s less work for me, so fine. This usually takes around 4 hours, allowing for propagation, but can take up to 48 hours. This is an internet fact and true for everyone.

A copy over and revamp are more work but will show substantial improvements. Same propagation time, but uses a staging site while I rework (a few hours, depending) and when you are happy with the look I’ll make it live. (Your current site stays live until I/we repoint the nameservers and DNS). The last such revamp was to tear out a Divi block builder and roughly recreate the look, keeping the content intact.

New site. For a regular website, given artwork and text copy, staging live in a few minutes, populated in perhaps four hours. Polishing another 2 to 4 hours, depending on volume. By way of example, restyling this site took me ten minutes, then another 2 hours writing copy and playing with the look. The price table took longer!

I can use them, but I do not like or recommend page or block builders. Even ‘Visual’ mode in WordPress annoys me as it messes with my code! All the content I create is done in text mode. If it needs more, I’ll code that too; most of the fancy things you can drag and drop with page builders can be done with CSS and regular HTML.

All the complimentary extras like adding Google Analytics code, looking over social media, so forth, fine, just ask.

More involved tasks like proofreading and revising the SEO tick ‘depends’.

If it’s 5 pages of SEO, it’s no great deal. However, if it’s 50 or 500+, all needing a manual revision, .

A few hours extra work I’m fine with, but if it’s going to be hundreds of man-hours, hire someone to do that. I believe the going rate is around £100 an hour. Less eye-watering, initially, Diib are worth a look and are free for the entry-level option.

What I am about

This site will offer brutally honest and unashamedly biased advice, support, and more, as regards web development, and related topics.

What I offer

Services will include reviews and recommendations, hand-holding, and hands-off web solutions.

Appraisals

Time allowing, if you want your site reviewed for issues, not a problem. I can offer a ‘wrapped in cottonwool’ heuristic evaluation, or I can tell you the truth, bluntly. I prefer the latter! The service is free, but I may use it for post though. More details on the contact form

As a plug for another company I like, Codefetti (LLC). They are based in Michigan and have a very useful blog. They also offer web design, website audits, training and more.

All in web development (caveats apply*)

This is the “I don’t know, and I don’t want to know, get on with it” version.

I’m perfectly comfortable with that. If you have something to begin with, like a flyer, business card or, hopefully, a vague idea, we can go with that.

Cheap and cheerful but with all the essentials: hosting (of course), email (if you need it), page creation**, etc., proofreading, forms, help with social media, search engine optimisation, accessibility issues, responsiveness, etc. Basically everything you need for a standard business promotional website.

* If you want all sorts of extras like custom themes, specific commercial fonts, bespoke images, custom graphics or logos, Paypal and card facilities and eCommerce, or basically anything I have to shell out for, start adding to the price.

As a guide, I might start around £300 a year for the basics, but if you want to look like ‘Next’, it will be several thousand, a year, upfront, and while I can do it, maybe I’m not the best choice.

** Additionally, I’m good, but I can’t be expected to know your business or special subject as well as you. I can polish what you give me, but I’m not inclined to write it all for you. I’d have to charge accordingly.

Hands-off hosting and support (caveats still apply*)

Depending on you, this is either the “this ain’t my first rodeo” version, or, at worst, “I want to learn, I’ll try not to break it” version.

Cheap and cheerful, but with all the essentials: hosting (of course), email (if you need it), etc.

After that, you are on your own. You pick the themes, plug-ins, and so forth. (Noting that anything out of date, unsupported, insecure or otherwise making me squirmy is getting removed!)

Same deal, different day: if you want premium plugins or expensive stock photos from Getty Images, they can go on your credit card!

If you are a registered UK charity I support, or would support:

Time and interest allowing, all the above still applies, but you might get it at cost price, especially if you are an animal charity.

So, I could develop a sites similar to Tiggywinkles (hedgehogs) or Pool of Life (breast cancer) for as little as £300 a year as a one-off, or for under £100 with more interest*.

Well, improved versions of those at any rate – those two examples could be better! In fact Pool of Life is a lot better now; since I took over its running! It’s faster, far more secure, and yet costs the charity one-tenth the price they previously paid for questionable levels of support, hosting and maintenance.