How I use modern tools on your website.
Most of the drudgery of building a website has been handed to software in the last few years. Drafting, resizing, formatting, the fifth revision of a layout. I use those tools every working day, and this page says where, in enough detail that you could check.
The word for them is AI, though I rarely use it, because it makes the work sound like magic and it isn’t. They’re fast assistants. They don’t know your organization, they don’t decide anything, and they don’t answer the phone.
If you’d rather not read a policy, the three rules further down cover it. If you’d rather see every task, the ledger lists who does what.
Everything, when you leave.
Your site is standard WordPress. No tool holds it, and none of them need to exist for it to keep running.
Editing it yourself
Changing a sentence, swapping a photo, or posting news works the way editing a document works. You open the page, click the text, type, and press Update. Nothing described on this page is needed for that, and nobody has to be called.
What happens underneath
You change the words and the system carries the change everywhere it belongs: the layout, the phone version, the menus, the news list. That’s what a content management system is for. On a care plan, I keep that system updated, backed up, and watched.
The short version
Three rules cover everything on this page. Every line of the ledger follows from them.
Judgment stays with me
What your site says, what it leaves out, how it looks, and who it’s for: those are decisions, and I make them with you. A tool can propose ten layouts in a minute. Choosing the one an 80-year-old donor can use is the job.
Nothing reaches you unread
Anything a tool drafts, I read and rework before you see it, and nothing goes live until you’ve approved it. If a sentence on your site sounds like nobody you know, that’s a defect and I’ll fix it.
Your records stay out
Donor lists, member records, and financial documents never go into any of these tools. I don’t need them to build your website, so there’s no reason for them to leave your hands.
The ledger
Every part of a website project, who does it, and where the tools come in. This is the part nobody publishes. It’s also the part that explains the price.
Me done by hand Me + tools the tools draft, I decide and check Tools the tools do it, I check the result You yours to do, or mine on a care plan Never goes into no tool at all
| The task | Who | How the tools come in |
|---|---|---|
| Before we build | ||
| Listening to what your organization needs | Me | In conversation. There’s no tool for this. |
| Deciding what the site says and what it leaves out | Me | With you. |
| Choosing the pages and their order | Me + tools | The tools can propose an outline from my notes. I decide. |
| The build | ||
| Design: layout, color, type, spacing | Me + tools | Variations arrive fast. I choose, and I test on real screens. |
| First draft of the page copy | Me + tools | Drafted from your notes and our conversations. I rewrite in your voice. You approve every page. |
| Custom illustrations | Tools | Made under my direction. A former line item, now included. |
| Photo resizing, formats, image descriptions | Tools | Repetitive work. I check every description, because screen readers read them aloud. |
| Building the pages | Me + tools | Layouts assembled from my design. I test every page on a phone and a laptop. |
| Search titles and descriptions | Me + tools | Options drafted. I pick and edit. |
| Accessibility checks | Me + tools | Problems flagged. I fix them. |
| After launch | ||
| Editing the site | You | Text and photos edit like a document. The site does the rest. |
| Monthly care: updates, backups, checks | Me | With the monitoring software this work has always used. |
| Meetings, calls, and decisions | Me | Always. |
| At all times | ||
| Your donor, member, and financial records | Never | Not uploaded to any tool. Not needed for the build. |
| This website, including this page | Me + tools | Built the same way. Every word is mine to answer for. |
The parts you can skip
Send rough notes and the photos you have. The fussy, repetitive part of this work is the part that got fast, and it’s mine to handle. What your website will need from you lists the few things that do have to come from you.
The price connection
The tools are the reason a complete website here costs $750 to $2,500 flat instead of the five-figure quotes you may have collected. The labor between the judgment calls shrank, and I split the saving with my clients instead of keeping it as margin.
What didn’t get cheaper is listening, judgment, and care over time, because those were never labor. That’s what the flat price and the monthly plans pay for. Why website quotes haven’t caught up with the tools goes into the arithmetic, and the pricing page has every number.
What you can ask for
These hold for every client, on every plan, for as long as the site exists.
- Which tool touched what. Ask about any page, image, or sentence on your site and you’ll get a specific answer.
- A piece done by hand. If there’s a part of your project you’d rather I do without the tools, say so on the intake form or at any point after. I’ll tell you what it changes about the timeline before we agree.
- The reasoning. If a decision on your site came from a draft I didn’t write from scratch, I can still tell you why it’s there. If I can’t, it comes out.
Questions people ask about this
Rough notes are enough
Bring what you have and skip the polishing. Answer the ten-question intake and you get one flat number in writing. For Rhode Island and Massachusetts non-profits, a new website currently includes a free year of care.
