Web Development & Marketing Agreement
Between US, Search Marketing Investments, LLC, and YOU, ___________________________________
Summary:
We’ll always do our best to fulfill your needs and meet your expectations, but it’s important to have things written down so we both know what’s what, who should do what and when, and what will happen if something goes wrong. In this contract you won’t find any complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text. We’ve no desire to trick you into signing something that you might later regret. What we do want is what’s best for both parties, now and in the future.
YOU (located at ___________________________________________) are hiring US (located at PO BOX 18831, Asheville NC 28801) to provide WordPress development and/or Internet marketing at the rate of $59/hr as outlined in our previous correspondence. Of course it’s a little more involved, but we’ll get to that.
What do both parties agree to do?
YOU: You have the authority to enter into this contract on behalf of yourself, your company or your organization. You’ll give us everything we need to complete the project as and when and in the format we need it. You’ll review our work, provide feedback and approval in a timely manner too. Deadlines work two ways, so you’ll also be bound by any dates we may set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule set out at the end of this contract.
US: We have the experience and ability to do everything we’ve agreed with you and we’ll do it all in a professional and timely manner. We’ll endeavor to meet every deadline that’s set and on top of that we’ll maintain the confidentiality of everything you give us.
Getting down to the “nitty-gritty”
Design
Many of the WordPress websites we create use pre-designed “themes” purchased from a third-party designer/developer. This enables us to publish websites quickly and keep costs down for you. This theme will be purchased from a third-party designer/developer and you will be granted a license to use this theme.
We will assist you in selecting an appropriate theme, but cannot guarantee the theme will be free of any problems upon purchase or in the future. Periodic theme updates from the developer are often free, but some periodic maintenance may be required to keep the theme “bug free”.
You’ll have plenty of opportunities to review our work and provide feedback. We’ll share our work with you and have regular, possibly daily contact. If, at any stage, you’re not happy with the direction our work is taking, you’ll pay us in full for everything we’ve produced until that point and cancel this contract.
Plugins
Just like third-party themes are often used for website design, third-party “plugins” may also be installed to provide added features and functionality. We will do our best to only use highly-ranked plugins with established customer support. Plugins also need periodic updating, which may be performed by you or us. Not updating plugins on a regular basis may present a security threat or problems with design and functionality.
Security
Due to the ever-increasing sophistication of hackers, it is impossible to be 100% certain that any given website will not be hacked in the future. We do not claim to be security/hacking experts and cannot be held responsible for preventing, maintaining, or fixing security or hacking related issues. We can however install and configure spam and hacking prevention plugins and, in the event of a security breach, attempt to sanitize and restore websites that have been hacked.
Text Content
We’re not responsible for writing any text copy. If you’d like us to write new content for you, we can provide a separate estimate for that.
Photographs
You should supply any graphic files (logos, etc) in an editable, vector digital format. You should supply photographs in a high-resolution digital format. If you choose to buy stock photographs, we can suggest stock libraries. If you’d like us to search for photographs for you, that may be provided at our hourly rated noted above.
Hosting & Technical Support
Although we do offer hosting for clients, we’re not a website hosting company and are not able to provide 24-7 support for hosting and do not provide support for email at all. If you choose to host with us, we will do our best to remedy any (extremely rare) problems with downtime as quickly as possible.
We can also set up an account for you at one of our preferred hosting providers. We can set up your site on a server, plus any statistics software such as Google Analytics and we can provide a separate estimate for that. Then, the updates to, and management of that account will be up to you.
Changes & Revisions
We know from experience that fixed-price contracts are rarely beneficial to you, as they are often more expensive and limit you to your earliest ideas. We don’t want to limit your ability to change your mind. If you want to change your mind or add anything new, that won’t be a problem and we’ll provide a separate estimate for that. Any estimates communicated previous to this agreement are based on the length of time we estimate we’ll need to accomplish everything you’ve told us you want to achieve. The final cost will be based on actual time and expenses required.
Legal Stuff
We can’t guarantee that our work will be completely error-free and so we can’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you’ve advised us of them. Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
Copyrights
First, you guarantee that all elements of text, images, or other artwork you provide are either owned by you, or that you have the appropriate permission and licenses to use them.
Once your final payment has cleared, we’ll give you all source files and you should keep them somewhere safe as we’re not required to keep a copy. You own all elements of text, images and data you provided, unless someone else owns them.
We love to show off our work and share what we’ve learned with other people, so we reserve the right, with your permission, to display and link to your project as part of our portfolio and to write about it on websites, in magazine articles and in books.
Payments
We’re sure you understand how important it is as a small business that you pay the invoices that we send you promptly. As we’re also sure you’ll want to stay friends, you agree to pay all invoices within 15 days of receipt.
But where’s all the horrible small print?
Just like a parking ticket, you can’t transfer this contract to anyone else without our permission. This contract stays in place and need not be renewed. If for some reason one part of this contract becomes invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts of it remain in place.
Although the language is simple, the intentions are serious and this contract is a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of Asheville, Buncombe County, NC.