After we launched Firelight Web Studio, our Fabulous Frugal Websites site was redundant. And I don't believe in making more work for myself than necessary. But the site did bring some traffic to our studio site, so we hated to let it go.

After a lot of consideration, we are rebuilding it as an info-site, to teach site owners what it means to have a frugal website, both the positives, and the negatives, so they can make good choices. We provide pretty comprehensive services, for people who are just starting out with an online business, or who are adding a website to an older business, and for people who have a website that isn't doing what they want it to.

Whatever kind of site you need, no matter how simple, or complex, there is probably a cost effective way to get it for you, at 1/10th or less of the cost that larger companies would charge for the service. Web design is horrendously expensive, especially if you need the site to do something more than sit there and deliver pages to visitors. Frugality is a necessity for small businesses, microbusinesses, and startups.

So you can have a basic brochure type website, starting at $500 for literally everything you need (and far more than you know you need, and a lot of stuff that most designers leave off), or a full database shopping cart for $750. You can even have a website with membership management, a forum, a newsletter manager, or just about any other nifty feature, for the same price as a shopping cart! Of course, if you add more things, the price goes up, and for some kinds of sites, there is a monthly fee to keep the site software updated and minimize security risks. But we always make sure that your site gives you the maximum features for the least amount of money.

You get things that many site designers don't even consider adding in - a customized design that fits your business (satisfaction guaranteed!) is standard, of course. And help with copy writing, plus basic Search Engine Optimization (to get you the most possible free traffic) is also included in the price. But beyond that, you get marketing training, and administrative training to make changes to the site yourself (adding pages, changing pages, etc, if you purchased a site package that allows that), are also included in every contract. 

Your interests come first - you are given the dignity of full ownership of your site. We make sure you retain ownership of the domain name without any obstructions to it (there are many obstructions that don't look like it, which we help you avoid), we help you get hosting that really does support a growing site, and we attend to the necessary security issues. Our experience with site legal issues, and business startup issues means your website goes on working for you for years without having to be rebuilt.

If you need to break up payments, we have a lot of options to do that. You can break a site design process up into multiple payments, you can select a subscription fee based service, or from several options that help you reduce fees if that is necessary. Just talk to us about your budget, and we'll be glad to see what kind of options there are to meet your needs.

We are like the General Practicioners of Web Design. We know enough about everything that you need, so we can take care of your day to day needs. We know some specialists too, so if you need a bit more in one area or another, we can bring in the help you need.

Go ahead and use the resources here, free. No matter who you choose to do the work, the information here can help you to know what it is that you need, and how to get it.