Frequently Asked Questions

Web Design faq

How long does it take to finish my site?

The length of time it takes to complete the design depends on both the complexity of the site, and how quickly you supply us with the content. Static sites are usually completed within a couple of weeks, while dynamic and e-commerce sites generally take between 2-5 weeks from start to finish. Having all of your content, text and photos gathered up ahead of time will save quite a bit of time.

Will I be able to see my site while you build it?

In most cases, yes. Typically, we will keep the site live as we build it, but we will hide the index page with a temporary 'coming soon' type page. When we're ready to launch the site, we'll remove the temporary page and you'll be live.

What if I need to make changes to my site down the road?

This is never a problem! Either we can make the changes, or you can. We generally design our sites to be easily handled by clients with a basic knowledge of site editing skills, using Dreamweaver or a similar WSYWIG editor. For clients that don't want to mess with any portion of site maintenance and updates, we can take care of it all. See our pricing schedule for our site updates & maintenance fees.

Domain faq

What is a domain?

A domain is a name. It is the web address of your site.

Some examples of domains are dreamlabs.com.au, google.com, someguy.me, thisbusiness.biz, and so on.

How do I get my own domain?

Many businesses pay too much for domain name registration.

Dream Labs will register and setup your domain name for you at a great low price.

Simply fill in the form and weI will get back to you with the availability of your chosen domain name (i.e. www.yourbusiness.com.au). we can also suggest a domain name to suit your business that is easy to remember for your customers. See our pricing schedule for our domain registration fees.

What should I keep in mind when choosing a domain?

Picking out the perfect domain isn't as easy today as it was several years ago. Nowadays, just about everything seems to be taken. Try to keep your domain as short as possible, as this is usually easiest to remember. Remember-me.com is much easier to memorize than trytorememberthisdomain.org.au

Also, try to consider adding keywords in your domain, especially when you are shooting for good search engine traffic.

abc.net.au is much more effective than austbroadcastcorp.com, when you are looking to do well in searches for 'ABC'.

Should I get the .com, .net, and .org versions of my domain?

With the prices of today's domains being under 70 bucks, to most people it makes sense to get different versions of your domain. It's kind of a peace of mind type of deal knowing that someone can't come along and use a .org version of your domain and use it as a boob site. Whether you host with Dream Labs Web Design or another host, usually you can always point the other versions to your main domain very easily. Your host will usually need to set this up with a small fee.

Shameless plug: Here at Dream Labs, we don't charge extra for pointing domains.

What does DNS stand for?

DNS stands for Domain Name System or Domain Name Server.

It's an internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. Since each website you visit is actually an IP address (66.7.205.157 for example), there became a need for easily remembering where to go. It's way easier to remember dreamlabs.com.au than 66.7.205.157.

Hosting faq

What is hosting?

A computer stores files. These files must 'live' somewhere on the computer's hard drive. So seeing that a website is simply a collection of files, you will need a place to store those files. In addition, the computer that stores these files must be made available to the web, that is, people must be able to see your site's files when they type in your domain name. Without a host your website won't be visible to anyone.

Why do I need hosting?

You will need hosting in order for your website to be visible to the world. A hosting server is simply a computer that allows the world to view its files via the internet.

What does hosting cost?

Hosting can fill a wide range of prices, depending on what you need. For most small websites, hosting ranges from $25 to $300 per month. For larger websites, $25 - $1000, of course depending the needs of the site.

Dream Labs Web Design offers competitive hosting packages for your site's needs.

How do I transfer my current host to you guys?

Easy! Just send us over your login information for your domain, as well as your FTP info for your website, and we'll take care of the entire process. It generally takes between 2-48 hours for the DNS to fully propagate the internet... meaning, not everyone will be able to see the new site right away.

What should I look for in a host?

Think about your needs. There is no point choosing a host, only to find out that they don’t support any of the features you need, or that you are paying for things that you will never use.

What is the fee structure?

Can you easily upgrade / downgrade services?

What type of servers do they offer? For 95% of people, a Unix based server is the best option.

Do they provide a CGI - bin, SSL certificate, shopping cart?

What web statistics program do they provide?

What types of backups do they offer?

Can you access web mail?

Do they provide an easy to use Control Panel?

Do I need a dedicated or virtual server?

Most smaller web sites use a virtual server. However, no matter how well managed, virtual servers cannot be 100% reliable and stable. Very busy sites in particular, definitely need a dedicated server.

How do I know my host will give me the support I need?

Send the host provider’s support department a few emails, or call them to make sure that you can talk to a human if you need to. You should really choose a host that has 24/7 support. Take the opportunity to enquire about the features they offer and ask for references. And don’t forget to measure their response time!
Uptime guarantee?

Why do I need a control panel?

Well, you don't really, but a control panel certainly makes life a lot easier. A control panel allows the user to add email addresses, check stats, add blogs and other cool scripts to your domain, and depending on the hosting account, add new domains. At Dream Labs, we use exclusively the Plesk control panel system, which is by far the most popular and stable control panel available.

e-commerce faq

What do I need to sell stuff online?

Well, this question has a lot of answers. To keep it simple, the first thing you will need is the actual stuff you want to sell.

How do I accept Credit Cards online?

There are several things you will need in order to accept credit cards online.

Many new shopping carts start out with accepting only PayPal payments. PayPal allows you to accept credit cards, while not forcing the customer to create a paypal account. The customer can pay with a credit card via PayPal, and the money is transferred into your PayPal account. Of course, you will need your own PayPal account to accomplish this.

If PayPal isn't an option or if you'd like to provide more ways of accepting payment, you will need several other things.

The first piece of the puzzle is to obtain a merchant account. Most retailers already have merchant accounts, if they are able to swipe credit cards in their stores. If you don't have a merchant account, then check out our affiliate, PayPal. They can set you up with a merchant account, and they can also give provide the other piece of the puzzle, the Payment Gateway.

The final piece is the Payment Gateway. A payment gateway allows your website to communicate credit card transactions to your merchant account. Most gateways allow a login area to view recent, pending, and declined transactions.

Can I charge tax and shipping online?

Yes! Most shopping carts–including our favorite shopping carts–allow you to set up a specific zone. So if you have a retail store in Australia, your shopping cart would charge GST upfront to every order that ships to Australia. You may also specifiy more than one country, if you have retail locations in other countries.

Shopping carts also allow for generation of shipping costs. You can choose to charge a flat rate, a flat rate per weight, or you can use some additional custom modules that dynamically calculate estimated shipping for Australia Post, DHL, FedEx. It's actually quite powerful.

How can I make my site secure? What is SSL?

If you're going to be selling things online, you should definitely have a secure site. This requires the use of an SSL certificate.

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. It works via encryption of your customers' data for web communication. Most e-commerce sites implement an SSL (have you ever seen that little padlock icon in your browser?). Without an SSL, many customers will immediately exit your site when asked for sensitive information.

An SSL is fairly easy to acquire. The price ranges from $20 per year to several hundred dollars per year. Contact us for more details.