The terms I work under.

1. Who this is between

Michael Nappi, a sole proprietor trading as Sites for Trades, of New York (“I”, “me”), and the business named on the payment (“you”). There is no company behind me and no staff; you deal with me throughout.

2. What you get

For the one-off fee: the finished website built from the demonstration you approved, with your real services, hours, towns and photographs in place of the stock ones; published to a web address with a security certificate; a contact form that reaches your inbox; set up to be found for local searches; and two rounds of changes before it goes live.

For the monthly fee, for as long as you pay it: hosting, the security certificate and daily backups; edits within the week — prices, photos, services, towns, hours, a seasonal message; one larger change a year, being a new page or section; a monthly check that the site is up and the form reaches you; and a person who answers, by text or phone.

Anything not on that list is quoted separately before it is done. Nothing is charged without you agreeing to it first.

3. What it costs, and when

$999 once, charged when you approve the demonstration and say go. Then $99 a month, the first payment one month after the setup charge. Twelve monthly payments is the commitment. After the twelve, it continues month to month and you can stop with a month’s notice.

Payment is by card or bank debit through Stripe. I never see or hold your card details.

4. If a payment is missed

The site stays up until your next payment is due — a full billing cycle, not a couple of weeks. Cards expire, banks flag things, people go away, and a few days is not always long enough to notice. Sort it in that time and nothing happens at all.

If that next payment is missed as well, the site is taken offline until payment is made. It is not deleted at this stage, and it goes back up as soon as the payment goes through. By that point there will have been two failed charges, automatic retries and reminder emails on each — nothing is switched off without warning.

After three months of missed payments the site may be permanently deleted, and where I registered your web address it will not be renewed when it next falls due. Three months and a reminder on every failed charge will have passed before that point.

Both of those are one-way doors. Deleted files are gone, and a web address that lapses can be registered by anyone the moment it does. If money is tight, tell me before it gets that far — I would far rather pause things by agreement than delete somebody’s website.

5. If you stop before the twelve months

You owe nothing further. There is no balance to pay out and I will not chase you for the remaining months.

The site comes down at your next billing date, and you do not get a copy of the files to keep. The twelve months is what buys them.

6. If you stop after the twelve months

Give a month’s notice and the files come to you at the start of that month rather than the end — the whole site, ready for whoever hosts it next. Your site stays up on my hosting right through the notice month, so nothing goes dark while you move.

After that I am not running it for you. Putting it back online somewhere, keeping it there and changing it are your job or your next person’s. That is what the monthly was paying for, and it stops when the monthly does.

7. Your web address

If you already own it, it stays yours the entire time and nothing about it changes hands. I only point it at the site.

If I register it for you, it is included and costs you nothing extra. It sits in my name while you are a client. Once the twelve months are served it is yours for the asking, transferred at no charge to you or any registrar you name. Leave before the twelve months are up and the address stays with me. If I ever dissolve the business, every address I am holding goes to the company it belongs to.

8. What I need from you

Your real details, your photographs, and the email address enquiries should reach. The site cannot be finished without them, and a delay in getting them is a delay in going live.

Photographs must be ones you have the right to use. I will not publish images from a supplier’s catalogue or another company’s website.

I will never ask for a password of yours, and you should not send me one.

9. Claims about your business

Anything stated about licensing, insurance, guarantees, certifications or affiliations goes on the site only in wording you have supplied to me in writing, and it stays your responsibility. It is your name on it. I will not write such a claim for you or approximate one.

10. What I do not promise

I cannot promise a position in Google or any other search engine, and nobody honestly can. What I can do is build the site so it loads quickly, works on a phone, and says plainly where you are and what you do.

I cannot promise the site will never be unavailable. It is hosted on a large network with its own reliability, and no host is perfect.

I am not responsible for business you believe you lost through the site being down, an enquiry not arriving, or anything you published on it. If something goes wrong, what I owe you is limited to the fees you have paid me in the previous three months. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

11. Your content

The words, photographs and business information you give me stay yours. You give me permission to use them to build and run your site, and to show the finished site as an example of my work — tell me if you would rather I did not, and I will not.

One line appears in the footer of your site: “Website & hosting by Sites for Trades”. If you would rather it were not there, say so and I will leave it off. It changes nothing about the price.

12. Changing these terms

The version you agreed to when you paid is the version that applies to you. If I change these terms, the new version applies to new clients, and to you only if you agree to it.

13. Which law

These terms are governed by the law of the State of New York.

14. How this agreement is made

By ticking the box at payment you agree to these terms, and that record — who agreed and when — is kept by Stripe. That has the same effect as a signature; no paper is needed.

Questions

Ask before you pay, not after. Mike@sitesfortrades.net, or 631.681.4129.