The Free Website Guys

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the director of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Free Website Guys, and what were your goals?

I needed to set up a website to start my company

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

They offered a service which was rooted in an ethical practice and were very responsive from start to finish

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

I applied for a spot on their free programme and then received a message back for further details. Once accepted, they outlined what the process would be and we worked through it step by step. They were patient if I could not respond straight away and they always stuck to deadlines. We kept one email with all the correspondance. They set up the backend of the site, and then I had to make a video with my chosen theme, showing which sections to keep and which to discard. They made me a series of personalised instruction videos so that I can add content myself.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

A mainly worked with the lead developer. Other colleagues supplied me with personalised videos to continue to process

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

I am now in the process of adding content and will be ready to launch the website in the coming weeks

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Very responsive and friendly.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

A clear process. Whenever I need to make choices, they outline all the pros and cons for me.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder, Philanthropy Advisor and Nonprofit Fundraising Consultant

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Free Website Guys, and what were your goals?

New website

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I applied for a new website and was accepted by The Free Website Guys

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

12 steps, many apps and technologies, continual communication, deliverables received in timely fashion, goal met

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

At least 4

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The Free Website Guys are my heroes! I was ready to go to the next step in professionalizing my small business with an actual website of my own. But I didn’t know the first thing about how to build a website. I talked with other website developers and each had expertise in specific areas, but none offered a start-to-finish solution.

And they were expensive! Enter The Free Website Guys. The Free Website Guys, and their services were indeed free, took great care in expertly working through the 12 stages of website development to build me a brand-new website! They also added in many apps I never would have known about and services like Google Analytics to help tract website usage.

Sven Nilsen, Lead Developer at The Free Website Guys communicated with me throughout the process, and their emails came with both text and video explanations/instructions when they needed my input to move forward at a given stage. This includes my selection of a professional website template into which I will now easily be able to add my unique content, text, and photos. The Free Website guys did an outstanding job for me, and I highly recommend them!

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Organized project management and communication. Email, video instructions and explanations simplified complex issues, accomplished in timely manner.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Great follow up, made the technology easy for a non- technical person to understand and use!

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

There's nothing they need to improve on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I own an art platform where people can post their artwork.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Free Website Guys?

I needed a company that could build a website that would allow me to display, broadcast, and market art that different people make.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Free Website Guys designed and developed a WordPress site from scratch. We started the engagement by explaining my vision for the site, after which they sent me different options for the site’s design and layout. They also explained the differences between their various site development packages. They then started working on the site’s design and development.

The site allows users to comment on posted artworks and reach out to the artists.

What is the team composition?

I primarily communicated with Sven (Lead Developer).

How did you come to work with The Free Website Guys?

The Free Website Guys reached out to me through email marketing.

How much have you invested with them?

The Free Website Guys built the website for free.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July–October 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I’m still in the process of uploading content to the site, but I’ve received positive feedback from my family and friends.

How did The Free Website Guys perform from a project management standpoint?

The Free Website Guys performed well in terms of project management. They were incredibly patient and were constantly communicating with me throughout the project.

We typically communicated through email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed with the quality of The Free Website Guys’ work and their excellent communication and efficiency.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Having a Slack channel would be helpful to improve communication as it is faster than email.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner and founder of the company. We specialize in Tuscan culinary adventures and recipe development. We also write cookbooks taking traditional family recipes and converting them into gluten-free alternatives.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Free Website Guys, and what were your goals?

We wanted to make changes to our current website that was created a few years ago. Se we didn’t have in-house developers to invest in a new website, we worked with this team to design and develop a WordPress site for us. Our goal is to increase our traffic and promote our trips, books, and international products via our online store.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We reached out to them via social media and found them to be incredibly professional, comprehensive and were very attentive to our needs in designing a new website and online store. We also chose them based on their past projects, design skills and testimonials.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We had a kick-off meeting to discuss our goals and objectives. From there, the team delivered mock-ups and wireframe for our site. They also sent videos in helping us decide on a wireframe that would work for our needs. After a few iterations, their team designed and developed an informational WordPress site.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

A project manager was our main point of contact throughout the process. There were also developers and designers working behind the scenes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

No fault to the Free Website guys - this is all on our end. Unfortunately, we were away in Europe finalizing our tours and have not had a chance to properly review and launch our new website, but we have not doubt that the our new site will increase traffic once it is launched. It is exactly what we were envisioning.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We had constant communication with our project manager who communicated with the rest of the team. If there were any delays, they let us know ahead of time so that we could prepare. We communicated primarily via email as we were in Europe working on different timetables. They were incredibly professional, comprehensive, and competent throughout designing our new website and online store.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They listened to our needs and gave us a professional site that is easy to update and understand. We have never worked with WordPress before and they took the time to teach us how to update the content ourselves, as well as send us videos as guidance.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nope - I would not change a thing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a freelance writer and manage my own website with my portfolio, blog, and podcast.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Free Website Guys, and what were your goals?

To design the website for me! My goals were to build a professional website that looks great and draws in a lot of traffic.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

The vendor reached out to me over email, but I checked out their website after and decided to give them a try.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We pretty much went through the steps over email. Most of the work was done on The Free Website Guy's end, but I had to step in occasionally by providing logins and admin access to the backend parts of my website, but for the most part, I left TFWG to do their thing over Wordpress, Bluehost, and sites like that.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I mostly liaised with the lead developer, who I believe had people working for him, too.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Hard to say right now as the website isn't live yet, but it looks professional and ready to go. I just need to fill in the gaps and add the content!

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Communication was overall pretty good. There was one moment at the start of working with TFWG where communication dropped, but it wasn't a big deal. The Free Website Guys was communicative and great to work with.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The fact it's free!

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Not really! They did great.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I run my own small art business for selling my oil paintings

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Free Website Guys, and what were your goals?

The goal was to build a website to sell and display my work, as well as my history as an artist

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

They reached out to me, and I thought it was the perfect solution

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They developed a website using a variety of software, based mainly around BlueHost. They uploaded a theme, altered it as I needed, and put in place measures to make the website easy to use and protected.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

One, the Lead Developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Everything was well explained and easily laid out, and the outcome was a well built and effectively designed website that serves the purpose I requre of it.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Sven communicated via email and kept me up to date and informed on every step of the process, explaining what they were doing and why they were doing it.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

That the only payment I had to make was for the software. They really did all the building free of charge.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Been more up front about the fact that there are payments that are required for the building of a website, even though the payments arent due to them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder of an ML/AI consulting firm helping companies to go fully digitalized with a sound data framework.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Free Website Guys, and what were your goals?

The company is in its earliest stages but was in need of a professional engaging website as soon as possible with reasonable costs.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I was approached by The Free Website Guys after having tried a quick online website generator without the desired result.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Implement an end-to-end website solution based on WordPress.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

One senior and a small team of developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The final product is a modern, fully operational website with all the analytics, backup, and security features.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Every step of the process was well planned, communicated in videos and precisely written emails, and executed well. The nice part was the involvement in each project phase, from signing up and managing the domains to selecting the best WordPress template.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

From the first contact with “The Free Website Guys” to the delivered product, my experience was enjoyable and continued throughout my website journey. We were most impressed with their professionalism and expertise which comes with this combined with a great cause to support talented web professionals from developing regions.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Perhaps contacted me earlier!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am owner of my own scientific consulting service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Free Website Guys?

Creation of a new website from a professional template.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I was approached by The Free Website Guys via LinkedIn.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

I needed to stand up a new website for a consulting service line for cancer patients. I'd never created a website before and don't understand anything about the backend of doing that. FWG set it all up for me, giving me "to do" instructional steps along the way as needed.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

At least 3-4 people were involved in helping me, either through instructional videos, emails, and live developper support. There is one main point of contact who "quarterbacks" and is very organized and responsive.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The fact that I have a live website that has received numerous positive critiques from my trusted professional peer group spells success to me.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There was a slight lag between emails, but I also told them there was no rush on my part. I don't know if it would have gone faster had I told them I was in a huge hurry, but I suspect that would have sped things up.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Working with The Free Website Guys was empowering! I’ve never created a website before and didn't understand much about the process. Plugin? What’s that?! FWG’s concise, instructional emails, videos, and links literally put the power in my own hands to completely customize my own site using a template.

They shared helpful third-party and free resources that are now tools in my pocket for other projects. I am so happy I got in touch with FWG. It challenged me to do more than I thought I could on my own, but knowing they were always there to help. I am more than satisfied with the experience and have already recommended them to others.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I suffered for a moment from lack of live human conversation, but when I spoke out about it, I was immediately hooked up on a zoom meeting with one of the developers who was extremely patient and helpful. I was very satisfied with our session.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a solopreneur coach specializing in health coaching. I offer services in strength training, weight loss, stress release, anxiety and chronic pain relief.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Free Website Guys?

I needed a new website.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

They reached out on LinkedIn offering to set my website up for free.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

I communicated with Sven via email and he reached out at least once a week with updates and action items for me to complete

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I communicated with at least 5 people who helped set up my accounts, created tutorial videos and Sven taking charge of the project milestones

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The Free Website Guys are awesome! They reached out to me on Linkedin and I was shocked at how quickly everyone responded to my inquiries and how well they communicated throughout the entire process. Sven is the main person I emailed with and he ensured I understood every part of the process with PDF's and how-to videos.

I needed a simple back-end setup and Theme install and they saved me the headache of trying to find the best deals for my money and what would actually work long-term. I couldn't initially believe someone would build my website without a catch, but these guys do it very well!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Fantastic

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The consistent and timely communication, as well as the quality of work

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Not based on my limited experience

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of a healing practise

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Free Website Guys, and what were your goals?

I need a website quickly and cheaply from a company that was organised enough to work over several time zones And I need a sophisticated back end for my website which is a stand alone project for a collaboration

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I met the free website guys on Linkedin. I needed a new website for a collaborative project is been working on so perfect timing. Working with them is really easy. They have videos and instructions for each step in the process and they are in touch regularly with updates. It's all the technical backend which costs a fortune with websites and what a relief to have all that done free of charge. My admin team are now busy loading the content as this is not part of the service. With their super clear instructions and handover documents this again is an easy and inexpensive process. I would highly recommend their service.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We had an initial meeting to establish my goals. The remainder of the project was carried out by email and video instructions. Brilliant if you're busy like I am

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I worked with Sven who coordinated everything.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

My team are still loading the content as this is not part of the offer and I'm sure it will be very beneficial for us when we launch our project

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Great communication, super clear instructions. Very easy to work with, quick responses to questions.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They had an excellent approach, and the video instructions really helped.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No nothing!