Q. Why "BAH"?
A. See the Team page for this one.
Q. Why a goat?
A. See the Team page for this one, too.
Q. What happened to your Monster Rancher site? Is it closed?!
A. No, no, no, my friend! It's still here! Briana doesn't
update it anymore, but it's there. Check the main
page under "Projects." It's listed there.
Q. What happened to Samurai BANZAI!? Is it still there?
A. No, SB was discontinued in 2005. Briana has been updating and
working on Rune Master
since December 2005. It's much more frequently updated, Monday-Friday and
has over 500 pages as of December 2008. In other words, it's far more
successful and fleshed out than Samurai BANZAI!
You can still download the old Samurai BANZAI! pages for personal viewing
here if you wish.
Q. Do you do commissions?
A. Briana does not do drawing commissions, sorry. We do offer custom website and logo commissions,
though. See the other sections of the Q&A for details.
Q. Can you help me with my website?
A. Unless you're a close personal friend or a client for a website design, the answer is "no."
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Q. How much does it cost to have a custom website layout made?
A. It varies on your needs. We offer set packages of a price ranging from $50 to $200.
We also offer a more open, custom commission fee with a base price of $100 plus $20 per hour.
This may seem like a lot, but because we focus on basic home and business websites that don't require
much, the actual labor time often isn't much, and ends up being far cheaper than many other web
design companies. See the web design page for more information
on our prices.
Q. How long does it take to create your website layouts?
A. It varies from site to site and how busy we are at the moment. BAH Studios™ takes on one site at a
time, and you will not be charged anything until actual work has begun. Once work begins, most basic
sites can be completed from a few days to a week, but sometimes it takes longer. When we accept a commission
from clients, we will provide a time completion estimate after discussing what their particular needs are.
Q. How do I pay?
A. We run all our transactions through PayPal, because it is a secure and simple solution. If you
are uncomfortable or otherwise hesitant to use PayPal, e-mail our
sales department to discuss other payment options. While we prefer PayPal, sometimes we can
work out an alternative.
Q. Do I pay before or after the design is made?
A. The base cost of the design is due after we have accepted the commission. Cost of labor (the per
hour fee) is due once the project is complete, but before we hand the files over to you. Of course, we
will show you an example of the functioning site first, and fix any problems there may be. Once we
receive payment, we will send you all relevant files along with documentation. If for whatever
reason we are unable to complete the commission, you will be refunded in full.
Q. What do I need to do to get a custom layout design?
A. You will need your own website that is not on a free server website like Angelfire. In
most cases, it will have to be a paid-for hosting, but some people are able to get superior
hosting from friends or associates for free.
Please note that BAH Studios does NOT do web designs for MySpace pages or
anything similar. Because most of our coding uses at least a few php scripts, we also
require our clients to have hosts that provide PHP 4 or above. See the
Questions about starting a website section for details on
hosting.
Q. Do you offer help with your website designs after they're finished?
A. We heavily comment our code with instructions on how to edit basic content and include Readme files
with the completed website so that running your site should be easy. We design the websites for you, but
we do not run them. If you have any questions that are NOT covered in the comments or
Readme files, then send us an e-mail and we will
try to help you if we are able.
Q. What are the legal disclaimers for using your custom layouts?
A. Essentially, you can do as you please with your website, but do not remove
the link to BAH Studios in the layout or claim the design as your own. If you helped
create graphics for the design, BAH Studios™ will include the proper credits in
our standard footer disclaimer for your layout. The full disclaimer for our works
can be read on the disclaimer page.
Q. I'm good at image design. Can I make my own graphics for the website I commission you?
A. Yes, you may. We will work with you to integrate the images into the layout - just notify us of this
when you first contact us for a commission. While you will retain the rights to your graphics, partial
credit will go to BAH Studios™ for integrating them into
the website (unless the client does ALL the work on the graphics) and we retain the rights for the
overall site design. If a client helps with graphics, they will receive the proper credit in the standard
BAH Studios™ footer disclaimer in their website design.
Q. Do you maintain the websites commissioned to you?
A. No, we are website designers, not admins. Our designs come with Readme files and other
help files for troubleshooting and guides. However, if there is a problem with the design itself
that cannot be answered by the included files, contact us and
we will attempt to fix the issue if it is a design-related one. If it is a hosting or other issue
that is out of our hands, we will inform the client and advise them where to look for more help.
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Q. How much does it cost to have a custom logo made?
A. It varies on the needs of the client and the complexity of the project. See the
logo design page for details.
Q. How long does it take to create your logos?
A. It varies on the complexity of the project and how busy we are. We will work with the
clients, providing drafts sent for approval before doing the final design. BAH Studios™
provides a time estimate upon receiving a commission with a detailed description of what
the client wants.
Q. How do I pay?
A. We run all our transactions through PayPal, because it is a secure and simple solution. If you
are uncomfortable or otherwise hesitant to use PayPal, e-mail our
sales department to discuss other payment options. While we prefer PayPal, sometimes we can
work out an alternative.
Q. Do I pay before or after the logo is made?
A. The base cost of the design is due after we have accepted the commission. Cost of labor (the per
hour fee) is due once the project is complete, but before we hand the files over to you. Of course, we
will show you websafe samples of the work, and fix any problems there may be. Once we
receive payment, we will send you all relevant files along with documentation. If for whatever
reason we are unable to complete the commission, you will be refunded in full.
Q. Do I retain the legal rights to the logo?
A. You retain all legal rights to use of the logo as you please, but BAH Studios™
also retains the right to use the logo for the purposes of portfolios or other such
collective work examples, without permission of the client. We will never use logo
designs in an attempt to defraud or impersonate the client or anyone else.
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Q. What do I need to start a website?
A. You will need two main things: A domain host and a website host. A domain host
provides the URL for your website (example: www.mysite.com), while a website host
provides the actual space to store your website files. Some companies provide both
domain and website hosting, but you often still must pay for each service separately.
Options and quality of hosts vary from company to company, but here is a compiled list
of popular and often well-vouched for companies:
Domain Hosts:
1and1 (BAH Studios™ currently uses them)
directNIC (BAH Studios™ used them in the past)
GoDaddy
Website Hosts:
1and1 (BAH Studios™ currently uses them)
Host Gator
imHosted
You can also look at sites such as Web Hosters
or Find My Hosting for advice on finding a good
host and what your needs may be. BAH Studios™ uses and personally recommends
1and1. No, we are not paid a cent to say that. Briana
has been through several hosts throughout the years, and 1and1 has thus far provided the best overall service
and customer care at an affordable price. Not to mention they are VERY website-newbie friendly.
However, to be fair, there are many wonderful hosts out there, and your needs may be different. Shop around
before deciding on anything. Also, make sure the host you have your eye on is legitimate. Beware of frauds. We
speak from experience.
Q. How much does it cost to maintain a website?
A. Some hosts will try to charge you hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a domain or space. We've seen prices as
high as $300 a year for a domain name! But really, these companies are trying to scam you in many cases. You can get
great hosting for a low price. The bahstudios.com domain name costs us only $5 a year, while the hosting for all our
websites is $4.99 a month ($59.88 a year). You just have to know where to look, but don't just look for affordable. Make
sure you're getting good service for it as well! Do your research on hosts before deciding on one.
Q. Do you have any tips on what to look for in web hosting packages?
A. Several! Aside from finding a reliable, affordable host, we advise you look out for packages that offer:
- Linux (NOT Windows) server hosting - You don't have to know anything about Linux, it just means what sort of
server your host stores your site on. There are different approaches to issues with each type, and each offers some
different default kinds of coding. In our experience, most sites are hosted on Linux servers.
- Adequate space - If you're running a small site, chances are you won't use more than a few megabytes, but
in case you expand or want to install special scripts like message boards, make sure you get hosting that
offers at least 1 GB (gigabyte) of space. They're pretty standard now, and many hosts offter several GB of space for cheap.
- Adequate bandwidth (also known as Monthly Transfer Volume) - Bandwidth is the amount of traffic your site is
allowed to handle in a month. When you go over your allotted amount, most hosts charge an overage fee, and HUGE
traffic overages can lead to website downtime. Smaller sites and businesses often won't use up their bandwidth,
but if you think/know your site will get a LOT of visitors (we're talking 100,000s+ daily), then you should
talk to your host about options.
- PHP 4 or above - Most Linux servers will offer this now. PHP is fairly web standard, and most of our web
designs involve PHP scripts. Even if you think you will never use PHP on your own, many handy scripts like
PHPbb (a message board script) use PHP to run, so it's a good thing to have... Just in case.
- Virtual hosting - All this means is that your site will be on a server (computer) at your host that's shared
with other websites. Most websites, especially basic ones, will use this. BAH Studios™ is on a shared
server. The other option is a dedicated server, which means an entire server (sometimes several) is dedicated to
one site and one site only. They are MUCH more expensive (in the $100s to $1000s per month) than virtual hosting
and are only useful for very, very, large and/or traffic heavy sites, such as eBay, Google, or Yahoo.
- MySQL databases - MySQL stores data for various advanced codes, like wikis or message boards. It's a
handy thing to have, and most hosts offer at least one database per hosting package.
- E-mail addresses - This is also pretty standard, and most places offer at least 100 e-mail addresses
per hosting package for you to create and use. Not to mention bob@mysite.com looks a LOT more professional
than bobby123@hotmail.com.
Q. Can I run a website even if I don't know a lot about web design and coding?
A. Sure! Many hosting places offer plenty of learning aids and creation tools for their customers
who don't know a lot about web design. Or, if you have a larger wallet, you can hire someone to
maintain your site for you. Of course, it can't hurt to
learn some basic HTML (a simple website programming
language), because that's often all you need to edit a simple site.
Q. Do you offer any web design tutorials?
A. Currently, no. But we do have a few other tutorials on image editing, and
we might add web design tutorials in the future.
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