About Classic Web Design

CLASSIC WEB DESIGN offers complete website design and maintenance services. Our offices in Virginia and Minnesota have over 16 years experience in the production and hosting of websites for small businesses and organizations. Because the Internet has so many different users, computers, and browsers, we try to make your message easy to get-- with straight-forward organization, simple obvious navigation, and photographs and images that load quickly. To make your website accessible by the largest audience possible, we design for a very wide range of browsers and platforms.

Classic Web Design is based in central Virginia but works for businesses and organizations anywhere on the web. We concentrate on your message, your budget, and your website. We have been producing websites since 1995 and scores of our websites are online.

Need a host for your website? Email us and we'll give you a quote, probably in the $20-$30 a month range for a standard site; $40-$55 for a database-driven site. It's a matter of pride with us to make website hosting invisible and painless!

Services we offer

We will--

Help you with your domain registration;
Host your website or work with your ISP;
Consult with you on the structure, content, and appearance of your website;
Design and program the pages;
Edit and process the photographs;
Create the graphics and edit your text;
Upload your site;
Help you with search engine registration;
Keep your website updated.

You will--

Provide logos or other graphics if you have them, and any material with a style or color or slogan that characterizes your company.
Be prepared to supply digital or paper photos as necessary.
Email or transmit the text as you'd like it to appear.
Pay the bills. See
'How can I..'

How much do websites cost?

First the website has to have a home and a name.

The home will be a professional hosting company that stores your website and makes it available to the Internet. Classic Web Design runs semidedicated web servers with high speed access; we charge about $25 a month for a basic commercial site and $40 for a database site. There is also a one-time $50 charge to set up the site so it is accessible to the World Wide Web. You must have your own domain name (e.g., ClassicWebDesign.com) for a professional website. Registration costs from $9-$35 a year; CWD can help you with it. Ongoing maintenance - changes to the website - are billed quarterly at $50 per hour.

Second, the website itself must be created.

We can produce a basic web presence (one-page site) for you for as little as $300, but a more complex site-- a catalog of your merchandise, perhaps-- takes considerably longer. We charge by the hour, so ask us for an estimate when you know what your content will be. We produce all incidental graphics. If you have a corporate logo we can use it as a base design to ensure consistency in navigation buttons and backgrounds. Maintenance is important. A website is a living thing and it needs a bit of attention now and then. We would be happy to quote on any job. Just call or email us.

Common questions

FAQ's about Classic websites:

How do I get started?
How can I be sure I like my website design?
How do people find my website?
How can I keep my costs down?

(Click here to find out.)

Thinking about eCommerce?

As the Internet becomes more accepted as a [relatively] safe, highly efficient avenue for buying and selling, we implement more shopping carts and eCommerce programs every year. If you're thinking your sales volume will justify a serious solution, talk to us!

We are proud to list some of our
web clients

From the earliest text-only websites of 1995 [which, given the state of data communications, were about all that would work with slow dialup modems... remember the 4800-baud breakthrough?] to today's content-rich dynamic, highly visual, interactive sites that can be supported by broadband networks, we have produced well over one hundred websites. They range from one-page magazine ad formats to complete catalogs of items that can be purchased online. Here's a sampling.

Who We Are

Jill Probst— Immersed in the world of computers since the mid '60's when I was hired by the Navy to develop command & control programs, I spent two decades in systems management [making things work] for Univac, Shell, ICL, and Bechtel. During the ICL years in the UK, I helped start an antiques business that has been a focus (obsession?) since 1980, CharlesEdwin.com.

When the Internet emerged with its technical challenges and marketing potential, my systems background proved to be a good fit and I moved into website design as soon as the Internet came to central Virginia. This was 1996. My first clients were antiques dealers and local organizations and soon there were so many others I needed help with setting up servers and managing hosting-- so I hooked up with Jean who was experienced in exactly those aspects of web business.

With years of experience running two small businesses of my own, I can relate to the concerns of my clients about their image, marketing exposure, and maximizing the return on their website investment.

Jean Prevost— After around 22 years in the corporate world in IT (Information Technology), I decided to go on my own and take my chances! I've never looked back.

My experience started with main frame programming, primarily Unisys, and progressed to 4th generation main frame application support, programming and teaching. From there I went into distributed applications written in LISP and on to web based applications with some experience with (then) Lotus NOTES and large enterprise web servers. I ended up my corporate career as the Intranet webmaster for a large airline, doing support, Microsoft .asp and .NET programming as well as UNIX support and development.

As much as I loved Microsoft, I've confined my own business to technologies that will run on pretty much any server. My specialties are database and PHP development along with sites that the owner can update themselves.