• we have answers!
• How much does a website cost?
• How long will it take?
• When can we get started?
• Can I manage my own site?
• What is the design process?
• Can we do lunch?
• Are you available by phone?

Ballpark Pricing

• Blogs: $3000-$5000+
• Small Business Websites:
  $5000-$7500+
• Community or Magazine-style Websites:
  $7500-$10,000+
• E-Commerce Websites: $8500+

Learn more about costs and inclusions in our faq.

They Like Us, They Really Like Us!

Our clients are awesome, so naturally we like to do an awesome job for them. Often they respond by telling us how awesome we are. And then we post that awesomeness here. It's just one big awesome love fest.

Also in this area, you'll find any press bits, articles, media attention, accolades, and that sort of stuff. Would you like to chat with us about an article or interview? Drop us a note!

Stuff We Use and Like a Lot!

We're often asked what product or services we use to manage our business and we realized that these might be helpful to our clients, too!  Some of these are affiliate links, but we wouldn't put them here if we didn't actually use, have experience with or otherwise recommend the product. That's not how we roll. Yo. Or something.

Web Hosting

We work with a lot of hosts. A lot. And choosing the right one can be a tough choice. Our host since 2003 has been Hosting Matters for all of our sites. They're not a big name, but they're well-established and respected hosts with a great track record for customer service. We love how they treat their customers (they're awesome to everyone, but do let them know you're with us), and they even offer a great hosting deal for Moxie-referred clients -- currently, $10/month, no contract, "unlimited" bandwidth, databases, server space, the works. (They call it "unmetered" and explain why here, but all you need to know if that you'll have all the space you'll need.)

Domain Names

For years and years and years we used GoDaddy -- until we found out recently that they support SOPA, which as web designers for oh... the internet, we oppose. (We're not pro-piracy, but we are pro-internet freedom.) So, we packed up all 30 of our domain names and trucked them over to NameCheap.com, where they accepted us with open arms. Their domains are comparably priced (though they're often offering a coupon code), they offer a WhoIs Guard (to hide your private information from snoopy spammers and your ex) and their interface is more straightforward than our former registrar.  Their customer service has been top notch, too.  They're also openly anti-SOPA, which sealed the deal for us. We don't love your name, NameCheap, but we love you.

Time and Project Management

We try to be as paperless as possible around here. Email is great, but sometimes conversations can slip through the cracks.  We like to keep things accessible, and a web-based project management application like Basecamp can make that happen. Once we start a new project, we set up the client in our Basecamp account, where they can upload files, respond to action-items, comment on posts, post new messages, and track milestones.  And you receive notifications of new posts right in your inbox and can respond and post back to Basecamp just by hitting reply to that email. Very handy and accessible by just you, you and your client or your whole team.

Invoicing

The whole business part of being a freelancer or small business can be super overwhelming, especially if you're in a creative industry like us. It's just not part of our make-up, unfortunately. But Freshbooks makes it super easy to customize invoice templates, track payments and expenses and even track your time for billable hours. It tallies those pesky late fees, too and sends automated reminders to pay up, buddy!  We love it and have used it for years now.

Advertising

We are often asked how to acquire advertising for our client's sites. Advertising itself is not really our forte -- and we can't make any guarantees about the success of your advertising -- but we can recommend Text Link Ads from personal experience. If you want to get started with advertising without a lot of work, we like TLA. You sign up as Publisher on their site, they'll recommend a price to set for your ads (which they'll increase/decrease over time based on your site's success) or you can set your own. Then you just sit back and wait for folks to purchase ads on your site. They're unobtrusive and pay out a reasonable amount monthly. Win-win!

You Should Hire Us.

we're here for you, soup to nuts!

Hiring someone to design your website, whether it's your first time or it's old hat, should be about more than just the website. We develop relationships with our clients and aren't going to bail out on you at 30,000 feet. We're here for you, through the whole process, through the launch and beyond.

You wouldn't be creating a website if you didn't have ideas, so we're all ears. But, because we care, we're going to tell you when there's a better solution. We're going to make recommendations, we're going to guide you in the right direction — developmentally, from the structure of your website and creatively, respectfully nudging you toward a less retina-searing shade of lime, perhaps. You hire a professional for a reason — their expertise — so we're going to share that with you. We're givers like that.

If you're seeking the fastest, cheapest, "I want it online yesterday for less than a cab ride" kind of website, then we're not the designers for you. There are thousands of free themes that you can download and roll your own, as they say. We won't assemble a slapdash website to meet an unrealistic timeline, nor will we drag out a project indefinitely. As a small business, we have a vested interest on keeping your project moving forward, but believe in taking the time needed to provide excellence.

We believe in doing it right the first time. We believe less is more and well... sometimes more is more. We believe in whitespace, well-chosen fonts and the merits of a good cocktail olive. We believe in you, your project and your ideas. We believe you should hire us.

This is Isabelle.

Bellie is Kathy's papillion.  She likes noodling, sitting like a priss and bows in her hair.  She sleeps with her tongue sticking out and we believe she has a french accent.

This is Lulu.

Lulu is Joelle's bunny. She likes cilantro, apples and flopping on her side like a baby seal. Her chub is almost as mighty as her cuteness. You can learn more about Lulu and bunny care at lulubun.com.

Special Thanks

Our Illustrations

Our Moxie Girls character illustrations were created just for us by the talented artist, Derek Yaniger. He's done several versions of our characters over the years, but we think the airline girls may be our favorites.  Derek's a big time artist now!  You can find his amazing retro artwork, including limited edition serigraphs and prints at Mister Retro. You can also pick up his coffee table art book, Wildsville: The Art of Derek Yaniger.

Our sweet-faced mascot illustrations were also created just for us, this time by the lovely and talented Cynthia Frenette. She does stylish illustrations and we often refer our clients to her for custom illustration work. She also makes some amazing fabrics for you crafty types. We think she's the bee's knees!

Code Wizardry

We're more than just a pretty space, we do much of our own front-end development here at Moxie Design Studios, especially for Expression Engine, but sometimes we're unable to take on the development of every project. In those instances, we partner with talented colleagues that aid us in our quest for world domination. Ok, maybe they just write beautiful code. In any case, we acknowledge awesomeness where it's due.  Lately, we've been working a lot with David Hollander of SparkWeb and couldn't be happier.  If you've gotten a Wordpress site from us recently, he's probably been our wingman and we owe those fancy custom bits to him.  We call him the Wordpress Whisperer. Thanks, David!

Under the Hood

We love, love love (did we mention love?) Expression Engine content management system by the fine folks at Ellis Lab, Inc. We've been using it since its debut in 2004 and haven't looked back. We do work with other content management systems for our clients -- it keeps us on our toes! -- but for our personal and professional use, Expression Engine is aces! 

Our hosting has been managed by the fine folks at Hosting Matters since 2003. We host all of our sites with them and we love how they treat our clients, too!

Thank you for your testimonial!

We appreciate your business and we especially appreciate your word-of-mouth.  At Moxie Design Studios, we take pride in our work and love nothing more than receiving a referral from another happy client. 

Thank you for your testimonial and we hope you enjoy your new website. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can assist you in the future. :)

Hey… How did I get here?

We do believe you’re lost or have hit one of those stinky ol’ broken links.  That’s a bummer.   Please use one of the navigation items above to find your way…

Sorry for any inconvenience!

Frequently Asked Questions

We’ve rounded up the most common questions and comments that come through our inbox and done our best to answer them as thoroughly as we can.

You may want to know something different like, "Are lobsters ambidextrous?" or "Do penguins have knees?".  If these are the things that keep you up at night, we're afraid we're not too much help.

But if you have a question about web design, social media or how to mix a great cocktail, please feel free to drop us a line. We’ll respond as quickly as possible.

About Moxie Design Studios

Launched under the name Blog Moxie™ in February 2003, Joelle and Kathy were not only designing blogs, but blogging themselves -- that's how they met!  Pioneers in more stylish blog designs, the girls of Moxie Design Studios quickly became highly sought-after blog designers in a world dominated by boxy and boring templates.  They have designed well over 500 websites in the past 9 years for clients around the world and were among the first five designers added to the Expression Engine Pro Network.

Kathy and Joelle are the authors of the book, The IT Girl’s Guide to Blogging with Moxie (Wiley & Sons Publishing) and have spoken at high-profile conferences like South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) in Austin, Texas. They've also been featured in articles and on radio shows and podcasts.  The Moxie Girls take a lighthearted approach to design and believe websites don't have to be professional or fabulous -- they can be both!

About Joelle

Joelle is West Coast girl who grew up in San Diego, California. She's always had a creative streak, singing and playing the piano since the age of 3 and performing "living room vaudeville" for family and neighborhood friends. She also loved to draw with dreams of becoming a Disney illustrator. As a teenager, singing took precendence over art, but in the mid-90's with the internet making its debut, Joelle's passion for art and design was reignited.

Joelle started her own personal website in 1998. Then with a semester of art school under her belt and an insatiable design to learn, in early 2000, Joelle took a job with prominent European haircare company, Toni & Guy/TIGI, in Dallas, TX. There she gained a lot of experience designing hip presentations and creating marketing materials for a rock-n’-roll 20-something target market. After being promoted to New Media Designer in just over a year, she left the company to do contract work with a wonderful and talented mentor at Rapp Collins in late 2001.  There she had the opportunity to work on web projects for high-profile clients like HBO, Yahoo! and Sony Playstation.

In late 2003, it became clear that Blog Moxie™ was a full time job, so Joelle left Texas and moved back to California where she's been designing websites in her jammies ever since.

Joelle currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada where she dreams of returning to San Diego, sips martinis with blue cheese olives and hangs out with her bunny, Lulu.

About Kathy

Kathy is an East Coast girl.  She grew up in a suburb on Long Island, NY and escaped with a scholarship to the art program at Rosemont College in Pennsylvania. She trained there as a traditional artist majoring in Studio Arts focusing on the messiest classes she could get into.  Paint, paper making, clay sculpture… the dirtier, the better. She graduated with a BFA in Studio Art and a minor in art education. Her senior thesis exhibition consisted of abstract furniture sculpture that involved saws and lots of red carpeting.  Don’t ask.

Years later she stumbled into web design and fell head over strappy sandals with art in the form of HTML and Adobe Photoshop.  Kathy worked in a cushy job at a corporate giant consulting firm as a Business Consultant developing and designing B2B eCommerce websites.  While there, she honed her skills in usability standards, and did hard time browser testing.  She still gets chills when thinking of Netscape 4.  Later, she seized an opportunity to branch out on her own and in 2001, started her first solo company.

Along with Joelle, they gave birth to Blog Moxie™ in 2003 and since then, she has designed countless websites, learned the intimacies of content management systems and dissected and designed blogs into the wee hours of the early morning. 

When she’s not designing, she’s either writing for her parenting blog or playing Mom to her two rambunctious boys. She'd really rather be sipping champagne in a bubble bath in her spare time.

Behold, Our Portfolio!

We put the "fun" in functional.

Whether you’re a blogger, a small business owner, a bestselling author, a pretty, pretty princess or all of the above, we've created a wide assortment of designs to suit just about every taste… well, except boring. 

We don't believe in cookie-cutter, same-same, run-o'-the-mill templates. It's just not our jam. We do believe in usability, web standards, beautiful user interface and a bunch of other fancy words, but your website doesn't have to be humdrum to be a well-oiled machine.  We love to create design that is exciting, interesting, personal... design that sets our clients apart from the rest and socks your visitors in the kisser.

We believe in bringing ideas to life and thrive on creating custom designs that speak to your product or personality. We can't promise the moon, but chances are if you think it’s too “out there”, we've done it, been asked to do it or will do our damnedest to figure out a way to do it for you.   And if we can't, well... we'll eat our very stylish hats.

Thrilled? Tickled? Let Us Know!

We pride ourselves in providing our clients with a website that will make their competitors or fellow bloggers simply swoon.  We hope that we’ve done that for you!

If so, we’d love to hear from you about how you feel about how the process went, how your website turned out and what you think others will gain from working with The Moxie Girls™.

Fill out our quick little form below to submit your feedback. Thank you for your business and we hope to work with you again!  Cheers!

Terms and Conditions

Many designers, including Moxie Design Studios, work from a modified boilerplate of terms and conditions that are fairly compulsory for websites and web design businesses.  Over the years, our terms and conditions have evolved from that original boilerplate and while our new terms will most definitely still include much of that content, we are always redefining our terms and conditions as they apply to our clients and work style specifically.

In the meantime, please consider the following basic terms and conditions to be current.  Updated: January 1, 2012

1. Authorization. The named client is engaging Moxie Design Studios, as an independent contractor for the specific web design project of developing and/or improving a web site, hereinafter referred to as “web design project” to be installed on the client’s account on an Internet Service Provider (ISP), hereinafter refer to as “Hosting Service”. The client hereby authorizes Moxie Design Studios to access this account, and authorizes the Hosting Service to provide Moxie Design Studios with “full access” to the client’s account, and any other programs needed for this web design project that are included as part of the client’s service agreement/level. The client also authorizes Moxie Design Studios to submit the completed web design project to major Web Search Engines.
2. Development. Designing a web site to fully work in multiple browsers (and browser versions) can require considerable, extra effort. It could also involve creating multiple versions of code/pages. Moxie Design Studios will guarantee that the web site we design for you will work in the latest browser versions including Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla FireFox, Opera, and Safari. Additional browser/platform testing would be an additional charge. While Moxie Design Studios will make every effort, always, to design a fully functional web site, our guarantee does not cover AOL, text-based browsers, or any requested special effect that we have advised you against.
3. Assignment of web design project. Moxie Design Studios reserves the right to assign subcontractors to this web design project to insure that the terms of this agreement are met as well as on-time completion.
4. Copyright and Trademarks. The client unconditionally guarantees that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork furnished to Moxie Design Studios for inclusion in the web design project are owned by the client, or that the client has permission from the rightful owner to use each of these elements, and will hold harmless, protect and defend Moxie Design Studios and its subcontractors from any claim or suit arising from the use of such elements.
5. Link Back and Credits. Any design, production, development or technical support that is provided to the client or the client’s website requires a recriprocal link on their website via graphic or text-link to MoxieDesignStudios.com unless other agreements have been made. The client unconditionally guarantees that links back to Moxie will remain on the site, preferrably where the designer has placed them, until such a time that the design is no longer active and live to the Internet. Removal of this link and/or graphic is in violation of this agreement and subject to breach of contract.
6. Web Site Maintenance. Moxie Design Studios offers site maintenance at the current hourly rate. Bulk purchases of hours in “packages” may also be purchased by existing clients to keep a designer on retainer. All maintenance payments must be received prior to any work completed unless otherwise agreed upon.
7. Completion Date. Our production schedule is tentative, though we do our best to set milestones for everyone’s benefit.  Please realize that these are NOT set-in-stone deadlines.  If you require a specific launch date or other sorts of deadlines, we are happy to oblige given enough advance notice.  Otherwise, we prefer to estimate the timeframes but ultimately take the amount of time that is needed for the best results.  While we don’t bill you by the hour unless your project goes out of scope, our costs are based on the amount of time we invest into each project.  So rest assured that we have a very vested interest in moving quickly.  And please remember that hours accrued at the request of the client outside the scope of work are subject to separate billing.
8. Project Delivery. The web site design project will be published to the client’s hosting service upon receipt of the second 25% installment or delivered via CD upon receipt of full payment. The client understands that Moxie Design Studios does not provide any hosting services in connection with this web design project. Hosting services require a separate contract with a chosen provider. The client agrees to select a hosting service which allows Moxie Design Studios full access to the client’s account via FTP. The client will be solely responsible for all hosting service charges.
9. Electronic Commerce Laws. The client agrees that the client is solely responsible for complying with such laws, taxes and tariffs, and will hold harmless, protect, and defend Moxie Design Studios and its subcontractors from any claim, suit, penalty, tax or tariff arising from the client’s exercise of Internet electronic commerce.
10. Web Design Project Copyright. Moxie Design Studios owns copyright to the finished web design site produced by Moxie Design Studios. The client will be assigned rights to use the web design project as a web site, once final payment under this agreement and any additional charges incurred have been paid. Rights to photos, graphics, source code, work-up files and computer programs are specifically not transferred to the client, and remain the property of their respective owners. Moxie Design Studios and its subcontractors retain the right to display graphics and other web design elements as examples of their work in their respective portfolios.
11. Payments. Payments must be made promptly based on the schedule outlined in the clients contract. As independent business owners of a very small 2-woman firm, we rely on timely payments from our clients to ensure our livelihood and the livelihood of those we contract with.  Once your deposit and/or engagement agreement has been received, your project is accepted in good faith and other projects are often turned away. Our invoices are due on receipt.  We are freelance contractors and while busy, have to contend with the costs of maintaining our business, so we must insist that payments are timely.  Once a primary project has ceased, if you hire us for additional work, please note that if you do not have a maintenance agreement already in place with your designer, you will be billed hourly for any work requested with a minimum of 30 minutes per request.  You will be invoiced on completion of the task and your invoice is due on receipt. Moxie Design Studios reserves the right to remove any web design project from viewing on the Internet until final payment is made. In case collection and/or legal action proves necessary, the client agrees to pay all fees incurred by that process.
12. Late Fees. If you do not pay your invoice on receipt, you will receive a courtesy notice at 15 days and a 10% late fee of the current balance at 30 days. At 45 days, you will receive another 10% late fee on the new current balance and again at 60 days if not paid in full.  If you do not pay your bill within 60 days, your account is subject to collections.  If you neglect to pay your invoice within 30 days without notifying your designer or making other arrangements, any future maintenance work will require payment in advance. Thank you.
13. Refunds. No refunds are permitted under any circumstances.  Your deposit is a retainer of our time, secures your position in our schedule and covers the costs preliminary consultation and expertise.  If you change your mind, that is unfortunate, but again, no refunds are permitted. Ever. Your project launching in a timely manner is how we keep our business moving forward.  We are motivated and have a vested interest in its completion.  We are counting on the remaining balance of your project and we take your word and our engagement agreement quite seriously.  If you choose to halt the project temporarily or otherwise place the project on hold for any length of time for any reason, a continuation fee will be accrued, per your engagement agreement, until the project resumes.  Please see more in your Project Proposal. If your project is dissolved for any reason and your project is not completed with Moxie Design Studios, not only is your deposit nonrefundable, but you could be billed and responsible for additional hours accrued outside of your initial deposit.  You will be billed for those hours at the current hourly rate at the time of project dissolution, not the hourly rate outlined in your Project Proposal.

Accessibility for People with Disabilities

Moxie Design Studios standard is to meet as many as possible of the currently recommended guidelines for web site development. Without sacrificing quality and design, we try to ensure that the content and functions we build into our web sites are available to all visitors.

This agreement becomes effective when client retains the designer with a 50% deposit.  A 25% deposit is due on delivery of the creative phase.  The final 25% is due upon delivery of the website.  Please pay on time. Adding of Meta Tags (Description and Keywords) and the submission of the web design project to Web Search engines and updating only occur after the full final payment is made. All payments must be made in U.S. funds.

Your estimate request has been submitted!

We appreciate you taking the time to submit your completed questionnaire for review.  You should hear from us within a few business days.

We're booking for August 2012 and beyond. Individual designer availability may vary.

Be sure to check our blog for the latest information.

Please feel free to browse our FAQ — it might provide answers to questions you may have.  Thanks again for taking the time to inquire with Moxie Design Studios™.

We look forward to working with you!

Thanks for Your Email!

We appreciate your email!  If you are contacting us regarding a new project, we are booking for August 2012 and beyond.  Individual designer availability varies.

Please fill out our brief questionnaire and you should hear from us within a few days.

Be sure to check our blog for the latest information.

Please feel free to browse our FAQ — it may provide answers to questions you may have in the meantime. 

Thanks again and we’ll speak with you soon! 

Can We Interest You in an Estimate?

We’re booking for August 2012 and beyond.  Individual designer availability varies.

We are only able to accept a limited number of projects each quarter.  Our schedules do fill up quite quickly, so serious inquiries only, please. You can usually expect a response within a couple business days.  

Once we've reviewed your request and exchanged a couple emails, we can set up a time to chat more about your project so we can prepare a more complete proposal.

Thank you!

Drop Us a Line!

We’re booking for August 2012 and beyond.  Individual designer availability varies.

We are only able to accept a limited number of projects per quarter, so please submit your thoroughly completed Request for Proposal at your earliest convenience. It would warm the cockles of our hearts.

You are welcome to use this form to drop us a note, ask a question, tell us we're awesome, whatever blows your dress up.  But if you are seeking a free estimate, please fill out our Request for Proposal (RFP).

Thank you!

We Wrote a Book!

The IT Girl's Guide to Blogging with Moxie

Want to break into blogging but don’t know where to start? Dynamic duo Joelle Reeder and Katherine Scoleri of The Moxie Girls can show you how to start your first blog, polish your prose, get involved in blogging communities, make sense of RSS feeds, podcasts, photos and more — all with fun, humor and attitude!

Inside you will find the need-to-know info to get your blog noticed: How to choose the right blogging platform or content management tool, select a web host, dress up your blog, manage blog content and keep your privates private! When you are ready for more, The Moxie Girls will treat you to insider dish on blog etiquette, analyzing blog traffic, blogging for business, creating podcasts and adding bling to your blog with plugins, add-ons and more. Throw in the refreshing cocktails, beauty tips and gossip with the Girls at the end of each chapter and you’ll be Blogging with Moxie in no time. So, what are you waiting for?

The IT Girl's Guide to Blogging with Moxie (Wiley & Sons Publishing, 2007) is packed with the content you need wrapped in casual, engaging dialog and a cheeky, bite-sized format.

Buy it on Amazon! • Buy it on BN.com!

We Design Websites.

and it's been our bag since 2003

Our quirky custom websites and blogs have been dressing up the internet for almost a decade — we think cookie-cutter templates are a snooze! If you peruse our portfolio, you'll find our talents include website and logo design, Wordpress and Expression Engine development, as well as blogging and social media consultation.

We design websites. Let's design one for you.