Everything you might want to ask about a $300 website

Yes. $300 is the total you pay mainewebsite.design for the build. There is no recurring charge, no platform fee, no monthly bill. The only ongoing cost is the annual domain renewal (typically $10-$15/year), which you pay directly to the registrar in your own name.

No. There is no deposit, no retainer, no "first half up front." You pay $300 only after you have seen a working mockup of your site and decided you want it. Until then you owe nothing.

Square, Stripe, or check. Jeremy will send a simple invoice once you approve the mockup. Payment is due on launch, not before.

You walk away. No payment, no hard feelings, no fine print. The mockup site stays up at your-slug.lizzotte.com as long as it is useful, or comes down on request.

Functionally yes — you only pay after you have seen and approved the site. So there is nothing to refund. If something breaks within the first 30 days that we built, we fix it free.

The flat $300 covers a typical small-business site: home, about, services, gallery, contact/quote, and per-town landing pages if relevant. If you need something genuinely different — a custom-built booking backend, an e-commerce checkout, a multi-language version — we will quote that separately and only after a real conversation. We do not surprise-charge.

The first mockup is usually live within a day or two of the initial conversation. From there, revisions are fast — most sites go from "first email" to "live on custom domain" in under two weeks. Some are launched within a week.

A short email describing the business, your phone number, your service area, and a few photos if you have them. If you do not have photos, we can use royalty-free stock or pull from your Facebook business page if you give permission.

Yes — that is the whole point. The mockup lives at your-slug.lizzotte.com (for example, mainely-insulation.lizzotte.com) until you approve it. Only after approval do we connect it to your real custom domain.

Reasonable revisions are included in the $300. We do not run a stopwatch. If you ask for a different color, different copy, different photo arrangement, that is part of the build. If you ask for a fundamentally different site three times in a row, we will have a conversation.

We write a first pass for you, based on your website, social media, and any information you send us. You review and edit before launch. Most customers find our first pass is 80-90% of what they want — they adjust phrasing here and there, and that is it.

By default we register the domain through our own GoDaddy account — that lets us handle DNS, renewals, and email routing painlessly so you don't have to learn registrar dashboards. The domain itself is yours: any time you want full ownership transferred to your own registrar account, we will do the ICANN transfer at no charge. You just need to set up the destination account and share the credentials. ICANN transfers take 5-7 days.

No problem. The site code is yours. We can export everything — content, photos, configuration — and hand it to your new developer. No exit fee, no proprietary platform to escape.

We hand off the domain to your own registrar account immediately so you keep control. The site files are simple HTML/Node — any competent developer can take over hosting. We document each site's setup so the transition is painless.

Yes. The site code is yours, the domain is yours to transfer. We will move the domain to the new owner's registrar account at no charge and hand them the site files. We help with the technical handoff if needed.

There is a small footer link to mainewebsite.design on every site by default — usually a single line at the bottom like "Site by Lizzotte". It is small, unobtrusive, and helps us earn referrals. If you would rather not have it, just say so and we will remove it at no charge.

On a dedicated Maine-managed server we operate (silentstack.lizzotte.com). Fast, HTTPS by default, monitored. Hosting is included in the $300 with no monthly fee for the first year of normal traffic.

Node.js with Express and EJS templates. Plain HTML/CSS/JS on the front end — no framework bloat, no React Single-Page App, no slow load times. The result is sub-second page loads even on weak cell signal.

Mobile-first, in fact. Most of your customers are finding you on a phone, often outdoors with one bar of signal. Every site we build is engineered for that situation: fast loads, tap-friendly buttons, sticky call CTAs.

Yes. Every site ships with: schema.org structured data (LocalBusiness, Service, Review), sitemap.xml, robots.txt, semantic HTML, fast page speed, and per-town landing pages when the service area justifies them. We submit the sitemap to Google Search Console at launch.

Modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge — last 3 years) work perfectly. Internet Explorer is not supported. If you serve a customer base that genuinely uses Internet Explorer, we will discuss before building.

You have Jeremy's direct email and text number. For small tweaks — change a phone number, swap a photo, update hours, fix a typo — just message and it is handled, usually same day. No support tickets.

Reasonable small updates are included indefinitely — typos, phone numbers, hours, gallery additions, copy tweaks. Major rebuilds (new template, full restructure) are a separate conversation, but we will be honest about what is and is not included before you ask.

Same day during business hours for most things. Within 24 hours on weekends. If a site is actually down, immediately.

For a standard new page — additional service, new location, news article — usually included if it fits the existing structure. For a major addition like a blog system or a member portal, we will scope it separately and be clear about cost.

Jeremy Lizzotte. Personally. Every single one. No offshored contractors, no design agencies, no AI-only generation. Jeremy is a Maine-based technology professional with over a decade of experience building websites, software, voice/telephony systems, and small-business platforms.

Because the entire workflow is automated and templated where it can be, and Jeremy does the rest personally — no overhead, no sales team, no office. We are a real, sustainable side business, not a loss leader. Some sites take 6 hours, some take 12. The price reflects honest cost plus a fair margin.

Central Maine. Sites are built, hosted, and supported from Maine — not from a content farm in another country.

It is a real business with real clients on real custom domains. See the portfolio on the home page for live examples. Jeremy also runs other Maine technology operations including telephony/PBX systems, CRM software, and a Maine trades directory.