I’m Paul de Wouters, nice to meet you!
I’ve always been passionate about the web, and in 2008, I decided that I wanted to become a web designer.
Before that I lived in Belgium and worked for a pharmaceutical marketing agency for several years in an IT/ technical role. During that period, I studied and got my bachelor’s degree in computer science at a community college.
After getting my degree, I quit my job to become a full time freelance web designer specializing in WordPress themes.
Web design is never boring and I learn something new everyday. I also have an interest in Internet Marketing.
About my services
I have been working as a full time freelance web designer since October 2009, although I have had a passion for the web for many years.
In order to be a successful freelancer, it is necessary to be prepared and love to learn new skills and question acquired ones regularly. The web is a fast-paced world and you don’t want to be left behind.
In order to hone my skills, I read many books, enroll in online classes such as Sitepoint Live, the WebDesign.com university, I participate in specialized forums and communities and share ideas and tips with fellow freelancers via social networks and eperiment with cool new features of HTML5 and CSS3!
I also write about web related subjects on my blog, and I have started guest blogging. My first article to be published on FreelanceFolder.com this month.
I offer my clients a one-stop solution to getting their business / blog / community online, redesigning existing websites, improve SEO, conversions, optimizing WordPress sites, basically all services that someone who runs a business online would need. Things I don’t do is brand design and print design such as logos, business cards, etc…
My typical clients are professional bloggers, freelancers and small to medium businesses who want to establish a professional and unique presence on the web. I understand that every industry has its own sets of rules, culture and audience, and I take this into account when discussing a project with a prospective client whose industry I may be unfamiliar with. I also partner with agencies on occasions.
I pride myself on my professional ethics, attention to my clients’ needs, responsiveness and ability to listen and create a final website that meets the client’s vision and business objectives. I’m easy to work with, I offer great support after your website is live, I love giving advice and going the extra mile to make sure my clients are 100% satisfied with their website.
I consider every project to be a tight collaboration between my client and myself. I believe in getting you involved early in the process as opposed to going silent for weeks and presenting you something that you didn’t expect at all. I value and respect your business and will do my best to help you succeed and I expect the same attitude from my clients. Mutual respect for each others skills and expertise is the key. If you agree, then we’re a good fit.
If you’re looking for a quick and dirty job, a basement bargain or a pixel pusher, then you’re not in the right place. I consider myself a craftsman and take pride in my work.
Since I started out, tens of businesses have benefited from my services. I recently took a look at one of my latest client’s analytics, and since the redesign, his conversion rate has increased 88% in 2 months! Read what my clients have to say about my services.
When you hire my services, we will work to achieve your primary and secondary objectives which we define in the design brief. We can take a snapshot of your current statistics in terms of conversion rates, traffic, visitors, website performance such as load times, 404 errors, etc. Then after the new site is live we measure the evolution of these statistics using analytics tools and other tools for measuring website performance. This will give you a clear picture of how the design or redesign of your site has benefited your business. Typically you’ll start seeing results immediately after the launch ore relaunch.
To get started, it’s very easy, the preferred method would be to use my contact form. You can also shoot me an email at paul@sideradesign.com.
Each project is different and has its own set of requirements, constraints and goals. This is why it’s not possible to price it as a commodity. After an initial contact, I will ask you to fill out a questionnaire which will serve as a design brief. It will allow me to give you a pretty accurate estimate of the cost.
I also offer a monthly maintenance plan which consists of routine updates, backups, analytics and SEO.
A typical timeline for a complete web design and development takes between a month and a month and a half, and it depends greatly on how fast the client can provide me with the necessary assets and feedback required to proceed and keep the momentum going.
My specialty is building custom WordPress websites. I use a rapid development approach which means I don’t code every website from scratch but I use quality frameworks which allow to build upon the best code from the WordPress experts such as Justin Tadlock’s Hybrid, StudioPress, Thesis and Thematic mainly. That’s for the coding part, but the design will always be unique.
Depending on your budget we can also work from an existing template (code and design). This lowers the cost, but keep in mind there are some limitations involved. Also if the modifications required are important, it might not make sense to use a template at all because of the workload involved in customizing it.
Examples of recent work can be found on my portfolio page.
I accept payments via PayPal or Payoneer, which means that if you have any major credit card, you’re covered.
I work solo and never outsource any part of the project to other parties. I accept non disclosure agreements also.
About the website
Hosted at justhost.com, which provides affordable and reliable hosting with great support.
Powered by WordPress, the awesomest CMS!
Optimzed for search engines by WordPress SEO
Theme design handcrafted by myself based on the Toolbox HTML5 starter theme and the HTML5 boilerplate.
This site uses CSS3 media queries to adapt to various devices. Read this and this
Optimized for speed by W3 total cache and Cloudflare