Welcome To Price-Less Ads
(see contact information below)

Professional custom web site design services for e-commerce at Fair Prices

Thanks for considering Price-Less Ads to build your Internet web site. We have been building and maintaining web sites since 1996. We are located in the Boston, Massachusetts, area and focus on antiques, clocks, jewelry, model trains, watches and related businesses (although we also provide and support other types of commercial sites; e.g., AWCI, Shoys Paradise Found, RT Chagnon Construction, Eastern Systems, and Paul Schmid State Rep). Our Services We provide full-service custom web sites including professional graphics and interactive forms where viewers can order your products and tell you their wants. We will register your site with the popular directories and search engines on the Web. Getting high ranking at the search engines requires special page design and interconnecting with other related sites. We specialize in this process. We will see to it that you will be found on the congested "information highway". If you intend to sell products over the Internet, we provide high performance database driven online catalogs in various display formats. We would be happy to process your pictures for your online catalog, but you might prefer to edit and size your own pictures. Online forms are provided for maintaining your catalog. Our unique array display catalogs have become a signature feature at Price-Less Ads - a very effective way to merchandise your products on the Internet. See web site design services for e-commerce below. Web Address We can arrange to get your own domain name on the Internet where then your Web address would be http://www.YourSiteName.com. You might prefer to reserve your domain name yourself at Network Solutions or other registrars. You will also need an account at an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to host your pages on their Internet Web server (a computer designed for this application). We recommend StartLogic.com for your ISP, but we have worked with many other ISPs. We can make all of these arrangements for you, but we believe you should be the account owner. Your web site is your intellectual property. You should be able to change webmaster (Price-Less Ads) and ISP at any time you want without our involvement. By the way, StartLogic can also reserve your domain name (free with a new account). Costs The cost of setting up a web site depends greatly on your requirements. For example, graphic arts work, programming, online catalog and shopping cart. We will work with you on this. You might want to build your site in stages over time. While a simple site might cost under $1,000 to set it up, more involved sites might cost $1,500 - $2,000 with an online catalog and shopping cart. If possible for getting an estimate, try to find existing sites that characterize your needs; they need not be in your business category. Our web site directory at Price-Less Ads is a good starting point for finding such sites. If all you need is a simple business card ad with an e-mail address, you can obtain that inexpensively at Network Solutions when you reserve your Web domain name. You can also create your own site with templates at StartLogic.com (tell them pricelessads.com sent you, our account at StartLogic). Web Site Design Services For E-commerce Reference sites employing custom catalogs: R.O. Schmitt Fine Arts (including a custom search interface) Austria Connection Carl's Toy Trains Reference sites employing the conventional horizontal catalog format: New England Clocks (including shopping cart) Classic Antique Clocks (including a search feature and shopping cart) Watertown Watch and Clock Company (including a search feature and shopping cart) Reference site employing the array display catalog format: Paul Duggan Fine Watches (including a search feature and shopping cart) John Lydon Luxury Watches (including special effects with large images) The horizontal catalog format is best suited where products have long descriptions. By keeping thumbnail pictures on the small size, you can achieve a high density of products on a Web page with this format. The array display format is best where you want pictures to help sell the product, but it is not as flexible as the horizontal format. For example, the array display loses some of its attractiveness if the thumbnail pictures are not all the same size. Please take a look at our catalog/shopping cart in our demonstration site (demo site has minimal features and graphics). The demo catalog has the array format but the search function displays results in the horizontal format for illustrative purposes. Indeed, the program is parameter driven so that formats, number of items displayed, product options, and checkout features, et cetera are just configuration parameters. Demo Site The online catalog/shopping cart program includes an online WYSIWYG self maintenance interface. It is based on templates and engine provided by Internet Business Solutions. See their demo store and demo administration control panel. (Username: mystore   Password: changeme). Many clients prefer to use the online self maintenance interface only for changes, and let Price-Less Ads post additions, especially if we prepare your pictures for the Web catalog. However, you can send us ad changes in any manner you want. How To Send Your Ad Material You can send us the text, logo, pictures, etc., for your home page and product catalog in hard copy form by Post mail. We will typeset the text and digitize the graphics/images. You can be better assured of the presentation and accuracy of your material if you send us the information electronically. Any of the following methods can be used to send the information electronically: Post mail the information on diskettes or writable CD (we support most PC word processors and image formats). Attach the files to e-mail messages. Provide the files in an ftp site (e.g., your own domain or personal home site) that we can down load. If you provide digitized pictures, please save them in JPEG format with maximum quality or in TIFF format. We will probably crop and size them down to about 400 - 600 pixels unless a larger size is appropriate. You can also provide pre-edited (i.e., cropped and adjusted for brightness & color) and sized pictures ready to post, in which case our charges will be only for posting them (and you can do that too if you want). The file naming convention we use for standard online catalog pictures is: your-site-address/photos/item#.jpg - detail blow up picture where "item#" is your catalog item number. your-site-address/photos/item#th.jpg - thumbnail picture where "item#" is your catalog item number. your-site-address/photos/item#a.jpg - extra view pictures and so on. Our shopping cart has a picture upload and sizing feature, but files can be transferred up and down with the web server with a process called "FTP" (File Transport Protocol). With your own domain you have unlimited access via FTP 24-hours a day. As such, you can maintain your online catalog at your leisure. You can use your browser to FTP files to your web site (you might have to set an "enable ftp" option in your browser). Enter the following in your browser's location field: ftp://your-user-name@your-domain-address/photos/ You will be prompted for your site's password. You can then drag files from your file manager window (e.g., from a Windows Explorer folder) to the FTP window, which will upload them to your web site. You can remove files with Internet Explorer, but not with Netscape. Below are web sites where you can download FTP software to your computer that is more flexible than browsers. For the PC WS_FTP  FTP Voyager For the Mac, "Fetch" is available: StartLogic provides instructions for most popular FTP products, and also provides a built-in file manager for up and down loading files. When You Can Make Changes We will endeavor to enter your changes as quickly as possible, typically within 48 hours depending on the amount of processing work required. Of course you can update your online catalog at anytime with the online self maintenance interface; no programming knowledge required. You can also maintain your static pages (non-catalog or interactive pages with built-in programs) with commercially available online editors; we recommend Contribute from Adobe. Terms and Conditions Price-Less Ads will provide web site services as requested by client, but will not be responsible for any damages or losses incurred by client. Full payment is due prior to posting new material or making updates. Price-Less Ads will not be responsible for the authenticity and quality of products and services as advertised by clients, nor for their actions and business practices. Price-Less Ads will not be responsible for typographical or other errors, but will give credit for the amount of time incorrect information was posted as the result of our mistake. Price-Less Ads reserves the right to refuse or omit any information to be posted on any web site. Price-Less Ads will return graphics, pictures, etc., requested to be returned, but will not be responsible for their loss or damage. Privacy Policy Contact Information: Ron Price Price-Less Ads 323 Main Road Westport, MA 02790 USA (508) 636-0240 Go back to top of page Return to Price-Less Ads Home Page.