We started building web sites in the Spring of 1996. We have been running our own ecommerce sites since then. During the last decade many products and companies have come and gone.
Web site shared hosting has gone from $50.00 a month to $50.00 a year. Site space is now so inexpensive that everyone can easily have a web site as big as necessary.
Mountain Studios specializes in shared and dedicated hosting, personal and small business sites using the Linux / Apache server software. We have found this to be a reliable, cost effective method for serving up information. This approach is capable of scaling to a depth of thousands of pages and rich multimedia information delivery.
Linux / Apache web servers are easy to manage, easy to set up and provide a secure, reliable environment for web development. There is a wide array of cost effective add on software available to automate many common requirements.
Click here for recommendations on web space providers. This is where we send all of our clients.
All of our ecommerce sites are Linux / Apache based. We know the environment and understand how flexible it is. We firmly believe this platform is as safe as can be. This is, in our opinion the preferred platform for serving up web sites and information. If you run on a Windows based computer, you can easily manage this type of web site and you will never need to know anything about the Linux server.
We build and manage our own web sites on Windows based computers, and we upload these web sites to Linux servers.
We are available to help you should you require any maintenance for you web site.
We works with a variety of web hosts too. We can use the most cost effective hosts offering the widest set of tools and with hosts that offer sites that virtually never go down. Shared hosting in recent months has become a very cost effective means of representing your company or yourself.
We build a full range of web sites for our customers ranging from personal blogs to full blown ecommerce site with a high maintenance level and big inventory management system.
Here is the sign up form. If you want to inquire about your web site click here.
Example Sites
1. Personal blogging sites
2. Professional blogging sites
3. Electronic brochure sites
4. ecommerce sites with secure SSL transactions
5. Password protected membership sites
6. Teaching and training sites
7. Multimedia sites with video, animation and mp3 interfaces
8. Linux / Apache servers
9. Family sites
Additionally we can install many different kinds of software to automate your site and help you build up a solid web presence. Here is a partial list.
Menu Systems
Navigation is easy and beautiful with interactive menus that beg to be pushed. We offer a full array of menu systems to make sure your site navigation is exactly right.
Web Form Management
Allows you to have multiple forms on your site that collect information and gather addresses for correspondence. These systems protect your precious email address from site spiders by hiding inside the program where it is unavailable to spammers, while providing a secure and reliable way to talk to your audience.
Password Management
These tools are great for private areas of your site that contain sensitive information. You have complete control to either let people in on the spot or have them wait for approval. Managing the mailing list of all these contacts is a breeze. Users can manage their own information and recover their lost password without asking you.
Shopping Carts
Shopping carts provide a safe and secure way to allow a customer to pay you for something. Shopping carts connect to a banking system through a secure gateway and conduct the transaction within a secure socket. This provides for the safest way to transact and protect your customers and your company and they do all the math for you.
Site Metrics And Tracking Programs
These programs track visitors and users of your site. They can either track everyone or start tracking when a certain event triggers some action. These add on programs can allow you to split test new sales pages and track your click through and sales ratios. These are a must for any new Internet marketer.
Newsletter Management Systems
We can configure a simple system of mailing your newsletter to your opt in list or a full service newsletter management system capable of managing an unlimited amount of newsletters. You can even offer this to others and charge them for monthly newsletter services.
Survey Tools
Conduct survey polls right on your site and gather all sorts of information about your visitors. Allow participants to view the results right after they finish.
Calenders, Clocks And Guest Books
There are a wide variety of site tools available to give your site just the right touch. From sticky notepads to clocks and visitor counters, just tell us what you want to do and we can find the tool.
Live Chat Systems
You can serve up a live chat window to your visitors that will allow them to ask questions in real time and interact with you in the most up to date method available. Tech support can be given quickly and maintain low levels of frustration. Customers generally are very happy with these opportunities to click on a button and connect to you. You can even specify when this service is available.
Support Ticket Systems
Offer a full ticket support system to your visitors for whatever you support. This system tracks user support requests and provides a board where a complete audit trail is available.
Discussion Forums
Now you can provide a full discussion forum for your visitors. This can be specific to certain groups. You can host tournament forums that serve only people of your community or full scale forums that operate over an international basis. Combined with a password protection system, you can easily allow only registered people to use the resource.
Dynamic FAQ Generators
If you need to generate a list of questions that have been answered, this task can easily be automated. Allow everyone to see what questions have been asked and exactly what answers have been provided. This can be about your personal expertise or part of a project bid management process. This is perfect for architectural and engineering firms.
Auto Responders
Respond to all inquiries or questions with auto responders. Available as either simple acknowledgement systems or full service mail merge systems that dynamically generate emails and merge password and user names and serve up eBooks.
Banner Rotation Systems
If you intend to sell advertising on your site, there are a variety of ways to allow it to happen and to manage it. Banner rotation systems can be used to sell advertising once you have a certain level of traffic.
SQL Databases
This is becoming more and more popular. Databases can be used for all sorts of programs. From simple email management lists to shopping histories and inventory management. We currently offer a limited set of SQL database driven programs. This is an area we constantly evaluate for emerging products.
Email Systems
If you need to interact with a set of people on a regular basis, you can do it with an email system. This can be as simple as a form management program to a full service management system capable of managing and mailing to thousands of people every hour. Because email spammers have abused this type of program, extreme caution should be used when mailing to visitors. We are available to help you navigate this touchy issue. Keep in mind anyone who spams will be shut down so fast you will not have time to cry. There is simply no place for spamming and very few hosts will allow it for any length of time. We use these systems effectively and safely every day.
Acrobat PDF Files
Now you can deliver documents with type set precision to anyone you need to, using industry standard tools freely available to everyone. We can generate your documents if you need and even combine this with written documentation and published hard copy. This allows you to combine written publishing and electronic publishing.
eBooks
We can help you put your work into eBook format. This is something we do every day too. Now you can offer a full range of expertise instantly delivered to your visitors. You can charge a price for your work and issue passwords that guarantees limited access. eBooks can be deactivated from your desktop after a set amount of time. You can verify who has registered your eBooks too. This can be a simple PDF approach or a dynamically generated and remotely managed system using all the beneifts of HTML.
Complete Photographic Services
We offer the highest quality photographic services for all your web design needs. If you need images to show off your products or company, we can take care of all your needs.
Theflatirons.com is a good example of what we can do. Take a look now and see what we can do for you.
Flash Animations
If you need motion or movement on your site or just need to tell a story, we can offer a full line of flash animations. We can even put it to music. We have done this for many sites including our own. If you need flash animations, we can handle it.
FTP Access
If you have items that can be downloaded, we can build in FTP access. FTP stands for File Transport Protocol. It is the standard way of exchanging large files across the web. You can set up an area on your site that allows some visitors to access and download information. This can also be accomplished as an http:// link on any page.
Standard Tools
All web sites have a standard set of tools available including full perl libraries, cgi-bins for constantly running programs and site metrics. Almost all sites are administered through Cpanel, the industry standard web management console. We can help you manage your site from our offices. This allows us to see the entire site and how it is performing.
Search Engine Submission Services
Generally we do not include search engine submission in the basic package of any web site. We do this for a very specific reason. Search engine submission is not to be taken lightly. Some sites allow only one chance to get this correct. If you do it wrong, you do not get another chance to be listed in the way you wanted. Therefore search engine submissions are very important and should only be done when you are sure of your meta tag descriptions, keywords and site message.
We do offer full submission services with placement reports. This is quoted and designed on a case by case basis. We are available to discuss your exact needs as well as talk about how you intend to market your site, what advertising strategies are available and how you can reach your intended customer. Remember we run ecommerce sites every day for ourselves. We have experienced a broad range of advertising strategies and can talk about this in great detail. This is the difference between someone who designs sites and someone who depends on them.
Site Maintenance
From time to time, all sites need maintenance. This can be the addition of a simple piece of information or a completely new section or approach. We are available to work with you or just do the management ourselves. On going maintenance can be tailored to your specific needs.
Call us or write today for a complete discussion of how we can help you obtain a first class web site that addresses your exact requirements. We are here to help you.