Frequently Asked Questions
We know what it’s like to have a burning question. Some of the more frequent questions our customers ask can be found here. If you need an answer to something else, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
General
For development and design work our fees are HKD$580/US$75 per hour for small ad-hoc jobs. We have been building websites for more than twenty years, and we have 12 years of experience with WordPress building large and small websites.
For larger pieces of work, I like to get a full understanding of what is required and give you a fixed price estimate at a discounted rate. You’ll find because of our experience we work quickly, and those savings bring efficiencies that get passed on to you in your quote.
All businesses have fixed costs and we need to keep the lights on during development. There may also be costs associated with getting your site up and running. Your deposit contributes to the upfront fees required for immediate outlays such as purchasing images, themes, plugins and other 3rd party items. You can read more in website design terms and conditions.
Yes. Our fixed-price development quotes will include an amount for WordPress training. This is based on an assessment of how much of the site you will use. Our training will focus on those things you need to do, to do your job. We can also arrange training for others in your team, or for new team members as required.
We offer quite a few services to help businesses get established online. It’s this range of services which genuinely set us apart from our competitors. Set up a Free 30 Minute consultation call to find out more about how we can help you.
Here’s some of what we offer:
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Multilingual Websites and Translations
- Website Maintenance and Updates
- Electronic Direct Marketing and Newsletters
- Content Research, Planning and Creation
- Online Advertising and Website Marketing
- Public Relations and Social Media Management
- eBook Creation and Publishing (Amazon and Apple)
- Live Broadcast for Digital Channels (e.g. Youtube, Twitter and Facebook Live)
- Video Editing and Production
- Podcast Design, Branding, Creation and Marketing
- Content Planning, Creation and Marketing
- WordPress Plugin Development
- Customer Service and Fulfilment for Online Stores
- Membership Website Design, Management, Support and Marketing
- Bespoke Hosted Applications – e.g. Help Desk Software, Telephone Call Routing Systems, Private File Sharing Services
- Affiliate Marketing Support for Website Designers
- Marketing Plans and Support
We work with MALCARE who are experts at fixing infected websites.
Visit their website now for more information and get your site fixed.
Why do we recommend Malcare? We have been working with them for years and we trust their technology. MalCare’s fully automated malware removal lets you get rid of all virus and backdoor forever. Their service allows you to do it instantly without waiting for hours or days. MalCare’s hack removal process doesn’t delete entire files but surgically removes the identified malware without affecting the website.
MalCare then keeps your website safe by collecting intelligence from its network of websites to detect and block threats from hackers and bots in real-time. The complex algorithms go beyond signature matching to detect even the most complex hacks that can go undetected in other popular security plugins.
Visit their website now for more information and get your site fixed.
We accept payment via credit card, PayPal, Stripe or direct deposit. By Direct Deposit we accept payments in Hong Kong Dollars, US Dollars, Australian Dollars or Sterling.
We are confident in our work. We have websites we have built on our hosting that have not crashed or had issues for years with regular core theme and plugin updates. Our original designs are covered by a thirty-day warranty after go-live. This warranty does not extend to damage caused by changes made by customers, or where core, theme and plugins are not maintained, or site security has been compromised by poor security practices (e.g. weak passwords).
We do some of our best work when we can interpret what our clients need and turn it into a high-functioning website. You don’t need to be the expert, that’s our job. Register for a 30 Minute Free Consultation and we’d be happy to listen to what you might need and suggest some great opportunities to grow your website and business online.
Absolutely, let’s get in touch and see how we can help you continuing to deliver great service to your clients on our stable, secure Asporea platform. Fill in the form to get in touch with our partner team.
WordPress
WordPress is a website creation tool and a system for managing a website’s content (also known as a content management system or CMS for short). WordPress is written in the programming language called PHP and it is the most popular single blogging software on the world wide web. For Business website owners, WordPress helps owners easily and quickly make content changes to their website, themselves.
CMS is an abbreviation for the term Content Management System. A CMS is a web application that helps website owners add, edit and manage pages on their website. It can additionally be known as the website Dashboard or backend, where updates are made and content is added or deleted. The major advantage of a CMS is that content doesn’t need to be coded using the web markup language HTML and then uploaded. Instead, users log in to the CMS and use a more user-friendly interface to add and edit the content that appears immediately on the website once updated.
Accordingly to Kinsta.com WordPress now powers more than 40% of websites and has that same share of the CMS market. With such a large community of WordPress users, there is also a large developer community that supports WordPress. This means that WordPress is well supported in terms of updates and new features and functionality delivered as WordPress themes and plugins. WordPress is also an open-source content management system which means that many of the content changes you require can be done yourself, meaning you don’t have to rely on your web developer to update your website once done.
A plugin is a discreet piece of website code, that adds specific functionality to a WordPress website. Plugins can be coded by your website developer, or obtained from a third party developer, to add certain features to their website above and beyond what WordPress natively offers. WordPress plugins can be free or paid, depending on the functionality and complexity. Some plugins have a free version with limited functionality, with full functions unlocked for a license fee.
Many of the top blogs, websites, and even Fortune 500 companies use WordPress. Large companies using WordPress include TechCrunch, The New Yorker, BBC America, Sony Music, Best Buy, Xerox, Harvard Business Review and many others.
Like all software regular updates are required to keep WordPress secure and running smoothly. This includes keeping the WordPress CMS Core software, plugins and themes updated. The WordPress Core CMS software is updated regularly (up to 8 times per year). This is more frequent than many types of software. These updates continue to improve the security of WordPress websites and ensure the very latest version is in use.
Installing updates to your WordPress website is essential to maintaining the security of your website. These updates fix issues and improve functionality, importantly patching any security holes that may have been discovered since the previous version of the software. Because WordPress is so popular, it can be targetted by hackers. Out-dated versions of WordPress and plugins will create a high degree of risk for your site.
WordPress is designed with non-technical users in mind. Even our self-confessed technically challenged clients can change font sizes, colours and update menu items. Adding new pages is also simple including adding pictures and video content. Part of this ease of use comes down to how it is set up for you, and how well your developer sets up the CMS.
One of the advantages of building with Asporea is that we add helpful videos to the backend of your website that shows you how to edit content step by step. We recommend WordPress to our customers because it is flexible and functional, straightforward and relatively simple to maintain.
Yes, WordPress is a very flexible Content Management System and is extendable using plugins. The developer of WordPress has also built WooCommerce which powers online stores. WooCommerce powers more than 25% of all online stores on the web, and 22% of the top 1 million e-commerce sites.
You add the WooCommerce plugin to WordPress and it provides all the functionality to allow you to sell physical and digital goods through your website. Like WordPress, with additional plugins you can extend WooCommerce to manage subscriptions, memberships online stores and much more.
The big advantage of using WordPress with WooCommerce compared to online platforms like Wix or Squarespace is the cost of running your store is much lower in terms of monthly service fees. Our sales team can assist you with cost comparisons if you need it, to help you make your decision. Set up a 30 Minute Free Consultation call to find out more.
For development and design work our fees are HKD$580/US$75 per hour for small ad-hoc jobs. We have been building websites for more than twenty years, and we have 12 years of experience with WordPress building large and small websites.
For larger pieces of work, I like to get a full understanding of what is required and give you a fixed price estimate at a discounted rate. You’ll find because of our experience we work quickly, and those savings bring efficiencies that get passed on to you in your quote.
All businesses have fixed costs and we need to keep the lights on during development. There may also be costs associated with getting your site up and running. Your deposit contributes to the upfront fees required for immediate outlays such as purchasing images, themes, plugins and other 3rd party items. You can read more in website design terms and conditions.
Yes. Our fixed-price development quotes will include an amount for WordPress training. This is based on an assessment of how much of the site you will use. Our training will focus on those things you need to do, to do your job. We can also arrange training for others in your team, or for new team members as required.
Yes. As a full-service digital agency, we offer hosting specifically designed for WordPress. During the quote process for a new website, we will offer suitable hosting for your particular website. Each website will have different requirements in terms of traffic, disk storage and computing resources required to deliver the functionality your website has. We provide robust, safe and fast hosting that will reliably deliver your website. You can find more about our hosting services under Services.
Yes, of course! If your website is currently hosted with another provider, chances are we can migrate it for free. Send a message to our sales team and we’ll be happy to confirm for you.
We work with MALCARE who are experts at fixing infected websites.
Visit their website now for more information and get your site fixed.
Why do we recommend Malcare? We have been working with them for years and we trust their technology. MalCare’s fully automated malware removal lets you get rid of all virus and backdoor forever. Their service allows you to do it instantly without waiting for hours or days. MalCare’s hack removal process doesn’t delete entire files but surgically removes the identified malware without affecting the website.
MalCare then keeps your website safe by collecting intelligence from its network of websites to detect and block threats from hackers and bots in real-time. The complex algorithms go beyond signature matching to detect even the most complex hacks that can go undetected in other popular security plugins.
Visit their website now for more information and get your site fixed.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a critical consideration for any successful website to ensure it can be found when people search. WordPress has been built from the ground up with SEO in mind. In addition to the SEO capability built into the core WordPress software for page names, URLs and the like, there are also many useful plugins available that help you create content that is optimised for search engines to scan and import.
Yes we do. We are great at working with you to get your existing website working as well as it can. This includes making changes, additions, maintenance, speed optimisation, security updates and SEO audits.
Yes. When your site is ready to go live, we can set up your website on whatever host you like. However, some budget hosting is very slow and can cause issues with Google. We recommend either reputable business-grade hosting or using our enterprise-grade managed web hosting.
The whole process can be over in a week for small projects or can take months for larger projects. This will be defined in the requirements gathering stage of our process.
We accept payment via credit card, PayPal, Stripe or direct deposit. By Direct Deposit we accept payments in Hong Kong Dollars, US Dollars, Australian Dollars or Sterling.
Yes we can work with you and your budget. Let us know what your budget is and we will let you know the options.
We are confident in our work. We have websites we have built on our hosting that have not crashed or had issues for years with regular core theme and plugin updates. Our original designs are covered by a thirty-day warranty after go-live. This warranty does not extend to damage caused by changes made by customers, or where core, theme and plugins are not maintained, or site security has been compromised by poor security practices (e.g. weak passwords).
We do some of our best work when we can interpret what our clients need and turn it into a high-functioning website. You don’t need to be the expert, that’s our job. Register for a 30 Minute Free Consultation and we’d be happy to listen to what you might need and suggest some great opportunities to grow your website and business online.
We are proud to show off the work we have done for our clients. You can find our most recent sites, along with client feedback, on our Portfolio page.
Domain Names
This is one of the most common questions considered when thinking about a new website.
A domain name is the unique web address that browsers use to find your company or organisation on the internet. It can be used in a website, such as www.mydomain.com, and in an email address, such as [email protected] instead of the usual @gmail email.
Domains are sold for both business purposes and non-commercial purposes. Domain names will usually be up to 63 characters, without spaces, and including the letters A to Z. You can also include hyphens, and the numbers 0 to 9. So, if you have a Brisbane based company called ACME Transport a good website name is www.acmetransport.com.au.
All domain names consist of the main domain name and the Top Level Domain (TLD) or the domain extension. In our example above, the main domain name is “acmetransport” and “.com.au” is the TLD.
Every site on the internet has it’s own number-based address called an IP address. This is a set of numbers used to locate a server where the website exists. This number isn’t very user-friendly and it’s hard to remember.
Each domain for sale is assigned to one unique IP address, and it provides an easy to remember name instead of a long list of numbers. When you type a domain into your web browser, your computer will check a DNS server that translates that easy-to-remember name into the numbered address of that website address.
Domain names are all about making it easier for humans to find your website on the internet.
You don’t actually buy or sell a domain name. Instead, you register for exclusive use for a period of time – usually one or two years. Unless renewed before expiry, anyone else may be able to register that same domain name and claim ownership for future periods.
To manage this process, private companies are registered to administer domains and provide services to domain name owners. This accreditation comes from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the .au Domain Administration (auDA). These authorised private companies become Domain Name Registrars.
Domain registrars can process your domain name registration on your behalf and will pass the costs of this process onto you, including additional fees for providing this service. They provide a domain search service, allowing you to search for domains and check their availability. Many also provide additional services which they include within the same registration fee like customer service, support, and administration tools.
ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. All top level domains (.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us, .name, etc) and many second level domains (.co.uk, for example) are administered by ICANN, who draw up contracts with each registry and run an accreditation system for registrars.
The .au Australian domain name (.com.au, .org.au, etc) registry is called Afilias, and is administered by auDA, the .au Domain Administration.
Domain names are often confused with a URL, but they are different things.
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and refers to the entire address used to visit a website, including all those colons and slashes. This address includes the domain name.
The URL for the Asporea website is ‘https://www.asporea.hk’. This contains the ‘hypertext transfer protocol secure’ (https), telling the browser that you are using a domain name instead of an IP Address and the secure part lets visitors know that their information is safe. This is then followed by the domain name itself (www.asporea.hk or asporea.hk — both are valid). This points to the server where the website is hosted and the particular files on that server to be accessed.
Email relies on a domain name and hosting to work. Once you have a domain name, it is short work to create your own email address of [email protected]. This has many advantages for branding and professional communications. Many people register domain names purely to have their own email address instead of relying on Hotmail, Gmail or any other generic service.
Domain names are generally registered on a first-come-first-served basis; however, disputes can arise between parties when one has a trademark on the name or can show abusive registration of the name. In these instances, the registrar must follow the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which means they will not cancel, suspend or transfer the domain name until such time as an agreement, court action or arbitration has been reached.
Domain names that are no longer in use with registration that has been allowed to lapse are considered expired. This period extends for 30 days, during which you have the opportunity to renew registration. If you do not renew within these 30 days, there is a further 30-day period known as the redemption period during which you can recover the domain for a fee. Five to seven days after the redemption period has ended, the domain name will be released as available for anyone else to register. If your domain name has expired, and you still want to use it contact us immediately and we’ll do our best to help.
The .au domain extension is a country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) which is restricted to use by individuals, organisations, or companies registered and/or residing in Australia.
.com.au and .net.au domains may only be registered by Australian sole traders, businesses, or companies who can supply an Australian Business Number (ABN), Australian Company Number (ACN), State Business Number, Trademark Number, or Incorporated Association Number to prove their eligibility.
.org.au domains may only be registered by Australian non-profit organisations and registered charities.
.asn.au domains may only be registered by non-profit Australian associations, clubs, sporting groups, political parties, and close equivalents.
.id.au domains may only be registered by Australian individual citizens or residents. The domain name must be clearly based on the registrant’s name or nickname and photo ID is required.
In all cases, the .au domain must have a close and substantial connection to the person or business intending to use it.
There are no restrictions on who can register .com domains — any person or organisation can own a .com domain and use it for any legal purpose. The period of registration can vary between 1 and 10 years.
Generally there are no restrictions on who can register .net domains — any person or organisation can own a .net domain and use it for any legal purpose, however the original intention of .net domains was for use by organisations involved in networking technologies, such as Internet service providers, only. The period of registration can vary between 1 and 10 years.
Generally there are no restrictions on who can register .uk domains — any person or organisation can own a .uk domain and use it for any legal purpose. The period of registration can vary between 1 and 10 years.
Ordinarily, there are no constraints on who can register .org domains — any person or organisation can own a .org domain and use it for any legal purpose, nevertheless, the original intention of .org domains was for use by non-profit and non-commercial organisations only. The period of registration can vary between 1 and 10 years.
Yes, it is your right to transfer your domain name registrations between registrars. Click here for more information on Transferring Your Domain Name.
If you wish to move your domain name from one ICANN-accredited registrar to another, you may initiate the transfer process by contacting the registrar to which you wish to transfer the name. Note that there are certain situations that can prevent a domain name from being transferred, such as if it is subject to a 60-day Change of Registrant lock. See FAQ #8 for more information. Absent any valid reasons a transfer request cannot be processed, the registrar will confirm your intent to transfer your domain name using the Initial Authorization for Registrar Transfer form. If you do not respond or return the form to the registrar, your transfer request will not be processed. Please note that as of 25 May 2018, if the gaining registrar cannot access registration data for a name subject to a transfer, then the gaining registrar is not required to obtain the Form of Authorization from the Transfer Contact.
Your current registrar must also verify your intent to transfer using the Confirmation of Registrar Transfer Request form. Click here for more information on Transferring Your Domain Name.
There are certain situations that can prevent a domain name from being transferred to a different registrar, such as a new registration. Your registrar may deny a transfer request if the domain name is within 60 days of initial registration. Another situation is if the domain name is subject to a 60-day Change of Registrant lock. You cannot transfer a domain name to a different registrar within 60 days of making changes to the registrant name, organization or email address (or the Administrative Contact email address, if there is no registrant email address). At their discretion, some registrars may provide an option for you to opt-out of this 60-day lock period. However, this rule is in place for your protection against unauthorized transfers and the registrar does not have to offer this option. If your ultimate goal is to transfer the domain name, you may want to consider completing the transfer process before changing your contact information.
Registrars also have the option of denying a transfer request within 60 days from when you last transferred the domain name to a different registrar. You may have the option to change web-hosting providers instead of registrars to avoid the inter-registrar transfer process (and lock) altogether. You may also update your domain name’s nameservers or change the hosting IP address assigned to your domain name. Check with your registrar and/or hosting provider to see what options you have.
It is your right to transfer your domain name registration between registrars. If you wish to move your domain name from one ICANN-accredited registrar to another, you may initiate the transfer process by contacting the registrar to which you wish to transfer the name.
To transfer your domain name to another registrant, you can initiate a change of registrant by contacting your current registrar. Your registrar will then ask for your confirmation via a secure mechanism (which typically will take the form of an email to the registered name holder). You must provide your confirmation within the number of days set by your registrar (not to exceed 60 days) or your transfer will not proceed. Once your registrar receives confirmation from you, they will process the transfer and notify you and the new registrant once the transfer is completed.
An Auth-Code (also called an Authorization Code, AuthInfo Code, Auth-Info Code, or transfer code) is a code created by a registrar to help identify the domain name holder and prevent unauthorized transfers (also known as a registrant or registered name holder). An Auth-Code is required for a domain holder to transfer a domain name from one registrar to another.
Your registrar may allow you, via an online interface tool, to generate and manage your own AuthInfo code. If not, you will need to contact your registrar directly to obtain it. Your registrar must provide you with the AuthInfo code within five (5) calendar days of your request.
If you don’t know who your current registrar is, you can look it up by performing a search for your domain name at: https://lookup.icann.org/ The “Registrar” field shows you who your registrar is.
No. You have the right to transfer an expired domain. Registrars are not allowed to deny a transfer due to expiration or nonrenewal, (unless you haven’t paid for a previous registration period).
However, if the current registrar has begun to delete your domain (i.e., the EPP status code (https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/epp-status-codes-2014-06-16-en) shows the domain in Redemption Grace Period (see also https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/gtld-lifecycle-2012-02-25-en), the name must be restored by your current registrar before it can be transferred. This may result in an additional fee, sometimes referred to as a redemption fee.
If you believe your registrar is in violation of the ICANN Transfer Policy, you may file a complaint with ICANN by going to: https://forms.icann.org/en/resources/compliance/complaints/transfer/form.
Web Hosting
Yes. As a full-service digital agency, we offer hosting specifically designed for WordPress. During the quote process for a new website, we will offer suitable hosting for your particular website. Each website will have different requirements in terms of traffic, disk storage and computing resources required to deliver the functionality your website has. We provide robust, safe and fast hosting that will reliably deliver your website. You can find more about our hosting services under Services.
Yes, of course! If your website is currently hosted with another provider, chances are we can migrate it for free. Send a message to our sales team and we’ll be happy to confirm for you.
Yes. When your site is ready to go live, we can set up your website on whatever host you like. However, some budget hosting is very slow and can cause issues with Google. We recommend either reputable business-grade hosting or using our enterprise-grade managed web hosting.
We handle all migrations internally at Asporea so it’s being moved by someone with many years of WordPress development and hosting experience. We do not use third-party migration services so you can trust your site is in the hands of experts If you have any questions at all, our support team are here to help.
We can increase your site performance in nearly all cases. The reason why we migrate your site for free is so that you can compare this speed and performance with your present host. If you’re happy with the performance then you choose a plan and you’re away.
Most migrations are completed within 24 hours, however more complex sites may take a little longer. If you need a migration completed faster, you can select “Fast Migration” when completing the site migration form. Fast Migrations cost $55, and will be migrated within 8 business hours.
No, your site will stay up! We move a copy of your WordPress site to Asporea and put it on a temporary domain for you to review. When you’re ready you can repoint your domain and you’ll only have to wait for the DNS records to propagate. During the process, your website visitors may see your site on your old server or the new one but they should never experience an outage.
Absolutely, let’s get in touch and see how we can help you continuing to deliver great service to your clients on our stable, secure Asporea platform. Fill in the form to get in touch with our partner team.
Absolutely! We know moving all of your WordPress sites from one host to another can be difficult, but we have a process for smooth ‘group migrations’, so we can easily transfer your sites over to Asporea on a schedule that works for you and your clients. Even if you send over 50 or 100 sites, we’ll move them (at no extra cost to you!) Just fill out the form and we’ll do the rest.
We mean you don’t pay a cent! We’ll move your site from your current host to Asporea for nothing. We only ask you to choose a hosting plan for your site when you’re happy. The migration costs you nothing!
We can’t cancel your previous plan for you, but we’d be happy to help provide you with step-by-step instructions and provide advice.
Manual migration is a service we provide when we cannot automatically migrate your WordPress website from your existing website. We can perform a manual migration when you have an extract of your WordPress files and WordPress database available to be set up on our servers, or the servers of another hosting provider you choose.
Because this is not an automated process and requires a significant amount of effort, fees are chargeable for this service. We estimate allowing a minimum of 5 hours of effort for manual migration of your WordPress website.
Website Migration Service
We handle all migrations internally at Asporea so it’s being moved by someone with many years of WordPress development and hosting experience. We do not use third-party migration services so you can trust your site is in the hands of experts If you have any questions at all, our support team are here to help.
We can increase your site performance in nearly all cases. The reason why we migrate your site for free is so that you can compare this speed and performance with your present host. If you’re happy with the performance then you choose a plan and you’re away.
Most migrations are completed within 24 hours, however more complex sites may take a little longer. If you need a migration completed faster, you can select “Fast Migration” when completing the site migration form. Fast Migrations cost $55, and will be migrated within 8 business hours.
No, your site will stay up! We move a copy of your WordPress site to Asporea and put it on a temporary domain for you to review. When you’re ready you can repoint your domain and you’ll only have to wait for the DNS records to propagate. During the process, your website visitors may see your site on your old server or the new one but they should never experience an outage.
Absolutely, let’s get in touch and see how we can help you continuing to deliver great service to your clients on our stable, secure Asporea platform. Fill in the form to get in touch with our partner team.
Absolutely! We know moving all of your WordPress sites from one host to another can be difficult, but we have a process for smooth ‘group migrations’, so we can easily transfer your sites over to Asporea on a schedule that works for you and your clients. Even if you send over 50 or 100 sites, we’ll move them (at no extra cost to you!) Just fill out the form and we’ll do the rest.
We mean you don’t pay a cent! We’ll move your site from your current host to Asporea for nothing. We only ask you to choose a hosting plan for your site when you’re happy. The migration costs you nothing!
We can’t cancel your previous plan for you, but we’d be happy to help provide you with step-by-step instructions and provide advice.
Manual migration is a service we provide when we cannot automatically migrate your WordPress website from your existing website. We can perform a manual migration when you have an extract of your WordPress files and WordPress database available to be set up on our servers, or the servers of another hosting provider you choose.
Because this is not an automated process and requires a significant amount of effort, fees are chargeable for this service. We estimate allowing a minimum of 5 hours of effort for manual migration of your WordPress website.