Celebrants in Australia

Celebrant Web Hosting Terms and Conditions

admin — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 01:13:16 +0000

These are the terms under which Elysian Systems will supply and host a website to you.

Your agreement to these terms is implied in making payment for the web hosting.

These terms refer to Elysian Systems, which operates the All Celebrants web directory as ‘Elysian’ and refers to you as ‘you’ or ‘the client’.

You will pay invoices by the due date. Where an invoice is not paid the service associated with that invoice will not be available.
The hosting is provided for the presentation of a website only. No extra file space for non-related file storage is provided.
Where your website involves you supplying images or other content to Elysian, or you upload images or other content to the website yourself, you represent and unconditionally guarantee that the images or content are owned by the client or that the client has permission from the rightful owner to use each of these elements, and will hold harmless, protect, and defend Elysian and its subcontractors from any claim or suit arising from the use of such elements furnished by the client.
Copyright to the all work produced by Elysian is owned by Elysian. Upon payment of all invoices, the client is assigned rights to use as a website the design, graphics and text contained in the finished assembled website. Rights to photos, graphics, source code, workup files and computer programs are specifically not transferred to the client, and remain the property of their respective owners.
The client agrees that Elysian will not be responsible for the expiration of domain names due to non-payment of fees by the client.
Elysian does not warrant that the functions contained in the webpages or the Internet website will meet the client’s requirements or that the operation of the web pages will be uninterrupted or error-free. The entire risk as to the quality and the performance of the web pages and website is with the client. In no event will Elysian be liable to the client or any third party for any damages, including any lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages arising out of the operation of or inability to operate the web pages or website, even if Elysian has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
These terms will change from time to time. The agreement is subject to the current terms.
If any provision of this agreement shall be unlawful, void or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
Nothing contained in this agreement shall constitute the relationship of partnership or employer and employee between Elysian and the client.
This Agreement shall be construed and take effect in accordance with the laws of the State of Queensland

Celebrant Web Hosting

admin — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 00:55:53 +0000

Have you arranged a website to help you find clients?

If you’ve looked into it, you’ll know it’s a complicated task!

That’s why I have developed the My First Celebrant Website project.

I want to help celebrants get on the net where it is easier to find clients!

For just $187 you get a complete website and domain name that only needs words from you, and its ready to go!

Interested? You can see the different looks we have available by clicking here! (Then use the dropdown in the sidebar to see the different themes available)

For more information, read the FAQ

or you can Order Your First Celebrant Website now!

FAQ – My First Celebrant Website: Celebrant Hosting

admin — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 23:07:56 +0000

The My First Celebrant Website program is intended to help new celebrants, and celebrants new to the internet, get a website that presents their celebrancy business in an affordable and easy way, without compromising on quality.

The concept is that a celebrant is well capable of writing the content that needs to appear on their website, but they need support to manage the website itself – we provide that support, and documentation shows the celebrant what needs to go on the pages of their website.

What is included in the website?

The celebrant gets:

A domain name, individually designed to suit their needs
12 months web hosting on a quality web host
Managed hosting – all upgrades needed are provided
The ability to manage their own web content – a modern and usable CMS (content management system) is provided to let the celebrant make updates themselves, without having to pay someone for every little change of ‘an’ to ‘a’
Email addresses you can send from
Full documentation on how to use the site
Full support; there is a real person behind the site who is available (for fee) if you need support

What sort of domain name is included?

A list of appropriate domain names is compiled individually for the celebrant and is provided to choose from.

If you are eligible for a .au domain name, then this will be suggested.

Who will own the domain name for my celebrant website?

You do.

You are listed as the owner of record for the domain name.

We are listed as the Technical and Billing contact, allowing us to make needed changes to the hosting, and pay the domain name renewal.

I already have a domain name – can I use it?

Yes, you can use an existing domain name, provided you are willing to dedicate the whole domain name to celebrancy. You can either turn management of the domain over to us (you retain ownership) or take a reduced price package to manage it yourself.

Caveat: We are unable to run our standard package as a subdomain or folder. This means that if you are already running eg, jackiestherapies.com.au, and want to promote your celebrancy from jackiestherapies.com.au/celebrant/ – sorry, we can’t help you.

However, we are happy to provide a second domain name as part of the My First Celebrant Website package. It’s a better solution from a marketing point of view anyway!

What sort of hosting do I get?

All Celebrants is run by Elysian Systems; we are a web marketing company and run websites as our main business. This means we always have our finger on the pulse of web hosting and know which companies are currently providing high quality web hosting.

We are offering what is called ‘managed hosting’ – we don’t run the servers ourselves, instead, we ensure your site is only provided by top quality providers.

We will run your website right beside our own, and if we are no longer happy with the performance of a supplier, we move our sites, along with yours, to another supplier with superior performance.

Its really the same as any other service; you may take your car to one mechanic, but over time just not feel they are looking after it properly and look for a new one. As an analogy, we are servicing a fleet of ‘cars’ and really know which ‘mechanics’ are good because we spend so much time there, so we will only ‘take your car’ to a good one.

When the time comes to move your website, there is no additional cost; we will schedule the move, let you know its going to happen (if humanly possible) and move the site, with an eye to minimizing downtime.

What does ‘Managed Hosting’ mean?

Its not hard to buy hosting – we could recommend several suppliers who will host a website for you, and they often provide software that will let you install a CMS that will help you control your website.

But… this leaves you with software to configure, and upgrades to manage, as well as worrying about uptime when you might not visit your site even weekly yourself, once it is all running nicely!

Our service is to manage this for you, so you don’t have to worry about it.

We will install a template of a site that you can fill out.

We will perform your software upgrades when our monitoring shows they are desirable.

We will put your site on a top quality hosting service.

We will make sure any changes that affect your uptime happen with maximum notice to you.

Should there be a problem on the server (it does happen from time to time) then its our job to liaise with the host, understanding your problem, while understanding what the host is talking about with their technical jargon.

You will get a website that you don’t have to worry about, with a single annual invoice.

What if I want to have someone else make changes to my website?

You are entitled to full access to your website, and hosting (its turned off by default, because most people don’t want to touch the backend!).

If you wish to make changes yourself, or have another professional work on it, that is absolutely fine. But do bear in mind that if you need us to ‘fix’ a problem, there is an hourly charge.

What if I want to leave your hosting?

You own the domain name and the content is obviously under your copyright – please feel free to move on at any time, although we’ll be sorry to see you go. Please let us know if there is a problem, so we can fix it, or consult with us to see if we can provide what you are considering going elsewhere for!

The hosting component of your service is refundable on a pro-rata basis, calculated from the number of whole months left, less a processing fee.

What are the technical details of hosting?

Your website will be run on an Apache webserver, using Cpanel. The My First Celebrant Website scheme currently uses a customized WordPress install to manage the website.

How much is the processing fee to get a prorata refund?

The processing fee is currently $10 but is subject to change.

Is there a cooling off period?

Yes. If you aren’t happy with the website, there is a 30 day refund period.

As the domain name is your property, and would remain active for your use elsewhere, it is not subject to refund.

If you aren’t happy with the website, please let us know before then, so we can address any issues! We want happy customers, not people getting refunds!

Will a website bring me new clients from the first day?

Possible, but unlikely – that’s not the way the internet works.

A website must be supported by a marketing plan to bring people to your website.

We try to help you with this by providing some information on how to get people to visit your website, but its important that you be aware that ‘a website’ is not a magic cure-all. Rather, it is a way to provide people with information about your services, rather than a way to find them in the first place.

There will be more work required to bring those visitors to the website.

What will the site look like?

Click here to view the different themes included in the hosting fee.

You can use the dropdown in the sidebar to change the theme shown, to see all the different themes available.

I’ve looked at the available themes, and I really want something different – do you offer that?

Yes.

We can point you to repositories of free WordPress themes for you to browse through.

When you choose one, let us know. There are 2 ways to proceed:

If you are happy for us to add that theme to the list of available themes in the My First Celebrant Website catalogue, then there is no charge for converting it for use on your website and we will add it to the catalogue other celebrants choose from, right on our site.
If you would prefer us not to add it to our catalogue, so it is less likely to be used by other Australian celebrant websites ,then there is a $110 fee (incl. GST) for converting the theme for use under the My First Celebrant Website.
Bear in mind that other people will use free themes elsewhere on the internet.

Can I get a unique look and feel?

Yes.

While we recommend that people start with the free themes while they are learning what they can do with their website, there is no reason you can’t spend the extra money to start with something fancier if that’s what you want.

We are happy to manage a designer to give you a unique look and feel – this will add some hundreds of dollars to the cost.

I am a bit of a graphic designer – can you work from my layout?

Yes.

The charge for converting a PSD to a CMS theme is particular to the design as the difficulty varies with the layout you are looking for.

What sort of statistics package do I get?

We provide Google Analytics’ free service as a default.

If you would prefer hosted stats, we can install Piwik Analytics.

(If this means nothing to you, don’t worry!)

I’ve had my ‘My First Celebrant Website’ for a while now, and want to upgrade it. Do I have to leave you?

Absolutely not!

We have provided you with a very powerful package to manage your website; there is no reason to leave it just because you want to do more.

If you want to hire your own designer to work with you to upgrade your site, please contact us so we can provide the specs they should have to continue working with your control panel seamlessly.
If you would like us to provide a new design for you, please contact us to discuss what you want in the look and feel – we are happy to manage a third party to give you a beautiful new look to your web site.

How much is a My First Celebrant Website?

The service is currently $187.00 per annum, including GST.

For that you get:

A domain name, individually designed to suit your needs
12 months web hosting on a quality web host
Managed hosting – all upgrades needed are provided
The ability to manage your own content – a modern and usable CMS (content management system) is provided to let you make updates yourself, without having to pay someone for every little change of ‘an’ to ‘a’
Email addresses you can send from
Complete documentation on how to use the site
Full support; there is a real person behind the site who is available (for fee) if you need more support

What if I need some help? Is there support?

We offer a different model of support, because we know everyone has at least a few questions when they first confront the internet.

The account comes without any free support.

However!

We’ve found it is tedious and a huge overhead, to invoice for every jot and tittle, so we keep track of your requests and don’t invoice you until you’ve accumulated an hours worth of support. At the end of the year, (when the new years hosting invoice is done) if you have less than an hour in your account, then we just ‘wipe the slate’ and reset it to zero.

This means you can ‘spend’ 30 minutes of our time and not be charged anything beyond your original hosting fee;

So you can ask a lot of ’5 minute questions’ without any further cost!

We invoice in one hour increments, so you’re never going to get a $1000 dollar invoice with the new year, although its possible a very high maintenance client could get multiple ‘one hour invoice’ through the year.

I’ve thought of a special custom thing I’d like on my website. Can you build it for me?

Yes.

Let us know what you are thinking of – we may well say ‘that comes built in’ and set it up for you as part of your support, for no extra charge.

Alternatively, we will give you a quote for how much it will cost for us to provide it. Our quotes are fixed, for the specified time period, provided you don’t change your mind on what you want.

How much do you charge for support?

If you manage to require enough support that we write an invoice (and that’s very rare – the documentation is very complete) then we charge at the rate of $110 per hour.

Who is providing this scheme?

My First Celebrant Website is run by Elysian Systems, a web marketing company based in Brisbane, Australia.

Elysian Systems also runs the All Celebrants web directory, which helps so many couples find a celebrant.

Elysian Systems is owner operated by Lea de Groot (Hi there! Its just me here!)

So you know who you will be dealing with – an Australian company run by another small business person.

What will I have to do on the website?

We provide complete documentation that will walk you through how to get your already working website promoting your celebrancy business.

We will set up the domain name and the website, install the selected theme and create the pages.

You will have to write the words (and perhaps supply images) that describe what you offer to clients.

(Oh, and pay your invoice on time!)

What will I see on my new website when it is first installed?

You will find you have the following pages available to you when your site is first installed:

Home page
A page for each ceremony type you offer, eg weddings, funerals, commitment ceremonies
Contact Me page
Links page (useful resources to help your clients manage their wedding; we have a suggested list to start with)
Testimonials
Gallery (optionally)
Blog (optionally)

You can also add more pages.

The website will be set up with these pages for the theme you have chosen, and the above pages will be blank, waiting for you to create meaningful words for your clients to read and be impressed by.

How does the buying process work?

Go to http://www.allcelebrants.com.au/hosting.html and fill out the form, telling us details about yourself such as your name and how we should contact you.

You can make payment with your credit card via our trusted payment processor Paypal, or you can pay by direct deposit from your internet banking website.

We’ll get back to you, normally on the same business day, with our recommendations on the domain name to be used. Give us your choice and we’ll get your site up within another 1 business day and then you are good to go (what are called ‘propagation delays’ on the internet can mean it is up to 48 hours before your new site is visible, but it rarely takes that long).

A My First Celebrant Website will put you on the web quickly and easily – and at a very reasonable cost. What are you waiting for?

Now that you know everything there is to know about the My First Celebrant Website scheme – proceed to the Order Page and get your first celebrant website!

New Report: How To Increase Traffic to your Celebrant Website

Lea — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 05:00:13 +0000

We’ve just released a new report:

How To Increase Traffic to your Celebrant Website

When you buy this report, you will learn:

how to get more visitors to your website
why links to your website are important
how social media can help you find clients – and what pitfalls to avoid!
and much more!

How Much?

Only $38.50!

This 41-page report is chock-a-block full of great information that will help you put your website in front of brides, grooms and other celebrant-seeking people – nowhere else will you find such a low price to add such value to your website!

All Celebrants is registered for the GST – ABN 86 078 892 181

Celebrants open for business on Valentine’s Day!

admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:36:43 +0000

“No vows today, the registrar’s clocked off” cackled the Brisbane Times this morning – apparently the story is that you couldn’t get married on Valentine’s Day in Brisbane this year, because the registry office was closed (it being Sunday, after all) while other state’s registry office was open, so you could get married down there.
The ignorance of some journalists is appalling – apparently they can write articles about getting married without any knowledge of the over 2,300 celebrants working across the state.
Sure, its probable that not all of those celebrants would take a booking on a Sunday, but to imply that you couldn’t get married in Brisbane today is just *wrong* – celebrants are busy working across the country. There are far more ways to get married than to head down to the city registry office!
Book a Authorised Marriage Celebrant for your wedding – you can married:

in a garden
on an island
on the beach
jumping out of a plane
in a hot air balloon

I’m sure you could even find a celebrant who would perform a marriage underwater if you looked hard enough!
The registry office being closed is not a reason not to plan your wedding for Valentine’s Day!

Is that your birth certificate?

admin — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:08:42 +0000

The newspaper today reported a story of a young lady who had problems when she went to marry – as there was already a current marriage on record for her.

Apparently a copy of her birth certificate had been stolen many years earlier and used as a false document for a wedding.
News every celebrant should be aware of when taking someone’s documents!

More Weekday Weddings

Ellen — Sun, 31 May 2009 10:10:24 +0000

A recent news story told us how fewer marriages are happening on Saturdays these days. Saturday has been the traditional day to get married for many years, and it made a great deal of sense – people aren’t at work and there is the whole day to prepare, and, for the bride and groom, it doesn’t ‘waste’ a day of annual leave which could be spent in much more fun ways during the honeymoon.

However, these days Saturday surcharges can add a significant amount to the cost of a Saturday event, so avoiding that day can save money. It can also mean the availability of a venue is more likely, as Saturdays can be booked out for a long time!

As fewer people feel a need to spend their Sunday at church, and more services, such as hairdressers and florists, are open on Sundays, the ‘day of rest’ as a wedding day has become more practical over time.

Some people are also running weekday evening weddings – again this can mean a favoured venue is actually available, and for less money.

Overall, not restricting your choice of wedding date to a Saturday offers more flexibility and options to the Day of your Dreams.

What do you think? What day did you have your wedding, and why?