Web Development
Before we started Dark Sky Printing, Matt ran (still runs, actually) a successful web development company called Fotan, LLC. Fotan (pronounced “photon”, like a piece of light) started somewhere around January of 2000 and still takes care of web development, hosting, security and maintenance for a number of large and small businesses, non-profits and individuals across the US and US territories.
In 2008 when the economy crashed, finding clients in the more rural area of Oregon where we lived was getting harder and harder. To keep the kids and dogs fed Matt took a full-time gig with a college in Eugene, Oregon as a web developer. For 12 years he did development, project management and business systems analysis for the college. In 2019, we moved to the Virgin Islands because, who hasn’t dreamed of living on a tropical island?
After several years on the island, we decided to head back stateside, so Matt took a job with a federal contractor and, since the end of 2022, has been managing and developing websites for the US Air Force and US Space Force. Fun to be able to work on such large scale projects from such a small scale place like Borrego.
Anyway, looking around Borrego as a web developer there are a lot of issues. Facebook is considered the “website” for many local businesses. That’s fine, as long as you’re ok with someone else (Facebook) owning all your content and controlling what you’re allowed to say. Facebook is a good way to connect with locals as it’s the default way of getting information here. However, it’s also very limiting.
Wix is the other option used by many. While Wix is a decent way to go if you need something simple, like a landing page with contact information and a menu, it’s a templated drag-and-drop website builder that is really more concerned with making things dead simple then making a website that lets you stand out. Plus, do you really need one more thing to have to deal with?
F.A.Q.
How much does a website cost? Isn't it expensive?
The first question I usually get. I’ll answer it as clearly as I can.
It depends.
In our normal business, if you don’t have a minimum of $3000 to spend on design and development, we’re probably not the developer for you.
However
We are really more interested in being a good neighbor to our fellow Borregans, so we are happy to do whatever we can that fits your needs and budget.
What about updates and maintenance?
We can also help with this. If we build your website, updates and maintenance are simple. If you need help with a website we didn’t have a hand in building, we can still probably help. It’s just not as easy for us.
What is hosting?
For a website to be viewable by people out in the world, it has to be hosted on a special kind of computer called a web server. There are hundreds of hosts out there. Some good, some bad (I’m looking at you, GoDaddy. You’re the worst!).
Fotan has our own servers that we manage. They are fast, secure and private. Best of all, we take care of all the security and software updates for our hosting clients.
We can also help you get your own domain name (like darkskyprinting.com) and set up professional email using that domain. Lets face it, communicating with someone via email at an address that looks like “[email protected]” is not putting your best foot forward.
Give us a call
Like we said above, we’re your neighbors. We want nothing but the best for Borrego, so we are happy to help out wherever we can.