Q. Do all portfolios come with the shopping cart, proofing, and mini client sites?
A. All premium services come with a shopping cart and proofing. Generation I templates come with mini client sites and generation II templates come with a newer cart, more customization ability, and ability to set songs for each client in the proofing galleries to give them a unique experience.

Q. What exactly is the difference between the premium service and standard?
A. The premium service comes with more hosting and bandwidth. It also is the only way to get the proofing, shopping cart, video galleries, and mini client sites (G1 templates).

Q. If I go with the service how often can I switch templates?
A. You can switch templates as often as you would like. There is a one-time $20 setup fee each time you switch to cover setup costs, however your monthly/yearly cost will not increase even if new features are added to the portfolios.

Q. Do you have plans to release more portfolios?
A. Yes! So much to do, so little time ;-) We have big plans to release many new portfolios on a regular basis. We have some ideas for new site features to release as well.

Q. Does your service come with hosting?
A. Yes! Our monthly/yearly service does come with hosting as well as the site. Hosting is not included with the individual template purchase.

Q. Why don't you offer unlimited hosting?
A. The answer is simple, we don’t agree with this practice. It’s not that we don’t want to offer you everything we can, it’s just that we do not want to use gimmicks to get you to sign up. You can’t actually have unlimited space and bandwidth because servers have harddrives which have limited space, and companies have bandwidth limits. Companies that do this limit ’server resources’ (if they try to keep their servers running at optimium levels) which causes your site to be suspended temporarily at times for ‘CPU usage exceeded’ or have a lot of downtime due to overloading their servers. We don’t agree with this practice because it gives the illusion that you are getting a better product and more when in reality these servers are more overloaded and oversold then those with limits.

We want you to know that what you get with us is what you have to use or keep open. We do not oversell our servers which is why our servers run at optimum levels all the time. Even though our servers have a lot of extra space since the majority of clients never come close to using their 2Gigs we keep them clear so that clients can feel comfortable knowing that there is a limit on how loaded the server they occupy will be.  This helps us maintain excellent uptime statistics and server speeds. Our servers are also housed in state of the art datacenters with some of the fastest connections in the country.

Q. Where are your servers located?
A. Our dedicated servers our housed in multiple datacenters. Our newest servers which we are currently setting up sites on are housed in a datacenter in Chicago. Some stats on that datacenter:
SAS 70 Certified Datacenter
3 3000 Amp, 480 Volt, 3 phase power feeds from multiple sub-stations
3 2 MegaWatt (MW) Electrical Generators
4 500 KVA UPS systems
4 300 Ton Chillers
Automatic logic monitoring of all critical equipment
24x7 Security Staffing and CCTV Surveillance
Biometric Scanners for Datacenter Access
Mantraps and Optical Turnstiles at entrance

Q. What kind of servers do you use?
A. Our servers are Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 with a Raid-1 system, backup drive, and 4 gigs of ram. We do not oversell our servers so the space that comes with your service is yours to use or keep free. This is very important because it allows the servers to run at optimum levels since there is little strain on the resources. Our servers have a 99.9% uptime average.
We run nightly backups in case of hard drive failures. We also recommend backing up the site to your own computer in case you need to restore.  Most commonly this is needed when clients accidently delete or overwrite important site files when third party software is added. We can always restore your site to a 'new template' state, however to recover files that were uploaded would require the client back them up.

Q. Does your hosting offer ftp access and allow third party software/sites to be uploaded to it?
A. Yes! You have full ftp access through your CPanel, as well as the ability to create FTP users.

Q. Does your server work with third party carts such as The Photo Cart?
A. Yes!

Q. What comes with the hosting?
A. Our hosting gives you a full Cpanel system that will allow you to add ftp accounts, email accounts, check stats, create mysql databases, etc.

Q.After ordering, when can I expect my site?
A. We ask for 2-3 business days to setup your site, but we usually have it to you much faster then that. If you order a rush service, before 3PM MST, then you will receive it the same day M-F, excluding holidays. 

Q. Is there any penalty for cancelling the service? Do I have to remain a client for XX amount of time?
A. There is not a fee. You can cancel your service at anytime and we will suspend your site at the end of your billing cycle, if you are paying monthly. Yearly subscriptions will be refunded for the unused term at the rate they would have paid if they had signed up for a monthly subscription. The setup fee is non refundable as it covers the time it takes to install and setup the site.

Q. The pricing confuses me, do I pay $200 and then the monthly fee as well?
A. No. The $200 is if you are purchasing the template outright to host on a third party server. If you order our service there is just the $20 setup fee and the monthly or yearly fee.

Q. If I purchase a template to host on my own server does it come with all the features, such as the admin, cart, proofing, etc? What about support?
A. You will receive all the features the template has to offer. The only difference is that hosting would not be included and you can not switch templates. We do offer support but it will be more limited because we do not have control over the server or server environment.

Q. What happens if we are using your service and you end your business for any reason?
A. In the case we must close our doors (which we don't see happening anytime soon) you will be given your site to take to any third party server.

Q. Do you offer phone support?
A.  At this time we do not offer general phone support. A phone number is provided to our customers upon request, however all other support issues should go through our ticketing system. Tickets allow us to save you time. Any computer based issues tend to take time to re-create and figure out. If we were on the phone you would need to be on hold an awful lot so we could figure out the issue and fix it Through the ticketing system you can rest assured we will work on it immediately and respond to you in a timely matter so you do not need to wait for someone to figure it out while you sit on the phone. We also offer a knowledge base that we update regularly to help make the process as smooth as possible.

Q. Will my rates go up if I sign up for a monthly/yearly plan?
A. NO! One thing we are proud of is our company model. When Jamie and I sat down to discuss starting a business we listed what we considered important. What came out of the discussion was the fact that neither of us like where the industry is going and we vowed to start a company that put their customers first. This meant good customer service and a business model that valued our long time customers. In doing so we decided that once you are a customer your prices will not increase, even if ours do, as long as you are a customer. This means that whatever price bracket you signed on with (monthly/yearly) will be what you pay even if our prices go up for new customers to cover costs. You also will always have the option to upgrade/switch templates for $20 even if our upgrade/switch fee increases or the template you are upgrading to has more features.

Q. Do you accept any form of payment other then Paypal?
A. We can take a credit card directly, but we need to process it manually so please email billing@portfoliositez.com if you'd like to pay directly through credit card without Paypal.

Q. Do you have to be a photographer to purchase a site?
A. No! Our sites work for more then just photographers, some other professionals/companies who the sites work well for are: 

• wedding vendors
• florists
• cake artists / bakers
• nature photographers
• single clubs / church groups 
• dentists
• independent films
• personal / family sites
• boutiques
• engineers
• architects
• contractors

Q. What are your server requirements if we purchase the site as an individual template?
The server must be a NON-WINDOWS server that meets the following requirements:

Q. How can you offer so much for so little?
A. We are just THAT good

Q. How long have you been around?
A. Portfoliositez.com was started in Oct. of 2007 by Jamie and Jen. Jamie graduated with a Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in Photography, and Jen had been programming website templates for photographers since 2004. We felt that there wasn't an easy cost effective way to get a website when you are just starting out which led us to the 'leasing' idea. We came up with a business model where clients could lease a template for a low fee and switch templates when ever they would like, as often as they would like, for a small setup fee. We also wanted to prove that a company can exist and grow without having to be cut throat, shady, and/or skimp on customer service.

Q. Where are you located?
A. We are a Colorado company, but 2 members of our team work from California and the others work from Colorado.

Q. Do you outsource your support, programming, or anything for that matter?
A. No! We are proud to say that we handle every aspect of our business ourselves from the designs and programming to the customer support and billing.