There were a few build-it-yourself platforms available at the time, which I promptly tried. These platforms were very clunky to use and very slow. They had limited tools and some did not work. They were free, ad driven platforms that got bogged down very easily. The Internet was also much slower than it is today. I found the whole experience very frustrating and really not usable. When I did finally come up with something that I semi liked, I found it only worked in 1 browser and had many display issues once viewed live. I spent weeks of time and effort trying to get a simple 1 page website live. It made me roar!
I finally hired someone who knew html to create the website.
I know I am a smart person. If I could not get this to work – I knew there were many equally smart people out there that were having the same frustrations. After that horrible experience, I purchased books and taught myself how to code in html and css.
I opened Premium Websites in May of 2006.
I had taken the time to learn html and css and I now had the knowledge to create websites for other people. I also knew there was a whole market of people that needed websites and were not going to take the time and effort to learn what I now know. I wanted to help all the business owners out there that get frustrated with the technology available for creating websites. The technology today is so much better than it was back then. Although it is now easier to use a build-it-yourself platform, there are people who do not want to go that way. Some of the reasons are:
- They do not want to take the time, their time is better spent with what they do well
- They feel they are not creative
- When something does not work the way it should they do not want to figure out how to fix it
- They have no interest
Premium Websites is here when you are ready to get a professional website created.
Vision of Premium Websites, LLC
We have seen many website design companies come and go over the years. We have learned from many of them what works and what does not.
We are here to stay!
Premium Websites has evolved as a company. When we started the only service we offered was creating functional websites by hard coding in html.
Both technology and our vision have changed over time. As publishing platforms became more user friendly and mainstream, we realized that business owners should have a way to make edits and updates to their own websites without having to hire a coding expert to get it done. Putting myself in your shoes – why should I need to hire someone to add team members, switch images, or edit text. These simple things should be easy enough for anyone to do – if they choose to.
About 5 years later platforms like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal became useful for creating websites to give a business owner a login for making minor edits themselves. We went through a transformational phase where we gave the client a choice – and quickly realized that the client does not always know what they will want 6 months down the road. After having a few clients say, “I will never want to blog – you can just use the html version.” Then 6 months after their new website went live they said, “I changed my mind and I would like to blog, go ahead and add that to my website”. That would have been easy to do if we had created the website in WordPress, but now that it was an html website it means converting the whole site to WordPress then adding in the blog function. We transformed the company to just using a publishing platform no matter what the client originally said – that way the website can easily grow with the business.
The vision of Premium Websites is to provide the most forward thinking website for every customer.
We create websites that can grow with your business and evolve as your business evolves.
We are different…
After hearing many clients say things like:
“I did not know that”
“I wish I had called you first”
“I can’t believe you answered the phone”
or any other phrase that seemed like it was an easy thing or obvious – we realized we are different in the field.
We take the time to explain all the options to a client. We explain everything in terms that everyone can understand. We are thinking of your businesses success Online before and during all website projects. We will tell you if there is a better way, or if something won’t work and why. We listen to your needs and wants and design a website that will work for your business.
I can’t tell you how many times I have spoken with a business owner that tells me:
“I was working with another website designer and now I can’t find them – they do not answer phone calls, return messages, or reply to emails.” Or – “I let my website designer purchase my hosting and domain for me and I paid them. Now we have had a disagreement and they are holding my website hostage.” Or – “My website designer will not give me full access to my website so I cannot add pages, add a gallery, or add a form – I have to go back to them for every little thing – and they take weeks to get the changes done. I want to start a promotion tomorrow and asked them weeks ago to get it added to my website and it has not happened.” Because I hear this kind of stuff all the time – I know we are a very different company.
- You must purchase your own hosting and domain. That way the account is in your name and you have full access.
- We try to answer the phone every time – if we can’t we will return your call.
- If you are unhappy with us we will try to fix the problem. If you want to use another website designer you have 100% control over everything and can make a change at any time.
- You can add, delete, or change your website at any time. We will never hold your Online assets (website, hosting, domains, social media) hostage. They are in your name at all times. You can grant or deny access to anyone at any given time.
These are our values and how I would expect to be treated when I hire a professional.
We treat our clients like we expect to be treated!
About Dotty – Premium Websites Owner
Dotty is an award winning website designer. Premium Websites, LLC was awarded ( 2011 – 2020) the “Top 25 Web Hosting & Design Companies” by the Vancouver Business Journal. The Best of Vancouver award was presented to Premium Websites, LLC in the category of Website Design and Development in November 2011. Best of Clark County was awarded in 2017. In 2020 Premium Websites was awarded Business Hall of Fame for earning The Best Website Design and Development award 9 years in a row.
Dotty has over 300 website clients and maintains well over a 90% retention rate. Her customers love the work she produces and appreciates her ability to help them with online marketing.
Dotty is a sought-after speaker regionally. Small business owners especially benefit from her Social Media and Blogging presentations. They gain valuable knowledge of otherwise complex or confusing technical strategies in just a short time, because she makes the information easy to understand. Dotty is well educated but does not speak in “Techie” terms… she makes complicated topics understandable for everyone.
As a past Membership Coordinator for I Take The Lead organization, she has helped local business owners promote their products and services through networking opportunities and education.
Dotty is also a member of the Fort Vancouver Lions and contributes over 75 hours of volunteer time each year for the benefit of her community.
Website Design Awards, Business Awards, Civic Awards
Community Focused
Premium Websites, LLC is very involved in the local community. We support Lions, Leos, the Miss Clark County scholarship organization, various business networking groups, and many other local non-profit organizations. For the Miss Clark County Scholarship Contest we purchased an ad in the program to support one of the contestants, and volunteered the day of the pageant. 
Our support has been focused on the Youth of the community. We believe that a positive impact on a child can pay it forward ten fold. Helping a child to be more community oriented can help future generations. With this in mind we helped to start a local LEO club in the Vancouver area. LEO’s are an international service organization for teens. It is part of Lions International, and there are LEO clubs world wide. We serve teens in the entire Vancouver area, and the teens are learning both leadership skills and the value of giving to our community through service.
Why support youth?
When asked why we support local youth I recall one specific fundraiser we did within the LEO club. We were having a pancake feed at Applebee’s to support youth in the community. The fundraiser profits came from the tickets we sold, and the day of the pancake feed we had LEO members and some of their friends staff the event. We planned to give any tips earned to the kids that helped make the event successful. The kids decided to give the money back to the fundraiser. I asked one specific teen why he helped (he was not part of the LEO group) and his response I will remember forever.
“No one has EVER asked me to help with anything.
It feels so nice to be wanted and needed, I have never felt this way before now.”
This is why we choose to help the youth of our community.