Custom Design
Step-by-Step Process
Content Preparation
Information Design
Photoshop Proofs
Solid Build
Valid HTML & CSS
Built in Flux for Mac
Joomla/WP CMS
Open Source
Ready to Expand
SEO Ready Sites
Tutorials & Support
PHP Extensions
Plugins & Widgets
Avoid the pain!
Whether you're looking to start a personal blog, a website for your business or a secure corporate site,
you need a website that's stable, designed to look the way you want, do what you need
and that's easy for you or your staff to manage.
Get everything you need for less than you think: Open Source goodness and spotless custom coding.
Websites starting from 
350!
I've been designing and building websites since well before 2007, providing sites for small business, arts groups, charities and bloggers in all sorts of places...
...and with all sorts of style.
I am currently the webmaster for The Magazine - a nationally distributed children's magazine based in Toronto.
My studio is located in The Beaches neighbourhood in East Toronto.
I am also the off-site web developer for Creative7 design studio - a company providing print and graphic design services in West Toronto. If you have a print or publishing job, contact them and tell Jamie that Mike sent you!
(next up... Examples)
EXAMPLES OF PREVIOUS WORK
Testimonials
"I was really lucky to find Michael, and would certainly recommend him to others! His hard work and dedication really showed in the final product, which reflected exactly what I was looking for. His patience and understanding throughout was greatly appreciated, especially with my limited knowledge of all things technical. It is also great to know that Michael is always just around the corner should I need some further help or assistance."
Jan Scott-Charles
Latex Toronto
"Meeting Michael Cowie was a blessing for me when I decided to launch my new company, Student Athlete Planning Services. I required a sharp and progressive looking site in a relatively short timeframe that would not only generate credibility for me as the owner, but it also had to convey expertise, knowledge and professionalism beyond the 1 person shop it is. Mike was extremely responsive to my ideas but also shared terrific insight from his own experiences which I integrated into my site. He demonstrated amazing patience, recognizing my technical knowledge of web building was marginal at best. The value for money proposition was excellent and I learned a great deal along the way which will benefit me as a business owner moving forward."
Phil David
Student Athlete Planning Services
"Michael worked hard to make me a site that fit my needs; making great suggestions along the way, constantly breaking down technical jargon, and wasn't satisfied until everything was working perfectly."
Nobu Adilman
Captain Eyeliner
(next up... Prices)
PRICES
Prices do not include the cost of a domain name or hosting, but do include the time required for upload and setup of your site on any hosting package, and re-direction of any URLs. Clients will be required to give me access to hosting passwords if I am expected to upload the site. Passwords can be changed after the site is live, and I will provide instructions on how to do this.
Fee structure
for design and development of a custom template:
• 1/3 of fee due after job terms have been agreed in writing
• 1/3 of fee due after designs have been approved
• 1/3 of fee due after site uploaded to hosting
• master admin passwords provided on payment of all fees.
Fee structure
for sites built from a pre-existing template:
• 1/2 of fee due after job terms have been agreed in writing
• 1/2 of fee due after site uploaded to hosting
• master admin passwords provided on payment of all fees.
* To keep my rates low, when I'm asked to build sites that are designed to hold a LOT of content I'll create only one or two instances of repeating content (like blog articles or gallery images) as templates. I assume that my clients will want to upload any large volumes of content themselves, and that my responsibilities are limited to building the template itself, and ensuring more permanent and coding/design intensive elements are perfected. If you have hundreds of blog articles or images and captions you need uploaded, I may charge my standard rate for what might be considered data entry work.
(next up... Contact)
CONTACT
Contact me using the form below, or reach me via the online social networks I participate in.