Services
Hi and welcome! I’m Jonathan Dowse, and Purslane Studio is my web development practice. I focus mostly on small-scale websites for clients in and around my home base of Weston, Massachusetts. Here are the various services I offer.
Initial web development
This can be as little as small updates to an existing website, all the way up to building a complete new site. The following steps are often included:
- Installing and configuring the site’s underlying software
- Setting up the structure of the site, e.g. pages, navigation menus, and content listings
- Adding initial content to the site
- Laying out and styling the elements of the site
- Adding other features such as contact forms, analytics, etc.
- Setting up the site’s hosting and domain name
- Setting up associated email accounts
Post-launch updates and maintenance
After the initial site launch, I’m happy to stick around. I can help with additional tasks that often come up during a website’s normal course of operation, such as:
- Adding new features
- Making content updates, or assisting you with them
- Adjusting the look and feel of the site
- Troubleshooting any issues that might emerge from automatic software updates, content changes, etc.
Training and documentation
I will train you on whatever website upkeep tasks you want to take on yourself after site launch. This most commonly includes content updates such as adding new pages and editing text. I also discuss how to make new content fully accessible, e.g. by giving images appropriate alternative text and creating readable links. Most frequently the training takes place via Zoom meetings, but it can happen in person if you’re in my local area.
In addition, I can assemble the instructions for these same tasks in private online documentation that I share with you, e.g. a Google doc. This provides an ongoing reference that can be added to and revised over time as needed.
Hosting
For small sites, I offer reseller hosting as an option. This means that I have an account with the hosting service Kualo that acts as an umbrella under which I in turn host client sites, for a competitive annual fee. Compared to external hosting, this saves setup time for me, and it allows me easy ongoing access to the client’s hosting account for any troubleshooting or modifications needed down the road.
However, if you prefer separate hosting, that is absolutely fine by me, and for sites with larger bandwidth requirements, it’s probably the preferable option.
Domains
Clients usually purchase domain names themselves, and I point the domains to their website’s hosting. However, if you simply don’t want to deal with domain ownership, I can purchase the domain and pass along the initial cost and renewal fees to you.
Printed material
Outside of web development, I also produce small print projects for clients — reports, posters, etc. — bringing the same layout and typography skills to the table as I do in my web projects.
Process
Here’s how a website project on the larger side — a full new site or an extensive rebuild — often proceeds. A smaller project might include some subset of these steps.
- You get in touch and we discuss your project’s requirements. I provide a cost estimate for the setup and launch of the site.
- I create a staging site — a mirror of the eventual public site, but housed within my own website, so that it’s not seen by the general public. I start setting up the staging site’s structure, content, appearance, etc.
- I frequently share the staging site with you for review as I’m building it and iterate based on your feedback.
- Once the staging site is ready to share publicly, I set up the public site’s domain and hosting (if necessary) and migrate the staging site’s contents to the public site. The public site is launched!
- I test out any features that have to wait until after public launch for proper testing, such as contact forms.
- We hold training sessions on editing and maintaining the site as needed, and I provide corresponding written documentation.
- Optionally, on an ongoing basis, I maintain the site, make edits if desired, and take care of any other upkeep needed.
Billing
I usually charge an hourly rate for all work. My rate for typical nonprofit and small business clients is very reasonable.
However, if you prefer, I can set a fixed price for setting up and launching your site, based on a scope agreed to ahead of time. Any scope items added after the initial agreement will result in additional charges.
Ongoing work on a site after initial launch is always charged hourly.
For invoicing, I typically bill monthly. If the project up through launch (or completion otherwise) doesn’t last much longer than a month, I’ll probably just bill once at the end of the project.
If you avail yourself of my reseller hosting and/or having me own your site’s domain name(s), I bill annually for these services.
Details
A few more useful things to note.
Software
For a new website or one to be rebuilt fully, I generally use free and open-source content-management systems (CMS) as the platform for the site, mainly WordPress or Drupal. Both of these offer an amazing amount of power and flexibility, and both are robust software supported by large communities of contributors.
WordPress is one of the most commonly used web platforms; it’s an obvious default for small sites and has a huge ecosystem of plugins.
Drupal has more built-in structural flexibility: for instance, you can create any kind of custom content types you want and display them in any way you can think of. I would love to build more Drupal sites!
For very simple, static websites, hand-coding may make sense. This site is an example. But for most sites it’s generally more sensible to go with a CMS right off the bat, for various reasons: ease of editing, consistency across pages, and many other factors that crop up as soon as a website grows beyond a simple text document.
Design, and a note on marketing
I consider myself strong in aspects of design such as typography, color, layout and spacing — in general, making content clear and accessible while matching the tone you want to convey. If you have a vision for how you want your website to look and feel, I can implement and help refine that vision.
However, I don’t have a background in marketing. If your requirements include developing a marketing strategy, brand identity, etc., then the best approach is for me to collaborate on your project with colleagues who specialize in marketing and graphics.
About Purslane Studio
Work to date
Since 2018, I’ve created and updated websites for a variety of clients, including local nonprofits, architecture firms, filmmakers, artisans, and various other small businesses. These projects have ranged from small content updates all the way up to setting up full websites from scratch. You can see a number of featured examples on the portfolio page. In 2025 I branded my practice as Purslane Studio.
Background
Web development has been a hobby of mine since 2005 or so. It coexists with and helps to showcase a wide range of other interests, as can be seen on my longstanding personal website. Before I decided to pursue web development as a career, I spent about a decade in architecture. Other enthusiasms of mine include visual art, type design, linguistics, music, running, travel and geography, and the natural world.
Why purslane? What is purslane?
The purslane genus Portulaca is a large group of low-growing succulent plants. Common purslane, Portulaca oleracea, grows all over the world, including here in Massachusetts. The whole plant is edible. Accompanying are some photos of common purslane at Land’s Sake Farm in Weston.
Part of my love of this species is simply its friendly round-leafed form. But another nice thing about common purslane is that it can support the growth of other plants around it, and that seems like an appropriate metaphor for my website work: supporting my clients by creating accessible, easy-to-use, attractive websites for them. (The specific way that common purslane supports other plants’ growth is by absorbing salt from the soil, so admittedly I’m not sure the metaphor holds up if you think about it at that level of detail...)
Contact
If you have a web or print project you’d like to discuss, please send me an email to tell me about it. I look forward to hearing from you!