Terms & Condition
Definition of our terminology as used within this document:
1. A ‘Project’ is website design, content or logo work undertaken or service provided by Creative Thumb for the client on their request and as described in our confirmation order email to that Client.
2. A ‘Service’ is SEO, PPC, SMM, web care or any other ongoing recurring work we undertake.
3. A ‘Confirmation order email’ is an email we will send you detailing any project, service or work we undertake. This will include details of the work as well as payment terms.
4. ‘You’ or ‘Client,’ is a person, persons, business, or organisation using any of the services provided by Creative Thumb.
5. ‘We’ or ‘us’, means Creative Thumb.
6. ‘Live Mode’ means the date the website is available on the client’s chosen domain.
7. ‘Domain’ is the website address as specified by the client.
8. ‘Open Source Software’ is software made freely available to anyone under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
9. ‘WebCare’ is a yearly cost to keep a client’s website hosting and support active.
10. ‘mb’ stands for megabytes and is a measure of storage space.
11. ‘Content’ is both text and images that the client requires on the website.
12. ‘Text Content’ is the text wording on the client’s website.
13. ‘ContentWriter’ is a copy writing service Creative Thumb offer for a fee.
14. ‘Copy Writer’ is the person working for Creative Thumb who will create your content.
15. A ‘Page’ of content shall be up to 500 words.
16. ‘Site’ or ‘Website’ is the website as seen on the internet and owned by the client. ‘Search Engine’ will include Google, Yahoo and MSN search.
17. ‘Rank’ is the position of the client’s website on the search engines.
18. ‘SEO’ (search engine optimization) is the process of working to attempt to increase the rank of a client’s website on the search engines.
19. ‘Off Page SEO’ is the attempted optimization of the client’s website using methods which do not require the editing of a client’s website.
20. A ‘back link’ is a URLlink purchased and owned by Creative Thumb from a third-party website.
21. ‘PPC’ (pay per click) is a method of advertising on the search engines whereby the client pays for each click of their advert from the user.
22. Advertising Spend’ is the financial amount that you will commit to the chosen search engines for your campaign. This doesn’t include the management fee.
23. ‘Management Fee’ is the charge for Creative Thumb to manage your PPC budget.
24. ‘Conversions’ is when the client receives an enquiry that has occurred due to the PPC Campaign.
25. ‘Social Media’ refers to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
26. ‘Likes / Followers’ are 2 of the main things we will report on and measure as part of the Social Media service.
27. ‘Facebook’ / ‘Twitter’ / ‘Instagram’ are the 3 Social Media sites that we can use to promote your business.
28. ‘Post’ shall be either a tweet via Twitter.com or a post via Facebook.com or Instagram.
General
1. The contract between Creative Thumb and the client will be on these conditions, to the exclusion of all other terms and conditions. Any variations to these conditions shall have no effect unless agreed in writing.
2. The works to be carried out shall be as set out in the Creative Thumb invoice which can be found attached to the confirmation order email.
3. Creative Thumb will not tolerate any form of harassment against its employees from customers or third parties and we reserve the right to cancel a contract without refund in the event of unreasonable or inappropriate conduct. This includes threatening behavior and abuse directed towards our employees.
Legalities, Copyright and Intellectual Property
1. Creative Thumb shall expect the client to carry out sufficient research before proceeding with a website. This will include checking that the website/idea/business will operate legally. It is important that the website is not in any way illegal. Please ensure that any images or content you supply or use on your website, is legally available for you to use. We cannot be held responsible for the illegal use of images, content or format of material supplied by the client. Creative Thumb reserve the right to remove any website from its servers if it has reason to believe that it is operating illegally.
2. Where images used on the website have been purchased by Creative Thumb on behalf of the client, these images are restricted by license for use on the website only and are limited to 15 images per project. Creative Thumb are not liable for misuse of these images by the client or any other person’s copying, altering, or distributing the images to individuals or other organisations.
3. Creative Thumb cannot be held responsible for anything adversely affecting the Client’s business operation, sales, or profitability that might be claimed is a result of a service offered by Creative Thumb.
Communication
1. Email is our primary method of contact with regard to all communication for your project. Our team are based in various parts of the world including Australia, U.K., and here in the US. Email is the most efficient and cost-effective form of contact. If you have any problems with the project that our team is unable to resolve by email, you can contact our project managers via the telephone support service during USoffice hours on 877-565-2825. For geographical reasons, direct telephone contact with the person assigned to your project may be impractical.
2. It is the client’s responsibility to inform us by email of any change in email address, so we always have valid contact details. We cannot be held liable in any way for problems relating to communication issues if we are not supplied with a valid email address. Some of our systems rely on this email to inform you of various important information. We also advise that client’s check junk and spam folders regularly.
3. It is important for the client to keep in contact with Creative Thumb throughout the project. If a client does not make contact for more than 2 weeks after a draft has been received, we will make up to 5 attempts to contact the client by email using the email address for the client held on file. If we do not receive a response to these attempts of contact the project will be considered complete. If the client wishes to postpone the project for a period of longer than 2 weeks, please contact us. We reserve the right to levy a $150 administration fee if the client returns after an unapproved postponement where the time since last contact is less than 6 months and wishes to continue work on their project.
4. If a client returns from an unapproved postponement and the last contact is more than 6 months, we shall need to provide a new quotation for the project and your original payment will be non-refundable or transferable.
Paying for your project
1. Payment terms for your project or service shall be set out in your confirmation order email.
2. On receipt of final payment, full ownership of the project is handed to the client.
3. All payments to Creative Thumb for any project or service are non-refundable.
4. There will be no minimum term for our service.
5. Creative Thumb will require a minimum of 1 months’ notice of an intent to cancel a service. Failure to provide a month’s notice will result in the next month’s invoice becoming due.
6. Design is subjective, and for this reason we offer ‘unlimited design revisions’. This means that we will continue to work with you on your design concept until you are happy with our proposal. The unlimited design revision period ends when the client accepts the design proposal and home page draft. Design changes beyond this point are subject to additional charges.
7. Design and layout changes to the internal pages of the website are subject to restrictions within depending on what platform we use. These include WordPress, WooCommerce, OpenCart and SkaDate developments.
8. Creative Thumb will provide the client with an expected completion time frame for the project (live on the internet) if requested. This is not a guarantee.
9. Open-Source software (OSS) is publicly available software that may be adapted or modified to suit applications. OSS may be used to help develop elements of the functionality of the client’s website to speed development and add functionality. Where Open Source software is used, the ownership of the site coding and any customisations made by the developer is still passed to the client upon final payment.
10. Creative Thumb do not take any responsibility for a client’s website rank on search engines. This also includes any potential website downtime that can occur. When updating, changing, creating and hosting a client’s website, there could be a change in the websites search engine ranking.
WebCare
Domain Names and Links
1. If required, a domain name will be registered by Creative Thumb on behalf of the client once we have received payment in full. This is limited to one .com domain.Any additional domain names can be purchased for an additional charge. Although the domain names are registered to us, the client is the legal owner of the domain and if they request to have details changed or the domain transferred elsewhere, we will do this within a reasonable timeframe.
2. Domain names require yearly renewal and there is an associated fee for this. Each client who hosts their website with Creative Thumb receives 1 free domain name renewal every 12 months as part of their hosting, providing they pay their hosting renewal fee.
3. Any domain name renewal is the responsibility of the client. Creative Thumb will attempt to contact the client by email up to 2 weeks in advance of a domain renewal being due. If the client doesn’t pay to renew their domain name, the domain name shall not be renewed. We advise that you contact us 50 weeks after you purchase or renew a domain if you wish to renew it for another year.
4. We place a small text link on the footer of our client’s website that simply states the website was designed by Creative Thumb and links to our company website. This link can be removed, if required.
Website Text Copy (Content)
Logo Creation
Support
1. While a website is hosted with Creative Thumb, we shall be available between the hours of 8:00 AM and 4:30 PM Monday – Friday. This excludes all bank holidays. Within a reasonable time, we will look to fix any issues with the website which are not due to a customer’s doing.
2. Creative Thumb email accounts are available on any device that supports email. These include the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy as well as many others. Creative Thumb will provide instructions on how to setup email on these devices via our support area on our website. We are not able to provide email or phone support for these devices.
ContentWriter Service
1. Copy writing is subjective, and for this reason we offer ‘unlimited text content revisions’. This means that we will continue to work with you on your content until you are happy with our proposal. The unlimited content revision period ends when the client accepts the text content proposal. Text content changes beyond this point are subject to additional charges.
2. Creative Thumb will provide the client with an expected completion time frame for the creation of the text content if requested.
3. Text content is provided as a ‘per page’ service. The number of pages of text content we provide shall be based on the amount agreed as per your invoice.
Privacy Policy & General Website Terms Creation
1. If you choose to use Creative Thumb to create your privacy policy and / or general website terms, you will be charged extra for this.
2. If you choose to use Creative Thumb to create your privacy policy and / or general website terms we would always recommend having these independently checked by a professional legal representative.
3. The privacy policy / general website terms that we offer clients will be produced by a third party.
Search Engine Optimization
1. Creative Thumb shall create text content with search engine optimization in mind. This does not mean that the text content has been created specifically to increase a websites’ ranking on search engines.
2. If a website does not ‘perform’ to a client’s expectations, Creative Thumb cannot be held liable in any way for this due to the ContentWriter service offered.
GoToSEO Service
1. If you choose to pay for SEO monthly, we will require you to sign up for automated billing for recurring monthly payments. Creative Thumb require a minimum of 30 days’ notice of a client’s intention to cancel a campaign.
2. If you choose to pay for SEO upfront, Creative Thumb carry out any work you have paid for and then you will be billed monthly until you provide written cancellation notice. Creative Thumb require a minimum of 30 days’ notice of a client’s intention to cancel a campaign.
3. If Creative Thumb does not receive payment we will stop working on your site optimization until payment is received. This may negatively affect your site’s performance on the search engines, and the invoiced value will still be due.
4. Creative Thumb may need to edit your site to carry out on page site optimization work.
5. If the client makes changes to the website independently, it is the client’s responsibility to ensure Creative Thumb are informed of the changes. Failure to do so could result in a negative campaign performance.
6. Links used on a client’s behalf as part of an ongoing search engine optimization may or may not continue to work during the term of the SEO contact or on termination. Creative Thumb will attempt to increase the rank of your website on the search Engines. There is however no guarantee that we can do this. Your monthly payment covers the time used to plan and execute the clients SEO campaign. Creative Thumb cannot be held responsible for Search engine algorithm changes that could negatively affect the ranking of the client’s website.
7. The strategies and campaign objectives created by Creative Thumb are done so on a per-client basis, Creative Thumb cannot be held responsible for any negatively implied impacts of the work completed.
8. Creative Thumb cannot be held financially liable in anyway regarding your website ranking on the search engines.
9. For competition reasons, Creative Thumb will not disclose any backlinks that may be purchased as part of your SEO campaign. If requested, we will provide a backlink report provided by reputable SEO software
10. The Creative Thumb SEO service is separate to any other Creative Thumb service and terms.
PPC Service
1. Payments will be taken monthly for the Creative Thumb management fee starting on the day the client proceeds and every month thereafter. There will be no minimum term, but Creative Thumb do require a minimum of 1 months’ notice of a client’s intention to cancel a campaign. Failure to provide a month’s notice will result in the next month’s invoice becoming due.
2. The client shall pay the chosen search engines directly for their advertising spend. Creative Thumb will manage this spend. Where a daily budget has been agreed, the client understands that Google may exceed the daily budget on one day and balance up on a different day as per their terms https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375423?hl=en
3. Creative Thumb can only operate on websites that are permitted to advertise on Google, further information on their policy can be found here https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6316?hl=en
4. If Creative Thumbdoes not receive payment, we will stop managing your PPC account until payment is received. This may negatively affect the client’s website performance and could lead to increased advertising spend.
5. Creative Thumb will attempt to improve your website traffic using optimized PPC. There is however no guarantee with this service. Your monthly payment covers the time used to plan and execute the clients PPC campaign.
6. Where conversions are measured in terms of end goals on the client site, Creative Thumb are not responsible for conversion levels in the case of changes to the site / products by the client. For instance, an increase in product price may bring the conversion rate down irrespective of any actions taken within the PPC campaign.
7. Creative Thumb is not associated with Google
Social Media Service
1. If Creative Thumb does not receive payment we will stop managing your Social Media account until payment is received. This may negatively affect the client’s website performance and could lead to a fall in likes / followers.
2. Creative Thumb will attempt to increase your followers / likes on Facebook / Twitter / Instagram. Your monthly payment covers the time used to plan and execute the client’s social media campaign.
3. The strategies and campaign objectives created by Creative Thumb are done so on a per client basis, Creative Thumb cannot be held responsible for any negatively implied impacts of the work completed.
4. The Creative Thumb Social Media service is separate to any other Creative Thumb service.
5. Creative Thumb shall make posts on behalf of the client every working day.
6. Creative Thumb require the client to create a Facebook / Twitter / Instagram account for us to carry out our services. Due to data protection, Creative Thumb cannot do this on behalf of the client. We will then require the client’s login details for all sites in order to carry out our Social Media campaign.
7. Creative Thumb shall provide a monthly report to the client detailing some of the achievements of the Social Media campaign. Creative Thumb accept no liability for any content posted that is deemed inappropriate by the client. Creative Thumb accept no liability for any content posted on the clients Social Media accounts by another person / user.
Theme Website Design Service
1. Creative Thumb’ affordable Theme Plus package is not customizable and therefore we cannot make changes to the layout or design other than inserting / designing a logo. A theme site is pre-designed and when you select a theme, you agree to use this theme in its current design / layout. All other websites products offered by Creative Thumb are custom designed and coded.
2. Creative Thumb will provide the client with an expected completion time frame for the project (live on the internet) if requested. This is not a guarantee.
3. Creative Thumb can provide a client access to its “Project Cycle” documentation, so clients, are fully aware of the responsibilities to ensure a successful and timely development.
4. Open-Source software (OSS) is publicly available software that may be adapted or modified to suit applications. OSS may be used to help develop elements of the functionality of the client’s website to speed development and add functionality. Where Open-Source software is used, the ownership of the site coding and any customizations made by the developer is still passed to the client upon final payment.
WebCare
Hosting, SSL, and Search Engine Optimization
1. Creative Thumb will host the website if the client requires us to do so and on receipt of full payment of our hosting fees. In doing so, Creative Thumb will always provide a reliable and professional service to the client, excluding unavoidable technical failures. All standard hosting offered by Creative Thumb is limited to 1GB of website space, unless otherwise stated in a separate contract.
2. Creative Thumb hosting is annually renewable. The date of renewal will be 12 calendar months from the date the website was made live. Creative Thumb will contact the client 4 weeks before the renewal date and hosting services are not obligated.
3. The hosting renewal charge must be received within 10 days of the hosting expiry date. We reserve the right to deactivate any website when the hosting has expired, and the client has not paid the renewal charge. We reserve the right to charge an administration fee of $150 for reactivating the website/hosting.
4. If the client does not use Creative Thumb hosting services, then the management and hosting of the domain name are the full responsibility of the client.
5. If the client does not wish to renew the hosting the site files and associated data can be made available to the client fee free on request and the domain name can be transferred to the client’s registrar account. Should the client instruct us to upload and configure the site and domain name to a third-party server, this work will be subject to a charge. Creative Thumb reserve the right to delete the website from our servers 3 months after the date your hosting expired if you choose to not renew the hosting.
6. SSL certificates are provided for 1 year at no charge when you purchase a website and host the website with a Creative Thumb WebCare package.
7. The yearly hosting fee also includes the cost of the SSL certificate
8. If letsencrypt.org are not able to provide an SSL certificate for any reason including technical failure, Creative Thumb will make recommendations for other SSL providers. This will be charged at the advertised cost by the SSL provider as well as a $150 installation fee. The client will have the option to proceed with this SSL certificate or not.
9. Creative Thumb do not take any responsibility for a client’s website rank on search engines. This also includes any potential website downtime that can occur. When updating, changing, creating, and hosting a client’s website, there could be a change in the websites search engine ranking.
WebCare Terms
1. Creative Thumb will provide WebCare for the website if the client requires us to do so and on receipt of full payment of our hosting fees 12 months after the website went live. In doing so, Creative Thumb will provide a reliable and professional service to the client, excluding unavoidable technical failures. All hosting offered by Creative Thumb is limited to 1GB of website space unless otherwise stated in a separate contract.
2. Creative Thumb WebCare is annually renewable. The date of renewal will be 12 calendar months from the date the website was made live. Creative Thumb will contact the client 4 weeks before the renewal date and WebCare services are not obligated.
3. The WebCare renewal charge must be received within 10 days of the WebCare expiry date. We reserve the right to deactivate any website when the WebCare has expired and the client has not paid the renewal charge. We reserve the right to charge an administration fee of $150 for reactivating WebCare.
4. If the client does not use Creative Thumb WebCare services, then the management and hosting of the domain name are the full responsibility of the client.
5. If the client does not wish to renew WebCare, the site files and associated data can be made available to the client for free on request and the domain name can be transferred to the client’s registrar account. Should the client instruct us to upload and configure the site and domain name to a third-party server this work will be subject to charge.
6. Creative Thumb reserve the right to delete the website from our servers 3 months after the date your hosting expired if you choose to not renew WebCare.
7. Creative Thumb offer free SSL with sites we host and manage DNS for. If you wish to manage DNS independently, we cannot provide support for SSL.
8. Payments for WebCare products are non-refundable and non-transferable.