For sure. As part of your plan, you'll have access to over 80 videos covering all aspects of using WordPress. These videos are quickly accessible right from within your dashboard, so you don't need to go away and pay for some other service.
If you need more help, taking advantage of the Support Add-On might be a great idea. Sometimes a conceptual understanding is more helpful than a how-to video, and that is exactly what the Add-On is for.
$30 represents a basic block of support time. The support block model is designed to give you access to a network of experts, but without paying the high consulting fees most experts charge. Most questions are quickly answered. Something like "how do I find my IP address?" won't incur any support charge at all. Other requests might require a little more research and preparation. Depending on what it is you need help with, it may require 1, 2 or more blocks. If you're considering major changes to your site, than we'll likely need to sit down and determine a scope of work and proceed accordingly.
Sometimes, the answer to your question is better suited as a screencast video. In that case, a tutorial video - custom-made for your site - will appear right in your dashboard along with your other WordPress tutorial videos, and it will remain there for you to reference for as long as your WP Maintained Hosting account is active.
Many people choose a theme that looks pretty, and then come up short trying to fit the requirements for the website into the theme's design. A better approach is to get crystal clear on the why/what/how you want to communicate your offering to whom, do a few simple page mock-ups, and then find a theme that covers all the bases (and will serve your future goals too!). With a Support Add-on, you can submit your theme considerations for review and we'll discuss.
Somewhere along the line, WordPress got a reputation for being do-it-yourself; no technical skills required. But there are still quite a number of other elements to putting up a website that you need to be familiar with: hosting, maintenance, integrations, DNS and so on. What I've found is that if someone is interested in these things, interested in learning some of the code involved (CSS, PHP, mySQL, Javascript), then those people will do well with the DIY approach. However, most of our customers would like to be more focused on things other than on becoming proficient in website development, and so the slightly-misguided DIY reputation leaves many people frustrated.
The short answer is, it depends. Most of the value in the service is in maintaining commercially available themes, communicating with developers around bugs and updates, and maintaining compatibility between plugins and themes. Your custom theme may be eligible, however this would require direct access to the original developer of the theme on an on-going basis. In some cases, our maintenance service is a godsend for developers who don't have the interest or infrastructure to handle hosting and maintenance - they'd rather focus on developing.
Please use the contact form to get in touch, and we'll be happy to take a look at it with you.
There are additional costs for eCommerce sites, which vary based on product complexity, size of database, etc. We will do a thorough analysis and discuss together.
That is exactly how this service came into existence! WordPress developers tend to enjoy focusing on developing sites rather than maintaining them. After site launch, it's not always clear who's going to be responsible for what. WP Maintained Hosting is a developers dream. You build 'em, we maintain 'em!