web site cost

depends on who you hire...

Your nephew (in 10th grade)
Some schmoe in Bangalore
or Dan Antonelli

 

were paying 2k from a friend who designs websites for large companies......and i know shes cutting us a hell of a deal!
we were quote between 10-15k from a local w/site designer for 4-5 page layout. but as said above, cost is dependant on who you hire and what you want.

 

I've 13 of them for free, I would pay Dan Antoneli his price IF ...and some others whom I've seen really nice looking work be done, but a really well designed website means nothing if they still can not find you or care to look.

What really means something is your ability's of producing the best advertising for your customer work will follow.

 

I'm always curious when I hear that people are planning a new website (so I hope you don't mind my asking): What is your web marketing strategy? Just in a nutshell. Please and thanks.

 

My prices are fairly decent, sites start at 1500, but mostly I'm working on ecommerce sites at the moment. They start at 3500 for a basic package but most are in the 6-7k range. I have a fulltime job and work till 3-4am with 4 co-current clients (there's downtime between clients, but even 4 is a forced workload, i usually don't take more then 2, I'm really stressed these days, thank god 2 are ending soon)

that's the main problem with setting up my own websites, I never seem to have the time. once these 4 are finished I have another 2 scheduled and then I hope to take a small break then start working on mine, but knowing my luck someone else is going to ask me for a site.

a small 2-3 page website with a gallery could probably set you back a case of beer for a college grad, 200-300$ for a "budding web designer" or 600-700 for a small firm.

 

oh I also forgot, you can spend an evening reading and try to tackle it on your own. it's very do-able. just have someone point you in the right direction, for example, using a CMS (i would suggest wordpress) which is scaleable, or just a static site using an online web builder.

 

Mr. Aston is right... this is very common on the t-shirt forum...

People schelp a few designs up on a website and sit back waiting for the brinks truck to pull up with their money.

A website is just a device to facilitate communicating what you do to potential customers. You still have to figure out how to market that website to get it into the hands of those buyers. THEN you have to figure out how to turn that traffic into sales that put money in your pocket.

Otherwise you spend all your folding jack making a website that no one will ever see.

You have to define what the site will do for you. (just an 2-3 page brochure site? ecommerce? SEO tuned? Interactive - forum, blog, comments, etc.)

THEN

You have to define who the audience is for that site. Who is your targeted demographic? Who is it that you want to communicate with?

THEN

You have to develop a site that is effective in communicating your message to your desired demographic.

FINALLY... and the most often ignored...

You have to mave a plan to market the new site and generate traffic to the page. Not just traffic... but QUALIFIED traffic. How are you going to make your buyers aware that your page exists at all?

Without that plan it is likely that your money spent developing a site is wasted anyway. You can spend $25k making the greatest site ever, but if no one sees it then what is the point?

It sounds like you are new and have no site at all now. I'd get a $10/mo shared cpanel web hosting account... then use one of the CMS scripts (Wordpress, Joomla, Coppermine, etc..). If you can't handle that on your own then pay a guy $500 to do it for you while you start working on your REAL site.

You don't REALLY want a website.... what you REALLY WANT is more money in your pocket. For some reasone you believe that your lack of folding jack can be cured by uploading a pile of ones and zeros onto someone elses web server.

That is just one portion of the equation. To increase sales (THIS is what gets you that extra money) you need to increase the number of buyers that are aware of your existance. You need to get them to consume your marketing message (brochure, website, flier, banner ad, door hanger, cold call, yellow pages ad, etc..). Your need to hit them with your message WHEN THEY ARE READY TO BUY. You have to have what they need or want. Your advertising has to be compelling enough to CAUSE THEM TO ACT (buy online with your ecommerce system, call you on the phone (where YOU close the deal), or go find their car keys and come visit your location.

Having a website is not enough... it has to be effective at converting visits into dollars in your pocket.
Having raw traffic is not enough... the traffic has to be from qualified buyers ready & willing to buy TODAY.
Having a good product is not enough. People have to know about it. They have to need it. They have to be able to afford it. You have to be able to deliver it to them as they need it.

 

Thank you.

so many people do not understand this.

the amount of money you spend developing your website, triple that, and that's what you're going to be looking at for advertising and getting your site out there. sure, you can build a site and wait for cash to roll in, but you're going to be waiting a long time!

edit: 99% of our clients (my day job) come in from comparison shopping sites, everytime someone visits our site, we get charged one dollar, regardless if they purchase or not!

our montly expenditures JUST for comparison shopping on ONE of our sites (we have 5 sites, our largest site is just over 6k a month.

 

If this is for yourself, I would suggest going to Staples or Office MAx and getting a webdesign program for about $30 - $40 that lets you build and upload it.

Then i'd get a hosting server provider such as godaddy.com cause since your new to this, their customer service is excellent and free and 24/7

Buy a domain $11.99
and the hosting $79.95
*get the search engine visibility $29.99


then, you're golden for 2 years

 

+1 to that.

Come up with a marketing plan THEN make a website. don't know how to market it? research helps.

 

I spit out my coffee at some of the prices for a 4-5 page website.

Then again it depends on what you want and your budget.

We do them 5-6 pages based on either existing or bought CSS templates including domain setup, a years hosting and email setup for $5-600. Takes me a couple of hours, doesn't include any flash but I'll drop in any common scripting and do a little SEO as I build.
Most times I'll do it as part of a signage and print order to setup a business, sometimes as a loss leader to generate other work (since a website requires few materials other than time).
I'll admit it's not my main business, just a sideline, but it builds a decent shopwindow site for new startups.

oh and I HAVE to agree with many of the other postings. A website is only part of your plan, like having business cards. Just one of many tools.

 

Is there anything that doesn't totally suck that is somewhat workable for $50? I haven't played the website game as far as setting one up since the late 90's, and back then I can't even remember what I was using...something Adobe. I'd like to do SOMETHING with my space other than just have a few pictures on it that looks like someone at least spent a day or so working on it. I guess I need to go shop for something. If it sucks, then I got what I paid for.

 

Any thoughts on using ready made templates from some place like www.templatemonster.com?

 

For $150 you could buy a year with Squarespace, which is where I send people who don't want to pay a designer.


Just general advice for anyone who doesn't go the managed hosting route and buys their own -- avoid godaddy.com. They're horrible across the board. Their domain services are overpriced and their hosting services are shoddy. They're still running php 4 on most of their shared servers which is kind of pathetic. Any time I get a web client who is on godaddy it's a huge pain and adds extra cost to them for my having to deal with it (more time).

Recommended:
Domains: namecheap.com, hover.com
Hosting: hostgator.com (shared), vps.net (vps)

 

I stay FAR away from them.

elegantthemes.com of themeforest is where I go.

 

Darn- to think I've spent 15 years honing the craft, hiring half a dozen of designers, interface designers, content managers, copywriters and an SEO guy - and I could have done it an evening! What a waste of time!

OK, that was only minor sarcasm.... Just find it a little tough to swallow that you'd be building anything other than a tool to hurt your business, rather than help it, if you plan on doing it after 'spending an evening'.

Still always strikes me as ironic that it's okay to drop 40 grand on a digital printer, but 5 grand to market it is too much to spend.

 

Why do you stay away from them? Cost, quality, hard to use?

 

Kind of like the guy with the $60,000 dumptruck who only wants to spend $30 on door lettering? (said because he's sitting in my parking lot right now)

 

So true LOL. Guess it goes for any industry.