How much does a website cost?
Ahhh, the age old question that has been asked since tablets were made from stone, not Apple. Honestly, the answer to this question is about as straight-forward as asking a blind man what color his shoes are.
The reason for this post is to provide clarity to those that do not understand the complexity of this question.
When building a website, there are many things that have to be taken into consideration, such as:
- Is the website going to contain 3 or 30 pages? And, who is responsible for creating the content and implementing it into those pages?
- What kind of interactive elements, if any, are going to be integrated into the website? Photo galleries? Polls? Forms? Are you going to be selling things on the website?
- “My second cousin twice removed took ‘a class’ and made this logo for me using Word Art. Does it look professional enough to put on my website?”
The answer to this question is always “no”. I don’t even have to look at the logo in question to tell you that. You are only going to be taken as serious as you take your website. If you have an out-of-focus, pixelated logo, people will notice it and judge the “legitimacy” of your business on it. Your logo is the base of your overall branding for your business. With that said, it is always a good idea to hire a professional to create one for you.
- “I want to be able to update my website on my own, can you build me one and then teach me how to update it?”
There’s a reason why web designers and developers exist. Learning how to create/manipulate images and code websites takes a lot of training and requires a large investment in equipment and software to do so. Training, I might add, is never really finished because new ways to develop websites and manipulate images are constantly being invented. The cost of the software needed to create websites is $500-$1,000 to get started. Before you even get the software, you have to make sure your computer has enough memory and processing power to handle such large programs.
There is a way to update a website without having to be code-savvy. Having a website developer build a website within a content management system (CMS), such as WordPress, Joomla, Google Sites, Blogger, DotNetNuke, etc., enables users to update the content and images on their site at a very broad level. Note: Using one of these tools does require a commitment to learning how the admin of the CMS works.
BOTTOM LINE: Your website is an investment in your business. It is the same type of investment you make when purchasing a building for your business. The more thought, planning, and occasionally resources, you put into it upfront, the better it will be in the end.
