How much should I expect a website would cost me?

I can't stress it enough; be up-front with your developer so the project can be best tailored to your needs. This is your site, it needs to reflect you, and should be what you want. In some cases your website is the only chance you get to make a good impression. Even if your budget is small, that's OK.

Below I have layed out some scenarios and what that site would approximately cost. If your budget is very small then the designer should work with you to give you everything he or she can inside that budget.

Every project is different so costs can vary. One cost that will be incured every year is the registration of your domain. Your domain is your address, for example, mine is "MookieDesigns.com". This registration costs about $10 - $15 a year. An additional cost would be a hosting charge; this means you need to rent some space to put the files that make up your website. Hosting costs vary in regards to how complex and large your site is, but a rough balpark is around $25 a year. So, now you just need to consider what you want in your site and the development cost.

 I have found a handy website that helps you think through things you might need / want and gives you a rough guess of the cost associated. DesignQuote.Net has a Web Design Cost Estimate Calculator that will help you get a feeling of the market cost associated with development.

I have also put together a few scenarios below to give you a basic idea of what your site might cost if you worked with me.

Scenario One:

Money is really tight, but you would realy like to give your business an on-line presense. Here I would recommend a one page site, think of it like a virtual poster. Here we would display a picture or two of your company, address, contact info, hours of business, and other basic information. This is the easiest to develop so cost would be low. In this scenario, I would estimate at about $150 (includes hosting and domain registration for 1st year).

Scenario Two:

Giving your company a little more substantial online presence. This brocure site would consist of 4 or 5 pages such as: Welcome / Home, About Us, Location and Hours, Customer Tesimonials, or Portfolio of Work. The more relevent content your site has, the better it returns in search engine rankings; and the more potential customers you have. This type site I would estimate at about $250 (includes hosting and domain registration for 1st year).

Scenario Three:

All of Scenario Two, plus additional functionality such as a  Contact Us Form, an Order Form, or Shopping Cart. This type of site is a little harder to give an estimate for due to custimization, but I would think in the range of $500 - $1000 (again, including hosting and domain registration for 1st year).

Ready to Get a Website?

If you are interested in starting or modifing a website, contact me. There is no charge for our converstations.