Spotlight on Services
What Happens When You Call Us?
When you call us up and say you want us to build a website for you, the first thing we're going to do is start asking questions.
Will this be a new site?
Do you have a URL?
What do you want the site to do?
How many pages did you envision?
Do you need a store on the site?
Will you want users to be able to schedule appointments?
Do you want to take payments on the site?
Do you want a blog?
These questions will help us decide the scope of the work that will need to be done and that gives us an idea of what the project will cost.
What's the Price-tag?
The cost of your website depends on several things, including your URL/domain name, your webhost and your design fee. These in turn can depend on the the size, use and complexity of your site. So, the simpler your needs, the less a website can cost.
Let's begin with your domain name. According to which webhosting plan and URL combination you choose, the cost of your URL could be anywhere from FREE to OUTRAGEOUS!
FREE: Many webhosts are ready to offer you a free website and URL, but your URL will include their name, your site will have their advertising on it, you'll only have access to a few template designs, your storage space will be small and your bandwidth limited. When it comes to websites, you really do get what you pay for. These limitations mean slow, hard-to-find websites without the capability to do what you want them to do. In other words, free sites with free URL's are generally worth exactly what you spent.
OUTRAGEOUS: Meanwhile domain name speculation has become big business. If your heart is set on a certain URL, one which someone else has speculated might be valuable and they have registered it, you're going to have to pay a surcharge for it and perhaps pay big. $5000 is considered a reasonable fee for these URL's, but some of them go for millions! Thankfully, there are still a lot of domain names out there the speculators have not scooped up and many webhosts include the cost of the URL in their annual fee, if there is no surcharge attached.
You next concern is your webhosting fee. When you realize free won't work, then you find webhosting plans beginning for as little as $48 a year. The more you want the site to do, the more it will cost. A plan will more bells and whistles than you can imagine will cost you around $300 a year. The cost of your URL and webhosting will be paid directly to the providers of these services and we will set it up so that you have access to these services and will not need us on an on-going basis.
What's left is our one-time design service fee, which for most clients is between $500 and $1500. It can be less or more, depending on your needs. Once you have approved your site and we make it live, it's yours. We do not charge any monthly or annual fees to maintain your site, unless you contract with us to provide on-going services like blogging, social media, etc.
So, now you know what costs are involved in building a website. We'd love to talk to you about what your needs might be. Please give us a call at 214-499-6519. If you are interested in what we do to earn the design fee, come back next week and we'll talk about that.