Simplified Cost of Websites
September 18th, 2007I have been getting questions about cost estimates for business websites lately. I try to give my honest and direct opinion. The following is a concise version of what it takes to have a website made and managed for you.
“Complete creation and management” of a website has three main costs.
1. Domain name registration (officially owning “somewebsitename.com” or “hilariouscatpicz.net”). This is a fixed cost, for the most part. If it’s a domain name that isn’t already taken by someone else, it’s roughly $10 to $20 per year per domain name. Also, add on a little for the person to fill out the forms and manage renewals.
2. Server hosting (having hard drive space somewhere on a server that is connected to the internet). These can vary by how much traffic (how many visitors) you will receive, how much data you must store online, and what server technology you (or, more specifically, the web developer uses). This typically starts at $8/month but can go as high as $100/month and up. Also, account for a little extra for whoever is managing this for you. For general information, I use Dreamhost for my websites.
3. Website creation (actual design and coding of your website) and updating (occasional changing of text and adding news snippets). This is the real variable cost. Some people charge a set amount per month for this. Others charge hourly (usually between friends to be fair or between businesses as “billable hours” and “bill rates”). Others charge a flat rate after negotiating and determining exactly what work is to be done (and then updating is hourly after that).
To give you an idea of the cost of a website, use the estimates above, and take a look at BobAbernethy.com. This is a website that I created and manage. I made it about 3 years ago. The initial design, formatting, setup, and coding took about 75 hours of work. Since then, I’ve done periodic updates to the site, totaling 25 hours of work. Billing at an hourly rate for work by me, $10/year for domain registration, and around $100/year for hosting. The first year’s cost was significantly more than each additional year, of course.
Basically, websites are an investment, like anything else. They don’t come for free usually. If they do come free/cheap, they are often not worth having. Your website can help or hurt your business. A website of poor quality will (in my opinion) hurt your business potential. But, of course, it is up to you. Good luck with your decision making.
