I Want A Website, But What Will It Cost? - Part 2

As I promised in the previous article, "I Want A Website. Now What Do I Do?" I'm going to talk about the cost of creating a website.

Depending on what you want a website to do, how you want it to look and how complicated it will be, the price can range from free, to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Let's start off with the free stuff. There are several ways to get a free website.

• Make it yourself.
• Sign up with a web hosting company that offers software that lets you create your own site.
• Use one of those "free hosting" sites. I talked about the problems with these sites in my article, "How To Select A Good Website Hosting Company."
• Have a friend who knows how to make websites do one for you.
• Find a college student who has to create a website for a school project make your site.
• And the old standby, barter. I've been offered many items in exchange for a website, like a handmade quilt, a painting and a river raft trip down the Grand Canyon. Just to let you know, I turned them all down. It's just too hard trying to figure out how many quilts or paintings equal a month's rent or a car payment.

Depending on your needs, these options for a free site may work for you, but remember the saying, "You get what you pay for." This is especially true in website design. Each of these options has advantages and disadvantages. Only you can decide if they will be appropriate for you.

If you realize you will need to pay some money for a site, but want to keep it to a minimum, you have several options.

• You can learn HTML, and hand code a site, or buy website design software, like Adobe GoLive or Dreamweaver. For GoLive, which is what I use, a student can buy a copy at the bookstore or places like http://www.GradWare.com for about $80. The rest of us will pay about $400. You may also want to do some of the website design with Adobe Photoshop.
• You can pay a student to make it for you. Hopefully, by paying them you'll minimize the chances of them leaving town in the middle of creating your site. I get several clients a year because of this happening.
• If you're lucky enough to have an employee who knows how to make websites, then have them do it "on the clock."
• Templates are another option. You buy a template, then add your copy for each page and you have a website. Templates can be free, or cost up to $100. They average between $25 and $60. Be sure to read the usage agreement before you pay for a template. You will need to know some HTML to use templates though.

The final step, of course, is to hire me, or someone else like me, who of course won't be as good. Hiring a website designer may cost more, but if you do, there are a lot of headaches you won't have to deal with.

Website designers, me included, offer a range of options. I offer:

• Templates - The cheapest way to go because you do most of the work. I charge $50 for these.
• Business Card Sites - These are one-page websites that usually list a business' name, address, contact information and a paragraph explaining what they do. I charge $100 for these.
• Predesigned Sites - Mine go up to seven pages and are like templates, but I do most of the work. You pick a template, give me your copy and graphics and I put it all together. I charge $300 for a three-page site and $25 for each additional page, up to seven pages.
• Custom Sites - These are the most expensive because the website designer will design and assemble everything. My fees are $60 an hour.