ForumsInternet/eCommerce

Any idea how much one should expect to pay for a simple, say 5 page, website?

The old adage, you get what you pay for, rings true. Some of those cheap services are just that...cheap.

I have had clients want to maintain their own website, and it works out
until the client unknowingly messes up the code and the site gets
kicked off the search engines, or literally doesn't come up any more in
the browser, or a key file is accidentally deleted...it then costs the
you more time and money with the designer to come in and fix things. Then you have no expensive programs you have to purchase and then spend your valuable time to learn. You can't mess up the code and bring your site down and then have to pay the designers to come back in and fix it, all the while you are losing potential customers due to the outtage.

You can easily have a site built with the backend in place so you can
login and make the edits online. It's called a CMS (content-management
system)...It costs a little more from the get-go, but it is worth it in
the end. You just securely log in to a hidden backend on your website and edit the pages or info with ease, on the fly. It's as easy to use as this forum.

KarateKid,

Before you decide on which type of site to create i.e. self admin through CMS or static HTML pages which can be edited through dreamweaver, you need to decide if the site will be regularly edited, will the number of pages be increased regularly etc.

If you need only 5 page site which will not be edited regularly and regularly no new pages will be added then I would advice you to go with the regular HTML site without the CMS as it is not worth the cost and it is better to edit the site with dreamweaver. As a small company you should weigh the cost of site+dreamwever software + your time to learn software. You don't want to spend a lot of money for the functionailities which are not necessary.

You can get a site for 5 pages with unique design and flash banner for $1200 to $1500 and it may include your logo design too.

We have mutiple sites where few are plain HTML and other is dynamic datbase driven site.

Thanks,
Bob

I recommend checking out a service called Breez-e.com (http://www.breez-e.com). Low cost, easy to use and they can build it for you and you can maintain it.

I have never built a website before, but I found that yahoo offers a user friendly web page. They have a system called yahoo site builder that has templates to make your site look more professional. Also it is very inexpensive at around $12/month. Feel free to check out my website to see what kind of quality you can expect.

Hello KK. If all you want is a presence, then go with the inexpensive host providers who give you the tools to create it. Sounds like all you need is a homepage to tell people what you do. A contact page to tell people how to get a hold of you and perhaps some services or products pages listing the products and services you offer.

Once you get up and running, then you can see what it does for you. The traffic it generates if any and what people do when they are there.

Almost all businesses start out with one of the residents creating their first site. Its when you start to realize just how much your site means to your business that you begin to understand the differences in costs with having a professional come in and creating a new face to the world. As you've seen here already, costs vary greatly. And much of that has to do with the size of their organization, their level of experience, how much they can offer you and how much you're willing to put into it. Site design can be as little as throwing together a logo, dropping it on a page and calling it done, to full useability testing and search engine optimization. Doesn't sound like you're there yet, but preparing some of that SEO stuff up front will help you in the long run. If you can't be found, your site is worthless.

Designers vary in what they can offer. Its up to you to decide how far you want to go and to make sure the person you hire to do your site can provide it for you. Obviously your site will need to be created in a form that will allow you to handle updates internally. And pure HTML is the way to go there. You can even edit with notepad. Of course, it is also true, that one mistake can bring things to a halt and without you knowing what you did, will result in more costs as you bring in a hired gun. CMS is great, for the larger sites and companies. Not for 5 pages. IMO. The Contribute solution is really good for people like you. Who don't know much about coding and only want to be able to handle updates. Someone who uses Dreamweaver to create the site can easily set it up so a Contribute user can make edits to copy. Simple.

Hope I've helped some and not just added to the confusion. Good luck.

if your looking for a custom built website it's going to cost you about 1,000k to maintain it only once a month is $40 a month a very small cost fo having a nice site try fntmarketing.com i've heard their the best