How much does it cost to start an online website that isn't attached to another wesbite?
I want to start a website that allows people to purchase products off the website, share videos, leave comments, have businesses advertise on, and one that I can manage and upload videos to. I want it designed from scratch and completely separate from any other website that allow you to create your own. Just wondering, how much would something like this cost?
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Jan 21, 2015
I highly recommend using Go Daddy to buy a domain and hosting for a Wordpress site. Wordpress is the easiest and best way to start a website that offers a variety of plugins for SEO, Media Support, as well as selling products online. Depending on if you going with a big company to design it or a freelancer you would be looking at around $1200-$2000 just depends on the company or person.
There are other options like working with Squarespace where you can get help to setup a website and sell products but you would use a template and would have have knowledge of design to develop the layout and design of the site to make it your own for monthly price as low as $16 for limited products instead of putting out so much money at once.
Jan 20, 2015
The cost of a website has 2 parts.. Creation & Maintenance.. If you put a lot of effort in Creation then its easy to Maintain.. But if you become a miser in Creation then Maintenance will be high.. During Creation get a lot of your work automatized and keep the site scalable and this will ensure less of Data Entry work, keeping track of content and all easy.. Website is like a house, you can get a house for $50000 and you can get a house for a Billion Dollar too..Budgeting for a website depends on your appetite and business opportunity
Jan 19, 2015
That depends on if your development team is an individual or a firm, US based or outsourced, and how much development is necessary. You could always use a platform like Ning.com that has great community features for community based websites.
Jan 18, 2015
Hi Artea, I presume that what you are looking forward is to develop an online business with an idea in mind. I understand that cost is an important factor to start a business but more important is to draw a revenue model, Define MVP(Minimum viable product) and then consider the cost of MVP to start with. Because more often, when you start thinking about revenue model, an online business tends to change the requirements and accordingly the cost estimate will vary and that creates issues for you on later stage. So, my suggestion is to be clear with revenue model and MVP and then technology solutions provider like us can help you bring your idea to life. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have.
Jan 18, 2015
From experience, go to a freelancing marketplace (like elance, odesk, guru) and hire indian developers. They will have it done for you for around $1,000. The only caveat about that, is that you have to know EXACTLY what you want.
Jan 18, 2015
The honest answer it.. it will vary on the specifics of your needs. Yes, an average expense could be 2000-5000. Yet, if you are willing to do it all yourself.. you would save a bulk of those fees ( some fees are mandatory- domain registration, hosting fees etc) and perhaps..make some errors being new to the process so your webpage isnt seen or listed correctly. Perhaps even using a shared server that could prevent your page from having good response time or be lumped in with blacklisted sites since it was put on a shared server.
So , a truthful answer- 250$-5000$. You do get what you pay for in content and SEO. Hosting too. Outline the specifics of your needs- how many pages, images..that you would like..how much content on each page is needed. Can you supply content? Or do you need it generated? Do you want on site commerce? Or just a link to take to a secure and verified payment collection service like paypal..? How much hand holding ? Marketing? As in Google AdWords? Facebook advertising? Do you need Social Media? Need it configured for mobile accessibility? When you say " for business to have advertising" what do you mean? Pay per view clicks? Spell it out. And that will help narrow the estimate for your expenses.
I agree WordPress is a great place to begin when one is new to having your own website.
Good Luck. I offer what you are seeking. If I can be of more assistance- please let me know.
Jade T Hunter
STRAC
Jan 16, 2015
If you build it yourself you can get it quite cheap and with the tools that are available today it is a lot easier than a lot of people would think. It is actually already mentioned but you can indeed for example use a CMS like Wordpress and get a webshop plug-in like WooCommerce. I believe that aside from hosting and domain name registration all you need is a payment service. Yes it may take some time but if you do have the creativity it will indeed save you around $5000...Like B. Franklin has put it so nicely all those years ago: "a penny saved is a penny earned".
Jan 17, 2015
If I were to take the challenge implied by this conversation thread, just how easy might it be to meet the basic requirements of Artea Wright's website?
I already own a club membership at Sitemile.com. Either the Pricerr or the Walleto theme meets the known requirements, including media downloads and eCommence. I purchase a domain name for $10 and add my favorite “free” plugins for spam, SEO and security. In 15 minutes or less I install WordPress and activate the plugins. I add a fiverr.com logo and change the color scheme. I'm done and I haven't broken a sweat. I have $15 and less than an hour of time invested in the project. Website price $75.
I've controlled the price by not letting the customer be involved in any aspect of the design. And for most customers this means I don't get the order. And I don’t deserve to.
-The Pragmatic Web Designer
Jan 17, 2015
A more realistic scenario is that I spend 4 hours building trust and helping find the right theme and plugins. I then spend several hours writing or editing content. I invest another couple of hours in training the customer to use their new site. Thus, for 8-10 hours of my time I charge $480-$600.
But, maybe I'm not doing the work. Let us suppose the work is done in a country where $10 an hour is a "fair" wage. Their price is $80-$100. Ouch! I'd like to say that this doesn't happen. But it does. If not this; the customer is told about this or that “web builder” software. It’s easy. Even a child can do it. Ouch, again!
The Bottom line is "Content is King.” Web designers that provide quality support services and do more than assemble the components will continue to do well. The rest will gradually become extinct. My dime (formerly 2 cents).
-The Pragmatic Web Designer
Jan 18, 2015
Yes, those arguments are truly valid, ultimately it is up to the person in question to chose the right path for their own skills and budget.
Jan 16, 2015
It doesn't cost much, mine runs about $20-$30 a year
Jan 17, 2015
Building it of course is a whole other thing. Figure between $500-$5000 depending on your needs.
Jan 16, 2015
Building an online website from scratch does not make any sense from a business perspective. The secret to compelling, accurate, on-time and under-budget web design is the use of premium WordPress themes and plugins. This is particularly true if you want an affordable solution.
Your site will be attractive, functional and unique. There are 4,800+ premium WordPress themes and professional WordPress templates on www.themeforest.net to cite one source. Every theme is built by a professional web designer and after content is added and changes are made to fonts, colors and images; it is quite possible the theme's designer won’t recognize their work. And plugins can extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine.
There should be no need to do any custom programming on the project you describe. If you were doing it yourself as a learning exercise...maybe. Otherwise, I strongly recommend you reconsider your approach.
-The "Pragmatic" Web Designer
Jan 16, 2015
The web design industry is partially responsible for the public not understanding their pricing options. Too many designers are not transparent about the role themes and plugins may play in the process. Charging thousands of dollars for something that is purchased for a couple of hundred dollars is being done every day. Also, there are significant differences between fees in the West and other parts of the world.
- The Pragmatic Web Designer
Jan 16, 2015
If you are looking for a custom professional website with ecommerce that you can then update yourself, the range would vary depending on the details. Good web developers will ask a lot of questions before they quote, so they get a good handle on the type of business you have and what you are trying to accomplish with your website. The best way is to get some quotes. Why don't you post your project in the Mosaic Hub database (see button at the top) and see what the Mosaic community comes up with.
Jan 16, 2015
You have some pretty vague requirements, but to do what you've got there from scratch, and have it be successful, you can probably start your budget around $5K and go up from there.
Jan 16, 2015
Chad is on the right track. I wouldn't do it as described for $10,000. This is a time when the customer (who is not ALWAYS right) needs to be educated on "real world" possibilities. - PWD
Jan 16, 2015
You can get started very cheaply. For example, my company (http://zippisite.com) is offering a web design service at $179, completed in 5 days.
If you use a well-known CMS such as WordPress (we use WordPress), there are tons of plugins (free and paid) that allows you to add features. For example, WooCommerce is a well known plugins to turn WordPress into e-commerce store.
With the correct CMS like WordPress, the possibilities is endless! And how much does it cost?
If you can do it yourself (just need to know how to install plugins), it costs virtually nothing other than buying paid plugins.
If you want to hire people, it all depends on the actual features you need and how professional you need the results to be. I would say paying something from $1000 - $2000 can give you a pretty professional website. And the more you are willing to invest (provided you've hired a good developer), the better the website will be.
In any way, start small and build up! Continuous improvements is key! :)
Jan 16, 2015
May I ask how you could possibly offer a website at that price. This price point conflicts with many other marketing companies who offer something similar, but at a much more reasonable price. I agree with Chad that it would cost $5,000 and up for a reasonably good e-commerce based website. Trying to under cut professional companies with that low of a price point makes many companies look bad and hurts the web development market as a whole.
Jan 16, 2015
I share Joseph's frustration. "Sidestep sticker shock by creating a detailed budget for designing, building and launching your website" offers what I think is a balanced answer to the cost of a quality website.
www.entrepreneur.com/article/207576
- The Pragmatic Web Designer
Jan 16, 2015
@Joseph - It depends on what you expect out of the website. If you hire some good (and relatively cheap) developers from India or Pakistan, $2000 can give you a pretty good website. Of course, I don't know what you are expecting, so it is pretty hard to say things for sure. But from my experience, if you are lucky enough to hire good developers, $2000 can give you quite good results.
As for your comments about setting up a reasonably good e-commerce website, it depends on what you mean by 'reasonably good'. Taking WooCommerce as an example, if you can live with the original features, all you need is then to find a good theme and a number of plugins to get you started. If you have very uncommon feature requirements (the original features can't satisfy you), then you need to go out and hire developers, which can cost you some money.
And the above example, both are 'reasonably good' - nice looking, modern and meets your requirements. So the price really depends on your requirements.
I like Ning as a social hosted platform and at $25 a month it is worth every penny. It gives one
the tools and expertise needed to publish and connect with a community you create.