| Estimated Start-up Costs |
- $35/yr. -- domain name registration (There are cheaper registration agencies but I don't recommend
them. I use Register.com.)
- $95.40/yr. -- hosting service for the site. (I use iPowerWeb.com.)
- Negotiable development/changes/maintenance (I charge $50/hr.) because the site may be complicated if
there are lots of features or product lines that need display.
I estimate a starter cost of $300 which is a ball-park estimate for a main page, some graphics and a few
linked pages and a feedback form. It's best to keep things really simple for awhile--particularly going slow on the graphics. Writing the site, creating and registering the domain name of your site, contracting with a hosting service,changing DNS pointers for your site and uploading the developed pages to the site is all part of this
initial cost.
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| What Complicates Things |
- Continuing changes to the content, layout and/or commercial credit card operations on
the site increase the costs. (News sites on the Internet use automatic coding to typically change every 2 minutes or so.)
- Lack of clarity in the purpose, target audiences and the planning of the website can complicate the development of a website. Most websites go through a few changes before the basic form/style of them settles in -- mostly concerning the comfort zone for the owner of the site. (fonts, colors, placement, etc.)
The main consideration is what critical facts about your business need to be displayed for new and returning customers. (Typically these include: business description, services, rates, its hours and location, and the contact information.)
- You choose to maintain the developed site yourself. The requirements:
- instruction on how to modify pages
(about 2 hours of instruction at your computer)
- instruction on the use of a free transfer tool to upload pages to the website at the hosting service. (about an hour at your computer) I may also charge a travel fee for this instruction session.
(My website has travel costs detailed at madmod.com.)
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| Sites With Varying Complications |
- firstchurchredding.org, a church site I maintain, requires that I make regular changes to an information banner and the various calendars. All that takes me about 2 1/2 hr./week. to keep it current. The site is a sort of electronic church headquarters for members of the church who need more information from where they are without using the phone. People look at the calendars to see if there are any recent updates to "To Be Announced" ("TBA").
- My website, madmod.com, involves changes as needed to "MadMod Alert", content on "Dave's Favorite Places." The newsletters come out 4 times per year while the MadMod Alert gets updated on an as-needed basis. I tend to make changes to a few pages each week.
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