Thread: Website Pricing????

What have you guys spend to get your website up and going? I've long delayed putting up my website, but am finally going for it. What have you guys paid to have it professional done? what do you think is a good price? and what was included in your price?

Thanks guys!

Merry Holidays!

I've spent close to 2 grand this past year and either got a site that I didnt know how to maintain and edit myself or there were so many glitches in the shopping cart or shipping that i abandoned both and went back to the very generic but useable one i have now :)

What main purpose is your website for? If you are going for something really simple just to showcase your dancing, advertise for dancing jobs, etc, you could probably get something like Dreamweaver (or just a free template online) and build one yourself. Maybe you can pay someone a fee to publish it (working with ftp confuses me but i do know basically how to lay things out on a page)

If you are vending items, best to bite the bullet and find someone who can work with you but then again you may consider ebay or etsy that already has all the features built in (like cart and invoicing).

:)

I'm a control freak, so I learned how to do it myself and pay about $30 a month for three sites, including domain registry.

Depending on what you want your site to do, you might want to check out the site-building tools offered by website providers. They usually have templates, you can choose a color scheme and style then plug in your own text and words. You'll get a nice looking site that you can update and maintain that way.

I use Small Business Web Hosting and eCommerce Solutions by BizLand and they have sitebuilding templates and tools, though I don't use them so I can't say whether they're any good.

Included in bizland's hosting for $5-10 month is one domain registration, server logs (showing where your visitors are coming from and what they're looking at the most), monthly submission to search engines, an e-mail registry and mailing service.

I highly recommend having a blog, using a platform like WordPress. You can have a theme designed for $200-300. The nice thing about a WordPress blog is that it is very easy to update yourself, you can create static pages in addition to the regular blogging pages, there are many plug-ins that you can add in to customize your blog, and blogs are loved by the search engines.
I have a few websites for my dance supply store Centerstage, and the main site Centerstage Dance Shop is a blog. I had the theme (the look, set up and basic functionality of the blog) designed by someone I found on elance. Let me know if you would like his info.
Ultimately, even if you don't want to go the blog route, you don't need to spend big bucks on having a website built. I have found most of the people that I have hired for website design, graphic design and copywriting on Elance, so I have had great experiences there.
What exactly are you hoping to accomplish with your site? If you want something very basic, like a website template that you your self can update via a website authoring program like Frontpage or Dreamweaver, you really should only spend a couple hundred dollars. If you want backend programming, then it will cost you more, but the downside with sites that are generated with backend programming is that they tend to be less search-engine friendly.
Hopefully that helps.

I would recommend Michelle Joyce, she makes websites at great prices and they look professional.

A lot of dancers also use GoDaddy. They have templates to choose from or you can have them build the website for you. It's very afordable too - less than $100 for the year.

These are the elements that go into the cost of having a web site:

• It costs about $35/year to register your domain name. For example, to establish and maintain ownership of "www.amandarose.com" as an address that points to whatever you want it to point to.
• There is an annual fee for having your web site exist. This can depend on how much disk storage you need, how much traffic you get, etc. For most dancers, it's quite inexpensive unless you put up videos that a stampede of people rush to view.
• A possible expense is that of purchasing software to create and update your site. There are some free options. I personally use Dreamweaver (about $400) because it's powerful and make it very easy to do even advanced features like rollover buttons. Other software that you might want/need could be photo editing software (I use Adobe PhotoShop, a more inexpensive option is Photoshop Elements).
• Paying someone to build it and keep it updated for you. Here, of course, you're paying for expertise. The cost will depend greatly on stuff like whether you already have suitable graphics and high-quality professional photos ready to go or whether the designer needs to create them for you, whether you have already written all your text/content or whether you expect the designer to help you with that, etc. In other words, the more designing and planning YOU do, the lower your cost will be of hiring someone to assemble it into a web site for you.

A think a typical cost for the domain registration is around $9.99/year. $35 is way too much. Use GoDaddy.com. Sometimes they even have domains on sale for less than that, but the $9.99/year is the norm.
Hosting is also an ongoing cost, as Shira mentioned. You can get good hosting for $9.99/mo as well. Good hosting services include hostgator.com and hostmonster.com. GoDaddy also offers hosting service, but I haven't personally used them for hosting.
I would recommend either using a template or having someone design something for you. Doing it all from scratch usually results in something that looks amateur, but if you want to go that route, I recommend a book called "The Non-Designers Web Book" by Robin Williams and John Tollett.

Domain registration/renewal is included in my package with Bizland, they pay for it (starting at the $7.99/month level, not at the cheapest price point). A second domain costs me $9.99/year, I think.

(I also get a small store with secure shopping cart, a $50 Google adwords credit, a $25 Yahoo sponsored search credit, etc etc etc...can you tell I'm in love with my web host?)

To get me where I am today, several $g's.
Completely worth it.
This is not counting cost of professional photographs and videos, however.
I have admin access where I can change all content, the calendar, edit contacts, create groups and mail newsletters to individuals or groups.
My webdude updates photos, video links, and my store for me.

My husband has done two belly dancers' websites (one is mine, of course!), and is currently offering a low introductory rate as he builds his portfolio. As long as you have the photos ready that you want to use, as well as the domain, web copy, and description of pages that you would like to display, he will do it for $300. Prices will be more expensive down the line, so it's a great opportunity to have a beautiful site built without breaking the bank! His style is very classic, elegant, and contemporary. Plus, as a belly dancer and former proofreader, I can peek over his shoulder and give suggestions from time to time!

Here is my website if you want to check it out: Belly Dance by Serafina. If anyone is interested, you can e-mail me at serafina.dance@gmail.com, and I will forward the message along to him!

Serafina

I use godaddy, too. I think it's about $10/year for domain, and $10/month for hosting. I use dreamweaver and photoshop like Shira, and really recommend it. I don't have much web development experience, but I was able to find a free template online and dreamweaver really helps everything along. It's a major work in progress (since I'm learning as I go along), but you can check out my site in my signature and let me know if you have any questions!

My husband is doing mine so all it costs me are kisses.

I use icdsoft.com. I have used godaddy, and I didn't like it at all. Too confusing for me to load stuff. The ICD soft control panel is very easy to navigate. I do all my own web design in HTML. I pay just under $40 for the year for hosting

I'm a professional web developer. I use a content management system called Joomla which allows the user to log in from the back end, and have full control over their website, through a simple interface. Most of my clients have things like interactive calendars, video and photo galleries, blogs, and news updates on their sites, and I have a whole slew of modules and components to do all of these.

I charge $60/hr for my services, and most websites take roughly 10-15 hours to get running. Part of that includes me training you how to update and manage your own website.

The host I use, 1and1.com - charges $3.99/mo for their basic package, which is more than enough to run multiple sites on. 1and1.com also charges $9/year for domains, which is about the best price that I have found.

Spark Digital Alchemy is my business site, and I have some examples of my work on there. Let me know if I can answer any other questions.

I just registered EastCoastShimmy.com on Friday night and plan on doing my own upkeep through GoDaddy (I think hosting is like $6.95/month). Money's been super tight around here lately, so I'm going the DIY route with the pre-designed templates until I decide to upgrade to something a little more slick.

Like Lauren, I'm kind of a control freak and like updating my web presence on a frequent basis, so I'm thinking this will work well for me!

woooo good information ladies, thanks for the input

Hi Amanda,

My advice is to go pro! Take your online presence seriously as it is an amazing marketing tool. Your website will bring you business and you want to look superbly professional.

Ahem, I'm just finishing a web design and development program. Like Lauren I am a control freak and wanted to do my own site but I took it one step further and enrolled in a full program! I'll have my flash portfolio site done two weeks - yay! 6 months ago I didn't even know CSS!

If you want to do your own updates, then a content management system is the way to go. It will be more pricey than just a basic html css site, but it will be really easy to add content yourself.

Looking current and professional is a good good thing!

I use 1and1 great price and I love the SEO tools :)

Samira from bhuz contacted me about putting my new site together and she did a wonderful job. I had gotten a range of price quotes from several different design firms that were around $2,000, but her prices were much more affordable for me. On top of my site fee, I pay about $10/year for domain registration and $18/month for site hosting. I agree with Maha, it's a super important marketing tool that you should take seriously and it's well worth the investment.

I think I messaged you, but my boyfriend is still interested in doing work. He prices per project. If you're interested, please PM me.

Originally Posted by Razia

Samira from bhuz contacted me about putting my new site together and she did a wonderful job. I had gotten a range of price quotes from several different design firms that were around $2,000, but her prices were much more affordable for me. On top of my site fee, I pay about $10/year for domain registration and $18/month for site hosting. I agree with Maha, it's a super important marketing tool that you should take seriously and it's well worth the investment.

Awww shucks. Thanks for the plug Razia. I'm happy to give a quote to anyone interested. I'm also currently working on a new site for another bhuzzer ..g.:, but I'll let her make the announcement when her site is done.