How much for a website?

Benson

Im self employed and need a website building for prospective clients to check me out as i keep getting asked for the web address but i don't just want to pick someone out of the yellow pages as I don't know if i'll be getting ripped off.

Can anyone give me any guidance to where I should start?

I am in a professional industry so would need to be a professional site (not homemade etc)

isofa

Depends how many pages, what sort of thing are you looking at. Depending on this depends on how much you'll pay.

If it just takes a day, you'll pay someone's day rate, or get a fixed cost.

A basic set of pages with contact, bit of info, looking after the domain, setting up etc, prob take a day, about £500ish from a Pro, a student or "friend" will probably do it for a lot less.

Pay peanuts get monkeys!

geewhiz

Benson wrote: »

Im self employed and need a website building for prospective clients to check me out as i keep getting asked for the web address but i don't just want to pick someone out of the yellow pages as I don't know if i'll be getting ripped off.

Can anyone give me any guidance to where I should start?

I am in a professional industry so would need to be a professional site (not homemade etc)

The best idea is to get recommendations from friends or people you trust so you know the service will be good enough.

Oh and I don't think you can say that every website created at home won't look professional, I have seen many examples of 'professional' sites that cost around £1000 looking no better than something I could have done in a couple of hours !

kwikbreaks

Unfortunately the term "professional" in the web design business can simply mean that you will get charged for the job.

Martin_Paterson

Benson wrote: »

Im self employed and need a website building for prospective clients to check me out as i keep getting asked for the web address but i don't just want to pick someone out of the yellow pages as I don't know if i'll be getting ripped off.

Can anyone give me any guidance to where I should start?

I am in a professional industry so would need to be a professional site (not homemade etc)

Some quick tips about webdesigners and pages:

Usually you can tell how good a webdesigner is by looking at their own webpage to start with, remenber their own website is the best they can do.

Also do they have an address or are they just a bloke in their livingroom?

Definatelly go local as then you can just meet them if everything goes wrong.

Check a few as prices change dramatically.

If you are going to do lots of changes then ask for a CMS (content management system).

Last tip: there are lots of cowboy webdesigner out there, please do check the small print in the contract.

If its a really simple webpage just save yourself the money and use a hosting company tool like 1and1, but I must admit that they do end up looking something really bad and unprofessional.



I have used various webdesigners for our bussiness, if you need a really good one in scotland just PM me and I can send you their details.

good luck! :j

piggeh

Ensure that you own the domain and pay directly for the hosting as if you want someone else to work on the site later on you want full access to the account details, FTP details etc.

supermonkey

Harry seems to have covered all I would have said.

Though I would add that there is nothing wrong with a guy in his living room - the results can be just as good, maybe better and usually cheaper.

I would be happy price for the work.

HarryHarry

Ermmmm - Anyone know why my post has vanished?

chunter

As fancy as it looks,
make sure it's somewhere near the top of the google popcharts.
- and stays there...

a proper web designer will ask you about what phrases people will type in to find your type of business and amalgamate them in prominently to the website.
They'll set up webstats for you and a google account to check google's stats as well.

They'll come back to it regularly after being launched to make sure the phrases are working and that you're getting the footfall.

If you're getting the footfall and not the enquiries, it's down to the two of you to suss out why..

It may take 6-12 months for visitor levels to reach an average level for a small business.

You're paying for business generating website, not an ornament.

kwikbreaks

HarryHarry wrote: »

Ermmmm - Anyone know why my post has vanished?

Whole threads have vanished mysteriously in the past. It's either a website bug, a human error, or somebody has stolen it in the hope of winning next year's Booker prize with it.

isofa

HarryHarry wrote: »

Ermmmm - Anyone know why my post has vanished?

I suspect anyone offering a service or to "PM me for a quote" will fall foul of the forum rules...

Several posts on this thread had vanished, I guess for a similar reason.