Free website creation or should I pay for it?

badgerbread

Sorry if this is the wrong place to put this but I am thinking about starting an Internet business and need some advice. I am wondering about the Internet site I have been quoted 30-40k for developing the website from scratch. It would be quite a big website but then I saw a lot of free ones where you can create yourself with the help of templates. Obviously I need to create a lot of traffic to my website is going with the freebie a false economy or is 30-40k far too much money for a large website? I think I already know the answer but thought it best to ask what everyone else thinks before I part with a lot of money.

kwikbreaks

Was that 30-40k rupees? Unless it's a very complex site £30-40k is way way OTT. A home made site will look amateurish unless you have some innate skill which most of the population don't.

What sort of online business are you talking about? If it's selling anything would you buy from a site that looked very amateurish?

badgerbread

Without going into too much detail it will be similar to estate agent.

WilliamO

Depends also on what that 30-40k is buying you? Will the website have a members area, username login, search function, etc like rightmove or zoopla or will it just be a static cosmetic website where people just look at photos of houses to rent/buy? Also, who is doing the website? Rentacoder or private company?

bluesnake

while my suggestion may not fit what you want, quite a few people use have used on various internet sites a modified bulletin software layout and turned off some of the colour, borders and shading etc, so not to give the game away

Most sites that do not have their own developer have a company contact on the bottom of the page like http://www.clarkscomputers.co.uk/ or http://www.technicweb.com/PropertyWebsites.aspx http://www.webdesignessex.net/portfolio/brian-cox/?ModPagespeed=noscript http://www.tmdp.com/

nonnatus

30-40k!!!!!

Most web designers seem to charge £800-£1500 to create any size of website.

For £30k I would expect them to be RUNNING the website and providing a permanent full time member of staff to assist with ANY problems and make bacon sandwiches every day...:rotfl:

Sparhawke

If you are being quoted £40,000-50,000 for a website that does nothing new at all then the developer is having a laugh; there are very few "new" websites out there that would justify such a spend.

It does not matter how little or how much you spend, while it is good to have everything pretty at the first it is impractical since you do not know whether it will work, it is a case of "if you build it do you know they will come?"

Get a site off the ground and then start tweaking and developing it as time goes by and you know what people want, not before.

Have you ever heard of the Spaghetti Sauce Analogy?

mehera

nonnatus wrote: »

30-40k!!!!!

Most web designers seem to charge £800-£1500 to create any size of website.

For £30k I would expect them to be RUNNING the website and providing a permanent full time member of staff to assist with ANY problems and make bacon sandwiches every day...:rotfl:

Most web designers charge for the amount of pages you have in fact!

If you want a proper site that is a proper business proposition then you have to pay for it!

I am sure you can find someone who will charge less though. Look for small, local designers who do in house SEO. This will be cheaper than a big company!

macman

That level of charging implies a whole year's work for one designer. Sounds completely OTT.
But if I was contemplating paying that much for a website, I'd expect it to be very much better than anything I could knock up on my own using standard templates. Unless you are a graphic designer, you can't build decent looking websites, any more than you could design decent looking books or other printed matter.
The difference always shows.

mehera

People seem to think they can dash out and do anything these days - which is a commendable spirit I must say!

However, there is a very good reason WHY there are professional plumbers, web designers, publishers and so on . . . .

Never think you can just shoot out there and compete with guys who have years of training, experience and thousands of pounds worth of money invested!

This is a 'something for nothing' culture we are living in!

You have to invest the proper time, energy and money into whatever you are doing.

And if you want to knock up a template website for a laugh then go for it - just do not think it will be any good for a SERIOUS business . . ..

[Deleted User]

macman wrote: »

That level of charging implies a whole year's work for one designer. Sounds completely OTT.
But if I was contemplating paying that much for a website, I'd expect it to be very much better than anything I could knock up on my own using standard templates. Unless you are a graphic designer, you can't build decent looking websites, any more than you could design decent looking books or other printed matter.
The difference always shows.

And there lies the fallacy. A good website should be designed by a graphical/UI Designer, built by a web developer, coded by a programmer and have a database designed and build by possibly another developer. It's certainly possible for one person to do all those things - but not to a level of professionalism that might match a site such as rightmove.com. Maybe the price included a suite of testing, redesign time after drafting. It could also be a a consultancy rate of £500-700 a day (per person).

Yes,before that money I'd expect a complex back-end, a support package, a good hosted DB and a great looking front end.

Realistically, you should be able to get an ok looking version for a lot less if you went through a smaller (one man band) firm