The above does not take into account the additional time that you need to Project Manage the development and the time delays, if any, to get the site finished.
Subscription
A subscription service is when the features of your website are hosted on the internet and run from an existing website portal. Just like Google Docs or GMail let you keep all your emails or Word, Excel and Power Point files online so to is your website hosted online with another website. This makes it easier to manage and easier to maintain.
Subscription prices from
|
Super |
Regular |
Mini |
| Price |
$165 |
$110 |
$65 |
| Users / Logins to edit the site |
10 |
5 |
1 |
| Email Accounts |
50 |
20 |
10 |
| Website Storage Limit |
5Gb |
2Gb |
1Gb |
| Email Newsletter Limit / Month |
10,000 |
10,000 |
10,000 |
Design
Website
design is critical. Designing a website is very different to building
it. When thinking about the design of your website you need to
consider how important your brand is to your business.
Professional Website design - This is a custom made design unique to your brand - $900 - $1800 for one concept $1,500 - $3,000 for three concepts.
Template Design - Using a pre-designed template for your look and feel this will not be unique and may not align with your brand $200 - $800.
A note on design, in my opinion it is more important to spend time and money on content for your website than spend your entire budget on design. A well designed website will attract a once off viewing whereas a website with content your users find useful will engage the user like no design can.
Types of websites
Passive or Static websites
These are brochure style sites that have all the images and text hard
coded into each page, web designers often build these types of sites as
they are easy to build however there are often things in the background
that designers don't include, these are outlined in the
Standard of Website development . They are the cheapest and easiest type of websites.
Cost
5 page website - $750 - $2,000
Pros
- Cheap and easy to get a website
- Flexibility as there is no restriction on design
- Quick development time
- A designer can build these sites
Cons
- Changes can only be made by a web person costing you each time you change the site
- Limited functionality, you can only have pages displaying information like a brochure
Summary
This type of site is suitable if you only change the site every 6 - 12 months and have only a few pages of information
Hosting
Static
website hosting could costs anywhere between $200 - $1,000 per year
depending on the hosting company and the level of service and
reliability you are paying for. It is worth paying about $500 - $800
for decent hosting as you don't want your site to be slow or worst
still be offline for long periods of time.
Self Managed or Content Management System (CMS) websites
A
CMS is a piece of software that runs your website and enables a client
with little technical skill to update their website. The CMS software
lives on the hosting computer and processes your data and any extra
functionality like forms, blogs, e-commerce, e-marketing (Newsletters),
polls, banner advertisements etc.
The main problems with
CMS's is that there are thousands of them out there, some large, some
small, some good, some bad. The free or open source ones are used the
most because they are free, however this is often not the case, they
are often sold to you by your web person and end up costing you more in
the long run.
Free or Open Source CMS
The reason many
website are built using an open source solution is price. An open
source CMS will be cheaper than a commercial CMS. As with many open
source programs, because the code is "open," the opportunities for
added functionality is greater as there is a community of volunteer
developers building add-ons for the CMS. This is also one of the
reason it is risky.
Cost
Simple content only based CMS - $2,000 - $4,000
CMS with Blogs or newsletter - $3,000 - $5,000
CMS with E-commerce - $6,000 - $14,000 not including Bank Feeds, gateway or SSL costs
Pros
- Free software, however this might mean the web person can keep all the profit and charge the client for the software
- Cheaper development but potentially longer development time
- Cheaper hosting
Cons
- Once the site is build they are usually not maintained or upgraded and potentially pose a security risk
-
Often difficult or inconsistent to use as it has been developed by
potentially thousands of volunteer developers that all have their own
style and level of quality control when they develop software
- More prone to bugs and errors as there are varying degree of quality or testing
- Limited documentation to support the CMS
-
Some offer limited design options EG you are forced to work within a specified template
- If
there is a bug in the software you will need to rely on a community of
developers to release a software patch instead of a dedicated team to
solve the problem for you
- As this software is created and
supported by a team of volunteers, your site is not their first
priority so expect to wait if you have a problem
Summary
This
type of site is good for someone who wants to test the internet water
and plans to redevelop their site in one to two years.
Hosting
The
language which your site is programmed in is what primarily dictates
the type of hosting you need. Often these types of site use UNIX or
LINUX hosting costing anywhere between $100 per year to $1,000 per year
depending on the service level, stability and reliability.
Proprietary or Commercial Self Managed or Content Management System (CMS) websites
Most
people believe that Commercial Software will cost more. However the
fact that it has ongoing maintenance and support at no extra cost will
enable you to have one CMS for the life of your website and indeed your
business.
You can refresh your site with a new design and have
piece of mind that the software behind the website is the latest
version as if you just rebuilt your site brand new.
Cost
Simple content only based CMS - $3,500- $6,000
CMS with Blogs or newsletter - $6,000 - $8,000
CMS with E-commerce - $8,000 - $18,000 not including Bank Feeds, gateway or SSL costs
Pros
- Solid robust and future proof solution that invovled updates and maintenance just like Windows Updates on your PC
- Quick development time with dedicated development team
- Piece of mind and security knowing you have a robust CMS with support and service level agreements
- Easier
to use as the CMS as each module or added functionality is not an
tacked on to the site but is integrated into the CMS as a whole
- Consitent programming and high level of quality control as the development team needs to support the CMS
Cons
- More expensive initially than open source
- Hosting requires higher level of performance and suport to ensure the site works at it's optimal level
Summary
This
type of CMS is for people who want to add things later on and be able
to change them through the one login and integrate them with
the existing pages. EG if you want to add a blog later you can
automatically have it applied to all current news articles with no
extra coding, total integration. Or you plan to add a newsletter but
want to manage it within the existing login area of your website.
Hosting
The language which your site is programmed in is what primarily
dictates the type of hosting you need. Often these types of sites use
Windows hosting costing anywhere between $800 per year to $1,800 per year depending on the service level, stability and reliability.
Questions to determine what you need
- Did you engage the services of a Graphic Designer to develop your logo and business stationary? This will determine how serious you are about your brand.
- How much time to you have to dedicate to updating the site?
- How many sales enquiries do you expect to get from your website?
- Do you have products you can sell via your website?
- Do you have a newsletter you currently post to your customers offline?
- Do you have an existing list of your customers email addresses?
- Do you contact your customers with special offers?
- Would your customers benefit from a member only login area?
- How often do you plan to change the site?
- How many pages will you have on the site?
- What percentage of your existing customers currently visit your site?
If you are unsure about any of the above I would start asking your existing customers what they would like see on your website and what would the ultimate website for your business be. You may be surprised that they want something totally different to what you think you need.