Web design budget advice and guide

Knowing how much capital (money) you can commit to with the start up of your website, will determine what is possible to get online. Here are some guidelines.

You are starting to have a much clearer idea of what you want your website to achieve and how you are going to do it. Unfortunately this is going to come at a price.

If you have already researched prices web designers offer, you will no doubt come across a multitude of prices and options.

The single best advice I can offer regarding web design budgetary considerations is to put priority on what you need over what you want.

Websites don't need to be complex but they have to be effective to get your message out to your target audience. By proper planning, starting small and developing your site in a timely, logical manner, you can efficiently allocate expenses from the very start and keep your site ticking over once it's online.

The predominant cost of web design is page count (the number of pages being designed) and the level of complexity of those pages.

Other than the actual cost of web design, you will have to allow for such things as:

Domain name registration - The cost of having your own URL (domain name). You can expect between USD$10-20 for registration of one year. This is an ongoing yearly cost.
Hosting account - You need your web site to reside on a server that is connected to the Internet. Commonly site owners rent space on a hosting company's computer (along with many other sites) so your site is available on the web. Hosting is now quite competitive and you can expect to pay from USD$5 upwards per month. Beware of overly cheap pricing as you do get what you pay for. Around USD$12 per month is a fair price to expect from a reputable company with quality server hardware. Don't opt for free hosting with a free domain name as I will outline elsewhere in this site, this is strategically bad; being cheap makes you look cheap and that will not help your goals.
Maintenance/upgrading costs - Your site will need upgrading and regular maintenance as it evolves. This is something you may want or can do yourself. Many companies and web designers will offer this service (as we do also). You will find different pricing for many different options and services offered. We will be addressing this elsewhere.
Promotional expenses - You may have to allow for additional expenses relating to web site advertising costs. Generally, search engines are free to list in as are many directories. There is a trend toward PPC (Pay - Per - Click) advertising in directories whereby you pay a nominated amount (e.g. USD$0.20) when (and only when) somebody clicks on your link. This is quite an efficient cost of advertising to the site owner. Yahoo currently demands USD$299 per year for your site to be indexed in their directory.

You can now see considerations you have to factor into the budget of your potential website. I don't wish to alarm you about the cost of web design. I can assure you the potential (exposure and earning ability) and enjoyment a website offers far outweighs the expenses. This is not a sales pitch, this is demonstrably correct and factual. Creating, owning and running a website has never been cheaper due to economies of scales.

This section completes our web design planning series. You now have a set of information to work through to prepare (and present to your web designer to estimate a cost) for the creation of your new website.

Next we wrap things up before you start outlining your plan on paper.

next: Website planning summary