A website is a marketing machine that never sleeps.
Independent contractors and businesses see the advantages that a website offers. A website is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week marketing machine for your business or services. While a website can be a little pricey to establish, it should be less expensive to maintain, and if done correctly, will easily cover the cost of the creation and ongoing maintenance and hosting. The largest variable in calculating the cost of a website is whether you design the website yourself or use a web designer.
Instructions
Designing the Website
1. Select a website design service (if you do not intend to build the site yourself) and discuss your website needs and a price for the design. The more customization you desire, the higher the price will be. Make a note of the total cost of the site creation and ensure that the designer includes in the price a couple of weeks or months for tweaking and correction. If you want to design your own website, skip this step.
2. Select website design software, and make a note of the price. Website design software ranges in price from hundreds of dollars for software used mainly by skilled designers to very low-cost software, used mainly by amateurs or beginners. You might be able to find free website design software that suits your purposes if you want a basic, information-only website.
3. Determine whether you will use a pre-built template for your website or design your site from scratch. Some website building software comes with free templates. Other software offers more elaborate templates for a fee. Once you select your design software, check the availability of templates and determine a price for a template, if you want to use one.
4. Select royalty-free art for your website, if you want custom artwork. If you're designing your website from scratch, you need artwork to make it more attractive. Because most business people are not graphic artists, purchasing royalty-free artwork is the best option for a custom website look. Record the price of all the art you want for your website.
Website Hosting and Maintenance
5. Choose a name for your website and determine the price of registering the name. Many online services offer domain names for sale and have query systems that allow you to select a name that is not currently in use and offer you pricing for the name. Many domain name registry services offer discounts for registration longer than one year.
6. Determine the cost of website hosting. Many companies offer website hosting at varying prices and services included in the price. Choose a company that is reliable and meets the needs regarding the size of your website. Do not choose a company that barely can handle your business needs now, because if you continue to grow, you will have to move your site. Hosting can be purchased monthly or sometimes paid in advance at a discounted rate.
7. Determine the cost of maintenance. If you designed your own website, then maintenance might include the purchase of additional artwork as your business grows. If you hired a web designer who makes all updates and changes to your website, then add the yearly fee for maintenance to your list, if the designer charges a one-time fee. If your web designer charges by the update, estimate the number of updates or changes you will require during a year and add that cost to your list.
8. Add all of the individual costs to determine a total estimated cost for the building, launch and maintenance of your website.
