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Websites can cost $30 per month or $100,000 or more to develop. What your website will cost will depend on your particular needs. When you create a budget for your website, you need to remember to research and include the following:
- Domain name registration
- Web hosting fees
- Ecommerce fees
- Site development costs
- Site maintenance cost
Domain name registration
Domains can be purchases for 1 or more years and domain registration sell from less than $10 to $35. You buy them from a domain registrar, which is simply a company authorized to sell you domain names.
What’s does the extra $25 buy you? Nothing! After overpaying for a few domain registrations, I learned that a domain registration is a domain registration, so don’t be fooled into overpaying for one.
What is difference between domain registrars? How much control you have over your domains. Again, for most people, this doesn’t matter. But if you are developing a website with a lot of subdomains or other technicalities, let your web developer recommend a web name registrar that works for him (or her!).
Where do I buy my domain names? Although I could save a dollar or two to register my domain names, I use www.godaddy.com because at the time I started registering domain names, they were the cheapest game in town. Now, I like the advantage of having everything in one place and I take advantage of their frequent specials that allow me to renew for less than their everyday price of $8.95 for .com names.
What other hard lessons have I learned? When you register for a domain name, do elect for annual renewal. If you don’t you run the risk of letting your domain name expire, seeing your website go down unexpectedly (which happened to me back in the late 1990s).You have a 30 day grace period to pay for your domain name renewal, but after, the name is released and it’s up for grabs.
Web hosting fees
Web hosting fees vary tremendously and range from free to hundreds of dollar per month.
If you are creating a website to support a commercial venture, then a free website, which is supported by advertising, is free is probably not for you.
Unless you are starting a venture capital-backed Internet business, you can start with a shared hosting account. Shared hosting is web hosting where multiple websites reside on the same server. Shared hosting is a cost effective business solution for almost all small businesses and if you prepay for a year of hosting, you can buy reliable shared hosting for $99 a year or less. You can choose from a Linux or Windows platform. Linux hosting is generally less expensive. Also expect to pay a one time setup fee and extra fees if you are hosting an eCommerce site or need database support.
I use both www.nexpoint.net and www.godaddy.com for shared hosting.
If you are hosting a mission critical application or have outgrown your shared hosting, you can buy managed, dedicated hosting. Managed hosting means that the hosting company provides all support services for you. Dedicated hosting means that your website resides on its own server. Managed hosting starts from $99 to $500 or even more per month. The cost rises as you needs for a more powerful server and additional services like firewalls and backup services are required.
I use www.aplus.net for hosting.
Web hosting has gotten less expensive as the cost of servers and Internet connectivity have dropped. The pricing information provided here is a guideline. Most hosting websites have complete pricing information and the better ones provide guidance to help you choose the most cost effective solution that will meet your business requirements.
Ecommerce fees
If you intend to accept credit card payments online, you will need to set up a secure credit card processing environment.
If you are selling more than one item, you will need shopping cart software which will allow your customer to select more than one item for purchase.
Next, you need a payment gateway which lets you process credit cards in real time. If you are just getting started, it will probably be most effective to use a third party to process your payments. In this case, you send your customers to a secure server hosted by a third party.
Finally, you need to set up a merchant account. The merchant account provides you with the connection to the credit card processing network. It’s here where purchases are authorized and the funds are deposited into your bank.
Entry level credit card processing solutions cost between $50-100 per month plus setup fees and ongoing monthly fees of $50 or more plus credit card processing fees.
To receive several proposals from competing merchants, visit www.buyerzone.com.
PayPal, which is an eBay company, provides an integrated eCommerce solution with no upfront fees and no monthly fees. Instead, you pay a slightly higher on the transaction. As you grow, you can apply for the preferred Merchant Rate which is competitively priced.
For more information, visit www.paypal.com.
Site development costs
Like website hosting, many hosting companies provide you with tools to help you develop your website for free and if you are on a very strict budget, this can help you get started.
If you have a small budget, there are companies that will create a basic website using a website design that is shared by many companies and charge you on a monthly basis for use of the site and hosting. Services like these are also offered by firms that customize the site for particular industries, e.g. real estate.
If you have a little more money, you can hire a local website development company to develop a custom website. Expect to pay $75 or more per hour. The design work for a basic websites can run between $500 to $1000 or more as the complexity of the design increases. In addition, you will need to pay for the developer to create pages for your website. Expect it to run $50-100 per page.
Site maintenance cost
As you create your website budget, don’t forget to budget money to maintain and update your website. Each time you make changes to your website, you will get another bill from your web developer (or you’ll need to spend the time to do it yourself). You will also need to continue to pay annual domain registration fees and monthly or annual hosting fees.
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