Posts
1044
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
Knoxville, TN
US
Edited Date/Time
1/1/2016 2:50pm
So my wife is about to start a consultant business and i am trying to do some homework to figure out what it will cost, etc.... regarding a website. I see all these options and they look the same basically. Anybody have any experience with building websites or hosting that can recommend one? Are the templates the sites offer basically the same? Most sites are anywhere from $2-$15 per month, does the price go up with the features you add, similar to cable?
1. Download free software like WordPress, buy a cheap web hosting plan somewhere, and set things up yourself. This usually runs around $5-10/mo, and isn't something everyone can, or has the patience to do.
2. Use a website builder/host service like http://squarespace.com or http://wix.com. These usually run around $8-20/mo and are a bit easier to get setup. You can either choose a template, plug in your content and be done, or customize it further if you want. This route still requires a bit of time on your part, but not nearly much as the first option and you don't have to worry about any computery stuff. I think Squarespace is the best general purpose website builder right now.
3. Or, hire a professional. There's probably no reason to do this unless you have a solid idea of what you want already and have grown out of the first or second option. Prices usually range from 2-7k for smallish websites.
If I were you, I'd try Squarespace out first.
If you must do it yourself use Squarespace. I actually find their system pretty decent and I have a few friends working for them.
I don't know why people insist they can do it on their own.....your product wont sell itself no matter how good it is, invest into it to help it sell. But I understand the fear of so many shitty builders out there just taking advantage of people.
Source: I build Websites/Apps for a living.
Having said that, I've tried my hardest and can't find a number to call and talk to an actual human being. That frustrates me to no end because I have a question on some of their products and nobody to talk to. Before going with anyone, I'd try to find a phone number you can call and talk to someone live. I wouldn't recommend WIX for this reason alone.
Here is the website though.
http://www.viewsideveranda.com/
Oddly enough, I have something that I'm considering doing which would require a website. I'm curious what Loyer thinks a professional would charge to do something like that? Vaguely speaking, mine would just be a retail site and I'd like the ability to accept payment over the site eventually but not immediately. Also, do you know anything about SEO?
The Shop
http://www.ipage.com/ipage/index.html
Would certainly looks much better, I struggle a lot with trying to read the content on that site and overall the design looks aged something from the early 00's. I would find it hard for me to choose that venue or something similar offering a better experience as a visitor of interest for a venue.
As far as SEO goes, if it a site is built properly and typically utilizes a CMS (Drupal, Wordpress) your SEO is good. They also make some nice tools to help vamp the site a bit more then out of the box. Dealing with companies lately, I have found out SEO is just a term that is more or less just a way to hound money out of people.
Now Web Presence which helps generate Search Engine ranks organically is something to pay for but thats more of a Social media thing, blogs on the site and keeping traffic going to your site organically . Now paying some guy 10K a year to "Boost" your google rank is what most people think of when it comes to SEO and its a rip most the time.
Keyword research and implementation will help your site's visibility in either paid ads or organic searches. In the event you use a paid ad system, good content relevant to the keywords and well constructed landing pages will actually lower the cost of your ads with a system like Google Adwords.
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