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June 2, 2011 at 1:00 pm #973675Up::0
Am just launching my new company and have built a simple website using Hostpapa. Would like to take it to a higher level and am looking for a great web designer/builder to help me.
Can you recommend any one based on your experience?
As I’m just starting my budget is limited and would like to know how much you think is a reasonable amount to spend?
June 2, 2011 at 6:17 pm #1063322Up::0Hi there,
It’s hard to say what is a good amount to spend as we don’t know what your business is about & what your needs are; a simple site that gives your customers information on your services & tells them about the company is quite a bit different to a site that needs a shopping cart integrated with a custom design.
However, to give you some kind of idea, some may tell you different, but you will usually find that professionally done websites go from about $2k & up.
Hope this helps!
Brett
June 3, 2011 at 2:48 am #1063323June 3, 2011 at 11:47 pm #1063324June 4, 2011 at 5:56 am #1063325Up::0You’re making me want to change my prices up from “$500-1000” lol
We do web development though not design – we’re programmers first and foremost. Easy to get a site working and looking ok, but doing really pretty flashy graphic design … no. That’s what graphic designers are for.
June 9, 2011 at 11:24 pm #1063326Up::0Hi
It seems to me what you need here is to find someone who can ask you the right questions to help you to get where you want to go.
What is it that you want from your website.
What products and services do you want to sell or promote.
What kind of target market are you hoping to attract.
What kind of budget do you have for a website including time spent on marketing the site.Websites can be developed at your pace, within your budget and web developers / designers can work with you as your business grows.
If developed and planned by a professional that has good testimonials I would go down this path rather than a cheap developer who may not provide you with what you deserve.The great thing about websites is that they can be really cost effective when it comes to marketing in comparison to other media types such as print. You can monitor your results by viewing online statistics that are easy to view and understand ( set up by your developer) of how much traffic is visiting your site. You can then see how your online marketing is going and adapt accordingly.
Hope that helps
By all means contact me if you have any more questions
best regards
AnnaJune 10, 2011 at 5:10 am #1063327Up::0Don’t know how they do it for the price but …
http://www.spinyourweb.com.au/
currently have a special offer http://bizzbuzz.com.au/deal/website-deal/June 10, 2011 at 8:38 am #1063328June 10, 2011 at 11:52 am #1063329Up::0The deals ended.
From looking at one of their testimonials it looks like they use CMS Made Simple.
I’m guessing it’s a loss leader to get the hosting. Maybe they had some idle staff.
June 12, 2011 at 11:13 pm #1063330Up::0Id also say me, but then Im also biased!
For anyone on a budget, I would say yes, you can go ‘cheaper’ to start with, but to save yourself a whole lot of wasted time, stress and money – put it on a platform that has scalability !
By this I mean a web based content management system that you can add to or expand on later if you change your mind about what you want to achieve with your site, or if you simply get more cash to spend later down the track.
So pick a well known content management system that has the capacity to potentially add e-commerce (if thats something you think you *might* ever need), one that you can change the design without too much fuss, one that lets you access most of the back end of the site.
I know some CMS’s – especially proprietary CMS’s developed by web firms especially, will lock down alot of the CMS so you need to go back to the web firm for any little change. I have a client like that at the moment, working on moving their site into Business Catalyst because they cant so much as change a menu in their website back end!
Ones I would stick with:
– WordPress
– Joomla
– Business Catalyst (an adobe product – has alot more functionality out the box and therefore does cost more).For the above you could start with a template site at relatively cheap cost then move to a custom design later when your budget expanded. They can all expand to accommodate e-commerce without too much fuss. And all have a great back end that lets you change what you want changed.
I developed a small business starter package for businesses wanted to get an online presence at little cost, which is $1,000 which includes first year of web hosting. Thats a template site in WordPress that you can add logo to and content etc. Not super fancy but does the trick when you are just starting out !
Theres alot of companies on here using WordPress or Joomla. Not sure about BC. Just be sure that whatever you choose – you ask as many questions as you can about what you are going to get!
Good luck!
Cheers
Tara -
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