I hear this several times each week when asking potential new clients about their budget. If they fill out my site inquiry form more times than not the budget noted is $200-300.00.

Not for some tweaks, not for some advice — for an entire online business program. That’s what a “Web site” really is — your online business program, right?

They want it all. The great looking site, eCommerce functionality that basically does everything but cook your breakfast, and the massive amounts of dollars funneling into their bank accounts.

But they can’t spend hundreds…

Where did they get the impression that to start any business was only a couple hundred bucks? What makes them even contact a professional and make a statement like that?

Misinformation, hype, wishful thinking…

In the old days online was much less expensive than having a brick and mortar. Not so much any more. What you save in rent and property insurance, you’ll eat up in building and marketing your Web site.

And, no — you don’t have to pay professionals like myself what you perceive to be high hourly rates. You can do it yourself. However, unless you are going to learn about FTP, CGI, creating quality graphics for the Web, HTML, XHTML, PHP, Perl with a dash of good design sense, your site will lack credibility.

Yes, you can DIY — but you had better have a TMP (Tech Muse Pro) on call or available to bail you out when you are frustrated or your site doesn’t produce the unrealistic expectations you choose to believe in.

You know where to find me…

At your service,
Judith

Whatever it takes to compete in your market. The most you can afford to have a fighting chance to be taken seriously and for site visitors to have confidence in doing business with you.

I’ve seen great sites for $1000 and over-priced sites in the 5 and 6 figure range. It isn’t as much what the cost is or should be, it is creating a presentation that will produce the desire results.

You can even build your own Web site for nothing except the cost of your time. But will you create a site that will provide the necessary ingredients to ensure your success? Probably not. WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors like FrontPage do not compensate for a lack of color sense, marketing considerations during the development process, intuitive design and the staples that need to be in place to provide the perception of legitimacy.

How much should a Web site cost? How badly do you want to succeed?

At your service,
Judith