Professional Website Design & Internet Marketing Services

Every week, I get emails from potential clients who all want to know one thing: How much for a new professional website?

More often than not, my answer causes them to blush. However, based on industry buzz, my prices could actually be considered totally reasonable by comparison. Don’t believe me? Today I will discuss my prices, as well as my competitor’s prices, and much more insight on the subject.

My Prices

To help keep this article clear I will be discussing my design services only in this particular article. I will discuss other topics in future articles so stay tuned.

When people call/ email me and ask for a quote, I always follow the same process. I check out their current website (if available) and determine the following:

• The Content Management System (CMS) platform (Word Press, Joomla!, etc.)
• The scope of the site – how many unique components will be required for each custom page?
• The perceived complexity of the re-design. Does this person require graphic- based content with lots of custom images? Will I have to handle the graphic design, or will the graphics be provided?

Generally, these basic questions are used to begin laying out the actual project in question. At the conclusion of these and many more questions, I usually have a good idea of how much to charge. So how much do I charge?

Blog designs start at $1500. This price is for a blog that has minimal graphical complexity, no customized icons, and no logo production. What will get at this price are professional, error-free, browser-tested CSS, XHTML, and simple (but striking) graphic design. All of my websites also come with built-in layers of search engine optimization. What this means is that your site comes search engine optimized and designed with the ability to be crawled by search engines at the most efficient rate. Search engines like this and look favorably upon this when indexing your website.

In more complex website designs, plug-in support, heavily customized page designs, and extra graphics push the price up into the $1800-$2000 range. From there, the price is largely dictated by page-specific CSS/XHTML production and custom graphic design. It’s possible that a complex and intricately designed blog could run as much as $3000. A website of this caliber would definitely result in strong online presence ready to capture your business MORE LEADS!

The justification of my prices comes from the expected payoff one can expect from a professionally designed website by Plutone Web Solutions. You have spent years (or maybe months) building your brand and its’ reputation, why would you decide to try to make your online presence anything less than spectacular? The Internet gives anyone an opportunity to have an online presence. Why not make yours unique?

Competitor Prices

I once attended a very informative roundtable at a conference discussion that focused on blog design. The number one topic of discussion was pricing, and the panelists gave out information regarding not only their prices, but also information regarding industry pricing trends.

For instance, The Blog Studio charges $3000-$5000 for a blog design. Most thought this was quite high, but Peter (owner) was kind enough to give a price breakdown. The major elements of blog design include:

• Graphics Designed in Photoshop
• Graphical splicing for CSS/XHTML optimized structures
• CSS/XHTML production within established standards
• Custom CSS/XHTML adaptation to CMS platform desired
• Other functionality  to meet client requirements

Everything listed above require a certain degree of expertise to be completed professionally. People unfamiliar with graphic design and implementation should note that the level of complexity in designs can require long tedious amounts of work for crisp clear images that look exactly how the customer requests.

So that is why I should hire a professional!

Another person on the panel at the design discussion was a designer for another design firm. She said that blog pricing. $2500 and up, “just really begins to cover the actual time investment” required to deliver a complete, and robust design in today’s online marketplace.

Want another example? Fernando Garcia, a talented designer with an excellent portfolio, charges $2500 as a base price.

Watch out for “hidden costs”

Let’s look at the process first:

1. Buy a domain name: $10
2. Buy a hosting package: $60/yr. with two years prepaid – $120
3. You set everything up, and then you realize you need a design because your site currently looks like every other out there.

Individuals new to this process often think, “$10 for a domain? Awesome, let’s get started!”

Next, they get hit with the hosting fees, and while they’re a little bummed about having to pre-pay for two years in order to lock in that great price of $5.50/mo., they go ahead and spend $100-$200 to set up their hosting.

Their bill is already up around $200, and now they’re beginning to wonder if this web stuff is as cheap as it seemed.

Next, they get hit with a desire to have the hottest most unique design while they browse the internet, and get acquainted with the blogosphere.  “It can’t be that expensive right? After all, look at all those awesome other designs!”

Then the reality sets in that a unique design is going to cost them $1500+, and they reject the idea, especially since the hosting fees were more than they thought.

Talk about hidden costs.

Case: My Clients

My clients have one thing in common. They have a business-based reason for hiring me to design them a professional website. There have been no exceptions to this rule. All of my clients are using their professionally designed website to:

• Use their site to sell a product
• Build a subscription list for marketing purposes
• Build links and increase exposure to help with ad/referral conversions

Based on these findings, I believe that professional designs are ideal for:

• Businesses and individuals with a plan, or specific online agenda
• Businesses and individuals who understand the importance of establishing a solid online identity for their business, or brand

Conclusion:

If you want a website that will help your business or brand build/ expand its’ current internet presence, and maximize your return on investment, you need a professional designer to design your website. A website designed by Plutone Web Solutions will help not only establish a strong online identity, but help create new opportunities for your business.

Q: My business is very small, just me and two employees, and our product really can’t be sold online. Do I really need a website?

A: That’s a good question. In fact, it’s one of the most important and most frequently asked questions of the digital business age. Before I answer, however, let’s flash back. It was circa 1998, during the toddler years of the internet.

Back in 1998, which was decades ago in internet years, the future of e-commerce was anybody’s guess, but even the most negative futurists agreed that all the signs indicated that a large portion of future business revenues would be derived from online transactions or from offline transactions that were the result of online marketing efforts.

So should your business have a website, even if your business is small and sells products or services you don’t think can be sold online? My answer in 1998 is the same as my answer today: Yes, if you have a business, you should have a website. Period. No question. Without a doubt.

Also, don’t be so quick to dismiss your product as one that can’t be sold online. Nowadays, there’s very little that can’t be sold over the internet. More than 20 million shoppers are now online, purchasing everything from books to computers to cars to real estate to jet airplanes to natural gas to you name it. If you can imagine it, someone will figure out how to sell it online.

Let me clarify one point: I’m not saying you should put all your efforts into selling your wares over the internet, though if your product lends itself to easy online sales, you should certainly be considering it. The point to be made here is that you should at the very least have a presence on the web so that customers, potential employees, business partners and perhaps even investors can quickly and easily find out more about your business and the products or services you have to offer.

That said, it’s not enough that you just have a website. You must have a professional-looking site if you want to be taken seriously. Since many consumers now search for information online prior to making a purchase at a brick-and-mortar store, your site may be the first chance you have at making a good impression on a potential buyer. If your site looks like it was designed by a barrel of colorblind monkeys, your chance at making a good first impression will be lost.

One of the great things about the internet is that it has leveled the playing field when it comes to competing with the big boys. As mentioned, you have one shot at making a good first impression. With a well-designed site, your little operation can project the image and professionalism of a much larger company. The inverse is also true. I’ve seen many big company websites that were so badly designed and hard to navigate that they completely lacked professionalism and credibility. Good for you, too bad for them.

You also mention that yours is a small operation, but when it comes to benefiting from a website, size does not matter. I don’t care if you’re a one-man show or a 10,000-employee corporate giant; if you don’t have a website, you’re losing business to other companies that do.

Here’s the exception to my rule: It’s actually better to have no website at all than to have one that makes your business look bad. Your site speaks volumes about your business. It either says, “Hey, look, we take our business so seriously that we have created this wonderful site for our customers!” or it screams, “Hey, look, I let my 10-year-old nephew design my site. Good luck finding anything!”

Your website is an important part of your business. Make sure you treat it as such.