How much did you pay for your site?

Ashmo · #1 2008-09-18, 1:44pm

So I've finally found someone to build me my site, after months and months of people saying yes to doing it and never getting it done. Anyway this guy is quoting me $590 for the site. The site will not have a full shopping cart, just the option to order then i will send an invoice with the total cost. There will be about 10 pages of different titms, plus homepage etc and an administrator page. This is the highest I've been quoted for my site to be built, just wondering what anyone else has payed. I have already bought the hosting and domain name, through godaddy.

I know webdesign can get quite expensive, but I'm looking for a pretty basic site here. I'm excited to just get the site built and done, but was surprised at the amount, and I was getting a friend deal.
Any comments would be really appreciated,
thanks

Kaye · #2 2008-09-18, 1:55pm

$69 through papashop, with shopping cart and unlimited storage for photo's...I pay $20 a month

Ashmo · #3 2008-09-18, 2:01pm

Thats someone building it for you? I am not that good with computers and do not want to sit and try and figure it all out. That is quite a bit less then this quote.

Paul Ewing · #4 2008-09-18, 2:09pm

Personally I quote at $50/hr for business sites, so the quote isn't bad depending on how much work they are expecting. Personally I hate doing site copy. Writing it is a pain, especially if it is on a subject I don't know a lot about. If I am given text files or documents, even printed articles and ads along with decent pictures, I can put it into a website and optimize the content for search engines on that size site in 10-12 hours probably.

I would put a shopping cart on it since the setup using a service such as Mal's e-Commerce http://www.mals-e.com is fairly quick and simple and I could do a small 10 page catalog in an hour or two. I can't believe they didn't include that since it is a big value feature for relatively little effort on the developers part. Well unless they are planning to push you for several hundred dollars more for the cart later. Adding an onsite cart system does take a lot more effort though.

NLC Beads · #5 2008-09-18, 5:22pm

I used a Pappashop template, uploaded my own logo, and love their built-in catalog/cart and overall ease of use - 12.95/month.

Kaye · #6 2008-09-18, 6:33pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashmo

Thats someone building it for you? I am not that good with computers and do not want to sit and try and figure it all out. That is quite a bit less then this quote.

yeah its all done for you...they have different rates for what you get...like Nicki said, she pays $12.99...not sure why I pay $19.99...its the package I bought I guess, I never have to dump photo's ...I have unlimited space from what I understand...never dumped any yet LOL...I have so many templates to choose from to make it look different and I have a shopping cart etc...that part cost me $69.99....and I bought my www.koregonbeads.com thingy to...but its really easy for someone who don't know much about building your site, its perfect

Ashmo · #7 2008-09-18, 6:55pm

Thanks guys for your responses. I'm going look into it a bit more and see whats the best for me to do.

Ash

Charli! · #8 2008-09-21, 5:14am

Egads, wish I could charge that much! I make sites for £20 a page (so $40ish) and $100 for the shopping cart (thats linked to paypal). Obviously I need to start charging more! (I've never made a site for beads either, but I have done other shops)

yeepers · #9 2008-09-21, 5:32am

Nothing. I built my site myself

I think there are better deals to be found out there at the price you're being quoted.

fyrebeadz* · #10 2008-09-21, 5:40am

I built my first one myself. The one I currently use was $89 for everything (even a built in shopping cart that links to paypal) and host it through pappashop for $12.95/month.

Here is a link I just found this morning that has nice templates for a very reasonable cost:

http://www.envisionitcreative.com/

If I were you I'd do some seriuous shopping around first before committing to this guy!

evolvingBeau · #11 2008-09-21, 6:29am

IMO it's a matter of how customized you would like your site to be. Even still, hosts like pappashop offer tons of options as far as the look of the site goes as well as an integrated shopping cart and editing interface that makes it pretty easy to use for a good price.
Another thing is that if you have someone build a site from scratch it may be difficult for you to update or edit content depending on how they set it up.
For me to pay that price it would have to be a pretty knock your socks off website experience.

szglassy · #12 2008-09-24, 5:31am

Does poppa shop allow you to optimize the content for search engines?
How about if you find a template that you like, changing the color and fonts?

Dasi · #13 2008-09-24, 8:53am

I use godaddy.com
It is easy with their web site tonight software. Just like using microsoft word...... Lots of templates to choose from. Just drop and drag. Plus they offer a shopping cart. I pay 4.95 a month for 20 items in a shopping cart.

Ashmo · #14 2008-09-30, 11:14am

Well I am going with this guy. I checked out his other sites and they are really nice and mine will be custom, which is nice. Also it seems to be taking less than a couple weeks to get it done. If i were to do it it would be more like 2 months, so I'm okay with paying a higher price just to have it done before Christmas.
I'll post a link once it's done and you guys can let me know what you think, and the responses better all be that I got my moneys worth! haha

lavendar420 · #15 2008-10-03, 11:34pm

You do tend to get what you pay for... just make sure to get a written contract about exactly what you're buying. Know how much updates will cost. Will you need him to add products or update text, or can you do it, & how much will it cost if he does it? I'm a web developer for a company & I don't do free lance cuz I don't have too, but I've seen lots of friends have problems like these. Esp. if its a friend doing the site. Best to have stuff in writing when money changes hands, if you want to remain friends.

Starrr · #16 2008-10-04, 1:18am

I went with PappaShop when Alex was first starting and paid about 400.00 with 9.95 a month,(I'm sure prices might be different now). I used my own custom graphics and he did everything else and it took about a week. Walked me through everything with a phone call and I actually understood what he said.

I didn't think anyone could be more website illiterate than I was but I was uploading pics and changing/adding things on my own the next day, and they never make you feel stupid for asking the most simple question, simple is subjective.

PappaShop is worth a look if not for the sheer amount of websites they have done and the large amount of satisfied customers, their customer support is fantastic.

Ashmo · #17 2008-10-04, 7:50am

This guy is giving 2 months of maintenance, once the site is done. He is setting up an admin. page so I can easily change pictures and text. I got the first draft and it looks really nice, it's now up to me to take some nice pictures!

theglasszone · #18 2008-10-04, 3:16pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaye

$69 through papashop, with shopping cart and unlimited storage for photo's...I pay $20 a month

I AGREE!!! I had this gal, a sitebuilder through Pappashop, do mine! I think, though, that since I haven't waded through the tutorials on "how to" do all the uploads, etc., I may have preferred to pay extra to have her upload stuff and make everything "instant" when it comes to listing my work, etc. If you use her, tell her I sent 'ya!

http://www.kaylidesigns.com/

De

LoriGreenberg · #19 2008-10-04, 11:45pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by szglassy

Does poppa shop allow you to optimize the content for search engines?
How about if you find a template that you like, changing the color and fonts?

It depends what you mean by that (optimizing content for search engines, that is).

You can change your template any way you want if you know how to do that. I don't know how it would work to just drop a full blown template onto it myself but I know I've changed backgrounds, fonts, etc. You have access to all of your files in file manager and cpanel capabilities, again, if you know how to mess with that stuff.

If you wanted a new look at some point and don't know how to drop a new template in yourself, I'm sure they could do that for you (for a fee) since I know that they create sites where people bring their own designs from the start.

You can add key words and meta titles to each image and link you put in, which helps with SEO and you can put that kind of info into the template, also. Are there other forms of SEO you're inquiring about?

Pappashop is a full-service, easy-to-use shopping cart and hosting solution. I've designed my own sites, paid more than the original quote referenced here to have one designed and also tried Pappashop. For what we do and how we sell, PS has been the best solution I've used.