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Does it really cost that much? You know what I mean; your friend told you he could get your website built for $200. While the guy from the web design company said. “It will be around $3500 to $5000 based on your requirements.” So you go with your friend’s cheap price. Now, you’re stuck with a junk website that nobody visits and it’s not helping your business at all. You start thinking about the quote from the design company and think out loud… “Does it really cost that much?”

Well, the short answer is… it ought to!

My colleague likes to use the analogy of cars when talking about web design project costs. How much does a car cost? That depends on a lot of factors; maybe $500, maybe $50,000, maybe more. So it is with website development costs, but I think it’s even less cut and dried than a car.

I think it’s more like building a house. How much does a house cost to build? A trailer-park home is pretty cheap. There are more elaborate modular homes of all shapes and sizes that are shipped in sections at a time by truck and constructed in a week or two. Those are much cheaper than a custom home. If your friend said he could get you a nice custom home built for $20,000 while the four general contractors gave average quotes of $280,000 would you take your trailer-park friend seriously? Why would you do it with your business?

The truth is, seriously professional websites cost seriously professional money. There are a wide range of providers out there that can be all over the planet with the variance in prices. Some provide cheap solutions for under $1000, while others will not talk to you for less than $10,000 to start. Then there are recurring costs that many business owners don’t even realize. You have hosting, website updates, domain name purchasing, marketing, and so on.

Basically, you have to be ready to supply the right budget if you want the job done right. If you have a really low budget, there are options to do-it-yourself or hire a student or part-timer. But serious businesses should realize that a custom, professional website will cost some real money and the budget should be wisely spent.

See Part 2 of this Article »