Because web sites differ so much in size, style and complexity it is impossible to put fixed prices on the development of a web site. Instead we give you the opportunity to discuss your requirements with a developer. There is no charge for this service and it gives us the chance to get a good understanding of your business or idea. Once we have an understanding of what you want to achieve we can then help you decide on what options are available to you and provide a cost effective solution that really works. E-mail or call 01253 884026 today

Web Site Budget Considerations?

Web site budgets, and the options to consider when planning your site can't be rushed. Here we have kept lots of information together so you can get up to speed on the basics, very quickly. This has meant a long page of information, so either view on line, print the page, or use your browsers save option to save to your hard drive and view it offline later.

One reason for web sites costing far more than originally budgeted for, is lack of clarity on exactly why you want a site, and what you want the site to achieve. This means that you may end up making many changes throughout the lifespan of the project, which you will be charged for. So make sure you're clear in your needs and goals before you sign a contract.

Once you have decided exactly what you want, produce a 'request for proposal' stating the specific site requirements, and issue this to the design company. They should now produce a detailed proposal, that can be used as the set point for a contract.

Decide how you wish to pay for the works done. There are usually two ways: Fixed price or Hourly rate.

Fixed price

Fixed price is less flexible, but you know exactly how much you will be charged for works, based on the proposal/contract. If you go this route, agree what charges will apply for variations from the start, and make sure all variations are logged for later comparison.

Hourly rate

Hourly rate is very flexible and suitable for projects that you know will change over the period, due to (say) input from a number of parties. Hourly rate can work very well, providing you keep close watch on where the hours have been 'spent'. The hourly rate itself is negotiable and may seem high to start with, but can save you money in the long run as you can ask how long new features will take to implement, before deciding if your budget allows for it.

Static sites.

Static sites are still the most popular and cost effective sites. They are an excellent investment for small to medium sized companies,and especially for those who want to test Internet response, before embarking on full blown e-commerce enabled extravaganzas. (You can always add these features later)

What you can expect to see for your money can vary wildly. Static sites are typically costed on a per page basis. This includes layout, links & graphics. If using commercial hosting you should expect some type of feedback via forms and CGI scripts.

Interactive sites.

Costs start to rise when you start adding interactivity, for example Flash animations, dynamic content, database integration, direct sales facilities via credit card transactions etc.

Here's a quick and dirty guide:

Flash animation

Fully flashed sites will cost you at least twice that of a standard HTML static site. Flash is a time intensive development tool, with a (still) relatively small number of 'experts' available.

What you need to consider here is this: What exactly does this flash animation ADD to my web site. If all it does is delay visitors from getting to the information they want, then it's superfluous, and should be left out.

Don't be tempted to have it just because some designer tells you it's the latest thing. Flash is just another tool which can be used to present information in an animated and interactive way. If the information isn't suitable, it can be an annoyance, hence the proliferation of 'skip' buttons on sites with flashed (splash) intro's.

E-commerce

There are hidden costs that smaller companies should be aware of, when embarking on an e-commerce site. They are as follows:

Shopping cart software

One off payment- around £420 (inc VAT for Actinic's Catalogue . A professional, award winning out-of-box product). This needs populating with stock information which may take days so let's add £400 for this, based on you having a large stock listing. If you have an existing stock database, this cost can be dramatically reduced.

Merchant trader account

You must have 'merchant trader' status to take credit card transactions yourself. With the high street banks, there is a one time setup fee of around £150, then a per transaction charge of between 1.5% and 3% of the value of the order! Shop around the banks for the better deals. Accounts can take up to 3 months to process, so don't commission an e-commerce enabled site until you have it in place. What would happen if the application was refused?

If you're not an established credit card trader, you may have difficulty securing a merchant trader account via the banks. In this case you may find it easier to use one of the many 'transaction handling' companies who take care of this part for you. The downside is that they typically charge a higher percentage fee per transaction (up to 8%), and can charge setup fees. The upside is that they can normally set accounts up very quickly, and they relieve you of many of the administration problems, and security issued that can arise!

Secure Socket Layers (SSL)

Many customers are still reluctant to give their credit card details over the internet. So allay their fears by using security measures in the transaction process. SSL servers use 40bit encryption to scramble credit card information sent to them. For secure transaction servers there is an annual setup fee of around £200, then a typical charge of 1.5% per transaction or a minimum monthly fee of around £10, whichever is greater.

Alternatively, if you you have credit card payment facilities in your normal business, you could use the inbuilt 128bit encryption in the Actinic catalogue example at no extra cost, inputting the card numbers when the orders are downloaded. Whichever method is used, the customer must be reassured that their information is safe.

Your small e-commerce web site has now cost you between £1000 and £1400 for the first year, plus (up to) 4.5% of the value of all sales. That's before you even have a site!

You now need to add:-

Hosting Costs

say £25 with a quality hosting company. This includes domain name registration

Site Design Costs

We'll add an abitrary £700 figure in here for example only.

Annual Site Maintenance Costs.

Say £600, so that your site is updated regularly (by an external party), and you are well promoted to the largest possible online audience.. You could undertake much of this work yourself, at reduced cost, but it may be at reduced effectiveness! You will also need to consider additional costs for other forms of promotion, e.g. flyers, newspaper and magazine ads, radio and television if you intend to use them. We have not allowed for these costs here.

For the above example, you are now be looking at an investment of £2000 to £3000 for the first year. Subsequent years will costs up to £1200 if using the same level of promotion, though this figure may be brought down as your site becomes established.

Remember, that this is just a rough costing exercise (though using realistic prices) on a relatively static site. There are many options for building ecommerce sites, I've just quoted proven and hence popular choices that work. The more you want the site to do, the more it will inevitably cost, no matter who does the work. This is bargain basement ecommerce. If you are quoted half of this cost, there is always something important missing!

Shocked by the costs?

Don't be shocked by the above example. It's common to underestimate the real cost of taking a company into the e-commerce arena. Surveys quoted by Internet.Works magazine (Dec 2000 edition) places the current average cost of a fully fledged professional ecommerce web site, at between six and ten thousand pounds and upwards! Our example is a simple site using out of the box solutions. If you integrate your databases, add flash animations and interactivity, it's easy to see how the price can rise.

Note we have costed for an 'off the shelf' shopping cart package with good reason. YOU will own the software license. If you are not happy with some aspect of the design company's performance, you can take your business, and YOUR software, elsewhere. You will NOT be able to do this, with a design company who uses in-house developed custom software. In this situation, you will end up paying these charges again.

Common misconceptions

Once your site is uploaded to a server, don't just sit back and expect the orders to roll in. Unless you have a major advertising campaign running at the same time, it may take weeks if not months to achieve sales.

For this very reason, don't waste money on an ecommerce web site in the hope that it will save an already struggling business. The setup costs will compound the problems.

Not every product is suitable for selling over the net. When deciding whether to 'go ecommerce', think like your customers. Would you be willing to wait a delivery period if you could just 'pop to the local shop' for one? Items that sell well on the internet, include the unusual, the rare, the highly desirable, specialist and niche items, the instantly downloadable, and, wait for it.. the heavily discounted and quickly delivered! Yes, even those!

Summary

So there you have the basics. Many of the above (costings) are variables that can and will change, depending on exactly what you intend to do, how it's done, and who does it for you. We would recommend the above ecommerce route to any small business wishing to sell online. It's tried and tested, and there are plenty of businesses out there using it, who are making money via their web sites.

Please let us know if you found this useful.

Quotations from Top 10 Google

You can request a no obligation quotation from us for static, or ecommerce enabled web sites, at any time. Please email sales@top10google.co.uk including as much information as possible.

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