Pricing for New Website

[mziarnik]

I am inquiring as to what people think is an appropriate price to establish an agencies website. I am in the process of opening a new independent agency and in my opinion having a good website is vital.

In addition I would like to have the capability to have maybe 4 or 5 pages on the website and the ability to use it as a marketing tool while also having people be able to obtain a free report every once in a while.

I realize there is a set up fee which can range from $500 to $5000, but the other thing that I need to look at is the monthly fee associated with it.

So with that I am wondering what those of you who are out there would expect for these kind of outsourced activities.

I look forward to your responses.

Mark

 

[jasonf]

I’d say the range you posted is pretty reasonable. The $500 end of the spectrum is going to give you prebuilt templates, or access to a DIY website builder tool. You get closer to the $5000 side by working with a qualified website developer. On that end, you should get much more than “just a website” and instead you should get a vendor who is asking you tons of questions about your goals, and proactively recommending solutions to your business problem. It’s important to remember that your goal isn’t to have a website - your goal should be to get leads - which a website CAN provide.

For example, you might have the report you mention (this is a form of content marketing) so when someone gets the report, their name and email is added to your system as a lead, though it may be a lukewarm one. You’d also have a contact form, or request quote form - anyone that completes this is a warmer lead. Sometimes the price difference between websites is factored more on what happens behind the scenes than on what your prospects see. The design is only a small part of a successful website.

As for the monthly fee, expect to pay between $5 and $100 per month, though what you get for that will vary. $5 will get you basic hosting. If you are using a free platform such as Wordpress, you’ll need to apply occasionally security patches. Or you might chose a vendor that does all this for you, or maybe they provide a retainer block of time, so you might get up to an hour of updates or SEO included each month.

I’d strongly suggest trying to find a solid, long-term vendor to help you. Using a college student or cut rate freelancer will most likely end in frustration, and when something needs change in 6 months, will they still be around?

 

[EugeneM]

Step one determine what you want the site to do.

Do you want to have a landing page to refer current and prospective clients to? Something to put on your business card just to have it or are you trying to have it produce leads for you from Search Engines and referral sites? Adding RSS feeds or newsletters/whitepaper is easy.

do you want to have a quote submission form on the website which capture leads and emails them to you with the app filled out already?

There is a huge difference in price for sites that are landing pages and sites that are lead generating sites from PPC/SEO etc...

Creating the site itself is the easiest part and you should not be paying more then 200-1000 + 5-15$ a month hosting fee for initial creation.

If you are marketing the website for leads determine a PPC budget and expand from there. I hate SEO and will not recommend it to anyone ( i sold it for a couple years long time ago) PPC is the safe way to go.

Makes me cry when people pay thousands for a landing page... happens a lot.

Internet advertising is such a dirty industry full of crooks and hungry salesmen that will do anything to get a deal.

 

[mziarnik]

A follow up on the companies I contacted was looking for approximately $2000 $2500 website design and then an additional I want to say $125 or $275...Now they offer not only ogrinal content, drip marketing, landing pages, and a ton of other services, plus they are also in the insurance industry so they have a pretty good idea of what does and doesn't work....My fear yes the $2000 to $2500 is kinda high, but the monthly fee which is really the $275 price is something that I wanted to try and cut down...So I'm just looking for some suggestions of specific companies that people are or want to use. Being New theres limited funds, but I also want to make whatever I do work for me in the quickest and most efficient way....thoughts/ideas/suggestions/advice would all be appreciated!

 

[ltcadviser]

My site cost about $14,000 to design initially.

 

[Josh]

What's the matter with a $500 wordpress site?

 

[Milkman1265]

4 dollars a month for server hosting ( i may upgrade to 15 for managed wp server)

wordpress theme 50 bucks
400 to have someone fill in the content.

Right around 500 bucks, it depends what you want the website to do....

 

[KTdep]

10 USD for domain, 50 USD for hosting. You should use free wordpress template to save.

Total price is 60 USD.

 

[ltcadviser]

Would never spend less than 20 grand today to do it right.

 

[gogostar]

for themes you can review themeforest premium themes.

and if you use wordpress, i can be sponsore for hosting for 1 year.

in my godaddy hosting package, i have 3 free site option.