Types of Sites & Pricing

Probably my number one most frequently asked question these days is "how much do you charge to do a site?" The short answer is "it depends". The longer, less flippant, answer follows. I'll try to give you a general idea of the types of sites I create, and the price ranges for them. There are a lot of variables here, and each site is different, so the prices I'll be listing are rather crude approximations. It should also be noted that hosting and domain registration are not included in these estimates.

Business Card Web Pages

These are simple, one-page “sites” with a brief description of a retail store or professional services offered. I don't like single page sites much, and I generally discourage people from taking that route. Single page sites seldom get much search engine traffic; they lack a sufficient quantity of information to be considered a significant resource and there's not much there for other sites to point a link at. I list this option mostly because everbody else does; it also might be a correct fit for certain types of self-employed professionals.

These sites typically include:

• One page
• A few paragraphs of text
• email link
• 2-6 photos
• Basic graphic design (header graphic, color scheme, style sheet, etc.)

Price Range: $200-$300

Simple Sites

These are basic sites with no database. They usually have from six to fifteen pages, a substantial amount of text, a few photos on each page, a contact form, and a links page. They are useful for quite a range of people, groups, and businesses. Some examples include small inns or vacation rentals, artist portfolios, non-profit organizations, and retail stores who aren't selling their widgets online.

These sites are easily maintained by someone with basic knowledge of HTML.

These sites typically include:

• 4-20 pages
• Substantial text
• Spam resistant contact form
• Many photos, perhaps a special photo shoot
• Link exchanges with other sites
• Built-in search engine optimization
• Custom graphic design (header, footer graphics, style sheet, background images, etc.)

Price range: $600-800

Database-driven Sites

The possibilities are nearly endless here; dynamic sites can have shopping carts, event calendars, discussion forums, special pages for each widget in a large catalog, search functions, and on and on.

Dynamic sites can be major projects, or they can be medium-sized ones, depending on the particulars of the site, such as whether I'm doing the photography and data entry, if I can modify scripts I've already written rather than starting from scratch, the particular functionality needed for the project, etc.

Lately, I've been making small sites using databases. The primary advantage to using a database with small sites is that they can be owner-maintainable. For example, on Cheryl Walters’ real estate site, she can log in to a special section of the site and add new listings, modify or delete existing listings, or update her links page. The small initial charge for setting up the database and writing the scripts quickly becomes a discount, as she doesn’t need to hire me or someone else with html knowledge to do routine updates.

There are too many variables for projects in this category to have a simple price range. A simple, database-driven gallery site with a shopping cart might be $900 or so; I've already written those scripts. A complicated online magazine with advertising, an event calendar, and constant updating might be a full-time job for me.

If you have a project which might be a possibility for me, use my contact form and describe your project. After I learn about your project, I can give you an estimate.