Web site costs run from free
(but plain) to pricey (but fancy)
By Christine Selvig • Bankrate.com

No more excuses.

There's no reason to delay putting out the cyberword about your business anymore. Package prices for Web site design and Web hosting have never been more affordable.

How affordable? Some companies are giving them away, while others even pay you if you let them be your Web host -- in other words, place your Web pages on their site. Bizland.com, for example, will host your site for free and pay you a referral fee given to you for every visitor to your site who signs up for Bizland membership or e-mail service.

The low-cost choices
No-cost and low-cost Web pages are usually grown from a set of basic templates that are personalized as you work your way through a list of questions and options.

BellSouth, for example, offers four do-it-yourself Web site packages with costs ranging from $15 a month for a basic site to $120 a month for a "super store" site. You put together and maintain your own Web pages by filling out templates. Your graphics and copy put your company's personality into the site. As an added enticement, the company is waiving the installation fee for new customers and offering them one to six months of service for free, depending on the package.

That's not a bad deal when you consider Web developers generally charge from $30 to $300 a page to work their magic. Most of the companies we looked at charge $20 a month to host a site. It will cost an additional $70 to register a domain name -- as in www.mybusinessname.com -- for your site with InterNIC, the Internet's registration service. The fee is good for two years and then registration must be renewed. Some Web hosts will register the domain name for you at cost; others will tack on an additional fee.

Pricing the components
Robert C. Brenner, who publishes annual regional price guides for Web site design and desktop publishing services, says you can get an idea of what you can expect to spend by pricing out the individual components of an existing site you like. Some Web developers, such as Digital Spinner, have interactive calculators on their sites that let you construct your own job estimate. Other developers offer a variety of affordably priced small business packages.

Before you can determine how much your Web site is going to cost, you need to have a clear idea of what you expect your Web page to do for your company. Will it simply greet your Web site visitors and give them some basic information about the business? Or, do you expect your site to advertise or even sell your services or products?

What will your Web do?
Experts in the field suggest you begin your planning by writing a "job description" for your Web page. The description should include the purpose, a brief description and an outline of what you expect your Web presence to accomplish, according to Mike Spears, president and CEO of Firefly Digital Inc., a Louisiana-based Web development company.

Once the job description is on paper, Spears suggests you take to the Internet, paying special attention to industry-related sites and those of your competitors. Bookmark the sites you like and write down what you like about them. This process should help you clarify what you like in a Web site and provide you with an easy means for sharing your opinions with a Web site developer. It should also help you identify some potential candidates for your project.

Finding a Web developer
The Internet, local Yellow Pages and your own stack of favorite Web sites should supply you with enough potential business partners to get started. You don't have to hire a local company to build your Web page. The Internet makes it possible to be closely involved with the development and testing of your Web site even if your developer is on the other side of the world.

Most sites identify their developers. If you can't locate information about a site that you like, you might be able to find out who built it in the Whobuiltit section of the eConstructors Web site. This group acts as a middleman between developers and potential customers, listing more than 20,000 sites built by 3,100 Web developers.

If you prefer to work with a local company you can find names and Web site addresses in your local Yellow Pages. Visit sites before you make your first call.

Once you've narrowed down your choices, contact them and talk about your project. Ask for links to some of the Web sites they have produced along with the names of people you can contact. "It's most important to call as many references as you can," Spears says. Be sure to include questions about development and post-development customer service.

The job description and bookmarked Web sites will serve as a starting point for discussions with potential developers. You can expect to receive a proposal along with a suggested blueprint for your site. Once you've decided on a company, you can negotiate prices, services and timing and formalize them in an agreement. David Siegel, author of Secrets of Successful Web Sites: Project Management on the World Wide Web offers a sample agreement at the book's companion site.

-- Updated: June 26, 2001