I get lots of emails from potential clients who all want to know: How much should a website cost?

Nine times out of ten, they are shocked at the price and run to the first 50$ web designer and get burned! The facts below are, based on industry news.my prices are actually very low by comparison. What? You Don’t believe me? Well Here’s the scoop on today’s web design processes - my prices and their prices.

My Prices
Take a look at this blog. Nice ha? Your looking at about $1500 for a design like this.
When people email me and ask for a design quote, I follow the same process that i have been following for years. I visit their current site and determine the following:

* What kind of havoc did the last web designer reap on their site? And how long will it take to straiten out someone elses mess?
* The type of business and their niche market “To determine how much work its going to take to get them to the top of the search engines”
* The complexity of the design or re-design. Does this client want a all kinds of bells and whistles in thier site? flash, custom java, sql, plugins?

After 2-3 hrs of research in thier market I usually have a good idea of how much to charge and send them a quote. Now, to answer the question you all want to hear. How much is all this going to cost me?

At this time, my designes start at $999. This price is for a blog that has minimal graphical complexity, no customized icons, and no logo production. What you do get at this price is rock-solid, hand-crafted, browser-tested CSS, XHTML, and simple (but striking) graphic design, includes seo, marketing and is usually done within 1-2 weeks.

In most cases, bells and whistles like plugin support, unique page designs, as well as extra graphics push the price up into the $1500-$2000 range. From there, the price is page by page specific CSS/XHTML coding and custom graphic design. A graph and back end custom coded intense web site could run as much as $3000.

“take a look at infobohol.com“ This is and example of a $2,000 website which the customer is making money on.

Rest assured, though, that the site i build you will be very user friendly and rank high in the search engines due to years of marketing and design experience under my belt! And to the customer, the design would receive many great comments.

NOW!
Their Prices:

Based on my experience, About 80% of you who just saw my prices thought, “WOW that’s too expensive!”

Well, you’re right, its alot of bread to be throwing out for a website, but actually, you’re wrong too.

You’re right because $999 is a alot of money in today’s economy being what it is. You’re wrong because companies throw this kind of money around all the time. They do so because they understand that crafting a brand holds a value that drives traffic and ultimately SALES to them and this amount is petty compared to what you will get out of one of my web sites. Having a professionally designed website for any business is a huge payoff.

I have a ton of clients that have made millions of dollars off their website in a few short months due the the fact that they:

A: are exposed to hundreds of thousands of clients that are looking for their services and or products

B: They had a web designer and marketing team that knows the niche marketing business and knows how to build websites that are attractive to thier clients which inevitably leads to sales plane and simple.

Everybody wants a Great Web Site full of bells and whistles, especially after seeing one that they really like. The problem is, nobody wants to pay for it. Few people understand the complexity of today’s web design platforms and what we as web designers have to go through to achieve the clients goals…believe me its labor intensive 16 hr days on a keyboard and lots of Coffee.:-)

Here is some info regarding industry pricing trends on web design.

For instance, other designers charge $3000-$5000 for a design- just the design! Thats IT! No marketing no SEO nothing but graphics. Some people may think this is an insane price, i think it is but people are willing to pay this.

The major elements of web design include:

* Graphical examples sent to the customer
* Graphical splicing for optimal CSS/XHTML structure
* CSS/XHTML production in standards-compliant fashion
* Unique CSS/XHTML adaptation to CMS platform of choice
* Bells-and-whistles functionality to meet client requirements

All of the steps mentioned above require a high degree of expertise to be completed in professional fashion. Unfortunately, people who want great designs are oftentimes unfamiliar with the amount of knowledge required to make their dream site a reality. Sometimes I think people see a design and think oh that’s easy …i built a website in GeoCities one time and it took me only 2 hrs…In the real world however, things are intensely more complicated.

And this is why you hire professional web designers.

One of my clients got socked for $2500 for a custom CMS design that was just plain broken. By someone that calmed he knew how to design websites. bewhere of these people claiming they know what they are doing. Get referrals and take a close look at thier portfolio.

Another example? Some semi-talented designers from India, charges $3500 as a base price. WOW and they get plenty of work they are just over priced. I asked Armod why the high price? His answer shocked me.. “I charge this because people think if they pay allot they will get allot…” Hmmm

How’s my $999 price tag sound now? Looks to me like I need to raise my prices

People like surprises. Unfortunately, when those surprises include a hefty price tag, people hate them.

Here’s some professional web designers way to “sucker you in” and then “Go for the KILL”:

1. Buy a domain name: $8.95 - Cheap you say…
2. Buy a hosting package: $50/yr. - not bad …. ok
3. They set everything up, and then you realize you need a better design because your site currently looks like 150,000 others out there. Whoops. you just stepped into a hole of quicksand!

The problem here is that when setting up a new site, newbies often think, “$8.95 for a domain? Awesome, let’s get started!”

Next, they get hit with the reality of hosting fees, and while they’re a little bummed about having to pre-pay for 1 year in order to lock you in that great price of $500 for this awfull design. Then they go ahead and say well our other designs are allot better but they cost $1000-$2000. What happened to 500$? and what about SEO? and marketing?
Ohh they say…that is a separate charge of $1000 more dollars of your hard earned money. Now your up to over $3000 for a design that started at $500.

and now what do you do? Hire another designer….no they have you locked in because you are registered in their accounts and usually they will cut you off if you try and take your business else where…i have seen this 100 times from frustrated clients and i think it gives us good honest designers the shaft.

Please leave your comments below…