website hosting and maintenance query

I would recommend http://www.sitestogo.biz/ if you want a 'hand held' basic site, with hosting, domain, support, etc, all wrapped into one. Sitestogo are around for years now and have literally hundreds and hundreds of sites done.
 
ButtermilkJa said:
I've just visited that site and apart from the rather bland design, some of the links aren't working. Wouldn't strike me with a lot of confidence to use a company like that to be honest.
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That's very strange I couldn't find any links that didn't work.

Don't get me wrong, I think the OP is crazy not to hire a professional to design a custom website, but you always get people who want a website, but dont want to pay for it, hence the suggestion.
 
When you are on the Contact page and you click the 'Prices' button on the right, you get a 404.

But, yes, I know what you mean, there will always be people who just want a website for their business but don't realise that a bad website drives customers away, and so don't pay professionals to do it.

But fair enough, you are giving a suggestion to the OPs query so I can't argue with you on that front.
 
Hi, I know this thread is a little out of date but I just came across it and noticed our low-cost website (StarterWebsites.net) is mentioned. At the time of the last post the site was a certainly under developed. We decided to just put it up to see what the response would be like (sometimes you just gotta' do these things!). We're happy to say the response to the service has been positive.

All the links are now working and we've uploaded phase 2 development of the site. It's a little less bland and a lot more informative.

Anyway, enough of that; for the OP, if you want to really cut costs you could do worse than start with a blogging tool like WordPress. I'm certain you will have access to a free WordPress blog with your hosting account plan.

It may not be the perfect tool for your long-term needs but sometimes it's better to just put something out there to get a feel for it. It's a really cheap way to build your experience of using the internet for marketing and promotion and it might give you some insight into what it takes to maintain and update a website.

I hope you've already found a suitable solution, but if not maybe you'll consider the blog idea.

All the best!
Peter.
 
It never ceases to amaze me how a storm can brew up over website development prices.

The simple fact of the matter is that the people who are asking for the service are doing so because they don't know how to do it themselves. This implies that they don't fully understand whats involved in building a website.

If someone can give you a website in a very quick period of time, then they should be cheap because you are getting a templated solution, with general formatting and a few images. Or at the very best a highly configurable generated site. Either way, the effort does not warrant a high sum!

Quality websites are not cheap, not quick and do involve considerable time to develop. Quality graphics do not just appear at the click of a mouse in photoshop. People deserve to be paid for their skills in such areas.

My suggestion to anyone who wants a cheap website for a brochure site is to go and buy a book on HTML/CSS and read it. You will be able to knock out a website in your own time and get exactly what you want. If at the end that you don't like the look of it then go looking for someone to put a nice face on what you have created.

And yes, I am a experienced software engineer, not just a backstreet, inyousparetime web developer. Quality service has a cost!
 
sinbadsailor said:
Quality service has a cost!
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True, but firing coconuts at a monkey does not always produce quality results. I made the mistake of paying someone - an Irish web design company - thousands for a so called website once, and I was totally ripped off. In contrast, years later, I got far better service and quality from a cheaper person. It pays to shop around.
 
I don't dispute your main point, but I think your suggestion that busy small-business owners should be spending their time knocking out html and css makes no sense. You're average small-business owner won't buy a book on glazing when they need a broken window fixed. They won't buy the Haynes guide for the Ford Transit when their van needs a service. Spending time on html & css when they can get simple template sites for free, and/or buy in the necessary skills is a waste.
 
Sure, if you have the luxury of time, fine, get the books out and chip away at it in the evenings, but otherwise just pay for the service.

Small business owners should direct their talents and skills at doing what they can do to promote their product/service and boost their business. Why spend your valuable time tinkering with HTML and CSS when it will save you money (and headaches) in the long run to get a professional to build your website?

It simply does not make business sense (to me anyway). I went out for a fancy meal the other night. I didn't insist on cooking the chips myself!

And sure, prices vary, as does service. If you've got to work with a web designer/developer (or whatever), look on it as a long-term relationship and one that you will have to pay for and they will have to work for. We're not the enemy, and sometimes we can be your best business 'partners'.

Seriously. You may have to look around but if you get someone you can work with (and who can work with you) then great. That's the hard part done.

Bottom line, in most cases a suitable website for your business can help you win more customers and make you money. That's gotta' be worth spending something on, right?

You may not get everything you want from the outset, depending on your budget, but it's better to get it started now before your clients start asking you for your URL and you don't have one.
 
I completey agree. I think too many people view web designers/developers as lay-abouts who get paid too much for too little. There is a definite lack of respect for the skill and talent that's out there. Granted there are chancers as well but you get that eveywhere.

Fact is, it's a skill. And one that you don't have so you should be willing to pay for it. Your time and effort would be much better spent on books/courses which make you better at the service you are offering and are qualified to do.

Number one rule is, look at a designers portfolio of recent work.
 
Hi all,

I am self taught on web creation and design etc. I recently set up a site my myself using Joomla and a number of plugins.

I might have a chance at creating something very similar, but more polished and with a few more features for an organization.

I'm not looking to make a huge sum of money but I will be paid but I'm not sure how much to look for.

Basically it will be Joomla content management, with a forum, some user blog sections and a wiki and some file sharing/downloads. It's all relatively easy to set up in Joomla. The advantage is that I am intimitely familiar with the orgs aims/goals and will be around pretty much 24/7 for them to tweak edit.

I was thinkin of charging X for the creation and then Y for an annual maintenance fee. But I have no idea what X and Y usually are?

Any guidelines based on the above?
 
Well you can't charge anything for the Joomla software itself, being an open source application, only your time implementing and maintaining a solution that uses it.
 
Yes I am aware of that.

I guess what I'm looking for is is anybody has created a simple-medium complexity joomla site for someody and how much they charged... or how much somebody was charged.

I'm only looking for ballpark here.

I guess there are companies now who are using joomla etc and some templates to churn out sites.

I don't want to charge for my time. They have a tight budget. I would be quite willing to spend quite alot of time maintaining it etc as I know them all well and I would do it jus to help them out.

So I only want to find out roughly what the going rate is for such a thing so I don't overcharge them.

I'm guessing a static HTML site is anything from 500-1000.
So a simple joomla site is probably 1000-1500.

And medium complexity joomla site would be 1500-3000?
 
It entirely depends on the site, and the deisgn and coding that goes in to it. We just had a 'relatively' simple static website built for 12 grand.
 
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