Starting A Website

[unit731]

And this is the truth!

 

I paid a Chinese IT guy to make mine. US $100.00.

And there are other fees.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"I paid a Chinese IT guy to make mine. US $100.00."

 

And it is because of guys like that that people get the wrong impression on what they should pay for a decent website. I lost count of the number of people that came to us asking us to build websites with severely underestimated cost expectations. That and "I want a website, how much will that cost?".

 

Sanuk!

[Pescator]

It is like asking, how long is a piece of string.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

Exactly! But the amount of times we got asked that....

There seems to be something inherent with web design / programming that makes people think it is 'easy' and 'cheap'. Oh, and that they can keep changing spec indefinitely without incurring extra costs or moving the deadline.

 

Sanuk!

[baa99]

What's wrong with asking? I think that is the perfect opportunity to make a sell. You should already have a set of questions that pinpoints the type of web site required.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

There is no simple set of questions to pinpoint the type of website required. And even if you know roughly what type of website there are still a load of variables that can greatly change the price. From experience I can also tell that people who start of with such a vague idea become a total nightmare to work with as they will constantly change their mind on what they want, and almost inevitably after you've implemented stuff.

 

Sanuk!

[Coss]

KS is absolutely right, constant scope creep is the order of the day, and even when they're aware of a finite set of specs, they'll vary it (at their cost) and then you're the bad guy, for giving them what they asked for...

[Mekong]

Gotta agree with KS on this one, when the majority of corporations request a website design they don't really know what they want and after being shown the initial basic site are always asking for more but at no extra cost, the client just does not understand that changes=Time=Money

 

I have my own corporate website that I set up myself, to be honest the modifications alone I have made over the past 12 months would have cost me over USD5,000 if I was paying for a professionals time.

 

What works on IE9 may not work on Mozilla (I still love the old netscape) now we have Opera, Safari, Dolphin(OK a rare one I use on my iPad), some support the out of date adobe whilst others are going over more to HTML5, it's a jungle out there.

 

I am not a professional programmer just a hobbyist but even I can see the costs in not just setting up a site but also maintaining it. Most chatrooms use Java Script. oh please give me an HTML5 chatroom any day of the week (I have 3 now) which allow IOS devices to connect.

 

Back to the OP, there is no fixed cost on opening a website as long as you specify your initial requirements a ballpark figure could be quoted, but then your upgrade costs could run into 4-500% percent of your initial outlay and you are held to ransom by you website developer. No offence KS It's how you turn a profit so I won't knock you for that.

 

Munchie, I may extract the urine from you on occasions but you are not stupid, just google website design software and you will be amazed at what shows up, it I can do it so can you.

 

I am not an apple freak as such (OK Every device I and our lass own are apple) but Jobs was correct when he stated that Adobe was bloated and suspect to viruses, even google agree now and are dropping Adobe Flash from their Android OS and are going to HTML5 and dropping Java wow 6 years later they catch on!

 

The bottom line Mr Muchmaster is that is free to set up an develop a website (apart from purchasing your domain nema)you have a little bit of time on your hands just do it.

 

Kong

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"and you are held to ransom by you website developer"

 

We must be doing something wrong then, as we almost inevitably ended up with the short end of the stick

It is one of the main reasons we stopped doing small websites, by the time the client is finally happy you've spend so much time on changes / additions that any profit built into the quote has long been eaten up.

 

I found it to be VERY rare for a customer to accept to paying more for stuff they wanted but didn't initially include in the request quoted for. Usually the response was similar to "But you said you would do my website for xxxx Baht".

 

As I mentioned before, while people will accept paying extra for another bedroom while the contractor has already started the project for an agreed amount, the same logic never seems to apply to software related projects.

 

Sanuk!

[Coss]

It's because they always know someone whose 12 yr old daughter did a website (often being walked through it by a teacher) and thereto it's not that complicated so it must be cheap.

 

I'm doing a couple up here in the People's Glorious Republic.

 

Both of them have scope creeped to the point, that on one, I said I was not good enough to do the (MySQL) changes, so they've got another to do those. And the second is having the graphic guy do most of the creep, so fortunately I've escaped the financial burden this time.

 

Makes me cautious about new work though.