Why is it expensive to set up a small scale website?
Posted on October 20th, 2009 by admin
I was reading a book on setting up a business from home which said that even a small website will cost 1000s of dollars up front, but why? I have estimated that the total cost of my website is about $200 since I have bought a web site template with a shopping cart that I have customised myself, and I’m going to go with inmotion hosting which costs about $8 per month to host an ecommerce site. So the total cost is approximately $500. A merchant ID will take a small fee from every product I sell online and I will probably try and increase my market exposure through Amazon and Ebay. For my first year of trading I have set the goal of selling a 1000 units. So why is it going to be so expensive. I feel that I have left something out.
You don’t need 1000s of dollars up front, you might need to switch to a dedicated server when you have like over million of monthly visitors, but there’s no reason to start with a dedicated server.
I don’t recommend InMotion hosting. If you need something for that price I recommend one of these: http://www.hosttell.com/
Powweb has the best offer right now. It’s on a 50% sale – $3.88/month ($46.56/year), and you get a free domain from them.
October 20th, 2009 at 7:20 am
they are talking about buying your own server, paying a webmaster to keep your site up to par, pay a maintenance man to keep the server running smooth, etc. Also you should have shopped around a bit more for the hosting because these three are probably better than inmotion considering my experience with support:
justhost.com
hostmonster.com
hostgator.com
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October 20th, 2009 at 7:57 am
You can get it cheaper.
Try freewebs they sell dot com domains and it is like 300 to host + a google of free templates. (yes "google" is a number!)
+ you can have as many items royalty free in your store.
You really should do some research before starting a business… I am sure you can even find it cheaper somewhere else.
Businesses take some common sense
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experience
October 20th, 2009 at 8:22 am
i think they say its costs 1000s of dollars as they presume you will be paying someone to setup the site for you, my wifes commerce site cost £70in total, £40 of this was for the software, and £30 a year from then on for hosting fees, if you can do it all yourself and there are so many solutions around that costs peanuts your right there is no need for it to cost thousands, my wifes site – http://www.educational-toys.eu
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http://www.computer-adviser.com
October 20th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Yes, you have: the style and the complexity of your site.
1. You use a template: whatever template you use, it is "visible" – that is we KNOW it is a template, hence built by a "non-professional" and, consequently, subject to caution. (loss of business)
2. Your site is probably developed in "pages": one page for something, another for another thing and so on: it is "old-fashion".
3. Your site may be pretty, but does it has ALL the required functionalities and securities that are necessary?
Even with modules after modules, the integration of the lot can take several weeks to develop it into a professional e-commerce. That explains the costs.
Finally, even a perfect website does not guarantee "business": you have to support your business with serious "hard" advertising (papers, radio, TV etc…) and that increases to cost considerably.
You can save a lot by doing it yourself, but unless you have years of experience in coding and graphics, it will never show up as a "professional" website.
On average worldwide, expect 2 to 3000$ for a basic e-commerce.
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October 20th, 2009 at 9:15 am
I have used Hostgator as my web host for over two years now and have been very very impressed with them. Firstly they’re very cheap but still give me more web hosting space and bandwidth than I’ll ever need, the ability to host unlimited websites, a 99.9% uptime guarantee and great customer support.
You can find them at http://www.hostgator-review-coupon.org/
You can also get some coupon code to save money.
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October 20th, 2009 at 9:30 am
You don’t need 1000s of dollars up front, you might need to switch to a dedicated server when you have like over million of monthly visitors, but there’s no reason to start with a dedicated server.
I don’t recommend InMotion hosting. If you need something for that price I recommend one of these: http://www.hosttell.com/
Powweb has the best offer right now. It’s on a 50% sale – $3.88/month ($46.56/year), and you get a free domain from them.
References :
October 20th, 2009 at 9:52 am
The book cannot cover all cases, it simply gives you a good estimate of how much a good website may cost so you can prepare your budget. If it will tell you $100 and then you need more you will blame the book.
$1,000 is a good price for a professionally designed website. You can use templates as it is your own business and you can try, also you can afford investing your own time which is the part that cost money, but imagine a company with more formal structure and marketing plan, they don’t have the time and will not risk the image, so they will happeily pay for more quality.
In the end is every one’s choice. If everything is free, nobody would make money, people invest time to work, they deserve to be paid for that time.
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