What kind of site can you get for $500?

Written by Nick Villaume | 14 June 2010
Posted in Project Planning & Management

For those of you who grew up in the 80's like me, you might recall the classic spoof film “I'm gonna get you sucka!” In this film, Chris Rock plays the part of a goofy kid who walks into a BBQ joint in Harlem and inquires about buying a single rib and a sip of soda poured into his hand and then pulls out a crisp $100 bill to pay. Over the many years that I have been a web developer, this phrase has come to stand for clients who want all the features of a professionally designed web site, but do not want to pay for it. Not to say they can't. They just don't see the value.

A big part of selling web design and development is about creating a value proposition. You have to convince the client that the money they spend will be worth it.

For the clients that are just plain cheap, they will never be convinced because they do not understand the value of the service you are offering. However, most clients simply need to understand what they can get and how much that typically costs. Let me see if I can help.

To begin, let's discuss the first impact on cost: Experience.

How much do you have? How much does your developer have? I have been a web developer since 1994 and have built or been involved in hundreds, if not thousands, of web projects. Most of the designers with whom I work have at least 5 to 10 years in the industry and many have more than that.

Most of the time, a low rate is tied directly to not knowing what is involved or trying to undercut the competition. Either way, both are signs of inexperience and both will cause trouble. If it seems to good to be true, it usually is.

The next big factor that impacts cost in a web project is design.

There are a lot of people out there calling themselves “graphic designers” who are really just people who “decorate” or rip-off other elements. I recently attended a talk where the “designer” was explaining how to create sites by grabbing templates and background images from other sites and then dropping a clip-art logo into the site using Wordpress. This is not design and it is important for clients to realize that the money they pay someone like that is wasted the second the check is signed. Paying someone to simply decorate a template that has no visually communicated message is no better than just setting up a site with GoDaddy's website tonight or just using a hosted Blogspot or Wordpress blog.

Finally, there is the issue of service.

How many $500 web sites can a person support? What will they include? Will they stand by their service? How do they test? Will they come back and nickel-and-dime you for every little change? Chances are, this will go back to inexperience. The “designer” is most likely not thinking about everything it will take to build and service a site and, nine times out of ten, this will end in project abandonment.

In order to combat this issue, let's break down the activities that go into a very low end web project.

• Planning – at minimum, a site map and wire frame document should be created. I have yet to spend less than 1 hour on one of these. So, that's an hour. We have to review with the client, that's another 1 to 2 hours. Next, we have to communicate what content is needed to the client and compile all that content. Even if it is a 3 page site, we will still spend at least 1 hours wrangling all that. There will be various meetings and such to discuss little things. You might do 4 of those at 15 to 30 min each. So, 2 more hours. All in all, planning is about 5 hours for a smaller site.

• Design – industry standard is 2 home and sub designs. So, let's say you DO use a template, you are going to spend at least 1 hour (if you have any conscience at all) on finding some recommendations. Then will spend at least another 1 to 2 hours customizing and configuring. Then you have to review and meet again. So 2 more hours. So, let's say 5 hours for design.

• Implementation – you gotta build the thing. If you use Wordpress, you can crank one of these guys out in about 3 hours if you are experienced. If not 10 to 15 or more hours.

• Testing and Review – the client WILL have changes. I have also found the lower the price, the pickier the client. So, count on at least 5 hours for reviewing and tweaking.

As you can see, even in the most basic of sites, we are looking at about 20 to 30 hours of time to build. So, for a $500.00 site, you are billing at a rate of $16 to $20 per hour for billing time. This breaks down to about $12.50 per hour based on a standard week of work. Even kids right out art school are billing at $25 to $45 an hour, so to think that someone would do a reasonably good job at this rate is insane.

Let's look then at what you get and for how much:

For $500 you usually can get a very basic template site with a few pages of text. You might get a form. The person who is building it might be able to update it, but you will begin to pay and will never stop. Don't expect more than one round of very basic revisions and don't expect the brand of the site to match your business because the person who is doing this will only help you out there if they are offshore or have serious abandonment issues. This might be a good option for a start-up business, but you are better off spending your money on some good online marketing or a facebook page. Seriously.

For $1,500.00 you can get a decent site with a custom home page, but you are still talking mostly a template site and no functionality beyond a contact form. It will usually be a customized template and you can probably get them to tweak it a bit. These are also sites you can get through a service (like Intuit) on a subscription basis, but you will usually have zero control over customization and making it your own.

For $5,000.00 you can get a custom designed brochure-ware site or even a basic e-commerce site. It will usually have one design concept and the designer will give you about 3 rounds of revisions. It will be built on a CMS, like Joomla or Expression Engine, and you should be able to get some training and support for 30 to 60 days included in the cost. However, don't expect the designer to spend a lot of time planning the site. They will pretty much take your basic list and crank it out and you will need to come up with the content. This is a more appropriate start-up business site.

For $8,500.00 you can get a really nice basic site. This will be similar to the $5,000 site, but with 2 design concepts and much more customization. You can even get some basic Search Engine Optimization at this level. This is what a small retail or non-professional services firm might pay.

For $12,000.00 you can do a really nice site. Maybe something with advanced functionality like user registrations and management, a file area, or a business directory. This will also include SEO and social media setups as well as email campaign integration. This is about the norm that an established small business should expect to pay.

Beyond that, we get into custom development. Defining that, as my client Jodi Hersh at Orange Star Design say is like asking “How much is a car?” So, really you cannot define that, but it is safe to say it's a lot more that $500.

A few pitfalls.

A common scenario is that a client will start out wanting something complex, scale it back due to cost and then try to make you do the complex site. This is something I see designers do frequently and it is especially more common to experienced designers who really know what the client should be doing. Basically, the designer will try to do a $5,000 site for $1,500 because they don't want to put their name on the crap that the client has requested. Sound familiar.

Another common pitfall is when the designer wants to do the html themselves to save money for the client. Developers hate this and will make you pay. Oh yes, you WILL pay.

Finally, watch out for testing on cut-rate work. You can get the developer to work cheaper, but they are not going to feel very inclined to go over their work. Many developers have a serious get-what-you-pay-for complex and the less you pay, the less you get.

In summary, it is not worth it to do $500 custom sites. There is a niche for this work, but it is very important to be honest with the client about what they get and hopefully this article will help arm you with the information you need.