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Cartooning
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Character
Design
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Animation
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Internet
Services
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Most website fall into categories such as Personal, Business, E-commerce, and Portals. The only difference between a Personal Website and a Business Website is the content. Personal Websites contain contact information, graphics, email links and general links of a personal nature, and a Business Website provides the same information for a business. An E-commerce Website provides the ability to sell services and items online, and varies greatly from a general Business Website in complexity and costs. Amazon.com and Ebay.com are examples of E-commerce Websites. Portals are websites that are either general in nature or cater to a specific genre. Yahoo.com is an example of a generalized Portal.
Domains, Web Space, and Hosting
After you determine the primary category that your website falls under, you must determine if you simply want web space, or whether want your own domain. With web space, you will be running your website off of another business' domain, and the content of your website will be limited to the basics. Web space is generally good for personal and business websites, but will not work for E-commerce Websites and Portals. Web space is the least expensive of the two options. Most internet service providers (ISP's) give you some free web space on their server free of cost. You should check with your ISP to see if they provide free web space. There are also many Portals on the internet that cater to providing free webspace, however they sell advertising associated with your website. With free web space on these Portals, each time a viewer goes to your site, a pop-up advertisement will appear on the screen. Web space without the pop-up ads will charge you a either a monthly or yearly fee depending on the amount of web space that you desire. I charge $10.00 per year for most websites on my domain.
Having a domain of your own is a totally different situation. First you will need to choose a domain name. This will be the word, or words that appear before the .com (business websites), .org (organization or clubs), or .gov (government websites). Next you need to register the domain on the internet which will cost approximately $20.00 per year. Then you need to find a domain host. These are providers of web space and other services required for an robust website. For Personal and Business Websites, a host will cost you approximately $100 per year. For a E-commerce Website or Portal, expect to pay $500 or more per year or more depending on the size of your website and amount of traffic that the website will generate.
Simple Personal and Business Websites generally offer the following features:
The text that you wish to appear on the website
Photographs and Graphics that are to appear on your website
Links for email, other pages at your website, and external links to other websites
I generally charge $20.00 for the first page (same content that will appear on 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper) , and $10.00 for each additional page. At that price, you are expected to provide all of the text, graphics and links that you want to appear at your website. I provide several free layout designs for you to choose from. A unique design would cost more depending on your individual needs and tastes. Custom logos, graphic designs, photography and stock graphics and photography cost extra, as do animations, audio and video inclusions..
E-commerce Websites and Portals generally offer some or all of the following features:
The text that you wish to appear on the website
Photographs and Graphics that are to appear on your website
Links for email, other pages at your website, and external links to other websites
Provide a catalog of items or a database of information
A secure ordering system to either
1. Have orders emailed to you
2. Process orders via credit card or check directly on the internet
Collect information about your clients
Add information collected to a database
Display collected information on the internet
Chatroom Capabilities
Multimedia Capabilities
E-commerce Websites and Portals are the most expensive types of websites to setup. The least expensive option (when dealing with under 20 items or services) is to provide a listing for each item, and then have the orders emailed to you. This is what is called a "Static Website." A Static Website is the least expensive option, but is also the least secure. A shopping cart service will offer more security for ordering but will charge a monthly fee. These shopping cart costs are generally bundled into the cost of an E-commerce Host.
If you have a large stock of items or services, or your prices or information change constantly, a database driven website is what you would want. A database driven website is programmed to construct webpages based on your client's search, and the information contained in your database. When your database changes, your resulting webpages will change automatically. This is called a "Dynamic Website." A dynamic website offers the ability to conduct any type of business that you desire, along with the flexibility to change with the business environment. Once a dynamic website is setup, you can add or remove items or services simply by adding or removing them from your database. However, a dynamic website is costly to setup. This type of website requires a great deal of advanced programming because the website itself will be generating its own webpages "on-the-fly."
My charges to setup a Static E-commerce Website is $60.00 per page and $15.00 per item. You are expected to provide all of the text, graphics and prices that are to appear on the website. For a Static E-commerce Website with secure credit card ordering, I charge $100 per page and $20.00 per item. My charges to setup a dynamic website are based on $15.00 per hour. Expect to pay a minimum of $1,000.00 for a dynamic website design. Remember that both of these options will require a domain name registration and a host. As with simple Business and Personal Websites; custom logos, graphic designs, photography and stock graphics and photography cost extra, as do animations, audio and video inclusions..
Having a website designed and posted on the internet is similar to casting a needle onto a haystack. Your goal, after going to the expense of having a website designed is to garner as many visits to that site as possible. I provide classes to teach my clients how to do their own marketing. I also provide online listing services at $15.00 per hour.
Now that I've muddled you with all this information I'll give you some ballpark figures:
I hope that this has been some assistance to you!
