# Average price for start up site



## temperunicorn (Oct 10, 2012)

I'm just starting out. Currently I have an Etsy account, but want to start a website. Any tips on how, where, and how much? I'm not sure if I should start out through websites that provide shopping carts/direct printing or from scratch on my own. I'm in Orange County so any local info is appreciated as well!


----------



## Danchlife (Dec 31, 2012)

I'm interested in finding out about the how much part too.

Sent from my LG-E739 using T-Shirt Forums


----------



## Zippy Doodah (Jul 10, 2011)

temperunicorn said:


> I'm just starting out. Currently I have an Etsy account, but want to start a website. Any tips on how, where, and how much? I'm not sure if I should start out through websites that provide shopping carts/direct printing or from scratch on my own. I'm in Orange County so any local info is appreciated as well!


As much or as little as you want to put into it. There is no set package amount. You need to figure out how much you want to venture into your own business, then make it happen. A web site isn't going to bring you customers until you can bring customers to your web site. Marketing and promotion are the key. As far as going after local business, that is probably your best bet to get started. Also, Google looks favorably on, and offers very reasonably, there local marketing. It's easier to get search words and ad words for local Google marketing, then global. If you are worried about the cost or are on a shoestring, put the time into learning how to configure a free or open source CMS (content managment solution). Many people have done well starting out with Wordpress sites with the ecommerce add-in. If you don't have any infrastructure (your equipment to design, and print your products), then you need to figure that out also. Keep in mind that content is "King" when it comes to any web site, especially e-commerce. Building a web site and putting a few of t-shirt designs on it will get you nowhere unless the designs are targeted to a particular group of people that want that exact design. Good Luck!


----------



## Surge (Dec 22, 2012)

I own and operate a web design development company, And I can tell you that if you're wanting something built from scratch (I use a 7 step design process) our prices range from $2,000 to $10,000. 

That prices include research, wireframe, prototyping, testing, deployment, optimize and monitoring. That's my proven success method in building websites from scratch. I only use the latest languages, html5/css3/ajax/php and jquery. 

We specialize in e-commerce solutions and usually run opencart (It's the most flexible without using tons of resources like magento). Developing and modifying opencart can become really pricey as our programmers work at a rate of $50/hr, so thats where your $10,000 + prices come into play.


But we built tons of websites for smaller budget clients. we call them micro sites since we build off a theme thats already been developed (e.g a themeforest.net theme), we simply customize, modify and make it look unique. This is much much cheaper and prices range from $99 to $499.00.


There also plenty of other solutions if you do not want to pay for your own hosting/set-up. Bigcartel, shopify, bigcommerce.com provide users with a good solution for those who have no real prior knowledge in developing a website.


----------



## rlaubert (Aug 14, 2011)

If you are willing to do it yourself, then a website, domain name and ecomm software can be pretty cheap. I own a couple of servers and hosting with all the software can be really cheap (less than $60 a year with a domain name). But that requires you to do all the work. It not hard but is time consuming.


----------



## temperunicorn (Oct 10, 2012)

Thanks everyone, that was really helpful. I'll be looking into those soon. 

Sent from my SPH-D710 using T-Shirt Forums


----------



## BigRedThreads (Jan 17, 2013)

I own and operate my own site through WordPress. I bought an ecommerce theme for $55 and another plugin for $30. Hosting and the domain name are very cheap. The largest cost will be YOUR TIME. if you don't know anything about websites, its going to take some learning and getting used to. But, if i can do it myself, anyone can.


----------



## temperunicorn (Oct 10, 2012)

Haha, thanks for the confidence booster. How did you pick it up? Internet? That's always my fist stop.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using T-Shirt Forums


----------



## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

I spent lots of time at the "Youtube School of Anything You Need To Know"...


----------



## BigRedThreads (Jan 17, 2013)

I subscribed to Lynda.com ($25/month) which has tutorials on almost any computer software you can think of. Its great because i used it for illustrator CS5, Wordpress and Access. But i actually just got rid of it cause it is kind of pricey unless you use it a lot. You can find pretty much anything on the internet for free somewhere. WordPress is pretty simple anyway, though. Also, my hosting company, JustHost, installed Wordpress for me, then the theme i bought came with a small tutorial.


----------



## DPendable (Dec 21, 2012)

Hello all,
I'm a startup as well. I'm interested in a website that just provides my service information. I'm not going to be doing any online sales at the moment, I just want the site to be my digital business card that people can visit. What are we looking at for pricing and any referrals would be great. 

Oh yeah, I do screen printing and vinyl decals. 

Thanks for all your help. 

Dave. 

Sent from my LG-P925 using T-Shirt Forums


----------



## temperunicorn (Oct 10, 2012)

Awesome. I'll check it out. You've been a huge help. Thanks again!

Sent from my SPH-D710 using T-Shirt Forums


----------

