# Website rate/quote...???



## Ezra4ever (May 11, 2011)

I was looking around for a website designer/developer on guru.com

An estimate rate/quote I found was around $700+

Which includes:
-Custom 10 page site
-Custom graphics
-Social media integration
-50+ product shopping cart
-Merchant service set up
-1 hour E-commerce tutorial

I don't know much about websites and was thinking of just going through Big Cartel.

Would it be worth it to get my own website around that rate/quote???


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## gruntstyle (Aug 11, 2009)

Regardless how much you spend, if you plan on doing business online, you can't afford to look cheap on a website.

I used to be a professional web developer, and a garbage website will turn away everyone. Its hard enough t get traffic as t is, you then don't want to get cheap and scare those few awy.


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## headfirst (Jun 29, 2011)

Somethings wrong. That should be about $1500 more for a _quality_ custom site.. Get samples and references and make sure it doesnt look like crap.


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## ossumclothing (Mar 15, 2011)

there is plenty of free script you can use, like os commerce, cubecart, magento, and wordpress for sure. that is the low cost kick , just need bump the theme wich will cosst you at least $500 or less. thats it.

pm me for more info


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## gruntstyle (Aug 11, 2009)

Ossumclothing, I can't see your site. It looks to me like it's down.


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## Ezra4ever (May 11, 2011)

Thanks fellas! Yes, I don't want to make my site look cheap at all and I'm looking into it for future reference of which way I should go. 

I'm getting my ducks in a row slowly and I wanna test out my tees to my niche market first. I feel if it goes good, then in a matter of months I should look into a professional website. I can afford it at this time, but I don't know if I wanna drop $1000-$1500 on a website first...lol


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## gruntstyle (Aug 11, 2009)

You'll get what you put into it. $1500 is not a whole lot for a website. I used to charge upwards of 10K for websites that were basic and I was on the low end. 

Don't count on getting too many orders or seeing an instant return either. It may take a few years to build consistency on your website.


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## Ezra4ever (May 11, 2011)

gruntstyle said:


> You'll get what you put into it. $1500 is not a whole lot for a website. I used to charge upwards of 10K for websites that were basic and I was on the low end.
> 
> Don't count on getting too many orders or seeing an instant return either. It may take a few years to build consistency on your website.


Holy smokes! 10K for a site! Yea, I can't afford that...lol

Thanks Daniel!


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## gruntstyle (Aug 11, 2009)

I'm just saying for some sites that I've built, but they had nearly 10K products as well. For something like my site, I'd charge about $1,000-$3,000. It really depends on the client. So that should give you an idea of what you should expect to pay and what you should expect to get from it. 

Some overseas developers are a great return on your dollar, but I've also heard some horror stories as well.


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## ossumclothing (Mar 15, 2011)

gruntstyle said:


> Ossumclothing, I can't see your site. It looks to me like it's down.


yeah the web was deleted since my clothing line dont start well . now just focus back in tee design and design .

and yes websites are important thing to show up what you are, its your face in there. but dont forget your main purpose is sell stuff, so you have to make sure that you have good quality stuff. websites not just need good looking face, its also need SEO work, Viral marketing, online support and more to reach your audience, specific niche is easier to get rank than global niche

i will prefer to built websites wisely, start from small cost and then grow up with the wind. 

99design, crowdspring, designcrowd are good place to hire freelance designer for your web work, yeah u can buy anything design related there


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## acmederek (Feb 9, 2012)

To be honest if you use the correct tools or find someone that knows how to, you can get a professional site done for around that price.

You can get reliable $20 a month hosting from hostgator.com

Buy a really nice e-commerce template from themeforest.net for $30-40

Sign up for a shared credit card gateway or payment service and SSL if you do to buy your own for a few hundred.

Most of the themeforest themes have detailed tutorials on installation as well as hostgator for wordpress isnstall.

I am a graphic designer by trade and taught myself wordress. I have created a nice little web design business on the side. It is definitely doable for 500-1000 if you shop around. I would buy all of the above and find someone to install and set it up. Maybe customize it if it is in your budget.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> I don't know much about websites and was thinking of just going through Big Cartel.
> 
> Would it be worth it to get my own website around that rate/quote???


It depends on what you're trying to do.

A bigcartel/storenvy type store will work great for many clothing lines just starting out.

For that, you wouldn't even need to hire a designer to build a website.

Another option that works is to get your own webhost and domain name (about $10 a month) and install wordpress through the webhosts control panel. Wordpress can both power your website and power your shopping cart through the WooCommerce.

With a wordpress ecommerce setup, you can accept credit cards through PayPal or have shoppers stay on your site by using the stripe.com payment service.


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## chosenfew (Aug 3, 2011)

I agree that you have to have a good looking website. These guys gave me a lot of feed back on my first website and they said spend the money and get a pro. I did what they said and got a pro, and I got a template. Check out my site to see the end results. I can not stress it enough listen to these guys.


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## GN (Aug 1, 2011)

acmederek said:


> To be honest if you use the correct tools or find someone that knows how to, you can get a professional site done for around that price.
> 
> You can get reliable $20 a month hosting from hostgator.com
> 
> ...


THis is sage advice here... there is a learning curve but as long as you can read online tutorials or videos and you will be fine. Save the $$$$ and go this route and I'm so proud that *acmederek *mentioned purchasing an SSL certifcate! Kudos! 

Btw.. I got my fully expanded SSL certificate with greenbar from go daddy for only $99. I know a lot of ppl complain about Go daddy but so far I've had no issues with any of thier products.


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## Carmenrt (Feb 26, 2012)

GoDaddy offers web hosting cheap and also has something called Website tonight, which is very easy to use! Im building my site with it and I've never built a site before, I already have 4 pages done! It just depends on what you want, they also have word press..


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## g.lupo (Aug 20, 2007)

I didn't realize that you could use wordpress, is their s limit to amount of products I have about 100.


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## gruntstyle (Aug 11, 2009)

@glupo, how new is your quote of the day with a copy righted website from 2007? This would discourage me to buy anything. Nice clothes though.


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## KabirC (Aug 29, 2011)

glupo said:


> I didn't realize that you could use wordpress, is their s limit to amount of products I have about 100.


No limit to products at all, just have to know what plugins to use and all.


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## JamesD31 (Jan 14, 2012)

I would bid on this project as I am a professional graphic designer as well - though honestly don't have the time with school and my own projects - including a fully custom shopping cart.

In regards to what you were looking at that they bidded on.

1) An hour tutorial should be "free" - or I do it for free as my sites are easy to learn
2) Adding products I usually leave to the client. This is because it is easier for the client to enter information into a form and hit submit - saves client money and me time.
3) They are most likely going to use a pre-built shopping cart (hence why part 2 is just having them upload a picture and hitting submit) 
4) The custom graphics and "custom" pages is what you are really getting billed for in this case.

Hope that helps feel free to PM me any other questions.


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## Platinum-Ink (Nov 27, 2007)

I spent about 2 solid weeks creating our website and i've been getting a lot of positive feedback on it. We use BlueHost which we really like. You can also host multiple domains on your single account and it's one of the top hosting companies for wordpress and social integration sites. Our new Platinum-Ink.com site went live only 2 weeks ago. It feels good to have a fresh look even if you have a current site. Sometimes it sends a positive message showing that you put time and thought into making the customers experience as best as you can.


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## g.lupo (Aug 20, 2007)

my friend who helped me create the website used to have his own business buy sold it in 2007, when he got promoted at work, the site was created in 2010 and being updated now so I should go in their and change that i guess. thanks for the heads up


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## g.lupo (Aug 20, 2007)

Platinum-Ink said:


> I spent about 2 solid weeks creating our website and i've been getting a lot of positive feedback on it. We use BlueHost which we really like. You can also host multiple domains on your single account and it's one of the top hosting companies for wordpress and social integration sites. Our new Platinum-Ink.com site went live only 2 weeks ago. It feels good to have a fresh look even if you have a current site. Sometimes it sends a positive message showing that you put time and thought into making the customers experience as best as you can.


where did you get your template from, is that a wordpress theme?


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## gnizitigid (Jan 23, 2007)

I think you only need to spend on hosting and domain, rest all scripts are free in open source


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## headfirst (Jun 29, 2011)

gnizitigid said:


> I think you only need to spend on hosting and domain, rest all scripts are free in open source


scripts != design

Also, it's a matter of time. Sure, you can spend days or weeks learning the software you've chosen to use or just hire someone. 

A pro will have your website up and running before you've even figured out what books you need to buy to learn this.

What is your time worth?


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## Fisched (Jun 8, 2012)

One thing I think people are failing to mention is maintenance. It's all good if you an afford a few thousand for website design. But, if you don't know how the back end works how will you maintain it?


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## printingray (Apr 4, 2012)

Ezra4ever said:


> I was looking around for a website designer/developer on guru.com
> 
> An estimate rate/quote I found was around $700+
> 
> ...


This is really too much! If you need help in this matter let me know through PM.


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## musicthreads (Feb 3, 2012)

I would consider instead of paying someone for a fully custom website, rather paying for someone to design a theme for you for a bigcartel store front. This reduces the cost and gives you a manageable back end. Message me if you have any questions.


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## StubbsLan (Sep 16, 2012)

Ezra4ever said:


> I was looking around for a website designer/developer on guru.com
> 
> An estimate rate/quote I found was around $700+
> 
> ...


I charge anywhere from $500 to $3000 for a site. That is a good deal for a site but I'm more concerned about the quality of the design afterwards for that price.


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## Fisched (Jun 8, 2012)

StubbsLan said:


> I charge anywhere from $500 to $3000 for a site. That is a good deal for a site but I'm more concerned about the quality of the design afterwards for that price.


After the initial design, how much does it typically cost to make some minor (maintenance) changes?


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## bhart726 (Jul 15, 2012)

*Watch out for so called Gurus*



Ezra4ever said:


> I was looking around for a website designer/developer on guru.com


I think the guys here have put forth some great ideas, there are a lot of design tools, joomla, wordpress, even go daddy has some great starter tools.

If you want your own and it sounds like you've budgeted it I would go with some _local talent_.

I recently contracted a logo guru site for some graphics work and had to file a chargeback with my bank. The Indian Developers never bothered to read or perhaps couldn't understand the simple English I used to describe stuff. Sometimes you can get away with it and save a few bucks but for what you got going on, I wouldn't chance it on someplace like guru's are us.

Jus' Sayin'


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## StubbsLan (Sep 16, 2012)

Fisched said:


> After the initial design, how much does it typically cost to make some minor (maintenance) changes?


Well it depends on the type of work you need done. Normally the web designer will charge you based on a work order for graphic designer work, or if its custom development work or they will do it based on a retainer package which still may not involved advanced work but just basic things like updating images, text etc.

Retainer Packages


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