# Holy cow! That's expensive



## Gecko Signs NT (Aug 3, 2012)

I'm in shock! I just quoted quoted $4100 for a company to design my website......and they didn't even tell me how they were planning on laying oit out!


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## brenden (Dec 11, 2008)

Hi,

No list of what that provides? Is it just purely a skin?


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## Steamworx (Aug 1, 2012)

It's funny that people are buying equipment and materials at the other end of the world to save few $$$, and insist on ordering overpriced websites locally. Don't take it personally, it's just my observation.


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## Gecko Signs NT (Aug 3, 2012)

Steamworx said:


> It's funny that people are buying equipment and materials at the other end of the world to save few $$$, and insist on ordering overpriced websites locally. Don't take it personally, it's just my observation.


No, your good. What we were trying to do was support a local business and they were offering free consultation/quote. If I had some idea of what kind of website they had in mind for us, I probably wouldn't have been so outraged. Instead, all I got was a quote with no information about what they were going to do. I'm too scared to call them and ask! lol


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## printingray (Apr 4, 2012)

Tell them to approve design from you ?? Is it ?


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## InkedApparel (Mar 18, 2009)

im in the process of learning how to take a photoshop created web layout , skice it up and build a custom website in css with dreamweaver....maybe we can help each other out? PM me

Inked


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## AnonBri (Jun 20, 2012)

If it's for an ecommerce website that's relatively inespensive, really. It costs anywhere from 5'000-10'000 dollars, or more, depending on the number of products. Do you need that kind of website? Not really. Professionally designed websites are good because they are usually highly search engine optimized and will display correctly on anyone's browser. 

If money isn't as much of an object, I'd suggest you get a website designed for those reasons, and then attempt to learn html so you can maintain it yourself. This way you can get a website up ASAP but be able to save money eventually.

If you really want to put the time into designing your own website: go for it! But expect to put a lot of time in. The savings are worth it. And it's nice to be in complete control of all the minor decisions that can and will impact the performance of your website.

If you really don't want to learn how to design websites expect to pay a lot for a good website! 

Personally, I have loved learning html. I'm taking some college classes on it and have actually learned a lot from it. Start from Notepad++ and work your way up to Dreamweaver! It's worth learning and fun


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## headfirst (Jun 29, 2011)

I don't know what you're getting from them, but that price sounds right for a professionally built website with support from a US based supplier.


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## bluebullseye (Aug 23, 2012)

The only flaw in the quote is that there is not detail (that you passed along) about what that quote is going to provide. 

$4100 for a website is very expensive if you want a few static pages with images on them. It is very cheap if you want a full scale ecommerce platform with data collection, tracking, customer logins, etc.

If you are only wanting a store front, try Amazon Webstore or Shopify.com for $30/month, and use one of their templates. I do freelance web design and development and don't touch projects under $5k. My fulltime job is building ecommerce sites for companies and our average project is $75,000 - $100,000.


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## LeadBullion (Sep 1, 2012)

Could you use one of the templates like on shopify.com ? From what i've seen you can make a decent looking e-commerce site with little skill. You still get to use a website address of your choosing too.


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## Gecko Signs NT (Aug 3, 2012)

Thanks for all the suggestions.

The site was for info only, just text and pics. No e-commerce store front or anything like that. I submitted the text and the pics to them. That's why I'm stunned. If it was to include a store front, then that would be fine.

I have absolutely no experience with website design. I tried to do it on our hosting site (they had templates), but got all confused and muddled with the CMM/CSS/C**$$/whatever thingy.

Unfortunately, money is an object  We do have Adobe Mastersuite. I guess I need someone to guide me through it.


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## Xposedigitizing (Aug 28, 2012)

Our new website is construcing, and we take the Winning way, just like we put our request for the website on the website designing. And then you set up your price for this website. When you release the website request, all the designer from the web designing will look at it. and design first the rendering picture, you can choose which is meet your demand. You can visit this website Witmart.com - The World's Largest Freelance Services Marketplace for Small Business If you have any request, you can find from this website.

Rudy


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## Gecko Signs NT (Aug 3, 2012)

Thanks for that. I'll look into it


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## Xposedigitizing (Aug 28, 2012)

www.witmart.com Hope can help you


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## cryptkeeper (Apr 26, 2010)

My ecommerce packages start at 8500$ 
My cms installs start at 3000$. 
I don't touch anything under 1500, it's not worth my time. (I always end up putting more time in then what I end charging for, IMHO, these are the people that scrimp and bargain, but want the world)

I don't know what you're asking for, but it does not sound like it deserves a "holy cow!" response.


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## Gecko Signs NT (Aug 3, 2012)

I was only looking for a 4 page cms website with just text and some pics. No ecommerce.
The quote I got just had a price on it. No info about what kind of layout they were planning. I'm "holy cowing" because of the lack of information about what they wanted to charge for.


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## Steamworx (Aug 1, 2012)

cryptkeeper said:


> My ecommerce packages start at 8500$
> My cms installs start at 3000$.
> I don't touch anything under 1500, it's not worth my time. (I always end up putting more time in then what I end charging for, IMHO, these are the people that scrimp and bargain, but want the world)
> 
> I don't know what you're asking for, but it does not sound like it deserves a "holy cow!" response.


I will print the above, frame it, and put onto my desk.


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## Gecko Signs NT (Aug 3, 2012)

And, I don't think I was asking the for the world.


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## cryptkeeper (Apr 26, 2010)

Gecko Signs NT said:


> And, I don't think I was asking the for the world.


Sorry, did not mean to say you asked for the world, but if I've learned anything in the 14 years I've done work on the web (not full time, mind you, ive done it on again-off again) its more likely that I will have issues with someone I'm "giving a deal" to. 

My hourly rate is 65$ an hour, which isn't too expensive, but it's competitive. The quality of jobs has increased substantially by raising my rates from 50$ to 65$. Now I actually get more offers, and more legit offers, all of a sudden people expect a certain level of professionalism from me, and all the people scrounging around for a deal don't even bother contacting me. 

All in all, I'm not saying that's you, more likely what's happening is the people you contacted have too much work, and rather than turn something down, it's not unusual to pitch a ridiculously high price, because, hey, if you turn it down, that's on you, but If you accept, hey! They make a 400% higher profit.


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## Gecko Signs NT (Aug 3, 2012)

You could be right, who knows. They came around to have a chat about a month before, probably saw that we were a start up, and decided to price themselves out of our market.
Guess I might have to go head down, back end up, and try and do one myself


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## cryptkeeper (Apr 26, 2010)

Or try finding someone else to do it for you, there are thousands of companies out there doing the same thing.


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## Mabuzi (Jul 3, 2007)

With web design you get what you pay for. Trust me there are plenty of shonks out there.
If uploading and doing the work is too confusing then you have to pay. Its your shopfront of your business and should not look shoddy. 

Try any of the outsourcing platforms or try word press or Google and MYOB free websites for DIY.

I use Sitesuite in Sydney and while its costs more we have back and customer service.


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## uncletee (Feb 25, 2007)

we use 1&1.com you have to learn, but pretty easy. good luck uncletee


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## Gecko Signs NT (Aug 3, 2012)

Well, I've bitten the bullet and decided to build one myself.
As I don't like the look of the templates in the free products, I went and bought a program that takes me step by step through the build.
Once I got the concept of blocks and cascades, I found it not too bad. I've only just done the initial basic design, nothing too fancy (yet) and I'm happy so far. I guess the hard part comes at the end, when I've got all my pages designed and I start doing up the links, metatags, seo etc. 
I've already uploaded the home page, if anyone wants to have a look. The products page isn't finished and none of the tabs work, so don't go clicking....it wont work


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## Steamworx (Aug 1, 2012)

That's how the "make beautiful website" programs work. They won't tell you, that having 1,3mb - 11400px wide header scaled to ~960px is... errr... um... different than any webmaster would recommend


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## Gecko Signs NT (Aug 3, 2012)

And in English, what does that mean?


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## GordonM (May 21, 2012)

It means: your header graphic (maybe others) is WAY too big. Use an image editor to scale it down to 96 dpi and to the exact size you intend to display it.

Learning how to do your own Web site is never a lost exercise. At the least, the fundamentals you're discovering now will help you should you decide to outsource it later on. You can present your version of the site as an example, and ask how the web developers can improve on it, getting specifics up front so that there are no surprises.

So keep plugging away, and try new things.


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## Steamworx (Aug 1, 2012)

In general, while doing websites you may forget about inches, centimeters etc. All sizes are in pixels. While your site is 960 pixels wide, your header image should also have width of 960px.

One inch on your monitor will not be one inch on somebody's else monitor with different native resolution.

In the image, every pixel is adding to the file size. Bigger image, bigger file size. That's why it's important to have images in exact size, not scaling them in html img tag or css rule. In this case you may "save" file size for lesser (better image quality) compression.


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## Gecko Signs NT (Aug 3, 2012)

Ok, I got it. I've changed the banner size so it is now 969px wide. Is this what I needed to do?
Is there anyway to correlate pixel size to centimeters or inches?


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## Steamworx (Aug 1, 2012)

Yep, now the page loads much faster.

No, you can't correlate pixels to centimeters, unless you force all displays in the world to have the same DPI (PPI to be exact). Here is a nice reading about it: Dpi, misunderstandings and explanation, what is dpi


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## GN (Aug 1, 2011)

I did my ecommerce site myself. Learned as I went. And I probably paid under $500 for the design itself and got it going. I already had PS and DW so that helped. I knew a little HTML (from about 15 years ago) but everything else was new. It can be done if you have the time to learn. If I didn't have the time, then I would expect to have to pay.


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## Gecko Signs NT (Aug 3, 2012)

Well, after the quote I got, I've got all the time in the world to learn!
I guess I need info and help on what to look out for in the background work on the site. Maybe a list of the 10 most common mistakes that newbies make! lol I could probably answer the first 20 lol


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## GordonM (May 21, 2012)

Gecko Signs NT said:


> Is there anyway to correlate pixel size to centimeters or inches?


You don't need to. When coming from a printed goods background that may be your first impulse, but on the Web everything is pixels. If you're using CorelDraw or Photoshop or something, and the rulers are in inches or centimeters, create a new workspace for yourself where all the rulers and other measurements are in pixels. You can switch back and forth depending on the output. Just remember that Web page graphics are at 72 or 96 dpi, not 300. It's easy to forget that, and save a design file for your page that has a much higher resolution than you need.


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