[TriLUG] Cost of creating small company web site

Steve Pinkham steve.pinkham at gmail.com
Wed Feb 16 10:20:45 EST 2011


On 02/16/2011 09:55 AM, Ron Kelley wrote:
> Greetings all,
> 
> Does anyone have an idea of how much it costs to create a simple/small web site for a small business.  The site would be probably just 2 or 3 static web pages including a Home Page, a Company Page (management team, press releases, etc), and a Contact Us page (phone, email, etc).  Most of the effort will be in the design of the page and not necessarily in the content.  I would like to see two or three variations before selecting the "right" one.  Normally, I would build the site myself but it needs a much more professional polish than a roll-your-own version.
> 
> 
> I need to know the time and cost involved in putting this together. 
> 
> Thanks for any pointers.
> 
> -Ron

For a site like that, a designer is probably going to choose an off the
shelf template and stick your content in.
You can do the same if you like, and perhaps get a result you like
better for choosing your own template.

Quality templates run ~$50, and time for writing 2-3 pages should be
fairly short.
I've used http://www.dreamtemplate.com/ before, it's a $60 subscription
per year but comes with lots of templates, stock photos, etc.

Google for "website template" turns up lots of other choices.

Smashing Magazine has tons of good free info.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

I also got a decent amount out of their "how to write great copy for the
web". Some of the other paid content is worthwhile also.
https://shop.smashingmagazine.com/rockable-press-great-copy-intl.html

The benefit of doing these things your self is you'll be able to improve
the site over time.  The benefit of getting someone else to do it is
they might do better the first time ;-)

If the site gets larger, I recommend a static website generator like
nanoc.  On the paranoid side, our webserver doesn't even have any
dynamic content capability like a PHP interpreter turned on, so I sleep
well at night. ;-)  Even if you're less paranoid, you get the much of
the capability of a CMS without the upgrade and security headaches.

Hope that helps.

Steve



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