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frequently asked questions
The most frequently asked question by anyone contemplating
have a web site developed is "how much will it cost?"
If this question is looked at in the same way
as providing a cost for building a house, a builder cannot provide a quotation
until a considerable amount of design has occurred, in the same way it
is not possible to provide an accurate quotation for a web site before
any design work has been done.
Having said that, there are some costs that can be accurately estimated,
and some that only very rough guide lines could be estimated initially.
The following should provide some help in deciding whether to go ahead
with a web site, and whether to use Perry Web Design to develop your site.
1) Registering a Domain Name.
The cost of this can vary depending on who you use to register your name.
While I have no relationship with any domain registration organisation,
Domain Central at http://www.domaincentral.com.au
provide good service at reasonable cost. Check them out. To register a
domain name, you should have a business name and/or and ABN in a name
similar to the domain name that you are registering.
2) Hosting your site
The cost for hosting your site can vary from one ISP to another for a
similar service, but there are a few factors to be considered.
The following would be the main factors in that an ISP would use it determining
pricing:
- The amount of space your site will occupy on
the server. For a small site 10MB should be adequate.
- The amount of hits your site generates. If
it gets 20 hits a day the minimum amount should apply. If it gets 2000
hits a day the ISP would probably increase your charge.
- The amount a data that people download from
your site, a different charge would apply if the average hit resulted
in a 200kb download as opposed to a 20mb.
A point to consider is that many email contracts include
an amount of server space for your personal web site (eg. www.members.myisp.com.au/joeblow).
If you are not using your personal web space, it is possible to point
your domain name to your personal web space, and thus save the cost of
a extra bill to host your site. A small annual cost would be involved
in this redirection. As a general rule, the "freebee" email
providers, eg, Hotmail, Yahoo, do not provide such a service.
3) Developing the site
It is impossible to give a reasonable indication of the cost of the site
without firstly understanding what your organisation requires from the
site, and what you hope to achieve by having a web site. This also gives
us an idea of how to approach the development of the site, and whether
the the goals to be achieved by the site, are achievable. It greatly helps
if you have seen sites that you liked, and the sort of "look and
feel" that you are after.
While it is possible to say that we could develop a site with up to "x"
page for "y" dollars, it is better to not discus pricing until
some design work has been done, and a clearer idea of the end product
has been established.
Having said that, we accept work on a straight "time and material"
basis. Alternatively, you could set a maximum figure, and we could provide
you with an expectation of what could be achieved, and keeping within
your budget.
So, give us a call, so we can discus your requirements.
4) Maintaining your existing site
Maybe you already have a web site, but you seem to be paying too much
for every small change, or you cannot get updates done when you need them.
Give us a call and we can probably maintain your existing site without
it costing you an "arm and a leg".
We would need to have a look at how your site has been developed before
giving a definite "yes", but us a call and we can discus your
maintenance needs.
5) What are the advantages of using a
Content Management System (CMS)?
The primary advantage of using a CMS is that the
owner of the web site can maintain the content of the web site without
having to have technical knowledge of the underlying HTML, or how to use
a product that produces HTML (eg Dreamweaver). Additionally, the CMS maintains
the integrity of all the links in the site so there should be little chance
of broken links.
There are some disadvantages to using a CMS. These are that the creator
of the web site needs a good knowledge of the CMS to initially set up
the web site, and a CMS based web site can only be hosted on an ISP that
supports the CMS product being used to support the web site.
So there is no one answer suits everyone. It all comes down to your requirements.
Call us and let us discuss your requirements.
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