There are many ways to "save" money on website design and maintenance, but, like many things, you may save at first to only get stung later when the true cost catches up with you. We'll cover saving money on design services (whether hiring or doing it yourself), software (both for creation and operation of a site), and long term maintenance of the site.

Setup

Setup of a website involves a range of costs. I'll list the averages as of the time of the writing of this document. These averages can be expected to change. Written October, 2005.

Hosting - You have to have a place to put your site. You can put it in your ISP space, but you generally don't get to use the domain name of your choice there. You can put it in free space, and you may or may not be able to use a unique domain name. Or you can rent space, in which case you usually need to also purchase a domain name. Renting space normally costs between $5 and $15 a month and up, for varying quality.

The major issues with hosting are reliability and features. Free space may be slow, and it generally does not offer much in the way of support features. It may also have restrictions on how you can use it, and on how much traffic you can have. It is really only suitable for a small site that is just getting started. I recommend Netfirms as being the most friendly, in that they do not use pop-ups to annoy your visitors, and they use advertising on your site that is more standardized than most services.

Free space may save you in the short term. But if you keep it long term it can cost you. It makes your site obviously cheap. It hurts your credibility in many markets. So if you do choose to use it, choose a host that uses smaller ads, and only use it as long as you really have to.

When purchasing web hosting, you'll want to compare features. Hosts offer many services that go by initials. They can be hard to understand. What they usually refer to is support for more interactive function on your website. You can also choose between Windows and Linux based servers. Windows servers do some things that Linux ones do not, but they are also more vulnerable to security breach, and they generally cost more.

Here is the general rule as of this writing: If you are going to need to run a shopping cart, forum, blog, membership site, photo gallery, or other dynamic type of site, then get good, business grade hosting right from the start. It will be needed for the function you require, and it will save you in the long term. You can get this for $10 a month or less, through iPowerWeb (our personal recommendation), or through many other companies. If you need a lot of space, or if you expect high amounts of traffic, you'll also need business grade hosting.

If you just need a simple website, and intend to use a shopping cart that is on someone else's server (like Mals-e), and you do not intend to have any fancy features, then you can probably use low cost or even free server space. Be sure to compare reliability though, and read some reviews before you choose, and make sure you get a company that has been around a while.

Domain Names - Your domain name is just the registered site address. Mine for this site is www.adventuretech.us. You can only choose a web address that someone else does not already have. And you have to pay for it, usually between $5 and $30 per year. Here is the cost saving tip: A .com name is the SAME, whether you pay $8 per year, or $30 per year. You won't be able to get a .com for under about $8 per year, but you can get other endings for less. Try GoDaddy.com, or iPowerWeb for low cost domain registrations. In fact, if you host at iPowerWeb, you can generally get one year free for your domain name. You do not need to register your domain name with the same company that hosts your site. It can be more convenient to do so when both are offered, but it is not necessary.

Site Design Services - This is a touchy issue, and there are tons of options, so I'll go through them one at a time, and list the advantages and disadvantages cost-wise, of each.

Do It Yourself, Completely - If you learn well, and follow instructions well, and can learn new software quickly, then this might be the option for you. If you do this though, you are going to spend a LOT of time learning and working, just to get a site up. If you are building a business from scratch, and have no time limits, then this is a good option. If you have a need to get the site up quickly, then you'll progress faster with a pro helping you. You'll still have to have software (tips on that later), and you'll have to have a computer that will do the job. You'll have to learn a lot of technical things, and you'll make a lot of mistakes along the way, but if you're quick on the uptake, you can learn it, after all, I did! But I learned it after years of computer experience, graphic design experience, page layout and writing experience.

Use a Template - This can shave off a lot of time from the build process. You can change a template however you choose, it is just a basic site design with places to put the things you will normally need. There are many free templates online, but not all are easy to work with. Some require Dreamweaver or Front Page to work correctly. So I suggest choosing a simple template so that you can work with it in any software. You can find some templates in the Templates section of this site.

Use a Site Builder Online - Ok, I'll state right out that I am NOT fond of these! They present as something they are not! They are invariably template based, and the templates are not good, because they LOOK like templates, and they don't allow you to change the basic look. If all you need is a simple site that does not need to impress customers, then this is ok. BUT, if you are selling ANYTHING, these sites will not have the individuality you need set your business apart and actually make sales. Please trust me on this, they may look glitzy on the surface, but they look so much like a "canned website", and perform slowly, that they will hurt your business more than they will help it. You are better off using a Template from our downloads, which can be totally customized, because it will allow you to create something that helps you differentiate your site, which is CRITICAL to success. And the final note on this service is that while Site Builder features are often offered free with website hosting, sometimes a company will try to sell you the service, making it sound like an easy way to get a website cheap. Well, what you get instead is a CHEAP site! It is not EVER worth paying for this service! It will cost you instead of saving you money.

Hire a Pro to make a Custom Template - This can be a good option for some small businesses, if they have someone who can do the site work once the template is made. The difference between a downloadable template and a custom one, is that the custom one will be designed to reflect your individual business, and will coordinate with and accomodate your logo and product range much better. Or at least, it should! Some template designers though will just produce a canned template for you, without consideration of your unique business needs. For example, they may produce a slick, very professional looking design with no warmth. If you have highly emotional content, that would be deadly to your business. So if you hire this done, make sure they understand what your business is, and how it needs to impact people. We offer this service for a reasonable fee ($100 - includes logo design), and we'll customize a basic template for even less ($25) - email us for details.

Hire a Pro to Design the site - This gets sticky. Because the fact is, most pros are not in the business of saving you money. And they don't understand which features will cost you more to maintain the site long term, so they produce a nice site design for you, and you pay the cost in the long term. If you want a quality site designed for the least reasonable expenditure, that takes your business needs into account both for short and long term, then please email us and ask us for a quote, or look at our web packages and negotiate with us. The thing is, if you get a designer who is not used to thinking outside the standard philosophy to apply creative solutions for your site, you'll invariably pay more than you need to, and often end up not quite getting what you need. Some designers simply produce a nice looking site design, but they lack the understanding of how to use colors, fonts, and design elements to present a very specific message to your site visitors. And this is a really important issue, because people who buy different things require different designs to make them feel comfortable there. Too much cool professionalism with an emotional subject, too much fluff with a professional topic, or a contemporary design for a traditional product will be fatal to the site, because people do not buy where they do not feel comfortable. So be sure your designer understands what your business is, and who your average customer is, and make sure the service you buy really is customized and individual. Each designer will have their own unique style, so look at their sites ahead of time and see if you like them. Your site will be different, but it will still have a similar type of design style. Don't hire the cheapest service you can find, unless you are certain that it will get you what you need. If the designer is not willing to patiently explain the technicalities to you, then go somewhere else, because it means that they will not keep you informed about the choices they are making about your site that could have a LOT of impact long term. You'll also want to be sure that the designer is more concerned with including necessary features than with putting in unnecessary glitz to prove how smart they are. You'll pay extra for bells and whistles, so make sure the extras are needed and that they really will make your site more successful.

Software

You need software for many aspects of website setup and maintenance. If you hire a pro, you won't have to worry about the first part of this, but you will need to understand some of the Server Software options (which many designers won't tell you about). If you intend to do any site design or maintenance work yourself, you will need software for your computer to help you easily do the tasks required.

Design Software - This is the software that allows you to easily make a website, put in links, set colors, layout, etc, in a program where you can actually see what it looks like. Good software won't require that you know how to write HTML code. It will just do the dirty work for you and be easy to use. You can use Free software, or pay for it.

DO NOT rush out and buy a copy of Dreamweaver or Front Page just because someone says it is the best! Both produce sloppy and bloated code (they use WAY more instructions than needed to describe the parts of the page, and they don't describe it well). Both do things that other software doesn't, BUT, most small businesses do not need the features that they offer. You can get by with free software, or spend $100 or so and get very functional software that a beginner can learn to use fairly well.

In addition to HTML Editing software, you'll need Graphics Processing software to crop and scale images or convert the file format to jpg or gif, and you might like to use separate FTP software to upload the sites (most editors have this build in, but some people like separate software because it has more options).

Free Web Editing Software - This is limited some. Any free software will have a few bugs, and some limitations. But you can get by with it until you can afford something better. NVU is perhaps the most functional of the free HTML Editors, and the most flexible. It still has a few bugs and limits, and it produces code that is a little sloppy, but it does work, and you can build a respectable site with it. Go to http://www.skinnyshoestring.com/sohotools/nvu.htm for instructions on how to build a site template with it. You can do a quick net search and find the download site for it.

Low Cost Web Editing Software - I bought a copy years ago of Claris Home Page. I found it very functional, intuitive, and stable. It wrote clean code, and worked predictably. I have owned it for 6 years now, and it spoiled me for anything else. Of course, it was created when HTML code was more limited, so it did not go forward as site design options increased. I have been looking for something affordable and solid for about three years to replace it with, but have accepted its limitations instead because I could not find anything even USABLE. I finally did though. I am now using Namo Web Editor (I got an older copy, as the bugs are not yet worked out of the newest versions), and I find that it is not only an acceptable replacement for Claris, but that it has more features and I can move forward with it. It also produces clean code. It costs $100 or less, and if you can find an older version (5.0 or higher), you can get it for even less. Not all site designers would agree with me, but I look for stability and predictable function first, both in software and in site design, so in order to pass my tests, a web editor needs to be able to first of all produce a clean and workable basic site design. Many programs will add all sorts of bells and whistles, but cannot pass that first test. Namo did. And it did more. It doesn't have to be DreamWeaver to be good (in fact, many designers who use DreamWeaver just HATE it!).

Free Graphics Software - I use GIMP some. But it drives me nuts! I can do a lot of things with it, but it is like the bird with wings but no feet. It does some awesome things, but lacks a basic line, rectangle, and oval tool! It also has some inconsistent behaviors, and some features which would provide convenience in rare instances are set to act by default, so it wastes a lot of my time taking extra steps instead of letting me set the tool to behave how I would most often use it. Still, it is the most functional free image editing free software that I have ever found, and it has a good userbase so that it is constantly improved. I use a lot of single task graphics programs also, for batch processing, gallery thumbnail image creation, texture creation, file conversion, etc. A search at Download.com, or NoNags will turn up many programs for you to try for doing little tasks. Free image software won't do what the stuff does that you pay for, but it will do some cool stuff. You may have software that came with your scanner, though that is getting more rare.

Low Cost Graphics Software - Ok, cost here is relative. My favorite graphics software is Painter. I just love what it does! And I love having a tablet to use with it. But that combination will run you $299 on sale. Worth it only if you do a lot of image processing and want to really do some fancy stuff. Otherwise, Adobe always has a lower end option, and it will be functional for cropping, scaling, and editing in the ways that most people will need to in order to prep images for the web, and to create logos or other custom graphics. Expect to spend $50 to $1000, unless you want to look for an older version on eBay - make sure it will work with your operating system if you do this! For most people, spending $400 or more on a copy of PhotoShop is not necessary. There are many lower cost options that will do what you need to do!

Server Software - This is the stuff that runs to give you cool features like a Guestbook, or Blog, Forum, Gallery, Shopping Cart, Membership management, etc. Your site may or may not need it.

If you design your own site, you'll also have to install this stuff, and learn to configure it and use it. This takes a pretty high degree of technical expertise, so you'll want to save where you can on hassle, and expense. If you host with iPowerWeb, they provide a one click install for all of those features. You still have to configure it or have someone else configure it, but that one click install saves you $50 or more.

If you hire someone, then you'll have to pay them to do what needs done. iPW hosting can help you save there too, because your designer only has to configure it, not fuss with installing. When you hire someone to set up such features, they may have their favorites (we all do!), so you may have to press them to explore low cost options. Some designers are familiar with the high quality open source (free) software out there, many are not.

There is high quality free software available for almost every server function. Some is complex to set up, but paying $2000 for a commercial package does not get you anything that is any easier! So here is the rule:

For most startups, and small to mid-sized businesses, there is NO reason to actually pay for server software! Only if you need unusual features, or extremely high powered solutions do you need to buy it. There are many options available for common needs, and a lot of them will grow with your business and accomodate additional features over time.

If you want a good overview of the kinds of free stuff that is available, see my page on using iPowerWeb's Freebies, at http://www.adventuretech.us/ipwfreebies.htm. Many of the freebies they offer are available elsewhere. I use their server hosting service though, and like that each of the freebies is compatible with their server, and installation is taken care of for me.

Long Term Maintenance

Little choices can increase long term costs. Sometimes they are worth it. You must also understand that when your business is new, adding one little task per day may not seem like a big deal. You may have the time to do it. But later, it can be one task too many as customer or daily tasks of running a business increase. So time and money equal the same thing in the end. Some of those choices include service features, monitoring, updating, and security.

Features - Every time you add a feature, you add the long term maintenance for it. Some things are easier to maintain than others. What costs you less in the beginning may not be a bargain if it is harder to maintain long term. We sell two shopping carts. One is simpler to set up and costs less. But it takes more time to maintain each item or make changes. For a static business with few products, it is a wise choice. For a business that does frequent product changes, or that has a higher product inventory, it takes so much extra time and effort to maintain that it can be quite costly. Our next level up for a shopping cart costs more than twice as much to set up, but long term it provides many shortcuts for a large, dynamic inventory, so it can save many times the difference in cost for a business that needs it. This is one example of how features have a built in cost.

Monitoring - Some features don't require maintenance, but may require oversight. A guestbook is an example. A guestbook is cheap to setup. But you have to check in on it once a day or so, to make sure no one has posted anything inappropriate. Then you have to delete the offensive entry. No big deal, takes you a few seconds a day to do. But it has to be done. Many other features also require this type of quick check. One or two is no big deal, but if you have many, they can become burdensome. Monitoring becomes a heavier chore if you have a site with the ability to accept user posts which must be approved before posting. The long term cost of a dynamic site is often the time it takes to go in and make daily decisions about what goes and what does not.

Updating - If you install a shopping cart, Blog, or other feature that requires regular changes or new material, then you'll need to consider both how demanding the maintaining will be, and how easy the software will make it for you to do it. A Blog is a great way to make regular updates to a site, and it is easier for a site owner to do than to make changes to an HTML page if they are not fluent in doing so. But once you start making updates, you need to be predictable about it. If you have a site where you post articles on a schedule, then you have to keep up that schedule. Newsletters require this also - you have to publish regularly. And a shopping cart requires price updates or informational changes on a regular basis.

Security - Every time you install a new software based feature on your website, you open a potential security hole. That hole usually affects just the software in question, but sometimes it can affect the entire server. So make sure that the software you install is reputable and stable. That is another reason I like using iPower Web, because they have already done the homework.

Now, any time you add a dynamic feature, you are creating a file that can be written to and changed by either the site visitor, or the program. You are also creating a password to access that program so you can make configuration changes. This is necessary, and there is some risk associated. You can never remove the risk, but you can reduce it significantly. If you get sloppy, and leave a security hole that someone breaches, it can cost you anything from a bit of time and mild annoyance, to lost customers, and the expense associated with restoring your site. Chose wisely and those risks will be inconsequential. Choose badly and it can be costly.

Here are some examples:

Guestbook - the potential on this is twofold - First, because you opened up a page on your site where people can post without restriction, your site is now a target for SPAMmers, who will come in and post offensive items. Now, since the purpose of a guestbook is to receive comments and feedback, you can't very well close that door! This is an acceptable risk for the feature you need, and you just have to check it regularly and remove offensive posts. But a badly written guestbook script can also open a security hole that lets someone grab the admin password for it and then misuse the entire guestbook. The third risk is that if you use the same password for the guestbook as you do for your site administration, it could give them access to your entire site to hijack it.

Shopping Cart - A shopping cart can have multiple parts that are accessed by password, and many sensitive data areas. Using SSL server capabilities can help reduce security risks, and you never want to collect financial data without that. But you'll also want to make sure that if the shopping cart setup needs multiple passwords, that you use different ones for each. This helps to keep a breach in one area from spilling over into another. Shopping carts have specific issues for each type of cart. These risks are not usually things to worry about. Small businesses can accept some types of risks that larger ones cannot, and vice versa. While your store is small, you can take the time to verify every order. If it is larger, you cannot, you have to have some of the verification done for you automatically.

Each type of software that you install has its own issues. Be sure understand what the long term issues will be when you install it, so you'll know not only how much time or money it will take you to maintain it, but also when it will be time to upgrade to something that is more practical for a larger business.

Saving money on a website can occur in many areas. And each choice you make has a trade off. But knowing what the trade offs are and what the options are can help you make a choice that saves your business the most money over time, or that makes something affordable sooner than it might otherwise be. Different businesses need different strategies, and custom solutions are essential to make your business succeed as a unique entity.