Building a Website
So you've finally decided to get your self out there on the internet. Whether it be a business or personal website, there a just a few things you need to know before you are ready to start building your website.
1) Decide whether to learn how to build the website yourself, or pay someone to do it.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Building your own website requires knowledge of a software language called "HTML". This language is fairly straightforward and consists mainly of tools to help you style your text and format your page. You can learn the basics in a weekend. If you wish to have a shopping cart, or e-commerce capabilities, your in for a lot more training (a month or more).
The average basic website will cost you about $500-$1000 to have it designed and coded professionally. With a shopping cart or e-commerce, it will fall somewhere in the range of $2500. There will also be changes to the site down the line, in which you can expect to pay an average of $75/hour. If your web site provider can offer a Content Management System (CMS), you would be able to reduce the costs associated with updating your website by making many changes on your own.
2) Purchasing a domain name
A domain name is what you type in your web browser to get to a website. google.com and ebay.com are both examples of domain names. You can expect to pay about $10/year for a domain name. The cheapest domains can be found at 1and1.com.
3) Finding an affordable website host
A website host is a company that has server computers whose sole function is to hold websites so people can view them. Once you build your website, you can supply your website host with the website files, they will put them on their server, and there you have it, your website is up and running! You can expect to pay about $10-$20/month for quality website hosting.
If you have no interest in getting involved in the steps outlined above, there are hundreds of web design firms that will take care of everything for you. Universal Web Services is one of them! But it wouldn't be fair not to list some good competitors, after all, this website is dedicated to providing valuable resources, not just self-promotion! Try typing in "web design" in a google search, you'll find that there are more web design companies than you can count in a day.
Need assistance with your project? Universal Web Services can help.
Contact us to request a quote.