Prices

Hello!

EVERYBODY wants to know what we charge for a website! Well, here are some ideas, but you have to realise that every site and every owner has different requirements and different demands. The prices you will see below are not the most expensive, but also not the cheapest that you might pay. It depends on many things. I will talk about them as we go along, and you can look at the details on the individual pages indicated.

Single Page Internet Presence

Let’s take a basic small B&B with a simple, single page html (no, you don’t have to know what that is – but html is the programming language that makes up the basic building blocks of a website, and “html” is an abbreviation for “hyper text markup language” – okay?) site. The idea here is simply a calling card on the Internet that tells people what your (business) name is, where you are, how to contact you, and maybe a few pictures. Probably no prices unless they are fixed year round. No updates to speak of, and minimum (almost no) upkeep.

For such a simple site, you have the possibility to do this yourself with “NO” programming or web-authoring expertise – typically with a tourist association or something similar, using a pre-programmed layout and all you do is fill in the blanks. If, however, you decide that you want your very own web page, with your own domain name (not a sub-domain like www.mybandb.blogspot.com or www.mybandb.whotsit-state-vacation-association.com) we can do this for you for a one-time fee of EUR 50 plus the domain name. This will get you a website for around EUR 60 (about US$ 90 today) with hosting on one of my hosting systems included. The only other cost you will have is the domain name (we find the cheapest providers or close to that, and that should be around US$ 10-12 (EUR 7,50-8,50) per year for .com or .net or .org unless you want something exotic). We will provide the hosting and do the necessary maintenance for EUR 30 (US$ 45) per year, which includes one update, if you need or want to make any changes. You will have the annual hosting fee again unless you buy multiple years at a time.

You can look at the following page for more detailed information about how it works and how we come up with the price. http://jimmycraig.info/website-prices/single-page-internet-presence

New Site – Basis: WordPress Blog

This is starting to get interesting now. The basic idea here is that you have a new site where you can add the content (text, images, etc) and change things (like prices and dates) with no or almost no technical knowledge or skills. As part of the maintenance fee, we will keep the software running and up-to-date. We will work with you to find a theme that looks good and functions reasonably well (most do, but there are a few that can be difficult), and also do minor tweaks for appearances, and for SEO (search engine optimisation, otherwise known as how to get a better position in the Google, Bing (ex-Yahoo), etc. search engines). We will also include some standard tweaks we use as part of the package at no extra charge. The basic software is a blog, but this can be set so that it looks like a blog = a dynamic site, or it looks like and acts like a static site. Your choice, and we’ll explain how to do what you want to do before we start.

New Site – Basis: MS FrontPage or an HTML Editor

This should be – in concept – very similar to the WP site above. Why did we separate the two? Well, the blog has the opportunity to utilise the advantages available to it by search engines such as Google, etc. For reasons that are essentially unknown, the search engines seem to have a great affection for blogs, as opposed to static websites. To us humble sorts, that means just about nothing, but the talented and well-financed Google gurus tell us that that means that (put very simply) it is easier to get a site ranked in Google or Bing or Ask or wherever if it is a blog, compared to a static site. “Everything else being constant” is of course an understood factor here.

Second point: it is easier to set out a complete blog than it is to set out a complete static website, and this means that it is easier and faster to make “points” in the SEO business with a blog than with a static site. So.

Third point: we used to use the HyperVRE system for creating php sites quickly, but we discovered that (1) they all look the same, and that’s boring, (2) making substantial changes – and even minor but wide-ranging ones – can be really boring and time-consuming, and (3) we did not like the content that HVRE served up for the sites – we ended up cleaning up the formatting and even the text on occasion (it was not understandable, and that was with signed articles that we should not change or need to change). Therefore, we do not offer these php sites anymore.

Our point: we charge the same for a (static) MS FrontPage- or HTML-Editor-created site as for a similar WordPress blog. However, we do not expect the static site to fare as well in the SEO wars. It is probably also more awkward and time-consuming to make additions to a static site than to a blog. But, the final choice is yours! One advantage here is that you can make the changes off-line on your (or our) computer and look at the results before you upload them, which is not really possible with WP.

Rehabilitation of Existing Sites

This is a fascinating subject. Unfortunately, trying to put a price on such a project is almost impossible – there are just too many unknowns. The results will depend on what was there before, how Google and co. looked at the site as it was static, whether what was there is still usable, etc. We would have to talk about the reasons for retaining the old site with the owner, and then – together – make a decision. The work should probably be done on an hourly basis, in order to keep your price down to a reasonable level.

So, that’s what we’ve got. By the way, we specialise in sites for B&B’s and small hotels, but we are not limited to that area. If you want or need a website, let us know. I think we will be able to satisfy your requirements.

I hope these prices don’t scare you off!

Here’s the price summary:

We will set up your website with you in mind, and will have a continuing correspondence with you about the site, the progress, and decisions that you can or should make. When we’re done, you will still have the opportunity to change something if you decide you don’t like what is there.

One note here at the end. We believe in over-delivering. If we do a better job than you expected, you will be pleased, and we will be rewarded by your word-of-mouth advertising. We think this is an excellent trade-off!

And a final note: if you just want a little help with your site, whether it’s a static site or a full-blown WP blog or a Blogger blog with a problem, drop us a line at [email protected] or give the meebo chat box in the sidebar or our Skype address a try (but give us time to answer, we’re not always just hanging around, waiting for your call). We can maybe helpp you out of your problems with no cost and only a little effort on your part.

For our clients in Switzerland (our home base!), please refer to our CHF price list (which is also more comprehensive) at http://jimmycraigwebsites.ch/catalogue-of-services/.