The cost of building a website is “Free” I know a lot of people will criticize me for saying this but yes, it can be free, though technically, it isn’t “Free”, you are just not the one paying for it in this model.
I can say that if you have a facebook account / page then “technically” you have a “website”. Only that it resides on facebook’s server with a complex web address like http://facebook.com/olukayodeabiba
Another view to it now is that you want to have your own name, and not rely on Facebook’s name and brand, so you can go on to pay $5 to $20 to buy yourdesiredname.com and point it to your facebook account / page and Voila! you have a website hosted on your facebook page and it has cost you just the price of your domain.
This goes inline with an analogy of “What’s the cost of having shelter?” You can decide to put a shed in a public area and live there rent free. The question is do you have shelter? Yes you do. Is it befitting for you / your business? Now that’s another thing. I guess that’s why we have different types of housing and buildings: you have small apartments, you have commercial buildings, and you have mansions, all with different costs associated with them - these are the same factors that come into consideration when deciding what kind of website you want or what budget to spend.
The first thing you should do is to answer the question ‘why do I need a website?’
- Is it to express yourself and serve as a diary for example, a blog
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Is it to showcase a skill or expertise in art, creative endeavor or science project like a portfolio / personal gallery.
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Do you want to provide a service or tell people about your service ?
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Do you want to sell a product, offering online
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Do you want to create something people can come and use or have fun with ? example of this is Numberplates
[More questions available as stated in this article 2 things you need to fulfill before building a website.
These questions may seem basic but at the same time, you should know that the more functions / services your website performs, the more resource intensive it will need to build.
Let’s go back to my shelter analogy, shall we? Now you can say you want a house, and want it on the best road in town. You want it to have a helicopter pad, with a rocket launching platform and you also want it to detect imposters coming from 20 miles away as well as have the ability to float on water in case there’s flood.
You have probably heard, times without number, the words: ‘ I want it to do everything!’ from prospective clients.
Now that is just like saying you want a house that will have and do ‘everything’ like the analogy above. Is it possible? Of course it is! Pool together the right resources, time and other variables and you’ll have your mansion. However, this leads to the most important question of all time: ‘What is your budget?’ To put it mildly, a budget for a flat can definitely not afford you an impostor-detecting building.
A different approach will be to talk to someone who builds websites, help him/her to understand what your goals are - that is, breaking things down to specifics with you. For example, someone who wants a website to launch a book might just need a simple page to summarize the book and show stores / libraries that have the book. On the other hand, a person offering services like that of a barber might require a bit more than that.
Breaking things down to these specifics will help you see clearly what your objectives are before determining what kind of website you want to build.
This might come across too granular to pursue as tasks to some of us, but that’s where expertise comes in.
A lot of people have built websites and run businesses, most can already pre-determine what you need or will need in the future - which you are yet to think of - or anticipate depending on your purpose for building a website. This is so that at each point that you wake up and realize ‘ oh, I need this new feature’, you do not have to keep dialing your developer’s phone when instead, he could have just inserted that feature from the beginning.
For example, you are a barber who has a website showcasing your hair styles. Now, you want prospective customers to book a session or schedule a time with you before they come in. This works fine but then in another 3 weeks, you realize you want them to make payment for this sessions before they come to visit for the haircut.
These are foresights that an expert will have and although it would sound like an “up-sell” to most people when they hear this ( which ends up in a back and forth or sometimes dispute as new bills are presented for the new tasks to be implemented on this website.), it would be wise to let them do their job, which will of course be tailored to your personal needs.
Having this clarity, you realize you’re either caught in between either paying for development every time you need something changed, or paying heavily for a prepaid robust solution that is too complex to understand and utilize to your level of freedom and choice.
Now you’re caught in the “training cycle to train all staff or teams you work with on how to “catch up” with this robust solution.
We have seen this scenario play out time and time again where there is a lot of friction between the client and developer as a result of making the decisions between what the customer wants and what he needs to have and at what particular time / stage. , . This is why we decided to bridge that gap by providing solutions to make sure the customer / business gets what they need for their business at every stage of growth or “awakening” to their (needs) requirements.
We have structured a package which is just perfect for small businesses as it conveniently allows them to grow along with the package, while adding little tweaks here and there according to their personal taste or requirements. Here, we provide a monthly review of the customer’s needs so as to provide a retrospective and introspective view to what should have been done and what should be done.
This is a great package for small businesses that require regular reviews and updates on their website but do not possess the facility for a huge in-house IT team.
You click here to leave your name and email and we will send you detailed information about this special package.