Being
Smarter with your Website Design Budget
Most people don't realize how
easy it is to spend $100,000 or even $1,000,000 on a website.
I can tell you I know all too
well how that happens. When I started BumblebeeWorks.com in 2003
I spent $100,000 just on hardware to upgrade our existing network
to support the new hosting model. That was many years ago and I
have spent unthinkable amounts of money since then.
But still, we only charge $20
for a website and we are competing with open shared hosting
programs that usually charge one third of that.
But for companies that need
big websites, big technology or even small sites with custom
programming, $200,000 is a pretty common budget.
So who needs a $20 website and who needs a $200,000 website?
In most cases, small business
are not trying to take over the ecommerce market or be the next
facebook, twitter or craigslist. They just need a simple website
that will show people that the are in business and what they do.
In those cases, $20 is usually
fine. You can sign up, create a few pages and even get support at
pageBuzz to create a custom design and bring all the information
into a cohesive look.
Since your website does not
need to do anything more than sit on a shelf, you should never
spend more than a few dollars a month to host it.
But when you get into custom
programming, now you have hit the mother load of expensive.
Programmers can charge $50 an hour or more and spend months
writing programs.
I was charging $100 a hour
back in 2000 and I would spend 14-16 hours a day programming. If
you paid me for 30 days your bill would be $40,000+ and that is
just for the programming. You still have hardware expenses,
graphics and design work to pay for.
It is just like any project
where you have to pay professionals to spend lots of time working.
It is expensive and it takes time to create custom programming.
You see how the US
Government spent $600 million on the healthcare.gov website
so you should understand the costs can be staggering.
So what are the
cheaper solutions for small companies on a budget?
Use existing programs
and make modifications
There is no reason to reinvent
the wheel. If someone else has already created the software you
need, then you can save a bundle by using it.
If you paid me for a month and
spent $40,000 you also might be able to buy an existing program
for a few hundred dollars or even a few thousand dollars that
will do the same thing.
That is a big difference in
cost, however, the program might not be exactly what you need, it
may not even work well. So you have to be careful about what you
might buy.
If you get the right program,
you can usually modify the program cheaper than you can create
one from scratch.
Most programmers that sell
programs will offer their services to create custom versions of
the programs at a reasonable hourly rate.
I have done this myself in the
past, find a solution and have the programmer makes changes so it
is what I need and license it to me for a fraction of what it
would cost to build it from scratch.
Use Hosted Solutions
Another great option is to
find hosted solutions. That is exactly what pageBuzz provides. We
have all the programming already done, you use it and just pay $20
a month.
Of course, that is if we have
what you need. While we have programs for used car dealers,
Realtors, property manages, ecommerce and more, we certainly don't
cover every possible option nor does every program do what every
person wants it to do.
But if you just have an
average used car lot or need a basic ecommerce store, we already
have all of the tools and software that you will need and you don't
have to get into any of the programming costs.
There is no way that anyone
could build a store with the functions that we offer for under $100,000
and more likely it would cost 2 or 3 times that. So why pay to do
it, when you can use what we have.
You would not hire a developer
to build a clone of Adobe Photoshop because in might cost
hundreds of millions to do that. But you can but a version to use
for a couple of thousand dollars.
Just like any software program,
website software does not have to be built from scratch. You can
use something else that someone else already made.
The advantage of using hosted
solutions, is of course cost, but also continued development.
When things change, new updates are done, new features are added,
so you are always up to date, without spending any more money.
Where as if you have your own
solution, you have continued costs, updates and development that
could make the initial cots seem like a bargain.
Software is an expensive hobby
and even more expensive as a business. So finding the right
solution can be a huge savings.
Hire a Developer In
House
It is always cheaper to hire a
full time employee than to contract out work. So hiring a good
developer can also save a bundle of money.
The problem is, like all
employees, how do you get the right one? That could be as much of
a project as building the website itself.
Also, what happens when the
person you hired can't do something? You still have to go out and
contract out the work and that ends up costing even more money.
When you are spending cash in
piles, it all ads up very fast.
Creating custom software
solutions is never going to be cheap, unless you do it yourself.
Try doing it Yourself?
I would say that 99% of the
people out there will never have a handle on website programming.
They might lean how to edit a page, add pics and so on, but
programming software is very difficult and is a real brain teaser.
If the average person looks at
the code below it really means nothing to them. And trying to
translate that into a working website is even harder.
string requestUrl = String.Format(
"https://spatial.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/data/{0}/{1}/{2}" +
"?spatialFilter=bbox({3},{4},{5},{6})&key={7}", accessId,
dataSourceName, dataEntityName, lat1, long1, lat2, long2, bingMapsKey);
XmlDocument response = GetXmlResponse(requestUrl);public static XmlDocument GetXmlResponse(string requestUrl)
{
try
{
HttpWebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(requestUrl) as HttpWebRequest;
HttpWebResponse response = request.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse;
XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.Load(response.GetResponseStream());
return (xmlDoc);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
Console.Read();
return null;
}
}
I know everyone thinks it
might be easy, the might be able to understand how it works, but
I promise, it isn't. Even afters years of programming, top
programmers struggle with coding, because it is complex and the
more complex the project is, the more the code seems to mean less
even to us.
As you add more and more code,
you end up with errors, ommissions and just plain typing mistakes.
All of this can lead to headaches in the future that takes years
to find all the bugs. That is when it is done by professionals.
What would you expect if you went in and tried to modify the code
yourself?
I guess I did not
really give you a way to save money on your website design budget,
but I hope I explained the value in systems like pageBuzz.com.
The value we offer at $20 a month to any business and the cost if
you have to build an application from scratch.
Now if we don't have the
software you need, you can always ask us to create it. We do that
on occasion. We work with companies to create new products to
open our market to new customers.
At the same time, there needs
to be value for us. If the market is too small and that is
usually why there are no existing solutions, you might be stuck
with creating something from scratch.
But if you can use what we
have, maybe with some slight modifications, then you might be
able to bypass that whole development issue all together.
Before you get started,
take a look at what is out there. The last thing you want to do
is spend a bunch of cash building an application that you could
have bought for just a few dollars.
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