I know it's a bit nosey but...how much did you pay for your website?

[Thornykate]

...and are you happy with the result or do you regret paying so much/ wish you had invested more?

I have sent a brief out to several local companies to get quotes for a website.

There seems to be quite a few template style bargain packages around the £300-£400 mark but I don't know if these will cut it with the affluent clients I am marketing towards. Also my website will be linked to a household name suppliers as well as my higher end stockists websites so needs to be up to standard. The website is not for retail just to generate business awareness. Basically people will be directed to my site from my main product suppliers local search facility.

I have had a quote from a company that does some beautiful sites but it is still £1500 despite coming down in price following negotiations.

Is there a happy medium out there & what are other small businesses/ sole traders spending on their sites?

Any input appreciated.

Well, as a graphic artist and web designer, it only costs me domain registration as my brother gives me server space and I designed it myself. So about £15 to register my domain.

Anyway...I am not really understanding what the site is for? It's not for selling through but just to give potential customers an idea of what you sell? Is that right?

Most people don't know good design from bad, so you're probably okay with the £300 - £400. Or you could make one yourself for practically nothing at any number of places online.

Thanks for the reply, am a bit @ you having a web designer in your family although I have registered my own domain name & email to keep costs down & retain control of domain name.

I am an aesthetics practitioner which basically entails providing medical grade skin treatments direct to clients although I often work through salon referral so have to target businesses too. My website will receive traffic directed from the market leading pharmaceutical company via their 'find a practitioner' search page. My page will also have links to the salons that I work with.

I know I am a perfectionist & I think this industry dictates high standards of appearance in all aspects of the job so I really want to get the website spot on but without paying over the odds.

Sorry that should of read "being a web designer & having support in the family" .

You can do really nice looking sites using wordpress - they look better than a cheapo template driven site by a local designer and you retain control.

That is basically free, plus a bit of money (

Mine was done by Simon of UK Site Builder (he knows me by both this and my real name) - I think it cost around £400 but was money well spent to make it W3C and DDA compliant - essential if you are linking to big companies
He gave me the code so I can add more pages as I wish without further fees.
In a couple of years it will have a full professional rewrite again.
I had written the previous version on Coffeecup and before that Sausage HotDog for years

Wow I had no idea about those compliance things; I am not familiar with tech stuff.

TBH I don't feel a home made site would promote the right image, ideally I want a site at least as good as if not better than my competitors. I definitely am not tech minded enough to produce anything worth looking at myself & I think my time might be more productive spent dealing with the clients I have & chasing up the new leads.

Thanks for the input it is much appreciated!

Do you have a visual identity for your biz that you want to translate to the web? Logo, font, colors, photostock etc...?or are you starting from scratch?

Yes I have a logo which is on the correct formats for web, print etc & I have done quite a bit of research by looking at loads of websites & noting styles etc that I like. I have written a brief although the technical side does let me down somewhat. I will have my own portrait for the bio (complete with a litle retouching ) and I was going to choose some images from shutterstock.

The colour scheme will fit with the logo & I have looked at textures etc for background already. I do love art & design so I trust my own eye for what looks good...I am probably going to be a PITA of a client!

Well you are half way there already

you will need a content management system (cms) so you can updated the site without going back to your designer for every liittle change.

I can't recommend wordpress enough for this - I have used some expensive proprietary systems and they are clunkier and harder to use. I would try to find a designer who will set it up as a wordpress site for you.

A website can make or kill the first viewing. The question is open really depending on the amount of work. One website I used a professional copywriter as I wanted the wording to be correct. There is some complete rubbish out there. I get fed up with people saying to me - oh my brother can do that for you in his bedroom - no he cant! Pictures need to be perfect, wording, spelling, pages.

Get a grant?

Colours/logos/ease of use are very important - more gloss the better.

Can you snoop on the web sites you like and try to see who did them - and maybe approach them.

I've been surfing recently for the likes of botox and fillers etc. And tbh - there are some nice (but obv. novice) websites out there and others are truly awful! The worst one was the most successful 'Doctor' and I was at the clumsiness of the website.
But I would have thought £1500 is a bit pricey given that it isn't interactive/bookings driven etc. Surely just some glossy photos, good copy etc??

My sister and I both tried Wordpress, seperatly, and just couldn't make it work. Didn't help that the version in use is 4.something and all the instructions on the Wordpress site were for version 1.something & pretty vague too.

I use Serif Webplus 4x, which is great. I've used various Serif products for years and they all work well.

It has lots of tempates too, so you don't have to start with a blank page.