A fair price?

X-No-archive: yes

Hi,

I hope I am posting this in the right place.

A friend of a friend has offered to create a website for my business
that will have all the features, same style of graphics, same size
(number of pages, number of products) etc. of the following website
<http://www.expertshield.com>

I really like the graphics and style of the page, and the features such
as the coupon code. He will also include features such as customer
I.D., manage links so that I will get more hits, register with search
engines, make a shopping cart etc. But I think his fees are kind of
expensive. He works for a large company doing this, so he is
experienced and has the technical skills. He will charge me $2500 USD
to create the site and $450 USD a month thereafter to host and maintain
and update the site. Are these charges unreasonable or are they in
line with the current market? Can I get the same kinds of things at a
much better price? Otherwise...I guess I'll have to settle for less.

Many thanks!

mjpear (AT) gmail (DOT) com wrote:

X-No-archive: NO

Hi,

I hope I am posting this in the right place.

That depends...

A friend of a friend has offered to create a website for my business
that will have all the features, same style of graphics, same size
(number of pages, number of products) etc. of the following website
hXXp://www.expertshield.com

...on whether you are serious, or spamming us with this site.

I really like the graphics and style of the page, and the features such
as the coupon code. He will also include features such as customer
I.D., manage links so that I will get more hits, register with search
engines, make a shopping cart etc. But I think his fees are kind of
expensive. He works for a large company doing this, so he is
experienced and has the technical skills.

My opinion would be to hire someone else, with real skills. This site
needs help.

He will charge me $2500 USD to create the site and $450 USD a month
thereafter to host and maintain and update the site. Are these
charges unreasonable or are they in line with the current market?
Can I get the same kinds of things at a much better price?
Otherwise...I guess I'll have to settle for less.

If I wasn't retired, I'd do it for half that.

--
-bts
-Warning: I brake for lawn deer

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 08:14:02 -0600, saz <saz1958 (AT) nospammersexcite (DOT) com>
wrote:

In article <1138267295.334178.311350 (AT) o13g2000cwo (DOT) googlegroups.com>,
mjpear (AT) gmail (DOT) com says...

I really like the graphics and style of the page, and the features such
as the coupon code. He will also include features such as customer
I.D., manage links so that I will get more hits, register with search
engines, make a shopping cart etc. But I think his fees are kind of
expensive. He works for a large company doing this, so he is
experienced and has the technical skills. He will charge me $2500 USD
to create the site and $450 USD a month thereafter to host and maintain
and update the site.

At first glance, the development price seems fair, but the hosting and
maintenance seems very, very high. Exactly what is he doing for
$450/month?

FWIW: that was precisely my reaction as well. $450/month might be
reasonable if it included a dedicated server and your site does indeed
need one because you have several thousand visitors per hour. Do you?

--
Stephen Poley

http://www.xs4all.nl/~sbpoley/webmatters/

mjpear (AT) gmail (DOT) com wrote:

Hi,
(snip)
A friend of a friend has offered to create a website for my business
that will have all the features, same style of graphics, same size
(number of pages, number of products) etc. of the following website
http://www.expertshield.com
(snip)

He will charge me $2500 USD
to create the site and $450 USD a month thereafter to host and maintain
and update the site. Are these charges unreasonable or are they in
line with the current market? Can I get the same kinds of things at a
much better price? Otherwise...I guess I'll have to settle for less.

Many thanks!

mjpear,

The creation price is reasonable, perhaps even a bit low, on a per-page
basis. The maintenance price seems high, unless there will be lots of
product listing turnover each month.

The technical quality of the site is low. The most conspicuous effect
on typical users is that pages load slowly.

It seems odd, however, that your business would so closely parallel the
one cited that you expect to have the same number of pages and products
and want the same style (most sites strive for some sort of distinctive
features). If your site is really an independent business unrelated to
ExpertShield, then that ends my comments. If, however, this 'offer' is
part of a 'partnership' with ExpertSheild, you may be entering into a
pyramid scheme and should proceed with caution.

Chris Beall

First of all, thanks to everyone who replied.

I will probably only receive a few hits per hour (maybe even per day)
as I am just starting out. The maintenance he will do is: take pics
of my products (perhaps a new 10 products a month), create graphics,
tweak the page design, manage my shopping cart and keep track of my
customers, and write text for my products. I know a little html so I
can write my own text and upload the photos, but I don't know how to
keep track of my customers (e.g. customer will sign in and won't have
to input all their info. each time they buy from me), don't know how to
do coupon codes, or how to manage the shopping cart, or how to take
such good photos. He will also register my site on search engines, do
affiliate programs and other things necessary for my site to become
more well-known.

Is it possible for anyone to give me a ballpark figure for what a site
such as the expertshield site cost to create (per page) and maintain?

Also, a few of you have mentioned that it is a poorly designed, not
very technical site. To my newbie eyes, the site looks good and it has
stuff that seems technical to me (php scripting language, javascript,
style sheets). What technical stuff are you referring to? Is it stuff
like flash? Sorry if I sound clueless, but your collective advice
seems to be for me to find a good designer...but it is hard for me to
evaluate who is a good web designer.

Thanks again.