Company Web-Site Questions

[Monty Python]

I need to set-up a web-site for my business within the next 6 months.

Recently I was solicited by a web designer that offered to do a basic 10 page site for about $175, with a $50 per month hosting fee.

The $175 seemed okay, but the hosting seemed twice what I have seen advertised. When I mentioned this, he went on about how he does search engine optimization, which first I don't need or want, and second sounded like BS.

He also went on about how I would need to go through him in order to modify the web-site, etc... I have heard enough stories from people that pay a lot of money for a site, and then either can't find the designer to make modifications, or he wants a lot of money.

So I've decided that no matter what, I am going to have full, 100% control over my web-site.

And told him this, via e-mail. His last response was "Good Luck trying to find someone that will give you full control ..." etc... as if this were somehow RARE and DIFFICULT.

He's already conveyed the idea that he's a total scammer & shyster, so I need that last point to be refuted.

Is it possible to get a web-site designed, and then handed over fully for a flat fee ?

I think if I could get a basic template, I could teach myself enough HTML to do whatever modifications I need.

How feasible is this ?

[Sc0tt]

Sounds like hes trying to get more money than he should on the per month basis (depends on the server specs and if that includes website updates since he wont give full control). As for the "full control", alot of people (normally companies) don't allow it because inexperienced customers can cause damage that would take time to fix costing the web designer money.

The other options are buying your own hosting seperately and just purchasing the web design services from someone. Or you could get a template fairly cheap but it would require some knowledge to get it going.

"Good Luck trying to find someone that will give you full control..." - This is just desperation, there are so many people out there trying to get the work that you are sure to find someone who will offer what you actually want.

I'll start by offering my services. I could offer either web design with hosting (uk based, full control) or just the web design and you arange the hosting. PM me if your interested.

[Skie]

He's trying to scam you for more money then the services are worth. A reputable designer will usually charge more for the design then for the hosting. And they'll let you use whatever hosting company you wish to use. Most will also offer to do the hosting for you at a reasonable monthly fee. $50/month is extremely outrageous. That person must still be living in the mid 90's. The only reason I can see someone spending $50/month is if they require a large amount of disk space/bandwidth or are setting up a Reseller/VPS/Dedicated server. A simple shared hosting account shouldn't cost that much unless it's one of the largest packages offered.

Also, most designers will offer to do changes for you (as not everyone knows how to edit HTML/PHP) or they'll give you all files and let you make changes on your own if you feel you can do so (in other words, you'll have full control). If you wish to take full control after the initial design, they can make changes on an as needed basis for an hourly fee if you need something changed that you can't do on your own.

All of this can be discussed before any work starts. You can also hire a seperate SEO (Search Engine Optimization) company to do the SEO portion and it'll still be cheaper then paying him the $50/month. Just be warned that you need to find a reputable SEO and Web Hosting company as well.

Getting a template and teaching yourself HTML is doable, but you need to have a good level of artistic talent to make sure the site looks good instead of looking like it was made in the late 90's. The main downside to templates is that there can be many other websites that look similar/exactly to your own. You'll basically have a cookie cutter website. If this isn't a problem for you, then go ahead. However, if you don't want to look like everyone else (this is especially important for businesses), you'll want to have a custom site designed.

[sobeit]

175 for 10 pages is dirt cheap for a business. 50 a month is very expensive but could be reasonable depending upon what features are offered/included.

As far as wanting 100 percent control of the site - something to consider, I would not want to give a customer 100 percent control of a site unless I am sure the customer would not mess up the site then expect me to fix it immediately.

Was this person a scammer, maybe or maybe not. Could be he was going to make his profit on the back end within the monthly fees. Cannot really say without seeing the persons contractual terms. as far as his attitude when he realized he was not going to get your business, could be better.

[justpassingby]

50$ a month seems very expensive to me too.

We're paying 24€ (=35$) a year (!) to host our website and forum. Included are the .com domain name, the MySQL database, 1.6GB of storage space and 30GB of monthly bandwith. I can access all files and folders via FTP and set the rights as I want them to be. The website was designed by a friend of ours.