Your Website Strategy

3. How Much Will It Cost?

Costs are determined by the level of sophistication you build into your website.

3.1 For a comparatively small, simple site, the costs will be modest.

• Registering your domain name for an initial two years could cost as little as £15. Prices vary, so shop around. The maximum registration period is ten years.
• Some ISPs will give you from 100Mb upwards of free web space.
• You will probably need to invest in web design software and pay for a designer, though some ISPs offer easy-to-use design tools to help you create a basic site. You should also allow for the cost of training employees who will update your pages.

3.2 Costs will be higher for a more complex site, but the impact will be greater.

• More sophisticated, business-oriented web-hosting packages are available for a monthly fee.
• Consider employing a website manager and a web designer, especially if you will make frequent changes to your pages.
• You will need a programmer from time to time if you want to add extra features to your site - such as search tools, or a 'shopping trolley' system for online sales.
• If you open a shopping site (see 4.1), you may have to pay commission on sales to an online bank or a shopping software supplier. This is in addition to your own bank's charges (of up to five per cent) for processing credit card transactions.