A Website Costs HOW Much?!

A&B Roofing, Wisconsin

I recently participated in Ilise Benun’s The Pricing Group. Ilise is the founder of Marketing Mentor and helps creative professionals grow their business.

The Pricing Group was a 90-minute conference call and Ilise guided the eight participants through an exercise in pricing a website project (in a non-price-fixing way, of course). For our assignment in advance, we were all given the same hypothetical project and instructed to create our own estimate using her provided worksheet.

Her project was two full pages of specs, but I’ll give you a very brief rundown:

  • The client was a non-profit arts association looking for an updated website
  • The site was to be 6-7 pages, and include:
    • Flash slideshow (motion portfolio of multiple images)
    • CMS (content management system, meaning the client can make his own changes)
    • SEO (search engine optimization)
    • Many other specifications of the not so “bells and whistle-ish” nature

The resulting ranges were intriguing, to say the least!

The lowest quote was $2800 for a WordPress template from a designer who’s only begun working in web. The highest was $22,825 for a handcrafted site from an agency that’s been in business for 22 years. As professionals, we were located in all areas of the country and the diversity of our target markets was equally vast. (Just for your interest, I was somewhere in between those ranges.)

So just where do we come off charging so much for a website? Even $2800 sounds like a lot for a WordPress when your next door neighbor’s kid can make one for the same price you pay him to mow your lawn.

In upcoming posts I’m going to cover the in-depth design process of an effective website. I’m going to explain what professionals do before we even turn on the computer and why paying a little more pays off a lot in the end.

In the meantime, check out this site I’m wrapping up for A&B Roofing LLC. This is a pair of ambitious guys setting the standard for roofing homes and businesses throughout southeast Wisconsin.


Looking for a website for your business? Email me today!


5 thoughts on “A Website Costs HOW Much?!”

  1. Hello

    The difference in estimations is not that surprising, because the quotation is the result of how a designer evaluates the online strategy for the client. Some think smaller than others. The difference in prices is therefore less the result of cheaper or more expensive rather a result of a different solution. Our survey of web budgets we are collecting widely shows that the ranges of prices differ similar to what you have stated.

    Best regards.

    Reply
  2. Rudolf, you make an excellent point. That difference came through so clearly in our group discussion. It was so interesting to hear each designer’s process and what they offered as part of the final product.

    Basically, it proves a customer can’t pick up the phone and do tire kicking for a web designer (or any creative service, for that matter). It also emphasizes clients have two ways to approach the cost factor for design services: Tell the designer your budget, and the designer will tell you what he can offer for that amount. Or tell the designer what product you want, and the designer will tell you how much you’ll have to spend.

    Reply
  3. Ilise has all the good ideas, doesn’t she? I love your last two sentences on your comment to Rudolf. So true. We have people call us all the time for estimates and questions and I usually have a seat on the couch and take about 15 minutes to explain “the pricing of design”. It’s complicated enough for designers, so I really feel for potential clients. Luckily in the end, they usually get what they pay for.

    Reply

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