Whether you design, develop, and maintain your Web site on your own, or whether you bring Cyberkon Consulting or another Internet strategy and design team, it costs money to bring your Web site to life. There are very few companies or organizations that have all of the resources necessary to develop a well-designed (and profitable) site.
Many businesses who began developing their Web site completely in-house learned that this is not the best way to go, unless you have a design team of employees who are able to apply their layout and design abilities and business strategy to the way the Word Wide Web works. After trying to develop sites in-house, many of these organizations turned to consulting firms more in tune with Internet site development.
We've found that a team approach to Web site design is best, using a project group that includes a few of your key employees working with one of our site designers. You should select team members who know your organization well, including its strengths and areas you are working on improving. If you will be taking over the routine maintenance of your site, the employees who will be responsible for this should be included.
We feel that it is important to have an understanding of how your business operates, so that we can reflect your approach to customers or clients in the site's design and function. This knowledge is the most important contribution your employees can bring to the team. Cyberkon Consultant's contributions include our knowledge of how to present businesses on the Internet and our technical expertise in designing a site that will bring you new customers or clients, and keep them coming back for more. .
How Much Does It Cost?
Many people design their own home pages at a very low cost, except in terms or time, on their home computer system. Some personal Web page sets are excellent, but they are in the minority. If you wish to attract attention to your business, you should hire an Internet presence strategy and design consulting firm, such as Cyberkon Consulting.
On average, you should expect your initial consulting, strategic planning, graphics selection/preparation, writing, and page set design to cost somewhere in the range of $5000 or more, depending on the complexity of your page set. After the initial page set is complete, monthly maintenance costs will normally be contracted at an hourly or retainer rate. You can, of course, do at least some of the routine page update maintenance in-house. Your cost for this will vary according to the skills and salary of the employee responsible for these tasks.
While
this may, at first, seem rather expensive, you should consider that the World
Wide Web is a potential worldwide advertising target audience of millions, and
that it will take a well thought out strategy and Web site design to reach as
many of those people as possible. You have the benefit of knowing several of the
key demographics of your audience, but are left with the task of determining the
most effective way to reach them. When you consider the amount of money it would
take to develop and run an international advertising campaign in print or the
other more traditional media, your Web site expenses become far more reasonable
by comparison.
How Much Time Will It Take?
Good Web site design is far more than just putting the pages together from a mix of graphics and text files. The process of determining your audience and the information you wish to present to them is going to take time, as is planning how the information will need to be presented. Actually sitting down and designing the site layout will actually take less time than putting together a good plan.
If you have never designed a Web site before, bringing in an experienced Internet presence strategy and design consultant will help you bring your ideas together to a point where a plan can be developed much sooner than you might be able to accomplish on your own. The more of your own valuable time you can save, the more economical the entire planning and design process will be.
With the help of an experienced consultant, most small to medium sized businesses can anticipate spending at least a week in this crucial initial phase. Once the first release of your Web site is complete, you should wait at least thirty days before making any significant modifications to your overall strategy and design concepts.
Once your plan is in place and you are in a position where you can release the graphics and text elements to your Web site designer, you should allow at least two weeks before you can expect a final draft of the initial five pages of your project.
After your new Web site is announced to the world through as many directory and search services as possible, you should not expect to see much in the way of an impact on your balance sheet for three two four months — and then only if you keep the site "fresh" by updating it frequently.
Depending on the complexity of your Web site and the focus of your business, you should expect to spend between five and fifteen hours a week in updating the content of your pages for a medium-sized business. This is is you will provide enough new information to bring your customers or clients back at least once a week to see what's new.
Because every site is different, there is no exact science that will tell us exactly how much time will need to be spent on yours in the course of a year. It all depends on how well it brings business to your door, and what you feel its potential is for helping to grow your business into the 21st century. Nevertheless, we can assure you that it will not help you very much if you simply put the site up, announce it, and then just sit back and wait for it to produce. You do need to have a long-term commitment to using the Internet as one part of your business plan if you wish to use this expanding technology effectively.