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Why do you want a website?

I often get asked questions about websites, usually “What do I need to do to get a website?”, “How much does it cost?”, “Can you do that for me?”...

Generally, I respond with questions: “What do you want your website to achieve?”, “What is your budget?”, “When do you need it?” And, I usually answer the last question: “Yes, we can help you with your website”.

A website can be as large, or as small, as you like and will depend entirely on your aim for the website.

Do you want to put your business online? Do you want to share information with your clients? Or, do you just want to get a web presence because your competitors are there already? Once you know what you want to achieve the next step is to plan (work out how and when) and budget (how much to invest).

In this website you will find a number of <projects> with case studies which will give you a feel for what can be done, for the amount you have to invest (see the “recommended budget” in each case study). At the end of this page there is also some information about other considerations for you while planning your website. And, for normal people, there is a <glossary> to explain some of the many acronyms.

How much does a website cost?

As much, or as little (within reason) as you want. Currently we are working on projects ranging from $1,300 to $60,000 which brings us back to the questions: “what is your aim?”, “How much do you need to invest to achieve your aim?”, and more importantly “what return on investment do you need for your website to be worthwhile?”.

What is a website?

A website can be anything from an online brochure, a community, an automated business process, a feedback system, a communications network. A website is a business tool – like any other form of marketing and advertising. However, unlike traditional advertising you can easily measure your return on invest. For example you can see how many people viewed your ad, and how many of them purchased from that ad.

What makes a good website?

In real estate it’s “location, location, location” online it’s “content, content, content”. If you want to get return visits from your clients, prospects or higher rankings in search engines (new visits from new clients) you need to have lots of high quality content, which is regularly added to. Content can include images, graphics, audio, video, animation, and most importantly text - a picture may tell a thousand words but remember Google would rather read a thousand words.

Questions, questions and more questions

Ask yourself questions, because when we talk to you we will be asking you questions. Who do you want to communicate with using your website; and related strategies? What do you want you audience to do once they’re on your website? How are you going to get customers to your website? When do you need to have your website live? How are you going to organise content? What content do you have? What content do you need to find? What is your budget? What do you need to achieve to make your website give you a good return on investment? Who is going to be responsible for adding content?

Ok, are you ready for a website meeting now? Please call Mike Eastwood on +64 21 651 724 to arrange a meeting.

Additional Considerations

Hosting

You will need a ‘host’ for your website. A host is a server which is set up to send webpages, over the internet, to a web browser. Webalite has a dedicated server (and other customised solutions) which is used to host websites, email and other services.

Hosting, including email, for one year (including 2 months free) the investment will be only $300* + GST, or $30* + GST per month.

Domain Name

You will probably want a domain name for your website. A domain name is like an address for your website, and email, for example our domain is webalite.co.nz. To register a New Zealand domain the investment will be only $45* + GST. Also, there will be an annual renewal fee of $45* + GST.

Content Management System (CMS)

Expression Engine is a base system for managing content, specifically blogs and pages, that supports custom modules. There are a number of modules available from EllisLabs and the Expression Engine Commmunity and we have developed several modules for our clients. There are personal licenses and commercial licenses to uses this system.

Adobe Contribute CMS (Content Management System) is software that you instal on your computer that allows you to update and edit the content of the website easily. The investment for a single license is $285* + GST. Please note your website will need to be set up specially to take advantage of the Contribute features.

Your website can be designed and developed to use an integrated Content Management System so you can edit your website from any browser, with the correct login and password. Please ask about customised CMS.