How much should I spend on a

CUSTOM WEBSITE for my

GROWING BUSINESS?

Kasim Aslam

Digital Ninja

Solutions 8

www.sol8.com

@kasimaslam

Key Decision Maker

Key Decision Maker Kasim

Didn’t expect a straight answer did you?

Well I’m full of surprises. Allow me to explain.

If I wanted to, I could have been really annoying and

side stepped the good ol’ price question with

statements like…

every website is different

it depends on your specific needs

give me a call to discuss your scope and I’ll price it out for you

While every website is different and your specific needs will

(sometimes substantially) alter the price of your website, why

can’t development firms provide you with a baseline

average?

It is actually your fault.

That’s right, I said it.

At this stage in your business life cycle you’re looking for a

custom website and a custom website deserves a custom

quote.

The Client who believes his or her needs to be

completely unique is going to avoid anything

that appears to be “out of the box” with extreme

prejudice.

The long and tired process of a pre-development meeting in

order to “determine your specific needs” so your firm of

choice can build a “specification document” and provide

you with an “approximate cost and turnaround time” is

completely for your benefit.

If you’re having a discussion with

someone who truly knows what

they’re doing they could more than

likely give you an accurate ballpark

estimate within a half hour.

I’ve been building custom website and

software applications professionally for

nearly 7 years.

Is every website different?

Yes.

If custom websites were sold at Target, would 90%

of them be on the same shelf?

Yup.

I realize this sounds a little fishy - the guy who

builds websites for a living telling you what to spend

on websites.

It’s a lot like the diamond ring companies deciding

that an engagement ring should be three months’

salary.

I just really appreciate knowing they

have my best interests at heart.

For a growing business looking to

build a custom web application

that is scalable, tailored to convert

users and well positioned to be an

intricate facet of the business’s

ongoing marketing I have found that

$10,000 tends to be the baseline

cost.

Now, this does not mean you should

take $10k in cash and throw it at the

first semi-nerdy looking guy you find

sitting by himself at Starbucks. You can

spend ten grand and get a solid custom

website but you can also spend fifty

thousand and get hosed.

You still need to perform your due

diligence and choose a firm that can be

trusted.

I highly recommend having your website built

with open source technology.

For a great read on open source website development

written by one of the smartest people I know check out

Developers: The Modern Day Mechanic.

Here’s what you should expect for your

$10,000…

1. Pre-development Process

Time spent between you, your team and the project

manager discussing:

Your target

demographic

(buyer

persona)

Your primary

calls to

action (CTAs)

Your

required

functionality

Note: Functionality is the single largest perpetrator of scope increase. If you’re

looking to have a highly functional web application created then expect to spend

much more money.

1. Pre-development Process

A sitemap and wireframe presented for your sign

off before mockup creation.

Both the sitemap and wireframe should be

tailored to suit your buyer personas, primary

CTAs and required functionality.

A functional scope of work that outlines, in detail,

exactly what your website will do and how it will

work.

2. Development Requirements

A robust and scalable content management

system (CMS) that will allow you to control and

manage the day to day requirements of your

website including:

-Adding / Editing / Deleting pages and menu items

-Editing content (text / images / videos)

-Publishing blogs

-Managing subscriptions or any registered users

-*I highly recommend choosing an open source content

management system like Wordpress or Joomla

2. Development Requirements

A quality assurance process that allows you to

test every major functional component of the

application prior to go live.

Page deployment that includes the placement

and formatting of content.

Standard / boiler plate functionality.

3. What’s not included

Media and content creation will either be a

separate contract or should be something you

plan on providing.

Advanced functionality or functions that “haven’t

been done before”.

Changes or additions requested after the scope

is agreed upon.

Thank you! Kasim Aslam

Digital Ninja

Solutions 8

www.sol8.com

@kasimaslam

Solutions 8 Blog