A new website! You’ve been thinking about starting one for awhile now. You’ve kicked the idea around for months, thought it all through, and now you’re ready to make it happen. But you don’t know how to build a website, so you’re going to hire a designer to build it for you. Easy enough, right? Just place a quick “I need a website. What will it cost me?” ad on Craigslist, and evaluate the responses…right? What could be simpler….right?

Wrong! People that have tried this are always overwhelmed at the responses. This approach will get you bids from all over the world, probably over a hundred, with a very wide range of pricing. How can these bidders claim to build you a site for $100, while several others want $2500? What are you supposed to make of this wide range of responses?

This situation could arise for several reasons. Of course, developers in some parts of the world are simply willing to work for less than others. One hundred dollars in India or Pakistan might be a great income for a developer, and feed a family for a month, but in more developed economies that same amount simply doesn’t buy much. You may save money by going off-shore, but there are trade-offs (the ability to reach the developer during normal business hours, and the ability to communicate with him/her when you do make contact are two of the more obvious difficulties). But the most likely explanation for the wide range of responses is the way you presented your project. It’s very important to take your time in developing the Job Description (or Scope of Work) so that bidders can know exactly what they’re expected to deliver. The more clearly you present your website project, and the more details you provide, the more accurate your quotes will be. So lets look at how to prepare yourself, and present your website development project in a clear, concise fashion so you can receive more helpful and realistic quotes.
(Note: I’m going to assume that your website will be for a small business, though the rules apply to any type of website with only minor modifications)

1. Make a list of all of the pages you need for your website. Even the most basic of websites will usually have a Home page with introductory info about your company/product/services/or area of interest; an About Us page; a Services or Products page (possibly tied to a shopping cart or with PayPal links); and a Contact Us page. Be sure to have your content written so you’ll know exactly how it will be divided amongst your pages.
2. Consider any special functionality you may want on your pages. Dynamic features like Flash animation, a content area that automatically updates with your latest blog posts, audio, video, etc, are all examples of features that will require special types of programming to complete. Some of these features could cause considerably higher costs versus a static “brochure” website. Include all dynamic features in your project description, along with a brief description of where they will appear and what they need to actually do.
3. Consider how important the site design is to you. Typically, you’ll need to hire a person/team with good design skills. Of course, the more importance you place on the look or artistry of the site, the more you’ll pay for design work. But many websites use a ‘minimalist’ design without much graphic embellishment. Most developers can put together a nice ‘minimalist’ design for you with little to no added cost. If you’ve seen websites that have design elements that you want included on your site, note those website addresses in your project description, along with a comment about which features of those sites you want included within your design (“I really like the way the navigation works on this site”, or “I’d like to use the same basic layout and color scheme of this site”). Note too that if you’re graphically inclined you may be able to provide your own design using Photoshop, which can further lower your costs. There are also cheap “template” designs available all over the internet (Could this have something to do with the $100 quotes you received?)
4. How important is it to you to rank highly on search results? If you’re trying to sell something online, a website alone is not enough…you’ll need to drive traffic to your site. There are many ways to accomplish this, but some level of Search Engine Optimization is inevitable if you want people to find you via Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. searches. For an complete introduction to SEO, I highly recommend you take a few minutes to read my free ebook. Depending on how important this is to you, you may need to ask for the inclusion of SEO services within your bid. As with all other aspects of your Job Description, be specific about what you expect in the way of SEO for your site, and which SEO techniques you need or don’t need.
5. Do a little bit of research into web hosting accounts. Search for web hosting companies in your region/state/territory, and get a basic idea of what level of hosting you might need, what it costs, and what is included within those costs. If you’re going to do an e-commerce website, you’ll need a more secure plan than someone that is planning a ‘brochure’ website. You don’t need to go into this too deeply, as your developer can make recommendations to you based on his/her prior experience. You should at least know enough to understand the recommendations.
6. Make a list of the criteria you’ll use to select your designer/developer. Is price really the most important factor? Does the site need to go live ASAP? What about ease of communication? Do you need the ability to pick up the phone and speak to your developer during normal business hours? Is it important to you to meet with your web designer or web developer face-to-face? Will you need a little ‘hand-holding’ throughout the process of setting up your site? Do you want to maintain the site after it goes live (with the ability to call the developer for occasional tips/advice)? Or will you need the developer to perform regular maintenance once the site goes live? How important is it that your developer responds quickly to your questions or maintenance requests? Decide what characteristics you value the most in the person you’re going to hire, and be up-front about these things in your Job Description.
7. Now write your Job Description. Go back through all of the information you’ve assembled in the steps above. Make sure you are asking for everything you need, and you’ve described your needs clearly and accurately. Once you receive your quote and select your developer/designer, you’ll lock in a price for the items you’ve requested in the Job Description. If you decide to change something once site development has begun, you’ll likely incur additional costs for changes to work already in-process or completed.
8. Once you’ve completed the above, you can post your Job Description on Craigslist, Elance, Backpage, your local newspaper, or any of a multitude of similar sites. You could contact web designers and web developers directly by using a search engine to locate them in your local area.
9. Following the above tips should result in more useful and accurate quotes for you to choose from. You can use your own preferred criteria to narrow the list, whether it be based on their portfolio examples, the way they crafted their bid response (helpful? confident? well-considered response?). A little intuition goes a long way at this point.

It may look like a fair amount of work, but consider how much more work it will take to sort through 100 quotes from designers and developers that had no idea what they were bidding on!

Filed under: small business website by Rick