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So, you are considering using the Internet as part of the way you operate your business? You should have an understanding of what choices are available to you before you make any decisions that will cost you money. We have provided this guide to help get you started.
A static web site is like an online brochure for your business. You may consider this type of site if the information on it will rarely change. A web designer will work with you to present your business information in a customer-friendly, professional manner. Costs for static sites can run from several hundred to several thousand dollars depending on the complexity of the site design and the amount of content (text and graphics) incorporated. To update your information, you can either edit the content yourself and upload to your server or you can contact your designer for updates. Site maintenance contracts can be negotiated with the designer of your site for small, periodic content updates.
You must also register a domain name and contract a web hosting company. This will cost you between $200-$500 annually, depending on the amount of storage space your site requires and how much bandwidth is required per month. Once you have launched your site, the next step is to register with all the major search engines (see the bottom of this document for tips to make your site more visible).
You may consider a dynamic web site if your site content changes often. Maintenance contracts can get very expensive if content frequently changes (such as product prices, press releases or specials). A dynamic site requires a web designer and a developer with programming expertise because most of the content is now database-driven. The web developer can provide you with the means to update the entries in the database and the information on your web page will be changed instantly.
Because of the additional programming required to build the back-end of your site, your up-front costs will be more but you will save on the long-term maintenance costs. As described above for static sites, you will need to register a domain name. The web hosting company must also have a database server and support dynamic scripting. Your annual costs should be in the same range as detailed above ($200-$500).
An e-commerce site is the most expensive to have developed, but it has the largest payoff potential for your business. It is a dynamic site that allows you to manage your inventory and contains the shopping cart and checkout functionality required for customers to place orders. As mentioned above, you will have to register a domain name. The web hosting company must also have a database server and support dynamic scripting and SSL encryption. Your annual hosting costs will be a little more expensive ($300-$600).
For secure order processing, an Internet Payment Gateway is used. There is usually a sign-up fee for the setup of your online merchant account and an implementation fee for the gateway ($200-$500) depending on the provider. You will also pay a monthly fee for the gateway ($50-$100), a per-transaction fee (usually $0.20-$1.25) depending on the plan, and a percentage charged by the credit card company on each transaction (typically 3%-5% of the charged amount). You should also consider a security certificate for your site to avoid security warnings during the transaction processing (which may deter potential customers). The cost for this certificate is approximately $150-$250 per year.
In summary, for an e-commerce site, you are looking at the initial web design and dynamic development cost, setup cost for the payment gateway and security certificate ($350-$750), and approximately $900-$1800 a year in operation costs.
When you register your domain name with the major search engines, your site content and keywords (meta tags) will be indexed for searching. It may take anywhere from two weeks to four months to add your site to their index depending on when the next scheduled pass of the search engine occurs. Most search engines have a subscription plan for targeted advertising (pay-per-click model) which can speed the process up, but it can significantly increase your operating costs.
Once the site has been indexed, you may find that your site still does not appear in searches. This may be the "sandbox effect" which is a mechanism used by search engines to determine if your site is legitimate. It may take up to a year to get the search rankings you desire. Of course, a paid subscription to the search engine will get you ranked higher and faster, but there are other ways to get you out of this sandbox faster. You will need to get your site's address (URL) listed on other sites that have already emerged from the sandbox. One method can be to launch an online ad campaign with links leading back to your site. Another method can be to post messages to related message boards with your site address in your signature.
We hope you have found this information to be of use as you consider adding the Internet to your business model. Please send any comments or questions to us via our Contact page. We look forward to hearing from you.
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