In part 1 of this 2 part series of posts, I talked about a cool Facebook app called The Political Compass. In this post I wanted to give props to the excellent app called MyType. MyType is a Meyers-Briggs/Jung personality type questionnaire, but unlike other free personality type tests on the web, it has the […]
Category Archives: Web
My Favorite Facebook Apps Part 1: The Political Compass
April 26, 2008 – 5:06 pm
Current Mood: Buzzed & Content & Sore & TiredI’m a big fan of Facebook. It’s good for me because I tend to be a bit introverted and it gives me a way to connect with friends that I would otherwise not connect with much. One of the things that I absolutely love […]
I’m Taking it All Off…
April 9, 2008 – 5:32 am
Welcome to dBlogIt. I’m getting naked today. No I’m not taking off my clothes but I am showing off my body. My XHTML <body> tag that is. It’s a part of CSS Naked Day, and it’s intended to promote the proper use of (x)html, semantic markup, and a good hierarchy structure. Can your site […]
This Post Was Written By A Blogging Robot
April 3, 2008 – 5:40 am
I wonder if the world of the future as depicted in the movies is always so green and lush in order to offset the world’s complete and total inundation with information. As our infolust turns into overload what will happen to the Internet? How will it change?
Regurgitation: Mmm web vomit fresh from my third stomach
It’s […]
CSS Ninjitsu Links
February 28, 2008 – 8:09 am
Current Mood:
Future of CSS Ninja depends on these links!
How to Create Beautiful and Elegant HTML Lists Using CSS â Konstruktors Notes
HTML list have become one of the most used elements for marking-up various semantic content structures […]
My Alternative Search Engine Top Picks
February 15, 2008 – 7:27 am
Since my recent departure from Google I’ve been on the hunt for alternative search engine solutions. I used Google to get started, but it felt dirty. I came across one little Gem of a website called Alt Search Engines. They produce a pretty good list of alternatives.
Well, what I found is that it’s hard […]
Blueprint CSS Architect: The Easy Way to Layout Your Websites
January 8, 2008 – 12:28 am
I love Blueprint CSS. But one of the things that bothers me about it is the non-semantic usage of classes. You should never have to put column or span-12 in your HTML because classes like that describe presentational aspects of a site, not structural.
I’ve described the process that I use to create semantic documents using […]
Here is a Method That is Helping Us to Rank Higher and Get More Traffic
June 8, 2007 – 8:01 pm
Everyone wants to be number one in Google and we all want more traffic to our website. We’ve been using a very simple method lately and it’s proven extremely effective.
The proof is in the pudding
Just so you know that it works, here are a couple of terms we’ve targeted lately and our rankings for them.
| Search Term | Rank in Google |
|---|---|
| cost of creating a website for a business | 1 |
| how much does a 10 page website cost | 1 |
| professional arizona web site design | 2/18* |
*With and without quotes respectively
It’s all in the TITLE
So how’d we do it? It’s really simple. We included keywords in our titles.
That’s it. Our secondary headings (titles on pages and blog posts) include those terms in a natural way that is both relevant to users and search engines.
Keywords are important too
Of course the keywords themselves are important, but it’s relative simple to get a good list of terms that people are searching for. In fact, we know of a professional Arizona web site design company that can help you out 
You need a good website
It’s worth noting that if your website is not properly structured (the HTML markup is borked) you’re not going to do so hot with your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts. So make sure you’ve got a good foundation to work with and then go to town.
7 Good Reasons NOT to Pay Hourly for the Cost of Good Website Design
June 1, 2007 – 2:19 pm
This is the last installment in a five part series dedicated to answering the question “how much will it cost me to build a website?”
- How Much Does it Cost to Build a Website?
- The Down and Dirty Cost of Creating a Website for a Business
- How Much Does a 10 Page Website Cost?
- Prices for Web Design and Development Depend On Value
Now that we’ve covered the the cost for building a website, imagine that you’re having a heart attack…In desperate need of help would you ask “where is the cheapest hospital?” or would you ask “where is the closest hospital?” Of course it’s unlikely that you’d be taking the time to grab a phone book and start shopping around for a good deal on life-saving medical professionals. The reason is simple, you care more about the value than the cost.
It’s the same way with everything else you buy, and buying a website is no exception. If you pay for your website on an hourly basis you might not get the value you had hoped for. Here are 7 reasons NOT to pay hourly for a website.
- You know exactly how much you’ll be paying right from the start. When you pay hourly there’s no telling how much you’ll end up paying, especially with technology.
- You don’t have to worry about whether your developer is “on the clock.” Email, phone calls, and office visits are part of the package so you won’t have to think twice before you get in touch.
- It’s not fair for you to reconsider your investment every time you need something. It’s hard enough to calculate your ROI (Return on Investment) once, why do it more than you have to?
- You’re free to build a solid working relationship with your developer. You don’t have to wonder whether he’s milking his time on a project to make more money. This kind of doubt seriously undermines healthy relationships.
- Surprises (namely bugs and complicated 3rd party systems) can be resolved without adding to the project’s overall cost. It’s very common for complicated web design projects to have a few unexpected curve balls.
- You won’t be billed for additional resources if they are needed. If there’s a tight deadline it could be helpful for the developer to hire some additional help, you’d be paying double if it were hourly.
- You’ll save yourself the headaches when it comes to determining what time is billable. Do you pay for the time it takes for your developer to drive to your office for a meeting? What about when the developer stops to get some lunch on the way there?
While I’m at it, I may as well give you a couple more. Value based fees also:
- Put the focus the GOALS, not the deliverables, time, and cost. Do you want to increase revenue, or do you want to roll out 10 new website toys? What if I could increase revenue with only 1 website widget?
- Motivate the developer to get the job done the right way, the first time, on time. Any extra time spent fixing things is lost money.
Adapted from Getting Started in Consulting, by Alan Weiss, PhD.
Prices for Web Design and Development Depend On Value
May 18, 2007 – 4:33 pm
This is the fourth installment in a five part series dedicated to answering the question “how much will it cost me to build a website?”
- How Much Does it Cost to Build a Website?
- The Down and Dirty Cost of Creating a Website for a Business
- How Much Does a 10 Page Website Cost?
How much will it cost me to build a website
In our last post we figured out that it would cost about $8,508.16 for building a basic 10 page website with a nice design. But if you do a couple of Google searches you’ll find websites going for $500 bucks. How can that be?
Well let’s think about it. The person selling a $500 website has to make a living. They’ve got to pay for health care and vacation time just like the rest of us. If we assume that this person is making the same amount we determined previously and is not being outsourced to another country (we do want to support our local economy), the only variable is time. It must take less time to do everything.
Corner cutting 101
If I were going to cut corners enough to create a $500 website here’s how I would do it:
- Forget standards compliance, rules were made to be broken
- Don’t worry about page load times
- Ignore search engine optimization and say bye-bye to traffic from Google and Yahoo
- Forgo accessibility for handicapped users, and risk a lawsuit like the discrimination claims against Target
- Only design for Internet Explorer even though the website would look absolutely terrible in any other web browser
- Abstain from using your company’s identity and instead use a template for the design
- Sacrifice ease of use by creating a boilerplate solution with every feature possible, and use it for every client, regardless of their needs. No customization!
- Quit setting up email accounts
- Pass up all e-commerce websites and certainly don’t set up anything that would secure them from hackers
- Stop meeting with clients one on one, and do all business via the website and email. It would also be a good idea to make myself completely unavailable by phone, especially after hours and on weekends
The real cost of a cheap website
In the end everything comes down to value. When you pay a bunch for a great website you’ll be getting the talent, expertise, background, experience and so forth of the qualified developer. That’s a great investment in your company, and a solid decision. You’d lose out on all that with a less expensive solution.
If you’re expecting a return on the investment in your website then you better be willing to do what it takes to get that return. But if you’re just putting up a website because you have to, and no one will ever see it, and it will never make a dime, then by all means don’t waste your money.
Next up I’ll discuss why we don’t charge hourly. By now I’d bet you can guess why…it doesn’t represent the true value of a given solution. Au revoir!