- Feature Article: How Much Does a Small Business Web Site Cost?

- Note from the Author: Aiming the Spotlight on You!

- Special Message: What Is Success?

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Aiming the Spotlight on You!

I love having an occasion to focus attention on the contributions of my many talented subscribers and colleagues! (When I ask for ideas, comments, and feedback, I really mean it!)

In this issue, I have the pleasure of introducing two new newsletter contributors: Savvy subscriber and writer Melanie Reyes, and my astute colleague and frequent collaborator, Bruce Mills.

Excerpts from Melanie's highly compelling essay, "What Is Success?" appear in today's Special Message.

Bruce and I co-authored the feature article, "How Much Does a Small Business Web Site Cost?" to help people gain an understanding of what they can expect to pay for a custom-designed site. Bruce is my graphic artist and Web site designer, and the principal of LonePineStudio.com. He felt that it was time to provide some guidelines to give prospective clients a way to think realistically about what they want to have done. There are many more considerations than we could fit into the space for today's article, but rest assured that a majority of the key points are covered!

Please get your favorite hot or cold beverage, then relax and enjoy today's issue. And by all means, keep sending your terrific comments, ideas, articles, and stories!

Here's to your business prosperity,

Adele Sommers, author of the "Straight Talk on Boosting Business Performance" success program

P.S. If you missed any previous issue, visit the newsletter index!

What Is Success?
by special guest author Melanie Reyes

Success is... living in a state of ultimate balance; experiencing optimum wellness and abundance in all areas of life; a quiet confidence; a sense of inner peace, well being, and joy inside your heart that you can access to calm and comfort yourself when things are not going so well. It is a feeling of contentment knowing that at this moment you are doing exactly what you were meant to do. It is experiencing "flow" in your day-to-day life…where things move along smoothly, timing is seemingly perfect, and synchronicities are a daily occurrence.

Success is... waking up each morning excited about the day because you get to spend it doing inspiring work that you are passionate about; work that makes your heart sing; work that brings joy to your life and makes a significant difference in the lives of others. It is creating win/win situations whenever possible and treating people with respect and honesty. It is having the privilege of working with trustworthy, creative, fun, smart, awesome people who share your vision and bring positive energy, great ideas, honest feedback, and a supportive attitude to the table. If they make you look and feel like a genius, that is good, too.

Success is... having a diverse group of true friends who think you're fabulous just because you're you...even when you screw up! It is having a family who supports you in good times and in bad, who treats you with respect and kindness, who believes in you, shares fun times with you, laughs with you, and loves you. It is to have built an extensive network of business and personal contacts; a team of mentors, coaches, teachers, friends, and colleagues that you can call on to assist you in whatever ventures you decide to pursue. It is a sense of being connected...to your loved ones, to your community, to the world around you.

Success is... being thankful for all that you have, even if it is not much, for all abundance begins with gratitude. It is being grateful for the opportunity_to create a meaningful life. It is being a kind, compassionate, genuine person.

It is giving back to those who mentored, guided, and encouraged you along your path to achieving your goals. It is when a young person asks you to be her mentor and you take the time to help her achieve her own version of success. It is being confidently able to pay forward some of the lessons, advice, guidance, and wisdom that were at one time given to you.

And finally, success is... finding happiness within; realizing that the only constant in life is change, and if you learn to roll with it instead of resisting, you will find joy in the journey no matter where your path may lead you.

©2007 Melanie Reyes

How Much Does a Small Business Web Site Cost?
by Bruce Mills and Adele Sommers

When you think about setting up or redesigning a business Web site, what are the first things that come to mind? If you're like most people, you will probably wonder, "How much will it cost?" and "Can I afford it?"

If you're a sole proprietor or a small business, a Web site represents a critical piece of your marketing strategy in today's worldwide, highly interconnected marketplace.

Even if you are marketing to a local or regional audience, your site provides a cost-effective way to showcase your products or services, offer information, advertise your location and contact details, and help people make buying decisions.

So, similar to having a Yellow Pages listing in a 1950s telephone book, having an effective Web presence is a necessity for businesses today.

What you should be asking at this point is not, "Can I afford to do this," but rather, "Can I afford not to do this?" This article discusses how to obtain an accurate estimate for Web site development.

What Factors Should Be Considered?

The answer depends on what you aim to do with your business -- your business goals -- and the marketing and sales strategies your Web site will employ.

Some Web sites will incorporate e-commerce strategies, such as selling products or services using a shopping cart system. But not every site has such a complex purpose. A site's purpose might be to simply support direct selling activities by offering samples, customer endorsements, and case studies.

Keep in mind that if you don't pinpoint your site's primary purpose, have too many purposes, or have competing purposes, you can produce a costly and ineffective result.

Once you define your site's purpose, you can consider how it will support your marketing approach. If your online marketing strategy is to:

• Provide basic information about you, your business, and your areas of expertise, a small, static brochure-like site might be as little as a few hundred dollars.

• Offer a large number of products via a custom-designed, on-line purchasing system, your site development might entail thousands of dollars.

• Present high-end, media-rich content, you could expect to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for professionals to create custom content, media, and software; set up high-bandwidth server systems; obtain licensed technologies; and incorporate networking capabilities.

So, the simple answer might be "somewhere between $100 and $1,000,000," depending on the complexity and whether you do it yourself or have professional assistance.

• At the low end, you could build it yourself with software you may already have, purchase a domain name, and acquire hosting services -- all for under $100.

• In the midrange, you could use a template hosting service for $50-300. However, many templates impose restrictions or may require your site to host advertising messages from third parties. In these cases, you have to continually ask yourself, "Is this helping or hurting?" A confusing site can be worse than no site at all.

• Above the midrange, you can seek professional help. If your business is growing, sooner or later you will need it. Keep in mind that custom Web sites are not shrink-wrapped and sitting on a shelf at a local retailer. And, one size does not fit all.

10 Steps for Obtaining an Accurate Estimate

The following guidelines will help you obtain an accurate bid for custom design and development. Keep in mind that your input in these areas will help your Web design professional prepare a meaningful scope of work, which will play a critical role in determining the ultimate development costs.

Don't Forget Testing and Maintenance Expenses

• Once your site is up and running in a trial mode, it should be tested thoroughly. If your site must support a wide range of browsers -- especially nonstandard ones -- it means more testing and expense.

• Who will maintain your site and periodically monitor its effectiveness? If that's you, it will reduce the long-term costs. Otherwise, budget for having someone update the content, expand the site, and monitor traffic. Most hosting services include "site analytics" software, which measures many aspects of the traffic to your site and tells you if your site is working as expected.

• Other recurring expenses include domain name renewal, hosting fees, and licensing or subscription costs.

In conclusion, each custom approach offers pros and cons in balancing expense, time, quality, and features. Much like building a custom home, the prices and compromises can vary greatly depending on what you need. If carefully scoped, planned, and executed, your site will contribute greatly to your business success.

Copyright 2007 Bruce Mills and Adele Sommers

"Getting Real"

If you're creating a more complex, custom Web site or other software application, you might just want to aim your attention at "Getting Real" by 37signals company. This is a unique manifesto on the subject of software development, and you can read many of the chapters online at this site: http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php.

According to the book description, "Getting Real details the business, design, programming, and marketing principles of 37signals. The book is packed with keep-it-simple insights, contrarian points of view, and unconventional approaches to software design. This is not a technical book or a design tutorial, it's a book of ideas.

"Anyone working on a Web app -- including entrepreneurs, designers, programmers, executives, or marketers -- will find value and inspiration in this book. 37signals used the Getting Real process to launch five successful Web-based applications (Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack, Writeboard, Ta-da List), and Ruby on Rails, an open-source Web application framework, in just two years with no outside funding, no debt, and only 7 people (distributed across 7 time zones)." It's worth a look!

Adele Sommers, Ph.D. is the author of "Straight Talk on Boosting Business Performance" -- an award-winning Special Report and Workbook program.

If you liked today's issue, you'll love this down-to-earth overview of how 12 potent business-boosting strategies can reenergize the morale and productivity of your enterprise, tame unruly projects, and attract loyal, satisfied customers. It's accompanied by a step-by-step workbook designed to help you easily create your own success action plan. Browse the table of contents and reader reviews on the description page.

Adele also offers no-cost articles and resources to help small businesses and large organizations accelerate productivity and increase profitability. Learn more at LearnShareProsper.com.

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