WANT TO UNDERSTAND CUSTOM WEBSITE COSTS?

    WHAT IS A CUSTOM WEBSITE?

Different Uses For A Custom Website

When I mention a custom website , I'm referring to sites that are conceptualized, designed, and built from the ground up, specifically for a particular website or online business. These “one of a kind” designs are only used for that single company, product, or service and you won’t see the same design being used by any other website. We at FLYASABIRD.com are frequently contacted by folks who call wanting a new custom website, saying things like “Ya know, like Groupon but with that Twitter feature but more like how Craigslist does it..." "Oh alright, sure that’s a great idea. Did you have a budget in mind?" “Oh, well… we were thinking in the $1,000-$2000 range."SERIOUSLY???" (Of course that is not my actual response, just what I'm screaming in my head) Why, you may ask...well honestly that budget doesn't really match the value of the  amount of time that will be required by any professional website builder to provide the necessary research & development of such a complex project.

MISCONCEPTION OF CUSTOM WEBSITE vs  PRE -BUILT COSTS 

Custom Website vs Pre Built Website

I've had people become irate, after receiving a quote from me as if I was trying to bamboozle them and for a while I couldn't understand... WHY the confusion when FLYASABIRD.com save our clients at least 20% on average for custom websites? Then I ask myself this question, why would anyone assume the custom website they’re asking for would not cost thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars?  Amazingly, the answer actually became simple and clear immediately, because the internet products and services marketplace skews perspectives about what things should cost. There are 3 factors play a major role in assisting to skewing the consumer's perspective, thy are Automation, Templatization, & Commoditization. It will provide a more detailed description of all 3 of these factors in my next post, so please be sure to join the FLYASABIRD.com blog mailing list for more information about each factor. But the point that I am trying to make for this particular  topic is the affect of these 3 factors, the fact that 'so called" free, inexpensive and nominal monthly fees for “a website” make for a conflated marketplace riddled with confusion. 
Many companies provide website designs that were put together in mass production, then they provide the templates of these basic designs to plug in text and photos and sell to their customers at a very low cost. They sell them as “Custom Designed Websites”. This is false and misleading. If you look at their portfolios, you can see a simple “cookie cutter” style design that sorely lacks in top notch creativity and branding that we at FLYASABIRD.com provide. Every day I get calls from companies saying they want the “I just want to have a small web site and not spend a lot of money” route. And now their website is obsolete, they can’t find the company that designed it, isn’t optimized correctly, and they need to have it done all over again. So actually in most cases, in the long run, it has costed more that it would've to just have a custom website built the first time.

THE TRUTH ABOUT CUSTOM WEBSITE PRICING
As owner of a custom website development company, I believe that details are an integral part of development, therefore has a tremendous impact custom website pricing. For example, a client my ask for a feature on their website for users to upload music. There is a long list of questions I could respond with from the file format, file size limit of the music uploads, to the amount of uploads at any single time or total upload amount, if any and the list goes on. That being said, please keep in mind that this long list of questions was only concerning one feature on your custom website that will require 100+ additional features which each will require the same "Question & Answer" process prior to a website builder spending countless hours designing & programming your custom website  to function properly!

Professional Custom Website example

 Essentially there are 2 ways to come up with a price for your custom website development: 
1) Fixed Bid, where your website builder charges you a fixed bid to complete full project, for instance a figure like $5000. 
2) Hourly Rates where you pay your website builder $100  an hour for as long as it takes to complete your custom website project
Either option you choose, the total cost will be relative to to the complexity of design, cost of custom photography, motion graphics, animation and interactive tools. So my advice to anyone would be, that it is important to discuss your custom website project within the budget realities you face. However I do still encourage you to talk about your expectations with your website builder, you will find that many of them are like us at FLYASABIRD.com, are willing to work with you budget. In my opinion, a simple yet professional custom website can usually be produced starting at $2,500, plus basic Web hosting. Remember that you are paying for a service that will play huge role in the success or failure of your business in this technology driven age. Now ask yourself how valuable your custom website is to the growth and expansion of your business?