I need some advice on website design

retail purposes? - can you explain that?


First of all, depending if he wants to host the site himself or if he wants to let it hosted. You can get a pretty good host for about $20-30 dollar a month, hosting it yourself is more expensive but easier and a lot of fun.

Buying a domain name is about $50 a year- 2 year. (then you have a www.yourname.com domain)

A good site layout is about $300-500 (as far as I know)

retail purposes? - can you explain that?

he wants a site like amazon.com where people can buy products online.

Ah I see, that das raise the cost for a webdesigner, it means he has 'some' understanding of 'advanced' codes and stuff. I am not sure about that, never do code work. I think it would come to a total price of 800 in that case.

thank you. i will pass the word to him.

It depends on the amount of pages he needs and what type of backend the site requires. If you need the designer to create a way for you to add new items, that's gonna be extra I'm sure. The amount of graphics that it requires will also be extra. The type of coding used will also be extra...like your friend want's it done in PHP, or ASP or what have you. Basically, if you hire a freelance designer, he's gonna charge you per page/graphic or by the hour. Most designer's I know charge $70-130/hr. A complex site with many many pages and lots of items for sale with complex backend and shopping carts and what not will be $5000+ at a minumum.

I have some people that do freelance work if you're interested. My email is [email protected]

Hus, I do freelance work myself too, I don't know where you get your artists from but 70-130/hr is VERY expensive. The standard price that I know is around %50-70.

Personaly I don't like being payed per hour, just because it isn't a good standard etc. If I was that friend of you I would see if I could buy a complete layout and let the coding stuff being done by a coder.

(I am almost sure that you can get an custom build layout for #300-500)

Styl, I'm not a coder/designer myself...but I have a few friends that are, and those are about their prices. They constantly have work available...so people are willing to pay it. I guess it depends on the client and the type of work being done. Kona said he wanted a site like Amazon, I take that as a heavy backend with a very advanced shopping cart system with MANY pages of items. That is by no means a small design job...and if you were to charge a mere $300 for it...that's DAMN cheap.

That was ment for the layout hus, I am no (experienced) coder myself so I can not get a very realistic price and yeah, I do know people are willing to pay insane prices if things look good. I have some experience with icons design in that matter.

lets just wait and see what the guys from pixtudio and skinplant think is a fair price.

Hus has the currect numbers.
The type of website that Kona described envolves a lot of work. I worked with/for DSLi for sometime and the price for that type of website range between $4,500 - 5,500.

A67, what is the price for the coding allone?

Depending on what the client wants [html,dhtml,java,etc] it ranges between $800-1500
Also taking under consideration the amount of pages the website will hold. Each new page requires a new set of codes.

Man, guys! Are you for real?

A site like Amazon can take a whole team of developers months to complete, and I don't know any web designer/programer who would work for $1,500 or even $5,000 for a few months of work.  A site with much of the complexity of Amazon could easily range in the $100,000+.
I do web sites for a living. For a company, and a little on my own. Sure, I charge a lot less than the company cause I don't have all the overheads, but at work, our contracts range around $10,000 to $20,000, WITHOUT any e-commerce features. For a BASIC, yet professional, e-com web site, expect to pay $15,000 and more. If you want more fancy stuff, like a complex databse with a lot of categories, sub categories, order tacking, customer cros-reference, etc, or if you want some flash animation, the price goes up quite rapidly.  We charge $100/hour.
When I do it myself, on my own free time, I charge between $50 and $60 depending on the client and the contract.  But still, don't expect anything under 7 or 8 thousands for something rather basic for e-commerce.

Paxx, that used car salesman in you is peeking out

I dont think he wants a website exactly like amazone.com. I think he was using amazon as an example of how his friend wants to sell things thru the site.
Building a site of the magnitude such as amazone could easily run up to the 6 figures.
I might be wrong, but I think the idea Kona's friend have is of a simple site with the ability to sell items.

I dont think he wants a website exactly like amazone.com. I think he was using amazon as an example of how his friend wants to sell things thru the site.

Exactly. Something simple.

Well, there are always cheap ways, just not a custom fit.
If your friend has a low budget for a small e-commerce web site, he can get some scripts from hotscripts.com, a gui from GUIStuff.com, and hire an average programmer to put it together for probably the budget he has ($3,000).

A tip though. If I were him, I'd hire a programer from a country with a currency rate lower than the US. A Canadian or Australian developer for example. If a Canadian developer charges $50/hour canadian, the American customer is really paying about $35/hour or less.

i was going to ask him if he would like me to sell his stuff on ebay...as long as he pays my fees and I get a 5% cut...

Yeah, you're such a nice friend...arn't ya Kona?

I dunno... I come from a place where friends ARE family!

GoDaddy.com has all kinds of stuff including hosting and prefab design stuff including stuff for ecommerce. He might want to look at what's available. Main site here: https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/default.asp?isc=&se=%2B&from%5Fapp=

Something that godaddy has on its site that might be relevant for his needs: https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/websitecomplete.asp?isc=&se=%2B&from%5Fapp=&app%5Fhdr=&prog%5Fid=GoDaddy

No doubt there are other places where your friend can get something reasonably priced to set up such a thing but this is just something for reference.

I would advice him to hire a graphic designer and a coder or just a normal webdesigner and sell his stuff by using another company like e-bay.

He puts his stuff online and the buy button brings you to the e-bay link.

The best hosts-
www.mediatemple.com
www.lunarpages.com
www.globat.com

In that order.
Just my 2 cents...

Buying a domain name is about $50 a year- 2 year.

We can get you one for 15 dollars a year.

Also, I want you to look at this site http://www.safetystrategyinc.com and see if thats the kind of "selling" you are talking about. DONT send a purchase form unless you mean it though

Forgot to let you know who "we" is...
http://www.scheintziesmarts.com

...would advice him to hire a graphic designer and a coder

That would be us ^

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