In our 18+ years of creating professional web designs, we’ve learned a lot about working with clients of all sizes. Early on, we discovered a common thread shared by many first-time website owners; they struggle to understand why the costs are what they are when working with professionals to create and promote their presence on the web. The infographic below describes – in a true and humor-infused way – the steps many business owners take as they venture into that unfamiliar territory: the web. We’ve seen this cycle repeat itself time and again. Quite often, after a call from a new and fleeting prospect, you’ll hear us say, “We’ll hear back from them in a year.”

Your website isn’t just art on the internet; it should be your primary channel for new business.

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Title: The real cost of a website:

1. Choosing your domain name. All of your first choices are already taken. A week passes while you mull it over. You convince yourself that a dot net name with hyphens will suffice.
   You go to CheapSkateDomainnames.com and order the name. Pay up $9.95 and register your name. Only takes about 1 hour to get through all of their up-sell attempts. + Value of your time $75 = $85.
2. Finding your website designer. Speak with friends to seek a referral. Cost in your time = 4 hours/$300
   Speak to three local designers. They must be mad! You’re not paying $1,500- $5,000 for a website. They’re thieves! Who cares about experience! Know how? What know how? Bill Gates said anyone can make a website and go online! Phewy! SEO? Complicated and screwy!
3. Your next door neighbor says his son can do the job. Heck, he’s on the computer all day Twitter, Facebook, Instagram…Why he knows the entire INTERNET! He’ll happily do the job at sweat shop rates – $300 for the whole job!
4. You’ll save perhaps thousands on design and development.
5. Six months pass and your website isn’t exactly what you had imagined it would be. But it seems to be finally working.
6. You decide on YoSister.com to host your site. They seem cheap. And you love those hot chicks on their Championship Roller Derby Ads. You take the unlimited everything package at only $9.99/month when you sign up until your newborn starts school.
7. Fast forward a few weeks. You have to yell at your neighbor’s son to get him to finally upload your site – which ruins your relationship with your neighbor. But Ahh… you’re finally online and ready to take in the business!
8. The months pass by and you begin to wonder why your phone hasn’t been ringing. Not one stinking order. Not even a question. You consult with your young techie.
9. A year is quickly approaching.  You’ve gained little if any new business as a result of your website. A year’s worth of hope for new business has been lost.
10.  You wonder if maybe something is wrong with your website. Why hasn’t the new business you projected occurred? You have to find out. So you suck up your pride and give a call back to the best of the original internet service firms you had interviewed to inquire if they can tell you WHY?
11. You learn that your website isn’t search engine friendly. You discover that the search engines can’t read it to understand what it’s all about. And even if they could, there is no SEO to help them.
12. You hire the experienced designer/SEO company to build you a new professional website. It launches within 6 weeks.
13. Within a month, you begin to notice the difference. Calls from people saying they found you on the web. Web forms containing call back numbers.
14. Business is trending upward, and there is no other attributable factor other than your website!
15. Another year passes. You’ve had your best year ever. Not just any year, the best year since you started your business. In your records, you can see that the increase in your annual sales came directly from internet leads.