Design

Okay, you paid your rent. And the utilities have been turned on and are working... What's next? Well, how are you going to furnish your place of business? On the Internet, this process is called web design. And just like in a real world  business, furniture (web design) is a matter of taste and budget, as well as the image you want to present to the public. On the web, the cost of furnishing (designing) your business will probably be less than the cost of a single advertisement in your local telephone book or a three day run in your local newspaper. And you're business will be available to millions more people than your telephone book or newspaper could ever hope to reach in a hundred years!

The cost of web design can also vary depending upon who it is that is doing the designing, and if there is any specialty work involved. Specialty work can be digitizing video for the web, database work, animation, MP3's, audio streaming, just to mention a few. In actuality, specialty work is anything that the web designer is not specifically equipped to handle. As an example of specialty work, iMall, one of the largest Internet shopping malls on the web, charges $100 per second for digitizing video. 

Nominal web design is much less expensive... just ask Johnny, the 12 year old kid down the block. He bought a new program and is turning out web sites for all his friends at school.

Professional Web Design normally varies from about $50 to $200 per hour. With an ethical company, that fee would be determined by what they pay their employees, their overhead, their ability, their experience, and other such considerations.

At Hart Web Company our base fee is about $70 per hour, and our staff is led by a Certified Web Master. (Our level of design is equivalent to the $75 - $150 level of design of other professional companies) When you deal with a Certified Web Master, that assures you that Johnny, (Remember him? He's the 12 year old kid down the block.) is not involved with the creation of your web site.

Domain Registration

For those who decide they need, or want, a Domain (Remember, think of a domain as an entire building compared to an office or suite.) to conduct their business, there are also additional fees involved in registering your domain name. This fee, and this entire process, is similar to what it would take to register your business name with local, state, and federal agencies - so that no one else can use your name. It protects your interests and guarantees you the exclusive world wide web rights to your individual and unique business name. And like everything on the web, it's much less expensive than the everyday business world.

Initial registration usually covers a 2 year period and the standard fee is $70. (Our prices are lower because we offer discounted Domain Registration) A fee of $35 is assessed every year thereafter. The registration process can sometimes be confusing and involved so many companies offer to do the registering for you. It is reasonable to expect to pay a "filing" fee of somewhere between $30 to $50 when someone registers the Domain for you. 

You should now have a good general foundation of knowledge to begin to access the viability of getting on the web. Be sure to learn other aspects of getting on the web by reading the available articles on doing business on the web, listed here.