How Much Does It Cost To Start A Website?

 

Depending on who you ask will result on what the answer you will get. This is just like asking how much does it cost for a car? To answer the question how much does it cost to start a website will depend on what you buy, who you host with, where you are located and why you want to start a website. Can you see the many variables that this question contains? Not every car is the same and neither are the websites.

 

 

 

Websites are not all created equal. There are the WordPress websites with several different ones to choose from. Then there are the drag and drop websites like you build at Wix.com, and Weebly.com. If you have the luxury of time, you can teach yourself html coding and build a website yourself. There are templates that you can buy and then copy/paste your way into publishing online.

 

 

 

If you choose a wordpress website, it can be free. In fact, most of these websites are free. You can also buy a wordpress website and these are a little better as far as having a support forum to help with any problems or modifications. But by far the most popular as well as many features already built in for SEO are the wordpress websites.

 

 

What Is The Anatomy Of A Website?

 

 

website anatomy

 

 

 

The typical layout of a website in shown in the diagram above. This is only a general layout with options to customize to help make your website unique and your own. Most websites will contain at least one Header, either a banner or a picture, sometimes a Logo, at least one menu, usually one to two sidebars along with the content, and then at least one footer. Header,/span>
This is the most common layouts of a typical website. At the top is a “Header” or in this case “Logo”. Normally this is a banner the full width of your website, typically 768 long x 268 pixels wide. This is where the Domain name of the website is usually found, for example, “http://LiveSimpleToLiveFree.com”.

 

 

If the layout design of your WordPress website does not have a banner to set as your “Header”, as this example does, then you can opt to have your company or your website logo placed here. See Below an example of my Website Banner Header:
website example

 

 

Some themes have both Logo and Header, others just have Header, and some still just have a Logo picture. With over 1900 themes to choose from just for the free Worpress websites. There are almost as many paid themes, that is a theme that has been customized a certain way, by a designer which now can be sold, anywhere from $9 up to $150.00. The example below is this website with my website logo at the top of the page, “work from home”, and then a picture just below the logo which is my header.

 

website Logo with picture

 

The newer type WordPress per Google’s request must be responsive, that is it can look one way for a desktop computer, but must also conform (change size) to fit on a tablet or even a smartphone. It is all about user friendly technology and user experience.

 

 

There are over 1900 different Worpress websites themes that are free; that is, you pick one, you download it to your host or download to your home computer. You find a host to publish your website onto the World Wide Web, then upload your website to your host.,/span>

 

wordpress premium website

 

You begin to write content (articles) and place onto your webpages and as soon as you click the button “Publish”, it is live on the World Wide Web for all the world to see! These websites are typically free to anyone. Hosting, Domain name, and certain attachments you operate on your website cost money that I will cover a little later.,/span>

 

 

Navigation Menu

This is the position that most navigation menu’s are found, just below the Banner Header. This is where your selection toggle buttons are, usually in the form of words telling you where this button will take you. For example, most menu’s have an About Me Page, Privacy or disclosure statement page, Contact me page, Get started Here page, etc. See Below

 

website menu

This Menu is an example of the website’s hierarchy and organized with links to each different page or post. The links will be a hyper link that can take the website visitor away for the website, or to another page withing the same website, to even a different spot on the page.

 

 

Content Area

The content area is where you write your articles and place your reviews, products for sale, pictures and news about your website. You may have a dress store where all you place in this area is the pictures of your dresses. You may have a link from each picture to a more detailed page area that explains each individual product you have on display.,/span>

 

 

Your content area is designed so that you can display whatever your website is about. For example, a review site is a site where you have different reviews about what ever your website niche (market) is about. Please see What is a niche market all about.

 
StudioPress Themes for WordPress
 

SideBar

Sidebar is designated as a place where you normally have widgets that contain different sales links to another site. This area is typically where you place your affiliate links that if the website visitor clicks on this link, the link will take them to a web-page where they can buy the item.

 

 

As mentioned above, each website can be minimize to only have the content area with no sidebar, or a three column website with the content area as the largest and two sidebars, or the two column website which is content area and one sidebar (most popular).

 

 

Footer

This area is where you normally have a copyright year label, sometimes a second menu, links to your privacy page, disclosure statement, etc. Some websites give you the options to have up to four areas in your footer to display information, widgets, etc.

 

 

Hosting

You must have a host for your website. A “Host” is a company that has a large server computer that is hooked up to the World Wide Web, or www. This host will rent a space on his server computer to put your website on. So basically you are renting some disk space on his computer to store your website on.

 

 

The costs for a Host can range anywhere from Free to $99 dollars a month. The free hosting plans are usually for a starter website with carriers that have a free hosting plan. Wealthy Affiliate has a Free hosting plan which actually is as good as any plan that I have seen.

 

 

With Wealthy Affiliate you get Two Free Websites, a Free Keyword Tool, and twenty free lessons. Unless you have a website already or have a lot of experience the free lessons are a must for a newbie (beginner). The Keyword Tool (which is also free to use) with your free membership is a must and is actually better than the one you use with Google Adwords.

 

 

This Free website doesn’t have to worry about buying a Domain name because you get a choice of a name for your website. The extension to this free website is SiteRubix.com, So having a website for Tims Flowers would look like this: http://timsflowers@siterubix.com.

Also see my article about the SiteRubix.com free website builder program.

 

 

Domain Names

Domain names are used as a website address instead of your usual house number, street name. So the Domain name for your website is like having a post office box, which is unique and no other name exactly like it.

 

 

You buy a Domain name (actually rent these names as well) from a Domain dealer, for example, GoDaddy.com, NameCheap.com, etc, there are quite a few of them. These are the two that I use. The name you want for your website you type in their search box to find if the name you request is available, or already taken.

NNamecheap domain dealer

 

You will have the options to choose your extension name as well, for example, .com; .net; .org; etc. When websites were first introduced a number of years ago the typical commercial website that had products to sell had a .com extension. The websites that furnished information, like wikipedia.org, have the .org as their extension. These are all top-level extension names for domain names.

 

 

An example: you want Roadhouse.com as your domain name. You visit a Domain name dealer, like NameCheap.com, and you type in the name, “roadhouse.com”, to see if this name is available. See below.

 

 

domain search

 

 

As you can see, the name “roadhouse.com is obviously taken, but so are many of the other varieties of this name, roadhouse.xyz; roadhouse.club; roadhouse.co . There are some varieties, but these are the second-level names, such as: roadhouse.online; roadhouse.tech; roadhouse news; roadhouse .info; etc. See diagram below

 

 

Domain search result

 

 

 

As you can see by the prices of the available domain names are a yearly fee. Every year you must pay this fee in order to continue using it as your website name. It is a very inexpensive fee, as long as you don’t start adding additional charges to the name. For example, GoDaddy.com, is very notorious about adding all these very nice up-sells to your cheap domain name which soon becomes a much larger fee.

 

 

The reason I like Namecheap.com for buying a domain is:

  • Usually always has the lowest price
  • The privacy (WhoisGuard) is free, whereas this is an up-sell at other dealers.
  • This price is what you pay every year, where as with other dealers not always the same.

 

So these are the two costs that no one in the industry tells you about what it will cost you to operate your own website. These costs compared to operating a brick and mortar store. Pennies versus 1000’s of dollars, so yes, very insignificant.

 

 

You do want to pick an extension name for your domain that ideally is a top-level name, for example, .com; .net; .org; etc. These are the top-level domain extensions below:

.com —   commercial
.org —    organization
.net —    network
.int —     International organizations
.edu —    US higher education
.gov  —   US/state government agencies
.mil  —   military

 

The most preferred domain extension is .com. As the number of websites increase, the fewer options at the best domain name are available. That is why you see many “make offer” for domain names…Everything has it’s price, including domain names. Lower -level domain names are now on the rise, like .biz; .info; .co; .tech; etc.

 

This is how Mark Cuban made his first 100 million was by buying the domain name Radio.com and sold it for 100 million dollars. This is another occupation if you can think of an ideal domain name, buy it for $12 a year, then wait for the right person to come and buy it from.

 

 

So as you can see there are costs involved with building a website. Though somewhat small, the more you add to your website, the price will continue to rise. If you want a website but your leary about  spending a lot of money immediately, I have something for you to think about….,/span>

 

How would you like to “try” a website? Yes, build a website for “FREE” and if you don’t like it, for what ever reason, you just walk away and all it cost you was your time? The best part about this is two-fold. First, your credit card can stay hidden inside your pocket. Second, if you decide that NO, “I just don’t know what I am doing,” or “I thought it was going to be easier than this,” then no foul. Just leave. Walk away.

 

This option lets you find out if you are a true entrepreneur or just a dreamer. Something to think about…

 

If this is your option then click on my wealthy affiliate SiteRubix link to get started today. Once you build a website, and see that you created something that is alive and can make you money, you will want more. But try it.

If you want more information before making that crucial decision, read How To Make Money With A Website to see what your money making strategies can do for you.

I would like to hear from you on whether you learned anything new about building your own website. If you like what you read, please share this with others so they can decide on if they should take a chance on building a website. I am open to your comments or suggestions.

 

To Your Success!