The website for this client was created using the “Glow” Theme from Elegant Themes. The client sells a hog hunting light called the Terminator Hunting light. The theme was chosen to match the look of the light and provide a customized home page that can display the product and a video at the bottom of the page. The lights are sol through the site using Paypal Buy Now buttons.

If you now anyone looking for hunting lights, send them to HogHuntingLight.net

How Much Does a Website Cost?

$100? $5,000? Both may be correct depending on where you get your website. Many people pay different prices for websites simply because they do not know what the standard pricing is and there are hundreds of providers on the web with many different prices.

First, let’s be clear what we are talking about exactly. There are many costs associated with developing a website. The costs include domain name which is typically $10/year and hosting which can be $7 to $20 per month depending on where you get it from. The cost we are talking about here is the cost of developing the website itself whether you design the website or have someone else design it. Regardless of the route you choose, there will be an expense.

The usual way of getting a website designed is hiring a professional to design the website. If you are needing a custom design and a simple 5-page website, you can usually expect to pay $500 on average. If you require greater functionality like accepting credit card payments, allowing users to login or create profiles on your site, this will require a greater investment more complex websites can be $1,000 or more with some custom implementations being as much as $10,000.

The best way to reduce the cost of a website is to build it yourself. Unfortunately, many people do not have the knowledge to do this. Many web development companies have made it much easier to for website owners to create their own websites using website builders. These website builders use a simple interface to allow users to easily create their website. When using a website builder, pre-designed templates are used so there is no upfront design cost. The cost of using a website builder is typically $10-20 per month. However, there is a significant investment of time to learn how to use the website builder.

No matter what option you choose to build your site, make sure you know what the costs of building a website are before you choose a service. Many people are overpay for websites so don’t let that be you! Make sure to check out my Complete Website Package  to see if it is a good fit for you and as always, feel free to ask me any questions at all about your website needs.

I get many calls every week from people who are wanting to setup e-commerce websites to sell products. Unfortunately, I don’t offer that service but I do like to give some recommendations for where to go to get an e-commerce website setup.

My #1 recommendation is GoDaddy Quick  Shopping Cart because it’s simple and easy. You can buy your domain from GoDaddy and add their Quick Shopping Cart service to your domain. There Quick Shopping Cart service starts at $10/month for selling 20 products and they offer higher packages also. The service is based off pre-designed templates that you can choose from.

Keep in mind, the GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart does not include a merchant account. You can read my post on Accepting Credit Cards online to learn more about using Paypal or Authorize.net to accept credit cards on your website. Both Paypal and Authorize.net are compatible with GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart.

Click the banner below to get more info on GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart. As always, don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions at all.

Get A Custom-Designed E-Commerce Site from GoDaddy

If you are not interested in using a template for your e-commerce site but want a custom design, GoDaddy offers an e-commerce website design service. For more information on this, go to the GoDaddy home page and click on”e-Commerce Web Design” under the Web Design tab.

The website for McCall Asset Management Group was created using the “The Corporation” theme from Elegant Themes. The website easily handles a wealth of information about the business of McCall Asset Management including company and management info, contact info, and an integrated blog to share financial literacy information. This theme is a great option for small businesses. Read the testimonial from the owner of McCall Asset Management below. This client took advantage of the free video on their About Us page.

Is Your Resume Online?

Are you looking to display your resume attractively online? Here’s a simple solution using my Complete Website Package, which includes domain name, hosting, design, and maintenance.

My Complete Website Package is based on themes from Elegant Themes and one of their themes is a Resume Website template which you can preview here.

As you know, it’s important to put your “best foot forward” when presenting your resume. This resume template is highly functional and very attractive. It will stand out in the mind of your potential customers or clients.

My Complete Website package is typically $149 one time fee and $19/month but since the resume template is simple to implement, the price to get a resume website setup is only $75 one-time setup and $7/month. This includes domain name, hosting, website design, and ongoing maintenance in case you need changes made to your online resume.

Get Your Resume Website Online in 48 Hours!

Contact Me if you’re interested in getting a Resume Website setup.

So what are your options?

Professional Stock Images

Unfortunately, using high-quality images legally is not cheap. There are hundreds of professional stock image sites that sell licensing to use their photos. These stock image sites are the best place to find high-quality images for your site. You can type any phrase and get pictures that fit the searched phrase and most pictures are available in many different sizes and resolutions.

Like I said, these stock images are not free, and they are usually not even cheap. Typically the smallest sizes are $5 and the high-resolution images can be as much as $50! Fortunately, there are some stock image sites that offer royalty free images that are much cheaper.

Royalty Free and Rights-Managed Images

Royalty free images are available for unlimited use with no restrictions once they are purchased. On the other hand, Rights-Managed images have many restrictions for their use and are priced depending on their use. If you are looking to save money, stick with royalty free images. There is a wide enough selection of royalty free stock images that you should be able to easily find the images you need.

iStockphoto For Royalty Free Stock Images

I have used many of the stock photo sites including Getty Images and I have found iStockphoto to be the most reasonably price with a great selection of images. You can get many low-resolution images for $1-3. iStockPhoto works on a credit system. You purchase credits in packages and use credits to download images. The more credits you buy at once, the lower the cost. They also have subscriptions available for users purchasing in bulk for even more savings. Click the banner below to sign up for iStockphoto for free and get 10 free credits!

Web Eminence Complete Website Package Has Stock Images Included!

If you are looking for a complete website package with professional stock images included, you might be interested in my Complete Website Package. Many web designers will charge customers for the cost of the stock images. With my website package, all images are included. This is a great value to my customers.

I’ll answer the question quick and simple here.

WordPress Blog for Free

You can get a WordPress blog for free at WordPress.com. In order to get a free blog, you will need to host it on WordPress.com. This means your blog will be at the URL www.yourblog.wordpress.com. The downside is you won’t have your own domain to build its popularity. You also lose the customization ability on the free blog. The upside is it’s FREE. WordPress.com does offer a paid option to get your own domain and other features but it’s cheaper to follow my instructions below.

Go to WordPress.com to get your free blog now

Get a WordPress Blog (or unlimited blogs) on Your Own Domain For Under $5/Month

If you are going to spend time blogging, it’s smart to get a domain so you can build it’s popularity and start to gain traffic on your own domain. A domain is an asset and if you are building a free blog on a domain like blogger.com or wordpress.com, you are really building the popularity of those domains – not your own domain.

If you’re ready to start building the popularity of your blog on your own domain, I would recommend getting a HostGator hosting plan for under $4 per month to host your WordPress blog. HostGator is among the best WordPress hosting because you can easily install a WordPress blog on your domain. They even have a Video Tutorial for Installing WordPress. You will have access to everything that makes WordPress great…free updates, themes, plugins and more.

If you own a domain already, you will have to point the domain to your new HostGator hosting or you can buy a new domain with your hosting if you do not yet have a domain.

If you are interested in hosting multiple blogs, you can get a HostGator hosting plan for multiple domains. These plans can still be as low as $5 and allow unlimited domains. Read more about HostGator Hosting Plans

When searching for a website, many people focus on the number or pages. For example, they may want 5 pages to their website or 10 pages. When I hear that someone needs a 5 page website, it usually means that they are looking for a very simple website. If you are looking for a simple five page website, my Complete Website Package might be a great fit for you.

What are the typical pages of a 5 Page Website?

A simple website made up of about 5 pages usually has some basic pages. They obviously vary greatly depending on the use of the website but these are the basic pages that are usually used. If you are looking into setting up a website,

• The Home page is the main page of the website and should communicate the important aspects of the website and link to other pages in a user-friendly way.
• Many individuals and small businesses have an About page that gives an overview of the individual, company, or service that is represented on the website. This page will usually have pictures to give a visual representation of the individual or business.
• A Products or Services page is usually used to communicate the products or services being sold or provided. This is often an important page because it is a major decision point for the visitor to decide if the product or service being offered is right for them.
• Some website owners who need to display a number of pictures may have a separate Pictures page to organize and display pictures
• A Testimonials or References page is a great way to increase confidence in your product or service being offered by sharing testimonials or references from previous customers and clients.
• For sites that generate a lot of questions, a Frequently Asked Questions page can be useful to answer these questions proactively
• A Contact page is critical to let people know how they can get in touch with you.

In the past, the focus in building a website was on the number and type of pages but now it is more about functionality, connections, and user experience. Using videos, commenting, social connections are a great way to increase the interactivity of your website and increase the response of your visitors. Using a live chat program like Snap Engage is a great way to interact more with your website visitors or provide customer support.

How much does a 5 Page Website cost?

If you search the web, you will find many different costs for a 5 page website. It depends on the functionality and design you are looking for. If you are seeking a custom website design, you can expect to pay $500 or more. Regardless of the number of pages, a custom design takes just as much time to create. If you are willing to use a pre-designed template, you can save a lot of money getting a simple website setup. My Complete Website Package uses professionally designed templates from Elegant Themes and is much more affordable then purchasing a custom design from a web designer.

If you are selling a product or service on your website, you know it is critical to accept credit cards on your website. It can be a little overwhelming to investigate the options for accepting credit cards on your website so this is my attempt to simplify it for you. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about any of this.

How To Accept Credit Cards

There are a few services you need to have in place to accept credit cards on your website and I will first describe them and then give you the best options for setting up the services to start accepting credit cards online. If you’re not interested in how the technical details of how a merchant account works, you can skip down to the Best Options section below.

Payment Gateway

When a credit card payment is originated on a website, it takes place on a secure website using SSL technology to protect the information being transmitted. Any website owner can get SSL security on their website but most smaller merchants use pages hosted by their payment gateway to process the transaction securely. The payment gateway receives the information for the transaction and transmits the info to the payment processor.

Payment Processor

The payment processor receives the transaction information from the payment gateway and sends the transaction to the card association (Visa, Mastercard, American Express). After the charge is approved or denied, the response will be sent back to the payment gateway so a order confirmation or error can be displayed for the purchaser. All this information is passed in only a few seconds. If the transaction is approved, the issuing bank for the credit card will release funds to the merchant’s listed account.

Simplified For You

It is overwhelming when you realize all the steps that take place to accept credit card payments on your website. Luckily, there are many companies that offer merchant account solutions for website owners to easily begin receiving credit card payments. You won’t need to worry about payment gateways, payment processors, and credit card issuing banks. Everything will be handled for you after the initial setup is complete and you can concentrate on driving people to your website to generate orders.

I have used different processors over the past several years and have determined two very good options that cover the needs of most small and large website owners. I’ll describe them below.

Best Options To Accept Credit Cards

Option #1 – Paypal – Higher Transaction Fees, Ease of use, No monthly fee

Many website owners that are looking for a simple solution to accept credit cards on their website use Paypal. Paypal provides an affordable entry with their Website Payments Standard service. This service has no setup fee and no monthly fee. The downside of the Paypal Website Payments Standard service is that the fees are higher than other merchant account services. The fees for Paypal are currently 2.9% + $0.30 per trasaction. The rate does decrease for higher sales volume accounts.

Even though Paypal charges higher fees, the simplicity of getting started using the service along with the fact that there are no startup fees or monthly fees makes Paypal Payments Standard service a great option to start selling online.

To get started with Paypal Website Payments Standard, sign up for a Paypal account by clicking the banner below:

Option #2 – Authorize.net – Lower Transaction Fees, Higher Functionality, Monthly Fee and Setup Fee

For those sellers that sell higher monthly volumes and are looking for a more professional and customizable look to the checkout process, Authorize.net is a great option. Authorize.net is one of the most widely used merchant account services on the web. Many large well-known companies use Authorize.net for processing transactions. I have used it myself for years and can attest that the service and technology is very good.

One of the main benefits of using Authorize.net is lower transaction fees. The price per transaction will vary depending on your business but can be as low as $0.10 per transaction. Authorize.net allows batch transactions so if you process 20 websites per day on average, you can batch process them at one time at the end of the day to reduce the number of batch transaction charges to one per day.

Although you can save money in the long run with lower transaction fees, there is a $99 setup fee and monthly fee for a merchant account through Authorize.net. The cost will vary depending on your business type but the typical monthly fee is about $75/month if you wish to accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express. If you choose not to accept American Express, you can save $15-20 per month.

Even though there are monthly charges for a merchant account through Authorize.net, the savings in transaction fees are well worth it for merchants who sell high volumes monthly.

Authorize.net also offers more flexibility over Paypal like the ability to accept E-check payments, use recurring monthly payments, and implement a Shopping Cart system to give more advanced features like coupons, quantity discounts, order followup and more.

Sign up for Authorize.net now and start accepting credit cards on your website.

After Your Setup to Accept Credit Cards, Get Your Online Store Setup with GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart. Click the Banner Below for Info

Ask Me For Help

If you have any questions about accepting credit cards on your website or using Authorize.net or Paypal, please feel free to contact me and I’ll be happy to help guide you through the process. Both of these companies offer great sales and support assistance.

You NEED Video On Your Website

If you’ve spent any time surfing the web, you know that video is the main content on the web. With faster internet connections and even the ability to watch video on smart phones, it’s more important than ever to get video on your website.

There are many ways to create video and put it on your site. You can choose to record or create a video yourself using video editing software. This option can be expensive since you need to purchase the software and it can also be time consuming because you need to learn how to use the video editing software.

Another option is hiring a professional to create a video for you. This is a great option if you are looking for a highly customized and professional video. If this is the route you decide to go, I would recommend using the Online Video Creation Service from Submit Edge. You can see sample videos from them on their website.

Web Eminence is all about making things simple and easy so if you are looking for a simple and easy solution to get a simple video on your site, I can create one for you like the one above for only $29. The video can contain pictures, video, and text.

Even if you do not have a website in need of video, you can request one of these videos for other uses too like invitations, family pictures, baby announcements, and more. There’s not limit to what they can be used for.

If you’re interested, you can contact me for more information.