I see these kinds of ads fairly regularly and they annoy me, but not for the reason you might think.
See, $149 is ridiculous and unsustainable for a website. Almost as ridiculous as thinking that every business needs or wants a unique, bespoke website costing thousands.
The reason I get annoyed is because clients at both ends of the spectrum are being done a disservice.
Why?
Well, firstly, let me clarify that it is completely possible to build someone a very basic website for $149 and still be earning a living from it. If you were pumping out 2 sites every day you’d be making around $1500 per week, which is certainly liveable.
But consider what that means.
If you take “overhead time” out of the equation – email, phone calls, time waiting for the website editor and pages to load, time uploading content, setting up WordPress and installing the necessary theme and plugins – the total time anyone could spend “building” the site in this scenario is around an hour and a half, maybe two hours.
So, while it might be possible to build a basic website within that timeframe, for that price, there is simply no way that site could be configured optimally to deliver anything worthwhile for the client.
For that price you’d get a plumber at your house for half an hour – about $120 for the “call-out” fee, which generally includes the first 15 minutes, then $30 for the next 15 minutes.
It is also setting a completely unrealistic expectation for the industry. For that price you’d get a plumber at your house for half an hour – about $120 for the “call-out” fee, which generally includes the first 15 minutes, then $30 for the next 15 minutes.
Expecting to get a website that is of any quality for that same $150 is, therefore, ludicrous.
By the same token I see lots of people paying in the $5k to $10k price zone for websites that they simply don’t need. Websites that are, in many cases, taking no more than a couple days of “face time” to build. Often those clients are then also put on over-the-top SEO plans, paying hundreds or in some cases thousands of dollars every month to “get to the top of Google”, when that is generating little real return.
So where is the middle ground?
Realistically there is no single, middle ground. There are, instead, a variety of options depending on the real NEEDS of your business.
For example. Do you really NEED a bespoke website? Is having a website that is structured and laid out differently to the majority of other websites, that is flashy and “stands out”, really going to make any difference to your business? In most cases the answer to that question is a flat NO.
So that being the case, a website built from or at least based on an existing “canned” design, is perfectly acceptable. In some cases it can actually be beneficial!
But, if your business is all about image and brand, then absolutely, go for the bespoke site!
Do you need lots of ongoing SEO on your site? Well, again, that depends on a variety of factors. How much competition do you have in your market? Do you service a limited geographical area, and if so, will more targeted “local” SEO suffice?
I’ve seen a scenario where a business was paying nearly $2k per month for “active” SEO & AdWords yet their new business, not all of which was even generated by those things, was only running at around half that expenditure! What a waste!
But the most ridiculous thing I see, and the area I have the biggest gripe, is when people expect that the $149 (or even the $10k) is the end of their expenditure. Frankly, that’s Lemming talk!
For your website to work well for you, it MUST have high quality hosting so that it loads quickly and reliably, it MUST be maintained so that it stays secure against the tens of thousands of daily hacking attempts and it MUST remain relevant with fresh content and updates.
You’re not going to get that for $149.
In many cases, you also won’t get that for $2k, $5k or $10k!
But whichever Mercedes you buy, it will be nothing more than a pile of nuts and bolts unless you maintain it properly.
Look at it this way. Mercedes make an A-Class (entry level hatchback) as well as an E-Class (high end luxury saloon). They also make delivery vans. I’m sure they love selling the E-Class for the prestige. I’m also pretty sure their accountants and investors love them selling the delivery vans and A-Class just as much. But whichever Mercedes you buy, it will be nothing more than a pile of nuts and bolts unless you maintain it properly.
The same applies for your website.
If you only have a budget of $149, you can’t afford a website. It is that simple. Save your money. Put it into other forms of advertising.
Or…
Talk to us about one of our “turnkey” sites! For a fixed monthly fee – from $44/month – you’ll get;
- a secure website (unashamedly) built from a high quality, “designer” template that is relevant to your industry;
- all the tools to get help get you found in Google for your local area;
- hosting on our super high-speed Google Cloud Platform;
- daily backups for peace of mind;
- all updates to the software running the website, applied weekly.
Our “turnkey” sites have starter content that you can customise and add your own content to, or for a small up-front investment we can do all the set up for you.