RSS FeedOut to Launch: 9 Steps to an Affordable Web Launch
With the average cost of a basic website design ranging from $7000 - $10,000, I've seen many companies try to save money by creating their website themselves but end up creating god-awful websites. The truth is you only need to spend a few hundred dollars to create a professional website. If you want to put up a website that establishes you as a "legitimate" company and you're not doing a complex website involving e-commerce or other technical wizardry, here are some basic tips that you could implement right now: before you embark on a new website, you should go take a look around at other websites that you'd like to emulate. A few of my favorite are apple.com, aramidesign.com, landor.com and salesforce.com for their clean and simple interface. Remember that these people employ real web professionals, so keep in mind that web design on the cheap has its limits! : if you have your URL hosted by a company like 1and1 or Go Daddy, you should just use the dozens of free web templates they offer. Keep in mind that these templates aren't very flexible and aren't easy to customize, but if you just want to put your company up on the web, I highly recommend you go with their free templates, or get one from the web (just search for "web templates" in Google). The TopSprout website is based on the below template from 1 and 1: : once you have your logo, you can just put it on one of the thousands of images from iStockPhoto to create a very professional banner image. I love iStockPhoto, and I use their images all the time. You have to buy number of "credits" that can then be used to buy the photos, illustrations, videos or audio. A small image can cost 3 credits (about $3), while a larger one or a set of icons can cost you 10 credits. Compare this to a stock source like Getty Images, where images can cost you several hundred dollars each! And please stay away from the cheesy pictures (there are plenty of those too)! Here's a sample of what I got when I searched for "steps": : putting...