Request a Website Estimate

Here you can get a free estimate of the cost for a website (shown in the bottom right corner). All of the information you provide will be kept confidential. This form should be filled out by the project manager / decision maker.

For each available feature, either the cost is listed or there is no charge for that feature. The site can start off relatively simple, and we can add new features as needed, at any time.

Please enter as much information as possible. The more complete your responses, the more accurate will be the estimate and the sooner you will get your new site.

Click on each section's title to expand it.

Entry fields labeled with * require input from you.

You
Your full name.
How I will be contacting you; not necessarily your organization's email address.
Your phone number, starting with the area code.
You will be given a password-protected administrative account you can use for updating your site. If you want to use a contact email address different from the one specified above, provide it here. You can always change it later.
Essentials
Every site includes a homepage, content management capabilities, an online database, and a basic navigation menu system. $2000.
The name of your future website (or current one if you want me to make changes to it). This is usually the name of your organization. Some business owners prefer having the ".com" in the site name, e.g., "XYZ.com" instead of "X Y Z".
What products, services, and benefits does your organization offer (or will offer, if it is a startup)? How is it better than your competitors?
Names or website addresses of your primary competitors. What do you like and dislike about their websites?
What will be the goals and expected benefits of your site? What is the primary action the site visitor should do when coming to your site (e.g., make a purchase, become a member, search for information, contact you)? Are there existing sites similar to what you want?
What types of visitors do you want to get (age, education, and other demographics)?
A web form, with a mandatory captcha test (to minimize spam), to allow visitors to send messages to you without knowing your email address. $80.
Your organization's complete address and/or phone number if you want it displayed on the site.
A map showing the location of your business. It is normally located on a site's contact form page. $40.
Domain name and hosting
Your domain name if you already have one. If not, I can help you get one easily.
The company where you registered your domain name, if you already have one.
Do you want your website's address to have the "www" prefix or not (e.g., https://www.yourdomain.com/ or https://yourdomain.com/)? Being consistent helps search engine results and web traffic analytics. Your website will be accessible regardless of whether or not the visitor types in the "www".
If you already have a domain name but do not yet have a website hosting account, and you are not experienced in setting the DNS values in a domain name registration account, I can do it for you. $40.
The company where you have a website hosting account. If not, I can help you get one easily
Users
People can have password-protected accounts with password recovery capability. You can enable or disable accounts at will. You get their email addresses (e.g., for sending out newsletters and special offers). We can make chosen website pages hidden from the public but accessible to your registered users. $80.
Visitors to your site can become registered users
  • only if a site administrator adds them manually, or
  • if an administrator approves their registration requests, or
  • without any admin approval, but after they authenticate their email addresses and pass a captcha test (to minimize fake accounts).
Receive an automatic message whenever a new user registers on your site. $40.
Automatically delete user accounts that have never logged in after a certain amount of time, since those accounts are typically created by web bots, not potential paying customers. $40.
Authors (registered site users given permission to add content) can include signatures at the bottom of their articles and/or their comments to other people's articles.
Users can add a picture of themselves to their accounts, which for authors can be added to articles, comments, and other posts.
Each user will have a personal and private profile page, with any information you want them to provide you — their education, job, city, etc. $80.
Users on the site can send messages to one another, received in the recipients' email inboxes, without initially revealing their email addresses, for privacy. $160.
Content
Easily preview and add an unlimited number of new blog posts and other types of articles to the site, to attract more web traffic.
Attract even more web traffic with contributions from other authors. $80.
You will be able to add new pages of content to your new website, but perhaps you would like me to do that for you. If so, how many pages? $40 each.
A rich text editor, such as a WYSIWYG or Markdown editor, makes it easy for adding and formatting web-ready content (lists, tables, links, bold text, etc.), without any programming knowledge. $80.
Content approval workflow management allows you to assign users to specific roles and publishing permissions, e.g., a "writer" can create content but not publish it; an "editor" can edit but not publish; and a "content manager" can edit and publish. $160.
Visitors can rate published articles, from 1 to 5 stars (like on Amazon.com). $80.
You and your staff can add events to an online calendar for any month, and site visitors can view events and click through to the event detail pages. Calendars are good for advertising membership incentives, deadlines for seminars, partnership events, etc. Calendars show that a site is dynamic and not stale, that an organization is busy in the community. $80.
Subscribers to your site's RSS feed can automatically receive the latest content published on your site, simply by clicking on the RSS icon and subscribing. It is strongly recommended for keeping customers updated and interested in your business and your site. $80.
Earn revenue by including advertising from networks (such as Google) or for any affiliate program you are participate in (as text or images). $80.
Displays the number of people visiting your site at that moment. $40.
Displays the total number of people who have ever visited your site. $40.
Comments
Visitors can comment on published articles and other content. This can encourage feedback from people. $80.
Visitors can comment on other people's comments. This can encourage conversation among people and more interaction with the site.
When a visitor submits a comment, instead of it appearing immediately on the site, do you want it to await approval by you or your staff?
Taxonomy
Tags are words that can be assigned to articles and other content, like labels, to group them into categories, which make organizing and searching for content much easier. You can add or remove tag names at will. If you will be selling different types of products, tags are needed as product categories. $40.
Each tag name can be a single word or a phrase, e.g., on a website of financial articles, you could have tags such as: Cars, Gifts, Home, Investing, Job, Travel.
Do you want users to be able to contribute to the list of tag names (as well as selecting from the existing ones you have chosen)? This is needed for some websites, e.g., a worldwide application for which it would be better to allow users to enter all the city names.
Frequently asked questions
A section for frequently asked questions that customers might have regarding your business, as well as the answers — with each entry (a question/answer pair) on its own web page and also a main page that lists all of them, optionally grouped by categories of your choosing. FAQs can reduce support costs for your company. They are great for search engines because the text is loaded with keywords. $80.
We need an FAQ entry to get started, to create an FAQ page. Any question/answer pair would be fine.
If there will be a large number of FAQ entries, we can — and should — group them into categories. If you would like that, please list the category names and indicate which category to use for the starter entry above.
Forums
Online message boards for enabling group discussions, which can entice return visits, build an active online community, and generate fresh keyword-rich content, which is attractive to search engines. You can always block any misbehaving members. $120.
Forum names are usually high-level subjects areas, with brief names.
Block automated spam postings by requiring visitors to type in characters from a distorted image, known as a CAPTCHA. $40.
Block bad users from causing further trouble in your forums, forever or for a limited duration. $80.
Polls
Online surveys, to get free feedback from users and make your site more active. $40.
Any site visitor can vote, not just registered users.
Poll question and choices. Polls typically have fewer than ten choices. E.g., "Where did you first hear about us? Search engine / Link on another website / Newspaper ad / Word of mouth / Other".
Appearance
How would you describe your company's brand identity, the image your organization wishes to convey? E.g., serious or fun, corporate or folksy, conservative or trendy/exciting, classical or modern, urban or natural, prestigious or friendly.
A theme is the layout, colors, typography, header image, and other elements that define the appearance of the site — its visual design. You have several options: You could purchase a commercial pre-built Drupal theme (this is the most common choice). Or you could select a free pre-built Drupal theme (this is the cheapest and least flexible option). Or I could create a theme that looks similar to an existing website. Or a web designer could create a custom design and Drupal theme. I can help you with this decision and explain the options. Do you have any preferences at this point?
For the top of the site's pages, a custom logo image you supply. $80.
A small icon, based on your logo image or business logo, to enhance your site branding. A favicon is usually displayed in third-party links to your site, and in visitors' newsfeeds, browser address bars, and bookmarks. $40.
Many website's have image slideshows on their home pages. Yours could display any images you like as long as they are all the same size. $80.
Some sites have an introductory page that visitors see before the homepage. $80.
Specify what text you want on that splash page, or describe an image (provided by you).
Usability
Visitors can use keyword searching to easily find products, offers, and other published content on your site (but not hidden information, such as users' private data). $40.
Visitors can log into your site using OpenID (a popular universal identification standard). $80.
Verification of site's links and compatibility with all major web browsers. $40.
Verification that the site meets W3C HTML and CSS standards. $40.
Verification that visitors with vision impairment can access the site using a screen reader. $80.
E-commerce
For selling products, services, event registrations, or membership access to premium online content, as well as requesting donations through PayPal.
For selling products securely online to customers, who will be able to put different items in a cart and purchase them at checkout. It includes a shopping cart status widget (e.g., "2 items in your shopping cart"), a "Checkout" link, and order tracking and history. Customer account information is stored in a database. I add the first few products (for testing purposes) and you can add any remaining products after the site is launched. $400.
Will your online store be selling physical (shipable) products only, digital products only, or both physical and digital?
Approximately how many products initially?
You can charge people a monthly fee for membership access to premium content on your site password-protected behind a "paywall", such as exclusive information, unique reports, and high-quality moderated forums. $40.
Primary method of accepting payments from customers. If you want to use PayPal in a shopping cart (and not just single-product Buy Now buttons), make sure you have PayPal Website Payments Standard, not Pro.
Accept electronic checks (in addition to credit cards)? $40.
An SSL certificate so customer information is transmitted to your website securely. $120.
Affiliate links, commission management, return visit tracking, and monthly reports of sales and commissions per affiliate — to reward people who help to promote and sell your products. $120.
Coupon codes that can be given to customers as gifts, compensation, etc. $80.
Marketing
Specify some words (two dozen at most) that characterize your organization's offerings and which people would use to find it using a search engine (such as Google).
An effective slogan (a.k.a. tagline) is normally displayed in the header of every page and quickly informs visitors of the purpose of the website or organization and the benefits it offers. It should be longer than your company name, but no more than a dozen words, and contain some of the top keywords that your customers would use to find your business online.
Web page addresses (URLs) that are search-engine friendly, a key part of SEO. $40.
Gain insight into your visitors based on up-to-date statistics. Find out where your traffic comes from, what sites refer the most traffic, and more. Get professional tips and advice for optimizing your site for search engine traffic. $80.
Google Analytics is the most popular free tool for tracking and analyzing web traffic, including the number of visitors, where they came from, and if they are engaging, with your site. $40.
A detailed list of all the pages on your site, in the standard XML protocol, and used by Google and other search engines for indexing your site. $40.
A professionally written, edited, and distributed press release to announce your new site to potential customers and to search engines. $120.
Social media
Images on all the site's pages with links to your social media accounts at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. These encourage visitors to share content they like and spread the word about your site through their networks. $40.
Website addresses of your social media pages (just the URLs, and not any passwords).
A Facebook "Like" button is automatically added to every article published on your site, making it easy for Facebook users to share it with others. $40.
When a new article, comment, product, or other content is added to your site, it is automatically added to your Facebook feed. $80.
When new content is added to your site, it is automatically announced as a tweet from your Twitter account, so you don't have to manually tweet it. $40.
Tweets from your Twitter account are automatically displayed on your site, anywhere you want (most clients choose the home page). $80.
Project
When do you need the website completed?
Is there is a hard deadline, such as a planned launch prior to an important tradeshow?
Extra fast completion of your site. If you choose a standard theme and no complicated functionality, then the launch version of the site could be finished in a week or two. $80.
Are there specific technologies (e.g., WordPress) that for one reason or another will be required in building your new site? If so, why are they required and how are they expected to enhance the user experience?
What content (text, images, etc.), if any, is ready to be added to the website framework?
Is there anything else you want your site to be able to do beyond what you have described here? (Any such additional functionality is not included in the initial estimated cost.)
Please describe the additional functionality you would like.
What is the approximate budget for this site's development, launch, and first three months of enhancements and maintenance? This would be funding that has been approved and set aside for the project. We both need to know what your expectations are, and to verify it would be a good fit. By knowing the budget we have to work with, then we can tailor the work done to give you the most benefit for your money.
The project can begin once I have received all of the items needed to get started (the final design decisions, text and images for the home page, plus a 50% deposit of the estimated project cost). But if you pay the full estimate up front, then I can offer a 10% discount.
Deployment
Configuration of all needed settings in the web host account in preparation for the new site.
Installation of the completed site in the web hosting account, ready to go live on the Internet.
One-on-one instruction of how to login to your site, add content, manage users, etc. $80.
Ongoing
Monthly technical support for maintaining the site, which includes updating your website's software and database as needed with the latest security patches and saving a full backup of the database. (This does not include new development work, which is separate.) Strongly recommended. $40.
Monthly detailed analysis and reporting of the traffic to your site — including search engine indexing, referrers (both search engine and organic), HTTP errors, and hacking attempts. This is valuable for monitoring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. $40.
Miscellaneous
Is there any additional information that I will need in order to build your new website? E.g., project specs, a design mockup, wireframes, and user interface guidelines.
Are there any questions or options that should be added to this form? Is anything unclear?

Please double-check all of your entries before submitting the information.

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