Looking for input on cost to design website

[FrozenCanuck]

Hi everyone,

One of the muses that I will soon be launching is a website to sell an audio CD product. I'm fortunate enough to already have access to the product. The product comes from a well-known expert (at least in some circles) who I trust enormously, and he sells his own product in person at events, but has never sold online and has no interest in doing so. He will allow me to buy wholesale and I'll sell online as the exclusive vendor.

My website will need to look professional and I do not have time to do it myself with all the learning, etc. I plan to put a posting on elance.

The site should be very simple. A header with a title, a paragraph describing the products (of which there are 3 separate audio CDs) and a link for ordering information.

The order link should get the user to a page that provides pricing and shipping information, and they would just choose what they want on this page and be directed to PayPal for checkout.

That's it ... very simple. I don't think I need any fancy logos, just a professional and clean looking website.

I can write all the copy myself.

That said, my questions are:

1) How much do you think it should cost on Elance?
2) What firms do you folks recommend? The NetMen Corp has been mentioned before.

3) How long should I expect before the job is completed?
4) Are there any special technical items that I should specify in my job posting? For example "must use CSS style sheets" ??

Thanks for any help. When the site is live I'll invite you all to look. The product is outstanding.

[micah7]

I can help you out if you are interested. I do web design for fun and have a little extra time on my hands. Let me know you would like some help...

I can help you with the design, domain registration, free cart integration...

I use to own my own design firm and sold it in 04'

Let me know if you're interested and we can talk design specs (# of pages, ect.) and price.

Ant

[FrozenCanuck]

Micah7 - for sure just let me know what you think my project should cost. I'm partial to having it done thru elance simply because I should save money by hiring from a non North American country ...

There would probably be 1 main sales page, 1 order info page, and perhaps a page with some additional information and links. Nothing fancy. Just has to look clean.

[Peter Bowen]

I think that there might be a better way for you to spend your money.

If you get someone to design a website you might find yourself with something that is hard to change without getting under the hood or going backward and forward with your web guy (time and money). There are always changes to be made - especially in the beginning when you are tweaking your muse.

I suggest that you consider spending that money on having someone set up a content management system which allows you to write the web copy like using a word processor.

There are a pile of free ones out there and even a blogging platform like wordpress makes sense for an application like yours.

Cheers

Pete

[James Grey]

If you have your site made by a freelancer just make sure that they give you all of the raw graphics and files, a list of the colors used (like 0000) and that they use a commonly available web developing program like Dreamweaver so you can easily have another developer change it later. When I used to use elance for web developing I would always say that the site must be developed in Dreamweaver (you can choose any program, I just like Adobe stuff).

One thing about outsourcing, not all web developers are artistically inclined especially in places like India. You may end up with a well built site that doesn’t necessarily look that great. I would suggest that you buy a template that you like and just have them modify it to your likes.

You should also go ahead and spend the money on a good header, people underestimate how much the header affects sales. I have increased sales by 30% just by changing the header.

And in my opinion – if you just need a single sales copy page then don’t bother with a CMS (content management system). Its like renting a Porsche when your just driving to McDonalds

~James Grey

[FrozenCanuck]

Ok guys - thanks for the advice. I have done some work with WordPress already for my first muse test, and I'm almost ready to go live with the test. I think it looks "ok" and I suppose I could hire somebody to take a free theme and modify it as per my needs, design a nice header, and then allow me to write the copy myself? That would be pretty easy and cheap I suppose.

Is anyone here using WordPress for their muse, actually selling a product through it?

[FreedomBuilder]

Hi FrozenCanuck,

You asked:


1) How much do you think it should cost on Elance?
2) What firms do you folks recommend? The NetMen Corp has been mentioned before.

3) How long should I expect before the job is completed?
4) Are there any special technical items that I should specify in my job posting? For example "must use CSS style sheets" ??

Thanks for any help. When the site is live I'll invite you all to look. The product is outstanding.

If it were me, I'd use two products to achieve this:

1.) Site Build It! (http://ctpm.sitesell.com/freeinfo2.html) for your entire web design/building system and more importantly built in marketing engine.

2.) CD+DVD Automator (http://ptarchives.dvdauto.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=4H) to totally automate your CD order taking/billing/burning/printing/packaging/shipping

Hope this isn't too late, and I hope it helps!

[micah7]

Besides the affiliate promotion, when it comes to your muse don't hesitate to spend the money needed to get the best result.

It will pay off big in the long run, so many people get frustrated trying to cut corners and end up paying more than they initially budgeted for.

Of course with anything you have to do your due diligence and research.

WordPress is a good CMS, you can manage a blog (easy to update) and call it 'Product News,' and use the static pages for sales, about, contact, ect.

The beauty about WP is that there are a ton of plugins to help make what you want to do easy and it will help with SEO and getting your ranked, but to be honest... For what you want to do you will need to get it fully customized to stand out from all of the other ordinary blog sites, so using a regular blog template won't cut it.

If you know PHP then I suggest you play with WP and learn the calls and what they do and try to customize it yourself.

Personally, with your product the 'about,' 'contact,' and 'Faq' pages should not change, but your product sales and terms pages may. I suggest using the blog feature for industry news or product news along with press releases it will also help with getting ranked.

I have a few blog sites that are cashing in, so I can help you with a few plugins that are great for SEO, DO NOT PUT ADSENSE ON YOUR MUSE SITE, it will cheapen the experience.

In one of my online shops I added adsense mainly because the PPC is really high ($1-$2.00 per click) I figured customers will buy if they are really interested and if not then they will go through Adsense.