You've decided that your business needs a website; you've done your research, created a website outline, collected your content, and have a pretty good idea what you want. Now it is time to find a reputable web developer.

During the second part of our guide to help you establish your own business website, we'll discuss how to tell if the web developer is worth their weight in salt and the different costs of having a website.

THE WEB DEVELOPER

Finding the right web developer can make or break your website. Be sure to know what to look for in a developer.

Just as you wouldn't hire a part-time contractor to build your office building, you should avoid hiring a part-time "web designer". There are MANY "weekend web wannabes" out there that will underbid any professional web development firm; however, you will have to ask yourself if you are willing to take the chance of having a sub-standard website, as well as not having contact with the "web designer" while that person is at their "day job."

If a web developer does not have their OWN business website with an online portfolio, a big "red flag" should go up for you and you will need to consider looking elsewhere. It is also advisable to avoid using web developers whose website has a non-professional domain name or web address such as, http://www.geocities.com/webfirmname or any web address that has a tilde (~) in it such as, http://www.freehosting.com/~webfirmname. Legitimate web development firms will have a domain name that relates directly to their business name or field.

It is also important that the web development firm you choose has a physical business address and has been in the business of web development for more than 4 years. This will help insure that you won't become a victim of the many "fly-by-night" web ventures out there that are here one day, but disappear the next, taking your domain name and website files with them. You will begin to realize this more once you go through the yellow pages looking for a web developer and find that half of the phone numbers have been disconnected.

Once you have found a few web development firms and have established that they are all legit businesses, you will need to schedule a meeting to discuss your website and get a quote from them. This brings us to the main unknown for many: costs.

COSTS

Websites can be just another form of advertising or they can function as your entire business. Either way, it is going to be an investment. There will be upfront costs and ongoing costs. Just as you might have an advertising budget, you may need to consider having a website budget if you are serious about having a web presence.

Most people do not have a clue as to how much a website costs or the other costs that are involved. This is usually the first question most web developers are asked before even meeting the client, or knowing any information about what type of website the client wants. Without knowing the details of the website, the question of cost is unanswerable. This industry is still so young with so many different variables to consider: half of it is art; the other half is technology (forms, e-commerce, web applications, databases, mailing lists, forums, blogs, etc…). Most developers charge by the hour and the price can be anywhere from $25/hour to $250/hour depending on the type of work to be done. As a rule of thumb, you get what you pay for.

If you have done your research, decided on what you want your website to do, and have outlined your site's content, you have already taken out most of the guess work for the web developer. With this information, your web developer should then be able to give you a more precise cost estimate for the website's construction and any additional fees involved.

There are generally four basic fees involved in having a website: the website itself, the domain name for your website, the hosting fee, and finally, the maintenance. The website development cost will be the largest of these fees, but it is a one time deal. Once created, the website design is complete until you decide to re-design it. The second fee is the domain name (www.yourbusinessname.com) for your business and is an annual fee that is usually less than $30/year. In order for people to get to your website, the files that make up your website will have to be "hosted" on a computer that has a special connection to the Internet. The hosting cost is usually a monthly fee and the price, once again, depends on the functionality of your website (e-commerce and other more functional websites will need special hosting which usually costs more). Your maintenance fee depends on your web developer; this can be a reoccurring fee, or an as needed cost.

The world of website development can be a large and seemingly daunting area to many business people. The benefits of having a website far outweigh the consequences of not having one. Hopefully this guide will serve as a good "measurement" so that you only have to "cut once."

Patrice Anderson has been building websites since 1996 and is currently the director for Gibens Creative Group of Tupelo, MS.