What other website costs should I budget for?

Down the road, you need to budget for a few extra (annual) expenses when setting up a website:

Domain Name Registration: Your website name (www.yourdomain.com) must be ‘leased’ by the year, for less than $10 annually. I include one domain registration free with our annual hosting.

Hosting: Your website needs a place to ‘live’ on the Internet, so that when someone types www.yourcompany.com, a computer somewhere on the Internet wakes up and serves up your website pages. This service is called ‘hosting’ and I can help you set up your website on my host servers for a small semi-annual fee.

Maintenance: Over time, you’ll need to update your website with new content. I give you the tools to do this yourself – and if you know how to use Microsoft Word, you can update your own website! Or, if you want me to keep the site up to date, learn more about my “peace of mind” pre-paid maintenance plan.

Website Statistics: Online usage statistics, updated daily, are included as part of the hosting agreement (via Google Analytics and StatCounter). You should be analyzing your website traffic (who’s visiting, where are they coming from, and what are they doing while they are here?) at least once a month. Other hosts may provide such reports—check with your vendor of choice. To learn more, please read my article about web statistics in plain English.