As part of our services at Beyond VAs, we provide general task support through our virtual assistant packages. We also provide specialist help on projects that require expert support such as website design.
We often get asked how much it costs to set up a website. This really depends on the amount of research you have already done in terms of finding a theme for your website.
In this blog post we’ve put together everything you need to know to help you get started with setting up a wordpress website.
There are basically five things you need to do when setting up your website.
- Purchase a domain name: The first cost is for purchasing a domain name for your website. Your domain name is what people will know you as such as www.beyondvas.com When choosing a domain name it’s good to note that .com, .co.uk and .org websites are charged at a different annual rate. Domain names can cost anything from £1/year to £20/year.
- Purchase website hosting. This is the place where your website content is ‘stored’. Website hosting can cost anything from £60/year to £120/year depending on the host provider and the package you have purchased. With website hosting also gives you access to an email address ie. yourname@yourdomain.com You don’t have to buy hosting from the same company where you purchased your domain. Popular domain name providers and website hosts include www.godaddy.com, www.fasthosts.co.uk and www.123-reg.com. We do not help with purchasing domain names and website hosting as the contract with the domain name provider and website host is directly with you.
- Find a theme or template. The next thing to factor in is the cost or time taken to find and choose a theme. There are over 10,000 wordpress themes around the world and as you can imagine it can take weeks to shop around and decide on a final theme. If you are very busy, you may not have time to trawl through websites looking for the perfect theme. We currently have a theme finding service which is £120. All you need is a short skype meeting with us, providing us your top websites along with the aspects that you like in each website. We will then come back to you within 7 days with our top 3 website themes that closely match what you’re looking for. Finding the theme can be the hardest step as there are so many sites to choose from and it’s easy to spend weeks or even months at this stage. The best way to overcome this is to choose a theme that works for you knowing that you will probably change your theme every 3-5 years. The good news is that once you’ve found a theme all you need to do is step 4 and 5.
- Purchase the theme. Themes can cost anything from £40 as a one off free up to an annual fee of £100/year. Some themes require an annual upgrade fee. The cost will be stated on the theme providers website. We do not usually help with purchasing themes as the theme belongs to you. You will need to purchase this directly from the theme provider unless you have requested a theme where we have an existing relationship with the theme provider and can purchase the theme at a reduced cost.
- Building the website. This is probably the biggest cost associated with website design. Website design fees with Beyond VAs start from from £500. This will depend on the type of website and elements involved in designing each page. We will provide the quote to you based on the website type and the elements you’d like to include. Basic elements for a simple website would include a full width slider/video, portfolios, testimonials, faqs, ‘as featured in’, statements, featured blog posts, social media links, short forms and social sharing icons.
As you can see there are quite a lot of things to consider when setting up a website in wordpress. More advanced websites with Beyond VAs would cost upwards of £500 and this might include E-commerce shopping pages, chat widgets, a PDF download services ie. leave your email in exchange for a download. You may also wish to create landing pages and pop-ups, a mini social networking site ie. an online community, a Q&A section for you to crowdsource answers, an online course sections, advanced forms for sales and quotes and integrated forms that connected to other software using APIs. For more information on website pricing visit: www.beyondvas.com/website-pricing
Beyond VAs provides full time and part time virtual assistants for busy solopreneurs and small business owners. We can also provide you with specialist support for your website design project. Get in touch with us if you’d like a 30-minute free consultation to discuss your website needs: www.beyondvas.com/contact-us