In this day and age, not having a website for your business is like locking the doors. Your business will exist, for a while at least, but no one will be able to get hold of you!

The truth is, in order to compete in business these days, you need a website, and getting an affordable website is not only possible, it is very probable, if you follow these tips.

The Web Designer

When choosing a web design company or contractor, shop around. Big name companies may be prestigious, but they charge a premium for that prestige, and smaller companies, or even freelancers, might be willing to offer you a much better deal.

Many smaller companies and contractors offer affordable custom web design services at a fraction of the cost, so it’s a good idea to explore those options too!

Domain Name and Hosting

When planning an affordable, custom website, many people forget to account for the cost of domain registration and hosting.

Fortunately, it’s entirely possible to get registration and hosting packages cheaply these days, sometimes even under $10 for the domain, and at a few dollars a month for hosting. There are also package deals that include a small hosting package with the registration, although they do come with very limited server space.

Cost Cutting Tactics

Once you’ve decided on a web design company or contractor, and found a low cost domain registration and hosting, there are many other ways to cut costs on your website, and here’s how:

• If you’ve already started planning your site, take your plan along to the designer. The less work they have to do, the less it’s going to cost you!
• Graphics and photography for websites can cost a lot, so if you have existing graphics, or photographs, why not use them?
• Stock photography sites offer low cost, or even free options for photographs, so they’re also well worth investigating.
• Instead of hiring a professional to write your content, why not write it yourself, and then, if you’re not still not sure, hire someone to edit or proofread it!

Website Features

The extra items you want on your site are likely to push up the cost of the site, so if you really have your heart set on them, ask for a separate quote from your web designer.

In most cases, a basic five page site will do fine for a start, and you can always  add more features as time goes by.

Making Money with Your Website

Of course, these days, websites aren’t only for business promotion, and ecommerce is one way websites are becoming the business itself.

Why not look into affiliate programs, or even creating your own products to sell on your site – you may find that many of your hosting costs, are covered by your revenues, or even that you make a tidy profit as well.

Then again, you have the option of selling advertising on your site, another popular method of gaining revenues from your site, so you may want to explore that option with your web designer.

Whatever options you choose, affordable custom web design is a possibility, and a reality – you just need to do some research, find the right service provider, and be prepared to put in a little effort yourself!