Alright, I'm still in the process of starting up my business, and I need to know how much I should expect to pay to get a website up and running, as well as the monthly recurring fees. I'm not looking for anything that dramatic. Basically I just need something basic to start with the ability to improve on it as time goes by. Also, does anyone think paying college students $6/hr. plus tips is reasonable?
Need to know what kind of website exactly you are trying to start up? Do you need a content management system, or just basic HTML/CSS coding? 6/hr is pretty cheap if you found someone to do it for that much, but beware the quality of work.
Domain: ~$15/year Hosting: ~$8/month Design: you can do it yourself, if all you want is info on your business and to have something where your clients can just look up info without having to call you. Nowadays, some peeps have flat full-site rates, hourly rates, and per-page rates. There are disadvantages for all. With full-site rates, you might pay more than what you need. With hourly rates, you might not get entire work done per-hour. With per-page rate, they might want to create just ONE PAGE for your name and address. There are many no-nos in the web design industry that someone might want to put on your site that you might not need, and you might ask for something on your site that the designer won't tell you you shouldn't put on it (think music in a non-music web site). I am waiting for Jeff , Stack24, DrLudicrous, Lil Pun, Lady_Di, and other web designer dudes to give their input as well. Look up my posts and Lil Pun threads, and I think I have some recommendations on hosting (try www.1and1.com, they're pretty cheap and can include the domain costs). Good luck.
The cost of creating the site will vary greatly depending on what you want. It's like asking how much a new car is, it could be 10K, it could be 100K, it just depends on what you want. And with no information other than it's kind of like a taxi service you're not going to get a good answer. I don't do any work like that now so I'm not sure what the going rates are. You're best bet will be to find some companies or people that do that and give them detailed information about what you want to get a quote. There could be other posters here that could help.
