I feel like the question, “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” would be easier to answer than the title of this blog. (Also, did you know a woodchuck is a groundhog!? If nothing else, at least you learned that fact.)

The price range for a website is enormous but like most stories, the best place to begin is not at the beginning, but with money.

Free

There are a handful of decent services that will provide a free website. You sign up, click the right boxes and a website appears. There will be lots of limitations and most likely they’ll slap some ads on your site but free is free. Another free option is that if we ignore the fact that time is money, you could learn to code and build your site from scratch!*

*This option also ignores a mountain of other details not limited to but including domain registration, website hosting, mental health, personal relationships, sleep deprivation and more. But you go ahead and blaze whatever trail is calling your name.

$

If you can spend a little bit on your website, options start opening up and things start to become more professional. At this low range, most website-building tools are very DIY so your results depend on how proficiently you can read through help articles and how much effort and persistence you are willing to put in. Sadly, it still probably won’t be enough. Websites want blood.

$$

At this stage, you are bringing in help. A semi-professional, a cousin, a priest, anyone who might be able to manipulate the ones and zeros just enough so when you try to click that thing, the other thing doesn’t pop up, because then you can’t click the first thing. If you pick the right collaborator, the site can really start coming together. Stuff is in order and consistent, and maybe you even start selling those mugs with your logo on them.

$$$

Now we we’re talking. With all of this mug-money flowing, things can get serious and you can upgrade. In order to compete with your competitors in competition, you hire an actual designer so your site doesn’t look like a template for a dentist’s office.* You will also work with a developer to upgrade the site platform because the previous one wouldn’t let users create accounts so they could mark locations on a communal map where they too, have seen Bigfoot (and want to buy a mug to commemorate the event). Also, your site works on phones now! Party like it’s 2009!

*The views expressed in this blog do not reflect those of NBCG. NBCG stands proudly with all dentists and would gladly build any of them a wonderful website. Custom.

$$$$

Ok, this post has been pretty silly thus far, but now we’re talking about four dollar signs. Here is where the big guns come in, content editors and search engine optimization specialists. Now all the words are spelled correctly, complete sentences are birthed and content is arranged and structured in optimal ways for your user to consume. Editors perform true magic. SEO specialists, however, work in black magic, manipulating and coercing Google to produce your website just by typing in special “key terms and phrases.”  I know better than to ask too many questions. Those people scare me. Moving on!

$$$$$

At this stage limitations begin evaporating and what were merely dreams are now reality. It’s easy to become drunk with power as each “yes, we can do that” from the developers flows through you like electricity. Now you are more concerned with whether you could have an interactive and integrated feed telling you when the McRib is back, instead of whether you should. Video integration, animated effects, progressive enhancement…the internet is your oyster.

Epilogue

Make no mistake, there are many more levels you can traverse but as your guide, I can go no further. I fear what will happen to me if I say too much. This post most likely has already put me in grave danger. If you do seek more information or counsel, contact me at [email protected] or call 785-587-8185 and ask for “Shawn.” They’ll know what it means.