In5D Website Services
Contact me for a free consultation! ggregg8 (at) hotmail.com
In 2007, I was guided to build a website to prove that 2012 was not the end of the world. I knew nothing about building websites. I taught myself HTML coding and built one from scratch. I built a second website from scratch when I was guided to build In5D in 2008 but since then, I have been using WordPress premium themes.
I’ve learned a LOT since 2008. For example, I had several articles go viral in 2007-08 but my website server (the company who hosts your URL) throttled my bandwidth, which means that only a limited amount of people were allowed to see any viral article. Not only that, my bandwidth was limited for the remainder of the month. When this happened, people cannot access your website at all!
I decided to get a dedicated server. I’ve been through a number of them and many are complete headaches! Many will place you on hold for literally hours of you have a connectivity issue. The one I currently use is KnownHost and they’ve been fantastic!
Your Website
There are a lot of costs associated with starting a new website. It’s not as simple as buying a URL and writing some text for your site. You’ll need a reliable server for your URL, preferably one that doesn’t limit your bandwidth and disk space. If either of these have limitations, then your website will receive a 509 error code in place of any content you’ve published. It will look something like this on every page of your website:
You get what you pay for. Cheap servers = cheap results. If too many people visit your website, you’ll get a 509 bandwidth Limit Exceeded Error Code and your website will be inaccessible until you either wait until the following month or buy a larger bandwidth package.
Additional free lance services are available at $80 per hour, such as making amendments to your website and customizing its appearance.
I very passionate about helping people, so building websites for them brings me joy. I don’t view any website I build as being in competition with my website, In5D, as we are all on the same team!
Typical Website Costs
Here’s a breakdown of typical website costs.
URL: $20 Specialty URL’s cost more.
Website Hosting: $1.99 to $300+ You get what you pay for. $1.99 a month hosting will limit your disk space and bandwidth. If your site got busy, people would not be able to see it with low bandwidth. Also, the more you add to your website, the less disk space you have to work with.
SSL Certificate: $11.95 The benefits of having an SSL certificate on a website include better security, data privacy, and improved ranking on search engines. All websites that process sensitive user information such as passwords or credit card details should have an SSL certificate.
Email Services: $0.99–$18/user/month
Tech support: free–$11.99/month
Website Theme: Premium WordPress themes around $49+
Plugins: free–$49/month. A WordPress plugin is an extension that expands the features and functionality of a website
eCommerce Features: Average costs: $18.99–$1,000/month. Unlike other websites, eCommerce websites have additional maintenance costs due to payment gateways and inventory management features. Optional features like dedicated support and email marketing can also lead to higher maintenance costs.
Marketing and SEO: Average costs: free–$10,000/month
Website maintenance:
1. Hiring a pro: Average cost: $200-$10,000/month. This option helps website owners save time and effort as professional website maintenance agencies handle the site’s more complex and technical aspects.
Website maintenance agencies also conduct regular software updates, monitor site security, and optimize performance. Hiring an expert is an excellent option for business owners who want to allocate their time and focus to other tasks, like marketing strategies and content creation.
2. Self-Maintaining a Website: Average cost: under $100/month. A downside to maintaining a website yourself is that it takes time to learn something new and implement it correctly. It can also be overwhelming to handle all the technical aspects of the site.
The Process
URL
You will need to find a URL that’s available. Make sure it’s as short as possible and easy to spell and remember. Your main keyword should be in the URL. For me, it’s 5D, so In5D was perfect. Normally, numbers and single letter abbreviations are not a good ideas to use in a URL, such as www.meditation4u.com.
THEME
Free themes are very basic and many are not “responsive” meaning that it might not be compatible for cell phones, iPadS, laptops, or desktops. for cell phones, iPads, laptops, or desktops. I recommend using a premium these for this reason. Plus, premium themes look much better and you want this experience to be visually stimulating for your visitors.
Premium themes generally run around $50 for a one time fee.
CATEGORIES
Your website should have categories. You can also have subcategories. For example, you might have a Science category with Weather as a subcategory.
You’ll need an “About Me” category page. Generally, these are written in 3rd person. For me, it would look like, “In5D was founded by Gregg Prescott in 2009 after receiving a galactic download that told him to build In5D, even though he knew nothing about computer programming. Even the name, “In5D” was given to him in this download!” Make it interesting and exciting!
For legal purposes, you’ll need a Privacy Policy category page. I can help you with that as well.
WOOCOMMERCE
Setting up a store is very time consuming to build and you’ll need to know how to add or remove items once it’s set up, along with setting up shipping (which shipping company will you use?), shipping parameters (weight, size of each item), payments (PayPal, Stripe, Venmo, etc…).
WooCommerce stores are not inexpensive because they take significantly more time to create than a blog website.
You’ll need a reliable email service for your subscribers. I use MailChimp and can easily incorporate it into your website.
SERVER
Many people use an inexpensive cloud server that’s shared with a kajillion other people and will limit your bandwidth each month. In other words, if something on your website goes viral, only a small amount of people will be able to see it because of bandwidth limitations. That’s why it’s so enticing for people who are just starting out. I made that mistake and have been using a dedicated server ever since.
Dedicated servers are expensive. Most cost AT LEAST $275 a month. I can place your website on one of my dedicated servers and you’ll never have bandwidth issues, unless you get a DDOD attack, which is rare, but they happen on occasion if you don’t have a good security system. Security systems, on average, are about $100 per year, although some are free, but you literally get what you pay for.
My $100 monthly maintenance service fee for your website includes being on one of my dedicated servers, thus saving you a minimum of $175 a month on dedicated server fees.
WEBSITE COSTS
Basic WordPress Blog up to 15 categories/pages $500
Includes free WordPress template, website setup, email setup, menus, plugin setup, Content Management, and Database Integration.
Basic WordPress Blog up to 16-25 categories/pages $750
Includes free WordPress template, website setup, email setup, plugin setup, menus, Content Management, and Database Integration.
Premium Theme WordPress Blog up to 15 categories/pages $600
Includes premium theme installation, website setup, email setup, plugin setup, menus, Responsive Design, Content Management, Ecommerce Functionality, and Database Integration.
Premium Theme WordPress Blog up to 16-25 categories/pages $850
Includes premium theme (similar to In5D or Zentasia), website setup, email setup, plugin setup, menus, Responsive Design, Content Management, Ecommerce Functionality, and Database Integration.
WooCommerce Premium Theme WordPress Website up to 15 categories/pages and 10 products $1000
Includes premium theme (similar to In5D Quantum Tie Dye), theme installation, website setup, email setup, plugin setup, menus, Responsive Design, Content Management, Ecommerce Functionality, Database Integration, shipping, shipping weights and measurements, price coding, variations, and attributes, up to 10 products listed. $50 per each additional product. Customer will need to set up payments through Stripe and/or PayPal.
WooCommerce Premium Theme WordPress Website to 16-25 pages and 20 products $1500
Includes premium theme, theme installation, website setup, email setup, plugin setup, menus, Responsive Design, Content Management, Ecommerce Functionality, Database Integration, shipping, shipping weights and measurements, price coding, variations, and attributes, up to 10 products listed. $50 per each additional product. Customer will need to set up payments through Stripe and/or PayPal.
MONTHLY MAINTENANCE SERVICE FEE
A monthly blog service fee of $80 per month includes:
Plugin updates
Links maintained
SEO
Conduct regular software updates
Monitor site security
Optimize performance
GENERAL FEES
Initial consultation – FREE (normally $80 per hour)
Free Lance website work $80 per hour
Total Costs
If you’re looking to start a blog, the costs begins at $500 for a basic website. Try shopping around first. You’ll find my fee is significantly less than anyone else!
If you’re looking to start an eCommerce shop, it will cost a little more because of the time it takes to set up each individual item, along with shipping variables, each of the item’s attributes, variations, weight, etc…
