The distinction between products and services is difficult to define when it comes to the Internet, but our way of looking at things is that when it involves giving advice, or carrying out a task on behalf of our client, it is a service. If we have to 'make' it, then it is a product. Information about the services that we offer can be found here.
There are many who will offer to build you an attractive
web site, but we know the difference between a mere brochure and a shop. Proactive e-commerce
presents opportunities for the innovative business looking to venture into the exciting commercial
frontier of the Internet.
The web sites that we build are functional and efficient, professionally presented, aesthetically appropriate to there intended purpose, and with a clear focus on the concept of informing rather than entertaining the consumer. Our sites get the job done and accurately reflect the 'real world'
nature of a particular business.
If you don't have clowns performing in your shop, then we won't put side-show entertainment on your web site. If you are a conservative business that trades on quality and professionally, we won't embarrass you publicly with an amateurish web site. And if you are an aggressive
'no-holds-barred' player, we have the experience and the skills to play promotional 'hard
ball' against those managing the sites of your competitors.
We
have deployed many successful web sites over the past years and that experience has left us
in no doubt that building a web site is just the start of the process. The web site must be
put together as the solid foundation for the online business endeavour that follows.
Your Web Site:
We recognise 2 distinct
stages to web site development - planning and execution - and our costs reflect this:
• Web Site Set-up: This covers the costs associated with getting the project rolling, and includes things like
client contact, concept development, preliminary artwork, and site navigation design. It is
on a sliding scale (since bigger jobs take more planning) and ranges from $50 for 3 page web
site, up to $400 for a 100 page web site. Larger sites are quoted on a job-by-job basis.
• Descriptive and Content Web Page
Construction: Charged per page where a page contains up to 400 words of text and up to
4 photos. Once again on a sliding scale, but downwards in this case as there is a certain
amount of the page construction that can be can duplicated from page to page. Pricing ranges
from $150 per page for a 3 pages, down to $50 per page for over a 100 pages. The basic 400
word / 4 image 'page' doesn't cover every contingency, so here are a few alternative layouts.
• Catalogue Page: Up to 5 products
per page with an image, 25 word description and product details for each product. Each image is able to be 'zoomed' in separate 'web page' (a small version of
a Deluxe photo gallery).
• Standard
Photo Gallery: No limit to the number of images,
although it will take quite a while to download a page with 100 images. Normal pricing for,
a Standard Photo Gallery page are $50 to set up and a $10 per image,
including 'image zoom' capability.
(e.g. $50 set up and 25 images @ $10 per image
= $300). This type of gallery is
NOT the most secure way to protect your images from being copied or stolen, if security is
an issue.
• DELUXE Photo Gallery: No
limit to the number of images, For
reasons that will become clearer as you read, this is by far is a better variation of a photo
gallery, unfortunately this type of gallery comes at an additional cost as, the zoom image
is made to load into individual web page, instead of the image just loading into your
browser window (eg. Just like this), as in the standard
photo gallery. A DELUXE photo gallery type of layout will cost $50
to set up the page and
$20 per zoom image (NB: Because we are duplicating most of the page
content other than the image and unique text, you get another web page for just $10 as we
have allowed $10 for Cropping and Rendering the images etc.). We have used these type of page very
successfully in food menu type pages
and carpet
sample type pages (opens
a New Window), the
main advantage of this type of page is that it gives you a higher level of protection for
your images by adding Java scripting to the page and it makes browsing a lot easier, as well
as adding doorway pages to your site, this is a great way to add site content as each page
can have an individual page title, keywords, an individual description atop the image and
other hidden fields that will assist in ranking your site a little higher with search engines.
• What is a Zoom image ? You
might ask, well an image can start out in several formats, firstly say it was taken on a conventional
camera that has been developed into a hard copy, that image will now need to be scanned into
digital format or it is simply taken on a digital camera initially, either way the initial
image may need to be cropped and converted into two separate images for any zoom image you
see, as the first copy of the image will need to be smaller in size and quality, this is for
two reasons, 1) So the viewer can get a quick idea of what the product looks like, 2) So that
the whole page loads reasonably fast. I suppose you have been to a site ware the whole page
takes forever to fully load, this is usually because the first page is loading the FULL image
that has been reduced in size and not quality, thus forcing your visitors to wait for far
too long. There are also other nerdy things like, layering and converting the quality of the
image to optimise your site so it will download reasonably fast, we
have won awards for quality in content, information and download speeds for our sites.
(New Window)
Why
not go and prepare a quick web site quote
for yourself, right now !
Interactive
Content:
At this stage your web site will be fully functional and have satisfied its intended objective
of presenting your text and images in a brochure format. This is called a 'static' web site
and although quite effective as a promotional tool, you may wish to enhance its functionality
by adding some 'interactive' features:
•
E-mail Based Booking/Order/Enquiry Form: As an alternative to a simple email request from
your site, the web site user is provided with a form to fill out to communicate there requirements.
A very simple standard form that collects customer details, product selections and customer
comments is $85, usually $150 will cover a more complex form with cgi data control.
• Shopping Cart: We've all seen them - click the buy
button, browse some more products or services, buy a few more things, and then at the end
of the process you have an order form that is already filled out with all of your product
or service choices. The initial standard setup is only $600 for up to 49 products or services,
plus $5.00 per product or service.
The more products or services required the cheaper
the setup fee (eg. 50+ products = $500, 100+ = $400 and 200+ =$300 setup fee).
• Java Script: Calculators, Event calendars, Interactive maps etc. - you are only
limited by your imagination. Java Scripting is charged hourly from $30/hour and prices generally
range from $100 to $800.
• Multimedia: Sound, pannable images, and streaming video can all be applied to
your site. Prices vary depending on what you want to do, but in most cases you will be talking
hundreds of dollars, not thousands.
• Web Site Search Engine: The ability for a user to
keyword search your web site for a particular piece of information or product. For a small
web site this can cost as little as $85.
Dynamic
Content:
The next stage involves
introducing 'dynamic' content and this is where the content of the web site automatically
changes based on a web site user's request or action, or as a database of source data is updated.
These changes are then automatically reflected across the web site.
•
Simple Dynamic Embedding: If you
have a small web site with a limited amount of data that changes every now and then, consider
the benefits of being able to do it yourself. A single-page web site for a hotel could become
dynamic by having a rate table that updates itself from a simple text file, for under $100.
We can show you how to update and deliver the text file to your server, and off you go.
• Simple Database Enquiry: A database application that allows the web site user to select from a single set of criteria,
and then have the results of their search displayed on screen as a web page. This could be
something like a postcode search for an office location, or the selection of a product group
from a list of product categories. Depending on the complexity, usually under $1000.
• Complex Database Enquiry: A fully fledged database application that allows the web site user to select from a range
of criteria. The results of the query are then displayed on screen as a web page, after the
individual choices have been assessed against each other by the database, and a data-set that
satisfies all criteria has been generated. Prices start from $3000 and increase rapidly.
All prices are based on our scheduled rate of
$30/hour upwards.
What's Next ?
Whether you are planning
your first web site, or looking to improve an existing web site, try a quick
quote first, then send us an email
or give us a call on 02 9555 2131 or Fax us on 9555 2112 and we would
be pleased to discuss your options.
You
might think that the phone is a "low-tech" way of communicating for us, but we don't just
use technology for the sake of it. We recognise that many of our clients are not nearly as
internet literate as they would like to be, and we go out of our way to make sure that the
whole web site development process is as 'non-technical' as possible.
Once
you have told us what you need, we will advise you on the best ways to achieve your objectives,
and suggest a few alternatives to take advantage of the new opportunities that the internet
offers. In this way everybody understands the nature of the project, and the final result
will satisfy everybody's expectations.
We
always attempt to partner with our clients to achieve a solution, and to ensure that the final
product is not beyond the ability of our clients to understand, or to operate.
In
addition to building web sites we also offer a range of services.
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