WebForging

The following from Chapter 3 - Budget - of my book, WebForging at http://www.WebForging.com

I'm planning to do sample content from all the chapters. Hope you like it. The WebForging site is being re-designed to incorporate a vBulletin forum.

WebForging is written for Company Owners, VPs of Sales & Marketing, and for IT people who've been given responsibility for the Company web presence, but don't know marketing 101. This chapter on budget helps them realistically determine the cost (in time and dollars) to establish a presence on the web.
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Chapter 3 Budget


Web budgeting isn’t rocket science, but it isn’t the easiest thing in the world either. Before suggesting some ways to approach budgeting, here are a few approaches to avoid.
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The single biggest mistake I’ve seen companies make in initiating a new site (or a re-design of an existing site) is what I call the ‘poor catalog’ approach. These firms budget dollars for building a site, then nothing else. That’s like budgeting for production of a new catalog or capabilities brochure, then planning no further expenditures for using the piece in a direct mail program, as a response to inquiries, to disseminate at trade shows and so on.

A good rule of thumb is to devote half or less of your budget to initial site development, with the other half reserved for updates to the site and site hosting and promotion for the first year. Keep in mind that you must continue the budget allocation for updates, hosting and promotion for subsequent years.

The second budget approach to avoid at all costs (pun intended) is what I call the bargain basement bandit. This is the person who is moonlighting, or doing their first site (after Aunt Molly’s and their own personal home pages) or is the high school or college student son of a colleague. Nothing against these young people, in fact I’ll try to hire them if they can work within a system. The problem is that the quote they present is usually a real low-ball number. Even if they came close to meeting the criteria for choosing a supplier in chapter one (a difficult task, indeed, because of the wide range of skill sets involved), they’ll soon find the time required for your project is much more than they bargained for. And you’ll soon find that they are hard to reach and that response time gets poorer and poorer. If you even consider going down this road, have a frank discussion up front about the time commitments. Plan to help your supplier succeed. Plan regular progress reviews. If you genuinely want to help them get started and succeed, don’t let them sell themselves short financially – you’ll both suffer.

Another budget approach to avoid is the ‘package plan’ many small web shops put together. Rarely does even a simple web presence fit the pre-packaged approach suppliers develop to get you in the door or to make for an easy sell. Finally, if you plan to develop a site but have no printed literature, stop and do the printed literature first. I believe every business, with the possible exception of pure Internet plays like Amazon.com, should have a printed capabilities brochure or catalog, or a series of flyers in print before attempting a web presence. Your web presence provider may be able to help you put together static, printed sell sheets as a precursor to developing your web presence.


Additional content covered in the print edition of Webforging includes a paragraph to a page or more on each of the following:

* Start with Printed Materials
* Aproaches to Budgeting
o Use an Outline
o Prices per Page
o Prices per Hour
o Prices for E-Commerce
o Pricing Overviews
* Budget for Hosting, On-going and Value-Added Services
o Hosting Budget
o On-going Services Budget
o Value-Added Services Budget
o Budget Your Time


(c) 2005 Keith Klein
All rights reserved.

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