There are alot of Web Designers and Developers out there. This fact makes it hard to decide who should create your business or personal website. The obvious choice is the cheapest offer...right? I will tell you right now that cheaper is not better in the website community. I know alot of people reading this will think that I am just trying to get more clients pointed in my direction, which really who wouldn't want more business. My main point to this post is to inform business owners about the scams and problems out there with alot of these cheap website development offers.

I have heard of Yellow Pages offering website development with hosting and advertising. Which sure advertising is important, but the cost on the website development and hosting was way over priced. From what I was told Yellow Pages wanted to charge $30 a month for website development with hosting and another $30 advertising. Let just use the $30 for website development and hosting for our calculations of cost over a two year time. Also I will compare to the rate of a hosting through GoDaddy and my development costs for a basic website with 5 pages including a contact page with a contact form.


$30 a month x 24 months = $720.

GoDaddy usually for the first year will have a promotion for you to use and get your hosting for $30 to $50, lets use the $50 for this example.
After the first year you have to renew your domain at $15 and pay for hosting per month at $8. 

Godaddy Cost for two years: $50 + $15 + ($8 x 12) = $161

My development for a basic site is $500.

My development cost and two year of your hosting: $661


Let's review, 720 compared to 661 is not that much less of a cost and it does not cost you alot if you go with the cheaper option now. That is true, but let's look at the cost for a third year. With cheaper option $360 for the year, you are still paying for the web development of your website. Where if you don't need changes there is no more cost to be paid to me. You just pay the hosting for your website which is about $111 a year, which includes the domain renewal and that is if you dont use other promotions that they offer and get it even cheaper. Yes paying a website developer like myself seems like alot now, but in the long run we are cheaper.

I have seen ads on Kijiji about a sale/promotion/special for there website services that its only $30 for 5 pages and which normally they would charge $500. That does seem like a great deal. But here is what they dont tell you. Yes they charge you $30 to start, but then they run into problems that make the development more costly, oh and the deal only works if you use there hosting for your domain. Even when your not paying for the development for your site you are still paying for it because they are up charging on the hosting. Also they are more than likely using some kind of website builder program that with some practice you could do your self.

I have had first hand with clients that had a website developed by someone saying that they will get them the number one spot or top spot on Google, charged them money and never even finished the website, and worst of all used a template. Now I am not against templates. But if you are going to use them make sure to remove all signs from the code that points the fake business that is in the template. I have also had a client that they hired me to finsih the development of the their website because the previous developer hadn't done so. The worst part is when the client asked for the access to his website the previous developer responded that the domain is his and that he was doing the client a favor. Basically he ransomed the domain until the client paid more, which there wasn't much of a choice since the domain was the business name and client had already made advertisements and business cards with that website on them.

This brings me to my next point, when creating a website or hiring someone to do your website. Ensure that the domain and hosting are done in your name, not the developers because if it is not you can run into the problems mentioned before. Make sure you are part of the process of creating the domain and hosting and that you have the access and the ability to lock out your developer if you need to.

Yes there sure are alot of web developers out there, but there is even more scams then anything. Please becareful when selecting the developer for website.