We are often asked in simple terms “how much does a website cost?”  This is similar to asking “how much does a car cost?”  It depends on which car you want and your needs.  You may have seen prices that range from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands.  So what is the difference?

Your website is unarguably one of the most valuable marketing tools you have.  Spending a little more upfront will get you a custom professional design, features that make your site more dynamic, a site that attracts new customers, search engine optimization, and the ability to grow the site overtime with little or no added cost.

Below are a few of the pricing models we run into and a brief explanation of each.  These costs do not account for the opportunity cost of lost business leads from an inadequate website.

Overpriced Inexpensive Websites:

Some website design companies will sell you a $500 recycled template website with your logo slapped into the header.  Seems like a good deal right?  When you start adding up the cost of updates, revisions, and new designs you can easily sink a few thousand dollars into your initial investment of $500. 

So now you have a $2,500 website that is still generic and may not have all the features you really need.  This is very similar to buying an inexpensive used car and spending thousands on repairs.  Your money would have been better spent on a custom site designed around your real needs today and tomorrow.

We receive dozens of inquires a week from customers that bought an inexpensive site and need it fixed.  Most of the time it is cheaper to start from scratch than to redesign an existing website.  Customers soon realize how much money a professional custom site would have saved them.

Monthly Payment Plan Websites:

A website for $50-$200 a month seems like a good deal at the onset.  After just a few months and updates you will have spent more and received less as compared to building a custom site from the start.  To make matters worse, most of these contracts insure that you do not retain site ownership.  At the end of the contract you can easily have $2,000-$5,000 invested in a site you do not own.

Companies that sell payment plan websites know you may default at any time, so they mitigate their risk by providing the most inexpensive website possible.  They do this in a number of ways:

• Generic Template Designs – For a website company, hiring professional designers can be very expensive.  Hiring these professionals just doesn’t make sense when a website company knows you may default after just a few payments.  Their answer is use extremely generic templates that cost them little to design and implement.
• Costly Updates – Since these companies usually retain the site ownership, they know you can’t go elsewhere to revise your site.  This allows them to use your inability to update the site as a revenue generator.  Updates are usually slow and expensive.
• Website Company Retains Ownership – When your contract is over or when you want to change website companies, most design companies will not allow you to keep your site.
• Slow Website – Most of the time your site will be hosted on an overcrowded shared server to minimize their costs.
• Long Contracts – A 24 month contract will cost $1,200-$4,800 before the cost of updates.  After 2 years of updates a basic 5 page site can cost close to $10,000.

VisFire’s Website Design Methodology :

Customers own their sites, not us.  Clients are given full access to a custom site built to their specifications.

100% Custom Designs:  We do not use pre-made templates.  Because our process includes unlimited design revisions and mock-ups prior to acceptance, customers will receive a completely customized design tailored to their needs.  Our typical process includes a design consultation questionnaire, color pallet choice, multiple design proofs, and a full satisfaction revisions process.

Content Management Systems:  Sites are admin controlled.  A Content Management System, or CMS, is built into every site at no additional cost.  This means that you will have the ability to update basic content, pages, and images without paying for additional support.

Constant Communication:  Single point of contact provided.  You will be provided updates for each step of the web design process by a single point of contact assigned to your account.  This allows you to stay in control of your project and insures your expectations are met.

Search Engine Optimization:  Onsite SEO at no charge.  We do not charge extra fees for onsite SEO included in your package.  You will get the same great SEO onsite service for your site that we include in our specialized SEO packages.

Free Hosting:  We include 3 months of free hosting.*  We set up the site’s server to the site’s unique requirements and host it for 3 months at no charge.  *Includes our Deluxe shared hosting package; VPS or dedicated server hosting is available for an additional fee.

Free Support:  Have questions about your new site, just ask!  You will receive one month of our Small Business Support at no charge.  Support includes basic updates and revisions for up to 4 billable hours.

Free Training:  Need to know how your new site works?  You just got a brand new website and now you need to know how to update it.  No problem, we include a free training session with each custom built website.  You will never be left wondering.

VisFire’s Director of Client Services, Cory Rowan, was recently interviewed by Xemion website design guide.   Cory discussed our processes and trends in web design, advertising and marketing.  The interview will give you an insight into how VisFire exceeds client’s expectations by approaching every project with more than just design in mind.

8. You call yourselves a digital ad agency, how does this make you different from other web design companies?

Design, development, and marketing/advertising are treated as three separate but overlapping entities.  We are not a web design firm that also buys ad space and we are not an advertising firm that happens to design for the web.  All of these elements together function to give our clients the best experience possible.

We are often asked to market, optimize, or advertise websites other firms have designed and developed.  This usually results in us spending huge chunks of time fixing someone else’s work before ours can even begin.  Firms that are just focused on design seem to leave out some of the most important elements used for search engine marketing and display advertising.  Clients that come to us for their design and development get these elements built-in the first time.  It is our experience in marketing that makes our web design and development right the first time.  In the end, this saves the client time and money.

9.  As a digital advertising and web design firm, how do you approach social media integration?

Before any social media campaign is implemented, we have a conversation with our clients about expectations.  Social media is not the uncharted gold mine as it was once perceived, it is now a necessity.  It is part of every design, every marketing strategy, and every ad campaign we do.   Some clients incorrectly believe that a social presence alone will suddenly bring them greater sales.  Social media is part of the larger puzzle.

Social media is not just a marketing tool or advertising medium, it is a listening tool.  It is not a place to blatantly blast customers with solicitations, but it is a place to start conversations and listen to what your customers really want.  Much of social media’s ROI is soft or indirect.  While sentiment metrics and click through counts are quantifiable, a change in the way your business views its customers (as people instead of numbers) is not so easy to measure.  Businesses need to begin to think of social media as a necessity and an opportunity for understanding.

Some of our client’s biggest social media successes have not even been in the social medium.  We often use social trends from Facebook and Twitter to drive banner ad or email campaigns.  We have seen huge email opening rates when integrating social trends into subject lines.  The same can be said for click through rates as well.  By involving ourselves in client’s social campaigns, we are able to create web and advertising experiences that drive greater customer engagement.  My advice – integrate social media into your website as much as possible and start listening.

View the entire interview here on Xemion.

VisFire has teamed with print marketing specialist Christina Mugambi enabling them to tackle larger projects than ever before due to Christina’s ability to strategically partner with vendors and suppliers to meet client needs.  VisFire is now able to provide a complete print solution from design to production.  VisFire’s competitive solution for print design is based on Christina's background and experience over the last 15 years in the design industry and 8 years of running her business.  

With over 15 years in the design industry, Christina has developed efficient systems to simultaneously manage multiple design project time lines, budgets and personnel.  A background as a Marketing Coordinator for Kennesaw State University, KSU, placed her in a unique position to leverage her marketing and communication skills, which when combined with intuitive artistic ability become a key asset to clients. She was able to work on projects for Home Depot, Phillips USA and The North American Mission Board before accepting a position with KSU.  While at KSU she was responsible for the creation of marketing design pieces as well as coordinating with program directors to ensure the collateral represented the university well while meeting the marketing objectives for a particular quarter.  Additionally, Christina has completed projects for Georgia Pacific, The City of Smyrna Police Department, Komatsu, The Nature Conservancy, United Way and Coca Cola Inc.

With this great addition to the team, VisFire’s print advertising offerings have been expanded to promotional items, package design, environment branding, brochures, pamphlets, annual reports, newsletter, illustration (digital + hand rendered), project coordination, and vendor procurement.

Web developers and designers are creative in nature, or at least they should be, and as creative people our surroundings are important to us.  Take a look at the article that popped up on Inspirationfeed.com a few days ago.  Igor Ovsyannkov compiles photos from some of the world’s most inspiring tech offices. 

Today you will take a look at some of the best office’s in the industry. We have gathered office photographs from some of the most well know internet companies around. They are YouTube, Google, Threadless, SoundCloud, and Twitter. You will see how the employees of these companies get treated and what kinds of perks they get daily. Honestly these examples should set the standard workspaces for any internet business. For example Google has a chef that will cook you anything you like! Considering i can’t cook, this would be the perfect job for me. Anyhow, we hope you will enjoy this roundup. We have included some history and numbers about the companies below, so be sure to read before browsing.

1. YOUTUBE

Ever since its launch in 2005 YouTube has quickly become the top dog for video content on the internet. Today YouTube is the third most visited website in the world according to Alexa. We use Youtube to find funny videos, movie trailers, video game montages, music videos, and much much more. In 2006 Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion, and to this day it has yet to make its first profit.

Now that you have some background on YouTube, we would like to show you what its like to be an employee for them. Check out the following pictures of the YouTube Headquaters located in San Bruno, California. The employees at Youtube have many perks at their job, like the swimming pool, workout room, and a little putting green.

2. TWITTER

Well if you haven’t been living under a rock, you probably know what Twitter is. Founded in 2006, Twitter is one of the biggest social networks on the internet just like LinkedIn and Facebook. As of Jun 8, 2010 Twitter has over 190 million users, and their users tweet over 65 million times a day! Twitter currently has 141 employees ranging from Business Development & Sales, Engineering,Corporate IT, Research, Support, and much more.

Check out the following pictures of the Twitter Headquaters located in San Francisco, California. Twitter HQ has several small meeting rooms with displays or white boards. They really do a great amount of brainstorming and opinion gathering with most employees.

3. GOOGLE: ZURICH

Google is the tech giant. Founded in 1998, Google employs over 20,000 workers. Google has been known for both creative and fun workplace and Google’s Zurich office definitely shows that tradition off. Just like other Google offices, workers have access to dining areas and many fun things. If you’re tired and need a break, just get up and read a book, play Xbox, play pool, get a meal made for you by a chef, or just watch Tv. Basically Google sets the standard of what a workplace should be like.

Although this isn’t the main Google Headquarters, Zurich shows of many features that most Google buildings provide. Don’t get too jealous while browsing.

Read full story HERE

Why upgrade to CS5?

Technology and creative design are tightly intertwined in online advertising.   When a new design technology comes about, web design studios and digital ad agencies must pay attention to the developments.  The most common technology changes web designers attend to revolve around new browser capabilities, but every 18-24 months designers are hit with changes to one of their fundamental tools, Adobe’s Creative Suite software.

In April 2010, Adobe released CS5; this coincided with Photoshop’s 20^th anniversary.  Many freelance designers and web design companies are wondering whether they should switch to CS5.  The release of CS4 brought about many new changes to the suite, but many firms were slow to upgrade for the marginal benefit.  CS5 is not a minor facelift; it is feature rich and built to save time.    

Below, we will cover some notable changes to the most popular CS program,  Photoshop Extended.

Content Aware

The biggest time saver in CS5’s Photoshop Extended is Content Aware.   When Content Aware is turned on, Photoshop will use information from around the deleted area to fill in the missing portion of the photograph or image.  This feature works very well when deleting unwanted items or using the Spot Healing Brush.  Although Content Aware is a very powerful feature, it works best with asymmetric objects with a low level of complexity (works much better on a field of grass than on a face).

Puppet Warp

Through a series of pivot points and careful selecting, Puppet Warp allows designers to reposition an object in a natural, fluid manor with minimal distortion.   If you don’t like how someone’s hand or arm is positioned, simply pin down points that need to stay stationary, add pivot points to the joints, and move the object like a puppet.

Refine Edge

Anyone who has spent time selecting soft objects, such as hair or clouds, knows how much time is spent retouching edges.  The new Refine Edge feature in CS5 allows designers to easily select objects with mixed soft/hard edges.

Wet Mixture Brushes

Not only will the new Wet Brush option allow users to pick more than one color, but the stiffness and edge shape of the brush can be adjusted as well.  This creates an experience very familiar to those who paint in oils.

HDR Updated Effects (High Dynamic Range)

In the simplest terms, HDR allows users to combine multiple photos, shot at different settings, to get the best tonal and detail features from each photo.  HDR has come a long way in CS5.  Although it is not quite up to par, as compared to some dedicated HDR programs, it is more than sufficient for the average designer or photo editor.

Camera Raw 6

Camera Raw’s advanced algorithm has made great leaps in being able to remove noise and adjust luminance with minimal loss in picture quality.  This feature is very handy when retouching photos that are not up to par for print material or client’s websites.

Repoussé and Other 3D Features

Repoussé,  or “to push” in French, will allow users to easily create 3D designs within Photoshop from basic shapes.  With Repoussé and other 3D tools, users can infinitely adjust objects perspective, light angles and shadows. This feature is very effective for creating high impact text.

When To Choose Pay-Per- Click (PPC) Or Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Marketing?

We are often asked which is a better investment, pay-per-click marketing (like Google Adwords or Microsoft Adcenter) or organic search engine optimization (SEO).  Businesses should not choose between PPC and SEO based on a single factor; rather, they should examine all their needs and goals.  PPC, SEO or both can be good investments depending on your time frame, budget, market factors, and overall business strategy.  This is very similar to the renting vs. buying argument. First, we will define a few key terms and then examine factors that can help you decide between PPC and SEO marketing.

Keywords or Keyword Phrases:

Keywords are words or sets of words that a searcher enters into a search engine. The goal of search engine optimization is to appear on the search engine results page (SERPS).  Positions in the “sponsored” section of SERPS are bid on in search PPC advertising.

SEM:

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) encompasses several subsets, including pay-per-click (PPC), off-site search engine optimization, and on-site search engine optimization.  SEM is any type of promotion that involves using search engine traffic to market a product or service.  SEM is sometimes used in reference to PPC.  When using SEM to refer to PPC, the term “paid search engine marketing” is commonly used.

PPC:

Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC), a subset of search engine marketing (SEM), is a form of display (text or image) online advertising where the advertiser only pays if the advertisement is clicked.  In traditional web advertising, the advertiser pays for impressions, the total amount of times an ad is viewed.  Sponsored search engine results are usually sold on a pay-per-click basis.  Sponsored PPC search engine advertisements usually appear at the top and on the side of search engine results pages (SERPS).  When executed properly, PPC can give an advertiser quick, effective results.  Ad testing and click through rate optimization is very important to running an effective PPC campaign.

On-Site SEO:

On-site Search Engine Optimization typically includes front end code changes, content optimization, URL re-structuring, page title revisions, heading changes, robots file modification, meta tag updates, and image optimization.  Search engines crawl your site looking for clues to help determine what your site content is all about.  Once search engines know what keywords your site content is focused on, there is a higher likelihood your site will be ranked for those keywords.  On-site SEO does not guarantee search engine rankings, but it does build a good foundation for later off-site SEO.

Off-Site SEO:

Off-site SEO is strategic link building for the purpose of making your site appear more relevant to search engines.  Links are usually built by submitting press releases, articles, directory listings, blog posts, forum posts, and site maps for a specific group of targeted keywords.  Ideally, search engines will find these links pointing back to your site and assume your site is relevant to the content on the linking site.  The effectiveness of each link is influenced by the site quality, page rank, domain age, and keywords used in and around the link.   If on-site SEO is the foundation, then off-site SEO is the house.

Pros and Cons:

PPC Pros:

1. Quick, Measureable Results
2. Flexibility
3. Highly Targeted
4. Easy Geographic Targeting

PPC Cons:

1. No Long Term SEO Benefits
2. Traffic Volume Proportional To Ad Budget

Organic SEO Pros:

1. Long Lasting Effects of Link Building
2. Sustainable Traffic
3. Perceived Repeatable Source Relating To Targeted Keywords
4. Creates Alternative Traffic Sources Through Referring Site Links

Organic SEO Cons:

1. Results May Take Months
2. Less Flexible Keyword Groups
3. Cost Is Not Proportional To Traffic In The Short Term

When to Choose PPC:

PPC campaigns often work well for time sensitive promotions or messages.  If a business has short term promotions, overstock products, or a fast changing inventory selection,  PPC is a good choice. PPC is especially ideal for generating traffic to a new website.  If you are having difficulty determining the best keywords for a long term SEO campaign, PPC can quickly tell you which keywords are most effective.  The keyword effectiveness could be defined by factors such as: time on site, conversion, click through rate, or competition.

PPC is also a great traffic supplement while you are letting your organic SEO traffic grow.  As SEO traffic grows, PPC budget can decrease.

When to Choose Organic SEO: 

SEO is a long-term strategy and needs to be approached in a very strategic manner to be successful.  This involves lengthy keyword testing and planning.  SEO is most effective when a group of keywords is chosen and the site is continually optimized over a long period of time.

This strategy works well for established businesses that have fixed product types or services.  When a business has certain products or services that they need to continually promote, an organic SEO strategy will pay off in the long term.

There is no one answer to PPC vs. SEO.  We encourage you to discuss your options with an SEO professional and develop a strategy that will work best for your specific business.

VisFire is an Atlanta digital marketing agency specializing in design, marketing, and development.  VisFire has several search engine marketing packages for both organic SEO and PPC campaigns.

The HTML 5 controversy, Ogg Theora vs H.264

HTML 5 is finally upon us.  The new standard for building websites has been in development for several years.  With the new version developers and users alike are seeing many new features, but the one that is getting the most attention is embedded video.  With HTML 5, embedded video will be played directly by your browser without the need for external plugins like Adobe Flash Player or Microsoft Silverlight.  You will be able to use the new HTML 5 <video> tag to define a video such as in the example below.

<video src="movie.ogg" width="320" height="240" controls="controls">
Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>

As an Internet geek this is very exciting news, however, this feature is inciting a great deal of controversy.  The main debate has been deciding which video format will be the standard.  Unfortunately, the HTML 5 group is split among two, Ogg Theora and H.264.

The competitors

Ogg Theora is an open source format developed by the Xiph.org Foundation and as you can imagine it is preferred among the open source community because it can be freely distributed.  In addition, supporters of Ogg Theora claim that the video format is unencumbered by patents and offers better compression which makes it better suited to serve as a standard. 

H.264 was developed by ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) along with the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG).  H.264 is a higher performing codec and has been widely used in the industry by some well-known companies such as YouTube and Apple.  The technology has also been used in Blu-ray Discs and a variety of television services.  Supporters of this format agree that its widespread support in the industry and quality make it the leader.

Supporters and arguments

The main supporters of Ogg Theora are the open source communities and applications which include Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Dailymotion and others.  These companies argue that the H.264 format will be too expensive to license and regardless of what others say the format could have its share of patent issues.

H.264 supporters such as Apple and Microsoft have different reasons as why they support the standard.  Apple has been a huge proponent of H.264 from the start since all of their software and hardware support it.  Plus, Apple claims Ogg Theora is riddled with patent issues and if the format became a standard many patent lawsuits could arise.

Who will win?

This debate has seen some unexpected changes and there could be more on the way.  Microsoft initially was a supporter for an open standard but for reasons unknown to many they have finally announced that Internet Explorer 9 will have support for the H.264 format.  This has left the open source community with a bad opinion of the industry giant and even more debates.  Apple has been on the H.264 side from the start and since Ogg Theora lacks the support for hardware based encoding, used in Apple’s mobile applications, they are unlikely to change their minds.  As Ogg Theora supporters, Mozilla Firefox and Opera like (change to “prefer”) open source and they don’t seem to be feeling any pressure to change their minds either. 

As a casual user you may think that H.264 will be winner but many argue that only a true open solution such as Ogg Theora fits the HTML standard, not a solution that requires licensing fees and is encumbered by patents.

This debate has become very tiresome and all developers want to see is a standard that allows for easier development.  Yes, open source is great and free, usually, but the support is sometimes non-existent.  So far this appears to be a losing battle for the open source community because of the wide spread support for H.264.  Even Flash has been using H.264 encoding for several years.  So, in a world where money and majority rule it seems H.264 will rise as the victor but for now let’s continue to debate.

There is no doubt in my mind that Ed Catmull has the right strategy for fusing creative and technical talent.  I recently stumbled across this video and couldn't take my eyes off it for the entire hour.  Yes, it's an hour, but it goes by very quickly.

I hope you find it as useful as we have at VisFire.

"Ironing out the little problems can make it so companies can avoid big disasters. Recorded: January 31, 2007" - YouTube Description

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2h2lvhzMDc

My favorite quote, "If you give a good idea to a mediocre group, they'll screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a good group, they'll fix it. Or they'll throw it away and come up with something else."