Web Design, Web Designing, Web Development, Software Development, Offset Printing, Data Entry Works, eCommerce Solution, Search Engine Optimization, Domain Registration, Web Hosting, IT Company, Egate India, EgateIndia, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tamilnadu, India.

Q 1. What is the cost of a custom designed website?

The cost is completely dependent on what you want for your online presentation. The more graphics and pages that you require, the greater the time that is necessary to construct the site. We will give you an estimate after you indicate to us what elements you wish to include.

Our hourly charges are $10 per hour.

Q 2. What is the first step we need to take for our website?

First, gather together the graphics and text that will make up the content for your various pages. Your website is a reflection of you and your business, therefore only you can determine what is most important to present.

Simultaneously, determine your budget, and realistically assess the extent of your own initial online presentation.

Q 3. Who will do the maintenance on our site after it is online?

We will build your site so it is easily maintained. If you feel comfortable with HTML coding, then you can maintain it yourself if you choose. However if you'd prefer to have us take care of it for you, then we are happy to do so at an hourly rate.

Q 4. Is the cost of a website a yearly fee, or is it one time only?

The cost of site construction is one time only. As mentioned above, you will have a monthly fee that you will pay directly to your site's hosting service, and of course if you want to make ongoing updates to your site, then there would be a charge (based on the extent of the changes), but that is it. If you do not make any changes for a while, then there is no more expense.

Q 5. Where should the site be hosted?

We can set you up with an affordable and dependable hosting service if you have not already picked one out. The cost of the hosting will likely be between $5 to $10 per month, unless your site is very large, or has other special needs.

Q 6. Will the costs go up every year?

The cost of website hosting has been very stable, so it is unlikely that the expense would rise significantly. In any case, if you are not happy with your server you can always move to another.

Q 7. If you design my site, will my graphics be fast loading?

We use sophisticated software and file compression techniques to keep the total size of graphics on each webpage as low as possible (without sacrificing quality), so consequently the pages we design download fast even with an older 28.8 modem (and considerably faster with 56Kbs and DSL).

Q 8. Do we need to accept payment by credit card for our products?

Yes - if you wish to sell directly via your site. People who use the web for the purchase of goods and services expect to be able to make payment by credit card.

The best approach is to have your own "merchant account" to accept Visa & MasterCard, ideally at the same bank where you have your business checking account. This cost should be minimal, so if the bank attempts to sell you expensive monthly fees, then inquire elsewhere. You can contact us for suggestions.

An alternative is to accept credit card payment through a service such as PayPal.com. In this case, you do not need your own merchant account. Rather, they take the credit card payment, then electronically transfer the money to your account (less their percentage). The primary disadvantage to this kind of approach is that the customer must also be a PayPal member, and if they are not, then they must first join prior to completing their purchase. But with that exception, it is a well thought out and widely used service.

If your site is not for direct sales, but rather is meant to be a portfolio or an explanation of services, then accepting credit cards is not an issue.

Q 9. Should we have a secure shopping cart?

Again, if you want to make direct sales, then you definitely should include a secure cart. One of the keys to making online sales is to make it as easy as possible for your customers. When they see something they like, they want to buy it at that time, and a secure shopping cart makes that possible.

If we design your site for you, we can set you up with a shopping cart service that many other of our clients are using. This cart currently has no monthly fee, so the only extra charge to you is for the time it takes us to construct the pages and configure the coding.

So if you do have a merchant account, then your customers' credit card payments can be made through your own cart, and you'll receive the money directly. If you prefer however to take your card payments through a service such as PayPal, then the customer would use PayPal's cart set up, which we would seamlessly integrate into your site.

Q 10. How are most people finding web sites on the Internet?

We construct sites that are "search engine friendly", and upon completion we register every web site we design with the top search engines that are still free. This helps to make your Internet address available to anyone looking specifically for you, or for contacting someone in your field.

Many of the biggest search services - such as Yahoo and Looksmart - now require payment if you want to be included in their databases. You may want to give serious consideration to Yahoo, and eventually do several of the others as well.

After your site is established on the web, you might want to consider participating in "pay for position" search plans, such as those offered by Overture.com and Findwhat.com. In this model, you agree to pay a certain amount (for example, 11 cents) for every visitor they send to you who clicks through to your site after using a specific search query.

Also, it is essential that you promote your unique web address by adding it to ALL your advertising, mailings, and literature - including business cards, brochures, etc.

Finally, you should develop linking relationships with other web sites where potential customers are most likely to visit. If you'd like, we can include a "Links" page on your site where these reciprocal links can be placed.

Q 13. How can we get our graphics and text content to you?

You can send you graphics as photographs, slides, or digital media (Zips, floppies, or CD).

We can either do all scanning for you, or, you can consider having your graphics copied to a digital CD by a reasonably priced professional scanning service. Any materials that are sent to us will be returned at the end of the project.

Most of your text should ideally be sent via email or placed onto a word processing document. We will edit and spell check, but most of the actual descriptive phrasing should be worked out by you -- after all, no one knows better than you what to say about your own business.

Q 14. How do we make payment to you?

For sites under $1000: We require 30% deposit in advance, balance due upon completion;

Over $1000: 40% in advance balance due upon completion;

You can make payment by check or via Western Union Money Transfer or Paypal.

Q 15. What is the biggest mistake that people make when starting out?

In our experience, the one fundamental mistake we occasionally see is when people either spend too much $$ when they start out, by insisting on all kinds of unnecessary bells & whistles; or, they think that they can be successful on the WWW by spending almost nothing. Neither approach makes much sense.

With the first mistake -- spending too much -- they devote valuable resources to extra site enhancements (such as slow loading Flash animations) when they should be putting that money towards site promotion, so they can generate targeted visitor traffic. After all, without visitors, there is no online business.

In the second case -- spending too little -- they believe that the WWW is outside the laws of economics, which is to say, the erroneous assumption that people will buy their products/services and they won't have to spend anything to make that happen. If only it was that easy! Since that rarely if ever happens in the regular business world, we are at a loss to explain how it could happen on the WWW. But nevertheless, this myth is apparently out there.

So as we said earlier, it is important for you to realistically assess how much you can afford to dedicate to your web presence, and then take the necessary steps to make it happen!

Q 16. Can I get site enhancements, such as a guest book, or a search engine, etc?

Absolutely. If you want to make your site more interactive by providing these kind of features, just let us know. The cost will depend on what you want, but is almost always very affordable.