Professional Looking Websites for Under $100
You might not know, unless you’re a web designer, but there is a war in the web development industry right now. This is a great thing for business owners because prices are all over the board. Due to all the popularity of template based web design companies, the custom design guys are either dropping their prices ridiculously low or ridiculously high to maintain their cash flow.
Some people scoff at template based websites because of a stigma from having what someone else already owns. Yet everyone is driving around in a car that certainly someone else owns of the same exact color, make, model, and even year. ( I could argue the benefits of template based design for days.) However, if you still cannot get over the idea of having a similar website to another company, there is still hope. There are thousands and thousands of different templates and new ones coming out every day.
If you are looking to find templates that are inexpensive, easy to manage, and still look GREAT, I recommend building a website with Homestead.com (affiliated). They even have a free trial where you can build a site and if you decide you like it, you sign up. The whole process took me about 30 minutes when I tried it my first time. For as little as $5 per month you can have a beautiful website up and running today. Anyone could do this, there is no programming knowledge needed.
Now if you are slightly more web savvy head over to OSWD.org for free templates provided by professional designers. OSWD.org is updated often so the choices are almost limitless. For web novices, you will most likely have to hire someone over at Sitepoint.com’s marketplace to setup a hosting account, domain name, customize and upload your OSWD.org template for you. This is still going to be far cheaper then hiring a custom web development firm. (approx. $200)
Moving on up the learning curve you could try something like Joomla, which is an open source and free software that you can plug hundreds of templates into and manage all your content without ever needing to know HTML/CSS/PHP. This is my personal favorite to go with and I’m a professional web designer. I use Joomla for most of my sites, because I can make changes from any computer as the software is all online. I also can throw together an amazingly aesthetic site, full of brilliant functions in just 2-3 days.
With Joomla you can also download extensions and make your site do really complicated things. For example, adding on a forum, online store, or classifieds section. I mentioned Joomla last because it has an intimidating installation process to get it running. Although it is well documented all over the web and many forums to get questions answered. If you really are just to overwhelmed, head over to JoomlaExchange.co.uk and just about any site listed will handle Joomla installs and consultations for $45-$75 per site.
If you do persevere and learn the initial semi-complicated installation process, you’ll be whipping out attractive, fully functional websites faster then any custom web designer could ever hope for. Hey, maybe you can even start charging $45-$75 per install and consultation! 
All the options I have talked about today can be set up and run for less then $100, while still looking like you paid a couple grand. Congratulations, you just saved about $1900 on your next web presence.
6 Comments
Dana janssen
October 27th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
Don’t try and pass off an advertisement for Homestead as an article.
Justin Brooke
October 27th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
I had the article written prior to adding in the affiliate link. I also was granted permission to place an affiliate link. I would have posted the article either way.
I love homestead, and think it’s a great service for bootstrappers. If I was really out for just the affiliate promotion, I wouldn’t have given the web address to Homestead.
Gina Laverde
October 27th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
I’ve used homestead as well and found their customer service to be great!! Designs were a bit lacking though. All in all — they are a pretty good choice for folks who are not web-trained.
Blair
October 28th, 2006 at 8:29 pm
Although Joomla, especially with the last 1.5 release is an amazing piece of open-source software, it has many unprofessional drawbacks. Most of the plugins have bulky javascript or other files/processes, adding to the load time of the page. In previous releases, Joomla’s WYSIWYG editor has had issues actually displaying what text will look like after a copy and paste from MS Word or the Internet (problems varry depending on which browser you are using). Although the issue has been brainily solved with a sort of “advanced” template system in the 1.5 core rewrite, Joomla has been stuck with table layouts which don’t allow for some of the more contemporary CSS designs.
There are quite a few pieces of open source content management software, as well as several other commercial ($) solutions. Website presentation, the first page especially, is becoming more influential in a flattening world. Taking a little time, money or energy could pay off in the future - best to keep your best work out there.
I found this site helpful for open-source projects:
http://www.opensourcecms.com/
Diego
October 29th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
So what? Your car doesn’t need to have your comany’s branding. Not even is a communication tool!
Justin Brooke
October 31st, 2006 at 11:08 am
You can rebrand any template out there, they are just “templates.” Change out the header files for your own, and change the CSS color scheme to your own.
As for Joomla not being the most professional choice to use…I would say you are right. Anyone running a company worth under $10k at the moment though, could greatly benefit. It’s a free and highly competitive option. You would have to agree with that.
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