For many small businesses with a small or limited budget the question often arises “can I afford to build a website for my company?”.In the late 1990’s for a business to have a website was something of a novelty that only many early adopters had. However lets look at some recent statistics about internet usage. As of 2005 there well over 1 billion people using the internet In the United States over 65% of the population or 225 million people have access to the internet on a daily basis Over 85% of US consumers who have internet access use ...

So as you can see many people choose to create a webste.
Any questions

Yeah. What's the actual point of this thread?

to be honest thogh, the people who are out there charging you $$$ to build a website are usually amatures. A pro will make a good 5 page site for about $40. I've seen people charge inexcess of $100!!!

webmastering and website building have to be the most prevelent and unqualified industry out there today.

Anybody who charges only $40 for a 5-page website is anything but a pro. Web design firms in my town will charge anything from $1000-2000 (AUD) for a site of that size.

IMHO It doesn't matter whether the maker of the website is a pro or amature as long as the site looks professional. I'd rather pay $100 for a professional site made by amatures rather than $1000 to a professional to make a professional site.

most of the money yuo pay is for security. the more money you pay, the more LIKELY someone would work harder on it. Although many kids nowadays can make a professional site, and would do it for a lot cheaper.

You can always hire a freelance webdesigner which would be cheaper by far.

The difference between a pro and an amateur is that a pro will make your site look good in a variety of browsers on all platforms at different screen resolutions and at different text sizes. The site should also be accessible to people using other devices like screenreaders. The site should also be optimised well for search engines.

But the most fundamental difference between the two is that a professional will create a website that meets a certain set of criteria/targets. A site is a failure if it looks good, but doesn't actually do what it was intended to do. A lot of people who want websites don't have a clear idea of what they want a site for. The professional web designer can help people identify their goals and suggest ways that their website can achieve them. The pro will also monitor the site over time to make sure that is continuing to meet those goals and amend it if is not.

Now, if you think you can get all of that for $100 you're dreaming.

I was talking about a SIMPLE 5-page website, not about a dynamic CMS site that will achieve the goals and dreams of the client. $1000 for a 5-page website it ridiculous!

Even amatures can create a site that looks professional, make it look good on most browsers & resolutions and how much SEO can you do on a 5-page website! for a 5-page website, I think linkbuilding is more important.

That's not what most of the big web design companies in my city think.