Several of my friends have sites which they paid between US$600 and US$900 to design and set up. Some really beautiful sites to view. With Ivans professional help and kindness, I paid much, much less.
Hosting and registration are the ongoing costs you pay to keep your site alive. I used
http://www.register.com to register my site. They, like many registration companies, offer package deals including web design and hosting. I found my a la carte deal with Ivan fit my wallet better.
Ivan found me a great place to host my site which offered a lot of space. Some "free" hosting places only give you one or two pages and charge for additional space. Since my site had to be in two languages, I was looking at double the space.
My hosting is free as long as I let them run the banner ads at the top. I can pay something like US$6 or US$8 bucks a month if I want it ad free...which is not a bad price.
Registering my address name,
http://www.latincam.net/ , runs about US$30 a year but...the price varies depending on how many years you want to pay for in advance.
Another thought is to keep your site from looking abandoned or out of date. Like any newstory, try and design it so it's "dateless". Meaning, limit material on the site which will need updating. Things like rates or "here's my latest project to view" type things. It's nice for clients to see the latest but...it costs money every time you want to change something if you're not doing the updates yourself. An example from my site...I used to list all my current rates for work which needed to be changed each year. I found I prefered negotiating the price for work with each client instead of promoting flat rates which might or might not fit into every clients budget. I'm always a better salesman in person ;o)
My friends with sites get charged a couple of hundred dollars each time they want to add pics from their latest jobs or change layout/text information. I think pics showing you working add to customer confidence. They see you working with your gear and have an idea of your level of professionalism. Having a pic of myself on the site has made it easier for the client to know who to look for when they pick me up at the airport for a job too. Generic shots? Fine. Current shots of obvious "dated" events like Super Bowls or WTC coverage? Fine too...as long as you don't leave them up five years from now with nothing newer to show. Current pics have their value but if you're looking to shave overall costs, generic shots can have a longer shelf life.
Lastly, just putting up a site doesn't mean search engines will point people to you right away. A few, like Yahoo, want to charge you a fee to be "found" by their search engine if you are a business. Ivan and a few other designers offer a service which helps search engines find and list your site. This involves a series of key words, sent to each search engine, which will help them list you when potential clients looking for your services do an internet search.
Like anything from home plumbing to auto repair, you can do things all by yourself. I, however, prefered having an experienced professional advise and guide me, giving me the best product with minimum headaches.
Some of my friends with sites have been burned by less than professional web designers and hosts. Do a little research. Find out how long someone has been doing the work. Lots of folks do it as a hobby, which is fine up to a point. Those in it as a hobby many times lack the professional attitude of "responsibility" to their clients. One day they're in business to serve, the next they're bored and don't have time to deal with the tweaking and adjustments all good sites need to look their best.
