Fast Presence believes your website must be effective and affordable. Our websites just “work” and our fees are simple and inexpensive.
Our competition takes a very different approach. They are often graphic designers working at an average hourly rate of $85. Design fees are based on the hours worked, often open-ended but in the neighborhood of $2,000 or more on the very low end. At many times the Fast Presence setup fee that is a pricey neighborhood indeed!
As artistically trained graphics designers, they often focus more on form than substance… complex, custom animation (resulting in hours of billing), perhaps a half-dozen professional photos (about $250 each) and sometimes background music (yet another fee). The start-up cost is simply, well, startling.
So for all that money, how does it compare? The heavy graphics, non-standard flash animation and music raise the requirements for your customer’s computer or mobile device just to visit the website! Instead of getting the information they seek, they may be directed to download plugins and change their software configuration. If they didn’t follow official W3C web standards, such a website may not be accessible by some customers at all. Those who can access it sometimes find an unusual, comic-like website with bizarre navigation and limited ability to print the on-screen information. It gets worse – bandwidth requirements are much higher resulting in slower load times and higher operating costs. Finally, if all this were not bad enough – these websites are difficult to maintain and become “fragile” (i.e. easily broken). Whew. Of course, if money is no object – and it often isn’t to very large businesses and chains – then some of these problems can be mitigated.
Now the recurring costs – the domain name ($30/yr), business class web hosting ($50/mo), website monitoring (quoted), backup (quoted), updates (quoted on hourly basis), problem resolution (per incident or hourly) and many other fees. These prices and fees vary widely, may require a binding contract and often total $1,000 or more annually.
The irony is that these websites, at many times the cost of a Fast Presence website (and frequently much more), can be less effective. The use of non-standard elements as noted above is part of the problem. Another is the form over substance approach. Fast Presence websites clearly and effectively present our client’s information. Right there. Up front. Fast, clear, attractive. Information sought, information provided.