Average Startup Price?

[Andrew]

How much money to you guys spend on just making a site? I'm not talking about custom programming and stuff, I'm just talking about a design, logo, domain, hosting, and any other expenses needed to start one. Also, how much do you usually spend on making forums?

The reason for these questions is that I haven't started many sites (big ones, might I add) and just want to make sure I'm not over/under spending on the current site I'm making.

[Tyler]

Design: $500-1000
Logo: $100
Domain: $8-$10,000 (Usually, $8 though :P)
Hosting: $0 (I say $0 because I just throw them on my dedi's.. no added cost to me..)

Cost on making a forum for me is usually $1000 for the skin, $100 for the logo, $300 or so for basic initial marketing.

[Sam]

Depends on what type of site it is, I always make the design myself and I'm quite good at xhtml+css so that's something I get for free (I know time is money, but at least it's no money instead of less money).

[Arthur07]

I usually try to keep startup costs down by designing the site myself, the only other overheads are:

hosting and a domain (and i normally buy a new domain as a pose to purchasing an existing one).

[Submerge]

If I was starting a totally new site and was already paying hosting.

Hosting: $0 ($70 total hosting for a VPS)
Domain: $8
Design: $0
Coding: $0-$20 (Depends if I code it)
Programming: $0-$200 (I'll probably program it)

Totally Cheap Startup: $28

[Allen.H]

$8-$20.

I don't mess with code, i barely know any Photoshop. I'm a blogger.

Allen.H

[LaneyHosting]

Design: $200-1500
Logo: $200 max
Domain: $8-$100 (I like to be creative)
Hosting: $0 (It helps that I own a hosting company :))

[transburgh]

Design: $500-1000
Logo: $100
Domain: $8-$10,000 (Usually, $8 though :P)
Hosting: $0 (I say $0 because I just throw them on my dedi's.. no added cost to me..)

Cost on making a forum for me is usually $1000 for the skin, $100 for the logo, $300 or so for basic initial marketing.

How do you distribute the $300 for marketing?

[iworkforthem]

Contest can be an integrated part of the marketing charges. $50 would be a good start.

[Eric]

You can easily get a forum off the ground for about $5 a month and initial outlay of, hold your breath, $10.

phpBB Forum software - Free
hosting - $5/month
domain name - less than $10
logo - free to $xxxxxx

I have a few sites in the education industry and if you've ever taken a look at some of these resource sites, you will quickly notice the total lack of design, logo and usability. But why do they receive 1000's of uniques (and make $xxx) a day? Content.

In the end, design and software usually don't matter that much. What matters is that there is a reason to come to your site. Do you have good articles or something cool to download or is your forum community really tight? I'm not saying the other things don't matter but, take it from me. I paid hundreds of dollars for a custom coded site, $150 for a logo, hundreds of hours getting everything right but I didn't spend any time in getting quality content. Therefore, come launch day, Adwords sent me traffic but it was all wasted as there was nothing there for the visitor.

Once I got content I got people sticking around. I didn't need the fancy custom software or the $150 logo.

Eric

[aloksingh]

I spend just 100 dollars

10 for domain
90 for 1 year hosting.

Rest things like coding and design, I do myself.