Community Website Prices
Discussion
Morning all 
I have an account with Yola (a South African initiated website builder) and am one of their silver customers. This entitles me to build & run 25 websites at very low cost, albeit the quality isn't fantastic and the templates are somewhat limited. But it does a job for my own websites + a couple of other small companies that are more than happy with their sites.
I've noticed recently on a couple of Facebook village groups that I'm on that there is resistance on there to people plugging their own business. It was worse in lockdown when everyone seemed to become food delivery outlets overnight but it has calmed down somewhat now. The village groups were primarily set up to discuss the usual stuff you'll find on the Facebook thread on here (Mrs Miggins at no.47 didn't clap for the NHS, whose cat is that in the middle of North Street, who has got that loud music playing etc etc).
I've hit upon the idea of setting up a village website (using Yola, not on Facebook) so that businesses could "buy" a page on there for £x a month. They can send me the logos, I'll build them a page to their spec within Yola's parameters and voila, they have a presence on the WWW and even a URL that they can advertise.
My question? How much is reasonable to charge them? Most of these will be small home based businesses who maybe cannot afford a "proper" website but who need to be online and out there. I was thinking of a small set-up fee plus a small charge per month but would welcome any feedback.
I have an account with Yola (a South African initiated website builder) and am one of their silver customers. This entitles me to build & run 25 websites at very low cost, albeit the quality isn't fantastic and the templates are somewhat limited. But it does a job for my own websites + a couple of other small companies that are more than happy with their sites.
I've noticed recently on a couple of Facebook village groups that I'm on that there is resistance on there to people plugging their own business. It was worse in lockdown when everyone seemed to become food delivery outlets overnight but it has calmed down somewhat now. The village groups were primarily set up to discuss the usual stuff you'll find on the Facebook thread on here (Mrs Miggins at no.47 didn't clap for the NHS, whose cat is that in the middle of North Street, who has got that loud music playing etc etc).
I've hit upon the idea of setting up a village website (using Yola, not on Facebook) so that businesses could "buy" a page on there for £x a month. They can send me the logos, I'll build them a page to their spec within Yola's parameters and voila, they have a presence on the WWW and even a URL that they can advertise.
My question? How much is reasonable to charge them? Most of these will be small home based businesses who maybe cannot afford a "proper" website but who need to be online and out there. I was thinking of a small set-up fee plus a small charge per month but would welcome any feedback.
foliedouce - it's obviously going to be difficult to tell initially. I'm hoping that the admin of the Facebook group would pin up a short message directing people to the site; if she wants business ads off the site, it could be in her interest to do so. Re the free website, that's a fair point but AFAIK, neither village I'm thinking of approaching have one at the moment.
i4got - it has been mentioned a few times but never really got off the ground.
i4got - it has been mentioned a few times but never really got off the ground.
GloverMart said:
Most of these will be small home based businesses who maybe cannot afford a "proper" website but who need to be online and out there. I was thinking of a small set-up fee plus a small charge per month but would welcome any feedback.
okay - slightly cynical response 
if they are small home based businesses who can not afford a proper website, then they are probably not proper businesses - but people playing at business / lifestyle or hobby businesses bringing in a bit of pocket money! If their new website is successful then they will presumably get too much business - will they cope, and if not, then they have wasted even the small bit of money!
If they want exposure, they can set up their own Facebook page - free
There are also other options such as Wix / Squarespace / etc free or not very expensive
in nearly 17 years of running a web business, we have only once told a company who approached us that they probably didn't need a website - for every other company (and we specialise in startups and small businesses), there has been an appropriate solution and one where the cost can lead to increased sales sufficient to pay for the website.
So, I would struggle to see the benefit for the companies concerned, and as for you - small income per site will be almost guaranteed to cost you more than you make in terms of hassle and grief.
one basic business rule - never do business with any company that doesn't take itself seriously!
akirk said:
GloverMart said:
Most of these will be small home based businesses who maybe cannot afford a "proper" website but who need to be online and out there. I was thinking of a small set-up fee plus a small charge per month but would welcome any feedback.
okay - slightly cynical response if they are small home based businesses who can not afford a proper website, then they are probably not proper businesses - but people playing at business / lifestyle or hobby businesses bringing in a bit of pocket money! If their new website is successful then they will presumably get too much business - will they cope, and if not, then they have wasted even the small bit of money!
If they want exposure, they can set up their own Facebook page - free
There are also other options such as Wix / Squarespace / etc free or not very expensive
in nearly 17 years of running a web business, we have only once told a company who approached us that they probably didn't need a website - for every other company (and we specialise in startups and small businesses), there has been an appropriate solution and one where the cost can lead to increased sales sufficient to pay for the website.
So, I would struggle to see the benefit for the companies concerned, and as for you - small income per site will be almost guaranteed to cost you more than you make in terms of hassle and grief.
one basic business rule - never do business with any company that doesn't take itself seriously!
Back in the day, there used to be this sort of thing in newspapers and/or magazines but I guess these are dying off now with the advancement of the internet. The amount I was considering charging would be well within the realms of affordableness but if I got, say, half a dozen businesses to sign up, would make a difference to my income.
GloverMart said:
Appreciate your thoughts, akirk, especially coming from your area of expertise too. And I've taken them as wise words rather than anything cynical.
Back in the day, there used to be this sort of thing in newspapers and/or magazines but I guess these are dying off now with the advancement of the internet. The amount I was considering charging would be well within the realms of affordableness but if I got, say, half a dozen businesses to sign up, would make a difference to my income.
If the income raised is more important than the time used, then it may be worth it for you; commercially they will not be good customers and will create more hassle proportionately than others, however if it is about easy income acquisition, sure - have a go, cheap to try! ultimately, there are other businesses who will be a better commercial solution for you, and most companies supplying websites will tend to try to avoid these tiny customers.Back in the day, there used to be this sort of thing in newspapers and/or magazines but I guess these are dying off now with the advancement of the internet. The amount I was considering charging would be well within the realms of affordableness but if I got, say, half a dozen businesses to sign up, would make a difference to my income.
Many years ago we learned to say no, to not worry about losing some businesses, and to be prepared to charge what we feel we are worth - we are therefore not cheap, but we aim to add more value than we cost, and the businesses who understand and can afford that tend to be the ones who will also listen to our advice, and who are more interesting to work with...
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