Design, Marketing, Development

Costs of creating websites and blogs fall in the areas of both one-time and ongoing expenses. One time costs usually relate to design, setup and development while ongoing expenses include yearly domain name and hosting renewals, maintenance and updates.

Websites incur more money in one-time AND ongoing costs in the same way as a house does in comparison to a condominium. Houses are built on a piece of their own land, websites need their own hosting space on the Web. Whereas, blogs use collective hosting spaces like condos. Houses need their own support systems the way websites do while condos use shared utilities like blogs.

Paid blogs are an interesting cross between a free blog and a website because some features of both are retained in it. A paid blog will have its own domain name and hosting space but will still benefit from an assisted content management system and marketing tools of a blogging community.

One-Time costs
Web Design and Registration Fees
Web Design
Designing a website costs 3 to 5 times more than a blog because of the difference in the amount of workload and the level of required web design skills. A designer will need to have basic internet programming skills, medium level web design skills, and professional web design software to develop an efficient website, to bring it online, and to make it perform various functions. On the other hand, blogs with their user-friendly and assisted design platforms are like pre-fabricated houses that can be put together and maintained by most people who may or may not have house-building skills.

In other words, a professional web designer or a web design company is needed to build a functioning website while someone with no web design skills can put together a blog, bring it online, and make it perform at least some basic functions.

This spells a difference of web design costs from $0 for free blogs to at least $750-$2500 for websites.

The decision of whether to have a blog or a website is, of course, determined by the goals and objectives of a having a presence on the internet, and on whether it is required to represent commercial or non-commercial interests.

Registration Fees
There are two registration fees that have to be paid before a website can be brought online. Domain name registration (under $20 per year), and hosting space reservation (from $50 to $350 per year). Free blogs do not require either because their names are added onto the domain name of their platform. This allows blog owners to use shared utilities such as free hosting and blog marketing widgets and tools.

Paid blogs will pay the standard domain name registration and hosting fees.

Ongoing Expenses
Renewal Fees, Maintenance and Updates
Renewal Fees
A website has yearly renewal fees for its domain name and hosting to stay on the internet, and so will a paid or ‘hosted’ blog.

Free blogs have no renewal fees, and can stay on the internet for as long as the blog owner wants.

Maintenance and Updates
A professional web designer is required to maintain or update a website necessitating hired services while a blog can be updated and maintained by its owner with a minimum of training. At Uddari Web, a 45-minute training and a Blog Owner Guide enables the owner of a designed blog to upload text and image files, update pages, approve or disapprove comments, post comments, check blog stats, and do a host of other things.

We pay costs related to websites to have an independent status on the internet that allows us to realize our business or personal goals, and in that, the costs are nominal.

Also see ‘FAQ1: Difference between a blog and a website‘
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