Every week we receive emails from prospective clients about web design and development. The number one question from 90% of clients is, "How much will a website cost?"

The answer is what you'd expect: "It depends." Ultimately the price for website design and development is dependant upon the amount of time spent on the project. One must realize, design is a premium service. A luxury good. Businesses who value good design have an advantage over those who don't.

Any credible design agency will follow a process for estimating web design work. We respond to inquires with a request for proposal document (RFP). This document is filled with important questions pertaining to your business, your online business goals, key business indicators, website functionality and look and feel.

For example, do you need a content management system? A blog? An online forum? Are you going to sell products on your website... and so on. All of these questions help your design agency determine how much time they need to spend on your project. Once that is determined, an estimate can be accurately submitted.

One of the questions we ask is, "Have you worked with a design agency before?" This is an important question because the answer will tell us how much we have to educate the client on process, prices and expectations. Most clients have not worked with an interactive agency before, and therefore we spend a lot of time educating them on what to expect.

Often times, when we present our estimate for custom website design, clients experience "sticker shock." Scary thing is, our prices are reasonable by comparison, and actually lower than comparable design agencies. Some prospects even say, "I can get (insert cheap company here) to design a site for $10 a month." Yup, you absolutely can. But, in 6 months, you'll come back to us for the solution you needed in the first place.

Our competitive advantage is our completeness, creative vision, client service and commitment to your ongoing success. Our clients are partners for life. We want you to succeed, it makes us look good. And, we get and keep more and more clients through word-of-mouth.

It's been said, making the complex look simple is one of the greatest skills. That is absolutely true with web design and development. Website design is a process. There is a lot of work and time put in behind the scenes. Work and time the client never sees.

Here's a quick study on what to expect from a reputable design agency. This is what you're paying for:
Client, Industry, and Competitive research;
Graphic Compositions in Photoshop;
Client Reviews and Revisions;
Taking the Approved Comps and Mapping them to a CSS / XHTML Grid;
CSS / XHTML Production and Testing;
Content Management Database Design;
eCommerce Functionality and Testing;
Search Engine Optimization;

These steps require professionalism and expertise to produce a robust solution. Most first-time clients have no idea what it takes to produce this work. Website design and development is very complicated. Making the complicated look easy is what your web design firm should do, and do well. 
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We recently went live with a new website for Advanced Dentistry by Design. This Carson City Dentist has been in business for over 30 years in Carson City. Advanced Dentistry by Design offers many dental services including: Cosmetic Dentistry, General Dentistry, CEREC Technology, 6 Month Smiles, Dental Implants, Porcelain Veneers and Sedation Dentistry. 
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In 2004 we designed a web site for WHITNEYfusion, a high-end event planning company. The web site was built entirely in Flash, and won Bullsprig numerous design awards. The web site was incredible--utilizing the latest in Flash technology and engineering.

Fast-forward to 2009 and WHITNEYfusion was overdue for a redesign.

Since 2004 WHITNEYfusion has seen tremendous growth. They have added a lot of new clients, and added people to their support staff. In addition, WHITNEYfusion has added wedding planning to their list of capabilities: corporate events, sports marketing and social soirees.

There are a few main business objectives for this redesign, including: be found on Google; give WHITNEYfusion the ability to updated the web site on their own; capture prospective leads via the web site; add photo galleries fast and whenever they wanted; and, finally, add a section on WHITNEYfusion weddings (more on this later).

The first phase of the redesign focused on the events side of WHITNEYfusion's business. The look and feel needed to be somewhat corporate but still incorporate the movement from the previous version of the site. The target audience for WHITNEYfusion Events is human resources staff at companies. In other words, people who needed information and examples fast, and hassle-free. 
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We just went live with a new web site for Capital Glass. This 40 year old company specializes in apartment renovations commercial construction and residential construction. Their location in Carson City hasn't stopped them from expanding nation-wide.

The main business objective of their new web site is to sevice exsiting clients, while attracting new clients across the country.

The Team at Capital Glass is extremely busy with ongoing projects. They wanted their web site to work for them... to be an online business. Communicating with architects and contractors on a daily basis takes a lot of time--on the phone and via email. One of their business goals was to create a "members only" portion of the web site where Capital Glass clients could download specs, plans and other communications, allowing Capital Glass the time to focus on their projects.

They also wanted to control their content, that is: make changes, add photos, plans, specs and communicate with their clients. We built the web site entirely on the Bullsprig Platform, integrating numerous key business indicators, including: 
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We just went live with a new web site for TopLine Leadership. In addition to a brand-new look and feel, we built a customer relationship management (CRM) system, blog and email marketing systems.

TopLine's main business objective was to capture new leads. We integrated their AdWords account with their analytics for better tracking and conversion stats. We also administered a complete overhaul of their keywords and added multiple landing pages.

 
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