I wanted to specifically address this question as I come across it often and I am sure many people will be wondering what those costs are.
Before I go into any actual figures, what you have to remember is that like with any business, any initial outlay should be seen as an investment and like any investment you should treat it with every bit of caution as you would ordinarily apply to any investment you make.
With that said and out of the way, I can get into the good news. Starting an internet business is cheap relative to setting up a business offline and relative to your earnings potential.
And when I say relatively cheap I mean dirt cheap and in some cases even free.
Costs tend to scale in this business and so I would encourage you to not let any costs mentioned in this article put you off at this stage as you will find out when you read on, you should be making an informed choice about whether you should set up a website without shelling out a singly penny.
So on to it.
These are the costs typically associated with setting up your site:
- Hosting Fees
- Domain name
- Setting up your site
- Specialist software and Plug ins (most are free with WordPress)
- Ongoing content generation
- Ongoing maintenance of your site
- Technical Support
Most of these will vary as it will really depend on for example the domain name you want, what type of hosting package you want and the level of support.
However there are lots of all encompassing solutions out there that package the whole lot of costs into one so that it makes life a lot easier.
I use a platform called Wealthy Affiliate which is for newbies and experts alike. Not only does it supply all of the above, you get access to the plethora of training and their unique (almost award winning actually) community who are all at different stages of their internet businesses and always at hand to help.
The starter membership is free and allows you to set up two online businesses and whilst not as feature rich as compared to when you go Premium, it nevertheless allow you to set up two viable websites which you can monetize and make an income from. All without shelling out a single penny.
With the premium membership, you can expect to pay around $47 per month and this includes not only all of the tools, hosting and 24/7 support required, but an unlimited amount of websites (if you have 10 sites, the cost per site works out ridiculously cheap and made it a no brainer for me).
Try it for free and see if it is for you but do see my review first for the full low down on what it has to offer. If you do get a chance to try it, you will find that its just so easy to use and inspirational that you will want to get going immediately.
If you simply need a hosting solution then you could be spending anything from $3.95 per month upwards with a hosting service such as Bluehost Inc depending on the package you take or HostGator.
Domains are relatively cheap though an annual fee is usually required. You can expect to spend around $6-12 a year for each domain you need. You can pay more depending on the specific domain but typically they are around that mark. I use a site called Namescheap for my domains that are easy to use.
There are other tools you could send extra money on such as keyword research tools like Jaaxy and Market Samurai but they are not essential early on and really for the advance users. You may find the need for these tools at some point down the line but they are really not essential during the early stage though they can give you a slight edge from around $50 per month.
You may also find you need to spend on a laptop or PC (see here for some great deals) and potentially on staff/outsourcing solutions for content creation at some point down the line (and if you have this need then you will be making big bucks so congrats to you!) at which point, the overheads will be so insignificant to what you are earning that it will not be an issue.
Finally the biggest cost to you is really going to be your time. I have seen far too often people give up after a month or so as there is so much to learn and apply and it can be a bit of a maze. That’s why a good foundation of knowledge and education is invaluable in achieving success.
If you want to build a website for free without the headache of researching different hosting packages, costs, software etc then check out Wealthy Affiliate – here is my review.