Corporate Website

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Hi yall,
I am currently in the early stages of starting my very own financial corporation or LLC I need to talk to lawyer and accountant. I figure I will do financial coaching starting out and maybe hire credentialed employees to manage investments for clients later on. I am going to need to have a website built. Maybe we will offer other services and other products later on. I kind of envision it like a more nuanced and realistic church of Christ version of Dave Ramsey and Robert Kiyosaki that is more pro-Debt and is for Millennials and Gen Z. I may develop it into a sort of financial media company similar to Dave Ramsey and Rich Dad Poor Dad and Caleb Hammer/ Graham Stephan.

I have never had a website before. The closest thing to that I have done are my social media profiles and coding on MySpace way back in the day. How much does it cost to have a site built? It would be a simple site. I am hoping to hire someone overseas to do it maybe in India or somewhere like that so I could save big money on the project. I do have a friend in India although I dont know if he can design websites or not. Would something like fiver be better....Do any of yall have any ideas???Or would hiring a site builder stateside be better? Or could AI build the site for me?

Heyyyy! I know a little about this. I've never hired someone nor did I run the website on my own, but I had someone with professional experience setup and run one, then I figured out how to get a second one up on my own in 1-2 weeks. It didn't go live though. I only got it to the point it worked.

Without labor, a site can be economical. You'd likely pay for only two things: 1) domain name (address like "wrongplanet.net") & 2) server.

Primary Costs
Domain
The domain name would depend on it's demand. Some can be USD$5/year, while popular ones will be in the thousands.

Server
This will be the computer that will host your site. Usually, people use purchase a virtual machine from an established company. The server costs depend on traffic and use. On the lower end, you may pay ~$15/month on the lower end, while it will increase with processors, memory, and storage requirements. This can typically be increased as needed.

Other Costs
Email
You'll likely need an email to contact users. If it's not a service people sign up for, then you probably wont need to pay for one as you can use one of the free ones. But if you need to contact users frequently and automatically, then you might need to pay for a mail service. For example, WrongPlanet emails users when they setup an account, disseminate updates, and inform users that someone responded to their post. I don't remember how much a mail service was, but likely something around $10/month or even less if they charge by the email and you don't send many emails.

Software
Your server will run software to provide the services. For example, WrongPlanet likely uses some sort of forum software. It can be expensive if you choose to pay for proprietary software; I don't know how much, but you can look it up. If you go the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) route, it will be free plus whatever you choose to donate if you do. I don't know the services of your site, but it's probable that there is a FOSS option for it.

Professional Services
If you're running a professional site with customers, then it may be best to hire professional help. They will have a lot of training and experience that will help prevent issues and resolve them quickly when they come up. Cybersecurity is also a matter of importance. As soon as the server I setup went up, it started getting attacks even though no one knew if it. Since my server wasn't even promoted and I was the only user, it was not a big deal. However, if you run a site that gets any popularity, it's possible that it will get hacked, especially if the server admin doesn't know what they are doing. Major sites (i.e. Facebook and Google) get hacked all the time, and they have teams of the best professionals, so it's a combination of expertise and luck. They would also know about licensing the content of your site, which can be a lot to learn at first. I strongly advise against meeting someone online and having them run it for you for free. You don't know them, and their commitment to your project may be weak, leaving you hanging with a server you can't run. I have no idea how much professional services will cost though since I've never even looked into hiring someone.

Self Admin
Using YouTube, AI, and some minor support from the particular software developer's chatroom, I was able to get a site up and running. If you have the mind for it, time, and commitment, you can pull it off. It took me a lot of trial and error. I think I restarted like 3 times because I never had started a server, and there were concepts I didn't even know I had to learn about until they caused problems. For example, there are two different protocols that manage the connection between ports and software/service, both with their own benefits and disadvantages, and they can have conflict if both are running at the same time. Following instructions for a software without knowing that can cause problems if you already followed instructions for another service that conflicts with the new software/service.