Ask HN: Recommendations for building websites as an independent consultant
First, I&#x27;d say to outsource everything. White label.<p>I have a company that will put a pre-existing template together for $350, and custom template for $550.<p>When I start, I charge a one-time startup fee to my client of either $350 or $550, so I will never be out hard costs.<p>I only create 5-10 page websites. Basic 5 page starts at $300 per month. They pay the first month up front. All charges are up front. Fuck collecting after the fact. I am NOT going to be chasing people for money. If they want digital marketing it can go up to $4000 per month or more, depending. Average is $2000 per month per website with digital marketing. I have them sign a 12 month agreement that they will stay at least a year. If they want to leave, I&#x27;ll make noise and try to convince them not to leave, we signed an agreement, but ultimately, if they leave, fuck it. I&#x27;m not going to sue them, because fuck everything about that. The agreement is just for the honest business owners to be honest. Everything is paid for up front, so it&#x27;s not like I lose money, but I will lose time and money if I try to sue. I don&#x27;t worry about it or get mad or give it a second thought.<p>I&#x27;d never do custom programming backend because a lot of reasons. The first is it is just very expensive. When anything is very expensive, then there is a lot of risk and a lot to lose on your side and on theirs.<p>You do a 5 page website for $300 per month, nobody is going to get too excited if shit hits the fan and shit fucks up for whatever reason. People can just walk away. Plus, it&#x27;s really hard to fuck up a 5 page website. No 250 page websites for me, thank you very much.<p>But really, I&#x27;d say the #1 job is to find great people or company that charges not too much but good quality and outsource it to them.<p>Your main job after finding a qualified outsource company or people, should be only sales and marketing and customer support, and initial layout of the website. I tell my clients that I am the symphony director - I don&#x27;t play all the different instruments. Others do. I direct it all to make beautiful final product. I say no one can be an expert in everything on websites, and we can&#x27;t. And I tell them I&#x27;m not going to hire 10 different people, because then I would have to triple the price of everything. Business owners understand - they don&#x27;t do everything themeselves - they hire linen washers for their tablecloths and uniforms for restaurants, or parts suppliers for parts for a plumbing company.<p>So if you are charging about $2,000 per month per website for the website and digital marketing (you have different levels and different prices for digital marketing), then after 10 clients you are making $20,000 in monthly recurring revenue. Don&#x27;t worry about the website - focus on digital marketing. That&#x27;s where the money is. A website gets you $300&#x2F;month recurring income, but digital marketing can get you $2,000 or more. I&#x27;ve sold $4,000 per month in digital marketing services. Coca-Cola spends <i>$4 billion</i> in marketing per year. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;investors.coca-colacompany.com&#x2F;filings-reports&#x2F;all-sec-filings&#x2F;content&#x2F;0000021344-22-000009&#x2F;0000021344-22-000009.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;investors.coca-colacompany.com&#x2F;filings-reports&#x2F;all-s...</a> - see page 45 on their 10-K annual SEC filing.<p>As to what specific stack - I&#x27;d say if you find a reliable company to white label for you, just whatever they use is fine. The end user sure doesn&#x27;t give a shit. They just want a nice looking website.<p>For example, Wix. They have a marketplace where you can hire Wix developers.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wix.com&#x2F;marketplace" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wix.com&#x2F;marketplace</a><p>So this guy charges for a website at $199
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wix.com&#x2F;marketplace&#x2F;wix-partner&#x2F;steven-crayne?currency=USD#featured-projects" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wix.com&#x2F;marketplace&#x2F;wix-partner&#x2F;steven-crayne?cu...</a><p>This one is a top 10 Wix designer and starts at $799.
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wix.com&#x2F;marketplace&#x2F;wix-partner&#x2F;steven-crayne?currency=USD#featured-projects" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wix.com&#x2F;marketplace&#x2F;wix-partner&#x2F;steven-crayne?cu...</a><p>And remember, whichever you choose, it costs you nothing. It costs the client. So the one time startup fee in this case you can charge $250 for the first one, or $950 for the second one. Up front.<p>Someone else mentioned webflow. They also have experts. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;experts.webflow.com&#x2F;browse" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;experts.webflow.com&#x2F;browse</a><p>For example, this company white-lables: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;experts.webflow.com&#x2F;profile&#x2F;p2h-inc" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;experts.webflow.com&#x2F;profile&#x2F;p2h-inc</a><p>A whitesite starts at $999, but that is usually the end-user price, not the reseller pricing. But look through the developers. `<p>This company starts at $25,000, fuck them. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;experts.webflow.com&#x2F;profile&#x2F;paper-tiger" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;experts.webflow.com&#x2F;profile&#x2F;paper-tiger</a><p>You can also conteact them and see if you can get better pricing as you are a consultant and are going to be doing all the initial design and specifications and are a professional so they won&#x27;t be talking to an end user - you will be more professional and so save him or her time.<p>So then you can charge a minimum of $300&#x2F;month for the website - ongoing revenue.<p>You spend 3 or 4 hours specing it out, shoot it to the developer, and you&#x27;re done. Collect $300 per month.<p>And of course you also sell them digital marketing which is the awesomeness.<p>But platform and tech stack doesn&#x27;t matter, in my opinion. Finding a good reliable developers is the key, and whatever they do, it&#x27;s fine. Because you are not going to be doing anything fancypants. Or at least I don&#x27;t. Because why?<p>Wix is easy for the client.<p>The hosting billing should be included in the monthly recurring charge - if you want to charge them $30&#x2F;month for hosting, then add on $30 to the $300 and charge them $330 per month. Charge them whatever the fuck you need to. Just add it into the recurring charge. You can break it out for them if they want, but most are not going to give one fuck. One price is better. You do want to break out the marketing prices, though, as they are pricy.