So you have made the decision to have a website developed for your business, but don't know where to start, and how much it will be? It can be a bit daunting, especially if you are not particularly Internet or PC savvy: web development, web hosting, domain names, email addresses. All of these are factors that need to be considered and costed into your project. As well as that, you've seen excellent websites on the net which are packed with loads of cool features, moving graphics, options to sign up for newsletters, database searches and links to other sites. Do you need all this stuff, and how much will all that cost? What's involved in the whole process? Start with a suitable domain name. Start with the name of your company, so you get www.mybusiness.co.nz or www.mybusiness.com . Which do you need: dot local or dot com? I believe that a dot local domain name is fine for most businesses, and that a dot com name still really implies an international site, although this is not a fast rule. Why not identify your business as a local one straight off and use dot local, which will promote your country to foreign Internet surfers? Something else to think about is Does your name lend itself to your business products and services. So the domain name www.circusanimalhire.co.nz (it doesn't exist, I checked!) tells you pretty much what the website is all about. A name like www.prsmythe.co.nz doesn't give as much information about the core business, and so users then have to actually view the site to determine what is provided. You need a lot of advertising, PR and brand marketing clout to get a domain name like www.amazon.com to be associated with with books right? But it is possible as we know. When you've thought of your name, register it.The most basic type of website is called a brochureware website. It is what it's name suggests: an online brochure introducing your business, products and services, and encouraging users of your site to contact you. A brochureware website is a great start if you want to start off small, and plan to grow over time. What if you want your website to be more than just an advertisement, and want advanced functionality, for instance to sell products, and receive payments right there and then online? This requires dynamic functionality and a database behind website and so will cost you more. What you want determines what it will cost you. There are no set prices for including this sort of functionality, and the best bet is to shop around. Even if you start with a brochureware website you can of course add features over time, and it is best to plan this from the start if that is what you want to do. Remember to consider the size of your site and the impact that this can have on your web hosting costs. Credit card facilities also need to be budgetd.So, in summary remember that the costs of building a website do not just lie in the design and build of the website itself, although this is the major component. You also need to consider domain name purchase, website hosting costs, domain name-based email accounts, website statistics, service/support, search engine optimisation and of course ongoing management, maintenance and development.