I found this quote:

As you know, we're trying to raise $176,000 (so far we have reached
$67,587). In its last reported year, *First Things* got $425,000 from neocon
foundations, so what we are asking for is peanuts. Much of what we're asking
for is going to our website (where you can subscribe or renew a subscription
by credit card), which is at present a huge financial drain.

I was also reading an article from Dr. Mercola, defending why he sold products on his website. He said his hobby was "Computer Science". Does that mean he did some of the website himself? At any rate, he claimed to spend $500,000 per year -- WITH NO EMPLOYEES BESIDES HIMSELF -- and he even added that he didn't pay himself a salary!

How do you spend half a million dollars on a website? You can get a dedicated server for $150/mo.! True, he was talking about the late 90's, and I know webhosting wasn't quite as cheap as it is today -- but still!

I could make $50 an hour @ 40 hours a week, and only gross $104,000 a year.

But I've seen countless websites, traditional Catholic fora, and charity groups talk about how much they spend to maintain their website. They must be throwing away a lot of good money, or so it seems to me.

I'm an IT guy, so I know just how CHEAP it can be. You can get plenty of software for FREE, and you can host several large, popular websites for $25 a month TOTAL. You can get your "SSL certificate" (that's the https thing) for about $80 a year. Credit card processing fees will run you about $30 a month. A domain name costs you NINE DOLLARS a year. That's it.

And let me tell you -- website designers are FIGHTING for your business. Just google "website design" if you don't believe me. If you're paying some high-falutin' consultant big bucks to put you together a website, you should really find someone cheaper. There are youngsters that can help you for very cheap (though they'd need supervision and help -- especially with grammar! They won't be experienced, so you'll have to help in the area of site organization, etc.) and even experienced developers work for as little as $25 or $30 an hour, if you know where to look.

I guess I'm just sick of hearing about "how expensive" websites are. They're really not!

I think if they were truly that expensive, the Internet wouldn't be as big as it is today.

Matthew