smartsoft:

For afam to be telling he can do website in 2hours or 24hours he must have bunch of Pre-made template that he could just edit and upload since he can do that for 4k. You can't tell me that you can build a pretty good Dynamic website just in 24Hours from scrash ! that one na bobo.

I can develop dynamic website say in 4days or more am done with all the testing and all that.

Sorry, I don't use templates. Check sites I build.

A website can be designed for N4,000.00 and that is my point.

That it takes you 4 days to setup a dynamic website does not mean that others cannot do the same in 4-6 hrs just as someone can take 1 month to do what you are able to do in 4days.

So, unless you are using your own work rate/speed as a universal standard I wonder why you believe people cannot do something much faster than you can.

I have not charged anyone N4k for a website but if I wanted to I can do it, the point remains that a good website can be designed from free to millions of naira. This is a statement of fact and I wonder why people are losing sleep over it.

Again, a lot of us seem to run off on the wrong tangent. Thank you Afam for this:

With N4k I can design www.talkofnaija.com (under 24 hrs) because I have a copy of joomla on my machine.

This idea of leaving out the main issue and looking for people that have balls to do this and that or calling people kids even when they do not show us top quality websites that they designed for say N1M is getting out of hand.

Can someone design a website for N4K? Yes. Can someone do same for N1M? Yes. Can someone do it for free or have the client buy free lunch? Yes.

Is there a standard or are we becoming authorities within our own rights and wishing that what we prefer become the standard that others must follow?

This is a huge problem in Nigeria, too much talk, too much boasting and bragging yet very little to show for all the talk.

I think we should all read the above carefully. Does it not make sense? Why must we put down someone who decides to charge what he likes? Are we not in a free economy in Nigeria? Unfortunately, so many of us still suffer from Nigeria's biggest illness - SHD Syndrome (Shoot Him Down Syndrome). Thanks again Afam for your timely post.

Hi Xanadu,

Thanks, honestly I am shocked at the attitude of some of the web developers here.

Rather than spend time and energy looking for ways to develop solutions that will solve real life problems in Nigeria they are busy looking for people to malign or abuse.

If we are to go by their style then no Nigerian should be able to own a website unless that person is willing to spend at least N200,000.00. Is this right?

However, while I agree that there is no problem if they wish to charge even N1M for 3 page website, in the same vein they should understand that those who feel they can design good websites for N4k should be allowed to do so without being called names.

Funny enough one thing I believe that is missing here is that one cannot truly succeed in this web development business if the passion is not there. If the primary aim is to make money then it will be very very difficult to survive.

mr. afam. i thnink most people understand what u are driving at. the whole shout in this post doesnt stop anybody from designing a site for whatever prices they like. But the fact still remains

that things like this don't make webdesigners move forward. when u are told of a site that was designed for 4k u definitly know what to expect. so for those who think it better to design a 4k

website for a thousand clients than to wait for a much better offer, then just where does ur creativity comes in for nigerian web designers.by the time u keep designing this type of sites u'll find

out that only a particular set of people come to u. no b curse but u'll never make it in this industry. do u guys remember the topic that got most people (web designers/developers including

others) mad "All webdesigner in nigeria are amateures"? i really dont blame the guy because most of the things he sees are 4k sites not creativity. TO PROVE ME WRONG, IF U HAVE DESIGNED A

SITE 4 FOR 4K AND U THINK ITS BEAUTIFUL, POST IT HERE AND LET US REVIEW IT. i understand where everybody is comming from cos i read this post almost everyday. It like u people dont

know that some how u are carry this countrys image. shey na until them blacklist nigerian web designers as a "childsplay" b4 for una go wake up.

My Piont?

Lets bring out the creativity in ourselves if u are designing a website for 4k fine, but do somthing that when people see they go wow. and im sure that for a web designer to site down and

design a stunning site, even if its a 1page site, it cant go for 4k lai lai, if u start designing cool sites today? nobody wuld ask u how much the site costs o. the replies u'll get r: hey gud work

and thats were it start people wuld start calling 4m every angle because they know they wuld get what they want.


STEP UR DAMN GAME UP!! please.

~O

Neptune,

You claim to understand the issue but from your write up you don't.

If you are advising me to stop designing websites for N4k and for me to step up my game then you've missed the boat a long time.

The minimum web hosting package for static website that we offer is N24K while web hosting packages for dynamic websites (database driven) starts from N42K per year.

I do not charge N4k for websites.

However, we must realize one thing. Any one that designs a website for N4K must not be insulted because he/she has chosen to do so. That has been my point from day 1.

As a web developer I guess all you are interested in is in how to make more money from clients abi?

There are other people who want to see more and more Nigerians being able to own websites just as people from other parts of the world have access to websites.

So, the main issue aside, challenging me to post a site for review is cool but in reality there is basically nothing I cannot do online as regards web programming using PHP and Mysql. If it can be web enabled I can do it in no time, it's my passion, it's my life.

If you are looking for something to review, you can review a website I just finished setting up (infact just uploaded it). The idea behind setting the site up is to provide a cost effective way for business owners to own websites - www.justwebservices.com/bwebsite

The site comes with an admin interface that will enable anyone change anything on that website without any HTML or programming skills whatsoever.

You can make your thoughts open on that site and the cost of the site is N0.00

This idea of looking for an item to buy and you can't see any reasonable information online because a lot of businesses are not online is not good and affects everyone negatively.

Enjoy!

Reality check

Now, all the grandstanding aside how many Nigerians can afford to pay N200k or N1M for a website?

How many Nigerians can afford to pay 20K or N150K for a website?

How many Nigerians can afford to pay N4K or N10K for a website?

Answers to these questions will help guide all serious web developers out there towards what I call appropriate pricing as against this big talk of expensive website because in reality I have seen many web developers come into this business and go out of it because like the dot com bust they fail to face the reality on ground.

so,

I can't believe that this thread has drawn up to 3 pages worth of posts.

We have deviated, in my opinion, from the original intent of the thread. "Should we" and "can we" are 2 different things. Should we? In my opinion, I don't think so and wouldn't recommend it. Can we? Yes we sure can. In fact, we can even create a website for free.

Rather than direct our energies towards a "do you know who I am" mentality, I say we do what Afam has been saying since pre-independence - direct our energies towards creating IT solutions that will beneficial to the Nigerian economy (via job creation, GDP growth, etc).

Nigeria is known worldwide for 419 and yahoo boy-ism. Isn't it about time we were known for creating, say, web 3.0?

Something to think about folks

~
this thing no b fight. and i believe you're taking this too far. as for my post, i was talking to all web designers in this country. and as for the page, sorry website link u posted, with all due respect kids abroad wuld do that in 40mins or much lesser sef. so i was'nt expecting it to cost much. i never said nobody shuldnt design a site for 4 k did i. (if i did please quote me). Sorry but i need to ask, when u are asked for you portfolio, wuld u be proud to present 'http://www.justwebservices.com/bwebsite/' as part of it? (trythfully,i wuld'nt). some people wuld agree with me that web design to day is not all about functionality, although functionality is core. thats why we have web designers. If u are a web developer its a different thing. In that case, all u care about is the functionality of a website. fine. But the topic if i may remind u is '  Abeg, who are this people DESIGNING websites for 4k ' not developing. I AM NOT A WEB DEVELOPER. i'm a web designer. i don't write large sums of codes, i do little of those things. i have programmers that i work with to handel that. if u knew the owner of www.sigmanetmobile.net, he'll tell u i did it for him free.

As regards your 'Reality Check' questions?

It really depends on who u roll with. if u belong to the group of people designing sites for 4-10k what in the world do u want to offer someone that wants to pay about 100k because his/her taste is definitly high. what do u want to offer them, your normal 10k sites? good. let it b. they might even price it to 7k. thats nigeria for u. I was in VI sometime ago to design a site for one company like that, when i finish and went to submit the site for review, the owner of the company and a group of people of people inluding 2 white men sat me down and were asking me question about just one page. things like: 'why i t this picture here', what does that line mean there', would people understand what this picture is saying' , thats web design. if u dey design normal flat sites, what i there is explan? thats why we are web designers. so if im taing my time to type all this, its not because i want to insult people but to propose a way forward.


A lot of people wuld pay more if only WEB DESIGNERS are confident of their works and can prove to clients what have good functional websites can really do for tham not the everyday bla bla bla.

Afam i see u are a web developer or programmer sef. that does'nt make u a web designer. (creating a web page does'nt make u a web designer either. just like making a java aplet with text boxes doesnt make one a programmer.)

~O

Interesting responses.

@tundewoods,

Someone told me something when I wondered why people easily misunderstand something and veer off completely in no time, she said that people normally want to hear what they want to hear and they see what they want to see.

You seem to imagine that one is here to compete with you. Wrong.

I have stated over and over again that I do not design websites for N4k even though anyone that chooses to do so can and for that reason alone the person must not be abused.

My issue with you was based on you calling people like that kids and tried to justify some of the very negative comments about them by claiming you spend a lot on power.

A word is enough for the wise so if you feel it is ok to abuse people that choose to do things differently then carry on and good luck.

@Neptune,

You see the problem with Nigerians, kids could setup www.justwebservices.com/bwebsite in 40 minutes according to you.

I won't even quarrel with that because anyone that is good in PHP and Mysql can do anything but my problem is the level of inconsistency I see here.

Some people have been having problems with the fact that I stated that a lot of database driven applications can indeed be setup in hrs or a few days.

Now, while you believe the link above is poor (which is your personal opinion which you are entitled to) I will maintain that you do not have many websites (including expensive ones) that have better functionality when compared to what you have there (meanwhile that effort is geared towards making it possible for the average business man in Nigeria to own a business website with unlimited products listing functionality).

The link you sent is ok but would any serious business owner depend on that website for success? I think not because even though you may have been showcasing your web design skills (sometimes to the detriment of the client website) the website background and text color combination is poor (in my opinion).

Take your time, go and search online and come back with just 1 or 2 websites that have similar look and feel that are successful or very busy.

By your standards I am sure google website is crap but the owners know exactly why they are online today and I am sure they can hire the best web designers in the world if they wanted to produce a stunning website for google.

My dear, over 90% of websites in the world fail to do well and the reason is not far fetched, they lose focus from day 1, learn to draw a line between trying to showcase your design skills and the usefulness or functionality of a website.

People use yahoo mail today because they want to send and receive emails, people use google today because they are looking for information. Can you give me one reason why I should visit your website (if you have any) today?

On web design vs web developer

If you go through all my posts on this forum you will never see anywhere I referred to myself as a web designer because I am not one, I am a web developer with expertise in PHP.

Suffice to state here that I had indeed taken time to explain the difference on this same thread when I stated that we must understand that a complete website is a combination of web design and/or programming, web hosting and domain name.

So, if the cheapest hosting price for static websites that I provide is N24K how on earth can any reasonable person conclude that I can develop a website (unfortunately that has been the focus here instead of the web design part) for N4K?

We talk too much, brag too much, flex muscles too much yet have little to show for it. This is the bane of the web development industry in Nigeria and it will take a long long time for things to be done right.

Enjoy!

NB: If you want to have an idea of what I think a useful website should be like see www.afamite.com or the free personal script I wrote at www.afamnnaji.com including the one you claimed can be setup by kids in 40mins at www.justwebservices.com/bwebsite (another free script for business owners).

COOL AND busy?

www.flashlevel.com
www.thefwa.com
www.fancy-ineractive.com
www.triworks.net

oh, u said i shuld mention 2. sorry pick any one of them.

u r drawing me into another topic entirly. i dont have any business with any database or codes/programms u write. by the way u are not a web designer, then what do u have against my posts. i was talking to web designers. dont blame the people that have ur posts confused, its nt their fault. my work deals only with the looks and interface of a website not the functionality. i love google both frontend and back end.the fuctionality is perfect (for my level) and the simple look is damn lovely.u know why? people ike u do the backend (codes & functionality), people like me do the frontend (design/interface). do u notice how the google logo changes in different seasons or special occations like vals day etc? na programmer dey design am? na web designer now.

PLEASE NOTE (where u probably got me wrong)

for the web link u posted b4 i said the design is poor, not the functionality. because as a web designer those are the things ilook at in a website. justas what u look for in a site is functionality.

believe it or not, not all business websites are after functionalities. so businesses or companies build websites just to showcase products not sell them. some do it just to publicise themselves. the owner of sigmanetmobile.net is a programmer but he does'nt sell his wworks on the net he just showcases them.

AND i use yahoo mail not only because i want to send mails. i like the interface if i just wanted to send mails i'lld use opera amongst many. but i dont like the operamail interface yahoo's interface is more colourful and u'll agree with that.

and finally, im not bragging or flexing muscle,

WE shuld'nt be arguing at all. u see things from a diff perspective and i from another. thiis topic is for web designers. i'm pretty sure u ar good in what u do and so am i atleast in my level. we suppose to dey work together and solve problems not arguing with each other.

I clicked on the first and the last links and they are still opening as I write this reply.

I agree that we need not be quarreling on this.

Can't stop laughing on your reason for using yahoo mail.

Enjoy

Update

After about 10 minutes the flashlevel.com website is still loading the interface.

I know my internet connection is not high speed by 10 minutes wait on a website don't sound cool.

??

GOOGLE DEY OFFER FREE WEBSITE.. NIGERIAN'S FULL THE CONFERENCE.. GO GO GET YOURS