Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I think that`s a little unfair of a question, honestly. Because as I said before, the website is not the end all and it doesn`t sell itself. I could make 2 nearly identical websites for 2 different companies, and one has a huge ROI and the other is bankrupt. The difference? One had a marketing plan and an aggressive strategy for offline and online marketing, coupled with some brilliant sales techniques. The other guy sat on his bum and waited for customers to come flooding in his doors!

There`s too many factors involved to judge each website on its ROI. And honestly, most of my customers don`t call me with their ROI a few years later. It is their job to run their business - I am not their entire marketing, sales, bizdev, etc team. I`m just someone making their site and perhaps building them some tools or a marketing campaign. For some customers, I don`t write their copy. (I can advise them of the potential problems with their copy, but if they really want it, they are not paying me to tell them no.) Some customers REALLY want a certain design even if I think it`s hideous - and yes, we still give it to them. Some have an already existing site (which I have nothing to do with), already written emails (which I had nothing to do with) ... and all I`m doing is formatting their email blasts attractively. Should I have anything to do with the ROI there? If I set them up with the best system in the world but they are not properly fulfilling orders, so suddenly bad reviews of them pop up everywhere ... should I take responsibility in their failure?

So, in any case. Right.

Nicole, I agree completely. I was sort of getting at conversion rather than ROI, I guess. I just didn`t know how to do an example without using that off-the-cuff example. I`m in marketing - math was not a prerequisite for my major  (although it will be at MIT`s Sloan School MBA program, god help me).

Conversion may be key, but sure, you have no idea if untrained monkeys are on the other end of the line providing lousy customer service. I`ve been asked to go directions I`d rather not, also, but hey, it`s their money. Some clients are just knuckle-draggers, let`s be honest, but knuckle-draggers with checkbooks...

Clickthroughs we can measure, and ROI for web-only sites using A/B testing we can measure, but one standalone site with infinite variables, no.

Maybe that`s why this question is so difficult. Web site pricing is not an exact science.It`s part art, part strategy, part coding, part marketing. And of course in your case, part genius! (plus one part baby).