Budgeting for Your Podcast Website: Key Costs and Planning Strategies

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:00

Welcome to the Circle Sessions featuring the Circle of Experts. The Circle of Experts are Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs, Tonnisha English Amamoo of TJE Communications, and Don The Idea Guy. I'm Brett Johnson from Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants. Each week, one of the Circle of Experts joins me to talk about some critical aspects of growing your podcast, which in turn can, you know, grow your business as well. We focus on marketing, social media, monetization, and website design to help you implement all of these together. This time around, Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs. Thanks for joining me.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:00:32

Yeah. Thank you for having me.

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:34

We talk a lot about different aspects of building a website, maintaining a website, but, you know, I don't think we've well, we may have, but not specifically talked about budgeting dollars. I mean, it it it's not free, really. I mean, it is, but you know what? Even even though you may go to a free site that builds website, it's still not free because you're spending time on it yourself. So there is a there's either a time that you're giving to it or you're paying somebody to do it. So, you know, why is it so important for businesses to budget effectively for their website?

Yasmine Robles [: 00:01:05

Yeah. So your website is really the first point of contact between your business and your potential customers, especially if you're a podcaster. It's not like you're a coffee shop with a barista. You you really, the website is the first point where they say, I heard about this. I want to find out more. And it's really essential if you have a digital storefront as well.

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:26

Exactly. What are some of those key costs associated with building and maintaining a website that business owners should consider?

Yasmine Robles [: 00:01:35

Yeah. So budgeting effectively really ensures that you can wait. Where am I? Sorry. Can we pause?

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:42

Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:01:44

Did I

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:45

Oh, did I skip? No. About, did I?

Yasmine Robles [: 00:01:48

It's fine. My eyeballs

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:49

No. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. No. Let me start the question over, and then that way it's a good edit point, and we'll just do a, you know, flip there sort of thing. So where am I? Okay. Alright.

Brett Johnson [: 00:02:01

So what are some of the key costs associated with building? And then, let's not forget about maintaining a website that business owners, podcasters should consider.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:02:12

Yeah. So there are several costs to consider when budgeting for website. Firstly, you have the initial cost of the website design and development, which it can vary depending on the complexity of the site, the number of pages, any additional features or functionalities that you need. It can also depend on whether you're DIY ing it, you have your you're investing your time instead of your dollars, or if you're having, let's say, a freelancer do it or a boutique agency all the way to, you know, a high end agency that might charge 100 of 100 of 1,000 of dollars. So it really can when it comes to that build out, it can vary widely. But then there are the costs such as the domain registration, the website hosting, security measures, and then regular updates and maintenance to the site.

Brett Johnson [: 00:02:59

Yeah. I think a lot of people don't realize all the back end stuff. You say, Guy, that's creative. It's like, yeah, but you gotta maintain it. You know? Is it you touching it or someone you know, the the paid partner to do it? So yeah. So leading to that, so how do you effectively budget for these costs?

Yasmine Robles [: 00:03:17

Yeah. So one of the ways that you can budget for the website is to really break down the costs into different categories and prioritize them based on your business goals and budget constraints. So what I would do is start outlining the website requirements and really identify anything that's essential, like it's an essential feature or a functionality that must be met. Then research different vendors and service providers and get an idea of the typical costs associated with with each of those. It's also important to factor in potential future expenses, such as scaling up your website, as your business grows. So all that to say is just write down I would say, just in plain plain terms, write down everything, like your wish list for your website, then filter that and write down what you must have in order to for example, if you're launching, in order to launch, what you must have and what you wanna have in a quarter, in 2 quarters, in a year, in 3 years, 5 years, and you being able to understand those features. So if in 3 years you Don a membership site, it might not be important to invest the budget in starting it now because maybe your business isn't ready for that yet. You don't have the band with for it, but you foresee that in 2 to 3 years, you might.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:04:37

So you can put that in those buckets. And this helps whether you're DIY ing it or going to an agency. And the reason it helps is because as an agency owner, like, I can if we if we sit Don talk, let's say we're eating tacos or, you know, we're we're chatting about websites, and you say Guy MVP or minimum viable product for my podcast website is to just really have an about page, a page, or home page, a contact page, and one that has my blog post, and that's where I'm going to embed my podcast. So that's really just 4 different items. Right? You didn't say anything about having a chatbot or anything else like that on the site. So that now I can say perfect. Is all of this since all of this is for launching, where do you wanna be in the next couple years? You can say, you know, I want a membership site or somewhere where people can pay a fee to listen to the podcast earlier. So now I can navigate the situation and give you the best price for that website instead of saying, oh, yeah.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:05:41

Totally. It's gonna cost you all this amount of money when you don't really even need it in the beginning. Right?

Brett Johnson [: 00:05:47

Yeah.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:05:48

So that's gonna how it helps. If you're DIY ing it, it helps because then you can go and, like, research Squarespace and WordPress and all those DIY places and see which one has the features that you need instead of having to pay somebody to install them after you've purchased that hosting.

Brett Johnson [: 00:06:05

To me, it sounds as though you're talking about possibly working with, like, a website futurologist almost. That it it when yeah. Well, you know, we talked about this a few episodes ago about in regards to what AI will be doing, can be doing. So it's that I would want to work with somebody that at least okay. They understand the reality of today. This is what like you said, the MVP. This is what I have to have it Don. But but it's also good to know that, you know, we've been you you bring it up in in this discovery Sessions, like, okay, this and then it goes to this thing.

Brett Johnson [: 00:06:38

Have you ever thought about maybe in a few years that it goes here? Would this be possible? At least it's on the board. Working with a professional like you or a a futurologist, you know, that it's that I can see the future, then you could possibly do this. Think about it. We're not gonna do this today, but let's prep today so in 3 years, you're ready. I could just do a plug in. You're ready to roll. I think that's huge in that discovery, phase of what you wanna do with this.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:07:07

Mhmm. For Yeah. I will say that it also helps you not overspend. So I I know we I we bootstrap this business. Right? It's it's expensive to start a business. It's not just even websites. It could be you you have to purchase the name of the business. And if you're podcasting, are you gonna be doing some kind of marketing or sponsorships with other organizations? And, it can get pretty pricey.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:07:31

So you want to just understand what what you need right now, and we really wanna understand where you wanna be in 5 years or even a year from now. Because let's say, for example, we build you a very simple site, one of our lowest tier packages. It's it'll be done in a week, and we build you a site on something like Squarespace. A year from now, you say, oh Guy gosh. I've grown so much, and now I can really take my my company and start that full membership with a forum and everything, on my site. Well, Squarespace might not be the that platform for you, and if you're as long as you are knowledgeable that for a year, you're gonna pay for Squarespace, and then with all of the other things you want, you probably have to move to another platform. As long as you're knowledgeable about that, then it's fine. But if you were thinking that this one platform was going to grow with you because we didn't know, We just built it on that when nobody really talked about where you were gonna be in a year.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:08:28

Now you're spending more money. Instead of just expanding, you're actually rebuilding, which it can be fine. It depends. Again, it always depends. I've known some startups that purposefully do it that way. They want low maintenance, the smallest tier level, the smallest site to test their target market. And then when they see that the business has potential, they will then invest more dollars into a completely different website, different platform. And other folks don't don't have that budget, so it just really depends on your goals.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:08:58

But knowing where you wanna be is crucial.

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:01

Yeah. So are there any tips you can share for business owners looking to optimize their website budget?

Yasmine Robles [: 00:09:10

Yeah. I would say

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:14

Or did we ever ever did did we really cover that already though?

Yasmine Robles [: 00:09:18

I think we covered it.

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:19

Okay. I think you did. You're right. Because you did, but you you you folded it in with this last question, which is perfect. No. No. No. It's perfect for for so

Yasmine Robles [: 00:09:28

What's that? Where where are you?

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:30

I was so yeah. I'm at unless I skipped down too far. Did I skip I didn't know. I think

Yasmine Robles [: 00:09:37

I just I just got really excited,

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:38

you know. I think it and that's okay because it folded in perfectly. You ran right into it. It was fine. Yeah. So, you already you talked about the premade templates. Yeah. It rolled right into that.

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:49

So you rolled into the tips. That's perfect, though. Yeah. Because it it didn't sound, woah, where are you going? At all. View is so let me let's go with this though, because I think you did not touch upon reviewing and reassessing the website budget. Did you? If you wanna touch upon that, kind of break that out a little bit. It's not a Sessions, it's right before my last question. You have something about, and don't forget to regularly review and reassess your website budget to ensure it remains aligned.

Brett Johnson [: 00:10:17

Did you touch upon that, or maybe you wanna expand on that a little bit?

Yasmine Robles [: 00:10:22

I don't know. Hold on a minute.

Brett Johnson [: 00:10:24

It's a la it looks like it's the last line before I ask my last question.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:10:29

Okay. Okay. Oh, yeah. Because I yeah. I went through the tips. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:10:33

That's okay. Would that be something to maybe kinda end Don? Not end, but, you know, be the last question before we end?

Yasmine Robles [: 00:10:40

Yeah. So do you want me to say what's your what's gonna be your question?

Brett Johnson [: 00:10:43

I was gonna say, I can ask, you know, would you suggest that you kind of review and reassess that budget? How often? You know, that kind of stuff and maybe just kind of expand a little bit? Okay. Yeah. So you've got the budget kind of put together. You know where you are. You know, okay, this is gonna be my expense at least for the next couple years, maybe year for a website. Would you suggest that maybe you need to review and reassess that, or is is it locked in?

Yasmine Robles [: 00:11:12

I would say so, yes. The answer is the short answer is yes. The long answer is it depends Yeah. On your situation. Yeah. So, yes, go ahead and reassess your website budget depending on what you're doing. So if you are just launching your podcast, you have a very simple MVP type of website, your assessment is probably going to be closer to when the hosting renews. Right? So if you're Squarespace, you launch in January, it'll be around December, I would say.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:11:39

Start to think about, am I going to continue with Squarespace? Am I paying and getting what I want from them? Then now you probably have a list of goals or something for the podcast, and if you've hit those goals, now is the time to push for a newer website or or expanding the website. Are you going to be doing something that's more under the hood, like SEO or in in content creation, or are you going to be spending your dollars on other type of marketing, such as going to conferences and that sort of thing. So it really I guess it comes to assessing your business budget overall. I know we all hate our p and l and hate looking at those income statements, but then as a side note, making sure that within your marketing efforts, you are assessing your website. Make sure that it's helping you. So I understand that as small business owners, we don't have sometimes the time. We're solopreneurs. We don't have the time to look at our analytics.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:12:38

Make sure that it's at least connected. Make sure that you're tracking all of the marketing, all the effort that you're putting into this blood, sweat, and tears that you're putting into pushing this business and this podcast to to really expand. And then even if it's at that end of the year or right before your your hosting is about to renew, take a look at those analytics and see what has been working. And then with that information, then you can now say, okay, so perhaps my website is getting traffic, but I didn't realize that it was my blog post that was bringing in traffic. Can I allocate dollars to content creation or push for more episodes or do something else within that website? Because that's something that's been working for me even though I didn't necessarily push for it. And that might not be a website expansion. Right? That might not be a fancy new forum or members membership area. It might just be hiring an agency or or doing doing it yourself, and posting more podcasts or more, content, more blog posts on the site.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:13:46

Right? So it might not be a pretty thing that You're you're refreshing, but it could be still helpful for the business. So long short answer, yes. You need to reassess your website budget. Make sure and again, just a warning, if you're working with an agency, make sure they're giving you reports or they're at least telling you what they're doing for the site, have they applied fixes, how's your if they're saying that they're going to create content for you, how is their content performing? You don't wanna blog just for the sake of having a blog. You want it to actually be something useful. So if you're working with an agency and that's where you're spending your dollars, I would say ask them what they're doing. I just be say, hey. I just can I get some transparency as to what you guys are working on with my website? Can I get some reporting on how the traffic is doing or how the social media is going? Because that's also part of that website budget, that marketing budget, and you don't want those I understand.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:14:47

I work hard for my money. We all do. Right? We don't want that to go to waste.

Brett Johnson [: 00:14:51

Alright. You know, it's fun as you you just Sessions some, you know, some analytics that are there that you didn't realize. Maybe it's the blog page. It's really driving some some some traffic. I think those are always those I love those moments. They I'll Don that for some analytics for podcasters, taking a look at where they listen and what city they're from, what from what state. And, you know, most people when you're you're creating your podcast, you you kinda feel like, okay. I'm in, you know, Lincoln, Nebraska.

Brett Johnson [: 00:15:19

That's probably where my listeners are. That's, that's my home base, or Columbus, Ohio, where we are. And you start to look at the analytics, and your listeners are not in Columbus, Ohio, or Lincoln, Nebraska. You're actually touching San Francisco, or, you know, Houston, Texas or something like that. And it's just seeing the client's eyes go, really? That's interesting. But they start to put the dots together that they kind of figure out Guy. But they never thought it was gonna happen, so I think it, you know, and then it leads toward, okay, is there a group of people down or in those cities that you need to go see or do something specific with? Same with the website that it's like, keep looking, maybe quarterly or every other month or something like that. I I don't like people that live and and die, you know, you have to in your world, but you know, it's that analytics are not, to me, are not a daily thing.

Brett Johnson [: 00:16:10

It's like, look at them every couple of weeks, you're fine, you know, unless there's something very specific you want to see that that that was a very special episode or a very special blog that you wanna see. Did it how's it tracking? How's it tracking? Okay. Fine. But don't live there. You're looking in you know, you're spending the wrong energies and and you're spending energies in the wrong place. Let's put it that way. Yeah.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:16:31

I, I'm if you're if you're not watching the video, if you're just listening, I'm smiling ear to ear because, Brett, I I like I really love Chicago, and we visit there at least once a year. And I have 2 podcasts that are just about Chicago news and what's happening in Chicago. I'm in Columbus, Ohio. I'm not in Chicago. They I might be messing with their analytics because they're like, what is this person in Columbus listening to us?

Brett Johnson [: 00:16:57

Right.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:16:57

Yeah. Consistently too. There's an everyday podcast, right? Yeah. And I consistently listen to what's happening in the city of Chicago.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:07

You should be creating a podcast, what's happening in Columbus, and share the content with them. Right. Because it's like, I can't be the only one in Columbus that loves Chicago too, so let's let's let's share. Yeah. Sort of things. So no. Exactly. Exact it's just I I just love that surprise analytic stuff.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:25

I just Don, you know, that you stuff that you weren't planning on happening, specifically, it's just kind of a gift given to you. It's like, wow, this is cool. So, any final thoughts or recommendations for, the listener?

Yasmine Robles [: 00:17:38

Yeah. I would just encourage business owners to view their website as an investment rather than an expense. A well designed and maintained website can really be a powerful tool for driving the business growth and success. And then really Guy budgeting effectively and making these really cool strategic investments, you can ensure that the website will continue to support your business goals for years to come, whether that is you're spending a $100 a year on your website to a 100,000, you're doing it strategically. You know where your money is going, where your energy is going, whether you have an agency or you're DIY ing it. I want you to be proud of what you have and to know that, hey. If I'm spending this time or money, it's for a purpose, and it's I'm tracking it, and it's to grow my business.

Brett Johnson [: 00:18:27

Yeah. This may be the the scariest part of of a website design. It it it's the the modern brick and mortar. We don't know what to do. We don't know what to do. So, you know, I think you brought up some fantastic points about, you know, how to at least approach this a bit more logically. But if they wanted to spend some time with you to really knock it out of the park, what's the best way to get a hold of you?

Yasmine Robles [: 00:18:50

Yeah. You can always find me on LinkedIn. Feel free to message me with any of your website questions. Yasmine Vogel is on LinkedIn. If you you can follow us on Instagram or Facebook, where if you want to find us and talk to us or book a call, roblestesigns.com, that's roblestesigns.com, or you can download the free checklist at roblestesigns/checklist.

Brett Johnson [: 00:19:14

Yeah. And and, the Circle Sessions Media Podcast consultants, we've always talked about, you know, having a domain with your podcast. Always somewhere have it because that is the best way to, you know, for a a call to action for your listeners. So, you know, if there is any discussion need to be had around your podcast with a domain name and and, you know, wanting to budget for your podcast, we'll bring Yasmine in. Get to my calendar, my podcast guy dotcom, and, let's get you going because, really, it's it's it's more important than you realize. It it just something you've got to address, but at the same time, be smart about it. Build a budget around it, and and know that, we work with all levels of podcasters and know that, yes, dollars and cents make a big difference, but there is a way to do it. So, head over to my podcast Guy, and and let's book a session.

Brett Johnson [: 00:20:04

Thanks, Yasmine. Appreciate it.

Yasmine Robles [: 00:20:06

Yeah. Thank you so much, Brett.