New All-Greek Website Resource
 

Let me start by saying in all honesty this is a somewhat commercial post – I own www.uGreek.com, a new resource for customizable web templates exclusively for fraternities and sororities.

As the owner of this new venture I'm obviously looking to make sales, but what I'm really hoping to achieve with this post is to obtain some objective feedback from you GCers. My partner and I have been working on bringing this idea to fruition for 10 months so our objectivity isn't exactly at its peak! :)

The two things I'd most appreciate everyone's feedback on is (1) our site itself - navigation, ease of use, etc. and (2) our credibility factor - is there anything that would prohibit you from allowing us to take care of your chapter website?

Many thanks in advance,
Barry

Re: New All-Greek Website Resource
 

My $.02...

In terms of navigating your site, I did so with ease and was able to find everything I was looking for. The layout is simple, but concise, which is a huge plus because no one (especially college students) wants to read through tons of boring info just to get a grasp on a select few ideas. Another great feature of your site is the page dedicated to you and your VP. That sort of information lends credibility to your business. I helped create and maintain my chapter's website which is why I was interested in your post. My suggestion to you is to try to market your services to chapter's whose websites are somewhat unprofessional and simple. Exploit the fact that a professionally done and maintained website can be a great tool for a Greek Organization and that the benefits are innumerable. I hope my input helped. Good luck with your business.

You need to have ALL the NPC sororities available, or at least listed with a "we're working on it" page. Women do not like it when you omit their sorority. Ditto for the NIC chapters, and the NPHC groups should be on there as well.

I question, though, how many chapters are going to pay $495+ to have a website that looks like another chapter's. Your chapter website is the place where you get to show your individuality.

The ugreek site itself is nice and easy to get around.

The website was nice and easy to find things. Great job there. I'd like to see non-NPC groups be able to use it as well. We are national, but not collegiate. :)

I do the web site for our chapter and personally, I think what you are offering is a rip off. They are very generic sites that are way overpriced. I hate to sound so mean about it...that is really not my intent...but for schools that can afford to pay for their web site...they pay big but get more than you are offering. HTML is not THAT hard and there are so many GUI's that make it even easier. Best of luck in your venture...but I don't see too much of a demand for this service in the future...


Eta Kappa Chapter of Delta Gamma

The site is easy to navigate.

The templates I saw are very generic... they look a lot like what is already out there. Did you develop the templates after looking at a lot of existing greek chapter sites? They are hardly original. I think that if a chapter is going to pay a web designer that much for a simple site, they are not going to want to use a template being used by dozens of others. It's a good idea, but why not market your services to greeks without making every site so similar?

$500 is way out of many a chapter's budget. You'd be limiting your potential clients to just the very large well monied-chapters.

Honestly, you may want to diversify. There have been many a company that has tried to target web design for GLOs and I don't think very many have gotten very far. You're marketing something to college kids who many very well have a member capable of doing these same things or have a friend who'll do it for a case of beer.

and after viewing your pricing list further, you don't get jack for $500. No guestbook, only 36 pictures, no member pages, no calendar, no updates. All of those things are Ivery high) additional charges.

And you don't even host the sites!

As a former chapter treasurer, i'll say it again: WAY too expensive.

And finally, you need to say which GLOs you are licensed by. For instance, you are not a licensed vendor for my sorority, Kappa Delta.

This is according to greeklicensing.com, which is very up to date.

You could run into some legal troubles if you're not clear about your licensing.

Excellent product!
 

To chapters that are marketing-oriented, and understand that rush is competitive, and that the chapter's "face" is important to alumni, parents and others in regular touch with the chapter, your service is very valuable. You problem in selling it is going to be making good chapters (or, chapters not yet good by ambitious) understand the significance of what you're offering. Best of luck to you. You're providing a valuable service.

I keep hearing every year that our HQ is working on a solution to "standardize" our chapter websites. I'm not sure if this is just a cd-rom that's uploaded to a server or if it's an actual hosting service with a template or what.

I wish they'd come out with it already though :D

It kind of ticks me off when active chapters do not have websites. It really isn't hard to use Microsoft frontpage and hosting/domain names are very affordable for any chapter with say 10 or more members (would be fine with less members though).

This is a good service to have -- a bit pricey, but my chapter doesn't need it anyhow. It seems that all GLO software apps are around that price. I've always had trouble spending that much money on software or programming.

If the author of this thread is still reading, how much of your own time goes into each site?

Appreciate all the comments so far, GCers. Please allow me to address a few of them.

You need to have ALL the NPC sororities available, or at least listed with a "we're working on it" page. Women do not like it when you omit their sorority. Ditto for the NIC chapters, and the NPHC groups should be on there as well.
Excellent input, which we integrated immediately. Thanks!

I think what you are offering is a rip off. They are...way overpriced. I hate to sound so mean about it...
[I]OK, I know I have to take the bad with the good – and several of you have had nothing but positive things to say – but this one really stung! Sure, pricing is a sensitive issue with a lot of people, but $495.00 for an 8-page site is only $61.87 per page. As a business owner I pay $1,200.00 a month for my family's medical coverage alone. To me, that's a rip off!:mad:

They are very generic sites.
[I]Personally I would refer to the designs as clean and classic:), but clearly opinions will vary. Every design template incorporates the input and graphic standards requirements of the (inter)national HQs and has received their approval.

And you don't even host the sites!
That decision was based upon our extensive research, which indicates that most schools offer free hosting to registered student organizations.

...you need to say which GLOs you are licensed by. For instance, you are not a licensed vendor for my sorority, Kappa Delta. This is according to greeklicensing.com, which is very up to date.
We take the licensing process very seriously and do everything stricly by the book. No templates are, or will be, for sale on uGreek.com unless we have licensing agreements in place. To date, we have ten licensing agreements, seven through greeklicensing.com and three we negotiated directly with (inter)national GLOs. And licensing agreements aren't just pieces of paper – they put money ($25.00, to be exact) in the coffers of your national org every time we make a sale.

I keep hearing every year that our HQ is working on a solution to "standardize" our chapter websites.
The HQs who have approved our templates so far are very enthusiastic about what we're doing. We treat their/your trademarks with respect and help chapters put their best foot forward on the web. The HQs definitely see the value of that.

Finally at the risk of sounding defensive, I'd just like to point out that although I'm located in the Houston area I'm not Enron! ;) I'm not a fast-buck rip-off artist: I'm Greek, still very involved in my fraternity at age 47, pursuing two things I love dearly, Greek life and graphic design.

More comments? Keep 'em coming. I've got broad shoulders!:)

Barry

$61.87 for ONE page of HTML is crazy dude. I'm sorry you have bills to pay for your own family, but exploiting chapters that don't know any better is horrible. I'm not saying that you are not providing a service that you should get paid for, but you are charging way to much to plug a GLO's name into an already made template. For that sort of money, you should develope a specific unique site for each chapter. I really am trying to be decent about all of this, but it really irks me that some chapters will be sucked in and taken advantage of - a web site that is not maintained regularly is not worth anything anyway. I don't know about other GLO's, but DG has an aggressive web team that already has a template for "HTML challenged" chapters to use as well as a Web team that is always avaliable (through a list serve) to answer questions.

I received an email from your company....although it looks very interesting...I am happy with my own site through geocities!

www.geocities.com/adpibetatau and my other site which will be updated soon www.geocities.com/alphadeltapialumnae

Best of luck with finding clients!! :)

Agreed on the way too overpriced. I have several friends in graphic and web design- and if the site uses a standardized template *from scratch* (i.e. not pre-fabricated, as you have on your site), they charge roughly $25 for the first page (including all graphics, layout, etc.), and $5 per page thereafter using the same template, since additional pages need very little more than page flow and possibly an individual title graphic (based upon a standard from the first page). Costs go up only if the group wants something specific that requires much more detailed, high-definition coding, if they're looking for a completely original design (charges are then agreed upon by piece or by hour), or if they're looking for hosting as well.

While I do think the layouts that you're providing are clean and easy to read, none of them suggest that you're creating any graphics that would be worth the money you're asking for, much less asking that much money for pre-fabricated templates.

and for what it's worth-- you're charging more for these templates than a specific book publisher pays for individual pieces of art for textbooks (since I draft said work for hire contracts personally).

You definitely need to do some reconsidering.

~ Melissa

Comparing medical coverage and web design is comparing apples and oranges.

Web design does not require many years of training and licensing to do. Medicine does. So I just don't get that comparision. It has nothing to do with your pricing.

$61/page is insane for something that you're going to take a couple minutes to do. And also for something that is not going to be updated and all of the other add-in features that you list for even more money.

I don't know a lot about web design, but I know enough that even working from a bare bones template you can do a page in a matter of minutes. There are many other people out there that can do the same thing you do for cheaper and possibly better.

Know your market. You're marketing to not-for-profit groups that do not have a ton of extra cash to throw around.

If you don't think your price is high, fine, but there are a lot of chapters that would think that is outrageous, and especially not in return for what they're getting. As a very active alumna, I would never advise any chapter to make an investment like this when there are plenty of other resources available for far less or free.

How did you go about deciding your pricing scheme, out of curiousity?

It all depends...
 

$61/page may or may not be a bad price...

It really all depends on the quality put into the pages, the web designer's experience, features, time spent on the pages, etc...

I'm 18 years old and have no REAL experience with web design.. (no other professional sites done to show)

But I work for a local business which pays me $500/month to maintain their website. I spent a good amount of time actually building the site in the beginning, but that was over a year ago. I get paid $500/month to merely update the site according to seasons and sales, which probably takes an hour or two at MOST per month... In that case, $61/page is nothin'.

I also know that a lot of companies pay anywhere from $100-$1000 a page to get their sites done... But then again, they hire webmasters with years of experience...

bubu's templates look clean and professional, but it all depends on the fraternity/sorority's budget. So some, I can see how it'd be a lot of money to spend, and it may be very well possible to get it much cheaper... But with what people are paying these days for web design, I have to disagree with all of you saying it is "EXTREMELY OVERPRICED." Atleast in comparison...

Re: It all depends...
 

And I'd bet that it is worth that $$$ to them for you to do it so they don't have to hassle with it because they don't know squat about these dadburn newfangled computers.

A college chapter of a sorority or fraternity, however, is very unlikely to have no one or know no one who can't put a professional website together. This generation of college students have been working with computers since they started school or earlier.

But the web pages that are being produced are not all that great...they are "clean and classy" - BUT you can use templates like that if you sign up for a free geocities web page. There is nothing unique or impressive about it. I know Delta Gamma gives an award out at convention every two years recognizing outstanding web pages...a page like that would NEVER win. Period. Maybe for some chapters it would be acceptable...guess I just like our chapter to stand out.

good point.

Let me throw this guy some defense.

I work in graphic design and believe me, design, html, etc in the business world is pretty expensive. I recently worked with a client who had a one page splash page put online. After the design time, buying the image, getting the hosting set up, etc, etc... his bill was over $300, for ONE page. And in the corporate world, that's pretty freaking cheap.

And the reason that graphic design students only charge pennies for design and implimentation of their designs is because they are just that... students. It's kind of a unwritten law that designers can charge so much based on their experience. I get leased out at $65 an hour at my studio whereas someone 10 years my senior can charge well over $200/hour. It just kinda depends on what the designer's experience is.

However, I must jump on the side of greeks. Greeks aren't corporate. I know this. Their budgets are obviously a little different than a fortune 500 (note my extreme understatement). So charging around $500 for a site design, minus the additional cost for hosting, IS a little outrageous. The budgets just aren't going to be there. And Barry, I love the clean and classy look myself. However when that ONE look is implimented (no matter how many different colors and pictures you use) it will still look the same. I have a friend, not a designer but he is pretty tech saavy, that has made a few websites for various (different) clients. However if you were to put them all next together, they would all look the same. I didn't look at the templates extensively (so pardon my ignorance), BUT I would suggest giving more options. A simple guestbook does not take that long to install and then a chapter site admin can monitor it. (That's just an example from reading someone's post.)

And now that I have bored you all... I will let you continue your thread.

Good luck with your business. However I suggest explanding your client list.