Website design costs

[Chikara]

Hi all,
I've got a small hobby website I've run for maybe 15 years. It's quite basic, I have no website coding knowledge and just built it using a web design template. I've been thinking I'd like to revamp it, to make it look visually better, maybe make it mobile friendly also, and perhaps add a few other capabilities (eg a 'contact me' webform rather than a email link to reduce spam, maybe add a photo gallery).
Some of this is getting beyond my skill level. So my question is, if I was to pay someone to build this for me, how much approximately would that cost? I'd be looking for them to supply the page design and code as a one-off task, and then I will still take case of basic content updates myself. Most of the content updates are things like adding new items to a list, and/or to a separate page that has more details. As it's only a hobby website, I don't need any e-commerce or business type capability.

I'm thinking of doing it through something like Freelancer.com but was hoping to get a ballpark cost first to see if it's worth it. As it's really just for fun/hobby, there's no profit I will make from running the site, so I don't want to spend a large amount. Any idea of the approximate cost for a project like this?

[piroska]

Too much. I used to see "developers" do this for customers at I was at WEbdrive...and often they used some template thing too.

Or didn't know how to fix problems, yes you (Name not shown here) very large "professional" company.

ANd do dodgy things like have registrant as themselves and the like.

Just use another template program, theres heaps around, some very pretty looking.

[psycik]

Also how long is a piece of string.

Maybe look at squarespace etc, or google sites allows for simple web site updates. It also depends if you need help with hosting and not just the content.

[Chikara]

Hi thanks for the feedback. I take care of the hosting myself and I'm OK with that and the update process - I just make basic edits and re-upload. It was more about the layout and design of the page itself. Sounds like it will be best just to try and find a suitable template that is mobile friendly and attempt it myself. I'm guessing most templates these days will be mobile friendly too?

[1101]

ANd do dodgy things like have registrant as themselves and the like.

possibly so they have some control over that .
They may need to make DNS changes easily ( 'A record' change etc)

Giving the customer full control over that can end up in disasters , as they often loose all details (login/pass to the domain host) , or start making changes
without any idea what they are doing.
ie customer moves to a 'cheaper' domain name host & not moving DNS records etc
then they wonder why Website is offline & email no longer works