We're mechanical consulting engineers and I would say approximately 0% of our business comes from our website.

We maintain a website primarily because interviewees tend to go to the web first to learn about a company. We've had clients go to our website for additional information, but we're pretty entrenched in our market.

I get about 0% from my website.

But, I'm an engineer in a technical field.  Having a website is like having phone.  You need one.  If you don't have one, your future client's perception of you will be seriously degraded, possibly even causing you to lose potential work.

--Scott
http://wertel.eng.pro

My business is pretty technical too, but I get about 1/3 of my new business from people who find my web site through Google (the rest of the new business finds me on eng-tips.com and follows my signature to my web page, so maybe it is 100%).  Scott, I went to your web page and it is pretty easy to see why it isn't working for you, there's not much reason for Google to send someone there.  My site gets a few hundred hits a day.  Not enough to sell advertising, but enough to create a cold call to me about once a month.

The site is hosted through Earthlink and I've been paying $19.95/month for the web site, but they require that you have an e-mail account with them and that is another $9.95/month.  Once a year they bill me a $20 "domain renewal fee".  $3,040 over the last 8 years for around a million dollars worth of business (not counting the revenue from sources I found other ways) doesn't seem very expensive to me.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
www.muleshoe-eng.com
Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

"It is always a poor idea to ask your Bridge Club for medical advice or a collection of geek engineers for legal advice"

Wow, David... I think I pay about $90 per year for my host, and I reserved my domain name for 9 years at a cost of a bit over $100.  More email addresses than I can shake a stick at, plenty of storage and bandwidth, and no hidden fees.  I can't remember what minimal fee I initially paid for a security certificate (https for e-commerce cart).

Granted, that's in the noise for $1mil in business, but still...

Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

I use Network Solutions.  As with Dan, I pay about $100 a year, have 50 email addresses, plenty of storage and bandwidth, and relatively good customer service.  I also reserved my domain name for long term, but don't remember what it cost...but it was reasonable.

We have had a little over 3000 hits on our website in a little under 3 years.  Have gotten a few jobs from it, but not many.  It's there mostly for validation and information.

I'm only paying 5 times as much as you guys are.  About 1/10th of what I pay for gasoline or 1/5th of my phone bill.  Probably way too much, but it fits neatly in the "it ain't broke, don't mess with it" category.

David

Check out webhostingtalk.com forums for their webhosting deal section.  I used stablehost.com which is ~$30 for a year.

And went to techbargains.com to find a coupon and got my domain registered through network solutions for 5 years for around $50.

I get all the nice little apps that you get with a cpanel webhost, including softaculous which makes installing things like Wordpress a breeze.

I dissolved my last company in November, but had about 1 cold call per month for about 5 months.  The jobs were ranging in the $5k to $35k.  And even had a possible large development to work on based on the website.

So I am going full steam on my current website to get it running through the internets.  

Scott: Your website is somewhat lacking.
MacGyver: This is travanx from the S2000 boards with my new company. I said hi a while back on this board from a different SN.  =)

B+W Engineering and Design
Los Angeles Civil and Structural Engineering
http://bwengr.com

Try here:
http://www.dyntechsolutions.com/

The webpage is undergoing a bit of constructon work at the moment, so it's a bit sparse.  They offer VoIP (I was a beta tester and kept it after it went live as the sole provider for my business lines), web hosting, domain hosting, etc.

Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

Yes, I'm well aware that my website is lacking.  Look at the date.  It's 2006 I believe.  It was supposed to be a temporary placeholder until I got it completely designed... 5 years ago!

But because the .eng.pro domains are outrageously expensive to renew and because they don't provide any value beyond the standard .com anymore (they did when I first got it), I just initiated some changes.

1) wertel.eng.pro is going away, and with it several dollars a year in savings.
2) wertel.pro will be my new primary domain (at the cost of a typical .com)
3) wertel.pro will be an updated Wordpress-based site that will be a bit easier to keep up to date.

Thanks everyone for your feedback.  Check back in the next few months for changes.
Oh, and I pay $15/mo for hosting.

--Scott
http://wertel.eng.pro

Never even heard of the .pro or .eng suffixes until now.

Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

have 2 with GoDaddy for 8 years
down time .0001%
customer service 101%
price is based on options you need, but is one of the lowest cost overall.

they sponsor NASCAR, have cool SuperBowl ads, and ...

needless to say i am very satisfied.

about 90% of work has come from websites, networking (here & LinkedIn), email signatures.

Network solutions was the original domain provider and if you look for coupons you can find similar pricing to GoDaddy.

I would still go with a .com no matter what, for a business, over anything else.

B+W Engineering and Design
Los Angeles Civil and Structural Engineering
http://bwengr.com

I have godaddy as well. You hear problems about it (like all of them), but my experience is great. The few times I called customer service they were very helpful. I don't have anything to compare to, but I would not change.

Brian
www.espcomposites.com