Set up a working Simple website, say three pages, a blog, possible instant chat
Potentially FREE!
There are many options for this. As you're after a blog too, the easiest is probably to use WordPress. This is installed on your hosting account, you can then choose an existing free theme and you'll essentially have a website and blog ready for content to be added. You can also installed paid themes (typically costing less than £40) which will often get you a better design.
WordPress isn't
that easy to get started with, people who have experience in managing websites may like to make it sound simple but it's not if you've never set up a website before. Your web hosting provider may offer support with installing WordPress (or often they have a "one-click installer" which simplifies the process). You can hire a web designer/developer who has experience with WordPress to setup your website for you (using an existing theme to keep costs down if necessary), getting everything up and running, adding the initial content for you, introducing you to WordPress, etc.
There's plenty of other options too, take Wix for example - a website builder (I'm not sure if this supports blogging though).
As for your live chat, are we talking about live assistance for your visitors? If so, check out
https://www.tawk.to - completely free. You'll need to add a quick snippet of code to your website (or WordPress theme).
If you decide to setup a WordPress site yourself, there will be no cost (just your web hosting). If you decide to take the assistance of a web designer/developer, the price can vary a fair bit. For what you need, generally below £1,000 for a pre-made theme (not unique to your website) and £1,000 - £3,000 for a good custom design.
including purchase of a sensible website name, hosting etc
Less than £50/year.
The "website name" (assuming you mean e.g. mywebsite.com) is called a domain name. The domain name should cost you less than £10/year, hosting for a basic business website should be under £40/year. Together you're looking at less than £50/year (or if paying monthly, £10/year for the domain and under £4/month for the hosting).
Get the website on google search
FREE! Google should pick up your website fairly quickly (if not, you can submit it to them). You could pay an "SEO Expert" for assistance with ranking your website but the industry is full of cowboys looking to rip you off, some of which can even end up getting you kicked off Google completely by breaking the rules.
An important factor when calculating your Google ranking is how useful the website content is, so to work through the ranks you'll want to regularly add good quality content to your website. Good choice with the blog, this is the perfect way to do this. There are other factors included too such as website age. It's a long term process, don't expect to rank well on Google overnight and don't trust anybody who tries to sell you this dream.
Design a small concise magazine advert for inclusion to say The Lady Mag (or maybe they might do that for me)
You can certainly pay someone to do print design for you, this could end up being the same person as your web designer if you choose to hire a web designer. Publishers will also sometimes have their own in-house designers or contacts who can organise the design for you.
Ongoing annual costs for the above.
Should just be the £50/year for domain and hosting (often less than this, depends on who you go with).
Also is it cheaper for me to have a site designed so that I can make any simple changes to the site or does that not make any difference.
You can have the site designed by a professional or use something pre-made. If you want to be able to change content yourself, you'll want the website built on a CMS (content management system) - this allows you to login and update pages, etc. The most popular CMS is WordPress which is also a blogging platform, so this covers both of your requirements in a website and blog. Most web design studios can design a website for you running on WordPress, they should also be able to assist with installation of something such as Tawk for your live chat requirements - leaving you to update page content and create blog entries.
Please feel free to get in touch with me if you're after web hosting, details in signature or mike-at-ngagehosting.uk
