Originally Posted by lisa

A lot of times people are uneducated on what web design should cost so designers take advantage of that by jacking up their prices.

Now there are some design firms that do good work and their prices are higher than average. As long as the costs are justified I can understand that but I still think a lot of them get away with robbery.

Also looking at your list, you could really cross out 2 of those (software and paying someone) if you choose a free editor like Komposer and do it yourself. I'm personally a fan of Dreamweaver but many people do fine with the free editors or coding by hand... which is also free.