Know-How Exchange : SEO/SEM

Thanks for the responses so far.
I tried to clarify as best i could at this point in order to avoid the "How much does a house cost" (or boat) type of answers. But I guess I failed. No offense Rachel, et al. But for planning purposes I need a rough idea. You know, canoe $500, bass boat $17,000, Sea Ray 350 $350,000.

For those agency folks (having owned my own for 5 years) I can pretty safely say that we don't have the budget for an agency unless it's one trying to break into the business. So I'll probably end up with a freelancer or very small shop.

Fundamentally I could probably do it myself but it would certainly lack the professionalism and functionality of a site done by a professional.

So, I could still use some feedback. I'm thinking maybe a Sea Doo to start.
Gary

well folks. thank you all for your well presented and thought out answers. I can tell many of you are passionate about this and that is great.

Kathleen's response however, highlighted my plight as well as that of many other small business.

Her quote:
"Even if everyone in the country charged $10/page (which they dont'), the fee would be $100 for 10 pages, or $300 for 30 pages. Another firm might average out to $500/page, so their fees would be $5000-15,000."

so here is a naive little guy like myself sitting around wondering..ok then, what is the average or to my original question, what should I expect to pay? Somewhere between 10 and $500? The whole "per page" way of pricing something is an issue as well.

The other question I had that really never got answered, was my comment that much of this can actually be done in house. The copy, the graphics, the layout, will all be done inhouse. What I need was a person to work with to make sure the code works right, advise on other details, and save me having to sit down and learn how to use cascading style sheets, or write java script or whatever.

Thank you to those who contacted me off boards. For obvious reasons, your answers were significantly more detailed.

Likely what I am going to do is find a local freelancer or small shop to work with on an ongoing basis. Anyone wishing to contact me directly, please feel free to do so. thanks.