Originally Posted by Sands

The tube market is becoming more and more saturated and competitive, and it's common sense to strive for a customized and unique design wrapped around a high-performance CMS. For a well-branded site that stands out and can scale to massive amounts of traffic, you need more than beer money.

I'm not saying that to insult your and anyone's ego, but if you want a premium setup, you're going to have to pay premium prices. Websites are investments, just like houses, stocks, or anything else that can appreciate in value. The kind of investment you make reflects the kind of return you expect.