Do-It-Yourself Considerations
ExpressSites.Net is aware that making a decision to develop a web site is an important step. Books have been written on the do's & don'ts of web sites so we can't cover the entire topic here. But we hope the following considerations will at least be a good beginning of your web site journey. If you have any other questions, please call us at the toll-free number below, email us or complete our Feedback Form. We are anxious to help!
Will a web site really help my business?
How do I get a web site built?
How much does a web site cost?
When I want changes to my web site, how do I get it done and how much does it costs?
What do I need to consider if I do-it-myself?
The most important aspect......Your commitment to finish the job.
The second most important.......Your provider's service.
Features.....Know what you are getting.
Training resources.....Reduce the learning curve.
PC & programming skills......it's easier than you think.
Free Trial.....Test it completely
Content Management......It's a big cost saver.
Costs.....There is a wide range.
Optimization tools.....Your key to being found on Search Engines.
Marketing tools.....Be responsive to your customers.
E-Commerce.....Tap a very big market.
Do-It-Yourself Advantages
Do-It-Yourself Disadvantages
You Will Hear This Criticism
Will a web site really help my business?
- The Internet has grown tremendously in the last 10 years and it is increasingly the first place people go to look for products and services.
- A web site legitimizes your business. Having a web site is an important first impression and communicates to your prospective customer that you are serious about your business.
- If you sell products, an e-commerce web site can make a significant difference in sales by exposing your products to virtually a worldwide customer base.
- Your web site is the place to point prospective customers who want to learn about your company's products and services without a salesperson pressing them for a sale.
- A web site is available 24-7 for people to learn about your message at their convenience, not yours.
- With proper search engine optimization, the Internet provides a means of constantly advertising your company. With an investment of only a few hundred dollars per year, you can get much more exposure than a printed ad in a newspaper or magazine that costs hundreds of dollars for just one printing. The potential audience of a web site is many times of a printed ad or radio/TV promotion. Not optimizing a site is akin to printing a brochure and not handing it out.
- A web sit that provides a unique email address also legitimizes your business. Have you seen someone's business card with an email address with an @AOL.com or @Earthlink.com, etc? That's the first hint that this person's business probably does not have a web site. By using commercial email providers, you risk making a bad first impression with your prospective customers. An email address without your company's name might communicate the message that your business is not big enough or strong enough to have its own email address name.
How do I get a web site built?
Here you only have 2 options; contract with someone to design and develop it or do-it-yourself (DIY). There are lots of companies and individuals in every marketplace that will be glad to build a site for you. Your local yellow pages are full of them. Contracting your site is the best option if you are short on time and have the cash. Or, if you are limited by cash but have the time, you can build a web site yourself using a development tool like FrontPage or Dreamweaver. The other DIY option is to use a DIY web site builder like ExpressSites. Web site builders are typically much, much easier to learn than the traditional development tools. Site builders are the newest tools on the Internet and are quite powerful.
How much does a web site cost?
Contracting a developer will cost anywhere from $500 to thousands of dollars depending upon the experience level of the developer and the complexity of the site. But by all means, avoid the "my kid/the kid next door" solution if you are serious about an effective site. Be smart and contract an experienced professional. With a custom site, the very minimum expense is probably about $1,000 to get any more than just a few pages.
A DIY solution is generally the most economical (in the short-term and long-term). These solutions generally have a one-time set-up/activation charge priced from "free" to several hundreds of dollars. Just about all DIY solutions have a monthly charge ranging from $10 to $100+ depending upon specific features you select (i.e. number of pages, e-commerce, photo album, specific features, etc.).
When I want changes to my web site, how do I get it done and how much does it costs?
If you select to contract your site development, it is very likely you will have to get your developer to make your changes. Maintenance is generally charged on an hourly rate basis. However, even with third-party developed sites, you can maintain it yourself if you learn the software tool (FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc.) used to develop the site. The downside is the large learning curve for the non-technical individual.
With all DIY solutions, you can easily make changes to the site yourself. Not needing an outside resource for maintenance can be a tremendous long-term savings; especially if your site requires regular updates such as church and organization sites that are constantly changing announcements, events, etc.
What do I need to consider if I do-it-myself?
- The most important aspect......Your commitment to finish the job.
But you CAN do it!!! It is easy to get enthusiastic, start the trial site and suddenly realize you are out of your comfort zone when you ask yourself "What do I do now?" And then magically, other things begin getting a higher priority. If you are serious about wanting an economical site, commit yourself to learning the product and staying with it until you have the site built. With most tools it is easy to have a workable site of 12+ pages in 8 - 12 hours if you stay committed. Reflect back to when you begin to learn a text editor like Microsoft Word or Wordperfect. It was pretty daunting, wasn't it? But looking back now you can probably admit it wasn't that difficult. DIY products like ExpressSites is no different. Remember the old Nike slogan? Just Do It!
However, don't mistaken an active site as a finished site. Any web site should be approached as a "work in process." Spend a lot of time looking at your site, proof reading everything and always be your own worst critic. Make changes regularly and incorporate new ideas as you think of them.
But before you begin, do yourself a BIG favor by designing your site on paper first. Give it some serious thought. It will pay big dividends knowing what you want before you begin. Outline what pages and sub-pages are included and outline each page's basic contents and message. We promise......It will cut development time by half!
- The second most important.......Your provider's service.
Before you commit to anything, be sure you can get help when you need it. If you can, call the provider and talk to them. Regardless how easy the provider claims their site builder to be, you will have questions that you will need answered. Look for contact information on the provider's site. Believe it or not but some sites do not provide any contact information at all! Some do not want phone calls and only provide an e-mail address, thus making you wait for their reply. Bottom line, look for a phone number and don't hesitate using it.
- Features
Compare features carefully. If a feature is not mentioned, it is probably not provided. If you are unsure, call the provider. Frequently, for a specific feature that is not provided, there is a good possibility of an alternate approach. Contact the provider and ask.
Most of the web site builders are competitive with features but some are limited. Most importantly, look for unlimited pages, unique domain names and the ability to provide email addresses with your domain. Email forwards from your domain to an existing email account is certainly acceptable. Just be sure you can have an email address format of yourname@yourdomain. Do not accept an address like yourname@webbuildername/yourdomain.
- Training resources
Look for support tools that help you to learn the product. With any web site builder, there is a learning curve. So don't be discouraged if you are at first confused on what to do next. Get the tools available and utilize them. Make it easy on yourself. Also, this is where your provider's service capabilities are all important. Call them! If they don't seem interested in your business, they might be less interested after you pay them. If so, move on.
- PC & programming skills
A good site builder should not require programming skills. However, it is expected that you have good PC skills and an understanding of cut & paste. Most all products use a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) type of editor so if you know any major word processor, you will do well. The editor should provide the ability to customize a page by using HTML to put special effects and features on your web pages that may not be supported by the site builder. Having customizable HTML capability is a nice feature. Even if you do not know HTML, it is very easy to learn or it is even easier to find someone who does know it if you want help.
- Free Trial
Web site builders should allow you a free trial period to use the product before committing to the purchase. Some trials might limit the features you can test. Insist on a full-featured version. You should not have to give any credit card information until you decide to actually purchase.
Content management
All web site builders provide you the capability of making changes yourself 24-7 over the Internet. After all, you created it yourself. You ought to be able to change it yourself! Right?
Costs
Costs vary greatly. One-time setup/activation charges range from free to hundreds of dollars. Monthly charges run from about $10 to $100+ per month depending upon the features you select. Consider only sites that provide a full-featured trial site. It is your best assurance that you will never have to say "I thought that feature was included!" You should not have to agree to a contract period. All charges should be month-to-month, pay as you go arrangement with the ability to cancel at any time.
- Optimization tools
Be sure your builder supports optimization capabilities and your provider can provide these services. Don't concern yourself too much with promotions of being submitted to "5,000 search engines." Unless you have an extensive international focused site, there are actually only a dozen or so search engines that handle about 80%+ of all searches. Your web provider should be able to help you in search engine optimization and submission. Again, call them and ask!
- Marketing tools
Any web site builder should provide some means of managing feedback and newsletter subscribers that sign up on your site. A backend database providing bulk email and tracking will help you stay in contact with your customers.
- E-commerce
E-commerce web sites are growing rapidly and any web site builder should have the capability of providing e-commerce via a secure shopping cart. It is vital that the product provides an interface with a merchant account. Also consider what product information the system allows and if it provides sales and order tracking.
Advantages of Do-It-Yourself Web Site Builders
- DIY products provide a fast, easy and affordable web site solution for most small businesses and organizations at a fraction of the effort and costs associated to custom sites.
- DIY sites are great entry level solutions for growing businesses. But as the business grows, so will it's needs to have a more enhanced web site. That is the time to invest in a custom site if needed.
- All DIY site builder products provide content management allowing you to maintain the site yourself and saving the expense of a web master making changes for you.
Disadvantages:
- The only significant disadvantage to DIY products is that they are more limiting than having a custom site built. But truthfully, how many sites need streaming video, extensive customized backend data bases, etc? Probably your site does not need these features now. But if you have these needs, DIY site builders are probably not your best choice.
- All site builder products provide hosting as part of the monthly charge. Your ExpressSites site cannot be hosted with your local hosting provider.
Criticisms you'll hear
Providers of custom web sites are typically very critical of DIY products. (Does that surprise you?) One of the primary criticisms you will hear is that DIY sites are template based. Well, that is true. BUT, in truth, ALL web sites are template based. Even those custom sites! Take a look at a custom designed site. Visit the Home page and then the other pages in the site. Notice that every page is laid out the same within that site's template! The template between sites might be different but does that really provide any advantages?
For example, suppose a florist has a DIY web site. Now, if every florist in that town had the same DIY web site with the same colors, it would be boring. However, virtually all DIY products provide flexibility in customizing font and background colors so that each so-called "template site" looks unique. Be sure the product you choose provides this capability.
If we missed a question that you would like the answer to, email or call us at the number below.
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