How to Build the Best Web Site Possible on Any Budget
I’ve got a great idea–I want to write a program that will instantly create the perfect web site for every business.
That’s right–instant web sites! I’ll hook a few diodes up to the business owner’s head, plug them into my computer, and 10 minutes later the perfect web site for their business will be complete.
This process will be fueled entirely by the love and passion that the business owner possesses for their business, thereby ensuring that those with the most enthusiasm for their work will have the best sites. Business owners who have no passion for their work and aren’t that good at what they do will get mediocre sites.
The picture here is an initial concept of what the process might look like:
But until I get this idea up and running businesses are going to have to get their ideal site the traditional way, which usually involves a decent chunk of change and a good time investment.
Time, Money, and Results
Both time and money are necessary to building a web site, but these are the two things most businesses are a bit short on. So what’s a business owner supposed to do to create a good site and get the best results? Take out a loan and hire an in-house professional web team? Take two weeks off to learn Front Page and build a site themselves?
Whether you’re creating a new site or updating an old one, each approach below takes it’s share of time and money. Each have their pros and cons. Depending on your situation, one of the approaches below will work for you.
I’ve listed these in order of least to most time/money intensive. Keep in mind that some of these approaches can be combined to save time and money (i.e. buy a template site and have a freelancer customize it). Some of this is more technical than I have space to describe.
If you’d like some guidance on which of these would be right for your specific business, I hold a daily conference call where you can call in and ask me any questions you want (learn more about the conference call here).
Do It Yourself Options:
If you have more time than money, these are the options to look into.Free Hosting and Template Services
Time: 5 (on a scale of 1~10)
Money: 1
For something quick and easy, my first recommendation is a free hosting and template service (for example, www.webs.com or a Facebook page). They can offer you a free web presence and you can create it without knowing html. Most of the time you spend will be in figuring out how to create a site using their system and then writing the text for the site.
Pros:
Get your site up fast and free. May includes some extras like email forms and guestbooks. They’ll host it for you.
Cons:
You have very limited space, are restricted to the templates they give you, and have limited options for expanding the site. They place advertisements on your site so they can offer it to you for free while they make money. In other words, it’s cheap and your site visitors will know it. You won’t be able to customize it. The general rule of thumb is the easier it is to build, the harder it is to get custom details to work just right.
Overall:
If you only need to have basic information available to your customers and you don’t care so much what your site looks like, this is a great way to go. If you’re going to be more particular about how your web site looks and functions, pass on this option.
Paid Hosting and Template Services
Time: 5
Money: 3
Site such as www.bluehost.com and SiteBuildIt can give you a web site template and additional features for a small monthly fee. (these are affiliate links. See warning on the left sidebar)
Pros:
You have a lot more functionality than a free hosted web site (things like online forms visitors can fill out and web site statistics) and good customer service. It’s fast, looks professional, and is relatively inexpensive.
Cons:
It will require time to figure out their system, and if you want special custom work done you’ll probably have to hire someone with more experience to do it (often the company offering the service has people on hand to help with those things, but it may cost extra). If you change hosts later on, you’ll have to get use to a different system and your site may not transfer over very smoothly.
Overall:
I generally recommend this approach for most business owners based on the time and money required vs. the results you’ll experience. It’s good for most business sites. I’ve worked with these services before and I like them.
Update: Wordpress
There’s a lot of interest around using blogs as your web site, especially a blogging platform called Wordpress.
As far as “ease of setting up” is concerned, I would rate them as similar to getting a paid hosting and template site. The main differences are that Wordpress can host your blog for free and if you host it yourself (I recommend this for business sites) it can be (usually) easily transferred between hosting companies so you’re not tied to any particular host.
The drawback is if you get stuck on something you’re doomed to wander the Wordpress forums for answers (no 800# support there) and custom work will likely need to be done through a paid web designer/programmer.
WYSIWYGs
Time: 10
Money: 2
Front Page and Dreamweaver are WYSIWYG editors (stands for “What You See Is What You Get”). These are programs you buy once and use to build and update your site. You are the designer and author of your site.
Pros:
You have full control of your site–the way it looks, functions, and interacts with visitors. If you want to update something or add something you have the freedom to do so. Other than hosting costs you have no other expenses for the life of your site.
Cons:
You have to spend a lot of time figuring out the program, as well as become your own designer and web expert. You’ll have to figure out some of the details of the web as well, like setting up web hosting and getting your files from your computer to your web server. Good WYSIWYG editors will cost money.
Overall:
I don’t recommend this option unless your site is going to be extremely simple (e.g. just a logo and text) or you have a lot (repeat: A LOT) of spare time on your hands. And then only if your web site is the focus of your business. If you don’t plan on spending a few hours a week working on your site, don’t go this route. You can attempt to throw something up online quickly, but it usually does not look professional. I’ve met many business owners that have spent 40~60 hours or more on their site and still don’t have something they’re happy with. That’s not to say these programs aren’t good, it’s just that most business owners completely underestimate the time it takes to become a proficient webmaster. On the other hand, if you’re a hands-on kind of person and you want full control over every detail of your web site, this might be the way to go.
Template HTML Sites:
Time: 8
Money: 2
Template html sites are sites that are already built for you. Template Monster is a good example of a place that sells template html sites. You just pay a nominal fee and you get all the files necessary to create your site. All you have to do is customize it a bit and you’re done. If you have a WYSIWYG editor, chances are you can buy a template site and use the editor to update it.
Pros:
The site comes ready made for your content. You choose the look and feel and pay once to get the whole site. You don’t have to design it or put it into html.
Cons:
You’re still limited to how your site will look–you have to choose from the options they give you. You’ll have to get your hands dirty by learning html or figuring out a WYSIWYG editor. They usually don’t include any code to make email forms and advanced features work.
Overall:
The template folks do their best to give you everything you need to put your site up fast, but in the end it will still take a good chunk of time to make your site work right. Once you start playing around with code, things can stop working very easily and for no apparent reason. This option takes less time than doing it all yourself because the site look and feel as well as the code is finished already (a big plus).
Hiring Out
If you have more money than time, this is the way to go. I use to make my living as a web designer, so I personally know freelancers and firms that have track records of doing good work for a fair price. If you’ve got web work you want to outsource, you’re welcome to contact me at the end of this article and I’ll get you in touch with people I trust.Freelance Web Designers
Time: 3
Money: 7
The least expensive way of hiring out, freelancers know their way around the web and can build you a good looking site in a fairly short period of time. Local freelancers are typically hard to find unless you ask other business owners to refer you to one. You may also be able to find them at local college campuses and sites like elance.com. You’ll want to talk with at least 3 different freelancers to get a bid for your site.
Pros:
Get the site you want with the right look and feel. Depending on the freelancer, you can probably get custom work done on the back end too. These people should know where the best services on the web are, so if you’re looking for something they should be able to point you in the right direction as opposed to you having to study up on everything yourself. A freelancer can get as involved as you want them to, meaning you can hand the difficult tasks or problems over to them for quick resolution while you work on other parts of your site yourself.
Cons:
If the freelancer works alone (as they usually do), it can take weeks or months to get a site up and running. You’re dependant on the freelancer to build things correctly and deliver you the site you’re looking for. You’ll have to pay for any updates or changes to the site in the future or have the freelancer show you how to update things yourself.
Overall:
Depending on their communications skills, you may be very happy with the service or very disgruntled. Be sure to look over their portfolio and get references from past clients. If things look good, you’ll get a custom site up and running in far less time than it would take to build one yourself. The results are better too.
Web Design Firms
Time: 2
Money: 9
A web firm should be able to do everything you need in one place. Where freelancers might know a little about everything or specialize in one thing, firms should be able to help you build a site that covers all your bases. They should have individual experts who can help you target your customers, set a marketing plan, and do any level of customized work you can think of. These firms are usually well advertised in search engines, yellow pages, and other forms of marketing media.
Pros:
One stop shopping for all your web needs. You should get everything you want just the way you want it if you hire a full-service firm. It shouldn’t take as long as it would for a freelancer.
Cons:
This can get expensive very quickly. Future updates will cost money.
Overall:
The prices that firms charge are usually representative of the type of work you can expect to get from them. If they seem under-priced, they probably focus on getting you in and out the door with an okay site that meets your basic needs. If they seem expensive they’ll probably take a lot of time planning and structuring your site to fit all aspects of your business, as well as getting to know your industry and competitors to give you the upper hand. Look through their portfolio and see if you like their work. Talk to their past clients. This money is usually well spent, but you can spend a lot.
Hire Your Own Web Team
Time: 4
Money: 10
Nothing will take the place of a group of web experts who do nothing but try to make your web site better. You’ll probably want to hire people in the area of front end programming, back end programming, and web marketing.
Pros:
Get everything you want. If your crew doesn’t know how to do something, you can tell them to learn it.
Cons:
Expense. That, and you’ll have to manage web people (sometimes a reclusive bunch).
Overall:
Have web experts working on your site 8 hours a day is what I’d call the “ideal situation”. There are so many things that can be done on the web that a web team will never run out of things to do, but not every business can afford this. If you’re going to hire your own web crew, they’d better be competent in their field and easily pay for themselves through the money made on the site.