With all the stellar advancements in Web technology it can be extremely easy to get carried away and soup up your site with all the latest technical bells and whistles. And if you go through a professional website programmer, then there’s a good chance they will try to talk you into more than a few types of bells and whistles. As much as additional site elements—flash graphics, talking avatars, interactive questionnaires—may be legitimate add-ons, adding viable value to your site, bootstrapped business owners shouldn’t even start to consider these add-ons until they’ve got some positive cash flow consistently coming in. Even if you have a small business loan to fall back on, that loan can quickly dissipate if you stray from your path of essential business-building tools.
Unless you’ve got a friend who specializes in Web programming and website design with whom you can strike a barter deal, you’re going to want to keep your first website as basic as possible to relives some stress on that precarious budget of yours. But you fellow bootstrappers will be delighted to know that you can build your own website in a day (if you work really hard). And you don’t even need any prior experience to build a successful site.
A site hosting company is a business that provides a server for your website and allows it to be seen live on the Web. Essentially, they plug you into the Web for approximately $10 per month (I use Host Gator). Many times, your site hosting company will also offer you free site-building software with your monthly hosting service. This type of software helps you construct your own website using a simple plug-and-go format ( I recommend WordPress and Joomla).
The software incorporates preexisting tablets and preprogrammed coding, which means that your site is essentially already built for you. All you need to do is select a few elements that will help to personalize your site, such as selecting your favorite color schemes, uploading a photo of yourself, and adding content about your business. And it’s incredibly easy to add your own copy, usually just requiring simply copy and paste procedures. Other website programs include a content management site (CMS) that allows you to write your copy directly into the site and choose your formatting options.
Most of these complimentary site-builder software programs will be accompanied by simple instructions, but you can easily search for keywords such as “how to build a website,” “easy-to-create websites,” and “website building resources” to find even more extensive information on how to do it yourself.
After you have gotten your feet wet trying it out yourself, and you are ready to add new things it is a good time to talk to some web professionals about what is out there. I am one of those people that can set you on the right path, send me a note.
this advice contradicts other pundit advice, not to mention common sense – build-a-site tools create generic, boring, often ugly sites that do nothing to enhance your brand. They are the web equivalent of a print-for-free business card, and signal that the site owner is both poor and technically ignorant.
business owners, please ignore this advice and budget for a consultation with a web designer. Many people will never see you or your office, they will see only your web site; it is your internet billboard, business card, mall kiosk, and first (and too often last) impression. It is critical that it NOT SUCK.
You make valid points but I have to take you to task on a couple things. Free open source web packages such as Word Press and Joomla are far from generic or boring platforms to build a web site with. Not to mention the cottage industry of great designers that are building very robust and highly advanced featured templates for both of these platforms. If you want an example take a look at http://www.rockettheme.com for Joomla sites and http://www.studiopress.com for WordPress.
I am not saying that you will never need the help of a professional, in fact at the end of the article I make mention to that very thing, but at the beginning stage using the CMS systems I have mentioned above you can save yourself a lot of money on what a web developer is going to charge you to simply install the system, something with 10 mins of research you could do in an hour.
Sure you need to make an impact, sure you want to make you and your brand look good but there are a lot of crappy looking sales pages out there bringing in way more money then the nicest designed sites, and that is a hard thing for me to say because I am a designer. I just want my bootstrapping friends to be smart with the dollars.
Some individuals may be wondering about all the possibilities of hosting companies, what they offer, and what is a fair price. I fell upon a podcast (71 mins long) that talks about web hosting. Listen to it while you make that site of yours!
Podcast: http://geeksandgod.com/episode89
Informative Post. I hope my comment will help others.
Thanks James.
I’m sure the info will be of value.
Cheers,
Derek
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