FREE BAIT!

I am all about DIY. At least I am really good at delegating DIY projects to my husband. There are certain things I can do myself like wash my car, clean my house (although I don’t like it), and paint walls. Its true though that the professionals do it much better than I, so the question is where does DIY really pay off and where does it cost you, particularly when it comes to your website?

Web designers and developers truly understand the inner workings of the web. They know how to create interfaces that encourage visitors to go past your home page, they know how to code pages that load fast because we know that your potential customer is short on time and in need of your contact information. They know how to set up your website to work on smart phones and create sites that are accessible for people with disabilities - all things that are really important for successful web marketing.

A bad website is like finding out the health department shut down a restaurant — you just don’t go there. It says boatloads about what kind of business you are even if you don’t mean it to. That’s today’s marketing reality.So you have a tight budget and you can’t afford all the bells and whistles. You can try out a free template but I find many of my clients become frustrated with that if they don’t know HTML. A business card website is a nice option where it gets you out there for not a lot of money and you can always add on later. Usually it consists of one page listing your services, contact info and a call to action. Business card sites at least get you out there with a good design as opposed to having several pages of content presented on a faulty design.

I am all for DIY, don’t get me wrong, but make sure you are willing to roll up your sleeves and get in the trenches when it is going to save you money but not at the risk of losing a customer.