A Practical Guide To Websites For Small Local Businesses

How To Get A Website On A Shoestring Budget (And Virtually Overnight)

The number one thing keeping most small businesses from having a website is the expense of hiring a web designer. I agree - hiring a web designer is expensive. That's why I don't recommend hiring one for your business. Not only is it costly, but it could end up being a big waste of money.

Let me give you some examples: Have you ever hit the "back" button on your browser because a site just took too darn long to load? I'm sure you've come across the animated intro that you have to watch before you can even enter the site. Or how about the sites that specify what version of web browser you need to view them ("View using Netscape 6.0") or that use print that you need a magnifying glass to read? I've seen all of these on commercial websites.

A commercial website should never put barriers in the way of customers. It does not need every new high tech gizmo just because it's "cool." It should be aesthetically pleasing, but it should also be clear and to the point. Its job is to sell, not entertain.

For some examples of big companies with really bad websites (created by expensive web designers) go to http://webpagesthatsuck.com . I guarantee this site will give you a few chuckles.

How does it happen? Why do good companies end up with bad websites?

Most web designers come from either a technical or an arts background. That's great if you're creating a high tech site or if your website is purely a work of art. But you want a website that will benefit your business. And for that you need a web designer who understands sales and marketing. These are few and far between. And believe me, they command premium prices.

There is a more cost effective alternative that I will discuss below. But if you have the money to spend on a professional website designer (probably a minimum of $2,000.00), take the time to research and shop around. Prices can vary widely. Choose a designer who will:

• Provide you with references of satisfied clients.
• Provide you with examples of his or her work.
• Carry over the style of your print ads into the website design.
• Speak to you in non-technical terms (beware of the designer who tries to impress you - or confuse you - with a lot of "tech speak").
• Create a site that someone in-house can update without needing assistance from the designer.
• Work closely with you to make sure the site fills your particular needs.
• Turn over ownership of all graphics created for the site.

• Turn over the domain name registration (website address) to you.

The obvious alternative to hiring a web designer is to do it yourself. You can do this the hard way or the easy way.

The hard way: You could learn HTML, JavaScript, CGI and FTP. But if you're like most people, the thought of all this tech stuff is enough to make you dizzy. And besides, you don't have time to learn all that stuff - you have a business to run.

The easy way: Fortunately, some companies have seen the need for an easy, non-technical way to create business websites. The best of these, hands down, is a product called SiteBuildIt which can be found at http://sbi.3-18.com.

If you can type, you can create a professional quality website with Site Build It. No technical knowledge is required at all. Everything is automated, so you do not need to know HTML, CGI or the whole alphabet soup of web technology.

But SiteBuildIt (SBI for short) goes beyond merely creating a totally customized website. It is an entire online business package. This includes:

• Web hosting - putting your website online. This usually costs anywhere from $7.95-19.95 per month, but it is included in your yearly SBI cost.

• Domain name - your website address or 'dot com' name. This is an additional $10.00-20.00 per year. Again, included in your SBI cost.

• Automatic search engine submission and keyword analysis - This is extremely important because many customers will find you through the search engines, such as Google. To get both automated search engine submissions and key word analysis (to see if your pages will get a good position in the search engines) you would have to purchase software like Web Position Gold. This would cost you $149.00 plus $99.00 for yearly updates. SBI has its own powerful (but easy to use) software built in.

• Tracking links - these allow you to gauge the effectiveness of your online advertising by seeing exactly how many people arrived at your site from a particular ad.

• You also get your own email account using your own website name. For example, if your web address is www.mycompany.com you can have the email address me@mycompany.com which looks very professional to customers.

• Email list maintenance - lets you collect and keep a list of email addresses. You can use this to send out a monthly newsletter or to send special offers to your online customers. Many web hosting services charge extra for this or require you to use an outside service (around $17.00 - 19.00 per month). Again, this is included in your SBI cost.

• Plus additional features like a module that lets you easily create online forms, an optional "shopping cart" program if you wish to sell goods online, and more.

What I like most about SiteBuildIt is that it leads you step-by-step through every part of the process. Help is readily available every step of the way. This alone sets it apart from most of its competitors.

Now, based on what you have just read above you probably think that SBI costs at least as much as hiring a website designer. But at around $400.00 per year, it actually costs less than a yellow pages listing or a single printing of a thousand color brochures. You can check out the full details at:

I checked out several e-commerce products, but none of them offers the services or the price that SBI does.

If you want to get an idea of how SBI works, download a free copy of How Easy Is It To Build A Web Page Using SBI? It shows you the creation of an actual web page step-by-step. Use this link: http://www.workathomestrategies.com/sbi.html

If you are up to the challenge of learning about the technical side of web pages, the next chapter shows you how to build a website the hard way (from scratch without using SBI or any other e-commerce package). Otherwise, you can skip ahead to the next chapter.