When you start a business, any business, you need to set up a website. I repeat, you need a website. This is the 21st century and it is no longer an option. You need to have an online presence and it needs to be strong.
Setting up a website may seem like a daunting task, and often it is a difficult process. But it can be streamlined if you enter the process with a clear idea of what you want and how to proceed.
The first thing I am going to suggest is that you check out websites of companies that are similar to yours. What do you like about their sites? What do you not like? Then look at websites you frequent and assess them for usability and aesthetics. With all of these sites in mind, create a list of inspiration websites. Be clear about what it is that you want to emulate and what you think could use improving. Once you have this list, you can begin to formulate your ideal site.
Also, do not be afraid to speak to friends, family members and people who are part of your target market. They will have opinions on what features are the best, and which are the worst!. Listen to their insights and integrate them into your website plans if they ring true for you.
Once you have some ideas in order, it is time to start building your website. Lets go over the different options.
The most basic option is to build it yourself. And there are a few ways to do that.
- One: Use a free web-building system.
- Advantages:
- They are free.
- They provide templates to make building a website easy.
- There are a lot of them out there to choose from, including...
- Disadvantages:
- Many of the better templates have a cost.
- Your website may look like many websites out there.
- Next, you have the slightly more costly options. These include GoDaddy and SquareSpace.
- Advantages
- You will have more utilities to customize your website
- Disadvantges
- You will have to fork over some money upfront.
- You can go DIY and build the code yourself.
- Advantages
- You get to build your website exactly how you want it. You are only limited but your skills.
- There are lots of sites online where you can learn coding. Our favorites are:
- Disadvantages
- This option has a huge drawback, and that is that you will need to learn HTML code at least.
- And you will need to pay both to have someone host your site and for your domain.
The other option for your website is to have someone else put it together for you. There are three ways you can go with this.
- Web Designers
- Although there is no specific definition, a web designer is someone who is going to use one of the template style web-building system mentioned above to put your website together for you. They are often well versed in the system and can get you going relatively quickly and at a lower cost than the other two.
- However, you are also still only getting a templated setup and as I mentioned above, it could look like a cookie cutter website.
- Web Developers
- A web developer should be able to build your site from the ground up. They should know at least HTML and often know many other coding languages to get you the site you want, how you want it.
- It may take some time to get your website up with they, because they will be creating most everything from scratch.
- Firms
- These could be web-building firms, or media firms, but they will usually have both developers and designers who can put everything together for you.
- This is likely going to be the most expensive route you can go to get your website up.
Keep in mind with all three of these options you get what you pay for.
So there you have it. Websites are important. If yours is outdated or non-existent, get to work.
And, if you are going to be selling online, you can use E-junkie. If you sign-up now use the promo code EjunkieBlog for an extended 60-day trial. The code is good through the end of July 2015.
And as always, good luck and good sales.
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