Sunday 1 May 2011

D.I.Y. Website Reality

One of the greatest claims of the world wide web is the multitude of free services. Some have changed our lives like free email (Hotmail, Yahoo & Gmail), free communications (Skype & MSN Messenger) and free social interaction platforms (like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare & LinkedIn). Naturally, the internet is the place where you can make your business reach thousands of people for a fraction the cost of traditional means - but is a free online website creation service really the best solution?

Lets look at a few of the pro's and cons of a free D.I.Y. website building service.

Pros

1. It's free. Who can argue - that's a pretty darn good pro!
2. You can have a site up and running within minutes.

Cons

1. Little or no direct customer support if you run into problems.
2. No accountability of your site goes offline. (what are they going to do - give your $0 back?)
3. If the company goes under or gets bought out - your site could be gone forever with no notice.
4. Customisation is tedious and difficult if you don't know what you're doing.
5. The time investment required is usually not equivalent to the quality of the end product.

While there are a lot of people that the free service is perfect for, the vast majority of businesses will only ever see minimal results from a D.I.Y. type service. In terms of being online, something is usually better than nothing, but often with these types of sites it's hard to tell.


Why pay when you can get free?

The biggest difference a company like Digerati can bring to the table is a personalised solution. We never use templates, or pre-made sites. Every site we make is designed and coded from scratch. Because we take the time to understand your business and the needs you have, we can design a website that will highlight the key aspects of your business, and guide demographically targeted users to relevant information on your site. We can also build custom tools into the site that will help you manage your visitors, orders, client contacts, stock and even appointments.

You also get personal service. If you have problems updating your site, or you've forgotten a password, a quick call to your local office will have you back up and running within minutes. 

What's holding you back?

Talk to us today for an obligation-free quote. Let us know any concerns you have or an objective you need to reach so that we can work with you to design a solution that makes your life easier and gets you back to doing what you do best.

Talk to your local representative today; Liam (Sutherland Shire & St George) or Ainsley (Northern Beaches) are more than happy to chat with you about your project.