28 Nov Does Cheap mean Cheap when it comes to Web Design?
It’s a conversation I come across at least once a week, “But what is the difference between this company and that when it comes to Website Design?”
- They charge only $200 and you charge $2,000. Why?
- Their website hosting is $10 a month, yours is $20. Why?
- I just need something cheap. Why can’t you match it?
The thing is this… I ‘could’ match it,but I choose not to. When you order a design package from someone like me you get a level of customises service that is unparalleled and cannot be matched by “Big Company XYZ.”
Which means you get what you WANT, not what you’re willing to “settle for.”
But just quietly, between you and me, that’s not the NUMBER ONE REASON why you shouldn’t build your site on one of those cheap WYSIWYG editors that the Big Companies offer.
Want to find out why paying that cheap price up front with the low monthly costs afterwards could completely ruin your business down the line?
Watch this video NOW.
Transcript
Good morning, good afternoon, or maybe I should say good evening wherever it is where you are right now watching this video. Hello and welcome. For me it’s morning, the sun is just rising coming up over the water here at Point Cartwright just near Mooloolaba Beach.
One of the things I love to do at least once a month it is get down to watch a sunrise. Giving me time to just sit and consider and remember those important things in life. And that is that we work to live, we live to enjoy, just a quick tip along the way.
Today I had I happen to have a particular message, a question which I’d like to address. This comes up in my business probably more two or three times a month when I’m talking to business owners out there and they say, Paul, I’ve been contacted by so and so from such and such local or national directory. And they’ve offered to build a website for me and it’s really cheap and I’m just going to do this and pay this, and this is what I’m going to get.
Now the question is of course is this good value for you as a business owner. Well it all comes down to whether or not and how I guess you evaluate what is good value. If you’re looking just from a monetary term, sometimes yes, this can be good value. Perhaps a small investment and then a monthly fall-on from there. Let me just say that there’s nothing wrong with that business model where you might invest $500 8, 9, maybe $1000, and then just a monthly fee of 40, 50, $70.
That’s okay if that’s the way you prefer to pay things. And from a business stand point nothing wrong with that business model.
I know people who run quite effective and good business, who build websites at very low costs just a couple of hundred dollars and then a monthly fee of about 100, $110. Nothing wrong, they’re making money on the back end. That is okay as a business model. But, you do need to look at what your missing out on in the front end to see whether it actually represents good value for your business.
So I want you now to put aside the money. Is this a good thing? Is that a good thing? Forget about that, that depends on your circumstance. Here’s my first problem when it comes to getting a website for your business built by and hosted within some directory structural by some local directory or something like that.
My first problem is this, a question you should ask. How much access do I have to the back end? If I want to change a phone number, if I want to update some images, add a new page, can I? In some cases absolutely you can, and that’s a good thing. You must make sure that you can.
Here’s another one. If they’re setting this up for you and you don’t yet have a website, who registers the domain name you or them? Now of course it’s convenient for them to go and do it. But I’m going to suggest to you that you don’t let them do it. You absolutely must do it yourself. And then you ask them for what’s called the DNS settings, the domain name server settings. You want to be able to update them, but you must, you must, you must control your domain name where ever you’ve registered it and whom ever that’s with.
Do not ever allow someone else to have that control. Another question I have for you from a hosting point of view, worthwhile asking. With the hosting, what am I paying for in the monthly back end. Because if you’re going to offer me hosting at say 40, 50 bucks a month. I can get that cheaper for 10, 20, $30 a month. Now in my own business I offer hosting to my clients at I think it’s around 25, $30 a month. Somewhere there about. I know they can get it cheaper, but I also know that it’s set up on the same server as my own website and believe me, if I have a problem there, I know about it real quick. So that’s the thing, and that’s what you need to be aware of.
By the way, just enjoying the sunset. I know I’m not showing up too easily on the camera. Who cares, I can just turn around, who wants to look at me or maybe stand over here and change the light just a little. Look, the thing is this, sometimes when you get a hosting package things are covered.
There’s this big shining light over here in the distance but things are covered and you can’t quite see everything. Here’s probably my biggest concern. What are you locked in for? What is the term of the contract? How long does that go? Add up the mathematics and then consider carefully.
Let’s also look at the search engine options, and they’re not always bad. It’s a poor, it’s foolish to think that because it’s a big directory or something or other and they’re setting this up that poor search engine factor. No, not always the case. But you absolutely do need access to meta titles. To your meta description for each and every page. If you have a blog, which you absolutely should. You need access to setting up categories, access to setting up tags, so you can group your blogs together.
Other things that you should be considerant of is the real canonical tag. When you publish something on your site you want to be able to say, this is the first place. That’s also important. You want to be able to do these things at an absolute minimum. Plus you want to be able to register that site with Google webmaster tools and submit your XML site map.
Now if you don’t have these options, my suggestion is this. Run away! Go somewhere else, all right.
You must be able to do these things.
You must be able to install and monitor your Google analytics or whatever. Not a whatever program, those ones, put in the Google analytics. It’s the best free one out there as I record this at this point in time, so just do it.
But that’s still not my biggest concern. My biggest concern I’ve left till last, for those lucky few who are still watching this video, here it is. What happens when your business grows and you outgrow what they can offer you and you want to move on? Can you take all of those files with you? Your web pages, your web images, your everything? Can you transfer that site?
I doubt it, I very much doubt it.
You don’t ever actually own it, they do. I’ve see this happen time and time again and so a business owner perhaps like yourself, you shell out maybe $500 for this cheap ass website. Hey, that looks okay, nothing wrong with that, and you play with it and you do a little bit here and you do a little bit there and hey, nothing wrong with that. That’s, okay but, at some point you want to move, you want to change hosts, you want to do something with it and you have no control whatsoever, because it’s not your website, it’s theirs.
These are my concerns, these are things you should look at. And you’ll notice I haven’t mentioned any specific directory or organization. That’s fine because they’re pretty much all the same. But if you’re watching this, you know what I’m talking about. So these are the things that I ask you to consider. Please, is it good for your business, not just now but next year and in five years time? I mean you are in business to do it aren’t you? To actually have a business, earn a good income have some fun, enjoy the finer things in life. I hope so, consider these things not just for now, but for later also.
All right, I got a coffee waiting for me just over there. Going to kick back and enjoy watching the rest of this sunrise. What a glorious day, How’s the serenity! We love Australia, damn we love Australia.
You have a fantastic time, great weekend, great day whatever you’re doing, and I’ll talk to you again real soon, bye bye.
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