You want a website, but where do you even start?
The web design industry has grown, shrunk and fragmented over the past decade or so, and finding a reputable company to build your site can be difficult. Having a flashy online presence so you can show your friends and competitors has lost its buzz. Where’s the real value in a website now that the 90s are well and truly over?
You probably use Facebook and Twitter. They’ve soaked into the mainstream consciousness and thousands of people are making use of familiar tools from their personal lives, and translating them into viable businesses in all sorts of markets. You know the web works because you can see it happening around you! Many web designers haven’t yet understood what you’re beginning to realise:
There are (at least) 3 reasons you don’t need a Web Designer.
1. While your site should look professional, unless you’re in the design business, flashy graphics should be a distant second to content. Case in point, my Dad has a very successful website that he built himself with no prior training whatsoever, but has tens of thousands of visitors from around the world, and runs a full time business from his site. Back in the 90s looking cool was all you had to do, but that was then. Even a non-designer like me knows Dad’s site could do with a visual overhaul (even though I’ve just given it one from a functional perspective). I don’t think his customers care, based on the amount of traffic and repeat business he gets.
2. Sites designed and built by someone else are expensive to maintain. The more bells and whistles, the more often you’ll have to pay just to change your phone number on the site. Often, designers come from a print background, and although they produce extraordinary and stunning visuals, they can fail to recognise that a website is more than an online brochure.
3. Modern Content Management Systems (CMS) like Joomla, Drupal and even WordPress (the system used for this blog) make it easier than ever to build and maintain a very professional website. All you need is some effort and the occasional helping hand from someone who’s done it before. If you need a very slick visual identity or branding, you can hire someone to do that in isolation, and “skin” it over your existing CMS site, using cheaply available templates and the vast online community of support that’s out there.
You can still pay someone to build your site, and it’ll probably be easier that way — but there’s no longer any reason to pay someone else to maintain your site once it’s built.
If you want to get started with your own site, ask me a question in the comments and I’ll reply with tips and links to help get your site off the ground.
I totally agree James. From a user perspective, fancy intros and graphics more often than not are just an annoyance and end up getting in the way. I head to a website for reason — usually to do something or find something out — my time is valuable and I don’t like it when it is wasted waiting for some patronising ad to load.
agreed! Content is King.
Except when I am King!
meh. Duke mebbe
Why settle for Duke?
That would be like forgetting to add GST…
lol… don’t worry. you can live in the camry until you claw it back
)
No way. Period. Market and product deployment is far more vast and diversified than you suggest. Sites I design never change. They are adapted to cultures that shape microenvironments that in turn define an organizational presence. I think what you propose applies well to a specific niche, which is the do-it-yourself samll scale personal and very small business site (1-few partners or employees). Actually, there must be hundreds of flash and php do-it-okay site builders out there. From the center of my professional specifications … those kinds of sites lack any real relevance to anyone other than the pros (or hacks) who package one-click templates. Thanks for identifying yourself as such, and have a great “click-click” life.
Thanks Mark, you’re exactly right! The market as a whole is vast and diversified. For my niche, “microenvironments”, “cultures”, “organizational presence” and “professional specifications” won’t get me anywhere, because companies that employ 1 or 2 people can’t afford the luxury of abstract ideas like that. I’m enjoying my click click life very much, because I get to deal 1 on 1 with people who are passionate about what they do and who they are, and so are thousands of others!
I got your point, plz suggest some more tips
Hey @Basalam, what would you like to know? Do you have a site already? Thanks for reading by the way