New Website….What are my options?

Step-by-Step Do It Yourself Website Builder

The Hook , The Promise :: Free, Easy, Affordable, Quick, Easy-to-Use Tools, Templates

The Benefits ::

• Promises you that you create your own website in a few easy steps.
• It is as easy as clicking a few buttons.
• You have complete control.
• You don’t need any technical skills.
• You don’t need to know anything about HTML to make your own website.

The Pitfalls ::
Building your own website with no experience is a hefty promise. It reminds me of the weekend my husband and I decided to install the “do-it-yourself” wood flooring. It was supposed to be simple, just like picture promised. The picture on the front of the brochure showed a happy couple, husband with a hammer and wife with a glass of lemonade. The floor was almost completed and the oriental rug was ready to be rolled out over their brand new “do-it-yourself” wood flooring.

We had a limited budget, only a small area to cover and we wanted it done NOW! We had seen the commercials and decided to visit the warehouse to check out the goods. First of all, choosing the “do-it-yourself”  flooring sample was hard enough. We really didn’t see anything that matched what we had envisioned and the flooring in the warehouse looked nothing like what we saw in the commercials. We decided that cheap price tag and the promise of easy install was worth compromising our original “vision”. The next day, my husband picked up the flooring and brought it home. First of all, the brochure didn’t mention anything about a saw. We had the standard home depot home tool box collection which didn’t include a saw. To make a long story somewhat short, the floor finally went in. Was it easy? No. Was it what we had originally envisioned? No. Was the quality as pristine as promised? No. Was it worth it? Maybe, only time will tell.

Moral of the Story :: You get what you pay for. [or] If it seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t.

Website Templates

The Hook , The Promise :: Free, Easy, Affordable, Quick, Easy-to-Use Tools, Thousand’s of Choices

The Benefits ::

• A “ready-made” website that you can use instead of trying to design one from scratch.
• A cheaper and easier way to have a design that gets you the attention you deserve.
• If changes are needed this can be done easily without changing the layout of your pages.
• Just edit your website templates with your information and you are ready for business.

The Pitfalls ::
Just the labor of listing these “benefits” simultaneously made me cringe and laugh. When we started Apple Marketing, we weren’t completely knowledgeable in the art of building and developing websites. I had a fine arts background and our website developer had grown up building computers. Our website experience came mostly from the borrowed text books we read. To be safe, we decided to use a template from one of the popular “template farm” websites. All of the benefits I listed above and the promises of “no experience necessary” hooked us line and sinker.  It seemed like a no brainer, we get a template, bust out a website in a couple days and make some money!

So there we were, template purchased and ready to deliver our first website. All we had to do was change the navigation, add a logo and implement our content. That was it. Easy peasy, simple as cake…right?

To date, we haven’t had as many hang-ups, arguments and sleepless nights as we did building our “template website”. If we had a question, we had to pay someone at their company for technical support. We were lucky that we had Dreamweaver and Photoshop because if we hadn’t, there would have been no POSSIBLE way to get that site implemented. We had to basically tear down the whole structure and then rebuild it to get it to work right. If you have no set deadlines, a huge ambition and html+ knowledge – we MIGHT suggest you try it out but with a warning…

WARNING: Prepare on spending multiple days and hours on this templated website. Keep lots of caffine within arms reach. Do NOT operate a small vehicle while working on this template because you will need tons of room to throw things.