Gary Hostick asks a question:
Should I try to build a web page by myself or have someone do it?
This is a question lots of us have pondered. Yes, people do say it’s easy to build your own site, but easy for whom? It takes a certain type mind to get this stuff, and for the rest it’s an exercise in frustration. Gary mentioned having Front Page Express on his computer, included with MS Office.
Unfortunately this program was not made for building websites, but as a simple tool to edit them. If you want to use Front Page, you need to invest in the complete program.
Since you want a web site for business, right away we know this needs to be super professional looking. It’s the first and maybe only impression of you the client will see. Don’t have your nephew do it for a Boy Scout merit badge….please! Don’t scrimp on first impressions…do it right.
So what are your options? If you want to do it yourself, you have to buy good software to help you. MS Front Page is OK, and the web site classes use it at the local community college. (One nice thing about classes is that you may purchase the software with a student discount.) These classes always fill quickly so you need to register, wait for them to become available and then… race like mad to sign up. It will take you several months after starting to be able to produce your own site. There is a lot of frustration during the early part of the learning curve so you have to push through that problem as well.
If that hasn’t discouraged you, there is more. Think of the time this is taking you away from what you do best. If your site was up and running within a couple of weeks, which it could have been if someone else did it, you wouldn’t be still hacking away at the keyboard 5 months later, ready to drop kick the monitor out the door. My instinct says if you were of the mind to do a website yourself, it would have already been done.
For cost comparisons…by the time you buy the correct software and pay the tuition you could have already paid for a simple website. When we factor in the time away from your work during this process and the fact that your website could have been working several months by now….which is the least expensive option?
I don’t mean this to sound like a promotional piece for web site builders, but I have been the above route. Experience isn’t just talking here, it’s screaming.
If you do want to try it yourself; then do it….it always feels good to accomplish a worthy task. But don’t try it without help. Go to the community college and learn the right way, where you can ask questions and learn with, and from, others at the same level.
(Next time: Other options)
Please send your ‘webbie’ questions for the column to: redhed@quik.com
Anyone with a business involved mainly in online sales that would like to join a good problem solving group, please call Susie Stevens, 318-4650 or www.opp- knocks.org.
