Making a website when you're not a designer

You can pay someone to develop your website and tailor the experience to your exact taste. Hopefully they will be able to graphic design your image and logo, create a brand that works as a signature style, use the right technology and methodology to get natural search engine rankings and make sure the entire user experience works for the visitor and for you. However, this may be beyond the normal budget and if someone is really cheap and offers these things, beware - they most likely believe that simply creating something quickly will be enough to turn browsers into buyers. A professional website is expensive and needs to pay for itself.

Budget wisely

If you go down the route of buying a website then I would advise building a rapport with the designer and be prepared to have an ongoing build; set a budget per week for time allocated to it, make sure that what is being produced matches your expectations and that it can be adjusted over a period of time.

Set a time limit for the overall budget, like a six month target, and try to work out how many leads generated in that time have come from your online presence compared with the cost of the website. At what point does the website pay for itself. Be prepared to change tactics, if the project is not cost effective in the long term then change to a different designer/contractor/method or use the money for alternate forms of marketing.

Do It Yourself

Either you don't wish to pay for a really strong website just yet, you're unsure whether it will be effective for your business or you simply want total control but by finding a free resource online you can do most of the work yourself.

1. Get a Domain Name - choose wisely. It is a good rule of thumb to be able to say it aloud to a stranger and they can then understand it immediately and remember it. Too many dashes, dots, underscores and such will detract from the hits. There are many good deals, I prefer the services of UK2.net and Streamline.
( http://www.streamline.net/ offers 500mb of storage and a free name for £2.50 a month, plus extras thrown in )

2. Go get a free website template.
( http://www.freewebsitetemplates.com/ )

3. Learn a little HTML and read up - even if you don't become a web guru you will only need to know enough to tweak the templates a bit better. Tweaking doesn't require huge software as it can all be done in Notepad if needs be.
( http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/ )

4. Get a free HTML software. I recommend HTML-Kit
( http://www.chami.com/html-kit/ )

5. Use the Social Media - Free social media and cross viral marketing - or making procrastination pay. Sign up to these services and make sure you use them.

Blogger.com - there are others to choose from, just pick your favourite. You don't have to write every day but something every so often helps to keep the site fresh. Plus if you put a decent amount of work into it you can use your blog articles to link from del.ico.us and digg, etc

Flikr - Why not keep adding to your working photos, but keep it as a seperate work account.

Facebook, MySpace - all good but we start to hit the diminishing return here. If you're already using these sites then set up a separate account.

6. Advertise - submit the website to Google. Use your URL on every correspondence and signature, put it on your business card.

7. Listen to feedback but take action only on what seems right - it's your money, your business.

That is all I have time for... more later if I think of it. Hope it helps someone.


Oh, almost forgot - I am also available for hire