Technically, a website is not free in the way you may think, but what if I tell you that you already have several websites that you have not paid a dime for?
Hold on, let me explain...
Take your Facebook page, for example; if you have a Facebook account, you have a website that is your ‘site’ on the ‘web.’ Gerrit? If you don’t gerrit… (I’m kidding I’m kidding.)
Okay, let’s be serious. Your Facebook account is a website. The only difference between your social accounts and a common website is that your social account resides on Facebook’s server with a complex web address like http://facebook.com/yourname/. That is like renting an apartment on another person’s land as opposed to buying your land and building your house on it, which is a website as you know it.
People often get their named websites for various reasons. One of the most common reasons is that you want to have your personal domain and not rely on public servers like Facebook. So, you can go on to pay $5 to $20 to buy yourdesiredname.com and point it to your Facebook account/page and Voila! You have a website hosted on your Facebook page, which has cost you just the price of your domain.
Don’t get confused. I will explain better with this analogy of housing which goes like this. “What’s the cost of having shelter?” You can decide to put a shed in a public area and live there rent-free. The question is, do you have shelter? Yes, you do. Is it befitting for you / your business? Now that’s another thing.
I guess that’s why we have different types of housing and buildings: you have small apartments, you have commercial buildings, and you have mansions, all with different costs associated with them – these are the same factors that come into consideration when deciding what kind of website you want or what budget to spend.
The first thing you should do is to answer the question, ‘why do I need a website?’
- Is it to express yourself and serve as a diary (for example, a blog)
- Is it to showcase a skill or expertise in art, creative endeavor, or science (a portfolio / personal gallery)
- Do you want to provide a service? Or tell people about your service?
- Do you want to sell a product, offers, etc.?
- Do you want to create something people can come and use or have fun with?
[More important questions available as stated in this article (2 MAJOR things you need to fulfill before building a website]
These questions may seem basic, but at the same time, you should know that the more functions/services your website performs, the more resource-intensive it will be to build.
Let’s go back to my shelter analogy, shall we?
Now you can say you want a house, and want it on the best road in town. You want it to have a helicopter pad with a rocket launching platform, and you also want it to detect imposters coming from 20 miles away as well as have the ability to float on water in case there’s a flood.
Sounds amazing, abi? But you obviously cannot do all this on ‘pure water’ budget.
As a business owner, you have probably had clients who, at the first instant, wanted everything that you had to offer. But when you started to mention prices, they literally began to remove products from the cart, one by one. Very funny but true!
It is the same thing as saying you want a house that will have and do ‘everything’ like the analogy above. Is it possible? Of course, it is! Pool together the right resources, time, and other variables, and you’ll pull your castle from the air and have it firmly on the ground. However, this leads to the most important question of all time: ‘What is your budget?’ To put it mildly, a budget for a flat or bungalow can not afford you an impostor-detecting building.
A different approach will be to talk to someone who builds websites and help him/her to understand what your goals are – that is, breaking things down to specifics with you. For example, someone who wants a website to launch a book might just need a simple page to summarize the book and show stores/libraries that have the book. On the other hand, a person offering services like a barber might require a bit more than that.
Breaking things down to these specifics will help you see clearly what your objectives are before determining what kind of website you want to build.
This might come across as overwhelming but hey! That is where expertise (me *wink*) comes in. Many people have built websites and run businesses, and most can already pre-determine what you need or will need in the future – which you are yet to think of – or anticipate depending on your purpose for building a website. This is so that at every point when you wake up and realize, ‘Oh, I need this new feature‘; you do not have to keep dialing your developer’s phone when instead, he could have just inserted that feature from the beginning.
For example, you are a barber with a website showcasing your hairstyles. Now, you want prospective customers to book a session or schedule a time with you before they come in. This works fine, but then in another 3 weeks, you realize you want them to make payment for these sessions before they come to visit for the haircut.
These are foresight that an expert will have and implement before you even realise that you need it. Although it would sound like an “upsell” to most people when they hear this (which ends up in a back and forth or sometimes dispute as new bills are presented for the new tasks to be implemented on this website), it would be wise to let them do their job, which will, of course, be tailored to your personal needs.
Having this clarity, you realize you’re either caught in between either paying for development every time you need something changed or paying heavily for a robust prepaid solution that is too complex to understand and utilize to your level of freedom and choice. This means you pay a lump sum upfront and never have to worry about every little thing again. Isn’t that just great?
I have seen this scenario play out repeatedly, where there is a lot of friction between the client and developer due to making the decisions between what the customer wants and what he needs to have and at what particular time/stage. E reach to cause fight! This is why I am presenting this solution to you which will ensure that your business gets what it needs at every stage. The best part is that your needs will be met before you realize that you have those needs. Fortune teller no do pass this one!
My website package is just perfect for small businesses. It conveniently allows you to grow along with the package while adding little tweaks here and there according to your personal taste or requirements. With this package you also get a monthly review of your needs so that you can remove and add website features as your business needs them.
This is a great package for small businesses that require regular reviews and updates on their website but do not possess the facility for a huge in-house IT team.
Is this something you want? Are you ready to stop playing small with your small business? Are you ready to buy your land instead of building on another man’s land? Then let’s get started with this FREE consultation. You can leave your name and email in the field below, and I will send you detailed information about this special package.
Ready to give your business a professional look it needs? Send me a mail @ info@auntyronke.com or click HERE to get started NOW.
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You can share your experiences and any point you think I must have missed in the comments. 👇
I am Aunty Ronke and I am here to help you on the journey to making your small business a big one! Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram @auntyronke for periodic updates and tips like this and hit the subscribe button to be notified when I make a new post.
