You get what you pay for. A free website is just like anything else offered for free…there’s always a catch. It’s understandable that the word “free” still manages to attract as many people as it does. Given the considerations of a business website, we feel the word “free” undervalues what a true professional website design will do for the average company.
Most businesses know they need to have a website…and since they haven’t experienced the true impact of a really high-functioning well designed website, they think paying $500 for a “friend” to do it or a mass-advertised “free website” company to do it is the way to go. They won’t experience much increase in sales, but they never did before…so what’s the harm?
But let’s put these “free websites” and promises of easy digital marketing into proper perspective:
Internet commerce activity in the United States amounts to just over $225 BILLION dollars and is projected to grow to $450 BILLION by 2017. If you believe the US Commerce Department, there’s a pretty good amount of sales activity being generated by the internet. Unless you’ve given up on the idea of the internet being of value to you, it might be worth checking into.
So, how much of that $450 BILLION dollars do you feel you’ll get with your $500 “free” website?
It sounds too good to be true…especially after hearing all those success stories they highlight. It’s good advertising and advertising can often be deceiving.
While we offer “low cost” subscription sites, we consistently have to point out to many of our website design customers how these sites make their money.
Hosting – they overcharge for hosting plans or have so many “options” within that hosting that you must buy in order to have your free website do what you want it to do. Some customers are lured in to the $4.95 hosting plan only to find out they’re paying more than $199 a month by the time they get everything they want for their “free” website. Our website hosting plans start at $9.99 per month. Speed…flexibility, support, space…are all considerations you should use when looking at hosting providers.
Templates – you’ll find very few options for the way your site looks and acts. Many have as few as six or ten choices. You may have to pay more for it to be optimized for mobile. The choices allow you to make changes and it all seems very easy to make a professional looking website, but a website is more than just looks. We have template site offerings, but they are truly meant for the business that can’t generally afford a one-time design fee. They also include our design services so you don’t have to build it yourself…and we include regular SEO work and even search advertising.
Ownership – much of the fine-print is written by very expensive lawyers who make things as clear as mud. Who owns the domain? The content? The pictures you put on the site? What happens if you stop paying the monthly bill? A custom designed website like Maudience provides is totally owned by, used by, and under the full ownership control of the person paying the bill. You. We even go to great pains to train each of our custom website customers how to use their site…to make changes, add pictures, and control their own destiny. Of course, we’re also a phone call away if you find yourself in a bit of a bind. Unless it’s a major upgrade, we’ll assist with little or no fee.
“Free websites” are okay if you’ll be mostly experimenting with the internet for your business…but they are no long term business survival solution. For that, we suggest instead of a website, get yourself a business page on Facebook and pay someone to manage it properly to grow your business. Of course, there are people who say they can do that for “free” too…
So unless you believe in magical fairies spreading pixie dust bags of cash at night, give us a call and have a professional site designed…that you own…you control…and you’ll be happy with.
