Is Doing Your Own Site Really Worth Your Time?

With the advent of things like Wix and 1-and-1, many business owners are creating their own websites, thinking they are saving money. That could not be farthest from the truth. For many businesses, they will actually pay much more in the long run and that is before we factor in their labor to do it themselves. In my professional opinion, for the majority of business owners, creating their own website is simply not the best option. Ask yourself what a sale is worth? Now how many of those sales will you be missing without a well-design, ranked website? Don't just take my word for it, Rebecca Gill is a successful web designer who started as a DIY business owner says:

I applaud people who want to create their own websites. Heck I did it myself over a decade ago and it is how I got started in internet marketing. The problem is my website looked like I created it myself and it took years for me to “get it”. Most people and/or businesses don’t have years to wait for success. They need help and traffic and leads or sales now.

If you are one of those folks, doing your own website, hold on before your throw the book at me. Let's take a look at this for a moment.

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I'd like to break down what it actually takes to create a solid website that is designed to convert traffic into sales. As a business owner myself, I know how hard it is to juggle my schedule and get all of my tasks complete to run a successful business. I never do tasks I am not good at or do not know how to do, I leave those tasks to the professionals. So let's talk about what it takes to do your own website in detail, assuming we want a great site with strategic marketing & conversion goals in mind. Website design ranges widely but let's say on average you can have your website created for around $2500 (in the US) on average. For the purpose of this comparison, this new marketing brochure/tool will be about 8 pages, with a mailing list and contact form. Nothing fancier so we can compare apples (diy web design) to apples (professional web design). So we are not talking e-commerce stores this time around.

Creating the Website

Now, to create a website that will actually convert your audience to sales, you will need to write web copy. Not just any old copy, but highly targeted copy that will get folks to take action. Copy is the actual content or words on the page. This would take a seasoned professional about 90 minutes per page. Remember, we are talking about creating sales copy - content that actually sells the product or service. Based on 8 pages of content, and assuming that good copy is the goal, that's 12 hours for copy. Once you have copy, you can start your website. The first thing would be to create a "look and feel" or find an appropriate template. This includes changing colors, fonts and often, manipulating images. Typically you will have a base theme or style for all pages, so we are not talking about formatting the copy/content yet. Here we are referring to creating the design itself. On average, this takes us about 20 hours depending on the design/style. While we do not use templates so to speak, we do use a base structure and then create graphics, icons and images to make the site look good. Folks we talked to said they spent about twice that on the DIY programs (many said 60-80 hours but I am going to stay low here). The remainder of your time will be spent building the pages, creating the forms and the mailing list and getting it published. Below is our estimate of time to build.

Time to Complete a Website

Copy - 12 hours
Web Theme - 20 hours
Create Pages / Custom Images - 8 hours
Create Forms / Mailing List - 3 hour
Publish / Test - 2 hour

TOTAL TIME TO COMPLETE: 45 Hours

Cost Benefit Analysis (What is your time worth?)

The first thing I will mention at this point is that for most business owners I have spoken with who have tried to do their own website, it has taken them 60+ hours. Moreover, when they are talking to me, it is typically because they don't like the result. So not only have they spent all that time working on the website and NOT their business, they now are looking to hire someone to do it for them. We get a call like this EVERY week. So now that we know it would take on average about 45 hours to create a professional website geared toward closing sales, let's break that down. At $2500 on average to build a website and taking 45 hours on average to build, the cost is about $55 per hour. Now that may sound like a lot of money and to be honest, for many new business owners, it is. However, when you do the job yourself, you are missing a key ingredient in the build.

Search Engine Optimization (Getting Placement on Google)

Here is where that $55 per hour pays dividends. A good web design company not only does everything we talked about above, but they do something 99% of business owners would not be able to do. Build a website that Google likes and is optimized for the search engines. Now don't get me wrong, getting ranked is very complicated and takes a lot of other things aside from a well-built and optimized website. However, in many niches, just the act of having the proper SEO applied to the site, you will get listed. When performed correctly, on-site SEO optimization is a big factor in your search engine rank. And, those DIY companies simply were not built for this. In time, they certainly could add these features but they won't. Why? That is how they make their money. Let me tell you a story.

Why Cheap Websites Really Aren't

One day we received a call from a customer. She had signed up for one of the DIY packages that was slated as $5 per month (if you pay up front for a year). Awesome. Well, not really but she thought so. When she called, she told us she was frustrated with the platform and had a hard time making changes. When I asked her what she paid, while she initially indicated she was paying $2.99 per month, when we really looked into her plan, they were "up-selling" her to the tune of $100 per month. Uh wait? How can that be? What happened to the DIY cheap price? Here is what we found:

Site: $5 per month
Hosting: $10 per month
Private Domain Listing: $10 per month
SEO / Marketing: $50 per month
Email - $5 per email address (she had 5): $25 per month

As you can tell, I like numbers. So let's break out the trusty calculator again. At $100 per month, the first year is $1200. The second year is $1200. The third year is... wait we don't need a calculator to do this math! This will become costly. If a web developer charged $2500 one time with a nominal monthly fee, you are getting a better bargain and the site will most likely convert much better. Plus, we have not even factored in your time if you are going to be the one building the website. Of course, you could skip the SEO and private domain service. But that still equates to over $700 per year. Factor in your time and it is easy to see why hiring a professional is not only cheaper in the long run but saves a business owner time and money! I could go further into detail but I think you get the picture!

Pro's & Con's - A Little Extra Incentive

According to imaginedc.net, you can do the cheapest route for a small benefit:

- Low-cost or free.
- Good for the one-person business, nonprofit or hobbyist.
- Can be used as a stepping stone to a more professional web site.
- Good for when you only need a few pages without the bells and whistles.
- Recommended DYI sites: Wix and Squarespace.
- Great if you don’t need a marketing strategy.
- They have support forums, which can give quick answers to very general issues.

But as we have shown, you reap more benefit and save money in the long run using a professional. Here are the main reasons you may not want to do a DIY website:

- The SEO services that go along with these builders is not competitive, nor does it work on a strategy based on your unique business. - Have strong limits on creative control. Most of the time, you’re using inflexible templates. - Your site will look like someone else’s. Almost exactly. - They often insist you include their logo or they insist on advertising over which you have no content control. - A lot of features are flash-based, limiting their usefulness on mobile devices. - They lack enhanced functionality that can make a website more of a profitable marketing tool. - Should you choose to move to a more affordable hosting company, you’re screwed. - You can get detailed support and assistance from people that have a deep understanding of your site.

While my purpose for writing this is not to self-promote, if you want to learn more or get a quote, you can find us here: www.portsidemarketing.com

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