It is almost mandatory for a company to have its website nowadays. This is the hard truth which most of us take for granted, and we almost get frustrated if we don’t find the right one while searching for solutions to our problems.
Still, we also know that getting a website up and running is a tedious task and can occasionally be as complicated as figuring out the first steps of your business. What you need to have to get the website up and running is a long list.
From having the right design and requirements set up in advance, to copy which will drive your audience to follow up on your call to action, and a bit of bling to separate you from your competitors it is a lot to think of, let alone… Click To TweetIn short, you are soon to discover that you cannot get what you need without a whole team to back you up. A team will cost you an arm and a leg, and you might not get what you paid for in the end, due to simple miscommunication.
Doing it yourself from scratch is also not the easiest solution. Usually, it is the option many people, and blogs for that matter will make sure to tell you to avoid at all costs. They are somewhat right, as it is true that not all of us have a bunch of coding expertise and experience under our belt. It will take quite an amount of time to get the whole thing done, and yet, the success is still not guaranteed with most solutions offered online.
Easy or not, there is a list of benefits in favor of the do-it-yourself option. Here are our top five reasons why you should still dive in and create the website yourself.
1. Only you and you alone know what your vision is
Yes, those guys you just interviewed to create your website sound amazing and you are certain that they know what they are doing. They have grasped the basic concept of your company, and have suggested the color scheme and the extra bling for your website. You smile, prepare a bunch of money, and go to sleep in peace because you feel they have you covered.
During the first demo, you realize that what they are presenting to you could not be more different than what you expected and hoped for. The colors are close, but not really there, and you are sure the information should have been presented differently.
The truth is, it is rarely how you imagined the whole thing would go down. Yes, if you hire an awesome team, you could end up with what you asked for. However, the sad truth is, unless you do it yourself, you are unlikely to be 100% happy with your website.
2. Save a buck or two
Or, if we are being honest, save thousands. Speaking of developers, they are more than costly, and good ones are already cluttered with projects until the day they die. If you are lucky to catch one or two, he probably won’t have the experience to create for you what you want, exactly how you want it. Still, he is gonna cost you much more than just your nerves.
This is another great reason to turn to a good do-it-yourself solution. If you go down this path, you are likely to invest nothing more than your time. Sounds intimidating, right? We know you do not have years and years to learn all the tricks good developers have in their sleeve, and that you are scared that even if you do, you won’t get the exact website you envisioned.
Luckily, there are numerous do-it-yourself solutions, that won’t take you ages. These free website builder reviews might help you make your decision faster. What you want to look for are solutions that offer already pre-made website components, or something similar that doesn’t require you to start from scratch. For example, with Slides application from Designmodo, you have all the components already pre-made, and clear instructions laid out for you.
Keep in mind how you want your website to look like, and start using them, instead of searching for money to pay the development team!
3. You need it done, and you need it yesterday
If you figured you need a website, you also figured you need it done yesterday. You don’t have time to waste, because you know that every day your website is not up there on the internet and your marketing efforts lead nowhere, you lose potential customers.
Hiring someone else is not just paying for their service. Money goes out of your pocket every minute your website is not available because people can’t find you, realize that you are the solution they were looking for, and give you their money.
We’re not talking about minutes here. You will need a designer, a developer, and a copywriter to get the website going. It is a no-brainer that every potential member of the team needs to go through an interview with you, or at least, you need to have a short meeting with them to discuss your requirements. Each of them will need the time to do their thing, and you might want to double that time if you have any changes to the original agreement. You can do the math from here, both time and money wise.
4. Level up yourself – learn a new skill
If you did a little research, most of the applications out there promise that you will be able to have your website up and running in less than a minute. This is true – these so-called website builders do not take a lot to set up, but there is a downside to it. In the best case scenario, the website will look generic. The worst case scenario is if your website looks unprofessional, and you end up looking cheap, which is likely to happen if you cannot remove their signature from it. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
However, if you are ready to learn a thing or two about coding, there are amazing apps which will give you astonishing results without any side-effects. Slides, for example, allows you to create just the right website, but it does require some basic knowledge of HTML.
Since HTML is relatively simple to master, it is definitely worth the effort. Even while you are still learning, you will be able to create the website using Slides app thanks to their pretty detailed manual and clear instructions. You can select from an astonishing number of already created slides to set up the basics, then download the template you created, and using the instructions and examples from the manual, add all the touches you would like to have without breaking a sweat.
There is not a single thing missing – from buttons and social media logos to adding your pictures, animations or videos, you can create the website you always wanted to have. In addition to that, you will gain valuable HTML knowledge, which could set you on a path to becoming a developer after all!
5. You broke it, you fix it
Probably the best part of creating the website yourself is the fact that you did it yourself from the start. You should already know what you like and dislike about it, and what is not working how you wanted it to work.
If you are looking to fix a bug, or to edit some pictures, you do not need to pawn off the work. Especially, if you used Slides app and have followed the manual while doing so, you know how you did it in the first place. Bug fixing, still, is not easy, and it might take you some time to get a grip on it – but you won’t be wasting time or money waiting for someone else to do it.
This is also incredibly important if the content of your website changes a lot. This is usually the case with e-commerce websites or any website that changes their product or services often. If you created the website yourself, then hiring someone to make these changes is not needed. You should be able to change whatever you would like to change about your website, whenever you would like to change it!
These were our top five reasons, but there should be much more of them. In short, if you would like to have full control of getting your website out there, from start to finish, and save yourself a lot of time, money and nerves, creating the website yourself is definitely worth trying!