Friday, December 26, 2008

Designing Your Own Business Website Will Cost You

By Stephen Grisham, Sr.

Designing your own website may seem like a good way to cut costs when starting up a new business, but in reality, the process of learning to design a poor website yourself can cost your business time and money in sales in the long run.

The cost of a web design master (aka webmaster) is offset by the time saving he or she does for you. How much is your time worth? What could you be doing in all those hours? What sales might you cost yourself if you are away from your business for hours, days, weeks, or months?

HTML coding does look easy up front, but most people don't know that there are many other programming languages necessary in a business website. Do you have all of the time you need to create an attractive, functioning and secure website? If you think your business needs and deserves more than a shoddy, pre-fabricated website, you should hire a professional web designer.

A web site designer should at least be proficient in the four best-known web programming languages, which are HTML, SHTML, Java, and CSS. Most professional designers with a lot of experience can work with many more languages, which can help you get a better website, but the more training a person has, the more the design will cost.

If your budget is tight, you can always consider hiring a student to create your web design. Many professional and 2-year colleges teach computer courses, and many will have design students in their classes who need to build portfolios. Some of the students will even work for free. Other students will work for low fees, but they will definitely ask for a reference.

It is also vital for a business ownder to consider what their online website is going to have on it, and what you need the website to do. If you have more features on your website, it will take up more space, and extra space costs money. As a result, it's important to minimize your rpace to what your company needs.

If you need programs for your website, such as a shopping cart, a programmer is often very expensive. It may suit your needs for you to buy a software program that is pre-made to meet your needs. This kind of software can be found for important features such as your store's online shopping cart. It is absolutely critical for you to harbor a secure online cart that has no errors so your website's customers will feel that their information is safe.

The most important consideration is hacker safety. Neither you nor your customers want your site or the private information on it to be stolen. Be sure that your webmaster offers support, and be sure that your budget allows for those emergency calls that are sure to come. - 16747

About the Author: