This is exactly what I said to someone this morning . . .
“A free website is not necessarily a cheap website.”
This person had asked for some feedback on their website, and here is what I said . . .
There were a number of basic things that were not working to the best effect for the website owner.
Driving Traffic Away
There was a SHOP button that navigated completely away from the website.
That is a big no-no because you want to keep people on your site as much as possible.
No Client Magnet (email opt-in)
Next, there was no email opt-in, so no way to offer prospective clients any extra value and no way to build an email database.
Not fatal, but certainly not helpful.
SPAM Issues
There was no Contact Us page.
The owner said that she removed this because she was just getting a lot of spam. I replied . . .
You will always get some spam, but there are ways to significantly limit this problem using appropriate website software, etc.
No Contact Possible
There was a contact form on another page, but it would not accept my phone number, so I could not submit the form.
Having looked over the entire website, there was no way to contact the owner.
That would have to be the biggest NO-NO of all time on a website lol.
The Expense
She went on to say . . .
“Because the website is with Weebly, (a free website), I don’t own the pics and haven’t been successful at getting the pages to look the same. I have wasted much time with this . . .”
I replied by saying that . . .
“A free website is not necessarily a cheap website”
I’ve said it before and I will say it again . . .
Cheap and free websites seem like a good place to start when you are flat broke.
But in the end, they only serve to KEEP YOU BROKE because
- they make your business look amateurish
- they can be difficult to manage and maintain
- you are often limited in what you can do
- you may find that you do not own the content, especially images that you may have been using as part of your brand image
- you may have to put up with advertising banners on your website – let’s face it, they have to eat too
- in this case, it was stopping customers from enquiring or buying
- in this case, it was driving traffic AWAY from the website
Free website software was developed to meet a need in the market place for people to get online with little or no expense.
Here is some more articles that illustrate this point.
http://businessmodeng.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/why-a-free-website-is-not-good-for-your-business/
Get the right Business Mentality
But, I will be totally blunt here . . .
Unless you want your business to stay as a small, part time affair that does not support you, then you need to start thinking bigger.
Get the mentality that paying, say $3,000 or even $10,000 for a new website is a minor expense to your business.
Get the mentality of using expert professionals to support you in your business, and to deliver a better end result than you can by yourself.
Another way to look at it . . .
You know what happens when you buy cheap toilet paper ?
You end up with [email protected] on your hands !
Don’t make the same mistake with your website.
Payment Options
At Hotpink Websites we recognise that business owners must plan for cash flow.
So we offer flexible payment options where needed.
Please feel free to enquire about these when we discuss your upgrade to a new, professional website.
Well, that was quite simple really!
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What should you do now?
- Get the right Business Mentality to make your business grow.
- Upgrade from your free website to a professional website as soon as possible.
- Want some help or ideas? Just contact us at Hotpink Websites now.
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Quote
The truth doesn’t always set you free; people prefer to believe prettier, neatly wrapped lies.
~ Hussein Nishah
Remember – A free website is not a cheap website
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