You can create your own web site. There are even software programs you can purchase and companies that provide services available to help you do this. I’m not going to kid you, you can put together a web site yourself”, no doubt about it.
However, if you want a professional web site that looks and more importantly performs like it should, hire someone who knows how to make this happen.
There’s much more to creating a web site than just installing a software program on your computer, learning how to use it, visiting a self-help web site or two and then going through six pots of coffee while pulling an all-nighter creating what you believe will be an overnight success.
It’s not always just that some people are not graphically talented either. Some folks are impressively artsy! It’s more that the general public truly doesn’t have a clue about what goes into developing a web site, or what the requirements are to put a web site on the Internet.
A Few Examples
1. I once had a lady contact me about putting a web site up for her. She had a very tight budget and so she had created the site herself using MS Publisher but didn’t know what to do with it after she made it in order to get it on the web. She’d done an excellent job with the design (it was very cool looking!) but, unfortunately you can’t put a web site online that’s been developed in Publisher. It just won’t work.
When I told her this, she then proceeded to re-do her work using some do-it-yourself software or service and brought it back to me and asked me to put this version up for her. When I looked at the new version, I was flabbergasted at the bloated code and had to tell her that unfortunately, it would cost her more for me to fix the existing code than it would for me to just start from scratch. I felt so bad for her! I don’t know how many hours of work she put into all of this but from what I saw, I would say it was a considerable amount of time yet she still didn’t have a site that was suitable for web use.
Unless you’re prepared to spend countless hours studying and researching, you may find yourself extremely disappointed in the outcome of your hard work. You could wind up with a site that doesn’t display properly, or not display at all in some browsers.
2. I’ve actually seen it happen where a web site could only be seen in version 6 of Internet Explorer. People using any other browser nothing but a blank white page. Considering Firefox is one of the most popular browsers in use, that’s pretty catastrophic! What about people that use a Mac instead of a PC? Same thing, blank white page.
3. You may wind up with a site that takes to long to display and find your visitors don’t hang around long enough to see what you have to offer them. If you you’re “graphically challenged” your results could be an utter disaster.
4. I sometimes have people contact me to “make a few fixes” to a web site they’ve created themselves. You know, something just isn’t right but they just can’t figure it out and it can’t possibly cost much to fix it. Nine times out of ten their “little fixes” are not so little but instead are coding disasters. They then find out that it can be more costly than had they contacted an experienced web designer to develop their site in the first place.
When you consider all the pitfalls that can mean failure for your web site which most people don’t even know exist, it really isn’t all that costly to hire a good web designer. You’re not only paying for the work they do, but their knowledge base and experience can be priceless!