Free Website Builders – The Good And The Bad

When you're starting your business, one of the first things you think about is your website. How can you get a website that you can afford, looks great, and inspires your visitors?  If your website looks unprofessional, it's an immediate turn-off. On the other hand, hiring a web development agency can cost thousands of dollars to build and even more to maintain. Here are some things to consider for your business website.

Wix Website Are “Free and Easy”

If you go to Wix.com the first thing you see is that Wix is a free website builder that is easy to use. You can point and click your way to a decent looking website. Wix has gone to a lot of trouble to make it easy for anybody to pick a site template, select some colors, and add a few web pages. Putting a website online is no longer something you have to have a web development team do for you. With platforms like Wix, you can easily do it all yourself.

Websites Don't Do Anything

Websites, by themselves, don't do anything. You have to let both people and search engines know about your website. You also have to know how to make use of the traffic you get. If someone visits your website, but you don't do anything to enable yourself to follow up with them, then that's a missed opportunity? People generally don't buy from you or even contact you on the first visit. People generally need to connect with you and your brand an average of seven times before they become your customer.

The problem with DIY site builders like Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, etc. is not that the websites are bad, or ugly, the problem is your expertise is probably not in online marketing. An effective website is one that looks professional AND has features and content designed to capture leads and convert those leads into customers. My guess is that you're not an online marketing expert yet and probably would like someone to talk to about ways to get traffic to your website and connect with people interested in what you're doing.

Building vs Using Your Website

In other words, the problem is not building a website, the problem is trying to figure out how to use your website to grow your business. With tools like Wix and Squarespace, anybody can build a website. Once you have a website, what do you do with it? Here are some questions you might be asking yourself.

  • How do I set up a blog?
  • What should I blog about?
  • How do I send a newsletter?
  • How do I get people to sign up for my email list?
  • What should I say in my email newsletters?
  • What can I say that people care about?
  • How can I figure out which products someone is interested in before they buy something?
  • What should I post on social media like Facebook and Twitter?
  • Is Facebook (social media) a good place to get customers?

[bctt tweet=”The problem is not building your website, the problem is trying to figure out how to use your website to grow your business.” username=”leehblue”]

A Little Help Would Be Nice

I haven't spoken to anyone who has ever said they wish they had less help. Nobody ever wants to waste hours researching something when they could just get the answer they are looking for if only they knew who to ask. So, the next step – or should we say giant leap – often comes down to hiring an agency or a marketing firm to help. The difference between setting your website up on your own is much less expensive than hiring an agency to do everything for you. We sell custom web sites and marketing packages too. So, I know it's going to cost at least $3,500 to get a website built by a professional web design agency. If you want have ecommerce and run an online store, it's probably going to be a minimum of $5,000. Then, on top of that, every time you want to make a change to your website, you're on the clock paying at least $50/hour – probably more like $85+/hr – for site maintenance and updates. If you're just starting out this is going to be a financially heavy load to bear.

Help Me Help You!

Have you ever seen the movie Jerry Maguire? Jerry is a sports agent with only one client, Rod, who is an NFL football player. As Rod's agent, Jerry gives everything he's got to get Rod the NFL contract he wants to make the “Quan” – love, respect, community, and the dollars too; the entire package. Rod doesn't want Jerry to play the game for him. Rod wants Jerry to set him up to succeed. Jerry helps to guide Rod and give him some helpful tips, but Rod is ultimately the one who makes it all happen.

Warning: There are bare bottoms in the locker room in this video.

Looking to completely outsource your entire website to an agency is probably not what you want to do. But, you don't want to be all alone either. Wouldn't it be nice if you could get some help setting everything up and then have someone show you how to use everything? Then you would have a platform built for success and you'd know how to use it and maintain your site for free?

What if someone could setup your website so that looks great AND has the features you need to be able to effectively use your website to grow your business? For example, you'd want:

  • A great looking website
  • An easy to read blog
  • Grow your email list with email sign up forms
  • Easily send email newsletters
  • Automate emails to connect with, educate, and inspire your visitors
  • Sell your products and services
  • Maybe sell access to some of the content on your website

This is exactly what the DoubleStack platform is. You get a professional, business website, blog, online store, and email marketing platform all ready to go. Then you get a live video training session with one of our instructors to show you how to use your website. It's not like a normal class where you learn some concepts that you then have to take home and figure out how to apply to what you are doing. This is a live video tutorial showing you how to use your actual website. You can ask questions and get answers to anything that you want to know. There is also a library of over 5.5 hours of videos and tutorials to reference later. If you get stuck on anything, help is just a click away. With DoubleStack, you can run your site on your own, but you're never alone.