GETTING A WEBSITE STARTED IN THE WAY THATS RIGHT FOR YOU
GETTING A WEBSITE STARTED IN THE WAY THATS RIGHT FOR YOU
1. Could you DIY?
2. Work with FREELANCERS?
3. Work with a WEB AGENCY?
Great, you’ve decided to get your business online. How are you going to do it - DIY or hire somebody to help you?
If the DIY route is a non-starter for you, skip the next paragraph and explore the freelance and agency options below.
1. Could you DIY?
Building, marketing and maintaining your own website can be great fun, enormously satisfying and very profitable. So why doesn’t everybody do it?
Obviously you need time and patience - you may have colleagues who can help too. But it’s unlikely that you’ll be an expert at every aspect – copywriting for example is a specialist skill – so you’ll be learning as you go.
If you’re up for it, the good news is that with the tools available today, you don’t have to be a web developer, designer or search engine expert to do a lot of the work in-house.
Doing it yourself means you can test the market, learn about how your customers react and get a good grounding in the fundamentals of e-commerce. And if you decide to work with an agency or consultant in the future, you’ll be able to deal with them from an informed position.
Here’s some ways to get started.
You could start by reading Shelley Lowery’s brilliant book – Web Design Mastery. It takes you step by step through the process of designing and marketing an e-commerce site. Click here for details and reviews – http://www.ebookstarter.com/click.php?lid=3&af=incise.
You’ll then want an all-in-one design, marketing and maintenance package. A popular option is the automated design, marketing and maintenance package called the Site Build It programme at http://www.sitesell.com/nethelp4u.html. It’s recognised as one of the best DIY options on the market.
2. Work with FREELANCERS?
If you know precisely what you want for your website and its marketing, hiring freelancers has many advantages:
- The good ones are usually very responsive
- they have few overheads so they’re competitive
- they’re often experts in a specialist field
- they can be flexible.
In fact many agencies hire freelancers for these reasons.
The disadvantages are:
- being specialists in design, copywriting etc, you’ll need to hire one for each task, which means project management is critical. Web projects are complex, so unless you know what you’re doing, you’d be well advised to hire a professional web project manager too
- you may lose the freelancer! The flip side of their flexibility is that they may decide to work on a different project. Most are reliable though and you can mitigate this risk through staged payments, by having a reserve freelancer and by getting recommendations.
If you think this is the best route for your project, have a look at http://www.getafreelancer.com and http://www.elance.com where you can post projects and invite bids.
3. Work with a WEB AGENCY
The advantages of a web agency are:
- breadth and depth of expertise
- proven track record
- project management
- experience in handling more complex projects
- creativity – often provided by freelancers!
The disadvantages can be:
- overheads and the impact on cost
- key staff leaving
- inexperienced account handlers
- insufficient depth of expertise in all aspects of the project.
At Incise we overcome the cost issue by outsourcing our technical work to a dedicated offshore development centre. Our aim is to give best value by offering strategic input, creativity and project management here in the UK. We then get all the technical expertise offshore at globally competitive prices.
.
And you’ll find lots of agencies on the internet and in your Yellow Pages.
GETTING A WEBSITE STARTED IN THE WAY THATS RIGHT FOR YOU - To learn more about this author, visit Paul Lock's Website.
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CONTENTS
1. Could you DIY?
2. Work with FREELANCERS?
3. Work with a WEB AGENCY?
Great, you’ve decided to get your business online. How are you going to do it - DIY or hire somebody to help you?
If the DIY route is a non-starter for you, skip the next paragraph and explore the freelance and agency options below.
1. Could you DIY?
Building, marketing and maintaining your own website can be great fun, enormously satisfying and very profitable. So why doesn’t everybody do it?
Obviously you need time and patience - you may have colleagues who can help too. But it’s unlikely that you’ll be an expert at every aspect – copywriting for example is a specialist skill – so you’ll be learning as you go.
If you’re up for it, the good news is that with the tools available today, you don’t have to be a web developer, designer or search engine expert to do a lot of the work in-house.
Doing it yourself means you can test the market, learn about how your customers react and get a good grounding in the fundamentals of e-commerce. And if you decide to work with an agency or consultant in the future, you’ll be able to deal with them from an informed position.
Here’s some ways to get started.
You could start by reading Shelley Lowery’s brilliant book – Web Design Mastery. It takes you step by step through the process of designing and marketing an e-commerce site. Click here for details and reviews – http://www.ebookstarter.com/click.php?lid=3&af=incise.
You’ll then want an all-in-one design, marketing and maintenance package. A popular option is the automated design, marketing and maintenance package called the Site Build It programme at http://www.sitesell.com/nethelp4u.html. It’s recognised as one of the best DIY options on the market.
2. Work with FREELANCERS?
If you know precisely what you want for your website and its marketing, hiring freelancers has many advantages:
- The good ones are usually very responsive
- they have few overheads so they’re competitive
- they’re often experts in a specialist field
- they can be flexible.
In fact many agencies hire freelancers for these reasons.
The disadvantages are:
- being specialists in design, copywriting etc, you’ll need to hire one for each task, which means project management is critical. Web projects are complex, so unless you know what you’re doing, you’d be well advised to hire a professional web project manager too
- you may lose the freelancer! The flip side of their flexibility is that they may decide to work on a different project. Most are reliable though and you can mitigate this risk through staged payments, by having a reserve freelancer and by getting recommendations.
If you think this is the best route for your project, have a look at http://www.getafreelancer.com and http://www.elance.com where you can post projects and invite bids.
3. Work with a WEB AGENCY
The advantages of a web agency are:
- breadth and depth of expertise
- proven track record
- project management
- experience in handling more complex projects
- creativity – often provided by freelancers!
The disadvantages can be:
- overheads and the impact on cost
- key staff leaving
- inexperienced account handlers
- insufficient depth of expertise in all aspects of the project.
At Incise we overcome the cost issue by outsourcing our technical work to a dedicated offshore development centre. Our aim is to give best value by offering strategic input, creativity and project management here in the UK. We then get all the technical expertise offshore at globally competitive prices.
.
And you’ll find lots of agencies on the internet and in your Yellow Pages.
GETTING A WEBSITE STARTED IN THE WAY THATS RIGHT FOR YOU - To learn more about this author, visit Paul Lock's Website.
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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