The biggest hurdle I find in my business is when entrepreneurs come to me and ask for a website but say they want to pay about $500 to have it built. Let's start by saying, you're not looking to get a website built, you're looking to have a data entry person add content into a template with that budget. And that's fine. But don't look at Craigslist ads or contact web development agencies if that's your budget - check out Fiverr.
I would argue that if this is your budget, you should save your money and just build your website yourself. Find a content management system that is easy to use and input the data on your own. I doubt there is going to be anything that the people you pay $500 to do that you can't do yourself if you give yourself a couple of days to figure it out. Bonus points: you're going to be a lot happier with a website you create than the disappointment that inevitably comes when you pay someone else what you think is a significant amount of money for them to do a sub-par job.
With that being said, we have previously written a blog on DIY websites before, so go check that out here.
There are typically three website builders, or content management systems, that i ever recommend: Wordpress, Shopify and SquareSpace. They're all very good for very different things so depending on your business and the needs of your website, you'll want to choose a different CMS. This is my very simplified breakdown.
Are you a photographer, a real estate agent or a hair stylist? If you're providing some sort of service and just want a portfolio to showcase your work, use SquareSpace. The functionality is incredibly limited but it's because it's so easy to use. SquareSpace has a drag and drop feature similar to MailChimp that is incredibly intuitive and works really well for first-time website builders.
Are you selling something on your website? Will the customers pay with PayPal or credit card? Are your products able to be shipped? If so, use Shopify. They're doing ecommerce better than anyone in the game and your store will be in good hands.
If you're not immediately sold by one of the above, Wordpress is probably what you're looking at. It has functionality for lots of different plugins and it easily customizable. You can still add ecommerce to Wordpress, but it's not my favourite.
At the end of the day, if you're still not sure which website build platform (CMS) to use, contact us and we'll chat a bit more about your needs and what works best for your business.
Thank you to our GD Commerce Partners:
- Create Your Business Website Using Shopify
- Harness the Power of Drip CRM Software
- Set up Subscription Boxes, Recurring Orders and Payments Easily Using Bold Partners
- Boost Your Business Bookkeeping with Bench
- Learn How to Master Website SEO Using Mangools