So you’ve finally made the decision – you need a new website. If that’s the case, you’re probably trying to figure out if you should hire a professional or try to go it alone. If you’re a small business or a tech savvy marketer, you’ve considered doing it yourself or maybe even decided to take the DIY website route. For some, this can be a great decision. For others – aka most – this can be a disaster.
The DIY Website Designer:
Lately I’ve received a lot of emails and calls from people who ventured down the DIY website path only to find themselves going astray.
Many people believe a website is simply comprised of a logo, basic color scheme, and text. Heck that’s easy. So easy anyone can do it. Well, not so much.
This project plan is tracked electronically in a project management software package that manages tasks, owners, and due dates. I use software for this because it is a process.
I’m not implying the non-web designers can’t create their own website. I’m stating the average DIY website creator has a full-time job other than website design and they do not have the time nor stamina to execute it properly.
Why Hire a Professional Web Designer?
A professional website designer will guide you through the process. He will explain why dancing gifs are inappropriate, why thunder sounds on the home page distract from the visitor experience, why Google can’t digest a flash website, and why SEO is critical to driving traffic.
And if your design firm is good, at some point within the project you’ll hate them because they will tell you your blog post is too “salesy”, your content doesn’t make sense to the average visitor, or that your images are not high resolution enough to use. And then at the end of the project you’ll love them, because you will have a website that is unique, easy to use, and easy to find.
But Isn’t WordPress for DIY Websites?
Some people just naturally think marketing, design, and psychology. Some people can actually create a great website all on their own. The problem is that these people are rare. They are few and far between.
Then maintain it yourself in WordPress. Update your own content, add your own blog posts, and moderate your own comments. Just leave the plugins and design changes to the professional, because you’ll end up breaking the theme.
I do not do this, but part of me wishes I did because people make changes and break stuff and never see the problems. They don’t notice that content boxes no longer align or links are broken because they are not professionals.
DIY Websites the Right Way:
My suggestion to those who want to create a DIY website is to hire a professional to get your started with the design, SEO, and build out. Once you have a solid foundation and a strong website architecture in place, manage it yourself and be autonomous.
Keywords:
Some DRM systems limit the number of installations a user can activate on different computers by requiring authentication with an online server. Most games with this restriction allow three or five installs, although some allow an installation to be ‘recovered’ when the game is uninstalled.
This not only limits users who have more than three or five computers in their homes, but can also prove to be a problem if the user has to unexpectedly perform certain tasks like upgrading operating systems or reformatting the computer’s storage device.
The Uplay system works by having the installed game on the local PCs incomplete and then continuously downloading parts of the game-code from Ubisoft’s servers as the game progresses.
