Do I need a web site?

[Cassondra Bennett]

I know in this day in age the internet is HUGE and can provide a business with opportunities to reach customers that might not otherwise be able to but was wondering how many of you here have one and how beneficial you feel it has been to your sucess.

I am not computer savvy AT ALL!! so I also wonder for those of you who have sites did you do them yourself or hire someone to do them for you? Do you sell products online or is your site just to let people know you are there? and once your site is established what kind of fees are involved....what do I need to look for and stay away from??

Thanks so much!!

[Joe Pelonio]

I'm certainly no expert, but I'd say yes, a website is almost critical unless you have a storefront with a steady stream of customers coming in. My best customers and biggest repeat jobs for laser work have all come from people googling and finding me at the website. The cost for me was $15/year, basically what DirectNIC charges me for hosting, with some free storage for the pages. I used Frontpage to create it, but eventually learned enough HTML to create and edit pages using Word. I never had anything fancy like a shopping cart because I have never done "stock" items, everything is custom.

I did have a link to my credit card processor so people could pay through the website, but they provided the html and I only had to embed it.

On the bad side, having a website will mean a lot more spam and scams as they will have search bots find you and direct their schemes to you.

[Doug Griffith]

My opinion is that all businesses need a website. Whether it's a presence site or ecommerce. In this day and age it establishes that you are with the times and professional. It does not make sense for a technology driven service (lasers) not to be up to date. I find it incredibly odd and annoying when I can not find a company online. If I can't, I almost always move on.

Pricing will be anywhere between $15 if you're a computer geek with free hosting somewhere to thousands of dollars. If you have to hire a webmaster, your looking at about $2k for a simple site. That amount should get you a decent programmer that knows what he's doing. Anybody can create a website these days and about 99% of them are hacks. Find somebody you trust with an established history. 50% down and balance due upon going live and being debugged, receiving all the log-in information and getting the construction files on disk. Oh and make sure they program in a commonly used language (ie. PHP) and don't use any proprietary systems that you can't take with you. This subject could go on and on and on. I'm sure others will chime in.

Cheers

[Anthony Welch]

I've had a program called "web studio" for the past year. Have been "playing" with it off and on. It's a "drag and drop" web site builder (for lack of a better term). No code to learn, just drag a button and drop, drag a background and drop. You apparently can get as sophisticated or as simple as you want with this program.

I've been saving pic's of things I've done throughout the year and placing these and rearranging the pages. I will probably go with a domain and web site in February.

I've also seen commercials where "Intuit" has something similar.

Anthony

[David Fairfield]

I'm gonna buck the trend and say no, you don't need a website. So many small businesses are competing for web attention that its all too easy to get lost in the sauce. A website alone doesn't guarantee any traffic at all, and it can take quite some time before its picked up by search engines.

Depending on what sort of product/service you offer I'd say old fashioned face-to-face marketing is still optimal. In my own business, showing my face is a must, the website alone wouldn't amount to much.

Or find a distributor for your wares who has their own website, or glom onto etsy or amazon or ebay.

Of course a combination of all the above plus a website is better. And its cheap enough and simple enough to open a basic web page, there's no real reason not to.

Dave

[Doug Griffith]

I agree that nobody may ever find your website through a search engine but it is a tool for other reasons as well.

1) It is a means to convey current information about your company without the expense of current printed material. Put your URL on your business card.

2) If someone actively looks for your company online (by name) and doesn't find it they may move on to a company who does have a presence.

3) When they do get to your website it is a tool to make you look larger than life. With a good website, a garage run company can look like a large corporation. The professional website will instill consumer confidence.

4) An email address with a domain name (usually attached to a website) is more professional than a gmail or yahoo account. Plus it puts your URL in front of them every time they contact you.

5) When talking to potential customers, you can tell them to visit your website for more detailed information.

6) Without a website you can't cross-link with others as a means to get yourself in front of more potential customers.

...the list goes on. I think every business needs a website.

[Jim Beachler]

I agree with the above as well as:

A place for an undecided customer to come back and either look again at your offerings or make an order.

Be sure to promote your website when talking to customers. I find that most of the people who go to my website got there because I directed them there or they saw my website marked on my brochure or my products.

Which brings another point, put your website on everything you make. You never know who will admire it later, pick it up, turn it over and go to your website and buy something. Happens to me all the time.

So the answer is YES!

[Doug Griffith]

While I'm at it...

A bad and unprofessional website may hurt your sales because it lowers consumer confidence in your company. Especially when it comes to ecommerce.

If you have time to dabble in it which may take many months to a year, try to do it yourself. Study what others have done and it might be best to use a professionally built template. Otherwise look at the expense of a professional webmaster as an investment that will get you online quickly and help you reap the benefits quicker. Plus a pro can hook you up with a CMS that will enable you to keep your website up to date.

A pro website can also include a back-end with marketing tools. For example, my sites gather top referrers and email them to me on a nightly basis. I can then respond to inquiries, questions, complaints, etc... in a timely manner. This is how Jon with the wooden toys found Sawmill Creek and quenched the fire (and made a few more).

[Anthony Welch]

We do craft shows and get asked three questions:

1-Do you have a store? No. We're a long way from that.
2-Do you have a website? Not yet. But,this is do'able.
3-Do you have a business card? Yes!

I have had customers say they tried to explain to others
what products we have and what they looked like.
A web site will help show what products and services
we do. We plan on the web site to evolve as our
business evolves.

Anthony

[Dee Gallo]

I'd ask myself a few questions before getting a website:
1. what do I expect it to do for me?
2. do I offer something people will go looking for?
3. will I need it updated on a regular basis or leave it alone once it's up?

I went to a pro for my site, which I wanted to be a certain way, so I designed the look, but the webmaster did the hard work (links, tags, animations, maintenance, etc.). Well worth it to me NOT to have to do anything but respond to customers.

I do take some local jobs and some custom work when I want to, but the website provides me with enough work to stay in business. It does exactly what I want it to do, and as said before, it is great to be able to say, "here's my card, check out my website" or send an email with the site's address as the signature. It's also a LOT easier than sending pix through email over and over again. The majority of my customers are from everywhere in the world BUT where I live.

I have my site updated only once a year, which suits my business as I deal with a yearly special edition and the rest of my services stay the same. I can update photos, prices and info then. I was not interested in playing around with the site, but you might like it.

my 2 cents, dee

[Randy Digby]

I would sauy "Ditto" to Dougs posts above. I'm not Carnac the Magnificent (Johnny Carson character) so I can't say you have to have a web site to suceed, I can only relate our situation. We basically deal with a niche market, so a store presence would be a waste of resources. We advertise in a couple of periodicals geared toward our market base and use those ads to point customers to our web site. We do make some sales directly from the ads but typically are able to expand the customer's purchase when we get them to the web site so they can see our entire family of products. We use Yahoo SiteBuilder, mainly because that's what I started with years ago. Of course, Yahoo hosts the site for us and they do a good job providing the bells and whistles we need. The next poster may need different bells and whistles and therefore has chosen different software and host. Every shoe does not fit every foot, and even if it did, you just might not like the way it looks.

We could not afford to display our full family of products in an ad and it certainly does make sales conversations easier when you and your customer can look at products on the web at the same time and discuss their applications and custumization (sp).

Put yourself in your customer's position. How will he best find you? Will he find you first or will you look for him and persuade him to buy from you?

[Josh Reet]

I find it staggering that any business exists in this day and age without a website that at the very least lists:

-Location
-Hours of operation (if applicable)
-Contact info
-Services offered
-A few samples of products

This doesn't need to be fancy at all. Just a single page can fill someone in on this info. The average person can learn enough to make a page like that in an afternoon. Don't worry about design, just keep it as simple as possible and you will be fine. Don't add in background images, music, dancing things or needless decorations. This isn't a page from your wife's scrapbook, it's a representation of your business. If you are trying to stay simple, think of it like a glorified business card.

If I hear about some company the next town over, I don't look it up in the yellow pages (nor do I know anyone who does). My first move is to google "ABC Welding Anytown, WA". And I have to admit, it annoys me if I can't find anything about the business. It makes me say to myself "If these people don't care enough to make it easy for me to find them, why should I make the effort to spend my money there?"

I'm sure there are plenty of people who aren't like me. But I promise you, that group isn't growing. Using web searches to find something is only going to get more and more of a commonplace thing. And for many of us, it already is more than commonplace.

[Doug Griffith]

If you are going to go simple, go ultra-simple but clean. Make it look intentional. Something like a bordered business card floating centered in a white field. Make sure it looks correct without errors on all browsers/platforms. Otherwise it may look unprofessional and lower consumer confidence.

[doug king]

At least have an Internet presence, you can get a domain name for as cheap as 1.00 with godaddy and you can get email hosting for 20.00 a year.. Nothing looks more professional than having your own email address. You can get a template website that you control the content cheap these days too...

I use my websites to interact with customers, post up projects and I have a forum on my engraving site that I use so that customers can post up comments about questions about the products they buy. There is nothing better than word of mouth and to have someone else in a forum tell how great something is it just reaffirms to other potential customers how great your products are...

I will disagree with one comment above, if you know how to set up a sitemap you can be on search engines in a matter of hours... I have 265,000 indexes with one site and the new one I put up a couple of weeks ago has 397 indexes with all the content on yahoo, google and bing... Dont wait for spiders or bots to your site, take your data to them......

In my opinion if you have a reason to have a business card then you have a need to have a personal email and a website....

Doug

[Keith Outten]

Not for me.

All of my business is local and I deal with large construction companies. They are only interested in my phone number and email address. I don't send them pictures, I always take them a custom sample of my work so they can hold it in their hands see the quality of my work. If I am in a meeting I have pictures of my work on a laptop.

I have a simple one page web site that has never been updated, the best and the least expensive advertising for me is signs on the car I drive. Years ago I ran a different business that made a huge web site mandatory so I know that some of you must have a web site. There are a few instances that this isn't the case.

Don't discount the value of vinyl signs on your car or truck, the returns are significant. Get a professional to design and install your new vinyl signs, someone like Joe Pelonio if your in Washington State.

[Mike Null]

Mine is a home based business catering to commercial and industrial clients. Without my website I'd have no business.

At first I did my own and after a few years of disappointing results I had a professional work on my site. The results have been amaizing. I did my own design but had the web master do the techincal stuff. It still needs work from my end but it's productive.

I can change copy myself but need help on the photos and layout.

I use Yahoo to host at $12.95 per month.

[James Stokes]

Well I will be the oddball here. I do not have a web page. I hate shipping products. I do not want to get in to anything where I do have to start shipping. I do have a photo page set up that I can direct people to it if they want to get an idea what I can do.
I have now been in business for 10 years. If someone goggles laser engraving, Springfield, MO My name comes up with the company name and phone # I have people tell me all the time they googled laser engraving and got me. I have a significant repeat customer list that gives my name out all the time
I am not getting rich this way but do not want to. Any more my business just a hobby. I come and go as I please. I am pretty much debt free, make enough money to be semi comfortable and that is all I really want. My investments are diversified enough that I have plenty to live on.

[Darryl Jacobs]

I know that the first thing I do when I want to do business with someone is look at their website. ( I say this when mine is not set up yet..., but most of my current work is still word of mouth).

If you are trying to sell mail order, it can't be done any other way effectively these days.

If you are doing custom work, not as important.

If you have a storefront, not as important either, but a basic site is good to have with your company info, hours etc.

The key question is "Am I getting less business by not having a website?"

Cheers!

[Dennis Faz]

Try this for setting up a website, http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/
I've found this to be easy to work with in setting up your own website and very reasonable on the wallet.
They offer several ways to create your website, easy to follow setups that you fill in yourself or do the Yahoo Site Builder which gives you more control in the setup and not that hard.
I'm going on my 5th year with this service and for less than $15.00 a month it works great!
Good luck...

[Tim Bateson]

In 2008 about 75-90% of my business was produced from my web presence. However in 2009 that dropped to maybe 1-5%. Same website, better rating in the search engines, just no customers. My theory is more customers are first searching for someone local.

[Doug Griffith]

In 2008 about 75-90% of my business was produced from my web presence. However in 2009 that dropped to maybe 1-5%. Same website, better rating in the search engines, just no customers. My theory is more customers are first searching for someone local.

If that theory is true, then that makes a website all that more important. As more and more companies have websites, customers can narrow their options to within driving distance.

Unless a product is geared towards non-computer users, I think a person would first search online, then a local directory like The Yellow Pages.

[Tim Bateson]

If that theory is true, then that makes a website all that more important. As more and more companies have websites, customers can narrow their options to within driving distance.

Unless a product is geared towards non-computer users, I think a person would first search online, then a local directory like The Yellow Pages.
Good point. When a customer calls I don't usually ask where they got my number. It could be from my website.

[Jeff Belany]

Has anyone tried using Corel's Publish to the Web? Does it create a usable page? I know some of the other desktop publisher programs do create a page but I have heard that they don't create very good code and have compatibility problems.

Are any of the "free" web creator programs any good?

Jeff in northern Wisconsin

[Dan Hintz]

I'm more technically inclined than many (programmer by trade), but my preferred method in the beginning was to use WYSIWYG freebies to help lay out the initial page. Once I'm content with that, all future changes happen in a text editor. These days, I start directly in the text editor... just faster (though the introduction of Java, Flash, etc. is changing that).

[Doug Griffith]

Like you, I'm a programmer by trade and hand code everything. Web development covers a good chunk of my bills.

The thing about WYSIWYG editors is it makes it easy for anyone with a small amount of tech abilities to create a website. My experience has shown that most people start off that way and then graduate to a professionally built, database driven, website. It's a good learning experience for them.

With all the "self-serve" website building services and evolved WYSIWYG editors these days, static HTML jockeys (webmasters) are becoming a thing of the past.

[Liesl Dexheimer]

I have used Surpass Hosting for quite a few years now & been very happy with their web hosting. You don't necessarily have to have a website though. Instead, make sure you are listed in Google Local, Yahoo Local & Bing Local. That should definitely help attract more business & you don't have to have a website for these services (although it can help).

[Dan Hintz]

One suggestion, however... don't use canned website layouts if you can avoid them. They usually look, well, canned. There are 50 million of them on the web for free (give or take a billion or two), so use them as a reference and ideas... but don't grab one and just plug in text, it will usually show. and pay attention to color choice, not just for readability (common sense web design these days), but for comfortability (my own word :)). It's like painting a room... do you want the person revved up (hot rod accessories), mellowed out (eco-friendly decor), etc.

[pete hagan]

I think the vast majority will chime in and say YES you need one and it can be pretty easy and inexpensive to do so.

(1) Shop for domain name registrars, where you sign up for a name like xyzlasershop.com TRY to stay with a name that you can get the .com extension Godaddy has names for $7 right now.
(2) Shop for cheap hosting plans


If you know nothing about how to do it then google "how to make a website" and you'll find that there are many shareware programs to make a page. Some of the hosting sites will have a web builder program as part of the hosting service. It is actually very easy for simple web pages.

You should be able to produce an inexpensive site with some storage for less than $50.00 per year. The domain name will cost about 8-10 bucks and your storage, where the actual files are kept, can be as cheap as $5 per month if you really shop around.

[Ed Maloney]

Yes - You need a website. After I established an Internet presence (in various forms) most of my business is coming from Europe and Asia.

[Brian Wilhelm]

Cassondra,

One of my talents is creating websites. There are many ways to look at need for a website. Most important to you is cost effectiveness of paying someone to create a website for you versus using a WYSIWYG program. In human terms that means "What You See Is What You Get. There are many programs available that can help an amateur make professional looking websites. If times are tough, and you don't want to spend $200-$300 at the moment, or can't afford to at the moment, look into Google business as a way to get your business on the web and noticed by others without having a website. I recommend no matter what, do this as well as every other major search engine. Just do a search for "submit a business listing" in any major search engine, and follow the steps for their top result.
Back to the program. With no experience, I recommend avoiding Dreamweaver, unless you want to read a for dummies book on HTML before using Dreamweaver. I personally started out using a program called XSitePro. It worked well, and helped represent a family business well to begin with. We had many positive comments from customers, and never paid anyone.
Another thing to avoid in my opinion would be Go Daddy. Their terms are ridiculuous, and their program is a nightmare.
If you want a website, go to register.com and search for a domain name that you would like until you can purchase it. The reason I recommend them is because they will let you move the name to any host you desire. Some places that sell domains force you to have them host the site for whatever fee they charge.
Feel free to ask me if you have any other questions, and I will do my best to answer them.
Good luck, and remember that free methods to market your business are always the most cost effective.

[George Brown]

so I designed the look, but the webmaster did the hard work (links, tags, animations, maintenance, etc.).

Design is the hard part, setting it up is not that difficult. :D

[Doug Griffith]

Design is the hard part, setting it up is not that difficult. :D

I agree and disagree. A website can be as simple as HTML with a few graphics to dynamic database driven content using a Flash AS3 front-end with "AJAX" interaction and beyond. It is what you make of it. I would never go static because then it is purely a presence tool that doesn't gather valuable marketing information. But then design is difficult because while a pretty website can be easily made, it may not be intuitive and serve it's purpose. It's all subjective.

[Carrol Fleming]

If you do decide to go for a websites, here is my little opinion:

I strongly dislike badly designed websites with too many fonts, flashing or streaming text and fussy backgrounds. If it takes too long to open it better be jolly good for me to go back. I have a slow internet connection but, because of my relative isolation, I am a regular online shopper and buy most of my laser supplies as well as books, CD's, gifts etc online so don't aim just at first world customers with fast, reliable connections - sometimes we in the third world have no other options, if we want it, we have to buy it online!

I design and maintain a few sites so have a vague idea of my likes and dislikes :rolleyes:

And most important, get someone else to visit the site and check it for errors, you will almost always have had an attack by the gremlins!

Carrol

[Bill Cunningham]

Mozilla SeaMonkey (http://www.seamonkey-project.org/) will get you started. It incorporates the mozilla composer html editor. You can set up your site WYSIWYG, or directly edit the html and FileZilla (http://filezilla-project.org/) is a great Free tool for uploading and managing your files on the site. Most free FTP programs are next to useless but this one is 'very' good

[Dan Hintz]

If you're going to use Mozilla (FireFox), there are free seamless FTP plug-ins at http://addons.mozilla.com

Better than many pay-for FTP programs I've used...

[Andy Tripp]

What is the opinion of having your domain registered with a different company than the one that actually host your website - advantage or disadvantage?

Andy

[Dan Hintz]

One is irrelevant from the other unless registration is required by the hosting company... if that's the case, I'd find another company as they can hold you hostage at some point in time (jack up fees). My site is registered at Register.com, but I'm hosted by Jumpline (previously eMax). I have considered moving my registration to a cheaper place, but the savings is so small the money hasn't made it a priority on my to-do list... kind of tough to argue when you're already paying <$30/yr for registration.

[Darren Null]

I disagree. NEVER have your domain name registered with your hosting company. They can go bust; hold the name for ransom or mess it up in some other way.

Once you start, your domain name is your most precious online asset...all the rest can be replaced. But you're spending the advertising money to associate your services with the domain name. If somebody else has control of that, you're over a barrel.

My $0.02:

Domains: namecheap.com Also do $10 SSL certificates. I'm finding them better than mydomain.com for price and services at the moment.
Hosting: http://www.1websiteshostingpromotions.com/ $10 a year and the limits are pretty reasonable. You get a proper cPanel and you don't have to count databases if you fancy trying extra toys out. $50/year for an IP address which you'll need for a SSL certificate which you'll need if you want a shop.

Software recommendations: If you're a beginner, use Fantastico in cPanel to install Wordpress if you just want an online presence. You never need to go near code and you have the added bonus that Wordpress is VERY Google-friendly. Add pages for a contact form, open times, a few pictures of your products and there you go. Should be doable in an evening for a complete novice.
If you want a shop: don't attempt it if you're averse to code. Plan to spend a lot longer than you were originally estimating on the project.

[Tim Bateson]

Shopping Carts are a whole other beast! I dropped mine for 3 reasons.
1. Too much time to maintain.
2. Instead of using the shopping cart, 99% of customers called or emailed me.
3. The cost of running credit cards/PayPal was not reasonable for the bit of business I do.

[Dan Hintz]

Darren,

Who are you disagreeing with?

[Darren Null]

What is the opinion of having your domain registered with a different company than the one that actually host your website - advantage or disadvantage?

One is irrelevant from the other unless registration is required by the hosting company
I was disagreeing with the above, as it would seem to imply that it doesn't matter if you have your domain registered with the people you're using for hosting. From personal experience, I would say that keeping your domain name separate from your hosting is one of the most important things you can do. OK, some of my worst experiences were back in the early days of the wild, wild, web and things are a little better now. But at the very least, it puts you in a better bargaining position with the hosting company when you can move without requiring permission from them.

[Dan Hintz]

Yeah, I probably wasn't too clear. What I was saying is there was no reason to have them both with the same people as they are not tied to each other (i.e., irrelevant to each other).

[Darren Null]

I'm easily confused, so apologies for my misinterpretation.

In physical and functional terms; who your domains and hosting are registered with are entirely unimportant. It'll work the same wherever they are.

In a business and tactical sense, I can't stress enough the importance of keeping your domain and hosting separate. If you are building any kind of business through the web the domain name is how people find you out of the grillions of competitors. EVERY SINGLE PART of your internet setup can go wrong; and if you walk out of there with control of your domain name you can be back in the game an hour or two later. Albeit in a limited fashion. If someone else controls the domain, then all your efforts and time and money spent in marketing have been wasted. Worse- it goes to some other sod. Who will probably add insult to injury by just putting ads on your domain and reaping the click-through benefits. There is a whole industry devoted to this. Google "black hat marketing" for a clue (and don't try anything you see there to promote your own site...you can get delisted as well as getting more visitors in the short term).

...but I digress a bit. There are lots of things that can go wrong with a website: gouging/bankrupt/sold hosts; webdesigners going mental/blackmail; fraud; hacking; just to name a few. Keep control of your domain and you can recover. If someone else has it, you're stuffed.

[Damon Hoxworth]

I have 2 domains that I registered for my laser business that never quite got off the ground.

I think it's a pretty good and brandable name for the budding internet entrepreneur, better than Ponoko anyway :)

etchya.com has a tiki installation for boards just like sawmills but you could put just about anything you wanted to on it, assuming your host is cool with that.

I can help move stuff over and setup as well, would even consider hosting.

Sorry to offend anyone's sensibilities if this post did.

message me if you are interested.
d

email is already setup as well using google apps,