Jolly Good Websites for Reading Businesses Established October 1999
Tel. 0845 6445513 (national) Tel. 0118 9507617 (local)

Sunday 22 December 2013

Why Not to Use a Free Online Web Builder - Part Four

Why Not to Use a Free Online Web Builder

Part Four: If you think you think it's expensive hiring a professional...



Pizza chef We’re all affected by looks, consciously or otherwise. When we are standing outside a pub or restaurant, we size it up based on appearances. If we’re contemplating a fry-up to help get over a hangover, then we’ll be looking for something very different to when we’re planning an anniversary dinner or looking for a venue for a business meeting. But whatever we’re looking for, we know it when we see it because we’ve learned to look for key indicators that tell us what to expect when we walk through the door.

We might not be able to list those key indicators off the top of our heads, but we have a feel for them.

In design, there are certain typefaces that complement one another. There are colours that suit a particular type of business or target market. There is a language that works well in the corporate market which differs when you are communicating with the public or with a small business. And there are images which confirm your investment in quality while others shriek the words “clip art”.

In business, we strive at all times to appear professional. And these days your website very often forms the first impression of your company. In many cases, all it needs to do is meet expectations. If I want to buy a product or service that you sell, then by coming to your website I have started out by being open to do business. All you need to do is not disappoint me.

Now, if you run a restaurant for a living, then you can’t eat out without scrupulously analysing the food, service, décor, location, menus and price. As a website designer, I tend to look at everything with a designer’s eye. And of course I know not everyone does that.

That’s what I was looking for So let’s say for a moment that I’m not a designer. When I arrive at your site I should be thinking “Yep, that’s what I was looking for”. Maybe I’ll browse around a few pages first, maybe I’ll check out the competition, but if the price is right and all other things being equal, why should I look elsewhere?

And the answer to that is that I might be thinking: “There’s something a bit wrong about this and I just can’t put my finger on it” or worse “Nothing seems to happen when I click here, where it says CLICK HERE”.

If you do it yourself, then what will you do when something goes wrong? Will you know where to tap? And if your website doesn’t start sales rolling in, what will you do about that? If the answer is start again from scratch, then think about how much time you might have lost in the interim – time your competitors have spent building their web presence.

And once it’s built, the job doesn’t end there. A good website is never finished – it should reflect the vitality and enterprise of your organisation, not leave people thinking “I wonder if they’re still in business?”

That’s not to mention the ongoing process of search engine optimisation. In a world with billions of web pages being created every single day, it’s madness to imagine you’re going to get to page one on Google with your first five-page website and even if you did, it’s madness to think you’ll stay there while others are busy creating more and better content for their sites.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to spend your time working on your business than on making a website you know is second best?

How many big name brands have built their website using Google Sites? How many big name brands have got a website built in an afternoon by the office manager using Google Sites? You might say that’s a spurious remark, but really, if it was that good, why would you need to do anything else?

The simple fact is that all businesses want to distinguish themselves from their competition or at the very least stand shoulder to shoulder alongside the leading competitors. If all of your competitors have terrible websites then it will take a very small investment to exceed what they have achieved. And if all you do is equal their mediocrity, it will be equally easy for them to leapfrog you should they see the inherent advantages of hiring a professional.

So having given it some careful thought, I’m happy that my instinctive answer still seems like the right one. Amateur work achieves amateur results.

As one of my clients put it - if you think you think it's expensive hiring a professional, wait till you try hiring an amateur.  

Thankfully I work in a field where most people don't need to be convinced of the value of my expertise. They just want to hire someone who knows where to tap, first time, every time.

Prev

Part One: You would say that, wouldn’t you?
Part Two: Do you have any experience as a designer?
Part Three: Do you do everything yourself?
Part Four: If you think you think it's expensive hiring a professional...

Read on...

Don't just take my word for it. Have a look at some of the many free online website builders you can choose from.
1&1 350.com
bravenet devhub
doodlekit google sites
imcreator.com jigsy
moonfruit snackwebsites
tripod ucoz
yola webs.com
webstarts weebly
wix yola
zoho


Saturday 21 December 2013

Why Not to Use a Free Online Web Builder - Part Three

Why Not to Use a Free Online Web Builder

Part Three: Do you do everything yourself?



If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t ever delegate anything unless you can possibly avoid it, then the words “do it yourself” are probably written right through the core of you like a stick of rock.

Personally, I’m a big believer in leaving stuff to the experts where possible. Because I value my life, I like my wiring to be fixed by a trained electrician and because I want to make the best of my finances, I trust my money to my financial adviser and my accountant.

Of course, sometimes you can’t afford an expert, as much as you’d like to. So you have a stab at tiling your own bathroom, say. And it might take a really long time and be a steep learning curve, but eventually, after a lot of swearing and a few broken tiles, you end up with something you can be proud of. It might be a bit amateurish, but you did it yourself.

But does the analogy translate to the business world?

Commercial photography Let’s look at a profession that’s not distantly related to mine – commercial photography.

Sure, we can all take a photograph. Most of us can even take one with our ‘phone these days. And occasionally, with favourable lighting and a compelling subject, they look really good. But that’s more luck than judgement. It takes a professional with the right equipment, experience, a talent for composition, training in a variety of techniques, a thorough knowledge of the technology and of course imagination to get results like that every time. They can take a picture of a cardboard box and make it look enticing. And more to the point, if they had taken the photo you were really pleased with, they’d have done it even better.

There are two big problems with doing it yourself in business.

First, you’re spending a lot of time on something that is not your job. So it’s taking you away from directly building your business and working for your customers.

And second, while you might be relatively proud of what you’ve achieved, you look at your competitors and there’s no disguising the superiority of their efforts.

But you might say “My customers won’t be able to tell the difference. They’re interested in price and service, not looks” and on the face of it, that’s true.

Prev Next

Part One: You would say that, wouldn’t you?
Part Two: Do you have any experience as a designer?
Part Three: Do you do everything yourself?
Part Four: If you think you think it's expensive hiring a professional...

Read on...

Don't just take my word for it. Have a look at some of the many free online website builders you can choose from.

1&1 350.com
bravenet devhub
doodlekit google sites
imcreator.com jigsy
moonfruit snackwebsites
tripod ucoz
yola webs.com
webstarts weebly
wix yola
zoho


Friday 20 December 2013

Why Not to Use a Free Online Web Builder - Part Two

Why Not to Use a Free Online Web Builder

Part Two: Do you have any experience as a designer?



It’s not unreasonable to suggest that someone who has rarely, if ever, done something will be less good at it than someone who does it for a living.

Of course, there are arguments against this.

For one, the free website builder applications use templates designed by professionals.

For another, just because you’ve been doing something for years doesn’t actually mean you’re any good at it. You might just be very persistent.

So let’s address those two points.

Website templates First, the quality of the templates. Yes, your template might look fantastic. But design is about creating a fine balance between form and function that is conducive to a particular goal. In the case of making a website, that goal is usually either to make a sale or to initiate a sales lead.

With a website builder application, you start out with an attractive template, but then you obviously have to customise it to your own needs. That will immediately upset the fine balance established by the original designer. And it’s not all about being arty-farty. There will be some practical difficulties to overcome. For instance, the template might be designed for a white-on-black logo but yours needs to be black on white. So now you’ve got a big white box in one corner of the site that immediately ruins the look. Or the template might look great with a short-and-sweet company name at the top like “The IT Consultancy”, but your company name is The Association of British International Petrochemical Importers. And it really doesn’t want to fit.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell Second, I might not be any good at my job. Maybe I’ve had a succession of unsatisfied clients who have ultimately left and gone elsewhere.

Well, no. I have been in business for 14 years and I have a number of clients who have been with me almost that long, including travel company the Sherpa Van Project, VIP hospitality company Mark Butler Associates, biochemical equipment suppliers Biogene, entertainer Allan Stewart and TV audience company SRO Audiences.

Anyway, according to Malcolm Gladwell’s 2008 book Outliers, the key to success in any field is to practice a task for about 10,000 hours. I started making websites for money in 1995, pretty much the first year anyone would even consider paying for such a thing. I’ve been doing it full time since 1996. Based on a 35 hour week, 48 weeks a year (and frankly, like most of you, I work a hell of a lot harder than that) for the last 17 years, I am now past the 28,500 hour mark. I’d say that qualifies me to claim some degree of competence.
Prev Next


Part One: You would say that, wouldn’t you?
Part Two: Do you have any experience as a designer?
Part Three: Do you do everything yourself?
Part Four: If you think you think it's expensive hiring a professional...

Read on...

Don't just take my word for it. Have a look at some of the many free online website builders you can choose from.
1&1 350.com
bravenet devhub
doodlekit google sites
imcreator.com jigsy
moonfruit snackwebsites
tripod ucoz
yola webs.com
webstarts weebly
wix yola
zoho


Thursday 19 December 2013

Why Not to Use a Free Online Web Builder - Part One

Why Not to Use a Free Online Web Builder

Part One: You would say that, wouldn’t you?


I was asked recently what I thought about using free, template-based, do-it-yourself website builders as an alternative to paying me to design a business website.

My first instinct is to say “You should never do that – that’s only for amateurs” but the obvious response to that might be “Well, you would say that, wouldn’t you?”

Which would be fair comment.

So I figured I’d better give the matter some careful thought. Just what exactly do I offer that is better than doing it for yourself?

I want to start off by telling you a shaggy dog story that a lot of you will have heard before.

Knowing where to tap Ever heard the story of the giant ship engine that failed? The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure out how to fix the engine.
Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.
Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. When he went down to the engine room he felt the pipes with his hands, took out a stethoscope, listened to the pumps, and finally placed one of his hands on one of the gauges with his eyes closed. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!
A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for $10,000.
“What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!”
So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill.”
The man sent a bill that read:
Tapping with a hammer: $2.00
Knowing where to tap: $9,998.00

Obviously this story is designed to illustrate the value of expertise and the gulf between knowledge and effort.

So I have a few remarks to make on why you should make a distinction between a site built by a free, online web builder and one built for you by a professional who knows where to tap.
Next


Part One: You would say that, wouldn’t you?
Part Two: Do you have any experience as a designer?
Part Three: Do you do everything yourself?
Part Four: If you think you think it's expensive hiring a professional...

Read on...

Don't just take my word for it. Have a look at some of the many free online website builders you can choose from.

1&1 350.com
bravenet devhub
doodlekit google sites
imcreator.com jigsy
moonfruit snackwebsites
tripod ucoz
yola webs.com
webstarts weebly
wix yola
zoho


Monday 16 December 2013

Christmas and New Year Business Hours 2013-14

inframes website design Reading Berkshire - opening hours for Christmas and New Year 2014
Tuesday December 24th 10am to 4pm
Wednesday December 25th Closed
Thursday December 26th Closed
Friday December 27th Closed
Saturday December 28th Closed
Sunday December 29th Closed
Monday December 30th Closed
Tuesday December 31st Closed
Wednesday January 1st Closed
Thurssday January 2nd 10am to 6pm

Email will be monitored as usual throughout the holidays for web hosting tech support queries.