Are Websites A Profitable Choice?

It seems most all businesses create websites as an advertizing option to increase sales. But do the benefits of a website outweigh the time and expense of web development?

In 2007, internet retail sales rose fifty percent over the previous year. With over seventy percent of people using the internet now, can small business afford to “miss the boat” in this expanding sales market? The answer is a very obvious NO!

Unfortunately, building a useful website can be confusing and time-consuming. And while it’s a fairly simple process to hire a web designer for a few measly hundred dollars to build a site for you, quite often, many of those designers build you a beautiful website and then leave you hanging somewhere in cyber space inside the World Wide Web?

While most website designers provide a reliable service, there are many who develop websites for their clients, then abandon the project once their fees are paid, or, the cost becomes a never ending expense with regular monthly fees for updating and promoting your site. Websites require regular updating to stay on top of their marketing goals. Time is money to web designers, as it should be. Then of course, there are the “domain rental” costs and the monthly “hosting” expense. Where does it end? Well, it usually doesn’t.

When it comes to building and maintaining a website for your business or personal needs, you have the following options:

Hire a website designer. Cost;
• Initial design stating at $150 and up
• Maintain site, $20 month and up
• Domain (mysite.com), $10 per year and up
• Hosting fees, $100 per year and up

Do-it-yourself. Cost;
• Domain name (mysite.com), $10 per year and up
• Hosting fees, $100 per year and up
• Time, time, time!

There are free hosting sites with free sub-domains available to you such as Bravenet.com. A sub-domain is an extended domain, i.e., mysite.bravehost.com. You follow instructions and build the site. Some find this an easy job, while others become easily frustrated.

Finally, there are a few select website designers who will build your site and maintain it for you for a limited time period; one, three, five years. Plain & Simple is one of those companies. They’re not fancy, but they do build ‘free’ websites for you and maintain them for three years for one flat fee.

These days, it seems as if everyone is getting into personal websites to express themselves, and websites are a ‘must have’ for all small business’. Before you hire a professional website designer, find out exactly what is included with your site, i.e., how many pages, what type of promotion is included, how long they will maintain your site, and most of all, what’s it going to cost you!

References to statistics:

Internet World Stats
ZDNet India