Posts tagged as:

web development

Eight Excellent Easy Website Hosting Options (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – January 20, 2012)

by Tim on January 20, 2012

in Blogging, Marketing

It seems everyone’s looking for simple, inexpensive solutions for hosting their websites. Happily loads of tools exist to help you get a site up quickly. While I’ve provided in-depth comparisons of many of these tools in the past—as well as explored available options in our small business blogging guide—here is a quick summary of eight quality offerings.

Weebly

Weebly advanced signup thumbOne of the long-time leaders in the space, Weebly has continued to enhance their offering since I last reviewed them.

Pros:

Cons:

  • Limited e-commerce options
  • Only ad-free in the paid versions (though, again, those options are fairly inexpensive)

Cost: Free as long as you’re OK with advertisements (you shouldn’t do this, though). Paid versions start at $3.99/month. Domains are expensive through Weebly, so buy your domain elsewhere and direct it to your Weebly site instead.

Squarespace

Squarespace logoAnother strong offering that continues to grow in features and functionality. I reviewed Squarespace last year and they continue to impress.

Pros:

  • Powerful
  • Very flexible (especially if you have CSS development chops)
  • Unlimited bandwidth at higher plan options
  • Excellent customer support (arguably the best in the business)

Cons:

  • Expensive relative to other options

Cost: Starts at $12/month.

Jimdo

Jimdo logoJimdo continues to challenge Weebly and Squarespace for top billing. While not as powerful as Squarespace, Jimdo offers loads of options at a reasonable price. Well worth checking out.

Pros:

  • Powerful, even at the free levels
  • Loads of third-party widgets
  • Surprisingly strong e-commerce support
  • Highly customizable at paid levels
  • Lots of language options

Cons:

  • Blogging platform not as strong as others
  • SEO editing capabilities limited relative to competition
  • Domain hosting requires paid versions

Cost: Free. Starts at $5/month ad-free with domain hosting.

Yola

Yola logoFormerly known as SynthSite, Yola provides an excellent site editing tool and decent features, but is expensive relative to others for what you get.

Pros:

  • Easy to use editor. It’s not the most intuitive, but isn’t hard to use once you gain some familiarity with it.
  • Lots of third-party widget options
  • Very good customer support

Cons:

  • Relatively expensive compared to the other options
  • Limited customization options
  • Only allows Google Analytics integration at the highest paid level
  • Poor built-in analytics

Cost: Free. $9.95/month to remove Yola advertising and add Google Analytics for your site (which you’ll definitely want to do).

SiteKreator

Sitekreator logoSiteKreator takes a slightly different approach than many of the others in this round-up. While they offer self-maintained sites like the others here, they also offer a “Deluxe” package where their designers will build a completely custom site for your business. I can’t recommend their “self-managed” solutions (most others here offer more power for less money), but if you need a custom site, their Deluxe offering is worth a look.

Pros:

  • Loads of flexibility at highest paid level

Cons:

  • Expensive

Cost: Starts at $19.95/month for self-created websites. $79.95/month + a one-time $500 setup fee for a custom SiteKreator-built site.

Homestead

Homestead logoThis offering from Intuit plays on its parent’s relationship with small business owners but doesn’t offer the bang for the buck of its competition. You’re almost certainly better served with other options, even for e-commerce. So, why include it? If you plan on doing heavy e-commerce volume, Homestead’s customer support and credit card processing features make it worth a look.

Pros:

  • Decent e-commerce capabilities at highest paid level
  • Strong customer support

Cons:

  • Expensive
  • Blogging tool is a hassle to work with
  • SEO capabilities could be better at lower-price level

Cost: Starts at $4.95/month. $19.95/month for blogging, e-commerce and custom domain options (which, again, you likely should choose).

Tumblr

Tumblr logoSeriously? Tumblr? Yes, Tumblr. While it’s much more a blogging tool than a full-fledged content management system (CMS), building a simple site on Tumblr is fast, easy and fun. And its social tools can help drive traffic and interest in your site. While it’s not for everyone, for the simplest sites, Tumblr may be exactly what the doctor ordered.

Pros:

  • Incredibly simple site builder
  • Free
  • Surprisingly robust, especially if you’re comfortable with CSS
  • Loads of templates to choose from, with lots of customization option. “Premium” templates are inexpensive
  • Excellent mobile options
  • Built-in social integration

Cons:

  • Limited support apart from the Tumblr community
  • Setting up your own domain requires you to manage A name records at your domain host (this page is the entirety of Tumblr’s support for the process)
  • Not a full-fledged content management system

Cost: Free. Truly. You’ll have to buy your own domain elsewhere, but free unless you choose to purchase a “premium” template.

Wordpress

Wordpress logoI’ve long been a fan of Wordpress. Despite its origins as a blogging platform, Wordpress has grown into a fairly robust CMS in its own right. While not a great option for e-commerce applications (you’ll need a separate, third-party option for that), for many small business sites, Wordpress offers exactly the right features at a reasonable cost.

Pros:

  • Great content editor and world-class standard blogging platform
  • Excellent community
  • Fully customizable (for an additional fee)
  • Terrific SEO capabilities
  • Tons of plug-ins and widgets
  • Ability to move to your own host if necessary
  • Inexpensive

Cons:

  • Support options are not as good as other paid choices (though, as noted, Wordpress has an excellent community around it)
  • Setting up your own domain requires you to manage A name records at your domain host (this page is the entirety of Tumblr’s support for the process)

Cost: Free. Starts at $41.97/year to remove ads and add your own domain (effectively $3.50/month). Custom designs cost $30/year.

Conclusion

Any of the options discussed above will help you get a quality website online quickly and easily. And with prices ranging from a couple bucks per year to a couple hundred, none will bust your budget. Obviously, your specific needs will determine which offering works best for your business. But, if you don’t have a website, the options presented above demonstrate why that shouldn’t be true any longer. Take a look and start engaging with your customers online today.

Disclosures: I am an affiliate of eBay ProStores, Amazon, Dreamhost, the Thesis theme platform and (as of October, 2011), Squarespace but received no compensation for writing this post from anyone. While I recommend Squarespace for those that need its power and flexibility, it’s not right for everyone. I also recommend you look at other, lower-priced options to determine whether Squarespace is right for your business.

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.

Tim Peter & Associates helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 use the web to reach more customers, more effectively every day. Take a look and see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

{ 0 comments }

Who should build your website? (Guide to Small Business Ecommerce Strategy)

by Tim on April 10, 2008

in E-commerce

Who should build your website?

Building a website is easy. Painfully easy. Anyone can do it. That’s a fact. Tools like Jimdo, WordPress, Weebly, SiteKreator and Synthasite provide everything you need to ensure your business has a professional web presence.

Build a business website

Building a website that’s easy to maintain and helps your business meet its long-term goals, though? That can be a completely different animal. It’s not to suggest that these tools won’t work for you. They will, at least for simple sites. But what separates the men from the boys regardless of the development tool is a professional approach focused on you, your customers and how to benefit both.

So what should you look for in someone to build your site? Here are the things that matter most:

Your business needs

  • Does the person you’re looking at understand your business needs? Have they worked with your type of business before? While it’s not critical that they’ve built sites in your industry before (and sometimes it’s preferable to get a fresh approach), what is important is they have a process for learning about your business needs. It can be called discovery, business analysis or – my personal favorite – “uncovery.” But the process matters.
  • Does the person or team you’re working with understand user behavior? Worry about folks who say, “all customers act exactly the same way.” While it’s true that there are common types of behaviors and common types of purchase funnels, without detailed knowledge of your customers, of your business, they could be heading down the wrong path. I have seen many similarities in the behaviors of customers on such diverse sites as web-based training, financial services, hotel reservations (economy through luxury), retail, news, blogs and restaurants. Don’t be surprised if your customers act just like those in a completely different industry. But sometimes subtle differences have huge business impact. The discovery process should take into account the needs of your customers as much as the needs of your business. (And if you think your business needs outweigh your customer needs, you might want to rethink your business).
  • Does the person or team have the time, resources and knowledge to accomplish your project? Getting off to a strong start is important, sure. But finishing is better. Make sure you – and your vendor – leave enough time for (regardless of what they call it) project definition, design, development, testing and deployment. For a simple site, this can take as little as a few weeks. For a larger one, you might be looking at months. But the process takes time to do it right. Give yourself that time and you’ll reap the rewards.

Your technical needs

  • Does the vendor understand meaningful analytics for your business? Obviously, your vendor needs to know web analytics. But do they know how to apply those to your business?
  • Does the person or team you’re working with understand search engine optimization (SEO) practices? Search engines often represent significant sources of new traffic for business – if your site is set up correctly to capture that traffic. Creating an appropriate site structure, finding the right terms, and writing quality content and page titles all represent the types of activities necessary for ensuring your site shows up in the right searches. Does your vendor know how to do this? (Don’t just ask them if they do, get them to show examples of work that ranks well. And run away if they “guarantee the first position.” They’re lying).
  • Does the vendor use web standards? Have they even heard of them? Following web standards – whether industry standards like building valid HTML and CSS, or legal standards like Section 508 compliance – help ensure that your site will work for the longer term and make it easier for you to switch vendors later if you’re unhappy with their performance.

Your financial needs

  • Does the vendor charge a reasonable amount relative to the return you’ll receive? A (very) rough rule of thumb is that a well designed site should cost anywhere between 0.5% to 2% of the revenues it generates. The cost of your site depends on several factors:
    • How much content needs developing
    • How many customers the site needs to support at one time
    • How many back end systems the site needs to integrate with
    • How much research you put into the discovery process
    • How much custom work your developer does vs. how much “off-the-shelf” is available

    Make sure you understand what you’re paying for in each step of the process. If the person claims “it’s too complicated” or “you wouldn’t understand,” send them packing.

Your human needs

  • Do you like the people? While you can definitely get good results from people you don’t like – unfortunately, the reverse is also true – why accept the heartburn of working with people you just don’t like? Ideally, the developer of your site is as invested in its success as you are. If they don’t care, if they don’t accept that responsibility, if they rub you the wrong way, keep looking. Life is too short to waste with people you don’t like. And your business is too important to trust to those folks.
  • What support do they provide you when things go wrong? It’s a sad fact. Sometimes things don’t work out the way we’d like them too. What levels of support is the developer willing to provide you? Make sure you each have a clear understanding of what is – and is not – included. Nothing contributes to changing “I like these guys” to “I hate these guys” more than misunderstandings around how to handle the unexpected. So answer that question right up front.

Your brand/aesthetic needs

I saved this one for last. It’s very easy to get “wow-ed” by a pretty design. But a pretty design doesn’t always work as a website if the designer can’t meet the standards above. Definitely look for people who get your brand, who reflect your vision of the site. But save that as the final test. Then you’ll be sure you get a brand-focused and attractive site that also works for your business.

I realize this is a long list, with lots of detail. But your business is worth it. In fact, is there anything missing from the list above? Are there things that have worked for you? Please tell us about it in the comments.

Note: Really large, high-volume sites requiring significant overhaul could take a year or more to redesign. Do yourself a favor. Chunk that development into components or “phases” that can roll out every 3-6 months. Release early. Release often. Drawn out development processes don’t work. So don’t do that. ;-)

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , ,

{ 2 comments }