Cheap Web Site Not So Cheap
We had our Carpets Cleaned, we use a small family run business and see them a couple of times a year.
We usually have a chat about how things are going and how tough it is to run a small business and get new work. So this time I asked the usual question, "how are things going?" "Good" they said, "we even got a website up, but the company that did it ran into financial difficulties and the site was down and has only just been made live again". After a few more question and some OMG expressions on my face I got the full story.
They did not think that the could afford a web site, so when contacted by a well known company offering a web site at a price that was in the low hundreds they were sold. For this price they were to receive a customised single page web site. They soon found that customised meant a few changes to a standard template with a lot of, "no you cant have that".
Once live, it was noted that the wrong area code was on the phone number. After much frustration and a number of calls it was changed.
Then there was the quarterly hosting / maintenance cost, which would turn this low cost site into one that cost more than a fully responsive multi page site with an easy to use CMS to make their own updates.
So my advice to them was, "Give me the weekend and I will show you what I can do for the real cost of your cheap web site".
They now have a new, 3 page responsive web site which they can easily expand on using the CMS, no large hosting or maintenance fees and they love their new site. By allowing them to spread the payment over the next few months it has cost them no more than the cheap site and will save them hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in the future.
So before you sign up for a low cost web site, consider the real costs.