In my last article I talked about how freelancers, in an effort to save money, often fall prey to those all-in-one el-cheapo DIY Website solution packages. These sites often end up costing more in the long run.
“But,” you may be asking, “just what am I supposed to do? I’m one person, I just started my business, and I don’t have a lot of money.”
Developing a terrific Website that gets business in the door doesn’t have to cost a lot – you just need to know your options.
1. Develop a creative brief and site map.
The first step in creating a Website that doesn’t run over budget is to be explicitly clear about what you want your Website to do for you. Some questions to ask include:
- What kinds of sites do you like and why?
- What is your branding? Will you need a logo?
- Will you be publishing a blog? If so, it should be part of your site (i.e. yourdomainname.com/blog)
- What content do you have already that you can add to the site (i.e. reports, e-books, articles, etc.)
- If you have a site and you’re upgrading, what’s working and what’s not?
- Will you be incorporating social media? How about an e-newsletter?
You’ll also want to include a site map that lists the proposed sections and pages.
Your creative brief is your roadmap and will help your Web designer better quote your project. It will also help prevent project creep – saving you big money down the road.
2. WordPress, WordPress, WordPress
A content management system (CMS) that many people think is used only for blogs, WordPress (WP) makes updating a Website quick and easy, eliminates all the back and forth between you and a Web designer, and significantly lowers your Web costs.
Because it’s open source, you can make WP do all sorts of neat, customized functions. When I publish case studies to my DH Communications Website, for example, my WP designer made it so that my case study “overview” page is automatically updated as well. Ditto for my e-newsletter archive page. It’s pretty amazing, actually – and has saved me countless hours and design fees.
WP is free, and lots of free WP themes exist, which makes WP a great resource for budget-minded consultants and freelancers. However, you’ll want to customize an existing WP theme or have a designer develop a custom template for you – which brings me to my next point.
3. Don’t do it yourself.
I highly recommend you hire a competent WP designer. WordPress is easy to use once you have the template up and running. Customizing WP, however, is not.
You want someone who combines extensive WP programming and design expertise.
You can find WP designers via eLance or other sites like it.
Having been down the painful road of trying to find a competent WP professional, I recommend that you ask plenty of questions of prospective designers, view portfolios and get a signed contract with milestones, deadlines and costs spelled out.
This is where your creative brief comes in: prospective WP designers should be able to look at it and give you a rough quote and/or tell you if they can build a site based on what you want.
In the last article of this series, I’ll explain how to develop a plan for creating a content rich, optimized site that showcases your expertise and gets you found in the search engines.
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Dianna Huff, a veteran Web Marketing Expert, helps consultants and freelancers maximize their online marketing efforts with marketing assets they already own – and without spending a lot of money. To learn more about her Web marketing coaching services, and to download her free Twitter report, visit www.the-profitable-consultant.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @WebMktgCoach
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