Why Your Website?

[Coding Monkey]

This isn't an opportunity for me to review your site, offer advice on it or generally moan and tell you how we (or anyone else) could improve it - I'll stay quiet on that one. I'm just interested why you decided to go with the website you've got. Was it just a matter of price? Perhaps you don't see the value in having a website, or you went with what you thought was the best available, or it was someone you knew to do the work. Even if it's because you've got too much business, I'd like to hear any reasons you might have.

So, thanks in advance.

[Rob Holmes]

Our website www.matrixxhosting.com was recently re-shaped to be as simple as possible - thats what the guide was.

As for price? I've thrown more cash at it than I care to remember, trialing this that and the other..

I hand picked our designer for his skills and speed at response.

Hope this helps...
Rob

[Mwebb]

I spent all of last year planning my business. I knew it had to be an online business, and i knew the sort of areas/industry i understood.
I planned out about 3 businesses. ( The great thing about travelling is you have loads of time to think, and research )


the reason i went for the business i have now is because i have 4 years motor trade experience, lots and lots of contacts, and i understand the needs of dealers to keep maketing costs down...and ROI high!

The reason i went for the developers i am using is they showed the most enthusiasm for the project. They were not the cheapest, but were a long way from the most expensive.

I know this might not be exactly what you asked, but i thought it might add to the conversation.
Michael

[multilingual]

When we started out I went to see various designers to build sites for us.

Most of them had very set ideas about what they wanted to do and were not particularly open to our requirements. They wanted to build sites that would win awards for them regardless of what we wanted.

In the end I made the decision to build it myself.

Now, three years on, I just buy templates and edit them in Dreamweaver.

I know a bit about SEO, I know a bit about HTML, etc...

OK I am not the most technically knowledgable person in the world but I have complete control over how a site is built and the price is dirt cheap.

JB

[Hedgehog Toys]

I went for an off the shelf eshop package as i do not have the funding for a full blown designed site yet so the most adaptable site had to do. The shopmaker site does all that i want at the moment and generates sales so it can't be all that bad :o

[Tazuk]

The reason I have the website I have at the moment is based on price. I am still setting up my business and because most of the services I offer are unique it isn't getting the coverage and income that I would like.

I decided to build my own website and I have put quite a bit of time in to it. I do know that it needs some work and I know that i need better forms and a member registration, but finance just won't let me progress.

My services need better marketing but again finance just won,t let me progress at a rate i would prefer.

But here it is anyway so you can have a look and possibly a laugh, I can take critisism and advice so don't hold back.

www.helivation-uk.com

Tony

[Astaroth]

For my previous online businesses I have built them myself. This has mainly been driven by the combined factors of that they were all hobby/ suplimentary income sites rather than "true" businesses and secondly they have all been dynamic/ database driven and when I did receive quotes for they were always far too expensive for a hobby (most would have been acceptable if it was static pages they were designing).

The secondary aspects were that I do enjoy actually creating websites so added to the "hobby" aspect and secondly, by writing it myself I understood how all the code & design worked so was a lot easier to tweak as I wanted than getting a fully developed ASP site where the developers havent commented anything so making changes was much more difficult (I did a few redesign/ upgrade functionality type jobs in my day where someone had purchased a "proffesionally" designed site initially)

If I was to have a site that I wanted to make into a full time business/ primary income then I certainly would consider hiring a company to do it. Price will always be a factor but it wouldnt be the most important. To me the designers ability to understand requirements and create something that is "fit for purpose" rather than trying to get me to pay for the most trendy/ latest technology etc would be high on the list.

In my day job we are currently going through the motions of having a new package added to our system. There are 2 off the shelf products available and we had presentations from both. Both were given the same initial brief and topics we wanted to cover. Company A came in, said they were the industry leaders, no reason to go elsewhere and they would save us a flat 10% if we were to get them in. Company B said they thought they could help us but looking at the figures they thought that on 1/2 our work the benefits would be small in terms of money (though it would add control as it automates a manual process) and for the other 1/2 they said there was more scope and probably a 10% saving. Company B won me over with their honesty and company A really turned me off with their arrogance.

[Eagle]

I 'learnt' HTML with an old copy of HoTMetaL Pro 4.0 - and I'm still using it! :shock:

I'd like to convert to a CSS site but I don't have the time to learn it. :(

[SillyJokes]

We built ours as we went along (well Tophat did). It has evolved a lot but remains very simple, however it is an extremely big site now.

We did look at getting it redone one year but after talking to various designers found that we were unimpressed with the offerings and simply did it ourselves, ignoring all their suggestions! One bunch simply wouldn't take no for an answer and kept hassling us even when we had explained we didn't want a site like theirs.

The bottom line is that our site is not like anyone elses'. It is bespoke, we can change it at will and we are in total control.

[DuaneJackson]

The brief for our main site ( www.keyone.co.uk ) was for it to be clean, not flashy and to give the impression of a an established company (We ae now , we wasn't then).

It's hardly changed since it was first put together a few years ago. I'm happy with it as it is. It brings in a reasonable amount of work and seems to do the job it's meant to.

[Coding Monkey]

I'd like to convert to a CSS site but I don't have the time to learn it. :(

Could help you out there, Mark.

We did look at getting it redone one year but after talking to various designers found that we were unimpressed with the offerings and simply did it ourselves, ignoring all their suggestions!

That's cos you didn't come to us. ;)

I mean, erm, back to the impartial view. Thanks for all the feedback so far. Do those with their own built sites believe they've done as good a job as a professional and their site is benefitting as much as it could (and I know how many people call themselves a professional, so a company like Spring Digital (http://www.springdigital.co.uk/portfolio/small_business.php) as an example of a professional web design company).

[SillyJokes]

I believe we have done as good a job as many 'professionals'.

The bottom line is whether the site sells. Ours certainly does and it continues to sell more each month than the month before (apart from Dec/Jan obviously).

It might need a few tweaks however I would be very afraid of a new look/redesign as I think it could potentially alienate those thousands of clients who know us as we are now.

No offence Mac but, as you seem keen to tout, I don't think your site wouldn't work as well as ours at doing what we do.

[Coding Monkey]

No offence Mac but, as you seem keen to tout, I don't think your site wouldn't work as well as ours at doing what we do.

Apologies if I've misunderstood, but that isn't the intension at all of this thread. I won't PM, call or try and get business from anyone responding to this thread. I've never called/messaged anyone on these forums, or any others suggesting that we redesign their site without them asking for any information related to it.

[Whistle Ink]

Hi!

Jamie from Matrixx designed my site. Matrixx did a small job for me before sprucing up a form and I was very pleased with what he had done. Only probably because they this did I ask them to quote for the website design and then gave them the job.

Also only because I had chatted to Rob a few times did I have the confidence in him that I would get a top job and service. So I guess it's 'it was someone you knew to do the work'.

Nowadays if I was getting a static site done I would take a closer look at portfolios (Matrixx doesn't have one I don't think!) and if possible try to get to know them. Money would still be an issue but I would be more likely to spend more with someone who was enthusiastic about working with me (not many around).

I don't know if this answers your questions!

Bye Paresh

[clairemackaness]

I built both of my sites myself and am really happy with the design and layout of both. I did it myself as I didn't have the budget for designers.

I'm aware that if it was done professionally I would probably get more hits and possible make more sales and thats down to SEO etc more than the design I think.

Something I will need to look into when I can afford it.

[multilingual]

Do those with their own built sites believe they've done as good a job as a professional and their site is benefitting as much as it could

In a word Tom, yes.

Web designers have a very critical and trained eye and tend to pick up on bad website design where average Joe would not notice. For this reason I feel that my DIY sites stand up ok. The Russian site that I built using Site Build It, and is about as basic as they come, has brought in the most work.

We got Merrill Lynch as a customer through that site!

You have to ask yourself: Are you building sites to meet your expectations or the expectations of the people who will read them?

JB

[Eagle]

I'd like to convert to a CSS site but I don't have the time to learn it. :(

Could help you out there, Mark.
Including the loan? ;) :wink: :P

[Coding Monkey]

In a word Tom, yes.

Web designers have a very critical and trained eye and tend to pick up on bad website design where average Joe would not notice. For this reason I feel that my DIY sites stand up ok.
JB

That might be true, but I'm not a designer, never will be, have no design experience, training, can't design anything at all, and wouldn't ever take a penny from a client if they wanted me personally to design it. I'm a web developer. Someone else does all the visuals, and I comment on it as a non web designer. I can look at something and tell whether it's giving the right impression, yet, alas, it will always come down to the fact that I run the company and work in the industry.

[fastfences]

Hi Tom,
I built mine using NetObjects, simply based on lack of funds during start-up phase. It has served its purpose and works well as a gallery which does capture me a considerable amount of work, and accolades for the site itself. 8)
I am now working on a program of increasing my professional exposure and am pleased to advise a forum member (C2 Web Design) is doing a great job with the recent launch of www.fencinginfo.co.uk which could be seen as a 'feeder' to my business, but it's really not :wink: .

My main site will soon be receiving 'the treatment.'
Cheers, Nigel

[Coding Monkey]

Nice improvement, Nigel.

Just to clarify, this thread isn't meant to be a "professional vs home made" thread. I'm not trying to persuade you to get a website from us, or from anyone. Just interested in what made you decide on your site, and, naturally, if you built it yourself, if you feel it's achieving the right results.

[Jayne]

Love your new site Nigel, especially the handsome devil on the front :lol:


Tom..

I paid for my first site doing and I wouldn't have had a clue on how to do one, not even a template one, I couldn't use publisher at this point. I didn't get quotes or anything, I picked the person who I liked on the forum after checking out his site and asked him to make me a site. I emailed him hand done pictures to give him a rough idea of what I wanted and designed my own logo.

I did the second site myself with a vshosting template, which I like better than my paid site, because I get to mess with it and alter things myself. I am now 100% in control of my site and don't have to ask my designer to change things, because they forget and can take ages to change things.

If I had to have a site done now I know much more about web stuff and SEO. I would go for a totally different thing. I would want one that is SEO friendly and a site that I can alter text myself, like I can on a template one.

Jayne :D

[Mac Yeti]

But here it is anyway so you can have a look and possibly a laugh, I can take critisism and advice so don't hold back.

www.helivation-uk.com

Tony

On the contrary, I think you can see how much effort you have put into it. Good Stuff 8)

[Toon]

I started out getting free templates and editing them self. The thing is this was tears ago and I knew nothing about site design. In fact I didn't even know you could just use Frontpage and was manually editing the html to get it doing what I wanted. Needless to say my site wasn't that good!
I then met someone at a business course I was on who offered to do me a site for about £60. Sounded good so I let him get on with it. It was basically a template he probably got for free and edited little bits of it. Saying that, he did design the logo for me so I guess it wasn't a total waste of money.
Since then I've just got web templates myself and learned how to edit them but in the end manually editing a html website daily when you have 600+ products is a bit of a nightmare so I ended up using the creloaded version of oscommerce. The best decision I ever did and I've had tremendous results since changing it back in November. I've done as much as I can to make it look a bit different to other oscommerce sites but i still need the main functions to be part of the site.

[billhilton]

I built my own because:

1. I wanted a blog-based site, and I wanted to play around with XML technologies, which I'd never used before. I'm not an expert coder by a long way, but I find it pays to know a bit about it;

2. I wanted a handmade look to reflect a distinctive, direct and somewhat idiosyncratic brand;

3. A self-build technology allowed me to base the whole thing around WordPress, and, subsequently, blogger. This gives me an effective, partial CMS for free - I can update my site quickly and easily wherever I am in the world;

4. Even though I'm not a whizz kid, I find coding and building sites very absorbing.

Notice that "because it was cheap" wasn't one of my reasons. I reckon that with all the messing about, learning and experimentation I did I spent about sixty hours on the damn thing in the end - £1500 of my time.

Yeah, all right, it's brown. But I like it and it seems to work.

[Ravenfire]

1. Mumszone - Because I can do this all myself (Although I have help with the banner as I have a friend thats a web designers and does them for me), and I like to change it frequently to try and make sure I am getting the best from it.

2. Strictly Admin - I wanted something simple but that got across the message which I think this one does.

[Mac Yeti]

I built my own because:

1. I wanted a blog-based site, and I wanted to play around with XML technologies, which I'd never used before. I'm not an expert coder by a long way, but I find it pays to know a bit about it;

2. I wanted a handmade look to reflect a distinctive, direct and somewhat idiosyncratic brand;

3. A self-build technology allowed me to base the whole thing around WordPress, and, subsequently, blogger. This gives me an effective, partial CMS for free - I can update my site quickly and easily wherever I am in the world;

4. Even though I'm not a whizz kid, I find coding and building sites very absorbing.

Notice that "because it was cheap" wasn't one of my reasons. I reckon that with all the messing about, learning and experimentation I did I spent about sixty hours on the damn thing in the end - £1500 of my time.

Yeah, all right, it's brown. But I like it and it seems to work.

nice blog system :) is it serendipity?

[billhilton]

Nope, blog-standard Blogger.com. I seem to being going against the grain of savvy opinion (as usual) in that I actually prefer it to WordPress. I've never tried Serendipity, but I might have a look.

I just liked the idea of building my business site entirely around a blog, as it's easy to maintain and keeps the whole thing feeling 'live', providing I remember to update it. I have a separate personal blog - www.lostearthman.com (http://url), which you're welcome to read if you don't mind all the libel and obscenity - so I find the blogging habit comes pretty naturally.

[Mac Yeti]

Blogging popularity is just growing and growing, I think they're a great idea and likely to stick around.

I hacked about with serendipity for our 10 Yetis website, and would definitely recommend it, also the guys that create it are just the nicest group of people, I did promise them a theme based around our website but haven't found the time for it yet.

Anyway, sorry slightly off topic I suppose :)