When you first start a business, funds can be limited. I can remember before I started my company thinking, “How am I supposed to build a business that cost money if I haven’t even made money?” It’s like the chicken before the egg right?
Well, luckily, there are some FREE yes I said FREE resources that can give you the start that you need until you are able to start creating a little cash.
Here’s a quick overview according to the experts at www.webexperts.com.
Wix – www.wix.com cost: free option
Pros
- Professional looking templates – Wix offers over 510 professional looking templates or you could create your own custom design. If you’re not the creative type and need help in building a beautiful design, Wix’s pre-made templates will really help you get started.
- Intuitive Drag & Drop interface – The way to create your website with Wix is based on a drag & drop interface. Pick what you need (image, slideshows, text, etc) and position them wherever you want without any restrictions.
- Support and help available everywhere – You can click on the main help button at the top of the page, or each element in the website has its own unique help button. This can save you a lot of time. You also get access to phone support from 6am – 5pm PST, or you can schedule for a Wix specialist to call you back.
Cons
- Visible advertisements on the free platform – If you are using Wix’s free website builder, it includes advertisement logos on the side and at the bottom of the website after you publish. To remove the advertisements, you will need to upgrade to at least their “Combo” premium package.
- Can’t change templates – Although Wix has a lot of pre-made designer templates for you to choose from, one of the drawbacks is that once you’ve picked a template to use, you can’t switch to another template.
- Not designed to manage complex e-commerce needs – If you want to build an online shop, Wix’s e-commerce tools are not advanced enough to help you fully manage your store. Wix is missing is the ability to automatically send confirmation emails out to your customers after they pay, configure taxes and shipping costs, and just general management of orders such as marking orders as shipped or paid.
Squarespace – www.squarespace.com cost: free 14 day trial
Pros
- Squarespace provides you with beautiful, rich imagery, designer templatesthat undeniably command your attention right off the bat. They definitely project a highly finished quality, as if a designer has invested months in polishing them.
- All Squarespace templates are responsive, meaning that you can resize your browser and the content (including the images, slideshows) will also automatically resize to help give you and your visitors optimized viewing experiences. This is especially helpful if your visitors tend to use mobile devices.
- Squarespace gives you extensive styling options that a lot of other website builders do not have. Squarespace makes it very easy for you to customize your website’s design without editing codes.
Cons
- Adding, and Dragging and dropping Blocks in Squarespace were slightly buggy in our tests, and not as smooth as other website builders (Blocks are Squarespace’s basic website building components such as text, image, slideshows). We had to try multiple times to add or re-arrange Blocks, which slightly annoying.
- Although Squarespace’s Style Editor gives you the ability to customize or style almost everything in the website without going into codes, this could be a bit overwhelming to the average joe. This could be a case of paralysis from too many styling options. It’s awesome if you have the patience, a designer-eye or high, specific design standards for your website as Squarespace really gives you fine controls over design. However we feel that for the average person, this could potentially be a bit too much.
Weebly – www.weebly.com cost: free option
Pros
- One of the easiest and user friendly drag & drop website builder in the market – They don’t overwhelm you excessive number of tools, but all the strong basics to build a functional website.
- Free to use – Weebly’s free platform provides you enough tools to build a functional website (even when you’re not paying a dime, which is awesome).
- Broad range of templates allows you to build a professional looking website. You get access to all the templates from Weebly (even with a free account) and they are adding more designs on a regular basis. Weebly also grants you access to their HTML / CSS editor so you can modify the website design as you wish (or hire someone to help you do this).
Cons
- Limited number of designer-caliber templates – The quality of Weebly’s templates is relatively average when compared to other website builders.
My Personal Take On Each Platform
When I first started, I had a free website on Blogspot.com. It was perfect for me as I was figuring things out; however, as time went on, I knew it was time to upgrade to something more professional that I had more control over. Here are some pros and cons that I think www.webexperts.com might have left out.
Pros
- Each of these resources are a quick and easy setup without having to worry about getting a webhost or domain registry, which is much quicker to start up.
- Many of them provide analytics of how well your web pages are functioning as well.
Cons
- You also don’t have a personal domain using the free options. For example, if you use blogger, you will have your business names + .blogspot.com at the end. It’s fine, but not quite as professional as a simple .com.
- Flexibility is low. You aren’t able to rearrange sections of your website. In order to open up more features of what you want, it of course will take money. Some of the bells and whistle come with a price, but they are still a good start.
- The more options, the more money. To really get the professional site that you need, you have to continue to upgrade in packages for a monthly fee. With the costs that you are paying monthly, it might be cheaper to get your own site developed at a one-time cost.
- You have very little control. Once you get going, you realize that you can’t add or change things that you might want. For example you might want to add in email marketing pop-ups, but you are unable to. You also have to deal with the fact that your content is not your own. If any changes are made to the platform you are using, then there goes your site. Yikes!
Once you get your feet wet, you’ll get to see what you do and don’t like about each of these sources. However, eventually, you’ll want to upgrade to a more professional look that gives you more flexibility to grow your business.
If that’s the case, I’ve got extra resources for you! Get all the details about my Web-Love web design and development packages. My customized websites are designed to get you up and running with the heart of your business in mind. Click Here to see my latest project!
Today’s Think Tank:
In today’s assignment, I want to hear from you. Have you ever used any of these platforms to create a website? If so, what did you think of them? Any extra information on the topic is always welcome! As always, I’ll pray for your success and ask that you pray for mine. It’s the only way that we can impact this world! Until next time… BE BLESSED AND BE A BLESSING!
XOXO,
Kim
