Do You Have A Web Presence?

You’ve finally done it! You are venturing out on your own…you are excited at the prospect of finally being a business owner and living the dream. Like many of us, when you venture into the virtual world you recognize the need for a web presence however it doesn't take long before reality sets in and what started out as an exciting adventure is starting to look like a mountain to overcome. You’ve started to do your research into getting your web presence set up but have come to the realization that it isn’t going to be cheap! If you were anything like me, you don’t have that big of a budget so now what are your options?

Well the most obvious choice is that you can hire a web designer who will/can design your site to your specifications however there are a few drawbacks to this.

1. Money. It can be costly as their time & skill is worth money-good money well spent if you have the cash flow.
2. Any changes you may want down the road will require your web designer to do it (good for them, again an added expense to you!). You will also have to wait your turn for them to fit you into their workflow queue.

The next option for consideration is that you create your own website. You gasp! You are thinking that this is not a possible feat for you to complete however with the availability of open source blogging software such as Wordpress it is actually a relatively easy process if you know how to get around on a computer and are willing to learn a new program. There are so many blogging tutorials out there, many of them free, that it makes learning the new program inexpensive. I highly recommend the video tutorials put out by Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick at Become A Blogger. The tutorials will get you up and running and should you need further assistance they do offer additional training at a low cost. Once you have your website hosted and set up on the Wordpress platform there are so many different theme options that you can easily customize it to fit your branding or change it as often as you like to suit your mood. (I like to think of a theme as a change of clothes on the body of the Wordpress backend.) Two great premium theme providers are Revolution2 and iThemes. Both offer very easy themes to get up and running as well as providing video training to help get out should you have a problem.

Using a blog as your website does have a few perks.

1. Since you created the site yourself you can easily make any necessary changes yourself – when you want it done, you get it done. You’ve just saved yourself some money and don’t need to wait on a web designer to make the changes.
2. You will actually get more ‘Google Love’ as their bots find blogs faster than a static website therefore helping you out in your ranking - especially if you actually take advantage of the blog aspect of your website and continually add fresh content.
3. Since you just learned a new cutting edge program which is a highly sought after skill, you can add it to your list of services that you provide – an extra bonus.

With the advent of blogging software everyone has the opportunity to have a professional web presence at an inexpensive price. You can too!

Until next time...