Business&Website

I am not a web developer but I know you can find one for less than $2000. Wordpress themes are very popular. I would contact some colleges to see if they have any bright students looking for some extra income to build you a website. These students might be able to land you a great website and you could give them some cash and a great testimony for them.

I would make sure that you study SEO and make sure that the website you do is responsive so that it will turn out great on mobile devices.

Good luck. Having a website is more important to me to have my prospect check  it out after the trust building relationship has started which comes after a referal. In other words, I don't assume I will get new busines from someone on my website. Instead I have it for the main purpose for branding and a sign of professionalism that someone will look at after the prospect becomes interested in reaching out to me. I have only word of mouth referrals in my new business. Once things get more steady then I will use advertising money to do online ads but this will be for specific landing pages that I will build around the campaign.

Steve Chase

PS. I bought the Avada Agency theme for $60. I added to the price with more features like the video of the guys looking at those numbers  and icon graphics and of course I need to pay for a server for web hosting. But I was very happy with the outcome of my new website at www.sequentiasolutions.com

I personally love squarespace.com. They have some really nice templates to start from and with a custom logo and some photography, you can really get a custom look, plus you have full control over the maintenance of your site!

@GoodnightFox I too have worked with Squarespace and love it! It's very easy and intuitive. 

@SteveChase Thanks for jumping in and sharing your experiences!

I found a guy in Canada who helped me for far less than what you are planning on paying.  I am not the greatest with this stuff, but he told me wordpress is the way to go.  He also set me up using Thrive websites.   They have a template system so the site will load quickly.  You can private message me if you would like the guy's name.  He did the work quickly and efficiently.  My old site was really dated.  He refreshed me to a cleaner look.  You can find it here.  He even showed me how to work in it and update it myself so I don't have to pay him over and over again to keep the content fresh. He is always there for me when things go wrong.  

You did not mentioned what exactly you are after in the website. Doing integration fo orders and client list with your quickbooks online is fairly easy task for someone that know what is doing.

The problem escalates steeply when seeking to integrate Intuit payment gateway for credit card processing.  This is specially the case if you are dealign with soft products like suscriptions and digital goods.  The integration is very difficult.  At first, MAKE sure that the developer you hire has prooven previous experience. Otherwise, you will end up paying thousands of dollars on a developer that will never complete a successfull checkout  or just will have a lot of dog scams burning your revenous.  Do not fall into a cheap by the hour developer that tell you that is greatest coder of all times. Trust me, they all do then have you spend hundreds of hours trying to go over a steep learning curve under your payroll watch.

Another thing very important and not very obvious learn untill it is  too late.  MAKE SURE that the online product   pass intuit risk managment .   You do not want to spend several thousand dollars in the website just to find out that intuit does not feel confortable with your business and declines to issue your the web payment conenction ticket.

Best luck in your project.

Hi Sherman, 

Hiring a wordpress developer would be a good idea. Because what you see in theme may not be there 'as you want it'. So inorder to customize do hire an experienced WordPress developer. I have a few experts in my team do reach out if you want them. And yes, it will be a win-win :) 

Regards, 

Ajay

P.S : We love wordpress, you can read the article related to wordpress here: Why We Love WP

well said @jecalderon

I am a website develeoper. DIY website can be an overload on your shoulder if you are misled or land on a wrong platform. For those that are really really determined; I normally recommend: wix.com - Free Website Builder with drag and drop fx. If anyone have ever worked with ms word, I sure you can design your basic to complex website if you take the time to understand how things are drilled. You dont need thess scary <html> --// // -- </html> stuff.

Hope someone finds this useful.

Msanzya

Personally, I love Wix. It offers free and paid plans. You can keep using Wix’s free plan until you are ready to upgrade later (or not). Moreover, you can get a discount now by this link - [LINK REMOVED BY MODERATOR PER DISCUSSION GUIDELINES]. Wix is pretty simple website builder so you don't need any coding skills to build a website on your own.

I think it is a good idea! I have made some websites with templates from TM and it is simple and fast. Your example of theme good, but I like [LINK REMOVED BY MODERATOR PER DISCUSSION GUIDELINES] most of all. But it will your website, so you will decide what to choose!:)

@msanzya Thank you for sharing! These recommendations are very helpful. I am looking to create a simple website on my own so I will definitely check out Wix!

Be very careful with these "let us build a website for you" commercials. The package usually includes a "Free" domain.  So once you realize you could have a website that was actually working and could be easily found on search better without them and want to leave, they own the domain name and you need to start from scratch.

Self-hosted WordPress websites let you control the domain name and the content.  It comes ready to use "out of the box" and is open source with a very local and international community of people who can answer any question in a heartbeat. It's not complicated!

Hey @mrmarklv - a warm welcome to QB Community! Did you create your own business website in Wordpress? I've worked with Wordpress sites in the past and found them very easy to edit but I'd be a bit over my head on the design end!

Hi Sherman,

I love the freedom of designing my own webpages myself however you do have to be creative and know what you are doing to a certain extent. I always research before I begin and look at websites that are currently live that I can use as a template.

I really like using Wix - it is really easy to use and navigate. There is no complicate HTML codes which some website development tools require. And its free to sign up and play around with.

Kind Regards,

Emily

@EmilyMockett @mrmarklv @GoodnightFox @SteveChase @msanzya

For those of you who've created your own websites, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Pros and Cons of: Wix, Squarespace and Word Press. 

• Which would you say is easiest to use for total newbies? 
• Which allows you the most flexibility in design and devlopment for the more advanced DIY website builder?
• How do the costs compare? 
• How would rate the ease of designing, choosing and buying a domain name, selecting a hosting plan in conjuction with these platforms?
• Which is the best for integrating and managing an inventory database + shopping cart + payment processing?

don't take this wrong, but what kind of a "newbie"?

One who just wants a website and not much knowledge? or one who wants to know how to control their content and make a name for themselves and to be found in search?

I have heard too many horror stories and dealt with a few websites built on Wix and other "all in one" website platforms.  I want my clients to control their internet space, theier name, their designs and their backend/administration.  Not be boxed in by another companies outdated infrastructure.  

Or worse, they get sold and change everything.  You have no say in what happens next.

I always say to go with a self-hosted WordPress.  Easy to set up, easy to operate, has an open community of millions of people, many local groups to lean on and learn from if you need help.

A self-hosted WP website comes ready to work right out of the gate. Be up and running 10 minutes after you hit the setup button.  Anything can be customized on it and there are thousands of free and premium plugins and templates to make it do whatever you want it to do.  

The learning curve is quick and easy.  

Wix, Squarespace, they have packages available that look cheap and easy and they are.  But you lose control of the content and especially the domain name.   Search engines (Google, Bing, etc) will find a WP self-hosted website faster and push it higher in the results page than they do a wix page.

A self-hosted WP website, you get to make the money from any advertising.  You get to say how it looks.  

Easy to use and set up? Yes, WP is easy, not as easy as Wix is, but that is the trade-off.  Real easy and lose control or easy and you control it all.  Spend a few hours looking around YouTube or ask here, and any WP question will be quickly answered. 

Costs?  Webhosting is cheap these days.  $5 a month for basic web hosting on Gaotrhost or $10 for a more reliable hosting platform. You get to add more domains if you desire and not have any new charges. Domain names can be bought for a few dollars a year. 

I prefer Dreamhost or siteground for hosting.  But to each their own.  Start small and build as needed. 

You want to do e-commerce and other things?  You will want a self-hosted WP, again, the control issues. Having the backend information, data processing and all that in place of your choosing, not theirs. A product you control the administration of it all is important.  Third-party apps are easily integrated into a WP site.  

checkout meetup.com for groups in your area where you can see the help thats available and get feedback from people who actually do what you need the website to do.

Hope this helps

@mrmarklv Thanks so much for taking the time to share all this great information!

Yes, there is definitely a difference between building a drag-and-drop site and being done with it vs wanting to understand how your site functions and leveraging it, owning your domain name and advertising, etc.. You spelled out these differences really well. 

"Search engines (Google, Bing, etc) will find a WP self-hosted website faster and push it higher in the results page than they do a wix page." -- I didn't know that, but it makes total sense, and I suspect others will find this info very useful in deciding what platform to use to build their site. 

Hey @Anonymous - welcome to QB Community!

Thanks so much for sharing how you went about developing your business website. It's AWESOME to hear how you found an initial platform that worked for you and felt empowered to self-educate to get your website(s) to look and function exactly as you want them to. Totally agree with you and @mrmarklv your business website is not something to settle for!

This is such a great conversation! If you haven't yet done so, check out @SarahGonzales latest piece, "The Basics of Creating a Great Website." You may recognize some of your own voices in there :smileywink: