At Least Million Ways To Create A Website?
Decisions On How To And Who When It Comes To Web Design
We gave gone over a few basics when it comes to creating a website for your blueberry business. As we have mentioned, there are many reasons to own a domain that protects your company name. If you are going to own the domain, you might as well use it. Once you decide that a website is a reasonable investment, you have to confront the many ways that a website can be created. We will share a quick summary here, just enough information so you have a few clues to balance the website sales pitches you see on television or may get through email.
Should you build your own website or hire someone to do it?
What is your time worth? If you are not computer saavy and your time is priceless (or worth more than $20 an hour), I’d suggest hiring someone to build your site. If you wouldn’t hire an inexperienced stranger off the street to run your blueberry harvest, don’t hire yourself to create a website to represent your business. That was easy enough, but it gets tougher from here on in.
Web Development Platforms – Headaches For Even the Web Pro!
It is unlikely that a busy farmer, packer, or producer, has the time to research all the available platforms one could use to build a website to represent their business. So we will break down the top three “platforms” small businesses choose today.
Content Management Systems – WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, ect…
A website is full of content and a content management system (CMS) is a program that manages content. WordPress is the champ here, followed by Joomla and literally thousands of other programs, that create a space for you to design and then manage a website. Like 20% of the world’s websites, this site uses WordPress. Other well-supported platforms would include the aforementioned Joomla, Drupal, ModX, and Concrete5. Content management systems help organize web content and make it easier to update since in most cases, once the site is designed, there is no need to know any code.
Web Builders – Squarespace, Weebly, Wix, and on, and on…
Web builders are what you see advertised on TV and the radio. Some of the web builders offer a limited, free version while others are fee-based web services with front-end and monthly charges associated with them. In many cases, the web builders are novice-friendly and have excellent phone support that will talk you through a “drag and drop” web building process. Squarespace is probably the most popular. Functionality typically upgraded with fees in an “alacarte” fashion.
Building one line at a time…
The basic language of the web is HTML, or “Hyper Text Markup Language. We are now “HTML5” which basically means the 5th generation of the language of the web. HTML along with CSS and in some cases, PHP, (is your brain hurting yet?), is what you would see if you right clicked your mouse on a web page and selected “View Source”. Do this now. Imagine thousands of lines of code Enough said?
Most businesses will pick either a web builder or a content management system whether they build the website in-house or hire a developer. This website uses WordPress as does the North Carolina Blueberry Council, Inc. Consumer Site. We choose WordPress because it is well-supported, offers easy management of content, and is very friendly to mobile devices. A simple way to get your questions answered when it comes to the pros and cons to which web platform and how much it may cost, is to go to your favorite search engine and actually write the question in the search box.
This post is based on the experience and research of John L. Wood – Digital Content Manager of the North Carolina Blueberry Council. It is designed to offer suggestions that members of the North Carolina Blueberry Council, can use to advanced discussions with their website and Internet-based marketing partners/teams.
