Website Builder: Professionally Designed Websites
 by: Mark Gerrard


Operating your business requires the right amount of finesse, rapport with customers and the unshakable faith that you will succeed.

You’re a business owner and you’re always looking for new avenues of growth. You’ve been mulling over the idea of having a website ever since you went to your business development conference and they informed you that having a website will boost your sales and give you another outlet for your products or services.

You’ve performed your research; however, you’re more confused than ever. There seems to be so many different ways that a website can be designed, the computer languages it takes, uploading, downloading, FTP; so many names and so confusing.

As a result of so many businesses confused about what a website can do, an informal survey of prospective and current website owners was conducted. These are its findings:

1. Inexpensive Website Building
2. Professional Design
3. Have Access to Changes From Any PC
4. Customer Service With Real ‘live’ Human Beings
5. High Uptime (99%)
6. Network Status Availability
7. Common Control Panel

Inexpensive website building doesn’t mean that you won’t pay to get the job done right the first time. What it means is that you’re not going to spend $50,000 on a 2 page website. You expect and deserve value for your money.

Along with an inexpensive website, a professionally designed website or a website that looks professionally designed is also important. You don’t want an outdated design style because this will drive away prospective customers.

In order not to drive away potential customers, you also require the ability to provide changes to your website wherever you are that has Internet connection. For example, you’re on vacation and your Uncle calls you to tell you that something on your website isn’t spelled correctly and can affect sales. So you log on from your hotel and within 15 minutes the problem is solved. Can you imagine if you had to wait until you arrived home? By that time, your stress level would have increased and you would need another vacation!

Another area that tends to stress new and old website business owners is the ability to speak with a real person when it comes to customer service. Customer service and real human contact is important to forge real business bonds. This allows transparency of operations for the website company and provides another element of trust for the customer.

A website business couldn’t be successful unless the computers that are storing those files (hosting) are functioning 99% of the time. If those computers are down, that means that potential customers may not be able to reach your website and will look at another to get what they want.

Another important aspect is network status availability. This is related to high uptime. What network status availability means to you, the website business owner is that the network that connects those computers that ‘host’ your files is also functioning. For example, the computers may be fine, however if the network has issues, then those computers won’t be able to communicate with Internet users, thus resulting in potentially lost business.

Controlling your website and its content from one central area is also important. Usually, this is called a ‘control panel.’ This allows you to re-set passwords, see website statistics (number of visitors etc) and can help you manage the content of your website. This tool should be relatively straightforward and self-explanatory. It may take you some time to understand, however shouldn’t require a Ph.D. in computer science to operate.

These 7 steps can help guide you to having a successfully built website. Take a look at what your requirements are and don’t hesitate to ask whether these 7 items will be delivered. In order to eliminate the doubt, hesitation and lack of trust that can be associated with business transactions and website building, the website owner needs to be reassured that what they’re paying for, they’re getting.

With a successful website builder, your business can attain another level of success.

About The Author
Mark Gerrard is the Development Manager of the Freestart Website Builder Platform. See our website builder in action at http://www.freestart.com