Any hints on starting your own web site? Do you find that it is an essential part of your business? Do it yourself or hire someone with web site building experience?

I have a blog where I put my portfolio. I have a website designer who was sooo helpful... I guess I just don't have time to learn how to do all the coding.

It has been an essential part of my business. I can't believe what a great advertising tool it has been for me. I pay $60.00 a year and created it myself. (couldn't afford to have someone else do it) It has paid for it self over and over.

It's absolutey essential if you want to expand your business. If you're just working on word of mouth and want to keep your business small you could probably do without one.

I do my own, I like to be able to go in and change it ten times a day if I need to. I use a template, though, no coding knowledge necessary!

I also have used templates for years. Easy-breezy.

And as someone on here said recently (I think it was Indy) "if you don't have a website, you don't exist today."

Absolutely true.

I just launched my site and plan to drive all my advertising and marketing to it. I created it myself but I have a lot of prior experience creating sites. I am running it on a blog platform which makes it super-easy to maintain and update.

I hope to open for business really soon and plan on adding online ordering to my site too.

My Site

I built mine through Yahoo SiteBuilder, it's basically just like PowerPoint ,really easy to use and free with Yahoo site hosting.
You can use HTML if you know how to but you can also just copy and paste codes .
I am actually working on a new one right now, my current one is too busy and I have alot of old pics and useless info on there so I'm cleaning it up and simplifying it.
They have hundreds of templates avaible but you don't have to use those if you don't want to, I made up my own and again it was super easy. If I can do it anyone can.
And like costumeczar said it's nice being able to get in there and change whatever you want whenever you want.

I don't understand people that are in business and not on the internet. They are LITERALLY stuck in the stone age. They might as well cut a hole in the bottom of their car and stick their bare feet through and starting running around.

I use CityMax.com. They have everything I need for my store and it's only $20/month. I used Yahoo! for a while, but it was not as user-friendly as I would have hoped from such a big company...and the price was double what I'm paying now. I don't think I could have a business and not be on the internet. It's great because it is constantly selling your products and giving information to your clients before they even meet with you.

I built my website. I can control eveything. The down side is that it took many bottles of rum, several html books and alot of swearing, but it's done and i'm so pleased.
Andrea
www.kcclassiccakes.com

Love your site! Are all of your cakes meringue? the look shiny in the photos.

I like the music, but be careful with that, if you don't have the right license it's copyright infringement...just FYI.

Love your website andrea7, love your cake studio too.Your cakes are so beautiful!

andrea7 -- I also love your website and cake studio. I love the music but could see brides getting in trouble at work for that...... GREAT WORK!!!!

I use a website, www.TrulyCustomCakery.com, and my blog, www.StaceysSweetShop.com, and facebook. Between the 3 the launch of my cake shop is going really well...

I think it is necessary. I purchased a template and used a Joomla platform. It was a little harried creating the website. The blog was a lot easier!

My website is critical to my business.

Get some help if you don't know what you are doing. It can take LOTS and lots of time on your own. But it's cheaper that way

Jen

Hi,

This is my first post since discovering this forum a few weeks ago (i needed so much advice for my first teired cake!)

With all the wonderful advice I received, I am happy to finally be able to contribute. I have been designing websites since the early 90's and hope the following is of help to you.

1) you can do it yourself if you have patience, enthusiasm and are not afraid of computers. If you have problems with new programs or are intimidated by software - hire someone.

2) understand the basics of SEO (search engine optimization) - you just need the basics, dont get too overboard. Google "seo basics" and read for an hour. That should be all you need.

3) find a hosting company (i can recommend a great one - but not sure if i can post the name here) For 6$ a month you get everything you need, plus alot more should you need to expand. Blogs, mailing lists, hosting. email, etc etc etc.

4)get a great domain name - about 10 bucks a year and if you can add privacy as an option, do that. Will save on all the spam you get.

5) decide on what you need (not what you want - what you need) I would recommend home page, contact, picture gallery and info. Once you have all this in place - then you can add all the fluffy stuff.

6) You can do the above and be able to stay current by installing a blog rather than a static website. This is often easier, but again, you cant be aftraid of new software.

7) Hire a photographer - or learn to take great pictures. This is an area that I would spend some time/money to get really good.

Make sure you have an easy way to capture email addresses - like a mailing list. This will allow you to reach out to your followers and remind them of your existance.

There are a million things you can do for a website and the key is not to get lost with all the options. Decide what you NEED and once you have that, then you can look toward expansion.

Hope this helps!

R.

A website is absolutely essential to any business. It used to be years ago that your face was the face of your business. Today, your website is the face of your business. It's most likely the first thing people see when they come across your business and that face should be clean, concise, and professional looking. I can't stress enough the importance of a site that isn't too cluttered, that gives just the right info, and tells people what they need to know about your business in a matter of seconds... without reading the words you put out there. If you can hook people from the very second your site loads... you have done it right.

Free template sites with the ads can be a great way to get started, but I am a huge advocate of paying for a site so that there is no clutter when people come to browse. If you want to be taken seriously you have to play the part. There are many template site companies who sell the rights to use their templates with no ad interference. They are reasonable in price too. My site was worth every penny it cost to get it up and running... paid for itself in a matter of weeks in orders.

my business would not exist without my website. It is worth every penny. The only way I take orders is online - it is a great way to cover yourself if you ever need to - you have evrything they wanted or wanted written in their emails!

I don't have a cake website (just a blog); however, for my day job we use Citymax.com. It costs $20 per month & if you prepay for the year it is only $16.99 per month. You have access to Google Analytics which is very helpful w/ the things mentioned above like Search Engine Optimization. It is extremely user friendly. I know very little html code & I created our business website all by myself. I can change it everyday if I choose. You can also set up online selling. I believe there is a 30 day free trial. Also we paid $11 for our domain name through citymax & that's all. It was supposed to be $11 per year but each year I renew they say Thank You & don't charge for the domain name. HTH