online website builder yes or no?

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Website builders are online tools that allow you to build websies “in minutes”. They take you through a number of steps and after that you have a website! No programming is needed although in some cases it takes some time to figure out how to use these builders. You usually pay a monthly fee for hosting and access to website admin panel. Website builders can be a lot cheaper than hiring a website designer but will it also generate results?

In this article I will examine the advantages and disadvantages of using online website builders.

disadvantages:

• Despite the claim that it takes only a few minutes, in reality it usually takes a lot longer and you will need to be computer and web savvy.
• You will need some basic computer skills and a sense of style and understanding of navigation structure and user-friendly websites so that your site does not look ‘self-made’ will not generate any leads
• Do you have the time to create and manage your own website or would your time be better spend on running your business.
• Many business advisers advocate that you should concentrate on your core business skills and leave all other necessary tasks (like web design, brochure creation, and admistration) to professionals so you can spend time on growing your business
• Potentially higher ongoing monthly costs
• Not of layout and design flexibility
• If you want to add additional functionality that is not available in the system then it cannot be done.
• If e-commerce is included they often only work with certain suppliers and credit cards may not be used
• free website builders will put either ads or their logos on your website which will make your website (and business) look cheap

Advantages

• You can make changes at any time, without the need of paying extra money or having to wait for someone to do it for you
• A lot of functionality like guest books, forms, image galleries comes ‘free’ with the website builder

No matter what you decide to do it is important to select the right website builder. I may get back on this in later posts with some reviews.