Let’s face it, today’s economy is tough. Consumers are holding back, and markets are setting record highs for competitiveness. It’s getting a little better, but it’s nothing like it used to be. Unfortunately, most business expenses haven’t declined to make things any easier. Companies and individuals alike are hoping for miracles. They’re looking for any way to get great value for very little, especially when it comes to the essentials.
And one of these essentials is a good website. Everyone wants a site that wows visitors, but they know programmers aren’t cheap. While that’s true, you don’t need to hire an expensive programmer to have a great site. It might be hard to believe, especially for those who don’t have a deep knowledge of technology, but there are plenty of tools available that cut the price of building a site down to a fraction of what you would expect.
Low Cost Site Building Tools
Yes, a website can be built for free, aside from hosting costs of course. With the advent of content management systems, also known as CMS, like WordPress, this feat has become rather easy. WordPress isn’t just a free blog host. Its system can be installed on any website, and we use sites like these every day.
It’s free to download and very easy to use. There are limitations though. WordPress is just a content management system. It gives you some customization options, but they are very minimal. Ultimately, it is just designed to display information, and it has a hard time moving out of that ballpark. It works well for personal blogs and even small business sites, but it won’t be leaving any lasting impressions on your visitors or performing any complex tasks.
The next step up from WordPress is a website template. Templates are similarly friendly to technological newbies, but they manage to grant a little more freedom and power to the user. They aren’t free, but they won’t break the bank either.
A few other tools could be of some use to webmasters looking to save some money. The use of free blogging tools or social media sites can help boost traffic and visitor engagement, and web tools like Google Analytics can help you track how people get to your site. You won’t be able to create the next web masterpiece, but you can still do quite a lot for very little.
Growing Your Site
Building a website on the cheap is an option, but as it grows, you should consider investing more into it. As the number of hits rises, you will have to upgrade your hosting plan, and if you ever want more function and power, expect to hire an expensive programmer after all. Also, if you’re hoping to attract new visitors through internet marketing or search engine optimization, then plan on opening your wallet quite a bit. They can be particularly expensive, but if executed well, they will give you a great return on your investment. Everyone wants a site for an affordable price, but the truth is that it will have its limits. A low cost site can work at the start, but if you want it to grow, you’ll have to increase your budget at some point.
While the old adage, “There is no free lunch,” is true most of the time, it doesn’t apply here. Websites are one of the few places in this day and age where you can find tremendous value for very little, if not for free. We are past the complicated days of the early internet where it took hours upon hours to create even the most basic of sites. Over the years, powerful tools have been developed. Now, even if you are the most technologically uneducated person on earth you can still make your own website easily. Almost anything is possible for the webmasters of today, and it doesn’t cost much to do it. No one will have to let a low budget stop them from having the website of their dreams ever again.