Starting a New Business Series – Part 3
Hello fellow entrepreneurs!
Last week I wrote about how to acquire a custom domain name for your business. This week I’ll be continuing along the same path and will give you some ideas on how you can quickly and easily get your own website up and running with your shiny new domain name. Believe it or not, creating a custom website doesn’t need to be complicated! There are almost as many services out there to create a website, as there are websites, which can be incredibly confusing when you’re just getting started. You could pay somebody a lot of money to design a new website for you from scratch, or you could give some of the following suggestions a try. I’ll focus on a few popular services and outline some different pain free options for you, in order of increasing technical abilities.
- If you just want to create a new website that “just works” out of the box, and absolutely everything is taken care of for you, give Wix a try (https://www.wix.com).
- Positive aspects:
- From the most basic blog site to a full blown e-commerce store, they have you covered with over 900 free customizable templates.
- Anybody can build a website on the Wix platform, with no technical experience.
- Their staff is available to support you and help you with any issues.
- Things to be aware of:
- Wix will cost you a monthly fee and depending on the features you use, those fees can add up very quickly.
- Once you build your website on Wix, you can never transfer it out to anywhere else without rebuilding it from scratch. That’s called “vendor lock-in”.
- If you’d like to have more options, a similar service is WordPress (https://wordpress.com), “the world’s most popular website builder”. WordPress will have similar features as Wix, but can have more flexibility.
- Positive aspects:
- The additional flexibility allows you to design anything your imagination desires, sometimes at the expense of simplicity.
- WordPress can also build the simplest of sites to complex full featured web stores and beyond.
- 42% of the web is built on WordPress. More bloggers, small businesses, and Fortune 500 companies use WordPress than all other options combined.
- Things to be aware of:
- While the WordPress website builder doesn’t really require any coding or website experience, it can take quite some time to learn how to use all it’s many features. YouTube tutorials are your friend!
- WordPress will also cost you a monthly fee that varies depending on the features you use.
- If you are not afraid of working through a few minor technical steps, one of the most flexible and cost effective options is using Amazon Lightsail through AWS (Amazon Web Services). If you purchased your domain through AWS and are planning to use additional services there like email, Lightsail is a great option for any business. The BergenDynamics website uses this method, although I’m using the more feature rich (i.e. complex and powerful) version of Lightsail called Amazon EC2.
- Positive aspects:
- Using Lightsail, it will literally take 3 selections to get a website up and running. You choose your plan, which can range from $3.50USD and up, choose WordPress, name your web server and you’re good to go. This WordPress is slightly different than the one above, since it’s the free open source version. It has all the features of the paid version above, but you have to manage everything yourself. You may have to pay for plugins/features you use but many of the most common plugins/features are free to use.
- You have the most flexibility and the lowest costs using this service.
- Your other AWS services can easily interact with your website since AWS is a one stop shop and the worlds largest cloud provider.
- Things to be aware of:
- Once your new WordPress site is up and running, it can take a few (minimal) technical steps to login to the admin interface for the very first time. Once you’re logged in though, you’re good to go.
- Just like the paid WordPress version on wordpress.com, it can take some time to learn how to use all the many features available to you. YouTube tutorials are your friend, and since it’s one of the more popular platforms on the web, there is no shortage of documentation and howto’s.
All three of these services will easily allow you to point your custom domain name to your website, regardless of where it’s registered. All three of these services are a great option for new small businesses and large established businesses alike, and will provide fantastic results.
If the thought of setting up something like this gives you a headache, no worries! There are plenty of experienced professionals available (including myself) that can help you design and setup a fully working system (including backups). That being said, if you are confident around a computer and have no fear of office apps like Word/Powerpoint, both Wix and WordPress should be achievable ways to get up and running with minimal effort.
As usual, I want to leave you with some words of encouragement.
Being a business owner can be frustrating and complicated, especially when you have to wear hats that you’re not comfortable with. However, there is beauty in learning something new and along with that comes great satisfaction in having accomplished something on your own you never thought you’d be able to do! Exercising your creative freedom to design your own website can be liberating and dare I say it…fun! Give it a try and see how it goes. If it just doesn’t work for you, you can always fall back to paying somebody to design your site for you.
Please don’t forget to visit my website (https://www.bergendynamics.com) and subscribe to get my weekly blog in your inbox.
Until next time,
Ernst Bergen
B.Sc. Mech. Eng.