If anyone can give me some advice about a website, I’d appreciate it. I saw this ad for a full working website for 500 bucks:
http://www.limedot.com/contractor/blowout.htm

It seems like a great deal, but is it worth it to advertise my home improvement business on the internet? I thought I could also put my website address on my business cards and my truck.

I'm not going to say that the samples given there are bad, because they navigate well, aren't filled up with nonsense, and are pleasingly simple to the eye, in shade, contrast and content.

However...

$500!

Take a weekend and learn some basic HTML and some Photoshopping "skilz and d00d, U R L33t" for free! (Ahem) I mean, uhm, a really basic but thought-out design is better than bells and whistles and you can do it for cheap or free. ECN has templates to get you started. Play around with some ideas and be creative. It's very satisfying!



Go here to start:
http://signup.electrical-contractor.net/



[This message has been edited by sparky66wv (edited 12-09-2002).]

I bought the .com for my company and put a free 1 page site up. I plan to have it professionally done, but just haven't had time. From my experience $500 isn't too bad. I found anywhere from $250 - $750 for design and set-up. Here at EC they offer a free site, but your web site will have a long address, too long for anyone to remember (sorry guys, JMHO). I think if you promote the website, it might help you, but I wouldn't expect it to make your phone ring off the hook.

You can still buy the Domain Name (www.yourname.com) and have it direct to the index of any webpage.

Like I have with fat-headed-monster.com .

That one costs me $5 extra a month on my ISP bill and $35 a year for the Domain Name.

It's an option!

<editted because I was calling a "domain name" a URL, and there's a difference!>



[This message has been edited by sparky66wv (edited 12-09-2002).]

You're exactly right. You don't have to use that long name though. If you purchase a Domain Name for whatever (under $35/yr most everywhere) you can have it point to the free site.

Example:
FREE Website Name - www.Contractor.Electrical-Contractor.net may be too long to remember, and not very "catchy". So we buy a Domain Name ( www.WeDoElectric.com ) and have it point to the free site.

Bill

Bill,

Jinks!

Good Idea Bill!, I may take you up on that.

Putting a website together is a great idea. It did wonders for our company. Its an excellent advertising tool. We put it on the vans, business cards, storefront and yellowpages.

Anyhow, I built my own website using www.homestead.com They provide a template and putting it together is easier than you think. It took me a weekend to put mine together and a few days of fine tuning after that. Frankly, it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it very much.

You can check it out at www.santinoelectric.com

Just my 2 cents.

EE,

I think the templates here are pretty easy to use for someone with no experience. Or you can do your own thing if you do know how. The other downside to free websites are the ads. That is why they are free. If you can live with them, that's fine, or they can be removed for a small monthly fee.

I had started making up some basic Tutorials some time back (so all info may not be totally accurate) that should give you an idea of the How-to >> ECN FREE Web Tutorials If you need help doing something you can always post a question here.

Bill

My site, http://www.electric-ed.com/ is "homemade" using Microsoft Front Page.

And you can get free hosting for a small site, with no ads, at http://www.freedomainhosting.com/

Ed

[This message has been edited by electric-ed (edited 12-09-2002).]

Well, I could do it myself, but I don't have the time. Plus, I want something that will help me stand out over my competition, and I know those "free" and do-it-yourself sites always look like a 10-year old did them.

From what I'm hearing, it seems like $500 out the door for their product is a great deal compared to what others are charging.

I'm going to go check out their refernces and more samples, and I'll let everyone know what I find. -ST

Ed,

We use Frontpage here too.

samtrayman,

No doubt about it. A professional can do it better and faster. Just like anything else.

Bill

Don't forget to ask about updates. What happens in 4 months when you want to add a page or change some stuff around, or even change your contact information? Do they provide support over the phone? How do they charge for changes? Hourly rates of $75-$100 are not uncommon.

that homestaed link looks pretty good to me I may try that!

I had a website for my home remodeling busines. Didn't bring me any new work because the internet's filled with so much sutff it's hard for your customer to find you. Search Engine Optmization is the trick. You can learn to do it yourself but a professional firm will be better at it.

I got lots of email asking for advice on fixing stuff from Brazil, Germany, and Equador. Sometimes I'd get an email from some couple in Boston or Houston wanting a bid for a project.

But it did turn out to be a good sales tool.

One opf the things I asked for during a site visit was the customer's email address. I can tell which ISP's visit my site and often saw the customer's ISP within hours (often minutes) of my initial visit. (Web address was on business cards)

So I geared it toward this. Lots of pictures of past projects, lots of info about us, tried to answer all the questions I usually got asked by potential customers.

I know the site helped me make sales but did not bring in new work.

But like your work truck, a nice looking site says good things about you, a bad looking site makes you look unprofessional.

I'm lucky, my brother designes web sites and helped me out. $500 won't get you much of a site, nothing that is really made just for you, just some fill in the blank stuff.

I think a nice site would more likely cost $1000 or more. I know some of my Brother's more involved projects are over $6K.

my $.02:

I've done a fair amount of internal web pages in my jobs, for documentation and internal applications. I imagine that what I see when I look at most home-grown web pages must be like what an skilled electrician would see when they see what most homeowners end up with when they do their own electrical work. Red Flag.

I agree with samtrayman, that most DIY webpages look juvenile. The problem, IMHO, is that it takes a lot of time to learn DESIGN, and the tools make it easy to generate pages without regard to design.

There's another point of view that you might consider. I'm sure you're aware of your hourly rate. Take that and multiply by the 20-50 hours that you will spend 1)learning to build the pages, 2) learning design, 3) manipulating the photos, 4) creating/modifying/finding the graphical elements, and 5) working with the service provider to get everything installed correctly (just to name a few things). In that light, the ROI for a skilled electrician doing their own website is very low.

Now I'm not trying to get anyone's WIGGY in a BUZZ. I know that there are exceptions to everything. So if you know that your DIY website is top-notch, then I must not be talking to you.

A good, basic design reference is "The Non-Designer's Design Book" by Robin Williams (not that Robin Williams). About 15-20 USD, easy to read, and very helpful when it comes to designing web pages, business cards, and any other kind of promotional materials.

FWIW, I think $500 is a fair price for the level of work they demonstrate on their example. If it comes with search engine posting, all the better.

I can't say much for the business side of whether it's worth it, but I do use the net to research contractors, suppliers, etc. I would say that if you're going to do it, an easy to remember name is really important. If the URL is too long, nobody will type it in.

Peace,

Barry

Well, there has certainly been some avid interest in the post! I've done more research, and clearly, the common theme is that a solid (not just a DIY) website is a necessary part of maintaining business.

I've looked at the company with the promotion at http://www.limedot.com, and their references are strong, and I like their past work. So based on everything, I'm going to give it a go.

By the way, they offer "search engine optimization" like you mentioned, and some other stuff included in the price of the site, so I'm confident that this will be worth it. See you guys online sometime soon!