Was your website worth the cost?

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OCD-tailing

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For those of you who have had websites for some time how much of your business comes from your site? Do you recall how long it took to pay back the cost of the site in relation to jobs that came from it? How many of you paid a professional designer for their services? Lastly, after your site was up and running, what did you change after it was launched and why?

I have read many posts on this forum where people are asking for advice on their completed site but I don't recall anyone discussing the value of the site in relation to profits. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Happy New Year,
Alan
OCD-tailing LLC
 
I have helped several people with small businesses with website. I basically use online website builders like godaddy. Iv'e used GoDaddy, Weebly, Homestead along with some others. My favorite is WIX, and for $99 a year you can't go wrong.

For my site I used WIX and love it, mainly because you can do a lot of meta-tagging and key-words with them while other sites add additional charges for this.

Is it worth it? You can't just build a site, attach a domain name and expect wonders. You have to work it up into search engines and if anything, try to focus on keeping things local as far as wording and key tagging.

With that being said, $99 for a year? One job and the website is paid for. It is probably the most (least?) inexpensive advertising money can buy.
 
My website cost me $20 and I designed it myself on snap pages. I think it has more then paid for itself already, although I haven't done much with it lately as I haven't been doing much the last month. If you click on the pic in my sig it will take you too my website.
 
KMG said:
My website cost me $20 and I designed it myself on snap pages. I think it has more then paid for itself already, although I haven't done much with it lately as I haven't been doing much the last month. If you click on the pic in my sig it will take you too my website.
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I must admit. When I saw that you only paid 20 bucks for your site I was certain it would look like a 20 dollar website. After viewing I am very impressed!!!

Nice job my man !! :props:
 
It is actually a free site, but the price was to buy my domain name for the year. So basically i will pay $20 a year to keep my domain. Being that I am part time I really don't need to spend a ton on a website, and with Zach M's recommendation I used snap pages as that is what he used when he made his.
 
KMG said:
It is actually a free site, but the price was to buy my domain name for the year. So basically i will pay $20 a year to keep my domain. Being that I am part time I really don't need to spend a ton on a website, and with Zach M's recommendation I used snap pages as that is what he used when he made his.
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You should do this (building websites) for other$ in your spare time. Your site looks really nice IMO
 
Yup, as Kevin said, the site is completely free to use. I just pay $20/yr for the domain name. There are some limitations as a 'free account' vs. a premium paid account, but as you can see a free page can look pretty good.

Feel free to check mine out:

www.AttentiontoDetailing.com
Just a reminder - all information is copyrighted, so please feel free to look, but please do not copy. I only bring this up because it has been an issue several times in the past.

Totally worth the price :dblthumb2:
 
zmcgovern45 said:
Yup, as Kevin said, the site is completely free to use. I just pay $20/yr for the domain name. There are some limitations as a 'free account' vs. a premium paid account, but as you can see a free page can look pretty good.

Feel free to check mine out:
www.Attention to Detailing.com


Totally worth the price :dblthumb2:
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:wow: Yours looks very nice too !! :props:
 
So as you can see between Zach's and my own website it is possible to have a fairly nice website for very little coin, and it will certainly gain you some work if put together correctly. I have had a few people tell me they chose me over other local people just because of my website.
 
KMG said:
So as you can see between Zach's and my own website it is possible to have a fairly nice website for very little coin, and it will certainly gain you some work if put together correctly. I have had a few people tell me they chose me over other local people just because of my website.
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^Same :xyxthumbs:

I feel that a business without a website stands very little chance against one that does now days. It is a great way to get your name out there and show off your work. It is also a way to put some information about you on there that will help to differentiate you from your competition.

I spend a lot of time on my site and am always updating and revising it, but it is fun to do IMO.
 
Absolutely. I designed my own myself so it is a constant work in progress. Wordpress makes things insanely easy. Domain, design, time. Those are your only costs and in this age you'd be insane not to even have a freebie site. Have friends to walk you through good SEO/SEM/Design and don't stop comparing your own site to others.
 
KMG said:
So as you can see between Zach's and my own website it is possible to have a fairly nice website for very little coin, and it will certainly gain you some work if put together correctly. I have had a few people tell me they chose me over other local people just because of my website.
Click to expand...

zmcgovern45 said:
^Same :xyxthumbs:

I feel that a business without a website stands very little chance against one that does now days. It is a great way to get your name out there and show off your work. It is also a way to put some information about you on there that will help to differentiate you from your competition.

I spend a lot of time on my site and am always updating and revising it, but it is fun to do IMO.
Click to expand...

Woob said:
Absolutely. I designed my own myself so it is a constant work in progress. Wordpress makes things insanely easy. Domain, design, time. Those are your only costs and in this age you'd be insane not to even have a freebie site. Have friends to walk you through good SEO/SEM/Design and don't stop comparing your own site to others.
Click to expand...

scrubs147 said:
I have helped several people with small businesses with website. I basically use online website builders like godaddy. Iv'e used GoDaddy, Weebly, Homestead along with some others. My favorite is WIX, and for $99 a year you can't go wrong.

For my site I used WIX and love it, mainly because you can do a lot of meta-tagging and key-words with them while other sites add additional charges for this.

Is it worth it? You can't just build a site, attach a domain name and expect wonders. You have to work it up into search engines and if anything, try to focus on keeping things local as far as wording and key tagging.

With that being said, $99 for a year? One job and the website is paid for. It is probably the most (least?) inexpensive advertising money can buy.
Click to expand...

Guys,
Thank you all very much for your responses as I have gotten a few good ideas out of them. By the way all of your sites are excellent. The biggest problem I have is finding the time to work on a site. With a 45-50 hour a week normal job and detailing at night and on weekends it is tough to do much else; however, $1500-$2500 for someone else to do it seemed to not be a great option either. I am just trying to get a cost/benefit analysis (of sorts) together before I figure out my next step. I did about 120 cars in 2013 but most were production jobs and I would like to get more into the 'retail' side of the business so that's where I think the site would help. Thanks again for your comments and I need to check all of these suggestions out further so I can make an informed decision.
Alan
 
Really nice site, Zach.

I noticed you have some write-ups on your site showing your work. Did you use MS Office or something for that write-up?

The reason I ask is because I've noticed that some folks start threads showing their work and then post the write-up w/pics on several forums. That seems very time consuming considering how long it can take to upload photo's, then enter them into a thread just on this site alone, let alone doing it on several forums. Thought maybe you or someone else would have some tips in that regard.
 
It is all done separately. Forums, like AGO operate on BB code. My write ups on my thread are done in the native tool that snappages uses for their 'blog' tool.

I upload all of my photos to my Facebook page and then use those photo links as the source for the forum threads. The write ups on my site are using photos actually uploaded to my site so they have a different link so they are not affected if something changes on Facebook.
 
I may be new here but I'm a bit "experienced" with websites and figured I'd give my opinion.

I made a website for my side business a few months ago and it was worth it and then some. I paid for the hosting and domain for a year and coded the website myself. I prefer this over the "free" ones as it tends to look more professional and you can have it look however you want. I just added the detailing page to mine and haven't finished it yet.

Feel free to check out mine here:

DundalkDipping - Home

it is also mobile friendly which I think it a big plus in today's world. My contact form has gotten me a good amount of business.
 
Most of my business starting up has been from people finding me on the web and then telling me how much they liked my website, along with how easy it was to use and find the information they were looking for.

It's essential.
 
Scott@IncrediblyDetailed said:
Most of my business starting up has been from people finding me on the web and then telling me how much they liked my website, along with how easy it was to use and find the information they were looking for.

It's essential.
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Absolutely, it's too easy to not to have a free website that is barebones. You could even just use Facebook as a primary update page then your website as a backbone for services/etc.

I create posts on wordpress then simply change the IMG properties for images.
 
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