There are a lot of free options for creating websites - and for some people, it could be the perfect solution. But for most, the old saying, "you get what you pay for" also applies to free websites. In most cases free means, "you are on your own".
YWD promotes self service, they like when people use the system to build their own website. But, they also know that most of their clients are experts in their business and not necessarily experts in building websites or the latest digital marketing trends - and that is where they come in. They are always creating new content, be it blog posts or new training tools to help their client businesses stay on top of trends and be as successful as possible on-line.
Facebook - why not, it's Free!
More and more, people seem to be using Facebook instead of creating a website. Facebook is a great tool for keeping in touch with customers, but stats tell us people rarely come back to a Facebook page. That means users are interacting with you via their news stream - and if they follow lots of people, your update could get so buried in their news stream that they may never see it. And unfortunately unless optimized by an expert, which these self made Facebook pages never seem to be, finding your address, or phone number or hours of operation is really hard for your customers. In fact I have yet to see a Facebook page optimized for SEO - not saying it can't be done, I just haven't come across a small business owner who knows how to do it. Unless you are going to be satisfied with only maybe interacting with the 23 people who like your page - you should likely invest in a solution that can help you create a great website that your potential audience can find.
What about the free template websites?
Sure, but you know that template means "could possibly look like someone else". And in my experience, cause I like to sign up for these every now and then to see what they include, they eventually ask you to pay something to keep your website live. And I have never heard of one of these solutions that has people at the other end who will pick up the phone or respond to an email to provide help.
WordPress is one of the best web platforms out there - some incredibly fantastic websites are being created on this platform - check out the Rolling Stones new tour website - it is beautiful! But I challenge you the small to mid sized business owner to create that website on your own. That website was built by a designer with years of experience, partnering with a developer who also has years of experience. They probably created their own plug-ins to make the website function the way it functions. And I can also tell you that they are not using the free version - any website built on WordPress that doesn't have WordPress in its URL isn't using the free version.
I have worked on quite a few projects that use WordPress and the end product is always good, but it always involves a designer, a developer and a price tag above $50,000.00.
There are a lot more complexities that come with using WordPress, and Monica Yother's post does a good job of highlighting a few of them.
That is not to say that there aren't some good and affordable folks out there building websites using WordPress, because I know that there are. I hope we are at the point in the conversation where you are starting to think, "I should pay to partner with an expert who can help me with all the things that I don't know about building websites or implementing digital marketing".
This is the perfect time for me to encourage you to read Monica's post (if you haven't already) or to sign up for LiveBuild or Get Started - doesn't matter which one you pick a real person will reach out to you to help you get up an running in what ever way works best for you.
Once you get started with YWD, you will likely find yourself thinking, wow, I can't believe how much flexibility and support I get for such a small price - a situation where you actually get way more than what you pay for!
We are pleased to have Pilar Galiana as a guest blogger. She is a digital marketing strategist who has worked with brands like Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Nokia Canada and TD Bank to mention a few. These days she runs her own small business, you can find her mobile site here, www.ellasays.ca.
Luxury Residence Club Resales (LRCR) is a professionally licensed real estate brokerage established specifically to serve Four Seasons Residence Club owners at Aviara and Scottsdale in Arizona. As a separate division, Luxury Residence Club Resales works exclusively with Four Seasons Residence Clubs, operating a highly-effective resale service for Residence Club owners.
The photographic material used on their website – which was recently transferred to the Your Web Department platform – conveys the sophisticated atmosphere associated with the Four Seasons brand. Here are a few examples taken directly from their website www.luxuryresidenceclubresales.com
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
It’s extremely gratifying for us when our platform is able to help experienced communications professionals integrate website design and building services into their offering. Conrad Ferguson & Associates provided this great testimonial on how they were able to transition to the Web with the help of Your Web Department.
About us
Conrad Ferguson & Associates was created in 2006 to use the power of design to help companies create powerful and lasting first impressions through effective communications.
We focus on the strategic direction, conceptual development, and management of execution of the full range of marketing and communications projects including brand identity, promotional collateral, corporate publications, advertising, newsletters, long documents (white papers, reports and proposals) and web media.
Our passion is transformational design: we love taking an outdated visual identity or an arsenal of poorly performing marketing tool and redesigning them so they will attract new customers and lead to increased sales. It’s not about making it pretty---it’s about making it work.
We choose not to specialize---over the years we’ve worked for clients in every business sector and on a wide range of communication challenges. Our portfolio demonstrates our ability to find a solution that is just right for our client regardless of their sector. And we love the variety!
As a seasoned creative director and communications designer, Laurelea Conrad has over 20 years’ experience working with Fortune 500 Companies as part of the leadership team at global PR companies, including Burson-Marsteller Canada and Hill & Knowlton Canada. It is this higher level thinking that separates us from so many other design firms who, while passionate about design, know far less about communication.
About working with YWD
Your Web Department has enabled us to enter the web design world by saving us from the myriad of frustrations and costs that occur when working with programmers who lack design sensibility.
YWD’s platform is designer-friendly. YWD’s support team is designer-friendly. And YWD’s pricing makes it affordable and easy for our clients. It’s been a win-win-win solution. I love the way YWD continuously works to improve the ease with which the program works and how much effort is put into developing online help tools, videos, blogs and updates.
Not only have we been able to expand our services to include website design and building, but it is wonderful to know we can always rely on YWD to help us when we get stuck. There is a lot to know with web design and building and I’m eternally grateful to have YWD and My WD!
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
Some of the most prolific people utilizing our website management platform are designers who previously had little or no experience creating websites. If you’re print designer and in the past have avoided accepting Web work for whatever reason, I think you should reconsider.
Why the Web is for you
You’re already in business The mere fact that you have a business -- whether it’s struggling or not -- gives you an edge over geeky programmers. I bet you have much better people skills, can understand a budget and adhere to deadlines. They often can't.
It’s much easier now
You don't need to buy giant those think and confusing tomes on how to learn Flash, PHP, Joomla, etc. A website management system like Your Web Department lets you build a website yourself for free for your clients, no programming required.
You’re better qualified than anyone
The same overall design principles that you’re familiar with can and should be applied to the Web. It’s just a matter of making some adaptations. After all you’re a communications professional and can understand your client’s needs in that respect better than anyone.
Your clients expect you to do it
Gone are the days of clients spending thousands of dollars on a simple website, unless it has some really specific functionality. Most expect that in addition to their branding or printed material, you’ll also be doing their website and that they'll be able to update it on their own. In the past, you might have hired someone to "program it" for you. That’s not required anymore.
Simple tips
Design your websites and images at 72dpi
Work on your concepts at 72 dpi, not 300 dpi. High resolution images won’t look any better on monitors and only make everything load much slower.
Use RGB
Monitors work in RGB, not CMYK.
Scrolling is fine!
The days of tiny Flash websites loading in fixed-height rectangles with tiny type are over. Flash itself is dead. While you should keep critical information and calls to action above the fold, it’s perfectly OK for people to scroll down on long pages.
Web fonts
In the past you had to stick to the so called “web safe” fonts like Verdana, Arial, etc. But Your Web Department platform loads fonts on the fly now. So in addition to a few dozen built-in fonts, you can also select from amongst thousands of fonts from Adobe Typekit or the Google Web Fonts (free) library. And by the way, don’t use bitmapped/rasterized text for your headings and the like. Use live, editable (and searchable!) text.
So there you have it. Next week I’ll be introducing you to a studio that has successfully incorporated website building into their practice. In the meantime, you may want to check out Gustavo's related post about why a designer switched to YWD.
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
We like to think that Your Web Department is a better a solution than Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal, but it is even better when our clients think so too. This great Top 10 list was created by one of our long time clients and partners, Monica Yother.
Monica Yother has been designing since 1987, in that time she has been a Marking Director, a Creative Director, won local and national awards for her work and most importantly she has helped improve her customer’s businesses through great design. Monica uses YWD for her website, www.my-designs.net and has used YWD to deliver about 15 websites for her customers.
Monica encourages her web customers to use YWD, this is why:
Learning curve is very small for anyone using the system, especially for clients once the site is built.
Forget about updating the software every week or so, YWD does it for you! Count the time you spend updating Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal, PLUS all the Plugins and Widgets…which brings me to the next point…
Plugins and Widgets…forget about them too! Not only can these cause conflict with each other (anyone building a site with freeware will know that at some point a plugin will conflict with something on your site and create another reason to update, deactivate, reactivate a plugin). When YWD updates or adds something to their software they also activate it in your site
Security. While nothing is 100% guaranteed in life, especially the security of a website, the chances of having your site hacked is hugely reduced with YWD for a couple of reasons. I’ve never had a site hacked or compromised in any way with YWD, while I’ve had several instances of hackers on Wordpress sites.
SEO is easier in YWD. Most of the time, when I pick up working on someone’s Wordpress site, they have added some SEO packages along the way, and while some are good, some are not…and unless you spend time researching it you won’t know.
Support, Support Support. I have been working with YWD for several years now, and I know that I can call them on the phone and talk to them. Yes, a live person. Wordpress does not have that option, and if you go with a theme builder (Woo, Headway, Genesis, Elegant Themes, Theme Forest, etc.) you will not get a phone call…and most times the questions you post in their crowded forums do not get answered. Though, to be fair, Woo has a pretty good team, but still, no phone call).
Support. I have to say it again. I feel confident that YWD has my back, so if I tell my client I’ll check on something for them and get back soon, I can keep that promise because I know that I can email or call support at YWD and get an answer.
I teach Wordpress workshops to people because I have built quite a few sites with it, and without exception, the ONLY reason people want to use it is because they want to update it themselves. However, I run into the situation ALL the time where a site has been built with some obsolete theme, or one that is super restrictive, and my client cannot make any changes. Not only that but they have already paid a good amount of money (way too much to install a theme without customization) so they are stuck again. This is not an issue with YWD in any way….you can change the design of the site anytime.
E-commerce does not have to be complicated, while I have not built a large catalog sales type site yet, I do have paypal integrated with one site and am about to build another site selling items.
$49 a month gets you: backups, support, stability and an ever-improving system …and most of all peace of mind. And that is priceless.
Check out some of the great websites that Monica has created for her customers:
Interested in working with Monica on your next design project? You can reach her at:
Gustavo Jabbaz started his digital career as a designer and then became a developer and these days spends most of his time as a digital marketer. A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for day-to-day operations, marketing and development strategy. He is who you talk to when you need support with SEO and/or Social Media. Gustavo Jabbaz on Google+ | Twitter
The Samuel Field Y Day Camp offers a traditional outdoor camping experience that encompasses athletics, the arts, aquatics, while fostering Jewish values. For over 60 years they have provided a profound and memorable camp experience to thousands of children and young adults.
They recently adopted the Your Web Department platform and got a beautifully-designed website. It’s easy to navigate, right on message and with lots of information. The photographic material helps to convey the kind of work they do and the atmosphere they provide. Image galleries and content sliders are being used elegantly and effectively.
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
Facebook - why not, it's Free!
We are pleased to have Pilar Galiana as a guest blogger. She is a digital marketing strategist who has worked with brands like Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Nokia Canada and TD Bank to mention a few. These days she runs her own small business, you can find her mobile site here, 
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