I guess I will kick this topic off.

My name's Colin, president of The FX Agency (new website coming soon)
My firm handles web development, custom programming, internet marketing, consulting and web hosting.
I'm not a big fan of talking about myself, but bring up the Internet, ask questions and I will talk your ear off.

I wanted to talk a little bit about why hiring a pro, is the way to go. (hey that rhymed smile )

There is kind of a running joke within the webmaster-type community, that business people are choosing their next-door neighbour's, wife's, sister's, second husband's, son's, girl-friend's roommate to design their website. (okay, I exxaggerated a little bit) smile

So, the question is... would you send this same person to a service call or even a sales meeting with a prospective client? Probably not, I think for obvious reasons.

The inherent problem with websites, is that you can only visualize them. You cannot touch, hear or interact with them the same way you do with people.

Would you buy this vehicle for your company?
[Linked Image from fxstudios.net]
Probably not... why?
Well, you may get strange looks, you might feel embarassment, you wouldn't want customers to see it for fear of losing their business and being ridiculed, not to mention what friends and family might say.

If you are driving this truck around with your company name on it, you are giving onlookers a first impression of your business, which I am sure you will agree, is not good. The same thing applies with websites. The main difference here... is that you may never know what the impressions are of your visitors, because they will never contact you to say.. "Hey, your website is brutal". Doing that is too much work, the easiest thing for them to do is, just leave.

How many visitors are you losing because they couldn't navigate your site or couldn't find the information they were looking for? ... or for other asthetic reasons....

Well, the answer, is you just don't know for sure.. again for the interactivity reasons. Nobody is going to contact you to tell you why they left your site to go to your competitors, they will just go.

What if I told you, you are losing 10 customers a month? If, on average each customer spends about $500.00, that's $5,000 per month you are NOT receiving. Is that enough of a reason to hire a pro?

In its purest form, a website is an advertising vehicle. Employing a website just because it's cool or because your competitors have one, is just not enough of a reason.

To take full advantage of what a properly designed and constructed website has to offer, it needs to be a part of your marketing/advertising budget.

Do you have an advertising budget?
If the answer is no, then either you are too busy that advertising is not necessary or you may not realize the benefits of advertising.

(... to be continued)

Web Hoster, Designer, Marketer....