[ Hmm. Probably not an appropriate post on the eve of Xmas Eve. But I had it already typed out long ago, and didn’t bother to publish said gems of wisdom. Now that I’m on this 30 days of free to post whatever I want, I can benefit from prior efforts.
Cheers & Happy Holidays. Joyeuses Fetes and all that jazz. (desolee, can’t find accents in the WP Wyswig). ]
Maybe not. What’s that? Heresy, you say, from a web designer – I should be pushing the benefits, the joys, the $$$ signs you’ll be seeing all over the map (the google one that is), not asking you if you really need a website.
But, sometimes, that is in fact, the genuine case.
1. Artist – with a limited budget and sufficiently established in their career (these two may statements may seem like a contradiction, but not if you’re an artist – check out these statistics from the Canada Council) . Artists with dealers may not need a website for strict promotional purposes. Their gallery takes care of that already. So, reasons for a website?
- Vanity
- Degree of control over presentation of work
- Exposure, provided you give good SEO
What to do instead?
- Start the proverbial blog, but it’s hard work baby
- Get good press
- Sleep with the hot, young curator
2. Small business, as in solopreneur – equally limited budget, but probably eating organic vegetables. Might belong to local Board of Trade, or another organization with potential for networking opps excellent. So, reasons for a site?
- Exposure
- Follow up resource for networking, tracking tool
- Feel good factor
What to do instead?
- D-I-Y – some have tread with success up/down this tricky ladder of heroism. Faint of heart need not apply.
- Blog, which is almost the same thing, but a good, enthuastic writer can probably achieve results. Yours truly can attest to time commitment required. Review time lapse between postings.
- Hire a consultant.
3. Business large enough to have employees, too small for an IT department.
- Blog also essential, no doubt. Do not pursue if no one in your organization can write, or if you are already understaffed and overworked.
- Website useful for “static” pages which offer information such as size of org, jobs available, contact/location info, privacy/return/other policy (ies), reason for being, mandate/mission and so on…
- Hire a consultant.
The last two lines of the last two points were pitches masked as advice. And yet, it remains good advice. I hire consultants when I can. It makes a difference – they have done all the proverbial heavy listing.
Well, tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I am without our Futurama Xmas dvd, c’est la vie.
We do have the gorgeous GM (chatte) and the snow.
Cheers!
xx
MzD