In this episode, Chrissy Rey tackles common misconceptions about building your own website. She debunks four major myths and shares real success stories from her students who have successfully launched their own professional websites, even without technical expertise.
Listen to the Episode
Show Notes
Chrissy Rey addresses and debunks four myths about DIY website building: needing to be tech-savvy, lengthy build times, unprofessional appearance, and high costs. She provides practical insights and shares success stories from her students who have built professional websites with proper guidance and planning.
Key Topics
- Myth 1: Need to be tech-savvy (0:01:15)
- Myth 2: Takes months to build (0:03:08)
- Myth 3: DIY websites look unprofessional (0:04:39)
- Myth 4: Too expensive to build (0:06:27)
- Essential elements for successful website building (0:08:04)
Key Requirements for Building a Successful Website
- Clear website plan
- Brand basics (colors, fonts, logo)
- Great content and photos
- Reliable website builder
- Willingness to learn
Resources Mentioned
- Build Your Website in One Day workshop (December 14th)
- Website Quickstart Challenge (starts December 4th)
- Website Success Lounge Facebook group
- Episode 38: DIY vs. Hiring a Pro for Your Website
Transcript
[00:00:09] Welcome to Website Success. I’m your host, Chrissy Rey, and today we are going to bust some myths about building your own website.
[00:00:25] Something I hear all the time from clients, from students, “Chrissy. I could never build my own website.”
[00:00:32] Well, because I help people do that all the time, I’m here to tell you that that is absolutely not true. Every year I help dozens of students launch their mostly DIY websites. And I say mostly DIY because I was there to help them when they needed it. And a lot of these students that I get, they call themselves tech challenged. But when I help them and they follow the clear processes that I give them, they use the right tools that I help them with, they can create beautiful websites that are going to bring them new customers.
[00:01:06] And today I’m going to share the truth behind some of the common myths that I hear from the students and from my clients about building their own website.
[00:01:15] So let’s start with the first myth, which is probably the biggest one that I hear. And that is that you need to be tech savvy to build a website. I hear this one all the time and that’s part of why I created my Build Your Website in One Day workshop because people needed help. They maybe weren’t tech savvy, but they just needed a little bit of guidance to get there.
[00:01:38] And part of why it works is because modern website builders like WordPress and web flow and Squarespace and Wix, they’re all designed for regular people and you don’t have to be super tech savvy to use most of them. You do have to be tech savvy to really extend them and make them do everything that you might want. But to just use them and build a website that looks really nice, you don’t have to be tech savvy.
[00:02:03] A lot of the website builders now have drag and drop editors or something similar, which means you really just need to drag or point and click and things are going to go where you want them to go, and then you can easily edit them. And there’s no coding that’s required.
[00:02:18] So all you really need to focus on is your content and your design choices, and the platform is going to take care of all of the tech.
[00:02:27] Now, with all of that in mind, if you are not tech savvy, I do recommend getting advice from a pro about which direction you should take to get started. And that’s, again, that’s part of why I created my Build Your Website in One Day course, because I’m here to help teach my students and my clients, what they need to know.
[00:02:47] In some cases, if you’re really not tech savvy, and you need to do some more advanced stuff for your website, you might need to get someone that is tech savvy to do some of the work. It really is just going to depend on what you’re trying to do. So I do recommend reaching out to someone that is tech savvy and get a little bit of advice on which direction to go.
[00:03:08] The second myth that I want to bust is that it’s going to take months to build a website. And that is just not true for most small business websites. There are some websites that can take months to build. And I’ve actually worked on a couple of websites that took close to a year to build. But those were really big e-commerce websites that had complex interactions or integrations with other systems and most small business websites don’t need all of that.
[00:03:34] A basic website for a small business is probably going to take a few weeks to maybe a few months. And it’s going to take less time if you plan it properly. I already mentioned my Build Your Website in One Day workshop, and the reason that we’re able to build a website in one day, and we actually are able to build a website in one day, is because my students that take that have already planned everything out that they need before they start building the website. They already know everything that they’re going to add to the website, all of the stuff that they need for it. They’ve already got their branding ready to go, and they can just dive right in and start building the website. So again, you do need a plan. You need to prepare for it.
[00:04:16] You can kind of think of this as like, if you were making a really complex meal. If you have all of your ingredients measured and ready to go, the actual cooking is going to go quickly and smoothly, but if you have to run back and forth to the store, you’ve got to go get your ingredients. It’s probably going to take forever. Website building is very much like that. You need to do the planning and the prep before you actually start building.
[00:04:39] Now let’s tackle myth number three, which is that DIY websites look unprofessional, and this may have been true 10 or more years ago, but it’s really not true anymore.
[00:04:51] A lot of website builders offer professionally designed templates that you can customize to match your brand. And these templates were created by expert designers and they understand user experience, mobile responsiveness, and modern web design standards. So if you trust those designers and customize the templates without trying to go totally overboard, you can make something that looks really professional.
[00:05:16] One of my students from my Build Your Website in One Day course told me that a colleague recently asked her for a referral for her web designer. The colleague loved my students website and wanted to hire the person who did it to make one for her. And they were completely shocked when she told them that she built it herself using the template and my help.
[00:05:36] The secret was that she took the time to plan her content. She chose her brand colors and fonts. And she got some professional looking photos before she started building. Plus, she took my advice and didn’t try to go totally overboard with throwing everything she could on our website, which would have made it look cluttered and unprofessional.
[00:05:56] I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had students or clients take every design element that they can and add it to their website. And then they come back to me and they’re like, “Uh, my website doesn’t look the way that it did when you built it. Can you fix it?” And usually it’s just a matter of taking some of the stuff off of the website.
[00:06:12] So less is more. Or less is often more, not always, but less is often more when it comes to websites. So go back and listen to my episodes with Eve Simon from a couple of episodes ago for some great tips on designing your websites.
[00:06:27] And that brings us to myth number four, which is that it’s too expensive to build a website. And you may already know this. It’s not a myth to everybody, but DIY is usually the most budget friendly option.
[00:06:40] Hiring a web designer might cost thousands of dollars and sometimes that’s the right choice. But building your own website is probably going to cost less than a thousand dollars for the first year, and then probably even less afterward, unless you do a redesign. And that usually covers your domain name, the hosting, a good template, et cetera. There might be some additional costs. If you need specific features or premium ad-ons for things like e-commerce courses, memberships and stuff like that. But you can start small and add those things as your business grows.
[00:07:12] Just remember that your website is an investment that helps you get more customers. So even if you’re putting a thousand dollars into it, even if you’re paying a professional to do it for you, and you’re putting more than a thousand dollars into it, it should pay for itself pretty quickly.
[00:07:26] And I do want to mention here that while a DIY website is probably going to cost less money, it’s going to cost more time. So you really need to think about where that balance is and whether it’s going to be more cost-effective for you to hire somebody to do it, or if you’re going to do it yourself.
[00:07:41] Now does busting all of these myths mean that building your own website is completely without challenges? No, absolutely not. But the challenges are usually going to be about creating your content, choosing the right images, and figuring out the best way to present your information. And those are going to be the exact same challenges that you would face even if you hired somebody to build your website.
[00:08:04] So, what do you need to actually build a successful website on your own? I’ve got a list for you.
[00:08:11] Number one, you want a clear plan for your website? So knowing what pages you need and what content is going to go on them, you need all of that information, plus a bunch more to really plan out your website.
[00:08:22] Number two, you need your brand basics. So you need a set of colors. You need your fonts. You need a logo. And even a simple logo is totally fine to get started.
[00:08:33] Number three, you also need to have great content, which does include photos and images that are going to work with your website.
[00:08:41] And number four, you also need a reliable website builder that’s going to match your needs.
[00:08:47] And finally, number five, you need the willingness to learn and try new things.
[00:08:52] And I’ve got some good news for you. I’m hosting a free Website Quickstart Challenge starting on December 4th, and we will work on the first three of those things together. We’ll create your website plan. We’ll get your brand basics sorted out. And we’ll start working on your content.
[00:09:09] Then, if you want to build the website yourself, you can join me for my Build Your Website in One Day course on December 14th, and I will walk you through the actual building process step by step. You’ll do it live with me, holding your hand, holding your virtual hand, and you’ll be able to Build Your Website in One Day. You might need a few days after that or a few weeks after that to finish it up and add the finishing touches to it. But you’ll be able to build the bulk of your website in one day.
[00:09:37] I’ll put the links for both the Website Quickstart Challenge and the Build Your Website in One Day workshop in the show notes, which you can find with this episode at websitesuccessacademy.com/podcast.
[00:09:49] I just want you to remember one thing here. Every web developer, a web designer, they DIY’d it the first time. And mine was back in 1995 and I’ll let you in one a little secret. It did not look professional at all. But the point is I was not born knowing how to make a great looking website. I learned how to do it. I taught myself how to do it. But you can do it too. And now you have professional web developers out there that can help you. So with the right guidance, the right resources, you can absolutely build your own professional looking website.
[00:10:25] If for whatever reason you don’t want to do it yourself, you can always hire someone to help you. So go back and listen to episode 38, where I talk about DIY versus hiring a pro and I go into that in much more detail.
[00:10:40] That’s all I’ve got for now. Thank you so much for joining me. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave me a review and come back for the next episode.
[00:10:50] And if you have any questions, make sure you join my Website Success Lounge Facebook group. The link for that will be in the show notes. And you can ask your questions there.
[00:10:59] Thanks for tuning in. And I look forward to chatting with you again soon.
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