No such thing as a free lunch or a free website?

If you are looking to build a website then suddenly you become acutely aware that there are a number of website building options open to you. And suddenly you see that there are ‘free’ website builder packages available. As an ex-techie, free websites that I can build myself suddenly appeal. I can get my hands dirty, get underneath the code (so to speak) and start to make things happen.

When a friend wanted a website for his jewellery business, he didn’t have a lot of money to spend so wanted to opt for a free website option. Which he did. Then when he started to look around he found that free website builders fell into three main categories:

1. Those that were ‘bundled’ free with website hosting
2. Those that were ‘free’ because they carried other people’s adverts
3. Those that were free as in open source

Needing hosting he opted for a bundled option first (saying first might give you some idea of what is coming here). Signed up on his 12 month contract and realised that he actually didn’t know enough about the Internet or web sites to actually understand the questions on the order form. So he turned to me where we discussed domains, DNS routing, email MX records etc etc. I got him started. And yes it was free for him because…, because he’s just that, a friend. Actually I did all the work for him. As a friend I didn’t mind doing it. It was just an hour of my time to setup. But actually once he got going and was signed up that hour became more as he needed help on understanding things like, images and pixels and resolution and dimensions and downsampling and, and, and. Then we were into how to add and update the website. To begin with it wasn’t a problem but suddenly he’s only calling me to ask about his website problems. After numerous unpaid hours of advice – which I didn’t mind giving because.. he was a friend… but our friendship was starting to take second place to technical support. Then I said, I didn’t want to become his web support help line. I had a business to run and by the way we provide web sites and while you think his is free it’s not actually because it’s my time. So we agreed that our friendship was more important and he stopped asking me questions.

But of course it didn’t end there.

He decided that an ISP website wasn’t for him. Why? Well the ISP provided 24 hour support. Just that the support requests were 24 hour the response was by email. And the emails didn’t come back quickly and when they did, well they just didn’t make any sense to him, because he didn’t really understand the problem. So he canned that and went for an easier to use website that was ‘free’ because all they did was carry adverts to pay for their free website service.

Well my friend recognised that there are no free websites so he was happy to take a website solution that cost him nothing if it carried free adverts. No problem. Their support was better – but still talking in techno speak (his words not mine) and he got his website up and running eventually. Hurrah!

Friendship retained – tick.

Friend has website – tick.

Friend happy… well he was for a bit. Until one of his long-term customers became one of his ex-customers. They became an ex-customer because they saw an advert on his web site that was promoting cheap gold chains and rings. His ex-customer was off like a shot to buy these, thinking, as you would, that the adverts were part of my friends jewellery business. But alas they weren’t they were just adverts syndicated by the web hosting company and they were competitors.

So, my friend decided that this wasn’t the route for him. He couldn’t have his customers seeing competitive adverts that he was effectively paying for and promoting. So very quickly he shut that down. But he shut it down too quick and lost his domain. A very snappy jewellery domain that had his company name in it. But that had to be written off to experience.

So then he read. He read a lot. He read every web magazine he could find. He trawled the net and discovered the light in a PC techie magazine. The light that is Open Source. Which I might add I am a great supporter of. But because he didn’t want to threaten our relationship further he didn’t talk to me about Open Source. He looked at very good Open Source solutions such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and others. Then he chose one of these. I’m not saying which one – because it doesn’t get any better at this point. And besides, because of what happened it wouldn’t have mattered what solution he had chosen.

He gets his site up and running by paying a third party ‘person’ to set it up, configure it and implement a template. Yes, he said “That wasn’t free either!” Then the person that set it up decided to get himself a job – good for him in this depressed market. But sadly not good for my friend. Because he was left to his own devices. But he’s not stupid so he trawled the internet and found out that you can get plug-ins and widgets that will do the extra things he needed, so he was happy he had a solution.

Everything was fine for several weeks. His website was running, his business was running but so was his mind. What if I could…. and that was when he started investigating the extras seriously. He found one that he needed – free, as it was open source. Downloaded. Installed. And hey presto!  His site wasn’t working anymore.

That was when I got the call. A panic call. I remember it well. A breezy Thursday evening in August when it was meant to be summer in the UK but was so windy and cold it could have been December. “Mark, I need your help. My website isn’t working. I don’t know what to do. I’m sorry, but can you…. help me? It’s urgent”.

And it was. So, first question: Do you have a backup? No, because backup was an extra that he didn’t think about and that didn’t come as an option with the free website. OK, do you have the website of the add-on developer? No. So, I dug and found it but they had stopped supporting it years ago. Not their fault, they openly said that you downloaded and installed the plug-in based on this knowledge.

So then to delve into the depths of the website. The add-in had corrupted some files because of various version changes. But because there were no backups we couldn’t go down the retrieval route. So I said the best thing was to get his database off the website, re-install the template and start again. All sounds great, time-wasting, but it would fix the problem. Just one catch, his data was held in a MySQL database and he didn’t have the passwords. The guy who had set it up was nowhere to be found and so we had a database that he couldn’t open. I found a company that could hack in and they did. It cost him money. Then he had to pay me as he didn’t want me to do this as a friend. So all in all his free website ended up being darned expensive (and yes darned wasn’t the actually word he or I used to describe the “free” website).

He vowed never to darken the doors of the web again.

However, this year we released via Insight (our agency) a web builder product called WebMaker. I didn’t tell my friend, he saw the advertising. So he called and said… I’ve been thinking…

That was 6 months ago. He set up the site himself, because it’s designed to be used by novices and experts alike. He changes the website design virtually every month, because that’s what he wants and it’s designed to enable the owner to change designs as and when they want. He’s added a wide array of website plug-ins as his business on the web has expanded – and because the plug-ins are designed to work with WebMaker they, well they just do. And he can update his website e-commerce section himself because it’s easy to do. He uploads images to his website, edits his news page. He’s even got into loading videos and music to his website. In his mind he’s an expert. He has a website that does what he wants, and which he extends functionality when he wants. And he can manage it from anywhere, at anytime; on his laptop, his phone and his tablet. So he’s happy. And so am I. We’re still friends!

And no, it isn’t free, he took the base option that’s just £7.92 a month and he’s happy with that becasue he gets a really powerful solution for very little money.

He realises that for real people i.e. people that don’t need or want to understand the internet, free is subjective.

What he’s also taught me in this period is that while I have a technical bent, my skills are best used at doing what I’m good at, which is marketing. His free options took a lot of time out of my life. It was enjoyable to begin with getting into the code, but you know what, I don’t want to do that any more, and neither does he or could he.

So the moral. Well it’s no different than it has ever been. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Just focus on what you’re good at and leave the free lunches to those that want to tinker and don’t want to focus on their core business.

No free lunch in marketing. Or is there?

I was travelling across London yesterday when I found myself on a hot sweaty, claustrophobic tube train, sitting there wondering why on earth I hadn’t walked when… the emergency stop handle was pulled. The train came to a shuddering halt just before we pulled into our rightful stopping place at the station. Everyone in the carriage looked apprehensively around to see who looked suspect. As it was, when the guard walked through to investigate the cause and identify the culprits it turned out that some tourists in the next carriage, who didn’t read English, had pulled the lever thinking it was a grab handle. Which leads me off track to why on earth aren’t signs in London, a multi-cultural capital city famed for its tourists, printed in more than just English? But I’ll leave that thought for the moment as that’s probably a marketing rant for another time…

In a Goldfish Bowl

Anyway, back in the carriage, before our friendly, but careless tourists were discovered, and after all my new travelling friends and I had decided that we were not in the middle of a terrorist attack, I got back to the business of observing the situation. It felt like being in a goldfish bowl. There we were not knowing why we had stopped, but parked right next to the platform and looking out onto the bright and cool exterior, longing to be the other side of the glass. While outside, a platform full of travellers desperate to get on the train and not being told or understanding why they couldn’t get on, were peering through the windows at these strange, trapped creatures.

What it must have looked like to them I do not know. Slowly but surely the carriage was getting hotter and damper and strangely more claustrophobic – although there was exactly the same number of people and the same amount of space. But movement was becoming a little more frantic as if everyone had developed nervous tics – which come to think of it they probably had. But soon the old British Bulldog Spirit kicked in and seated neighbours started talking to one another and became resolutely stiff upper lipped assuring each other that it would all be over soon. Everyone friendly, joking, laughing and then…. the train started up, lurched forward a good foot or two, came to a more controlled stop and the doors opened – we had finally arrived at our destination.

And then it happened. Selfish Chaos.

People stood up staring straight ahead not talking, grabbing for handles to support themselves as they made their way speedily out of the train. iPod earphones went back in and, lost in the world of music, their owners shuffled out onto the platform. Others reached for bags and quickly rushed for the exits – everyone, it seems, eager to get on with their solitary lives and not giving anything of themselves. In fact a 180 degree turn around from just 30 seconds ago when it seemed that everyone had opened up to become a single unit. The throng of people became faceless passengers once again ignoring each other and giving nothing of themselves to anyone around them.

Help Costs Nothing

There in the midst of this thrusting, rushing, pushing crowd, right next to the door was a slightly worried, not quite yet distraught lady, vainly trying to lift a suitcase from the train onto the platform before the doors closed once more.  And no-one stopped. They didn’t have time. They had to get away. They had places to go. People to see. Things to do. So did I; but I stopped, lifted her case, placed it on the platform, asked her if she was OK and helped her with some directions. A few seconds given freely. In that split second I wanted to turn around and scream at the fast disappearing crowd and ask why they couldn’t give up some of their time. But I didn’t, I just turned and went on my way, because another time, another day, that would have been me, rushing ahead, not noticing what was going on around me.

And that brings me back to the topic of this article (about time you say!). Because of that famous quote ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’. When I helped that lady, she didn’t suspect me of anything. She didn’t think that I would ask her for money. And I wasn’t expecting anything other than thanks. She just knew I was giving my time and assistance freely, to help her. And so in that instance there was a free lunch (okay a free helping hand). And that has been, and always will be my philosophy, help someone out today and you will get your just rewards in the end.

In business and in marketing this is so true.

If you are in need of marketing help and someone gave it to you free of charge, then you might be suspicious. But if it worked for you then you would be grateful and hopefully remember the person that helped you out.

If you are in need of marketing again and the same person gave you FOC help, then you are definitely going to remember them. Then when you are in a position to spend on marketing you will go back to that person as a first port of call. If you never have marketing budget then you will still remember that person fondly.

And that’s what that lady reminded me – give something freely and you will get your just rewards, simple gratitude or the possibility of future business relationships, both are worth having. So, this blog is the first in a series of marketing tips that will save you marketing money and time. And no I’m not mad, if it helps you, then I’m hoping that you will remember where you got this advice and will remember me and should the need arise, come back and employ our agency when the time is right.

So where better to start than #1 – a free web site

OK, there are lots of ‘free’ website options around. But in general, in my experience, the free website options that I have come across just aren’t worth having because they don’t actually give you anything (well not a lot anyway), and/or they are crammed full of advertising, which you can’t control an din a business environment this is suicide as your top prospect views your site to find out that it’s advertising sex toys!. But this latest initiative brings a reputable website package together which includes:

• Design
• Hosting
• Domain registration
• Content Managed website
• Search Engine Promotion
• Business community promotion

And all in one package and all supported and promoted by some very big names: BT, Google, e-skills & Enterprise UK. These folks all got together under the “Get British Business Online” campaign to package all this – for free.

But is it any good?

Well yes actually it is. We tested it ourselves and created our own dummy website in just five minutes – have a look at it here, and it was very easy to get everything setup, and built in literally just a matter of minutes.

Is there a catch?

Well, not really, because it’s good at what it supplies, you can manage it yourself and it gives you a web presence quickly and for nothing. OK, so it does have its limitations, as you’d expect. Like the designs are fixed (there are ways to overcome this but then you’d be a web designer anyway), you can’t create things like online forms to capture visitor details and it’s branded with Google links and Get British Business Online logos – but then if you get something for free shouldn’t you, ethically display these logos as a thank you?

However, if you don’t mind any of that, it’s a great way to get started with a simple, attractive layout.  And by taking this route, I reckon you could have saved yourself around £1,500, when you take into account how much you’d usually pay for hosting, website design & build, SEO tools and all the rest of the things you’d need to get a new website up and running.

So, how do you get this free website?

Just visit the special Get British Business Online website and get started straight away.

So there. As a marketer that has an agency that designs and develops websites, I’ve pointed you in the direction of a solution that earns my agency, Insight Group, no money whatsoever. But, it does help out those people that can’t afford our services – today. And is there is an ulterior motive? Of course, I want you to get online and experience how marketing can help you. I want you to succeed through online marketing. And I want you to say ‘what a swell guy’ he just helped me get my business off the ground; or he helped me investigate a new venture without the cost associated with getting the business online. And then, hopefully, when your business outgrows the basic website functionality and when your business needs you to focus on it and not spend time managing a website, you’ll remember ‘that guy’ and come back to get your web presence to match your business aspirations.

There’s No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

Well that’s true, but you can still go out and eat for nothing, and in this case with lots of trimmings, but when you come to order from the main menu, don’t forget me. I’m ‘that guy’ and I run a hell of a good kitchen!

That was #1 – was it useful? Whatever you think leave me a message because I have some more tips in the pipeline and need encouragement!