(Cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update. This idea might be useful for your firm or one of your clients.)
If you only need a simple website, think about setting it up using blog software to save time and cost.
Why?
Websites can be very expensive to set up, if you contract it out. Making any changes requires coordination with your contractor and takes time.
If you use a simple website that provides standardized templates, like GoDaddy, the cost is low but it still takes a fair amount of time to maintain. In my experience the software is very slow. It is also cumbersome to ‘publish’ every time you want to make any change.
If you want something really simple, quite inexpensive, and astoundingly easy to maintain & change, think about setting up a blog and tweaking it to look like a static website.
Some time ago I was talking to a potential client. Of course I checked out their website. I quickly realized it was actually a WordPress blog. It wasn’t as fancy as typical, but it was functional and accomplished everything they needed to do as a modest sized church.
That got me to thinking about doing the same. Since then I have converted one of my websites to a static blog. I plan to convert the website for my CPA firm to a blog soon.
Using a blog is easier, it takes a fraction of the time to update, and it is amazingly inexpensive.
An example
If you would like an illustration of what a website looks like when it is set up as a traditional website using GoDaddy Website Tonight software compared to a blog using WordPress software, check out the site for my publishing company:
- Riverstone Finance Press, using GoDaddy website software
- Riverstone Finance Press, using a static WordPress blog
I’ve paid for the website through October 2013, so will leave that visible until then.
Neither of the sites are flashy. But then my publishing company is not flashy.
Can you tell the difference between the two sites?
If your needs for a website are quite simple, consider using a blog to save time and money.
Next post – Likely costs and links for two articles with advice on how to set up a blog to function as a website.