What to do When the Free Site Builder from Your Low Cost Web Site Hosting Company Doesn’t Work

Most low cost web site hosting companies offer a free web site builder, which sounds like a good deal, and in a way, it is. This is because the free site builder is configured to work well with the operating system so you won’t have the problems that you might have if you try to launch a site with third party software like FrontPage. However, if you try to build a site with the free site builder, you will quickly realize its limitations. The really neat features that were promised are all there, so why does your website look sort of mediocre? The reason for this is that all a free site builder will really produce is static pages with maybe some Flash.

If you were depending on this web site to really draw in viewers, you are probably disappointed. You may call a friend who ‘knows computers’ to help, but even they will be of little service if you want to import streaming video files and have interactive forms with MySQL databases and PHP, when this technology doesn’t even work with your site builder. So what do you do to make this web site work to its full potential or achieve anything at all?
The first thing to do is be realistic about why you thought a free site builder was a good idea in the first place. This is probably because you’ve never built a web site before and you don’t know HTML, PHP, or ASP code. You might not know what these scripting languages even are. Even if you had the opportunity to get FrontPage or Dreamweaver hosting, would you really know what to do with it? You probably wouldn’t. So, unless you want to pay a web developer, you have to put away all of those dreams of having drop down menus, dynamic web pages, rollovers, and animation. Besides, the reason that you went to a budget web site hosting company in the first place is because you don’t have the kind of money it takes to pay a web developer. Cheer up; because there is hope for your free site builder.

Use your free site builder as an inexpensive learning experience as to how to design a site. Again, if you don’t have any computer skills, you can’t build a really neat site anyway, and paying someone to build and maintain a small site is a waste of money. So here are a few design principles that will make your free site builder work to your advantage and help you learn to design a site at the same time.

1. Your sight must be navigable. With your free site builder, you will notice that there are templates to get you started and they are divided into categories like office, retail, service, etc. They are split up like this because each type of business needs to be organized so that people can easily find information they need on your site. The number one reason why people leave a site immediately is because they can’t find what they are looking for on the site. So you will see a definite organization for each different kind of business. For example, a doctor’s office will have a welcome page, an ‘about us’ page, a doctor’s page, a directions page, and a form page where you can request information. This may sound over-simplified, but you will notice that on the template, there is a tab for each page and only one purpose for each page. An advanced feature for a site like this would be an ‘appointments’ page where you could book a doctor’s visit.
2. The welcome page is the most important. Here is where the purpose or mission statement should be. No matter what video or audio or flash a welcome page has on it, people will leave immediately if the mission statement doesn’t contain the information they are looking for, or it is too wordy. When most people read text on a web site, they scan and pick out important points. If the information they want isn’t there, they leave. Working on what you say on your mission page is much more important than any special effects. When you write the text for your welcome page the best way to write is in the shortest sentences possible and by using bullet points. Bullet points are lists; like A, B, C, or 1, 2, 3. With clear, organized wording, no one will leave your site wondering what it was about.
3. Lastly, branding your product or message is what makes it different from what other people or companies are offering. This includes designing a logo, and picking colors, graphics, photos, fonts and anything else that will give your site a particular feel that is instantly recognizable when people see it. This also has a lot to do with your domain name, which should not only reflect what you do, but should also be easy to remember and spell. You don’t need FrontPage or Dreamweaver to do this. The free site builder from your budget web site hosting company gives you all the colors, graphics, photos, fonts, and themes to create a distinctive brand – so use them.

Now that you know that your free site builder isn’t a total disaster, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to make your site work to get your message out or sell your product with your free site builder.