Probably not, but maybe – depending upon how it’s structured.

Let's start with a morbid question.

What if your web designer dies?

It's probably not something that weighs on your mind because it isn't a major concern...until it's a major concern.

Recently, I was tasked with moving a website from the clutches of a local print shop to a new web hosting plan. What the print shop had done was taken the shared hosting plan they had for their own website and simply offered local area business owners the ability to pay them a small fee to have them add their website to the plan.

Between waiting for credentials, waiting for an EPP code, and educating their staff on how to export databases and provide FTP access, a rather simple task of transferring the domain and website turned into a frustrating experience that exposed some of the problems sometimes associated with paying web designers for web hosting.

~ The Ownership Problem

First, take this situation where essentially the domain was in the print shop's name, the web hosting account was in the print shop's name, and effectively the owner of the business who "owned" the website had zero access, control, or autonomy.

And that seemed all well and convenient as a hands off approach until these became significant limitations. If you'd be stuck without a way to transfer a domain, move a website or hire a developer without preapproval, you may need to rethink how your web hosting is structured.

~ The Technical Problem

Shared web hosting accounts may spout as being unlimited, but be rest assured there are very real limits to server resources. If your web designer just pools you into a shared plan, those resources are further shared amongst websites and its possible other websites on the plan will cannibalize the resources you pay for.

~ The Financial Problem

Speaking of, your web designer is likely paying $15 a month for those resources total. Turning around and charging each client $15+ a month isn't great value.

Learn how 515Hosting & Web Design is different:

https://www.515hosting.com/should-pay-my-web-designer-web-hosting/
#webhosting #webdesign #wordpress #smallbusiness

Small businesses hire accountants for bookkeeping, lawyers for legal advice, and employees to help their businesses grow.

Why are so many small businesses still relying on DIY solutions for their websites?

- The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy -

"??? ????? ? ???? ?? ????? ???? ????? ?? ?? ???????? ?'? ??? ??????? ??? ?????? ???? ?? ??????? ???? ?? ?? ??!"

If a website is failing to show value in its current form, that can lead a small business owner into feeling like the website would fail to show any value in any form.

While a WYSIWYG website builder is an appealing way for new business owners to get their website up quickly and cheaply (perhaps even beautifully), the business owner may not have a great understanding of #SEO, call to actions, how to best implement the strategy for the website's perhaps and all the other aspects of what makes a website built by an individual with industry experience a better value.

- Less Than Desirable Experiences -

There's nothing wrong with a hobbyist charging for their services.

In fact, that's how I got started, but I was two successful #eCommerce stores deep, 12 years of experience in, and 20,000 organic visitors per month validating myself I was in a position I could compete in the industry - largely for the reason that follows.

Unfortunately, though, because of the ease of accessibility to #WYSIWYG website editors, it's opened the door for anyone that can drag and drop images to charge for websites. And those sites may be beautiful, but they may not be achieving anything above and beyond what the store owners 13yo daughter could build on Wix.

If a small business owner has historically not been delivered good value from web design services, it's hard to convince them their next investment will be different.

- Affordability -

A lot of #business owners don't think they can afford a web designer, but education and transparency can change that. By offering a range of approaches (including using free themes) and balancing priorities, a website can meet many budgets!

Let's chat and see how to meet yours!

Any else find watching files transfer relaxing?

It's a whole #ASMR sensation for me.

#filezilla #wordpress #ftp

Making the jump from a #hobbyist to a business was incredibly terrifying!

I kept using the validation of #success on my personal portfolio of sites to justify that I wasn't crazy in believing I had earned the opportunity to share my skills with businesses - and charge them.

That voice of doubt was always whispering in the back of my mind, though.

"What if a website breaks in a way you don't know how to fix?"

"You don't have a degree in web design."

"How do you show people you know SEO without certifications? Is there even certifications?"

"You're going to be competing against agencies with years of marketing experience and full stack developers on staff."

Even as my list of clients has skyrocketed by 4000% over the last couple of years, it's still great to hear words affirming my services are valued and meet the expectations of my clients.

#wordpress #managewp #webdesign #webhosting #seo #iowa #smallbusiness #mainstreet #momandpopshop

As a central Iowa native, I'm passionate about helping Iowa small businesses with their online presence. I've been building #websites since 2008. Over the years, I've culminated that experience into blogs that have garnered 20k to 30k visitors per month and successful eCommerce stores at the top of Google for relevant key phrases within 6 months.

Growing those businesses encouraged me to get intertwined with the small business community and through discussions with local small business owners. I realized through discussions with small business owners, mom and pop shops on main streets across Iowa have been underserved and frankly preyed upon.

Many small businesses can't afford hundreds of dollars in monthly retainers to agencies, let alone a full time staff of developers to maintain their website. As a result many resort to DIY solutions or hiring a local graphics designer who creates amaIng imagery, but doesn't always understand the ins and outs of PHP versions, caching, SSL, or other details of having a safe, secure and optimized website.

That's probably why most small businesses I work with have websites that go years unmaintained, leaving them vulnerable to hacking.

Additionally, small businesses are experts at tires, breakfast, and jewelry - not necessarily websites. That's why when companies like GoDaddy suggest a business needs to upgrade a server (in lieu of a CDN for performance and capacity), or suggest a paid sitemap generation service is needed for SEO (it's not), or $100 for an SSL certificate (when LetsEncrypt is free), many business owners don't know what they don't know and click "buy"..

That's how I end up saving small businesses thousands per year on their website and I'd love to do the same for you.
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#smallbusiness #shoplocal #wordpress #momandpopshop #webdesign #webhosting #seo #mainstreet