I plan on discussing three different approaches; templates, web site software, and out-sourcing the project.
To start lets look at the pros and cons of templates provided by a web hosting company:
Pros:
Using a template can be a fast approach to getting content up on a web site.
You do not need to worry about the template, being provided by the web hosting company, the software will work, and you are just adding content.
Most templates give a few options per each template concerning text size, fonts, how many photos, etc.
Your only concern is your information; you are not worried about web codes, etc.
Cons:
Building web sites through online templates can be a slower process as you are constantly waiting for the web site to refresh before going to the next step.
There are less options when it comes to fonts, font sizes, layout, etc. The template will control everything for you, within reason of course… for example you will be able to decide if you want a photo centered, left margined or right margined
If you need to move your site for any reason, you will need to rebuild the entire site because it all resides in their template software. This can constitute hours of additional work for a simple move.
Very little in the template that will make your web site stand out.
You have no control over the template, if the host company changes software, or makes changes to the templates used, your web site might take on a look and feel that you do not want.
Most often you have to go through the entire template process to see how your web site is going to look and feel. Forcing you to repeat the design steps in your web site to get the correct look and feel
Here are the pros and cons of using a web authoring/web site software such as FrontPage by Microsoft: There are other products on the market that work similar to FrontPage, I am using FrontPage as an example mostly because of all the software on the market I would recommend FrontPage first.
Pros:
The software has a lot of templates that you can use to build your web site specifically to what you want.
The software has a number of easy to learn tools for dealing with text and photo integration, layout issues, special features, etc.
You can build your site, and post the site to any hosting company, so if you need to change hosting companies in the future, you can do so when needed.
You have a choice of fonts, sizes, colors, etc.
You can add items to your web site directly from Word or Excel, making web design even faster
FrontPage has the standard Microsoft Office feeling to the layout of tools, menus, etc. So the learning curve has been lowered
You can preview your web site before you publish it, FrontPage is a “what you see is what you get” software. But for some special features you use the “preview in a browser” option to ensure that all the extra items are working ok
FrontPage has a host of great add in items for any web site, from how the page links look to hit/page counters, to photo galleries to a number of special control features.
You can add HTML code directly to your web site… This is helpful if you want to for example have a Google ad bar. Google will supply the HTML code, you can insert it into the web page where you want the ad bar.
Lots of FrontPage Add-ins
Adding links to other web sites or links to email addresses is easy
And much, much more
Cons:
Depending on how advanced you want the web site to be, there can be some learning involved.
The software does not edit or prepare photos, etc for the web site. So additional software might be required
Even though the software allows you to build in a wysiwyg environment the HTML code is assessable, If one changes the HTML code without knowledge of what they are it could cause web site issues.
The software cost $$
To some, the software might look intimidating at first glance
One might need to know some web site definitions to use the software
Finally let’s look at the pros and cons of outsourcing a web development project:
Pros:
· There is no learning curve
· No need to worry about software and additional resources needed to build a web site
· You just hand over the data (documents/text, photos, drawing, etc) to be placed onto the web site
· The web site developer can give you options that you might not be aware of availbility
· There is no additional time commitment on your or an employee’s end.
· The web developer can place your site with any web hosting company, so if you need to move the web site, this is not an issue, you are not stuck with only a particular web hosting company
· The web developer will have more advanced tools to be able to provide a more polished web site
· The web developer can program web databases, and use databases to store and retrieve data quicker and easier.
· The web developer manages the entire site from the build to adding additional data and documents.
· There are more, but I think they fall into the major catagories above
Cons:
Using a web developer costs more that DIY (Do it yourself) or using a prebuilt template
By going through a developer (if they manage future contect adds to your site) then must wait for them to add the content. Most web devlopers need “X’ length of time to work the content change into their current work load. So if you email them a change, usually within 2 to 4 hours, sometimes 12 to 24 hours (depending on web developer) your new information will be posted.
These are just a few things to think about in regards to your web site