Do-it Yourself Website Creation VS Hiring Someone

BY Sep. 27, 2011 6 Comments


Have your first good idea for a website? Or perhaps you already have many websites up yourself and you want to get started on a new one? Whatever the case may be, you will have to come to the decision of either hiring a web developer and designer for your services, or you will have to start coding one up yourself from scratch.

I have a very biased thought when it comes down to this fact. That is mainly because A) I love designing my own websites and B) I am somewhat of a perfectionist, but for those that cannot bear the thought of sitting down in front of a computer and staring at coding for more than a few hours each day for about a month straight let me tell you the advantages of outsourcing your web work.

Outsourcing the Work

One reason you may not want to code the website up yourself is because of the amount of time it might take you to learn all of the coding and getting it down pat. Not only that, but even if you do end up coding your website yourself, and get it to look the way you want it, your coding might still look and act a little bulky to search engines and browsers due to your inexperience.

There is usually 101 thousand (or more) different ways you can get a website to look the way it does, and you usually don’t get it right the first time. Coding your website the wrong way, even though it may look good on the outside, can increase load time due to the browsers inability to read it fast, and it can also lower your chances to get to the top of the SERPs (search engine results pages) due to the fact that Google (and other search engines) are more attracted to quicker loading sites.

Another reason you might consider outsourcing your web work is that is can actually be done for very cheap these days. The skill of designing a website is something that more and more people are able to do, as the Internet becomes more and more of a thing included in each and every person in this world’s daily lives.

Coding the Website Yourself

Coding the website yourself entails a lot of know-how and trial and error. Watching tutorial videos is not going to get the job done right away, you have to make sure that you are implementing all of the things you learn throughout these tutorial videos. The only way to learn how to program is to start doing it right away.

When you begin to code, you will find that you will spend more time figuring out why your coding isn’t working than actually coding. Because of this, it takes real practice and a lot of determination (and I mean a lot of it) to get to the end of the finish line. It can be very frustrating trying to get your coding to work, so if you fail the first couple of times – don’t give up! Dust yourself off and try again!

If you are able to sit down and concentrate for a while, things will become easier, and the benefits of knowing how to code will start showing themself to you. For instance, once you are able to get a visualization of what it is you can actually do to manipulate a page you will begin to generate great ideas for your website that would have never come otherwise. And believe me; it doesn’t take a lot of know-how to start coming up with these ideas!

Knowing how to code yourself can also save you a lot of money – even if you just know the basics. If you are able to code up your whole website – for one – you won’t have to pay anyone to do it for you! If you kind of just work on your website here and there and still learn the basics, but ultimately end up getting someone to code it up for you, you will still be able to save money. Usually, every time something goes wrong with your site or when you want something on your website to be touched up just a bit, you have to hire a freelancer, or go get your “go to” coding guy and pay him to get it done. If you know how to do it yourself – or at least can spot out the problem and then begin to fix it you can save a lot of money by just doing it yourself.

Not only that, but you can save a lot of time as well, and as we have all heard – time is money – and this is especially true when you are working in the online world.

Entrepreneurship, Launching Tips, Online Business
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  • http://www.edicy.com Marco

    For a business owner might be interesting to check out Edicy. I hit the ground running filling out my website with content. Well designed and just neat.

  • http://onlinerookies.com Kalen

    Definitely a tough call. I have intermediate programming skills, but more limited design abilities. However, with CMS packages these days, it’s a lot easier to come up with a good site yourself without spending a lot of time and having the skill sets. However, a good designer will always do a better job if you don’t have the skills yourself. If you do have those skills, you have to ask what your time is worth. Systems like Drupal and WP have helped many entrepreneurs like myself, but they may not be for everyone.

  • http://theleveragechronicles.com David Domm

    Thanks for sharing, this post was full of insight and great info. Very cool, great content!

  • http://www.webpartnergroup.com/ WebMarketing_Katy

    Great post. Very clear comparison. It is really something to seriously consider when doing website design.

  • John T.

    Indeed creating the website by yourself is worth something. Not only you gain knowledge and experience, but also save money. Who knows, someday, they are the one who will be hiring you. So just create good sites and pave your way out!

  • http://www.hypebuzz.com/ HypeBuzz

    I agree with this article. Sometimes is better to hire outsourcer to speed some thing up and sometimes is better to do yourself, but it’s slower. Depends on deadlines.