The third predominant model is a small custom website maker, often someone with a regular job who dabbles in websites on the side. Maybe a friend of a friend. This model is rife with pitfalls, such as limited experience, availability, and the likelihood they aren’t around long.
A fourth website maker model is the Free website. It could be a website from a company like Google, or one of the many ‘Industry’ sites that offer a free website or listing along with other similar businesses. There are many of these industry sites, like bestprosintown.com, that cater to businesses in the same area or the same industry.
In the tech world there is a saying, ‘If it is free, you are the product!’ No company is going to build a product like a website builder just to give it away for free. One can assume, it is not a great website, then assume your data will be sold to advertisers who are not going to your customer. These sites make money selling your information and not by building great websites. You can expect a site that will not perform well. Even the Google websites perform poorly, while there are a few tools, Google’s goal with these free websites is to gain more data to sell to advertisers.
Another of these 'free' website models is the social media Apps like Facebook and Instagram, which are Apps and not websites. They post your business on their App and no one can access your site unless they are registered with the App and are logged in. These are not websites. There are benefits from being on these social media but know their availability is limited. A good website is accessed on the internet, these social media Apps are on the internet and your website should be too - accessible to everyone. Everyone who has Facebook gets those emailed teaser notices stating that a Friend has just posted something on their page. Ever wonder why they don't just show you the post in the email? It is because they want you to login into Facebook because when users spend more time on the platform they will interact with other content, generating ad revenue for Facebook. This is the only goal of these social media Apps, not to make great websites for small businesses. Keep your social media pages, but get a real website too, the minimal cost of the website will more than pay for itself.
Again, remember, you get what you pay for with these free sites, which is not much.
Lastly, there's the "pay once” website, then its free forever model. While it may sound enticing, technology evolves and renders your website obsolete at some point, making it essentially useless. If they are not getting paid regularly, how can they stay in business?
We get what we pay for, these one-time fee websites do not have business tools and rarely get updated with new features. Remember, a good website should ‘make you money’, they should not be just the cost of doing business - they should make you money! A good website is an investment, invest wisely, not cheaply.
We have a new model, we use real people called App Managers. Dedicated to help small businesses, just like everyone at enfohub. They are not 'sales reps', overseas workers or bots. Our App Managers are typically local and will get to know you and your business. Therefore, make sure to contact them regularly and seek their advice not only for tips on your website but also for marketing and other business solutions, which are potentially even more important.
And if you like your website and App Manager, be sure to tell your friends - don’t bogart that website App!