How to Build a
Website in 2014
When we started the small business do it
yourself website hosting in 2004
people thought much differently about website and how they worked.
At the time, people just did not understand
websites at all, they were not surprised that building one
required using many software programs and complex FTP connections
to load files into directories on servers.
But in 2014 people assume that
building a website is just like using a website.
That change in behavior is part due to
companies like pageBuzz.com and the pageBuzz hosting system where
people can signup as easily as buying any other product online
then login and build a website in minutes.
This has resulted in people not
understanding that websites are comprised of separate files
organized on pages and loaded into a webserver. They are unaware
the it can take thousands or million of lines of computer code to
run some websites while others have no code a all.
In 2014 People Think Anyone Can
Build Websites
Today, people see other people doing it and
they assume they can do it.
If Joe is making a million dollars
a year running Joe's Pizza Place, then I can run one and make
even more, because I am smarter than Joe.
People assume if they see it, that it is
easy to do.
As a software development company we don't
try to explain why people think the way they do, we simply try to
give them the tools they expect.
If they expect to have a button to add a
page, we give them one. If they expect a button to add a store,
we give them one.
You have to give Staples credit for
coming up with their "Easy Button"
it was a great campaign and just furthers what I am saying.
People just expect it to be easy. They expect to have a
button to push so thy can have a website like Joe.
Nobody wants to hear that Joe spent $50,000
on his website, they just don't care. They don't care that some
webmaster worked for 3 months to build the pizza delivery routing
system. People only want to know how they can do it for $20 a
month.
And part of this is our fault
for advertising that that is just what you get here at pageBuzz,
a complete website for $20 a month.
With the world now very Internet savvy they
still don't realize how little they know about how it all works.
And with companies like ours not asking why
they think they can build a website in 15 minutes but rather
giving them tools so they can, the problem gets worse.
Because then customers want it all. "I
want a website just like Facebook or Craigslist and I am willing
to pay $100 to have someone build it."
But websites like Facebook and Craigslist
cost millions of dollars and people just don't get that.
So it is always hard to explain to people
that there is not going to be a button to turn your website into
facebook or Cragslist.
There are limits to online tools.
If someone wants to add a slideshow, that
is normally done by adding some scripts to a page, setting the
file paths and locations of all the parts. It is complicated and
takes time using basic scripting tools like notepad or wordpad.
Bit nobody wants to hear that, they want to
know, what button do I click to add a slideshow.
In order to have that button, first we need
the slideshow and then we have to create a user interface that
people understand that takes they choices and convert that into
working code on their website.
Now all of this takes time and is quite
complicated, but the result is, users can click a button, add a
slideshow and just choose the images they want to appear.
But here is the problem with that, if we
never built the tool, you can't do it. You also have to deal with
the limits we have in the tool. If we made a tool that lets you
use 4 photos and you want 5, you have to do it manually without
the tool.
This is our biggest problem with pageBuzz,
having all the tools that anyone would ever want.
Because what it comes down to is, if the
users can't click a button to add a slideshow, they move to
another host that has the slideshow they are after.
It is this whole idea that they
should have what they want and that everything should already be
done for them that causes the problem.
Nobody is willing to learn anything, they
think building websites is simple. So to keep customers, we have
to make it simple and we have made it simple.
Then we get customers hat want more, and we
have to go beyond the average tools and bypass some of the simple
tools in place, but then they can't click a button to change it
and customers hate that.
So we are faced with giving them a button.
It seems like we have very little to say
about what we do, it is about the way people think and perceive
building websites.
If they assume it is easy, then we have to
tell them it is easy. Of course if we don't make it easy then
they will realize that in a few minutes after signing up and
cancel. So we have to practice what we preach.
Building A Website is just Like
You Think
That means that building a website in 2014
is just what people think it is,because we had to make it that
way to stay in business.
- For the average business owner that is
great news, because, they can make a few clicks and have
a website.
- For the average webmaster, that is bad
new, because people don't need them.
- For pageBuzz, it is just another day
at the office.
We have molded our product not around what
we wanted or what might even might have been the best website
practices but to make sense to average people. Work the way they
expect it to and provide the tools so they can make a few clicks
and have websites like the ones they see other people using.
There is no complicated coding or messy
HTML, CSS or PHP, just simple point and click options that let
anyone insert images, add text and programs.
Already installed programs like shopping
carts, car dealer galleries and discussion forums are all part of
the standard hosting.
- You want to add a page, just think up
the name of the page, type it in and click "Add Page".
- Want to add a youtube video? Just get
the address of the video, copy and paste it to the video
tool and drag it where ever you want it in the page.
And just about everything works that easily
because people just expect it to work that way.
Building a website should be simple
and in 2014 it has become simple, inexpensive and quite powerful.
We could not even have the programs we do
now back in 2004, the technology just did not exist, the browsers
did not support them and they were just not possible.
So what we have has evolved into something
very modern and usable. It works the way people what it to work
and not how webmasters are used to building websites.
So today anyone can build a
website all because they think they can!
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