Online Web Site Builders - Did Someone Actually Get It Right?

I’ve never been sold on web site builders, as I’ve always considered designing and creating custom web sites (and blogs) the only way to go. Even in my early years of online wealth building, when I suffered long and arduous days on a beat up keyboard, I never wanted to experiment with web builders. I did have a few peers that gave these online services a go, and some of them actually did build quality web sites, hit their target markets, and began making a solid profit.

The problem is that they were paying too much for monthly fees (in my opinion) and they were restricted in bandwidth, storage, and overall site design options. I noticed that my fellow netrepreneurs using these builders were dreadfully handicapped by the lack of templates to choose from. Most of the templates offered at the time embodied bloated code and a weak sense of bandwidth conservation. Nope….the whole option was a waste of time in my books. Until recently, I have seen nothing to change my strong opinion on this. The cynic in me is convinced that 95% of the original web site builder companies were self serving entities that took full advantage of the so-called “newbie”. They promised this and that, telling their woeful prospects that they could “succeed online” and make BIG profits using their amazing builder. The reality is that without a massive amount of perseverance, the beginner is destined to be stuck with a monthly bill, and a dead web site floundering around in the Internet desert. As you can tell by reading this, I too have been duped by the odd unscrupulous Internet company - companies that gather the innocent, empty their wallets, and disappear underneath the cyber rock where they came from.

Last week I got an email from a buddy of mine who lives in the UK, and is one of my online business peers from way back. He wanted me to check out his new web site which he used a builder to create. I was surprised that he was still using web site builders, but I promised to take a look and give him my opinion. The first thing that surprised me was his Google page rank (6). The next thing that surprised me was his Alexa rating.

I ditched email and paid for a long distance call over to the Midlands (north of London for all the folks who have never had the pleasure of visiting the British Isles). I had to ask him some questions; like how old the site was, where he was getting his inbound links, and more importantly, what kind of money was he pulling in.

We made it a short call to save me the many dimes, and we switched over to a Skype call. He proceeded to fill me in on his site and which company he was using. The web builder he used was hosted by Web.com, so I was quick to get surfing and check these guys out. It turns out they are based in Atlanta, GA, and have some serious muscle. Should have guessed, judging by their domain name.

After I prepared some of this article, I Skyped my buddy back and asked if I could login into his builder account. He said I could give it a good thrashing, as long as I backed up his site and blog. We backed it up, and I began flipping photos, loading flash files, tweaking code, changing templates, adjusting setting……you get the point right. What surprised me was the speed. All the ones and zeros were crunching along nicely, and he said that this speed was the norm since he started his project. 

Just before I got off the final Skype call, he mentioned that the Web.com support staff were very helpful with his SEO. Sounded like all the right advice to me. No tricks, no scripts, and all good clicks. So my fellow cynics, I have to admit that when it comes to site builders, I think someone might have finally got it right.

Web.com’s Features

Storage - 5 GB 

Bandwidth (Transfer) - 20 GB 

Free Domain - Yes

Personal E-Mail Addresses - 30

Phone and Online Support - 24×7x365

Web.com’s proprietary web site builder - Yes

Upload: Audio, Video, Flash - Yes

Photo Manager - Yes

Password Protection - Yes
 
Web Site Statistics - Yes

File Manager & HTML Editor - Yes

FTP Access - Yes

Blogs - Yes

Marketing Features - Yes
 
Yahoo® Search Marketing credit - Yes

Googleâ„¢ AdWords credit - Yes

Technorati Tags: Web.com, Web Site Builders

Bookmark It

Hide Sites