Beginners guides to websites and hosting services for the North East
XYZ Co. is offering a "FREE WEBSITE DESIGN" to help build their portfolio
Read on, & ask these questions to check out if it’s a truly genuine
"free offer"?
Great you think!, we all love a
good bargain don’t we, but how much of a bargain is it really?
Most
of us have been on the planet long enough to realise, especially in business, that
“there’s no such thing as a free lunch!" & "If it sounds too good to be true it probably is!"
Very occasionally an individual or company may actually be a “new start-up”, or genuinely have “new employees or students on placements” who are purely looking for real website design jobs to build upon & display on their portfolio.
However, ask this to
find out if it’s a genuine
no strings free offer....
“there’s no such thing as a free lunch!" & "If it sounds too good to be true it probably is!"
Very occasionally an individual or company may actually be a “new start-up”, or genuinely have “new employees or students on placements” who are purely looking for real website design jobs to build upon & display on their portfolio.
“That
sounds great, I’ve already bought my own domain name & have a hosting
package in place, I’d love to speak with your designer &
have a site
built & uploaded for me.
I’m
more than happy for them to use it in their portfolio. Can you
deliver
that as
your free
offer?”
99 times out of 100 you’ll be met with a deathly silence……., or "no sorry, it only applies to the websites hosted through us"
Why?
Because that’s where anyone
who isn’t genuinely looking to just "build up
a portfolio" is looking to
make their
money!
This may be with charges well above the
market rate for the
service that they deliver
These deliberately misleading
"Free Offer" adverts are often targetted at unwary smaller
businesses & the self employed, especially via social media community channels. They appear to come from an individual, but that person is often nothing more than a gateway to a larger organisation. Sometimes they're employed by the company, other times they work exclusively on a commission only/finders fee basis. These people seem to see new startups & fledgeling businesses as an easy target; & look to take advantage of the unwary & the uninformed.
It’s never a
“Free Lunch” if you’re obliged to buy the house drinks at 10 x the
normal price!
A LIST COMPILED FROM SOME REAL WORLD EXAMPLE PRICES IS BELOW:-
NET4.UK
Accepting the offer of a "FREE website design" could actually cost you much more in the long run...
PRODUCT WHAT WE'VE SEEN CHARGED & HOW IT STACKS UP IN THE MARKETPLACE
.CO.UK Domain Reg. @ £24.00/year 3-4 x MARKET RATES
.COM Domain Reg. @ £35.00/year <>3 x MARKET RATESDomain Forwarding @ £12.00/year OFTEN INC. WITH THE DOMAIN REG.
Domain Privacy @ £12.00 / year 2-3 x MARKET RATE
e-mail addresses @ £12.00 / year OFTEN INC. WITH THE DOMAIN REG.
e-mail addresses @ £12.00 / year OFTEN INC. WITH THE DOMAIN REG.
Hosting @ £149.00/year VARIES FROM FREE TO £££
SSL Certificate @ £39.00/year A WILD CARD SSL IS OFTEN SUPPLIED FREE
SSL Certificate @ £39.00/year A WILD CARD SSL IS OFTEN SUPPLIED FREE
Adding in these sorts of prices, + VAT suddenly don't sound very free! Especially given that :-
The customer is expected to write their own content, & sometimes even upload their own pictures, into the empty template via a builder.
After a bit of digging on nominet, whois & hostingchecker for one particular case we examined it appeared a company had :-
1) Bought & registered domains in their name so no domain privacy was supplied, + this would require a payment to nominet for any transfer.
2) Their hosting was via a foreign based hosting provider, with no CDN, & running spindle drives, (meaning slower access & page load times)
3) They'd set up 2 e-mail accounts, forwarded one domain to the other, & uploaded a builder & a blank template for the user to populate.
That was it!
Whilst these prices certainly aren't exorbitant for the right bespoke package, we'd hope not every provider would be as erm... "Ruthless" with their pricing for what was effectively a very basic offering.
After a bit of digging on nominet, whois & hostingchecker for one particular case we examined it appeared a company had :-
1) Bought & registered domains in their name so no domain privacy was supplied, + this would require a payment to nominet for any transfer.
2) Their hosting was via a foreign based hosting provider, with no CDN, & running spindle drives, (meaning slower access & page load times)
3) They'd set up 2 e-mail accounts, forwarded one domain to the other, & uploaded a builder & a blank template for the user to populate.
That was it!
Whilst these prices certainly aren't exorbitant for the right bespoke package, we'd hope not every provider would be as erm... "Ruthless" with their pricing for what was effectively a very basic offering.
Cost is not a good reflection of value & forewarned is forearmed.
Considering the example above (+ the minimal bandwidth & storage the site used) it could have been put together on a DIY basis by an I.T. savvy teenager with a few days spent learning from YouTube - & cost nothing more than the domain registration fee/Year.
In this instance we didn't feel the "Free Website Design" was worth anything at all, & actually represented a negative "worth"!
THE PROMISE OF MARKETING & EXPOSURE
Another
tactic they’ll often leverage is a promise of additional “marketing and exposure"
“your website will be featured on the designers profile page, it’ll be
great ‘free exposure’
for you & your company”
If that's the case, then guess what? You're actually getting ZERO EXPOSURE! It's another empty promise designed to lure you in.
Do you often agree to work for free to gain business exposure or build your portfolio?
In the beginning maybe, or possibly you work at below market/fair rate in the hope of building up a reputation or a client base.
If so, then fair enough, you're doing it for a genuine reason.
In the beginning maybe, or possibly you work at below market/fair rate in the hope of building up a reputation or a client base.
If so, then fair enough, you're doing it for a genuine reason.
Please be cautious, not everybody is going to be as genuine as you & your local business!
TLDR; If they have a long list of add-ons & insist that you
must buy them as a condition of their "FREE website design" service, then look at the price as a whole, & remember what they're offering is no longer truly FREE!
NB Whatever happens you will need a domain name & hosting as a minimum for your site, just make sure you aren't being ripped off.
Contact us for a chat & see if we can deliver what you need.
Contact us for a chat & see if we can deliver what you need.