Websites – How difficult are they to construct?
We needed a new website. Over the past year we have been rebranding from FISH FAR NORTH to simply ‘Peter and Xiaoli Tours (and accommodation). We had 3 websites. Two I had built through an Indian hosting company Host Papa. I didn’t feel they were great websites but did what they were required to do. Then comes renewal time, and what was an attractive monthly/annual fee sky rockets. So we will not be ripped off, so bye bye Host Papa.
Our original website fishfarnorth.co.nz still exists as that was built by a professional builder and hosted through a local company. That website will ultimately disappear but is serving a purpose until we sell our beach property.
I had quotes to build a new website for the tour business starting at $1500 for a basic site. That was without hosting, and yes I am a scrooge. They always say don’t buy a mechanics car. Reasoning being they never repair then own cars. Well my profession is advertising and in personal business I detest advertising and the horrific fees that go with it.
6 months ago I started posting blogs. Always written them prior but never posted them. And I realised thousands have read them either on google collections or facebook. And I religiously watch the stats on my readers. Where are they from. It lists my regular followers. Stats give me a buzz. Must go back to my days in advertising where research was such a vital component. But then Google changed their whole system. I resist change so thought I would look for other alternative blog sites and discovered WordPress. A great find.
WordPress is more than just a blog site. It offers websites at an affordable price and in a not to complicated laymans language.
For $99 US a year I have a new domain name (peterandxiaoli.com). 4 days later I have built my most professional site yet. Still a long way to go but already able to be used as a marketing tool. It saved me $1500+ in professional fees to build a new website. It saved me costs for registering a new domain name separate to my site hosting fee. I am a very happy boy.
Designed my own vehicle signage using simple software packages on the computer. No huge design costs from signwriters. And everything visually has the same look/image. Very important. And yes I believe very professional.
Am I a scrooge. No, just believe if you have time and patience you can do a lot of things yourself now with modern technology.
Peter and Xiaoli Tours 