Get a website, already!

EVERYONE in business today needs a website. It's a must have. Do you have one? And if not, why not?

The Internet is being used by millions worldwide with more and more connecting every day. The information you provide on your website is instantly available to anyone that can access it. This makes a website a very effective sales channel and a powerful marketing and promotional tool. Imagine, with a website you are now open for business 24/7/365 and potential customers can find out about you and your offerings even while you sleep.

So what are your excuses?

I don't know how to make a website.

It's too expensive. I can't afford it.

I say, "Hogwash! Would you like some cheese with that whine?"

Yes, you can go out and spend tens of thousands of dollars on a custom website. And for some of you, this IS exactly what you should do. However, for most freelancers and small business that's not an affordable or realistic option. It's simply not necessary. Today, utilizing the Internet is very inexpensive and there are more options than ever. Literally, there are new options emerging every day.

So stop your bellyaching and start simple. You can always change your site and upgrade as you grow and can afford a bigger and more sophisticated site.

Some suggestions and thoughts about what's out there . . .

For Mac users, iWeb is a great place to start. They have a manage-able set of easy-to-use templates. Each are simple to modify and customize. And of course you can design from scratch if you must have it your way. You may also link it to your existing website or just use your .Mac address, though I recommend you use your own URL to reinforce your brand.

Most web hosting services offer low cost web building and design though I find they usually targeted towards the PC user and lack the appeal and ease of use of other stand-alone services.

Increasingly popular are using blogging sites like Blogger.com and WordPress to create a website that's easily update-able through their proprietary blogging software. Blogger.com is the simpler-to-use of the two (this blog is a Blogger.com site). WordPress offers a ton of more customizable options though the learning curve is slightly steeper and increases as you make your site more complicated. Quite honestly, if you do a little research you'll find that WordPress has become wildly popular for website design. Loads and loads of top sites are WordPress sites. Clearly a sign of it's easy of use and customization options.

Many of the social networking sites allow you to create a custom page or site. You may already have a Facebook page. Did you know some people are using their Facebook book page as a website? While these might be good options for the faint-at-heart, personally, I think they are a little low tech and pedestrian. Still, it's better than nothing. If you don't like Facebook, there's MySpace, while you may think it's a little old school it is still hip among the music and indie film crowd. The teen and college set has been migrating away from Facebook back to MySpace, I've heard. No doubt a result of the pressure to accept friend requests from one's grandmother/mother/aunt on Facebook. While I use these social community sites myself to network I'm not a fan of using them as a businesses sole or primary website or web presence. I think you'll find they work better when augmenting your stand-alone website.

Recently I came across WhosCreative.com - a simple online website creation company where you can have a portfolio based site for free or low cost (under $8 bucks a month). They also have a professional level (under $50 bucks a month) for you ambitious folks. This service looks pretty good for artists, photographers and filmmakers and is definitely worth checking out.

Clearly, these are only a handful of possibilities. The point is this - With the web full of options at a cost appropriate for everyone, there's no excuse not to have a website these days.

DIY DAYS - PHILADELPHIA

On a steamy, hot Saturday in August I can think of a lot of places I'd rather be . . . floating in cool swimming pool or at the shore. And after spending the last week on the road shooting corporate pharma work in Boston the last place I thought I'd spend this Saturday, August 1st was in the warm, dark Chaplan theater at the University of the Arts attending DIY Days Philadelphia. And yet, here I am.

The day started off with a keynote from the energetic author, teacher, documentarian Douglas Rushkoff. Rushkoff's take on "How capitalism killed narrative and how to grow new ones" was an inspiring and witty way to wake up. Unfortunately the follow up talk I attended in the Black Box Theatre put me back to sleep. Maybe it was the hypnotic fireplace video played on a big screen in the back ground, though more likely it was the low drone of Lance Weiler and Chuck Wendig speaking softly into microphones that needed to have been kicked up a notch to be heard clearly in the back row. Bottom line, what was billed as "The Evolution of Storytelling" and specifically technology's impact on the art and craft of storytelling was more DIY-the Lance & Chuck show and storytelling as it applies to gaming and not enough concrete information about how one can develop stories that travel across screens and devices.

I caught the last couple minutes of Esther B. Robinson's (film producer and founder of ArtHome) talk about "Building a Creative Foundation" and was sorry to have missed it.

Next up . . . "What You Need to Know - Fair Use" which is all about the line between remix culture becoming more fuzzy and thus it's more difficult to consider what is Fair Use by Nina Paley (filmmaker "Sita Sings the Blues"). This is the "FREE SPEECH" part of the program . . . hello, Dad--are you listening? (FYI-my father was the photographer of the most iconic photographs of the Berkley Free Speech Movement).