By Melissa Shea | Monday, September 7th, 2009

Recently a client asked me if she should build her web site using a popular web hosting company’s template system. On the surface it sounds like a great idea – they provide a reasonable fee for hosting, many nice, simple designs to choose from and bells and whistles such as blogs and photo albums.

It sounds like a great solution for a new business that needs to save some dough and get a presence on the web. But here is the reality of using a web hosting template verses setting up your own template system.

First of all, if you’re using a web hosting template service, you really don’t “own” your web site. Your web site is dependent upon the hosting company’s content management system – which is the only way you can access your web site and modify the content without knowing html.

Secondly, if you decide you want to change web hosting companies because they have bad customer service – you can’t take your web site with you – it is dependent upon that company’s content management system – so you’re not going to be able to download the files and move them over to a new company. You can probably download the content – but not the template – which includes your design and layout.

And finally – these template systems sound easy to use. The web hosting company is telling you that in their advertising. But – I’ve had three new clients come to me in the last several months telling me they first tried to build the site themselves using the web hosting template system and found it too confusing and gave up. I am professional web developer and I agree – they are confusing and I don’t even like using them!

So how can you get a web site that has a great design, is cheap to start up AND is YOURS TO KEEP???? (more…)

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