Wichita Web Design

"My business needs a new website, this I know for sure. However, it's the process of acquiring one that's the murky part."

Alright, to be fair, its 2014 and everyone generally knows how to buy a new website if they really wanted to. Godaddy, Weebly, Wix et. al. have a plethora of tools to get you up and running with something very nice, and you could just as easily learn about them as you can do a Google search. In your searches, you would also find that Wordpress especially has a nice set of templates and a world-class content management system (CMS) to boot. But, now that there's a website builder for every possible situation, its also gotten a bit complicated. Ah, the curse of actually having a choice! Then again, most of these tools aren't exactly a perfect fit for every situation. They've got downsides too, and many businesses opt to have websites custom-built for their brands and their purpose. I'm going to briefly walk through some scenarios with you and help you come to an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. We'll cover a lot of ground, and if you have questions about anything I touch on, please consider me a humble teacher and reach out to me via email: btwelchy@gmail.com. Also, I'm here in Wichita, so I'm accessible just about any day of the week for a meetup.

Blogging Platforms (a.k.a. Awesome Free CMS)

Key features:
While all of your friends and acquiantances are busy giving Facebook all of their best content by way of posts and comments, you've come to the realization that the best use of your time is to capture your writings on the web where they can enhance your local Wichita business. Wise choice, so now you really would like to write a lot of great stuff, but you're not sure of the best place to go with your writings.
Let me short cut this right now. If you're just getting started writing, even for business purposes, just start a blog and get with it. I highly recommend Blogger, because its fast as the dickens and as free as ocean water. I bet you are surprised that anyone would recomment THAT course of action these days, but its true.
Design options:
But, you say "Can you build a branded experience on these kinds of websites?" The answer is actually "yes", they most generally give you access to the HTML/CSS template that generates the views you see on the web, so you can really customize anything you want to. Furthur, any CMS that's been around as Blogger has, with the size of the Blogger ecosphere, has a tremendous amount of themes and styles to make it look absolutely brilliant. Don't underestimate the lowly Blogger platform. She is a powerhouse.

Paid and Proprietary CMS Platforms

Key features:
Ability to go to the metal and customize things, ability to extend functionality within the framework, advantage of 3rd party management.
Design options:

Static Websites

Key features:
Speed, ultimate flexibility, advantage of zero-management and few scaling issues that cannot be resolved by just paying a few more dollars a month.
Design options:

Straight Up Web Apps

Key features:
Not just extensible within an existing framework, but all power in heaven and earth kind of flexibility, disadvantage of self-management and scaling.
Design options:

There you have it, a quick overview of your website options, complete with an idea what web-design would cost in each instance. There are plenty of businesses that go the template route, and plenty that go the custom-design route. If you're interested in discussing how to get from here to there (a finished website that looks fantastic), I would love to sit down with you and talk about it.