I have to say, I think web templates has missed the point. If you are a business person, running a small outfit with your own money then your focus always needs to be “where’s is the best place to invest my cash, to make more cash?”.

I know that’s obvious but, how often do people spend valuable wonga on websites without having any idea if they are going to work and earn them money. Answer, lots and lots and probably more still I suspect.

If you were sitting across the table from you stern-faced finance director and telling them you wanted to invest 1-2k on a new website, their first response is likely to be “how much will it make back for us?”. Assuming you have some sort of answer, their second question will be “can you prove it?”.

These are questions anyone thinking of having a website designed should be asking of themselves and their web company. If an investment isn’t going to return a profit then save your money and go and have a nice weekend break somewhere.

If you’re going to do it properly, understand how you’re going to measure the performance of your new website, understand what the metrics are and get your web designers to show you proof that they’ve achieved tangible returns for other customers. Anything over and above your investment and running costs is profit and hence the “free” bit because it may have cost you up front initially but essentially it is a loan repaid.

That’s part of the problem with web designers, there are too many who fail to understand the commerciality of a website and are just too interested in designing something that is great looking or cleverly interactive. ROI is king, without it you ain’t got no business, fancy website or not!

Andy H
http://www.spiritconsulting.co.uk