What are some inexpensive, do-it-myself website options?

I just started a new business, and as much as I'd really like to have a professional website designed for it, I just don't have the budget yet. Do you have any tips to create your own website?

Although web design has become quite affordable, the cost can still be too much for a brand-new business. Thankfully, there are a lot of options available to create a great starter websites that can hold you over until you can afford to make an upgrade. Although I haven't used many of these do-it-yourself website platforms, I did a little research into some options—and tapped the minds of many of my friends and colleagues—and have outlined some solutions and suggestions.

SquareSpace

SquareSpace describes themselves as "a fully hosted, completely managed environment for creating and maintaining a beautiful website, blog, or portfolio." From doing a little digging around, they seem to offer some standard layout options, and pricing starts at about $12 per month. Learn more at squarespace.com

WordPress

More often than not, if you hire a design firm to create your site, they will probably use WordPress as the engine that drives the site, and then create a completely custom design theme that perfectly accommodates your content. You can take the first step yourself and create your own WordPress site, using a stock theme. Unless you know a pretty hefty amount of HTML, CSS and PHP you probably won't be able to customize the site to the point a web design shop would be able to, but WordPress has a lot of cool themes and plugins that could get you off on a good foot. The only downside of WordPress is that, as a novice, there are so many options (in terms of themes, plugins, etc.) that it can get a little overwhelming, so it is wise to keep it simple. WordPress offers many themes for free, which means you would simply need to purchase your own hosting (which typically runs around $10 per month) for the site. If you choose to go this route, you may with to contact your hosting provider for help installing the WordPress software on your hosting. Learn more at wordpress.org

Virb

As they put it, Virb allows you to "choose a theme, add your content, customize and launch!" They seem to offer a lot of theme options, and pricing starts at about $10 per month. Learn more at virb.com

Wix

Wix positions themselves as a very easy-to-use platform, explaining their services as "Drag & drop. No programming. Search engine friendly." They do offer a free plan, but to get the site to direct to your own domain name (which is advised in order to appear the most legitimate and professional) you would need to upgrade your plan to one of their packages that start as low as $5 per month. Learn more at wix.com

Shopify

If you need an ecommerce site, Shopify seems to be a popular way to go. Their feature set claims "easy-to-use online store builder, fully customizable store design, secure shopping cart provided, and ecommerce hosting included." Their plans are a little more expensive (as ecommerce solutions always are) and start at $29 per month. Learn more at shopify.com

Other things to consider

Once you've selected the option that feels right for your needs, there are a few items you'll want to consider when putting the site together. Taking these items into consideration will help your do-it-yourself site look as polished and professional as possible.

Think simple

With most any site option you select, you'll be able to select some sort of base design template. You'll probably have dozens of options to choose from, which will feel really, really exciting. It will be tempting to select something wild and flashy, just because you can. However, flashy templates can look a little cheesy, unprofessional, and often give themselves away as being a stock template design. Instead, select something clean and simple. You just can't go wrong with a simple design. A clean, straightforward design will blend with almost any image you wish to portray, and is likely to be taken more seriously by your customers. This recommendation also goes for your font and color selections. You don't need a bunch of fonts and dozens of colors—one or two fonts and two to three colors will do just fine. Just make sure to make selections that blend with the other fonts and colors you are using across your visual design (logo, business cards, tags, etc.) so that your business doesn't look like it has a split personality.

Consider readability

Likewise, when you are selecting your template, fonts and colors, always be checking for readability. Make sure your background colors and images don't make your text hard to read, and make sure you select colors that contrast enough that they don't blend together, or create an optical illusion. When in doubt, make sure your text is placed over a solid color that is much darker or lighter than the text color so that it is readable.

Edit, edit, edit

With setting up your own website comes the challenge of writing your own content. More often than not, people think there is no such thing as too much information. This is not the case. Most people don't want to read any more than they absolutely have to. When using a do-it-yourself site, you'll be given large areas you can fill with copy, not to mention endless amounts of pages for no additional fee. Be careful not the be charmed by these open parameters, and be sure to curate your content carefully. Don't drone on—saying the same thing over and over again—and be careful not to add more pages than are really necessary to your site. Constantly ask yourself whether you customer really wants and needs this information, or whether you're just adding it because you can.