Have it Your Way: Custom Site Design Service Delivers

Dina Durrer is a woman who gets things done — efficiently. She is a mother of four and a professional organizational guru who makes a living by helping people streamline the daily tasks in their lives. The goal: more enjoyment, less stress. Naturally, she figured she'd be able to set up her own Web site for her California-based business Organizational Diva. She was wrong.

"Me being me, I thought I can do this, and after spending $800 on Dreamweaver, all I did was make an absolute mess trying to create my own Web site," said Durrer. "I'm good at a lot of things, but Web design is not one of them."

Durrer is not alone, which is why the hosting company Register.com today is rolling out a new design service called Build My Website - Custom. The service is aimed at small business owners like Durrer who need help creating a site, but still want to call the shots.

Even the "Organizational Diva" discovered it was better to leave creating her Web site to professionals.
(Click for larger image)

"The idea came from our observation of small business owners who were struggling with setting up a site or who were hesitant to do it themselves," said Doug Shuman, senior vice president of marketing for Register.com.

"One thing we heard loud and clear is that they wanted a one-stop solution. So, in January we launched the beta, with the goal of having an all-inclusive service providing personal consultation and design, and have about 80 sites up already."

Buddy System for Site Building
Shuman said Build My Website - Custom works like this: You call Register.com on the phone, and get a human being on the line who refers you to a sales agent who will assess your needs and then you are assigned an "architect." This person is your one contact throughout the process of building your site. He or she will work with you to design a Web shop that's also search-engine optimized, making adjustments until you sign off on it and the site is published. It's all done through a shared online account until the site is live. (Of course, you can also sign up for the service online at Register.com).

Durrer, for one, is glad she signed up early, as www.orgdiva.com was up and running after three weeks and debuted in late March.

"I had a vision for exactly what I wanted. And for my business, it's all about image, and what I project, if I had a site that's a mess, the navigation confusing, it's not clean and organized, that's a huge, huge problem," said Durrer. "They were fabulous, very responsive, we spent time on the phone going over everything, I'm very happy with how it turned out. I remember seeing it for the first time live and saying, 'Wow! That's really cool.'"

When Durrer began the process, she didn't yet have a lot of content, so she sent her designer a .PDF of one of her brochures to give him an idea of the type of style she wanted "and he ran with it."

On Call Creativity
She said the designer helped organize the navigation and photos to her specifications, vastly improving on her ideas, and she was especially impressed by the promptness of the work flow.

"My life is scripted due to time management, so it's very important to me that if we are scheduled to discuss something at 9 a.m., that they call on time, and they're always on time," said Durrer. "They're also very responsive with changes and updates, which is important for two reasons. One, as a new business things are constantly changing. And two, I hate getting nickled and dimed, and you can make these changes and not get charged extra for it."

Shuman said another advantage of Build My Website - Custom is that the designers are not just graphics savvy, they are online marketers, too. "That's why we call them architects, because they will balance what is attractive and compelling in terms of design and navigation with how well the site is optimized for search and click throughs."

Unlike Durrer, Jayme Lingnofski, managing director of Wisconsin-based Perfect Presentations, had no intentions of attempting to build his company's site on his own. "I worked for Kimberly-Clark for 26 years prior to coming here and when I showed up the owner said, 'I contacted this company, why don't you work with them to get a Web site developed?' I didn't know anything about Web development, but within two weeks I was looking at a draft of the site."

Lingnofski said he simply told his architect what he wanted, e-mailed her some content and she put together a site that exceeded his expectations. "I was very impressed by the service, especially since it was the first time I actually worked on something Web related," he said. "What's cool too is once it's published, a week or two later, if you want to make changes, you can ask for them and it's done almost immediately. We've gotten a lot of positive feedback on it, and it's really affordable."

The service includes 60 days of unlimited revisions, unlimited page count for your site, a domain name, hosting, 10 e-mail addresses/boxes for your Web site and live tech support. Build My Website - Custom costs $585 for the one-time set up fee, then $99 a month. For a free consultation, call 877-316-8164.

If you already have a domain name, you can keep it, and if you already have a site, but it needs work, the service will help you improve it if you don't want to start from scratch.

Durrer, who was recently named to the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Asscociation of Professional Organizers, said she's also been getting a lot of positive feedback from her peers.

"At one event, this woman told me she saw my site, and loves it, and compared to what she's seen in the L.A. area, she thought mine was the best," said Durrer. "So I asked her why and she said it's clean, uncluttered, you can find what you want easily, the images are appropriate. I was thrilled, it's so great to get that feedback and know you've been able to execute your vision."

Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.

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