Insourcing or Outsourcing

Many organizations contemplate building a website themselves. Having an interest in this burgeoning technology is great, but will your site fulfill your needs without the aide of a professional?

Take, for instance, the making of television ads. Many of us own VCRs and camcorders. Some of us have even spliced and edited some family vacation footage to make it more presentable.

But when your business or organization needs a television commercial, do you build it yourself, or do you turn to video professionals, TV stations, or ad agencies? Why? Because you know enough to showcase your daughter’s ballet skills on video, but not to present your business’ message professionally to your market, while keeping your image intact.

The web development industry is exactly the same way. It’s relatively easy for someone to use Microsoft Front Page TM to build a simple page, suitable for showing off your stamp collection online. But this falls far short of the kind of tools, experience, and planning that go into a professionally-built website.

Do yourself, and your organization, a favor by sitting down with a website development firm first. Many offer free initial consultations, and some build easy-to-use tools which let you edit dynamic areas of the website yourself. You’ll find the resultant website to be much more effective.