Comparing cheap website development to cheap cup of coffee

In this post, I will be comparing cheap websites to cheap coffee, or better yet, how the two have so much in common. Why? People understand bad, cheap coffee, but often don’t see that a cheap website is just as lousy and forgiving as that cup of Joe eating a hole in your stomach. And ‘cheap’ isn’t just about price here – it also relates to cheap content, cheap design, cheap security, and little to no thought process or future-proofing.

Let’s define a “cheap cup of coffee”

Any coffee that you buy from a place that doesn’t think of food as it’s main order of business (i.e. gas/service stations) and is sold using cups of unusually large size.

Let’s define a “cheap website”

Any website where its design and content was picked out like a tattoo off a wall, and will be delivered to you in less than a week. NOT to be confused with a free website, development of these are typically done out of country and require you to use their web hosting. Minimal in; minimal out.

So, let’s pretend you are an avid coffee drinker (tea could be substituted here too), and you really appreciate a good, flavorful cup. You have purchased many varieties, from service-station-at-10pm swill all the way up to a double-digit-can’t-pronouce-the-name cup from a pretentious cafe.

A cheap cup of coffee can leave you wanting a different cup altogether. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth, and make you wonder if there is any caffeine in it at all. Why is that? This is likely some mass produced coffee that is sourced from whomever has the lowest price, and is likely second-rate beans from some coffee farm that doesn’t really care about the result. Nothing special about it.

Or, it could be said that a cheap website can leave you wanting a different website altogether. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth, and make you wonder if there any thought process in it at all. Why is that? This is likely some mass produced website theme that is sourced from whomever has the lowest price, and is likely second-rate development from some company that doesn’t really care about the result. Nothing special about it.

Keep in mind that it is impossible to turn a bad cup of coffee into a great cup. Like a badly coded website, you will likely have to start over. Some saying about polishing a dog turd comes to mind. Just because you spent good money on your site doesn’t make the saying untrue.

It’s common for people to reach out to India or other countries where the dollar goes further, and expect a top-notch, award winning site. You go with a company that churns out about 100 websites an hour because it was 1/4 the quote you got stateside, not because their portfolio looked amazing. Just like that cup of coffee from the sketchy roadside service station, you wanted the flavor of a hand-ground, hand-poured cup of coffee using hand-picked beans sourced from unnamed mountain in Ethiopia. In both cases, what you got was garbage, and 2 miles down the road you are cursing yourself for thinking that was going to work out any differently than what it is: cheap and quick. Costume jewelry is cheap and quick, but you don’t expect to hand that down to the kids, do you? You don’t even insure it.

A good, flavorful cup of coffee is going to cost you at least double or triple that cup you got in the service station. But the enjoyment of it is what makes your day: great flavor, you got to customize it with the barista, and you got a good to great caffeine kick. Yes! Money well spent; day is starting off right!

A well-crafted, well-thought out website can make your day too, in a lot of ways. It will likely cost you at least double or triple that cheap website you got from a city around the globe you never heard of. But, again, the enjoyment of it is what makes your day (or year): modern design, you got to customize it with the designer/developer, and you got a good to great boost in SEO and new business. Yes! Money well spent; and can actually be called a business investment.

I’ll save the incomparable issues of security, malware, and proprietary software for another blog post.

The comparison of cheap coffee to cheap websites can go on and on, so I created this handy side-by-side chart. Feel free to add your own by commenting below or sending us an email.

Cheap coffee		Cheap website development
Get it fast		Get it fast (though, not always)
Random results		Random results
Rarely matches up to the expectation/claims		Rarely matches up to the expectation/claims
Usually thin on flavor and caffeine. The condiments can be worse than the coffee.		Usually thin on SEO and sometimes design. Content? Bring your own.
Customization is limited to whatever is sitting around.		Customization is often limited to the ‘package’ you bought.
Friends see the cup that screams ‘nasty!’ and don’t ask about it.		Friends see the design or slow loading times and don’t ask you about it.
Your money goes to uber-massive conglomerates, often out of country.		Your money sometimes leaves the country.
Can produce heartburn down the road.		Can produce heartburn, nightmares and headaches down the road. Or worse.
Who knows how many re-brews that pot has gone through.		Who knows how many other people have that exact same design, too.
Doesn’t go well with any other food than cheap things in small bags hanging from clips (even then, that’s debatable.)		Doesn’t play well with any other program/service than what they sell. Good luck trying to move the website to another host/developer!
You end up having to buy another cup down the road, wasting more time and money.		You end having to buy another website down the road. Why buy just 1 website when you can buy 2, and do it all over again?
Once you drink it, you know it is cheap. Your enjoyment level hits zero.		Once you go to update the content (or wait for it to load), you know it’s cheap. Difference here is that you can hide the cheap coffee in a mug or throw it away. A website everyone can see how cheap it is.
People make fun of crappy coffee.		People have entire blogs showing examples of crappy websites.
You couldn’t give it away.		You couldn’t give it away. (You do know that good websites can add to the net worth of your business, right?)
There is no amount of sugar and creamer that can make it better.		There is no amount of updating and fixing that can help out some cheap sites. And in many cases, outside development is not allowed.
You spill it or forget it in the meeting room, you don’t care.		You break it, or people start to make fun of it, you can always lie say “meh, it was temporary anyway”.
It’s for people who don’t care or even like coffee, but don’t like the taste of energy shots.		It’s for people who don’t care about or even like websites. They see them as a burdensome ‘have-to’ in doing business today.

Lastly, I will admit that I had a great cup of coffee from a service station. It was 1995, and in the middle of Texas on a lonely, endless stretch of road, back before I knew what great coffee tasted like. I have never seen a great, cheap cup since. I have also seen well-crafted websites come out of these overseas website factories. Once. And then I saw it again, and again, and again: that template and color scheme was used on about a dozen other sites too.

Keep in mind that it is impossible to turn a bad cup of coffee into a great cup. Like a badly coded website, you will likely have to start over. Some saying about polishing a dog turd comes to mind. Just because you spent good money on your site doesn’t make the saying untrue.

So, what am I supposed to do?

If you have a tight budget now, and don’t foresee a rich uncle handing you a stack of cash in the very near future, then I suggest building a good website in phases. But, first, you should find a good design and development team that can create a website based on your needs, and is willing to build it in 2-4 launch phases.

1. The first phase could be a nicely designed splash page (or two) that helps establish your presence online, and drive traffic to your free social media, like Facebook and Twitter.
2. Phase 2 can expand a little on the design, adding a couple pages to explain services or products, or maybe even add a blog.
3. Phase 3 can be adding more content and targeting those that are searching for your services or products.
4. Phase 4 can be buying ads on Google or Facebook to drive traffic to your new website.

These phases can be done every 1-3 months, or as your budget will allow. But, it is important that you have a plan for a full website and work with your developer to break it up into linear and manageable chunks so as to not have it turn into the Winchester House where you just keeping adding things onto it, eventually turning into a mess.

Ready?

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