“FREE!” Web Flim-Flam
A friend asked my advice about a web developer pitching a low-cost “blog-friendly” web site. The price ($897.00) isn’t bad for what is actually a slight customization of a Wordpress template. And, the turnaround is two biz days. Of course, you’ll have to live with the fact that your web site closely resembles that of a lot of other people in your industry but – hey – it’s cheap and it works. Wordpress is great (my site is in WP); it’s versatile, user-friendly software that is – ta-da! – free. The web developer doesn’t, however, tell you she uses Wordpress – with good bad reason, as you’ll see below.
So, a quick, reasonably good-looking, user-friendly web site – for $897.00 (not including monthly maintenance of $34.00. I assume that includes hosting.)
What’s not to love?
Here’s what: There’s absolutely nothing wrong with selling a low-cost, “get ‘r done” web site, targeted at people who don’t have the time to learn a lot of techie stuff. It’s the way it’s being sold that makes me uneasy…and gives marketing a bad name (once again.)
The flim-flam comes in with the FREE! multi-point sales pitch. The web developer is telling you all the great FREE! stuff you get from her as opposed to other “web masters” (?!) Things that are really, truly free from Wordpress and Google, for anybody. For example, she pitches:
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FREE Utility to Password-Protect a Page or Post
FREE Multiple User Accounts
Um, yes. Wordpress works that way (along with a lot of other free features.) No customization required.
Then there’s – OH WOW!
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FREE Google Map and Directions
Yes, pop over to Google and it’s ABSOLUTELY FREE to EVERYONE!
But, WAIT! There’s MORE!
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“Fast Action Bonus #1 – FREE Blog – Value $1750″
Moving right past that assigned value (from where? for what?) Wordpress actually IS blogging software, so – yep – that blogging thingie is included. However, the way the developer has designed her template, it’s got some limitations, including you can’t have a blogroll (other bloggers like you to link to them), archives, or categories (it appears the blog actually is a category…but I’m getting Wordpress geeky…)
There’s more (including touting FREE “up to 50″ email addresses, which is – um – really free at Google), but you get the drift.
(To give you an idea of WP’s capabilities, here’s the “site” I “built” for Duke City Civitan in an afternoon, using one of the over 70 free templates. Sure, it’s not perfect, and it’s hosted at WP, but it’s a good basic online information resource, which fits our simple needs for now. And, we can easily move to a domain at some point and become a “real” site. I can also add all sorts of media including video, Absolutely Free!…;-)
P.S. The developer’s “site” is actually one very long sales pitch page (”But WAIT THERE’S MORE!”), that looks a LOT like many other “throw up a page and get rich” sales schemes. So, I’ll cut her a little slack…it appears she may have bought a “make millions on the Web” flim-flam package. (Yes, and you can stuff envelopes at home…)
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What – no Ginsu knives thrown in?
Unfortunately, the days of flim-flam are still with us, and there are too many small business owners who get sucked in by the hype. I wonder if the web developer turned the copy around to say, “Hey – and you could try to incorporate all of these tools on your own, but I’ll whip them all together in a flash, saving you lots of time, energy, and aggravation,” if it might not be more persuasive. Just be honest!
Shhh…don’t give ‘em any ideas.
It would be far more compelling if she said she’s using proven, off-the-shelf software that is constantly being improved (at no additional cost to the user) and that she’ll take care of all the details to get the site up and running, no worries…and she’ll keep the software updated. AND, if they ever want to go off on their own – it’s in WP, not a proprietary system.
Ah, but there I go again…and that’s why I’ll never be a multi-millionaire. I have this silly fondness for integrity and honesty.