How many people have had to work with a website that was so limited in what you could update and change easily? I had a website once for a big brand that everytime we added new products or a sub category it we would get a quote for over $2k just to make the change… Stitched up, no where to go because we had to get these products online. Thats the problem with fully custom built or using a web design’s own CMS system that they claim has taken years to develop. If you ask for something outside the box they can do it, it’s just going to cost a packet.

I just found this great article on build Vs buy websites.

A common web development scam
There is also a trick that some developers use to ensure you go on to generate considerable future business with them.

What they do is essentially take advantage of your lack of knowledge of web development by building a solution exactly to your specification.

Whilst that might sound like a perfectly normal thing to do, it is really a meal ticket to future business because of the upgrades and improvements that will be required to keep it current.

In other words, they will build you a solution that has poor ‘scalability’.

Because they have worked with clients like you in the past (or at least should have), they will have a pretty good idea of the improvements you are going to want in the near future.

I’ve put together quite a few websites now and stick with open source solutions, I can fully customise and make them do almost anything but updates and changes if not free will be very cheap and easy. There are so many good solutions out there these days.

If you need any advice on any of these topics, get in touch with me over here… That’s kind of what I do…

//Jonno