Web Sites - I should learn or not?

A common dilemma most small and medium businesses face when it comes to their web site if you should take the time to learn how to build a website or not? Here are my honest thoughts on this topic.

If you read my previous article you should know that a web page is fundamentally written in HTML (let's leave the dynamic stuff for now). So if you've got to create a web page you need to learn the very least, HTML.

It is difficult to HTML? Not really. But ask yourself:

What do I need for my website?

What do I expect to do with my website?

How long should I spend on learning?

How long will it take away from my regular activities?

There are tons of other questions you can ask, but this will do.

Learning a new "skill" is not difficult if you have the right teacher. But then again, if you had to learn how to build a house and that really is not your background, would you do? Or take something smaller, like changing your bathtub? How about a light bulb?

See what I mean? Everything depends on the task at hand, the extent of your familiarity with the subject and your willingness to learn. Let me give you my example. Some time ago we decided to change the tap off our kitchen sink. Here are the exact steps I did:

We went shopping at three stores House & Garden.

They evaluated the price, features etc.

Choose a faucet and taken home.

Hunted around for the right tools.

We went to the house of my borther-in-law borrowed tools and a bit 'more.

He returned home and removed the old faucet.

Fixed the new faucet.

Compressed.

Literally. The whole episode took me a whole day. Now, some of you might laugh and say: "What? I can do in two hours." My answer would be: "Yes! Course. But if you're not a programmer (and are) you can write a program in two hours?". Ah ha! Now you get it? You see, I'm not good at fixing faucets. I had to "learn" how to fix the taps. I knew how to make one in my home country (India, among other things), but had to learn the new way of doing here.

In the end, I wondered, was it worth it? Absolutely not. My time is much more expensive to experiment around trying to learn something that really did not want to do.

On the other hand, we wanted to make some jam during the summer. It was something I really wanted to do and headed in any situation knowing that I had to learn and that it would take some time to myself. However it was worth it. I can think of many situations in which this same analogy applies. For example, painting my bathroom (I did) against painting their living rooms, dining rooms (I have a professional painter).

The same goes for web activity. Ask yourself, how technical are you? Do you like learning new technologies? The most important thing, if this is not really your core business, would you rather spend your time doing something completely different? Maybe yes, or no?

The unfortunate problem is that different vendors to tell you today you can build a website in minutes. And they are right. If you like what you build for their product. Some even say to you, you do not need to learn HTML. Yes Again, if you can conform to their design, great. But the minute you want to change something that does not comply, you now have a risk of blowing everything. How long you want to invest in "fix" things? Also think about the work that would be involved if someone else takes over the mess you left? All this coast.

So in the end you really need to decide if it's worth it in you to learn something new? If you have always been around this article and nodded yes to all my questions, then go ahead and take the plunge. You will be able to do it and succeed. However, if you have that annoying little voice in the back of your head that tells you they do not really have the time or inclination, then do not.

Finally, if you've never built a website or a webpage, and you need one for your business, I personally recommend you get a professional to make one. I'm sure he'd made the right choice.

Until next time .......