Category: Agencies

Toptal Review, My Honest Customer Review 2022

(Editors Note: We’re starting this post with an intro into outsourcing for context, if you want to get straight to the review of TopTal, scroll down to the bolded title, “Toptal Review – What’s this have to do with Toptal?“)

There are plenty of Toptal reviews online, but I feel a lot of them lack context on the outsourcing market, thus spurring the need for Toptal.

The truth is, outsourcing has come a long way. No longer do you have to move your company to a tech-savvy city like Silicon Valley for access to top talent. You can now go online and hire someone from anywhere in the world to write a PHP script or create a brand-new WordPress website, or write a fully blown software application for any purpose imaginable.

How to Hire Online Freelancers (the RIGHT Way)

Most outsourced projects fail, or at the very least businesses settle for “good enough” out of business necessity. I talked about this in-depth in my essay on why most outsourced projects fail on Upwork. I’ve seen it first hand. I’ve seen it with friends. Clients. Business partners. You name it. But, remote work is the future. According to Upwork Research Studies and Statistics, 50% of the American Workforce have worked from home since May 2020. And although I’ve been highly critical of the current state of the freelance marketplace, it’s not because of Upwork or any other freelance marketplace – it’s how businesses and freelancers utilize the platform. Many want to outsource overseas to save money, but the age old adage remains true, “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.” Read More

Freelancing and Outsourcing Statistics 2023

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, freelancing and outsourcing have skyrocketed.

Don’t get me wrong. The freelance and outsourcing industry has already grown exponentially before that, but now companies are finding out that employees can be productive at home, and likewise, many people like working from home.

Complete Guide to Press Releases for SEO 2022

Press releases use to be a must for SEO, but after Google’s algorithm updates, are press releases still worth sending out? Like with any other form of advertising, you expect a return on investment. And GOOD press release services (PRWeb, PRNewsWire, etc.) aren’t cheap, but are they worth the money in a day of age where it’s easier to interact with journalists via social media, email, etc.? With Google’s recent Link Schemes update, do they even have any SEO value (more on that below)? I’ve sent out my fair share of press releases, and I also have a fiancé who works for NBC in a top 50 market. I’ll share perspectives from both sides of the table and I’ll help you make the decision on whether or not you should be sending out press releases, and which service you should utilize to send them out. First, 3 point to keep in mind:

3 Things to Keep in Mind Before Sending Out A Press Release

1. Writing the Press Release – Choosing the service is the last of your problems, you actually need to write it first. Press releases follow a very specific format, and deviating from the norm could make your press release (and your business) look unprofessional. PRWeb does offer writing services, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Instead, write it yourself or hire a professional writer that’s familiar with your niche. PRWeb’s pricing for a SEO optimized press release will run you $500. that is in addition to distribution ($99-499).

2. There’s little chance your press release will actually get read. Here’s the problem with the press release. It’s overused, and in the wrong way. Services like PRWeb syndicate your press release to outlets such as the New York Times, USA Today, Associated Press, etc. It doesn’t mean that it’s actually getting read, they’re syndicated on a news wire buried deep in their websites, some journalists flip through their niche every now and then, but most are tending to the hundreds of emails they receive every day – these are usually much more relevant to them. Press releases are becoming less and less effective as almost anyone can purchase a press release.

3. Think About Going Direct to Journalists Before Publishing Your Press Release: Often times you don’t even need a press release for press. For example, two years ago I founder a startup (that I would eventually sell) that helped people find the best deals online. It was two days before Black Friday (you know, the crazy shopping day after Thanksgiving). I noticed that they were running a segment on “Holiday Shopping Survival Guide,” and figured this was the perfect opportunity to help people shop for the holidays. Below is a copy of the email that would land me on ABC.

Hi Shellie,

I’m Jay Soriano, the founder of a company that helps people find the best deals online. I have a few ideas for your “Holiday Shopping Survival Guide.” They’re
separated by three potential headlines:

1.) Black Friday ‘Doorbusters’ to AVOID
2.) The Top 10 Tech Deals this Black Friday
3.) How to Tell if a Deal is Really A Deal on Black Friday

1.) Black Friday “Doorbusters” to AVOID – Personally, I think this feature would be most useful to your demographic. I’ve been on both sides of Black Friday (sales and a customer) and I’ve noticed that buyers are far too irrational during the holidays. I’ve seen the ads and can pinpoint a few “doorbusters” that should be avoided. For additional details checkout my infographic [redacted].

2.) The Top 10 Tech Deals this Black Friday – This is another piece I feel would be really helpful to viewers, again, the infographic references a few of the best.

3.) How to Tell if a Deal is Really A Deal on Black Friday – Buying a laptop or TV? How do you know you’re really getting a deal? Is it worth waiting in line for? Those are a few questions I can answer. As an avid online shopper I can even show you a few deals available online TODAY (or recently) that are comparable to many “doorbusters.”

Look forward to hearing your thoughts, Shellie. ABC would be great place to break this one.

Best,
Jay

You see what I did there? For most businesses, if your story is newsworthy, and relevant to people within their demographic, you don’t need to send out a press release. Go direct to the journalists where most requests will actually be read.

That’s an example that works for anyone. Now think about your niche? Let’s say your a technology startup, try approaching mainstream technology blogs such as TechCrunch, Mashable, etc. with an exclusive. Former Mashable editor Ben Parr, said it best, “We prefer to be in the first group for any piece of news. Trying to give us news second hand long after somebody else has written about it isn’t going to win you favors with us.” Quora has a great thread with advice from both sides of the table on, “What are some tips for getting your startup featured on TechCrunch, Mashable and other tech blogs?” While most beneficial to startups, the tips apply to any business.

Also keep in mind that mainstream media gets hundreds of PR requests everyday. If you want to get into TechCrunch, your chances are slim unless your venture backed by known investors or your a well known entrepreneur. With that being said consider:

Expanding your horizons, if TechCrunch doesn’t reply with regards to your exclusive within 24 hours, approach another source. Here’s a list of blogs and websites that a new startup should approach for press.
Hiring a PR Company – I asked a well known entrepreneur in the technology space, Neil Patel, for his thoughts on avenues to explore for press releases, he mentioned something along the lines of “Press releases sound like a good idea, but most of the time they don’t get the results you want… I recommend hiring a PR agency for better results.” Getting press is like life, often times it’s not what you know, but who you know. Good PR agencies have connections with journalists that can get your product/service featured.

Why Should You Send Out A Press Release?

“Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites.” Google’s update to its link schemes are the latest explosion in the SEO world since Google Penguin and Panda. Press release services (at least the major ones) were quick to react by automatically no-following links within press releases in compliance with the updated Google Webmaster Guidelines. Since press releases should now bring limited SEO value, should you still send one out?

I do recommend sending out at least one press release, most notably for the launch of your business. It could be a small signal to Google that you are a legit business (would a black hat SEO spend $249+ on a press release that does not include a link that passes SEO value?). And the buzz around launching a new business is more likely to pick up links than most other types of generic press releases.

What’s the Best Press Release Service?

We’re going to touch more on this subject next week to find out what changes press release services are making after the link schemes update. But I have done hours of research on different press release services and I recommend the following two companies for news release distribution services; eReleases.com and PRLog.com (free). Here’s why:

At the prices they offer with the amount of distribution they have, eReleases is the best value. If you only send out one news release, use eReleases and with the “Newsmaker Distribution” ($399). Once posted, download the final press release as a pdf and put it in a “media kit” which includes the press release, more information, relevant images they could use in posts they write about you, etc. and use that for direct outreach. Update: eReleases has just sent me an exclusive coupon to our readers. $100 off your first press release! At that price, they’re hard to beat!
PRLog.com is a free press release service, but don’t expect anyone to read it. With everyone and anyone allowed to post, it’s a magnet for spam and other uninteresting “news.” It is, however good for a single no-followed backlink (PR6) and can help local businesses rank in the “local 3-pack” on Google as press releases requires contact information (name, address, phone number, etc.). Their releases also rank very well, especially in non-competitive phrases… think about this when crafting the headline.
Help A Reporter Out (HARO) – While not a press release service per se, HARO has been all the buzz for the past few years. HARO is a service that most news agencies use to find sources, they’re sent out in three daily emails (morning, afternoon, and evening) with requests from journalists looking for sources to help them out with a piece they’re working on. HARO states that, “From The New York Times, to ABC News, to HuffingtonPost.com and everyone in between, nearly 30,000 members of the media have quoted HARO sources in their stories. Everyone’s an expert at something. Sharing your expertise may land you that big media opportunity you’ve been looking for.” If you’re using Gmail, create filters for your niche and you’ll only get the emails with journalists that need your help.

With a myriad of press release distribution services, which should you use? Especially now that Google has recently updated their Link Schemes to forbid overly optimized anchor text within a press release? Before we delve into that, let’s review the link scheme update, here’s the example Google cites:

When I first read the update, I didn’t think much of it because it clearly targets spammy press releases sent out by lazy SEO or PR agencies. Press release services, however, saw it differently and were quick to change its practices. PR.com, PRWeb, BusinessWire, et. al were all quick to automatically no-follow links within press releases distributed through them. But there are workarounds that do not violate the Webmaster Guidelines (more on that below), there are even a few small press release companies that still allow followed – even with anchor text (we wouldn’t recommend the ladder).

ContentBot – Are AI Copywriters Better Than Humans?

In 1996, the computer known as “Deep Blue” beat Garry Kasparov marking the first time a computer beat a human in a formal chess game.

Just recently in 2019, computers are starting to beat humans at poker, a game with many more combinations and possibilities… and of course the element of “bluffing.”

So can a computer write better than human?

In short, no. But it’s still a powerful tool for writers.

Chess and poker have a great deal of mathematics involved, and thus statistically speaking there are situations where there’s an absolute best decision. Not so much with writing (though I’m sure math plays a role in the algorithm).

Robots lack a personal touch. Empathy. Ambition. An expertise on a certain subject. A lot of things are human constructs and an AI won’t quite match the personality of their human counterparts.

AI Copywriters – Which are the best?

There are a myriad of AI copywriters on the market, but they’re all very similar because they’re based on OpenAI’s GPT-3 state-of-the-art natural language processing system. The difference between them often lies in the feature set.

I elected to use ContentBot because it has a couple key features that differentiates them from the competition:

The only AI copywriter with WordPress integration
Plagiarism tool built-in
Allows for long form content (up to 2000 words)

My Review of ContentBot – Learning and my first few experiments

This is my first experience with an AI copywriting tool, and as a photographer I wanted to see if could write a post on, “The Best Wide Angle Lenses for Micro Four Thirds”

The results?

Nope. Not even close. Granted, they do mention that output quality is heavily dependent on input quality. But it couldn’t handle technical photography terms and even switched around numbers on lenses, etc.

But I wasn’t deterred, and I still wanted to challenge ContentBot. So I looked through my task list of articles on schedule and saw, “What’s the best rep range for hypertrophy?”

And it actually didn’t do too bad, there was some usable content there if my goal was to add words to a blog post, which a lot of us marketers do considering the optimal blog post length for SEO is 1700-2400 words. But it still lacked the expertise in fitness that a quality post on the 1st page of Google would have.

And I know you guys want examples, so let’s experiment on how AI would write this very article.

You’re reading it. Everything that you’ve read so far is a result of AI copywriting.

Nah, I’m just f***ing with you. But I’ll show you how it would write this article:

For my inputs, I entered the title: ContentBot Review – Are AI Copywriters Better Than Humans?

What is AI Copywriting?
Will AI replace copywriters?
Will copywriting be automated?

For every input, it spits out three outputs, and an option to generate more if you don’t like any of the choices:

ContentBot – AI Copywriting Outputs

I don’t see the need to add bloat to this post by posting the entire post here (which would in all likelihood help SEO, but more on that later), but you can find it in this Evernote note here.

Here are a few standout sections, all unedited (and my notes will be in italics):

Will AI Replace Copywriters?

There are so many articles in the media today that are talking about the dangers that AI will bring to the workplace and how humans will lose their jobs in the meantime. While this is true, I’m talking about one specific job where AI has the potential to eliminate the human component: Copywriting.

That’s a really good intro, I could have potentially used that for this post.

While Content Writing, Copywriting and Content Editing are all a part of the content marketing world today, there’s a different aspect of digital writing being introduced. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now being introduced as a part of the Content Writing market. More so, they are using AI to predict the future in order to create a better writing system.

These Artificial Intelligence Content Writers will now try to use artificial learning techniques to predict the future to create a content strategy. Not only is this technology the future of writing, but will also be the market leader to come. This will make it possible to automate more things in digital marketing, and will create a future that we are not looking.

Is AI Copywriting Better Than Human Content Writers?

When we talk about Content Writing, most of us will often go back to content marketing when discussing this topic. The most obvious reason is because it seems the easiest to learn, right? The truth is, human writers are not any better than an AI Content Writer. It is true, in some ways AI is superior, but only up to a point.

The AI is a little confident, eh?

Back to me, the human

Not bad at all. But I just want to make note of one thing, AI copywriting tools shouldn’t be used to generate mass long form content (because it could help with SEO, albeit a little unethically). ContentBot does acknowledge this marketing it as an AI assistant to “overcome writers block.” And that’s the best way to use it. To overcome writers block, to help you generate new ideas. It’s a fantastic tool for SEO, even better when you combine it with a tool like MarketMuse or Surfer SEO.

No doubt the most popular feature will be to generate blog posts, but here’s a few other things you could do with ContentBot:

Craft Ad Copy – perfect for testing different variations to see which ad copy has the best CTR
Sentence Rewriter – This is great for local citations, the AI writer can rewrite your “about me” can provide unique content.
Blog Outline – Great for subheadings, topic ideas
Blog topic intros – A great AI tool for generating a good intro paragraph for your blog post.

Final Verdict

Overall, the decision to use an AI copywriter depends on your content. It won’t work well on subjects that are highly technical, or require a great deal of expertise. But it could help with content generation on simpler topic ideas. It’s a valuable SEO tool to add to your collection.

What do you think of Content Bot? Is AI generated content the future, or will you be sticking by your copywriter? Will this be apart of your marketing campaigns? Let us know on social media, or in the comments below!

10 Most Popular Things to Outsource

An important component of business is being self aware. Many entrepreneurs tend to want to be a jack of all trades, but if you really want to scale your business you’re going to have to find out what you’re best at and delegate the rest.

“Musicians play their instruments, I play the orchestra.” – Steve Jobs

Whether hiring in-house or outsourcing, the real problem lies in hiring good talent. We’ve detailed this in one of our most popular posts about Upwork, the most popular place to outsource.

Of course, this all depends on what you want to outsource. Outsourcing development for an ambitious technology startup is vastly different from outsourcing data entry or even personal tasks. Though this list is designed for businesses, USNews.com also has a list of tasks to outsource for your personal life which include hiring someone to clean your home, run your errands, mow the lawn, etc.

Today, we’re going to be covering the most popular and best things to outsource for your business.

We’ve polled our readers, and we’ve utilized external data from Entrepreneur and Investopedia to compile a list of things that you should consider outsourcing:

Virtual Assistants
Graphic Design
Web and App Development
Manufacturing
Bookkeeping and Taxes
Legal
Marketing
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Customer Service
Writers

1. Virtual Assistant

The most popular hire is a virtual assistant (VA), perhaps perpetrated by one of the best selling business books over the last decade, The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. Most virtual assistants can be hired for under $10/hr, even as low as $3/hr. Though most of these options will be overseas, where language barriers may be an issue. Ferriss’ detailed his experiences in his book, from good to bad, thus his book would be a good place to start for a guide to hiring and working with virtual assistants.

My advice for hiring a virtual assistant is to find simple tasks that you can outsource. Do them yourself first, thus you can break it down in explicit detail and you know about how long the task takes. You have to make it so easy that a child can do it. And if you’re hiring overseas, excellent (not just good) English is a must. In my experience, many have stretched their tasks for hours, visible through Elance/oDesk (now Upwork) screenshot software… and these are VA’s with “good reviews.” Thus if you do hire an assistant, do it through Upwork, where they have software that takes a screenshot of their computer at random intervals to ensure they’re working on the outlined tasks.

Personally, I’ve hired multiple virtual assistants over the years on various freelance marketplaces and couldn’t find the right fit. Mostly because I don’t have recurring tasks that I need done and didn’t want to keep a VA around for a couple hours a month.

Nowadays, I use FancyHands, a service that allots you a certain number of tasks per month for a monthly fee. Unused tasks are rolled over to the next month. A perfect fit for me.

A few things I’ve had them do lately is call mechanics for quotes for my car, call in to my insurance or phone company and patch me in so I don’t have to be on hold for 30 minutes, etc. Most of the tasks are personal, but occasionally I do have them do a few simple business tasks like research for a blog post, sales leads, data collection, etc.

FancyHands employs thousands of virtual assistants that are waiting for requests, however this means that you can’t build a relationship with your assistant. If you’re running a business and you want your assistant to learn on the job, than you might opt for hiring a virtual assistant on UpWork.

2. Graphic Design

Virtual assistants are popular because even though we can often do those tasks ourselves, we really hate doing them. Graphic design, on the other hand, is a different story. Not everyone is an artist and that’s why graphic design is #2 on the list. Here are a few recommendations based on budget:

Broke – If you’re broke, you have one option, Fiverr. Where a logo will set you back $5. Though you get what you pay for and buyer beware as some sellers are selling you stolen artwork. But hey, what can you expect for $5? See our list of The Top 7 Business Gigs on Fiverr. Another option is buying a template from GraphicRiver for a few bucks and modify it to your needs. Others might have the same logo, but it’s better than Times New Roman with Clip Art from the 90’s. Both Fiverr and GraphicRiver have more options than logos, just using that as an example as it’s the most popular thing to outsource for graphic design.
Best Bet – Go with the crowdsourced model, essentially a logo design contest where designers compete for a prize. $300 will save you a ton of time and net you dozens of designs to choose from. It’s a win/win situation as they offer a 100% money back guarantee if you don’t get a logo you love. Another crowdsourced option is DesignCrowd.
Scrooge McDuck Rich – Some companies have invested $10000+ on a logo. Sometimes there’s a lot that can go into a logo, such is the case with AirBnB who hired DesignStudio for their redesign.

3. Website and/or App Development

This will be the toughest thing to outsource because developers write in another language that you probably don’t understand. But it can be done successfully and I recommend checking out our guide on How to Hire Online Freelancers on UpWork. Here’s a couple options I recommend:

For Short Term Projects (eg. less than 60 hours, small tasks, simple websites or plugins, etc.) – Upwork is going to be your best bet. The problem with Upwork lies in the businesses who try to hire for under $10/hr. Remember that good software developers in the US command salaries over $100k, over $200k in tech driven cities. So though there will be plenty of options thrown your way, outsourcing for $10/hr will be really tough to do. I advise looking for developers in the $20-$50/hr range who’ve had a long work history with good reviews. And this might sound counter intuitive, but for the first project(s) don’t hire on a per hour basis. Breakdown your tasks into milestones and release payments accordingly.
For Long Term Projects (More than 60 hours or something where you’ll need ongoing support such as building a startup, an app, etc.) – Much like the best software developers head to Silicon Valley, the best head to TopTal because of the clientele tends to think more about value than price. Toptal promises the top 3% of talent, and I’ve seen first hand that is true. With UpWork, you have to sift through and screen the talent yourself… and if you’re non-technical that’s almost an impossible task. With TopTal, they’ve done the work with screening designers and devs through coding tests, interviews with other developers, etc. And a proposition of value is built into the platform with a no-risk trial:

All of our engagements begin with a trial period of up to two weeks. This means that you have ample time to ensure the engagement will be successful. If you’re completely satisfied with the results, we’ll bill you for the time and continue the engagement for as long as you’d like. If you’re not completely satisfied, you won’t be billed (and we’ll pay the Toptaler out of our own pocket). From there, we can either part ways, or we can provide you with another freelancer who may be a better fit and with whom we will begin a second no-risk trial.

4. Manufacturing

Local is always an option, or you can go with Alibaba, the global marketplace who in 2014 claimed the title for the largest global IPO ever. I’m not a physical product guy, but have had clients who have used Alibaba with success.

5. Bookkeeping and Taxes

Another popular thing to outsource, it’s best to find a specialist with your software. In other words, if you use Quickbooks, find a Quickbooks specialist. Personally, I use Wave (free), and have a specialist that helps me with bookkeeping. Wave has a directory for locating specialists. Everyone else can check on Upwork.

6. Legal

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice.

There are many legal services online that can help you save thousands of dollars from hiring a lawyer. Most lawyers online will tell you that you should never attempt to DIY when it comes to legal, and they’re probably right for most situations. Let’s take incorporation for example, if you’re a single member LLC, that’s relatively simple to incorporate yourself in my experience. You need legal documents drafted? Chances are there are templates online. Starting a bootstrapped business is hard enough, if you want to plunk down a couple thousand on a lawyer before you make a single dollar, that’s your prerogative.

There are plenty of options out there, with LegalZoom as the most popular option for incorporation.

Also See: 50+ Must Read Resources for Starting and Growing a Business

7. Marketing

You don’t want to pay someone to twiddle their thumbs, whether for $10/hr or $50/hr. You need a marketing consultant that can show you that for every $1 you invest that you’re getting $5 in return. Think about value, not price.

8. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

I’ve worked for the last few years as a SEO consultant. This industry is filled with snake oil. You don’t need a degree, or any accreditations. You could read a Wikipedia page on SEO and the next you’ve decided you’re the next big SEO consultant.

My advice, 99% of the industry makes money selling SEO… not utilizing it. The best hire is someone who has their own websites that are generating at least $1000/mo in passive income. Find the 1 percenter. They’re out there, I know I can’t be the only one.

9. Customer Service

Another popular thing to outsource, such that their are entire companies dedicated to helping businesses outsource their customer service overseas. My advice, and I might be bias, is to go with call centers in the Philippines.

10. Writing

Again, like with hiring a SEO consultant, you want to find the one percenters. If it’s for content for a blog, find writers who have successful blogs. If it’s for a book, find a writer who has experience as an author or ghost writer.

And make sure to hire a writer with an expertise in the subject you want written about. For example, if you’re a tech startup focused on security you’re not going to want to hire a fashion blogger and vice versa.

What are your favorite things to outsource and what tips do you have? Let us know in the comments below!

50 Freelance Websites to Hire Freelancers or Find Online Jobs

The best piece of advice I can give when it comes to hiring freelancers, is to think less about price, and more about value.

Freelancing has changed the way businesses operate and how people work. These days, you can build a career without leaving the comfort of your home. You can even operate with other freelancers to make your own agency. For freelancers, it makes sense to join as many as you can and find the ones that work best for you. It really just takes a few minutes to signup and complete your portfolio, and who knows, you might land a few leads without any additional work. Granted, most of these platforms you’re going to have to spend some time with and develop a reputation. And the best freelancers are really good at reverse engineering what it takes to be successful on a specific platform. Below we’re just going to briefly talk about 50 of the best websites for online jobs, it’s up to you to delve into case studies and other reviews to see how effective it is for you.

For businesses, the benefits are clear, outsourcing can save you money and you’re not restricted to talent within your city. You now have access to a global pool of talent among a myriad of different freelance marketplaces. It keeps operational costs down and you can opt for freelancers instead of employees in a lot of situations. With online communication tools on these platforms or off (eg. Slack), hiring freelancers and letting them operate remotely from their own home can be a win/win. As a business, I use multiple platforms and I’ll delve into why below, so without further ado here are 50 of the most popular websites to hire freelancers or find online jobs:

How to Launch and Create a Website Under $100

How to Launch and Create a Website

Arguably, the first thing you’ll need for your business is a website. Nowadays, there are free options, but you get what you pay for. You can hire a designer and a new website can set you back thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars. Today, I’ll show you what I do for most projects, and even if you have no clue how to code, I’ll show you how to launch and create a website under $100… and yes that includes marketing because Google, Facebook and Twitter often have vouchers for free advertising. But before we delve into the guide, please take the time to read these next few paragraphs as I help you determine what you need. Not every business is alike, and starting a website with the wrong technology can cost you a lot of money in the long run. I’ve used a lot of different technologies for creating websites, and studied graphic and web design since college. But this won’t be any sort of a veiled pitch for my services, as a matter of fact, I’m going to tell you that if you’re starting a business, spending thousands of dollars on a new website is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. But before designers and developers alike start roasting me in the comments, let me explain:

I’ve worked with a lot of businesses and I think some mistakenly believe that “If you build it, they will come.” And that couldn’t be any further from the truth. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art of increasing a websites position in organic search results. Web design and SEO are two completely different arts – and seldom do individuals, or even companies master both. And that’s just one source of traffic.
Optimize for conversions. From an ROI perspective, there isn’t much of a difference between a $500 website, and a $500,000 website. Amazon.com converts right around 5-6%, a little above the average conversion rate for eCommerce (3%), I could launch a website in a razor concise niche with an eCommerce platform like Shopify, and get a conversion rate of at least 5%, even higher depending on where I get my traffic from.
In the “Lean Startup” world, the idea of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) came about as a means to test your idea to prove that it’s viable before plunking down money developing a business. Some of the most popular websites today were hideous when they first launched. Take a look at Facebook:

See other examples on BusinessInsider’s post on “What 14 Popular Websites Use to Look Like.”

Breakdown of Website Development Costs

Alright, let’s talk numbers.

So you need a website? You don’t want to hire a new employee to build one. Of course. Makes perfect sense. Just outsource it to someone locally, your friends neighbor… Your cousin… or the infamous “brother in law”, and spend just a few thousand dollars to get a reasonable project done. Typically that’s how it all begins. It’s downhill from there. But it doesn’t have to be. Last month we offered a few tips on how to outsource web development. Today, we’ll show that the costs involved with website development can typically get out of hand, especially if you don’t really know what you’re doing. Outsourcing web development hangs on a few key pieces of information:

Quality of the software requirements document created
The use of wireframes and mockups to demonstrate expected functionality
Sample websites found and referenced
The level of experience and depth of the person who is building the site
The skill of the designer involved
The use of pre-created templates that already do most of what you need
The leverage of social media and promotable content
Graphic design using stock photos and icons that are cheap or even free

If you follow a typical software development lifecycle process, you will probably be okay.

Here are a few items that you typically have to pay for…

Website host provider, Windows equals $50-$100 per month. Linux = $20-40 per month. And you can score shared hosting for as low as $4/mo through HostGator.
Software development tools (Visual Studio costs $200-500 dollars, eclipse is free,… xcode is 99 bucks…etc…)
Database fees (SQL Server can be anywhere from $30-$100 per month, Depending on how large of a database you need, SQLite and mySQL are both free, but not as sophisticated or developer friendly, then there are other open-source database platforms are also available for free…)
Stacklead user information retrieval. StackLead is a new YC startup that helps companies capture information about their customers. $50-100 per month, depending on the plan you select.
Graphic design work could be anywhere from $300 for a single logo from the crowd source site like 99designs, to $3000, from a local graphic designer who will take a month to give you 100 different variations across five different iterations. It depends on how deep and how broad you want to focus your effort on this piece of work. We reviewed 99designs a while back, and I always recommend them to clients who need a logo.
Software development fees could range anywhere from $500-$5,000 for a basic website, (Of course it can be much higher… Depending completely on your features, requirements, and functionality that you need)…. but doesn’t have to be that high. Upwork can save you a lot of money, provided you know how to get the right programmers for your project.
SEO enhancements: Could be anywhere from $500/mo to a few thousand per month – it really depends on the difficulty of keywords that you’re targeting. Are you a local event planner in a small city, or a technology startup disrupting a tired market? To give you a better idea, Forbes has a really good piece on how much SEO should cost. SEO is one of those things that’s better off done right the first time, especially with Google’s latest round of updates that have penalized the likes of JCPenny, Expedia, Rap Genius, Kayak.com, etc. Work with a “white-hat” SEO company from the very beginning, asking the developer to work with your SEO consultant to breakdown the details. 90% of the time this does not happen. And developers have to go back and look at what tags they are using (H1, H2, Section, etc.) and see what the names of those tags are and how they relate to the content on each webpage… This is a disaster waiting to happen. On-page SEO is one of the ranking factors that is easiest to control – getting it right the first time can save you headaches down the road (and earn you a lot more organic website visitors).
Adwords and marketing campaign work: $400-$1000 To set up an Adwords account and create all of the various keyword entries for your website and your market. This can take 1 to 5 days depending on the quality and scale of your Adwords campaign. Of course then there’s the costs involved with actually spending that money on your google adwords advertising budget.

Did we leave out any website costs? Let us know below!

So I should launch an ugly website?

Of course not! Keep in mind that most, if not all of the companies listed in the BusinessInsider post were created by programmers (back-end web development), not designers (front-end web development). Technology startups have different requirements than most businesses, and as such are often built from the ground up. But most businesses don’t need that, as a matter of fact, more businesses today are choosing WordPress. Matt Mullenweg recently stated at a conference that WordPress powers 18.9% of the web. Even the NYTimes, Forbes, and CNN use WordPress.

What was considered a blogging platform, WordPress has now expanded into being able to launch websites for portfolios, small business, corporations and even eCommerce. As such, that’s my primary recommendation to anyone who needs to create a website. Keep in mind that I’m referring to the open source WordPress.org and not WordPress.com (self hosted with limitations).

Pros and Cons of Wordpress as your CMS

Pros

Plugins – Need social sharing buttons for your posts? No problem, there is a plugin for that (dozens, actually!). Need help with the technical side of SEO? There are plugins for that. Need to backup your website? No problem, a plugin will do that automatically. The open sourced WordPress has attracted many developers to create and submit plugins that help fellow webmasters, so that if you need a function/feature, chances are you don’t need to hire someone ($$$) to build it for you.
Easy to use dashboard, even if you’re non-technical – Here’s a screenshot of my WordPress dashboard as I write this post, it literally has access to everything you need, whether you want to add a new post, picture, sift through comments, etc. The visual editor within posts is awesome and everything is Apple-esque in the sense that it is very intuitive.

Cons

WordPress Limitations – WordPress is perfect for displaying information, which covers a wide range of businesses. And while WordPress offers a myriad of customization options, you’re still based on their framework and that does come with limitations. If your a tech startup you might want to look for programmers. A good way to help you decide is too see what your competitors are using with a tool like BuiltWith.com.
Dealing with WordPress Updates – WordPress is consistently upgraded which requires plugins and themes to be updated accordingly. Sometimes making sure everything works with the latest version of WordPress can be a pain, but as long as you make sure everything is backed up you should be OK. I’d also purchase a theme for a reputable developer (examples later) that has a history of keeping their themes up-to-date.

At this point, this post will focus on WordPress, which is what I use for most projects. If you’re thinking you’re more of a startup and/or want more flexibility that WordPress allows, checkout our post on How to Hire Freelancers Online without Losing Your Sanity where I show you how I’ve hired programmers in the past… and if you’re pre-launch you can use LaunchRock to get a landing page up that can help collect email addresses for your launch.

10 Steps to Making a New Website (Without Any Knowledge of Code)

If you have your website’s copywriting and logo good to go, this entire process could take you less than an hour. If you don’t have a logo, I like the crowdsourcing model (eg. 99designs), but there are plenty of alternatives.

I consider 1-3 impossible to screw up, from there if you want you could just hire someone to do the rest – which a basic install with your logo and text shouldn’t cost more than $100.

If you struggle somewhere along the way, just post a comment below and I’ll help you along. Or feel free to contact me directly and I’ll do it for $100.

1. Buy Your Domain (~$13). Stick with a popular registrar, I use GoDaddy because they’re the cheapest and I’ve had zero problems with them. If you do use GoDaddy, skip all the extras and upgrades that they offer, you don’t need them.

2. Buy Web Hosting (~$4+/mo). Don’t put all your eggs in one basket… meaning don’t buy your hosting from the same place you bought your domain. There are a lot of bad hosts out there, your website is your business and you don’t want any unannounced downtime. I use Hostgator, they promise a 99.9% uptime and with the five years I’ve been with them, I think I’ve only had one prolonged downtime (~5 hours) when something happened (hurricane?) to their primary data center. Plus they have an online chat that I use whenever I have problems – something I wish every company has! I hate having to call in for support.

I have had problems with other hosts. Whoever you decide to host with, use a free tool like Pingdom to monitor downtime for the first month. If your website goes down for more than 5 minutes twice, I’d switch hosts. Because chances are that particular they put you on sucks. And with shared hosting, it happens. You could jump up to dedicated hosting, but I don’t think it’s necessary unless you’re over 100k/mo.

3. Buy Your WordPress Theme (~$25-55). Here’s the fun part, browse the ThemeForest WordPress Marketplace for a website that you love. Every website is customizable and most come with page builders to customize each page to your liking. I’d start with themes with good reviews, then double check the comment and support threads to see if the developers are responsive.

Note: If you will be using WordPress, make sure you’re looking under the WordPress themes section. Otherwise, pick the appropriate theme for your CMS.

You can find free themes on the internet if you just search “Free WordPress Themes,” but they’re often limited and they’re seldom updated. WordPress updates every few months, and if your theme isn’t up to date – it could break your website. My advice: Spend the $50 for a new theme. It will save you a lot of time in the long run.

Steps 1-3 are the easy part. Actually installing your website really depends on the documentation for your particular theme, some are more detailed than others. But this is a general guideline on how to proceed:

4. Point Your Domain to Your Host. In your welcome email from Hostgator, you’ll receive information about your server including the nameservers you need to point your domain to.

5. Install Your Theme. Here’s instructions from WordPress, you can also your documentation.

6. Sample Data or Start with the Barebones. When you first install your theme, it’s pretty barebones. If you want it to look like the demo (which I recommend for rookies), install the sample data.

6. Theme Settings. Refer to the theme documentation.

7. WordPress Settings. Most of these are personal preference, but I would at least recommend changing your permalinks to post name.

8. SEO Considerations. Out of the box, WordPress is pretty good with SEO. One plugin to take your SEO to the next level is WordPress SEO by Yoast.

9. Essential Plugins. There’s tens of thousands of plugins to choose from, and the plugins I use vary from website to website. This post can give you a good start.

10. Graphics and Stock Images. Chances are your website still doesn’t look like the demo even after installing the sample data. This is because the demo uses stock images that the developer had to pay for to use in the demo. Most of the time this is removed from the theme for legal reasons and replaced with placeholders. Thanks to a growing number of photographers, there’s also a growing number of websites that offer free stock photos… one such example is Pexels, who offer free stock photos (even for commercial use). There’s also paid stock websites like iStockPhoto if you can’t find what you’re looking for.

The Launch Process

We’ve talked about SEO before, but that’s for the long game. We’ve also talked about press releases before, and the best press release services. But that can be a hit or miss depending on your type of business. There are a few gigs on Fiverr that are worth checking out for $5. But the first thing I would do is search for free vouchers from Google AdWords, Facebook and Twitter Ads. It won’t cost you anything and allows you to test different channels for your business.

For more on the launch process, read our post on the 50+ Must Read Resources for Starting a Growing a Business.