The Benefits of Using Free Website Platforms

Web platforms have been growing rapidly these days, and with good reason. They offer business owners such as theweddingvine.com the ability to easily create online stores and run their businesses from anywhere in the world. But as they grow in popularity, so has the number of people trying to make money using them. There are plenty of web hosts and website builders on the market today offering all sorts of services that seem too good to be true. This makes it important that you take a look at the cons before deciding to purchase one of the platforms for your business.

 

One of the major problems with some website platforms is that many of them only allow one language - typically the default language of your web host - to be used for programming. While this may not sound like a big deal on the surface, it can pose a number of problems once your website is up and running. If you have programming languages such as PHP or ASP installed on your machine, then you will have to learn the HTML or XML language used by the web host if you choose a platform that doesn't support this. Not only that, but you may not be able to write the files needed to support your site if your programming languages don't work.

 

Another problem with some website platforms is that they limit the types of themes that you can use on your site. If you are a true geek, then you know how difficult it can be to come up with a meaningful theme for your site. The best way to overcome this issue is to develop your own theme from scratch, which can be a very time consuming process. Your web hosting company should let you do this, but most often they will charge you for doing so. You may also find that if you go through a hosting company and their site builder doesn't let you create your own theme, that you will have to hire a professional designer to do it for you. This can cost you a lot of money!

 

A third problem with some website platforms for small businesses is that they are very limited in the technical support they provide. Some website building tools require you to call the support staff at the company every time you have a question. In many cases, the customer service end of a company can be hit or miss at best. It can be very frustrating to deal with someone who doesn't really want to help you or is only interested in selling you a product. To avoid these headaches, it is best to choose one of the best free website builders available.

 

One final issue to look at is the licensing requirements for the website platforms you are considering. Many hosting companies require you to use one of their proprietary content management systems, or some of their other proprietary programs such as Microsoft ASP, ColdFusion, PHP, .NET and Java. While this can be convenient for your customers, it does little for you because your site will not be able to utilize most of the features offered by these programs. In most cases, your website platforms must provide you with a choice of using one of these programs or the hosting company's proprietary system.

 

Another concern for many small businesses is their lack of training resources to help them get started with their websites. Most of the free CMS programs available today have training guides included with them, but the manuals are often not very thorough or reliable. If you want to build a successful ecommerce site, content management systems can make the difference between success and failure. These systems have helped countless websites flourish in the online world. They are easy to use and can give you the chance to reach your full potential as an online business. With the right content management systems, you can build and maintain a profitable online business