Case Studies of Cheap Website Fails

The Sprocket Report

This article has been updated on 10/11/2022 with the article entitled “Folks Still Fall for “Cheap” Websites with Expensive Consequences.”

One of the biggest mistakes people make with their first website is buying by price instead of by features. But trying to save a few bucks now can bring you a world of trouble later. Here are three case studies of clients who came to us when their first websites failed them.

At Sprocket, we like to say we build your NEXT website – the one after your starter site. With their second website, folks are ready to take advantage of the capabilities available and correct the mistakes made when they didn’t know what they didn’t know. Without naming names, take a look at these three real-life stories and learn from their experience.

The Sloppy Project

Just last week, a client referred us to a friend whose bargain-priced web developer took forever to build some rudimentary pages.  “He doesn’t want to go back to those other guys – he just can’t trust them.  But I know you’ll get the project done when you say you will. And done right!”

A lot of folks think that making websites will be a fun and lucrative way to justify the time they spend messing around on the computer. So they come up with a name and a logo, but they aren’t prepared to actually run a business. Don’t waste your valuable time on someone who doesn’t take your project seriously.

The Custom Code Collapse
 
“Bargain-priced” is kind of a relative term. One of our clients was investing quite a bit in their first website and hoped to save a little money by cutting some corners, as suggested by their web developer. Instead of following the best practices of the web-building platform, the developer cobbled together some code that worked in pretty much the same way but cost less.

Everything was okay for a while, but as everyone knows, technological advances move swiftly these days. When the platform was upgraded to the latest version, none of the cobbled code worked any longer and all that functionality had to be rebuilt. Not only did they fail to save money, they wound up spending more.

The Iceberg Confusion

Of course Sprocket also builds “first” websites and sometimes clients of first sites start looking around to see if they can get a better price. Not too long ago, a client let us know that they got a much better price from another web developer and would we please facilitate the transfer of all the content on their current site to this new one?

Well, we’re always sorry to lose a client, but we duly contacted the developer to coordinate the transfer, which promised to be complicated. There were data bases involved and e-commerce and some other sophisticated back-end programming.

Guess what? You can hear that “deer in the headlights” look over the phone. The new team’s price quote apparently only covered the part of the website they could see. Like an iceberg, there was so much more underneath. We’re not sure who, but somebody wound up paying for all of that!

Mistakes are opportunities and we only truly fail if we don’t learn from them. Treat yourself as the valuable business you are and don’t skimp on your website. Ask us how you can plan for a hard-working site built within your budget. We’re always happy to help.

Kate GingoldKate Gingold

I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.

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Full biography

I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.

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