Folks Still Fall for "Cheap" Websites with Expensive Consequences

We planned to update some old blog content from 2014, but guess what? All three of the “cheap website fails” from 2014 happened again this summer! Read on so you can avoid them:

Buying by price is one of the biggest mistakes people make with their first website. Sure, you’re strapped for cash, but saving a few bucks now can bring you a world of trouble later. Below are three case studies of clients who came to us when their first websites failed them. Take a look at these real-life stories and learn from their experiences.

Don’t get stuck on the freelancer’s back burner.
“Work from home in your pajamas? Sign me up!” Some people think that making websites will be fun and lucrative, but they aren’t prepared to actually run a business. Just because they have a name and a logo doesn’t mean they will prioritize your project over their other gigs – or over streaming the latest binge-worthy show. 

We worked with a client whose bargain-priced web developer was taking forever to build some rudimentary pages and he was losing opportunities the longer he waited. Why waste your valuable time and your business’s success on someone who doesn’t take your project seriously? Sprocket has been building websites since 2010, so we’ve got the experience to get the job done.

Prepare for the future by knowing your past.
A lot of smart coders create plug-ins and connecting code that can make a relatively inexpensive website perform like the highest end of custom development. Big corporations have custom developers on retainer or in-house to keep up with all the latest advances, but do you?

Our client found that her website worked great for a while, but when the platform it was built on was upgraded to the latest version, some of the functionality stopped working. Older plug-ins don’t always work after an upgrade and custom coding too can fail, too. Now you have to track down the original developers and, even if you contact them, updated code or modules may not be forthcoming.

The Sprocket team believes in keeping things simple and straightforward, with fewer moving parts to break. We build clean websites to make the most of the best and we know which third-party providers are in it for the long haul. 

Listen for what sounds too good to be true.
Yes, sometimes a client will leave us for someone who quotes a better price, but we find there is often a huge miscommunication that can be very pricey. Not long ago, we were asked to please facilitate the transfer of all the content on a client’s current site to the one their new developer was building. 

While we’re always sorry to lose a client, we duly contacted the developer to coordinate the transfer, which included databases and e-commerce and some other sophisticated back-end programming.

It turned out that their price quote only covered the part of the website they could see, but there was so much more underneath. That cheaper quote was about to go up by quite a bit!

Mistakes are opportunities for learning. Let the mistakes made in these case studies guide you in making smarter website decisions. Like you, Sprocket Websites has a reputation to preserve. We want to be a partner in your success, so if you have concerns about your site, just give us a call. We’d be happy to talk it over with you. 

This article is an update to “Case Studies of Cheap Website Fails” dated 11/10/2014. 

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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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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