DIY website builder tools have seen amazing growth in the marketplace. And it’s no surprise why.
With tools from vendors such as Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Jimdo and WordPress.com, you build your own website through a do-it-yourself experience. With them, it’s possible to have a classy-looking website online in a matter of a few hours or less. You don’t need any technical skills — just set up an account and start using the tools. These DIY tools are low cost; typical ranges go from free to about $25 a month, hosting included.
The combination of control, speed and affordability is hard to beat. It’s why literally millions of websites today are powered by DIY website builder tools.
Before today’s era of DIY tools, creating your own website required specialized coding knowledge and design skill, and many hours of work. Or you did what most people did and you hired a website developer, which tended to be expensive.
But now it’s no longer a matter of EITHER hiring someone to help OR doing it yourself, according to research from Fiverr, the online marketplace. Today, entrepreneurs and small business people are doing both. They are getting started with DIY website builder tools and also hiring help to customize them.
A New Trend: Hiring Help for DIY Website Builder Tools
Fiverr.com reports 315 percent revenue growth in gigs or projects involving website builders (Wix, SquareSpace, Blogger, etc.) and content management systems like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. That’s for the calendar year 2016, compared with 2015.
Not only were there more projects on Fiverr, but they were for higher value services in 2016.
So why all this growth for hiring services to help with what are usually seen as “do-it-yourself” tools? According to Brent Messenger, global head of community of Fiverr, there are three reasons.
First, now that there are freelance marketplaces like Fiverr out there, it’s just easier for someone wanting to build or improve a website to get help quickly.
“Entrepreneurs and small businesses have recognized that a digital presence is key for their business. While they may have previously been willing to go it alone and take their chances, the democratization and availability of expertise has made it far more viable to seek help,” said Messenger.
Another reason has to do with wanting customization beyond an out-of-the-box experience.
“While DIY platforms offer a great way to get started, the reality is that there’s still a ton of customization that can occur within, and with that customization comes complication. While almost anyone can get up and running and tap into something like 70 percent of a given platform’s power, getting over the hump to deliver a truly professional product can be time consuming. Those time and expertise hurdles can pop up on things like design and integration issues,” added Messenger.
The third reason is time, according to Fiverr’s Messenger. “You’ve heard that startups try to ‘fail quickly’ and many entrepreneurs are of the same mind. Getting a site built, driving traffic, and testing a proof of concept is key to determining the viability of a specific project or product,” he said.
“Having someone else build that test bed allows a business owner to get it done quickly and efficiently with high quality. This time issue extends across a growing business, which is why the ‘do it for me’ opportunity is something we see across other areas on our marketplace, too. In this case, it’s extremely pronounced due to the complexity and necessity that comes with a digital presence.”
This article, “More Entrepreneurs Hiring Help for DIY Website Builder Tools” was first published on Small Business Trends