How to Get Started on a Small Budget – Option 5 – Do It Yourself (DIY) Website

This is the fifth option in the series of articles on how to build your coaching website if funds are low called Getting Started on a Small Budget. The earlier options were: free coaching websites, bartering, getting a friend, and finding a low-cost freelancer.

Most mentor coaches will recommend against DIY. It’s almost always not worth the time spent learning how to build and manage your own website. You should focus other, high impact items that only you can do.

Even if you’re completely broke, you’ll be advised to find ways to get it done without spending lots of money.

If you choose not to DIY and heed common advice, you should seek good strategic advice on what your website should look like as well as how it will serve your business. This way you can make sure your spending will bring a return.

However, the reality is that many coaches will build their own sites for the fun of it, to save some money, and because they have the inclination to do things themselves.

If you do go for DIY, here are tips to get it to work:

• Prepare to spend a bit of time on it. Make space in your schedule. Don’t get too flustered if it seems like it’s taking a lot of time.
• Creating content will suck up half, if not more, of the time. Set short deadlines for writing to keep you from dilly-dallying.
• Get help when you get stuck and do not spend hours on tech issues. I’ve done this and I’ve gotten very good at resolving them, but I’ve spent countless hours since I was 7 years old (now 42). Contact the host company, or theme author, or seek a technical group such as WordPress Experts on LinkedIn if you’re going to use WordPress. Others will have fast answers for you in minutes where you may spend hours. Don’t be afraid to ask.
• Make a sitemap – a layout of what pages you want and functionality. Get clear on what you want in the site and what it would take to call it DONE.
• Give yourself a hard deadline. Get your coach to hold you accountable. Tell everyone on Facebook when your website will go live.
• As very rough estimates, If it’s a static site of say five pages with about 2-3 screenful of content (a decent start) and you’re already working full-time, and you’re using a free website tool (builds your site with simply clicking around) then give yourself a two-four weeks (mostly for content creation). If you’ve got a family to take care of. Add another two weeks unless. If you’re going to get WordPress going, then another two weeks. If more functionality, like an email list, then another two weeks.
• Use free tools as per the first article of this series, free websites. Whether you get someone else to do it or build yourself, a free website can save bucks and give you something to get started with quickly. A real basic start, but a start nonetheless.

The biggest thing about creating your own coaching website is the time spent. As you learn to succeed in biz, you’ll really need to learn how to put your time to the best use. DIY is very time intensive. So as you go about it, be strict about your time.

Ever build your site yourself? If so, how’d it go? Or, are you planning to? What’s your plan of attack? Love to hear from you. Just comment below.