Pros and Cons
Web Students
Pros
- Free except for your time
- Student gains business experience
- Your company gets has an entrance into the web world
- Initial cost is free - maintenance costs of $10 - $25/hour
Cons
- May not be the highest quality
- Student may not be available to maintain the site in the future
- May not have all the features you would like (e-commerce, discussion, dynamic data)
- You have to supply the content and the graphics
Do It Yourself - Employee managed
Pros
- You have control
- Low cost except for your time and education
- Ability to update and change pages on a moments notice
- Maybe just a blog - on going web log (easy to install and maintain)
Cons
- Fairly steep learning curve learning XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- Time consuming
- May not be able to include more advanced features like e-commerce
- You have to supply the content and graphics
- Can easily become a full time task
Local Freelancer or Local Web Design Agency
Pros
- Very professional site
- Can be up and running quickly
- Lots of features available including e-commerce
Cons
- Expense to build, expensive to maintain
- You still have to supply most of the content and graphics
- May require a dedicated and/or secure server for e-commerce
- Freelancers run $25 - $100/hour
- Agencies run $100/hour on up
