The idea of running a profitable blog is one that sometimes lights a fire in people. Putting your ideas out into the world and inspiring others can be one of the greatest feelings in the world.

But it takes a lot more than just throwing some words up on a screen.

Building your site to be visually appealing and easy to navigate will make all the difference when it comes to generating revenue.

And that’s when you may start thinking about investing in your site.

The two major options you’ll have will be to DIY or hire a web designer. Statistically speaking, you’ll likely attempt to DIY and then bite the bullet and go for the alternative later. The DIY option sounds like a great idea when you are working with a small budget, but it can easily end up costing you more money in the long run than hiring a professional from the get-go.

Top Four Reasons to Avoid the DIY Route

Easy to Break

One of the major reasons to avoid going the DIY route when it comes to your website is that you may do more harm than good. There are lots of things that go on behind the scenes of your website, and it just takes making one tiny change to cause your entire site to break.

And even if you are trained in the area, you may be pulling your hair out trying to find exactly where the mistake is to correct it.

Do you know what happens when you have to Google a solution and end up scanning through hundreds of lines of code to figure out what went wrong? You are losing money!

Time Consuming

Let’s say you need to make a minor change – like the color of a button. If you don’t know how, you’ll search Google, find the answer, attempt to do it yourself, realize that you missed something, and stare at lines of code until you eventually become overwhelmed and ready to quit.

This inevitable process can waste hours or days of your life. Hours and days you could be spending on tasks that you enjoy, that you’re good at it, and that generate revenue. I’m betting you have about a dozen things like this in your business that you could be doing instead. I always find it better to focus on these and hand off the things I’m not so good at to someone else if my budget allows. This is always better than wasting tons of time trying to save money by thinking you can do everything yourself.

Not only do you lose the money you were trying to save, but you lose valuable time as well that you can’t get back.

Overwhelming

Some tasks can seem as if they’d be simple enough to look up and complete on your own, but an hour later you find yourself keeping another tab open just to search all the words and terms you don’t understand in the explanation that you’re still trying to figure out. This can quickly become so overwhelming that it’s paralyzing and no one wants that. You want to know your website looks amazing and works when potential clients stumble upon it.

No one should want to quit their business before they start making money because they feel the pressure to know #allthethings. It’s perfectly fine to not know everything, and there’s nothing wrong with hiring someone to fill in the gaps for you.

More expensive in the long run

You may think you’re saving money going the DIY route, but in the long run it will cost you more money than hiring a designer right out of the gate. Trust me, I’ve been there.

You will waste time that could be spent on tasks that generate revenue. You will waste money on tools or plugins that don’t do what you need them to and in the end – your site will suffer.

So many entrepreneurs get stuck in this revolving door. They don’t have money to build a great site and they can’t make enough money to hire a designer because they don’t have a great site.

So, how do you get past this circle? Well, there’s not a one-size-fits-all answer, but one great option is doing service swaps. If you find a designer that you absolutely love (they need to be fairly new as well, or your service needs to be life changing or this won’t work), you can pitch them the idea to swap services instead of trading dollars. This is oftentimes a win-win for both parties, and hopefully you become biz besties and grow together. #communityovercompetition

Why to Invest In a Designer

I know that the thought of hiring a designer can seem daunting because it’s not a cheap investment, but that’s the thing – it’s an INVESTMENT.

You need to realize that the money you invest in a designer will pay you back tenfold. A designer is skilled and knows exactly how to make your site look good and function in a way that visitors love.

Less Headaches

One of the best reasons to invest in a designer is your mental health. Chances are if you are not tech-savvy, just looking at some words used in the industry or lines of code is enough to give you an instant headache, and the deeper you dig to find your answers – the worse it gets. It doesn’t need to be this way. You can cut out the tech headaches by hiring a designer to do this for you.

More Time to Focus on Revenue Generating Tasks

This is probably the best reason to hire a designer. The time you will save from searching the interwebs for solutions can be spent on doing things that actually equal dollars in your bank account. This should be reason enough to invest in a designer.

This is how you actually grow your business. It doesn’t matter how much you know about HTML and CSS if your business is reading tarot cards. Seriously, your customers don’t give a shit and it doesn’t benefit them at all. So focus on what you love and generate revenue from that by getting better at your skill.

They Know and Understand Trends

The world of web design is constantly changing and trying to keep up with what is on trend can be time consuming, especially if you have other things you need to focus on. It’s the web designer’s job to keep up with this and they will. This gives them the best position to assist you with creating your dream website.

If you spend all of your time trying to keep up with every aspect of the ever-changing digital world so your online presence stays up and running you will burn out, and it won’t be pretty. A designer’s job is to keep up with the fast-paced changes of web design. This means that in a couple of years when things have moved past where your site is, they can work with you to bring it up-to-date and keep the dollars flowing in.

A More User Friendly Experience

There is a lot more that goes into a website than creating a pretty design. Your site needs to be laid out in a way that any visitor will be able to navigate it. It needs to look great on every device from desktop to smartphone. As a web user, you know there is nothing more frustrating than visiting a website of a product you are interested in and being totally lost when comes to finding out more information or even how to order it. You need your site to be user friendly. Every visitor that your site has should be able to intuitively navigate your site.

This is the designer’s job.

They can present your service or product in the easiest way to digest, so even if a random stranger with zero knowledge of what you have to offer stumbles onto your site, they can quickly figure out what they should do next on your site.

I am the first to admit that a website can be a pretty expensive investment, especially if you are still unsure if your business is going to last the next 6 months, year, or longer. But I will tell you this, if you don’t have a professional web presence, your chances of failure are a lot higher.

So, if you’re serious about your business, get serious about hiring a web designer.