Free Websites are Bad Websites

I read this on a forum toady about free websites:

[Free websites are] a horrendous idea. Badly designed websites, lack of maintenance, and zero internet marketing is a sure-fire way to lose business. Better to have no website than a cookie-cutter one. That’s why you hire an expert. It’s akin to giving away free wood and some nails, under the banner of “free houses”, and then expect the average person to build a house with it. Internet marketing is about differentiating your brand from “the other guy”, not looking exactly like them…

Google visits Troy

Only 52% of New York small businesses have websites! Google is doing a good job of increasing awareness of the importance of a website (not to mention being lucrative), but to offer a three-page website for free for a year isn't enough. Free websites simply can't perform the way a custom, individualized site can. Remember, "you get what you pay for."