- Image by bugbbq via Flickr
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be able to write code for all of the wonderful ideas you have swimming around in your head? I know I have… a lot. As a matter of fact, just the other day I caught myself looking at profiles on Twitter, seeing all the cool things people I admire have made, and wishing that I understood how to write code so I could make my very own creations without having to depend on others.
Then it hit me: Web development skills aren’t for everybody. And the good news is, you don’t really need them to put your ideas out there. Here are two cases in point:
ning You might have heard me talk about the Ning network I created, built up, and sold last month, LouisvillePM. What attracted me to Ning was the interface. Its boxy in nature but it’s also drag and drop. That’s right, you don’t have to be able to code anything on the site to customize it with graphics and features. Your very own white label social network without needing a developer means that you can focus your time building out the community.
weebly What Ning is for drag and drop social network building, Weebly is for drag and drop web site creation. One big feature I’ve discovered is e-commerce. That’s right, you can drag and drop items in your very own store, along with adding videos, pictures, and a blog. There is no longer an excuse for small businesses to have web sites that look like they were created in Microsoft Front Page 98. Seriously people. No excuse. I’m tooling around with Weebly for a couple projects I’m working on and am really impressed with the interface. Definitely worth checking out.
Proof of Concept
The biggest deal with drag and drop sites is that they give you the ability to prove your concept without needing to hire somebody to build out your web presence. I don’t think that this fact can be understated. At one time, like four years ago, it would take a lot of money and effort to build out a web presence. You’d have to know what you wanted, hire somebody to build it, wait for them to build it, and then pay them for it and for any updates you wanted to do later. That meant up front cost, plus residual cost, coupled with uncertainty.
But with Ning and Weebly, you can throw a site up in a flash, focus on reaching your target market, and determine whether or not you have a viable business idea. After all, the web site is just the medium in which you reach your customers. It isn’t putting food on the table by itself. There’s a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that goes into getting people to care to look at your site.
So take an Agile approach, get something out there, get it noticed and see if it sticks.
