I know about website builder scams because I fell for one. I was offered a free website, then relentlessly hounded to start a website. It was free, so what did I have to lose? Plenty! They built a total junk site, then pressured me to send more money for a better site. I finally agreed and entered into a nightmare. That is how the website builder scams operate.
A bad builder will promise a beautiful site, but deliver a fraction of what they promise. In the end, scammers will keep control of the site, then functionality is only minimal. You then can’t use the text editor correctly or install anything.
Websites today need to be fast, and responsive, with great coding for smooth page loads and user friendly performance. And you need to be able to control your own site.
Table of Contents
How To Spot The Website Builder Scams
If you are new to website building, how would you distinguish a good website builder from another money pit nightmare? I hope after reading this article, you have a better idea.
The first red flag is high pressure to send them money.Usually a lot of money! A demand for $5000 or $10,000 up front is a possible warning sign. Another is a free site that looks terrible or runs slow. Read every disclosure and agreement you can find. Know exactly what you are agreeing too.
Do everything you can possibly do to know that the person building your site is reliable. Find some real testimonials that recommend the site builder and his work. Good builders will have praise heaped on them everywhere, while bad ones will have complaints and lots of them. Here is an example: Vibrant Web Investigation
How To Avoid Website Builder Scams
Plenty of scams abound that claim to build websites, but really only take your money. You end up with a poor quality site, and again, limited functionality. Then, they use the old tried and true pitch, that you need to invest a lot more money for a great site.
If this is the first time you may have even thought about building a site,then you are likely wondering where to even start. Sure, it is without a doubt, much easier to have someone just build the site for you. Then, you can just run your business from the finished site. There are good website builders out there, but good builders and scammers both cost you money.
How do you tell a good builder from a bad one? You need to do a thorough investigation, and research well. Here are a few key things to look for
Check Reviews and Recommendations Of Website Builders
When a builder does a great job, the word spreads fast and reviews are likely to be pretty good They will be promoted by the quality of their own work. Customers will be highly recommending them. If possible, ask for names of clients you can contact about their work.
- Contact the FBI and ask if they have any complaints.
- Take a look at the BBB website for any problems.
- Do an online search to check for any scam reviews of the builder.
Scams will be pressuring you to get started and keep you overwhelmed. Once you agree, they setup a site, and tell you it is just a sample. Later, they tell you, it will take more money to make the site real nice.The whole idea for them is to get a big check from you ASAP.
Good builders will set you up a site and allow you to compare others to determine what you want. It should be a more relaxed and less pressure situation. They give you price ranges and let you determine what you need and want to spend. They will focus on your satisfaction, not your wallet.
Search For Examples Of Their Work
Just like buying a new car, or house or boat. Check around for some sites they have already done. Be aggressive! Get inside those sites and check them out! Kick the tires, and find out if they work well and are easy to use and user friendly.
Make sure their links work well and you like the way it operates. It is always cheaper to research well before you buy anything. You don’t want to get caught in a money sucking disaster.
Are they easy to maintain and update? Is the code used a custom code or universal theme that is interchangeable with themes like WordPress or Woocommerce
Good Website Builders Create Great Sites – Website Builder Scams Don’t
If a site doesn’t look right, then you need to stay away and keep on looking. If it looks old and cluttered, or the background has a cheap wallpaper look, its likely not a good builder. Good quality builders will have a great looking site for you to check out.
Sometimes, even looks can be deceiving. Some scam artists show a great site, then build you a junk site for free. Be careful there. make sure you get what you are promised.If you are promised a free site, it should remain free. If it is a quality site, it will be noticeable immediately, and won’t need any up-sells to improve the quality.
What Makes A Great Site
You should enjoy visiting the site. When you view it, you should be proud of how it looks, not embarrassed to call it yours. If you feel bad about how it looks, or the functionality is poor, beware. You might be dealing with a bad programmer, designer, or worse.
A great site will convert sales and make you money. Online business today is dependent on a great site that keeps people there long enough to convert sales. How is this done? There is no set rule on how to do it, Or what it needs to look like. Bottom line, it must be able to convert your product to sales. Here are some other factors to consider.
Site Speed Is Very Important
The rule of thumb is 3 seconds. Google recommends that your site load in 3 seconds or less. After that your customers are already looking for another site. In today’s online presence, slow sites are the dinosaurs of web design.
A slow site could cost you more in lost business than you know. In today’s world, people are spoiled. They want everything instantly.You can be sure,visitors would grow inpatient if your page does not load quickly and they will leave. You can count on that! It is a fact. Sometimes the problem could be the theme you use, and other times it could be poor website functionality.
To make a site fast, you must know the many things that can slow a site down. Poor programming is one problem that will make sites slow. Programmers who are scammers, can keep your access turned off and not allow you to use many of the features in your theme.
Good programming methods are key to allow the site to work well. Premium themes allow builders to have control over how many features they will allow you to have access to. These features are inside the back office of the site and can be turned on and off like light switches.
Fast Sites Are Finely Tuned Race Cars
You can have a slick, fast site, or a slow dog that can’t get out of it’s own way. The wrong information, loading too soon, will dramatically affect site speed. Fancy images with lots of movement or animation put a drag on site speed.Clean efficient sites work better.
Huge images will take a lot of pixels to load, and also cost valuable time to load. Too many images will also add time to a websites loading speed. Even where these images are located on the page can affect site speed.
Responsive Sites Are A Must
For a site to perform well, it must be responsive. If you are new to websites you may not know what that means.So what does that mean? How does a site become responsive. Responsive sites are sites that are able to adjust to the screen that they are being viewed on. Laptops are bigger than notebooks, and notebooks are bigger that phones. You want your website to look good no matter what. That requires the ability of your site to adjust to all three.
Sometimes, it may require a change in the location of an image to improve the look on mobile phone screens. Other times it might require a complete theme change to one that has better programming and enables the site to be more responsive.
Less is Sometimes Better
You don’t want a site that is nothing but clutter and poorly organized. A clean well organized site is enjoyable to visit as we read the quality content we are interested in. Annoying pop-ups and sales ads take away from the enjoyment of the site and articles become hard to read.
Building Your Own Website
Have you ever even thought about building your own site? Sure, it is definitely easier to have someone just build the site for you, and run your business from the finished site. And building your own site will require a steep learning curve for sure. But, you will have a better understanding of how the site operates.
Build A WordPress Site
Depending what kind of budget you have, you might want to save some money. You can do that by doing the work and build the website yourself.
Maybe you just don’t know how to do it. That is where I can help you. I can show you a way to learn to build your own website with very low cost and control how it looks yourself.
I recommend building your own. Why? Because you get what you want. You may have the learning curve to get through, but once you do, it is more than worth it. Would you like to be able to build your house they way you wanted it built?
When you hire a contractor to do the job for you, you get what they want to give you, not what you really want. And when the job is finished, you look and see other ways to do it. The only way around it, is to do the research and learn what you want, and how you want it to look.
Learn How Your Own Website Works
If you can learn the basics to build your own site, the rewards are much greater. You control everything on your site from start to finish. Any changes are only limited by your imagination. I am going to share with you the best place to learn to build your own site.
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Advantages Of Building Your Own Site
1. You Control The Security When You Build It Yourself
It is a security risk to allow someone inside the back office of your site. When you ask someone to build your site, they need the administration rights to build your site.
That means is they totally can do anything inside that needs done.This is very risky, because they could program the site to behave anyway they want.
If they are an questionable builder, it could cost you a whole lot more than you think. When you build it yourself, nobody is allowed in unless you give them permission.
2. The Functionality Is 100%
The website is in your control and you determine what goes into it and what features it will have. If you desire to install anything, you can. Nobody holds any rights over you and can’t control your design. You do the work so if something needs fixed, you don’t have to contact any support and wait. You learn how to fix it yourself.
3. The Cost Savings Are Substantial
Deciding to build your own site means you wear a lot of different hats. It may not be for everyone. But, if you do decide to try it, you can save a pile of cash. It is a hands on satisfaction to see your creation come to life. But, it has its challenges as well.
Disadvantages of Building Your Own Site
1. It Takes Time-But Could Really Pay Off Later
When you do anything yourself, it does require a time commitment. You will need to spend some time learning and researching, as well as designing, building and improving the site over time. Delegating time commitments can be challenging.
2. Commitment- Anything Worthwhile Requires Some Effort
You are the owner and everything else. From maintenance to content producer, you do it all. It is your own business, and requires the same responsibilities. It is an investment in yourself as well as your future. Once you create your own site, you own it. No one can take it away or shut you down.
It’s not an easy task, but a worthwhile one. It’s also not as difficult as you might think. As you become more proficient at managing time, tasks become much easier and things move along quicker. Your time commitment will be reduced as well.
Conclusion
Whatever you decide is up to you. It really depends a lot on your budget.
A good website could cost $10,000 easily. But, if it brings $80,000 in sales year after year, then it’s a pretty good investment. You just need to be very careful who you choose to build your site. If you build it yourself, the cost is time.
If you choose to get your website built by someone else, be sure to get good references and look for good reviews about the contractor. It is necessary to research, and do your own due diligence to avoid a bad situation before you find yourself in one.
Should you decide to build your own, then I can help. Follow the link below, and see for yourself.
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Be your own boss, start your journey to financial freedom today.
I am Chas, creator and founder of Help For Scams And Frauds. I started affiliate marketing and earning money online in 2015. And I can tell you, anyone can do this. But, in order to build a business the right way you must have the right training and avoid the get rich quick schemes.
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I think I was scammed! I ran across a beautiful video showing “Josh” who used to be an attorney and now helps people make money on websites because he found the secret from one of his clients. Driving a really nice black sedan he pulls up to his house where his happy family is waiting. “Look at what you too can have and I’ll help you do it”. One “client” video shows a young lady waving the keys to her new BMW for which she paid cash. So I clicked a link. . . and I have been hounded by a salesman since. Even after I declined (2x). I told them I don’t believe the economy/central bank issues make for a good window to start an online business. Next pitch was we can get you the money to start with O% interest credit cards. Not one word about the levels of training available or PRICING. Now I have credit cards coming in with huge available balances. I know its a scam and I don’t want these credit cards!!! I am going to an attorney asap! Anyone see or hear anything like this? or HELP!!
Hi Janet,
If they are just credit cards, you can call the card company and cancel them. You don’t have to use them. Cut them up and throw them in the trash. You don’t need an attorney to cancel credit cards. I hope that helps. let me know if you need anything else.
Chas
Hi,
I am looking into e-Commerce as a new business. It seems as if there are hundreds of so called gurus out there. Any suggestions? I have been intrigued with Zero Up, Commerce HQ, Sam Cart and Dropship Lifestyle. Any thought?
Hi Sam,
I don’t do e-commerce myself, I am doing affiliate marketing. I know that Zero up has a no refund policy, and you are going to lay down $1495, plus pay for a shopify site and use facebook ads. Your expenses are easily going to run likely $5k or more till you get some sales.
Are you going to be dealing with shipping products yourself. Ali express will drop-ship, but it will take 3 weeks for your customers to get the product.
I can only offer you advice to read all the reviews you can find before you spend you money. If you want to try to learn to build your own business, using methods that target free organic traffic, then take a look at My Review.
Chas
The Instant Solutions dot com
beware of this company. I was quoted $400 and then after paying $4500 in increments, with only $500 left to pay they told me I had to give them another $5000 or I would lose all of my ten years of data, which I lost because I couldn’t come up with the money.
Hi Luke,
Sorry to hear they scammed you. I learned the same lesson with Vibrant Web. They asked for my password, and took complete control of the site. If you live here in the states, contact the attorney generals office, and file a complaint. You can also file a complaint with the FTC. They sometimes handle international cases.I will see what I can find out about them. I did read your review – The Instant Solutions Scammers
People read that stuff, so good for you! Sorry to hear about your son. Thanks for letting me know about these guys!
Chas
Scam website building seems to be a growth industry. Because there is some technology behind them, these sites can instill a little more trust that the carnival barker touting his make money for doing nothing scheme. Reviews are so darned important. It’s amazing how many people just fork over the money under pressure. To summarize what I read, the free site is the hook and then they have to reel you in and get your money.
Hi Warren,
They are much like the snake oil salesman, they claim to cure everything. The marketers are good at what they do, promoting the product! Unfortunately, they rarely live up to the hype. It is easy when everyone wants that free lunch! Sometimes you have to beware of the reviews as well! Many are just affiliates plugging their own wares. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment, it is appreciated!
Chas
Hey,
Scammers are the worst! They take your hard earned money and leave you with an empty investment. I agree building your own website is well worth it. You will get a product that you know in and out and the best thing is you do not need no one to assist you at all. The only downfall is time. You will get used to it with time. Thanks for the helpful information. You know your stuff.
Hi Kendrick,
Thanks for taking time to comment. Yes, scammers are the worst, they prey on people who don’t understand. They are the easiest targets. I have only been at it a few years myself, but learned so much. Thanks for the compliment.
Chas
This is very well written. You took a lot of time to thoroughly explain what it is like to hire an outside business to build your site then you discussed the advantages/disadvantages of doing it yourself.
I didn’t realizd that people get scammed when trying to outsource website development. That is definitely the scariest risk, but I also think it is simply easier to build my content and focus on what I am doing when I do the work myself. I hope others will see that it is worth it.
Hi Rirnj,
It is a very scary thing people who are new do not realize. I didn’t know the dangers either. But, once you get stung you realize how nasty it can be. You have the right idea, as I suggested, build your own site! Wealthy Affiliates is the best place for doing just that. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Chas