Why Do It Yourself?

The fact that you're here means that you're already sold on building your own website. You're probably wanting to save a lot of money and keep control of your website but there are other good reasons to try building it yourself-I'll go through these below:

• You'll Save Lots of Money!
  If you go to a professional web design or marketing agency to build your website, you'll probably get two things: a nice-looking website and a hefty bill. If you have someone build your website for you, you get what you pay for. You may be able to find someone to build your website for under $1000 but it'll probably look horrible. For an agency that knows what it's doing, you can expect a price tag between $2500 and $7500, depending on how many pages you want, the number of design iterations, marketing (SEO), hosting, and how much they want to overcharge you.
  Save your money and build your website yourself! Instead of paying for a professional designer to design your site, you can purchase a professionally designed template for around $65. That template includes the code too so you don't have to pay for an HTML developer. You can also purchase the domain name and hosting for around $5/month, much cheaper than any agency will give you. If you do have some custom design and/or programming needs though, you'll still save a ton of money by doing what you can yourself and then hiring a professional to finish up.
• You'll Learn Basic HTML & How To Manage Your Website!
  As you go follow the steps to build your own site in the DIY Website section, you'll learn how to set up a site, the basics of HTML, how to manage a site, and market a site. I don't go into depth with HTML since that can be a big topic and well, you don't need to know all the intricacies of CSS and cross-browser compatibility. You just need enough to know how to update the templates with your content. You'll be learning incrementally and seeing first-hand what works and what doesn't as you add and tweak your content. For the DIY individual, this is where it gets fun. =)
• You'll Have Total Control!
  This is a curse and a blessing. By doing it yourself, you have the oppportunity to mess things up but also to make everything look and function just how you want it. You'll only be limited by time and what you can figure out instead of your budget.
• Quicker Updates!
  If you're working with an agency, you're doing pretty good if you have a turnaround of a couple of days. If you know how to update your own site, you can have your updates done on your schedule!

I'm sure that I've forgotten some benefits as to why you should take on building your own website but another argument is: What do you have to lose? Give it a shot. Even if you only get your site halfway set up, you'll still save money, and you'll be able to talk to your web designer easier since you'll have a lot better idea of what the process is.

One last thing, you may want to ook at the page for reasons why you shouldn't build your own site.