7 Website Phobias That Are Holding You Back (and How to Overcome Them)

What are you afraid of?

It’s natural to be uneasy about things unknown. But when it comes to your small business website, you may be nurturing unreasonable fears that have no basis in reality. This post will take a look at them one by one, and show you how to conquer them once and for all.

1. Technologiphobia: “I’m not technical”

Nowadays you don’t have to be technically inclined.

With self-hosted WordPress, good premium themes and information that’s readily available (like this), discomfort with the technical parts of running a website won’t hold you back anymore.

The technology available now makes putting together web pages no more challenging than creating a document in Microsoft Word. And you can handle that, right?

2. Schedulephobia: “I don’t have time”

It’s true, setting up a website takes time.

But if you have a good guide to help you through the process, and your site doesn’t have too many pages, you should be able to get it all done with a few days of work, maybe even a long weekend. It depends on what your current knowledge level is, and how much uninterrupted time you can devote to the task.

3. Creatiphobia: “I’m not a designer”

If you don’t mind having a website that may look like some of the other 346,004,403 sites on the web (as of June, 2010), a good premium WordPress theme with a ready-to-go style might be a great choice for you. You don’t have to make design decisions: they’ll be made for you.

Personally, I like premium themes with design controls like the Prose Child Theme (affiliate link) I use on this site. I can easily create a completely custom look without knowing a single line of code. I can make design changes in just a few clicks, too.

4. Perplexiphobia: “It’s all so confusing”

You’re right, it is. But it gets less confusing over time.

And there are many website set up tasks you only have to do once. There are a series of decisions about your website that — made correctly at the beginning — will save you time and aggravation later. See my recent Copyblogger post for more on this.

5. Bad-Karmaphobia: “I’ve been burned before, and have a bad feeling about websites in general”

This is a big one: I’ve heard it more times than I can count. Friends, colleagues and acquaintances have told me they hired someone to create a website for them, and that person:

• Flaked out and stopped returning emails and phone calls.
• Charged them thousands of dollars for a website they later realized they paid way too much for.
• Got their website working, but didn’t explain how to update it. Now they’re nowhere to be found and the site is hopelessly out of date.

We’re living through a very interesting transition right now. Just five short years ago, websites were very confusing to put together, and were best taken care of by specialist companies who had technical knowledge and teams of people they could assign to the task.

Not anymore. Many small business websites can be put together and maintained by one single person, like this one is.

If you have “Bad Karmaphobia,” that’s all the more reason start working today to create a website you can maintain by yourself. You won’t be dependent on others, and you’ll be able to easily add to — and modify — your site over time. You won’t have to worry about flaky service providers or a having confusing site you can’t maintain.

6. Financiphobia: “I can’t afford it”

Can you afford not to have an effective website? How much business are you losing because your site isn’t working the way it should?

70% of people start their search for a local business on the web. You must give them something to look for that answers the questions going through their minds before they buy, or you’re leaving money on the table.

Besides, right now you can get everything you need to create a site you’ll love — including the premium theme you’ll use — for only $187. This price goes away on March 6, so don’t delay.

7. Dumbfoundiphobia: “It’s overwhelming, and I don’t think I can do it”

Everything is overwhelming when you’re first learning it. Find a guide to help you, take it step by step, and even the most overwhelming task can be tackled.

Start by making sure your corner of the Internet is an effective 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week sales force for your company. Sign up today for the free Love Your Website class I created with Wendy Cholbi. We’ll explain the steps one by one, and show you our new Site Setup Kit product, which is available at the special price mentioned above until March 6.

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