Website Design, Technology and the Internet in South West Virginia

It's kind of humorous but as technology moves forward all over the world it seems like the area of South West Virginia still lags behind (as a whole) about 21/2 to 3 years.

I'm not sure if the folks here just don't get it, if they are just scared or just have gotten used to the old fashion ways things are done in this area but they are taking a while to come around.

After moving here 20 some years ago I pursued a career in graphic design in the South West Virginia area in the late 80's and early 90's with little success, sure there were a lot of sign shops and screen printers here but nothing with any real potential. Even after working as the lead designer over the art department for a mid sized advertising firm it was going nowhere and the pay was worse than that.

In 1997 a friend was using the Internet on a regular basis and introduced it to me, like a lot of other native South West Virginia people it really didn't impress me much as first, it seemed like more of a game or something to me, not seeing the real potential.

One evening after surfing a while it hit me that this Internet was far more complex and could be something really big, maybe even a source of full time income. That was just the beginning. Like a lot of newbie Internet users I liked to surf and look at different things such as personal websites that you could find at Geo Cities. This seemed to be the cool thing at the time, you get a free website address from Geo Cities then you use their website design software and add as much moving junk to your pages as possible.

That got old pretty quick after I started seeing websites that were more professional and geared toward businesses. This is when I began to do more research on how these websites were designed, what code they were using to do this and if there was any money in it. Could it be? Was there a group of people that were actually getting paid for this type of service?

During the beginning of my research I was doing some graphic design and sales for a friend that owned a local sign shop and I mentioned to him one day about the idea of designing websites for businesses. He liked the idea but like most people in the South West Virginia area neither one of us knew much about it. I started looking at anything I could get my hands on that concerned website design and how to design websites. It was not as complicated as it had first looked and seemed like it was something that could be learned over time.

We started out hiring another person form out of the area to design the websites for us, they gave us a wholesale price and we just marked it up to a retail price. This worked for a little while but soon faded because of confusion. It was time to move on and learn more. My friend wanted to move on and do other things but I was still hooked on the idea of making a full time living designing websites. This was the beginning of my company Proimpulse.

The fun started when I figured that every business in my area needed a website, well they did but the problem was they wanted a $2000 website for $200 or they would say they didn't need one at all. "Websites are just for big businesses" they would say or "A website won't do any good for my business". Looking back now I chalk it off to lack of knowledge and understanding. They just didn't see the potential and even now they still don't see the potential of a website for their business.

Now over the course of the past few years several businesses in the South West Virginia have been hooked by what I call "shade tree website designers". You know, they are just like your cousin Todd or your Uncle Dave that does oil changes or brake jobs on the side, the work they do is ok and makes them a little extra money but it's not exactly up to standard and they mostly do it to get their hands greasy. The businesses owners either had a good friend's son or daughter that was taking a website design class at the local community college and needed practice or they discovered that Microsoft Front Page was installed on their computer and they decided to design their own website so that millions of people would flock to it. These websites have about as much potential as sticking a billboard in the middle of a 200 acre cow pasture.

Anyway, this seems to be the popular thing in South West Virginia, someone getting a sub standard, poorly designed website and really thinking they have something, even worse they tell everyone else they only paid $200 for it and that was a big price to be on that "big old World Wide Web".

Fact is they just don't get it, Field of Dreams was an excellent movie but the catch line of "If you build it they will come" does not apply to websites and the Internet. It's much like building a brick and mortar business; you have to start with a good foundation, a strong business plan, good marketing and a desire to succeed. If you mix all of these together maybe, just maybe you will see success over time.

A couple of years ago a gentleman from a very small town in the Midwest contacted me about doing a website to sell his products on, at first I laughed at the idea of what he was selling because it seemed like it was an ordinary item that anyone could buy locally. He is laughing now after doing around $250,000 a year in sales from the website. The bottom line is South West Virginia business have so much potential but they are losing money every day just because they lack the knowledge and understanding of what a professional website can do for their business.