When I was an entrepreneur (read my entrepreneurial story here), the first thing I ever did was finding cheapest way to DIY website for my small business in Malaysia. I believe many small business owners will share the same sentiment as me with the hope to draw in lots of potential customers with minimal cost.

To engage web company, it definitely cost nothing less than $500 per website. But to some small business owners, $500 can do way more for their business other than just building a website. Therefore, it is definitely more feasible to DIY website on your own.

In this blog, I am going to show you how you can DIY a good looking website for not more than $110 that includes domain, hosting and design. Lets look at some simple steps to DIY a website at the lowest cost possible.

Step #1 – Register a Domain name $10

First of all you need a unique domain name for your website (like google.com, facebook.com etc) . Let's assume you are going to start a jewelry making website, you need to register a domain for the website from a public domain registrar. Make sure your domain is catchy and suits your small business whereby in this example the domain should associate with jewelry. For instant, you can register for domain such as bluejewel.com (if available). I use namecheap.com to check availability and register my domain name at an average price of $10 per annum.

Step #2 – Get a Web Hosting $50

You need a space to host your website (domain + content).  It is just like attaching your home address (domain) to a physical space (hosting). Some may think you can host it on your computer's hard disk. Yes, you can do it (provided you have all the required tools) but who can find your business website via internet if you are solely hosting this way? Therefore, you need to buy some hosting space that can be connected on the web. I use hostgator to cheaply host my website at only $48 per annum. This web hosting provider is well-known for its high quality service, 24 hour support and reasonable price.

Step #3 – Design your Website $50

So how do you feel when the word “web designer” comes into the picture? A company or individual providing this service? Or how much will it cost to engage one that is able to build a good looking website while not burning your business budget?

I've been in the advertising industry for almost 10 years and I definitely know the rates. A minimum of $250 will be charged to design your website excluding cost of content creation (text and images), hosting and domain. So, without designing skills, am I still able to DIY my business website? If yes, will this further reduce the cost of website into half? Definitely! What you need is just to take a basic 3 to 4 hours tutorial guiding you on how to work around with WordPress (a CMS platform to build a website), then add in suitable theme for your website.

I use MH NewsDesk for my website theme. Installation took less than 5 minutes and only cost a one-time fee of $49! For those, who prefer different designs assigned to each page on your website, try WP Profit Builder at one-time fee of only $47. I currently use this plugin to design landing page to giveaway my 55-Page eBook on “Beginner's Guide To Blogging Success”.

Step #4 – Create Your Content

A beautifully-designed bungalow means nothing without lively and friendly residents. This principle applies to business website too. If you already have a very good-looking website, you will need to make sure its content is attractive enough to lure your potential customers in. So how can you create good content if you are neither a good writer nor a good photographer? We all know in Malaysia, getting someone to write good articles and take good photographs can be very expensive. You can consider engaging freelancer from fiverr.com or freelancer.com. Many times you can get good bargain from there.

Conclusion

It has never been any easier to cheaply DIY website for your small business in Malaysia than ever before. You do not need to go through the hassle to learn designing nor programming. Neither do you need to pay expensive website designer and wait patiently for them to propose the design, amend, re-design then produce before your website can be placed live on the internet. You just need to DIY!

Many small business owners will worry the lack of technical support or even the need to pay huge fee to get immediate replies to technical problem they might encounter throughout the journey. I had not only successfully solve this problem but also at the same time gained access to continuous website training, web hosting, beautifully designed website themes, marketing tools and 24 hour technical support by joining Wealthy Affiliate.

You can read my personal review on Wealthy Affiliate here. 

In this community-based platform, you have the opportunities to learn from various experienced website designers to build good looking websites for your small business in Malaysia. You will also receive immediate answers to your questions other than be provided with web hosting and beautifully designed themes for your website.

I do occasionally build websites for some small businesses in Malaysia. However, I only do this when time permits. If you want to start trying out on how to DIY your business website for FREE, you can start one below.

Alternatively, if you have any questions about on how to cheaply DIY website for small businesses in Malaysia, do leave me a comment below. I'll be more than happy to share more.