One of my staff the other day listened to an Internet Marketing Guru who was rude in his presentation, and at the end of the program asked the audience to sign up and pay $8000 for his services. Now would you pay someone that kind of money and let him be rude to you? I think he should have paid his audience $8000 for listening to him.

I’m afraid to say it, but there appears to be a lot of arrogance in the web design and internet marketing industry. Many are too cocky, because they think that they know more than the rest of society.

As the owner of my own web design company, I think that it’s time for the industry to wake up to itself and realize that we are here to serve our clients.

Before I started OE Design – The Web Designers, the whole world of web design seemed to be a mystery where only the untouchables could ever go.

It’s not true.

Did you know that a lot of things that web design companies are offering you in one hand and then collecting dollars in the other hand are freely available to you?

Now why, as a web designer, am I going to tell you this?  Because I believe that it’s time that the industry stood up on their integrous haunches and told you the truth.

Here are seven untruths that have been spread about by unscrupulous web design & web marketing companies.

1. You Must Pay For A Blog

Not true. You can access this information for free. Go to blogger.com and wordpress.com and you can set up your own blog. Now you may need some assistance to set these up, if you are technically challenged, and for that you may need to pay a fee, but as far as the software is concerned – it’s ready to go.

2. You Have To Stay With The Same Web Hosting Company

Not true. As long as you have access to your account where your domain was registered (your Domain Registrar) and your FTP Login Details (this information gives you access to your website files), you can transfer your website wherever you want. If you are not sure where your domain name is registered, search for your domain at http://whois.domaintools.com/ and look at what it says the ICANN Register is.

3. You Can Never Leave Your Web Design Company

Not true. You can go wherever you want. But watch out for the companies that put all their websites on the one central content management system. This will cause problems for you down the track when you decide to leave as they may not release the software to you when you move.

4. You Must Pay For All Technical Support

Not true. There are companies out there who as part of their ongoing service, once you’ve purchased from them, supply this for FREE. It’s called good old fashioned customer after-sales service.

5. You Can’t Find Out What Is Happening Within Your Website

Not true. You can gain access to an abundance of information via website statistics programs such as Awstats or Google Analytics. You can set up a free Google Analytics account today. You might need to get your web design company to insert the code Google needs you to place within your website which could cost you. Otherwise ask your web hosting or web design company if you can get access to statistics already built into your website.

6. You Can’t Purchase Your Own Domain Name – Your Web Design Company Needs To Do It For You

Not true. Watch out for this one. Some web design companies will register a domain name for you but they will have ownership of it. Most of the time they will release the domain to you if you decide to move on but it can make things very tricky. If your web design company does register a domain for you, always make sure they register the domain name under your business contact information. Then the domain name is yours and nobody else’s.

7. Your  Web Design Company Owns Your Website

Wrong. If you paid for it it’s yours. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. You should be able to have full access to your website and have the ability to move on if you ever wished to do so.

So I trust that enlightens you. But if you ever come across any other questionable details that your web design company has told you what you can or cannot do – please let me know and we will explore these myths and see how true they really are.