Best thing since sliced bread

Express Small Business — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:22:00 +0000

Well, we think Express Web is the best thing for small business since sliced bread. But then, we're partial to it because we know so much about it. We developed it, after all, and have been eating, breathing and sleeping it for a while. The following is a list of Frequently Asked Questions we've heard, on a wide number of topics (from policy to programming). If you've got a question you don't see addressed here, write us a note and we'll do our best to answer it.

What so great about Express Web?
Express is so great because it is thoughtful, incredibly effective, easy to use, cheap and fast.

Thoughtful: There's a philosophy of cleverness behind every Express product: we don't want to re-engineer the wheel because that gets expensive. The point with Express is to be affordable. So we don't re-engineer the wheel. Instead, we leverage relationships with very smart wheel makers and combine them in very clever ways with the Express chassis. To flog this analogy to death, we get our wheels from Google, and man, do they have great wheels.

Incredibly Effective: We do not use any cutting edge technology with Express Web. Our programming is simple. It's generally straight html. Tried and true, easy to understand, search engines love it, all browsers can read it, and it works like gang busters. Sure there are more complicated and flowery technologies out there, and that's fine. But we wanted to create a product that any shade tree mechanic would be able to work on, because freedom and choice are very important to the small business psyche.

Easy to Use: Small business needs to be able to master their technology, or they become a slave to it. When we set out to design Express Web, we did NOT want to create a customer dependence on us. We get you going, teach you the tools, and get out of the way. And something else: we've learned that if something is too complicated for the lay customer to admin, they just won't. And how effective can a website be that is so complicated, no one knows how to use it? So we've made Express fantastically easy to use and to admin. If you know how to type, you can be successful with Express Web.

Cheap: All things are relative, of course. Our parent company develops custom corporate wesites for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The average small business site generally goes for around 3 to 5 times the price of an Express Website. So at $2,495, we think Express Web is a fire sale. Pound for pound, we think Express Web is an unparalleled bargain, and that's really what we're after. Finally, a good deal for our brothers in small business.

Fast: One of the advantages that small business has over corporate America is nimbleness. The ability to move quickly. And Express Web does. In most cases we can turn over the keys to an Express site in 10 working days. Often less.

Why do you require the entire payment up front?
Two reasons, really. The entire price of an Express Website is generally less than the deposit for a traditional site, so we're not talking about huge sums of money. And finally, Express Websites come together so quickly, billing half up front and half later didn't make sense -- those events are just days apart. So in the end, this was the policy that made the most sense to us.

Sounds like a template site to me
Sort of, but not the way you think. At our core, we are branders, and no one takes branding more seriously than we do. That's the part that really hurts you when you use graphic templates. How can you differentiate yourself in the marketplace when you are using a one-size-fits all template? You can't. So that's the part of an Express Website that is custom. The way the page is organized (not the way it looks) is the part that we templatize. This is what we mean when we say "everything you need, and nothing you don't." You need us to focus our creative energy on differentiating you. You do not need to pay for us to spend our creative energy customizing page layouts. From an Express Web perspective, that would cost the most, and deliver the least value. So it wouldn't be an Express product.

Can Express do e-commerce?
Of course. Right now e-commerce is provided as an Additional Service, but look for an e-commerce version of Express to be launched later this year.

I see you use Go Daddy as a server. What if I already have a server, or don't want to use them?
Here's where vocabulary is very important. We don't use Go Daddy for our hosting. We set up the relationship with Go Daddy, so that you can use them for your hosting. The relationship with Go Daddy is yours. You'll be paying them, not us. So if you don't like them, find one you do! We've looked and looked, and we think Go Daddy is amazing for small business. We've NEVER experienced better customer service from any other host EVER. And that's saying a lot. With Go Daddy, we've never been more than a few minutes away from a human being, and their staff is incredibly helpful. Since Express is not in the hosting or e-mail business, we wanted to be sure that we connected our non-technical customers with a company that can and will be just a phone call away. Our experience is that Go Daddy is very stable, extremely competent, very affordable and hugely helpful. But as I said earlier: we're just facilitating a relationship. If you'd rather facilitate your own relationship with a different firm, that's fine with us too!

What if I want to add more pages later?
No problem. Once you have an Express Website, you can hire us by the hour to make the changes or frankly, you can hire any shade tree mechanic to do it. That's a big part of our philosophy: we've made it simple enough for any garden-variety html programmer to work on. The choice is yours. We charge $135/hr for our guys to do it.

Is this site made with Express?
It absolutely is. Everything associated with Express is made using the Express Kits. It would be intellectually dishonest otherwise, don't you think? This website is Express Web 1.0. and our logo was done with the Express Identity Kit.

Express Web FAQ

Best thing since sliced bread