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I'm starting a part time charter fishing business and to keep costs down am looking at using a free website builder to get a site up advertising my business and collect payments. Has anyone done this and can recommend a site? I looked at a few this morning that were not real easy to use. Any help would be appreciated.

"Build" may be free but keeping it on their server definitely is not. Look first for the ongoing expense - which may be a bit difficult to find or calculate. The harder it is to nail that down, the better the reason for avoiding their "free" service.

I had two websites. One I built myself and hosted on GoDaddy. The rates were low because it was an information only site, no sales. No complaints and IIRC it ran about $100 a year back then, six years ago.

The other is through my book publisher, and it is their design, their hosting. No help to you, though.

Traded for mine. It would have cost as much as 20K.

If you have to ask this question you probably should consider paying to have a site built by a professional.
Most don't charge as much as one would think but they do tend to make up for their inexpensive initial builds through long term maintenance contracts.

You don't want your charter business to look cheezy due to a "high school" grade web site.

You need a strong appearance to compete, then you need a mobile site for cellphone access, can't have cell users stumbling through a site not designed specifically for mobile use. You gotta have both.
You have to make the site highly searchable so it pops right up on a relevant search, you know how to do that? It don't just happen...

Get one built, avoid high dollar long term contracts and then learn to do updates like price changes and additional photos yourself as time goes on.

So much booking is done online today ya can't afford to screw it up.

Same advice I got.

Info is simple and can be a do it yourself deal. Look at others for design and include: what, when, where, who, and how much (key words that searchers might use). If online transactions/bookings etc are involved, get professional help which will generate profit for a middle man. Should one not want to go that route then direct potential customers to a phone number listing day/hours it will be tended.

I don't do much bookings with outfitters/guides etc, but prompt communication goes along way toward getting positive reviews from me.

As a for instance:

I booked a fully guided elk hunt for last fall with half due at booking and the balance a month out. Never got word one or receipts with $10K of my funds being exchanged. No communications on where, when etc until the day I was to be in base camp. It was a good experience in the end, but they'll get no better than 3 stars.

On a positive note, we booked a tuna trip and got "good to go" notices a week and then again 2 days out. One day out, they called and the boat was down. That saved us a full day of driving to find out things were a no go upon arrival. We did rebook, and it was a great trip. Even got an e-mail "thank you" at the end. Five stars.

Last, not everyone in the world does face book. Put relevant data where it can be seen without a required log in.

I should've mentioned I have a Facebook page. I could post my rates there but I'm guessing credit card payments would have to be done from a website.

https://www.facebook.com/Rowdy-Girl-Sportfishing-109170903783180/?modal=admin_todo_tour

When I book my charter guys down in the Keys, from the point of securing a slot to paying for it is all done over the phone anyway.

The website just baits them in and sets the hook...

If you just go with FB for now, paste you contact phone all over the place, I hate digging around to get back to where a guys number is once I decide I'm gonna call them..

Wix. I book a lot of business a year off it. Built it myself.

I will say, Facebook, Instagram, and you tube are better advertising than a website. But, it takes followers and frequent posting. A website only really works if you are in the top 3 in search results or demand is really high.

Just checked out your FB page. (I'm on a PC)

I don't do facebook so my viewing is limited.....
There is a big FB banner across the top wanting me to login, it cuts the heads off those folks in the header image.

I had to look up your address to even know what state you were fishing out of...
As I scrolled down the page I sorta figured out what species you fish for by the limited images FB lets me view as a non-member.

I'd change that header image to a collage of photos showing all the types of fish you target and embed your state/town and phone number on the lower part of that header image.

If it were that way, I'd have known everything I went looking for right when I opened the page...

Your boat image as your avatar works really well.

Just my 2 cents worth, but knowing nothing of you and first time on your page, that what I saw.

Here is what I get, the blue banner up top isn't movable so idunno whats under it.
The huge white banner on the lower screen keeps moving up as I scroll down.
I can scroll back up a tad and it drops back to where it is in this image which allows me a peek-a-boo chance to see those images lower on the page....

I started working on Wix this morning but it used a template with canned images that I couldn't seem to replace. I may go back and try again as I like your webpage which is similar to what I wanted.

Facebook only works well for facebook users. It wouldn't make sense to set-up my facebook page for people that can't login. I think the FB page and website together would be the ticket. I just have to get them both up and running.

Bill,

Wix is very easy. Keep at it and you will get it. I knew nothing and built a site.

Calvin's right. Don't expect to do big things, but a simple site that give you the chance to tell folks who you are and what you do should not be that hard to pull off.

One other thing to consider: You can use Wordpress to build a site. It's free. It's feature packed. The main thing I tell folks is that Wordpress is for folks who want to add content easily.

My site (see signature) is built in Wordpress.

My wife's is as well:

http://massage.angzva.com/

That took me only a couple hours to do.

I was a website designer and manager for several years in my last job, so some of what I'm about to write is opinion, and some is hard-won experience.

If you want to go low-cost, don't accept payments through your website - that process costs money and it's too easy to hack.

Instead, take credit cards over the phone. Customers spending a good chunk of change LIKE to talk to someone before turning over their cash, even though they like to do their research online.

Make your web page into an advertising page - lots of great pics, what you do, where you do it and how great you are. A section about local fishing laws and what gear they should bring with them would also be good. That's the background info people want before making up their minds that they want to use your service. Another piece of good advice from a previous post is to put your full contact info on every page - when someone decides to go with you, make it easy for them to contact you.

As someone wisely mentioned above, plan for maintenance. You will have to learn how to post pics, update prices and add new information - or you will have to pay someone to do it for you. Either way, maintenance will NEED to be done, even on a simple webpage.

Also, don't offer to answer questions except via phone calls - meaning, don't make your web page into a blog. You will be spending a LOT of time responding to people who just love to waste your time online.

SEO is important. When people search, they typically just look at the first few results. If you're not up there, you may as well not exist. Pay someone to do this for you, or really, really study the subject yourself.

Even with SEO, give out your web page address EVERYWHERE: Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, fishing forums, etc. Even have business cards printed with your phone number and web address. Go to trade shows and hand them out. That web page will be your billboard, but only if people can find it.

We built our site on Wix ourselves, then transferred it to WordPress as it allowed our analytics guy to better maximize our local organic rankings. We are pleased with the results.

Your webpage looks good. Easy to navigate and find everything I need. For me, you come up 10th on a Google search for Prince of Wales AK fishing charters, 3rd on a direct Craig AK fishing charters search.

Bill outta just copy what you did.....

I found myself heading to POW knowing nothing about any local charters but wanted to fish, I was in Ketchikan. Ended up at the Fireweed.

I hate it when they embed a phone number in an image, I can't copy and paste it to a file when they do that.

I got all my initial business from that website. Now it’s all repeat and I fill in the holes with the website.

I might venture into Instagram this year. If you do it right, it can be very good. Not sure I want to go there yet.