Because Quality Counts.

We found that most nonprofits, small businesses, and professionals who needed sites but still did not have a site built had limited choices.

The Problem:
You could spend lots of money $$$ and get a quality site.  OR
You could spend almost nothing... and get a bad-looking site.

Depending on your point of view, you may say, "Gee, isn't that true" or "Gee, who cares?"
(You know, if you're saying "who cares" well, there are people in the world who do have a higher standard.)

The simple fact is that there are people who need a website but can't get it because of obstacles with:

• money
• time
• learning curve
• resources
  

Of course, there are some alternatives out there.  If you are a Charity, some folks say they will host you for free.  Often "free" sites aren't good sites.  Often, deserving charities are cut out of free offers because they are religious, a school, or are too small or too traditional to be of interest to some people.  And even then, "free" sites are difficult to manage or require specialized computer skills.

First Cup Site Creator was started to help people who need it.  You do not need to know how to write software code, and you don't even need to know anything about the internet or web servers.  And you don't need to spend much money either.

There are some alternatives you may hear about.  "Open Source" software is great *if* you have the time to invest in learning it, fixing it, and maintaining it.  Free software is not free - its cost is the labor to set it up and then maintain it.

You may have a friend or a brother-in-law who can help you.  But what do you do when they aren't around later?

You can hire a webmaster or a web designer, and pay $600 for a great site.  But how do you maintain it?  What do you do if they move on? 

If you are serious about your charity, your business or your project, then you should know what you need is:

• A hosted Content Management System (CMS) that means no coding for you and lets you update your site content yourself
• An easy way to import and edit pictures or graphics, and even ready-made stock pictures
• Professional designs that are appealing to the North American market
• The benefit of not worrying about server maintenance and "engineering stuff"
  
• The ability to expand content with video, forums, blogs, tweets, payment buttons, and all sorts of Web gadgets that haven't even been invented yet
• Design features like pull down menus and site menus that other systems do not have (really)
• A system that is constantly updated to keep pace with the market