I've used this forum for over a year now to read many interesting and informative posts but this one just goes on and on.

Most of you seem to be missing the point completely or just choosing to ignore whats being said in terms of what they offer and the type of customer they offer it too.

I also take exception to the blatant bickering some of you keep going on with. I enjoy these boards and enjoy reading them but I think you made you points many postings ago in terms of not liking the offering from Omnisere. Ok we all (readers) get you dont like it and I doubt you ever will.

I guess I take exception as I dabble in building a few websites mainly through word of mouth. My sites are basic and would never win any design awards. Its just what my particular type of customer wants. The pay very little. I host them all with Blacknight as his packages are cheap so in a few hours I can make a small bit of income.

My Websites are probably what you all are calling crap from a visual sense.

Menace - Yes there is always a need for these cheap, 'crappy' sites as you put it. Just as much as there is a market for what you produce but just because you decided to produce what you do and charge what you do is there really a need to slag off those that choose something else.


Niall - I've used TM templates and its not just a simple matter of buying and downloading. There is work involved in tweaking them re slicing etc. but I'm sure you know what already.

I could get free templates from the web probably free hosting too. So in reality I could do it all for free so I dont really think your point on the price has any relevance.

What you seem to miss is that you guys are in this industry, you are technical. My friends, friends/friends who run a small businesses havent a clue what template monster is. (Actually maybe that doesnt matter to you and you just see fit to slag others off) Can you really see a small business manager trying to do all this. Any owner/manager would be better suited to do what they do best and running the company, not trying to build a website. Thats the point you seem to miss. So I take exception to you saying my customers are gulliable. They know in advance what they will get, what the options are and I even recommend they call established designers for quotes.


I'm going to call them tomorrow and get an explanation on their service as to me it actually seems very well priced. If I could get a commission on referrals it make my life a lot easier so for me this is a great idea.

Oh and before you go on again, yes we know you dont like the offering they provide just in case you need to clarify it again.


Thanks Felix

I think the Omniserve Post has covered most of what the Omniserve All-in-1 Website Offer is about but just to clarify and cover the questions raised throughout this thread from those people that are interested in investigating rather than rubbishing the offering we are making to small Irish businesses.

In a crowded, undifferentiated market place the offering of completed low cost, starter websites is becoming more popular with ISP's BT Web Consult & Build | Small & medium business | BT.com and domain registrars/hosting companies Website design by Register.com | Get a professionally designed website for your business . It is now a fact of life.

More importantly, based on feedback from small business owners attending http://media.digiweb.ie/news/2008/05...band-may-22nd/ there is a real gap in the market for this type of starter offering.

Our All-in-1 Website Offer is NOT a recurring fee!

The Price is €399 in Year 1 which covers a domain name (including a .ie domain), your Web Hosting account and a 5 page website. In Year 2 you are obliged to renew only your domain name, CM4all licence and web hosting account. The Type of hosting account we use provides a small business with ample room to grow and also provides ample room for email storage. The account is also there to serve the growing number of eCommerce requirements that will soon be available.

We are proud to partner with Digiweb for this offering as their hosting product range is one of the best in the Irish market place.


What do you get for €399? A completed 5 page website + hosting + domain + basic optimisation

We provide everything a small business person needs to achieve a starter online web presence with minimum hassle and minimum cost.
Your domain name. (We don’t charge any extra for an .ie domain either)
Your Web Hosting Account
A completed 5 Page Website with basic optimisation

Our Websites as we have already stated are not there to win design awards. These are functional websites that generate leads for the small business and provide full service web designers with upsell opportunities.

The Key points of are offering are:

· No Need to leave your office. We have our Xpress Creation Process which allows the customer to provide us basic information about their business. It is a unique process that has been developed to minimise the disruption to the SME owner manager by making it a simple, easy to follow process to provide us with some basic company information. We provide automated reminders where tasks are incomplete.

· We work with customers each step of the way after ordering up to having the website go live and provide support to those who require it.

· We build the website in front of their eyes with our trained Consultants using a WebEx type process. (We don’t use Webex by the way. Our solution provides a more seamless integration)You get 1 hour with a trained consultant who works with you to complete the website and where you can provide your own input into your website but without the worry of breaking things or worrying about what works and what doesn’t. We setup the Contact forms, the blogs etc. We do all the work for the small business person.

· We even optionally provide content for your pages written by our experienced copywriters. As all the designers know in this forum getting content is the biggest stumbling block when it comes to developing a website. We have gone one step further and provide copy for 4 key websites pages that our customers can use. They are free to change it, remove it completely or expand on it depending on how unique they want to make it.


· Customers can make changes to their site free of charge and whenever they like. They have full access to the CM4ALL control panel to make any changes they like.

· The Domain and Web Hosting is backed up and fully supported by Digiweb and their excellent Customer Support needs no further explanation. Omniserve provide full support for the Website and Xpress Creation Process.

Some of the questions raised by members of this forum(and at the risk of repeating myself ):

1. What are you offering that businesses cannot already get for free with almost every low cost hosting plan?
If businesses were interested in the current free DIY/WISIWIG services out there then http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/ from Microsoft etc would have taken the market by storm. However small businesses are not interested in free tools as they are not interested in the learning curve involved. The value we add is working with the customer to get the requirements distilled rapidly, removing the need for them to learn about how to build a site from scratch with the tool and training the customer how to carry out updates themselves. If every small business was as interested in the overhead involved in free tools as has been suggested they would get a copy of Joomla, set their office pc up as a server with free software, take the hosting company out of the equation and build and host their own website.


2. So the customer is paying over 300 euro for a 60 minute phone call / WebEx?
No, they are paying for the completion of a 5 page website, the hosting, the CM4all licence and registration of the domain name.


3. So it's 399 for a 5 page site or 80 euro per page per year?
There is no ongoing charge beyond the hosting, domain and CM4all licence.


4. A basic template from Template Monster costs around $65 (around €40), and will generally be capable of more than 5 pages.
Yes that’s true but I think Felix Jones post has covered this. This is not our target market nor are small businesses interested in fiddling with templates.


5. So are the sites portable or are you tied in to the omniserve system? i.e; if I realise I'm being charged 400 quid/yr for nothing more than ongoing hosting (2nd year) - can I move my content elsewhere?

Absolutely, our objective is to make your site as portable as possible so that you can easily upgrade down the road to a bespoke website designer of your choice. With the CM4All account you can move your website to any hosting account once you provide the necessary FTP details. Its all done through the CM4ALL system so you don’t even need an FTP client.


6. What about site updates? Are these chargeable or included, and are they user editable if they'd prefer not to pay.
Each customer has a control panel providing them with access to a CM4all Content Management System so that they can update to their hearts content for zero cost or overhead. For those customers who do not want, don’t have the time etc then we will provide a service where we will do this for them but that choice lies entirely with the customer.

7. Small business can get a hosting plan from just about any provider and get access to a site builder for a lot less than what you want to charge annually.
This misses the point entirely, we are providing a total solution, we build the site for them. If the road you suggest were what our target market were interested in then http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/ et al would have far more traction in the marketplace than they have.

The offering we have developed with Digiweb is a market beating offering to small Irish businesses and is streets ahead of any DIY type offerings by other Irish hosting companies. It offers a genuinely powerful differentiator from the commodity hosting market place and is another building block in their broad portfolio of services to Irish businesses.

I hope this has cleared up the misconceptions, I can always be contacted directly at eoin@omniserve.ie .

If that's the case then maybe you need to speak to your "partner"

See attached screenshot

Attached Images

omniserve-fees.jpg (15.8 KB, 37 views)

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As a professional web designer I don't see anything wrong with the business model here. However, what I do have a problem with is the poor design of these sites. Sure, the small business owner is going to think €399 is a great price for everything they are getting, but in reality all we are going to see is poorly designed websites springing up everywhere just because they are cheap to buy/build.

A lot of people ignore this fact but one of the single most important aspects of any website is its design (after 'content' of course ). Web design is a skill/talent you develop, not a technique you learn. There's no point in throwing up a website just for the sake of 'getting online' with your business if its going to look poor. That's a great way to make sure visitors never return your site after the first viewing.

The web must be an enjoyable experience for users, and battling with poor colour schemes and bad typography is not what we as professionals like to put our clients through.

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Have been away and just seen this thread. All i can say is hope they didnt spend to much money And have a look at the latest designs in there blog, wow there just simply amazing.... As i think a 10 year old could design the same.

Also nice Blog Omniserve, just a cut and paste from everyone esle's blogs and articles, you think they would actually have something to say about there great new offer??

Like most aspects of business, you get what you pay for...

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Seeing as a lot of people in the Irish internet community were interested in how this worked we put up an information page here on it:

http://omniserve.digiweb.ie/Omniserv...lusion-v01.pdf

Readers might find it useful for their clients.

Regards Eoin Costello

so in a words what you are saying is that you include a "paid" link ? for customers from your blog ?

How does google view paid links these days ?

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Hi Forbairt,

It is not paid, it is free. It is not simple a link as we use the customer's business name, their business type and geographical location in the entry in our blog promoting their website.

Can't comment on how Google personally feel however the free service we are providing is working in terms of getting a showing for customer's sites in the index (boards.ie - View Single Post - Competition - Win a free 5 page website completed in 60 minutes from Omniserve.ie ) which is all we are trying to do as a free service and no one is complaining.

Regards Eoin

This thread started off as an attack from two "old friends" of mine from my hosting industry days (witness the first 2 posts) on what is basically a good concept aimed at helping small businesses.

Just by way of a final word, I am currently writing up the research findings from work we did as part of the Omniserve feasibility study. We made some very interesting findings in the area of cognitive psychology and how people use websites. Trials we carried out with a prototype we built achieved conversion rates approximately 45% higher than traditional websites.

Once completed I am happy to share our findings with the Irish Internet community and will post them here.

Regards Eoin