Best Website Builder for Non-Techy People with Becky Launder

Are you considering building a website for your nonprofit but feeling overwhelmed by the options? In this episode, I sit down with Becky Launder, co-founder of Oh My High, to discuss the essential factors you should consider before embarking on your website journey.

Why Your Nonprofit Needs a Website

Becky emphasizes the importance of having a website for credibility and round-the-clock visibility. We explore how a well-crafted site can:

• Showcase your services and impact
• Share testimonials
• Collect leads and donations 24/7

Key Considerations Before Building

Before you start, think about:

• How your organization might evolve over time
• Your technical skills and available time
• Functionality needs (e-commerce, email marketing, donation forms)
• Budget constraints

Understanding Website Jargon

We break down common terms like domain names, hosting, and plugins to help you navigate the technical landscape with confidence.

The Oh My Hi Difference

Discover how Oh My Hi offers:

• User-friendly templates
• Robust features for nonprofits
• Affordable pricing options
• Exceptional customer support and community

Taking Action

Ready to get started? We share resources and a special offer to help you launch your nonprofit website quickly and effectively.

Don't miss this opportunity to gain clarity on your website strategy and find a solution that aligns with your nonprofit's mission and budget. Tune in for insights that will set your organization up for online success.

Want to skip ahead? Here are key takeaways:

01:12 The Importance of Websites for Businesses Websites are crucial for credibility, showcasing services, and working 24/7 to collect leads and provide information to potential customers or supporters.
03:25 Considerations Before Building a Website Discussion on factors to consider before creating or rebuilding a website, including future changes, DIY vs. hiring experts, functionality needs, and integration with existing tools.
11:49 Oh My Hi Platform Introduction Oh My Hi is a user-friendly website platform with built-in support and community features, designed for non-technical users. It't not for for e-commerce heavy businesses but very advantageous for nonprofits because you can easily embed your donation form. 

Resources

View the NonProfit Template

Learn More about Oh My Hi

Full Transcript

Intro
You're listening to the digital marketing therapy podcast. I'm your host, Sami Bedell-Mulhern. Each month we dive deep into a digital marketing or fundraising strategy that you can implement in your organization. Each week, you'll hear from guest experts, nonprofits, and myself on best practices, tips and resources to help you raise more money online and reach your organizational goals.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
Hey, friends, welcome back to another bonus episode, and I'm so excited to be here today with my one of my business besties, Becky Launder, thanks for being here.

Becky Launder
Thanks for having me. I'm so jealous because her background looks

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
like beautifulness and my background looks like I haven't moved into my office in the year that I've been living here. So one of these days, it's going to go away and y'all are and y'all are gonna watch this podcast and be like, Oh, wow. Like, your background looks great. But anyway, thank you for being here for this bonus episode, because we're talking all things, websites. I'm obsessed with websites. I love them. I think every business needs them, regardless of industry size, et cetera. I say this all the time, so I would love for you to just start out, because they always hear it from me, like, why websites for you? Why do you think that they are something that a business needs in order to kind of grow and be present in our world today?

Becky Launder
Yeah, oh my gosh. Okay, so first off, credibility, right? I kind of joke that, like back in the day, you could just pass out a business card, and you were the real deal, but here we are, and you know this this day and age, a website that's going to give you credibility. It's going to give you an opportunity to showcase your services, to talk about who you support, to share testimonials, but it also is a machine that is going to work for you. 24/7, so being able to collect new leads, or people interested in supporting your organization, all of those things are so so, so important. And so when they're Googling you or searching you up, as my kids say,

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
That's a new one. I heard that your kids, my kids are older than yours. Mine are 14 and 16, so you have Gen alphas. I've got Gen Z

Becky Launder
ers. I always say, Google it and they're like, No, Mom, you search it up. Ask

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
them about that. Okay, search it up. We learned something new already. When people are

Becky Launder
searching you up, they can find you and learn about you and not wait until that next event, or when they meet you at a networking event and email you, they can really get what they need on demand, and you can keep that online presence working for you around the clock. So important, yeah, I

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
agree, and this is the thing you're going to hear, like, we did not prep all of this, but Becky and I, like, in our journey, in our businesses. Like, Rose, like, Hey, I do that. We I use that. I do that. Like, we are, like, on the parallel, even though we don't, I know it's pretty amazing. It's kind of creepy sometimes. So I want to jump to then, like, when we're thinking about, okay, I need a website. Like, obviously, there's so a plethora, like, there's a wide variety, from, like, do it yourself to hiring somebody. You might have had conversations with developers. You might have had a bad experience with designers and developers. Most of you have. You might have tried a platform that, like, didn't work and you couldn't figure it out, and you were frustrated. You have limited time load budget. So, like, as we're kind of thinking about how to make this work for us, like, what are some things that we want to consider before we even either decide to start to rebuild or start a website to begin with?

Becky Launder
Yeah. Oh, that's such a good question, and it's like all those things that you wish you would have known in the beginning stages that you don't realize until later on. So a couple of things that I would be thinking about is, is this website going to change over time. That's one thing that we hear a lot of is I created a website. It was amazing, and then, little did I know, my business was going to change a little bit. My services were going to change. Our leadership at our nonprofit is going to change. Things are going to shift. And you want to be in a spot that you're able to make those shifts pretty seamlessly without a ton of time or a ton of money. So that's one thing that I wish I would have known when I created my first website, that my business was going to take a 15 year journey with lots of twists and turns and iterations to it, and my website today looks nothing like the website that I first created, and so having that flexibility is important. And I think the other piece of it is, do you want to learn it? Do you want to DIY it? Do you want to figure it out on your own, or do you want to hire an expert, which obviously is going to cost a little bit more and have a bigger investment attached to it. So those are a couple things that I think I would factor in, and then I would also be thinking about the functionality, right? Like, what kind of capabilities do you need? Do you need e commerce? Do you need a place to gather leads and send emails? Do you need a place to take donations? And if. Is the platform you are picking going to play nicely with the other tools that you have in your business that you need for it to continue to run. So those are a couple things that I would definitely take into consideration. And like you said, there's a lot of options out there. Some people have great experiences and some people don't, probably all on the same platform, really is making sure that what you're signing up for, what you're getting, what you need, is going to support the vision and be aligned with the company that you're you're working with. Yeah, I love that,

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
and I want to call out a couple things, because I think a lot of times we're always looking for new tech, and that's great, but sometimes we want to start with where we already are playing and see what options they have available. Some CRMs do have built in websites that you can use. They're probably very limited in your custom customization what you can do, but like, depending on where you're at versus, like, for me, we don't like to work with people unless they're on their third or fourth iteration of their website, because we want people, you're paying me a lot more money to custom build something for you, and we want you to really be secure, solid, in knowing what your goals are, what your vision is, what your mission is. It's a much more and it's a much more comprehensive process, like it just takes a lot more time and dedication. So it's not worth it if you're kind of just getting started and you want something that's going to change. I also don't want you to be scared when we're saying like you're going to go through multiple versions of your website. That doesn't mean you're going to be paying $5,000 every single time you need a new website, right? Yeah, so we're going to talk about that here in a little bit, but just know that it's a living, breathing thing that you're always evolving in order to stay most connected with the people, so that it is, like you said earlier, working for you, even when you're sleeping at night, or, you know, following up with people post event. So I would love if you could share a little bit, kind of, like the jargon, like, there's things that we don't know about, like hosting and domains and like websites and builders and visual builders. Like, kind of, what are some of the things we might want to pay attention to when we're considering different platforms that are going to affect the cost of what that might look like.

Becky Launder
Yeah. Okay, great question. I feel like we need a glossary to go along with this bonus episode, because sometimes we get hung up on these things and and, you know, we get a lot of emails, and we talk to a lot of people, and they're like, I don't know, will my domain go with your is it Host? Yeah, right. Like it's a complicated topic. So let's talk about domain a domain name is essentially just your URL, so that's the link people are typing in to get to your website. Now, a domain name can range in costs, but if you're coming up with something that you know isn't super popular, you should be able to get it like, less than 20 bucks a year. Over on our, oh, my high platform, we do include a domain name on our plus and our premium plans now, so that's something to note. But typically, on the starter plan, you're going to go out, you're going to purchase that domain separately, and then it gets connected to your website. So that's something to think about. Hosting is essentially where in the cyberspace world your website lives, right? It has to be living somewhere for it to work for you. So typically, when you have a website, you're paying a host to keep that website for you and see me, what would you say that ranges and

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
price? Like, yeah, yeah. I mean, like, it depends we're hosting,

Becky Launder
but we host a lot of things, so yeah, yes,

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
SiteGround is what we prefer for our clients. And depending on what you're at, you're looking at somewhere between, like, probably a couple $100 a year for smaller websites, yeah. I mean, it's definitely an expense, yeah, but something that's built in for, like, if you're on, like, if you're with, building a site with me, you have to pay that as a separate thing. If you're with, oh my high, it's built into the fee

Becky Launder
that you're built into, oh my high, yeah. So you're not paying an additional fee for hosting. And typically that's the case if you're using, like, a Squarespace or a Wix or one of those kinds of tools as well. The hosting is included in that monthly fee that you're paying. But if you have your own site separately, then you're not using a bigger platform, then you're paying for that hosting as an additional cost for that. And then there's a lot of other things and you know this that go into websites, right when you think about it, whether it's graphic design or you're paying the web designer, you're paying for the developer to make changes or updates to your website. That could potentially copywriter, yeah, copywriter, email marketing platform, right? Like, if you're collecting leads through your website, you want to be able to send emails out to them. That's another potential expense that goes hand in hand with the website. And then, depending upon what tool you're using, like if you're on a WordPress site, there might be additional plugins that you would purchase that would provide various functionality for your site. Did I cover it? Um,

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
yes, you did. And they're mowing outside right now, which is very convenient. So if you're hearing the mowing in my dog, I really apologize, but there's nothing I can do about it. Now, things

Becky Launder
happening at my house, I'm like, I'm pretty sure the yard guy is here, because I can't hear

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
it in the background, but

Becky Launder
the good microphone that I have, I'll just keep talking directly into the microphone. I've

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
got the lawn mowers over here and the dog over here. So here we go. This is, you know, that's what we do. Love it. We do. Okay. So here's the thing that I'm most excited about. And so for me, the way that I work with my clients is very much one on one. It's very much hands on. It's very like we do it for you, the follow up, all of that stuff. The hard part for me is that I have not been able to, because I'll have clients that come to me that, look, well, we can't afford for, you know, for you to custom build a website, or we're just not there yet. We're just getting started, and I haven't had a platform that I can refer them to, because I don't want to send them to some of the other builders, because there's no customer service, there's no kind of strategic hand holding, there's no kind of support. And so for me, that's one of the things that I want to talk about, first, just with regards to, oh, my high is I love that it's such an easy platform that doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but has everything that you need to get going and to have a very strong website that communicates who you are and what you do and supports all the things like you just mentioned, from email marketing to like forms. I mean, like, very robust, but you have support, like, you have people that are there that are going to help you along the way. So if you don't have a technical background, no big deal. So could you talk a little bit more about, like, why was that something you wanted to build into the philosophy of of all my high and kind of be there alongside people as they're working on their websites?

Becky Launder
Yeah, no. And it's so interesting because I've worked on many tech platforms, and I think we've all landed on the 47 step help article when you're just trying to make like, one small change, and you're like, oh my gosh, this is so many things. I swear I went through all these steps. Things are not working the way they're supposed to. Or even worse, you get stuck in like a chat bot loop where you're messaging somebody, and you think it's a real human, but then it's really a bot, and they're sending you, like, to the wrong help article. Then you have to send an email, then you have to wait four days, and then you finally get the you guys. You guys know what I mean here, right? Like, we've all had that experience before, so a big part of our businesses have been creating community, and that's something that we're really passionate about. I feel like all big decisions I've ever made in my businesses has been with a like minded group of people that get me, that are on a similar path, a similar journey, and that's been really important to us. And so when we set out to develop, oh, my high we wanted to create that same type of community, but for websites. And sure, an author and a nonprofit might be doing totally different things, but when you see their site, you might think, oh, like, that was kind of cool. How do I recreate something over here similar to that? So that community aspect is definitely important to us, but we also get it that most people using, oh, my high are not techie, and that, okay, right? Your number one job is to be out there serving your community with your nonprofit or fundraising and collecting donations for an organ you know, for a cause that's important to you, and so we want you to focus your time on that, because that's probably why you do what you do, and let us support you when it comes to the tech. So we love that we do live support every week. We're available via email if you have questions, and a lot of times, we'll just do it for you if you email us right. Like, I'm trying to figure out how to center my header. Okay, yes, this is what happened. Let me show you how to do that. So if this happens in the future, you can fix it on your own, but meanwhile, like, we got you covered, and I can pretty much guarantee that most tech platforms are not going to do that for you. They're going to send you to the help article, and we've got tutorials, we've got training, we have all of that available to you as well, but if we can just help you get it done and help you get back to doing what you love to do, that's really what we're passionate about, and we also want to make it affordable, right? Like, let's be real, giving you a template to start from that you can modify and add, unlimited pages, unlimited blog posts, unlimited forms, unlimited context to the CRM lean into the email marketing platform if you go for the Plus plan. Like, we want to make it so it can work for you, and you're never starting with a blank page or thinking like, what? What do I even write website? Nobody wants to start with a blank slate on anything, so we give you a really good starting point that you can just take it and customize it from

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
there. Okay, and I want to touch on the community piece, because I think that's one of the things that's so magical about. About you Becky, and not just oh my high, but like all of the programs that you create and build is that, like, I'm in a lot of other groups for other platforms that I'm a part of, and those communities are like, okay, customer service sucks, or I can't get this thing to do, go happen. Or, like, you know, it's mostly like, negative comments about it's not collaborative. It's not things where people are excited. You go to the Oh, my high community, and it's like, somebody saying, okay, hey, wait, I couldn't figure out how to do this. And then before even your team can come in and answer, most people are like, Well, hey, this is what I did. Or they'll, like, tag you in and be like, Hey, I had this like, I had this question last week. Can you guys help me? Could you put the answer in here? Like, it's such a positive, collaborative environment. And that's, again, why I feel really good about partnering with you on this, because you don't have to show up in that community and feel like, Oh, I can't ask something because somebody's gonna like, judge me, or like, throw or think I'm stupid for asking this question. Like, it's happy. No, it's such a happy group of people, it is.

Becky Launder
And I love that. I mean, I really love it when somebody answers a question before we can even pop in and answer it and we but within minutes,

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
it's not like you guys are taking a long time. They're just like, literally on top of it, pretty

Becky Launder
fantastic. And it is neat to see, hey, this is what I created, and this is how it's working for me. Or like Sammy, you've been popping in and reviewing websites, which has been incredible for our community, for others to see, oh, this might be a slight tweak that I want to make, or, Oh, I should update that. Or you're right to somebody that just landed on the site, they're gonna have no idea what I'm talking about. Being able to support each other in that way. I mean, we only make all of us better, right? Like, it really does. It lifts everyone up and encourages each other. And I think everyone's equally, like, not super techie, so they're really stupid questions, because it's like, I don't know what should I be thinking about, or should I be doing it this way? Everyone's everyone's really there to help each other out and help each other be more successful, which is pretty awesome. Yeah, I love that. Okay,

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
so let's before we kind of give, like, a just a really good overview of what, oh, my high is the kind of the last thing before you jump into that is, like, when we think about the platforms we're using, you did talk briefly about, like, making sure you understand, like, where you're going and what types of things you might want to add in the future. Well, I guess maybe this is, anyway, whatever we're gonna go with this, what is Oh my high, and what is Oh my high, not like, Who is it for? And who is it not for? Because I think it's really important for us to understand and make decisions on the platform we're using based off of our goals, versus like, I mean, Becky's awesome, and I 100% encourage you to work with her. What the with her, but there might be things that you have coming up in the next six months to a year. Oh, my high is not and so like, what? Who is it perfect for? And who might want to look at a different resource?

Becky Launder
Yeah, no, this is a great question. And I think you know one thing that's important, an important differentiator with, oh my high, is most people using the platform are not selling e commerce with a cart checkout. So if you are selling swag and have you know, 4000 different products, oh, my hair is probably not going to be the best fit for you, right? If you have a spot for people to take donations, and you want to embed the code in there so it connects to your CRM and you can accept those donations. Absolutely. That's perfect. Or if you have a one time purchase and you just have a page that you're selling this one thing, a ticket to one thing, and you're using Stripe, and you want to check out, oh, my high works for you. But again, if you are selling a whole bunch of things where you would need to have bundles and carts built, that's probably not going to be the best fit for you. I think the other part is just recognizing that it is a platform that you're starting with a template, and you're able to customize that template from colors to fonts to look and feel to adding sections, but if you are really uncomfortable with creating something on your own or updating something on your own, then you may want to invest in somebody else to create your website. Okay, but

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
I'm going to pause you on that moment everything you said, I've agreed with. But you do have, you do have a version of your plan where if people do want for a period of time to upgrade to a higher level, that you will help them create pages for them. And I do also want to iterate that Becky's team has taken our nonprofit templates and turned like and replicated them, so they have been amazing. And taking like, our strategy and our how we like, to lay things out for our nonprofit clients, what we've seen to be successful, and they've duplicated that. So the nonprofit template comes from our inspiration. So you have a great stronghold, but also you have a plan that allows you to you, oh, my high to create the pages for the people. So yes and

Becky Launder
yes and you would want. Keep the premium plan if you are sure that you do not want to do it on your own, and you can, again, that's a three month commitment at 297 a month. And so you're building out an entire site for like, 1000 bucks, essentially. And then you could always downgrade later on if you're more in maintenance mode and you're not seeing ongoing updates. But if you know that every month you're going to update with your event schedule, you're going to update with new things that are happening, and you're going to want that ongoing support, then you probably would want to stay up on that premium plan. So you're right that you can DIY it, or we can do it for you. But if you have more sophisticated needs, like an E commerce cart, or some advanced plugins that you need or integrations that are happening, then it might not be the best

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
bet. Yeah, like an online learning platform that's on the back end if

Becky Launder
you're running courses through it, yeah? You can always link out to those kinds of things. Yeah, we have people doing that. Like if you already have a Shopify store and you want to link to your Shopify store, or if you're selling on Amazon or selling on Etsy, or, you know, you can definitely link anywhere you want to go, but if you want it embedded within website, then yeah, there. Then there's probably other options that might be a better fit. But for most nonprofits, I would say, especially those that you know don't have an in house tech department, I think that there's a great opportunity to build something that is going to work really well for your audience, and get that community and that support you're looking

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
for. Yeah, I think that's great. And as we kind of wrap this up, I really just want to put the bow on, like 100% I would love to build your website. It's going to cost you somewhere between five to $7,000 like just being real, plus the maintenance costs on top of that. And so I think, like I said earlier, I'm so excited to be partnering with, Oh, my high on this template for nonprofits, specifically because it's so cost effective. You get a ton of personal touch and training, some of it, which I pop in on occasionally, yeah. So you get my face,

Becky Launder
keep bringing the good stuff Sammy on today.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
But then when you you know, as you continue to grow and evolve, you can still continue to grow and evolve and update with, Oh, my high because they're always also adding new functionality. They're listening to the community. As the community says, Hey, we need this. Or could you add this, they've added a very robust quiz functionality. There's like, great contact forms, and so it's just such a great opportunity for you. If you're feeling overwhelmed, you don't feel like your website's converting, definitely check it out. You guys have tons of great blog content. You're holding webinars all the time. You're doing trainings like I do on email segmentation and emails in general, so it's like a whole community. So you can actually build your website without having to feel alone because you've got people here with you. So Becky, where do people go? And full disclosure, I'm an affiliate for Oh my high, and so we'll link my affiliate link up in the show notes. But if people want to kind of listen and learn more about, oh, my high how can they do that? Yeah,

Becky Launder
well, let's link to your affiliate link. But omahi.com you can find everything, and then Sammy can also share with you. We have a specific page for nonprofits that does a demo of the template site that I think is really great just to kind of, if you're a visual person and you need to see it. That's a really great place to go to learn more. We also just recently did a workshop on how to build a website that works for you while you're asleep. And that's you know, goals right there to have something working in the background for you all the time. So if you need a little bit more education and understanding about how it could work for you. Definitely check that out. And even if you already have a website and things are working for you over there, you can grab a freebie that we have on five web pages that every small business needs and what to say on them. So I love good Mad Lib style. Fill in the blank kinds of templates, and you'll find that in that document, but then also inside our templates over at Oh my high too, to make it really easy peasy, to get it launched and up and running as quick as possible. And we do have a little bonus. Can I mention that? Sandy? Oh yeah. 100% Absolutely. Yeah. So when you launch your Oh my Hey site within the first 30 days, we actually give you a free month. So that's how bad we want this for you. We want you to launch quickly, and we are going to incentivize you to actually get it done. Because I know that this probably isn't your priority or your full time job, and it's one of those things update website that might be on your to do list, like forever and ever more. So when you do join us on, oh my high and get it launched, which is a basic website, your homepage, your about page, your contact page, then we actually give you an extra free month. So a fun little incentive to motivate you to get it done and get it done quickly so it can. Working for Yeah, so

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
we'll have all the links at thefirstclick.net/ohmyhi, and it's O, H, M, Y, H, I like, hi, like, hello, hi. Oh, my high. So this episode will be there additional resources, everything that Becky just mentioned. But also we would love for you to share this episode with like those PTAs or like, smaller community nonprofits, where they're like, hey, somebody created a website for us and we can't access it, or we can't get into it anymore. We have no idea what to do. This is perfect, because no matter what they'll like, if you have new board members or new presidents coming in, or new booster club members, like, they'll always be able to come into the Oh my high community to get that training from Becky and the incredible team there, Lisa duck, who does the technical training, another one of my biz besties. She's amazing, patient woman on earth. Oh my gosh. She's incredible. Like, and I'm always telling her, I'm like, You should just take over their screens and, like, do it for them. She's like, but then they don't know how to do it. So she's so good at, like, really walking you through it, so you're not just, like, getting it done in the moment, but like you can remember how to do it for the rest of time. So share this episode with those people that you know are having kind of that struggle and can't even access their small nonprofits website anymore. This is a great tool and opportunity for that, but Becky, I just want to thank you so much for being here and sharing, oh my high. Are there any, like, last words or things that I didn't

Becky Launder
mention I didn't I mean, I feel like you hit all of the important things Sammy and we love having you as a partner with, oh my high and part of our community. And like I said, Love when you're popping in to our live support and offering just a little, you know, a couple tidbits here and there, I'm always like, well, good. I'll get you guys here that Sammy told us you told you, what's that

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
little gentle nudge? Sometimes not so gentle, but it all comes

Becky Launder
from other reviews too. People are loving the reviews. They're like, Sami told me that I need to make these updates, but she said it in a really nice way.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
She knows. Thank

Becky Launder
you so much for sharing, oh my high with all of your people. We look forward to supporting them and helping them get their website up and running. Great. I

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
love and again, that link is thefirstclick.net/ohmyhi, grab all those resources and hit me up if you have any questions. Thanks, Becky. Sure thing, bye, Sami, bye.