Is this a totally geeky question? Have the multitudes of techy peeps already asked and answered this question? As I surf the world-wide-interweb, I’m noticing more and more that instead of people having websites, they just have a blog, and organize sub sections of the blog as they would a regular site. Really, why bother with a real website anymore? Why pay for server space? You can always extend a blog if you need to, and it probably costs the same or cheaper than a separate server. Why bother with web design? There are so many tasteful templates you can build on and add onto. I have spent the past ten years working on web design and production, and honestly can say that at the moment I can’t think of any reason why someone wouldn’t just get a freakin’ blog and forget about hiring web designers and all that crap. You can still sell things on a blog, or have video or sound or images on a blog. Alls you need is something to put into/onto said blog and you’re done. You hear that? Web design is a thing of the past. Hmmm… I was sort of planning on getting back into the Web once the girls go into daycare in a year and a half. Will the Web be anything like what I left? Should I worry about that, or should I try to focus on what to give them to eat when they wake up…
20 Fingers, 20 Toes 
I don’t think it’s a totally geeky question, but I do think it’s one you wouldn’t ask if you didn’t know web design already. Most of us insomniacs wandering around in the blogsphere have struggled to no avail with our pre-set templates and the restrictions of our blog hosts.
The thing is, then we discovered that getting someone to do actual custom design and programming was going to cost a couple thousand dollars and all of a sudden MySpace was fine.
Not that I’m arguing that the couple thousand dollars is unreasonable. For the amount of work that I can’t (or won’t) do myself, it’s completely reasonable, but most of us are just fitfully spewing our psyches into the void in the hope that someone somewhere will care – and a thousand dollars or more seems like a lot to pay for a simple cry for help.
On the other hand, corporations have never been more desperate to ‘create a web presence’, and they seem to be willing to pay just about anything for the privilege of having someone tell them how to do it.
I work for a company (that shall remain nameless) that paid a whole group of people a whole crapload of money to create a website that NOBODY CAN UPDATE. It has an ‘In The News’ section, and no one can change the news from when the site went live – 2 years ago.
Personally, I think you’re in a growth business, and I see no end to the suits that will be lining up begging for your taste and acumen.
So get the kids drunk and get to work. Oh wait, that stunts their growth, right? I guess it will have to be whole grain Cheerios and letting nature take it’s course…
Still, the interweb will be here waiting for you, and so will we.
Good points! What a great comment, Hannah. You’re probably right about the web design thing. Having done it for the past ten years, I guess I see an easy-ish way to organize information and images and I’m ready to jump on the bandwagon. Why bother learning CSS if someone who is really good at it already set up a nice little template for you? Content Management is the future. I’m glad you think I’m in a growth industry. I keep feedin’ ’em, they keep getting bigger, I keep getting broker. Again I ask… where’s my money?