New to Websites?

This article is for people who are new to — or about to buy — a website.

Several times a month I get a call for someone wanting a website who is absolutely in the dark on how to buy – or -build – a website. I’m finding people, who have lost or left there jobs, don’t want to spend a lot of money and want to start a business. So before someone takes advantage of you – before someone rips you off — here’s a few tid-bits you to should know.

You need a domain & hosting

First, you need a domain name. This is the text that gets typed in the address line at the top of the browser window (something like www.mydomain.com). The browser, usually being Chrome, Firefox, Opera, (or Safari if you have a Mac) and hopefully not Internet Explorer. There are other browsers out there as well.

When you pick a domain name pick something that makes sense (brightdaycleaning.com may be better than brightday.com)

You can buy a domain name at Go Daddy, One and One, Blue Host, Network Solutions, Fat Cow to name a few. The cost of a domain name runs about $10-$20/year. (a recurring cost)

OK that’s fine. Now you need a hosting service to place all the files and documents that become your website. The cost can vary between $80 to $150 a year for an average brochure site — more if you need more space for large files or tons of pages. Some hosting services will give  you a domain name with your purchase of hosting.

If you are paying the $80/year you are most likely on a shared server. Most of us are hosted on shared servers. The down side being how much traffic on other sites is on the shared server. Hosting services can put up dedicated servers that  hold only one website — that’s when it gets costly — huge corporations do this .

So when I hear that a little non-profit is paying a thousand dollars a year for hosting — I think they may be getting ripped off.

A couple of good cheap inexpensive hosting companies are Blue Host and Host Gator.

Let say you already bought your domain name – now  you need a host. I use Blue Host and Host Gator (there are more out there – some offer maintenance) they offer a reasonable cost and the back-end (developers side) has a good interface (c-panel) and features to work with. Other services may come in at a  lower price, then charge you for every little feature – such as email forwarding. There  are “free” hosting sites – if you want ads from other companies posted on your site — which may be a good option for some.

Chances are if  you come to me with a domain name bought on Go Daddy – I will request that it be hosted on a different host.

Website Maintenance

WordPress sites need maintenance. A website company may provide hosting – and charge a monthly/yearly fee. This is a great way for the web design company — it creates residual income for the web site company.

A maintenance fee from a web design company is a good way to go if  you’re not planning to update your site yourself – and if  they will provide updates. However there are many content management systems that are easy to use so that you can maintain your own site and will avoid the added cost of maintenance.

WordPress allows you to easily change content on pages, add images & media, links, etc. If you want to go deeper it is well supported meaning, lots and lots of people use it.

If you’re new to websites, think about what  your domain name will be, where it will be hosted, and how will it be maintained.