Website Creation Advice Needed

[JenCoop202]

Hi all,

I am still relatively new to the forum, but it looks like a helpful bunch here, so I'll ask. I have a small business that is starting to do pretty well. In terms of online marketing, I have stuff on social media but I don't have a website yet.

I've done some homework and it's a bit overwhelming with options for domain, webhosting and site creation companies. I'm relatively decent with doing stuff like this but would still like a really easy to use platform as I might have an assistant help me with it. The site will mainly serve as an information source with contact, some pics and hopefully in the future we can implement a page where people can purchase items straight from the site. I would really like something with the capacity to grow with the company and not a platform that limits too much creativity. Perhaps this is all too much to ask.

I was hoping some of you might have some experience with your own companies. I'd like to hear ideas of what companies you have used for your businesses. I'd rather hold out and really make sure I choose the right thing so that I don't have to start all over again in the future.

Thanks!

 

[Politico]

I would like to hear some advice on this too.

 

[Chuckt]

Hi all,

I am still relatively new to the forum, but it looks like a helpful bunch here, so I'll ask. I have a small business that is starting to do pretty well. In terms of online marketing, I have stuff on social media but I don't have a website yet.

I've done some homework and it's a bit overwhelming with options for domain, webhosting and site creation companies. I'm relatively decent with doing stuff like this but would still like a really easy to use platform as I might have an assistant help me with it. The site will mainly serve as an information source with contact, some pics and hopefully in the future we can implement a page where people can purchase items straight from the site. I would really like something with the capacity to grow with the company and not a platform that limits too much creativity. Perhaps this is all too much to ask.

I was hoping some of you might have some experience with your own companies. I'd like to hear ideas of what companies you have used for your businesses. I'd rather hold out and really make sure I choose the right thing so that I don't have to start all over again in the future.

Thanks!

It is hard for me to answer your question. I've done a little research myself. One of the things you might want to research is the complaints against potential companies you want to do business with.

One of my acquaintances years ago advertised on Google and he had to pay per click. Controlling those costs may be easier said than done.

The other issue is certain providers who have a conflict of interest. Some of these providers will advertise that they can sign you up with a domain name and what they usually do is buy your website name for themselves and sell it back to you which makes it more costly than it is. In other words, they steal the name from you as soon as you enter it and buy it with the intent on selling it back to you. There are other websites with plans in place to drive up your cost so while you think you are getting a website with one cost, they are generating traffic to your site that drives up the cost.

I've looked around for people capable of designing a website and it really shouldn't be that hard because some sites give you the tools to do it yourself while others charge $500 for a website which doesn't sit well with me.

I have a friend in Australia and his website has something like 24 nodes around the world. He tests them when his website is down. If I can't get on your website, what do you have for backup.

When you are a start up, costs may make your business inefficient.

More later...

 

[JenCoop202]

Thanks Chuckt! Like you pointed out, some of the reviews and stories I've come across while research have been terrifying (basically companies being ruthless bloodsuckers). I'm hoping to not get into that mess, hence asking as many people as I can.

I hadn't thought about nodes, but that is a good point. I guess that's something else I have to look into.

In asking around I got a few people saying that it's best not to get a domain and hosting service with the same company just in case there are any issues. Any thoughts? I can see how that makes sense, but are there benefits of doing both with the same company?

Also, does anyone have experience with 1and1 (link is there for reference)? Two local business buddies of mine mentioned them to me, but I don't know too much about them to be honest. I'd like to know if anyone has experience with them. I did have a look at the reviews and saw that their services vary depending on where you are in the world (I think they have a good number of divisions all over the world to cater to specific countries).

I'll keep researching. But any additional info is welcomed.

 

[Chuckt]

The other question is whether you need a VPN instead of just a website. A VPN is a virtual private network and you can also get a certificate to make your site an HTTPS which means it is more secure and that certificate may cost $100+ a year.
A VPN can run $15-20 a month but has room for message boards about your services and uploads / downloads. They can offer you a terrabyte of ram. It can accept email and maybe you can offer email accounts.

 

[JenCoop202]

Hmmm I really don't think I need a VPN for the time being. I'm pretty sure a regular site would suffice. Thanks for making me think about that though. If you hadn't brought it up I don't think I would have even considered it.

 

[Politico]

So we still have nothing.

 

[Ringel05]

Don't know if these will help direct you or not but......

So, You Want Your Own Domain, Huh?

How to Choose a Web Hosting Service for your Business Web Pages » Web Marketing Today

 

[Darkwind]

Hi all,

I am still relatively new to the forum, but it looks like a helpful bunch here, so I'll ask. I have a small business that is starting to do pretty well. In terms of online marketing, I have stuff on social media but I don't have a website yet.

I've done some homework and it's a bit overwhelming with options for domain, webhosting and site creation companies. I'm relatively decent with doing stuff like this but would still like a really easy to use platform as I might have an assistant help me with it. The site will mainly serve as an information source with contact, some pics and hopefully in the future we can implement a page where people can purchase items straight from the site. I would really like something with the capacity to grow with the company and not a platform that limits too much creativity. Perhaps this is all too much to ask.

I was hoping some of you might have some experience with your own companies. I'd like to hear ideas of what companies you have used for your businesses. I'd rather hold out and really make sure I choose the right thing so that I don't have to start all over again in the future.

Thanks!

Key successes to many websites is content first. Many people think that they need all the bells and whistles of dynamic generated web pages that interact with the user every step of the way. While this is indeed, a good and trending thing to have on your website, fancy animations and perfectly designed forms won't do anything for you if your visitors don't have a reason to come to your website.

Doing web page markup is pretty straight forward. The HTML will structure you pages, Cascading Style Sheets will make your website look pretty, and scripting (JavaScript and either PHP, C#, VB, Ruby, ColdFusion) will make the site interactive with regard to processing information.

Luckily, many companies that host websites provide a flavor of all of these, along with a database you can use for back end storage.

Key questions to ask yourself are:

Purpose of the website. Is it informational or commercial. Do you envision the website changing from one to the other? Will you want to code it yourself, or hire someone? Will 'Off-the-shelf' solutions work for you?

If you have specific questions, just mail me and I'll help where I can, and I can provide you with some resources to further this along.

 

[Darkwind]

I would like to hear some advice on this too.

What is it you'd like to know? I have some background in this field.

 

[Darkwind]

Hmmm I really don't think I need a VPN for the time being. I'm pretty sure a regular site would suffice. Thanks for making me think about that though. If you hadn't brought it up I don't think I would have even considered it.

Does your company have a network that your employees will be logging into from the field?

Having an 'Intranet" (not to be confused with the Internet) is fine and you can host internal web pages for your employees use, and you can even make the internal pages accessible to the world, but its a complicated process to do.

If you wish to host your own website, you will need a dedicated internet connection (Dynamic IP address's are possible, but again, the set up is complex) with a significant throughput to allow visitors to access your web server. Keep in mind, if your Internet connection is slow 5 to 10mb throughput, you are going to have a limited amount of visitors as the connection slowly gets clogged with page requests. At first, it may be light, a few hundred requests a day, which could be an average of 200kb per hour. But if it goes up, you'll quickly run out of bandwidth.