1 Year Domain Registration for $1

[tryan326]

People buy domains all the time with or without hosting. I personally have about 100+ just in case I want to build a website on them. It seems Ray was just posting a coupon so anyone interested in using it could. What's the fuss?

If you want to know more about go daddy services it would be best to visit their site and poke around.

 

[radiusbob]

I would think the GoDaddy business model is made on the upsale; hosting, private domain name registration, shopping cart, email hosting, seo offering, etc...

Keep in mind that most likely they cram as many sites onto the same servers as possible. GoDaddy is based out of Phoenix, where their data centers are housed I am not aware of.

 

[Robert Barney]

I think talking about the cost of having and keeping a website is a very useful discussion. I talk to agents all the time who want web sites (and I don't do them) and they have connected with someone who is going to do their web site and it will be ready in a couple of months.

A couple of months? Gimmee a break. Makes me wonder what the heck they are paying for it.

So here are my thoughts, for what they are worth.

First, ALWAYS register your own domain name. DO NOT LET the guys developing your web do it for you. I have too many calls from people who had to part ways with the people who did their web sites, and discover that the folks who did the web site own the domain name and will not give it up (or anything else).

Second, you should purchase the hosting package, and not let the people developing your site do it for you. Once again, you own the site, NOT them.

Now costs for hosting can be dirt cheap. You can't swing a dead cat by the tail and not hit hosting packages for way under $100 per year. Godaddy has a low cost hosting package for under $5 per month - which includes 100 email accounts.

A hosting package simply means that you are renting space on a computer that is hooked up to the internet. It also provides you with a certain amount of information transfer, which is the downloading and uploading of data from that computer, and from your web site, to the internet. If your site becomes busy (if it is a new one it won't) or you load it up with large files, then the transfer volume may become an issue later and you will need a larger package (aka - pay more). No problem, you just upgrade.

There are two basic operating systems that you can use for hosting your web pages: Linux or Windows

I would strongly recommend Linux. If there are some here who want to debate that, have at it - but keep reading.

Now here is the important thing. You will need someone to develop or create the web pages for your site.

Web pages are just DOCUMENTS that sit on your web site and produce the information that appears on the screen when someone visits. Now I realize that they can be much more complicated than a page of text, but I prefer simple and not complicated.

Anyway, you will need someone to create those pages (develop your site) and that's where you can get into spending a lot of money, or very little.

BUT WHAT YOU MUST INSIST ON, is that whoever creates your pages AGREES that they are YOUR PAGES. In other words, if sometime in the future you and they part company, for whatever reason, they can't hold your web site hostage by saying the pages belong to them and not you.

Those of you who have paid for weddings, and wedding photographers, know exactly what I mean. Do you own the negatives, or do they?

Can that happen? You bet your bippy it can happen and it does happen all the time. And if it does happen you can end up starting all over again. So get that straight and in writing right up front.

So, who do you get to do your web pages?

I always suggest to those who ask that they contact their local college and/or university, and ask for the computer programming department and tell them you are looking to employ a student who does web page programming part time. A lot of kids will work for next to nothing to get experience and to have a real project that they can show off as having done.

One of my son's friends, who had graduated with a computer programming major, went to work for another friends company for 2 months - FREE - just to get some employment experience on his resume.

Most kids who are computer nerds have already done sites and pages and you can see some of their previous work, so ask them to see it.

Style and look, VARIES WIDELY. What you think looks good, the next guy may not think looks good. It's like painting the interior of a house in bold dark colors. You may love them, but if you have to sell your house, everyone will tell you to paint in light pastels because they are less offensive to most people.

Think the same way about your site. What you want is for your site's "look and feel" to not get in the way of someone using it. You don't want it to look like a Mickey Mouse cartoon, and you want to convey a certain sense of business maturity. Once again, if you are considering two alternatives, GO SIMPLE, which also makes you site easy to use.

DO NOT let the kid develop your content. Content is what you actually say about yourself and what you do on your site. No one knows that better than you and if you can sell life insurance, you should have a clue as to what you do and do not say to people to get them to buy insurance for you. I am VERY much the person who makes all final decisions about content on my web sites.

On the other hand, my son-in-law Jeremiah, who works for the company, does all things related to style. He has a great sense of style, and I have none, nada, nothing. That's why I said when you are hiring your developer to have a look at other things they have done, to get a sense of their style, and they will have one. If it is foreign to what you like, on to the next person. Most people who play jazz don't do well with country and western (good musicians play anything).

Before embarking on this (first register your domain name). Shorter is better. Don't get to cute with hypens and such.

I would then visit lots of other insurance agent web sites and make notes of those you like, what they have on them, and what they don't. Once again, YOU need to develop the content and you should be doing that for yourself, as you visit other sites.

DO NOT COPY and paste other peoples documents into your stuff. If you see something you like, do your own version of it so you don't have copyright issues.

Now, before you purchase your hosting package (get your domain name), find your developer (whoever that is), and have a chat about the things I spoke about. Find out what they will charge you an hour, and how long they think they will need to do a site. (you know, the questions I was asking here). And if you use a student, it shouldn't be much.

If you find one you are prepared to go with, ask them whether they prefer Windows or Linux. Tell them to recommend a hosting site for that - THEN YOU PURCHASE IT - not them.

Once you have paid for your pages, you are looking at an ongoing annual cost of about $70 per year for the name and hosting.

You only need the developer, or A developer, if you need to make changes. But I would suggest sticking your nose in enough, to learn how to download and upload pages from your local computer to your site. At the very least, you want a backup copy of ALL the pages on your site, on your local computer. How much you want to learn about making changes to those pages (such as a new address and phone number), is up to you. Obviously if you can learn how to make simple changes to content, it will save you money not having to run to find a programmer.

 

[Guest]

There are two basic operating systems that you can use for hosting your web pages: Linux or Windows

Good info here. Just a few additions to make.

The Windows webserver is called IIS (Internet Information Server... or something like that.) It is Windows-only.

The other server system is called Apache. it runs on every operating system... Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, etc. ... and is probably what you want... unless you are using ASP (see below.)

There are some webhosts companies that use an operating system called FreeBSD.

Many, including myself, believe that this is better (i.e. more stable and faster) than Linux. Linux is fine, but if your host offers FreeBSD (which looks, acts, and smells like Linux... you would probably never know the difference) go or it. (It would take me 5,000 words to explain why FreeBSD is better... and you could care less.)

Another thing. There are two major scripting choices. The first and most common and the one I recommend is called PHP. It runs on both the IIS and Apache server.

The second is called ASP and is Microsoft-only (in that it only runs on the Windows IIS server.)

Wars are fought over whether ASP is better than PHP and whether Apache is better than IIS.

Some web hosts will offer both a Windows and a Linux option. You need the Windows option if you want an ASPx site.

[editorial]

My choice and the choice of most web pros is PHP running on Apache running on Linux or FreeBSD.

ASPx is great for a corporate internal inTRAnet but I believe that IIS is still too slow, too insecure and that ASP has too much overhead to work well on the (external) internet.

ASPx has had a long history of problems on non-Microsoft browers.

[/editorial]

Al
InsuranceSolutions123 Agency

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

"Second, you should purchase the hosting package, and not let the people developing your site do it for you. Once again, you own the site, NOT them."

Bingo.

 

[radiusbob]

Couple Points:

1. You get what you pay for. Don't expect a Mercedes when you pay for a Yugo. While the student route is an option, there is a difference between amateurs and professionals

2. Designers Design, Developers Program. To have a truly effective site, both asthetics and functionality are important. Don't skimp on either.

3. The end user could careless about what language your site is written in and what type of server it sits on. al3 is right, you can go in circles on which is better and why to chose on over the other...The most important think to take into consideration when it comes to choosing a hosting partner is CUSTOMER SERVICE. Believe, all host are going to guarantee 99.9% uptime and eventually all hosts will have downtime. It is the manner in which the downtime is handled that separates the herd. Find a host that has 24/7 customer service and call them at an odd hour. See how long the phone rings, how long you are on hold and how long it takes to speak with a tech/customer service rep. Now take that approach and assume servers are down throughout their entire network and that will give you a great understanding of their Customer Service.

 

[Robert Barney]

Oooo, there's a scary word, "hosting partner". Where did that come from?

I don't want a partner hosting my web site, I want an enterprise that is going to provide me with a hosting package that is reliable and affordable.

Is there any reason for the average agent to pay more than $100 a year for a hosting package?

If a site is down it's down. It has nothing to do with the pages I put on it. There is either a malfunction in the server or its connection to the web. Once that is fixed, your up.

And if you are sharing a server with a number of other people, because you bought a shared hosting deal, then you won't the only person screaming that you site is down.

 

[HawkeyeJ]

Did you read the title of the thread?

"1 Year Domain Registration for $1"

So you ask, "why would you post prices on a forum?" I suspect the answer to that is because you thought the prices were "news" or worthy of discussion. Is there another reason?

Then the second question on this thread asked:

"Does that include hosting?"

Which begs the question, and what does hosting cost?

And I wanted more specifics and everyone is reading into that an ulterior motive. Wasn't this a thread about internet costs?

So there's hosting...where does SEO play a role in all this?

 

[radiusbob]

Oooo, there's a scary word, "hosting partner". Where did that come from?

I don't want a partner hosting my web site, I want an enterprise that is going to provide me with a hosting package that is reliable and affordable.

Is there any reason for the average agent to pay more than $100 a year for a hosting package?

If a site is down it's down. It has nothing to do with the pages I put on it. There is either a malfunction in the server or its connection to the web. Once that is fixed, your up.

And if you are sharing a server with a number of other people, because you bought a shared hosting deal, then you won't the only person screaming that you site is down.

A Partner has a Vested Interest in your success. An enterprise has only an interest in their success.

The price one pays is based upon the needs of the website. Hosting Fees come down to needed bandwidth, disk space, email accounts, database features, etc..

Technically a site can be down do to various reasons including a bug in the code that forces it down along with server and connection issues.

My point exactly on the shared server part. The more sites on a server the more likely it is to go down do to the amount of complexities each site brings to the table. So in picking a good partner, judge them on how they respond to downtime and issues, not the price point of the service they provide.

 

[Robert Barney]

Gee I hate acronyms I have to look up.

SEO = search engine optimization

Probably one of the biggest ways to get suckers to part with their money.

You have all these outfits telling all these owners of web sites that they will be able to get them listed number one on a search engine. And they are telling everybody the same thing.

Question: Can everybody be first on a search?

Duh.

Are there things you can do to be more friendly to search engines, yes. But under no circumstances do you want to pay big bucks to someone who claims they are going to take a new web site, or a little used web site, and place it on the first page of a search engine.

For most agents the traffic that gets to their site will be the traffic that they create themselves from pointing people to their site - which means not much traffic.

WHICH IS WHY you don't want to spend big bucks doing a web site.

So why have a web site? You want a web site so you do not appear to be a neanderthal. Nothing says out of step like "I don't have a web site".

And nothing says "amateur night" like, send an email to me at [email protected] or [email protected]

Think of your web site as a color brochure that costs you very little to produce. You can tell your clients all about yourself and on your business card all you need is:

www.mysite.com
email: [email protected]

But to think the whole world will beat a path to your site is a stretch.

So get a site, but don't spend a lot to do it.