# Website/Web hosting?



## tree md

After 10 years I finally got my domain name back. Someone took it from me way back then when I let my domain name expire. So now I have got my company name back as a domain name and am looking for info on pricing and names of services for building and hosting a website.

My brother built my old website and I had a guy who provided me with 2 years of hosting and 5 emails as well as traffic statistics for like $20 bucks. Can anyone point me in the direction of a straight up hosting and possible building service?


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## BCbound

Check out godaddy.com or hostgator.com. Both have reasonable rates. You could do a wordpress site for under 100.00 or have them do one up for you. Probably only a few bucks more.


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## ATH

Web hosting provider - Bluehost.com

fully featured hosting service, a lot of tools - even site buildng tools that I have never used. Unlimited storage, I think there may be a limit on e-mail accounts, but it is more than you will ever use.

I really like WordPress for building a site. Joomla is another good one with lots of templates. I find Joomla less user-friendly than WordPress (and I know html code...). It is shocking what some folks will charge to plug your stuff into a free template (or maybe even spend $30 to get a 'premium' template). I have seen estimates of $2500 for 2-3 pages. I could have that done in an afternoon if you provide the content...


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## tree md

Thanks for the input. I doing some research this morning. I found a hosting service that is willing to give me: 

Unlimited GB's of Space*
Unlimited GB's of Transfer*
Unlimited Domain Hosting
Unlimited E-Mail Accounts
Unlimited MySQL Databases
FREE Site Builder
FREE Domain Name
FREE Instant Setup
Anytime Money Back Guarantee

for $168 for 4 years. They have great reviews. The service is called Just Host.

Does that sound like a good deal?


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## BCbound

If they are setting up a site for you, that sounds reasonable. Make sure your able to get into your site for minor changes. That would save you $$ later on. As ATH said wordpress is very easy to deal with and easy to change if you don't like the site after some time(free). Also spend a few minutes on youtube to see if "Just Host" has tutorials of any kind for future reference.


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## lfnh

Might dig a little more.
Cnet or PC mag or consumer report stuff on top hosting sites.
read fine print on unlimited storage/data transfer (per r, day, week, month).
some gotchas in some plans.
just a thought.


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## tree md

well I went ahead and paid for a hosting service. Not the one I posted about earlier but another one. It was a little cheaper than the one I mentioned before but seems to be just fine for my needs.. I have managed to publish a page with my basic info and a message saying the site is under construction... I've got a lot of learning to do... A web designer I am not.

Thanks to everyone for the input here and through PM.


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## lfnh

Maybe find a high school kid to lend a quick hand. cheap. get ya going.


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## Juicemang

I made my site with wordpress. Hosted with bluehost. If you have average computer skills you should be able to learn wordpress in a short period of time. The website is by far the most cost effective form of advertising. I also find that customers from the website are easier to close with and willing to spend more money. Focusing my ad $$ online has made my overall advertising budget go down and still keep very busy. If you don't feel like making your own site, a couple thousand for a good site would still be $$ well spent in my opinion. 

This is the second version of my site, just started building it after the new year. Still working on it but i'm happy with what it looks like for just being a tree guy haha...
Tree Service Livonia | Arbor Man LLC


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## tree md

Very nice!

I'm almost embarrassed to show you mine after seeing that one. I did mine with WP as well... Not too much so far but it's a start. It's my first website so don't laugh. 

Complete Tree Service Serving Tulsa Metro and All of Green Country


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## Juicemang

Lookin good!! You already have a lot of good content up. As you continue to use wordpress you will find you can update the look of your site and then just plug your old content right into the new theme. Once your happy with the site you should start a google adwords account. Google ad words rocks, you can turn it on when you need work, turn it off when you go on vacation and don't want calls.


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## tree md

Great info! I was wondering about the Google adwords. I have a $75 credit for google adwords with my hosting service. Appreciate the info!


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## nitrousbaby

I use square space im about as smooth with a computer as a newborn and there hosting and site builder helped me build a pretty nice site for $12 a month


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## tree md

nitrousbaby said:


> I use square space im about as smooth with a computer as a newborn and there hosting and site builder helped me build a pretty nice site for $12 a month



Way too much. I am paying less than $4 a month and can host unlimited websites.


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## rtsims

How long did it take you to get the site up once you signed up with the service?
I ask because i have been building my own site off and on for 3 months, rediculous i know. 
Im not tech savy and im thinking about starting all over with one of these hosting company's.


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## tree md

rtsims said:


> How long did it take you to get the site up once you signed up with the service?
> I ask because i have been building my own site off and on for 3 months, rediculous i know.
> Im not tech savy and im thinking about starting all over with one of these hosting company's.



It took 24 hours for my domain to register and I had a site under construction page up the next day. I had a contact page up pretty much immediately after that. It took me a couple of days to get my first couple of pages up. Took me a week or so to get most of my viewable pages done and about a month of studying and adding content for SEO. Optimization is an ongoing process. It actually takes more study and time than creating the viewable content.


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## rtsims

Thanks. Maybe i will keep plugging away with the site i have been working on. 
Its crazy, i was scheduled 2 weeks out for a while and now i havent been in a tree in 2 weeks. I understand it though, im still in the startup faze of my business and all my work has come from word of mouth or someone picking up my business card at one of the local markets. Im excited to have an internet presents, im young and hungry and love this business. Takes money to make money thats for sure.


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## ashevilletree

tree md said:


> After 10 years I finally got my domain name back. Someone took it from me way back then when I let my domain name expire. So now I have got my company name back as a domain name and am looking for info on pricing and names of services for building and hosting a website.
> 
> My brother built my old website and I had a guy who provided me with 2 years of hosting and 5 emails as well as traffic statistics for like $20 bucks. Can anyone point me in the direction of a straight up hosting and possible building service?




I believe that the builder solutions prob. won't be the best LONG TERM solution for you...We had one when we first started out and had to replace it because you can't do much with it. Although it's low cost, it's prob. better to go with a wordpress site. You can find decent themes online and customize it to your liking..


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## cnpser

ashevilletree said:


> I believe that the builder solutions prob. won't be the best LONG TERM solution for you...We had one when we first started out and had to replace it because you can't do much with it. Although it's low cost, it's prob. better to go with a wordpress site. You can find decent themes online and customize it to your liking..



I have to agree with this. There is not much you can do with those build it yourself sites and you are limited on the number of pages that you can have also. I am constantly replacing these types of sites with a much better wordpress based site. Do not get a wordpress.org site, host your own wordpress site. I know that some are limited on their budgets but it is the best advertising money you will ever spend.


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## rtsims

I ended up using Fat Cow for something like $3.99/ month. It has Word Press and other options. I got so frustrated putting a site together that i hired my brother in law's girlfriend. She had a site up in a few hours. One problem, she didnt use any of my images, none of my text, and under the services page she put topping as something we offer. I have called her, sent her text messages and emails. No reply. That was a month ago. The web site doesnt come up in a google search either, i know thats all SEO stuff but geeez. So i guess a need to take down the site and hire a pro. Ill put up a link when the time is right.


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## cnpser

rtsims said:


> I ended up using Fat Cow for something like $3.99/ month. It has Word Press and other options. I got so frustrated putting a site together that i hired my brother in law's girlfriend. She had a site up in a few hours. One problem, she didnt use any of my images, none of my text, and under the services page she put topping as something we offer. I have called her, sent her text messages and emails. No reply. That was a month ago. The web site doesnt come up in a google search either, i know thats all SEO stuff but geeez. So i guess a need to take down the site and hire a pro. Ill put up a link when the time is right.



Drop me a line, I do this for a living and let me see if I can give you a quick hand with that site. If you have the login that is. Other wise you may have to start over.


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## customcare

*site building*

New to forum and site building. In the saw industry 20+ years, sales and service. Have attempted several site builders. Find most of them to be fairly simple to add product but hard to manage. Finally settled on one (49.99mo:month)and built a site, looks decent, but need tips in driving traffic! Thanks :msp_confused:


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## TreeandStump

We use Az2o Hosting for our website. They provide design and hosting for a very cheap price and their support is second to none.

Our website can be seen here - website

Az2o Hosting is viewable here - website

Hope this help


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## imagineero

@treemd,
what happened to your site? I was flicking through this thread after finding it from google but i found your website was suspended. Did it turn out the host was no good?


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## ROPECLIMBER

*WEBSITE / WEB HOSTING / SEO 's*

Thanks for all the great Ideas, great thread but it is hard to find because of the forward / attached to websites / web hosting.
figured I would post my web build. So far I have hair left but it is slow learning how did I get passed up by the computer web age we had one computer class in HS my senior year Pascal on a macintosh with floppy disks then I dropped out of college because the trees and now money was screaming at me, now many sleep less nights doing a simple task that most 12-15 year olds think as second nature, to add to anyone who may be as back woods as I am about the web / webhosting game I would say find a good paid wordpress theme up front I have spent a lot of time trying to back door a free or loaner theme and thats the bait and hook
after geting it just about right I find out they lock you out of the email section unless you buy thier annual membeship, of 149 per year so to save time and frustration with yourself remember nothing is free, that said here is my web site so far. 

Goodman Treescapes

The banner slide is photos only which limits me on my old lap top had to actually past and scan the banner so will have a logo photo made then load it later or I am going to go with another theme and just move content not sure yet Thanks and rep sent to ATH for the PMs,

Now for some more learning SEO's most of the "free" word press themes don't have good info on SEO so any help will be greatly aprecieated have my web site up but can't find it unless I gogle company name and I am unfortunate of having the same given name as a famous dead gay writter so if I goole my personal name he comes up, and when I google Goodman Treescapes my Face book comes up before my web site, off to read up on Search Engine Optimisation.
I got spoiled before the resession with all the word of mouth I could handle, now the calls are slim and everyone is price shopping.I spend over an hour educating the client and they still go for the cheapest bid. San Antonio has always been a repressed labor/service economy so whats new,
Can Not Edit Heading had to copy deleate post then re post with new heading, darn puters.
Paul


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## ATH

Search for WordPress SEO plugins...there are some good ones that help.


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## ROPECLIMBER

had to change Themes so I could Caption the ISA Certified Arborist Logo, dont like this Theme as well but didn't want to have a resedual fee so went with this SmallBiz theme by expand 2 web . com

here it is so far learning how to add a link to each page to get the client to stay and click on next page or content and adding more links to other sites to get the customer to stay and read or click to contacts etc. was thinking the green header was to much but when I went back to grey it looks blah so left it green

San Antonio Tree Trimming,Removal,Preservation,ISA Certified Arborist


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## Caghrlos

vacation and don't want calls.


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## BuckmasterStumpGrinding

I host with bluehost.com and 1and1.com is my domain registrar. I like both. They are reasonable on price and have great customer service. I have a long way to go building my website as I have decided to learn to write html and build my own from scratch. When I have issues with anything I can CALL and they will walk me through what I am doing wrong. I have a long way to go in making a proper site that ranks well in google but I have made it to page 3 on google when a search contains my town and tree.


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## Druidess

BuckmasterStumpGrinding said:


> I host with bluehost.com and 1and1.com is my domain registrar. I like both. They are reasonable on price and have great customer service. I have a long way to go building my website as I have decided to learn to write html and build my own from scratch. When I have issues with anything I can CALL and they will walk me through what I am doing wrong. I have a long way to go in making a proper site that ranks well in google but I have made it to page 3 on google when a search contains my town and tree.



I would suggest you go to Google Places for Business (https://www.google.com/business/placesforbusiness/) and get your business verified as well as create a business page for yourself. Ideally you can then encourage customers to give you reviews of your service. Above all, claiming your business on Google at Places is going to help raise your visibility in searches. 

I would suggest you reconsider doing scratch HTML and use Wordpress and employ some free plugins that add some functionality above and beyond the editor that comes with Wordpress. Wordpress SEO (Yoast) helps you set up and test how well you are doing with improving the search capability, and you can also access a free drag and drop editor called Page Builder (by SiteOrigin). Above all, you need to write some more text because Google doesn't search images and it needs to find enough relevant material and regular updates to keep the site indexing "robots" interested.

Facebook created a generic site for your business and you should probably look into claiming it and linking it to your website. Links between a website and social media is very helpful. Definitely create links with your Google business page and webpage.

You could alternatively use Weebly which Bluehost has a modified version on offer. It is a pretty nice drag and drop design tool, and I like it better than SquareSpace which I think someone else mentioned earlier in this thread. This is a site I did for another tree company this spring using Weebly: http://www.voriotree.com/ Some tweaking of the text is in order but he has the links to his Google page and Facebook page and has nice video and photos to demonstrate what he does.

Hope this helps illustrate some things to consider.


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## inventtis

I use hostgator.com, they have the fastest servers for the money, plus they actually own their servers, instead of leasing them. If you have a tech support question, you will get someone that speaks English and will resolve the problem. I've been very happy with them. If you are looking for a builder, I probably could help you out or point you in the right direction as I know several website developers.

www.pikeme.com is my personal project, if you want to see something I've built, though it needs updated.


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## AlexWoods

you can use A b2b wood market website where you can create a company page.it s easier and free. good luck


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## MartinRg

ATH said:


> Search for WordPress SEO plugins...there are some good ones that help.


I think that is the very good idea to start with.


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## Aldegar

I did hostgator and their website builder for super cheap and it's really easy. www.gigharborbigfoot.com but now I need help figuring out SEO for getting my site to pop up in the search engines. I don't really want to pay for google ads if I can help it. Anyone have any suggestions for internet marketing on the cheap?


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## BuckmasterStumpGrinding

Make sure tree service and your town are used liberally in the text of your website. My website is nothing fancy at all but usually pops up on the first page when someone searches for tree service shawnee OK. It did take a few months to get there though.


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## Aldegar

Thanks for the advise, will pump up the keywords a bit more.


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