# Web site cost and help!



## woodville (Mar 25, 2007)

I'm looking to have a basic 2 or 3 page site along with a few links. I spoke to one guy who gave me a rough quote of 30$ and hour and a total around 300 or 400$. I'm not sure if this covers the domain name or not. What are you guys paying and can you recommend a solid Co?


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## Streyken (Mar 25, 2007)

First, register and control your own domain name, don't let a company register it for you. Domain registration is only 6.95 (with coupon code) a year at godaddy.com and I've never had any problems with them. Hosting can be inexpensive, just make sure you check reviews or get recommendations.

As for building a site, if there is a local technical school in your area, see if they offer a practicum project; there may be a fee of a few hundred dollars to ensure commitment on your part, but often you'll end up with a site that would've cost much more. Just check the students' portfolios and ask if they're available for such a project.

Regardless of how you proceed, decide why you want a site, and compile the information before design begins.


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## ATH (Mar 25, 2007)

I agree that you should register your own domain. I'd also add a suggestion that you separate hosting from the one writing the site. I am verry happy with www.bluehost.com They are 6.95 per month for hosting and domain registration. That price also includes a price builder. I have not played with that, so I don't know how usable it is.

Most places that host should give you one domain name for free. If you have somebody write the site who insists on hosting it, take Streyken advice and at least control your own domain name.


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## Canyonbc (Mar 28, 2007)

*Website*

hey

email me at [email protected]

i have a friend who is at George Fox Univerisity in Oregon, and he builds websites on the side...i think he is always looking for business. He poped my mine up as a favor for a family friend, but i have seen many of his other sites, that have turned out great. 

He is still working on mine but you can check it out, 

www.canyonbrushclearing.com


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## woodchux (Mar 28, 2007)

Check out Doteasy, you can have a domain name and free web hosting for only $25 per year. 25 bucks total cost per year for everything. I have used them for a few years and its for real. No banner ads or popups, free web hosting. 
Follow the link in my sig line and check it out yourself.


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## 046 (Mar 28, 2007)

how's their service?



woodchux said:


> Check out Doteasy, you can have a domain name and free web hosting for only $25 per year. 25 bucks total cost per year for everything. I have used them for a few years and its for real. No banner ads or popups, free web hosting.
> Follow the link in my sig line and check it out yourself.


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## woodchux (Mar 29, 2007)

046 said:


> how's their service?



Their service is great, and the absolute cheapest! You can get a domain name and free webhosting for as little as $90 for 5 years! Total cost! Not 90 per year, $90 for 5 years! That comes out to only $18 per year if you pay for a couple years in advance. 

I pay for my site 1 year at a time for $25 per year and they have never raised the price or charged any extra $.

I use this service myself and there is NO CATCH.


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## buzz (Apr 1, 2007)

*web page*

woodchux

I'd like to look at your web site thanks buzz


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## BlueRidgeMark (Apr 3, 2007)

Streyken said:


> First, register and control your own domain name, don't let a company register it for you. Domain registration is only 6.95 (with coupon code) a year at godaddy.com and I've never had any problems with them.



Streyken's advice is _ALL_ very good, just had to add two cents to this part. Godaddy offers something that I have not found elsewhere: proxy registration. Register with most places, and anyone who wants to can look up who owns the site, including your contact information. If you have a permanent business address & phone number, that's probably not a big deal. You'll likely have that on your site, or at least the phone number.

But if you work out of your home, you just gave your home address to the world. Mebbe you don'ts want to do that! 

Godaddy will do a proxy registration for a couple of bucks more, where the only info people will get is a front company's name. If someone needs to sue you, or has other LEGAL authority, the front company will provide your real contact info, so it's perfectly legal to do it this way. For the few bucks to protect the home location, I think it's a good deal.


There. I logged on for the first time in about 6 months just to tell you that! :hmm3grin2orange:

And if you didn't get anything else out of this thread, here's the most important part:



Streyken said:


> First, register and control your own domain name, don't let a company register it for you.



Part of controlling it is this: DON'T host with your registrar. Keep them separate. That way, if you have trouble with your hosting service, you can walk VERY easily, anytime. Mix the two up, and it becomes a very messy divorce, and they have you by the short hairs.


One other thing - email is almost free or IS free with any DECENT hosting service. You paid for a domain name, now USE IT! DON'T put your IOL (Idiots On Line) or Yahoo or Hotmail account on your commercial website!!! That just screams *BUSH LEAGUE!!!!!*


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## NORTREE (Apr 14, 2007)

I'd like to see Woodchux wibesite to but he doesn't seem to want to post a link to it....


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## maccall (Apr 15, 2007)

BlueRidgeMark said:


> Godaddy will do a proxy registration for a couple of bucks more, where the only info people will get is a front company's name. If someone needs to sue you, or has other LEGAL authority, the front company will provide your real contact info, so it's perfectly legal to do it this way. For the few bucks to protect the home location, I think it's a good deal.



[...]



> Part of controlling it is this: DON'T host with your registrar. Keep them separate. That way, if you have trouble with your hosting service, you can walk VERY easily, anytime. Mix the two up, and it becomes a very messy divorce, and they have you by the short hairs.




The last one is a good advice Mark, it's good practice. There are situations where there can be advantages of having the web hosting service manage dns for your domain, but the opposite is more likely and is a worse situation.

But the former advice actually creates the same bad situation on another level. With "proxy-registration" there's no official connection between you and the domain you "own" other than by the mercy of the registrar. But if/when they go bad you can't take your domain elsewhere without their full co-operation, because it's not really yours, and that's because it's not registered to you.

I strongly recommend that you should always, no exceptions, register your domain to yourself personally, or to the the company that you own/control. Who owns the domain, officially, is the most important part of all.

One must however admire Godaddy for making what is considered to be just bad practice for a registrar, even on the edge of being a scam, to be sold as a service for which they charge you extra...


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## diltree (Apr 15, 2007)

I would be glad to hook you up with my friend who does web design......he does nice work, and he is currently redesigning my site...it will cost a bit more then your expecting, but you get whatt you pay for.


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## neighborstree (Apr 15, 2007)

dillon, send me his email or tel him to contact me, [email protected]


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## BlueRidgeMark (Apr 15, 2007)

maccall said:


> But the former advice actually creates the same bad situation on another level. With "proxy-registration" there's no official connection between you and the domain you "own" other than by the mercy of the registrar. But if/when they go bad you can't take your domain elsewhere without their full co-operation, because it's not really yours, and that's because it's not registered to you.
> 
> I strongly recommend that you should always, no exceptions, register your domain to yourself personally, or to the the company that you own/control. Who owns the domain, officially, is the most important part of all.
> 
> One must however admire Godaddy for making what is considered to be just bad practice for a registrar, even on the edge of being a scam, to be sold as a service for which they charge you extra...



mccall, I think you've misunderstood how this works. My domain is no more tied up with GoDaddy than it would be with any other registrar using the standard approach. I own it, they don't. Of course I need their cooperation to move it to another registrar, but that's true of any registrar, proxy registration or not. You have to coordinate any change of registrar.


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## maccall (Apr 16, 2007)

BlueRidgeMark said:


> mccall, I think you've misunderstood how this works. My domain is no more tied up with GoDaddy than it would be with any other registrar using the standard approach. I own it, they don't. Of course I need their cooperation to move it to another registrar, but that's true of any registrar, proxy registration or not. You have to coordinate any change of registrar.




OK, I get that, but how can you show that you own it? If suddenly one day, likely or not, GoDaddy says "We know nothing of you, and that domain is registered to us, go away!", do you have anything else than just an agreement with GoDaddy about the ownership?

With many top-level-domains you can go past your registrar and simply say "My registrar isn't co-operating, I want my domain removed from their control." and it's a piece of cake if you can show that the domain is registered to you. But I'm not sure this would work with a .com-domain since there the registrars them self is pretty much the highest authority.

Of course it could be settled in court, but I think we all would like to keep as much of our daily business as possible out of court...


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## BlueRidgeMark (Apr 16, 2007)

Well, a stack of emails, as with any registrar. I know, it's not a paper trail, but it's as good as you're going to get these days. How many registrars actually mail a hard copy?


Then there's the matter of their reputation. Why would they mess with trying to keep one customer's domain when it would generate so much bad publicity? They're not AOL, you know! 

And as for keeping things out of court, absolutely agreed! You never know when you might get a Judge Judy wannabe in small claims court!


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## maccall (Apr 17, 2007)

BlueRidgeMark said:


> Well, a stack of emails, as with any registrar. I know, it's not a paper trail, but it's as good as you're going to get these days. How many registrars actually mail a hard copy?



I'll guess we'll have to call that face value of the modern times...



> Then there's the matter of their reputation. Why would they mess with trying to keep one customer's domain when it would generate so much bad publicity? They're not AOL, you know!



Thank goodness for that!


woodville:
I think we've come to this: Register your own domain, keep hosting and domain management separated, and have a local copy of your website stored on your own computer for backup. And good luck!


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## BlueRidgeMark (Apr 17, 2007)

maccall said:


> I'll guess we'll have to call that face value of the modern times...




Ain't that the truth!



Good point about the backup. "But my hosting service is supposed to do backups!"


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