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Oh Great LJ-Brain -- How to Get a Website Built?

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06:50 pm
9/18/08

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incandragon
My sister-in-law has moved to Colorado and is going to set up a pet-sitting business. She's got the legal side set up, but she knows she needs a web presence. She's asked me:

How does she purchase a website name? Is name.com the best place to purchase the domain name? (If not, where's a good place?)
How much (ballpark) should she expect do basic website designs run: Home Page, Contact info, and Prices?
Where should she go to find someone to do it?

I actually don't know the first thing -- I've never bought a website. I *do* know she's usually sinking all her money into her animal rescue hobby, so she probably doesn't have a lot of disposable income.

Does anyone out there in LJ-land have any advice?

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On September 19th, 2008 02:33 am (UTC), [info]stoda commented:
We usually use Joker, I think...

I should have [info]bfly give you real info, since she does that sorta thing for a living.

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On September 19th, 2008 02:53 am (UTC), [info]drammar commented:
I use Network Solutions. Good pricing structure, and enough customer service to really be helpful.

The firm that I use for web (and other) design charges $600 for a basic web page. She can take a look at mine: www.write-for-you.net or see theirs at: www.communicatebydesign.com

They can also help her with logo development, brochures and all the etcetera she may need.

As an alternative, she might check with a local junior college to see if there are any graphic/web design students who might want to do it for her for less money -- and they get a real-world reference for their portfolio.

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On September 19th, 2008 03:19 am (UTC), [info]mouser commented:
Do not use random registars for your domain. They will screw you like you wouldn't believe.

I don't know name.com so I don't know about them.

I suspect she mostly wants a fairly static web setup - basically "a brochure" on the web. Most web hosting site can easily handle that.

Average cost for a domain name is VERY cheap, less then $50 per year the last time I looked - I think it's much less then that.

The trick will be setting up the pages themselves. Good art can cost money to set up, and THAT I have no opinion about.

Give draknet.com a look. They're good people.

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On September 19th, 2008 04:02 am (UTC), [info]mouser replied:
I just read up on Draknet - I do trust them (the owner is a good person) but they work with professionals, not the brochure crowd.

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On September 19th, 2008 03:43 am (UTC), [info]madspark commented:
I use DirectNIC.com for my registration; at $15 per year, it's rather more expensive than other places, but they have been around for many years, they have an excellent interface, and have been very good to me.

Do not under any circumstance use Network Solutions -- their abysmal, if not abusive, excuse for "customer service" will make it essentially impossible to LEAVE them in the future, and they also have very deceptive (I think) advertising and direct mail practices.

I use dreamhost.com to host the site itself.

As for make a site? I use Mediawiki right now for my basic structure, but I'm in the process of writing a custom Wiki environment (or will be, once Halloween is over).

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On September 19th, 2008 04:12 am (UTC), [info]fabozz commented:
Of the "old and boring" registrars, I like Register.com the best. Before Register.com opened, we had our domains with Network Solutions, and in my opinion they abused their monopoly power—I won't do business with them ever again. But these days, I use GoDaddy.com, because they're dirt cheap ($9/year) and well-administered.

GoDaddy also offers an easy and decent build-your-own-website tool. In fact, from cruising their website briefly, it looks like you can use their build-a-site tool, get the site hosted, get email forwarded, and get the domain itself registered for a whopping $7 the first month and $5 per month thereafter. That'd get her started, and then she can decide whether it's worthwhile to get something custom-made.

By the way, you didn't ask about the most important thing of all: search engine optimization. There are some very simple things she'll need to do in her site to make sure that it plays nicely with The Google. Most of them are just tweaks to web page text, but picking the right domain name also matters. Follow up with me offline and I can give some tips on this.

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On September 21st, 2008 05:18 pm (UTC), (Anonymous) commented:
help with website
This is Rena, Melissa's sister-in-law. Thank you all so much for your insight on websites. I'm a bit overwhelmed right now with everything-getting my business started, so hearing from all of you is just wonderful.

Best,

Rena

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