Website - Domain Name - Hosting - Advice / Ideas

[64osby]

Considering setting up an Educational / Information based website tied to a education based program. If it works out it would be tied to a Non profit organization.

Have been researching site names, registration, hosting services.

One of the keys to a successful site is the name from what I know. Is buying a name worth it. One of the names I'm considering is taken with .com but not .org. I've read where .com are the best to have.

Researching names and the process, points to GoDaddy and several other hosting sites. Reviews for GoDaddy seem marginal at best.

More questions to follow, but thought this would get the ball rolling for discussion.

Fees, hosting issues, site designs, site promotion

 

[Scott Danforth]

our highschool class reunion committee uses godaddy.

 

[sublauxation]

I host my office stuff all through Go Daddy because it's easy and works well. There could be better stuff out there but I prefer easy. If you use them they're constantly offering 30% off so don't pay full price for anything from them.

 

[bruceb58]

Main thing with hosting sites is are they up 99.5% of the time and if it's easy to reach them if you have a problem.

Registering the domain name is easy and you can do that anywhere. I use godaddy for that.

I would stick with a .com name.

The hosting site I use is a medium size business. I first hosted my site with a small company but they went out of business and my site was down for a few days while I was scrambling finding a new host.

 

[MTboatguy]

Sent you a PM

 

[nylyon]

First, BUY your domain name. It's inexpensive and regardless of what you want to do, you will need your name. If the .org domain suits what you are looking for, go ahead and buy it, you can always get another one if that one doesn't work out. Knowing precisely what you are looking to do will help with recommendations, some software vendors offer hosting, but if you know the name, get it.

 

[MTboatguy]

Remember you are not "buying" your domain name, in truth you are leasing it, you can pay the lease fees on the name, from 1 year to 10 years currently, but you will simply be leasing it because there is a yearly cost for the domain name to the company you register it through. A lot of registars now offer hosting for some pretty good rates, but you will have to build your website, or you can host it with another company and hire someone to build it for you with your ideas. There are lots of ins and outs in the website business.

 

[Tnstratofam]

I just set up my new companies web site using Godaddy. I purchased a domain name and got a discount for a free years e-mail tied to it. I used their website builder and it worked very well. The fees were very reasonable to me. I think it totaled around $116.00 and that got me my domain name and website for 5 years. I thought that was a good deal. It was easy, and their customer support has been outstanding.

 

[sublauxation]

Beware the smaller hosts or friend of a friend. My office site was originally set up through a friend of an employee. I'm not sure how it happened but my domain ended up being registered or transferred to him, which was no problem but he got into a fight with my employee and took the site down and he wouldn't transfer the domain back to me. Thankfully this all happened right before his "lease" of the name was about to expire and he didn't renew it but I had to buy the domain back at auction. The site was down for about a month just as I was moving to a new office location which wasn't good. That's why I now keep everything through GoDaddy.

 

[bruceb58]

Beware the smaller hosts or friend of a friend.

Yep...you also want them to have generator power backup and good data backup depending on what type of site you run. Don't use mom and pop companies. Something happens to mom or pop and you are screwed.

 

[MTboatguy]

Simply amazing, it never ceases to amaze when this topic of conversation comes up.

 

[snowforfun4]

Has anyone used ipage? I started to set one up with them and got sidetracked.

 

[MTboatguy]

Yep...you also want them to have generator power backup and good data backup depending on what type of site you run. Don't use mom and pop companies. Something happens to mom or pop and you are screwed.

One thing you have to remember, just because it is a Mom and Pop company, does not mean they are going to just vaporize, My wife's company has been going strong for almost 20 years now and we don't house our servers here at the house, they are located in the same server farm that Godaddy uses for their servers/ Anybody that is serious about the business co locates their servers with other companies so they sit on the fastest backbone they can find, with a full support staff on site, and of course back up servers as well as generators and all the the same things the big boys have. She has 6 servers currently that have 1.5 terrabytes of storage each and 16 gigabytes of memory each, with all of the whistles and bells, she pays a pretty good price each month to ensure the uptime is 99% or better, she keeps a stock of replacement cards that can be pulled and instantly hot swapped when needed. She pays each and every month to make sure her software is up to date with the latest trends on the web and has hundreds of customers who have been with her for over a decade. The biggest difference is, when you dial her number she will be the one that answers the phone and she is the one that listens to your concerns or situations and finds the solutions to your problems, not somebody sitting in a overseas call center and that said, she can virtually meet any price on the market with her set up.

 

[MTboatguy]

Has anyone used ipage? I started to set one up with them and got sidetracked.

I don't use anything that has an I in front of it. I don't like apple equipment or services.

 

[bruceb58]

One thing you have to remember, just because it is a Mom and Pop company, does not mean they are going to just vaporize,

I am sure all mom and pop companies are not the same.

My advice still stands. Stay away from a mom and pop company and go with a medium to large size company. The company I use has been very good. Been with them for 13 years. Never had one issue and never had one outage. I have called them on the phone and get immediate service for the question I have asked. They claim 24/7/365 although I have never needed them at 3:00AM. My hostsite is in Virginia and the people I talk to are in Virginia.

If you personally know the people running the mom and pop, MAYBE you take a chance and go for it.

I don't use anything that has an I in front of it. I don't like apple equipment or services.

BTW...iPage has nothing to do with Apple and the forum site you are on has an "i" in front of it.

 

[MTboatguy]

Bruce, for some reason at this point in time, I don't feel you and "I" are getting along with each other very well, so be it.

If your server is in Virginia, I know exactly where they are, I have toured that facility.. My wife's company also has 24/7/365, if she is not on the phone, the people we pay to cover the off hours are on the phone, my goodness she has been doing this 19+ years now, it is how she makes her living.

Yes, I use the Iboats website to correspond with friends, but I sure would not depend on it to make my living.

 

[bruceb58]

I had no idea that your wife had a web site hosting company before you mentioned it in this thread and that was after I made my initial recommendation. My advice is in general for most small hosting sites. If you feel it was a personal attack on your wife's business, you are mistaken.

 

[MTboatguy]

Misguided, maybe, but personal, I don't feel that.

 

[bruceb58]

I am sure you will agree that most small web site hosting sites are not run like yours correct?

I would not have any problems hosting with your business. It's all the unknown small mom and pop that I would not take a chance on.

 

[MTboatguy]

Bruce, over the years, there have been a lot of small, non-companies doing websites for weekend beer money, we used to run into them all of the time and they would take websites away from us, so I have no problem admitting in the past, things were a whole bunch different than it is now a days. Over the years, my wife has done a great job of keeping in touch with those guys that figured money was the most important thing and many of them have come back to her and have now been with her for over a decade. These days, when it comes to web hosting, a good majority are stable and have been in the business a long time for a business that just barely started over 25 years ago.

One of the best recommendations I can make, is make sure you check those references, don't let your neighbor tell you, that their son or daughter can whip you a website up and put you online, they are not invested and it is not their business, but there are smaller companies around that have been doing it a long time that are very reliable because they do what it takes to make sure they are reliable, I can say, I am glad I have a good retirement from the military, because it seems like we are always upgrading, buying new hardware, hiring new support staff, etc. I really only know the real score at the end of the year when it is time to file the taxes and I always sit there stunned at how much we put out in costs to make sure the customers stay online and are available to their customers!

And don't take that wrong, she always makes money, but during the course of the year, sometimes it seems like a lot is going out before it starts coming back, she has never lost money, she has always covered the bills on the equipment, but as with other companies, there are ups and downs, when you loose a server it is very expensive to get one back up and running, new servers are very expensive in this line of work!