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Another Web Site Question

JourneymanCarpenterT | Posted in Business on July 8, 2006 06:13am

     <!—-> <!—-><!—->Oak<!—-> <!—->River<!—-> <!—-> Mike’s post on business web sites got me thinking of another web site question.

 

     You definitely want your web site to make a highly professional impression.  At the same time however, it’s also highly important to be cost effective in running one.  It’ll add to your overhead, and either increase your bid price or decrease your paycheck.

<!—-><!—->  <!—->

     What is the most professional as well as cost effective way to power a construction company’s web site?

–T

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  1. torn | Jul 08, 2006 09:24pm | #1

    depends on what you want from the site. If your site is going to be a static (non-updated) online brochure, then you really don't need much in the way of tools (text editor, WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, etc.) Just figure out what you want, where you want it, and you're done.

    If, on the other hand, you're planning to update the site frequently with photos, job updates, a blog, etc, then you probably want to look at a CMS (Content Management System) or at least a WYSIWYG editor. These types of tools are very user friendly and can minimize the time you spend on updates. Many are free, for others, a fee.

    There's nothing these tools can do that you can't do by hard coding, but they can greatly speed the process, and automate it to some extent... The design aspect remains the same, whether you're hard-coding a brochure or implementing a CMS for a full-service site. If you don't have an eye for graphic design, it may well be worth paying a consultant (or artsy family member) to help you with this part.

    If you don't want to have to worry about design and maintenance of the site, a professional web developer can implement a solution for you. On the surface, this might not seem cost-effective, but you have to consider your learning curve with web design. How long will it take you to "get good enough" to produce a professional site? How much time are you willing to invest on a daily/weekly/monthly basis to update and maintain the site? Are you willing to spend time troubleshooting whatever issues pop up? What is your time worth?



    Edited 7/8/2006 2:44 pm by torn

    1. User avater
      JourneymanCarpenterT | Jul 09, 2006 10:49pm | #2

           Thanks for the response.  Please excuse my ignorance of technology, but are these tools you are referring to for web site design?  I heard of this program called Dream Weaver that some computer people I know say is good.  Perhaps I didn’t phrase the question quite right, but when I said ‘power a web site,’ what I meant was who to it buy through.

           For example, I recently purchased the highest speed DSL available from Sprint. It came with several web spaces for sites, as well as templates to help design them.  For the highest speed, the cost is $65 a month.  For that price I get a hand full of web spaces and e-mail addresses.

           The questions that trouble me are:

           I can’t create an address such a “MyConstructionCompany.com,” or even "MyConstructionCompany.net."  The address must end with "@earthlink.net.”  Is that really professional enough for something to be advertised permanently?

           Say once I advertise the web site for a while on my business card etc., 100 people log on at one time.  Will their computers start to lag?

           Is $65 a month the best deal?  Is there a less expensive, and perhaps even better alternative for having a company web site?

           Any answers I could find to these questions would be much appreciated.-T

      1. User avater
        jonblakemore | Jul 10, 2006 05:21am | #3

        Check out Go Daddy to compare rates. 

        Jon Blakemore RappahannockINC.com Fredericksburg, VA

        1. User avater
          JourneymanCarpenterT | Jul 11, 2006 02:22am | #5

               Thanks.-T

      2. torn | Jul 10, 2006 06:48am | #4

        I think there may be a bit of confusion about terminology. Email addresses versus websites, and Internet Service Providers (ISP) versus web hosts.I don't know anything about Sprint's service, but it sounds like they are your ISP, and that what you get (in addition to internet access) are a certain number of email addresses, not web sites. Is that correct? An email address is simply a way for people to contact you electronically, like a phone number, fax number, etc. A web site (which may also be included in your service package) is a place on the web host's computer where you are allowed to store files. Anyone who knows the address (also called a domain name or URL, like "http://www.yahoo.com") to that location can access those files, which is how they view your website.Sprint can act as an ISP and a web host. If Sprint includes web space in your package, the website URL is probably something like http://www.journeymancarpenter.earthlink.net, or http://www.earthlink.net/journeyman, or something similar.In answer to your question about looking "professional", in my opinion, your web address should be uniquely yours, as should your email addresses. In other words, http://www.journeymancarpenter.com (or whatever you choose), and email addresses based on that site, like [email protected]. Other addresses ([email protected], etc.) look temporary and as if you aren't serious enough to make an investment in a "real" address. Then again, they work just as well as unique addresses, and they have the advantage of being free...Domain names for websites are cheap (if you pay more than $10 per year, you're probably paying too much), and hosting space is also cheap (anywhere from $25 up, depending on what's included). It can be completely separate from your internet service provider (ISP, which in this case is Sprint). For example, my ISP is Time Warner Cable (RoadRunner), but my sites are hosted by a totally separate company for around $100/year per site. For this annual fee, I get 250 email addresses (all based on my domain name), along with a lot of other useful features.The number of people logged on to your site shouldn't be an issue if you have a good web host, as long as we're talking reasonable numbers. If you start to get thousands of hits at a time, like yahoo.com or cnn.com, then you'd definitely want to make sure you had invested in a host that was capable of handling that traffic. For the majority of small business sites, this will never be an issue.Hey, it's late and I'm off to bed. Hope this helps!

        1. User avater
          JourneymanCarpenterT | Jul 11, 2006 02:29am | #6

               Thanks.  Sprint is my ISP.  They do provide a handful of e-mail addresses.  They also provide an equal number of web sites.  Perhaps "web host" would be the phrase I'm looking for.  What web host do you use?-T

          1. Rebeccah | Jul 11, 2006 03:05am | #7

            A web host is what you're looking for, as the sites provided by your ISP are unlikely to be adequate (I've got earthlink, too). As you noted, you're restricted in your domain name, and you are also limited in the amount of space available -- and images use it up quickly. In addition, web hosting services offer a variety of other services that your ISP is unlikely to provide for free, ranging from guaranteed up-time performance, to frequency of backups, to application servers that will forward web forms submitted via the web site to you as e-mails, traffic statistics, and on, and on, and on.Rebeccah

          2. torn | Jul 11, 2006 05:12am | #8

            I currently am using 1PlanHost (1planhost.com), but I would NOT recommend them. They had been an excellent company for the year and a half that I used them (and I used them on recommendation of a fellow web designer), but they were bought out this spring, and the new parent company has little to recommend them. When all sites were migrated to the new parent's servers, there were numerous issues with the migration (on my sites and on the majority of other sites). Some sites lost major amounts of data. I was lucky in that no critical data was lost, and I had backups, but customer service was next to non-existent, and I was deeply disappointed.I am planning to move all of my sites to Infosaic (infosaic.com) in the near future. The only reason I haven't moved already is because my sites are running ok now. But rather than risk future problems, I'll be moving to a new host. Infosaic seemed to be the best combination of price and features, and they were extremely fast in responding to my questions. (Whether that speed continues after I become a customer remains to be seen, but nothing in life is a guarantee...)There are literally thousands of web hosts out there. All offer similar services, but there are better and worse deals. Make sure the host you choose can support the features you need. For example, if you want to use Active Server Pages on your site, then you'll need a Windows host (not all are). If you want a shopping cart, make sure your host supports SSL and the other features needed. If you plan on having lots of photos, make sure you have enough server space to hold them all. Etc, etc, etc.If you don't know exactly what specs you need, do your research before signing up with a host. Don't be lured just by low prices, as you usually get what you pay for. With that said, you should be able to get perfectly satisfactory hosting for a small-to-medium site for no more than $150/year.torn

      3. User avater
        Luka | Jul 11, 2006 05:54pm | #11

        Contact Sprint and ask them if they will allow you to use your own domain name for one of your "free" websites.
        Yadda yadda yadda

  2. JMadson | Jul 11, 2006 06:04am | #9

    Professional?

    Chose a web host that allows for unique email addresses and your own website.

    You should be able to advertise your site without any dashes or slashes, i.e. http://www.yoursite.com. Then your email addresses would be [email protected].

    I pay $6 dollars a month for my own site with hundreds of email addresses and up to 15 pages on the site. I just use mine for a gallery of past work and contact info. The company is called 1 and 1 (http://www.1and1.com). It's a decent package but the connection seems slow and they may also be out of Europe somewhere. This is seperate from my internet provider which I pay around $30 a month for a cable line.

     

    “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” – Albert Einstein
  3. User avater
    LEMONJELLO | Jul 11, 2006 01:33pm | #10

    Register.com or similar site is good for this. Several different plans on capacity and email box size, good tech support. Find a site name for your business then buy the domain name e.g. "http://www.supermanbuilders.com" (may take a bit to find one, I prefer a .com address but there are .net , .biz , etc... Your email address will be under your website's domain name and you can have several different addresses all with e.g. "[email protected]", wife= "[email protected]" even sub an email to your supervisors or coworkers e.g. "[email protected]" etc.

    All the short names and three letter websites may be hard to get but a unique name may work.

    I am a MAC guy so I use Rapidweaver, an excellent idiot resistant simple to use and setup program.
    Good luck!

    __________________________
    Judo Chop!
  4. makman | Jul 12, 2006 02:06am | #12

    If you're looking for hosting, there are probably about million choices to choose from by now. I use a company called  http://www.ivchosting.com . I've built several websites with them with no problems. Their basic package is $39.96 a year and gives you 1500mb of webspace and 6gb of bandwidth. I think you get 90 pop3 email accounts also. You can use ssi, php, coldfusion, just about any programming.

    Larry

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