Need a host

J

James C

New member
Hello
I am in need of a webhost for my website.
My website is for a local small business.

Along with the webhost, I would need a company to design and maintain my website, so if anyone can also help with this that would be good.

Please give suggestions on hosts and and other suggestions you have to me about things to consider for a new host.

Thank you in advance
 
This thread should probably be moved by a mod to the Advertising/Requests section.


As for as design costs James, you might want to give us some examples of sites you like so we can give you a rough estimate on what the site would cost youl. There are several people on this site such as myself who do website design.


As far as choosing a host, there are tons of hosts who are an active part of this community. So I am sure that someone will be able to give you an offer.
 
Vovex Technology said:
This thread should probably be moved by a mod to the Advertising/Requests section.
Click to expand...

I did this, I PMed him and Informed him about it. And he told me he was looking for Recommendations so I returned the thread where it belongs ;)
 
Hi James,

You are looking for a few different things:

* someplace to host your site
* someone to design your site
* someone to maintain your site / administer your site

In short, you're kind of looking for an outsourced web department. Not a problem. Plenty of microbusinesses are looking for that. It's possible to find, as well, you just have to know what you're looking for.

First off, who do you see creating the content for this site? By "content", I mean the descriptions of your product / service, the photos (if appropriate), and so forth? If you expect the web design company to do this, you'll want an outfit that also has extensive advertising experience. Micro- and small-business web sites aren't just software, they're also commercials.

You'll also want to look for an individual or design company that has specific advertising experience *in your specific industry*. They need to know how to talk to your clients and get them to use your business to fulfill their needs. If your content person knows widgets really well but doesn't know gadgets (to pick two nonsense words, as examples) and you're selling gadgets, their expertise may not translate into good selling copy.

Second, are you going to sell things online (goods or services), or are you just putting up advertising / a portfolio? If you're going to be selling something, you're going to want a company that knows how to deal with ecommerce for microbusiness. (If you're not going to be actively selling things through your website, that experience can be good, but is not necessary.)

Since you're a local company, you're going to be selling your personality as much as you're selling your goods or services (even if "local" means "huge metro area".) You need a designer who is going to work with you on the design and content, in that they get your feedback before finalizing things, and are able to translate your personal and / or business style into the design.

If possible, look for someone with whom you can communicate - both easily and completely. They need to understand your business requirements, and how to translate them into a web site that works both efficiently and effectively. You need to know what information to give them, and how to veto a particular suggestion. Each party has to be comfortable asking questions about the process and making sure that everyone's on the same page.

In either case - host, or designer - you want to look for someone that can grow with you. Look for a host that has many hosting plan options, doesn't charge for upgrades or downgrades, and / or can offer a la carte options or custom plans. When looking for a designer, check the range of their experience: have they done smaller static sites? Larger, dynamic sites (for example, an online storefront)? Sites in between those two extremes?

I can't stress this point enough, because I've dealt with several clients who had gotten burned by this and had to get extra help from me getting their sites restarted: make sure that you can pick up and leave the host or designer in a few hours' time, at any time. Keep local copies of everything needed to keep your site running, and know what server specs, software, and operating system is required for your particular scripts to work. Yes, if you work well with the host or designer, staying with them is no problem, and you don't necessarily need to download your files, databases, and raw access logs onto your computer every night or weekend (though it's wise to keep local backups). My point is that your decision to stay with a host and / or designer should be based solely on the value of their service - not on their holding your site files hostage.

Not much in the way of recommendations in there - just information, and more information. Sorry if I've overloaded you.
 
Great post Lesli :)

I'm sure your post alone will really help James.

Don't really want to post after that though ;)

You could either try get everything from the one company, or split what you need between a few companies, the latter may be better as you can get the best in each field.

If you work online you are likely to find a better deal than a local company, the internet has a lot of very experienced designers especially and you can get what you need for a lot cheaper than local businesses would charge.

When you do find a company for anything you need, make sure you ask on here to see if anyone knows about them or has personal experience, that will help you a lot and could save a lot of trouble.
 
RobAPI said:
Don't really want to post after that though ;)
Click to expand...

I seem to have that effect far too often. What, do I wear too much perfume or something? :D

James, another tip is to ask friends and colleagues who they host with, and ask about their experiences. You can't beat direct referrals. They've been with the host or designer, they know the work style, they have an idea what kind of support you can expect, they know how the host / designer communicates. If you just try to choose a host based on what you see in the various hosting directories, you may be at somewhat of a loss - because you still don't really know the company.
 
I think I may as well close a thread after Lesli posts since people don't want to follow up after them ;)

Here are a few other things you might want to consider:

Try go with a host that has a money back guarantee, just incase you have problems and change your mind.

Go with a host that shows their address and a phone number may also help, although I don't think it is required.
Having their address is very useful though, you never know when or why you might need it.

If the host has a forum, checkout if they notify customers of any problems and if they are quick to respond to questions, but remember, if they don't respond very quickly, it may also be because the forums are not an official point of support, many companies leave the forums for customers to help each other mainly.

Try get a host that has been around for a while, you could find a host that has been open for a month that will continue providing great service for years to come, but you could go with a one month old host that goes bust in the next few months and you lose everything also.

To test out their support, try sending the support address a few emails at different times of the day to check how long their support takes to reply.

Sometimes going with the biggest company isn't always the best idea. Take one and one for example, they are one of the largest hosting companies in the world yet they have quite a bad reputation from their customers, especially about support.
A smaller company may be able to provide you with a more reliable service at a lower price, plus they will be more likely to provide a lot better and personal support to you.

There is a lot to consider but it is good to see you are trying to find out information before diving into it.

John
 
Hi James,

You have received some fantastic advise above - If I may, I wold like to add something to this impressive list...

With customers such as yourself - we always recommend a content management system - usually mambo - what this allows you to do is lower your total cost of ownership and increase your responsiveness WRT your website...

To use your requirements as an example -

- Ask a company to develop and design your site using a CMS system (you pay for the development, graphics)
- Ask your company to provide hosting (you pay your monthly hosting/support fee)
- With a CMS system - you are able to update your content, add pages, add modules (forum, newsletter, etc) without paying additional development/change requests fees

If you can use microsoft word, you can now add pages, change your content, etc...

Our customers have found this to be the best, and most effective method of owning and operating a website...

There are MANY great hosts out there that will load and support and CMS system for you free of charge - we usually recommend mambo (easiest to deploy and use) - In fact, we used this application to build and maintain our site..

Hope this helps...
 
I can offer you design and hosting.
please contact me via AIM:Aceadoni.
We can do E-Commerce Sites based on OS Commerce and regular content websites.

www.dynindustry.com For hosting

email me at ace@dynacomp.net with questions
Click to expand...

I got this PM from a user, the user had 0 posts.
If someone isn't even part of the community, don't PM me with spam.

-----------------------

I have got great advice from so many people here, I am very positive it will help me in my decision and when I am trying to find who I should go with.

It would be good to get someone to put all this great info into an article to put on the site.

Lesli, I will also be wanting to sell online so thanks for that tip.

Andrew, your suggestions sounds good, however I don't see many company websites using scripts like you mentioned.
Can they look at professional as a normal website?
They seem to be used more for personal rather than business sites.

Having something that I could update would make it easier and save me money.

Thanks to everyone that is helping :)
 
James,

Please PM me with the username to take the requiered steps to avoid this.

Sorry to make this topic go "off-topic" we can get back to track now :)
 
Think of Mambo like DreamWeaver or FrontPage: it's a tool used to generate sites. Sites powered by Mambo don't all have to look the same. Mambo (and many other CMS tools) allows the user to customize the site to look any way they want it.

When looking for a site design team, you'll want to see if they have experience using whatever CMS you want to use. Then (trust me on this, too) have them write you up a series of easy instructions on how to add and edit content. Mambo's very powerful, but the interface isn't easily understood unless you've used CMS tools and understand how they can be organized.

I do have most of that information in an article...I just can't put it online for another month yet. Contracts, contracts, contracts... :D
 
Hey turnkey, long time no see.
Actually just posted about your script in another thread here yesterday.

Lesli, any chance you can put that article online now?
 
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