Your Own Web Site for $6 a month
by Yisroel Goodman
This deal was just so good, we had to share it!
Get your own domain name and web site for $6 a month!
500 MEGABYTES for $10 a month!
Businesses
Are you running auctions or an Internet business using one of those "free" web sites? You know what I mean. The ones that put their own annoying pop-ups ads on top of your text. And take up a third of your page with their banners. The ones that go down without notice and have all sorts of rules about what kinds of files you can and can not upload. Even if you're happy with your free web site, what kind of message does it sent to your customers? Think about it. Is your web site called www.geocities.com/johnscomp? That's like telling your customers, "Want to visit my store? Just go down to the mall, go down to the sub-basement level, find a door marked "storage" and that's where I'll be. Today, anyway. Tomorrow they might move me to the boiler room." Is your email ID johnscomp@myfreeemail.com? Do you really expect your customers to remember that? And if they misspell it, you wont see that email. And if your ISP decides to put spam blocking software on the site, your emails to or from your customers may be blocked without your ever knowing about it. And what happens when your free email service goes out of business or decides to limit the number of emails you can send and receive? You will have to contact everyone and tell them "I changed from marybjohnson123@geocities.com to marybjohnson277@yahoo.com." Not to mention how many of those free services are selling your information to other companies that target you for spam.
In the "olden" days, it took money to run a business. You had to have an office or storefront, advertising, business phone, fax machine, merchant account... Today, all you need is a PC, email ID and web site. Any kid can do it. So how can a customer tell the difference between a "real" business that will be around and some hobbyist who's just testing the waters? By the commitment YOU make. Take a look at all the money you saved on an office, a merchant account (you can use Paypal, Propay, etc), fax machine (there are plenty of free fax services on the net). Take just some of that money and put it in the one place that says "I have made the commitment to be a real business" - your web site.
It says a lot when your web site is JohnsComp.com and your email id is sales@johnscomp.com or info@johnscomp.com. And no matter how they spell the name, as long as it ends in johnscomp.com, you will get it. Because YOU own the name. And you can assign as many email IDs as you want. You can give each ID its own password and you can have each ID forward to other IDs and continue using your regular email account - yes, even your free one. If your free one shuts down and you switch to another service, just change the forwarding and you will continue to get your email. Your customers never have to know.
By the way, getting your own merchant account and shopping cart processing on your site is a lot cheaper than you probably imagine. Email us and we'll tell you all about that as well. For a preview, check on the link on the left.
Individuals:
Are you using one of those "free" web sites? You know what I mean. The ones that put their own annoying pop-ups ads on top of your text. And take up a third of your page with their banners. The ones that go down without notice and have all sorts of rules about what kinds of files you can and can not upload. Is your web site called www.geocities.com/marybjohnson123 and your email ID marybjohnson123@geocities.com? How do you expect your friends to remember that? And if they misspell it, you wont see that email. And if your ISP decides to put spam blocking software on the site, your email may be blocked without your ever knowing about it. And what happens when your free email service goes out of business or decides to limit how many emails you can send and receive? You will have to contact everyone and tell them "I changed from marybjohnson123@geocities.com to marybjohnson277@yahoo.com." Not to mention how many of those free services are selling your information to other companies that target you for spam.
Wouldn't it be nice if you owned YOUR OWN domain name and web site with a name that YOU chose? One that wouldn't change, no matter what. You could tell your friends, "Just visit www.mjohnson.com or email mary@mjohnson.com." And no matter how they spell the name, as long as it ends in mjohnson.com, you will get it. Because YOU own the name. And you can assign as many email IDs as you want to other family members. You can give each ID its own password and you can have each ID forward to other IDs and continue using your regular email account - yes, even your free one. If your free one shuts down and you switch to another service, just change the forwarding and you will continue to get your email. Your friends never have to know.
Web site
In addition to the email accounts, you also get at least 50 megabytes for a website (500 megabytes for $10). This website is completely under your control. No one will stick pop up ads or banners on your site without your permission. You can upload with any FTP program (many are available free on the Net). There is no limitation on how many pages you can have (within the generous storage limit).
Cost
There are several steps to setting up your own web site. First you must register the domain name you will use. Next you must find the service which will host your site. Many domain registration companies charge $10 per year to register the domain name. Many hosting sites charge about $19.95 a month to host a web site. This works out to almost $240 a year. But I discovered that a consulting firm, AlsoNetworks.com, who has been setting up large business web sites for some time, is also setting up smaller sites. They handle both ends and can offer you both the domain name, web site and unlimited email IDs for just $6 a month or $10 a month for 500 megabytes.
They did such a good job for me and my customers that I had to let everyone know. For an article their President wrote about setting up a site, Click here.
So reserve your name now, before all the good ones are taken.
The next step is actually building the site. There are free HTML lessons available right here, some instruction in basic server-side processing, Javascript and ASP. If you also need someone to build the site for you, we can help. Most of the sites we built were in the $300 range (though we have built a site for a Fortune 100 company to manage their nationwide time-and-attendance).
Once you get your web site built, you need to get the word out. You want to be listed at the top of the search engines for your particular products or services. This is called search engine optimization (SEO) and we can help you with that as well.
