Hey Guys.
I think I know how a domain name works, but want to confirm. Can someone that knows chime in please.
I believe you pay someone like $8.00 or more at a place like Godaddy to register the name and then you have to renew it each year for about the same price? Is that accurate?
As for a website, I think you have a couple of options: Pay a one time fee of whatever to design the site and then maintain it yourself, provided one is not a complete dunce with a computer. Or a monthly fee and they maintain it.
It seems that the first option is the better deal (if you are planning to keep the site up for a long time anyway).
Do I have the general idea?
Just for comparison, in Canada, I have done websites, and the Company pays, once a year for the domain name ($23 + in my case and) over the Internet by Credit Card.
You build your website, and upload it to a server which will charge up to $100/yr for that service.
In my case, only I knew the changes to be made (came from the Board of the Company) and the ISP had nothing to do with maintenance, but ought to be available for assistance, if needed.
Does that help?
You go to a registrar, such as GoDaddy, to register a domain name. It costs about $8 a year and you have to renew it yearly.
Explaining how to pay for, build and maintain a Web site is like saying “this is how you have a house.” There are many many many ways to go about it.
The most universal option is that you buy hosting from a Web hosting company by paying a monthly fee. When you get this hosting you set the domain name’s nameservers to point to this hosting company’s server (you do this by logging in to your registrar account).
You either pay someone to build a Web site that you then load on to your Web space at the hosting company, or you build it yourself. Then your site is public to the world. Either the company you paid to make the site maintains it, or you do it yourself by manipulating the files directly.
Generally.
However you could do so many different things…
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Get a blog or site that is hosted for free and don’t even buy a domain name. Just use the free service to set up yourname.theirname.com The blog/site is set up for you to maintain the content yourself. You can’t tweak the code.
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Get blog or site software and upload it to your hosting account. You can tweak the code to make it look/work differently than out-of-the-box. You then manage content via the blog software, via your browser.
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Hire someone to configure or tweak blog or site software and have them upload it to your host for you. You pay them to tweak it in the future if need-be but you maintain the content using the blog software via your browser.
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Build your own site that is database-driven and can be updated easily via the browser, but built from scratch.
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Pay someone to build your own site that is database-driven and can be updated easily via the browser and built from scratch.
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You always have to pay for hosting, sometimes you can work out a deal that hosting + code maintenance is one monthly fee. Sometimes you pay for the initial work and any future work is project price. If you put up enough money up front and get a site that can be maintained via the browser, you won’t have to pay people to make updates for you. If you get a lower-end site that is not dynamic, you’ll have to pay people to make changes unless you can do it yourself.
There is no universal way to have a Web site. Those are just some of the ways. If you’re looking for the best way to suit your needs, tell us what you need and we’ll give you more info as to which direction you should head.
Thank you both. ZipperJJ, whew! I had no idea.
Some of this is over my head…okay a lot of it is.
We are opening a deli. If all goes well, that is. So we are looking for a way to have a site that we maintain and make changes to. One that is customer interactive for reviews and maybe for contacting us?? Not sure if that’s a good idea or not truthfully.
Would love it if eventually people could place a to go order from there, but doubt we could do that to start.
We want a changeable menu on the site. Directions with maps. Maybe an about us. Hours of operation, of course. Photos of the shop, the courtyard, dining area, food…that sort of thing.
We are trying to be as cheap as possible without looking cheap, hopefully. We do have a quote for $800.00 to build a site. A similar site he did is attractive. And appears to have what we’re looking for. We want to spend our money on good quality foods as much as possible, so what do you think? It sure sounds reasonable to me, but I’ve never shopped for such a thing before.
Also, can you suggest any hosting companies to look into?
Thanks for your help.
I have had 2 domains for 10 years…made a page and had it hosted…
Unfortunately megabytes cost money and coding kept changing more rapid than I could figure it out…so I only kept one active.
So, it remained a page of “Hey I’m here”, ever since. :rolleyes:
www.jamicat.com
www.violetrecords.com
My advice would be to pay someone a nominal fee (maybe like $300?) that is willing to guide you through domain registration, the purchase of very cheap hosting, setting up a single-page informational site, showing you how to use FTP to upload a new menu PDF file every so often, and setting up a Facebook site. Also getting on Yelp and Google Places.
I would not pay to develop an interactive Web site at this time. Just get a “placeholder” site out there with your deli’s name as the domain name and a place to put your menu.
Use free services like Facebook and Yelp to interact with customers.
But do pay someone to help guide you through all of this. It shouldn’t take too much time.