BellaOnline Forums Career Business Owners Help: Are you happy with your webdesign & hosting?

Hi Ladies,

My webdesigner decided my website was too much work and has given me several months to find a new webdesigner to rebuild my website and move to a new hosting company.

I'm wanting to keep the overall design of my site, but I really would like to have the options to do the simple changes myself.

I've already put out the funds to create a unique custom designed site which I'm quite happy with so I'm not wanting to put much more into it, especially since I just did some major additions to it two weeks ago.

I'm hoping to find someone to re-enter most of the programming on a new server, using a more user friendly program.

I've researched a few options, but I would definitely like to hear from any of you who are REALLY HAPPY with your webdesigner and server.

I design my own website and manage it myself which is a lot of work. I have a good domain hosting service and they supplied me with free software to design my site which is very easy to use. My business has so many different facets that I didn't want people to be overwhelmed so I broke it into different sections and limited the amount of choices to pages in that section with the option to go home and go to a different section. It was a lot of work to set up now I only add a page a day, be it an article or a new product or updates. Today it was a new product for gift baskets and corporate shopping.

I do website designing, it is my job. And I'm happy with it Choosing a good host for your sites is a very important factor.

I use www.Homestead.com. It has a site building program that is pretty easy to use. Don't know if you get much traffic to your site or if you are trying to build traffic but transferring your site to another host will create a "new" site in the search engine's eye so you'll lose the age you have for your site.

However, HS is easy to use and costs me about $19.95 a month for one site. You can add domain names tho for an additional $2 per month if you'd ever want them.

Hi Gals,

I sure appreciate your feedback. I haven't made any decisions yet. My current company is allowing me time to make a change without feeling rushed.

In my research, I have discovered a hosting company that I'm quite impressed with so far for a completely different website I'm planning. I even signed up for it already! I would still need a webdesigner to make my changes on my Destiny's Door custom designed site so it may not work for that. I'll know once I find the right designer.

I found this new hosting company through Bella's Business Coach Editor Meg. She and some of her clients are happy with ANHosting.com

If you take a look, you might want to give her the finder's credit by entering through her website in the Business Coach Section. It's always nice when us women help one another here! After all, our businesses do need to make money.

Hello,

One thought is once you have a good strong hosting company is to use a free website builder to do it yourself. I did and am very happy with the results.

You can get the website builder atBellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

It's been too much work doing it myself, but I'm very happy with what I've been able to do and I've had no problems with Lunar Pages or coffee cup. Although I don't do anything extra fancy either... I think I'd screw it up if I did.
BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

We just signed up a few months ago with a new hosting company called Host Papa. Our old hosting company which we had been with for something like four years closed. Host Papa is a Canadian company and they are green, meaning all the energy they use to run their business comes from renewable energy resources. Their focus is small to medium-sized businesses.

Their lowest package is $5.95 a month. But we found a coupon and paid something like $63 and change.

Thanks so much for your replies. I thought I'd give you an update. I actually ended up going with a local webdesigner and hosting company.

I wish I could say it was an easy transition, but it has been a huge headache because webdesigners work in different ways in different types of programming. If you choose a webdesigner, make sure it will work for you to stick with them.

In my research, I was impressed with what I heard about one particular hosting company. I did set up a contract with them at www.anhosting.com for another business plan I have. They were very inexpensive with great stats and support.

Congrats tami. Sound like it was a big headache.

I started out with Homestead.Com and then switched over to Yahoo Small Business. I'm running two sites for just over $11 USD. Its basically a template setup - you maintain all content and links. But still, its not bad.

BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

When hiring a web designer, if possible, make sure you hire one that is versed in current web design standards and codes you website following these standards. This way if they designer quits or you need to switch your site will be easily transferable to another designer.

If a designer uses a proprietary design package such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver it can make the transition much harder (not impossible but difficult).

Hey Tammi,

I am THRILLED with my hosting company. As you know, we are in similar fields, so I kind of have a bit of insight into what you're going to need. If there are any specific features you need to double check - let me know & I'll research it from my end.

Additionally, I AM a web design geek & have several blogs and websites with the same company. I even have many of my own web design clients hosted with them, too.

Oh, and since you like what you already have - they can just transfer everything over to their servers & you wont have to change anything until you want to. How's that sound?

And at a price point that breaks down to $6.95 per month with oodles of space & features, I think you'll be as happy with them as I am.
Here's their link. Click and check it out for yourself.

Oh, almost forgot - your domain name will be free for the entire length of your account - you never have to worry about managing that again.

In case you were wondering, I host MegMeyer.Com & my impending media company with them.

Let me know if you have any questions or want any help,

Sincerely,

Meg

This is what I get for jumping in to help, before I read the whole thread!

Thanks for the plug, Tami. I know you'll be happy with them.

Here's the link to my article about my favorite all-inclusive hosting.

Tami, not to throw a wrench in your works, with your local designer - but you can host up to 20 different websites on one account - so you might not need local hosting. I can show you how, if need be.

Sincerely,

Meg

Thanks for your willingness to help, Meg!

I already read your article. That's why I signed up with them. I checked out a whole bunch of options and anhosting.com really did seem to offer the best. Your recommendation weighed heavily on my decision. So thanks!

I know about hosting more than one website on one account, but I might take you up on the offer for help if I can't figure it out.

Much gratitude from one Coach to another!

Tami

All you have to do is take the code for each page and save it. I'm assuming he did it in HTML format.

Most of our sites is hosted on Bluehost and Hostgator and so far, we haven't encountered any problems.

I have checked your site and it looks pretty well. If you have some problems in the design, why not try CMS, it is easy to design and configure plus it have so many plug-ins/modules to use. Just a suggestion..