billay Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 I'm looking to start a small business and need to go ahead and find a good domain name and register it. I know we have a good number of small business owners around here and I was curious to see how people have handled this. Are the web design services the registrars offer worth it or is it better to simply pay them for the domain and email and have a separate company design your website? I realize that issue depends largely in part on what exactly you want your website to do. At this point in the process, mine won't need to be anything complicated, I just want the web presence. I would appreciate the benefit of the huddle's experience, as I have no idea what the first step in the process should be. Thanks for any responses! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuke'em ttg Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 I'm looking to start a small business and need to go ahead and find a good domain name and register it. I know we have a good number of small business owners around here and I was curious to see how people have handled this. Are the web design services the registrars offer worth it or is it better to simply pay them for the domain and email and have a separate company design your website? I realize that issue depends largely in part on what exactly you want your website to do. At this point in the process, mine won't need to be anything complicated, I just want the web presence. I would appreciate the benefit of the huddle's experience, as I have no idea what the first step in the process should be. Thanks for any responses! CD didn't help me but he may help you figure i've lost 250k over the deal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil_gop_liars Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 CD didn't help me but he may help you figure i've lost 250k over the deal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Cid Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 It is absolutely no big deal to register the domain name yourself. However, you do need to list contact information for the owner and the person who is responsible for maintaining the address. You can easily change that to whoever manages you site afterwards. The only downside to having the web designer service company do it for you is if they overcharge you to do it. Otherwise it is probably simpler to have them do it, this way you can stay focused on your business rather than having to worry about web stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiley Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 I've used godaddy and netsol. Godaddy is cheaper but I've had more issues so I primarily use netsol now. You can find cheaper options though. I also have a local guy that does hosting services and he does quite a bit with the Google Business Apps and Tools when budget is a concern. I've had him setup one client all through Googles services excluding site design and they seem to like it. As for the web design, personally, I think they're crap but we do web design and UX design so I'm partial to quality web design. I've had clients that have started with the templates then had to revamp their entire site because of issues. Don't use the web service that Quickbooks offers - it's horrible - just spent 90 days getting everything transferred over for a client. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEC=UGA Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 I have one group that does my hosting and e-mail, a design group and group that does all of my Access data base stuff. I'm poor, they're rich. I need to change my business model. Don't start a small business right now unless you are doing web hosting, web design or data base stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiley Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 I have one group that does my hosting and e-mail, a design group and group that does all of my Access data base stuff. I'm poor, they're rich. I need to change my business model. Don't start a small business right now unless you are doing web hosting, web design or data base stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darin3 Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 I use HostMonster and have been generally happy with the service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Irish Doggy Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 we've used godaddy for the name recently. Thankfully, we have a friend of a colleague who does some freelance website design just for us to help maintain the site. We also do google keyword adds and have another company for search engine optimization - both have been great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 I don't know how fancy your site needs to be, but if it doesn't need to be super slick with lots of moving parts and such and you want to be able to update content yourself (ie: you need to do so relatively frequently and don't want to pay someone $100 an hour to mess with the code), I'd suggest a blog. Both our websites are wordpress blogs but the domain is still our name. It doesn't have wordpress in the name. I paid someone a couple hundred bucks to design it and now I can just go in and change menus and hours and whatever else I need to really easily because wordpress doesn't require much coding at all. Barely any, really. My first restaurant webpage was an actual webpage and, besides being 10x as expensive to build, there was no flexibility in terms of adding pages and, even though I was just changing minor things, I never failed to screw it up massively because of the damned coding. You're either into that sort of thing or you're not. I fit into the "not" category. Again, my websites aren't going to win any awards, but they get the job done and I pay virtually nothing for them. Basically the $350 or so I paid someone to set them up and the $50 a year or so to host them. We've got g-mail based e-mail accounts that also have our domaine name as the address. It's not dosperros@gmail it's, <account>@dosperrosrestaurant.com. So, again, cheap, easy, but certainly legit to anyone on the outside. Between that and our $50 a month MailChimp account that I use to manage both restaurant's e-mail lists, I've got a pretty decent presence on the web for not much money at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billay Posted September 21, 2011 Author Share Posted September 21, 2011 (edited) I don't know how fancy your site needs to be, but if it doesn't need to be super slick with lots of moving parts and such and you want to be able to update content yourself (ie: you need to do so relatively frequently and don't want to pay someone $100 an hour to mess with the code), I'd suggest a blog. Both our websites are wordpress blogs but the domain is still our name. It doesn't have wordpress in the name. I paid someone a couple hundred bucks to design it and now I can just go in and change menus and hours and whatever else I need to really easily because wordpress doesn't require much coding at all. Barely any, really. My first restaurant webpage was an actual webpage and, besides being 10x as expensive to build, there was no flexibility in terms of adding pages and, even though I was just changing minor things, I never failed to screw it up massively because of the damned coding. You're either into that sort of thing or you're not. I fit into the "not" category. Again, my websites aren't going to win any awards, but they get the job done and I pay virtually nothing for them. Basically the $350 or so I paid someone to set them up and the $50 a year or so to host them. We've got g-mail based e-mail accounts that also have our domaine name as the address. It's not dosperros@gmail it's, <account>@dosperrosrestaurant.com. So, again, cheap, easy, but certainly legit to anyone on the outside. Between that and our $50 a month MailChimp account that I use to manage both restaurant's e-mail lists, I've got a pretty decent presence on the web for not much money at all. How does the integration between your domain and your gmail accounts work? Do you still need to opt in for email accounts with the web registrar, or can gmail simply apply your domain to separate gmail accounts? Edited September 21, 2011 by billay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SayItAintSoJoe Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 It is absolutely no big deal to register the domain name yourself. However, you do need to list contact information for the owner and the person who is responsible for maintaining the address. You can easily change that to whoever manages you site afterwards. The only downside to having the web designer service company do it for you is if they overcharge you to do it. Otherwise it is probably simpler to have them do it, this way you can stay focused on your business rather than having to worry about web stuff. I never register a domain with my contact information. Once you do it's available to anyone and you start getting calls from people trying to sell you stuff. Most registrars will allow you to register the domain name privately for an additional fee and then the registrar's info goes into the contact information. I think the fee is worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil_gop_liars Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 How does the integration between your domain and your gmail accounts work? Do you still need to opt in for email accounts with the web registrar, or can gmail simply apply your domain to separate gmail accounts? Google business apps work great. Check them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 How does the integration between your domain and your gmail accounts work? Do you still need to opt in for email accounts with the web registrar, or can gmail simply apply your domain to separate gmail accounts? To be honest, I either don't understand your question or don't have an answer for you. Either way, it's above my head. We paid this person a few hundred $ and she came back with a customized blog, as many e-mail addresses as we asked for and told me how to update things. We were given a special link to a back-door version of gmail that worked with our domain name. However, I think gmail has changed and now I can just go to the basic gmail home and enter my address @dosperrosrestaurant.com and it takes me there as well. So, using it is basically like using gmail. Looking at your question again, I believe they're free and not through the web registrar, but through g-mail. Though I'm not certain of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliaz Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 I highly suggest setting everything up through A Small Orange. Their webhosting prices are very cheap and you get a lot from them. They offer drupal for free which is a very easy system for building out a website that requires no coding experience. The big thing with them is anytime i've open up a problem ticket, it has been resolved in less than 30 minutes. I highly recommend them. I ran a SB website and it only cost me $5 per month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 my wife uses godaddy for the domain and dixiesystems for hosting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billay Posted September 21, 2011 Author Share Posted September 21, 2011 thanks for all the feedback guys. Its been very helpful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darin3 Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 I never register a domain with my contact information. Once you do it's available to anyone and you start getting calls from people trying to sell you stuff. Most registrars will allow you to register the domain name privately for an additional fee and then the registrar's info goes into the contact information. I think the fee is worth it. Meh. I have all my contact info for my website and I rarely get any sales calls. In fact, I don't think I've ever got one phone calls. An email every so often and perhaps some junk "real" mail once in awhile too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caveman_Nick Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 How does the integration between your domain and your gmail accounts work? Do you still need to opt in for email accounts with the web registrar, or can gmail simply apply your domain to separate gmail accounts? You might consider getting some professional advice on this. Often times your website and/or email are a first point of contact for potential customers. Doing it right is important. Here's a rough summary (but not necessarily exact details) of how it works: A "domain name" is a human readable way of grouping web addresses that get translated to computer addresses by a thing called a Domain Name Server. billay.com is a domain name. www.billay.com is a web address A domain name server will contain records that allow machines on the internet to find your domain, the associated sites and mail accounts, and allow for traffic to be routed appropriately. Corporate gmail can be set up to reflect your company's domain name, and your Domain Name Records will need to be set so that traffic knows how to find your domain on gmail servers. NOTE: I haven't set up corporate gmail, but they do have some information about it on gmail.com that will correct and or correspond with roughly what I am telling you here. It's not terribly complicated. It just needs to be done right to give a proper impression. Worth a few hundred dollars IMO. It consultants are typically cheaper than lawyers, and they usually have a much more direct impact on your day to day business. If you are a Mac guy, you can go to your local apple store and get hooked up with a member of the Apple Consultant's Network. If you don't care about working with someone locally, I can recommend someone in my area who manages most of his accounts remotely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuke'em ttg Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 i shouldn't say CD didn't help me, i am getting ghey pron now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SayItAintSoJoe Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 I never register a domain with my contact information. Once you do it's available to anyone and you start getting calls from people trying to sell you stuff. Most registrars will allow you to register the domain name privately for an additional fee and then the registrar's info goes into the contact information. I think the fee is worth it. Meh. I have all my contact info for my website and I rarely get any sales calls. In fact, I don't think I've ever got one phone calls. An email every so often and perhaps some junk "real" mail once in awhile too. I forgot to mention that I'm paranoid as hell. I just hate winding up on telemarketing lists. This happened to me recently when I participated in one of the those on-line group coupon promotions. I got a good deal on a family dinner from a newly opened pizza joint, but in the weeks that followed I also got a whole bunch of telemarketing calls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.