Website and Facebook Question

[The Cleaning Doctor]

Originally Posted by Hedgemaster Forgive my noobness, but if one is a "REseller, I assume that makes them sort of a "middleman". If I want to skip the middleman, who do I buy hosting from? Or does it not matter if I use a hosting reseller? I don't know what the "list of registrars for ICANN" MEANS, but I Googled it and found this. What makes these hosting services more desirable than those not on this "list"? Any insight would be appreciated. FYI I need to register a domain name as well, so I was figuring I'd wait until I decide on a hosting provider to use and do it all at the same time. I note that some offer free domain reg. with hosting services, and when reading the fine print, it sounds complicated to transfer domain registration from one hosting provider to another. (But that's just my take on it as a web noob) I am going to use the deregulation of the phone companies as an example. You live in an area that is the territory of BellSouth but MCI is giving you the better deal so you buy your service from MCI but a BellSouth technician comes out to install the line because MCI is leasing it from them. Everything is fine until there is an issue. You call BellSouth, they are the ones that did the install right? and they tell you sorry you have to call MCI. You now call MCI and they say it is a BellSouth problem. So you hang up and call BellSouth and they tell you they can't help you because MCI has to open the trouble ticket as they are the owner. Hours, days or even weeks go by with everyone pointing the finger at the other and nobody is at fault. After all the crap, 2 weeks later a BellSouth technician shows up at the house to fix the wires that were laying on the ground because of a squirrel and these are the same wires that you told them about on the phone. Well now the phone is finally fixed, 2 weeks after you first told them the wires were laying on the ground. This really did happen to my sister in-law. Say you went with a reseller of GoDaddy services. Well you have to deal with that reseller instead of going to godaddy direct. I see a lot of you going with the cheap hosting. Yes you have to cut expenses whenever you can but think about this. Say the hosting costs $10 per month for ease of math. That is $120 per year. How much did you just spend at Kinkos printing out your flyers? A web site is the best ROI of any advertising that you will do. If you go cheap, the site will look cheap and the customers will think you are cheap. How many sites have you seen that have the same if not similar template and are only 5 pages because you went with the cheap hosting. If you can not afford $120 per year for hosting instead of the $3.99 door hanger special or the FREE hosting, you need to park the gear and get a job because you will probably be one of the business statistics. Are there better hosting services than Godaddy.... Probably but I an happy with them.

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[Hedgemaster]

Lawn care business tips

Any opinion on Bluehost? Special $3.95/mo (2 or 3 yr plan) Free domain that is "yours to take" for as long as you host with them. I've been researching/chatting with them all evening, and they seem legit. A lot of the others I've looked at have been sneaky with the rates - one price shown, but they don't tell you that it has "strings attached". I'm about to sign up, so let me know if you can think of a reason not to!

[Ducke]

I purchased my own domain www.duckfoot.ca for $28.00 a year and i host it on CanHost for 128.00 for two years.

[slcllc]

First off, I haven't seen any host better than x10hosting.com - IT IS ABSOLUTELY FREE WITH NO ADS AND UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH. I registered my domain with netfirms.com. Super easy, super cheap... like $8.

As for your website, I hope you know some HTML or Joomla or something, because I would hate to pay someone to design a website, when there are so many ways to get it done for free, you just need a little know-how.

http://www.stevensonlawncare.com

[The Cleaning Doctor]

As for your website, I hope you know some HTML or Joomla or something, because I would hate to pay someone to design a website, when there are so many ways to get it done for free, you just need a little know-how.

My point is made about going cheap.

Sorry but the site is too much of a cookie cutter site. Your site name even blends into the header photo.

You only have one chance to make an impression and you can not take that impression back. The look of your site says cheap and more than likely the guy that owns the 1/2 million dollar home will call someone else.

You get dressed up when you go for a job interview right? Your web site is going to the job interview for you so it must stand out to get noticed.

The site may look ok but the SEO on it is drastically lacking. Hell there is only one company that has their site on the front page in Gulfport. Yours does not even show up in the first 10 pages.

I am going to start a test tonight and see what happens.... Will let you all know. This is going to be fun.... It is now 10 pm MST

[Hedgemaster]

Originally Posted by Hedgemaster

Any opinion on Bluehost?

Special $3.95/mo (2 or 3 yr plan)

Free domain that is "yours to take" for as long as you host with them.


I've been researching/chatting with them all evening, and they seem legit. A lot of the others I've looked at have been sneaky with the rates - one price shown, but they don't tell you that it has "strings attached".

I'm about to sign up, so let me know if you can think of a reason not to!

DONE.


I signed up for the two year plan. I also decided to add the "privacy option" for $9.95/year to keep my personal info off of the "Whois" list (If that's the correct term - all new to me)
I figure if they are giving me my domain for free for as long as I'm with them, I'd just spend the $10 I'd likely be spending elsewhere for a domain had I gone that route.
Note that someone elsewhere suggested I ask, and the domain name is mine to take elsewhere if I choose. If I do, they will simply bill me $10. That sounds reasonable.

And really, like the Cleaning Doctor said above, "That is $120 per year. How much did you just spend at Kinkos printing out your flyers?"

Seriously. It costs nearly that much to get the needle off of "Empty" when I put gas in my truck.

Account Plan 24 Months
Hosting Price $94.80 ($3.95 for 24 months)
Setup Fee FREE
Registration Main Domain oakleaflawn.com FREE
$9.95 Privacy
You will be billed $104.75

Now I just need to figure out how to build a web page.

[The Cleaning Doctor]

OK the page is up online and I am not putting any links to it. It is on OrganicLawnTips.com but there is no link from the home page. The sitemap is the only way Google will find the page.

I targeted 2 keywords

Lawn Mowing Gulfport
Lawn Care Gulfport

Your web site is useless if nobody can find you.

Here is a photo of the ranking for the keywords.....Now let's see how long before they are on the front page. The ConcreteSealingTips.com site had a local article on the front page in 2 hours.

[The Cleaning Doctor]

Now I just need to figure out how to build a web page.

What are their options?

Most places will have some sort of site builder.

1. Site builder easiest to use but also the most limited
2. 3rd party site building software then FTP to the domain.
3. Drupal - Free but very steep learning curve. You can do alot with it.
4. Joomla - Also free, not as hard a drupal
5. Wordpress - Free and the easiest of the three to learn.

All of the sites that I have been building lately have been WordPress as they are very flexible and great for SEO. I do get the paid premium templates though over the free ones.

[Hedgemaster]

Originally Posted by The Cleaning Doctor

What are their options?

Most places will have some sort of site builder.

1. Site builder easiest to use but also the most limited
2. 3rd party site building software then FTP to the domain.
3. Drupal - Free but very steep learning curve. You can do alot with it.
4. Joomla - Also free, not as hard a drupal
5. Wordpress - Free and the easiest of the three to learn.

All of the sites that I have been building lately have been WordPress as they are very flexible and great for SEO. I do get the paid premium templates though over the free ones.

I believe there's a site builder, but these are also available... all are free except the ones with bold, orange titles. ($10, I believe)


I have some reading to do.

I also know a guy who teaches web design at a small trade school and he may have his class to build a site for me as a project. Not sure about that though, as I'd want to be in control of it.

[slcllc]

Cleaning Doctor:
Thanks for the suggestions. I've changed the color of the title to match the brown in the buttons.

I've linked to the pages, and have the meta tags set to (hopefully) show up in the search results. Additionally, I have an ad campaign at Google right now that includes the keywords you've listed and more. Unfortunately, I feel like I've done almost everything I can that would increase my visibility in search results, and feel like there isn't much left I can do. If you have any ideas on how to improve my visibility, please let me know.

On the topic of my layout: I don't feel it's extremely cookie cutter, but It was free and when looking at costs, you'll see that I only pay $7/year ** and that's just for the domain name. I have some limited experience with HTML and CSS sheets are what I'm most comfortable with. I'm currently working on a quote request form, but I can't seem get the PHP right.