JF1993 Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 There are websites for just about everything, and I know I've seen several websites for people's displays. Being a newbie here I was just wondering if anyone uses free web hosting, or is it easier to just pay an annual subscription fee for hosting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ Hvasta Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 (edited) I've got a couple websites, and pay annually for hosting, but they're for churchs, groups, things other than Lighting.. both have plusses/minuses. Free site usually wont have as good a support base to help you figure out problems you might have.. Paid sites, have better tech supprt. Both have templates for pages, just insert your content.. try a free site first, see if it is easy to work with (upload content, make changes, etc), if it feels like yer being fitted for chain wrapped cinderblocks.. well then.. go with a paid site.. and dont let that scare you either.. its usually $10/yr for the domain name, and anywhere between $30-50/yr for hosting ($3-$4/mo is average).One thing before you sign.. do a search for domain hosting reviews.. read what others say abt the hosting company, ie: GoDaddy has a LOT of bad reviews.. like anything, do a bit of research before you commit for a year.. Edited September 5, 2012 by TJ Hvasta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallleyes Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 I think most of the free websites have advertising on them.I use GoDaddy and it costs about $80/year and does not have advertising on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Linburg Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 I use google sites for hosting and godaddy for domain name. Only costs $10 a year. (my Christmas site just has a coverup URL on a wix free site template for now) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crackchecker Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 I'm currently working on "Weebly" free website. It is easy to use and looks a tonn better than my last free website "webonsites". I will be publishing it pretty soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhitePlainsNY Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 (edited) I used GoDaddy and Microsoft Expression Web software for my business website so I was already familiar with the setup. I use GoDaddy for my Christmas website. I wanted the same freedom to do what I wanted, which isn't sometimes possible with free sites. I dislike ads too so that was the other deciding factor. I don’t recall what my annual cost is but it was low. Edited September 6, 2012 by WhitePlainsNY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 Whoever you go with, make sure they use Cpanel. Your life will be better off. Trust me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheUltimate Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 All my domains and hosting are done by tigertech.net. I've never had a problem with them. My site is a simple wordpress site which is actually pretty easy to use. Before I transitioned over to a hosted site I had my domain pointed to a blogspot blog. My recommendation would be to start with a free site and really think about who your audience will be and what your primary use for the site will be. Once you are sure you know what you want to do then look at moving to a hosted solution. As I mentioned earlier you can always have a domain pointed to your free site for the time being. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ Hvasta Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 (edited) I started doing html by hand on Notepad, then switched to MS Publisher several yrs ago.. I just upload the folders to the server.. TotalChoiceHosting, a local Phoenix company is who I use... Edited September 7, 2012 by TJ Hvasta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 I started doing html by hand on Notepad,Yes! The best (and slowest) way to write web pages! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrison0550 Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 (edited) A friend of mine runs his company site through yahoo and loves it. Not to be mean or anything but he is technology handicapped . Well maybe not but he did the entire site himself in one afternoon through yahoo. It cost him like $56 a year and is geared more towards small business owners giving you email addresses etc but after seeing how simple the site design is using yahoo's hold your hand to build it approach I have considered doing it myself. I know absolutely nothing about any of this site building domain name servers junk and if for $56 I don't have to learn any of it I'm game. Ive personally never seen his site down since he created it.Here is what he uses.... http://smallbusiness...ns#File ManagerHere is his garage door site.... http://www.accessdoorcompany.com Edited September 8, 2012 by harrison0550 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JF1993 Posted September 11, 2012 Author Share Posted September 11, 2012 This year I might just stick to making a Facebook page. Websites are nice and everything it's just that they seam to be a little time consuming, and time is something I always seem to be running out of. Thanks for all the helpful thoughts and suggestions though. Maybe I'll shoot for that website another time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 How many GoDaddy websites went down yesterday? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmydatoolman Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 I use ipage, only cost 15 a year, and haven't had any issues yet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ Hvasta Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 How many GoDaddy websites went down yesterday?I wudda counted, but no one knows how many there were to start with Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wschlatt Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 I use Godaddy for the domain and Google Sites for the website. Google is free, which is great, and it's fairly straightforward to do the basic stuff. Facebook is also a good option (thanks JF1993) - might tinker with that as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhitePlainsNY Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 I created a Facebook page this year to supplement my website. http://www.facebook.com/NYChristmasLightsThe best tip I can offer is to not use your default profile page but create a Page for your display instead. If it's a separate Page, people will be able to, "Like" it so you can track the public's reaction better.Oh, and don't forget foursquare.com for the hipsters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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