I believe that information is power, so I have compiled the answers to some of the most commonly asked questions, to empower you to make the best decisions regarding your website. Click on the questions to see the answers.
How much will a website cost me?
Not surprisingly, this is one of the most common questions I get asked. The answer to that question is – “it depends”.
You wouldn’t ask “How much does a car cost?”, not without specifying what size you want, what you are going to be using it for, what your budget is – any number of things.
The same goes for a websbite – each custom site is priced according to the requirements set out by the client.
That said, I do offer set-priced packages that can be quite cost-effective for clients on a smaller budget or with limited time constraints for getting a site up and running.
Click HERE or use the link in the top left menu to read about the packages I offer.
What domain name should I choose?
This depends on how you are going to use it.
If you are going to be telling people over the phone, choose one that is easy to say and spell out loud.
Above all, try to choose one that is memorable and not confusing. Often it is a good idea to use your company name, or some variation of it.
What restrictions are there on choosing a domain name?
There are certain words, phrases, and characters that cannot be used.
It must not already be registered. Although in some cases you can purchase a domain name from the existing owner, this is often an expensive endeavor.
I will be glad to help you with this decision.
What about hosting?
There are several things to look for in choosing a host for your web site.
(I know this can get fairly technical, so if you just want to skip down to the bottom of this section, and check out the hosting I offer, that’s quite all right!)
Reliability and speed of access – Not only should the web host be reliable and fast, it should guarantee its uptime.
Data Transfer (Bandwidth) – To give you a rough idea of the typical traffic requirements of a website, most new sites that are not software archives or the like use less than 3 GB of bandwiph per month.
Your traffic requirements will grow over time, as your site becomes more well-known, so you will need to also check their policy for overages: is there a published charge per GB over the allowed bandwidth?
Disk space – Most sites need less than 10 MB of web space, unless they are offering large files (e.g. software) for download.
If you are offered more space than you need, be aware that you are unlikely to use that space, so don’t let it be too big a factor in your consideration when comparing web hosts.
Technical support – Does its technical support function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (often abbreviated 24/7), all year around?
You will be surprised at how often things go wrong at the most inconvenient of times.
Incidentally, just because a host advertises that it has 24/7 support does not necessarily mean that it really has that kind of support.
Test them out by emailing at midnight and on Saturday nights, Sunday mornings, etc. Check out how long they take to respond.
FTP, PHP, Perl, SSI, .htaccess, telnet, SSH, MySQL, crontabs – If you are paying for hosting, you really should make sure you have all of these.
Note that some commercial hosts do not allow you to install PHP or Perl scripts without their approval. This is not desirable since it means that you have to wait for them before you can implement a feature on your site.