How Should a New Business Secure A Domain Name and Build Their Website

[A Real Munson]

I’m starting a business, and want a domain name under the same name as my business. The most prevalent reasons for this, are that I want a landing page for people looking into my business, (I’ll set up a Facebook page too, but that’s a separate issue) and I want to possess a domain with my business name to use for custom email addresses.

Regarding the use of this domain as a landing page, I would also need to look for web design help so that I can have a website with an “About Us” page, a “Contact Us” page, and a breakdown of the services my business offers and why you should hire a professional, to help advise you in my area of expertise.

So, from what I’ve seen, that’s all fairly typical for simple business websites. One issue I have is that I don’t know how to secure the webzone. Do I need a domain name host? Do I just need to pay a domain name registrar. I did some looking into this and found some prices, but I’m so unfamiliar with this, that I don’t even know what it is I should know, to make an informed decision. Similarly, for web design, where should I look to hire someone, and what should I know to describe the work I want to hire them for? Is the description above enough to get a quote (Of course I’ll need to go into more detail when the rubber meets the road)? Is there anything I need to know that I probably don’t (pretend I’m the stupidest Amerimutt who ever had the audacity to strike out on his own)?

If I’m asking too much to reasonably respond to; then does anyone know a navigable resource that I can dig into to learn more on my own?
Also, if anyone has advice on finding services to work with that aren’t run by people hell bent on destroying the internet, that would be awesome. I know about Null's Tier List for Internet Services, but again, I don’t even know exactly what services I need.

 

[Grub]

So, from what I’ve seen, that’s all fairly typical for simple business websites. One issue I have is that I don’t know how to secure the webzone. Do I need a domain name host? Do I just need to pay a domain name registrar. I did some looking into this and found some prices, but I’m so unfamiliar with this, that I don’t even know what it is I should know, to make an informed decision. Similarly, for web design, where should I look to hire someone, and what should I know to describe the work I want to hire them for? Is the description above enough to get a quote (Of course I’ll need to go into more detail when the rubber meets the road)? Is there anything I need to know that I probably don’t (pretend I’m the stupidest Amerimutt who ever had the audacity to strike out on his own)?

Based on all that shit you said above. I made a website for a guy similar to what you wanted. I was going to charge him $35/h (CAD), which is pretty much what I was charging for any computer work I was doing. He offered me $500. I took it and gave him a WordPress website hosted on godaddy because he was a shady gypsy who's company seemed shady.

One thing I would ask is do you have your content already or do you need your content produced? It took me about a week for the guy I did working a few hours a day because he wanted me to write everything describing his business and find pictures and shit like that. I got the website itself up in a couple of days. The rest of the time I spent writing and editing his content for him.

He also would not shut the fuck up about SEO and it started to piss me off so I installed some WordPress SEO plugin and just sent him screenshots showing his score going up as I edited shit and he seemed to accept that.

The main thing I can say is don't be an unreasonable idiot and be clear about exactly what you want. No vague shit. Also, you get what you pay for. If you go with the cheapest guy around, you'll get garbage. I had people hire me specifically because I wasn't the cheapest and they'd been fucked over before because they cheaped out.

 

[A Real Munson]

One thing I would ask is do you have your content already or do you need your content produced? It took me about a week for the guy I did working a few hours a day because he wanted me to write everything describing his business and find pictures and shit like that. I got the website itself up in a couple of days. The rest of the time I spent writing and editing his content for him.

He also would not shut the fuck up about SEO and it started to piss me off so I installed some WordPress SEO plugin and just sent him screenshots showing his score going up as I edited shit and he seemed to accept that.

The main thing I can say is don't be an unreasonable idiot and be clear about exactly what you want. No vague shit.

So, I don't currently have all of the content of the website prepared. That's something I would want to design myself because I imagine a lot of it to function as me trying to give my "elevator pitch" to anyone who already went to my page. I don't have any reason myself to get wrapped around the axle about SEO. I don't expect people to find me via google search, and because of the nature of what I'm doing, I can only really work within about 50-75 miles from the town I'm based out of.

Do you have any advice on how to design/format (or how not to) that content so it can be handed off easily to the person putting it into the website? Is the page layout side of things more something that I should leave to the web designer, or is doing so just pushing off more of the work onto someone else. I don't know where the line is between being lazy versus trying to micromanage people who know more than I do.

Where should I go to hire someone for this. Based on what you're saying, I'm going to hold off doing so until I get the content prepared. I already know what needs to go in there, but I don't want to hire someone and ask them to wait on me while I finish producing the materials they're going to work on/with.

Also, is GoDaddy where I would want to go to secure the domain name? From your description and from everything I've heard, I wouldn't really think so. On a related note, is that something I should do myself, ahead of contracting a web designer, or should I leave that to them?

 

[Elysian]

Also, is GoDaddy where I would want to go to secure the domain name? From your description and from everything I've heard, I wouldn't really think so. On a related note, is that something I should do myself, ahead of contracting a web designer, or should I leave that to them?

You can buy a domain on GoDaddy itself and have them host it for you. Companies like GoDaddy or Squarespace are designed specifically as all-in-one solutions for normies that just need something basic. They literally have a drag and drop website builder so you could try that out first before you resort to hiring someone.

If you want to be autistic about it and web development and server maintenance interest you though, Landchad is a good resource that will walk you through buying a domain and setting it up on a VPS. It won’t tell you how to design the website itself but it’ll tell you how to buy the domain, get it hosted and online with a basic “hello world” page, do server maintenance and set up various pre-made services on that server (email client, Google drive alternative, IRC, etc.).

https://landchad.net/basic/domain/

Neocities has lots of links for things that will actually teach you how to code a website from scratch.
https://neocities.org/tutorials

 

[A Real Munson]

You can buy a domain on GoDaddy itself and have them host it for you. Companies like GoDaddy or Squarespace are designed specifically as all-in-one solutions for normies that just need something basic. They literally have a drag and drop website builder so you could try that out first before you resort to hiring someone.

If you want to be autistic about it and web development and server maintenance interest you though, Landchad is a good resource that will walk you through buying a domain and setting it up on a VPS. It won’t tell you how to design the website itself but it’ll tell you how to buy the domain, get it hosted and online with a basic “hello world” page, do server maintenance and set up various pre-made services on that server (email client, Google drive alternative, IRC, etc.).

https://landchad.net/basic/domain/

Neocities has lots of links for things that will actually teach you how to code a website from scratch.
https://neocities.org/tutorials

Thank you! I'm going to check this out tomorrow when I have fresh eyes.

 

[Grub]

Do you have any advice on how to design/format (or how not to) that content so it can be handed off easily to the person putting it into the website? Is the page layout side of things more something that I should leave to the web designer, or is doing so just pushing off more of the work onto someone else. I don't know where the line is between being lazy versus trying to micromanage people who know more than I do.

Organized by heading and section would be ideal. Formatting I would think would be up to the web designer. I kind of draw the line at stuff related to the website itself vs stuff for your business or whatever the website's about. Ideally, I would prefer to be given stuff I can copy and paste into the website without too much fucking around apart from making it look nice. But it all depends on what people are willing to pay. If someone wants to pay for me to write their shit for them I'll do it. Other people might not want to.

Where should I go to hire someone for this

I don't really know the best answer for that. I advertised on Craigslist and got a fair number of jobs off there. I didn't try very hard to advertise myself though and was never really sure the best way to do that.

Also, is GoDaddy where I would want to go to secure the domain name? From your description and from everything I've heard, I wouldn't really think so. On a related note, is that something I should do myself, ahead of contracting a web designer, or should I leave that to them?

I wouldn't. I picked godaddy because it's cheap and my customer was an asshole. They're kind of shady as far as I know.