Webpages / Domain names & email addresses... Help!! - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

LizzieT · Veteran Member

Webpages / Domain names & email addresses... Help!!

attilabenko · Guru

Hi,

I would go with Office Live Small Business, that is with Microsoft, I think you heard about them,too ;)
Personally I don't like what you can do with Google pages, it is just my opinion but I am sure you can set things up without Google Ads on it...

HTH

GrahamG · Veteran Member

Hi Liz,

I've plenty of experience with web design / hosting / domain registration etc.

(1) Alas, the 'bookkeeping.com' domain name went many moons ago!

(2) Thing to be warey of: when you buy a domain name, you should normally be the owner and the internet service provider should be the register / administrator of that domain. What you find with some hosting packages is that 'you buy the hosting from us and we'll give you your domain name for free' usually work slightly differently. If you ever decide to transfer your domain from one internet service provider to another (which you are entitled to do - bit like transferring your mobile phone between providers) sometimes the ISP (internet service provider) can then levy some pretty heftly 'admin' charges for the transfer. I also know of one company who thought they were buying a domain name but it turned out that the ISP ended up owning the name.

(3) I've bought hundreds of domains over the years and I can wholeheartedly recommend:

www.uk2.net

You can purchase your domain through them. You can even buy the hosting (disk space that's serves up your web pages to the internet). I think they may even do design, but you can find web designers quite easily anyhow.

(4) I'm in the fortunate position of being able to code web pages directly, but recently I learned to use a 'Content Management System'. A bit complex to setup, but once that has been done it makes it really easy to update any size of web site. One of my websites is http://www.consonantia.com/mycashbook/, this gives you an idea of what you can churn out using a content management system.

(5) You buy a domain name through (say) UK2 net and the email comes as part of the package, but you would need to be able to configure your email client with the POP and SMTP settings for your domain. But you would have to do something similar with the likes of Yahoo, Hotmail and the like as well.

Hopefully all this doesn't sound too techy, but it's intended just to give you a few pointers / things to be aware of.

Cheers,
GrahamG

Brewsie · Veteran Member

Lizzie

I have used www.freevirtualservers.com/ for domain registration, e-mail and hosting for a few years. They offer a free hosting package that has some limitations, but is fine for hosting a basic business web site. They also have a website building tool which I haven't used.

You can either use their WebMail or download to e.g. Outlook (all instructions are provided)

Wella · Expert

Hi Liz

I use a hosting company called HostPapa and I have never had a problem with them.

They are reasonably cheap at about £60/ year. This includes unlimited email addresses, and domain name, which they offer free for life, while you are with them, so no renewals for that every couple of years. If you are into green technology, they also have various environmental awards and use 100% green energy.

http://hostpapa.co.uk/index.shtml

HTH
Bill

LizzieT · Veteran Member

Hi All,

Many thanks for the responses - its much nicer to get reccomendations, as I was finding all sorts of things just googling domain names!!

I'll now go and have a look at the options above!

I am not at all techy (and don't have any friends that are either) so your help was invaluable.

Thanks again ,

Liz

--andrea-- · Member

I bought mine from www.1and1.co.uk, very cheap :)

kjmcculloch · Guru

Personally I buy all of my domain names from either 123reg or godaddy depending on whether I'm looking for a co.uk or a com. All of my hosting is done by m8internet. THey charge £1 per year for their smallest package which most of my websites use. I've been with them for 4 years and never had any issues or downtime.

Kris

Merlion ABS · Senior Member

123reg hosts my website, its about £35 a year and i get 15 webmail boxes which I can then assign specific domain name orientated email addresses such as info@domainname.co.uk, paul@ etc...

all included in the price.

BackOfficeGroup · Guru

1and1.co.uk, uk2.net, heartinternet.co.uk

I have used all 3 and can recommend them all.

Graham - we've been playing with joomla which seems pretty good!

P

Alfred · Senior Member

I have recently move over from heart to Fast host, they deduct 5.89 from my credit card each month and they are not bad have not had any problems with them. I get loads of email accounts and also sub domain names and they have a website builder also.

Quentin Pain · Senior Member

Lizzie, I agree with everyone here having used the lot, but here's what I would do (and is the cheapest option):

1. Register a free account with http://www.123-reg.co.uk
2. Buy a domain through 123-reg £2.99 a year (eg. www.lizziesbookkeeping.co.uk - which is available as I write this)
3. Set up a free Google mail account (you will see why in a minute)
4. Go to your control panel on 123-reg and set an email forwarder to your Google mail account
5. In your Google mail account create a new 'Send Mail' account so you can receive and reply with the same email address (eg. support@lizziesbookkeeping.co.uk)

You can now logon to Google mail any time you like, check your mail and reply and it will all be going to and coming from your new professional email address :)

Now the best bit is, you also own the domain (www.lizziesbookkeeping.co.uk) so you can buy hosting through a myriad of hosts (JustHost.com is currently the cheapest at £1.95 a month) and have a website too.

If the above sounds far too techi, email me.

PaulC · Veteran Member

I use fast2host.com and they have been great. You can actually get somebody on the phone as well if you need to. With many other web hosts getting hold of them is not always easy.

123reg is also good for getting your domain name quickly and cheaply.

Quentin, I like your suggestion with the Googlemail account. I'll have a look at that.

Quentin Pain · Senior Member

Paul, it works great :) Incidentally, the best hosting service I have come across in terms of service and cost is GoDaddy.

Their 24/7 telephone support is second to none - and there is no extra cost. I have 7 domains parked there, one of them is a site that went down this weekend. I have called them 4 times over the last 48 hours (4am on Sunday morning was one of them) and have not had to wait more than 6 minutes and despite it being a very tricky issue, everything was resolved.

Having said that, I also have 24/7 'fanatical' phone support from Rackspace, but we pay £500 a month for hosting with them, so it is not really surprising! (note the £500 is for a very high traffic site, hence the cost, an average small bookkeeping business in the UK should not be paying more than about £25 a year for hosting, and that should include a free domain name for the first year, and only a couple of pounds a year to renew the name).

lor · Guru

kjmcculloch wrote:

Personally I buy all of my domain names from either 123reg or godaddy depending on whether I'm looking for a co.uk or a com. All of my hosting is done by m8internet. THey charge £1 per year for their smallest package which most of my websites use. I've been with them for 4 years and never had any issues or downtime.

Kris

I use 123reg also, never had problem, fairly easy to design the whole website your self. Also I had a problem with where my domain was pointing to wrong website (was one of my other website's), called the helpline and they fixed straight away, so thats good to know if you get stuck in anyway.

-- Edited by lor on Monday 22nd of November 2010 12:39:13 PM

Peasie · Expert

Does anyone thinks this is a good idea?

http://mybusiness.1and1.co.uk/xml/order/switch;jsessionid=276D0DE859EE672E8BA522C9263E59EC.TC23b?ucuoId=PUAC:default.WH.UK-20101122200455-E5C44E65FEB747F763E6EF76DBB8EA0D.TCpfix150a&site=PU.NGH.UK&linkOrigin=Home&linkId=weiter&__frame=_top&linkType=btn&__lf=Static&ac=OM.UK.UK274K06698T5510a&__rd=ac170c57ePoaStkatZnVifwwiBYumYyO&origin[site]=PU.WH.UK&origin[page]=Home

kjmcculloch · Guru

Hi Peasie,

I'm sorry, I don't. I think these things are dreadful ideas. These templated sites can be bought and customised for around £100. You can buy hosting for £1 per year as I said and a domain name for £5 for 2 years. That's £107 for 2 years. And if I'm honest a good design will last more than that. Taking the 1and1 deal is £239.76 for 2 years or £132.76 more.

Further to that you will probably find 1and1 will own your domain, and charge you if you ever want to move it. building seo of this is a bit like putting a fitted kitchen in a rented house, improving something that isn't and wont be yours.

A much better investment in my opinion is a professionally designed website, it might cost a little more, but it'll be worth it in the long run.

Kris

luther parker · Veteran Member

Hi Peasie,

What 'Kris' mentioned about investing in a more professional designed website - Well! I totally agree with him...this will make you look professional!

Luther.

Quentin Pain · Senior Member

The simplest and cheapest way to go is to use a CMS (Content Management System) system like Wordpress. Instant professional website. If you don't want to do the techie stuff, talk to someone who does and make sure you mention Wordpress (so you don't get conned).

There are loads of free CMS, the best known are Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal and a hundred more like Wordpress, but I can tell you from experience that for simple websites (and that is all a bookkeeper needs) Wordpress is the best.

I will be starting a course on doing exactly that very shortly. Anyone subscribed to my bookkeeping course will get details when it's ready.

LizzieT · Veteran Member

Hi All,

Just to say a huge thank you for all of your responses, I have decided to go with 123-reg.

Recomendations give me much more confidence.

Thanks again,

Liz

PaulC · Veteran Member

Yes, works well. Cheers.

Don Tax · Expert

Hi, how do I avoid the pitfall referred to above by Graham, of not having complete ownership of a domain name?

A 'Register/Transfer' column appears upon searching for available names with 123reg. Just wanted to check that this is the process I'm seeking to buy outright.

Thanks peeps.
Tim

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

If you buy domain names from 123reg or godaddy you should have no issues with this Tim. The problem comes when domain names are bundled for free with site builders whereby they own the domain name. Some charge a reasonable amount to transfer out, some are crippling.

The biggest issue is that the domain name is the most valuable part of your online presence. To build good SEO for a domain owned by someone else is in my mind similar to renting a house and putting a new kitchen in at your expense. You're improving something you don't own.

Kris

Don Tax · Expert

Great stuff Kris. I convinced g/f not to go with VP with the ownership doubt and it looked naff but she'd thought of a cute IMO name for her proofreading business along lines of but not beetles with an 'a'. We've got the .co.uk domain now and a Reiki domain name while we were at it.

No reason why we shouldn't go with M8internet either.
Cheers,
Tim

betty121 · Senior Member

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a domain name and website from Vista Print. Was this a mistake? I haven't even built the website yet as not sure how to do it.

So if I cancelled this could I just get a new domain from 123 reg. I would like someone else to build my site as not very techy and want to look professional. So if I just buy the domain name can I then get a professional to build the site?

Elizabeth

Don Tax · Expert

Hi Betty,

I really didn't want 'VP' in the domain name as it would detract from the cute play on words she'd devised. There may have been a decent price offer recently from Vista which got g/f trying templates and nearly signing up, but she now owns a unique name without any reference to a provider or host. An author she did a great job for has designed the web page as a thank you so it will just need uploading to her domain or whatever they do. However, from the comments above and elsewhere, it seems very easy to build one.

kind regards,
Tim

betty121 · Senior Member

Thanks Tim,

I'm going to have a look at 123 reg and see how easy it is. This is all so new to me.

Eliz

Don Tax · Expert

There's possibly still a free business cards offer from Vista, Betty and nothing to stop you buying other domain names.
Tim