Details details
Wondering about domain names, hosting, or email addresses? It’s all below…
Domain names
Your domain name is your address on the internet. Something easy to spell and say and remember is best, totally unlike maxshmax.com. Check if yours is available at www.internic.net/whois.html or www.ventraip.com.au or www.godaddy.com.
I can register it or you can
It’s best if you register your own domain – this way you’ll have no hassles if you ever want to change your web host or designer.
I can certainly do it for you. You’ll still be listed as the owner and I’ll give you all the details you need to transfer it if anything ever happens to Maxshmax Web Design.
.com names are best
People will try www.yourcompany.com first if they're guessing your address. I charge $20/year for .com’s, and it’s a bit cheaper if you do it yourself.
Country specific domains: .com.au
If the site is for your business you may want a country specific domain, .com.au in Australia for example. It may give people more faith in your site and your business as a registered business name is generally required to register a country specific domain. I charge $40/2years for .com.au’s, and it’s a bit cheaper if you do it yourself.
Other options
There's heaps of others if your .com is taken or if you'd just prefer something different: .net .org . tv .me .fm .im .la .biz .info .us .ws .name, plus all the country specific domains.
Most of these top level domains cost about $20au/year and most of the country specific domains are a bit to a lot more.
It’s often smart to register two or more domains and point them at your main site to catch more traffic.
Hosting
Your site needs to sit on a server. I can take care of it for $75au/year* or you can choose another company to host your site. You can certainly find cheaper hosting if you’re willing to maintain your site yourself, my fee also covers any time required to fix any problems that arise.
I use servers in Australia or America, depending on where most of your visitors will be from so your pages will load as quick as possible.
I use VentraIP in Australia and GreenGeeks in the US. Both companies offer green offsets for the energy their servers use to host your site, which may not save the earth but it's better than nothing.
Small print
* If you're going to offer files or music or video for download or if your site needs a lot of space it may cost a bit more, I'll let you know early if I suspect this.
Also if your site becomes very popular it will cost more – every visit to your site uses some bandwidth which isn't free, so if millions of people are visiting your site it will cost more to host.
All websites have email included, as many addresses as you need, but you don't need a site to choose your own email address.
Email only
For the price of a domain registration + $5/month or $50/year you can pick what's after the @ and as many what's befores as you want and keep them forever.
You can access your email normally or from any computer connected to the net, just like hotmail and gmail.
If spam ever takes over you can change any of your addresses before the @, no charge.
More personal
Get one for yourself – Polly@theharveys.com, one for your son – Bambino@theharveys.com, and your mother in law – Agnes@theharveys.com, basically as many as you want for $5/month.
And you won't have to change your email address every time you change your ISP.
More professional
Trying to clinch the deal using betty_4582@yahoogle.com? No chance. Hit em with Head.Honcho@fatcats.com. Your sales team will need one too – Sales@fatcats.com, and your assistant – pizzaboy@fatcats.com.
No sales team? They don't know that.
next stepReady to go – contact me now.
Still not sure – get a feel for pricing…
