It’s very important that one has their own web presence when it comes to having an online presence. Facebook pages are nice, but it may not be around forever. Look at Friendster and MySpace as examples of once popular web spaces that have been toppled by newer players. It is also much more professional to have your own website, and with your own “dot com” domain name.
But how do you go about doing this without spending a lot? The nice thing about Facebook is that it’s FREE, right?
Here’s how I have my own website presence for less than $15 per year. There are lots of people out there that will host your website, but it can cost quite a bit. One example is Hostbaby.com - which charges $20 per month, which ends up costing you $240 a year. I have nothing against them, I’ve used cdbaby.com for years for my band, and I’m sure they are a high-quality company and provide great service. All I’m saying is that it’ll cost you $240 for the year, not to mention domain name renewals, which are around $15 per year now.
Here it is at it’s simplest; buy a domain name and have it point to a freely hosted website. Two steps (sort of - I broke it into four steps below).
But how do you go about doing this without spending a lot? The nice thing about Facebook is that it’s FREE, right?
Here’s how I have my own website presence for less than $15 per year. There are lots of people out there that will host your website, but it can cost quite a bit. One example is Hostbaby.com - which charges $20 per month, which ends up costing you $240 a year. I have nothing against them, I’ve used cdbaby.com for years for my band, and I’m sure they are a high-quality company and provide great service. All I’m saying is that it’ll cost you $240 for the year, not to mention domain name renewals, which are around $15 per year now.
Here it is at it’s simplest; buy a domain name and have it point to a freely hosted website. Two steps (sort of - I broke it into four steps below).
Step 1: Buy a domain name
If you already own a domain name, then you can skip this step. I have used 1and1.com, but there are a
million places to buy domain names. Sometimes there’s a signup special (buy a .com domain for only $0.99 for the first year!). The regular price currently seems to be $14.99/year, which could potentially be the only thing you pay to keep your website up.
Step 2: Build a Website
Sounds like a daunting step, but it’s not too bad. I use Weebly.com and they have a super easy to use system to build quality
looking websites. So just go there, sign up for a free account and start building away. You can just use a yourbandname.weebly.com domain to start with and change it later (we’ll get to that in Step 4). You can create your
homepage, drag and drop pictures and texts, create a blog, whatever. It’s all there.
Step 3: Point your domain to Weebly
Follow the directions at this link: http://kb.weebly.com/domain-registrar.html to do this step.
Step 4: Update your Weebly Domain Setting
Select the Settings tab in weebly for your site. Click on the “Change Site Address” link and then select “use a domain you already own” and type in your domain.name. Publish the website and voila, you are done.
You can always pay more and get more features using Weebly.com and I do that for some other websites, but it’s still less than $6 per month and you can have up to ten websites for that - crazy!
So that’s how I use those sites for a low cost website hosting solution. Figured out a cheaper way to do it? Share it in the
comments below:
If you already own a domain name, then you can skip this step. I have used 1and1.com, but there are a
million places to buy domain names. Sometimes there’s a signup special (buy a .com domain for only $0.99 for the first year!). The regular price currently seems to be $14.99/year, which could potentially be the only thing you pay to keep your website up.
Step 2: Build a Website
Sounds like a daunting step, but it’s not too bad. I use Weebly.com and they have a super easy to use system to build quality
looking websites. So just go there, sign up for a free account and start building away. You can just use a yourbandname.weebly.com domain to start with and change it later (we’ll get to that in Step 4). You can create your
homepage, drag and drop pictures and texts, create a blog, whatever. It’s all there.
Step 3: Point your domain to Weebly
Follow the directions at this link: http://kb.weebly.com/domain-registrar.html to do this step.
Step 4: Update your Weebly Domain Setting
Select the Settings tab in weebly for your site. Click on the “Change Site Address” link and then select “use a domain you already own” and type in your domain.name. Publish the website and voila, you are done.
You can always pay more and get more features using Weebly.com and I do that for some other websites, but it’s still less than $6 per month and you can have up to ten websites for that - crazy!
So that’s how I use those sites for a low cost website hosting solution. Figured out a cheaper way to do it? Share it in the
comments below:
RSS Feed
