Low Cost, Not Cheap

Our website consulting explains small business website hosting technology combining three elements: a domain name URL, website hosting, and content management systems to help you understand how effective, powerful, optimized, and cost-effective small business websites can be created.

WordPress content management. Powerful and flexible

A passion for creating web spaces

I’ve heard it said a website is an investment. I disagree. I think a website is an asset.

– Dan

The difference between an investment and an asset is you measure an investment’s value in positive or negative growth, you measure an asset’s value based on its return over time. A well purchased asset shouldn’t depreciate in value and it should provide you a steady return.

And, unlike investments where you need to make two decisions: when to buy and when to sell. You need make only one with assets: when to buy.

In the case of websites, it isn’t when, but how you buy that makes all the difference.

The website asset

Essentially a website needs three things: a URL, a server, and a content management system.

Open-source enablers

In most cases, small businesses pay way too much for just about every website service they use.

Cut the jargon

The technology behind websites, while straight forward, is easily obscured through layers of technical jargon.

Consulting

Helping you make informed decisions in the current marketing and web design paradigm.

Project Management

Complete packages that make sense for you and your business.

Technological Solutions

Cloud hosting, marketing integration, SEO, SEM, and content management.

It all starts with a domain name

Domain names are words assigned a series of numbers called a URL. People prefer the names, computers prefer the numbers. How does the internet reconcile the two?

It’s a simple idea really, but let’s take a closer look.

The URL address

  • Your business has some street address.
  • Your business website has some URL address.
  • People find your business and website by name.
  • Computers find your business website by URL address.
  • A URL address looks something like 127.0.0.1
  • People wouldn’t like typing 127.0.0.1 all the time.
  • Computers don’t know names. I don’t care what they say about AI and the singularity.
  • The ICANN registry combines an entry of your website name and URL address so both people and computers find your website using the ICANN registry.
Photo by Rene Vincit courtesy unsplash
Photo by U. Storsberg courtesy unsplash

The ICANN domain name registry

  • The ICANN domain registry combines URL’s and website domain names.
  • When you lease (you can never buy) an available website domain name, these guys make it work.
  • ICANN charges a nominal fee for the service. This is the wholesale price.
  • You access the ICANN registry through a domain name registrar. Most registrars mark up ICANN’s price profiting on the spread.
  • You don’t have to pay the retail spread. Some registrars, like CLOUDFLARE, only charge ICANN’s wholesale price. No spread.

The CLOUDFLARE registrar

  • Cloudflare provides a registrar service.
  • Cloudflare does not mark up ICANN wholesale prices.
  • Cloudflare provides many other important services, free.
  • Building Websites Plus makes no money if you choose Cloudflare as your registrar.
  • We just think Cloudflare rocks!
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What you need to know about pricing website hosting

Website hosting is simply a system of computers called servers running specific programs that connect their specific, or other select programs to another computer’s browser.

Those specific programs, by the way, include your website. Here are important questions about website hosting you should know how to answer.

What will your website do?

Hosting a small lawn care business website usually requires much less processing power than hosting a small e-commerce website.

That’s because the small lawn care business website highlights the skill set of the business owner attracting more business. The e-commerce website, on the other hand, not only must attract the business, but conduct the business as well.

Do you need a dedicated, or shared server?

A dedicated server means you are the single, solitary website hosted on that server. A shared server means you are one of many websites on a single server.

Every small business can benefit from a dedicated server, yet even a small e-commerce website may function well on a shared server. In either case, however, what you need tomorrow may differ from what you have today.

What happens when my business grows?

Because your website’s tomorrow needs may be different than the hosting package you have today, the important consideration is will your hosting package grow easily and affordably with your business.

Most every hosting company has tiered pricing, with the first tier being some low introductory price that drastically increases after the first year. Scalability in both price, and performance are key.

What is the price of scaling up if needed?

Scaling up a website hosting service is going to cost money. Period. But some website hosting companies hold small businesses hostage in how they have to scale their hosting service up.

In almost every case of small business website hosting on the market today, small business owners find out painfully just how much their website hosting costs only after they need more services. New technology, like Cloudway’s thin client cloud hosting practices, are beginning to change that.

What kind of support is offered?

Regardless of experience level, every small business owner considering what to do about a website needs to understand what kind of support they can count on.

If you’re not worried about paying the big ticket price and employ a full service website agency then your support is picking up the phone and telling the agency your site is broken, fix it. If your a total DIY’er small business website owner, then that phone call needs to go to someone who can help. And there’s the in between.

What will be your level of involvement?

There are plenty of DIY small business website options on the market. Historically, turnkey sites like Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy. have lured small business owners to what can be an unexpectedly expensive and frustrating experience.

Building Websites Plus offers you an opportunity to look at things different. By helping you understand the technology, and considering the platform we suggest, our belief is you can literally build your own small business website anywhere you choose. We just want to help you make an educated choice.

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Cloudways

Cloudways offers affordable, non-tiered pricing for thier cloud server hosting.

For most small businesses, the basic 1Gig server is more than capable for a website. But, if you do need more, Cloudways is easily scalable. Along with the three day free trial you’ll get from Cloudways, if you sign up through our affiliate link here, we’ll also give you three day’s of free support. (Support subject to scheduled availability. Call us prior to signing up for cloudways three day free trial for details and to set up timing to work with you.)

Security, utility, ease of use, and global support make Cloudways hosting a system of choice for Building Websites Plus.

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Check out free hosting here

Part of the Building Websites Project is to show you all options for a small business website. Check out this totally free site we’ve put together at WordPress.com

We recognize the role small business websites play in shaping a sustainable economy.

Consulting

Our vision is to be at the forefront of small business website innovation. But our goal is to do so by not reinventing the wheel. When you work with Building Websites Plus, in person or through supporting our affiliate partners, our primary purpose is to help you make sound decisions regarding your small business website.

Design, setup, and layout

Our goal is to provide exceptional value by creating realistic options for small business website development. Our design, setup, and layout services do so by not reinventing the wheel, but helping small business owners take advantage of the best website technology with as little effort as possible. We’re talking low cost, not cheap.

Controlling cost

If you need a website, and what small business doesn’t these days, why not get the best with the best value. Our vision is to be at the forefront of quality and value fostering community of small business owners with excellent websites and knowledgeable about pricing and services.

Building asset value

A small business website should work for you just like any other hard asset you own. We can help you build a world class website for a fraction of full agency cost. But that doesn’t mean you’ll get a cheap website. We build on proven technology yet you get full freedom and control of choice.