Site Build It (SBI) is a great website building program, the only one I highly recommend. Every now and then they have a special and they're having one right now:
Purchase a one-year subscription of SBI for $299 and get a second for $100.
If the cost sounds high, I encourage you to read my review of SBI so you know what you get with the subscription. Compare it to any other method of website building, and you'll see that, unless you're a crack website building and designer, you come out ahead.
When I first heard of this special, I wondered why anyone would want two subscriptions. Well, you can give it to your spouse or your older child, or you can split the cost with a friend who wants to build a website.
In any case, Site Build It is a unique program that's well worth looking into, especially if you're looking to build a solid, satisfying, long-term business.
For more information, or to order SBI, visit their main page at SiteSell.
Janet
P.S. If you're waiting for me to finally choose a host for my children's music website, sorry for the long wait! So much has been happening this summer. I'm hoping to get to this soon, maybe even today, if this turns out to be the relaxing Sunday I could use right now! ;-)
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Watch me get a host for my site
Apologies for the delay, I've been on vacation!
It's about time I get a host for this website. When I was researching the hosting page at Website Building 4 Newbies, I decided that HostGator was my first choice for hosting, other than the host I've been using, Banana Hosting.
Well, I've never used Host Gator, and I want to experience using the host I recommend to you. So right now, as I write this, I will get my host for www.heartbeat-childrens-music.com.
Okay, I'm at the website, looking at their $4.95/month option. I clicked on the "Learn More" button. Looks like the plan for me. It has unlimited bandwidth and unlimited disk space. That's all I need for this site. If I were planning to host a forum on the site, offering products and using a shopping cart, or making it uber-popular, then I might want something more. But for my purposes, this is fine.
I click on the order button. There are two options:
o Register New Domain
or
o I will use My Existing Domain and update My Nameservers only.
I've already got my domain. I've heard its best to get your domain and your host in two different places. That way, if you have a problem with the host, you can switch hosts without having to fiddle with the domain name.
This is reminding me that I need to deal with the nameservers. I hate doing that. It's not hard, just confusing. So I'll write about that here, so you can suffer with me, uh, I mean, learn how to do it. ;-)
Okay, I'm entering my domain name and clicking the "next" button.
Hmmm, this is interesting. It's telling me the cost is $8.95 plus $5 setup. What happened to the $4.95 option?
I'll click on live chat and find out what the story is.
Okay, Douglas Be was wonderfully helpful. But I am not going to get hosting with Host Gator today. Here's the scoop:
The cost comes out to $4.95 per month if you pay for three years worth of hosting all at once. The cost is $8.95 per month if you pay from month to month.
I asked Douglas if this was stated anywhere on the site. He said that if you are on the order page and you hover your mouse over the price, it gives you the details.
Well, expecting people to hover their mouses is no way to communicate! I'm not sure I want a host who can't be clear about its pricing. And I told them just that.
The pricing itself is fair enough. I'm not looking for a cheaper host. I'm looking for a more honest host.
So no hosting yet. I will do some more research and write another blog post when I find a good host.
Peace,
Janet
It's about time I get a host for this website. When I was researching the hosting page at Website Building 4 Newbies, I decided that HostGator was my first choice for hosting, other than the host I've been using, Banana Hosting.
Well, I've never used Host Gator, and I want to experience using the host I recommend to you. So right now, as I write this, I will get my host for www.heartbeat-childrens-music.com.
Okay, I'm at the website, looking at their $4.95/month option. I clicked on the "Learn More" button. Looks like the plan for me. It has unlimited bandwidth and unlimited disk space. That's all I need for this site. If I were planning to host a forum on the site, offering products and using a shopping cart, or making it uber-popular, then I might want something more. But for my purposes, this is fine.
I click on the order button. There are two options:
o Register New Domain
or
o I will use My Existing Domain and update My Nameservers only.
I've already got my domain. I've heard its best to get your domain and your host in two different places. That way, if you have a problem with the host, you can switch hosts without having to fiddle with the domain name.
This is reminding me that I need to deal with the nameservers. I hate doing that. It's not hard, just confusing. So I'll write about that here, so you can suffer with me, uh, I mean, learn how to do it. ;-)
Okay, I'm entering my domain name and clicking the "next" button.
Hmmm, this is interesting. It's telling me the cost is $8.95 plus $5 setup. What happened to the $4.95 option?
I'll click on live chat and find out what the story is.
Okay, Douglas Be was wonderfully helpful. But I am not going to get hosting with Host Gator today. Here's the scoop:
The cost comes out to $4.95 per month if you pay for three years worth of hosting all at once. The cost is $8.95 per month if you pay from month to month.
I asked Douglas if this was stated anywhere on the site. He said that if you are on the order page and you hover your mouse over the price, it gives you the details.
Well, expecting people to hover their mouses is no way to communicate! I'm not sure I want a host who can't be clear about its pricing. And I told them just that.
The pricing itself is fair enough. I'm not looking for a cheaper host. I'm looking for a more honest host.
So no hosting yet. I will do some more research and write another blog post when I find a good host.
Peace,
Janet
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Watch me choose a domain name for my site
As promised, I'm letting you look over my shoulder as I build a new website, www.HeartBeat-Childrens-Music.com.
If you visit Website Building 4 Newbies, you'll notice the first step is niche research (also known as keyword research).
I already know I'm offering children's music classes, even if it isn't promising, because I love it. So did I skip this step? Yes and no.
Google's AdWords tool is a free tool for doing keyword research. It can help you find a good niche. But it can also help you find good keywords to use in your domain name and web content.
So I looked up "childrens music" and "family music". You can't use apostrophes in the domain name, which is why I didn't use it in the search.
Turns out "childrens music" gets about 60,500 monthly searches for the exact phrase, and "family music" gets about 4,400. If the number is over 3,000, that's promising. The tool also said "family music" is far less competitive than "childrens music". So I should go with heartbeat-family-music.com, right?
Well...
When I Googled "Family music" I found it gets 278 million organic* results! Wow, that's a lot of competition! And the results aren't necessarily targeted to my audience of parents with very young children.
"Childrens music" gets 47.3 million organic* results. That's still a huge number. Probably too big. But surprisingly, it's much lower than the "family music" results.
What about competing with pay-per-click ads? Google's tool tells me if I place AdWords ads, "childrens music" will cost 60 cents per click, while "family music" will cost 51 cents.
I'm hoping to avoid paying for AdWords, or I might analyze this more carefully. But the 9-cent difference is not a huge.
Now, realistically, I'm not likely to get up in the search engines for either keyword. But you never know - it doesn't hurt to be optimistic, right?
So I decided to go with "childrens music."
In this case, either domain name would probably have worked as well, but it's worth checking with the AdWords tool. It's not unlikely that your niche might include some great keywords with a lot less competition than this.
Next time, I'll tell you where I registered my domain and how I avoided losing my chosen name to a practice known as "front running" or "domain tasting".
To be sure you catch my next post, click on the orange button at the top right and subscribe to my blog.
Wishing you peace & prosperity,
Janet
*Organic search results are the natural, non-sponsored search results.
If you visit Website Building 4 Newbies, you'll notice the first step is niche research (also known as keyword research).
I already know I'm offering children's music classes, even if it isn't promising, because I love it. So did I skip this step? Yes and no.
Google's AdWords tool is a free tool for doing keyword research. It can help you find a good niche. But it can also help you find good keywords to use in your domain name and web content.
So I looked up "childrens music" and "family music". You can't use apostrophes in the domain name, which is why I didn't use it in the search.
Turns out "childrens music" gets about 60,500 monthly searches for the exact phrase, and "family music" gets about 4,400. If the number is over 3,000, that's promising. The tool also said "family music" is far less competitive than "childrens music". So I should go with heartbeat-family-music.com, right?
Well...
When I Googled "Family music" I found it gets 278 million organic* results! Wow, that's a lot of competition! And the results aren't necessarily targeted to my audience of parents with very young children.
"Childrens music" gets 47.3 million organic* results. That's still a huge number. Probably too big. But surprisingly, it's much lower than the "family music" results.
What about competing with pay-per-click ads? Google's tool tells me if I place AdWords ads, "childrens music" will cost 60 cents per click, while "family music" will cost 51 cents.
I'm hoping to avoid paying for AdWords, or I might analyze this more carefully. But the 9-cent difference is not a huge.
Now, realistically, I'm not likely to get up in the search engines for either keyword. But you never know - it doesn't hurt to be optimistic, right?
So I decided to go with "childrens music."
In this case, either domain name would probably have worked as well, but it's worth checking with the AdWords tool. It's not unlikely that your niche might include some great keywords with a lot less competition than this.
Next time, I'll tell you where I registered my domain and how I avoided losing my chosen name to a practice known as "front running" or "domain tasting".
To be sure you catch my next post, click on the orange button at the top right and subscribe to my blog.
Wishing you peace & prosperity,
Janet
*Organic search results are the natural, non-sponsored search results.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Watch Me Build a New Site!
I just purchased a new domain name, www.HeartBeat-Childrens-Music.com. I'll be offering classes to young children in my area.
It occurred to me that this is a perfect opportunity for you to watch me build a new site.
I can't afford a web designer, so I'll be stumbling to get this right. I'll be updating my progress right here on this blog.
So far it's just a parked domain. I took the first step yesterday, which was to visit www.namecheap.com, check the availability of my preferred domains, and buy the one that was closest to what I wanted. The cost was just under $10 for one year, so don't fall for any company that tries to charge you more than that.
You can find out more about choosing a domain name at the Domain Name page and its related pages at Website Building 4 Newbies.
If you'd like to subscribe to my posts (which will include more than this project), click on the orange button to the right, the one that says "posts."
Looking forward to having you along on my journey!
Wishing you peace & prosperity,
Janet
It occurred to me that this is a perfect opportunity for you to watch me build a new site.
I can't afford a web designer, so I'll be stumbling to get this right. I'll be updating my progress right here on this blog.
So far it's just a parked domain. I took the first step yesterday, which was to visit www.namecheap.com, check the availability of my preferred domains, and buy the one that was closest to what I wanted. The cost was just under $10 for one year, so don't fall for any company that tries to charge you more than that.
You can find out more about choosing a domain name at the Domain Name page and its related pages at Website Building 4 Newbies.
If you'd like to subscribe to my posts (which will include more than this project), click on the orange button to the right, the one that says "posts."
Looking forward to having you along on my journey!
Wishing you peace & prosperity,
Janet
Site Build It is having its Summer Sandals special until June 21
Site Build It is having another special. This happens fairly often, but it's worth catching if you may want two websites. For instance, you might want one for yourself and another for your teenager.
The deal is, if you buy one website for $299, you get a second for $100. The special ends at midnight on June 21.
To find out more about the special, visit SiteSell and click on the box with the sand in it (the sandbox?).
I used SBI to create Website Building 4 Newbies, and I think it's fantastic. To find out more about why I like it so much, check out My Experience with SBI.
Wishing you peace & prosperity,
Janet
The deal is, if you buy one website for $299, you get a second for $100. The special ends at midnight on June 21.
To find out more about the special, visit SiteSell and click on the box with the sand in it (the sandbox?).
I used SBI to create Website Building 4 Newbies, and I think it's fantastic. To find out more about why I like it so much, check out My Experience with SBI.
Wishing you peace & prosperity,
Janet
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Beware of Domain Name Renewal Notices
A while ago I got a domain renewal notice in the mail for Website-Building-4-Newbies. A company called Domain Renewal Group was kind enough to inform me that my registration for that domain name would expire on July 30, 2009.
Just one problem: My domain is not registered through them.
That didn't stop them from offering me the following deal:
Renew for 1 year for $30
Renew for 2 years (Recommended) for $50 (save $10)
Renew for 5 years (Best Value) for $95 (save $55)
Those parenthetical comments are theirs, not mine.
Now, you can register a domain name at namecheap for less than $10 a year.
So if you get a "bill" telling you you'll save $55 by paying $95 by renewing your domain name for five years through them - even if they are your real registrar, get a new one!
What makes me really angry about this notice is that it is indeed made to look like a bill.
Here's a paragraph from this "Domain Name Expiration Notice" as it is labeled:
"You must renew your domain name to retain exclusive rights to it on the web and now is the time ot transfer and renew your name from your current Registrar to the Domain Renewal Group. Failure to renew your domain name by the expiration date may result in a loss of your online identity making it difficult for your customers and friends to locate you on the web."
Never mind that it takes a day or two to renew a domain name, that this domain name doesn't expire until July 30, and that they requested a reply by March 30, 2009.
The moral: If you get a domain renewal notice in the mail, first, be sure it's from your actual domain registrar! Second, if you're paying more than $10 for your domain name, be sure there's a good reason why (for instance, you want several extensions - e.g., .com, .net, and .org).
Hope this was helpful.
Wishing you peace & prosperity,
Janet
Website Building 4 Newbies
Just one problem: My domain is not registered through them.
That didn't stop them from offering me the following deal:
Renew for 1 year for $30
Renew for 2 years (Recommended) for $50 (save $10)
Renew for 5 years (Best Value) for $95 (save $55)
Those parenthetical comments are theirs, not mine.
Now, you can register a domain name at namecheap for less than $10 a year.
So if you get a "bill" telling you you'll save $55 by paying $95 by renewing your domain name for five years through them - even if they are your real registrar, get a new one!
What makes me really angry about this notice is that it is indeed made to look like a bill.
Here's a paragraph from this "Domain Name Expiration Notice" as it is labeled:
"You must renew your domain name to retain exclusive rights to it on the web and now is the time ot transfer and renew your name from your current Registrar to the Domain Renewal Group. Failure to renew your domain name by the expiration date may result in a loss of your online identity making it difficult for your customers and friends to locate you on the web."
Never mind that it takes a day or two to renew a domain name, that this domain name doesn't expire until July 30, and that they requested a reply by March 30, 2009.
The moral: If you get a domain renewal notice in the mail, first, be sure it's from your actual domain registrar! Second, if you're paying more than $10 for your domain name, be sure there's a good reason why (for instance, you want several extensions - e.g., .com, .net, and .org).
Hope this was helpful.
Wishing you peace & prosperity,
Janet
Website Building 4 Newbies
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Site Build It is having a Mother's Day Special!
Site Build It is the website building program I used to create Website Building 4 Newbies. I've been impressed with the quality of this program.
Its owner,Ken Evoy, has a lot of integrity. He emphasizes that this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It is an opportunity to build a long-term business.
To find out about the special, visit SBI Mother's Day Special and click on the box with the yellow flower on it.
To find out more about why I love SBI, check out My Experience with SBI.
Wishing you peace & prosperity,
Janet
Its owner,Ken Evoy, has a lot of integrity. He emphasizes that this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It is an opportunity to build a long-term business.
To find out about the special, visit SBI Mother's Day Special and click on the box with the yellow flower on it.
To find out more about why I love SBI, check out My Experience with SBI.
Wishing you peace & prosperity,
Janet
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