If you are a new start-up, where do you look to, to get your online presence started? You want to do it right, but sometimes there isn’t a lot of time to search companies out. Every day you aren’t online could mean the lose of potential customers. So why not try out a temporary solution until you find the right parties that can help you out at website development?
Microsoft has started offering a free small business solution that includes a free domain name. The new service called Office Live Basics gives users a free domain name with web hosting, web site design tools, 500MB of web storage, 25 email accounts, web site reports, and search engine advertising tools. Not bad for a business, or personal user just starting up. If you aren’t happy with Microsoft’s free offering, you can choose to upgrade to a $19.95/month, or a $29.95/ month account, each with more space.
GoDaddy also has some great offers for starting up online. For every domain you purchase at $8.95 through them, GoDaddy offers a blog platform, hosting with a website builder, email with a 25MB limit, 100 email forwards, and a website builder where you can build a five page website or upload your own designs. With GoDaddy, you can forward the domain name to you own web hosting supplier whenever you like, whereas with Microsoft’s solution, you must wait six months.
Other programs like these are out there to help small businesses, just make sure they are from a reputable company, the domain name you choose is registered in your name, and you can update the DNS records to point to another server down the line when you are ready to expand.
Do you know of any other reputable effective small business programs like this to help get web presences off the ground?
Hmm. Free … but I wonder why they need my credit card :-)
Microsoft’s offering seems great for people looking to get started. I might do it just to do it :) .
I get the feeling that many people do not like 1and1′s services for one reason or another, but when I was choosing between GoDaddy and 1and1, I chose 1and1. Domain names are cheaper through them. I have contacted customer support multiple times and had great responses(I have not had to contact GoDaddy customer support). Lastly, and definitely mostly, 1and1′s website is ten times more organized and aesthetically pleasing than GoDaddy’s. I feel like everytime I visit GoDaddy’s website to take care of something I get lost in the advertisements, deal listings, and overly complicated menu system. 1and1 seems like a much better management system.
As far as catering to startup/small businesses explicitly, I would not be a good judge of that.
Any comments on 1and1 or GoDaddy to bring to the table related to my comments or the article?
[...] There was a post on Web Worker Daily about Microsoft’s “newly launched” Office Live Basics. Back when Microsoft was beta testing it, it was called Windows Live Custom Domains, which I previously wrote about. Same basic idea, but now they supposedly worked out all the bugs. [...]
guys check out Digital Dreams
Jean
Perseverance usuall pays off, keep it up.
Google are mafia: http://sting.blackapplehost.com
Well written Chris.
Time to fight big brother ;)