Core77

[iab]

So maybe 15-20 years ago, I made my personal website. I used Network Solutions and have stuck with them since, mostly due to convenience.

I need to make a new personal site and everyone offers a nifty "make-it-yourself" site out of templates product. That's fine by me. I don't want or need to relearn html or css.

So what is the advantage of one over the other? godaddy is real cheap. squarespace is a bit more expensive. Network Solutions is by far the most expensive, I think at least double over godaddy.

Now maybe because my current website is obscure, or nearly dark, it does not get any search engine exposure, but my email on that site gets maybe 1 or 2 spams a month. Usually "great" penny stock picks. And quite frankly, I know people who are getting hundreds of spams a day. Does that have anything to do with using Network Solutions over godaddy? Because if it does, I would happily pay the double on the new website to avoid the spam.

Anyone know how that works?

[Cyberdemon]

Generally if you publicly post an e-mail address you are going to get spam as web crawlers find your e-mail.

I've been using Bluehost since they were cheap ($3/mo) when I signed up and had a solid back end system. As far as hosting goes, pure hosting services tend to be the cheapest - you don't need to register your domain through them you can register through godaddy and then have it transferred wherever - it's not too complex and usually can all be done once at setup if you need - but you still need something to build a site. If you just buy an HTML template and update it to suit your need, that is cheaper than using an online builder solution.

Squarespace probably has one of the better template sites but you'll pay $8-16 a month for it. I tried using Weebly once in the past also.

[Sain]

Depends on what exactly you want. Just Hosting or a more all inclusive solution?

Godaddy is probably best suited as a domain registrar. Although I use Namecheap instead (less clutter and there CEO isnt a DB).
GoDaddy does offer Hosting, but prob can get better deals else where.

I host my site (and a few others) at StableHost, but BluHost like Mike mentioned is another good one.) This is no frills hosting, file storage and some management tools, all you really need.

Now comes where things split. If your using your own host you need to make a site, usually using a template. With your own hosting. Wordpress is your best bet. Fairly easy to set up and lots of tutorials and themes out there. Buy/Download one, set it up and your good to go. (http://themeforest.net/category/wordpress/creative)

After the initial cost, this is probably your cheapest maintaining plan (only pay for hosting/domain -20-30 bucks a year). And you can have multiple sites. And if you decide to radically changes your format, its pretty easy to just find a new Wordpress theme. Downside: A little more involved with initial set up.


Then theres all in one solutions. Square space and BehanceProsite. Very easy to set up, bullet proof code and support. A bit pricey, but it's sorta set it and forget it. If theres new backend code that needs to be installed, they do it.
It is limited in themes, and you don't get a true file host. (example: I can upload 10gbs of random files to my server and its fine)


I recently switched from the Host/Wordpress combo to Squarespace for my personal site. Mainly because I was tired of tweaking my template code to be responsive to every new device that came out. In college I had time to edit my CSS and make subtle tweaks to my site. Now Squarespace takes away all the headache of debugging a site and code. But it does come with a steeper yearly price. But its simple and I don't want to spend time worrying about it.

[iab]

Generally if you publicly post an e-mail address you are going to get spam as web crawlers find your e-mail.

How does one exactly "publicly post an email address"?

Sure, I fill it in when it is a required field. And when I get some sort of email ad from a company I purchased from, I hit unsubscribe. I'm just trying to figure out why I get very little spam compared to other folks I know.

[Sain]

Generally if you publicly post an e-mail address you are going to get spam as web crawlers find your e-mail.

How does one exactly "publicly post an email address"?

By posting things like. Hey guys email me at myemail@gmail.com or having a contact page on there website that says. Reach me at myemail@gmail.com. Webcrawlers will pick this up and at it to there database of spam. Gmail has a pretty good built in spam filter too so a lot of the really obvious stuff gets stopped before it reaches your main inbox.

[Cyberdemon]

Right, that "Contact me" link with a mailto:coolguy@awesomedesigner.com is spam bait. Obviously it's required if you want people to contact you, but will easily be picked up.

How much of that mail actually gets to you will depend on who is running the back end server. If you are using a pop server through your web host, you might get more spam if they don't filter it aggressively. If you use Gmail or another well run e-mail service they'll block that spam from getting to you.

I apologize in advanced to coolguy@awesomedesigner.com for the spam he is about to receive.

[iab]

So not only does my email software have a spam filter, so does my email server software.

Could I assume the server software provided by Network Solutions does a good job compared to the other people who get a lot of spam? Would there any reason to believe that the Network Solutions spam filter does a better job than squarespace?

[iab]

And for the record, awesomedesigner.com gets redirected here, http://andrewjolie.com/

[Cyberdemon]

So not only does my email software have a spam filter, so does my email server software.

Could I assume the server software provided by Network Solutions does a good job compared to the other people who get a lot of spam? Would there any reason to believe that the Network Solutions spam filter does a better job than squarespace?

Purely assumptions. All server admins generally run a form of blacklisting and whitelisting of domains that are known to be good or bad. It all happens in the background so generally you don't see it. How much it effects you will end up depending on how spammers get your e-mail address and there's not great way to measure that other than experience and chance.

It also depends if you are actually using an email account provided by your hosting service OR simply using a re-direct which forwards email from coolguy@yourdomain.com to realemail@gmail.com - a redirect typically does not have any filtering associated with it.

[iab]

Thank you gentlemen and or ladies.

[yo]

I've used godly for years... it does have the DB CEO stigma, but it is super reliable. Of course you need to do everything yourself. Services like Square Space are pretty interesting for building the actual site.

[KenoLeon]

I am in the process of changing hosts was with MediaTemple which I don't recommend and I think I will sign up with a small orange.

As for the spam part, you can shield to some extent being caught in the web crawlers by adding a modal or hidden field through javascript.

-K

[j2cervin]

I used 1and1 for my personal hosting and registrar service, however it does seem to be getting a little expensive. It was simple hosting, so i had to build my own site.

I recently rebuilt my company webpage using Wix, and it worked really well. It isnt the cheapest option (I think we are at $9/month), but it did what we needed. It was a short term solution to getting a page built professionally which was quoted around $10k or so. Since we only needed to show a couple images and whatnot, it was an easy decision. I was amazed at how easy and versatile these types of 'build it yourself' sites can be (wix/squarespace/weebly).

[Cameron]

I use squarespace for my portfolio site. I haven't delved into my own site much, but it is quite awesome and improving rapidly. For someone who only updates their site once or twice a year, these updates are really nice. Plus, they give you a free domain registration if you pay annually.

[iab]

I went with squarespace. Somewhat intuitive, but I am still in the feeling out phase.

Also joined the facebook. The site is for an event and I figured the facebook is a place where people look. Haven't friended my wife yet.