Karen's Web Works

 

Resources

Domain name registration
Hosting sites
Search engine submission
Some good articles about site design and usability

Domain name registration

Network Solutions - Check to see if the domain name you want is available, and if not, who owns it.

GoDaddy.com -- You can't beat their prices or their ease of use. Just ignore all the extra junk they'll try to offer you when you buy a domain name. Plus, for a modest fee, you can have them "backorder" a name that's taken. If that name expires, they'll grab it for you as soon as it becomes available.


Hosting sites:

LunarPages -- I have my own sites hosted there and several of my clients are also hosted by them. I've been impressed by their reliability and their customer service. Their "Shuttle" service ($7.95/mo, paid annually) is more than adequate for most non-commercial sites. You get a lot of features for the price, like the ability to host a "pointer domain" (a second Web site URL that points to your main site), a lot of email addresses, a good library of scripts ready to use, etc.

PoWWeb -- Rated very highly by all the Web comparison rating services. They have only one service plan ($7.77/mo.) and it's a good deal. They don't have quite as many features as LunarPages, though you probably won't need most of those features.

Digital Space -- Their "Starter" hosting level ($3.00/mo) will work for a small site that doesn't get a huge amount of traffic. "Basic" ($6.95/mo plus a discount if you pay by the year) will be more than adequate unless you're doing eCommerce or have a site that gets tremendous traffic.

Crystal Tech -- Again comes with high recommendations though I've never used it personally. Their "Standard Value" package is more than adequate.

StartLogic -- Good prices, usually has a good promo deal.


Search engine submission

There are really only two search engines that count for U.S. companies, and here's where you can submit your sites to them.

Google - http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

Yahoo - http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request
You'll have to log into Yahoo to do this. If you don't already have a Yahoo account, be prepared to sign up for one.

Some articles on search engine optimization and Meta tags:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-3513-6074912.html - Increase site traffic with search engine optimization
http://builder.com.com/5100-31-5078132.html (A good basic article on search engines and how you can make your site friendly to them.)
http://builder.com.com/5100-6371_14-5512029.html?tag=nl.e601
http://builder.com.com/5100-6375_14-5144564.html?tag=nl.e601
http://vancouver-webpages.com/META/



Some good articles on design and usability

Builder.com has a huge library of articles. This is a list of some on design: http://builder.com.com/1200-31-5084840.html
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-3513-6135947.html -- Optimize Web applications with reduced page size

All text and graphics copyright 2005 by Karen McCullough