ideas

anyone have a website company that they are very happy with; price is fair, good content, good service,
does monthly letters, and not raise prices like crazy once they have you as a customer

thank you

I'm interested in hearing the suggestions here, too. Not because I'm looking for a service myself but because I want to offer this as a service to the folks who come to this forum. I don't mean to thread-jack but as answers come in it would be great to hear which features/function and what kind of price points are must-haves as well as who you guys think is good.

My goal is to eventually carve out a niche footprint in this space.

cpasitesolutions. very professional and responsive, I got the middle package which also hosts my domain for $70/month.

For a website that is "informational only" like, it doesn't have to be interactive, you can't beat Weebly's PRO account. The interface is drag-and-drop so even a chimp could use it.

You get up to 10 hosted websites for $3.99 a month. Webly is not a domain registrar, though, so you will have to purchase the domain or, if you have an existing domain, then "point" it to weebly. I actually paid a web guy to do this for me, because I have several domains at GoDaddy, too. GoDaddy domains are about 14-20 bucks each.

If you purchase the domain directly through Weebly, the registration goes through Register.com and it's about $25 bucks (which is still very cheap and easy, you don't need to have any web experience in order to do it).

I suggest that everyone who doesn't have a current website to just try Weebly. They also have a "developer" option for people like Chris who want to create websites for other people, in order to manage dozens of websites from the same portal. I currently have 13 websites hosted through Weebly. I have one website through Microsoft 365, which I am going to cancel soon.

If you want constant content for your website, like a daily blog, I would use Odesk to get a contractor who will do it for you. Very cheap and you can hire someone overseas to write your content (finance-related articles and such) that draw people to your blog and website.

Just throwing out ideas.

DON'T USE Melbourne IT (registrar associated with Microsoft) for anything, for the love of all that is holy.

I use http://www.emochila.com. Very easy to work with for customization and includes monthly newsletter. $70 per month.

do you find this sites help to bring in business?

For a website that is "informational only" like, it doesn't have to be interactive, you can't beat Weebly's PRO account. The interface is drag-and-drop so even a chimp could use it.

You get up to 10 hosted websites for $3.99 a month. Webly is not a domain registrar, though, so you will have to purchase the domain or, if you have an existing domain, then "point" it to weebly. I actually paid a web guy to do this for me, because I have several domains at GoDaddy, too. GoDaddy domains are about 14-20 bucks each.

If you purchase the domain directly through Weebly, the registration goes through Register.com and it's about $25 bucks (which is still very cheap and easy, you don't need to have any web experience in order to do it).

I suggest that everyone who doesn't have a current website to just try Weebly. They also have a "developer" option for people like Chris who want to create websites for other people, in order to manage dozens of websites from the same portal. I currently have 13 websites hosted through Weebly. I have one website through Microsoft 365, which I am going to cancel soon.

If you want constant content for your website, like a daily blog, I would use Odesk to get a contractor who will do it for you. Very cheap and you can hire someone overseas to write your content (finance-related articles and such) that draw people to your blog and website.

Just throwing out ideas.

DON'T USE Melbourne IT (registrar associated with Microsoft) for anything, for the love of all that is holy.

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I totally agree about this comment about Melbourne IT. They also deal with Tripod and Lycos.

Do you find this sites help to bring in business?

Yes, but it's not even the main issue, or the main reason to have a website. Referrals grow organically.

Potential clients will try to look you up, and you have to have a website. That's just expected. I'm flabbergasted when I meet accountants (usually older folks) who don't have a website for their business. I'm 40, so I'm right on the cusp of that generation--I used a phone book growing up, and now I just use Google.

NOBODY looks in the yellow pages anymore. If you are paying for print ads (unless it's some specialized thing), then stop.

You need a real website, preferably one for you, (based on your professional name) and one for your business (based on your business name). Considering that you can get a website for less than the cost of a single print ad, it doesn't make sense not to invest in something so cheap that can help you get customers from potentially everywhere.

And having a LInkedIn profile and a Facebook page is not enough. In fact, considering LinkedIn's serious security breach issues, and Facebook's terrible reputation for "oversharing" and privacy issues, I would say that having a Facebook account and a LInkedIn account is actually detrimental to your business as a professional. More times than not, if I find a Facebook page for someone who I am on the fence about hiring, seeing the stupidity on their Facebook page solidifies my decision NOT to hire them.

Edit: I forgot to add that having a website also allows you to take Paypal payments remotely through your website. You can create a pay button very easily. So anyone who says "Oh, I can't get down there to give you a check, can you just send me the return?"

I say, "Sure! Let me send you a paypal invoice right away."

one of the reasons for the website is not so much to get referrals from the outside world, but rather when clients recommend me to their friend, they can go to the site as further encouragement or affirmation to call and chat with me and then i can take it from there.

also, i mail out year end newsletters...and they're not so cheap....wouldn't mind if i had a website mail out a newlsetter quarterly or so.

the paypal feature as you say is nice....i bill people thru paypal...but this would make it easier

If you have the time and desire, you could create your own on WordPress, using a free or inexpensive WordPress template then host it at HostGator for $9/month. I have a few I've developed. It's really not that hard but may want to get a website consultant to tweak it here and there. Two of my sites are smt-associates.com and completepayrollinc.com if you want to see how they look.

Steve those look very professional.

I got mine for the domain email address as well as client portals.

GetNetSet.com does an NAEA discount for $399/yr.....just did my first renewal, because I've been satisfied with the support, and customization options.