Can having a Site help your business and how?

[Coinwash]

Can I host my own site? I am pondering getting a web site, but not to sure it is cost effective to pay a hosting service.

thanks
pete


This is a good question, can a website help your business?

[pete f]

Does everyone use a web hosting service or how doess this work? I found the domain name registration, but seems I have to pay a monthly hosting fee? Can I host my own site? I am pondering getting a web site, but not to sure it is cost effective to pay a hosting service.

thanks
pete

[DaveLevenson]

Does everyone use a web hosting service or how doess this work? I found the domain name registration, but seems I have to pay a monthly hosting fee? Can I host my own site? I am pondering getting a web site, but not to sure it is cost effective to pay a hosting service.

You can host your own web site. You need a computer that is always on, and is capable of running a web server (such as apache). Either this computer must either have a static IP address visible from the Internet, or if you can't get a static address from your ISP, get a dynamic address and run a dynamic dns client program on it. If your computer is behind a router, you'll have to administer the router to pass HTTP service requests to the computer that is hosting the web site. Your ISP may be blocking inbound HTTP requests; in that case, you use a non-standard port number, and administer your router to route that port number to your web server. This gives you a wierd URL like: www. mylaundry.com:1234 or something, where 1234 is the non-standard port number. You can subscribe to a domain name forwarder service (EasyDNS.com is about $30/year) that will register your domain name and re-direct normal-looking URL service requests to your non-standard one. Remember also that your broadband connection to the Internet may be asymetrical -- meaning that your upload speed is a lot slower than your download speed. When others are browsing your web site, you're uploading it to their computer -- at your upload speed. If you subscribe to symetric broadband, most ISP's (cable companies or DSL-providers) charge extra for it.

Alternatively, your ISP will probably host a web site for you at less cost than the above. Its name will be something clumsy like petef.BigIspInTheSky.com or something. You then register your own domain name (like peteslaundry.com) with a service like easydns.com, and have them redirect web hits to your ISP's clumsy name. That way, you don't need a server system on your own premises, and you web page stays up even if you have a local power failure, etc.

Send me a PM if you'd like to discuss this in more detail.

[DuboisLaundry]

Can a website help your laundromat business?

for me, probably not. I'm the only laundromat for 80 miles on the only road that leaves the zipcode. My population is also fairly low-tech.

For others, in a denser and more technically oriented population, I think its a great idea to have a good website

"good" does NOT mean a dozen 500Mb Flash animations
it means, prices, hours, pictures, services, and a link to some of the cameras

[John H]

We had three or four customers come in last summer who were staying at local hotels while their kids were in regional baseball tournaments, soccer tournaments, and other events who told us they had been looking online to find a local laundromat but couldn't find any listed. They found us either by chance or from the desk clerk knowing about us. So, we put together a web site. One of my sons actually did all the work, I wrote the copy. After researching web hosting companies, the one that got the best reviews was IX Web Hosting. The cost was not much and that included the domain registration. You get a break on the price by agreeing to stay with them for a year or so. As far as building the web site, my son put it together using a Microsoft tool called FrontPage. You don't have to do that, though. IX has tools to help you build a site. My son just thought the options weren't as good as building it with FrontPage. We were real impresssed with the customer service/tech support we got from IX with some minor problems we encountered. The company is located somewhere in Kansas, and they actually have the servers on site -- that is, they are not a third-party-take-our-cut-and-do-nothing-for-it type of operator. You also get your own e-mail address with the service. Hope this helps.

John
libertylaundryok.com