Here's the link that will give me "credit" if/when you sign up with Bluehost.
WARNING!! This information is only of interest to those who have, or are shopping for, a domain. It seems worth sharing my experience so others can benefit.
This "report" was started in November, 2004, when I'd first moved to Bluehost. It's now late 2009. YES! I still love Bluehost. They've been great! But if you'd like to hear what I went through before I found them, read on:
The first domain hosting company I used for dulcimers.com, was Concentric. They were great but their prices were just too high. At first they were local but then they went "big time" and moved to California. They were even traded on Nasdaq until the dotcom bubble burst. Their prices kept going up but not their services. By the end, I was paying about $50 a month for one dial-up connection and 100 mb of storage space for my site and my email. But at least with Concentric everything worked perfectly. They had a great CGI "library" and lots of knowledgeable support.
In October 2003, I found a company called iPowerweb that would give me five times more space and only charge $7 a month. Since they didn't provide dial-up, I found a $7 a month dial-up service called joimail.com. I moved to iPowerweb. It took quite a bit to get the site to work as it had at Concentric, but I figured that with that kind of cost saving, I had to do it.
A CGI library of scripts was non-existent, so I paid a small amount to have a script written to let my workshop leaders register to do classes on line. But with the help of programmers, I got things working.
That was October. If things had continued that way, I'd have been content to stay indefinitely. In fact, iPowerweb added hosting space to their offer, and by the end I was able to use 1 gig of space for one site.
But by the following year, the service I received from iPowerweb had deteriorated and was totally unsatisfactory.
Their "Control Panel," where you control the inner workings of your website, ceased to work for me. When I asked them for help I was told that they had no idea if it would ever be fixed. I was unable to email to AOL and several other email services. AOL had blacklisted all messages sent domains hosted on iPowerweb.
Blacklisting means that you can't sent a messages to the company that has your ISP on their list. Since AOL shares their blacklist, pretty soon about 1/2 of my messages wouldn't go through. (I have been told that the problems were created because iPowerweb accepted "spammers.") iPowerweb's support department said that iPowerweb had been "in negotiations" with AOL for about a month without progress. AOL wouldn't budge because they'd warned iPowerweb repeatedly about abuse of spamming but iPowerweb had ignored the complaints.
November 6 2004, I decided to move my whole website from iPowerweb.
. My website, dulcimers.com, is HUGE! and moving it is a major job especially since I was using a dialup connection.
The new company hosting company I selected was called Infinology. Optimistically I paid for a year's service (with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee). It took me two full days to get my website transferred. I finished moving it on a Tuesday.
Right from the beginning I had problems with Infinology. Things I should be able to do on their "Control Panel" didn't work. And I found their service department used support people located in a foreign country who couldn't understand English very well. I kept trying to get everything to work correctly, but since they couldn't give me any help, I was really having problems. Then Tuesday morning (the morning I'd move to them) their control panel went down completely and stayed down!! Other problems plagued the domain. Example: When folks sent emails to me, half the time they'd get an error messge back saying the address didn't exist. Infinology's customer service area said, "The sender should send the message again, and it 'probably' will work." It was a total mess!
I decided to move again before wasting any more time with Infinology. At least got my money back, but they informed me the 30-day trial period is the only time they'll refund any money. (Note: Most companies, including iPowerweb and Concentric, pro-rate the remaining service months, if you decide to move at any time.)
So November 10, 2004, I found yet ANOTHER company. It's called Bluehost - I'm still with them and extremely satisfied.
They have a great Control Panel that's easy to use. AND the folks are located in the state of Washington in the U.S. of A.!! Their support department has been quick to respond, but most of the answers are in their Knowledgebase area. Everything went smoothly! I had everything running smoothly by Friday, November 12th.
I have the assurance of Bluehost that if I ever decide to move again, they'll prorate the return of any remaining payments. I paid for two years' service and I have every reason to feel that this service will continue to work well for me indefinitely.
At the start, Bluehost let me host up to FIVE domains from one area for the one $6.95 monthly price, so I created a business/sales domain called dulcimers.biz and have moved the site I host for the Flint Banjo Club to its own domain: flintbanjoclub.com (I found a domain registration company that will handle your domain purchase for only $9.) (Eventually I used up the five domains.)
The Bluehost control panel works like a dream -- very intuitive. They even have a "Live Demo" area so you can try it out beforehand. http://www.bluehost.com/tell_me_more.html
I hope nothing happens to tarnish my opinion of Bluehost. Right now I'm really pleased! And I'm paying merely $6.95 a month (paid for two years), for 2 gigabytes of storage space!! I can have up to five domains in that space. (If I'd stayed at Concentric, I'd be paying $70 a month for 1 gig and one domain!!)
I'll try to keep this report updated with my experience.
December, 2008
How are things going? Perfectly!! I've just recently updated my websites, and renewed with Bluehost for two more years.
Bluehost's service now offers a lot more than when I started with them, but the price is the same ($6.95 per month.)
Here's what BlueHost now offers
Several years ago, I gave up on dial-up. I definitely recommend that you have a high speed internet service. Dial-up just won't work with today's huge files. I don't think it matters much about which one you use. I use Brighthouse when I'm in Florida, and a wireless service called Speednet LLC, when I'm in Michigan.
I have a couple requirements for my internet service. Since we are back and forth to Florida so much, I need a service that will let me "turn it off" and cut the cost. Both Speednet and Brighthouse are great about letting me go on vacation status.
I also need a service that will work with my Vonage phone system. Vonage is an inexpensive internet phone that allows us to take our main house phone with us to Florida. It is super because we are able to use the same number no matter if we're in Florida or in Michigan. When folks call us, it seamlessly forwards to either location.
So here are my recommendations:
For domain hosting: Bluehost!
That's the most important decision when you have a domain. You need a service you can work with and Bluehost does it all! When buying a domain name, I use Home Business Domains but always have a hard time "finding" them. If you use this link, it should get you to the website. I know there are other good domain sellers. (I've heard good things about Go Daddy. My recommendation is that you do not buy your domain from the company that hosts your website. It's too easy for them to set you up so they own the site and you are stuck with them.
I use Speednet LLC for by wireless internet service in Michigan and Brighthouse in Florida.
REFERRAL PROGRAMS
I have signed up for Bluehost's "affiliate" program. For domain hosting there's none better. I am more content all the time with my decision to have them host my site.
Here's the link that will give me "credit" if/when you sign up with Bluehost.
And let me know if you are interested in signing up for Speednet LLC's dial-up service. If you give me credit for directing you to them (Sharon & John Skaryd), I will receive a "finder's fee".
I've told where to go for internet services but I haven't gotten into designing a website. What do I recommend? I suggest you do it yourself. It'll be trial and error first, but it's actually fun and you'll soon be making sites that will reflect your personality.
The tools you'll need include: