3 Big Mistakes When Starting A Website

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So you’ve decided to create a website for your booming business. You might have no idea where to start. So you’ve contacted a provider to help you do the job for you. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but are there things you should remember even if you already hired a person to create the website for you? You’re clueless about websites, keep that in mind, so you’ll need a guide to know what to expect and what to avoid when starting a website. We can’t list all of them here, but here’s the top 3.

1. Not Owning Your Domain Name

Okay. So the problem lies on not having the ownership rights to your domain. You’re having a website, but you’re not buying the domain name. Business owners, especially those who say that they don’t know a thing about websites, give this task onto their providers or maybe to a family member who will then buy the domain name for them. But then, this is a huge mistake, a BIG NO-NO actually. Why? Okay, so let’s say you let them buy the domain name. It will be registered in their name and they have full ownership of your site. Therefore, they are enlisted in the domain registries as the owner of the website.

In case, once your provider or relative goes away and you lose contact with them and it’s now time to renew the registration, you might run the risk of losing your domain name. It’s like buying a house and putting it in the name of another person. You will never know what will happen. If you don’t know where to buy, you can ask questions but buy the domain name UNDER your NAME.

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• Always buy a domain name.
• Always buy the domain name under your name for the greatest control.

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2: Letting others buy the hosting for you

Again, just like the domain name, most website owners fail to own their hostingWeb Hosting Fees - Ways to Cut Costs. Read more ... ». They just give the responsibility to the person in charge with creating the website. But what will happen if you get into not so good terms with this person? Well, we wouldn’t want that, but what if that happens?

What if that person has commissions and benefits from a certain hosting service so he/she decides to go for it, instead of going for it because it’s reliable? In those cases, you’ll be left with more hosting-related problems, downtime and things like that, which could actually compromise your business. At least if you own the hosting yourself, you’ll be able to do your homework in finding the right hosting provider for you, contact the customer service yourself, and have full access to the control panel. This is not expensive and there are some great hosting companies out there that are fighting for your business.

3: Failure to Use a CMS

Yes, some website owners still use HTML-coded website instead of a CMS. The problem with using plain HTML is whenever you want to add content, you would have to go through bunch of HTML codes, and every time you add one, you’ll have to reconfigure everything on the website. On the other hand, it’s easier having a content management system, WordPress for instance, where a theme is done separately and content can be added without having to change the whole theme. So this way, you can give the task of doing the design to another person, but you can be in charge of your content. Download a free PDF report on building a WordPress website from scratch.

In short, you should have full control of your website and its content. You should never let anyone have this or else you’d be in trouble when problems arise.

If your looking for some good advice on how to start a business website I would highly  encourage you keep reading on this matter.  As technology progresses at a rapid rate it makes perfect sense to have a website.

18 Comments

1. 

   Larry James

   December 18, 2012 at 1:39 am

   This is some good advice for anyone starting out to develop a website. When I first started out, I purchased web hosting from a company that offered a free domain name if I purchased their web hosting package. I was unhappy with the service and when I tried to transfer my domain name to a new web hosting company, they would not let me. It was then that I discovered that the I did not actually own the domain.
   Larry James recently posted..How Your Web Host Affects Your WordPress Blog’s Search Rankings (dofollow)

   Reply
2. 

   Brenda

   December 18, 2012 at 2:40 am

   Spot on with the No. 2 tip. A friend of mine who doesn’t host his own website and now wants to move hosting is now having major problems with the person who created the website, as they have left the company and is unable to be contacted. Bad move and proving to be complicated and very time consuming.So very good advice from you.

   Reply
3. 

   Venture

   December 18, 2012 at 4:59 am

   I think 4 years ago I do this mistake. This time I was learning seo techniques and one of my roomate make me fool. I remeber I give him 200$ for 2 websites hosting+domains. I promote these websites and after that he said these are my domains not your and he returs me 50$. That’s way I like this article so much.
   Venture recently posted..Are you a part of social media? (dofollow)

   Reply
4. 

   Rajkumar Jonnala

   December 18, 2012 at 6:33 am

   hi,
   your tips is really useful. Domain name is most important thing for a website. and its also increase rank, and also useful for increase traffic to a website.
   thanks..
   Rajkumar Jonnala recently posted..E-Commerce:return costs are to legislative amendment to the sales pitch (dofollow)

   Reply
5. 

   TracyAnn0312

   December 18, 2012 at 7:47 am

   Great lists! Well I think that people who will own their website must know these ideas in order for them to make them capable in dealing on their website.
   TracyAnn0312 recently posted..glock holsters (dofollow)

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   • 

     Garen

     December 18, 2012 at 10:19 pm

     I have worked on clients sites that didn’t even own their site. It’s sad because if they can’t get ahold of their original designer there is nothing they can do about it.

     Reply
6. 

   Jeff

   December 18, 2012 at 12:50 pm

   Come to really think about it, letting someone else own your domain and hosting IS actually a pretty stupid thing to do! Especially when doing it yourself is super-easy (as you’ve mentioned) and can be done by just about anyone out there!

   (Mitz, you should add a list of places to point # 1 from where a domain can be bought/registered, for the convenience of any reading this piece)
   Jeff recently posted..A list of Kickass Writing Tips for Bloggers (dofollow)

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   • 

     Garen

     December 18, 2012 at 10:21 pm

     Jeff,

     I agree with you it’s really stupid to let people own your domain or even hosting. Put everything in your name as long as it’s your business. People do odd things when money is involved.

     Reply
7. 

   Rosy

   December 19, 2012 at 11:05 am

   Excellent post. I like your post on these five mistakes. I even learned something that I must improve on. Many writer especially new are not aware of these “non-writing” necessities and fail to maximize their efficiency in promoting their books and themselves. Great thanks to these.
   thanks for share it.

   Reply
8. 

   Nikita

   December 19, 2012 at 1:27 pm

   Beginners remember just need to remember three things:

   1- Get your domain name as per your desired niche.
   2- Try to find out reliable hosting plan.
   3- Get your website up via easy CMS (WordPress)
   4- Get your website full fill with quality things.

   Thanks
   Nikita recently posted..diamond ring under $1000 (dofollow)

   Reply
9. 

   Rusty

   December 19, 2012 at 2:38 pm

   Hi.. your post came right on time.. Me and my hubby are planning to buy domain name although we still have no idea what niche we are going to pursue (whether affiliate, adsence or PTC). We were supposedly planning to outsource people who will do the entire stuff for us… creating domain, contents, videos and hosting… but when I read your post.. there’s a spark in my mind that we don’t need those people anymore to drive our site. I already downloaded your pdf file and we’re going to study of it. Thanks a bunch mate for the very helpful post..
   Rusty recently posted..Cape Town Fish Market (dofollow)

   Reply
10. 

    Paul Lee

    December 19, 2012 at 4:42 pm

    It’s important to do the right research before you create you site. I think many people simply jump into it without really understanding how these kinds of things can work/come back to haunt them. Hosting becomes a really big issue when your site starts to see some traffic, it’s important to understand your bandwidth limits and things like that. Hopefully people heed this advance, because it is important information. A little information can really help you prevent some seriously damaging errors.

    Reply
11. 

    Kathleen Baker

    December 20, 2012 at 5:36 pm

    I think all the noobs that think about creating a website need to read this article so they know what mistakes they should avoid.

    Reply
12. 

    Jan Desmet

    December 25, 2012 at 4:14 pm

    These are good valid points you make. Indeed owning the domain is pretty important. Also if u can put ur keywords in ur domain name it will only make it easier to rank in google with SEO.
    And ofcourse the higher u rank in google the more consistent traffic u will be getting.

    Great article, thanks for the share!
    Jan Desmet recently posted..Motivatie afvallen (dofollow)

    Reply
13. 

    Lauren

    January 3, 2013 at 3:31 pm

    This is a great article in letting people know the beginning pitfalls in website creation. In working as a freelance website developer myself, having things owned by another third party ends up being most of the “drama” and the hurdles in trying to fix whatever previously happened. I always recommend to the businesses that I work with to make sure they own EVERYTHING. It makes it a LOT easier than to have to deal with someone that may have had a good relationship with said customer, but it turned sour for some reason. CMS is also important. Google seems to favor CMS-built sites now over hand-coded when it comes to SEO (looks more professional, can constantly change and input content with ease, etc.). Part of the changing times!

    Reply
14. 

    Neha Aggarwal

    January 15, 2013 at 10:31 am

    Most of people commit mistake while starting a website. This is really helpful article & I think this article must be shared on most popular social network that people can come more close for not to commit mistake while starting a website.

    Reply
15. 

    Leon

    January 19, 2013 at 8:14 pm

    It irks me so much when people do not own their domain. Or they use something like Wix…just being flat out lazy!
    Leon recently posted..Buena Vista Palace Wedding – Yessenia and Patel (dofollow)

    Reply
    • 

      mitz

      January 24, 2013 at 12:35 pm

      Yes I do not like it either. You can build a website cheaply, but skimping on that is beyond saving money.
      mitz recently posted..How To Get The Best Broadband Deal (dofollow)

      Reply

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