# Website in a hour!



## RCP

Another day of thunder and lightning and I can't do much except play on my laptop with my dog (one of those terrifying Doberman Pinschers) hiding under my arm!

So I get on to GoDaddy, buy a domain for 10.57 for a year and use the website tonite feature. I changed very little, mostly just name and info, the rest of the text was there.

I never used this before and it was really user friendly!
Not looking for a critique, there is a lot that can be improved.
I just want to show how easy it is to get a basic site up and running.
So for those of you who have been putting it off, go for it!


www.utahpainters.com


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## KLaw

RCP said:


> Another day of thunder and lightning and I can't do much except play on my laptop with my dog (one of those terrifying Doberman Pinschers) hiding under my arm!
> 
> So I get on to GoDaddy, buy a domain for 10.57 for a year and use the website tonite feature. I changed very little, mostly just name and info, the rest of the text was there.
> 
> I never used this before and it was really user friendly!
> Not looking for a critique, there is a lot that can be improved.
> I just want to show how easy it is to get a basic site up and running.
> So for those of you who have been putting it off, go for it!
> 
> 
> www.utahpainters.com


$10.57 per Year or Month? And you get all of that. WOW. Might be a good way to trial and error some stuff (seo, pay per click???) while maintaining your original site. Amazingly, cheap. That's pretty cool and thanks for sharing. Now - no one has an excuse for not having a website.


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## RCP

The domain name is 9.99 for one year, gets cheaper if you get it for longer.
The website is hosted free, hence the GoDaddy ads. I pay 4.99 a month for basic hosting for my other sites and will probably add this, as I don't like the ads on it.
That is one of the reasons I did another site, I experiment with these.

I have several domain names, they can all point to my main site, if I ever get it finished!


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## KLaw

RCP said:


> The domain name is 9.99 for one year, gets cheaper if you get it for longer.
> The website is hosted free, hence the GoDaddy ads. I pay 4.99 a month for basic hosting for my other sites and will probably add this, as I don't like the ads on it.
> That is one of the reasons I did another site, I experiment with these.
> 
> I have several domain names, they can all point to my main site, if I ever get it finished!


So, I could buy 5 different domain names for $50? Have each domain name for a specialty (int, ext, res, comm, biz)? And have all of these link back to my main site. Sounds freakin' powerfull.:thumbup:


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## RCP

1. Google favors sites with domains that are not expiring in a year, so I would get them for longer.
2. You don't really "link" them to your site, you do a redirect.
3. If you can get domain names with the right keywords, that can work.
I have several domains with variations of my nearby cities and paint.

That gets more involved though. The first step is to create a website and add some content for your customers.


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## nEighter

I will be doing this sometime this next week.


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## PressurePros

Totally does the trick. And now that you linked it here, it will soon be indexed into Google.


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## RCP

I was playing around with it a little more, adding to GA, looks like it creates and updates sitemaps automatically:thumbsup:


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## Workaholic

Thanks Chris i am going to go through my photos and give it a try. I am do to come around into the hi-tech era.


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## RCP

The only photo I added was the guys!
I do think putting your own on is better though.


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## Workaholic

I am on it. Thanks again Chris. Good looking out for us lo-techs.


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## RCP

But wait, there's more!

Google "godaddy promo codes" and get discounts!:thumbsup:


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## nEighter

awesome. I didn't even see the site, just saw the content of this thread. I was wondering if those were yours! Hey did it give you the option to upload your pics?


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## MAK-Deco

Chris,

why would create a whole new site at utahpainters? and not just have redirect to you current website?


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## bikerboy

Look at her site, then mine. Guess who I am using?

http://site.housepainting-annapolis.com/


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## RCP

nEighter said:


> awesome. I didn't even see the site, just saw the content of this thread. I was wondering if those were yours! Hey did it give you the option to upload your pics?


Yes



MAK-Deco said:


> Chris,
> 
> why would create a whole new site at utahpainters? and not just have redirect to you current website?


I just wanted to play around with "website tonight" and see how it works. I love my Iweb (mac) but SEO and making changes is a bear! But you are right, that domain should redirect to main site.



bikerboy said:


> Look at her site, then mine. Guess who I am using?
> 
> http://site.housepainting-annapolis.com/


Looks like you have upgraded to the premium package, how do you like it?


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## bikerboy

RCP said:


> Yes
> 
> 
> 
> I just wanted to play around with "website tonight" and see how it works. I love my Iweb (mac) but SEO and making changes is a bear! But you are right, that domain should redirect to main site.
> 
> 
> 
> Looks like you have upgraded to the premium package, how do you like it?


I LOVE dealing with godaddy. My other sites are with other companies. None of them are as friendly and service oriented as godaddy. They are not the cheapest, but they have VALUE. (there's that word again)

Have 4 domains with them, knew you could build a site, but did not know you could do that much. (see new projects in the works)

As far as redirect, just post links from one site to another. Get that helpful boost in google. 

And for you guys that want to do it totally cheap, you can have the site and add links to youtube, flicker, twitter and blogs and have a pretty complete site for very little money.

Thanks for posting that Chris.


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## RCP

You are welcome!
I noticed that they try to get you to sign up for twitter using your domain name. I think there is a thread somewhere about using social media!:whistling2:


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## ProWallGuy

Great thread. I just realized last night that I have over 80 bookmarks to threads here on painttalk. Instead of bookmarking them, I am now rating them with the star rating feature. Now I can click on top rated and find the threads. This one just got *****.


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## RCP

Thanks , I have seen the star rating, never really used it. I will now!
Almost as cool as the Thanks Button!


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## MAK-Deco

So if you buy other domains do you have to have a site on each or can you just redirect them?


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## RCP

MAK-Deco said:


> So if you buy other domains do you have to have a site on each or can you just redirect them?


You can do a 301 redirect.
From what I understand though, some savvy net users might notice the different url and question it. Because of all the hype on phishing, more people are aware.

Some say to put a page up that lets someone know that they are leaving "utahpainters" and going to "rcpainting". I don't really think that is an issue for a painting website though, unless you are taking credit card payments on your site.

I am just learning a lot of this myself, hopefully someone else will chime in!


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## MAK-Deco

ok so I bought two domains today and linked them to me site as a foward or redirct we will see how it works..


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## RCP

Ooh, idea for a new thread!
What names did you pick? How did you decide?
I was really suprised "utahpainters" was available!
I have been looking at different keyword variations.


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## MAK-Deco

RCP said:


> Ooh, idea for a new thread!
> What names did you pick? How did you decide?
> I was really suprised "utahpainters" was available!
> I have been looking at different keyword variations.


well I did the full name of my co since my existing page was just makdeco and then I got chicagolandpainters


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## Uncle Caulky

Oh boy I've got to check this out. My current site could use a lot of sprucing. I've been trying to work on the SEO thing and it ain't easy. I'm computer/html savvy, but am thinking of paying someone else to do the work... Anyone know average costs for an seo service?


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## RCP

That is a tough one, I get calls constantly from guys that say they can get me rank for as little as 99 a month. But you can't even find them on the web. 
Read up on some of the threads in the Technology section, you may find it better to do yourself. If you need the name of a pro, I think some of the others may be able to help.
I think a lot of members will be working on it during the winter!


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## In Demand

http://diamondcutsls.com
This is my step dad and bothers site for their lawn care and landscaping company, I think RCP has them beat. The bad part is that they paid a guy to make this site. I tried to turn them onto my web designer but my brother always thinks I am trying to tell them how to run their company when I suggest things to them.
I use free hosting on my site, if I have multiple domains would I have to have each one hosted individually ?
http://000webhost.com is my hosting, it is free and no ads at all, all they do is ask that you give them a link on your site, but even that isnt required. I have seen it down once for about an hour since I started using them around the first of the year.


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## RCP

Thanks, I have seen your website, it is very nice, I won't comment on your brother's

With godaddy, you can have all your domains hosted in one account, just have to pay for hosting if you do not want ads. I think you can only get the free hosting on domains purchased from GD. I will look and see.


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## Doughfather

*Information on designing websites.*

Hi all, sorry to interject into your conversation here but i can give you a heads up on putting together you own website. I am actually the guy who did modern styles' brothers' website. I agree wholeheartedly his original site was quite poor but i did it overnight at a relatively cheap price. I have since redone his page and it looks quite nice. It offers online bookkeeping and will within the week offer online bill pay for his clients. Anyway, if you would like to put yourself together a quality website the technologies you will want too look into are HTML, CSS, javascript, and PHP. There are quite a few tutorials out there for you to cut your teeth on. CSS allows you to organize the look and style of your site with ease and allows you to make major changes down the road with little work. javascript will allow you to add more interesting or interactive features to your site, including picture faders or pop up buttons. PHP will allow you to interact with a database and pull information from a database onto your website. You can use this to make adding content to your site automated, or handle any organization/saving of customer information etc. I would highly recommend building your own site if you are even a little bit code savvy. A professional is going to charge you upwards of a couple hundred dollars for a very simple site. After you have your site designed and available on the web a good way to boost your exposure is too submit a "Sitemap" too google, bing, yahoo and the other search engines. If you google "google Sitemap" there is a pretty good tutorial on how to do this as well. free hosting services are great, but do not trust them if you need your site to manage information for the long term....the reliability is obviously a lot lower. To merely display your site though I think you will find them more than adequate. RCP your site looked pretty nice and has some good content, the only thing i would do is change your navigation system, too many options crammed into the top there. I would either categorize the links you have now into groups that will fit together into some drop down buttons, or move your links to the side of your content and list them vertically.


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## aaron61

I thought that google frowned on redirects?????

So I changed the name of my site to www.PaintingTampaBay.com instead of our company name.


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## paintmedic

*ads*

Just as my opinion I would just pay for hosting. Your website looks great except for the the god awful ads. In my opinion this is not professional. 

And besides hosting can be had on a month to month basis for 10 bucks or less a month. If you buy a years worth of hosting it can usually be under 7 bucks a month. 

Get hosting with unlimited domains so if you want to switch things up you can test without purchasing new hosting terms. 

But just my opinion get rid of the ads. 10 bucks/month is cheap for a simple upgrade to making your site, and company, more professional.


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## RCP

I agree on the hosting. This winter I am redoing my sites using Joomla and will not be using GD.
I have not done a thing to that site since I made it and it still ranks well on Google!


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## michfan

*joomla*

Joomla is amazingly awesome. I used it to do our first site and I was ranked ok. It had quite a learning curve for me though. For me, my time is more valuable. I felt like I was spending every second of the day totally consumed with learning and building a site. It became overwhelming! It was awesome though. There are an extraordinary number of components, plug-ins, modules, extensions, etc. The possibilities are endless!


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## RCP

I agree, I am the webmaster for our school and this is what the district is using, so I get training and support!:thumbup:


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## salestrainer

RCP, thanks for your input on facebook, I have had a busy week, but am back to working on it now. I also am working on a website thru intuit. Not thrilled so far with the quality, but am still working on it. Anyway I have yet to find a single painting company in my area that even has a website, most of these cats are old school. Just read an article that a small biz may do just as well with facebook rather than with a website. What do you guys think? Obviously you guys spend a lot of energy on websites, so you must consider them important.


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## RCP

Thanks
Facebook is not as SEO friendly as a properly done site, yet! It is a great way to brand, network and interact.
Make sure you are in Google Local Business Listing and as many local directories. There are a lot of threads in the Business and Tech sections.
Your website is the first impression a customer may have of your company, so yes, it is important. Depends on your market and targets!


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## y.painting

I've never actually read this thread, so I want to comment on a few "old" things

1) 301 redirect from keyword-stuffed urls do not help your SEO because having many keyword-stuffed url's that immediately redirect you to your original site get no love from google. 

In a good case scenario, all the credit goes only to the site you are redirected to, so your spammy site with a 301 redirect will never actually even get ranked in google (and whats the point of that...unless you want to have a shorter url for advertising, or something like that).

In a bad case, you get heavily penalized by search engines from having many deep or keyword-spammy urls redirecting to your original site.

2) Keyword stuffing into the website url (for example, HousePaintersChicagoIL.com) is being more and more devalued in google results as search gets more smart with semantics and word relationships and places more value on brand names.

Here is Eric Schmidt's take on brands from last October:*The internet is fast becoming a "cesspool" where false information thrives*, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday. Speaking with an audience of magazine executives visiting the Google campus here as part of their annual industry conference, he said their brands were increasingly important signals that content can be trusted. 

"Brands are the solution, not the problem," Mr. Schmidt said. "*Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.*" 
"Brand affinity is clearly hard wired," he said. "It is so fundamental to human existence that it's not going away. It must have a genetic component." ​What he is saying is that a sites with actual brand urls (ie your company name)
will become more important to search engines just because you can trust a site like JoesPainting.com more than PaintingInLosAngelesCalifornia.com.

3) Lastly, RC, if you are going to make use of templates with Joomla, I would highly advise (based on personal experience) that you try wordpress instead.

a) The system is simply a lot faster; I found that my sites built on Joomla load much slower than sites I built with Wordpress. 
b) To make url's "seo friendly" ie nice and short, you have to mess with the .htaccess
c) Built in blogging features are rather mediocre

...but I'm sure you've checked most of this out already. Just throwing it out for thought.


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## RCP

I would go with Wordpress but for the fact that I have to create and maintain one at school in Joomla and get the support and training for it. I figured it would be easier to just learn Joomla than do both. 
I need to switch the host though, GD is awful with Joomla.


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## y.painting

RCP said:


> GD is awful with Joomla.


Also with wordpress. Also with any site that uses any ajax or any other web2.0ish elements. They overload their shared servers, so everything comes to a crawl. 

If you want to stick with a shared server, you need to use a more "independent" host - more expensive, but better; the big-name outfits (gator, GD, etc) overload their stuff way too much. If you want to stick with them, you need dedicated server space, but that option is quite expensive.


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## salestrainer

I have asked many friends, co-workers, clients, this question.....Woould you look on the internet to select a painting contractor? Not one said they would, in fact several were surprised that painters even had web presence. Maybe I just live in a rural area, these are fairly hi-icome people I'm asking though. Just re-painted several rooms in a $400,000 home, a referral from a builder friend, she never even thought about looking on the web. Now I am coming from a career managing a car dealership, and an internet sales department, so I am well aware of peoples changing buying habits. Even then, we got a very small portion of car sales from internet funnel, mostly curiousity seekers. But if you guys feel it's that important, I am all ears. I am just curious how many leads guys are getting, and closing ratios? Like I said, I've been researching, secret shopping other painters in town, I don"t think most of these guys even own a computer, lol! So maybe this is a good way to seperate myself from the competition. However I feel like at this point my marketing energy will be best spent face to face with realtors, contractors, etc.. Anyway thanks for listening.


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## RCP

You make an excellent point. I get very little work from my site. I too am in a rural area with little "internet competition". I use my website as a portfolio for our work and a resource/place to send customers to. I have some plans for my new site to really improve the resources.


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## salestrainer

I guess that's my point, if someone wanted to see sample pics of work, you could use facebook, without all the work of website maintenance, researching search engines, cost per lead....keep in mind my dealership spent millions a year in advertising and consultants, and they still struggling with leading people from the net to the showroom.....I thinkg I am gonna check out go daddy to day for a basic website, the one i am building thru intuit (homestead) is generic even for free!


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## y.painting

salestrainer said:


> I have asked many friends, co-workers, clients, this question.....Woould you look on the internet to select a painting contractor? Not one said they would, in fact several were surprised that painters even had web presence. Maybe I just live in a rural area, these are fairly hi-icome people I'm asking though. Just re-painted several rooms in a $400,000 home, a referral from a builder friend, she never even thought about looking on the web. Now I am coming from a career managing a car dealership, and an internet sales department, so I am well aware of peoples changing buying habits. Even then, we got a very small portion of car sales from internet funnel, mostly curiousity seekers. But if you guys feel it's that important, I am all ears. I am just curious how many leads guys are getting, and closing ratios? Like I said, I've been researching, secret shopping other painters in town, I don"t think most of these guys even own a computer, lol! So maybe this is a good way to seperate myself from the competition. However I feel like at this point my marketing energy will be best spent face to face with realtors, contractors, etc.. Anyway thanks for listening.


I also *LOVE* referrals, they are the best leads you can find. The problem is that referrals are no way to *consistently* build *our* sales *up* year after year after year at the rate that *I* want to grow at. People who exclusively relied on referrals are suddenly finding themselves with a significant dip in sales this past year. Our sales did not dip, but also did not grow ;(

Our ROI from internet marketing is 8.7. Our ROI from the YP is 3.2. Our ROI from a flyer we tried one year was 1.3 - terrible. The internet ROI numbers simply blow all of our other adverts away. Until the ROI from internet marketing dips below that of other advertising, internet is what we will be doing!


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## salestrainer

Thanks for the info guys....after calling INTUIT today, they helped download another site builder that I think will help me get the site I want, working on it tonight, also just set up a meeting with 2 builders this afternoon, pretty excited about that. Haven't posted this till now, but as of 2 days ago, I no longer have a day job, so I am full-blown in the paint biz now! Wasn't planning on it so soon, but what the heck. I am excited and scared to death at the same time. Wish me luck!


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## nEighter

network, stick your neck out, ask for the job, inquire, put the feet to the ground and fuggin do et!!


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## salestrainer

I am going by the quotes "burn the ships" ! My first day I was up @ 5am doing mailers to previous clients. I am gonna finish my website and facebook page this weekend, then hit the pavement Monday. I know enough from selling cars that, it boils down to a number game! Funny story, a guy I used to sell cars with, was a dysfunctional addict who looked like it slept in his clothes! I couldn't stand him, the funny thing was I was no. 1 in sales, he was no.2! While us sophisticated salesman were doing three color brochures and updating our web sites, he would take a hour long lunch (usually at a bar!) and I kid you not, nearly every day or 2 he sold a car to someone he met at a bar! The guy was teflon, wore everybody out he met about buying a car, crude, but effective. As a transition to paint sales, I am remembering all of the different personalities I sold with. Funny thing is, realtors and pharmecuetical salespeople are usually a bit arrogant and look down on other salesman.... I worked with quite a few who tried car sales, none of them could sell ***##*!!!! They were all slick dressers and talked the talk though, lol!


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