Every website needs to be hosted to maintain its presence on the internet. Some web designers may offer to host your site for free. However, your site will reside within their accounts. We could host your site for free, but we won't.

"We believe every business should maintain ownership of, and be allowed access to, its own web hosting accounts."

You should be able to take care of some basic site maintenance yourself, and you should have the choice to change web development services whenever you choose. While we won't host your site for you, we have found a very reliable and affordable provider who we recommend. Blue Host offers affordable, reliable web hosting solutions coupled with award-winning customer service.

We are happy to set up your domain name and hosting for you, but it will be registered under your name, and you will maintain complete ownership of your account. If you prefer to set up your account yourself, please click here to take advantage of Blue Host's award-winning service. (Be sure to choose a domain name before you take this step - see Domain Name Registration below.)

If your site is already hosted, we are happy to work with your current host, as long as they are compatible with the services and software we recommend for your needs. If your previous web design company is hosting your site, you may need to move it in order to gain full access.

A successful business combines a variety of online and offline marketing techniques to attract and retain customers. Creating your website to attract your customers' attention is your first step in online marketing. But once you get them to your site, then what? Not everyone will purchase after their first visit. In fact, most consumers shop around and use the internet for research before making a buying decision.

Once a prospect has arrived at your website, you want to offer a way to stay in touch with that person, even if they don't buy immediately. Email marketing is an easy and inexpensive way to do this. If a prospect gives you his or her email address, you know that person is interested in learning more about you, and may buy from you in the future. Take advantage of the opportunity to share more about your business, develop a relationship, and turn that prospect into a customer in the future.

We recommend iContact Email Marketing, but there are many services out there. You are welcome to shop around and choose your favorite. But do choose somebody! Email marketing providers will help you manage your growing list of customers while helping you comply with anti-spam regulations. iConact and other similar services will help you build an opt-in form for your website, provide a confirmation email to make sure your customer really does want to hear from you, and help make sure your emails get delivered. You also get to view statistics after each email you send to see who's opening them and what links they're clicking on. You can use your email marketing list for a monthly newsletter to all your contacts, or you can segment your list into various categories. When you tailor special emails to specific groups of contacts, you can really talk to people about what they're most interested in.