The websites will be moved behind the scenes and you will receive more storage, faster load times and maximum security. My monthly fee for hosting will only go up enough to help pay for these improvements. It will be $16 per month instead of $12, a small hike for optimum hosting.

I also have some clients using shared hosting with Bluehost. I encourage these clients to take advantage of this great discount on improved security and speed. Bluehost will handle the move for a reduced fee. This will be easier for you, as I will be doing the billing instead of Bluehost and I can handle all of your questions.

More and more, security is a key issue with websites and I’m looking forward to offering a product my clients can trust. I will be in touch with more information and you can call me at any time.

CLUE #1: No one refers to me as DEBORAH ANN, so that is clue number one, albeit not necessarily a red flag.

CLUE #2: Now look at the link. It starts with http://… Most reputable sites, especially domain companies will be using httpS://… The S is for secure and many of us in the know have changed ours two years ago. And again, we see the signature area missing the S on http://.

CLUE #3: Look inside the link. A real url will be simpler. For instance it would read something like …bluehost.com/account/reactivation.html. Instead, we see “bluehost.com/cyberlegosite.com/account/reactivation .html. This is a fake site. Now here is your red flag!

CLUE #4: So if you have been unlucky enough to actually experience malware on your Bluehost site you might have taken the bait and clicked the link. Like me, you’d hopefully get the warning below. If you missed the first few clues, do pay attention to any warning…and call your web site manager to check it out!

P.S. I had a chat with Bluehost and they confirmed it was malware and they have been getting a lot of reports on this today.

Here’s a sad story one of my clients is going through right now. Five years ago, my client purchased a domain at Go Daddy as many people do. Then she hired me to create a website, still working today and hosted at Blue Host. Last week, she called Go Daddy to check that her domain was up-to-date and paid up. The domain is on auto renew, but Go Daddy took advantage and sold her a five year hosting plan. She paid them $99 additional to migrate the website to their server and they put it in a folder called “CloudTech”.

This came to my attention this morning when this client forwarded an email from Go Daddy listing suspect malware files in a folder named “CloudTech”.  Not smart if you want your wily ways to go undetected by the webmaster…!  Not smart to call attention to your own malware. Here’s the details. After a short conversation with the client, and logging into her account, I called Go Daddy immediately.  I received a call back from Sales and Security nineteen minutes later. The tech guy explained that CloudTech was legitimate and informed me the site had been migrated over. Confused, I exclaimed., “This does not make any sense, since the domain is still pointing to BlueHost…!”  Before instructing him to remove the folder I wanted to call the client to get her permission.

And the story gets worse.

Not only was the client duped into the extra hosting and migration, she has been paying them yearly hosting and SSL fees for at least a few years. Why do they take the money if there was no website being hosted? ….Because they can. Many people don’t know the ins and outs of internet set up and will pay what a large commercial company asks for. The tech guy’s excuse for the recommendation? The server was old and needed to be upgraded to php 7.0. Again, I pointed out, that BlueHost had already upgraded, so the website was fine. The old server they were referring to is theirs…

Lesson to small business owners: If you wonder why you are paying for hosting in two places, please contact your webmaster. If you are given an option to pay more money, consult with the person who knows what you need. There are 164 one star reviews of Go Daddy at Consumer Affairs. Posted, are many similar stories. It is unconscionable that a company with Go Daddy’s resources and reputation is taking advantage of small businesses.

Addendum: I spoke with another Go Daddy associate today. He has cancelled the hosting account and the ssl and returning almost $300 to the client. I doubt that this includes the migration fee of $99 however. I’m also giving free hosting to the client for the rest of the year to make up for some of her lost revenue for the excess hosting. Lesson learned: add a line to the contract that clearly states where the fees should be paid.

Websites built with WordPress start off with free software. WordPress is open source. Many, many people have built careers on that fact. All web software requires a host company such as Bluehost or GoDaddy that will rent you space on a hard drive somewhere in the cloud for as little as $5 per month. That’s great. You also have to buy the domain that represents the IP address for your server space. That can cost roughly $15 per year. Also great. So, for as little as $75 per year, you can run your website.

People find out by trying to making a site themselves that it can be complex. I built a website for a restaurant in Boston over four years ago that was recently bought by a hotelier in Oregon. The message I first got from the rep of the new company was that they would not need my services anymore. He was going to build one. The next message said the plan had changed and he wanted to continue the website with my help. My guess is that he realized pretty quickly that making a website involves a lot of experience and a long learning curve.

Your goals and requirements for the website will make a difference in the price. Fewer hours, obviously, will result in a lower price. A base price for even a few pages may take more time than you think. Consider that several meetings at 1 to 2 hours each add up to 4 hours minimum. Researching and sizing photographs, another 2. Building a home page with design styling, 4 to 6; Editing text, organizing the information, establishing a flow, and populating each page; Building forms, adjusting code settings for added functionality; setting up search engine optimization and sizing for mobile; trouble shooting, client training. Whew! Thirty hours +… For larger sites, multiply it 3 or 4 times. You also receive the designer’s artistic craft and the developer’s code craft, which is taken from years of experience.

But in the end, you own a unique website. Know that the ever changing internet demands that your site needs to be updated, watched over, backed up, improved, etc. Consider your website as a refection of your business, your brand, which grows and changes as you do. Also, that your webmaster is intimate with the workings of your website and that they will continue to offer you their services to keep that site viable and useful.

The article “How Much Does a Website Cost?” in Forbes by Ilya Pozin was used in researching this topic.

1. Constant Contact
Last month,You heard about our partnership with Constant Contact. The limited offer of one free set up is still good for the first ten customers who sign up here.This is a great way to reach your customers and their associates, by going where they read every day… their in-box. If you already have CC, you can still take advantage of this offer! Or, if you recommend someone, you can both take advantage of the offer!

2. Bluehost Hosting
P.D. also has become a partner with Bluehost, a company Deb has worked with for over five years. Their 24/7 support technicians always continue to be knowledgeable and helpful. Most of our clients are on the Bluehost servers, but not in a managed area. If you would like your site to be migrated and managed by Deb, let us know. She will fill you in on the details.

3. Site Management
P.D. can also manage your site even if it is not in the hosting package. We currently have slots for ten clients. With this service, you get site backups on Amazon, analytics and all WordPress theme and plugin updates detailed on quarterly reports.If we grow to over ten clients, we will be adding SEO to the package. More on that later.

4.Shopify
Some people like the ease of use Shopify affords for shopping cart web sites. If you plan on selling a lot of products, virtual or downloadable, this may be the ticket. We offer this product as an alternative to the standard WordPress Woo Commerce shopping cart setup. It does, however, come with a monthly fee.

That’s it in a nutshell. If you are interested in knowing more abut any of these services, feel free to call 508-879-7347 or email.

Here’s why. The easy part is setting up the email account. You go to the c-Panel, and into the email account and add an email address with your domain name. (Providing you already created it when you set up hosting) Create a password that is in the strong range. It should be something you can remember but also with numbers, capitals and symbols. Be sure to ask for Unlimited emails, so your emails don’t suddenly stop coming into your mailbox because you forgot to clean it out every month or so. That’s it. The mail should start flowing! Hold on…

The mail software you use—now has to be set up to “Receive” on both your laptop and smart phone. It involves a lot of settings, which is why Bluehost nicely made all those videos to show you how. I had a client that used IMAP and when he switched his mail server from VistaPrint, he lost all that mail for almost an entire day. Bluehost helped him find the lost mail, fortunately, for both his reputation and his clients safety. For this reason, I ask my clients to use an IT professional in this process. But…

Here’s the good news! You can easily create a Gmail account and set it up to receive your POP email you made at your hosting company. Here is what you do:

1. Create the POP email using your cPanel’s “EMail Accounts” button of your host company.
2. Go back to the cPanel and to the same Mail area and button for “Forwarders”. Forward your POP email address to the new gmail address you already use or created.
3. Inside Gmail open the “Settings” and go to “Accounts and Import”, then click on “Add another email account you own”.
4. Put in your me@mywebsite.com there and follow the steps until Gmail says it will send you a confirmation email.
5. A confirmation code will come to your Gmail inbox which you then put in the area on your gmail account.

That’s it!

Here’s another idea: If you use a domain name that is too long for your business cards, create a new shorter Gmail address and use it on your site and all print materials. Or, forward the POP version as described above. Many people prefer the state of the art Gmail software to the ones provided by hosting companies. It’s the best of both worlds. You can also follow the same steps for Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.

Note: Perugi Design receives one time compensation when clients order Bluehost hosting via the home page button. In addition, clients who order hosting directly from Perugi Design will be placed on a shared server with other clients on Bluehost. Perugi Design bills clients directly for hosting and earns compensation for this hosting.