This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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A listener wants to know if their web host offers a full service option. Will they design their website? Will they build it? Will they take care of everything? Will they take out the trash?
Will they make your coffee in the morning? I guess that's full service, right? Do everything. Or if it's better to find another way to get the job done. Okay, so we talk from time to time about how to find solutions for design and development, development as in coding, as in building your website.
What is the best path forward here? What's the best path forward for this listener, let's say. Using the value, get it done quickly, so you can keep moving. Got lots of listeners out there making similar decisions, trying to figure out what is the best way to get my website up. And their various platforms, various options for that.
But I don't know if we've ever looked at this question of full service, not including the coffee in the trash, 'cause I don't think anybody offers that. But is there an option for your web host to just do everything? So let's talk it out. Welcome to side hustle school. My name is Chris Guillebeau, so glad you're here.
Gonna bring you this question and my answer after this quick message from our sponsor. Stay tuned. [Music]
Hey Chris, this is Kelly from St. Louis and I've been listening to the show for a while now. You've talked about web hosts a few different times, but I'm not totally sure how it works.
From what I understand, there are two categories, ones that provide templates and others that just give you server space, whatever that is. Here's what I'm wondering. Will the company that hosts my website also design it? I'm really new at this. Also, do you still have the $5 a month deal with your web host?
Thanks, Chris. [Music]
Hey Kelly, thank you so much for listening. Really glad you're out there. And yes, this can be a bit of a confusing process. So the web host provides the servers, those servers you mentioned for your website, which hosts the files, the images, the videos, web pages, like any other content that you have, like it has to live on a server somewhere and a web host provides that server space.
That's what they do. And you're also correct about the templates, which we have talked about a few times. A lot of different platforms from Squarespace to Wix, to WordPress.com. I'm sure there are many others these days. When you sign up for an account with them, they also give you these plug and play templates, which you can use to make your own website without a designer, okay?
And those are becoming more and more common just because it's so simple. But traditionally at least, when you got a web host package, that did not include any design and it didn't even include those plug and play templates. You had to figure out design separately. Now I went to look and see, some of the current providers that don't have those templates, do they actually offer any sort of design service? And some of them do, but it's not their core business.
So it's gonna cost you, basically. It's gonna be pretty expensive. Like most of them don't even list pricing. It's like, give us a call, you know? So not a good solution.
I would say you have two choices. One, you use one of those plug and play options because it is simple and you're gonna learn through that process and it would be good to learn. Or number two, you hire a designer of your own through Upwork or some other platform. And if you haven't done this before, it will be a learning curve. Like it takes some time to figure out how to use these platforms and then how to creatively direct your project, which is what you're doing essentially.
You're commissioning a designer to execute your vision. And so you want to be as specific as possible. You want to have as much content as possible prepared for that designer so that they're ready to go to work. And that's just a skill that takes time to develop, but you might as well do that while you're not paying a lot of money, unlike what it would be like to hire a designer from your actual web host. All right, so last part, you asked about the $5 a month web host deal.
Yes, we do still have that. In fact, they were recently running a special that it was only $3 a month. So that's pretty crazy. I don't know if it's currently $3 a month or $5 a month, but you can see whatever it is at sidehustleschool.com/website. So that is once again, sidehustleschool.com/website.
But the short version is there are lots of good options out there. I would really encourage you to just pick one and move forward. And a lot of the questions you have will probably be resolved as you go along. Okay, when you try to figure everything out upfront, that does tend to be overwhelming. But if you just jump in and say, okay, what is the single next step I have to do?
And then once you resolve that, do the following step and so on, it is much easier. At least that's been my experience because when I started, I didn't know anything about this stuff either. So we're in the same boat there. Kelly, good luck. Listeners, if you have a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We'll continue to feature them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. I am so glad you're out there wherever you are in the world. Thank you for listening today. I hope you'll come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School.
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From the Onward Project.
