For several years now, I have been left in charge of the web-sites for a couple of local annual events. Since the GoDaddy account is now in my name, I also have my own personal web-site up through this arrangement.
I inherited this arrangement from a local business that went out of business. This guy had all kinds of sites hosted and domain names registered through GoDaddy. When he liquidated, he offered me custody of the sites I was in charge of. (I had previously been making up the sites on my Mac, then burning them to a CD-R or a thumb drive, then giving them to him, and he would upload them.)
The sites see limited traffic, as two are just annual events and the third is just my personal site.
For the two annual events, the sites are just simple sites with a collection of pages all naturally centered around a home page. I create these simple pages in iWeb. (Yes, it still works, and yes, I know I will have to find another editor someday soon.) I created my own personal site using Adobe Muse.
I just had GoDaddy renew my subscription for four years for hosting. Annual costs per year for domain name registration are nearly as much as the hosting. The four year plan for hosting cost me $239.52. It should come due in March of 2022. The domain name registrations for two of the three sites (the events) cost $48.32 and will come due in March of 2019.
I have thought about migrating away from GoDaddy. I have also thought about doing more active things with my own web-site, like making it into a hub for a few blogs I want to do. I occasionally do amateur videography (I have, and have repeatedly used, Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro for projects in the past, including recording of public meetings and creation of C-SPAN-style DVDs of these events), I've done a tiny bit of podcasting (GarageBand) and a lot of photography of various subjects (mostly iPhoto, which I have 65,000 photos in since I started digital camera shooting in Dec. of 2001). I dropped my Facebook account a few years ago, but lately I've been a little active on Twitter and Instagram. My YouTube account is dormant, but there.
I'd love to do some commentary and information sharing through blogs, and maybe vlogging and/or podcasting. I may be starting a new job soon, which would make it easier for me to buy newer equipment because some of my tech portfolio is dated (I still use a tape-based HDV camcorder). I want to be able to share information and commentary, but also to build a more up-to-date professional portfolio of my experience and KSAs (knowledge, skills and abilities).
Back to GoDaddy for a moment: I've seen negative chatter on Twitter but I'm not sure what to believe. I have received some "web designer" spam in my one e-mail box that I use for communicating with GoDaddy. Other people echo this same story and allege that their information has been sold to spammers. I haven't seen direct evidence, but I do not like this at all.
I also have had repeated calls to GoDaddy Tech Support in the past because I've had difficulty uploading updates of a given web-site. Sometimes, GoDaddy's servers do not accept the upload. I'm using FileZilla and uploading an entire site, fresh every time. Over the past several years, it usually works but this has been annoying. (It was GoDaddy that recommended FileZilla for FTP activity.)
I also wonder if it is money well spent.
For securing the domain names for each of the annual events, GoDaddy charges me twice once for ".COM Domain Renewal" ($15.17 per year) and again for "Private Domain Restoration Renewal" ($8.99/yr.). I assume my own personal web-site is a similar charge. Fortunately, the event organizations have been picking up the tab.
I would like to move to newer software and possibly phase out GoDaddy. I'd like to be able to add software experience to my portfolio, but I'm not really wed to Muse. I definitely want to move on from iWeb. I have Office 365 and a temporary subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud, but I'm just trying out the Office subscription for the bennies to see if I like it, and I'm not sure about the A CC subscription long-term. Much of this depends on how the work situation works out in the short term.
What alternatives are out there for web-site hosting and domain name security? Are there any that will not sell my info? Are there any that are good as far as hosting/server service?
I understand there are two kinds of WordPress, one is a pay service and the other is not. (?) I understand that one is a web interface that you use to create simple sites, and the other I'm not sure of.
I need something cheap and simple like iWeb for the event sites. I'm not sure about using Muse for that purpose, as it is much more sophisticated and would take longer to edit and update sites.
In short, what are my options?
What I currently use:
iMac, late-2013, 2.9 GHz Core i5, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD, SuperDrive
iPad Mini
Canon Digital Rebel T3, kit & telehphoto lenses
Android smartphones
point-andshoot Canon PowerShot camera
Office 365 subscription
Adobe CC subscription
Final Cut Pro Studio 3 (FCP 7)
iPhoto 2011
iWeb
iWork
DSL internet connection (no fiber optic available)
local cellular service not the greatest
I inherited this arrangement from a local business that went out of business. This guy had all kinds of sites hosted and domain names registered through GoDaddy. When he liquidated, he offered me custody of the sites I was in charge of. (I had previously been making up the sites on my Mac, then burning them to a CD-R or a thumb drive, then giving them to him, and he would upload them.)
The sites see limited traffic, as two are just annual events and the third is just my personal site.
For the two annual events, the sites are just simple sites with a collection of pages all naturally centered around a home page. I create these simple pages in iWeb. (Yes, it still works, and yes, I know I will have to find another editor someday soon.) I created my own personal site using Adobe Muse.
I just had GoDaddy renew my subscription for four years for hosting. Annual costs per year for domain name registration are nearly as much as the hosting. The four year plan for hosting cost me $239.52. It should come due in March of 2022. The domain name registrations for two of the three sites (the events) cost $48.32 and will come due in March of 2019.
I have thought about migrating away from GoDaddy. I have also thought about doing more active things with my own web-site, like making it into a hub for a few blogs I want to do. I occasionally do amateur videography (I have, and have repeatedly used, Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro for projects in the past, including recording of public meetings and creation of C-SPAN-style DVDs of these events), I've done a tiny bit of podcasting (GarageBand) and a lot of photography of various subjects (mostly iPhoto, which I have 65,000 photos in since I started digital camera shooting in Dec. of 2001). I dropped my Facebook account a few years ago, but lately I've been a little active on Twitter and Instagram. My YouTube account is dormant, but there.
I'd love to do some commentary and information sharing through blogs, and maybe vlogging and/or podcasting. I may be starting a new job soon, which would make it easier for me to buy newer equipment because some of my tech portfolio is dated (I still use a tape-based HDV camcorder). I want to be able to share information and commentary, but also to build a more up-to-date professional portfolio of my experience and KSAs (knowledge, skills and abilities).
Back to GoDaddy for a moment: I've seen negative chatter on Twitter but I'm not sure what to believe. I have received some "web designer" spam in my one e-mail box that I use for communicating with GoDaddy. Other people echo this same story and allege that their information has been sold to spammers. I haven't seen direct evidence, but I do not like this at all.
I also have had repeated calls to GoDaddy Tech Support in the past because I've had difficulty uploading updates of a given web-site. Sometimes, GoDaddy's servers do not accept the upload. I'm using FileZilla and uploading an entire site, fresh every time. Over the past several years, it usually works but this has been annoying. (It was GoDaddy that recommended FileZilla for FTP activity.)
I also wonder if it is money well spent.
For securing the domain names for each of the annual events, GoDaddy charges me twice once for ".COM Domain Renewal" ($15.17 per year) and again for "Private Domain Restoration Renewal" ($8.99/yr.). I assume my own personal web-site is a similar charge. Fortunately, the event organizations have been picking up the tab.
I would like to move to newer software and possibly phase out GoDaddy. I'd like to be able to add software experience to my portfolio, but I'm not really wed to Muse. I definitely want to move on from iWeb. I have Office 365 and a temporary subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud, but I'm just trying out the Office subscription for the bennies to see if I like it, and I'm not sure about the A CC subscription long-term. Much of this depends on how the work situation works out in the short term.
What alternatives are out there for web-site hosting and domain name security? Are there any that will not sell my info? Are there any that are good as far as hosting/server service?
I understand there are two kinds of WordPress, one is a pay service and the other is not. (?) I understand that one is a web interface that you use to create simple sites, and the other I'm not sure of.
I need something cheap and simple like iWeb for the event sites. I'm not sure about using Muse for that purpose, as it is much more sophisticated and would take longer to edit and update sites.
In short, what are my options?
What I currently use:
iMac, late-2013, 2.9 GHz Core i5, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD, SuperDrive
iPad Mini
Canon Digital Rebel T3, kit & telehphoto lenses
Android smartphones
point-andshoot Canon PowerShot camera
Office 365 subscription
Adobe CC subscription
Final Cut Pro Studio 3 (FCP 7)
iPhoto 2011
iWeb
iWork
DSL internet connection (no fiber optic available)
local cellular service not the greatest
