Servers, Domain, Hosting & Emails

Your Domain Name
Your domain name is for example www.yourwebaddress.co.za. Domains are renewed yearly and require an annual fee of around R90 for a co.za domain.

Your Website Hosting
Your hosting is the server space you have rented to show the contents that are on your domain. Hosting can vary, but depending on your server size and requirements for your website. I have basic, reliable hosting starting at R20 per month, the standard price for hosting is R100 per month.Your domain name and hosting can be handled by two different companies, but often one company is used to handle both.

Full Ownership of Your Domain Name and Hosting
I believe that you, as a customer, have every right to own your own domain name and have full control of your hosting.

1. Full Control of Your Domain:
   It gives you full control over your domain name and hosting and no one can hold the rights of your company name.
2. Work with the Web Developer You Choose:
   With that in place, it gives you the freedom to work with whatever web developer or online marketing agency you would like without having to transfer your domain and hosting into your own name first in order to stop working with your previous developers.
3. Direct Contact with the Hosting Company for Technical Support:
   You contact your hosts directly and promptly when technical issues arise, no need to work through a 3rd party.
   1. You have to go through a 3rd party which causes a delay, which is usually a big problem.
   2. The 3rd party is usually not a skilled host and their version of relayed messages can cause serious issues in logically solving the technical issue.
   3. They are a third party, potentially making changes on the server or website. This can cause significant confusion about what has been modified and leave many questions unanswered between the web developer and the hosting company, leading to further complications, uncertainties and inevitably, time delays.
   4. It is alot cheaper dealing directly with your hosts.
   5. There is nothing your 3rd party company knows better than your hosts, even if your hosts are the worst and most frustrating hosting company in South Africa, they still know more.
4. Dealing with hosts directly and efficiently:
   They will deal with you, the client, directly and are generally highly skilled in hosting and are the right people to talk to when issues arise, even if the technical support for hosting companies varies. Very often hosts are also more than happy to chat directly with me to solve issues on your behalf as soon as possible without a 3rd party delay.

If you currently are not the owner of your domain name and/or your hosting is not in your name, I highly recommend that you take back ownership. I have had many cases of 3rd party companies refusing to let domain names go without certain conditions or certain payments, or standing in the way of a company’s website in some way to the client’s detriment as the 3rd party has full ownership and can hold anything against the victimised client.

I can help you with your emails, set them up for you on your server and troubleshoot in general,  but generally your hosts are the best people to help you with this as emails are hosted by them and they know everything about them.

Email Spam Prevention
I have created an email spam defense system called: Email Decoy Spam Defense which I can be set up for you as long as it is possible for your current email setup.

Email Campaigns
If you are wanting to do an email campaign, there are 3rd party companies such a Mailchimp that allow bulk email sending.

I will need to be able to login to your server to manage your Web Project, and only will work on a project without server login details in very rare cases.

Although your hosts are the right people to deal with hosting issues as this is their speciality, I do certain functions on the server to keep your website healthy and running smoothly as far as possible.