Here are the three three elements you’ll need to have your own website:
1. The Website Itself
Imogen Ragone has designed a great many websites for Alexander Technique teachers – you can see examples of her work on the right. After several frustrating experiences with hosting Word Press sites designed and managed by other designers, I’ve decided to limit my hosting services to sites designed and managed by Imogen.
In general, the kind of material you might use for a promotional flyer is exactly what will be of use in designing your site. A website can easily be structured to include additional content such as articles, multiple photographs, testimonials etc. It is the designer’s job to put your material in a format suitable for a website.
2. A Domain Name
This your unique internet address – alexandertechnique.com and alextechhost.com are examples of domain names. While there are a great many companies – called domain name registrars – that sell domain names, I’ve found that Hover offers the best value, both in terms of price and because if offers a free privacy add-on that most other registrars charge extra for. This free service is very useful for reducing email spam. Hover’s customer service is excellent and since they don’t offer a lot of other services they might try to sell you, the registration process is much simpler than you’ll find elsewhere. (One domain hosting service I would suggest avoiding is Network Solutions. They charge for services that other registers provide for free.)
If you wish, I can talk you through the registration process, step by step, by phone if you’re not familiar with ordering domain names. Alternatively, I can register your domain name in your name using my credit card information and then turn it over to you so that you only have to change the the billing information to your own card.
3. Website Hosting
That’s what this site is mostly about.
When you host your website with me, you will receive a level of personal attention that you cannot otherwise get. I will take care of all the technical details of setting up you hosting account, including such things as installing WordPress if you chose to have a WordPress site. I will also create an account that allows you and Imogen to upload your site so it will be available on the web and I’ll take care of whatever features you want in connection with your site – for example a statistics page or a webmail account.
An unique free service I provide is backing up your Word Press site at separate locations from the web hosting company itself. InMotionHosting backs up a few recent versions in Utah, and I back up several months of versions using MyRepono at a secure location in Florida. A basic version of your site is also backed up on my computer, my back-up hard drive and by Carbonite in Massachusetts. All of these backups, at different locations, provide an extremely high level of protection for your site, much higher than most web hosting services offer. Learn more about this back up service alextechhost.com/website-basics/wordpressbackups
As an added bonus, if you host your site with me, you can get a free audio interview about you and your teaching which you can make available on your site – a $40 value. This is a great way to introduce yourself to potential students. You can see examples of other teachers’ interviews here.
And finally, when you host your website with me, you help pay for the costs (and time!) associated with maintaining my Alexander Technique websites.
FAQs has more information about hosting your website with me.
Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net