E-Z Web Sites For Everyone!
There’s a great article for anyone who’s interested in setting up their own web presence in the NY Times yesterday about a new service from Microsoft called Office Live.
In a nutshell, it’ll help you get a domain name, set up and populate web pages with pre-designed templates, have email accounts that feed right into your Microsoft Outlook on your PC, easily and quickly. It’s designed for small businesses and individuals who don’t have the luxury of smart friends or an IT department.
In the more succinct words of David Pogue:
“….So how do you get an actual domain name like CaseyCorp.com? You have to pay a registrar company around $10 a year for it. You might then pay another company a few bucks a month to “hostâ€? your Web site, and somebody else to design the Web pages themselves. For nontechnical people, it’s all an expensive headache. No wonder half of all small businesses don’t even have Web sites.
But starting Nov. 15, somebody will offer to pick up the entire bill. You’ll be able to pick any dot-com (or .net, or .org) Web address that hasn’t already been taken — no charge. You’ll get to design a Web site, complete with links, graphics, search boxes, tables, forms and navigation bars, and hang it on the Web for all to see — no charge. You’ll even get crystal-clear traffic reports whenever you want them, showing how many people are beating a path to your door — and still no charge.
So who’s your mysterious benefactor? A little outfit called Microsoft.”
Sound too good to be true? Well since I’ve started my own business, I now have five email accounts, four calendars (plus paper); and have had to ask for the help of my friends at Moto Interactive to get a web presence for my main business. But I own a few more domains, so you can bet I’ll be giving this a try!
