Larry --
Changing your ISP and moving your website is actually quite easy.
When you create a domain name you are basically taking ownership of an IP address. An IP address looks something like this: ###.###.#.#. Consider it your internet name. And like you, and your name, you can move wherever you want to but your name will stay the same. Look up your name and you can find where you live.
Think of the internet as a world wide contacts list, or phonebook. That phonebook is called the Domain Name Service, or DNS. You want to go to someones website so you type in the website address, as a name. JoeBlowsWebsite.com. Your browser then goes to the DNS to find JoeBlowsWebsite.com and gets the IP address for that website and then the DNS provides the ISP server address of that website and takes you there.
When you move a website, just like moving from one home to another, there are only a couple of things you need to do.
* Find a new ISP where you would like that website to live, and buy space on it. (buy a new home).
* Back-up the existing website onto your personal computer at home, (pack up all your belongings in your current home).
* Copy your website from the back-up you made on to your new ISP space, (unpack all your belongings into your new home).
* Inform the DNS registry, (the organization that controls where your IP address points), that your hosting service address has changed and provide them with your new address. (update your phone book listing)
* Done.
Your website name has not changed so to the world nothing has changed. The DNS has simply reconfigured your IP address to point to your new ISP hosting servers.
Your new ISP will happily walk you through the process, and if it's a decent service provider they may even just do the work for you.
The only time moving your website may not be possible is if you have purchased your website and it's design from a company that then maintains it and makes updates you request. They likely own the servers it is being hosted on and would also own the website design, and the code that builds it, thus preventing you from moving it.
Hope this helps.
Edit: I meant to add that no matter how your website is hosted, you own the name. If the hosting service is preventing you from moving the site you can still point your website address, (the IP address), to another hosting service, but you may have to rebuild the site itself.
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Geoff Sykes, RPT
Los Angeles CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-12-2019 10:16
From: Larry Fisher
Subject: Websites
Thanks all. Like Cindy stated, I get most of my internet traffic from the PTG website, not mine. I think one new customer admitted using a phone book in the last two years, maybe three. I don't even get a phone book any more.
I have my own domain but it doesn't expire until 2023 according to WHOIS.COM. I'd certainly like to change providers and I'm looking into that although I'm not that driven to do so just yet for numerous reasons. Bottom line, in the next year or two, I'm hoping to eliminate about half of the digital drama in my life. I have weak cell service at this location and will be investing in a signal booster to rid myself of the twisted pair. (cell service is brand V and the twisted pair hard wire service is CL) Once I accomplish that I'll be closer to closing down the current website and living a less complicated life. YES!!!
The big lesson I'm learning here is how connected I've become and how involved it is to slowly close or redirect these connections. I feel like I'm putting out one final digitally repulsive effort to cut my connections or at least redirect them securely for the rest of my days.
The concept of moving my domain to a different provider will be looked into although I've been informed that that isn't possible. One of you I think indicated that owning the domain makes it possible to move it to a different provider. I'm all ears (inherently by profession by the way, duh-oh duhr).
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Larry Fisher
Owner, Chief Grunt, Head Hosehead
Vancouver WA
503-310-6965
Working the gravy zone for the rest of my days.
Original Message:
Sent: 07-12-2019 07:39
From: Lucinda Strehlow
Subject: Websites
This comment may not really apply, but I feel I have to add: I get business from the PTG website. Not a lot, but since the only other RPT in our medium size college town is way busier than I am, I often get the work that comes from PTG referrals.
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Cindy Strehlow
Urbana, IL
Original Message:
Sent: 07-11-2019 23:42
From: Geoff Sykes
Subject: Websites
I used to do web design for a high profile concert promoter. So, when I quit to go into piano technology I naturally designed and built my own site. Like Karl, my site exists mostly because I have a business domain name for email, so why not? Like Karl, the benefit of owning your own domain name means that if your ISP shuts down, or you learn to hate them, you can move everything without it affecting either your email addresses or your website address. Since I don't have to pay a monthly fee to a web design company for maintenance and hosting service, the couple of bucks a month it costs to maintain my hosting service and domain name make it a negligible expense.
When I first started out in this business I signed up for Google Ad-Words. It took less than a year for me to learn that because of the market I'm in, the competition for placement was making it prohibitively expensive for the number of click-through's I was getting vs the number on calls. Also, it was bringing in the wrong clientele, so I shut it down as much as Google will let you. Which means you are stuck with the account, and the contact information it will display online, for life no matter how much you attempt to destroy it. Same thing goes for Yelp!, so don't sign up unless you are planning to marry the arrangement. After a year of Yellow Pages ads with not a single call, the Yellow Pages salesperson told me, (in confidence), that the Yellow Pages are not where you want to be to garner new business. The Yellow Pages are for people that already know you but have forgotten how to find you. He knew he was losing a sale but he new that he had made a customer happy.
My website does not have the ability to schedule a tuning. In fact, by design, my website doesn't even have my email address. My phone number is prominent on every page, however. People that make first contact with me via email are generally customers I do not want. Likewise, no, even more so, people that attempt first contact with me via text. If a customer is serious they will call so we can discuss their needs and my services. Because of this, I rarely get price shoppers contacting me. Almost everyone who calls also schedules a tuning. I guess I'm doing something right because almost everyone who does call has gotten my name from one of my existing customers. I get a couple a month from my website, and one or two every couple of months from the PTG directory.
The information on my website is there for easy reference more than anything else. If a potential customer has taken the time to actually go through my website they already know how much I charge, what my service area is and what services I offer. By design this turns away most looky-lu's and bargain hunters and encourages those serious enough to make the call. I'm as busy as I want to be with a customer base that is within easy driving distance and that have pianos that they love and want to maintain. They are almost all very likable people, too and never question a rate increase.
I guess my point is that if you are doing good, honest work, developing a rapport with your customers and keeping them satisfied you will not be wanting for new customers whether you have a website of not.
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Geoff Sykes, RPT
Los Angeles CA
Original Message:
Sent: 07-11-2019 19:08
From: Karl Roeder
Subject: Websites
Like Mr. Fisher my web site is really just a business card online. I don't really expect it to drive tuning traffic. The reason I have it is to keep from changing my email address every time my ISP changes. There was a time back in the early aughts when it seemed like my ISP was bought, sold or taken over every second week. Each time they turned over I had to start using a new email handle which meant new business cards as well. G mail hadn't really taken off yet so I got myself a domain name and I've kept the same email address for the past 18 years. It'd have to get really expensive for me to want to take it offline at this point.
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Karl Roeder
Pompano Beach FL
Original Message:
Sent: 07-10-2019 10:53
From: Larry Fisher
Subject: Websites
Increasingly I've been having issues with the digital drama department with my business. As things change with providers so must I and the process to keep up with those changes, be it software or administrative changes.
In my case the website is simply eye candy. I don't book online or take comments with my website. It's simply a place holder to substantiate my business as being, for some, a viable source of service. As I get closer to sitting in a chair with a beer and watching the sun go across the sky all day, I'm finding the idea of spending the monthly fee to appease the needs of the few less and less important. I had a website long before anyone else did but now some 30 years later I'm ready to close that olde dog down. Have any of you closed your websites for lack of productivity or other reasons?
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Larry Fisher
Owner, Chief Grunt, Head Hosehead
Vancouver WA
503-310-6965
Working the gravy zone for the rest of my days.
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