There’s an inefficiency built into the way many web designers put together websites. Have you ever asked yourself:

• Why does a 5-page website cost more than a 3-page website? In fact, it shouldn’t matter whether your site has 3 pages, 10 pages, or 100 pages. It should cost the same regardless, because it costs about the same amount to store 3 pages worth of text as to store 100 pages.
• Why does it have to be so inconvenient to modify or change content on the site? You shouldn’t need to wait for a webmaster to manually add or change content on your site, because a website runs on a computer. You should be able to have your computer just publish new content automatically and see it immediately appear on your website.
• Why are Web 2.0 marketing techniques out of reach of the small business? Web 2.0 is a whole other opportunity, of course, which I’ll get into when I talk about web traffic. But you don’t need to be Google to do Web 2.0, because the technology behind it is fairly simple.

The reason we face these problems is just part of how many web designers build websites.

I myself use DreamHost. Some people swear by them (including me). Others swear at them. That’s okay with me. Love me; hate me; there’s no money inbetween. That said, DreamHost doesn’t meet everyone’s needs. I hope to outgrow them eventually, but I expect to continue to use them for a long time to come.

Here’s what DreamHost does and doesn’t provide:

Picking the wrong web host can be a pain. If something goes wrong, your site could go down. People who come to visit your site won’t see anything. If they’re lucky, they’ll see an error. And if you’re buying advertising, people who click on your ad won’t see your web page, but you’ll still pay for those ad clicks.

And if your site gets linked to by slashdot, a news site, or some other popular site, you could find your website flooded with visitors. And if your host doesn’t know how to deal with large spikes of traffic, you could find your account suddenly frozen or canceled. Surprise!

Fortunately, web hosting is a commodity. Where they differ is primarily in terms of customer support and style. In any case, you can hedge your bets so that if you don’t get satisfaction, you can switch to an alternative web host with a minimum of down-time.

I’d like to dispel some of the mystique behind web technology. The good news is that almost anyone can make sense of web technology, quickly and without burning out any brain cells. There are only 4 major parts to it.

At the risk of stating the obvious, in order to get your website on the Internet, you need… uh… A website.

This is the part that we usually think of when we say “web design” or “web development.” This is the part that we pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to have someone professionally put together. Most business owners are willing to part with the cash, because they don’t understand HTML, web hosting, domain name registration, and PHP. And I can understand this. And this problem we can solve.