Don't Host Your Own Website

My cousin has a website. His name is M. I won’t say his real name because his website is so bad that I would be embarrassing him to publicize it. It was created in 1990 by his intern. It is horrible. That said, he is very interested in having me design a new website for him and I would love to do that but there is one major issue.

He wants to host the site himself.

For M, I think he feels like he will save money on hosting. We don’t charge very much to do a website design. But we do charge to host, manage and do marketing work on the website. This pricing structure enables us to work on the site and to maintain an ongoing relationship with our clients. So, we would have to charge a lot more to design the site if M insists on hosting it. But, that said, letting M host his own site is a mistake.

Why is it a bad idea?

Hosting a website requires a Server that has very specific software installed on it. He probably does not have a WordPress compatible Server. Also, websites today are nothing like websites designed in 1990. Back then, most sites were in HTML. Today, most sites are built around CMS platforms (like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal) that create a complicated framework around the site. This framework provides amazing new tools for business. It gives the business executive total control of his/her content and great marketing tools too. Hosting his own site is an admirable goal but impractical. Websites are complicated. They can get hacked, viruses and they can crash.

Everything is complicated. I don’t do my own taxes and I don’t fix my car. I leave it up to professionals so that I can concentrate on the things I know how to do best. Don’t host your own website. Leave it to the professionals.

Your comments are welcomed.