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Last updated: Sept 17, 2007

Four items for you:

  1. List of journalists' personal sites (add your own)
  2. 2004 Poynter.org column on importance of building a site
  3. 2002 Poynter.org column
  4. 2003 Poynter.org column

Setting Up a Personal Website
By Sreenath Sreenivasan
Feedback/suggestions: tips@sree.net

I believe having a personal website is increasingly important (to learn why, see the Poynter columns on the right). Here's how you can have one, too....

Setting up a personal Web site with a "vanity domain name" (such as sree.net) involves two distinct processes.

1. Buying a domain name (translation: "trademarking the name" -- a.k.a "booking your name").
As little as $8 a year if you pay in advance for longer terms.

2. Hosting your site (translation: "getting a company to host your site and serve it up on the Internet").
Typical cost: $16-20 per month (cheaper if you pay in advance for longer terms).

Of course, separate from all of this is actually creating the words and graphics. If you don't want to bother learning HTML or Web design, you can get someone else to do it for you (I have access to a group of young, talented folks - mostly former students - whose work is cost-effective).

Below are my tips on setting up your personal site.

Questions: sree@sree.net | 212-854-5979

Web Hosting Tips

HOSTING COMPANY I RECOMMEND: There are dozens of good hosting companies out there. After trying out several different ones and doing some reporting, I strongly recommend using Web.com. It's been my main hosting company for several years now. My old hosting company, HostPro, was bought by Interland, which was bought by Web.com and I moved all my sites over. I have found it to be reliable, with excellent features and customer service. Yes, there are cheaper options than Web.com, but the level of customer service (including getting tech support on the phone 24 hours a day!) is very important to me and should be to you.

CONTACT:  Steve Jackson is the staffer I work with. E-mail him at sjackson@corp.web.com or call him toll-free: 866-495-7562. Tell him Sree.net sent you and he will waive any setup fees. I do not get any money for these referrals!

IF YOU WANT A FULL SITE HOSTING SERVICE: The Web.com packages I recommend are either Value or Business plans, ranging from $7.95 a month to $19.95 a month. You get plenty of Web space for your site and upto 30 personalizable e-mail addresses, such as sree@sree.net, jobs@sree.net, hireme@sree.net, etc.

IF YOU JUST WANT TO RESERVE YOUR DOMAIN NAME (ie, NOT create a full site right now): You can purchase a domain name without hosting a site, just to keep people from getting your address. Contact Jackson - he offers one-, two-, five- and 10-year domain registrations (though they might be cheaper for this domain-name-registration at places like GoDaddy.com).

TIP FROM STUDENT JOURNALIST MATHILDE PIARD (mathildepiard.com):

Prof. Duy Linh Tu recommended Lunarpages and it kind of rocks, esp compared to web.com: $6.95 for 350gb storage and 500 email addresses instead of $11.95 for 5gb and 30 addresses, for example.

I did a little investigation and there's also godaddy.com (which is also only 5gb (do I really need 350gb?), but is only $3.99 a month and I can sign up for only 2 months if I want... domain name costs $8.95/year but that's still cheaper than Lunarpages.

Let me know if you use any of these...

Some personal Web sites made by journalists:
http://www.sree.net/tips/journosites.html

If you don't want to bother learning HTML or Web design, you can get someone else to do it for you (I have access to a group of young, talented folks (mostly former students) whose work is cost-effective).

Four items for you:

  1. List of journalists' personal sites (add your own)
  2. 2004 Poynter.org column on importance of building a site
  3. 2002 Poynter.org column
  4. 2003 Poynter.org column

Sites that I have helped host on Web/Interland/HostPro/Web.com (among many others!):

o o o o o

Tips for learning about making Web pages
Each Fall, I run a weekend workshop at Columbia on building a personal site. E-mail me at sree@sree.net to get the schedule for Fall 2007.

If you don't want to bother learning HTML or Web design, you can get someone else to do it for you (I have access to a group of young, talented folks (mostly former students) whose work is cost-effective).

 

Questions: sree@sree.net

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