Opinion on Leased websites

[aman.pixel]

Hi!

I am new here but read a lot of posts and found that we have a lot of good and constructive comments being posted here.

I just wanted to have your thoughts on the concept of leased websites, i.e. somebody design, develop, maintain and hosts a website for you and you pay $xx periodically. When you discontinue paying, your website is pulled off.

In my opinion this is a good option for entrepreneur, (s)he can invest less and get a web presence and when the biz grows can buy the website and own it.

[OldWelshGuy]

I have 10 year deals on domain names with an option to buy. The domain names are held by a holding company to give the lease holder protection.

Obviously I think it is a good idea, and so do my clients.

[fairestcape]

Part of the consideration is also technical expertise.

If you're a whizz with e-commerce code, or have the time to learn the variety inherent in a PHP system like Zencart, then running your own domain and webshop shouldn't be a problem.

If you're a novice, then you should consider that time you ought to be spending on marketing and promotion may be spent on technical tinkering. It may be better to have someone else look after all the technical stuff and you concentrate on doing what's necessary to generate revenue.

[MartCactus]

I think there was a similar question a few days back.

My view is that it makes sense - its no different to leasing a car, plant equipment or an office. The same reasons apply.

However, make sure you own the domain name. What you don't want is to build up traffic to the domain, print it all over your stationery, get all your customers to know you at xyzdomain.com and then find that your web designer gets an offer for it, or decides he's going to hike his prices way up.

From the web designers point of view he'd then need some kind of contract to, as the bulk of his time and hence costs are at the front end of setting up the site... so he'll need to know that you won't move the contract from him for X years - probably best agreement to keep the domain pointed at his hosting for eg 2 years. We don't do any lease agreements, but I'd want that kind of agreement to cover ourselves.