New Benefit For Members

From our webmaster, Mac McDonald:

As a benefit of membership, I am offering to help any member set up a web site for their family genealogy.  There are only a few conditions to this offer:

• The person must be a Member of the Hilda Hoffmann Memorial Archive, Inc., with dues paid for the year in which any assistance is required.
• The web site must be for the Member's family only.  The site must be non-commercial with no advertising or associate marketing links.
• The Member is responsible for any direct expenses in creating or maintaining the site.  More detail on possible expenses is provided below.
• The Member is responsible for all content posted on the site.

I will provide assistance with selecting a hosting service, selecting a 'theme' or appearance for the site, installing the software, and instructing the Member in the basic operations needed to maintain the site.  Once a site is operational, I expect the Member to add and update the content of the site, but I will continue to provide occasional assistance.

I will use WordPress as the basis for most sites.  WordPress (WP) is a free website platform that is in use by millions of sites, including this one.  There are literally thousands of free themes available to define the 'look and feel' of a site.  Many of the themes can be easily customized for a unique appearance for a personal site.

The cost of a site can be divided into two categories:  Initial Cost and Recurring Costs.

The Initial Cost of a site will generally be $30 for a license of TNG (The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding).  Although not strictly required, this is the simplest way to have a full-featured genealogy site.  If a simpler site is desired, the initial cost will probably be zero.

The Recurring Costs of a site are the costs to register a Domain Name (like mysitename.com) and a Hosting Service.

Registration of a Domain Name usually costs from $5 to $13 per year.  Common domain names like 'something.com' will be more expensive than less common ones like 'something.info'.

Hosting Service is the service that provides the disk storage and operating software for the site.  Most Hosting Services charge from $5 to $10 per month, but there is at least one genealogy Hosting Service that is free:  AncestryHost.org.  As you might expect, the capacity of a site, the tools provided, and the level of support generally vary with the cost.

So, I would expect most sites to have an initial $30 cost, plus about $13 per year recurring if using AncestryHost.org, and $100 per year for a site such as HostGator. NOTE:  I do NOT recommend GoDaddy.  They tend to 'nickel and dime' you by charging for things that are included with many other Hosting Services.

Why wouldn't you use AncestryHost.org?  Couple of reasons:

• They have some requirements that you might not agree with.  The primary restriction is that you may not post any information about any living person.  Doing so will result in the removal of your site.
• They provide limited tools for the maintenance of the site.  My favorite tool is called cPanel and they do not provide it.  They will probably not offer the level of support provided by paid services.

There you have it!  What are you waiting for?  Go to the Contact Us page and send me a message to get started!