WebSite Tonight 3.0 From Godaddy.com: Product Review

An Affordable and Effective Website Builder …But You'll Need Some Patience

Last December, I built my own website using WebSite Tonight 3.0 from Godaddy.com. I first heard of Godaddy.com from a book about starting a writing business. I’d already been running a writing and editing business for 2 years; now I wanted to expand the business beyond my local area, and obviously I’d need a website in order to do that. I was surprised and thrilled to discover that there was such a thing as a do-it-yourself website; I thought the only options were purchasing and learning a program like FrontPage or hiring someone to build a site for me, and I couldn’t readily afford either at the time.

The book which mentioned Godaddy.com claimed you could build a simple, attractive website for about $70; I didn’t quite believe that it could be so inexpensive. But when I checked out Godaddy.com for myself, I was astounded at how many different features they offered and how inexpensive the basics options were. Through WebSite Tonight, I could choose from among nearly 700 templates, then fill in the preset “content blocks” with copy and images. I wouldn’t have to learn HTML; I could simply type the copy in plain English.

I was sold. I bought my domain name (for 1 year), a Web-based e-mail account (also for 1 year), and my first month of the 5-page WebSite Tonight 3.0 Economy Plan, all in the same transaction. Because I bought other products at the same time, the domain name was just $2, bringing the total to about $17. The Economy Plan, which included access to the website building software as well as hosting, cost $5 per month. I would spend about $70 to have my website up-and-running for a full year, just as my writing-business book had claimed.