What is the best web host?
Good hosts depend on your needs. I love Slicehost because its reliable and powerful. The downside is that it's normally done through a command line so non-developers become frustrated. Control panels can be installed on a Slicehost account though.
GoDaddy is always good hosting for a cheap price. You can also manage all your domains through them, so it's convenient. What you want is a "Virtual Dedicated Server" which is a kind of hosting plan where you can host multiple web sites on the same server. They have one plan for $30 which would be good for your needs. It features a Plesk GUI control panel so you can press buttons to get things done.
There are a bundle more hosts out there. I'll mention some really bad ones, Dreamhost, Aplus.net and Dotster.
Resume at a Glance
Resume's are long an boring and my web development and design resume is filled with various gaps, cross-stitching and denim patches. One thing I find with web developers or software developers is that there is a wide amount of skills that you may have. Some are true "Ninjas" with superior hacking abilities. Some are Cowboys who just copy code and paste it all over the place. Others are like a Buick and can generally get the web development job done with common tools. I'm probably a good example of a Buick who aspires to be a Ninja one day. Here are some of the common tools I use:
- Drupal CMS
- Joomla CMS
- Wordpress CMS
- CakePHP MVC
- Jquery
- PHP
- Photoshop
- Illustrator
- Slicehost
- Bash
- OS X
- MySQL
Things I don't fool with but would like to:
- Mobile Apps
- Objective C
- Apple Script
What Should you ask your Developer or Designer?
The sea of web designers is thick in 2009. Back in the mid-90's, you took what you could get and were often at the mercy of the person who built your site. Now competition has made the quality of work much higher. Still, there are those who charge high prices for mediocre work. When you research for a good web designer or developer, you should be asking these types of questions.
- Do you write standards compliant code? What browsers and email clients do you support?
- Will I be able to make edits? Can I build menus, make posts and add pages with easy tools?
- When is payment due? Do you require a down payment?
- Will my pages be SEO compatible. Do you offer SEO services.