Imagine finding out that the website that you have been using for 7 years and paying on for 7 years is going to be GONE FOREVER when you move your URL to a new hosting service away from your current provider. It sounds CRAZY, but it happens everyday.
Today, I took another website order. Don't get me wrong, I love taking orders, I love developing a brand and a matching website and breathing life into this digital extension of your business. But, what I don't like is having to explain to my client that the "website" he has been "leasing" for the past 5 years is unfortunately not "mobile" or even "his".
I shake my head as another website criminal posing as savior with a "Free" or "Cheap" website that even comes with, (ya, you got it) built in SEO scams another small business owner. It's a dream that every entrepreneur wants to hear. When you are faced with creating a website for 5k-10k with SEO costing $500+ per month, this get "skinny overnight solution to rid you of your fat pill" is going to be VERY TEMPTING. It is however, the devil.
You see, this company that I speak of, they are not going to allow my client to "take his website with him". It is 'their website, built into their platform' with THEIR PROPRIETARY "system". You got scammed. Hard. Now that he wants to host, manage and control his own website, after 7 years in business, he has to start from scratch. Luckily, I offer affordable websites and will pretty much be able to duplicate what this other company was so graciously "gifting" him all these years.
I could not POSSIBLY list ALL of the companies out there doing this and making a KILLING with 1,000 members paying $150.00 per month to "lease" their own website. But this model should be avoided at all costs. You will recognize it when you see it.
There is a second scam artist on the planet that is actually worse than the previous criminals listed believe it, or not! This guy actually PURCHASES your URL for you, puts it into his OWN name and then REFUSES to give it back to you when you want your website back. This has happened in a community where I became a whistle blower