Colocation – What Is It And How Can It Help You?

Smaller businesses will always be somewhat at the mercy of the larger companies who can pay for their own servers and the IT experts who can make sure that they keep running. It is pointless to look to compete with these companies, but you can follow some of the steps they take and keep yourself ahead of other companies of the same size as you. One way to go about this is to use colocation – a system that allows you to benefit from greater bandwidth and customer support than would otherwise be possible.

Colocation does cost more than standard web hosting, but offers you more for the money. It costs about the same as you would pay for a business grade DSL line providing limited bandwidth, and allows you access to far more bandwidth than the DSL line. It is also a more protected supply than most others, meaning you will have less downtime, and any time you do it will either be scheduled or fixed within moments. Because the colocation facility is dedicated to providing so much bandwidth, it is set up to withstand power outages.

As a colocation customer, you do have more responsibility for your server – indeed, in many cases it is advised that you buy a standard server in a colocation facility (this will usually cost between $150 and 200), and pay a small extra cost to have it maintained by the IT team at the facility. However, if you have your own IT experts, they can attend and carry out the maintenance that is required themselves.

Hosting for blog

So you have taken that first step. You are going to jump right into the blogosphere. That magical world where everyone is a journalist. Or a citizen-journalist as they are called.

A blog is short for “weblog.” A technology that allows you to post your thoughts, ideas, images, videos, emotions, rants, raves and more with just a few clicks. Indeed it is the onslaught of the blog that has heralded the new age of Web 2.0

But, even if the software technology is new, it is still dependent on the age old hardware technology of web hosting. If only that was not the case.

Accepting reality and moving ahead let us see what is needed from a web host for hosting a blog. Well, mainly the requirements for hosting a blog are similar to those required for hosting a web site. The disk space, bandwidth, and speed will make all the difference. Naturally, price will be a consideration too.

But other than the usual, there are some special considerations for blogs. For one, the hosting provider should allow the use of databases. Additionally, it would be great if there was a script that the hosting service provided that would install the blog for you. Of course, if you are technically qualified this may not help much. But, if you are a newbie, you want to stay away from all that jazz and simply focus on reaching out to your readers.

I am one of those buyers how are very price conscious. But, before you go ahead and purchase hosting, let me point out that changing web hosts can be a pain. So, think a little beyond the deepest discount you can get and focus on building a long term relationship with your blog host.

To begin with make sure that your blog hosting provider has been around for some time. It does not have to one of the big names in hosting. But, it must have an established track record. Second, try to ask some pre-sales questions. If they cannot service you well at the pre-sales stage, it is unlikely that they will come to your rescue after you are already a client.

Finally shop around and ask for opinions. If you are setting up more than one blog, try more than one hosting provider before settling on one for the long term. Once you find what you are looking for, you will know where to host your next blog.

Getting Listed in Major Search Engines and Directories

In order to succeed in today's ultra-competitive Web hosting market, getting listed in the Internet's major search engines and directories are not an option - it's a must. On today's Internet, search portals and success go hand in hand; therefore, it's extremely important to pay a great deal of attention to them. There are typically two ways to get listed in most search engines and directories: manual or automatic submission. Like their titles imply, manual submission entails actually visiting the search engine/directory and submitting your Web site to them; automatic submissions use software to speed up the process.

But as search sites continue to develop, they are becoming increasingly wise to automatic submission programs. In the past, many have unfortunately used them to try and trick search engines through various methods that involved spamming; therefore, it is highly recommended that you manually submit your Web site to search engines whenever possible. The same line of thinking should apply when considering services that claim to submit your site to 100+ search engines at a time.

Most of these services disregard one important fact: 85 of those 100 search engines are not important, and will be responsible for little (if any) traffic directed to your site. The only way to guarantee your pages being indexed is to do it yourself. What's more, some search engines have now developed a system whereby you need to enter a "code" displayed on your computer in order to submit a site, thereby preventing submission programs from working. Altavista has been doing this for quite some time, and now limits submissions to five pages per session.

Tuning Up Your Site for Submission

Before submitting your site to any search engine or directory, you'll want to make sure that your Web site is well-optimized for the search engine spider or editor that will (hopefully) visit your Web site after submitting it to them. And ensuring your site is well-optimized begins with your site's HTML tags and site text. There are a number of HTML tags you should know if you wish to show up anywhere near the top in search engine rankings. These are the TITLE tag, the ALT tag, and the META tag series.

The TITLE Tag

This tag, which is placed at the top of every HTML document, provides a summary of what your site is about to search engine spiders. It is crucial to try to include as many search terms in the title in a relevant manner.

The ALT Tag

While this tag is not often used any in any practical manner any longer (it was originally intended to display text when an image took too long to load and a user aborted, or if there were errors on the page), it is very important to engine spiders. Most of them will index the text within an ALT tag, so use it to your advantage and enter some keywords there as well.

META Tags

META tags are placed between HEAD and BODY tags at the beginning of an HTML document to inform spiders about the content of your site. These tags are crucial to your ultimate search engine ranking; spiders try to determine what your site is about and how to categorize it in their database largely through what your META tags say.

The Various Types of META Tags

While there are many META tags in HTML, search engines are usually only concerned with the keywords tag and the description tag. The keywords tag tells search engine bots what keywords you want your site to be associated with. The description tag contains a short description of your site that is often displayed in the engine's search results. Try to keep your descriptions short, as many bots will stop reading after 50 to 100 characters (although some will read up to 1000 or so). Here's an example of how to use META tags. Let's say, for example, your site focused on offering dedicated servers: Company Name: Dedicated Web hosting packages Most search engines will then display: [your site's name] Dedicated Web hosting.. cheap! Not all search engines will recognize your META tags. Some will read your ALT tags, or the first few lines of text they encounter on your site and will index that instead. It is therefore important to ensure that the opening paragraphs of your site contain a description of what that particular page is about. Also try to avoid repetition - make sure your keyword sequences for your ALT and META tags differ.

This will make your listing more concise, increase the chances of your site receiving a higher ranking, and ensure that the bot does not think you are spamming it. Once you've established what your META data will be, make sure your Web site's text corresponds to the keywords you have chosen. It is extremely important, however, to ensure that the copy contained within your site is concise, makes sense and is well-written; otherwise, search engine spiders (and human directory editors, too) will conclude that you are trying to trick them, and drop your site from their index completely with little chance of re-instatement.

Other Important Tips

Avoid password protected pages. Search engine spiders will not follow them.

Try to avoid using clickable image maps as menus. Many search engines ignore them.

Don't send engines to pages with redirects. Many spiders will not follow them.

Be patient. Most of these engines and directories will take four to six weeks to index your site in their database. If you still don't see results after six weeks, re-submit your sites. Failing that, you can even call them or email them and find out why your site hasn't been indexed.

How To Point Your Domain Name To The Web Host

By now you should have already registered your hosting account from the previous step . This step is simply to link your domain from the domain registrar to let them know that you have a server ready to host your domain. I’ll explain in detail how you get this done below but first you’d need to look for that welcome email your hosting company sent you after they have activated your hosting account. It looks something like this

Obviously i have removed some sensitive information from it. All you need right now are the nameserver addresses which i have highlighted in the above image. There’s usually 2 nameserver addresses that web hosting companies give you. Copy them up somewhere first. Now , depending on which domain registrar you chose you will need to login to their website and look for a link to change the default nameservers currently used by your domain. Here’s a few step-by-step guides by the domain registrar companies themselves about how to change the nameservers :

Godaddy.com – http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/664/setting-nameservers-for-your-domain-names

Namecheap.com – https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/767/10/how-can-i-change-the-nameservers-for-my-domain

Dynadot.com – http://www.dynadot.com/community/help/question/set-name-servers

Their instructions are pretty straight forward and easy to understand. In case you’re stuck just hit me up and i’ll help you out  :)

After you have done this step, you’d need to wait at least a day for DNS propagation for servers worldwide to sync your website’s new address to your hosting server. It usually is alot quicker than a day but i’d say 1 day just to be sure. After propagation is complete you can go login back to your hosting account and start building your website! There’s tonnes of scripts or CMS (content management systems) which are available free of charge on the internet. They are readily available and easy to use for beginners. My personal favorite would be WordPress as it has evolved from a blogging platform to a multi-funtion CMS. It’s easy to use and do not requite any knowledge of programming or coding at all, perfect for beginners. I’d suggest you to checkout the WordPress.org platform for starters.

I talk more in depth about the platform in a seperate article how you can setup a website/blog based on the WordPress platform. As always , if you have any questions or comments do contact me through my contact link available at the sidebar of this blog.

Choosing Cheap Web Hosting

It is not always easy to choose the right web hosting. Neither of it with little experience or for the total beginner. It is after all very important to think again before the account is created, for it is very difficult to move their website. Here, I will try to provide some solid tips on what you should think about when choosing web hosting.

The first thing to do before choosing a web host is to consider what is it used to. Are you such as cough a “heavy” site that will store large quantities of photos, movies, music or other heavy files, it is important to ensure that the hosting site you use allows you to store as much as you need. For such a purpose, it is also important to ensure that the hosting site is generous with the bandwidth, i.e. the amount of data you can transfer each month. Should you instead opt for hosting a web site that require advanced features, it can not be emphasized enough how much you will thank yourself if you have checked out carefully before so that the hosting site in question actually supports the technologies required.

Another, and for many extremely important, issue is how the support works and works. In this case, it is often to get what you pay for. With it you can not of course draw all cheap web hosting over a comb – it is clear that they also can have a very good support. Often, however, so that the cheaper web hotels manage their support via email. Do you have no problem with it could still be a cheap web hosting the right choice for you. Is it instead so that you prefer to manage your support cases over the phone, it may be worth considering if it is still not much to inject a few tens of the month for a hosting company with good support to ensure your needs. A good way to evaluate support before you decides to call / email support on any issue.

In order to specify what I previously talked about in terms of the technical bits that are important to think of it is such as databases, and such, and support for php / asp. These two pillars. Beyond this, you should consider whether will need to use the techniques that Ruby on Rails, cron jobs and other more advanced features. In most cases, web hotels very clear to display if they have support for these functions. Otherwise, it will not hurt to hear of the support, and in the same turn have a chance to evaluate it!

Web Hosting Domain Names

If you own a business, either a regular brick and mortar one or an online business, making sure you have a site is an important part of any marketing plan. These days, more than ever, having a domain name and web hosting for it has become important, as most people use the Internet to look for information and phone numbers, as well as opening hours and even the merchandise you have in stock. Unfortunately getting web hosting domain names isn’t as easy as one might expect and in many cases you need a bit of technical knowledge to get everything working.

If you would only have to choose the web hosting plan of a single company, life would be easier, but these days there are dozens of well reputed hosting companies and each one has its own offer of web hosting domain names. If you want to find the best web host offer,  you should spend some time looking around for a good package, which has all the elements you need to set up a successful site. Read on to find a few tips that might help you in your search for a great hosting package.

Support and service

If you’re not technically inclined, this part is especially important. Whenever you have a problem, like with the upload of some files or with site building, you should be able to request and receive support from someone that knows his job well. A great hosting company should have customers support available 24/7. In some cases, this support will be by email but sometimes you will also get live chat, with someone that is ready to help you as soon as you have a problem. If possible, also look for the possibility to get your money back if you decide that their web hosting domain names plan isn’t suitable for your needs.

Recommended

One method of picking a good hosting company is by looking at its testimonials. Customers tend to praise their hosting company if they’re satisfied with it. In general you will find that site owners are vocal in specialized hosting forums when they don’t get quality services.

Ease Of Usage

If you’re not used with dealing with the technical aspects of owning web hosting domain names, you need a company that has tools which are easy to use, ideally with a control panel which facilitates their use. The navigation of the site should be easy to use and it should include all the needed tools. Whenever you want to do something, the location of the tool should be handy and found immediately. Also, you should know details like whether the company allows the installation of different types of scripts. In other words, you need to know the limitations of your hosting account.

Features of marketing

As you are a business after all, you should insure that the hosting company has features like mailing lists, statistics of traffic and shopping carts, among others. These options help you run your business and allow you to keep track of your clients.

When to Choose an Application Service Provider

Application Service Providers (ASPs) provide an unparalleled level of service and support for externally hosted back-end applications. They differ from conventional hosting firms since they specialize in electronic distribution of mission-critical business applications.

ASPs combine software, hardware and networking technologies to offer a service-based application as opposed to a corporate-owned, corporate-run application. These offerings include enterprise resource planning (ERP) and collaboration tools as well as mail hosting and e-commerce applications.

Under the ASP model, the service provider owns all or part of the infrastructure on which these applications reside (some ASPs partner with other service providers for some pieces of the infrastructure) and coordinates the various hardware purchases, software licensing or development, and network connections that are necessary.

Customers rent the services from the ASP on a per-user, per-month basis. ASPs share costs among many customers, allowing for a much lower cost structure than traditional solutions. The popularity of ASPs is currently on the rise since corporate managers worldwide appreciate the cost savings they generate. Why spend the time and money involved in purchasing and installing an application you know you'll outgrow in six to 12 months when you can rent it?

Instead of expanding information technology (IT) divisions to build and maintain new business systems, many corporations now entirely outsource their new application requirements to ASPs. These providers bear the burden of building, implementing and distributing customized applications, mainly databases, to internal and external corporate audiences.

The ASP model thus substantially reduces many of the tasks associated with maintaining traditional client-server applications. Generally, the application vendor will handle all application deployment and system maintenance tasks, including backup and recovery, upgrades, network management, and user additions and deletions.

The most popular ASP solutions being adopted today include solutions for human resources payroll and benefits management. ASPs also have thrived by offering existing corporate collaborative software such as Microsoft Exchange, Project and the Office productivity suite.

ASPs hence differ from conventional Web hosting outfits since they offer integrated, proprietary platforms rather than base Internet services. The professional solutions they provide are not a hodge-podge of assorted Internet services and protocols. They are a highly developed, applications that are backed up by the broadest bandwidth and customer care systems available.

Because ASPs employ professional staff to develop state-of-the-art software and networking facilities, employing their services can become expensive.

Most ASPs charge their premier corporate clients hundreds if not thousands of dollars per month. The cost for application development is usually determined on a per diem basis, but is usually as costly.

Application Service Providers are therefore the most serious of Internet Presence Providers (IPPs), and should only be considered by enterprises needing to integrate and rationalize their IT operations.

Why Corporate Blogs Are Seen As The Quintessential Marketing Strategy!

Traditionally, companies had personal relationships with their customers, but this gave way to cold and impersonal management information systems. In the last few years, with the growing competition, decreasing customer interaction and changing customer attitudes, businesses have begun to realize the importance of restoring a human face to their companies.

This is precisely the reason why so many companies these days establish an online presence. Out of all the marketing strategies available for businesses, blogging is being claimed as a paradigm shift in the way companies connect to existing as well as future customers. A cover story on an issue of BusinessWeek as far back as 2005 reads, “Blogs will change your business.”

Corporate blogs are created by companies to meet their goals and marketing objectives in the most efficient manner possible.  Blogs allow the initiation of an ongoing and honest communication with the market, thus getting the customers involved and creating trust. The company enters into a conversation with an unlimited audience openly, in full view of everyone including its competitors.  Companies can fulfill customer needs as opposed to hard selling, which is an indirect way of turning them into customers.

Corporate blogs are usually of two types: Internal and external.  While internal blogs are those that are generally used by the employees to improve employee participation and discussion; external blogs are places where the company representatives post content and share their views with their audience.

Let’s look at what external corporate blogs offer companies:

Open Forum for Public Criticism

There are many corporate blogs that have high numbers of subscribers. For example, the official Google blog is among the top blogs worldwide.  Corporate blogs provide a platform for people to discuss, applaud or criticize anything related to the company openly.  This open nature of blogs gives visitors a secure feeling that there is no hidden agenda and they get what they see.  Over a period of time, this builds trust and increases the number of potential customers.

Window to Company Culture and Policies

Although, a corporate blog tries to accomplish the same goals as press releases do, this is done in the most informal manner.  This informal nature of the blogs allows companies to reveal the company culture and any changes in policies through their posts which are read by everyone that visits their blog.  These messages also spread through word-of-mouth or through back linking which is an integral part of blogging, and ensures company news reaches far.

Best Business Web Hosting For Small Business

Hi, Welcome to Businesswebhostingreview.com. My name is Jay Ho, I am an internet entrepreneur and an SEO expert. I am the owner of Reliable DC SEO, it is a search engine optimization company in Washington DC and it is currently ranking #1 for “DC SEO” on the Google search engine. I have 8 years of online experience and I own over 500 web properties including E-commerce store, small business websites and many blogs.  I have also built over 50 websites on my own. So you can say that I am an expert when it comes to web hosting and SEO.

Whether you host one website, or 100 websites, find a reliable website hosting company is crucial, especially when you are hosting your business website. From my SEO business, I often have clients come to me for web design or re-design, I have constantly educated my clients on different web hosting services and website hosting companies. Instead of repeating the same information to each client, I have decided to create this website to provide transparent and useful information from my personal experience. 

Hostmonster Review & Hostmonster Uptime Statistic In Real Time

Introduction to Hostmonster Web Hosting

Hostmonster.com is the web hosting company that offers web hosting plan at very affordable price and with great quality. Hostmonster web hosting plan is now price at $5.95 per month, very affordable price for a cpanel hosting plan. They are cheaper in price if compare to hostgator $7.95 or bluehost $6.95 hosting plan. Indeed, hostmonster is hosting partner of bluehost, they are the same hosting company. Hostmonster is the cheaper brand and came as the more affordable solution compare to bluehost.

Hostmonster Web Hosting Reviews

With our many years of web hosting experience with hostmonster, we really like this web hosting company. We would like to title them as the most affordable cpanel hosting plan at the highest quality. They hit the right spot in between price and quality, good balance in both world, and great value for the customers.

For the small price to pay, $5.95 per month, this hostmonster web hosting plan is with everything we every need.

unlimited storage & bandwidth
unlimited domains hosting
free domain name included
fast web hosting server & good response time
cpanel with Simplescripts installer
free website builder
Hostmonster Uptime Statistic and Review
Our hostmonster web hosting account has been monitored for many years, we are tracking their server uptime downtime and recording every events in detail. Off course, we are monitoring the website hosted and not the hostmonster.com website (as others did). Our uptime statistic is more accurate and represent our website uptime over the internet, the customer website uptime.

Best Features of Cheap Web Hosting

What features should you cheap web hosting company offer you?

Here are features of great web hosting.

When building websites there are many different techniques to use. In many cases, require them to your web host has a specific support for this. There is nothing you can count on there, but must in any case, check. Generally, this is not more difficult than to surf into our web site and check in the technical specifications, but in some cases may be required of you that you actually send an email to the company in question, or that you simply call them. It gives you a chance to try on the support to live up to your expectations. Below, I will try to guide you to how the additional features that you might be in need of.

PHP / ASP

Support for PHP and ASP has become an almost standard that web hotels offer. Usually offers webhost support for both languages, but in separate packages. Therefore, you must examine the language you will need and then be careful to choose the correct package from the outset.

MySQL / Microsoft Access databases

Is support for the above programming languages are often also support the respective database.

Cronjobs

To be able to schedule when a script to run (eg to clear away rubbish on the server or to do other heavy work) requires that your web host supports it. Do you have plans to use the it, you must also make sure that it is your web hosting.

Framework and other programming languages

You probably will sooner or later have a need for any additional programming or any framework to program in, or you already need. In the first case, it is smart to check it out so that there is support for so many different technologies as possible at no extra cost when you choose web hosting. In other cases – was the attention so you will not be disappointed in the post!

Start to make money online

The first article published today,I have access to the Internet has been a long time, I have been working on building networks. However, never use the Internet to earn money.
Last year, I quit my job, this is the third resignation. The reason is that I move to another city, the family is very important to me. Because the last job are very well on a time and pay,the city that i live now is very bad work environment. This makes me very depressed.

In many cases understanding, I decided to start walking the road of making money online. I know it is very difficult and some boring, but fortunately , I am not very fond of noise. I think I will stick to it. Here I would like to make some of their knowledge and learn the way through to the experience and I have the same friends.I would like to express some of my growing up here,and also want to have some friends that who agree with me.

My principles:

Learning is not necessarily successful, do not study will not be able to succeed.
Do not wait for opportunities, and to create opportunities.
Integrity is my biggest capital.
Sometimes the world is cold, I would like to heating with you.

Internet Marketing: Promoting Your website

The small business solution to promoting your site.

You’ve decided to open a business and planned out your Web site, even contacting a professional Web hosting company to handle everything. But now comes the part where you have to market yourself online. After all, how is anyone going to know the site is there if you don’t tell them about it?

But not everyone has an abundance of money to spend on advertising. Some companies are looking for ways to keep the bill low, but at the same time, effectively let others know that there is something new for them to consider. So what is the best way to market the site? Surprisingly, there are more ways than one:

Make Every Contact Count... Try Constant Contact1) Search engine submission is a good idea. There are so many of them out there now and it is a great way to gain exposure. Although search engine submission is simple, it can be time consuming, so be prepared. When registering with these engines, it is important that the site is running on the server of a professional Web hosting company, because search engines generally view free servers negatively.

2) Some will even claim that direct marketing is a good way of promoting a site and that a catchy subject line is the answer. New businesses should be weary of sending out too many e-mails of this type, for risk of being branded as a spammer. The best solution is to start your own mailing list, asking customers if they would like to receive information when it is available. A good way to get around this is to create a newsletter and have clients opt-in – thereby asking to receive the information. Constant Contact is a software solution that enables small businesses to grow their business from their customers and prospects (permission based list) with targeted, professional looking email communications. It is a web based solution, designed specifically for small businesses and is easy to use, affordable and takes no technical expertise. Click here free Trial Email Marketing.

3) Another great way of promoting your website is to advertise in e-zines (electronic magazines) because they reach a specific audience. By trading ads with other e-zines, it is a great way to get the message out there without having to spend a fortune. They are also beneficial because they position the business as a leader in the industry and build on customer loyalty. What a great reason to start your own!

4) Exchanging links with other companies (obviously not ones promoting the same product/service) can be a great way to bring more traffic to your site. In fact, some companies have achieved a million hits per month within 90 days of placing a link on another site. But even if this doesn’t prove effective, it will allow you to have the URL on more pages throughout the Web. When search engine spiders crawl the Web looking for information, the fact that your URL is on all of these pages will move the page up in rankings.

5) Join a news group and make sure to give your two cents. When promoting your website, be sure to include a signature at the end of each posting (no more than six to eight lines) stating the product and e-mail/Web address for the company. Each time a posting is put up, literally hundreds of people see the ad. If more information is needed, customers now have the means to find it. Even if they visit the site out of curiosity, word of mouth is the best advertising there is (and the least expensive).

6) Give things away for free – free articles to other sites or in magazines, free services that are needed in the market, free downloads, links to specific information or downloadable software.

7) Banner ads are still an effective method as they have been throughout the last few years. Banner exchanges can be a good idea, but a more successful approach is to place them on targeted Web sites. The only downside with banner ads, however is that they can become quite expensive, so make sure that you have good placement and that you’ve done your research to ensure the site reaches a specific audience.

8) Finally, if something new is coming out from the business, make sure to send out a press release. Although it can take time to write one, there are many free press release distribution services. Although some charge a fee, if it means of promoting your website, it might be a good idea.

Web Hosting For New Web Site – 3 Things to Know

Those of you who are looking to create a website for the first time are likely to have a lot of questions.  From your research it is likely that you have found that you will be needing web hosting and a domain name for your site. As a professional web hosting review expert there are three things that I think all new webmasters should understand about web hosting:

#1 – MOST EXPENSIVE DOES NOT EQUAL BEST BUT FREE IS BAD!

This is the best tip that I can offer to new webmasters.  There are a lot of web hosting providers out there that claim to offer “free” web hosting but in reality nothing good comes free.  The owners of these “free web hosting” sites have a desire to make money so they are forced to turn to different methods.   With free web hosting accounts you sit yourself up for spam and constant requests to upgrade to a paid subscription.  Free accounts also will place banner ads on your site, limit the amount of disk space you will get, and will give you a long domain name that no one will ever remember.  FREE web hosting is BAD web hosting and to this day I have yet to find a free web hosting provider that can offer the same quality support that a paid host can offer.

With this all be said it is also important to remember that you should not be paying too much for hosting.  Some well known web hosting providers like Godaddy want to charge you in excess of $8.95 a month for web hosting and then want to turn around and charge you even more for a domain name.  I would caution you from choosing a host like this because they do not provide the same quality service that other hosts can offer.  I would highly recommend choosing a host like Hostmonster or Bluehost because they can offer you unlimited bandwidth, disk space, and a free domain name for life for only $3.95 a month!

#2 – MAKE SURE YOU CAN GET 24/7 CUSTOMER SUPPORT

One thing that many people over look is the availability of customer support at all hours of the night.  This may now seem important to you now; however, if you depend on your website for money or promotion having no support at 2am could prove to be a problem in the future.   I would always recommend making sure the host offers 24/7 support before signing up.

#3 – SEARCH FOR DISCOUNT CODES

In this bad economy I would suggest that you look around every corner for savings and web hosting can be no exception.  If you are going to sign up for web hosting I would highly suggest that you do a little research by looking at the latest web hosting coupon codes.  For example, anyone who directly visits Hostmonster or Bluehost will be forced to pay their normal rate of $6.95 a month; however, by clicking on one of our exclusive banners below you can get the exact same hosting for $3.95 a month which is the best rate that they offer hosting.

* We personally suggest that you choose Hostmonster or Bluehost so be sure to click on one of the banners below to get the exclusive discounts:

Professional Web Hosting

Professional web hosting usually works well both for businesses and for personal purposes. We’re talking here about shared hosting accounts in many cases, as not every business needs a dedicated server to run their site, especially not in the beginning when the number of clients is small. The difference in the quality of hosting that you need appears later, when you have many potential clients visiting your site and their number threatens to bring your site down. With professional web hosting you usually get a dedicated IP address, which is recommended for SEO purposes. If you have a shared IP, you risk sharing it with a spam site, and that would damage your credibility.

Besides a dedicated IP, a professional web hosting package should also come with a great uptime record. Ideally, the hosting plan should also come with the option to add as many databases, email accounts and domains as you need.

When you’re looking for a company and you take their support in consideration, you shouldn’t expect them to walk you through every single step when you have a problem. Obviously, they need to help you when it’s a hosting related issue, but they can’t help you if it’s a problem that is caused by your site and not by their server. Most sites should work just fine as long as they’re not very complicated, but whenever you go past the basics, you risk that something will go wrong. Even though they can’t fix all your problems, a good support will go the extra mile and help you even in situations when it’s not their responsibility.

Professional web hosting will be all the things I just mentioned. It will be reliable, it will be oriented towards the customer and it will offer you everything you need at an acceptable price.

What to Look For in Website Hosting

If you intend to publish a website on the internet, it is essential that you select an appropriate hosting service. These service providers  store your site’s files in their database and they would distribute it live online.However,  If you publish a website  you shouldn’t simply opt for the first hosting company you find or even the first one to be suggested to you. There are certainly a number of factors that you need to take into account.

Options

Every business which offers web hosting has several customized packages for you to select from. Each plan will have a unique selection of functions and benefits. When you are looking to host a website, you will want to evaluate these plans carefully. Which one provides  more value for your investment? Which one is appropriate for your website? Examine each plan from each company side by side. Some of them may appear inexpensive initially but in the long term, you may find that you spend more with this program when compared to others. This is because companies commonly charge less when you select a plan of 2 years or more. If you intend to be online for the long term, choose a plan which will offer you  significant discounts.

In choosing your web hosting plan, you should also take into account the storage space which will be provided to you. Some programs offer unlimited file space which is ideal for websites that contain many large files such as music, videos and photos. However, if your online site would consist primarily of text, then  limited storage space may be adequate.

Features

Another key factor when you put up a website is the features of the hosting company. Some of them may make available a number of software and free gifts that you may not really need while some may provide just a few functions but these might be the most beneficial for you and your site. One excellent feature for instance is the C-Panel. This will enable even non-programmers to successfully upload a website. It is a simple user interface that permits you to manage the backoffice of your site very easily.

Customer Support

Finally but absolutely of high importance; look for a hosting company with a reputation for good customer service. This will enable you to deal with any and all issues successfully. As a  case in point, if your site abruptly goes offline and you cannot access it, you can contact contact their customer service for prompt assistance.Good customer support is also essential for individuals who don’t have a lot of technical experience so that they can get help with questions and with tasks they are unable to complete on your own.

If You Build It: An Ebook Portal

Did you know that you could resell ebooks that others have published? Did you know that you could often sell the work for less than the original author? Did you know you don’t have to know how to write to start an ebook business?

In an agreement that is very similar to that of an affiliate you can retain the rights to resell a wide selection of ebooks that can produce several hundred dollars in net profit each month. I suppose what makes this venture popular with home-based businesses is that the hands-free nature of the business can allow them to work on other business projects while residual income is produced through ebook sales.

The benefit of reselling ebooks has to do with the ability to provide a selection of titles that appeal to a wide range of consumers. In some scenarios you can sell a personal ebook if you have one, but the primary sales will be through the reselling of other titles.

Why would authors allow you to resell their work when it’s already for sale on the web?

The reasoning has everything to do with marketing and visibility. Essentially you become a part of the sales force for the book – one more store in a chain selling the ebook. By creating additional websites that make the book available the hope is the volume of ebook downloads will allow the ebook to provide increased revenue for all involved.

It is likely an ebook reselling business will not provide enough revenue to make it a viable stand-alone business, but it can provide a significant residual income that can reduce the overall burden of a home-based business startup.

Ebook reselling is one of the few examples of a home-based business that requires very little maintenance while continuing to allow for potential income even when you are away from the office. The automated shopping cart process and file download can all be managed without your direct involvement.

The overall dynamic of ebook sales is a potential boon to the publishing industry because it provides proof that a new distribution method is not only possible, it is also valued and a cost effective alternative. The end result is a quick start up for authors, publishers, and home-based businesses. For the consumer, immediate access to these ebooks from any location on the globe is a benefit traditional publishers can not always promise.

The many benefits of reselling ebooks make it a home-based business worth looking into as a supplement to an existing job or as a sideline for an existing entrepreneurial effort.

The Reason Behind The Popularity Of cPanel!

When looking for web hosting, one of the first things we come across is cPanel (control panel).  But what exactly is this cPanel and what does it offer?

cPanel is a powerful client control panel that affords you a lot of control over your website. It offers fully automated point-and-click hosting platform. You can manage your web hosting account using a web interface and not a console. You will be able to set up your website via cPanel and accomplish tasks much faster even if you are a novice.

There are a million things that can be done through cPanel, such as managing a sub domain name to adding an email address.  cPanel has conquered the market and every webmaster vouches by it.  It as it makes life easier by replacing tedious tasks by web interfaces and offering multiple levels of security, flexibility and ease of use.

The Most Important Features of cPanel:

Email: You will be able to do several different tasks with email, including creating email accounts, forwarding mails, removing mail accounts etc.  Setting up auto responder emails is a breeze. You can manage multiple websites creating individual emails for each website, which is what every professional webmaster does. For example, if your website is alreadyhosting.com, you can create an email – “support@alreadyhosting.com”.

The web-based interface of cPanel allows you to check mail from any web browser and any computer. The best part is that all your websites and email accounts can be managed from a single screen.

Email forwarding can be set up, and this allows users to have an address at one domain and forward incoming mails to another domain. cPanel offers mailing lists and a spam filtering system that detects spam in emails.

Domains: With cPanel hosting, you can add and manage sub domains, add-on domains and parked domains.  The domain management interface is simple and easy to use, and comes equipped with the option to set up redirects among the domains owned by the user. Even new users find it easy to learn and manage multiple domain types.

Databases: You no longer need to fear about the creation of databases. With cPanel, it takes just a few simple steps to create a database and a user for the database.  You don’t have to be an expert with databases to set privileges and modify access restrictions for MySQL and MSSQL.

Website backups: Every website needs a backup in case of a problem. You will need to ensure you back up all the files and databases that your website is composed of, if you want the website to be exactly the way it has been after restoration. With cPanel, data backups are a child’s play. The interface helps webmasters manage and get backups for their entire account.

Fantastico: The advantage with using cPanel is that it often comes with Fantastico, which is a program that makes installing discussion forums or blogs extremely easy. It is even used by professionals who set up blogs or websites for others.

Security: cPanel’s virus protection helps you can scan files for viruses easily.  Webmasters can protect their website content and bandwidth from abuse, by not allowing other websites from using their bandwidth or gaining access to the restricted areas of their website. cPanel also provides IP deny, SSL Manager and hotlink protection.

Languages: One of the attractions of cPanel includes the ability to use it in different languages.  Many webmasters with websites in other languages like Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Japanese, French and a host of other languages favor cPanel because of this facility.

Traffic Stats: Once a website is created, the next step is search engine optimization. For webmasters, assessing the results of optimization begin with monitoring the website traffic and retrieving maximum information pertaining to the traffic. cPanel fulfils this need by providing a variety of traffic stats.  It also creates error logs of problems faced by the visitors, tracks bandwidth usage etc.

Most web hosting companies offer cPanel as a standard.  It is great even for hosting resellers as it comes with several levels of administrative access; including reseller level, server-root level and end user level access. This and a whole lot more make cPanel the most popular control panel of choice today, used by both professional and amateur webmasters.

Meet the Joomla CMS

Website development has come a long way as the available tools are more comprehensive and powerful than ever before. One of the most influential tools webmasters and developers use today is an amazing piece of software known as Joomla. Joomla is an open-source CMS (content management system) used to build and manage websites. This software towers over traditional site builders by allowing you to publish articles, incorporate blogs and implement other content that enables functionality your visitors are sure to enjoy.

Joomla for Dynamic Sites

One of Joomla’s greatest attributes is its ability to easily create dynamic web pages. A dynamic web page is one that uses a database to store information and allows users to interact. With Joomla, you can create content on a single web page and the software will automatically apply the changes to every other page on your site. All you have to do is write your text and this highly functional CMS does the rest, automatically serving up content to your visitors based on their needs. Because Joomla is primarily used to create data driven websites, it requires a back-end database such as MySQL or MS SQL in order to function.

Managing a Joomla Website

The primary goal of Joomla is to simplify content management, something that can be a grueling undertaking for a large website that requires frequent updates. This CMS enables easy management via any standard web browser. After logging into the Joomla administrative area, you can write articles, manage your website users, install themes and access all the vital features that come along with the software. This can all be done without having knowledge of complex server-side scripting technologies or even simple client-side languages such as HTML. Though not required, having a basic knowledge of programming dramatically enhances the functionality of Joomla.

Extending Joomla

Another Joomla quality is the power it grants to instantly enhance the presentation and functionality of your website. This is made possible by a variety of themes and plugins. While the system comes with a few generic templates and functions by default, there are numerous add-ons that are widely and freely available. These extensions allow you to customize your comment section, create comprehensive site maps, implement advertising campaigns and much more. True Joomla fans will agree that this system hasn’t been truly unleashed until making the best of the available extensions.

How to Get Your Hands on Joomla

As I mentioned before, Joomla is an open-source software application that can be freely distributed and modified. If you want to experience this dynamic CMS for yourself, you will need a web hosting provider that supports it. Many hosts offer one-click Joomla installations via popular control panels such as Plesk and cPanel. Those who don’t offer the software will typically allow you to install it onto their server. If you feel uncomfortable installing the software, rest assured that Joomla has a large user community and getting the support you need is relatively easy. After you get the hang of it, you will understand why this award-winning software is the most talked about on the open-source CMS market.

Are you ready to Joomla? Check out WebHostingPad and get free one-click installations of Joomla and many other popular content management systems.

Gate Hosting Review

Whether you are in for a blog, an eCommerce site or just an online presence, Gate hosting solutions has what you need to get setup – fast. From $4.98 (initial 3 months offer) you get a very decent hosting package which includes free setup, unlimited disk space, bandwidth, databases, email accounts and even Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint service. The Exchange and SharePoint service is something we have not seen on offer with other mainstream hosting providers.

If you are after dedicated hosting, Gate.com has one of the best value dedicated servers for a fraction of price of their competitors. For a mere $69 a month you can get your very own hosted server with 2.0Ghz, 160GB Hard drive, 2000GB data transfer among other goodies. Both Linux and Windows hosting packages are on offer, with the Windows option for $10 extra.

Web Hosting and Top Level Domains

What is a dedicated server hosting online? Is this for legitimate businesses and professional users? Here you get the asnwer…

If your website and your website means much of your income, your career, or for other reasons is very important for you as it is very likely that you should choose a dedicated server.

If you do not already have a dedicated server, perhaps you may want to go to the procurement of a dedicated server. Be prepared that it costs more than the cheapest web hosting solutions, but it should be a reasonable price for most people who take their site seriously.

What is a dedicated server?

Most web hosting companies can collect accounts on a shared server, it means that your website is stored along with hundreds or even thousands of other customers – and the risk of virus attacks, hacking, Stealing of personal data and your source is present.

With a shared server, which is the most common solution for many (though ignorant) hosting customers, is a risky solution. If you are serious, you should choose a dedicated server, even if the price for this is a little more.

You have to essentially share the total hard disk space and bandwidth with many others. This is not the best option for a host, and can we have mentioned above lead to many problems.

On a dedicated server is all the space on your server only, and there are no other sites that uses the same computer. The server is dedicated completely to you and your company. Choosing a dedicated server is almost always the best option if you are willing to pay extra for it.
The advantages of a dedicated server

The advantages of a dedicated server are many, these include:

Server with increased security: A dedicated server provides extra security for your site enormously. There is no other webmasters using the same workspace, and simple errors or user errors that can occur on a shared solution, often referred to as the “shared hosting”, will simply no longer exists on a dedicated server.

Storage – it is much more of! All of the dedicated server account, dedicated to a single customer, and it is enormously more storage space available to use at home, photos, files and functions.

Bandwidth – As with storage, it is much more bandwidth available for data transfer. Traffic to the site will no longer compete with the traffic to other sites, and this greatly reduces bottlenecks and server response time.

Control Panel – Having your own server provides several options for control. If you share a server, it means that you only have limited control over the server’s properties and functions, but with a dedicated server, you can get almost complete control over the features and applications.

Software options – Dedicated servers can also allow a wider range of software and scripts, which often only allowed in limited scope for a shared server. The server has greater storage capacity for this information, and it is not necessary to adjust the encoding functions or with other users on the same machine.
Disadvantages of a dedicated server

Five Tips to Choose the Best Domain Name For Your Business

Domain name registration is one of the basic equipment to set up an online business. My domain name is the true identity of the network, through which users and search engines to identify you. It ‘s always advisable to take time before the conclusion of a domain name if the site is for personal use or for your company, its name is something you should consider carefully. The following tips will help you make the right choice when it comes to getting a domain name is registered on your site. · The shortlisted companies for the registration of the domain name you think best suits your needs in terms of credibility and service. Finally, choose a company that offers the best value and flexibility in packaging.

· Web users find it difficult to remember a long or complicated web address. You should always try and keep your domain name short and easy to remember. It will help in getting your users back and also enhancing your brand recall value.

· Try and incorporate your most important keywords in your domain name. It will make it easier for search engines to find your website and you will also get a good opportunity to improve your rankings on search engine result pages.

· Once you are sure of the name that you want for your website, don’t delay the actual registration process. Even if your site is under construction, there is no harm in getting the domain name of your choice registered at the earliest. With so much competition all around, you never know whether you will get the chance the next time. Also, get the domain name registered for a long period of time, unless you have some major changes planned for your business. One might argue that one year registrations are cheaper; but, in the end, renewals end up costing you more.

· When it comes to choosing an extension, it is best to go for the most obvious choice -.com. It might be the most expensive, but it surely is the easiest thing for your users to connect to and remember about your web business.

Editor's Review of FastDomain

FastDomain just recently found itself into our top 10 web hosting sites. Offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth for only $6.95 a month! I have been researching this host for quite a while and have found that many customers have been pleased with FastDomain's support.

I have yet to find a coupon code for FastDomain; however, if I do there is a good likely hood that this web host will find itself rising in our ranks. This host offers everything the larger hosting companies offer but the pricing is slightly higher than its competitors. I like to describe FastDomain as, "The Little Web Host That Could."

Editor's Review of HostPapa

HostPapa is the only web host in our top ten that offers 100% Green Energy Web Hosting, which I find very interesting. For only $4.95 customers can enjoy unlimited disk space, domain hosting, and bandwidth. 

The server speeds at HostPapa have proven to be relatively fast with only a few exceptions. HostPapa has a very promising future and is a must look before purchasing your next hosting plan.

Register Domains

These days, owning a blog or a site is becoming a must for anyone that is looking to have an online presence. Whatever you might be looking for, from a personal place to express yourself to a place where you can do business, you need to register domains to be able to do that. Having an online presence is the easiest it has ever been, as the means to do so are either very cheap or free. One of the few costs that you need to consider is the registration of domains, which in most cases need to be paid on a yearly basis. Knowing how to register domains isn’t something difficult, but it’s still something that you need to learn how to do.

This domain name that you register will be your address online. In order to reach your blog, people will have to type the name, so they will need to remember it. Before you start thinking about getting a hosting package, you should look for a domain name, as you can’t have the hosting without the domain. After you registered your domain name, you can start looking for hosting, so you can keep your site somewhere. After you have both the domain name and your hosting package set up, you can start thinking about installing a blog or a site, depending on your needs.

The domain name that you register should be original and unique. Many of these domains are already taken, so you might have to check a number of domains before you find one that isn’t registered. Ideally, you should choose a domain name that is short and memorable, so that people can easily recall the address when they want to visit your site. Picking a domain to register shouldn’t be done with haste, as it’s something that you will have to use for years to come.

WHAT A SEARCH ENGINE IS AND DOES

Having your website up and running is really only a beginning. The next and probably most important step is to start driving traffic to your website. For your website to be truly effective, you will most likely want hundreds if not thousands of unique visitors every day. And as Search Engines play a vital role in this, its important to have a good grasp of what they are and how you can work with them.

THE PURPOSE OF A SEARCH ENGINE

When you go to a website like Google and type a word or phrase into the search engine, you probably are hoping to find results which are:

Relevant
Good Quality
Useful
Varied
Imagine if you went to a search engine and typed in “dog collars,” but then got results such as the following:

Websites about coffee cups

Pages written in unclear English with bad grammar, difficult to read, and uninformative.
The same website appearing over and over in the top 10 positions, instead of a variety of different websites with information on dog collars

Or, even worse yet, pages of incoherent gibberish which simply have the word “dog collars” repeated over and over in their text.

You would probably feel that search engine was not very useful, and you wouldn’t use that search engine again. You would look for a better one.

Those who program search engines and who write their algorithms are aware of this fact. They want their seach engines to provide results which are as useful, relevant, and high-quality as possible. This will make people want to use those search engines more.

On the other side of the coin, there are people who work against the search engines.

How and why would they do that?

Well, usually these are people who own websites. They want their websites to rank well in the search engines, but they don’t want to work too hard to get them there. So they try to short-cut the system and cheat their way to the top.

Its okay to practice SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in order to try to get to the top. But that includes building high-quality and useful websites which will provide useful and relevant information to the people who are searching for information online. When webmasters try to trick the search engines into giving them a higher ranking or more traffic than they deserve, this is called “black hat SEO.”

In an effort to combat black-hat SEO and to maintain the integrity of their search results, search engines (or, the people who program them, that is) are continually modifying and improving their algorithms. Every time someone comes up with a new trick they can use to get around the algorithms, the search engine companies come out with a new algorithm in response – and so it goes.

Search engines algorithms are kept a secret, in order to make it harder for people to try to shortcut them. Therefore, Search Engine Pptimization is an interesting field. It is an area of constant change, some mystery, and lots of room for opinion.

At the same time, there are many key basic facts that you can learn and apply, successfully and ethically, in order to get more relevant traffic to a website or websites. And most importantly, keep in mind what the purpose of a search engine is – so that you can work with it, and not against it. Good website content and good SEO go hand-in-hand. Together they are a highly powerful combination. One without the other is not.

UK2.net Hosting Review

UK2 has been providing web hosting services since 1998. They are one of the biggest and fastest growing web hosting companies in the UK. The company is also an accredited ICANN registrar for .com, .net, .org and other domain names extensions. Some of major UK2 recent improvements includes, a new UK based call centre, 27/7 live online support to cater for both new web learners and savvy developers.

The company offers a wide range of web hosting plans; Web Hosting (cheapest), e-Commerce, Reseller Hosting and Dedicated Servers. There are also new plans such as Business which starts at £6.95 ($11.30) and comes with the possibility to host unlimited number of websites, 100 GB of storage, 1000 GB f monthly traffic, £30 Google AdWords credit, unlimited MySQL databases and a dedicated IP address. More details are available from UK2 website.

1&1 Hosting Review

1&1 or 1and1 Hosting has started as a communications company and went public. Since than it’s been forming partnerships with some of the largest companies in the world, such as Google, Plesk, Symantec and HP/Compaq. It has invested around £15 (aprox $24m) on it data center infrastructure to supported it reliability and innovation initiative. 1&1 current customer base has reached 8 millions and it’s growing every day.

1&1 web hosting plans starts from as little as £1.99 ($3) per month for a typical 8 pages website to £24.99 ($40) for the 1&1 Professional plan intended for Web Developers.. There is also MyBusiness Site plan which is intended as plug and play for business needing online presence with ready templates, tools…etc.

Knowing What Hosting You Need

The most basic website that you run into on the Internet is still being hosted by a company. Whether it be free web hosting, shared hosting or a dedicated hosting server, the website is being stored and shown to you when you access it via the web address. If you are looking to get web hosting for yourself or business, do you know what type of hosting you should be going with? The best thing about any host that you choose, upgrading to the next tier is usually a situation that does not take very much work from your end. No matter what service you go with, the end result is the same, a place to host your website so your visitors can find it online.

Other Hosting Options

Free web hosting is an option of course. In fact, if you are not sure where to get started, maybe signing up for a free web host is a great place to start. You are going to be able to create a homepage or a few pages for your small business, but that is about it. It might be just enough to get your website off the ground, allowing you to upgrade in the future if needed. The bad side of free web hosting is the lack of security, support and features that allow you to build your site with. Everyone agrees that if you want to create your own place on the Internet that is going to be noticed, the upgrade to paid web hosting is the first step.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting plans are usually offered by paid web hosts and that is where your website is sharing server space with others. Many times the cost of the service plan is very low and that is why it is one of the most popular options, but there are downfalls as well. If your site is running perfectly, but another site takes down the server, your website will be going down with it. This can cost you money and it is something you cannot control. The features and support, however, are much better with a paid web host compared to a free web host. If you feel the need to have a server all to yourself, a dedicate web host server is what you need to look into.

Dedicated Web Hosting

Dedicated web hosts offer you a place of your own, without distractions from other websites because you are the only one on the server. The costs are typically much higher, but the upgrade might be worth it if you have income that is relying on the fact that your website is up and running. Dedicated web hosting is for those that are familiar with web hosting and can be nearly impossible to learn without any experience. One advantage is that you will not have to manage the server as it is typically handled by the company you are renting it from.

All of these options work for any website, but it is up to you to decide which one is going to work best for your company and website.

Web Hosting Terms

When the client connects to the server in passive mode establishes control connection as usual. But for the data connection the client requests the server to open a port that the client can then connect to. The server waits passively for the client, hence the name.

NAT

NAT is a common technique (used in most “broadband routers”) to share a single Internet connection and therefore an IP for multiple computers. NAT means that the addresses in the internal network are translated to addresses in the public (internet). The technology is based on the different ports linking with internal addresses. Such a solution can not be active FTP because the server connects to a port that is not paired with an internal address.

Firewalls

although firewall configuration easier with passive FTP. It is sufficient to allow all traffic initiated from its own network.

Detailed Description

To learn more, see a detailed description of active and passive ftp in the article below.

10 Steps To A Top 10 Website – Day 1

We’re starting off a new series called 10 Steps To A Top 10 Blog. Each week we will have a new post on how to setup a great blog or website.

First off, what will your website be about? Will it be a blog, portfolio or forum? Depending on what you choose, you will need a suitable domain name as well. Branding is everything, so pick a good domain. It should be memorable, roll off the tongue, and a .com if possible.

Once you have a good idea, start brainstorming different words related to it for your domain. Come up with as many names as you can, because often many domains will already be registered. Once you’ve come up with your names, head over to DomainTools.com to make sure it is not taken. Now you might want to ask around and see what other people think of the name to get some second opinions.

When you’re sure you’ve got the right one, you will want to register it along with hosting. HostGator is the recommended host. Use the coupon code “GREEN” to save money when you are registering.

Dedicated Server: Managed or Unmanaged?

Hopefully, your website will become so popular that both traffic and money roll in at a steady rate. When you start to get too much traffic though, it is probably time to move on from that shared web hosting platform as the server will not be able to keep up with your demands. The simple solution - a dedicated server. Before heading out to look for web hosts, it is important to know that you essentially have two options for a dedicated server - unmanaged and managed.

Unmanaged Dedicated Web Hosting

Unmanaged hosting pretty much describes a dedicated server in its rawest form. For example, you get the hardware, the resources that come along with it, and an internet connection. The web host houses the equipment in their data facility and keeps it physically secure. Other than that, you’re on your own. With remote access, it is up to you to make sure the server stays functioning and fresh with the necessary updates. You are responsible for all the server administrative tasks, meaning you need to have a special set of skills to thrive in this environment. If you don’t know how to work with complex server software or have a knowledgeable IT staff that does, getting the most out of dedicated hosting will be nearly impossible. Along with all the power and flexibility you get comes a lot of complexity and responsibility some people just can’t handle.

Managed Web Hosting

Managed hosting is a solution that takes the complexity out of a dedicated server. The greatest advantage is that you generally get a full turn-key service where the host takes care of the server administrative tasks. For the most part, a managed hosting provider will allow you to build a custom package from the options best suited for your initiative. Some of the additional services may include database administration and management of your web applications. While you are basically outsourcing server administration, you do get a significant level of control through control panel software. Advanced control panel applications like cPanel’s (WHM) Web Host Manager and Plesk add ease to the process of server administration.

Now You Know

A dedicated server will provide all the resources and control you need but it is also a more complex solution. If you’ve got the level of skill it requires, good. If not, you definitely need managed hosting. With the web host handling all the complicated tasks, you can enjoy the simplicity of shared hosting and still get all the benefits of a robust dedicated server. Most importantly, you can focus on other critical projects and just running your business.

Smart Tips on Creating a Business Website

Whether you are an established business or a growth that has a corporate website that communicates effectively with your client or customer is vital. Most companies prefer to retain the services of professional web design companies to create their websites. But if budget is an obstacle, you can also design the site itself. This will obviously require prior research and an understanding of what is happening in designing an attractive location for businesses. Here are some guidelines on designing websites that you can use when you go about creating your website on your own business.
• Choose a model easy to use for your website business. A website that seems too complicated and difficult to navigate not frighten or annoy potential customers. A website design that adds clarity and ease of use should be chosen for your website.

• Be sure to include your business or company logo on the site. The logo symbolizes what your company represents. Place the logo on the web page so that visitors get a glimpse of it, but do not be overwhelmed by his presence. • Get it on your site as concise and precise as possible. There is no sense of overcrowding on the details of the person visits the site, will have too much data to digest, forcing him to press the ‘Back’ button. The information presented must be relevant, understandable, yet will market your business, products or services in an attractive manner.

• Add relevant pictures to your website that communicate certain ideas about your business or product to the page visitor. It is important that the images are imprinted in the mind of the visitor and he/she is able to recollect them. In this regard, a professional graphic designer can create attractive illustrations that have high recall value. With some research and creativity at your end, you can also create high-impact images.

• Obtain a domain name that is relevant to your website. You can go for generic names like ‘bikes.com’ or ‘cars.com’ or something that specifically matches your brand name such as ‘bmw.com’ or ‘kia.com’.

• Make your website accessible on the internet through web hosting services. Web hosts are service providers who let you avail space on their servers and allow internet connectivity for your website to function. Acquiring a virtual private server or a dedicated server will be beneficial to your business website, but can be a bit expensive.

• Ensure that your website has all the important web pages. Have an ‘About’ page and provide information about your company on this page. On a ‘Contact’ page, tell your potential clients and customers how they can contact you. Also create descriptive and appealing products or service pages. The colors that you select for your web pages must blend well with each other and must hold some relevance to your business. For instance, if you manufacture products for teenagers, use vibrant colors on the webpage that will catch the attention of this target group.

Remember that you’ll need more than a basic website set up to make it successful. An attractive and functional website design is of key importance to ensure good results.