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Web Promotion Ideas For 2007

2007-01-23T04:58:00.000-08:00

As we head into a new year, it is a time to reflect and of course to also look ahead. On a personal level, I am heavily involved in the promotion of websites and I am currently assessing my plans for 2007 as regards the ways that I will continue to promote these sites. 2006 has taught me quite a lot, I have learnt a number of aspects of site promotion and also a number of aspects that do. In this article I will share my thoughts with you. Before I start I would like to wish all readers of this article a happy, healthy and prosperous 2007.

At the start of 2006, I would spend a great deal of time contacting other webmasters who had websites on a similar theme to my own, to ask them if they would consider a link exchange. I did this to start with via the telephone, I am not sure how many of you have ever attempted this but to say it was a struggle would be an understatement.

I would attempt to explain to the owners of these sites just how beneficial this partnership could be for both parties but virtually all of them were just not interested. More fool them as my main site is now a page rank six! Some would argue that the way I explained it all was not clear enough or that I am a poor salesperson, they may well be right. I just know that I will not be trying this form of web promotion again.

I then thought about constructing a cleverly worded e-mail. I wrote and sent this e-mail to a lot of people but yet again the rewards were virtually non existent.

One area of web promotion that has worked in a very big way for me is article marketing. In 2006 I have written around three hundred articles and this has produced much larger volumes of traffic to my websites.

In 2007 I am going to continue to write articles and could well become the next Lance Winslow, Lance is the king of article marketing by the way and has written well over ten thousand articles.

Stephen Hill helps to promote a number of websites including:

stammering advice

stuttering information

symptoms of std

How To Obtain A Page Rank Eight Link For Free

2007-01-23T04:55:00.000-08:00

How would you like to obtain a backward link from a page rank eight page? Now I imagine and would hope that most of you who have your own website would have answered yes to this question. If your site was to only ever obtain this one link, it would still become at least a page rank five site. In this article I am going to write about how you can obtain one of these hugely powerful links for free.

Now I can imagine that some people are thinking, is this guy for real? Well yes I am actually is the answer to this question. I have been promoting other peoples websites for a number of years now and in that time I have met and spoken to a lot of very interesting and educated (in web marketing terms) people. Around a year ago, I had a conversation with a man called Roger who ended up changing my focus in web marketing in a big way.

Roger has a number of very well known businesses that he works for. He is an established and well known web marketing expert and I felt quite privelidged when he agreed to spare me his time for a couple of hours one Saturday afternoon. I explained to Roger the ways in which I was currently promoting sites and he replied, young man there are much much easy ways of marketing a website. This is when he started to talk about obtaining links on pr8 pages.

Roger stated that he spends his time locating sites which have a homepage page rank of eight. He will then contact the webmasters or owners of these sites and will offer his services to them for free in exchange for a link on their site. Now of course a lot of them will say no but you only need one to say yes to make it worth while.

Roger of course is an expert in website promotion and is therefore more likely to receive a positive answer than you or I. We do still have value however, why not offer to write and submit twenty articles for them each week? Give it a go, you may well strike gold.

Stephen Hill helps to promote a number of websites including:

help for stuttering

cure for stuttering

article writing and submission service

Free One Way Links

2007-01-23T04:52:00.000-08:00

Website designing is one thing, publicizing it is other. There are so many WebPages with good quality content, which are never read by the appropriate people because of low rankings and unattractive features.

One of the most important factors in getting your web site highly ranked in the search engine indexes is building links. links is one of the most important ways that Google and the other search engines determine the importance and ranking of your site.

Link building is the backbone of the internet. Everybody wants to have as many free one way links as possible. There are many reasons why a website will survive and flourish, and also a lot of reason why your website might die a premature death and have no visitors.

links are just hypertext of a web site's address that is posted on other sites. The way Google determines how important your site is and how it will rank in the search engine rankings is to see how many other people link to your web site and the importance of these web sites that link to you.

There are a few key tips so that your site comes in more views and attracts more visitors:

1) Keep homepage easy and simple

Home page should be looking like the center of the site from where, a visitor can go anywhere in easy steps of clicks.

2) links

There should be links on your home page so that every visitor finds it very easy to reach directly any section he wants. Never put other sites link with those otherwise your visitor can be diverted from you site.

3) search Engine Optimization

Even A perfect Website cannot get enough visitors, until it is not related to the big Internet linkage system. Most of the visitors come to your site by the search engines or the ads you provide on others sites.

Different ways to get free one way link are:

1) WEB DIRECTORIES: You can submit your link to directories and get good one-way links but don't forget to put your keywords in the title. For example www.tradeweblinks.com

2) ARTICLE DIRECTORIES: By submitting articles across the internet with relevant links you can gain some very effective links to your site. For example www.goarticles.com and many others

3) CREATE A BLOG: You could post anything - your thoughts, articles, or affiliate program reviews, for example, but make sure you include a link to your site in the links section, and at the end of each post if appropriate. for example www.blogger.com

4) LEAVE COMMENTS ON BLOGS: Leave legitimate comments, and make it look like you actually have something to contribute.

5) POST ON FORUMS: You won't get a great deal of benefit in terms of page rank, as most forums do not have a high page rank for their threads, but you will build up a good number of links.

6) WRITE TESTIMONIALS: By writing and submitting testimonials to websites that you have previously purchased products or services from, you can get high-quality links to your site, often from the home pages of the sites in question.

Benefits of free one way links:

- Cause your website to be indexed and crawled by search engines

- Increase your visitors from strategic placement of your website link

- Increase your overall search engine position for keywords or phrases

- Increase brand awareness for your name or business name

By
free one way links

The author is Business Head for http://www.ebizpromo.com, and is into web-design, development and Search Engine optimization.

Great Ways For Building Tons Of Backlinks

2007-01-23T04:50:00.000-08:00

One of the most important factors that influence the search engine ranking of your site is the number of backlinks you have. Almost every search engine takes the number of backlinks into account while evaluating and ranking your site in the SERPs. The number of backlinks is the most important factor for ranking well in Google. Have doubts? Just type the key phrase “click here” in Google and check the first site that shows up in the search results. It does not have the keyword “click here” in its title, nor in its description, its meta keywords and most surprisingly not even in the body of the content. Then why does it rank number one in Google out of 1,190,000,000 webpages that are there in the competition ? This is because at the time of writing this article, that very webpage has 1,150,000 backlinks pointing to it and all the links have the word “click here” as its anchor text.

In this article I'll be sharing with you the secrets of attaining that much coveted place in the SERP through the creation of backlinks.

Ever wondered why backlinks are so very important in search engine rankings? Well, almost all the search engines, especially Google value websites that are rich in useful and informative content. And whenever a site places a link to your site, Google considers that link as a vote to your site. It feels that the other site has cast a vote in favor of your site because the content of your site is useful to its visitors. Hence, greater the number of votes, greater is the value that your site has from the search engine's perspective. And if you are hankering for page rank, then creating backlinks is the only way to go. backlinks help your website attain a higher search engine ranking and definitely helps to increase your page rank.

Ways to create backlinks:

Blogs – One of the best ways of creating one-way links for your site is through the posting of comments in blogs. Just include the URL of your site while posting comments in blogs and soon you will build a good many number of one-way links for your site.

Forums – Posting in forums is also an excellent way for building backlinks. But don't post your URL directly in the discussion boards or else the spam busters would get you banned and removed from the forum. The best way to do it is through your signature. Include the URL of your site in your signature and then whenever you post a comment in the forum you will be leaving behind a link to your site along with your name.

Social Networks – Since the evolution of WEB2.0 social networking sites like Myspace, Friendster, Tagworld etc are the hottest zones on the Internet today. Millions of people visit these sites daily for making friends or for promoting their products or services. You may also register at such sites and post links to your site along with the comments that you make at your friend's profile. In this way you may create large number of backlinks for your site.

Social Bookmarking – Social bookmarking is another area where you could create one-way links to your site. Just bookmark your sites in social bookmarking sites like Delicious and if your site is interesting enough, others will add your site to their list of bookmarked sites and soon you will garner a large number of one-way links for your site.

Articles– You may write articles on various topics and post them in article sites such as this one and include the URL of your site in the resource box or in the author's bio section. There are many sites which frequently publish articles from various such article sites and along with the article they also publish the author's bio which contains the link to your site. If your article is informative and intriguing, then it will soon be published in many other sites and newsletters. This way you will have a large number of backlinks pointing to your site.

Press Release– As soon as you some up with a new feature on your website, do a press release on it. Press releases are very efficient for website promotion and also for creating oodles of one-way links. Write a press release about any unique feature of your site and submit the release in various press release sites. Press release sites regularly syndicate their content through RSS and Atom feeds and many leading news sites fetch their content from all these press release sites. So you may expect a very good response from doing a single press release.

Directories – Submit you website in as many web directories as you can. These web directories attract a large number of visitors daily and so you may get a good number of visitors from such directories. Submission in directories also helps in building quality backlinks for your website. Consider submitting your website in leading web directories such as Dmoz.org

Link exchange – Though it is a very old method for building traffic and backlinks, link exchange still works. Exchange links with quality and relevant sites for building backlinks.

Always try to use your targeted keywords in the anchor text of your backlinks as search engines lay much emphasis on the anchor text of links pointing to your site.

The above mentioned methods will help you build umpteen number of backlinks for your site. But always remember that the content of your site is what really matters. Concentrate on making exceptionally good content and others will voluntarily link to your site.

Ron Jones is an active blogger and specializes in traditional website marketing and marketing through WEB 2.0 applications. He owns Myspace Zone, which specializes in
Myspace Photo and Video Comments He also contributes at Myspace Comments, a blog run by his friend Michael.

Fighting Link Exchange Spam

2007-01-23T04:45:00.000-08:00

The black days of link exchange started when someone invented the strategy to automatically surf the net, find contact forms on the sites of potential link partners and send via these contact forms spam messages "I am webmaster... sites are relevant... let's swap links - it will help us both." These beggy emails terrorize all site owners and definitely junk a very good idea of exchanging links.

Imagine, I have around 30 sites under my control - it's not much these days - and to each of the sites via contact form I receive 2-10 link exchange spam messages. I don't even say that they are irrelevant (people who use these solutions don't have enough competence to think about relevancy). What I say is that even the number of link exchange spam to my sites is shocking: 2-10 spam messages a day to my 30 sites, wow this is 60-300 spam messages daily! And all these messages whine and beg to exchange links.

In my place, would you be able to pay attention to all these messages? I am not! I have more important things to do. I just don't read them - these messages go to trash bin instantly.

I know it's a hard truth for those who try to build links this way, but hey - I'd better tell you the truth now, rather than let you waste your time, efforts and money on such a super low effective method of link exchange.

And one more myth busting for those who trust the myth that they can customize/personalize their email message and this will save them the destiny of all other "link spammers." Don't kid yourself. With the amount of messages that I got and managed to view (because I delete around 80-90% of these messages instantly) over the last 3-4 years I saw ONLY ONE GOOD MESSAGE which attracted my attention and resulted in swapping link. And that was a very good business proposition for a very good site.

So, out of hundreds of link exchange emails that I was getting daily over years only one resulted in link swap! Nice conversions, aren't they?

Surely I don't doubt the advantages of automatic link building. But let's be fair, most of automatic link building tools either don't give you quality links or do not create quality, SEO-wise link exchange directory or simply spam. No wonder that link exchange gained a bad stigma these days.

Still, there is a very wise link building alternative.
And this alternative is pretty much automated and uses a very smart approach. It's not some magic pill that will give you tons of quality links within seconds. But you can check the concept and make your own decision.

So, the concept is pretty simple. We can suggest with very high probability that web sites which use special link building solutions are very apt to exchange links with quality, relevant sites. We can even find the pages where these sites want you to submit full details of your web sites as subject for links exchange. It's the same to someone having special door for bringing milk to the house. Surely if you go to this door with your 'milk', no one can give you 100% guarantee they need milk at the moment. But at least this is better than throwing the bottle through the window!

Not to sound blatant I would ask to compare the conversions of using special doors for link building. I was testing conversions from doing link exchange using automatic site submissions for link swap and got from 40% 'yes' replies within one week up to 80% (that was the highest record that I did not manage to break up to now). And now compare it with the link exchange spam emails conversions when 90% of your emails are instantly deleted and out of the rest 10% no one knows if they will produce any effect.

With the strategy that I mentioned there seems to be one drawback - it needs much manual work. But I can prove than most of the processes can be automated. Pickling of relevant sites - can be automated, not easy to do that, but possible. Copying and pasting your site info into link exchange submissions forms and doing the same for your site - easily automated. Creation of link exchange directory with pages that have relevant content for each category - can be automated. Creation of RSS files and SEO-issues - can be automated. Backlink checking - can be automated. And many other important issues to this or that extent can be automated with no loss to quality.

That is why when you hear the next time that automatic link exchange gives poor results - agree with it, but bear in mind that it is because people don't know many hidden doors that you know and can use. Strategy works and those who don't trust will be greatly surprised to see my site on 1st page in Google inside a very tough niche. And I am not alone to get good results with this strategy - not so many of us, but this is better for you.

Don't lose your hope in link exchange. Better learn more information about how link exchange works these days and the new rules of search engines about link building.

Download New Age Link Exchange PDF @ no cost - Membership registration is 100% free + you get free copy of the tool

+ Auto Content Publisher - free bonus on membership upgrade.

How To Increase Traffic To Your Blog

2007-01-23T04:40:00.000-08:00

These are some tips which can help to increase traffic to a blog.

1. Submit your blog to search engines/directories.

2. Try to participate in many discussion forums and actively involve in the discussions (don’t forget to add your blog url in each posts or in signature).

There are plenty of discussion forums, but I found digital point discussion forum and bloggerforum quite useful. One can use google adsense groups also successfully to bring traffic in to a blog.

3. Use Mybloglog

Using Mybloglog is quite useful one to bring traffic. If you want to read the post about Myblolog, please click here.

4. Read other blogs and leave a comment (don’t spam other blogs, just leave a comment when it is really necessary).

5. Register in technorati. Add technorati tag in all your posts.

I am not yet quite successful in bringing traffic from technorati. But I hope it will change soon.

6. Ping using pingoat and google blog search.

7. Register in feedburner and feed your blog.

8. Find who are your visitors and where you can reach them easily. If you find where you can reach your visitors, your task of advetising and driving traffic will be quite easier.

9. You can use social networks like orkut, hi5 and mylot successfully to bring traffic to your blog/site.

10. Build inbound links by submitting your articles in different websites and blogs.

reddit, digg, del.icio.us, ezine and hubpages are some example networks for submitting your articles. In the above four hubpages share their income with you. So try to submit your articles in hubpages and earn some income as well.

11. Advertise your blog.

One can also do free or cheap advertising for bringing traffic in. I am thinking of getting traffic by doing some advertisement.
adwords, Adcenter, adbrite and YPN are some examples.

12. Give useful outbound links.

13. Optimize your blog to be search engine friendly.

Do you want to know more about, how to increase your page rank in google. Read about this in http://internetbazaar.blogspot.com/2007/01/improving-blogs-google-page-rank_14.html

14. Update your blog regularly and try to fill your blog with useful/good contents.

By doing previous 12 things you can make many people to visit your blog/website. But to make them come again, you need good contents in your blog. Try to write a new content regularly and try to improve your writing style. Of course at the beginning it is difficult to be good, but one improve.

In my opinion these are quite enough for starters to bring at least 100 visitors per day in a month time.

I am Guhan, a ph.d student by profession and blogging is my hobby. My blogs url is http://internetbazaar.blogspot.com

Free Targeted Traffic Tips

2007-01-23T04:31:00.000-08:00

Ever Wonder how to get Free Targeted Traffic to your website?

Sick of paying for visitors that don’t convert to sales for you?

Tired of traffic exchanges that only send you other people looking for traffic to their sites?

Well, what I am about to tell you are the best secrets for Free Targeted Traffic I have ever stumbled upon in my years of internet marketing. I am going to show you 3 of the best tips for driving organic, targeted traffic to your website. Its all easy and free!!!

Free Targeted Traffic Tip #1-Forums

Visit forums that are related to your products. Make posts, answer questions and provide advice that is helpful and generally indicates that you know what you are talking about. Don’t Spam the forums you visit as it may result in you getting banned from the site.

In your forum profile, enable your signature and include a link to your product site within it. This is a great way to get traffic to your site in no time. When people see you post sound advice they generally want to know more about what you have to offer, so what do they do? They click on your signature link and voila!!! You have a targeted visitor, pretty simple and not very time consuming.

Free Targeted Traffic Tip #2-Classifieds

Placing classifieds is free, easy, and there are numerous services available. Personally I use USFreeAds. They offer free services that are easy and effective. I got quite a bit of traffic from the free service alone, but the premium service made my traffic go through the roof, and for the price, you cant beat it. The free version offers HTML ads only, the Premium however offers fully configurable ads with the ability to add graphics. Good Stuff. Another couple of services out there that I have had success with is Webclassifieds.us, and freeadvertisingforum.com. USFreeAds by far out performs the other two. I get between 50-100 visitors a day with them as opposed to between 20-50 a day with the others, and the beautiful part is ths can all be done for free.

You cant beat that Free Targeted Traffic for free, getting excited? You should be, your stats are gonna explode if you get started today!!

Free Targeted Traffic Tip #3-Blogs

Blogs are a great way to get a web presence set up for free, and some people don’t know it, but its also a great way to get traffic. First thing you need to do is set up a blog that is catered to your desired market.

Personally I use blogger, they are easy to set up and have a tutorial that will have you up in running in about a half hour. After the site is up you just need to fill the blog with your content.

But how does this method translate to free targeted traffic you ask? Use your blog similar to the forum tip, visit like minded bloggers and post comments on their blogs. Be sure to provide backlinks so they can click on your name and be directed to your blog, where you just happen to sell products and/or services. This method is easy, fun, and free. The success of this method depends on your time put in and how much “visiting” you do.

Another great benefit to blogs is search engines love them and constantly list them in their searches when key words are crawled. So be sure to use keyword dense articles and posts!!

Conclusion

Utilizing these Free Targeted Traffic Tips alone, I have been able to direct large amounts of traffic to my sites. The results will vary and depend on how much time and effort you put into this, but I will tell you this. By implementing these tips you can greatly reduce your advertising costs and actually achieve better conversion rates. I still get traffic from posts I made to a forum over a year ago. So, what are you waiting for? Get started today and get the Free Targeted Traffic you desire and watch your sales go through the roof!!!

Yours in Wealth,

Christopher H Smith

Internet Marketer

I.S.S.A Certified Personal Trainer

Life Empowered Member

Getting More Web Site Traffic with Less Effort

2007-01-23T04:28:00.000-08:00

Getting more web site traffic with less effort is what we would all like to be able to do. We all want a ton of great traffic that buys our products and helps us build our online business. There is a simple way to build website traffic with less effort. Follow these steps.

- First, start using google adwords to get your site out on the google search engine. The greatest thing about google adwords is that they have ads displayed on a ton of websites and you can choose the keywords you want to target. Plus you do not have to make an initial deposit. All you have to do is sign up and get started.

- Second, learn as much as you possibly can about google adwords and how to use it properly to build traffic. There is a ton of information out there about using google adwords, choosing quality keywords, and getting a ton of traffic from google adwords. You need to be studying this information all the time and staying up to date on what is going on.

- Third, track more than one campaign on google adwords at a time. This will allow you to compare your different advertisement and figure out what is working best for your website. With this information you can test your ads and delete the ones that are not pulling you good quality traffic.

Now you have a simple 3 step plan to start getting more web site traffic with less effort. Once you have your google adwords campaigns set up and they are doing the job you want them to, you can set your entire advertising on auto pilot. Get started today and get the traffic you are after.

Learn more about building quality traffic with this FREE Traffic Report. Go here to claim your copy now:
Free Traffic Building Report

Is Your Online Home Business Generating A Sufficient Traffic Volume?

2007-01-23T04:26:00.000-08:00

By having an online home business there are a number of aspects that you must focus on. Advertising the product, creating quality customer service and developing fresh and enticing content are just a few of the duties to developing a successful home based business. However, none of that is worthwhile if there are no customers to see your work.

The most crucial part to creating a successful online home business is generating a high traffic volume to get business rolling in. You will encounter a number of difficulties being in the internet industry, but continuously bringing in traffic to your website is one of the most difficult things you will face. How can you generate higher website traffic is a question asked by hundreds of thousands on the internet.

There are a number of ways you can go about increasing the traffic to your home based business. The easiest way lies within the content that you produce. You have to ask yourself if the content that you are producing is worth the time of millions to read. You want to make your content clear and precise so that it is easily understood by your readers.

If you are going to make your content worth your reader’s time, make it as original as possible. A majority of the content that is produced on the internet is the same from website to website. If you want to make your online home business stand out from the rest, work on producing fresh and enticing content. By giving the reader’s information that they haven’t seen before, they will be more inclined to return later to see what else you have to say.

While the content that you deliver to the visitors is crucial, how you treat the visitors is just as important. Customer service and developing personal relationships will go a long way when it comes to the type of business that your home based business produces. Many of the website marketing strategies used to increase traffic are based solely on computer numbers, while forgetting that your visitors are actual people. If you go the distance to reach out and assist your visitors to the best of your ability, it will not go unnoticed.

The last way that you can go about increasing traffic for your online home business is through email. First off, email is a great way to develop a personal relationship with your customers and keep in touch with them. You can also use the email to send out newsletters to your targeted customers to keep them informed of things to come.

The traffic volume that your website generates is an important facet to your home based business. By providing fresh and enticing content worth the visitor’s time and taking the time to reach out and help your visitors and customers, you will have no problem generating a high traffic volume for your online home business.

Paul Jesse is an Author, private pilot, and lifetime student of internet marketing. He created SheaMarketing for those interested in working from home. He invites you to visit his website at http://www.sheamarketing.com

Web Hosting Companies - How To Choose A Web Hosting Provider

2007-01-23T04:14:00.000-08:00

The amount of choice available for selecting a hosting provider these days is staggering. you are presented with almost as many options for hosting plans than you get types of coffee at a Starbucks.

How do you know which are the good, the bad and the ugly?

For one, let's just straight out exclude any type of FREE hosting. If you are serious about running an Internet Business, an ECommerce site or a Business Brochure website, then you should definitely NOT use a free hosting provider.

1) Free hosting is normally actually paid for by advertising. This means that you will be forced to have some form of advertising on your site.

2) Free hosting is not so reliable and you share your hosting space with thousands, if not millions of other websites. This is also true, to an extent, of shared hosting, but at least with shared hosting you have some type of service contract with your hosting provider.

3) You are just not projecting a professional image if you make use of free hosting. hosting has become so affordable these days that there is no excuse any more for not having your own domain and your own hosting provider.

The next step up from free hosting is shared hosting. This is by far the most common hosting model today. With shared hosting you also share space on a hosting server. This is where it becomes tricky to distinguish the melons from the real thing. The problem is that the next step up from shared hosting is Virtual Private servers, or even dedicated servers. These are very expensive especially for the average website owner. shared hosting is much more affordable for website owners that are venturing into the Internet world for the first time.

If you have a relatively large company with a relatively large website and you do not have your own internal server infrastructure, you would definitely steer away from shared hosting and rather go into partnership with a hosting service provider where you can use dedicated servers or Private Virtual Servers. But we are talking here more of the requirements of the average Joe Schmoe - the little guy, like you or me, who wants to start his own little Internet empire.

So, shared hosting is what it will be.

The advantages with shared hosting is that is cheap. hosting is becoming cheaper and cheaper - in the United States at least. The problem is that there are a lot of unscrupulous operators out there, who overload their servers. If you land up with one of them, you will definitely find that YOUR website performance degrades due to the fact that some idiot sharing the same box is sending out 10000 emails to his newly bought list of scraped emails.

Take the following steps:

1. There are a lot of web hosting review sites. Visit these sites and see what customers are saying of the web hosting provider. But please note, do not take everything you see at face value. No hosting provider is perfect, and all hosting providers WILL get some bad reviews. The trick is to determine how well the problem was handled and how well the hosting provider recovered or did something about the problem. It is also worthwhile to visit hosting review sites where some type of rating is assigned to a host.

2. To narrow down your search considerably I am going to give you advice based on my own prejudices - search for CPanel hosting on a Linux server. Don't mess around with other control panels or operating systems. Not everyone will agree with me and there are a lot of other control panels that are equally good, but you cannot go wrong with this combination and it narrows the field somewhat.

3. If you are on a potential hosting provider's website, take a look at the following details:

- Do they provide a physical address and phone number? Sure, everything can be done by email, but I was once in the situation where my support ticket for an emergency went unanswered and I decided to phone the company - only to find out that they didn't publish their phone number.

- If they have so-called 'Live site support' available, how often is the support actually available? I've seen lots of sites claiming to have 'live support' but the life support seemed to be very dead every time that I visited the site.

- Send a pre-sales question through their support ticket system and make sure that you are happy with the way that the support desk is set up. You might spend some time here in future and you must be able to initiate and sustain support tickets easily.

You also want to see how quickly the hosting provider responds to your question. Don't get too excited however if they come back almost immediately. Pre-sales are normally much quicker off the mark than technical support! But it does give an indication.

See how long the company has been in operation (some review sites provide this) - the longer the better!

- See if they allow adult hosting. If they do, be aware that adult hosting consumes a lot of resources and traffic. Your site might be negatively impacted by this if you land up on the same server.

4. THEN you take a look at features.

The following features are essential:

- Enough hard disk space. This is almost the least of your worries since ridiculous amounts of hard disk space are on offer these days. You can easily get 500 MB of hard disk space for about $2 per month and even more commonly, over 1GB or 2GB per month for about $7. You will probably not need this much space unless you are going to run a forum or membership site, or plan to host videos or podcasts. For a 'normal' site anything between 5MB and 100MB will be enough.
- Enough bandwidth - this is also normally more than enough these days.

My advice is, however, NOT to go for the $2 per month options. You are going to get what you pay for....

Other features that are important are:

- Web statistics. I have found a very nice hosting company only to find that they did not offer online statistics. According to them it degraded the performance of their servers. This may very well be, but you cannot operate a website without statistics! Most hosting providers DO offer statistics, but it will never hurt to just make 100 sure.

- If you elected to go for CPanel hosting as I am recommended, you will find that most other features that are essential are available by default - quick installation of software such as shopping carts and blogs; subdomains; FTP accounts; email account setup management; backups and more. Everything that you would ever need, in fact.

Christine Anderssen is the owner of Tailormade4you and specializes in Web Hosting and Web Site Design services for small to medium businesses. Visit us for free tutorials on website design and Internet Marketing.
Read the original article on http://www.internet-web-hosting.co.za/webhosting-info/web-hosting-companies-how-to-choose-a-web-hosting-provider.html

Free Web Hosting: What You Must Know About Choosing A Free Web-Host

2007-01-23T04:05:00.000-08:00

free hosting is sometimes a great way to go when you want to put up a website. Its great when you don't have a credit card to arrange the hosting and domain name. Also if it's your first website, a personal page or many other factors you may choose to go the free hosting route. In order to have a good website though, there are some things you need to be aware of and look for in a free host provider. They are:

1. Trustability

For the first reason, I'm inventing my own word! Trust in the provider is very important though because your privacy is of importance to you. The last thing you want is to have all your information sold to mortgage companies or something. What happens if you spend a lot of time on your website and then the free host company has a server crash or just vanish?

2. Storage, The importance of space

This one is important. Storage is important, especially if you want images on your free website. Many free hosting services are free for the first 10mb and then start billing you in order to get more storage. Find a host that has at least 50mb of storage so that you don't risk running out. My choice of free host offers a very generous 700mb!

3. Bandwidth, Required for your site to stay 'online'

This is where lots of free hosts fall down. They only offer small amounts of bandwidth, and then once you reach it, they suspend your account. If this happens, often you need to pay for more bandwidth, or wait until the month is out in order to get your account functioning again. If this happens in some cases you can email them and ask for more and they might grant you some more, but is it worth the risk of website downtime?

4. Ads

It's a free service and the provider needs to make the income to pay the servers and maintenance somehow, so ads are expected. Lots of free hosts though go overboard with Popups and float-ins, as well as banner ads and plenty more. Try and find a free hosting provider that has non obtrusive advertising (NO Popups, visitors hate that!)

5. Functionality and Uptime

Without user-friendly functionality, you could struggle to get your pages looking the way you want them to look. Try and find a service provider that offers easy editing and also has safe, reliable servers and maintenance, otherwise you may risk your website being up and down throughout the day!

John Triggerman is a member of the 007iHost admin team. 007iHost is a hosting provider that meets all the above standards and also is a site offering 7000mb, 7gb of free bandwidth usage! 007ihost is one of the best free hosts when it comes to bandwidth. If you use all the allotted bandwidth, a simple email and they may grant you more: http://www.007iHost.com

Automatic Script Installation Services - Are They Right for You?

2007-01-23T04:03:00.000-08:00

Many web hosting accounts today use cpanel as the interface for a webmaster to manage the files on their domain. Within this control panel, you'll often see an icon titled Fantastico. It is a service many web hosts subscribe to that allow you, the webmaster, to install new scripts automatically without any of the usual mysql database creation, file uploading, installation and configuration. This seems like a great service doesn't it?

Let's take a closer look at the possible long term effects of using this automated service.

Many of the scripts Fantastico can install are discussion board scripts (bulletin boards), content management systems (cms), blogs, ecommerce scripts, customer support, mailing list scripts and more. If you are familiar with the requirements of many of these, you know they usually require a mysql database to function properly AND they often have frequent updates that need to be installed.

These updates are usually to fix security holes, bugs or are program upgrades.

There are no warnings in Fantastico that you should manually back up your mysql database and your files before you install any upgrade. Failure to back up everything before upgrading means you do not have a way to restore your files when things go wrong. At some point, you will have an upgrade mess things up so much you will need to restore your site from the backups.

The thing you were not told when you used this automatic installer was the name and password that were used when the mysql database was created. With some scripts, you'll need your database name, database username and database password so you can reinstall the script then restore your data from the backup. If you don't have this information, you will need to backup a copy of the mysql so you can import the old database backup after you have done a completely new install of the script again.

If you ever decide to leave your current host for a different web host, you will need your back up of the scripts and database along with all of the usernames and passwords to get the script working without having to do a complete new install on the new web host. How are you going to do that if you let Fantastico or some other automatic script installer do the work for you?

My opinion is to either learn and do the installation yourself and record the info somewhere you wont loose it, or simply use the automatic script installer under the icon called 'script library' already inside cpanel. This allows you to determine what the database name, username and password should be.

NOTE: Always do regular backups of all your files, scripts and more importantly your databases, this way you are always protected.

Find affordable web hosting at http://www.speedlogix.org where Jim Weltzin is the experienced IT professional that is currently working to provide a reliable and quality service.

Maximize Your Profits With Affordable Ecommerce Web Hosting

2007-01-23T04:00:00.000-08:00

ecommerce, or Electronic Commerce, allows people to exchange goods and services immediately and with no barriers of time or distance. Any time of the day or night, you can go online and buy or sell almost anything you want.
So if you are a small entrepreneur entering the ecommerce space for the first time, then you want an affordable ecommerce web hosting site.

Small or new businesses need affordable ecommerce web hosting services to help them generate more traffic and sales for their business. However, the road to creating a successful online store can be a difficult and confusing one if you are unaware of how to avail affordable ecommerce hosting services.

Making the right choice on your solution package won’t be easy, because providers offer combinations of solutions at different prices. Some services offer easy to install shopping carts as part of their affordable ecommerce web hosting service. You will have to use your search engine to see what is available and which of these services suit your needs.

affordable ecommerce web hosting Should Not Mean Losing Out On Potential Customers

While searching for an affordable ecommerce web hosting service, there should be a few imperatives to consider. Your affordable ecommerce web hosting solution may be so because it has too many websites on its server. This could mean slower downloads of your site, resulting in potential clients losing patience and buying from a faster site. Long download times account for highest amount of lost sales with potential customers.

Also, make sure there is website security. It is your responsibility as an online business owner to maintain the security of sensitive information to prevent credit card fraud. In the past, people were wary of transacting on the Internet because of scams and disloyal companies. This is a thing of the past and people are now secure when purchasing items on the Internet.

Can You Afford To Not Use affordable ecommerce web hosting?

This has led to incredible growth in the online business category and you are missing out if you are a business owner who doesn’t participate in Internet sales yet. The biggest way people purchase their items is with credit cards and if you don’t offer a shopping cart solution, they may just go elsewhere. You may want an affordable ecommerce web hosting service, but if this service does not offer all these solutions in its package, you may find it eventually costlier, in terms of loss of sales. The traffic on the internet is growing by the day, and with each growth spurt you have the chance of generating more revenue.

So make the most of the boom and help your business along with affordable ecommerce web hosting.

Visit affordable ecommerce web hosting
to get excellent information on web site hosting.

Benefits of Using CPanel for Your Business Web Hosting

2007-01-23T03:58:00.000-08:00

For new webmasters, especially those with minimal computer experience, the idea of being responsible for maintaining your own website can seem overwhelming. However, this might be an obstacle you'll have to overcome if you really want to have your website online. And as we all know, very few businesses can afford to not be online. But if you have a limited budget and can't hire a full-time "web person" what are your options?

Well, one of the best things you can do to shorten your learning curve is choose a web host that uses cpanel. cpanel is one of several popular control panels used by web hosts and allows the website owner to manage all sorts of tasks related to maintaining a web site. Now when we talk about maintaining the site, we're not talking about creating web pages necessarily. Instead, we mean things like setting up databases, additional email addresses, FTP accounts, or checking web statistics.

The beauty of cpanel is that it allows you to do all of these otherwise "technical" tasks from a user-friendly control panel. The result is a generally short learning curve on the part of the inexperienced user and less need to rely on tech support (though your web host should also provide excellent tech support, but that's a topic for another article).

In addition to administrative tasks, many web hosts offering cpanel also include a feature called Fantastico. This allows you to install a variety of programs and scripts within just a few clicks. Some of the more popular programs found within the Fantastico suite include Wordpress (for blogging) or Simple Machines Forum or phpBB (for hosting an online forum). There are usually 30-40 or so programs included with this feature, depending on what your web host decides to offer, though some are admittedly not that useful. However, the fact that Wordpress and forum software is included makes it well worth it so this might be a feature you'll want to keep an eye out for.

When you sign up with your web hosting company, they will give you all the details on how to access your cpanel. Usually, it's as simple as typing your web address into your browser, followed by /cpanel...so it would look like www.yourwebsitename.com/cpanel. Of course, since having access to cpanel is essentially having access to your entire site, you should guard this access carefully and ensure you have a very strong password.

There are other control panels offered by a wide variety of web hosts that are comparable to cpanel. However, you will likely find that cpanel is one of the most common features found throughout the web hosting world. That can also be to your benefit when it comes time to get help with something within cpanel since there is a large base of people online also familiar with its functions.

By choosing a web host offering cpanel, you can spend more time focusing on your business and getting traffic to your site rather than learning the intricacies and technical details that are the backbone of your web hosting environment.

You don't have to spend a fortune to find quality, secure CPanel-based web hosting. Research top solutions for affordable business website hosting that would be great for your small- to medium-sized business. Find out more by visiting us today at: http://www.OnlineWebHostGuide.com

Copyright 2007 - Kevin Nelson. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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5 Tips When Choosing Multiple Domain Hosting

2006-11-27T08:19:00.000-08:00

If you have or are planning to have several domains running on the web, then you should consider getting a multiple domain hosting. Multiple domain hosting allows you to host several domains under a single hosting plan. Most web hosting companies call it shared hosting.

The main advantage of multiple domain hosting is it helps to consolidate all your domains under one hosting plan. It makes domain management a breeze. It also makes it easier to modify any settings since you are doing it from the same control panel.

Here are a few tips you might want to bear in mind when looking a shared hosting service.

Hard Disk Space

Nowadays most shared web hosting plans provide more than enough disk space to satisfy your needs. It is important you know before hand how much disk space your web site will be using not just currently but projected 6 months, 1 year and 2 years down the road.

Some web applications requires more disk space than others. One example are file hosting sites. Also remember to check the cost of upgrading your disk space in case you need one. Most web hosting providers charge on a per GB basis.

Bandwidth

Most web hosting providers cap a limit on each hosting plan’s bandwidth. Check to make sure it provides sufficient bandwidth for your current websites and also room for growth. Most web hosting providers will charge you on a per GB basis for exceeded bandwidth.

The speed is also important for websites. No one wants to visit a website that loads slowly. File hosting and video sites for example requires an acceptable speed in order to deliver file download or streaming video.

Number of Domains Allowed

Some web hosting limit the number of domains for each hosting plan. It is best to get one with unlimited domains so you have to worry about the limit.

Emails/FTP accounts

You probably will need separate email accounts for each domain you have. Most web hosting services provide webbased or as well outlook based email accounts. Preferably try to get one that has unlimited email/ftp accounts.

Ease of control panel

With many domains, emails, ftp accounts etc to manage, it is important that the control panel is easy to use and all information can be accessed easily. Most web hosting services provide cpanel. Some web hosting services do use their own customised control panel. A good example is godaddy.

Whichever control panel you are using, familiarize yourself with the interface and get used to it as fast as possible.

Ricky Lim runs a best cheap web hosting reviews site. Visit his site today for more info on cheap virtual dedicated server and cheap web hosting reviews

Finding the Best Web Hosting Company

2006-11-27T08:15:00.000-08:00

What is the best invention this century? Of course it is the super information highway – the Internet. What an amazing piece of technology, it connects people from around the world and allows people to learn and communicate. It is basically the biggest multimedia library in the world and it is free! What more could you want? If you like communicating then the internet was made for you. The internet is a world wide phenomenon that has been in the headlines since it first began. There has been lots of stuff written about the good and the bad aspects of the net but everything in life has a paradox so it is hardly surprising.

One of the best parts of the internet is that it is so easy to have your own space where you can share with the world your own likes dislikes etc. Maybe you are good at something and would like to share you talent with the rest of the world. Then the internet is ideal for sharing this. All you need is a bit of web hosting space and you are off. You don’t even need any website or designing skills; you can use Microsoft Word or any publishing software and create you website like any other document. As long as you can use a computer and am willing to learn a little it really is easy.

People do seem to get confused when it comes to domain names and web hosting. So what are they? Well to have a website on the internet the first thing you need to buy is your domain name, this is the www. Mysite.com part. Then you need “web hosting” which is paying for a company to store you website on their server. A server is a computer that is on all the time that “hosts” your website, in other words stores the website. You can make your own computer become a server but then for people to view your website at all times this needs to be on all the time, which is why most people use a hosting company. You pay them to make sure the site is online at all times.

Not sure which web hosting company should you go for? There are hundreds and all trying to get your business. You need to work out which company is offering the most and at what price. Not all companies offer telephone support. This is a must for any novice and is most important, you want to be able to pick up the phone and ask for help when needed. You want the option to upgrade your storage space. You may only want a small site initially but if your site does well and you need more space you want to easily upgrade. You may also need extra bandwidth when your site gets more hits.

You may want even more, like a content management system which allows you to simple add, edit and delete your own content without any knowledge of html, php or any programming language. All you see is a nice user friendly interface with simple usability. At a fee some companies offer this software and it is a great and fast way of adding content to your website.

Maybe you want to sell products over the internet which will mean you will need an ecommerce website with a shopping trolley feature. This is all very good if you have the programming skills necessary to create this, but few of us do in reality. So to have this feature we need to pay for this. Some web design companies offer this although the price can vary.

So what happens once you have your eCommerce website with shopping trolley facilities and you have the hosting you seem all set but your getting few visitors. You may be wondering why no one is actually viewing your site. Well this is because of the vast amount of websites and competition out there. Site engine optimsation is a full time job in its self, I know I do it! You can pay a company or someone to do all the hard work for you but it takes times and the results may not be instant.

Finding a hosting company that offers all these things is a tough task. There are some though. A company that offers domain registration, web hosting, web design, optimization, 24/7 customer support and email is the ideal company.

Carolyn is the webmaster for Discount Domains one of the UK’s most successful domain registration and web hosting company.

This article is free to republish provided this resource box remains intact.

Web Hosting: Six Things You Should Consider

2006-10-31T08:57:00.000-08:00

Some of the features you may be looking for when it comes to a web host for your website include cost, dependability, customer service, features, bandwidth and disk space.

Cost

When reviewing the price structure of any web hosting solution you should always take into account the total package of services offered, reputation of firm, testimonials from customers, and ease of use.

Dependability

Has the web host had a problem with down time? Have other customers had a problem with the service? Have all functions of the service proven useful to other customers?

You should always investigate the reliability of the firm.

Customer Service

Some web-hosting firms talk a good game, but will they be there for you when you have difficulties. Many netrepreneurs have horror stories about poor customer service and unresponsive web hosts. Ask questions and check out any guarantees they may offer.

Features

Some web hosts provide a minimal cost but have fewer features than other firms. It’s possible a company has a significant package of services, but may not provide enough space for future growth. You may also find there are add on features that you are interested in, but add significantly to the overall cost of the service. Determine the features you need and look for a match that can manage those features.

Bandwidth

Can the web host keep up with the information load for your website? Do they have a limitation? Will those limits work for your ecommerce site?

Disk Space

Your web host should have adequate space set aside for you to grow. It may seem like a shoe that is too big, but dream big because your business footprint may one day match the size of the shoe.

Choosing a web host is kind of like picking out a new computer. You need to determine what you want it to do now and what you believe it will need to do a year or two from now. If you chose a computer that is only adequate for your immediate needs you will not have any room for future growth. The same is true with a quality web host find one that exceeds your current needs. If you don’t you severely limit your ability to grow your ecommerce site.

A good web host can provide the building blocked needed to develop a quality online presence and keep the doors open for expansion at a moments notice. Without the flexibility the web host may be less than adequate for your ongoing needs.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. No programming or design skill required. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com

Why Choose cPanel Reseller Hosting?

2006-10-31T08:56:00.000-08:00

When you're about to buy web space with the intention to resell it, you have to look at the software available in that web space. You need to know, for example, what web panel software the web host prefers. Reading up on different web panels will prepare you for the task of managing the reseller space you plan to buy. And if you plan on getting cPanel reseller hosting for the first time, you need to know at least why it is so popular.

Here are just some of the reasons why you should choose cPanel reseller hosting above the other obvious choices:

1. Ease of use. This is always the number one reason uttered by reseller space buyers and vendors alike. The main attraction of cPanel as a web integration software is that it has a pleasant and neat graphical user interface (GUI), similar to a Windows Explorer window set to display files as icons. This allows even people who are not familiar with web space management to be swiftly oriented to the demands of the task.

2. Multiple features. As with every computer program, an easy-to-use software that comes packed with useful features quickly wins hearts. When people use web panel software, they are looking for things that would make their lives easier, such as automated scripts. Automated scripts are commands that simplify complex tasks like backing up and transferring files and entire databases from one server to another. cPanel has plenty of such scripts. With the push of a single button, a user will be able to launch a series of complicated commands.

3. Security. Just because cPanel is easy to use, it doesn't follow that it has a major downside - such as being easy to hack into. cPanel is recognized as a very secure web panel software, even if like all web panels, it does have its share of minor bugs. You will want security in your web management software, so that just any web-savvy stranger won't be able to maliciously crack your safeguards, steal your files and deface your websites. Among the many invaluable things that a secure web panel can offer, peace of mind is probably one of the most priceless.

If you've made up your mind to get cPanel reseller hosting for your first reselling account, know that you've made a wise decision, which millions of other satisfied users have also made. But feel free to try other web panels - true knowledge comes from one's inclination to experiment!

ResellerShed.com provides you with info on Affordable hosting reseller, cpanel reseller hosting and much more, come take a look at http://www.resellershed.com/

How to Save Money With a USA Reseller Web Hosting Outfit

2006-10-31T08:55:00.001-08:00

USA reseller web hosting is one of the most sought-after services in cyberspace. You must know how USA web hosting is considered one of the most reliable and most marketable, since a lot of the world's technological hubs are located in the USA. If you are located in the USA, you must know how lucrative this industry is for people who are looking for affordable web hosting services.

In and out of the USA, people seek the security and flexibility afforded by US-based web hosts. A great many of the world's most secure web hosting infrastructure is located in the USA, and this is why USA reseller web hosting services will always be in demand. But you need to know how to properly address this need, and to scale your services according to global demand.

Price is always a driver. Even if you offer the highest caliber security and the best features, if your price is not friendly to customers, their attention will wander. Your rates must be able to compete with the prices offered by other web hosts, in order to draw people in and make them aware of what you can do.

How do you do this? Well, as a reseller, you have to understand that scalability is a major asset of resellers. People wouldn't purchase web space directly from a web host if they can get a more attractive package from a reseller. And by "more attractive," we mean less expensive. Less expensive, on its part, comes with a bunch of other meanings - like smaller web space, lower bandwidth requirements, and fewer features.

Why would people want less of anything? Well, if the price is right, individual buyers can do away with certain features, and still feel like they're getting good value for their money. For example, not everyone needs unlimited email and domain/subdomain functionalities. And not everyone needs over 200 mb of space! Sometimes a person will only want to create a single site made of static webpages, with a single domain active, in order to promote a product or a service. You definitely won't need a lot of space, email or domain/subdomain functionalities for that! You may, however, need a lot of bandwidth, especially if your marketing arm decides to make your brochure-type website a primary selling tool.

And because technology experts in the USA continue to expand and innovate, USA-based individuals or companies offering "techie" products - such as web space - will always be in demand. It's probably safe to say that USA reseller web hosting outfits will continue to find the market very lucrative indeed in the coming years.

ResellerShed.com provides you with info on Affordable hosting reseller, usa reseller web hosting and much more, come take a look at http://www.resellershed.com/

Hosting Your Website - Disc Space and Data Transfer

2006-10-31T08:55:00.000-08:00

In search of that perfect web hosting provider many webmasters are concerned with two important factors of the possible hosting plan: disc space and data transfer. Today many web hosting providers offer more and more of disc space as well as data transfer- two major needs when it comes to any website in the universe. You need disc space to store your website and you need data transfer to allow people to visit your website.

Disc Space. When it comes to web hosting space, process of using it is very simple. The more files you upload to your server the more space you use. Every time you upload new picture, web page or text file certain amount of web space is used to store these files on the server. An average HTML page requires about 90 MB-130 MB of space on your server. This is not including image files. One of the ways to save on disc space usage is to use smaller images.

Data Transfer. When it comes to data transfer required for your website, it is more complicated. If you check your log files, you may notice that sometimes a smaller number of visitors consume less data transfer and wise-versa. This is due to different ways of how your data transfer is consumed. Returning visitors may consume less data transfer, since they may have stored some files on their own computers needed to view your website from previous times they have visited your website. Generally your allocated data transfer is used on following protocols: HTML, STMP, FTP and POP

Data Transfer used on HTML protocol.
HTML or Hypertext Markup Language is a an authoring software language used to write pages. But even if your pages are written using different scripting language like PHP, the output that an Internet browser receives is in HTML code. So when you access your log files the statistics shown for HTML data transfer generally reflects the visitors that have come to visit your website. This includes people who are browsing Internet as well as robots such as search engine crawlers that visit your site in order to index your pages.
Data Transfer used on STMP and POP3.
STMP and POP3 stand for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and Post Office Protocol
respectfully and are used to send and receive e-mails over the Internet. If you use your server to send and receive e-mails, this will use your allocate data transfer. Whenever you notice that small amount of visitors to our website resulted in greater consumption of data transfer, this may very well be to the fact your data transfer was used to send or receive e-mails.
Data Transfer used on FTP.
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is generally used whenever you upload files to your server. Whether they are HTML, images or other types of files.

How much Disc Space and Data transfer used for an average page?
Presuming that an average size of web page is about 135 KB following should be true: 1 GB of disc space will allow you about 5000 pages
1 GB of data transfer will allow you about 2500 visitors.

Volodymmyr Zablotskyy
Writer for
Web Hosting Review Blog

Select a Web Hosting Provider before Launching a Website

2006-10-31T08:50:00.000-08:00

Now that you have completed the website and are launch it on the Internet, you need to consider two main questions. First - where you will host your new site and what will be your domain name?

To start with the first thing- the Web Hosts. A Web Hosting Provider is a group that provides you with server space on the web for your web site. The space that is allotted to your website includes all your web pages, graphics, scripts and files, databases etc. The web host is the link between the browser and your website. When your web address is typed into a browser, the web host is the first to be contacted and requested to locate and display the requested page.

You can find a number of free web hosting provider and services on the internet. However, if in case you are planning to create a website with a business purpose in mind, then go for professionals web hosting provider instead of the free web hosting services. These professional web hosting provider ensure more credibility since web sites hosted on free servers are not taken seriously and suffer a serious loss of business due to varied reasons. Unfortunately, for those of us who are on shoe-string budgets that rely on free servers are not taken seriously and can lose business. In order to establish credibility, you must be willing to invest in a professional web hosting service.

While selecting your web hosting provider, do some research about the web hosting company as to how many customers do they serve, their uptime percentage visitors, set up fees, do they offer secure servers etc. Make sure you do your homework efficiently and ensure that the web hosting providers you select for your self offer exactly what you need for your website.

Apart from selecting your web hosting provider, a domain name is as important to select. It is used to relate the particular web site on the web and is that part of the URL that basically instructs the web browser to find a particular page from the search engine content. It is important in the sense that it has to create a brand among the consumers, and it should signify what your business is all about. A good domain name is one that will be easily remembered by the visitors, as it relates to something they are interested in.

Each of them has the same data base that contains all the domain names that have been already registered. You can register your domain name with any one of them. There are many companies available online that will help you out to register a domain name for your website and are efficient web hosting provider.

Author is operating a web hosting provider directory – http://www.betahosts.com/ Here you can find a wide range of web hosting providers. Browse our website to find the best web hosting packages and the lowest prize.

How To Choose The Right Company To Provide Multiple Domain Web Hosting

2006-10-31T08:49:00.000-08:00

If you're looking to establish more than one domain on the internet, you should looking into multiple domain hosting plans. Multiple domain web hosting allows you to run more than one domain from a single account. Before this service became available, you had to have a different account for each domain you wanted to run. Such a set-up was rather inconvenient and downright ineffective. It made it hard to keep track of multiple web sites and increased the likelihood of one of your web sites going down. Now there are countless companies offering plans geared specifically towards clients who want to manage more than one domain from just one account.

Why would you want to have multiple domains? Let's say you want a main page to provide information about your business. Then you might want a separate domain for, say, forums for users to discuss your products and so you can share information with them. You may also want to set up chat rooms, which could be on another domain. Multiple domain hosting gives you room to grow. Also, if you want to have domains which are completely unrelated, but you still want to manage them all together, then you'll want a multiple domain plan.

When looking for a web hosting service that offers multiple domain accounts, there are a few things to consider. First you need to check out their disk storage plans. Obviously you pay more for more storage space. You don't want to buy too big of a plan but you also don't want to shortchange yourself. You'll need a lot of storage space if you intend to build a large site and provide large files to your visitors such as audio, high resolution images, and video. Remember to get what you need, while also giving yourself room to grow.

You also need to take a look at the plan's data transfer rate and bandwidth. Again, if you plan on offering music and video, you want to make sure that the files are transferred smoothly and at an acceptable speed. Music and video require steady and reliable data transfer and plenty of bandwidth. You do not what your visitors viewing or listening to choppy files. It is important that you come up with an estimate of how much traffic you anticipate on your site and how much data will be transferred. If your bandwidth is low then high speed won't mean much because you'll quickly exceed your limits and your site will be shut down.

Another thing to consider is how many email accounts you will need. You'll probably want to have separate email accounts for customer service, employees, order inquiries, web master, etc. As always, you should have more accounts available then you need so there is room to grow. Email accounts are an absolute necessity for a web-based business. Even if you're not on the web you should have an email address. In many sectors, emails has surpassed the phone as the most important means of contact.

As with a single domain hosting plan, you should look at the company's control panel. This is all the more important when you're operating more than one domain. You should be able to easily access information for all your sites.

The fees for multiple server web hosting plans vary by plan, company, and features offered. There may be monthly fees, a yearly contract, etc. Shop around and choose the service which best suits your needs. Don't forget to ask other people, too. Word of mouth is often the best way to find who's reliable and who's not.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about this as well as href="http://www.businesswebhostingsolutions.com">business web hosting at http://www.businesswebhostingsolutions.com

How to Choose a Web Hosting Plan for E-commerce Websites

2006-10-31T08:47:00.000-08:00

The requirements for E-commerce websites are determined by the characteristics of online operations and the need for conducting transaction online. An e-commerce hosting plan you choose should have the flexibility for customization, the capacity for handling the web traffic, and the functionality of online shopping cart for online catalog and online payment processing.

Online Operation and Hosting Capacity

An e-commerce website should be running smoothly in order for customers to make purchase. There are many things to consider while investigating the hosting capacity for your site:

1) What are the preferred programming languages for your developers? Once you've picked up the programming languages for your Web development, you still have freedom to choose the operating system that hosts your Websites.

2) What is the preferred hosting platform? Is it hosted on Unix, Windows or Linux? The decision depends on whether you want to use, install or migrate certain applications. For instance, if you plan to run SendMail, an email program, you won’t get this on Windows. If your custom applications are developed in ASP scripting language, you can’t run them on Unix. Besides ASP which works only on Microsoft Windows, PHP, JSP and PERL work on Windows, Unix and Linux.

3) Do you need shared hosting, managed hosting, dedicated Servers, or Virtual Private Servers (VPS)? Shared hosting is the cheapest plan, and you can host as many sites as you like with a Reseller Hosting option. VPS costs around $50 a month, and Dedicated Server plan will cost from $50 - $100 or more a month dependent on storage space and bandwidth of the hosting plan.

4) How much storage space do you want and how much bandwidth do you need? If your site offers custom business cards with lot of templates online, chances are you’ll need lot of hard disk space for storing those business card templates, and lot of bandwidth as well There’re tens of thousands of people searching for “business cards” online. On the other hand, if your site offers manufacturing of smart cards or membership cards, you’ll need lot of storage to host the graphic templates, but you won’t really need a huge bandwidth since the number of people searching for “smart cards”, or “membership cards” is less than 5% of that searching for “business cards”.

E-commerce Hosting Features

To evaluate e-commerce web hosting plans, first of all, you’ll need to find out a list of plans that meet the needs of the functionality, then do price comparison for each plan. The comparison of functionality is often straight forward, and the comparison of cost for different e-commerce hosting solutions are dependent on both the setup fees and your transaction volume. Different hosting plans may have different free structures. Online shopping carts offer users the ability to search the products by keywords, price etc., which is a huge advantage over catalogue printing on papers. For a turnkey commerce solution, EBay Stores, Yahoo! Store and Microsoft bCentral are the most popular ones for small businesses.

To compare e-commerce functionality, the questions to ask include:

1) Whether a shopping cart accepts online check or eCheck beside support on online credit card and paypal for payment options? Whether the payment processor handle transaction in a particular country? For instance, you can’t accept from and or send money to Romania with paypal, but you can do that with 2checkout.

2) Whether there’s a limit on the number of products and categories that you can setup?

3) Whether it automatically sends out an email notification once an order is placed successfully?

For comparing the cost of e-commerce hosting plans, the questions to investigate include:

1) What’s the basic monthly subscription fee?

2) Whether there’s a setup fee for a new online store?

3) Whether you have to pay for the addition of new items to the product catalog?

4) How much it charges for each transaction? High volume sites may prefer the plans that charge a higher monthly-fee but a lower fee on each transaction, while low volume sites work better with hosting plans that charge zero or low monthly fee and initial setup fees but a slightly higher fee on each transaction.

The website is the virtual storefront for your e-commerce operation. A thorough and careful evaluation of e-commerce hosting plans is a part of ingredients to your e-commerce success.

Natalie Aranda writes on the Internet and the Web. The requirements for E-commerce websites are determined by the characteristics of online operations and the need for conducting transaction online. An e-commerce hosting plan you choose should have the flexibility for customization, the capacity for handling the web traffic, and the functionality of online shopping cart for online catalog and online payment processing. If your site offers custom business card printing with lot of templates online, chances are you’ll need lot of hard disk space for storing those business card templates, and lot of bandwidth as well There’re tens of thousands of people searching for “business cards” online. On the other hand, if your site offers manufacturing of smart cards or membership cards, you’ll need lot of storage to host the graphic templates, but you won’t really need a huge bandwidth.

Easy Web Hosting Affiliate Money For Low Traffic Sites

2006-10-31T08:45:00.000-08:00

There are a number of bloggers and web site owners who make easy affiliate money from web hosting services without owning or running any hosting services themselves. All they do is review web hosting services and create a top ten list. Every hosting company that appears in these top ten lists has to pay upfront for the privilege, just like they would pay for an advertisement. They then collect more cash from affiliate commissions run by those hosting services.

One of the reasons why this particular scheme (which many consider unethical) works so well is because hosting services are usually in very high demand. Not surprising this, when you consider that it is impossible to have any online presence without being hosted by somebody.

This existing high demand for hosting services is evidence enough that one does not need to be so aggressive to the point of being unethical to make serious money from web hosting. Actually, all you need to do is find an affiliate program that meets the following conditions:

a) Find An Affiliate Program That Sells Low Cost Web Hosting Services
There is a huge demand for web hosting services, but there is an even bigger demand for low cost web hosting services. Naturally you want to join an affiliate program that has a huge demand. Higher demand means higher sales and ultimately, higher affiliate income.

b) Find An Affiliate Program That Pays For Second Tier Web Hosting Sales
Second tier commission's means that you get paid for the sales of persons that you have introduced or referred to the affiliate program. This means that instead of getting paid once, you will get paid again and again for the same referrals as each sale by them puts money into your pocket. This can make a huge difference to your earnings.

c) Find An Affiliate Program For A Well Know Web Hosting Service
The better know the hosting service that you are trying to promote as an affiliate, the higher the sales and revenues you will generate. It is human nature, people feel more comfortable dealing with familiar well known names. Choose the sort of web host whose positive information can be found easily and quickly with the help of any search engine.

Follow these simple rules and you will be guaranteed easy affiliate money from web hosting services.

What sort of web hosting affiliate programs meet all the requirements spelt out in this article? Get the details in my web hosting affiliate secrets blog.

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2006-10-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

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2006-10-09T05:51:00.000-07:00

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2006-10-09T05:42:00.000-07:00

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2006-10-09T05:30:00.000-07:00

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2006-10-09T05:13:00.000-07:00

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5 Ways To Make Money With Blogs

2006-10-03T03:25:00.000-07:00

5 Ways To Make Money With Blogs

There are hundreds of ways to make money on the internet, but most oversee the idea of making money with blogs. blogs are a great way to promote articles, discuss various ideas, and promote your website itself. However, there are several ways you can make money with blogs as well. Here are 5 ways to make money with blogs.

1. Sell advertising

The most common way people make money with blogs is selling advertising. If you build a large blog you can sell advertising space for people to put their ads on your blog. However, a majority of people aren’t capable of building a blog big enough to do this. That is where Google AdSense and blogAds can help you. It is free and they pay you based on the number of people that click their ads for further information.

2. Sell your products

A blog is a great place to discuss advice and opinions on various subjects. It can also be a great place to promote your product and tell them how it can benefit them. Whether it’s your blog or someone else’s, look at it as an opportunity to fulfill peoples’ needs, not that you are just selling your product.

3. Affiliate programs

This is a great way to make money with blogs that hardly anyone even considers. By mentioning the product, the affiliate program will provide you with a clickable link to hyperlink the word with. This way if people are interested in your blog post and click on the product word, they are directed to the affiliate program website where you make commission on all products they buy.

4. Sell your website

It may seem cliché because everyone sells their own website and business through blogs. However, it is your approach that can mean the difference of you making money with blogs or not. If you spend the whole time talking you will seem uninterested in others’ insight. If you incorporate others’ thoughts and opinions and strike up a conversation with little bits and pieces about your business, you soon will have them reeled in. By talking about their business and showing interest you will find that more people are interested in your business in turn.

5. Consistency

The more you post the more chances people have to see you and your website link. It is vital that you make one post a day or at minimum a few a week. This way people become accustomed to seeing your posts and hearing your advice or questions. This is a great way to build relationships, which will help you sell your product, share ideas, and promote your website.

If you take the time to put in the effort in blogs you can easily make money with blogs. There are some people that make a living through making money with blogs. However it is commitment, consistency, and your approach that can either break your or make you money with blogs.

For More Info on Making A Full-Time Income with Blogs Check Out:
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10 Effective Ways to Optimize Wordpress for Search Engines and Traffic

2006-10-03T03:14:00.000-07:00

10 Effective Ways to Optimize Wordpress for Search Engines and Traffic

1. Use Descriptive Titles, and Mod-Rewritten Permalinks

Descriptive titles will bring relevant traffic to your site. This is one of the most important things you can do to your site to bring SE traffic to it. While I'm writing this article specifically for WordPress, I'm sure you probably could find similar mods or plugins for other blog engines to take their place. When I say a descriptive title, I don't mean to spam your blog's titles with keywords, I mean to write a short summary of the post contained within it that lets users know what they're fixing to read. Think of it from the users side: If you're on google and you see a site titled "Hosting, Domains, Design, DNS - Joes Web Hosting", and a site titled "Great Hosting from Joes Web Hosting", which one would you click? Even though I dramatized the example, I made my point. Another thing to consider is phrases. When a user enters a phrase that's on one of your blog's titles, it will most likely be ranked higher than other pages. For example, if someone's looking for "Great Hosting", the post titled "Great Hosting from Joes Web Hosting" will rank higher (though, not much higher since that's such a general term). Secondly, you should use mod_rewritten links on your blog. This requires a server with Apache installed, with the rewrite module. This is a great tip, since it will place keywords in your individual post URLs.

For example, instead of "domain.com/p?=1", you'd get "domain.com/01/20/08/joes-web-hosting-services/". This, along with descriptive titles will help your blog out greatly.Wordpress has this built-in, but you must first configure it. Login to your WP admin area. Once the page loads, select "Options" from the upper menu bar, then select "Permalinks" on the next page. I recommend using "Date and Name Based", or enter this custom value in the box towards the bottom of your screen: "/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/". After doing this, you must update your ".htaccess" file so it rewrites the URLs correctly.

2. Remove your blog's name from Individual Post Page Titles

While this may seem counter-productive, it's actually a good idea. When your blog is indexed by google (or any other search engine), many times the pages are seen as being too-close together and they are omitted from the search results because of this. This also reduces the relevancy of search results from your site, since your blog's name is taken into account by the search engine. By removing your site's title, you can (in most cases) cure this problem. To do this, look in your Wordpress' "header.php" file. This is found in your theme's directory.

Find the following code:

<title><?php bloginfo('name'); ?>
<?php if ( is_single() ) { ?> » blog Archive <?php } ?> <?php wp_title(); ?></title>

Replace it with the following code:

(http://wordpress.org/support/topic/66362)

3. Install the Mega tag description and Keyword plugins

META tags aren't as important as they used to be, but they are still a factor in the ranking of your site, especially on smaller search engines. For META decription/keyword tags to be effective, you must choose relevant and unique tags. However, both of these mods do this for you to some extent. You can choose your own, or use the default ones (either one is fine, since the plugins generally choose good keywords and a good description by themselves). If I had to choose between the two of these plugins, I'd say to just go with the description tag (though both are better). To find these plugins, just do a google search for "keyword meta tag plugin Wordpress" and "description meta tag Wordpress plugin", or something similar (as these plugins/Wordpress may be updated rendering the old links useless).

4. Install the google sitemaps Plugin and Submit to google

Installing the google sitemap Plugin can decrease the amount of time it takes google to index your site dramatically. It generally takes weeks or months (depending on the size of your site, sometimes sooner) for google to index new pages on your site. With the sitemap Plugin, this amount of time can be reduced to just hours. To install this plugin, simply do a google search for "Wordpress google sitemap Plugin", find it, and download it. Installation is just like a normal plugin. Once installed, submit your sitemap to google at "http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/siteoverview". As of writing, you'll also have to verify that the site is your own by either inserting a META tag into your site, or by uploading a specifically named HTML file.

5. Submit your RSS Feed to Other sites

Submitting your RSS to other sites can increase your traffic substantially. Each time your blog's RSS feed is updated, you can have the other sites download the new feed and index your site (see the Pinging area below). This is essentially the same thing as letting a site index your site, but it's more targeted towards news and blogs. If you can find a site targeted towards you own site's niche (ex: Gardening, Computers, Autos, etc.), you're sure to boost your traffic levels, as long as your blog has unique content that's updated frequently. An excellent list of sites to submit your RSS feed to is available here: "http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm".

6. Ping Other sites Automatically when you Update your blog

As mentioned in the RSS feed section, pinging other sites allows other sites to get updates from your blog much sooner and automatically when you make a new post. This is very much like the google sitemap plugin (the concept is, anyway). To have your blog update other sites when you update it, login to your Wordpress' admin area. Select "Options" from the main menu, then select "Writing" on the next page (sub-menu). You may want to choose others, but I have the following sites in my blog to ping:

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping

http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php

http://www.blogsnow.com/ping

http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://coreblog.org/ping/

http://ping.blo.gs/

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://topicexchange.com/RPC2

http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping

http://api.moreover.com/ping

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/

Please keep in mind, unless you install the "No Ping Wait" plugin, there will be a delay after you make each post (while your blog contacts the other servers to ping them).

7. Use "alt" and "title" tags, respectively, on your posts images and links

Using "Alt" tags on your images and "Title" tags not only helps your search engine rankings, but it also helps disabled people with screen readers view the content on your site. It also can help your page be valid HTML (another thing that can help your SE ranking). I recommend simply describing the link/image and not trying to cram tons of keywords to boost your ranking. For more information on doing this, visit W3C's site and look up the tag for the version of HTML/XHTML used on your site (if you want it to be valid).

8. Exchange links with other relevant sites, but don't use exchange networks
Exchanging links with other sites can help your rankings tremendously, but trading with the wrong sites can do the opposite. That's why I reccommend only trading with sites that are relevant to your own and are listed in google. One-Way links are placed much higher in google than reciprocal links, so free or paid directory links would be even better. An excellent list of SEO friendly directories can be found here: "http://info.vilesilencer.com/". Using an exchange network can have adverse effects on your site due to the general quality of sites in them. Basically, a one-way text link on a high PageRank directory is the best route. Be sure to use good keywords in your link/title, as google takes this into account for keyword/phrase rankings.

9. Post short, interesting posts on your blog daily to keep readers coming back for more

You don't have to write a book to keep readers coming. In fact, most people like reading short and simple articles that are straight to the point. By giving readers what they want, you are increasing the probability that they will come back. Choose interesting topics to post on your blog that are relevant to your site's niche. For example, if Ferrari just released a new car and you have an Auto blog, you could post a short paragraph summarizing the information about the car and your opinion, include a picture or two of the car, and include a link to a more in-depth article. Alternatively, you could re-write the article (it allowed) and post a link back to the site in a "Source" list under or above your own article. Doing this will keep readers on your site.

10. Share your site with people you know, and ask them to tell others they know

While it may not seem like much, telling people you know can help you build a site. People you know can offer advice on design, topics, etc. and let people they know about your site. People who know you are also far more likely to comment on your postings, making your site look more active, thereby encouraging others to do the same. If you choose to do this step, ask the person to tell 3 other people they know about your site. This will in effect create a small network of people reading and commenting on your site. Plus, if they really like your site they'll continue to tell others about it.

Article written by Hiram Davis, owner and publisher of http://www.blognation.be/

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4 Simple Steps To Blogging For Business

2006-10-03T03:11:00.000-07:00

4 Simple Steps To Blogging For Business

blogging is a practice that has been around for at least 5 years. It began with average, but opinionated people with something to say, who wanted to share their opinions with anyone who would read them. While it has been popular with the general public, it hasn't caught on with many businesses until recently. blogging can be a powerful tool for marketing and exposure for any business if done properly. This article will cover the first steps businesses will need to take to set themselves up for successful blogging.

1. Select the Appropriate Hosting for Your business Blog

You first step is to select an appropriate host for your blog. There are a couple of solutions that you can use to host your blog. You can:

1) Host it on your own server

2) Host it at a blogging hosting server, such as livejournal.com or blogger.com

If you host your own blog on your own web site, you will need to find blogging software that you can use on your web site. You will need to determine what your web site server capabilities are, and then determine what blogging software will work within your server environment. You will then need to install the software and configure it in order to begin blogging.

If you host your blog on a blog hosting system, then everything is already set up for you. All you have to do is sign up for, and configure your account. Some of these blogging services are free and some of them will have a monthly hosting charge.

2. Configure Your business Blog

Once you have determined how you want to host your blog, and have installed it, or signed up for your blog service, you will need to configure your blog.

Configuring your blog includes, what template you want to use with your blog. Most blogs whether they are on a blog hosting service, or software that you have installed, will come with several templates. If you are new to the Internet, and don't have a lot of programming experience, it is probably best to stick with one of the templates that has come with the software or service. It is however, better if you have some programming background, or have the funds to hire someone, then you can get your blog to look like your business web site. Even if your blog is hosted elsewhere, you can do amazing things with the templates to get your blog to look very similar to your business web site. Most services will allow you to modify the templates that come with their subscription.

Other things that will need to be configured are settings such as the name and description of your business blog, the email address you want messages from your blog to be sent to, how you want your blog archived (posts saved for future access), what ping services you want to notify when you update your blog, and other settings too numerous to mention in this article.

3. Determine the Content of Your business Blog

This next step can be done before you actually install your blog, but you will need to determine the topic of your business blog, and how you want to convey your information to your target market. The content and topics of your blog should relate to your industry. You can focus as narrow or as wide as you choose think is appropriate. In general, it is a good idea to cover many areas within your industry and then separate the different areas of your industry into different categories within your blog.

For example, if you are blogging about your real estate business, the big topics would be commercial real estate, residential real estate, and investing in real estate, etc.

However, it would be better to specifically focus in your main category/industry. For example, if your main industry is residential real estate, you could have topics such as renting out your home, buying a home, and selling a home. Each of these would be a separate category within your blog.

Lastly but most importantly, you should choose topics and categories that will be of interest to your visitors. You will need to research the keywords that your customers would use to find you. There are many keyword research tools available on the web today that will tell you what exact phrases, and how often, your target market is using to find you. These keywords will determine the topics of your blog entries. You should also use some of the phrases you have found in your research in your business blog posts.

4. Begin blogging for Your business

The last step is to start blogging. You can choose from a number of different formats to add entries to your blog, as blog entries can take on any format. Some formats that you may want to consider include:

1) Writing articles and posting them to your blog.

2) Finding related news items in your industry and posting them with comments as to what you think of the news item.

3) Answering frequently asked questions you get from your clients.

4) Writing reviews of products/services in your industry

5) Writing "how to" posts

6) Using a free-style posting of anything you feel would be of interest to your potential clients and/or customers.

Your style of posting should match what your target market would find interesting.

Now that you know the basic steps of what needs to be done to begin business blogging, you can choose how you want to host your blog, what keywords your target market uses to find you, and what format would make the most sense to begin blogging. There are many web sites that have more articles and in-depth information about business blogging. You can use these resource sites to help guide you through the process from making your first post, to getting your first customer from your business blog.

Don't waste time learning about things you don't need to know about blogging. Get right to the heart of the matter and learn how to get your blog set up and working for you in a matter of a few hours! Go to http://www.allwebcontent.com/articles for more information go to.
http://www.allwebcontent.com/resources/businessblog.shtml
(A http://drivetraffictomywebsite.com creation)

Blogging For Dollars: Your One-Minute Business

2006-10-03T03:04:00.000-07:00

Blogging For Dollars: Your One-Minute Business

Have you ever wanted to work for yourself? Imagine - you could decide when and where you work, how much you want to earn, and best of all, no one could ever fire you.

What if I told you that you could start your own business in less than one minute?

You can.

You can start your own business in less than one minute by creating a blog. A blog is essentially an instant-publishing solution. Think of it as creating your own magazine. If that sounds intimidating, it's not. You're a mine of information and knowledge, but you're using all that know-how for someone else. When you create a blog, you're using that information for yourself.

You can create your blog today, and start adding entries to it. You can even monetize your blog today. Tomorrow, and for the next few weeks, you add more information to your blog. And then - you can make your blog your business, sooner than you thought possible.

Thousands of others are already developing their blogs into low-cost, instant businesses. Would you believe that some bloggers earn tens of thousands of dollars a month? They do. You can do it as well.

Start your blogging business today

You can start your blog in less than one minute. Go to blogger.com (which is owned by google) and create a blog. This blog is your new business.

Choose a topic for your blog on which you're an expert. Not an expert? Of course you are. You're an expert on what you do. If you're a mother, you're an expert. If you're a student, you're an expert. If you're a bricklayer, you're an expert.

Or, choose a topic that's your favorite hobby: sports, cooking, eBay auctions - the choices are endless. What do you love? Create a blog based on your passion.

Monetize your blog

Once you've created a blogger blog, monetizing the blog is easy. google does it for you, by running AdSense advertisements on your blog. businesses pay google to run ads, and google pays you. You just need to set up an AdSense account (it takes minutes), wait for google to approve it (takes a day) and then insert the ads into your blog. Check the blogger Help file for all the information you need.

Keep adding information, and collect cash

The next step is to keep adding information - blog entries - to your blog. The rate at which you add entries is up to you. You'll find that the first few days of creating entries take longest. This is because you're building your blogging muscles. Within four days, you'll have gotten into the swing of it, and you'll find that it just takes minutes to create a blog entry.

As you add entries, they will be indexed in google, and when readers visit your blog and click on the AdSense ads, you earn money. The more visitors, the more you earn. It takes around a month for you to start seeing consistent income from your blog. Then, as you keep blogging, your income will rise steadily.

There are many other ways to earn income from your blog.

So there you have it: your one-minute business. No other business is as easy or as simple. And very few other businesses are as profitable.

Angela Booth is a veteran copywriter and blogger. Her ebook, Blogging For Dollars: How to become a career blogger -- in your PJs, if you want, is available at http://www.abmagic.com/Blog/blogging.html You can visit the book's blog at http://www.dollars2blog.com/blog/ Angela will show you how to turn a humble blog into a great career, or a lucrative business.

How To Decide On A Domain Name For Your Website And Register With Your Web Host

2006-10-03T02:58:00.000-07:00

How To Decide On A Domain Name For Your Website And Register With Your Web Host

Walk into a room filled with people today and chances are 92% of them have been on the Internet today. Take that same group of people and at least 63% have their own website whether on a community network, business, or a separate web host. It is becoming easier and easier to develop and maintain a personal or business website.

One of the first and most important parts of developing a web site is to do a bit of research on the subject. By researching you will be better informed and prepared when you are ready to get a web host. Once you are familiar with the terminology and usage of the Internet, you must come up with a domain name. This part can be especially tricky since there are literally millions of sites already named. Every domain name is different. If only by one letter or number there can be no domains with the exact same name. domain names are sort of like your fingerprints.
A domain name must be registered with the web host in order to be activated. Once you have chosen a domain name you cannot change it. This will be the name of your site until you open another, so be sure to think carefully.

Once you have your domain name registered you need to purchase web space from a web host. The amount of space you need depends on what you plan to do with your website. Most web hosts offer 5MB of storage to begin and you can always purchase more lately. If you plan on trading files or using the site as an adult website you will need additional space. This additional space can easily be purchased from your web host.

If you plan on sharing music or video downloads or files you will go through a lot of space due to transferring. This can quickly become a problem if you purchased only a small amount. You will then need to either buy additional space or eliminate some things from your site.

If you research the Internet you can find a lot of important information regarding your domain name and website. Keep in mind that all information available on the Internet is not necessarily correct. It is important to look the terminology up for yourself and to only follow information from reputable web pages.
Once you have purchased your space and registered a domain name you can then build your website. Sending others links to your new site is an excellent way to get the word out about your site and a great way to receive feedback on things you can work to improve on. With patience and effort you will soon have your own site up and running joining the millions of users worldwide.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about this as well as web hosting services at http://www.webhostingservicesplus.com

Top Four Key Issues - You Need To Consider When Choosing Keywords For Your Domain

2006-10-03T02:55:00.001-07:00

Top Four Key Issues - You Need To Consider When Choosing Keywords For Your Domain

I have spent the last three weeks working with one of my new clients. They have been building their own website for over three years, spent $20,000 and have virtually no traffic. Like many people on the internet, they saw an opportunity to license some material from another company and did so in the promise they would make money. Yet to their distress they have never ranked well online and have never had high levels of traffic.

This particular client has spent thousands of dollars on building email lists using Adwords to assist in driving traffic their way. They are fast running out of money and becoming very distressed. The client has spent lots of money paying other people to get search engine traffic but has never achieved a good ranking and in some search engines did not even register an existence.

Two weeks ago we worked out what keywords would suit the licensed products that the client had purchased, built a website based on the sales pages the licensor had provided and using the right keywords this client has now achieved the most outstanding results.

The client achieved within 1 week of the site being live a #1 ranking in Yahoo.com on a keyword. A number one ranking is predicted to bring about 50 hits a day. The website also achieved a number 2 ranking in Google.com on a keyword which is predicted to bring about 150 hits a day. The reason our client achieved these outstanding results was simply because of the process we followed in choosing the right and appropriate keywords for the domain and key webpages. I should note that whilst the client will only pull about 200 hits a day on this one key world, we expect to make 3 to 5 sales a day for a $300 product. If you look at the numbers from the best case scenarios, the sales will pull $1,500 a day US which works out to about $10,500 a week and about $500,000 a year. Not bad for one single keyword.

There are four key issues you need to consider when trying to choose the right keywords for your domain name.

Issue #1 – Identify The Actual Words Your Customers are Using To Search For Your Products

one of the biggest mistakes many people make is to not do the research to identify the actual keywords your customers are actually searching on. In fact I have found that often what a client thinks their customers are using to search for their products is totally different to what their clients actually search on.

There are many tools on the market to help you do this and there are new ones coming out every week. My team and I use a range of tools like WordTracker and Overture to develop lists of keywords our clients customers are actually searching on. I find that Wordtracker is a fantastic tool for this.

When you are trying to use Wordtracker, I recommend that you start your searches with just a single general word about your product. This will give you a full list of all the words and a range of important information.

Issue #2 – Identify the Right keywords with Minimal Competition

When you work with Wordtracker the system will give you a range of information about your keywords including the number of competing sites by search engine, the total number of hits per day in total to expect and a prediction of the number of hits per day by search engine. There are two issues you need to consider. one is the number of competitive sites for the keywords and the second is the number of hits you can expect.

The number of competitive sites is the most important issue to look. keywords that have few competitive sites are much better to go after than those keywords that have lots of competitive sites as it can take a while to rank well. For example, my team and I have been going after a general term which currently has about 900,000 competing sites. The downside is that it takes a lot of work, lots of articles and a lot of time to achieve a number one ranking. In particular it has taken us 4 and half months to rank in the top twenty and we expect it to take another 2 months to get into the top five.

I know of one company that wanted to rank well for the keywords "wholesale hats" and that it took them 6 solid months of writing articles and building back links to be ranked well in the number one position. When you are starting out, you will want to make sure that you choose low competition websites. Now here is the interesting issue, just because a keyword has 1 million competing webpages does not mean that its going to be hard to rank well. What you need to do is to identify how many backlinks the top competitors has for the keywords. If the top competitor's webpages have only a few links to their page or even their site then you may find it very easy to top those webpages.

one of the aspects to consider when choosing your keywords is to make sure that your general keywords are in fact included in the domain name. For example if you were creating a website on Asthma, then in your domain name, you would want to include the keyword Asthma but it is unlikely you would get Asthma.com. However you would want to include the term asthma as the search engines give a better ranking to those that have the keywords in the domain, simply due to relevance.

Remember one key issue, the more relevant your keywords and domain, the more likely your website will rank highly.

Issue #3 – Identify keywords with Good Daily hits

The next issue you need to look at is the number of daily hits you can expect using those keywords. If the only keywords you can get with low competition webpages have 10 to 30 hits per day, then it is going to be a long haul.

The best type of keywords are those where you have a couple of hundred hits per day, preferably a thousand plus a day and only a few competing webpages. one of the sites we did for one of my clients had 350 daily hits per day but only had 104 competing webpages. This number of competing webpages is minute and it will not take a huge amount to get a top ranking position.

Issue #4 – See What Your Competitors Are Doing With Your keywords

The next issue you need to look at is which keywords your competitors are using. When you are trying to work out your domain name you need to weigh up what your competitors are using to secure your customers, what keywords they are using in the keywords section of their meta data and what keywords they are using in their webpages and the text in their hyperlinks and their domains.

With all of this information you need to then balance out which keywords will give you the best results. Knowing what keywords your customers are searching on, which keywords have the least competition, what keywords your competitors are using and the total number of hits per day on your keywords will help you choose the right domain.

Oh and there is one other issue in all of this that you need to consider, is the domain with the keywords you have chosen still available?

Look the bottom line is that you want to build sites that are relevant and bring value to your customers and also to the search engines. If your websites do not do that then you will never be truly successful. All of the most successful websites in the world actually follow this credo.

If you are looking for more information on Marketing an Online Business or if you are looking for quality material to help you with copywriting - Free Example of Sales Letters or you just want more info visit Online Marketing Business Opportunity

Why Populate Domain Names with Keywords

2006-10-03T02:55:00.000-07:00

Why Populate Domain Names with Keywords

A proper domain name is essential to guiding traffic to your website. If your domain name seems entirely unrelated to the topic of your site, then it probably doesn’t draw the customer base that you desire. However, adding keywords to your domain name can be a driving force for search engines to top a list with your site for inquirers. Your position on the list of sites found based on a keyword search could be impacted severely by a domain name that does not incorporate the correct information.

Stay On Topic

The way to begin is to make sure that your website stays on topic. In other words, if you decide to sell nail polish, don’t get involved in pages and pages of information on nail files. Staying on topic will help you pick out the true keywords that will draw people to your website successfully. If you trick yourself into believing that “nail files” is an important keyword for your site, then you are misguiding potential visitors of your site. Staying on subject keeps every other step simpler.

Narrow the Field

While your site may have several relevant keywords with which to populate the domain name, you’ll want to narrow down the subject severely. You don’t want a domain name that goes on for miles because people can’t remember it. If you are selling nail care products, don’t try to include every product in the domain name. Try to consolidate. Either use the one or two most prominent products in the name or find a way to state your topic in general. Use “nail care” or “fingernails” in your domain name to suggest all products. Or, if you are focused on specialized grooming products for the nails, use “nail grooming”.

Be Unique but Simple

A domain name populated with keywords doesn’t have to be fancy. It simply needs to get the point of the website across in a somewhat unique way. If you are publishing a site about various grooming techniques or types of manicures for nails, you could use something cute like “fingernail tips”. If you are providing a service, you should include the location of your business, especially if the service is to be local and not an internet provision. If you live in Florida, you don’t want someone calling from Oregon expecting service the next day.

It is good practice to review other domain names regarding the same topic as you intend to include on your website so that you can get an idea of how others have attracted attention in the past, as well as what domain names are already taken so you can stay away from those and any others that are too similar. Start by searching the keyword or keywords with which you’d like to populate your domain name; this will return several sites that have already accomplished this. One of these sites may give you the best idea for your own site, and you’ll be ready to get started.

Keith Mallinson is a software publisher who helps web master automate their portal building business. Visit his site at http://www.subdomainwizard.com where you can get unlimited domain names for $97

What is an Expired Domain Name Drop Registrar?

2006-10-03T02:53:00.000-07:00

What is an Expired Domain Name Drop Registrar?

Once a domain expires one of two things will happen. Firstly the domain will expire and become available to register as a domain name through the normal registration process. If the domain has any value then it is likely to be picked up by a name drop registrar.

Before we go deeper into the world of dropped names you may want to know what an expired domain name is and how you go about getting hold of an expired domain name.

You may have noticed that your registrar offers a back ordering service. A Back order service allows you to pay your domain registrar to try and acquire a specific domain name once it expires.

There are drop registrars whose sole purpose is to try and register a domain name once it has dropped. These expired domain name catchers work on behalf of individuals and other domain registrars to acquire domain names on their behalf.

expired domains are a big business as webmasters and large corporations try to grab as many valuable domains as they drop. The reason for this virtual land grab is that many domain names can fetch high resale prices on the open market or have valuable existing traffic or type in traffic potential.

Find out more about Domains names at http://www.NameSearchDomain.com.

Your Domain Can be Stolen

2006-10-03T02:19:00.000-07:00

Your Domain Can be Stolen

Believe it or not, even thieves are already high-tech these days. Browsing the net and reading through online forums, I came across a startling story about how thieves have found their way to infiltrate the world wide web. I read about a lady who was planning to put up a web page of her own. As the normal process dictates, she first thought of a domain name for her website. She chose her own name and had it checked in CNet domain Search page for domain registrations and found out that it is very much available. A couple of days later, she checked it again and was shocked to discover that her name is already taken. She found out that her name is already a domain name registered to a firm with the name Chesterton Holdings.

The helpless lady brought the matter to the attention of Larry Seltzer, a columnist of eweek.com and a staunch critic of cyber crimes. Larry Seltzer investigated the matter himself. He checked the website whose domain name is that of the lady's. He immediately came to a conclusion that firm who "owns" the website and its domain name is a domain squatter, one among many domain squatters scattered all over cyberspace. Seltzer saw that the website is full of advertisements all domain squatters are associated with. He even claimed that the advertisements were syndicated through information.com. In Seltzer's column in eweek.com, he followed the next events regarding the theft of the lady's domain name. He reported that after a number of days, Chesterton, the bogus owner, has already let go of the stolen domain. He said this could have been prompted by the low hits or very few visits the site had. Apparently, silly domain squatters do not stay long in a domain, which is not lucrative for them. Squatters are somehow wise, at least in that sense.

The question that was immediately formed in my mind that Mr. Seltzer also posted, is how in the world was Chesterton able to register someone else's name to be its domain name? Moreover, why was the squatter allowed or given the permission to have ownership of a domain that is obviously not theirs? Anyway, I think my questions are unanswerable as of the moment. Even big companies and other established domain owners cannot exactly explain how domain theft is being successfully done. I bet you have also heard of the stealing of panex.com's domain. Well, if you have not, the bottom line is that even the Internet Corporation for Assigned names and Numbers (ICANN), whose mandate is to police the world wide web, failed to fully account the culprit behind the theft.

Curious about how rampant domain theft is, I made a little cyber investigation and probed on my own. I logged on to search.com, a property of CNet domain, and searched for the availability of my own name. I guess you've already guessed the result. Yes, my own name is already a registered domain name. With whom is it registered? Bingo! It is with Chesterton Holdings. My possible domain is already stolen. But I am confident the squatter will leave sooner than I think. My name is unpopular nor does it sound good to generate thousands of hits and visits. There is no way that notorious domain thief can make profit out of my unpopular name.

Though my stolen (domain) name is not much of a big fuss for me or for others, domain theft is an issue of great concern for other web owners. It is alarming that theft incidence can happen so easily and victims cannot do anything to account for the theft done.

Who is behind this syndicated theft? I do not think we can answer right now. Who is to be blamed for the proliferation of cyber thieves? We can go on pointing fingers but still not quell domain theft. I guess the only question we can answer as of now is who is already registered in a particular domain and who is not -- thanks to whois, a *querying database*. Whois is a transmission control protocol(TCP)-based query or a response protocol. It is utilized to identify the owner of a domain name, an IP address, or an autonomous system number on the internet. But then, it is also very probable that domain squatters are using whois to know which domain, in the form of people's real names, can they squat in.

domain theft and squatting is really a complex and alarming matter. This issue is a concern for current domain owners but more so to those planning to put up a website. This issue is most especially pertinent to those who are planning to put up an online business and use a website for marketing. I guess the best that people can do is to seek only the services of trusted web servers and hosts for domain registrations to ensure the security of their domain.

For more valuable information on domain registration, affiliate program(s), please visit http://www.businessanalyst.com

7 Reasons why Domain Squatting is Such a Big Business

2006-09-22T02:11:00.000-07:00

7 Reasons why Domain Squatting is Such a Big Business

Ever since a few prime domain registrations sold for as much as $8 million, domain squatting has become one way of earning big bucks in the cyber world. “Parked domain monetization” has become a career for many individuals.

domain name speculation is like investing in the share market; you could raking in big bucks or make a loss. Most techies consider domain name speculation a way to make a fast buck as it is low investment with a huge profit potential. However, these days registering domains could also lead to your getting embroiled in the entanglement of a law suit.

According to major registrars, the parked domain business nets over $5 - 8 million each year.

1. domain pages can be registered for small sums of money with a full refund if cancelled within 5 days. So, you can select a few names and see what happens.

2. If the “name” is an important one then it could sell for between USD 5000—USD 8 million dollars. If you are lucky you could buy a name that has great demand.

3. While parked you can earn from the web site by running ads and generating traffic. Revenue from text ads is projected to be approximately USD 400-600 million world wide. According to Susquehanna Financial Group it is expected to become a USD 1 billion dollar business by 2007.

4. One can use Google’s Adsense to turn the parked pages into some use.

5. It is important to use the forwarding and redirection service offered by the domain registrar. Only then, will all searches that are related even closely to the name registered by you will be forwarded to your site.

6. Tie up with a suitable affiliate program. Then you will make money by simply redirecting surfers to sites they are aiming for. For example if your site is onlinebooks.com then by setting up an affiliation with a book seller or online library you will benefit greatly.

7. You can at an appropriate time sell the domain name on an auction site. You could either list the names on Ebay.com, Afternic.com, or Ezdomainauction.com or hire a broker to sell the domain for you. One such broker is Greatdomains.com. To give you an idea, domains like internetbank.com sold for $92,800 while a1restaurants just sold for $730.

To be successful, you have to create a system. First you must find out on a regular basis which domain names are for sale, which ones have expired, and which names are likely to have a “demand” on the market. Then, you need to register as a merchant on a popular site that has high traffic like Aftenic or eBay and display what you have for sale. High quality domains, you will find, immediately receive bids. All you need to do is keep in mind a suitable price and sell for a profit.

As a “domain investor” you need to know which ones to buy. Assured are names that end with .com or .org. The estimated income if you are clever could be as high as USD 5000- 10,000 each month. However, don’t let the thrill of profit carry you to the deep end. Financial disasters can happen quickly. Invest a little, get back your investment and then reinvest the profit.

domain buying and selling can become addictive just like poker or horseracing.

Be careful!

Andrew Bermam is a freelance writer for http://www.1866Domains.com , the premier REVENUE SHARING discussion forum for Domain Forum including topics on internet domain name registration, domain names, domain transfers, domain registration, domain hosting service providers and more. He also freelances for the premier REVENUE SHARING discussion forum for Domain Site http://www.1888Discuss.com/domain/

Web Hosting Service: Top 6 Questions to Ask Before You Sign Up

2006-09-22T02:02:00.001-07:00

Web Hosting Service: Top 6 Questions to Ask Before You Sign Up

In the years that I have been paying for web hosting service I have learned to interrogate possible hosts with my essential questions before I sign up and I encourage you to do the same. Not only will you get valuable information to help you make your decision, but you’ll also learn a lot about the speed and quality of response to customer enquiries, which is one of the most important factors in becoming a happy web hosting client.

web hosting service 6 Pre-Sale Questions

1.) Backups? – Ask about what is backed up you want to hear that all files and databases are backed up, not just files or just databases. The next question is the frequency of the backups. Daily is best, weekly may be acceptable if you don’t update you site too often. Where are the backups located? Off-site backups are best. If the hosting company burns down, having your backups sitting next to the main server is not going to help you get your site back online.

2.) Data Center Location? – Avoid hosting with companies that have their datacenter in areas that are subject to extremes of weather or are politically unstable. Look closely to find this info, since a company can have its offices in a different location than its datacenter. Ask if you are unable to find the datacenter location on the website.

3.) Phone Support? – Is there a support phone number on the website? If not, find another web hosting service. If there is call the number and ask a couple routine questions from this list. If you get an answering machine and are told to leave your information, imagine it being the busiest day of your sites history and it goes down, are you going to be okay with not getting a human on the line?

4.) Testimonials? – Can you find the name and websites of other sites that host with this company? Do a search on Google for the “web hosting company name” testimonial to see what others have said. Keep in mind that you you’ll likely find negative customers for the best hosting service on the web, so look for patterns rather than specifics.

5.) Crowded Servers? – Ask how many sites do they put on each server? If you found one or more testimonials from number 4 you can do a whois lookup at whois.sc and find out the number of sites on the server. Again this can be deceiving, but if you do the research for a few web hosting services, you’ll find this a useful way to compare them.

6.) Patch Management? – How current are their software installations? What version of PHP are they using? Find out and then go to php.net and check the current stable version. If the web hosting service has Fantastico then see what version of WordPress they are installing. Since WordPress updates regularly it is a good measure of how well the hosting company stays on top of their patching regime.

While this is not a completely exhaustive list of factors that determine the quality of a hosting service, it is a quick and useful way to avoid the most common causes of problems when choosing a web hosting company.

Visit: www.smdwebhosting.net/ for more of Jon’s online experience distilled into useful tips that can help you find web hosting services you can live with.

Six things to look for when choosing a web hosting plan

2006-09-22T02:02:00.000-07:00

Six things to look for when choosing a web hosting plan

If you have never owned, operated or set up a website, then it can be confusing when it is time to choose a hosting firm or a hosting plan for your new website. The best way to deal with this confusion is to learn as much as you can about web hosting and then ask questions to your prospective web hosting firm about any points that are still not clear for you. To help you out, here are six factors to consider when choosing a hosting plan:

1. Disc Space - This is the amount of space on the server that you will have for your website files. In recent years the cost of disc space has fallen, and most web hosting plans allow you ample space, especially if you are only hosting one website. The files for a normal website should not take up more than 50 mb. However if you plan to host mp3 files or an extensive image collection then it could be much higher. In any case many web hosting plans now allow you several gigabytes of storage.

2. Bandwidth - How much data transfer does your web hosting plan allow you to make in a month? Whenever someone views one of your web pages she is in effect downloading the html file to her computer along with all the image files. If you have a lot of traffic and if your site has large files for downloading or streaming, then you will need a good quota of data transfer every month. It is hard to generalize about bandwidth needs, but many websites hardly use more than one gigabyte of data transfers per month. Once again, as with disc space, many web hosting plans now allow several gigabytes of transfer per month.

3. How many domains can you host? - If you plan to construct more than one website then you should choose a hosting plan that allows you to accommodate more than one domain on your section of the server. Who knows, you may want to set up a satellite website once your first website is established? If you think you need more than one website then look for a plan that allows multiple domain hosting.

4. Email facilities - One of the big advantages of having your own website is the ability to set up email addresses, forwarders and auto responders for yourself and for other members of your organization. Check to see how many email-addresses you can set up, either as POP accounts, which can be read online or downloaded with an email client such as Eudora or Outlook Express, or as aliases that forward to existing email accounts. Again, as with bandwidth and disc space most hosting plans allow you many more email accounts than you will ever use.

5. Control Panel - Before you buy a hosting plan, ask to look at a demo of the control panel which you will be using to administer your site. The control panel is the place where you can check the visitor statistics, add or delete email accounts, install scripts and make other technical changes for your website. The control panel should be easy to use and you should take some time to understand what it is all about before purchasing your hosting plan.

6. Are there pre-installed scripts? - The Internet is becoming more interactive, and you will probably want to add elements that will allow your visitors to contact you or even add content. For example, you may want to install a blog on your site or a bulletin board. It can be quite difficult to install these items if you are not a technical "nerd." However, many hosting firms now provide instant one-click installation of the programs that drive blogs, bulletin boards, guest books and similar interactive elements. If you plan to use any of these interactive features, make sure that the hosting plan that you are getting offers the possibility of easily installing these items.

These are the some of the main things to consider when you are choosing your web hosting plan. But remember one rule of thumb: if you are not sure about any of the features of the hosting plan then ask your web-hosting-firm to explain it to you in plain English.

A Beginners Guide to Web Hosting Providers

2006-09-22T01:56:00.001-07:00

A Beginners Guide to Web Hosting Providers

web hosting is a service that you may or may not be familiar with, but every time you surf the internet you rely on this service to provide you the information you are looking for. web hosting refers to the specific function of storing a web page in a computer, and allowing it to be seen by others on a network. A web hosting provider stores the web pages on computers very similar to the ones you have at your home and office. The main difference between the computers used by hosting companies and the computers you use for personal use is the software that is loaded onto them.

Computers that are used primarily for hosting web pages are typically loaded with operating systems specifically designed to host web pages or internet applications, and are called servers. web hosting companies may have only one server, or they may have hundreds or even thousands of servers connected together through a common interface.

Generally a web hosting company will have a dedicated, fast and reliable connection to the internet, allowing for quick access to the pages they are hosting. If a company has many servers and not a lot of clients, many times they will lease out the space on their servers to third party companies. These third party companies can then remotely administer the servers from anywhere in the world, allowing them to sell web hosting services without having hardware on site at their location.

With thousands of web hosting companies on the internet offering services ranging from basic, simple hosting plans all the way up to thousand page interactive business sites, the process of choosing the right hosting provider for your needs can seem daunting. There are several aspects of hosting that are similar to every company out there though, and by knowing the differences between these choices your decision about which hosting provider to choose can be made much clearer.

• Software

Before choosing a provider it’s important to know exactly what type of software the provider uses for hosting. Many people who are new to internet web page building might be surprised to know that hosting providers utilize different types of software for their service, and not all applications will work with all different types of software. The two most common types of software you will find are Unix, which will generally also include the Linux family of software, and Windows, or Microsoft type software.

• Bandwidth

Bandwidth refers to the amount of data transmission that the web hosting provider will provide for your website. Generally, bandwidth is allotted in a per month format. I.E. – if you choose account A. you will be allowed 50 Gigabytes of transmission per month. If you choose account B. you will allowed 100 Gigabytes of transmission per month, and so on. This is important to consider if your website will be set up to allow downloads. If you plan on opening a website which sells software to be downloaded from your site, make sure that you calculate how much bandwidth will be used and make sure your hosting plan provides that amount of data transmission.

• Disk Space

Disk space refers to the amount of space that your hosting provider will allocate for the storage of your site on their computers. Most sites themselves are not that large, unless you are planning on running a site with a lot of fancy graphics and a lot of pages. If you plan on storing videos, audio files, or lots of pictures and graphics which will be a part of your actual website design, then you will need more disk space from your web provider. A simple, mostly text based website, even with a certain amount of fancy graphics and design, will generally not take up a large amount of disk space on your web hosting provider’s disk. An easy way to find out how much space you will need is to simply design your site, then put all the files into a folder on your computer. Just check the size of the folder with all your website’s files in it to get a pretty good idea of the disk space required to store your site.

• Email accounts

Another thing to consider when choosing hosting providers is email accounts. Most hosting will come with email accounts, generally plenty of them for a typical site. Make sure if you will be requiring a lot of email accounts that they are included in your hosting plan. Also check with your provider to find out how those accounts are setup, and what type of control you will be able to have over them. Most hosting accounts come with several pre set email accounts and many non designated accounts which you can setup yourself. Check and make sure you have access to modify the settings of these accounts. Generally you will be able to change the names of the accounts, and have them forwarded to an existing account you already have setup.

Once you have a good idea of what type of resources your website will require in these four critical areas, your choice of web hosting providers can become a lot clearer. Remember that many companies will try and upsell you products and additional services that you probably don’t need. When getting started, it’s a good idea to just start with the basics. Get your site online and looking good, make sure it’s working correctly and all the links are pointing where they are supposed to, and then start tweaking, fine tuning, and adding extra services if you need them.

For the full version of this article log on to http://www.financialproductsdirect.com

David Nemer is the owner of http://www.financialproductsdirect.com and a freelance writer. Log on for the full version of this article, and many more.

Identifying the Right Web Hosting Company

2006-09-22T01:56:00.000-07:00

Identifying the Right Web Hosting Company

With the advent of the internet, businesses are breaking geographical boundaries and attaining quick global dimension. There is no barrier of distance with online buying and selling. The buyer and seller can be located in any part of the world. This has increased the potential of every business to see greater profit. Success in business in today’s E-commerce era is directly proportional to the strength of your online presence. In order to have a strong online presence you need a reliable web hosting service provider.

As you know, it is just not sufficient to own a highly interactive and expensive website. There is no use having a highly sophisticated shopping cart if it cannot be accessed by outside world. The main aim is to gain visibility. Your website will be accessible to the public only when it is live online. It requires a 24/7 online presence of your website so that you do not miss out on opportunities that come your way. If the server you are using to host your website is going to break down frequently, then you will be disadvantaged at various levels. So server breakdowns are highly undesirable.

When the server breaks down, people will not be able to access your website and they will get error messages such as, “Page cannot be displayed.” If this is going to happen often, then your website will lose a considerable amount of visitor traffic. It will block the new visitors and also frustrate regular visitors.

At another level, poor server uptime will affect your search engine placements. When the search engines crawl the web, they will not be able to access your website and your website will not be indexed. This means that you are going to miss out on the competition until the next indexing, which sometimes takes place only after three months. So, for these three months you will lose your potential visitor traffic.

Sometimes, web hosting companies pack too many websites on the same server on shared hosting. This will lead to server imbalance due to overload. There will be slow loading of your web pages and also the connection to the server will be disconnected often. Sometimes, you will not be able to access your admin panel to upload or manage your ftp account.

To protect yourself from all this, you need to shop around for a reliable web hosting service provider. While considering your web-hosting company and your web-hosting plan take into consideration your specific requirements. One of the common mistakes people make is to search for the cheapest web hosting company available online. They use cost as the main criteria to decide their web-hosting company. You might get a cheap offer, but in the long run it will be a very costly mistake as you lose your website traffic due to poor online performance. With the cut-throat competition in the web hosting industry, you can get hosting plans as low as $9 per year. But you need to take into consideration the post sales service and support that you get. There are many frustrated webmasters who do not get a response from their web host before they send five to six mails and make several follow-up calls to have their problems rectified. It is all the more critical when you happen to face problems with your website on a Friday night, as, often, it has to wait until Monday morning. However, there are many good web-hosting companies that offer 24/7 customer support to its members. So you need to take into consideration all of this before you sign up with your web-hosting company.

Server security could be another concern. Often website databases contain sensitive data such as customer banking details and credit card information that cannot be risked. Your web hosting company is responsible for the security of your data online. You need to find out the security features used by your web host. Regular back up of your data, too, should be part of your web-hosting package. Webmasters normally do not have a back up of their website files in a local system. They rely on their web host’s back up features. If something should go wrong, you should be able to retrieve your website and restore it to its latest functioning point.

Look for hosting configurations that will suit your specific need. If you do not find a suitable package, you can ask for a customized package. You can always play with your hosting configuration and your budget. What you cannot compromise is your server’s uptime.

Fei Lim is the company manager of Flizard Technologies which provides web hosting services, web design services, turnkey solutions, domain name services, and other internet services.

10 Reasons why HostGator is so Successful

2006-09-22T01:54:00.000-07:00

10 Reasons why HostGator is so Successful

The World Wide web is big business and to be successful all sites need a reliable web host. And, hostgator does that provides a better hosting environment. Born of the founders frustration at having to deal with unreliable web hosts while running high traffic web sites, hostgator has in three years grown from just 100 clients to over 10,000.

hostgator’s success and popularity can be attributed to:

1. The drive to provide for webmasters what for the founder found lacking in web hosts. The need to overcome problems web master’s face from web hosts of downtime, unreliability, and poor service.

2. The servers are from The Planet the acknowledged industry leader which provides state of the art service. hostgator now uses over 850 servers of The Planet.

3. The web host has a work philosophy that encompasses professionalism, commitment to safety, security and the number one working principle “customer satisfaction.”

4. hostgator is not just a leader but a training school for those wanting to be a part of the web hosting business. A part of the business module includes management of dedicated servers and reseller hosting.

5. Customer service and satisfaction are the keys to hostgator’s success.

6. The reseller service allows hosting of 12 domains which means savings.

7. The downtime is almost non existent.

8. Customer service is great. They provide both guidance as well as answers. Many basic services are provided free while for services like installation of scripts they charge.

9. If you need to move accounts there are no glitches and 20 accounts are moved by hostgator free of charge.

10. They create business modules that work. Whether it’s hosting or reselling for hostgator the customer comes first.

If you surf the net hostgator is among the few that consistently get good reviews. They provide good value for money and the space offered as well as data transfer are fair as well as efficient. For most aspects of web hosting hostgator receives excellent reviews.

The only negative comments are that the live online chat only provides answers to the most basic problems and therefore is categorized by many as a level 1 service and a few users have had problems with emails going astray. Many users however go on record saying that they were able to iron out the problems in no time at all with technical guidance form hostgator pros.

The company takes its web hosting business seriously and looks at all aspects from the customer’s point of view. For those who are not in the know the founder of hostgator started the firm when other web hosts were not able to provide the service he needed to run high traffic sites. hostgator is committed to providing reliable service, great support, technical know how, and affordable pricing. They aim to be the ultimate in shared, reseller, and dedicated web hosting solutions.

Aaron Brooks is a freelance writer for http://www.1866WebHosting.com , the premier website to find Web Hosting including topics on web hosting provider, cheap web hosting, business web hosting, web hosting company, small business web hosting, business web site hosting, web hosting solution and more. He also freelances for the premier Voip site http://www.1866Voip.com

How to Choose a Web Hosting Provider

2006-09-22T01:51:00.000-07:00

How to Choose a Web Hosting Provider

Choosing a hosting provider can seem like a quite a headache when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. In general, there are several factors that are common with all hosting providers, and which you will need to consider before making the final choice of which hosting provider to choose. Before signing up with a provider, ask yourself the following questions:

• How much money are you willing to invest in your website? Most websites can be up and running in a couple of days for very inexpensive prices, but consider just how much you are willing to invest in your site before choosing a provider. Remember, hosting might not be the only thing you are spending money on when setting up your site, so budget accordingly.

• How much hard disk storage will your website require? Will your site be a large database of files, or a mostly text based web page? If you are going to be hosting large files on your site, like pictures or music, make sure you know exactly how much space all those files are going to take up so you can have an idea of how much hard drive space you will require from your server.

• How much bandwidth are you going to need? This is a similar question to the storage aspect of your site. If you will be running large files through you site all day long, you will need much more bandwidth than most sites. If your site will be only a couple of basic pages describing your service and asking people to contact you, then you will probably be ok with purchasing minimal bandwidth.

• Will your site require any special software to run correctly, like scripts. If so, what types?

• Do you need a database? Some servers aren’t set up to host a database, and some can only host certain types. If you are going to need a database with your website, make sure you find out in advance what the requirements will be.

After asking yourself these questions, mentally visualize your site and what it’s purpose will be. Get out some paper and write down some of the pages, where they will link too, and what each function of the site will be. Try and work out before hand any additional requirements that your site will require, so that when it comes time to actually set it up on your computer, and your hosting provider, you won’t be surprised by requirements you haven’t worked out yet.

It’s always a good idea to research several hosting companies before making any decisions. Take a look at their websites, and read the technical requirements of their server software and hardware. Don’t just read the sales hype, they will all tell you that they’re the best value, and the best performing of them all. See if you can find some links to sites that are hosted on their servers, and see if those sites are similar to what you envision for yours.

Finally, read up on some of the online forums that populate the net. You can find many forums dedicated to web hosting, and web hosting providers. Just use the forums search function and type in the questions you would like answers for. Chances are, someone else has already asked the same question, and had it answered, in one of the threads on the forum.

Log on for more info: www.financialproductsdirect.com

David Nemer is the owner of http://www.financialproductsdirect.com and a freelance writer.

Cheap Web Hosting - Are You Paying Too Much For Your Web Hosting Service?

2006-09-22T01:43:00.000-07:00

Cheap Web Hosting - Are You Paying Too Much For Your Web Hosting Service?

Whether you want to get a new website online for personal use or for business, it helps to have a basic understanding of what web hosting is and what you should look for as you compare different web hosting offers. At its most basic form, web hosting is a service that many companies provide that allows you to store content on a computer (called a server) that is accessible via the Internet. The content can be anything, including web pages, images, audio, video or other types of content. But since different customers have different requirements, finding a good web host that meets your needs and your budget can be a challenge.

When starting out, many people tend to look for free web hosting as a way to get their sites online. However, it might be a good idea to check out some of the offers that web hosting companies have, even if you have to pay for them. web hosting companies offer different types of packages depending on the needs of their customers, similar to other types of services. That way, you can get just what you need without having to pay for features that you never use.

You can get good, quality hosting for less than $10 a month and not have to worry about the unwanted advertisements on your site, which typically is the "catch" with free web hosting services. In addition, for that $10 per month, you can find web hosting that will provide you with enough features, disk space, and bandwidth to more than cover what you will probably need for a new website. Finally, once you're ready to upgrade, perhaps to a package that has more disk space (so you can store larger files) or that has greater bandwidth (to handle all those visitors to your site), a quick email or call to the web host's support team is usually all it takes to upgrade your account.

Even the most basic type of hosting will allow you to store files and images, though you'll be limited based on the amount of storage space that comes with your package. For more complex sites, or if your site becomes more intricate down the road, you may want to choose a web host that offers features such as PHP, ASP and database support. Using these types of tools, you (or your web developer) can create dynamic, custom web pages and scripts that make your sites more interactive for your visitors.

To make things easier on you (or your webmaster), you should look for companies that offer some sort of control panel to allow you to access and make changes to your server. One of the most common control panels you're likely to find is CPanel. With a control panel, you can easily make changes to your setup, such as adding new email addresses, checking web stats, copying files, or other administrative tasks.

If affordable, feature-rich web hosting is something you or your business would be interested in, take some time today to start researching a few of the different options available.

STOP: You don't have to pay a fortune for quality, secure web hosting. Discover top-rated web hosting companies that will only cost you a few cents a day by checking out the cheap web hosting recommendations at http://www.OnlineWebHostGuide.com.

Of Search Engines and Free Web Hosting

2006-09-11T01:39:00.000-07:00

Of Search Engines and Free Web Hosting

The Strategic Counsel, a polling firm located in Canada has released a report saying that most *computer addicts* rely on search engines to go to different websites, even if the web site name is easy to remember. In the survey recently done by The Strategic Counsel, it was found out that the popular search engine sites are Google, Yahoo, Lycos, and Alta Vista to locate websites that they want to visit and explore. In fact, the federal Government of Canada even paid Strategic Counsel a huge sum of sixty-five thousand dollars. The study also revealed that there's a slim or no chance at all that the people would remember the exact universal resource locator address given the existence of search engines. For most people, the easiest and fastest way to find what they are looking for is via search engines.

search engines play a relevant role especially for those who are in the pay per click marketing industry where the rank of the sites in the search engine counts. This is actually the key weapon in earning big bucks in online business. The report published by The Strategic Counsel is vital in online business because as long search engines are thriving, pay per click marketing will flourish. It's a matter of enhancing your url and your domain names so that people will be attracted to click on your sites. Make sure that it will cause a lot of traffic, in order to profit. search engines are useful springboards where people can go to different sites that they never imagine existed. This is also beneficial for those who own several web sites and domain names because there's a huge chance that their site is visited with the help of the search engine.

On the other hand in United Kingdom, Fasthosts has reported that United Kingdom's online businesses are shrinking because the consumers are tired of businesses that are dependent on free web hosting. Fasthosts, the top one webhost in September 2005 as conducted by Tophosts.com, found out that the usage of free web hosting do not result well in the profit of UK's online businesses. SME's or small and medium enterprises succumb to free web hosting without realizing the dangers that it could cause their business. There are still many unknown factors or aspects of free web hosting that businesses should know before they venture in it. Even if it's a free web hosting, the damages it could bring to your business is definitely high.

The reason small and medium enterprises are endangered in free web hosting is that people have a tendency not to remember your specific site since your domain name can be found in the last part of the url address, making it difficult for people to even notice. There's a rare chance that people will visit your site. There's also the problem with the search engine since it would be difficult for the engine to recognize such arduous site. According to the finding of Fasthosts, which made a survey of one hundred top free web hosts on earth, it revealed that the storage space given to small and medium enterprises are only 338 MB and that there's a restriction to the bandwidth allowances.

There's a huge possibility that small and medium enterprises would generate more expenses when they depend on free web hosting providers since the latter do not provide any safe shopping carts and ordering system. Since this is the case, they have to avail another set of security tools in order to serve better their consumers. A problem may also occur once the owner of the free web hosting decides to alter the name of the sites. Those businesses under it would have to start from the beginning since the previous customers can no longer find them. This definitely would mean lost of possible income for the small and medium enterprises.

Every small and medium enterprises are susceptible to the following disadvantages: difficulty of being located by resourceful search engines, no support for backup files, downtime every now and then which makes it not dependable servers, and absence of security to ensure product orders online.

Both the researches of Fasthosts and Strategic Counsel are helpful and informative for online industries that are sprouting anywhere. Before entering any web hosting, make sure that you're going to benefit and profit from it and not the other way around.

For more valuable information on domain registration, affiliate program(s), please visit http://www.businessanalyst.com

Make The Move To Multiple Domain Hosting

2006-09-11T01:36:00.000-07:00

Make The Move To Multiple Domain Hosting

As a webmaster, you must have been familiar with what the industry calls "shared hosting plan" which is a cheap way to put your website. A hosting provider can offers that service cheap because you only use a small amount of the storage capacity of a server which is shared among many other users.

Unfortunately many of them only let you host one domain under one account. It will not be a problem if you don't have a plan to build more than one websites. But the story could be different when you want to do it in the future where you will have to open an additional hosting account everytime you host a new domain name. Imagine how much money you have to spend every month just for paying your hosting service.

On the other hand, using a hosting provider that allows you host all of your domains under one account will save your money over a host that insists that you open a new account for each site. That way you can create several websites to promote different products without having to be upset about any extra fees.

It is entirely up to you what kind of websites you intend to build. You can build online directories, websites that full of contents and/or websites that consist of one long sales letter that you can promote with PPC or ezine. Of course you can promote unrelated products using only one website but it would not look professional in the eyes of your site visitors. Keep in mind that a good domain name is usually related to the content of a website.

Some multiple domain hosting companies also provide Fantastico. Building different type of websites such as classified ads, online directory or blog can be accomplished very easily by using this feature.

To make it better, you can even register your additional domain names through a cheap registrar such as GoDaddy. After registering the domain names with the registrar don't forget to setup the DNS addresses provided by your host. Then go into the "add-on domain" sub menu in your hosting Control Panel and fill in the blanks with the name of your new domains and the subdirectories for them. Do it for each of your domains. Wait a few days (usually less than 48 hours) before the master list the domain registrar updates will be shared throughout the internet and all name servers know where to find your new domain.

With multiple domain hosting you can go about setting up specific email addresses, subdirectories, databases and FTP accounts for each of your domains. In fact there are no real differences between using a multiple domain hosting plan and a conventional shared hosting plan.

You can find multiple domain plans starting at about $10 a month. Compared with a conventional shared hosting, the price is not much different and even might be cheaper than the price of your current hosting service.

With so many profitable products you can sell online, the move is one you will never regret. Finally, it is your own decision whether you are ready and willing to use a multiple domain hosting service and save yourself some hard earned cash. The choice is absolutely yours.

Heris Yunora is the owner of unlimitedhostingplan.com, a website that contains the comparation between two popular unlimited domain hosting providers

The World's Greatest Unsticky Organic Web Farm

2006-09-11T01:29:00.000-07:00

The World's Greatest Unsticky Organic Web Farm

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

-Arthur C. Clarke

Act One: The Pledge

Dear Reader, consider yourself warned! The following paragraphs are not for the faint-hearted. Contained herein lies a feat of daring so bold, so extraordinary, so shocking that it mocks your very understanding of the universe. Best you turn away now, lest the fabric of your reality unravel as so many loose threads; leaving you standing bare and raving mad, forsaken in a wasteland of shattered beliefs.

I'm going to take a run-of-the-mill session-based web application and turn it into a load balanced web farm before your very eyes - all without making a single coding change to the application. That's right ladies and gentlemen, what you're about to witness is a load balancing technique so ingenious, so perfect that the web server - nay the very web application itself will not even know it is part of a web farm.

Each and every web server in the farm will think it alone is communicating with the client. Each and every web server will record a hit not from the load balancer, but from the client itself. And finally each and every web server will respond directly back to the client, utterly bypassing the very load balancer that brokered the request to begin with.

No special software will be installed on the web servers. No ISAPI filters. No plug-ins or other such nonsense will be required.

Understand! This is hardware load balancing I speak of, pure and simple. Hardware load balancing accomplished without the likes of Zeus, Coyote Point or even the F5 BigIP. This is organic web farming; hardware load balancing achieved with nothing more than two ordinary servers. And perhaps, a little bit of magic.

Act Two: The Turn

I have before me two Dell PowerEdge 850s, each with but a single Celeron processor and a mere 512 MB of memory. One could use nearly any kind of hardware. We, of course, have our corporate sponsorships to think of.

With a wave of my magic wand, Debian Sarge is installed on both servers. Do not be deceived by its meek and unassuming nature. Renowed for its robustness to hyperbole and found in all 12 world climate zones, Debian Linux stands ably by to perform any task at my bidding.

After a sprinkle of additions to the source.list file, I shall now utter the magic words to turn these servers into a high availability pair of load directors: apt-get install ultramonkey. Now with another wave of my wand, I apply the necessary configuration elements to enable the fabled load balancing method known as Direct Routing.

Observe! The default gateway of each web server remains unchanged (and it is not the IP address of the load balancer). Our web servers do not even know the load balancer exists. Requests are forwarded with their source IP address intact. Each web server replies directly, bypassing the load balancer entirely.

Act Three: The Prestige

Still not impressed? Take heed, for I have but two words that will surely sway even the most skeptical of skeptics. Listen carefully, for I shall not repeat myself. The words are View State. That's right, I have accomplished the implausible, the unthinkable. You'll find no Apaches in this web farm. I present to you Windows server 2003 and a Microsoft .NET web application.

How many in our audience have tried load balancing a .NET application? If so, then you surely have encountered the dreaded "View State is invalid" error.

If you "fixed" this error by enabling some type of sticky sessions on your load balancer, I applaud you with a tip of my cap and a knowing wink. An honorable mention of your efforts is in order perhaps, but let's be honest. That's not really load balancing is it? In the end each client is bound to a single server. Stickyness is only excusable should your application require SSL.

Behold!
I present to you the World's Greatest Unsticky Organic web Farm. Each incoming request is relayed round-robin style to the next server in the web farm. The View State remains persistent across each different web server, yet no special programming or state handling mechanism was employed. In fact, the application developers themselves do not even know the secret. And should one server be unavailable for whatever reason, our load balancers will automatically detect it and only send requests to the remaining live servers.

Act Four: The Secret

Everyone knows that a good magician guards the secret to his magic. I have guarded mine on our website (sssh, don't tell anyone).

Glen Kendell is a network architect and owner of Release to Production. He publishes a monthly newsletter called In-Production: Achieving True High Availability.

Shared Hosting

2006-09-11T01:25:00.000-07:00

Shared Hosting

Websites are practically housed on servers. These servers are computers that have been programmed to respond to every call for data from cyberspace. Every server owns individual IP addresses consisting of four numbers that are separated by dots.

Shared hosting is one of the most common hosting types. It refers to plan that enrolls websites in one server that share the same allocations and assets provided by one computer system.

Shared hosting puts several websites into equally divided disk space, IP addresses and bandwidth. The web host administers equal allocation of bandwidth and disk spaces per month for all websites, and any excess is relatively sanctioned with penalty charges. The sites that are pushed to their limits are sometimes closed down. Web hosts do this to provide adequate service to every shared site.

There are risks in Shared hosting. Web hosts that maneuver Shared hosting ensure an ample amount of traffic that each of the sites receives. When a particular shared host’s server is frequently visited, the traffic will respond at a much slower pace. If a website requires high traffic, committing to a dedicated server can be a better option.

Any activity that is engaged in by neighboring websites affects everything within the server’s province. It acts like a domino effect. If one of the neighboring websites runs a program script that is corrupted or banned out of spamming strategies, everyone enrolled in the same IP address encounters the same problem.

In general, Shared hosting is cheaper than other hosting types since the operating cost of one server is equally divided among a number of clients. In most cases, Shared hosting fees are as little as $2 in a month. But you have to search for web hosting companies that meet your requirements.

Shared Hosting provides detailed information on Shared Hosting, Shared Hosting Providers, Shared Hosting Plans, Shared Web Hosting and more. Shared Hosting is affiliated with Virtual Domain Hosting.

How to Create an Unlimited Number of Business Emails Using Your Web Hosting

2006-09-11T01:19:00.000-07:00

How to Create an Unlimited Number of Business Emails Using Your Web Hosting

If you want to have a professional business identity, one of the important tools you
must have are: your own website and email addresses.

Can you imagine doing business with someone who has no website or email that shows
the business name?

With the advancement of web hosting technology and the ease of use, any one can have their own website, domain name, and email that has their business name.

You can create unlimited number of email with your business name. All you need is get a web hosting account and register a domain name.

The web hosting account and the domain name can be registered in the same place. Most web hosting companies let you register a domain name.

Why you need a web hosting and domain name?
In order to have your own website, www name, and related emails, you must register a domain name and you need to get a web hosting account. The domain name registration lets you have a www.yourcompanyname.com.

And the web hosting account provides you a storage on a web server for your website files. Also, the web hosting company provides you with an email aliases and email storage for your email files.

You don't have to have a website in order to create your email addresses with your web host. There are many web hosting companies on the Internet.

Once, you register a domain name and get a web hosting account, you can create your email addresses without even having a website. My first choice of web hosting is a Linux based web server with Cpanel control that enables the user modify all kinds of feature.

To create email accounts using Cpanel control panel, you log in through the main website address with /Cpanel added at the end of the domain name. Then you enter the user ID and password you receive from the web hosting account.

Now, you are at the Cpanel page, where you find about 40 icons, each has a specific function that you can use to add a function to the website.

On the top line of the control panel, you will find two icons named: "mail" and "webmail".

The mail icon provide a menu called: "Mail Manager Main Menu". This is where you can add delete, or modify an email account. Depending on the web hosting company, you can create a specific number of emails. Some let have 10, 100, or unlimited number of email accounts.

The Webmail is used to access the email accounts. Since each email account has a different user ID and password, the email will be private to each user.

In summary, in you can use your web hosting and domain name to create email accounts that match your business name without creating a website. You can create the website later.

Do you want your business to have more exposure without geographic limitation?
Do you want to look more like a professional business owner? If your answer is yes, then you must have a website. For more details, click this link ==>4DaysWebsite.com

George Chamoun, Web designer

What Is The Difference Between Windows And Unix Web Hosting?

2006-09-11T01:16:00.000-07:00

What Is The Difference Between windows And unix web hosting?

windows and unix are in fact two different systems and of course we are referring to computer systems. A web host uses computers, (we shall refer to them as servers, just computers, but sometimes larger) to host websites, and all computers need a operating system, so windows and unix are the operating system.

The windows used is normally windows NT or 2000 and of course as you know microsoft charges for it's software, while unix is an open source operating system, this means that the original creators of the system have given up the rights and anyone can use it, change, improve or do anything they want with, free of charge.

From this we already have to main differences, Window hosts are more expensive and unix is more reliable, because it as been improved by thousands of anonymous people.
Most probably you are reading this in front of your computer which most probably is operates on a windows XP, have you noticed that it sometimes, it freezes, and the only solution is to restart it? unix is much more stable, robust, time-tested, flexible platform for a web server.

But windows servers have also it's positive sides, they are compatible with microsoft applications, and fully support microsoft FrontPage, microsoft Access and MS SQL, they also offer advance-programming environments and features such as Active Server Pages (ASP), the ASP.NET framework, Visual Basic Scripts, MS Index Server, Macromedia's and Cold Fusion.

windows operating system require little or no experience in web development to get advanced features working very quickly because of better graphical user interface (GUI) Software such as microsoft's FrontPage is specially developed for the webmaster to decrease the website development time and efforts.

Lets go back again to unix, they support FrontPage, Flash, Shockwave, Real Audio/Video, Cgi Scripts, Perl, PHP, SSH (Secure Telnet), MySQL, Web-Based Control system, Anonymous FTP, Web Site Graphical Statistics, Web-Based Email system, Miva/XML, Cold Fusion Perl, JAVA, PHP, C, C++, Miva, Shell Access and other wide verity of feature like Telnet and SSH that provides lots of flexibility and freedom in managing file and directories, but some of this require advance knowledge of unix commands in order for you to customize the scripts to match your website needs.
Because of the nature of unix, (open source) and the people who love it, there is on the WWW freely available software and scripts, again bringing the cost down.

Concluding which one is the best, it really depends what you need, if you need high uptime, security and not so expensive then go with unix, if you need to run windows applications like, MS Access or the MS SQL SERVER then windows is your choice.

Paul Santos
CEO
Hosting Marketers
Hosting Marketers - Email Leads - Hosting Directory

ADSL Web Hosting

2006-09-11T01:12:00.000-07:00

ADSL Web Hosting

Users today have several web hosting options available for them. For many, ADSL web hosting is the best option. Experts feel that to a good extent, ADSL web hosting serves to meet the critical requirements of the modern business world. Today there are several companies who provide all services related to ADSL web hosting. These service providers provide 24 x 7 assistance.

A successful business concern requires a quick and reliable ADSL web hosting solution for running its day-to-day operations. Powerful end-to-end ADSL website solutions are provided by vendors who are trained to handle the pressures of modern businesses. These vendors are powered with quality professionals to provide the hardware and the structure to ensure the best uptime rate reliability, and prompt response in problematic situations.

Customers who want to use ADSL web hosting often remain concerned about the cost. The cost is not usually a great determiner, since there are several good ADSL web-hosting services today that are available at a much lower cost. It is therefore recommended that customers should undertake thorough research of the various options available before choosing one.

It is advisable that clients who are concerned about the speeds in which their sites would be available should consider the speed of the servers. The next concern is the bandwidth and the connections. Any server that hosts several websites and is being used at the same time from different locations is likely to get choked and eventually blocked. Such a choked situation may also dramatically affect the speed in which the website visitors access the websites. One of the easiest ways to check the quickness of the server is by pinging. To ping a website you need to run the DOS command prompt. This will instantly allow you to learn the speed of the server.

ADSL provides detailed information on ADSL, ADSL Modems, ADSL Web Hosting, ADSL Routers and more. ADSL is affiliated with DSL Service.

Blogs Optimization Can Get You A PR6 In One Month

2006-08-15T04:25:00.000-07:00

Blogs Optimization Can Get You A PR6 In One Month

Blogs Optimization, Blog Business Network, Optimize Blog

I wasn't aware of the existence of this fabulous software until I read a brand new ebook about blogging. The writer of this ebook was recommending a totally new software that I have never heard of , so I was curious like a cat and went to the web site to check it out.

All that I could say was: "Wow".

Let's just put it this way:

What a webmaster or blogger needs: templates, content - lots of it, back links - tens of thousands of them, capacity of manipulating all this from one place plus SEO optimization, traffic, high PR, etc.

Now, we all have CPanels and loads of other softwares, each of them doing its thing.

But look at this testimonial here: "Considering my domain of only 1 month old using BlogSolution has gone from PR0 to PR6 and every site that I linked from my BS site is also a PR6. I am in absolute shock. Just from using BlogSolution."

Now, what can you say about that? Do you have that kind of software?

I looked up the blog solution forum ( yes, they have one). And guess what I found; that actually yes, the BlogSolution users do get those results.

I am totally amazed about how such a tool goes totally unknown to the majority of bloggers. Do you know how this software helps? Put your seat belt on:

- creates 1000s of blogs per second ( no BS)

- BlogSolution blogs: provide 1000s of one way links to your sites, get your sites indexed FAST in the search engines, draw thousands and thousands of SE spiders, can dramatically help your other site's rankings, and make adsense and affiliate income.

- all the blogs are keyword optimized - title, subtitle, etc.

- all the blogs have RSS feed - keyword optimized

- you can add /delete link(s) to one or all blogs with one click

- it has a clocking feature - if you are into that stuff

- BlogSolution grows and adds blogs naturally. This means it creates, updates, pings, etc etc without you having to lift a finger. They're called SmartJobs - create blogs even when you are not around.

- BlogSolution is the fastest mass blogging and pinging software on the internet. Of course, totally automated.

Completely plug and play. Effective for both beginner and expert. Flexibility. This system bends to what YOU want.

My article doesn't tell the whole story. Follow my link and get the whole thing. It will knock your socks off!

Successful Online Marketer. Tons of Online Marketing Resources can be found at: http://www.affiliates-help.com Check Out The BlogSolution Software : http://www.affhelp.titanpay.com

How To Generate Income From Blogging

2006-08-15T03:59:00.000-07:00

How To Generate Income From Blogging

Blogging is a relatively new term that has just begun to make its rounds through the Internet world. You may have asked yourself in the past “what is blogging and why is everyone talking about it?” And the answer is relatively simple. Blogging is nothing more than a website that is updated on a regular basis with the newest entries being displayed at the top. A blog is pretty much an online journal where anybody can go and type their thoughts for the rest of the Internet world to read.

If you like to write, and are looking for a new place to display your work, blogging may be the answer you have been searching for. There are a couple of blogging tips that you should keep in mind before starting. First off, there are many blogging sites that will allow you to have your own web page for free. These free blogging sites can be found through a simple Internet search. Of course, if you want to get more serious about your blog you can register your own domain name and compile your blog their. Another tip to keep in mind is that if you do not want to write about your personal life, blogging for business may still be right for you. There are thousands of businesses that also run blogs as a way for their customers, and prospective customers, to stay informed. Blogging for business has taken off in the small business sector over the past year, and it is surely going to reach a wider audience as word gets around.

If you had to ask yourself “what is blogging”, you probably are not aware that you can make money off of it as well. Many people start blogs as a way to make money. The best way to do this is by signing up for a Google adsense account. This has been proven as one of the best ways of making money with a blog. When you sign up for an account, Google will place targeted ads on your blog that will earn you money every time somebody visits your site and clicks on them. So, if you have a lot of traffic on your blog you will definitely be able to make some extra money.

There are plenty of blogging tips that are available by searching the Internet. It is important to read these blogging tips so that you know exactly what you are doing, and where to start. Making money with a blog is also very possible if you can garner enough traffic to your site. Even though blogging is still relatively unknown to a lot of the world, it is sure to pick up more steam over the next couple of years and become even more popular.

Copyright © David Nettey

David Nettey is the webmaster of http://manicures.lyecryads.com and http://culinary-arts.lyecryads.com. For an Internet Home Business that trains you and helps you succeed, visit his website, Start Your Internet Business in 24hrs

The Basics Of Customizing Wordpress Templates

2006-08-15T03:49:00.000-07:00

The Basics Of Customizing Wordpress Templates

Do you want to change the look of your WordPress site or maybe to put something like a banner or adsense code on your blog? In order to do this you need to know about three important things: template files, functions and CSS.

- Template Files

These files are stored in a directory (wp-content/themes/template-name/). So if you are using "default theme", you need to access the files that are stored in "wp-content/themes/default/" directory.

There are several common WordPress template files you should know:

1.header.php

This file is responsible for the appearance of the top section of your blog. If you want to change the header image, you have to access this file. Not only that, this file is also the place to add Meta Tags.

2.footer.php

Similar to the header.php, this file is loaded everytime any page or post of your blog is accessed. It is used to store the HTML tags and the code for the bottom section of your blog.

3.sidebar.php

A sidebar is a section which is usually used to display site navigation. Depending on the theme you are using, a sidebar usually provides links to archives, pages and latest posts.

4.index.php

In fact this file is the main template file. When someone visits the homepage of your blog site, this file will be loaded. Then he/she will see the contents (not the source code) of this file. If you want to make the appearance of your blog become similar to a common website, where there is a static description on the homepage, you may try to put the static content in this file.

Besides those files, a theme usually has some other template files with different purposes. For example, the archives.php is a file used to display posts you made in the past. Then the search.php is used to generate search results.

- Functions

A function is a blog of code to accomplish a specific task. In order to modify template files, you don't need to master any programming language. Although having a little knowledge in PHP, you can work faster. In WordPress, the name of a function is usually related to its purpose. For instance, "the_title()" is a function to display the title of a post and "the_content()" is used to display its content. Another example is "blog_info()" which is responsible for displaying the name or description of your blog, depending on the given argument (additional data).

- CSS

Style Sheet is a facility to manage the format and layout of a website efficiently. Without using it, changing small things such as the font type or the background color of all of your webpages is a daunting task where you have to do it page by page. But with the existence of style sheet, one change you make can affect the whole site. You should know that in WordPress a different theme may have a different css file. You also need to know that some styles may be defined in the header.php file. If you are using the "default theme", you have to access the header.php file in order to change the background color or the header image of your blog, not the css file.

Finally, before you customize the templates, it is highly recommended to backup any files you intend to change. If something doesn't work properly, you can always go back to the original settings.

Heris Yunora is the owner of unlimitedhostingplan.com, a website that contains information on multiple domain hosting with features such as unlimited subdomain, databases, and unlimited email accounts.

UNIX vs. Windows- What Server Operating System Should You Use for Your Web Hosting?

2006-08-14T06:22:00.000-07:00

UNIX vs. Windows- What Server Operating System Should You Use for Your Web Hosting?

So you've decided to create a website? The most obvious thing that you need is of course web hosting. Among other things, like cost and features, you'll need to decide which server you'll need: Windows (NT, 2000 or XP) or Unix (Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc.).

Both have their merits, so the first thing you should think about when making this decision is if you are looking for stability, or ease of use. UNIX based servers are generally superior in the site up-time and stability areas than Windows systems. However, while they need to be rebooted more often, Windows servers are generally easier to administer and use. Many beginners to web hosting will be confused over the pros and cons of the different operating systems. While, Unix is more stable and secure it uses a command line interface for administration. This interface, which is like the original MS-DOS interface, can be difficult to understand to a website newbie. Also, in order to keep a UNIX machine stable, one must update the kernel and software regularly, a process which is more difficult than Windows. This however, can be made just as easy to do if your web host has good administration software.

Another thing to consider when choosing which operating system to use is whether you will be using scripting. If so what kind? For example, if you will be using a dynamic site, and decide that you want to go Perl as your language of choice then UNIX should be your operating system of choice. This is also true for languages such as PHP, and Pythlon. On the other hand, if you choose to go for an ASP based site then you should choose Windows. However, to complicate the matter further some UNIX systems can run ASP scripts, although the quality of the script execution can be lesser.

Bare in mind that if you choose a Windows-based web server (this does not apply to hosting accounts as the host should take care of it for you) you will need to update the software with patches from Microsoft's web site almost weekly to prevent your site from being exploited. UNIX administrators will only have to do so monthly or so as UNIX is more secure by nature, and needs fewer patches and software updates.

Unix operating systems are generally the preferred operating system, however, in the end, if you do everything correctly, a UNIX hosted web site and a Windows hosted web site will function somewhat equally, and both should make you happy. Be sure to keep operating costs and maintained in mind when making your decision and you won't regret it.

Tim Shaw is director of (Big Wow Web Hosting ), a cheap and reliable web host. He has written several books and ebooks on web hosting, and has had many years experience in computers, the web and web hosting.

Webhosting for Blogs - Free or Paid Service

2006-08-14T06:20:00.001-07:00

Webhosting for Blogs - Free or Paid Service

Blogging is an abbreviation of "web-logging". The simplest definition of a blog is that it is an online log that is organized in reverse chronological order. It comprises of comments, declarations, links, or anything else of interest to the blog writer.

There are two basic requirements of starting your own blog. You need a software to run a blog and a place on the Internet to host your blog.

Taking into consideration the above mentioned two factors, there can be four categories of blogs:

1. Free Software + Free Webhosting
2. Free Software + Paid Webhosting
3. Paid Software including Price of Webhosting
4. Paid Software + Paid Webhosting

We have given descriptions of all these four options alongwith their pros and cons.

We have also given recommendations regarding the suitability of these options.

1. Free Software + Free Webhosting

This is a completely free way of blogging. Here you pay neither for the software nor for the virtual hosting.

But there are some drawbacks of this system. It offers very few features as compared to the paid services. You cannot post pictures online or design your preferred look for your site.

The companies that provide free software and free domain hosting frequently place a banner immediately above your site. This detracts the visitors from the look of your site. You also have no discretion over the content of the advertisements.

The key advantage of this system is that it is absolutely free. This option is extremely useful for a newcomer since he/she can try this method to find if they are really interested in blogging.

This option is recommended for those people who would not like to pay anything or for the newcomers.

2. Free Software + Paid Webhosting

This option provides you free software but you will have to pay for the domain hosting.

There is a cost factor involved in this option. Minimum cost of domain hosting would be $5 per month but a realistic budget would be slightly higher, around $7-8. The annual registration fee for domain name would be about $10-30.

This system will let you do certain things that you were unable to do with the free one. Here, you can modify the look of your site and you can also post pictures. But free softwares have fewer features than paid ones.

This option is highly recommended because by just paying the cost of virtual hosting and domain registration, you can avail great features and flexibility.

3. Paid Software including Price of Webhosting

This is a subscription-based option. There are ongoing costs involved in this option.

You have to pay at least $6 per month for basic services and for advanced features the fee would be around $15 per month.

The cumulative cost for a year would reach up to $200. That makes this option a very expensive one.

Apart from customizing the look of your site and posting photographs online, you will be able to use a software that provides more features than a free one.

This option is recommended for people who do not want to be troubled with virtual hosting and software installation issues. This is the easiest possible solution. It offers great features but at a reasonably high price.

4. Paid Software + Paid Webhosting

This option provides you paid software and paid domain hosting.

The cost of the domain hosting ranges from $5 to $10 per month while the cost of the software would be at least $45 (one-time cost).

This option gives you great amount of flexibility. You can select your own domain name and have a feature-rich blogging software.

This option is highly recommended for businesses since the cost is not a major consideration.

Copyright ฉ Active-Venture.com's webhosting service. This article may be reprinted freely provided the resource box, Web addresses and copyright information remain intact.

Unlimited Wealth Creation Through Reseller Hosting

2006-08-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

Unlimited Wealth Creation Through Reseller Hosting

Web hosting can be an exciting business start up for aspiring entrepreneurs. All you have to do to set up your business is become a hosting reseller, i.e., provide hosting facilities to website owners. Here as a business owner, you are buying space from a big hosting company, and redistributing the hosting space to other website owners.

Resellers are nothing but entrepreneurs acting as middlemen, offering you hosting services by leasing time and space from another Web host's server rather than owning their own. Most of the times, the quality of services offered by resellers are so good that consumers do not even have the idea that they are dealing with resellers who do not have servers of their own. Resellers, since they can pick and choose their servers, are basically in a position to provide the customers with the best of services.

Reseller hosting business can be quite a profit making venture once you understand the figures and profit margins involved. Let us go through them. One can buy around 1000 MB space from a major web host at a cost of $25 per month. This 1000 MB space that you now own can in turn be redistributed to site owners who need space for uploading their site. Here you can give about 25 MB space for around $5 per month. Which means your monthly income comes to around $200 when you sell 40 hosting packages. Want more. some hosts allow you to oversell the space and do not charge you extra unless the actual usage of your account exceeds 1000MB. It is seen that a typical user uses less than half of the allotted web space. which means you can double or even triple sell your quota and make unlimited wealth.

And mind well, this income is residual income. It will keep coming to you month after month, year after year. You do the work once. and get paid for it over and over. All you are doing is buying space from a major web hosting company and becoming a reseller host. Your efforts are focused towards selling hosting space and the rest is handled by your web host. Some of them even handle customer service to your customers for a nominal fee. which makes it even easier for you.

If this is not enough. you can earn additional residual incomes by adding recruiting more resellers through you. By doing this you will earn regular commissions on their monthly sales. isn't this smart business. The profit margins in the business of reseller hosting is quite good and you can start on this exciting business venture even if you do not have the required expertise and access to funds for setting up the required infrastructure. Strange as it might sound, there are also times where a reseller can also be more scalable than a typical hosting firm. A true Web host is limited by its hardware; if a client suddenly requires an upgrade the host is not prepared for, the only way the host will be able to satisfy the customer is by upgrading its hardware - expensive and time consuming for both sides. The reseller host, however, can simply choose to locate with a different Web host that will better suit the customer's needs.

Happy Wealth Creation!!!

Ninad Gupte is the Founder, CEO of www.linuxresellerhosting.com. He has trained as an Electronics Engineer from Mumbai University, and has a Diploma in Advanced Computing from CDAC. He has served as the Director ญTechnologies in Webmoney India Pvt. Ltd. He has executed several turnkey B2B Web application projects like House layouts, Maharashtra State Electricity Board and portals & sites like McDonalds India, Air France and RPG Raychem. To take his dreams forward of forming a technology oriented diversified company, Interpole Solutions was formed in March 2001. The company was setup with a strong base of skills and a deep understanding of technologies mastered by Ninad.

Where to Get Cheap Web Hosting

2006-08-14T06:16:00.002-07:00

Where to Get Cheap Web Hosting

First, to see if you can use cheap web hosting you need to know how much disk space you will need. How large is your website? How many pages, video files, music files, etc. do you need? Second, a cheap web hosting company will need to know how busy your sight will be. If your site is going to have a lot of visitors, cheap web hosting may not be for you. Third, how many email accounts do you need? Cheap web hosting companies do not usually provide many. Lastly, how much are you willing to spend? Cheap web hosting is not as technical as the more expensive web hosting.

If you go online, you can find a list of the top 10 cheap web hosting companies. The top 10 cheap web hosting companies are rated by their price, quality, and service provided. The cheap web hosting companies are priced between $4.95 and $19.95 a month. The cheap web hosting company's price varies on what kind of things you need. The disk space provided can be from 3000MB to 5000MB. The bandwidth varies from 40GB to 300GB. If this is not enough for you, then a cheap web hosting company is not an option for you. Most of these cheap web hosting companies offer free set up. This will make things much easier for you. Be aware of cheap web hosting that offers unlimited disk space. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

The top 10 web hosting companies reviewed are: Blue Host, Power Hosting, Pages Garden, Pro Logic Hosting, Easy CGI, Gigabyte Package, Yahoo! Hosting, iPower Web, Lunar pages, and Dot5 Web Hosting. All of these are very cheap web hosting companies. You will find them listed at top10webhosting.com. At this website you will also find customer testimonials and thorough listings about the cheap web hosting company's services they offer to you.

For those of you who still think that this is not cheap web hosting, you can also find free web hosting. It still comes with a price, however. Comcast offers free web hosting to anyone who subscribes to their internet service. You still have to pay for the internet service, but the web hosting is free. That's the best that can be done about cheap web hosting. Weigh the odds, and see which route is best for you.

Jay Moncliff is the founder of http://www.cheaphosting-center.info a blog focusing on the Web Hosting, resources and articles. This site provides detailed information on Web Hosting. For more info visit his site at: Web Hosting

Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Servers and Its Benefits

2006-08-14T06:16:00.001-07:00

Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Servers and Its Benefits

What is a Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated server and why is it different than normal web hosting. Web hosting offers you limited control of how the server your web site is hosted on behaves. Normal hosting plans put many customers' accounts on a single server and you upload your files to that Server. Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated servers allow you to actually control your own server where you receive Admin access to install and run virtually anything YOU want on the server. You can host multiple web sites on the one server account, and even sell hosting and host other sites on your server.

I have referred to Dedicated and Virtual Dedicated Servers. You may ask, what is the difference? Virtual dedicated servers are similar to Dedicated servers as they offer many of the same features, but at a much lower price.

With a virtual dedicated server, the customer shares the server space with a limited number of other customers using the same server box. Each virtual dedicated server is isolated from the other accounts giving the user full control of their own server. Virtual dedicated servers are useful for companies and individuals that run complex applications that need the bandwidth, consistent performance, and flexibility of a virtual dedicated server.

With a dedicated server, you actually lease a server box that is dedicated to only you and is set up to your preferences. The dedicated server customer has exclusive rights to the server's bandwidth, memory and storage space. Also, a dedicated server account provides full control of any software installation on the server. Dedicated servers are useful for companies and individuals that run very-high-traffic Web sites or applications that need the bandwidth, versatility, and consistent performance of a dedicated box.

Dedicated / Virtual dedicated servers are an excellent choice to use for gaming sites, database management, shared hosting, and hosting of Web sites that receive high amounts of traffic.

Companies now offer your own customization of your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server. This allows you the flexibility to choose one of their popular pre-packaged plans, or go wild and customize and configure your own virtual dedicated server by selecting your own options.

One bonus that can help you decide on where to get your server from is the support they offer, the value they give you when signing up and what system you will actually be running the server on. With support, the standard now is to be offered 24x7 email, telephone and Web-based tech support, as well as you having access to modify your server 24x7. Sometimes a free offering when purchasing the server is given. You should look for companies that offer Free and quick setup of the server, so you may be running in no time.

So you have decided you need a Virtual Dedicated Server or Dedicated Server. Now what? You need to choose a company to purchase your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server from. Here is a company I recommend for purchasing your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server from.

Domains at Retail - offers 24x7 email, telephone and Web-based tech support for your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server, allows you to pick a pre-configured server or to customize your own server and will set up your account for free. Visit Domains at Retail at http://www.domainsatretail.com/wholesalehosting.html for your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server needs!

Good Luck with the purchase of your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server and start running your server today!

About the Author Michael Kralj is owner of Emenki Web Solutions and Domains at Retail.

Emenki Web Solutions are web site designers and programmers based in Hamilton, Ontario, providing businesses with an informative and strategic approach to establishing an online presence on the web.

Please visit Emenki Web Solutions on the web
http://www.emenki.com

Please visit Domains at Retail on the web:
http://www.domainsatretail.com

Top 10 Web Hosting Blunders and How to Avoid Them

2006-08-14T06:16:00.000-07:00

Top 10 Web Hosting Blunders and How to Avoid Them

Consider the following web hosting blunders and do not allow yourself to make these mistakes that can have a seriously negative impact on your website.

Blunder #1 - Contact Information

Make sure your web host has contact information available to you 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. This should be in the form of phone numbers as well as e-mail addresses that correspond to the web host domain name. Make sure you are dealing with a real company that is serious about both their business and yours.

Blunder #2 - Lots of Bandwidth

If you are using a free or cheap web host then more than likely you will not have a lot of bandwidth which could cause you problems with your website. Even if you have to pay a little bit more money, it is worth it to gain additional bandwidth. Make sure you ask about this before signing up with a web host.

Blunder #3 - Generous Disk Space

Many times people find a cheap or free web host and just sign up without ever checking for the amount of disk space. A questing to ask yourself, what happens when the diskspace is filled up? Make sure that the hosts you are considering provide generous amounts of diskspace, if it is limited you might consider using a web host that is larger and offers more services.

Blunder #4 - Web Host Domain Name

Make sure the company domain name matches the web host company name before giving out your credit card information or hosting your website with them. On the Internet it is up to you to decide whether a company is legitimate or not, check out the domain and company name to find a match to be sure.

Blunder #5 - Security

Regardless of the web host you use and your website design you must ensure that you have secure websites for purchases where people will enter the banking and or credit card information. If your site does not appear to be secure, customers will leave. You want to avoid this at all costs and go to all lengths to make customers feel secure and confident buying from your site.

Blunder #6 - Plan Ahead

Make sure you have a plan for the future and an idea of your websites growth. Without this you could run into some serious problems if you outgrow your website, shopping cart, or bandwidth too quickly and do not have a plan on how to handle things. Make a plan for slow, medium ,and fast growth so you will know what to do in every situation.

Blunder #7 - Slow Server

Make sure you web page loads within 10 seconds for a 56 k modem. If not, then people will leave your site before the page ever opens. The reason for this is people are looking for instant gratification on the Internet. If you cannot provide them with the information that they want in a timely fashion, they will leave. It's as simple as that.

Blunder #8 - Design

Make sure that whatever web host you use allows you to design your site for ultimate success. If there are any rules or regulations regarding your site design that will possibly impact your sales and the way customers perceive your site then find another host. There are plenty to choose from.

Blunder #9 - Checkout

Ensure the checkout process is clear, easy, and to the point. People want to buy their products without giving you a ton of personal information. Let them do that or simply make certain fields optional if you are trying to conduct market research.

Blunder # 10 - URL

You want your own personal URL that reflects your business and services. Do not use a free host that gives you some kind of space using their URL with some additional information at the end of the URL that directs it to you. Spend the money and get your own URL that is unique, easy to use, and says something about your company. It will be worthwhile.

Michael Turner shows you exactly how to increase web site traffic in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it today at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/

The Problem with Free Web Hosting Plans

2006-08-14T06:11:00.001-07:00

The Problem with Free Web Hosting Plans

In my opinion, free web hosting is one of the most misunderstood concepts on the web today. Free web hosting plans are becoming increasingly popular as new webmasters bite into the idea without actually analyzing the consequences. I myself spent many years, at the start of my webmaster career, using free web hosting plans. This experience has giving me an insight into the down-side of free web hosting plans that many people seem to miss.

Would Coke promote Pepsi on their website? Although the rhetorical question above seems ludicrous, this concept is one of the fundamental problems with free web hosting plans. Forced advertising is the way that hosting companies can afford to provide "free" hosting. Whether it be through pop-ups, pop-unders, headline ads, or implanted adsense you will be hosting advertisements on your website that generate revenue for your hosting company whether you like it or not. Not only is this annoying it can also ruin the look of your page; the majority of the time you cannot control what the ads look like or where they go, they are simply dropped down onto your site and there is nothing you can do.

Traffic Jams The bottom line in web hosting is that bandwidth (data transfer) costs money and if your plan is free it is most likely your bandwidth will be limited. Too many times I have attempted to access a web site hosted on a free server and been given the message: "This user has acceded their bandwidth limits, please try again next month". As a webmaster this can be infuriating. Imagine building a solid page, marketing it, gaining an audience, and then losing that audience because your page is not allowed anymore hits for the month.

SEO woes This is a problem that caused me a ton of frustration, but in the end taught mea lot about how search engines work and how search engines handle name resolution. In almost every case free web hosting plans do not allow you to point a domain name (www.yoursite.com) to an actual page. Instead you are forced to use a concept called URL redirection. URL redirection allows a webmaster to identify a site that the URL should point to. So if a user types in www.example.com and we have configured it to redirect to www.freehost/users/mysite.html it will end up on that page. This does not seem like much of an issue until you begin trying to get your website indexed in the search engines. So you submit your site (www.example.com) to some directories and you ake some good link partners and then you start to wonder, why am I not being listed in the SE's? I have 100 solid back links pointing to www.example.com, what is happening. The problem is that www.example.com has no data, it has no content, it simply redirects to your actual page at www.freehost/users/mysite.html. SE's not only will not index a page with no data or content but they may even view this as an attempt to fool their algorithm, thus banning your domain name. The only work around is to forget the domain name and optimize for your free hosting address, which is not really an acceptable work around.

But wait! Although I am a strong believer that free web hosting is not the way to go it is possible to find a free web host that works for you. There are some out there that do not force advertising, do not limit your bandwidth, and will allow pointed domains. The problem is finding one that does all three. If you are a serious, or even only slightly serious, webmaster take the hit and pay the money for web hosting. In the end you can get an awesome web hosting plan for as low as $5.95 a month, and trust me this will be WELL worth the money.

Be sure to check out Cheap Web Hosting Plans at my website.

Chris Hunt

Useful Tips When Applying For A Web Host Provider

2006-08-14T06:11:00.000-07:00

Useful Tips When Applying For A Web Host Provider

Once you have considered the design for your website and it is ready to be hosted, there are some matters to be considered when choosing the adequate web host:

I - Accessibility of the site?

Once you have applied for a web host provider you should take several aspects into account such as the time it takes to load or the period of time it is up.These aspects are very important because if there are problems related to them, this can create extreme annoyance and renouncement of the possible visitors.

The same possible visitors can also have problems in finding your web page, as search engines do not show those who are always down or have difficulties in loading.

The best method to acknowledge if a server is usually up would be to take a look over the reviews written by other persons who have applied for the server before you.

II - Does the provider offer SSL??

In the case of a hobby websiter or, in other words, if you will not be making any transactions on that particular website, the SSL protection is not necessary.In the other case, if transactions should be made in the near future it is necessary for you to choose the webhost which includes the SSL protection upfront.

SSL is generally used for encrypting any piece of information such as:credit card codes, names, etc.

Deciding to subscribe to a webhost which does not comprise of SSL protection and choosing afterwards to have it installed, could turn up to be more expensive than having applied for a webhost which provides SSL in the first place.

Websiters which have Automatic SSL protection can be exemplified by www.powweb.com and www.ipowerweb.com

III - Is server side scripting available from the server?

Despite of the fact that these server side scripting is provided by almost all servers, it is still advisable to check out if they do.Pages changing in real time are given the chance to be created by the webmasters due to the server side scripting.

For instance, in the case of running a business and having all products arranged in a database, the server side scripting will give off the pages by means of the ranges the customers choose to see.

You should not think of using a server which does not provide functionality for a server side scripting. www.powweb.com and www.ipowerweb.com can also be shown as examples for sites which comprise of servers side scripting.

IV - Customer Support

The support given to customers is of an utmost importance when choosing a web hoser.Even in the case of an experienced webmaster, I am sure that there are still some questions to be asked when signing up with a website.Some of them have created special forums for frequently asked questions(FAQ-S).Actually the only one of this type I found up to now is www.powweb.com.

Even tough these aspects are widely known, the attention should be drawn anyway, for there are many persons who pay significant sums after having signed to a web hoster on the basis of having ignored these conditions.Taken this into account, the collaboration should be nothing but successfully.

For great web hosting packages, domain names, great customer support just visit us at http://www.domainsforall.co.uk

Virtual Web Hosting - What Is Virtual Web Hosting?

2006-08-14T06:09:00.000-07:00

Virtual Web Hosting - What Is Virtual Web Hosting?

If your web site has outgrown its shared hosting solution, it may be time to move it to virtual hosting, which is often seen as a low cost alternative to getting your own dedicated server. A virtual server gives you most of the advantages of a dedicated server at a fraction of the price. The web hosting service takes advantage of the fact that few small to mid-size web sites need the full resources of a machine and puts several web sites on the same server.

But, you're thinking, that sounds like the shared hosting plan I'm using now. What's the difference, and why do I pay more for a virtual server?

While there are some similarities, there are also marked differences between shared web hosting and virtual server hosting. While a web hosting company puts multiple accounts on the same server in both kinds of hosting, the resources of the machine are portioned out differently.

On a shared hosting server, generally the cheapest kind of web hosting available, all the server resources go into a common pot. If one account gets 'greedy' and scoops out more than its share of CPU time, for example, every account on the server is affected.

When you're on a virtual hosting account, that can't happen. All the resources of the server are portioned out and assigned to each account in the amounts that they're allowed to use. Rather than every web site reaching into a common pool and grabbing what they need, each one is handed a 'bowl' of CPU, server space and traffic. When they use it all up, they can't just grab more.

In addition, each web site is set up with its own operating system and assigned an isolated segment of the disk that's separate from other web sites on the same disk. In some cases, each may even have their own hard drive on the server. If something crashes one web site on the host server, it doesn't affect any other web site.

Having your own operating system also means that you can make changes to it that you may not be allowed to make on a shared server. This allows you to customize the way your web site behaves almost as if you were on a single dedicated machine without worrying about affecting other customers on the same machine. To go back to our bowl of soup analogy, if your next door virtual neighbor decides to add extra salt to his bowl, your web site visitors aren't stuck with over-salted soup.

Prices for a virtual server range from about $35 a month to $99 a month and up. Your own dedicated server will run several hundred dollars a month, depending on the options that you choose for it. Overall, it's an excellent web hosting choice for a small-to-mid-size web site that needs more flexibility than shared server hosting allows without overstretching their budget.

To view our top recommended companies for web hosting, visit: Recommended Web Hosting Companies Online.

Carrie Reeder is the owner of eZerk, an
informational website with articles and the latest news about various topics including web hosting.

Effectiveness of Web Hosting Directories (WHDs)

2006-08-14T06:04:00.000-07:00

Effectiveness of Web Hosting Directories (WHDs)

John is very happy today, for the first time in his life he has created his very own website. Now he is looking for a web host so that he can put his identity on the net. Casually he asks his friend Mac about it. Mac tells him that web-hosting directories are the best place to look for a web host. Getting curious John then asks Mac what exactly a Web Hosting Directory is. Mac responds that web hosting directories are a web hosting marketplace where prospective hosts list their products, plans, prices and other important information so that according to their requirements, customers can choose a suitable plan. Along with the details, it also contains web hosts' rankings. John is now extremely happy as his dream is finally going to come to fruition. Like John, there are many beginners who are in search of a reliable web host and come across web hosting directories. Here a new question arises: Are these web hosting directories really trustworthy sources for novices like John? To find an answer it's very important to understand the working of WHDs.

Basically web-hosting directories are of two types: paid WHDs and free WHDs. For paid directories, either web hosts pay a set amount for placing their banners on the site, or they pay commission if they get customers via that medium. On the other hand, free WHDs like www.askwebhosting.com and www.hostbyte.com etc. web hosts list their services without paying any fees.

Some people believe that paid WHDs are very easy to manipulate as the ranking of web hosts can be changed in unfair ways. Others have the view that WHDs that are actually free reflect the true ranking of web hosts companies. Whatever the case may be, paid or free, people should believe the web hosts rankings only if they are based completely on votes of customers who have actually given their remarks and have left their website address as well.

It is not possible for any web hosting company to have 100% positive reviews. It is also observed that at times customers who are satisfied with their web host forget to express their opinion about that host. However, a biased customer who is not satisfied with their web host does not forget to mention their opinion of that web host. This implies that a negative review doesn't always reflect the true picture of a web host company.

No doubt web hosting directories are very useful if the newbie like John wants to compare prices and features of different companies. But, when it comes to choosing a web host he/she should make an intelligent choice by referring to other resource sites (forums etc.) as well.

Priyanka Agarwal
M6.Net
http://www.m6.net

Specialty Web Hosting For Blogs

2006-08-09T07:29:00.000-07:00

Specialty Web Hosting For Blogs

By Katerina Mitrou

Specialty web hosting is an option many people don’t even realize they have, but for websites that have a very specific purpose or goal it’s a choice worth considering. Bloggers, in particular, may find it very beneficial to sign up with a specialty host that caters to the precise needs of the blogging world.

As you probably already know, blogs allow anyone on the Web to publish thoughts and ideas on a subject one entry at a time – it works like an online journal or diary. But not everyone uses a blog just for personal writing. In fact, people use blogs to publish photos, collaborate with colleagues, and keep in touch with family and friends.

Compared to other forms of web publishing, blogs are known for a simple publishing process, tools that make it easy to create posts, and a system that allows the user to link to related sites and blogs with little hassle. It’s meant to be a straightforward and painless process so that the writer can concentrate on what he/she has to say. It’s truly the fastest and easiest way to update a website and get content out there for the world to read – no wonder blogs are fast becoming the most popular way to publish online.

Although setting up a blog is relatively uncomplicated, for some people going it entirely alone is not an option. Setting up and maintaining blog software all by yourself is a feat not everyone is able to easily accomplish. The procedure is similar to setting up a website because you have to locate some web space, download and install a blog software package such as Movable Type, and finally, develop your own templates. The entire journey is not necessarily a simple one, and requires a decent amount of technical understanding to complete successfully.

Luckily for the avid blogger, new web hosting services that exist solely for blog hosting are coming into the limelight. Making it simple to create and maintain a blog, these companies provide a ready-to-go system that takes the difficulty out of publishing and storing an online blog. Also, many companies that already sell hosting services are branching out, in order to take advantage of the popularity of blogs, and offering separate blog publishing services.

Hosting companies that offer packages targeted toward bloggers simplify blogging by providing drag and drop layout, as well as editing and digital photo management tools. Oftentimes you are even given the option to limit who views your blog and protect any sensitive or confidential information you have on your site. Syndication is another option that many blog hosts are putting on the table for consumers. RSS, OpenReviews, and OPML are just some of the options available to today’s bloggers.

Another great reason to sign up with a specialty host for your blog: these companies make it easy, not just to share content, but also to choose a publishing medium. For instance, you may be able to publish to email or mobile devices. And if you select a company that supports a wide range of desktop applications, publishing is a snap. You don’t have to be an experienced Webmaster, spend endless grueling hours learning HTML, or download and install special software – everything gets published right away.

The business blog is a form of corporate communication that’s also on the rise. Traditional web hosts have recognized this new phenomenon and many now offer blogging services to their business customers. Business blogs are the perfect way for small and medium-sized businesses to keep website content up-to-date without possessing intricate knowledge of HTML.

Another option, for those who already own enough hosting space with a provider is to choose a blog service that will publish the blog for you on their existing site. This type of service lets users edit entries and publish updates directly through their website. All you have to do is define FTP information about your hosting service and select pre-made design templates. Once you complete those two steps, with the click of a button your blog will be published instantaneously. The bonus is that blogging services such as these are very inexpensive to implement, with prices ranging between $5.00 and $20.00 per month for about 5GB of transfer and storage.

When researching a good company to host your blog, keep in mind that blogs can be demanding applications, especially if you include access to syndicated website content on a regular basis. This type of content in particular can place a heavy load on servers, and if your blog becomes popular, you want a company that won’t let you down when a lot of traffic comes your way.

No matter what your blog is for – posting photos, expressing your personal thoughts, or keeping clients up to date on your company’s latest news – look for specialty web hosting that accommodates the blog format. It will definitely make blogging a hassle-free experience.

About the Author: By Katerina Mitrou sponsored by http://www.webcinch.com/ . Webcinch offers reliable and affordable web hosting: http://www.webcinch.com/ Please link to this site when using this article.

Source: www.isnare.com

Surfing The Web For Savings: Coupon Websites

2006-08-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

Surfing The Web For Savings: Coupon Websites

By Linda Polansky

Are you a coupon clipper who wants to enter the 21st century of savings technology? There are many different ways to save on the web, from simple printable coupons to services that alert you to sales and specials. There are a couple of things to keep in mind for any sites. First, be aware that some stores will not accept any internet coupons because they can be difficult to authenticate; check with your favorite merchants before you start printing. Also, pay close attention to which fields are required when you are registering on different websites. You may be able to skip a lot of information, or go back later and refine your profile if the site is not working the way you would like. Here are a couple of the most popular coupon sites, and what you will find when you go there.

Coolsavings.com has many different services, from coupons to free offers to newsletters with savings tips. If you are on your way out the door and want to log on for a couple of minutes to find something quickly, this is not the site for you. First, you have to enroll. The enrollment process includes entering your contact information, such as address and email, and establishing a password. After that you are given two screens full of free offers that you check or uncheck according to your interests before you can even complete the enrollment process. Then you come to the remainder of the enrollment form and answer questions about your background and interests. This is great if you want them to find coupons and savings for you, but if you know what you are looking for and exactly what you want, this site probably will be too cumbersome for you. You can bypass some of the enrollment information, but it still will take you a while to get to the point where you can select coupons for printing. When you do get there, it will bring up specific offers. There isn’t any search feature for you to look for your favorite brands or narrow things down on your own.

Eversave.com is a similar site. You will be required to enroll to access offers, but it is a shorter process. It will give you a couple of pages of free offers as well, but the descriptions are smaller and easier to browse through quickly and get to the section where the coupons are. Many of the free offers on the first pages are the same as the ones found on http://coolsavings.com, so one timesaver could be to browse several services until you find the one that is set up in a way that is most user friendly for you, then cancel your registration at the others to avoid an inbox stuffed with repetitive emails.

There are plenty of other sites out there too, just put coupons in your search engine and click your way to savings.

About the Author: Linda Polansky writes about Coupons and Deals,Shoes Coupons and Deals and Home Remodeling Deals

Source: www.isnare.com

Three Useful Free Blogging Systems

2006-08-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

Three Useful Free Blogging Systems

By Burt Cotton

The number of internet users is increasing everyday. This is because there are interesting and knowledgeable discoveries found online. What most people like on the internet is that they are able to send messages in an instant. In addition, they are getting more and more fascinated with other sites.

Sometimes, people use the internet as their online diary or journal. Others would use it to promote a product. Either way, there is one site that is famous for these things, we call it as Blogging or the Internet Blogging. There are many website providers who are now offering free usage of blogging software packages because of the rapid increase of blogging users.

Examples of the free blogging software are B2evolution, Nucleus and the WordPress. These programs have the same features. This is why most internet users ask which of the software is simple to use and would suit the needs of a specific website.

However, the answer to which one is the simplest depends on the real purpose of the free blogging website. If your main objective is to share your point of view and opinions to the public, you can use different blogging software. However, if it is for promotional purposes, use software designed such purpose because a blog for promotion has completely different requirements.

Below is the list of the free blogging software and their features:

•WordPress Free Blogging Software

WordPress is usually used for personal blogging. It has an open source, modern personal publishing design which is focus on the appearance of the blog. By only using the WordPress, there is no need to gather or your journals and compile it as one. Just write your article. And choose which features you want and the blog will be published immediately to your site.

This software is easy to customize and it offers different functionality. As you get used to it very well, you will learn to add fresh features which will make your site interesting and trendy.

•B2evolution Free Blogging Software

Like the WordPress, this is also an advanced internet blogging software. This free blogging software has a skinning system which lets the users to make many blogs in separate groups with different look or appearance for every blog.

B2evolution has the capability to change skin to make the blog get a new appearance. This software is good for promotional purposes. Therefore, you are planning to create and publish many different themes, B2evolution is the right software for you.

•Nucleus Free Blogging Software

Nucleus has dominant features which is applicable in promoting your blog. It is capable to optimize the URLs. This helps the user create a blog that is easy to use.

One great feature of the Nucleus is that it is capable to present many blogs using a single page. The Nucleus also has a feature that is very good in promoting a particular site.

These three blogging software provide the best feature that you need to create an effective and interesting blog. Remember they are all free, so there is no need to be hesitant in using them.

However, you must choose the software that will be a great help to you in achieving your main objective in creating a blog. In this way, you are making sure that your blog is unique and it will satisfy you and your needs.

About the Author: Burt Cotton http://www.blogs-and-rss.org

Source: www.isnare.com

The Best Web Host – For Your Money

2006-08-09T07:24:00.000-07:00

The Best Web Host – For Your Money

By Katerina Mitrou

Shopping for a web host can be a difficult and confusing process, especially if you’re new to it all - the different prices and packages offered by web hosting companies can make your head spin. For instance, shared, reseller, and dedicated web hosts often have different prices for similar products. You’re probably wondering, “What’s a good package for me?” and “How much should I pay?” The answers to these questions really depend on your individual requirements.

First, it’s important to understand the basics of what goes into the pricing of web hosting packages:

Disk space. This is the maximum amount of space the account you purchase is allowed on the server. This is similar to a folder that holds files on your hard drive, which takes up a certain chunk of disk space.

Bandwidth. Essentially, this is the maximum amount of times the files on your site can be viewed by visitors. For instance, a 1 MB file with an allocation of 100 MB of bandwidth means visitors can view that file 100 times. Sometimes called data transfer, bandwidth is an important consideration when selecting a web host.

Extras. Items that fall under this category may include MySQL databases and email accounts, among other things. Because these extras don’t cost the host more money, a reputable company will offer them to consumers free of charge, as part of the whole package.

In addition to the basics, other elements contribute to the price as well:

Support and Service. These two items are more difficult to accurately price. In the end, a good support center is really what you need, so test out a company’s inquiry response times before you sign up to get a feel for how they deal with customers.

Hardware Configurations. Because some servers cost more than others, the server employed by a particular web host will determine the ultimate cost of the service as a whole. The hardware configuration of the server, in particular, affects price as well as performance.

Overselling. It’s a well-known fact that many shared hosts oversell – if the company has a server that can handle 100 accounts of 1 MB each, they take the chance that most people won’t end up using all their allocated disk space, and sell accounts to 150 people. Companies that have a habit of overselling don’t provide the best performance and the price may not match the quality of the service.

What’s the right package for me?

So you’re up to speed on what goes into the pricing of website hosting, but the question still remains: how do you find the perfect company to host your website without spending money on features you don’t need?

First, figure out your budget and plan to stick to it. Once you know how much you’re willing to spend each month on hosting fees, you can narrow down the playing field significantly.

Next, determine what features you really need. As a starting point, send a description of the site you plan on creating to more than one host and ask for a package recommendation. Don’t forget to mention what you require in terms of support – if you need help every step of the way make sure you mention this to the host. After receiving the companies’ recommendations, review the attributes of each package and shortlist the ones that provide the services you need for the lowest prices.

Conduct research. Knowing your needs and the type of package you should purchase, do more research on your own. Look for hosts that offer the highest quality service, support, and anything else that tops your list of good features. Read independent reviews to learn the pros and cons of all the companies in your list.

After narrowing down the prospects, verify that the company you want to choose really does offer what you need for the right price.

Before signing up, test out the company to see if it really does suit you. You can do this by emailing or calling them, perusing the website, and browsing the customer forums. Read the fine print – discover what the money back guarantee is and know its details inside and out. Ask yourself, was the company helpful when you had a question? Did they reply quickly and politely? Does everything appear professional and trustworthy?

Lastly, go for it. Sign up with the company that gives you the best impression and offers the services you require. After a few days, before the money back guarantee is over, seriously think about whether or not the company has satisfied your needs. If you feel confident in your decision, you’ve probably made the best choice.

As long as you follow these tips and don’t choose the first web host to come your way, chances are you won’t pay too much for a good hosting service.

About the Author: By Katerina Mitrou sponsored by http://www.webcinch.com/ . Webcinch offers reliable and affordable web host: http://www.webcinch.com/ services. Please link to this site when using this article.

Source: www.isnare.com

The Secret Sauce Of Blogging For Profit

2006-08-09T07:23:00.000-07:00

The Secret Sauce Of Blogging For Profit

By Jon Symons

There are a lot of ingredients that go into successful blogging: site layout and design, domain name, search engine optimization, consistency of posting and quality of the writing, among others. But the one thing that stands above the rest is a passion for the topic.

It's really a great idea to start a blog in an effort to make money writing articles about a certain topic. However, many people make a big mistake before they even start. They search for a topic by looking in the wrong direction.

Most online gurus will tell you to use a keyword research tool to try and find a niche with high demand (meaning a lot of people searching for it), low competition and high paying ads. There are even websites where you can purchase lists of these so called premium or ripe niches.

There is one very large problem with this approach. Blogging, especially for profit blogging, is a long term commitment, not a get rich quick scheme. Ask yourself a question, do you really want to spend hours and hours researching, learning and writing about a topic that doesn't really interest you, just because the AdSense ads pay 10 cents more per click? That sounds a lot like a job to me and if you are trying to blog to make money why not make it something that is enjoyable AND profitable?

Look to your passions to find a topic for your site (tips on that in a second). Sure you'll want to check to make certain that there are some products or services being advertised that are related to your choice but even if there isn't you can still make money from your site; political blogs come to mind and they can do very well from selling links or by featuring only semi-related products.

In the end it is traffic that creates earning potential on the web and traffic is simply people drawn to your site's information. I've found that people are primarily drawn to two three things: sincerity, honesty and passion.

Many people have trouble or get lost when trying to identify their passions. Seeing passions as big and grandiose obsessions are a common misconceptions. What follows is my low key technique for discovering your passions.

Make a list of everything that you've done in the last 3 days (or more if you like). Just a simple list, nothing too complex, with as much or little detail as seems right.

Stop reading until you finish making your list.

Okay, now go through and beside each item on the list and score it on a 1 to 10 scale. 1 would be like getting a root canal done and 10 would be driving in the winning run in for your baseball team in the playoffs. Look at the scores and notice the trends. No real need to do in-depth analysis, but by picking out the pattern in the highest scoring items you should have a nice list of possible blog topics.

These are the topics that will give you an edge out in the blogosphere.

So what's the secret sauce of blogging for profit?

Passion; which leads to enjoyment.

Enjoying and having passion for your subject matter will help you constantly discover new story ideas because you'll be living your topic online and off line, not just writing about it.

Your readers will notice the difference and they will want to hear more of what you say and they will tell their friends and link to your stories from their sites. So forget keyword research and niches and look at your own life and interests to find the best topic for your new blog. In the long run this will be the most profitable approach.

About the Author: Jon J. Symons is a passionate blogger and online entrepreneur. Based on his technical background he has produced a series of instructional films to help Bloggers overcome the technical aspects of setting up a blog. Stop by his site at Create A Blog.

Source: www.isnare.com

What Is The Point Of Web Directories?

2006-08-09T07:21:00.000-07:00

What Is The Point Of Web Directories?

By Agnivo Roy

Let's first begin with the definition of web directories. Web directories are websites that have categorized web links into sections. They provide the viewer with categories and allow them to narrow their search. Most web directories allow users to input their own links and the larger ones you must send an application and there are people who review these applications. It is very important to understand the difference between search engines and web directories. Web directories do not give you results based on keywords, the results are seen based on categories and sub-categories.

Directories are becoming very popular with the web developers, because of search engine optimization through link building and the quick increase in the page rank. Most of these web directories display ads which later helps pay for the website and its hosting and optimization. This however is not the only way that web directories make money. Some web directories have a fee and that is explained the following paragraphs.

With the Internet expanding almost as fast as the universe itself, it is becoming more difficult to find your way around. Web directories are like a menu, you choose what you want from a vast amount of information and they can lead you towards a direction. However the excess of one thing can all ways be bad, it seems that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon there are more web directories being made everyday. This at times affects the web traffic the web directories are trying to help clear.

Some web directories you must sign up for and at times there is a fee, the fee is anywhere from $1 to $20. There are also places where you can choose for you link to be placed and that all depends on the price you pay. for example, if you pay the larger fee you can have your site on the main page meaning chances are you will get more clicks than the other links. Featured links will be always displayed higher inside categories. Some web directories require you must have them linked in your web site in order for them to link you ( reciprocal links ). You are given a HTML code to place on your website. Some sites use bots to scan your site for the link and then receive your submission while others do it by hand.

The well known web directories are the Google web directory, Yahoo web directory, DMOZ and so on. There are other web directories that may be just as popular and worth submitting your sites to them. While submitting your sites, always choose directories which are presented well (indicates regular upkeep) and has policies defined to reject spam, hate, adult and made for ads scraped content sites. You just don't want your sites listed on pages with links to such unacceptable sites, isn't it ? So, its always better to submit to directories offering paid inclusion than to free for all directories. Paid directories scrutinize submissions more strictly than free directories.

I hope this short article helped you to know about the purpose of web directories to webmasters as well as visitors. Please visit my sites if you are interested in paid directory submissions. Happy submitting!

About the Author: Agnivo Roy runs a network of Paid Web Directories : Web Directory Seven | Permanent Text Links | Technology Web Directory | OHOS Directory

Source: www.isnare.com

Website Hosting For Ecommerce

2006-08-09T07:20:00.000-07:00

Website Hosting For Ecommerce

By Katerina Mitrou

For the online business owner, finding commerce-friendly website hosting is the most important way to ensure your Internet venture will be a success, especially for first timers who are more likely than not to need a web host that can handle most of the site’s technical requirements. A reliable and trustworthy hosting company will give you the time and freedom you need to work on growing your business from the ground up.

The unique needs of ecommerce can only be met by web hosting companies that offer plans designed for online businesses. People creating ecommerce web sites require more than what’s provided by standard hosting packages. For instance, if you want to set up an online store, you may need a software license for a storefront building program, a secure platform you and your customers can trust, and a high level of support services to handle the issues that inevitably arise when running a business.

In addition to dependable software and services, selecting a host that specializes in ecommerce is vital for other reasons, as well. Excellent website hosting will provide your business with the ability to accept online transactions that are safe and secure, and won’t let you down when demand is high. Some companies even offer merchant accounts as part of the package.

And most ecommerce web hosts have the necessary experience to answer any questions you may have as you set up the site and begin running it. With the right support from a good web host, your business will be more likely to succeed.

Decisions, decisions…

You know that choosing website hosting for ecommerce is key to running a successful online business, but for many people, sifting through the various companies and packages is a confusing and frustrating process. Thousands of companies are out there vying for your business, touting features and incentives that you may not have even heard of before. What are the important criteria for selecting a decent host? Do you need a dedicated server, a managed server, or a shared server? Depending on your site and the product you’re selling, you may require different things from a web hosting package, so in the end, the important question to ask yourself is: “What do I need in a hosting company?”

The website you plan on building should inform your search for an appropriate web host. As web hosting packages are quite varied, and sell for a wide range of prices, this is really the best way to begin, otherwise, you’ll probably end up paying for a bunch of services and features that you don’t even need.

The easiest way to determine your website requirements is to ask yourself the following questions:

1. What functionality do you expect you’ll need? Do you need a Database? What about a secure server for credit card processing?

2. How much traffic do you predict your site will experience? Will traffic be small, moderate, or significant?

3. Are load times something that’s important to you? For instance, if you expect to have a large contingent of global visitors, consider a web host that operates overseas and in North America. Another consideration: dedicated or shared server? If you plan on dealing with a lot of customers, a dedicated server may end up better in the long run.

Keep in mind that all of these items contribute to the price you end up paying each month. When it comes to business hosting, prices can range anywhere from $40-$50 up to thousands of dollars per month. Dedicated servers and bandwidth capacity in particular usually cause the price to skyrocket.

Important questions

It’s also crucial to ask potential hosts some questions before you narrow down your selection. If your web host lets you down at some point in time, your business will suffer. You can’t afford to deal with an unpredictable company that will disappoint you time and time again. Before signing up with a hosting company, be sure to ask the following questions:

1. Is a money-back, no-questions-asked guarantee part of the deal?

2. If an outage occurs, is it the company’s policy to offer compensation? (This is often called an uptime guarantee).

3. Are backups offered (i.e. tape backups, CD ROM storage).

4. Is the company’s connection to the Internet reliant on more than one provider (redundant backbone connections) and are they major backbone providers?

5. Is adequate technical support provided (preferably 24/7) via email and phone?

6. How long have they been in business? It’s also sensible to ask for references to other major sites that they provide hosting services for.

7. Is an annual contract required or is it possible to pay month-to-month?

8. How easy is it to upgrade or downgrade services within the current contract if your situation changes along the way?

In the end, the online business owner depends on reliable and consistent website hosting in order to stay alive. As long as you do the appropriate research and ask the right questions before committing to a package, you will be able to find the perfect host for your ecommerce enterprise.

About the Author: By Katerina Mitrou sponsored by http://www.webcinch.com/ . Webcinch offers reliable and affordable web hosting services: http://www.webcinch.com/ . Please link to this site when using this article.

Source: www.isnare.com

How To Benchmark For SEO

2006-08-09T07:19:00.001-07:00

How To Benchmark For SEO

By Danny Wirken

Benchmark reports in detail the current status of a particular website. It is the first step taken for an Internet market research as an integral component of most optimization service package. The analysis, as contained in the report, provides the current search engine position and rank for the keyword area of a website as well as information on the level and nature of competition in the keyword space. It also aims to examine the other factors bearing on the website’s position and the weaknesses and opportunities in search result ranking.

The Optimization Project

Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about making a website generate traffic from relevant search term queries. In essence, the targeted traffic is drawn to a website once it has been properly optimized. No other marketing medium is able to effectively reach the people looking for a particular website and the services or products it offers.

Generally, an optimization project goes through this process:

Clients fill out the analysis form; keyword research is done; keyword phrases are narrowed down through consultation between the SEO company and the client; page adjustments are made; a site map is created and finally the global footer. This is more or less the basic structure but much has to be done at every step mentioned. Optimization is not intended to be a one time process but rather a continuous one to ensure the positioning of websites.

After a website is submitted, the SEO company monitors the ranking and compares it to the benchmark report that was initially generated before any work was done to the website. Since the report displays the existing rankings or inclusion of the site in search engines, there can be a true assessment done as improvements, if any, can readily be determined. Usually, the succeeding report is run six (6) months after search engine submission and directory registration. Web ranking reports are run as needed.

The site statistics, referrer traffic, keyword placement and ROI are all analyzed during the optimization period so that improvements that have to be made can be determined. It might take a few months before search engines can index the optimized site. The expected increased targeted traffic therefore will not be enjoyed right away. SEO companies have search engine monitoring services that provide signals when necessary changes have to be made to enable the site to cope up with major algorithm changes.

A comprehensive understanding of the whole SEO process needs to be gained to fully recognize its benefits. Ranking does not solely depend on on-page factors but on off-page factors as well. This is where link building matters most. A good number of quality incoming links considerably improves a website’s page rank. This lets a site come ahead of the competitors as good ranks are attained on search engines.

Websites need to promote themselves well due to the intense competition in the Internet. Search engines have also developed very complex algorithms that seek to separate the relevant sites from the non-relevant ones. This relevance does not pertain to a single person but rather to a wide group of people that may be geographically apart but need to access the same factual information.

Benchmarking in SEO

Benchmark is defined as a standard by which something can be measured or judged. In business, to benchmark is to measure a rival’s product according to specified standards in order to compare it with and improve one’s own product. In comparing products or services, it is important to compare against the right benchmark to have a meaningful result.

Benchmarking in SEO is an important aspect of the process. A website does not begin and end with its creation. It needs to be maintained on a regular basis even if your website has attained the top position on search engines. The purpose of SEO is to continuously maintain the top position and to maintain this position permanently, if possible

It takes time to get high ranks in search engines and it can be very difficult to maintain it. A website’s rank is continuously challenged by existing and new competitors. In addition, search engines change their algorithm continuously and the definition of spam tends to change frequently. The monthly maintenance service of SEO companies includes the provision of monthly (or bi-monthly as agreed upon) ranking report in the major search engines. The site is also checked for any internal or external broken links so that the problem is rectified the soonest possible time.

Some SEO companies provide the option of signing up for a Benchmark Tracking Web Statistics Service. This provides access to visitors’ information regarding referral description, bounce rates, entry and exit page, routes taken by visitors to your site and the spider activity. Knowing such information is expected to provide ideas for additional methods that can help drive traffic to your site.

A tremendous amount of useful data can be used to compare your campaigns to the standard based on cost per click, average click rate, conversion rate, marketer’s budget for research and optimization as against PPC (pay-per-click) results. Special research reports can enlighten you on how you can still improve your website. It helps to know what goes behind the players of the industry so that your actions on search marketing can be guided accordingly.

Various benchmark reports can assist you in avoiding a variety of mistakes that are possible while in the process of optimizing and promoting. A benchmark log analysis report assists in determining target phrases and to provide a benchmark for assessing progress. A benchmark search engine position report assists in determining the target phrases that require the most attention and to provide a benchmark for assessing search engine position improvement. A benchmark search engine position report with competition assesses and benchmarks search engine position compared with identified competitors within the online space.

The site to be optimized needs to be tested for ranking on major search engines and for inbound links to establish a benchmark to work from. A new site may possibly have old links or ranking related to the URL. The picture of the current effectiveness of a website can be completed through exploration of search term research and competition. The appropriate search terms and phrases are gathered from various sources. The website’s rank for these terms can be seen and the relative competition identified in the process. By determining the strength of their current campaign, you will be able to determine your own strength and work on your weakness.

About the Author: http://www.theinternetone.net

Source: www.isnare.com

Teamwork Increases Website Visitor Traffic

2006-08-09T07:19:00.000-07:00

Teamwork Increases Website Visitor Traffic

By Jonathan Yarbrough

If you're just starting out with an internet business, or have a new website for your brick-and-mortar business, finding visitors—good quality ones that are prospects for what you are offering, and not an automated computer “visiting” script—you face a quite a challenge, especially if you're on a limited advertising budget. (Although web advertising is a great deal cheaper than traditional print, radio, and TV media ads.) Here are some tips to help either leverage similar sites or your existing visitors to grow your website's exposure.

1. Position your web site at the top of pay-per-click search engines. You will only pay your set amount for each click-through you get to your web site. Just make sure your profits will pay for your advertising cost. If they won't, maybe you could share a web site (teamwork) with another related business and split the costs.

2. Allow your visitors or customers to increase your traffic or sales. Ask them how you can improve your business, web site or product. You can ask them at your web site, in your e-zine, on your message board, in your chat room, in your guest book (although those aren't that popular these days), in your product packages, etc.

3. Team up with other e-zines that have the same target audience. Combine subscriber bases and then publish one e-zine together to increase subscribers. You could all include your ads and announcements in the ezine (of course, don't forget the content!). You could also take turns for the top advertising space.

4. Swap endorsement advertisements with other web sites. Endorsement ads usually pull more sales and traffic than regular advertisements. People have taught themselves to ignore advertisements because they see hundreds of them every day. Endorsements usually don't look or sound like normal ads. Forums are a great place to find like-minded individuals with whom to swap endorsements or testimonials with, and to get others to review your site or product to provide valuable feedback.

5. Consider co-registration services. Co-registration is where you place your ad for your website or ezine or newsletter onto a page with 5-10 other advertisers. There are check boxes alongside each offer, and the cost of the combined ad is split among the advertisers, so it doesn't cost you as much. Think of the “more information” offers you see when you sign up for a credit card or purchase a magazine subscription online—those are co-registration offers with the check boxes next to them. There are some services that will do this for free. Using co-reg is a great way to build a mailing list, which is a great way to build credibility and create repeat customers. This has been one of the easiest ways to build my mailing list (and that's a prime example of a testimonial, except I'm not promoting any specific service).

There are other ways to team up with other website owners, such as joint ventures and web rings, which I talk about in the other articles on my website.

About the Author: Jonathan Yarbrough has been marketing online for over 5 years, and owns http://www.avalanchemarketing.info , specializing in marketing tactics and resources (such as the ones above) for webmasters and home business owners.

Source: www.isnare.com

Creating The Best Headlines For Search Engines

2006-08-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

Creating The Best Headlines For Search Engines

By Danny Wirken

Headlines can make or break any marketing copy. Headlines and sub-headlines that fail to interest or excite the reader will surely lead to unread copies. This could be quite unfortunate not only for the website’s owners but to users as well who might miss out on relevant information contained in an article. A good headline is able to convey to the reader the greatest benefit that can be derived from accessing the information being offered.

Title Tags and Search Engines

One of the most important factors in achieving high search engine ranking is the use of an effective title tag. This is basically an HTML code snippet that creates the words that appear on the top bar of the web browser. Generally, the Meta description and Meta keyword tags follow a title tag although the order in which they appear is not critical.

Search engines use the title tags to gather information about a website. The words that appear in the clickable link on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) are the words used in the title tag. In search engine algorithm, the top three includes title tag together with the visible text copy and the links pointing to the page.

Title tags can only be effective if it contains specific keyword phrases relevant to the site’s industry. The keywords would need to reflect the specific boundaries (if any) which a site has. A good example would be to use California Divorce Lawyers instead of simply using Divorce Lawyers which would include divorce lawyers’ sites from all over the world. A title that is neither very general nor too specific is the best option as it eliminates too many competitions while not being too restrictive of the scope of possible readers. Thus, depending on the site’s purpose, the title can be modified to appear as Los Angeles Divorce Lawyers which further narrows down the option for searchers.

The creation of the title tag can come after the copy has been written and optimized. The most relevant keyword phrases which form the basis of the copy are the most probable sources of a compelling tag. One clue that can help determine whether a good copy has been written is the ease of arriving at a title. It is impossible to come up with the right title if the content is unable to deliver at least one main and clear idea.

When writing a copy for a website, the best approach is to use the main phrases that will suitably reflect the business. The text is then composed around these phrases while being the source of a keyword-rich title. However, it is not advisable to pull a particular sentence from the text verbatim and use it as a title. A unique sentence or phrase that hits the mark is more advantageous.

A keyword phrase used in the title tag but doesn’t actually appear on the visible copy can work both ways. A high ranking may be achieved since a title tag is given a lot of weight by search engines. However, having phrases that are considered to even be slightly competitive in the title but are not found in the copy will reduce its over-all effectiveness. The consideration of gaining many keyword-rich words to the site remains and this should also work hand in hand with the title. If there are keywords that are considered important enough for the site’s use to be found by search engines, then those same words should be effectively incorporated into the text. It isn’t as simple as using it at the top or bottom of the page but having these important words blend in the over-all result of the page.

Producing Effective Headlines

The best headlines do not just happen. They are intentionally created as such to provide the best results possible for both the site owner and the reader. Headlines offer the first opportunity to grab the reader’s attention from the targeted market.

The length of a good headline has been the subject of discussion. There are those who believe it should be limited to a certain number of words but no one can argue about the success of headlines that can be categorized as long by ordinary standards. This just goes to show that the length is not as important as the convincing power of certain words put together. However, a long headline stands to benefit from a writing technique that makes it possible to physically break-up and cleverly display high-spots of interest. Every headline should be presented in such a way that the advantage promised to the reader is so evident that it is almost as if the copy was made solely for him/her.

The choice of words obviously determines the effect of any headline. The two most eye-catching words in a headline are “free” and “new”. “Free” because readers can be very open to consider anything that would not require them to pay and “new” because readers tend to associate new to something better. Words that also seem to deliver are “how to”, “introducing”, “improvement”, “revolutionary”, “magic”, “simple”, “compare”, “last chance” and other words of similar nature. Most of these words seem trite and worn-out but they work towards providing a more specific and desirable offer to the prospect. The selling promise should be subtly incorporated into the headline. This could be done by using longer but information-laden statements. Focus the headline on the benefit which the readers can expect to receive.

Negative headlines doesn’t work except when the negativity is used to underscore the undesirable result that is expected to be eliminated or avoided with knowing the information contained in the text. Sometimes, it takes a negative statement to drive home a specific message. A headline should be able to strike as directly as possible any situation faced by the reader. If this is achieved through a negative approach such as with the headline “Top Ten Investment Mistakes”, then a negative headline is considered a good one.

There are several ways to come up with a winner headline. A headline could stress the need for quick action or select its readers at once with its choice of words. It could highlight a large audience looking for improvement, anticipate incredibility or provide a stopper ad that challenges the searcher to read. Do not forget to always state the benefit to ensure that articles will not be passed over.

Companies should include their unique selling proposition in their headlines. Emphasis on the wide range of choices as to size, color, features or prices could be made. Mention incentives or benefits such as lower price compared to competitors or free items and services.

Headlines that offer news are often successful. Anything newsworthy belongs at the top. Personalized headlines far outperform headlines that are general in nature. Humor and double meanings may not produce the desired effect and are widely considered as non-productive.

Determining the best headlines may require some testing. This is to test which headline pulls best. Many have harvested the benefit of the incredible results of simply altering a headline. The vast difference between two proposed headlines might never be known without this test. Success can be achieved once website owners recognize the tremendous power of words through verbalization. Verbalization is a technique used in writing a headline to increase its impact by the way it is stated. As an added reminder, try writing from the “point of you” from time to time to get the readers’ interest on a personal level.

About the Author: http://www.theinternetone.net

Source: www.isnare.com

Choosing The Best Web Hosting Provider For You

2006-08-09T07:17:00.000-07:00

Choosing The Best Web Hosting Provider For You

By Heris Yunora

The use of good web hosting is badly needed to secure your web site remains online, in addition to the cost that you spend become less. Currently there are so many web hosting companies which respectively have different pricing plans and different features among each other.

Following are the points that you need to observe in choosing a web hosting company:

-Web Space

It constitutes the storage capacity of the whole data as required by your web site. Depending of the type of web site you design, it is better that you also consider your future needs. For example, if you want to build an article directory website, you will need a hosting with large web space.

-Bandwith

Bandwith is the amount of data that is transmitted from your web site. The more visitors visit your web site, the more bandwith you require. It is to be noted that your requirements for web space have not certainly comparable with the requirements for bandwith. For example, if you set up a web site with an Amazon Store script, the web space required is not big, but you need to prepare the bandwith that will possibly consume several Gigas. Keep in mind that other than web site visitors, don't forget that various search engine bots that will make effort to crawl the whole webpages.

-Reliability

The web hosting company you are choosing should have uptime guarantee amounting to at least 99%. In that way, the presence of your web site will be secured for 99% of a time span.

-Speed

Having a web site that can always be accessed is not enough. Your web site must always be loaded rapidly. Otherwise you will be missing a lot of visitors.

-Customer Support

The presence of reliable customer support has to become one of your considerations in choosing a hosting company. A good hosting service provider must be able to be contacted anytime. This is particularly useful to overcome technical problems. If a hosting company provides an online chatting facility for communicating with their customer service, try to submit some requests and observe the way they are serving you.

-Cost

So as to get the best price, compare the pricing plan from several hosting providers that have similar features. Don't forget to conduct checking to the guarantee as provided and whether or not there are other additional costs.

-Technical Features

If later on you have an intention to use certain scripts, check whether the web hosting has complied with the criteria as required. Otherwise, it is better for you to choose a hosting company that has Linux/Unix as the operating system with PHP and MySQL features. There are so many online business support programs such as autoresponder and various CMS's that need server using Linux, Apache, PHP and MySQL. Besides, various free open source programs usually need to enable them for being used. Don't also forget other technical needs, such as whether you will use Audio and Video Streaming or requiring Frontpage Extension.

-Number of Web site

If you have a plant to set up several web sites, choose the one that allow you for hosting your web sites as mentioned in one account (multiple domain hosting). In that way, there is no additional cost that must be spent every month.

Whatever web hosting provider that you choose, it depends on your requirements and the amount of budget that you want to spend. It is to be noted that cheap is not always equal to inferior and expensive is not always equal to good. Some hosting companies which are realiable and having complete enough features, it turns out that they are charging lower monthly cost than other companies which are offering equal or even less complete features. Make sure the web hosting plan you choose will fit your needs.

Happy Choosing...

About the Author: Heris Yunora is the owner of UnlimitedHostingPlan.com, a website that provides information on the features of unlimited web hosting services.

Source: www.isnare.com

Three Different Ways Of Getting A Wordpress Blog Up And Running

2006-08-09T07:16:00.001-07:00

Three Different Ways Of Getting A Wordpress Blog Up And Running

By Roger Loh

The purpose of this article is to outline three different ways of getting a WordPress blog up and running. WordPress is a free blogging software, has many benefits and is supported by a large community of users and developers.

A "blog" is abbreviated from the term, "web log" which is a form of online diary or journal.

Since its advent a few short years ago, blogs have found numerous uses. Just to name a few, these include:

- teenagers putting their thoughts and ramblings online

- hobbyists giving updates about their interests and passion

- people staying updated with friends overseas

- professional bloggers updating specific niche products

- multinational corporations (MNC's) such as Microsoft & General Motors using blogs as marketing tool

Like a web site, a blog has global reach. However, it's far cheaper, quicker and definitely easier to maintain a blog than a traditional web site. A blog's contents can be easily updated by submitting short or long articles (commonly known as blog posts) through an easy-to-use graphical interface. As a blog's content is updated regularly, they naturally attract both human readers as well as search engines hungry for fresh content.

To set up a blog, we need some form of blogging software or platform. There are free software like Blogger and WordPress and there are paid platforms like Moveable Type and Typepad.

Blogger is owned by Google. It's free and perhaps the easiest way to create a blog and your first post, literally within minutes! Howeer, its features are somewhat limited.

Thus, WordPress is a good alternative if you are looking for free blogging software. As it is an open source software, it is literally supported by a huge community of users and developers that assists both new and experienced bloggers. Not only feature rich - it supports categories, pages and trackbacks, just to name a few - it is constantly being updated through its core software as well as through software plugin's which are bonus software components that extend the basic functionality of WordPress. For more information, visit WordPress.org

Here are 3 different ways to get a WordPress blog up and running:

1) Via WordPress.com

2) Via WordPress.org

3) Via CPANEL's Fantastico

VIA WORDPRESS.COM

Like Blogger, you can get your WordPress blog and first post up and running within several minutes through WordPress.com! This site is meant for people to get a taste of WordPress without having to go through the somewhat involved procedure via WordPress.org (see the section below). If this is the first time you are getting your WordPress blog up and running, you should definitely give this a shot.

It's as easy as going to WordPress.com, clicking the button that says "Get a WordPress Blog Now>>" or something like that and following the directions there. And then, you start posting!

In this case, your WordPress blog will be hosted on WordPress.com totally free. Therefore, you do not need your own web host. The only drawback is that there are limitations such as you can't install your own themes or plugin's.

VIA WORDPRESS.ORG

Instead of having your blog hosted on WordPress.com, you can install WordPress on your own web host. (Of course, in this case, you need to have your own web hosting account which preferably comes with a version of "CPANEL" - a an easy-to-use graphical control panel to manage your web host.)

Setting up of the WordPress blog comprises the 3 main steps below.

Step 1: Visit WordPress.org and download the WordPress installation files which are free (since it is open source software as mentioned before). As the files are in a compressed format, run your compression utility (such as Winzip) to expand the files to your hard disk..

Step 2: Run your File Transfer Protocol (FTP) program and connect to your web hosting account. Then upload the installation files to the domain (if you have multiple domains hosted) and folder that you want your WordPress blog installed.

Step 3: This step is going to be challenging for the non-techie type if they managed to survive Step 2! You log into the CPANEL of your web host and create and configure your MYSQL database. After this is done, you need to configure some files to complete your installation.

Next, launch your browser to access your blog and start making your 1st post by running the "wp-admin.php" script that has been installed.

As you can see, this is the "normal" but very tedious way of setting up of your WordPress blog.

However, the effort you expend is worthwhile as you can configure all aspects of WordPress like installing the theme you like and adding HTML codes to include Google AdSense on your blog to earn some profit, etc.

VIA FANTASTICO

Again, you install WordPress on your own web host but this time through FANTASTICO. In this case, not only would you need to have your own web hosting account, it MUST come with a version of "CPANEL" that includes "FANTASTICO" - an advanced script installer that automates a 1-click WordPress installation! (Actually a few clicks are needed.)

With FANTASTICO, all the 3 steps above are automated for you. All you need to do is to log into the CPANEL of your web host and then click the FANTASTICO icon, which is a smiley face.

In the next screen, click on "WordPress" and then click on "New Installation". FANTASTICO will open a form and you fill in a few things like which domain (if you have multiple domains hosted) and which folder to install to. Once you have typed in the information and pushed a button, FANTASTICO will install WordPress in a few seconds!

How is that possible? That's because the installation files are already at your web host. This saves you time as you don't have to download them from WordPress.org, expand them and upload to your web host. Likewise, the databas is also automatically created and configured for you.

Next, launch your browser to access your blog and start making your 1st post by running the "wp-admin.php" script that has been installed.

As you can see, this is the "preferred" method of getting a WordPress blog up and running, also within minutes.and yet you can have all the benefits of configuring all aspects of WordPress, such as adding Affiliate Programs easily (including Amazon.com) and Google AdSense to make a handsome profit month after month!

About the Author: Roger Loh spent many years setting up computer networks and is an Internet marketer focusing on Affiliate Marketing and Blogging. Get started in Internet Marketing and Blogging: His Blog Blogging Video.

Source: www.isnare.com

Three Different Ways Of Getting A Wordpress Blog Up And Running

2006-08-09T07:16:00.000-07:00

Three Different Ways Of Getting A Wordpress Blog Up And Running

How To Find Good Web Hosting

2006-08-09T07:10:00.001-07:00

How To Find Good Web Hosting

By Anthony Pace

How to find good web hosting is not that difficult a process, but there are a few factors that are important to consider. I have tried using the cheapest web hosts marketed only to be disappointed to the point of upgrading to a better host. My experience may help you in your search for what is appropriate in your situation. If you are absolutely sure of what you are doing in terms of setting up a website, need only one domain hosted, and don't need any support then the rock bottom price hosts may be ok for you.

The $2 a month host that I originally signed up for only allowed the hosting of one site. Since I got this account to use for affiliate marketing it became apparent that I was going to need more than one domain hosted. I also misunderstood the terms that said I could have unlimited domains parked. This means each domain hosted redirects to the original domain. I though having unlimited domains parked meant you could have unlimited unique domains. I originally emailed the host about this and their response was "you get unlimited domains."

So what is the number one factor in how to find good web hosting? Clearly, it is whether the host offers live 24/7 toll free technical support. I would have avoided the above mistakes because I would have picked up the phone and spoke to a human being. And if you ever have any questions regarding your account setup, etc. there is someone to help you any time of the day or night. And believe me at some point there will be problems. It will cost you a couple extra bucks a month but it is well worth the money. It took me almost a month to cancel and get a refund from the $2 host. I had to hound them with emails.

After doing some research in an affiliate forum there were a few host names that kept coming up over and over. All were in the $5-$7 month range and come with all the bells and whistles that are part of the quality hosting companies. So I highly recommend in your search of how to find good web hosting that you stay away from the dirt-cheap hosting. There is a tremendous peace of mind knowing that at any time you may need help, its there on the other end of the phone line.

About the Author: Anthony Pace is an affiliate marketer and the author of this article. If you would like to learn more about what was discussed in this article, check out:
http://www.my-product-reviews.com/how_to_find_good_web_hosting

Source: www.isnare.com

Optimizing Images For Web Pages

2006-08-09T07:10:00.000-07:00

Optimizing Images For Web Pages

By Jane Lake

If you want attractive, fast loading pages on your web site, then you must optimize the images that you use. Optimizing essentially means finding the right balance between image file size and image quality. There are various ways to do this, and here we'll discuss some of the common options.

Reduce the Image Quality:

Although this sounds like a disadvantage, it actually is not since digital pictures usually have a far higher resolution than any computer monitor can display. By reducing the resolution, or the number of pixels displayed per square inch (dpi), you can effectively optimize the image for both display and download purposes.

Crop Images:

Photos and other graphics often have more surrounding detail than is needed for your purpose. Zero in on the subject of your picture by cropping away any unnecessary white space or clutter. This will reduce the picture size (and load time) while focusing the visual impact directly on the subject matter.

Resize Images:

This one is easy. Why post a huge photo on a web page when a smaller one will serve just as well? Just resize the height and width of the photo in whatever graphics program you use on your computer before uploading it to your server. Do NOT simply reduce the height and width dimensions in your html code as this continues to use the huge file size and merely displays it in a smaller area of the page.

Image Optimizing Tools:

There are some excellent tools available for optimizing images, and one of the best is Irfanview, at http://www.irfanview.com, a free download that enables quick and easy image compression, cropping and resizing.

If you have Adobe Photoshop, you might want to read the optimizing images tutorial at http://catalyst.washington.edu/catalyst/how-to/scanning/minimizeImages.html which has excellent step-by-step instructions.

There are also free online tools. Netmechanic offers free sample use of GifBot, at http://www.netmechanic.com/products/GIFbot_FreeSample.shtml, which displays optimized versions of any image you upload, ranging from 90 percent down to 10 percent compression. MyImager, at http://www.myimager.com, is an online image editor with many different effects options, plus the capability to reduce colors in gifs and reduce quality in jpg format. There are many others - just search for "online image optimizer" in Google for more options.

One caveat - never optimize the original image!

Save a copy instead, and optimize that version so the original is always available in the future if you need it again.

Re-Using Images:

A common mistake among web hosting beginners is uploading the same image into multiple image folders. If your web site has several different directories, each with its own image folder, it might seem logical to upload the logo.gif into each image folder and call it into a page with a link relative to that directory. But consider - if you do this, then your server must reload the logo image every time a visitor moves from one directory on your site to another. Instead, use the same image path every time you use the image. That way, the server loads just one image which is then cached on the visitor's computer and re-used for each page that displays it. This can greatly improve page load time if you have a number of common images, such as a logo or menu buttons.

Choose the Right Image Format:

Most web images are created as either gif files or jpg (or jpeg) files. There are pros and cons to both. Basically, gifs are best for simple graphics or line drawings. They can be created with a transparent background or used in simple animations and are often optimized by reducing the use of colors. The jpg format is better for photographs or full color images, but cannot be animated or used with a transparent background. For more detailed information on this topic, including side-by-side sample images, read David Eisenberg's informative article, "Why Good Images Go Bad - A Guide to Effective Use of Images on Your Website" at http://www.catcode.com/imgguide/index

About the Author: Jane Lake is a writer on the HostNexus Site Development team. Her own website, AllFreeCrafts, at http://www.allfreecrafts.com, offers hundreds of original free craft projects which include photos (and optimized images) of the finished craft plus detailed how-to instructions. This site is consistently at the top of Google searches for free crafts and is one of many successful sites hosted by HostNexus at http://www.hostnexus.com

Source: www.isnare.com

Get Higher Search Engine Ranking On Google

2006-08-09T07:09:00.004-07:00

Get Higher Search Engine Ranking On Google

By Steve Pavis

Google is the most popular search engine, with the latest studies showing that 2 in every 3 Internet users use an engine google search whenever they surf the web. That’s why it’s crucial for any internet-based business to get good search engine ranking on Google.

Getting higher search engine placement is very difficult—with thousands of sites competing for search engine ranking on any given topic—but not impossible.

Search engine ranking is a science, and requires a thorough understanding of the quirks of that particular crawler and the way it indexes sites.

Google tends to give a better search engine ranking to those with a thorough link system. This is because it views the link as a sign of the site’s credibility and popularity—and thus awards a more prominent search engine ranking. But your link system should reflect both quantity and quality.

You achieve more successful search engine ranking if prominent and well-respected sites (with a high search engine ranking of their own) chose to link to you.

Google also puts of a lot of weight into the title of a page, the text between the

HTML tags in the section of your web page. To get a good search engine ranking, that text should include your keywords.

Google also puts a lot of emphasis in keyword density when it computes search engine ranking. This means developing your content and using keyword-laden links. If you sell chocolate wedding souvenirs, a website with a link stating “chocolate wedding souvenirs” pointing at your site will give your website a higher search engine ranking than a link that says “click here.”

Contrary to rumor, disabling the cache of pages won’t affect your search engine ranking on Google. And unlike in other crawlers, your Google search engine ranking won’t be pulled down by using dynamic pages/. Just make sure that you have a link to those pages somewhere on your site so Google can find it.

Google also indexes ALT tags on images, so to get a better search engine ranking, include ALT tags and throw in a few keywords! Google ignores META tags so don’t bother optimizing this tag as it won’t help your search engine ranking.

You should also download the Google Toolbar so you can see the search engine rank of every page that you visit. Just be careful because it tracks all pages you visit when it’s open, so restrict its use when you want to check a particular search engine ranking.

About the Author: To learn more about how to claim $50 in FREE Advertising, plus easily earn Pay-Per-Click money to promote your Web site(s), go to http://www.bigdaddypays.com/payperclick
Steve pavis tries to be at the cutting edge of new concepts that are profitable for the small to medium size business, who need all the help they can get. Go see http://stevepavis.com

Source: www.isnare.com

Finding That Perfect Domain Name Is Becoming An Art Form

2006-08-09T07:09:00.003-07:00

Finding That Perfect Domain Name Is Becoming An Art Form

By Mike Goldstein

In the distant Internet past, circa 2000, a very solid SEO strategy was to purchase a domain name with your keywords in the URL. This was said to greatly assist a web site in their rankings. While this strategy has met with limited success as of late, it is still a good marketing ploy to buy names which have your core competence terms as part of the URL. This has been made increasingly difficult as a result of cyber squatters, who buy and horde domain names for ransom, or just because they think they may someday want to use the name, but have no immediate plans to do so.

It is estimated that about 70 million domains are currently under registration from ICANN. It is further estimated that there are virtually no one and very few two-word phrases left in the English dictionary. This means that web site owners are going to either need to come up with some very creative words, which are not real words, or they are going to need to come up with very long domain names, which may be difficult to spell or have a high risk of mistyping by a user.

What does all this mean to the web site owner who is concerned with getting traffic to their new site? It may require more SEO work and less traditional advertising to get users to come to your web site. Why is this? In the past you could create a brand around one word, such as Yahoo, or Boston, and with a good marketing effort, have users simply remember your web site, type in your domain name and go to the site. This is not going to be the case with newer sites, as the domains names are going to get longer, and the extensions are not going to be limited to .com, .net and .org, but rather a plethora of domain name extensions will be needed.

So what is a web site owner to do? The marketing of sites will now fall to developing great content, getting others to link to you, making sure the web sites are defined properly and not allowing for sloppy programming. There is also the avenue of paid search, where no single keyword or keyword phrase is owned by a single person in perpetuity, but rather many companies can bid for the same term and based on a variety of bid management techniques and better copyrighting, you can purchase web site clicks.

The world is changing, and we are quickly becoming more and more a wireless web-based society. As such, TV, radio and print commercials have less of an impact on how we find the web sites we want to visit, but it seems as though the large consumption of domain names over the past decade may move us into that new medium far quicker than some of us might like. On the other hand, if you are skilled at SEO and SEM, you may be positioned to be a leader in an industry that you simply could not have bought your way into just six years ago.

About the Author: This piece was written by Mike Goldstein, the SEO Manager of Rock Coast Media.

Source: www.isnare.com

Why Ranking High On Search Engines Is Not Enough

2006-08-09T07:09:00.002-07:00

Why Ranking High On Search Engines Is Not Enough

By Steve Pavis

There’s a war going on in the web—the battle for people’s attention. With thousands of websites competing even under the most obscure categories, ranking high on search engines has become like the Holy Grail of the Modern Era. This is especially true for companies whose goods and products are relatively common.

There are over 3,000 entries for scrapbook papers, and over 5,000 entries on recipes. Faced with this kind of competition, ranking high on search engines seems almost impossible.

Not impossible, although be prepared to put up quite a long fight. Search engine promotion know the secrets to ranking high on search engines, and increase search engine ranking even in relatively difficult niches.

They do warn, however, that ranking high on search engines is a daily battle. Just as you are pulling out all the stops for the sole goal of ranking high on search engines, so are your competitors. Ground is gained and lost everyday. So one moment, you’re ranking high on search engines, and the next, you’re not.

That’s why experts say that ranking high on search engines is not the only way to win the Internet war or secure your home business profits. . In fact, ranking high on search engines isn’t even the way to ensure sales. The most ranking high on search engines can do is to bring people to your website. But it does not get them to make a sale—they can still visit other sites and choose to buy from them. So you need to complement ranking high on search engines with good customer service, competitive prices, and a good reputation.

A good reputation is a function of the kind of reviews you get from other related websites. If others like your content and choose to link to you, you get their “seal of approval” while also driving up your link network, a big factor in ranking high on search engines.

It’s also important to penetrate forums invite others to check out your site, or if you have the budget, to invest in advertising or promotions. This helps start word of mouth. So even if ranking high on search engines fluctuates, you still get traffic,

Ranking high on search engines is important. In fact, ranking high on search engines should be one of your business priorities. But ranking high on search engines is not enough. You should complement ranking high on search engines with other internet marketing and promotions efforts. That way, you win the war on many fronts.

About the Author: To learn more about how to claim $50 in FREE Advertising, plus easily earn Pay-Per-Click money to promote your Web site(s), go to http://www.bigdaddypays.com/payperclick Steve pavis tries to be at the cutting edge of new concepts that are profitable for the small to medium size business, who need all the help they can get. Go see http://stevepavis.com

Source: www.isnare.com