Web Host World: Nov 12, 2007

Monday, November 12, 2007

Does Your Website Have a Good or Bad Personality? Turn It Into a Nice Guy!

Websites have personalities, sites with top quality content and a user friendly but good looking design usually have a good personality. However some sites have a bad personality, I would describe a lot of the MFA (made for Adsense) websites as having a bad personality.

What Am I On About?

Visitors on your website create a relationship with your site. Certain factors decide how much of an effect the site can have on the visitors feelings, the more of an effect the stronger the relationship is. As in real life the relationships you have with people depends on their personalities, the same can be said for websites. Sites that spark a positive relationship with the visitor have a good relationship.

How To Have A Bad Personality

Create a website with a tacky free template, add a little bit of content copied from Wikipedia and then just fill it with Adsense and other advertisements. This is what newbies to the web often do without realising. This will make you a few dollars in the short term but by building no relationships with users your site will never be a big success long term.

Create a Good Personality!

A site with a good personality is one that has the ability to spark a good relationship with the visitor. Im not going to run through in depth everything required but you need the basic framework, here are the key requirements regardless of your sites topic or niche:

- Professional and eye pleasing design
- Design that allows an uncomplicated experience for the user
- Good quality content
- Majority unique content
- Positive tone to the site (in the text/images)
- Some kind of user interaction

All these elements together are sure to strike a good relationship with the user. As long as the visitor is actually interested in what your site is about there is a good chance they will make an action on your site I.E buy a product, join a newsletter, create an account or even just add the site to their favourites.

Is Your Site a Nice Guy?

Im sure from this article that you can now work out how much of a good personality your site has. If you are missing a few elements then you should make sure that you add them, long-term your site will have more success.

Resources

If your design isnt as good looking as you want then you should consider adding some quality images. These dont have to cost anything, you could try out Free Stock Images to get a list of all the sites providing images for free. They also have more webmaster articles like this one so you can learn even more about how to make your site a success.

------ You are welcome to link to this article, if you copy it into your website please make sure nothing is edited and the links remain live. Hope you enjoy it!

Should You Create a Static or Dynamic Website?

Yes, this is a big question that haunts all new website owners. It is especially so for those who have no interest in programming languages or their differences. This article is targeted to help you make a decision on whether you should look at creating a dynamic site and if so which language should be used.

Websites are normally classified in two broad classifications, the static websites and the dynamic websites. The Static web site or the so called static web pages are normally created using html with styling done with either graphics or using CSS styles. The dynamic websites would be the ones created using programming languages like PHP, ASP, ASP.net, JSP etc.

Having a static website has its own advantage. You do not have to worry about managing the databases or managing the code in the pages nor would you ever see the server errors which occur due to some logic or runtime error in your code. Whenever you want to add new content to such sites you would refer to the template page, add your content and voila` your page is ready to be uploaded.

This is good for some time. When you have web sites with lots of content and a reliable source such as IGR providing you rich content, you would end up making these html pages almost every now and then. Maintaining the static pages for any small change like the style or menu, which remains common across pages, becomes very difficult. You would have to open each page in your editor, make the change and then upload the pages again to your server, unless of course you have "include" files for your menus, or styles.

Creating a dynamic website is challenging but the result you would get after hard work on understanding and coding your web pages with languages like ASP or PHP, would make you feel good about yourself.

Programming languages often help you in creating dynamic pages which would also enable you to manage the web site content dynamically or at runtime. You would access the web site through the browser and edit the content or, to some extent, even the look and feel of the website. Such web sites are normally called the content management systems. Many CMS systems are freely available in case you do not want to put your efforts in programming. There might be some conditions such as displaying the web site content based on users demographics, or tracking where the user came from, or collecting the user information and storing it so that you can send your newsletters with your affiliate programs. Such actions call for a dynamic web site.

Once you decide that you really want to have a dynamic web site, the next big question that pops up is what programming language should you use for your web site. The most commonly used ones are ASP, PHP, CGI Perl, JSP and recent addition being ASP.net. Each language has its own advantages and disadvantages. For instance PHP would have a considerable learning curve, but you will have a wide variety of open source applications for you to use on your web site if your host server supports PHP. Many are aware of word press blogs which is coded in PHP. Again if you were to see the bonuses and applications provided by your server host, you would be surprised to see that almost all the features that you have thought for your website are available free of charge for you to use directly on your web pages. PHP is supported on both Windows as well as Linux servers. Choosing Linux environment with Apache server makes sense for PHP.

The ASP web sites would have a much smaller learning curve but then ASP sites are restricted to IIS and the windows environment. What does that mean to you? After all you will be interested in your web site and not the servers. But if you want to add a feature or application to your web site, then you would have to search really hard for some good freely available plugins. Most of the applications that are available for any Microsoft technologies like ASP, ASP.net are normally paid applications. You would have to buy the licenses to use this on your web site. For example it would be really daunting task to find freely available blog software for ASP or ASP.net website, then it would be for the PHP sites.

Though JSP is one of the languages which probably have a huge learning curve, it provides all the features of Java. There is no doubt that Java can provide you with excellent features when it comes to server side programming.

A dynamic web site would also require a database support to store the information. Normally the CMS systems use a database to store the content and other web site information like the currently selected styles and preferences set by the owner. Similarly you would require a database to store the data from which your code would create the pages or part of the web pages dynamically. A classic example would be the online shopping cart you use when shopping for your Christmas gifts, the comments you post on your favorite sites. All this storage is usually done in the database.

PHP would normally be used with MySQL database while ASP, ASP.net would go well with database like MS SQL Server or MS access, for a simple reason that ASP, ASP.net, MS SQL Server, MS access are all Microsoft technologies.

As far as the cost for the dynamic websites is considered, you might not find a big difference since the server host would usually charge almost same charge for both Windows and Linux based hosting.

If you are serious enough to make some decent living from your web site, the final advice would be to get your self equipped with the knowledge of creating dynamic web sites.

Happy programming!

Visit my DotNET blog

When Web Hosting, Consider Dedicated Servers

There is hosting and then there is hosting and then there is hosting. But, what really is the difference between one type of hosting and another.

To begin with there are the usual issues related to hosting: the speed, the disk space, the bandwidth, the price, and the like. But today I am going to point out one important parameter about hosts that you might overlook, but should not. That almighty parameter is: Who else is hosted on the same server as you are?

Are you puzzled about why that is an important issue? Well, there isn't really any reason to be puzzled. When you live in a particular home, are you not concerned with who lives in the same neighborhood? Which other websites inhabit your server is a matter of similar concern.

To begin with, the horror of hosting a website is to find it exists in a bad neighborhood. Here are some of the things that can do wrong with a bad neighborhood:

* If someone else, I repeat, not you, but someone else has been using your server to email spam, then your server could already be in the list of blacklisted servers. This means that your mail could end up in the junk mailbox of the receiver. Some of the more aggressive spam filters would actually prevent your mail from ever reaching.

* Regardless of your online marketing strategy, a significant portion of your traffic will originate from search engines. If the other web sites on your server are in the bad books of the search engine, your site could be devalued too. This is especially true if you also share the same IP.

The list can go on. Indeed, it can get scarier. But without much more ado, let me jump to the solution to all these problems. Are you ready? Well, the simple solution is to get dedicated web hosting. This means that your site or sites are on a server that is dedicated to your web sites.

That is not the only advantage of a dedicated host. You are basically in full control over the kind of software you load, the kind of programs you run. The kind of background processes you run. The nature of your back up strategy. And a whole lot more.

Dedicated hosting does cost more. So that is something you will have to evaluate against the benefits you get. In any case, an informed choice is better than an uninformed one.

Looking for dedicated hosting? We have the best deals for: Webhosting and Web Hosting and Web Hosting Blog

Understanding Virtual Private Servers

Virtual private servers have been used for quite some time, but lately they have gained popularity and more and more people have a need for something other than shared and dedicated web-hosting services. A virtual private server is a single physical server that is split into multiple virtual servers. What this means is that the single physical server is portioned in such a way that the one server appears to be multiple servers. While this portioning of a single server has been effective for quite some time, newer software such as Xen, FreeVPS, and others have revived the popularity.

Virtual private servers are practical for those that need something a bit different than either shared or dedicated hosting. The attractiveness of Virtual private servers or VPS is that they allow root level access to each of the clients, yet they do not require physically dedicated servers. Businesses and individuals that really need a customized server and web hosting plan often go for the virtual private server because it gives them more privacy and customization than a shared server, but usually is not as expensive as a dedicated server is. Many find that a virtual private server is just able to fulfill their needs more accurately and efficiently than any other type of hosting service.

Virtual private servers are used in a variety of situations. Many times they are used for duplicate or copy websites. This allows changes to be made to the copy site before making the changes to the main site, to ensure that the website will be as accurate and as unflawed as possible. Testing the copy site allows the individuals running the website to ensure that it is as professional and up-to-date as possible at all times. Virtual private servers are also used quite often to create honeypots, which refers to the ability to allow a specific machine to run software that knowingly has security or other flaws. Honeypots are considered to be easier to deploy in a timely fashion, which allows one to gain more insight into the world of computer safety without compromising the safety of ones main server.

There is a well-known variant of virtual hosting that is called clustered hosting; this is a technology that involves a cluster of physical machines that are each running virtual hosts. Whether you choose clustering or virtual private servers, this can be the solution to your web hosting needs. If you have the need to gain more control and customization than you can get with shared hosting, one should definitely look into VPS hosting options. VPS is great for many, including those that want more control as well as web hosting resellers.

Findahost.com has been the premier web hosting directory since 1998. Find a web hosting company that offers Virtual Private Servers and VPS hosting at http://www.findahost.com/virtual-private-servers.cfm

PHP Strings

In programming, a string is a sequence of letters, symbols, characters and arithmetic values or combination of all tied together in single or double quotes. For example, "I Love PHP", "10", '100.01', "", etc are all examples of strings.

Declaring String Variable in PHP

An example:

$my_name = "John";

In PHP, a variable must start with $ sign followed by variable name. The string value must be wrapped in double or single quotes.

Concatenate / Join Strings in PHP

Sometimes while working with strings in our code, we need to join two strings. In PHP, you can use '.' to concatenate two or more strings together to form a single string.

An Example:

$my_first_name = "John";

$my_last_name = "Doe";

//concatenate my first and last name

$my_full_name = $my_first_name. " " . $my_last_name;

echo $my_full_name;

The above example with output "John Doe".

Single and Double Quotes PHP Strings

Double Quotes:

Strings in PHP can be wrapped in double or singles quotes. Using double quotes is the primary method. Double quotes allow us to escape specials characters in our string. For example, when you use the $ sign within double quotes it is treated as php variable and will not show up in the output

An Example:

$str = "hello";

echo "$str everyone!";

Notice in the above code, we wrapped the $str variable in double quoted string. The above example will output "hello everyone" NOT "$str everyone"

Single Quotes:

Single quotes can be used to do things like...

An example:

$quote_of_the_day = '"To be or not to be. That is the question"';

echo $quote_of_the_day;

Notice, we used double quotes around the text. The code will output "To be or not to be. That is the question".

Single Quotes vs. Double Quotes in PHP Strings

It is good practice when working PHP code to wrap stings in double quotes. Single quotes should be used when writing HTML code within PHP code since attribute values of HTML tags should be wrapped in double quotes as good coding practice.

See more examples of PHP Strings or go to Learn PHP for more tutorials.

Have fun coding!

Top 3 Reasons To Use Dedicated Server Hosting Rather Than Shared Hosting

Choosing the type of hosting to use for your website can make or break your business. Two popular methods are using shared hosting and dedicated hosting. Dedicated hosting means that your site has a full computer dedicated to the needs of your website. Shared hosting means that your site is on the same server as hundreds or thousands of other websites. Here is why you should use a dedicated server if you can afford it:

Your site will run faster

Using a dedicated server will ensure that your website will always perform fast. This is especially important since visitors to your site will quickly leave if your site is slow. With shared hosting your site can easily become bogged down because of problems with the hundreds of other websites on the same computer.

You site is more secure

Since there are at least hundreds of other websites on a shared server security becomes a problem. It is exponentially more probable that hackers will be attempting to breach the security of a shared server rather than a dedicated server, since the number of potential targets is so much higher.

You can survive traffic spikes

If you are actively advertising and promoting your site it is very likely that your site will experience traffic spikes at times. For instance, suppose you sent a news release about a new product or service one day. That will hopefully result in many visitors coming to your website. With a dedicated server you can be sure that your site has the capacity to perform well during a traffic spike. With shared hosting it is likely that the server is already taxed from the traffic going to other websites.

Shared hosting is generally cheap, but the risk of losing business due to poor performance, security problems, or traffic spikes is a real problem. If you have the budget it is much wiser to spend the extra money on a dedicated server.

Daniel Burge is the founder and CEO of the custom software development company Burada, Inc. Burada specializes in developing custom software for small and medium sized businesses around the globe. For more information visit http://www.buradainc.com/

Small Business Websites - How To Decide What's Right For You

In order to make the best website decision for you, several factors need to be considered. Many entrepreneurs I speak to are ready to spend several thousands of dollars on their websites, without having a clear concept of the internet strategy for their business. They are mainly able to articulate that they want a professional looking site, but are unable to clearly define what that means. I have been able to save my clients a considerable amount of money and frustration by walking them through the considerations of a realistic internet strategy.

Entrepreneurs I meet generally want a website for one of two reasons.

Electronic brochure; Even when the majority of their sales are local and face to face, entrepreneurs find that many of their customers ask them for their site rather than take a business card or brochure. Todays customers have grown accustomed to being able to research businesses online rather than having to ask questions in person. This saves them time and the worry of having to keep track of your business card or brochure. If you fall into this category and lack even a minimal, static website, you could find yourself at a competitive disadvantage.

Lead generation tool; When small businesses plan to attract a large percentage of their customers from the internet, they require a more robust internet strategy. If you fall into this category, you could benefit from a more dynamic website that draws attention from the major search engines. In theory you could pay for search engine optimization (SEO) but there are also lots of low-cost strategies for building traffic. You would definitely benefit from a blog, as well as the ability to add info to the site rapidly and reliably which may not happen if you hire someone else to build the site.

Regardless of the category you fall into, before long you will probably be thinking about making sales online. Even if you are a service provider, you may have a book or CD you want to sell. At the very least, you will probably want to set up a newsletter to keep in touch with your customers. Many entrepreneurs I talk to are intimidated by the idea of setting up a shopping cart, accepting payments or creating a database of customers for their site. However, you should be aware that an entire industry has grown up on the internet in support of small businesses. The services you want are all available as simple plug-ins at a low cost.

The one area I find most entrepreneurs do not even consider is the viability of their domain host provider. The domain host provider provides the physical database servers upon which your website resides. Their capacity and configuration determine things like how often they are unavailable and the speed at which your site is available. They also vary widely in terms of cost and level of customer support. Your can leverage a site like realmetrics to get an unbiased report comparing cost and service without having to have too much technical expertise.

The bottom line is that when it comes to websites, more expensive is not always better. Especially in a startup or low-budget situation, be sure that the website you build is the one you need to support your unique business

Do you want to learn more about overcoming the everyday challenges of building a business? Sign up for my free special report Getting Out of Your Own Way: 7 Steps to Sustainable Success for Women Entrepreneurs: Small Business Success

Liz Fuller is a MicroBusiness Development Specialist who works with Women Entrepreneurs to grow their business to greater levels of sustainable success.

Sign up for Lizs ezine: More Than We Know at http://www.morethanweknow.com for information, inspiration and support delivered right to your inbox.

Choose a Dedicated Host for Exclusive Web Service

If you are serious about your online business, you might just consider following the next dedicated hosting tips. By definition, dedicated hosting means having an entire server which is at your disposal, as the webmaster, and which is not shared with anybody else.

This clearly has more advantages than shared hosting because you, as the webmaster, have full control over your own server, including options of operating system, hardware, database, etc. You can personalize everything according to your needs, while the administration is handled by the hosting company.

The most important advantage of using online dedicated hosting is that your website performance will not be affected by other high traffic websites which you would have been sharing your server's bandwidth with on a shared server. The online dedicated hosting media provides an exclusive server or servers devoted to the sole purpose of serving you, and no one else. You do not share a media with other customers, and you avoid shared hosting.

Prior to the existence of dedicated servers, a webmaster had two basic hosting options, the low-priced shared hosting model and the premium-priced dedicated server. A webmaster who purchased space on a shared host would receive a certain amount of disk space and monthly transfer, and would have the web site served from a common web server.

The hosting company would try to provide a wide array of options and customizations for the web site developer, in order to increase to popularity of their products. But, unfortunately, a customer who needed a non-standard program installed or who wanted to use a privileged account in order for a particular utility to run would be completely not allowed to achieve these goals, even with all the efforts from the hosting company. This is because you depended on other persons, and in these cases majority decides.

As an example that pops up into my mind instantly, you might have a site which requires a database to store your important pieces of information. Most hosting companies would provide the standard MySQL database to use on their servers. If your application requires another type of database though, then it could prove to be incompatible with the shared hosting account.

Hosting your sites on a dedicated server is not an option from the beginning though. If you plan on designing a site which is merely a hobby, then dedicated isn't for you. This option is for persons who want to make a living online and, moreover, their site begins to have too much traffic for a shared server to handle. A dedicated server can be customized to exactly fit the needs of a site developer. That's where it gets its' name from.

While dedicated servers can be customized and can handle a tremendous amount of traffic, their superior performance doesn't come cheap. A typical dedicated server can cost you hundreds of dollars per month depending on its size, network connectivity and the amount of management required from the hosting company.

That's why, first and foremost, you need to be sure that you want to take your business the next level, and you really need a dedicated server before plunging in. If that's the case, listen to the dedicated hosting tips you've been told and go on with it.

Guidelines and advice for ideal dedicated host selection

http://www.dedicatedhostingtips.com
Premier web hosting server options
Web hosting servers.
http://www.bestwebhostinghq.com

3 Important Things You Should Know When Choosing a Web Host

Are you planning to put up a website? If you are, then you should already look around for a web host that will handle your website. But you may be asking what exactly a web host is. A web host is a kind of service that puts your website in a server connected to the Internet. You need a web host so that you don't have to worry about maintaining a server; you only have to focus on creating and maintaining your website.

With the number of web host services in the Internet today, it wouldn't be surprising if you're having a hard time choosing a web host for your website. There are also several web hosting companies giving tempting packages that may persuade you to acquire their services. As such, you should always be careful in dealing with web hosting packages that are too good to be true. Just think this way: Why would these companies offer these packages? Web hosting is a business and for sure there's something in it that will benefit them.

To ensure that you're on the right track in choosing the web host suited for you, stay away from these three blunders:

1. Limited Hosting

If your website is used for business, as much as possible, choose a web host that will enable you to have several email accounts, order forms, and statistics. You will need all these things in your website, especially when your business expands. Some of the things that you should look for in a web host are autoresponders, URL redirection, web usage statistics, multiple POP email accounts, web space allocation, secure servers, and dedicated hosting.

2. Free Web Space

Don't be tempted by companies offering free web hosting services. These companies can offer free web hosting services so they can post advertisements on your website. But remember, these advertisements may only lure your customers away and will only crowd your website.

And since web hosting is free, there are also other people who would want to take advantage of this privilege, so don't be surprised when your website experiences a lot of downtimes. Moreover, companies offering free web hosting usually gives long domain names that are sometimes too difficult to remember.

3. Low Cost Hosting

How about low cost hosting? Low cost hosting is the same with free web space. A company will never ask for almost nothing in exchange of the low price they're giving you for their web host service. Web hosting companies need to earn profit from their services and if they can't get enough profit from your payment, they are bound to get it from you in a roundabout way. Low cost hosting is just a marketing strategy to make you grab the service immediately.

In choosing a web host, never ever risk the quality of the web host service given to you! Sure, the web host you've chosen costs a lot lesser or is given for free, but the features that you need to run your online business smoothly may not be offered by your web host. If this is the case, you would lose your integrity and may end up closing your business eventually.

Max Adams is the owner of http://webhosting.infospotters.com/ - If you are aiming for a topnotch hosting deal that won't compromise value for your money, check out our reviews. We are here to be your independent source of honest and unbiased reviews of all hosting companies and their products and services.

10 Tips To Build, Manage And Profit From An E-Commerce Website

Just because you've built your e-commerce website doesn't mean the customers will begin to come. You need to bring in the visitors, showcase your products, convince them to buy, and bring them back yet again to make any significant gains.

The customers need to be wooed by the unique customer experience that will bring them back, and have them sing your praise to their friends, spreading your name. This may seem like a tall order, but isn't. Listed here are the top ten tips to build, manage and profit from your e-commerce website. Follow them and see the benefits for yourself.

1. Organize your Catalog around Product Categories

Many sites either provide a long list of products or lump them behind a search button, making it difficult to find them. Arrange your products into logical categories and subcategories, but do not overdo it. Research says it that most people get overwhelmed with more than 7 categories. The customer must be able to easily search any product without help.

Your product should have a clear and high-quality picture, short and detailed specifications. If necessary add video or pictures of different view points (top angle, side view) along with the product specification.

2. Provide Multiple Payment Options

Keep all kinds of payment options available to your customers. Not everyone feels comfortable buying through a credit card, or has one. Allow for debit cards, fax, telephone, snail mail, paper and electronic cheques. And sign-up for fraud checking facility, without which you could easily end up losing entire day's sales within minutes. Provide a currency converter if you offer products or payment in other currencies.

Including a telephone number for customer support on the order is a must. It gives the buyers some extra feelings of security that they can always talk to a live person if anything goes wrong in the buying process.

3. List out Clearly Outlined Policies

Privacy:

Make your privacy policy public. Keep it in a prominent place, and link it to the home, products and checkout pages, so that customers who are vary of providing personal and credit card details feel comforted. Tell them if you plan to share their email address with others, or plan to send in promotional mail or newsletters.

Further, allow them to unsubscribe or opt-out of such email if they think so. Never sell the customer's personal particulars unless they have agreed, as this is a sure way to lose credibility doubly fast.

Security:

If you plan to collect sensitive information from your customers, you should use security systems like SSL (Secure Socket Layer). This guarantees that the data provided by your customer will not fall into the hand of a malicious hacker while transferring from his computer to the web server.

This also will reassure your customers that you are truly concerned about the security of their personal information.

Terms and Conditions:

Write clearly and prominently all the sales and after sales support terms so as to avoid confusion. The internet is worldwide, and your customer can come from any country. List your shipping and handling costs upfront, and be ready to ship anywhere on the Earth. Publish your returns policy, support hours, and even the approximate time taken to deliver the goods.

Send a confirmation note thanking the customer, and listing all the products, prices and key terms of the purchase in an email. Keep the customer updated of the order status at all times by email or by providing a link in your shopping page where they can check the status of their order anytime.

4. Build a Newsletter Around Your Products

To snag new customers and keep the old ones remembering you vividly, seriously plan to launch a newsletter, and send it to all prospects and customers on a regular basis. Apart from the credibility of being a serious player in the market, you dazzle them with your commitment by releasing the newsletter on fixed days - like 15th of every month, or every Monday.

You can also show your expertise in your field by writing regular, in-depth articles, covering the latest trends in the industry, and reviews of new products. Your customers, distributors, and partners will start to eagerly await your newsletter. Sprinkle your promotions and products in between the contents of the newsletter, and be ready to receive an increase in web traffic and order bookings every time you send out the newsletter.

5. Let Customers Gift Your Products

Allow people to gift your products to their friends and loved ones. Provide free gift wrapping, a personalized message or a free gift for the purchaser. Allow them to create Wish Lists that they may use to buy later.

These small things do matter and act as freebies that your competitor may not have. Although these are fast becoming standard feature, make sure you don't end up with the dumb ones who haven't figured this simple technique out yet.

6. Promote your Site Every Day

Strong marketing is the most important aspect of having a successful website. The best of sites won't make money if people don't come in hordes. Launch promotions, and get the word to everyone possible within your target audience.

You can do promotions using direct mail to your existing customer, in your newsletter, and fliers. All the methods of traditional marketing apply here. Don't leave any technique untried. Remember the old adage - Market, market, market.

7. Measure Results and Reorganize

Measure the results you are getting from each promotion religiously, and note what works and what doesn't. Experiment. Study. Fine tune. This is the only way to know how effective your campaigns and promotions are.

You can also bring in some external people to visit your site and give you sincere feedback about each page on your site. The more critical they are, the more changes you will make, and eventually it will benefit you and your customers.

Keep making changes and test what works and what doesn't on a continuous basis. What works today may not work tomorrow.

8. Keep a Simple yet Effective Web Design

There is intense competition on the web. Make a compelling website that showcases your USP (unique selling proposition) and brings the customer back to your site. Differentiate from the rest by using your imagination to make your site standout from the rest. A cool, cathy, easy to remember name could definitely help.

Make a simple site, with plain HTML, and a consistent look and feel on all pages. Use an easy to read font, at least a 10 size font, preferably 11. Do not load with graphics and huge pictures on every page, which may slow down your page.

Although this advice is becoming old fashioned as most people are moving to broadband, it is still a good practice, as you don't want to lose the customers who use a low speed modem.

Flexibility and ease of use are far more important than flashy graphics or cool Java applets. The objective is to keep the customer looking at the products, and not keep them waiting or lose them by slow loading graphics or effects.

Keep the catalog simple, and with a consistent design with links to Home, Checkout page, Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, Customer Profile pages handy and at the same, consistent place on each page. Make it easy to browse the store and mark products for later purchase.

9. Make the Login Process a Breeze

The less clicks needed to order, the better. Amazon patented their One-Click method that minimized the clicks, making the checkout process simpler and easier. Try to make the registration or login process minimal, and only keep the most relevant fields mandatory.

I was disgusted by the lengthy logon process which forced me to enter my middle name, date of birth, and mother's maiden name for just registering for an online taxi booking service. I left it mid way, and went to another taxi operator's site, which registered me within a minute. A simple thing can result in a costly mistake that loses the customer forever.

10. Reduce Popup Messages

Too many popups distract and disgust the customer. Especially after the visitor closes your website window, if you start to popup other windows with more promotions, it leaves a feeling of being chased. It is also the signature of most of the adult sites, so steer away from such insensitive practices.

Show your professionalism and respect the customer's privacy and time. It will help to build your image as a serious and professional site and enhance your credibility.

11. Use a Reliable Hosting Service

Use a service that is good, reliable, and can provide you with customer support at all hours. Web hosting is getting very cheap but it is better to pay a little more and get a fast and reliable web hosting. Nothing loses a customer faster than a slow site or a site that is down frequently. Compare a few hosting services, and ask around before signing up for one. You won't regret it.

Do you want to learn How to Market Any Product or Service Using Email Marketing? Click Here: Email Marketing Lessons

Vinai Prakash provides consultancy and training in the field of Web Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and Email Marketing. His articles are published in leading magazines and books.

Dedicated Hosting - A Comparison Between Physical, VPS and Virtualised VMware Based Hosting

Dedicated Hosting: A Comparison Between Physical, VPS and Virtualised/VMware Based Hosting

Dedicated hosting has been around since web hosting pulled itself out of the primordial sludge in the 90s, maturing through the start of the millennium and finally commoditising in the last few years.

The biggest change to dedicated hosting has come in only the last year with the introduction of virtualised hosting, but most importantly, the introduction of VMware based virtualised dedicated hosting.

The essential point to note here is that, in order of effectiveness and features, the following order is the case.

Best: VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting
Next Best: Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting
Least Good: VPS (Virtual Private Servers)

Before people leap off their chair and start wailing and gnashing their teeth, let me explain and enlighten.

This table allows you to easily and quickly compare your requirements against the pros and cons of virtualised and physical dedicated hosting infrastructure.

High Availability
VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Yes. High platform availability with automatic hardware failover is built into the VMware-based virtualised environment Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Only available in clustered farms

Managed Infrastructure
VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Yes. The hardware underlying the virtualised infrastructure is monitored and managed by skilled engineers 24x7x365 Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Optional and costly VPS: Yes

Fast Deployment
VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Yes. Hours to Days Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Weeks to Months. Physical infrastructure needs to be specified, ordered and delivered VPS: Yes. Hours to Days

Dedicated Resources (CPU, RAM)
VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Yes. VMware Infrastructure 3 allows precise and accurate control over resource allocation, ensuring you receive what you pay for as a minimum. Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Yes. VPS: No.

Dedicated Performance
VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Yes. VMware Infrastructure 3's precise resource control guarantees your performance cannot be impacted by other customers Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Yes. VPS: No. Resources are shared and customers can affect each other's performance.

Independence from underlying OS
VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Yes. Only the true virtualisation of VMware Infrastructure 3 allows complete independence from an underlying OS Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: No.
VPS: No. There is always a relationship between the underlying OS and the virtual machine.

Fast and Painless Migration from existing hosting environment
VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Fast & Efficient. P2V (Physical to Virtualised) tools can be used to smooth the migration path
Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Possible using cloning, not P2V, tools. VPS: Possible with the same P2V tools, but not widely included in the services offered.

Upgrading Processor Speed
VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Fast & Efficient. Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Non-trivial. Parts need to be ordered and installed. VPS: No. Upgrading cannot be performed if there is not tight resource control in the first place.

Upgrading RAM
VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Fast & Efficient. Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Non-trivial. Parts need to be ordered and installed. VPS: No. Upgrading cannot be performed if there is not tight resource control in the first place.

Upgrading HDD
VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Fast & Efficient. Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Non-trivial. Parts need to be ordered and installed. VPS: Yes

Cloning
VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Fast & Efficient. Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Yes, but requires third part tools. VPS: Yes.

* VPS providers offer differing service levels

Food for thought rather than F.U.D...

Copyright Notice This article is free for reproduction but must be reproduced in its entirety, including live links & this copyright statement must be included.

Lorenzo Modesto started in the Internet industry in 1996 and has held executive positions in sales, marketing and business development at industry leading service providers. He is the Sales and Marketing Director of http://www.bulletproof.net.au/ a leading virtualised dedicated hosting provider.

How To Handle A Website Migration From One Web Host To Another

A website migration is the process of moving the files of a website from one web hosting company to another. A migration can happen for many reasons:

1.You have expanded your website and need more web space;
2.You need more features (i.e. a database, shopping cart or multimedia file hosting);
3.You found a better deal on web site hosting;
4.Or a relative/friend/colleague has server space and has offered to host your website for little or nothing.

Regardless of the situation, doing a website migration is inevitable. It is like moving from one home to another. In this article, I am going to give you several tips to make the big move as smooth as possible.

Tip 1: Schedule the Migration. Its best to schedule the migration when there are not as many web users visiting your website. Check your website traffic (or get your online marketing department) to see when traffic levels are low, which for some cases may be the evening or the weekend, depending on the website. For a corporate website, it may be the weekend, but for a gaming website, it may be midweek.

Tip 2: Notify ALL Stakeholders. Inform anyone and everyone who has an interest in the site, not only internally (employees, stockholders) but externally as well (supplies, customers and website visitors). A simple link redirecting to the date and time of the migration as well as the anticipated completion date should suffice.

Tip 3: Set a cutoff date for edits. Set a deadline for all content updates to be submitted. Postpone any major additions to the website (i.e. new sections, new features) until after the migration. A good measure has been 3 business days before the migration. Any changes submitted beyond the deadline date would have to wait until after the move.

Tip 4: BACK-UP the website. The day after the content deadline date, back-up the website. This means all files, images, scripts, multimedia and other files. One can back-up the website on a CD-RW (CD rewritable disk), Zip Drive, or an external hard drive. It is important to back-up a website not only for a migration, but weekly or biweekly if possible. The bonus is that you have an archive of the website.

Tip 5: Make sure you have the new web hosting information. This includes: 1.FTP (File Transfer Protocol Information): a.The Hostname. This can be the Internet Protocol (IP) address. This is a numerical address of the physical server (big computer that is almost always on) where the website will reside. b.The account username c.The account password

2.The Control Panel login information. This is the Operations manual for the web host will be located. This may or may not be the same information as the FTP login. You will need this information to activate features for your website such as web submission forms, databases, shopping carts and other interactive features.

3.Domain Name Servers. These are the addresses of the servers where the new website will reside. Most web hosts have 2 to 3 domain name server addresses reserved. You will need this information to transfer the domain name (www.yourcompany.com) to the new web hosts server(s) after all the web site files have been transferred.

Tip 6: Test the new website. Test the new website by typing in either the dedicated IP address or the shared hosting address. Check that all links are working and are not going to error pages. This is the time to correct them.

Tip 7: Fix the form(s) If you have any forms on your website, also be sure to go to the control panel of your account for directions of how to customize the form to work with the new server. Most web hosts have plug and play web forms that are easy to implement. If you are unsure about how to implement a form, contact a web programmer and/or the support department of your new web hosting company.

Tip 8: Test the form(s) Make sure that all forms are working by doing several tests. This may mean that the form is sent (emailed) to the right people and/or making sure the information is entered in the database.

Tip 9: Step away from the website for a while and test it out again. It is good to step away and look at the website again. If possible, ask someone who is not a stakeholder to look at the website to make sure nothing is out of place. Something is almost always found at this stage.

Tip 10: After everything checks out, you can go to your domain registrar and change the domain name servers (DNS) to you new webhost. Login to your domain registrar account and replace the old DNS addresses with the new addresses. Web server changes typically take 2 to 3 days to take effect online. Therefore, it is recommended that this should be done during a low traffic period, such as a weekend, so that it would not interfere with business operations.

Post Migration Tips: 1.Wait a day or two to see if the migration worked by typing in the domain name to see the website on the new server. Test out the website again to make sure all links work and all forms are operational. 2.Continue to test out the site at least 2 to 3 weeks before notifying the old web hosting company to cancel the account. It is not uncommon to forget to move something. The transition time will help to ensure that everything had moved successfully. 3.Also continue to actively test the website and pay attention to usage patterns. It is not uncommon to see changes as to how visitors access information on the website. 4.Archive the old website from the previous web host. You never know when you will need to reference it again, especially if the decision comes to go back to the original web host.

A website migration does not have to be stressful if the process is broken down and planned into steps. When a website migration is handled accordingly and done well, your website visitors would not even noticed that a website migration occurred.

As the owner of NextSTEPH (www.nextsteph.com), Stephanie M. Cockerl helps organizations define and implement goals for their websites. She also works with clients and audiences to effectively and safely harness the power of the World Wide Web for information gathering, information sharing, marketing and career pursuits.

Over the years, Stephanie has become an award winning web designer, developer, professor and web consultant. She is a Certified Webmaster, awarded by the International Association of Webmasters and Designers; listed on Who's Who on the Web, has been featured as "Webgrrl of the Week" by Webgrrls.com, an international networking organization for Women in New Media; Silicon Salley, a magazine that recognizes women in technology; in iVillage.com, a leading online community for women as a "Featured Technodiva".

Why Slice and Dice Images to Create a Website?

The shortest and simplest answer is the smaller the file size of the images used in a web page, the faster the page will display. This in itself is a good enough reason.

Website visitors traditionally have a very short patience span. Broadband's steady proliferation has not changed this. If anything, visitor expectations is now that pages should load instantaneously. At rate, the longer they have to wait for a page to display, the more likely it is you will lose them before they have viewed your offerings.

So how does slicing and dicing produce faster page display?

Have you ever seen a page with central table with shadows to make the table appear as if it were floating on a layer above the page? The left and right edges of the central table are tiny tiled vertically to produce the effect of a solid graphic. The slice is a very small file size, so takes much less time to display than if a side graphic big enough to fill the required area was used. This brings up another reason - why we slice and dice images.

Scalability... By using a tiled image slice, it makes no difference how much content is in the page. It could go on forever and the slice would be tiled to eternity. Using a tiled slice means you don't have to consider the amount of content. The design becomes stretchy, scalable to whatever content it is asked to contain. Another benefit of is this method stands the best chance visitors will enjoy a consistent look regardless of which web browser they have, what size monitor they have and what screen resolution they are using. You ensure a consistent look for the widest possible audience.

There are other good reasons to slice and dice.

One of most important reasons is to increase accessibility for visitors using text reading software. Instead of their software reading a bunch of image tags, they get straight to what they want, your message, the content. When used properly, image slices, tiles, are not contained in a web page. They are instead, referenced from a stylesheet, which includes instructions on how to display your webpage's visual appearance. This among other benefits, allows you to remove all non-essential graphics from the page code. A non-essential graphic is one that doesn't add any meaningful content to the page. It's only there to make the page more visually appealing. So part of the art of slicing and dicing a web template from it's original graphic form is the decision making process of determining the essential from the non-essential graphics by envisioning how a text reader will navigate through your site.

This covers most of the most important reasons as to why you would slice and dice, but there is one more I would like to briefly mention.

Slicing your graphics

Slicing your graphics (and referencing them from an external stylesheet) gives you the first basic level of protection (albeit slender) for your/clients' artistic property. It makes it more difficult for unscrupulous people to steal all the hard work you put into your artwork. Or at least make them work harder by having to download more pieces, reassemble them like a puzzle. This is called site scraping and is a serious problem currently. There are even several software creators who will sell your products who's one purpose is for stealing others websites! Another problem is some sites will actually try and use your work by linking to your image from their webpage, so it looks like it's on their site! You can make it hard for them by slicing up your images. You can also fight this kind of theft using tools available in the administration control area of your hosting service... But that's a topic for another article!

Happy 'slicing and dicing'... But if you try it watch you don't cut yourself!

Jan L Carroll
JBCR Virtual Solutions
Certified I.T. Publishing/Web Design & Programming, UBC
Web site: http://www.jbcr-virtualsolutions.com
Web site: http://www.arclightgraphics.com
Blog: http://www.jbcr-virtualsolutions.com/blog/index.html

Is Trackback Spam Messing Up Your Web Stats? Use Google Analytics To Figure It Out!

I get so tired of looking at my web statistics in Awstats and then going over to Google Analytics to see the actual traffic to my blog. Why is there such a big difference? One of the reasons is trackback spam, and it affects a lot of WordPress sites. This post isn't going to show you how to eliminate trackback spam, but it will show you how to live with it, and how to figure out your actual traffic (or at least eliminate the trackback.php visits).

If you don't know, Awstats is a web statistics program that gets its data from the apache access log. That means that it tracks all of the traffic to your site. This includes trackback spammers, normal visitors, bots, everything. So when looking at my Awstats statistics I see really inflated numbers (ones that I wish were real) that don't account for the actual traffic I have. I want the program to show real people who are engaged in the content, not Joe Trackbackspammer (which is most likely a bot) posting trackbacks about how to find some kind of drug, or good time, or casino, etc, etc.

Google Analytics, on the other hand, is a javascript based web stats tool. It's free from the folks at Google. It only tracks pages that actually have the Analytics javascript on them. In my case, the culprit, trackback.php does not have the code, so Analytics doesn't count it. I can instantly see a better view of actual traffic to my site. Using Analytics in this way would also block out legitimate trackbacks, but I get so few (like .01%) that it doesn't bother me.

One thing that does bother me about both stats programs is that you can't tie who is visiting with what they visited (unless I'm missing something and haven't found it yet). However, this is really easy to do by looking in the raw log file. You'll need to obtain the raw log file from your host and look at it with text editor. I suggest something like VIM since these have a tendency to be huge files (believe me, it kills Dreamweaver to open these kind of files). Just take a look in your Awstats log to see which ip addresses you want to look up in the log file. Look for the ones that have equal numbers of Pages and Hits in high numbers. This usually means that the computer associated with the suspect ip address is hitting a single page over and over again. Once you have an ip address use the find tools in VIM to find that ip address. If there is a whole slew of trackback.php visits from one ip on one or several posts then they are spamming you.

So how do you block them? Well the easiest and most drastic thing to do is to block their ip address from viewing your site. This is how I've gotten rid of some annoying spammers. The problem is that some of them use random ip addresses so you can't block them using this method. Also, you may inadvertently block a lot of users if the computer using this ip address is behind a router or switch that controls a network. If those problems didn't make you flinch then simply add this code to your .htaccess file and say sayonara to those spammers:

#Deny IP adresses

order allow,deny
deny from 000.000.000.000
allow from all

Replace 000.000.000.000 with your suspect ipaddress, of course.

You should also install the Akismet plugin, which comes with WordPress. All you have to do is enable it in the Plugins section of the Admin interface. This will eliminate almost all of your spam, including comment spam, by placing it in a spam folder of sorts. The spam is deleted after a period of time automatically and it has worked like a charm so far for me. The only downside to this method is that the spammers still get to your server and waste resources, whereas the method above completely blocks them.

Did you like this blogging tip? Read more like it at DEVTRENCH: Web Development From the Front Lines

DEVTRENCH is a Web Development Blog written for web designers and programmers who need need up to date tips and tricks on how to create great websites.

Website Hosting - Consider The Main Two Options

There are two options available to those who intend to create their own website. One requires a fair amount of work and constant maintenance while the other, a good website hosting service, offers the ability to create and watch.

Some individuals plan, develop, create, and manage their website at home using software widely available. While this operation sounds simple, there are many considerations you have to take into account before you decide to implement home-based website hosting.

Do you have the resource availability and/or processing power to adequately provide for home-based website hosting? If you intend to stream audio or video, you will have to ensure that your system has the processing power necessary for such a task. If you do not, you will suffer in such ways as not being able to providing a steady stream to your intended audience resulting in drop off, pixelization and other annoying aspects that will drive your audience away, not to mention the crippling effect this will have on anything you may want to do on your computer while others are attempting to view the content on your site. Also, audio and video of any quality are memory intensive in both disk and ram space, requiring you to upgrade your home-based website hosting system at no small cost to yourself.

Hackers are a dangerous aspect to opening your home-based website hosting system to the Internet. With security breaches taking place all the time online with companies far larger than your individual endeavor, you have to be aware of the inherent loopholes in every operating system and web deployment software. If youre not careful, you could compromise your customers privacy. Nobody wants their credit card numbers floating free online. This said, your viewers are not the only ones at risk when you decide to attempt website hosting from your home.

A popular option that possesses far more security than you would be able to provide at home would be choosing an online web hosting service. These companies have years of experience and expert staff paid to ensure your website operates smoothly and without security breaches. One such company, MaxiPRO, has a qualified staff of professionals that will not only ensure that your viewers get what they are looking for, but will ensure that their privacy remains intact. A professional website hosting service can make a serious difference in what you can offer your customers and the free time that you have available to handle the more important things in life. Contact MaxiPRO today for all your website hosting needs.

Use the MaxiPRO services and get a bespoke website design and hosting package at a competitive price. A free web management interface is also offered by MaxiPRO which provides an easy to use point & click visual editor. A good website hosting company will guarantee a 99.9% uptime.

Channel Surfing Across the Internet

The advent of broadband, high speed Internet access in millions of homes has introduced the use of video over those networks as a mainstream digital reality and led to the creation of phenomena such as YouTube. It has also baffled the television and movie corporate powers, who can't decide whether to sue online video sites or learn to use them as new channels for distribution of their products. In fact, some of each is occurring.

The movie companies are much touchier about the Internet, as evidenced by the one billion dollar lawsuit filed by Viacom against Google - now the owner of YouTube. NBC TV on the other hand, has looked to use the Internet in creative and productive ways.

Perhaps the most intriguing example is the sitcom "Nobody's Watching", a TV pilot that was developed for WB Television and ultimately rejected. But when the pilot leaked onto YouTube, its popularity soared - and it has since been seen by one million viewers on the web site. As a result of the online interest, NBC picked it up as a series - to be shown on YouTube.

While "Nobody's Watching" is solely an online product, NBC has focused on trying to combine the use of the Internet with its traditional broadcast format. One of the results of this approach has been their TV series "Heroes," which has a companion website featuring a novel that is integrated into the show, and vice-versa.

Meanwhile, other online entrepreneurs have developed broadband television outlets with astonishing reach. Beeline TV (www.beelinetv.com) has a channel lineup that includes an alphabetical lineup from Albanian to Turkish TV. Between feeds from those two countries is television programming from Croatia, the Netherlands, Japan, the Arabian newsfeed Al Jazeera, and dozens of other stations including many from the U.S. While the streaming can be somewhat spotty, the concept is remarkable and appears to be offering product with little concern for copyright threats.

Internet TV Access (www.internettvaccess.com) offers a software package that supposedly makes hundreds of TV channels available free. Their lineup includes international channels and domestic specialty channels such as "Classic TV" that replays oldies you might have missed the first time around. TV4U has a similar lineup - 2640 TV channels from almost everywhere.

As with every Internet product, where there is content there must be an online index. One of the more prominent is Find Internet TV (www.findinternettv.com). You can search this website by category, by language and by country to see what's available in online television.

All of these services claim to be freebies, and all of them insist that you "join" by providing an email address and perhaps some other innocuous information. It's unclear what the business model is for these video amalgamators, but what is obvious is their ambitious reach. It's also interesting that video streams from thousands of worldwide television feeds are being made available online. They must be satellite feeds that are pulled off the birds and fed into internet servers, because very few television networks are operating online feeds of their own at this point.

Madison Lockwood is a customer relations associate for ApolloHosting.com. She brings years of experience as a small business consultant to helping prospective clients understand the ways in which a website may benefit them both personally and professionally. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers. Established in 1999, Apollo prides itself on the highest levels of customer support.

Shared Hosting Versus VPS Hosting

Putting up a website is easier said than done. To begin with, there are a lot of factors that you should take time to consider. If you're not adept in finding the right resources, you may end up with a fruitless business venture. So instead of simply filling up your website with useful information as well as high quality products and services, make sure that you get to choose the right hosting company. Remember that the Internet is home to many hosting companies. Hence, you should do your research well to meet face to face with the one that's truly best for you. Once you found the right host, it's time to pick the right hosting type.

If your company is still in its infancy stage, it's better to stick to virtual hosting before you shell out any money for a dedicated hosting type. What is virtual hosting, you may ask? Well, when a single server is shared by multiple users, it's what you call the virtual type hosting. As simple as it sounds, there are two forms of virtual hosting, which can be too tricky for a beginner. Knowing the difference between shared hosting and VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting can help you decide which hosting type to go for. But to help you understand these a lot better, here are some facts that you bear in mind:

Shared Hosting: Cheap But Insecure

In shared hosting, every component of your server is being shared - disk space, bandwidth, web server, and all. People who are on shared hosting type can also be categorized into two: starters and penny-pinchers. Starters are composed of personal site owners or small time entrepreneurs who are just testing the waters of e-commerce. They're still at the stage of figuring out how the Internet works in hopes that they'll gain substantial amount of profits from the online industry. The penny-pinchers, on the other hand, are those who are just in it to save money. They're willing to compromise quality for the sake of price. That's why their websites usually turn out to be a disappointment.

This only shows that shared hosting is cheap, alright, but it has a lot disadvantages, too. When it comes to security, stability, and reliability, shared hosting doesn't offer much. Since hundreds of users have access to the same server, it's the most vulnerable to hacks and disruptions. Your account that's only protected by a password can be easily cracked by a good hacker. Aside from that, if your co-users are exceeding their bandwidths, chances are, the system might malfunction or crash due to the overwhelming amount of requests it's handling. As a result, all websites, which run on that server, will suffer from down times.

VPS Hosting: Shared and Dedicated Hosting Fused

In VPS hosting, the server is also shared though it offers to give you a dedicated hosting-like kind of service. How? Simply with the use of a powerful software, web developers have found a way to partition the server's system, so each part could function like a dedicated server. If this sounds confusing, let's try to use an analogy. In shared hosting, there's a house. Inside the house, there are two rooms. One room is occupied by three people, the other is occupied by just one person. Now, the room with three occupants is most similar to shared hosting, while the person who is inside the other room is likened to be on VPS hosting. Although this person shares one house with other people, he gets to have a room of his own.

Needless to say, all deficiencies found in shared hosting are solved by VPS hosting. Security comes from using a software that makes it possible to build walls around one account to keep intruders out. Considering that your space in the server acts independently from other accounts, reliability and stability are not a problem. It simply means that nobody can rob you out of your web resources like bandwidth and disk space.

10 Step Plan for Business Websites

Having a website now is the norm for businesses, whether it is one or all of the following:

Tell the world that you exist and how to contact you.
Give prospective customers a catalogue of your products.
Sell your products on line.

Businesses can spend thousands annually for a display in the Yellow Pages, but all they need there is the basic entry with a reference to their website. On their website they have unlimited space to display many times the amount of information. They can also change it daily, weekly and monthly - not just once a year.

When your business is registered and you know your products or services you can now plan your website carefully:

Register a domain name:
Content:
- Collect information and pictures to display on the website. There is no practical limit on the quantity of information you can provide on the web. Remember, search engines provide their visitors with websites sorted in the order of relevance to the words in a visitors search. The more relevant information you display, the higher your website will rank.
- Write copy for your home page very rich with words that people will search for when looking for products like yours.
Key words:
Balance content:
- You need both words and pictures. Dont fall into the trap of planning a website that looks artistic but has few words. Such websites are left behind by search engines, or rely on very large numbers of links from other website to get listed. We decline to design websites using Flash, as we dont want disappointed clients.
- If you want more than just your family and friends to find your website, then optimize it for search engines. Your website does need to look attractive, but if people dont find it in search engines they wont see how attractive it is. Research Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Design:
- Get quotes from a web designer for developing the website.
- Help them understand what information you want in your website and how you would like it to work.
- They need to know how many web pages, images, products.
- If you are selling online, decide how to charge for delivery, and on payment options.
- Dont start an advertising campaign before you agree a completion date with a web designer. That sounds obvious, but amazingly we get approached to build websites which are already mentioned in an advertising campaign.
- Be sure to hire a web designer good at search engine optimizing.
Updating facility:
Hosting:
Get listed:
Incoming links:
Keep up to date:

Follow all these steps and succeed on the web. Above all, be search engine friendly and get found. It may sound a lot, but if you plan carefully the pay-off can be huge.

Web Hosting Data Transfer: How Much Is Too Much?

Bandwidth in its simplest terms refers to the amount of data that flows across a network wire in a given time period. For most web hosting providers, that time period is measured in a month. Web hosting providers are charged a certain amount per month or per year for an allocated amount of bandwidth from backbone providers and wholesale data centers. That cost is then passed on to the consumer in the form of web hosting plans.

How much bandwidth will my website use?

With so much variation among web hosting companies, it can sometimes be difficult to know how much bandwidth your website will need. So, how much is a gigabyte of bandwidth anyway? Let's put it in perspective. If an average web page, images and all is 50 kilobytes in size, your website could be viewed 20,000 times! For the average hobby website, that is more than enough. Let's further put that 20,000 in perspective. If each visitor to your website viewed an average of 4 pages per month, it would still represent over 5,000 unique visitors to your website every month.

Beware of bandwidth usage when offering file downloads

While offering simple web pages doesn't use up much bandwidth, the same can't be said about downloading files. If you plan on allowing people to download music files, pdf files, flash files, or video files, you can eat up bandwidth in a hurry even with a relatively small number of people visiting your website. If your website offers an adobe .pdf file that is 1 megabyte in size, with one gigabyte of bandwidth, you will only be able to serve up one thousand downloads. This does not including the html needed to get people to download the pdf in the first place.

Video files eat up even more space. A one megabyte video file represents only seconds of video. For a half hour presentation, your video file could easily be over two hundred megabytes in size! At that size, one gigabyte would only allow you to offer five downloads to your visitors. What you plan to do with your website most definitely will affect how much monthly bandwidth you anticipate needing.

Overselling bandwidth is common in the web hosting industry

Because more people use only a fraction of their allotted bandwidth per month, most web hosting providers price their plans knowing that most people will only use a fraction of the resources available to them. In fact, with most companies, if you did use the maximum bandwidth available to you each month, you would most likely be shut down. If you go with a shared hosting account, your website can be hosted with hundreds or thousands of other websites. If your website starts to use a significant portion of the server's resources, you may find them pulling the plug on your website. If you know your website is going to need significant resources, you should probably consider getting yourself a dedicated server.

Knowing what you plan to do will allow you to know how much you need

By knowing what you plan to do with your hosting account, you can have a pretty good idea of how much bandwidth you're going to need. If you anticipate that you will be needing to serve lots of multimedia including video, music and large amounts of flash powered pages, you may need to consider going with a dedicated server. If your website is just starting out and you have little money and no real idea of how much bandwidth you're going to need, pick a company that gives you more than you think you'll need at a reasonable price. Make sure you also find out how much they will charge you for any bandwidth you use above and beyond what comes in your hosting package. If it is one dollar per megabyte and you've already exceeded a twenty gigabyte bandwidth limit, changes are, you'll get one hefty bill at the end of the month. When shopping around and looking at bandwidth, keep the overage cost in mind as well and you'll do fine.

This article was written by Joe Duchesne, president of http://www.yowling.com/, a web hosting company that strives to make it easy to setup and maintain your website. Copyright 2004 Yowling. Reprint Freely as long as you link back to my website from this resource box.

Should You Pay for Your Website Hosting?

Whether you're in the beginning stages of website building or you already have a sit up and running, web hosting needs to be on your mind. When you're running or planning to run an online business, whether or not you can reach your customers is going to help in predicting your success. With a good web host, you should be available to your customers and visitors at any time of the day, no matter the traffic. But the prices for web hosting can seem pretty high when you're a fledgling business. And those offers for free web hosting or low cost shared hosting can seem pretty tempting. Should you give in?

What Shared Website Hosting Is

When you see advertisements for shared website hosting, you first want to find out what it is in order to decide if it's right for you. Just like regular website hosting, these companies will help get your website out onto the internet so that it can be seen by your prospective customers. But unlike traditional hosting services, you aren't going to have your own server at the hosting company you are going to be on a server with other websites, hence the name 'shared.' All of the sites on this server will be sharing bandwidth as well as space on the internet.

The Benefits of Shared and Free Hosting

The truth is that shared hosting is actually a good idea when you're first starting out on the internet. It will give you a chance to broadcast your website without having to pay for your hosting or you might have to pay a small fee. However, as you needs grow, this kind of hosting arrangement just isn't a realistic venture.

Other benefits of these web hosting services is that you can often get guidance on how to build a website and you are often able to conduct business as usual, without any interruptions.

Why Shared/Free Hosting Costs You

Even if you're not paying for these kinds of web hosting services, you might be losing money in another way. Because you are going to limited in the bandwidth and the storage space you can take up on a specific server, you may have troubles with your website from time to time. If you've ever visited a website to see that it was busy and unable to load, this is typically a server issue. And when you are sharing a server with other sites, it's a much more common issue.

When your site isn't able to be seen by your visitors, you might begin to lose business and return visitors. You can be seen as unreliable in your business, which can lead to fewer profits. In addition, features on your website may not always work, causing your visitors to become disappointed with your services in general.

What Happens Next

Since there really isn't anything your server host will be able to do to prevent this from happening, you are at the whim of the internet numbers. When other sites on your server are busy, there is going to be a higher chance of disruption to your website, and vice versa. High traffic days will simply cause your site to show an error message.

Though private web hosting is often quite expensive, it is worth the price. When your visitors are able to visit your website whenever they like without any troubles, you will show your true professionalism to them. You will also have a backup plan in case your server does go down for some reason. Instead of having to vie for internet space, you have your own host to call home.

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VPS Hosting Or Dedicated Hosting?

These days, web hosts are like mushrooms sprouting everywhere, all of them claiming to be the best. As such, it will be very hard for you to determine which one can really keep up to its promises. If finding the right host is not a big problem yet, wait until you get to the part where you have to choose among the different hosting types. You have to know the attributes of each hosting type and learn how everything works.

If you plan to launch an e-commerce website, then the free and shared types of hosting are automatically ruled out. These hosting types do not have enough power to handle heavy web traffic and an overwhelming amount of user requests. If your business is like a corporation as big as Microsoft, then you may want to buy your own server and opt for colocation instead. For small to medium-sized online businesses, the two best hosting options are VPS (Virtual Private Server) and dedicated. Which of the two is more fitting for the project you have in mind? To find out, let's compare the features and capabilities of Dedicated hosting and VPS hosting.

Dedicated Hosting: The No-Holds-Barred Kind of Hosting

If there is only one user taking control over and utilizing the power of a single server, then that is dedicated hosting. In dedicated hosting, your host will give you one of the servers kept in their datacenters. There are two kinds of dedicated hosting, unmanaged and managed. If you choose to hire an authorized personnel from your hosting company to apply upgrades and maintain your server, then that is managed hosting. Meanwhile, if you wish to be the one to take care of your server to save some money, then unmanaged dedicated hosting is for you.

A website that expects heavy traffic and promises an interactive experience to its users need a dedicated server to survive. Dedicated hosting can provide very large amount of disk space, bandwidth, and a long list of web features that you can't find in lower hosting account types. Since you don't have to share valuable web resources with anyone, uptime performance is 100% guaranteed. Dedicated hosting even has a custom firewall that acts as a barrier for unauthorized access, giving hackers no opportunity to mess up with your website. For webmasters whose top priority are security, reliability, and stability but do not have the budget for a colocation service, then they should choose dedicated hosting.

VPS Hosting: The Hybrid of Shared and Dedicated Hosting

Let the truth be known: dedicated hosting is costly. However, this doesn't make shared hosting a better option because its cheapness entails a list of undesirable characteristics. Hence, VPS is the best option.

VPS hosting is like the combination of shared and dedicated hosting. It has a quality of shared hosting since the server is shared by multiple users. However, it also has the characteristic of a dedicated hosting -- it can provide the same features and perks found in dedicated hosting. This is because in VPS hosting, a single server has been partitioned using a specially designed software. The computer software makes it possible for each portion of a single server to supply power equal to the power a dedicated server can supply. This is called virtualization. Simply put, VPS hosting allows you to use dedicated hosting-like service at a lower price.

Number 1 Important Secret To Know When Owning a Website

The most important tip to know when designing a profitable website is to make sure your layout is attractable to your focus group of clients or customers. The way your website appears will depend in most cases if someone will sign up for whatever product or services you are offering. Did you know that the average online person will spend 5 to 8 seconds on a website before they decide rather to go more in depth in a website, or simply search for another site that offers the same product or service? This is true in many cases. Think of it this way, when you search for something in Google.com tons of results come up right? Well when an individual see's all these similar sites they will most times only view the top 10 or top 5 under that search. Out of those they will look for a couple of things to see which site to invest their time into. The sites with a poor layout, and unfinished work, will be excluded from their search, and that will be the end of that. You don't want this to happen to you right?

To prevent this horrible issue from happening to you takes either high amounts of money, or hard work and inspiration. Some people like me have a talent for creating attention grabber content and designs for websites. For others, you would need to do the following:

1. Try to find some pre-made websites to use.

2. Download a program such as Adobe Photoshop to allow you to edit images.

3. Download a program called Microsoft Frontpage or Adobe Dreamweaver for editing templates.

4. Lastly, start to edit the premade template you found to suit your sites needs, and ask other designers what they would recommend you add to improve what you already have. Once you have customers or clients, send a mass email out asking them what they think of your layout and what they think you should add.

The steps above will surely place you on the right step with making sure visitors stay on your website longer than 8 seconds, and want to see what it is your website is about. If you do not have the skills or are completely new to designing or editing anything, you may want to hire someone to create a template for you. Note that this can sometimes be costly for a customized template. The cheaper way to go if you do not care for a customized template would be to follow step 1 with finding a pre-made template online and letting the designer/coder know what you need to be edited on the template.

Once you have had your website for a long period of time (two or three years), it's a great idea to update the design to give it a new touch. However, be careful not to make the design worse, but a design that shows that you're website is live and active.

If you're like me when I started, your only option would be to work hard and have inspiration. So maybe you do have the ability to work hard, but you need to receive inspiration from somewhere. Inspiration comes from tips such as the ones I'm mentioning, and other successful individuals already where you want to be someday. Then you have an insight of what needs to be done and set new goals for yourself. Know that anyone can achieve great status. If you take the time and dedication to put your all into your works, great results will definitely follow.

Remember your design is one of the number 1 keys to your websites success!

Robert Smith
http://www.HastyHost.com
Chief Executive Officer
Web Hosting Expert

How to Choose Website Hosting

Website hosting can be described as a place to display your website pages so that the rest of the world can view them. In other words, Web Site Hosting is rental of server space on the Internet. Some offers of Website Hosting services may be full of programs or applications you need, some will have only bare bones rack space.

To decide which one will be the best web hosting service for you, you'll have to look through several different hosting packages. To find a reliable, affordable, and professional website hosting is crucial for your success on the Internet.

Make sure before you purchase any hosting, that it has all of the features your website will need support for. You can't work with a web host which will not support your site on the Internet, so make sure that you choose a quality hosting account that provides a wide variety of features and services. And as important, if there are any technical problems you must have 24/7 technical support to resolve the issues quickly.

How do you find the best web hosting company online today? Well, when you're looking for a solid, reliable web host, it's important to look online for recommendations and reviews of reliable web hosting companies. Choosing a competitive web hosting company for your website is essential to your success online.

As a small business website owner, you need quality, reliable and affordable web hosting services from a professional web host. You want to look for a solution that includes hosting, search engine optimization, step by step manuals how to promote your site on the web. Make sure that there is no experience needed to create professional looking web pages.

Website hosting is a physical space on a web server, that is connected to the Internet. It's the business of housing, serving and maintaining files for one or more websites. The Hosting is one of those things that you never really give a second thought too when things are working fine. However, once you encounter a problem it will cause you no end of trouble and sleepless nights.

At http://www.small-biz-ideas.net you can get help choosing the right website host. You'll also find small business ideas, tools, courses and resources!

How To Choose A Reliable Web Hosting Company : A Tip For Newbies

Reliable web hosting is vital for anyone attempting to earn money with a business website.

Choosing a host for your website is not easy when you are an Internet newbie and don't really know bandwidth from Band-Aid. What selection criteria do you use? If you are a total newbie, about the only thing you will know how to compare is price but if you do a search for web hosting you will have ads coming at you for all prices from $10 per year to $25 per month. Should you go for the most expensive on the basis that you get what you pay for or should you go for the cheapest because saving money is a priority while you are getting your business running?

The first thing to rule out is free web hosting. There are many great free resources to be found on the Internet including excellent anti-virus and anti-spy ware software. Free hosting is fine if you have a hobby website but, if you are running a business online and wish to achieve credibility with visitors and search engines, free web hosting won't do the job.

I discovered the hard way that cheap web hosting is not necessarily the bargain it might seem. When I started looking for hosting for a new website, I already had top class hosting that had come with my first website. There was an option to add on further domains for an extra $5 per month. That was cheap enough but I thought it would be a good idea to have my new website hosted completely separately (you know, the old eggs in one basket caution).

When I started checking around, there seemed to be millions of web hosts all offering what (to my untrained eye) seemed to be the same thing but at wildly varying prices, so I settled on a cheap hosting package. The cost was 1 per month (which was about $1.70 in those days) and I certainly got what I paid for!

At first everything was fine: I paid up, they hosted my website. The trouble is, you don't realise you have bought rubbish hosting until things start to go wrong.

The first sign that all was not well came a few months later when I was unable to locate my website. I raised a support ticket and waited. Four days later came the reply "everything seems ok now". Four days of downtime without a sensible word from support made me feel more than a little uneasy.

Things seemed fine for a while after that but then another problem arose: when I tried to log into my control panel all I got was a message telling me the licence fee had not been paid. This time the reply to my support ticket was quicker, it only took two days. Unfortunately, however, it was completely unhelpful. The reply was "It seems to be a site-wide issue". Was I supposed to feel better because the whole site was messed up and not just my bit? They must have got round to paying the licence fee because after a few more days, login was available again.

After that, I wanted to move to a new host but I had never moved a website before and assumed it would be really difficult and technically challenging (actually it is extremely simple). As a result of this fear my website remained where it was.

The crunch came when my domain name came up for renewal. In response to an email from the hosting company, I visited their website to make the required payment. Their PayPal link and credit card options did not work and there were several error messages showing on the pages I visited.

Emails to their support and billing departments went unanswered. My only means of arranging payment was via their website, so I kept trying. Each time I visited, there were more error messages, nothing worked and it began to look as if the site was actually melting bit by bit. It seemed the company had just packed up and left their website to self destruct.

Enquiries revealed that the only way I could renew my domain name ownership was through the hosting company because they had registered it on my behalf and they retained control of it. As they could not be contacted, there were only two options available. The first was to pay an agent a pretty hefty (and non-refundable) fee to try to contact the hosting company and negotiate the purchase the domain name from them. The second option was to lose the domain.

When you have to choose web hosting, the first thing to look for is quality of support. To keep prices low, the easiest way for the company to economise is to provide sub-standard support. Forget the offers of unlimited bandwidth, hundreds of email accounts, spam filters and other freebies. If support is non-existent, give the company a miss no matter how good their other terms might seem.

You will find ideas about how to earn money working from home and useful home business resources at Elaine Currie's Work At Home Directory For more articles about online writing visit Writing Tips

Some Features To Look For In Your Web Host

Web host allows you to put your websites on their servers so that people can access it. There are lots of web hosting companies around. Some have their own servers while others are resellers. Each web host provides you with different plans or packages. You should be very careful, while selecting your host or a particular plan. Most people pay high attention to content and website design and overlook the selection of a proper web host. Many times, they end up selecting a plan which costs more than their their needs. Here are seven features that you should look at, while selecting your host or a plan.

1) Disk Space: Each hosting plan offers different amount of disk space. The price is directly proportional to disk space offered. So select a plan which provides you with enough disk space to host your web site. Also, make sure how much you should pay for each additional MB of space in case you need extra.

2) Scripting Languages: You should make sure that your hosting plan supports all the scripting languages that are used in your web application. For example, if your site is created using PHP and Perl, than you must make sure that your host supports both, PHP as well as Perl. Another example is that you cannot use Linux host for websites created in ASP. Also, make sure to look at the version of scripting languages supported by your host. This is extremely important as some scripts written in PHP 5, does not work in PHP 4.

3) Database: If your web application has a database backend, than you must make sure that your hosting plan provides you with required number of databases. Apart from number of databases provided, it should also provide you with the same database management system that's used in your web application. You might end up struggling to get your web application running, if your script uses PostgreSQL and you are provided with MySQL database.

4) Uptime: Go for a host that guarantees at least 99% uptime. To provide you with the guarantee of such uptime, your web host should have power generators (Diesel generators), backup systems and connectivity to multiple internet backbones.

5) 24/7 Support: Make sure that your host provides you with 24/7 support by phone, email or live chat. This is most important if your business totally relies on your website. Your host must give you immediate support in case of emergencies, else you could loose your customers.

6) FTP Support and Online File Manager: FTP helps you in uploading your site quickly and setting permissions to your files and folders. Some hosts provide online file manager, which you can access directly from your account control panel (CPanel). Make sure that your host allows more than one FTP account. This will help you if you need to hire someone to maintain your website. Having more than one FTP account allows you to create a separate account for him rather than sharing your login details.

7) SSL Support: If you are going to host an e-commerce application, than make sure that your host provides you with SSL support. SSL certificate guarantees your users that their credit card information is not accessible to packet sniffers. Your host should have 24/7 monitoring facility of all incoming requests to prevent security breach.

Before selecting your web host, take some time and go through all the features that are provided by your candidate hosts. Compare their prices. Call them up or email and clarify all your doubts. This will also show you how quick they are in responding to your requests. Stay away from hosts that claim to provide unlimited bandwidth. Do not select a host just because of their cheap hosting plan. If you have no choice but to go for a cheap web hosting than make sure that they provide you with guaranteed uptime and proper support.

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