Saturday 25 February 2012

Cheap Webhosting

Part of it is that servers, hard drive space and bandwidth are much, much less expensive than they were several years ago. Cheap webhosting providers capitalize on this.

Another part is that cheap hosting providers use a different business model than the older providers. Webhosting is a very competitive business. Until recently, web hosts attempted to compete by providing the most tools and features. The problem with this model is that not everyone needs everything. Most web hosts provide free backup services to all of their clients. Backups are costly, and not everyone needs or wants them, but everyone pays for them because they're built into the cost of the package.

A cheap webhosting provider, on the other hand, might give you the basic features that everyone uses, but offer weekly backups as an available add on feature, putting the cost of backing up websites on only those customers who want that service.  

Saturday 4 February 2012

How to Find a Dependable Web Host


Your new website is ready to upload, and now you need a web host. Or perhaps you already have a web host, but uptime and support are lacking. Of the thousands of web hosts to choose from, how do you find one that you can depend on? Know what can go wrong and what to watch out for, and research prospective web hosts carefully.

What can go wrong with web hosting

Too much downtime

Problems happen, and even when they don’t, server maintenance results in a minimal amount of downtime. A dependable web host not only maintains servers well, but also monitors the servers and fixes problems immediately. With the type of web host you want to avoid, however, your site may be down for days.

Features that don’t work

When your email doesn’t work, your business shuts down. Problems with databases and other features can also slow down or stop your business. Most web hosts understand this, but some don’t place a high priority on keeping not only your site online but everything working as well.

Poor support

Dependable web hosts answer tech support questions within hours. Other web hosts, however, have been known to take days. And when those responses come, sometimes they’re canned responses that don’t address the issue.

Poor communication

Support people with good communication skills help keep problems from becoming bigger problems. Being told, “Everything looks fine here, so the problem is solved,” leads to frustration. So is having your site shut down because it used too many resources rather than the web host contacting you about the problem first.

Billing problems

Even after you cancel your account, problems may continue. Some less-than-dependable web hosts don’t honor their refund policy. Others don’t stop automatic billing after the account is cancelled.

What to watch out for

When you see the following at web host websites, consider them red flags to warn you of possible problems.

Unsustainable pricing

If the pricing looks too good to be true, it probably is. Is it enough to pay for server maintenance and tech support? You get what you pay for.

Unlimited bandwidth

Nothing is really unlimited. If you sign up for an account offering unlimited bandwidth and then use a lot of bandwidth, expect to have the plug pulled on your site. The web host may find another explanation for discontinuing your account, but “unlimited” typically means “as long as you don’t use a lot.”

An unprofessional-looking website

Consider how much effort the web host put into providing a usable website with informative content. Does it give you confidence in the web host, or is it full of unsubstantiated statements and grammar and spelling mistakes? A web host doesn’t need to be a spelling expert, of course. But if the company hasn’t put much effort into telling you about their services, will they be conscientious about meeting clients’ needs?

How to research web hosts

Finding web hosts is easy enough. Search engines can take you to the websites of thousands of web hosts. But after you’ve narrowed down your list by features and price, how do you find out which web hosts are dependable?

Read web host package details and TOS

If the hosting packages offer huge amounts of disk space and bandwidth for very low prices, consider yourself warned. Don’t expect the company to have enough money for maintenance and support.

If you want to be sure that you can get a refund if you want one, check what the Terms of Service (TOS) says about refunds.

Read the web host forum

What is the ambience in the forum? Are clients’ questions answered satisfactorily? Don’t be concerned if you see problems; instead, be concerned if you don’t see any problems. Some web hosts remove posts that don’t show their company in a positive light. If posts about problems remain in the forum, you can observe how the host handles problems.

Read web host reviews

Client feedback at the web host’s site may or may not be valid. It’s possible for hosts to make up feedback, and some have even copied feedback from other sites. Look for feedback with links to the clients’ sites, and check via Whois Source to see if the particular web host actually hosts that site.

Numerous forums allow people to post web host reviews. When you read reviews, consider the poster’s credibility. Some people bash their hosts just because they’re unhappy about something. If the host posts in response to a problem, observe how the host tries to resolve it.

Check the company background

The “About Us” or “Company Background” page at the web host’s site should answer these questions.

How long has the company been in business? A new company may be excellent, but it’s good to keep in mind that a lot of businesses fail within the first year.



Does the company publish a privacy policy? Does this policy clearly protect clients’ privacy?



Where are the servers located? Ideally, they should be in a datacenter, and not in someone’s basement.



What are the server uptime statistics? If the web host doesn’t publish a link to a server uptime monitor, ask for a link to one. Uptime of about 99.7 percent or higher is generally considered good.



Does the company publish an address? You may never need it, but when you’re placing your company website in another company’s hands, you want to know that the company is legitimate and accessible.





How To Find A Profitable Web Hosting Niche


With the rapidly increasing competition amongst web hosting businesses, it is important to identify potentially profitable niches on which to base your business on. This will dramatically increase your chances of success because once you have identified a profitable niche you will then study it closely and figure out all the ways and methods of attracting business from that particular niche market.

To find profitable niches you can focus on for your web hosting business, one option you can use is to take a close look in an industry or occupation that you know well. For example if you have been in human resource management in the past, then that is a good area to look for a good niche you can focus on. The advantage of identifying a niche to focus on includes the fact that you are able to fully understand all the needs and requirements of that particular market. This makes your marketing effort a lot easier as you know all the hot buttons that will attract businesses and individuals in the industry who require a web host.

Another method is to use popular keywords and concentrate your efforts on a popular and growing area. One of the advantages of selecting a keyword that is growing in popularity is the fact that chances of you coming across websites that suddenly find that they require more bandwidth are high. This is easy business to get because most websites change their web hosting service when they require more bandwidth.

Yet another method of identifying a profitable web-hosting niche is to look at your existing clients and identify the ones whose referrals will lead to lucrative new business for you. You can then offer special incentives to those clients to refer business to you. Or alternatively you can give them an incentive to answer a special questionnaire that will help you understand the niche market better and therefore be in a better position to create a successful marketing plan and strategy to secure the business.

How to get a site online and have it making money


When building and getting a site online you have to think of a number of things. Some of these include the following:

1. What is your site going to be about
If you want to get a site online to make money then you need to do some good research before you choose what your site is going to be about. This is because there is no point in you choosing a topic for your site where other people have no interest in. If no one has any interest in the topic of your site then you will find it very had to get a good amount of visitors to your site. So the best thing to do is to choose a topic that is likely to interest a large number of people and is also likely to make you some good revenue online.


2. What web hosting provider are you going to choose to host your site with
Choosing the right Web hosting provider is very important when choosing it to host your site. This is because there is no point in choosing a Web hosting provider that is likely to be unreliable just because it is cheap or just because you don’t know enough about it.  gives you a better idea on how to choose a good Web hosting provider to host your site with.


3. How can you add more content to your site
Once you have your site up and running, you will then need to think of ways of making your site bigger and also updating your sites content on a regular basis so that your visitors don’t get bored of your site and so that they will have a reason to keep visiting your site on a regular basis. Some ways of adding content to your site could include the following:

· You could add some free reprint able articles to your site that is on the same topic as your site. You can find well over 800 reprint able articles 
 
· You could add some free to play games on your site so it becomes stickier. You can find a load
· You could add a forum to your site so people can keep informed of current events and updates on your site and also chat amongst each other. You can find some good forum scripts at: http://www.hotscripts.com where some of these are free with the GPL.


4. How are you going to earn from your site
Once you have built your site and have found a good web host to host your site with, you will then need to think about how you are going to earn from your site.

If you are selling your own products or offering your own services, you may also want to add a few affiliate programs to your site so that you can produce a little extra income from these programs as well as earning the money from selling your own products or offering your own services.  These include pay per click programs, pay per lead programs, two-tiered programs, pay per impression programs, residual income programs and more.


5. How are you going to promote your site to get visitors
Now that you have your site up and running with maybe a few affiliate programs included within your sites content, you will now need to promote your site so that you can start getting noticed on the Web.

Once you have done the above five things, you should now have your own site online. The amount of visitors that your site will receive and the amount of money you will make from your site will all depend on the amount of work and effort you put into your site. The more work you do with your site, the more money you are likely to make

How to get free stuff from the Internet!

Have you ever wondered how many free things you can get from the Internet? If you take a step back and looked at the situation you will realise that you can get thousands of free stuff from the Internet. These freebies can be things like free pens, free scripts, free web hosting, free memberships and subscriptions to some online sites and even free cash.

So now you know that there are lots of free stuff that you can obtain from the Internet, the only thing that you are probably thinking now is “where’s the best place to find all of these freebies.”

Well, truthfully there are many places across the Web where you can find freebies. The best places are probably specialty directories that offer free stuff. 

 
So your question now is probably, “why do so many businesses give away free stuff and why are there so many of them doing this?” There are many reasons why businesses give away free stuff. One of the main reasons why businesses give away free stuff is so that they can promote their business. When these businesses give away free things, they normally imprint their business details on the free stuff. This is so they can promote their business, which will in return give their business more exposure not only from the World Wide Web, but also from the offline world

How to get repeat visitors to your site


When you have a website online it is important for you to try and get new visitors to your site, but it’s also important to take care of the visitors that you actually already have. This is because you will want your existing visitors to keep returning to your site again and again.

There are many ways that you can do this. Some of these include the following:

1. Updating your Website content continuously
This is an important factor to consider if you want your visitors to keep returning to your site. This is because if you keep on updating your sites content, then every time your visitors come back to your site they will see something new every time, which should then interest them even further. If you don’t update your content on a regular basis, then your visitors will end up getting bored of your site and will then go elsewhere.


2. Making your site more sticky
Giving your site more stickiness will make it more addictive to your sites visitors, which will in return make them want to come back to your site.
This can be done by many different approaches. For example, you can add games to your site like http://www.simplysearch4it.com/games/gamdir.html
You can even give free things away on your site. For example, you can give away free coupons, free scripts, free web hosting, etc. You can even offer your visitors free re-printable articles so that they can add them to their own site like http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/articledir.php


3. Checking your site for broken links
This is very important when having a site. If your site does not function properly, then your visitors will not even bother with it. One of the most annoying things when visiting a site is when it has continuous broken links.
If you find it hard to manually check your site for broken links, then a good piece of free software to use would be the REL Link Checker Lite, which can be downloaded from http://www.relsoftware.com/

4. Getting other people’s opinions
When having a site, other than your own thoughts, it is also a good idea to get other people’s opinions. For example, the colours of your site, what parts people like on your site the most, what parts people dislike the most, etc. Getting opinions from your visitors like this will help you to find out what most people dislikes about your site, which means you can then improve these parts, making it better for your visitors in return.

Build and Maintain Websites For Profit


Even with limited knowledge and experience, you can
build and maintain websites for profit. Here are
just some ways you can do so.


1. Develop Websites for Local Businesses


Approach local business persons and sell them on the
necessity and financial benefits of having a
professional website. Local advertising may get you
started as well, but expect to get a large portion of
your business from referrals.

Charge your clients for the initial design and setup
of the website. Work with them to develop a theme for
their site based on their unique advantages over the
competition. Keep the site simple to start with so
that the cost of producing it is not prohibitive to
the business and you can complete it profitably in a
short time.

In this business, you can also make money on the
maintenance and ongoing support of the website.
Charge recurring monthly fees for such services needed
as web hosting, updates and improvements to the site`s
content, search engine optimization and submission,
increasing traffic, traffic analysis, mailing list
production and maintenance, and much more.

You don`t have to be a master Internet programmer to
provide needed, additional services. There are many
free and low cost sources of scripts and other resources
available to you on the Internet. Offer your clients
(and charge extra for) flash introductions, animated
graphics, syndicated content, traffic counters,
submission forms, chat rooms, pop-up windows,
autoresponders, and more.


2. Sell Websites on the Internet


Build web stores, search engines, shopping portals, and
other websites and sell them on the Internet.

Some develop sites from templates sold by others.
Others build websites from scratch. These websites have
been sold on the Internet as turnkey businesses through
eBay and other websites.

Another option is to take existing free services and
resell them. For example, you could take advantage of
free web stores available to you on the Internet.
Register a suitable domain name, obtain free or low
cost web space, and host that free store at your
domain on your web space. Promote your website and
increase traffic. Finally, sell your website to the
highest bidder on eBay. Be sure that either your
Reserve Price or Opening Bid is high enough to make it
profitable to you. You will need to transfer the domain
name to the buyer.


3. Become an Internet Marketer


Build your own unique website based on a niche theme
that has a sufficient market. Then tie in your content
with appropriate affiliate programs and your own as well
as other peoples` products and services.

Beware of the hidden perils of low cost hosting

Some folks classify low cost web hosting on the same level as free web hosting and while this may seem a little harsh, there are certain factors one needs to be very careful about when going for low cost web hosts.

One of these is downtime. There is really no point in spending so much time and money constructing a good site and then ending up in a situation where people cannot access your site. So when choosing your web host from the thousands of low cost web hosts out there, there are a few things you should do to ensure that downtime does not kill your business as you use a low cost web host.

Beware of the bandwidth time bomb

It is important to digest properly how much bandwidth and storage space you are getting for your monthly fee. Bandwidth is a real time bomb because one day your site will become very popular and attract very high traffic that will require more bandwidth. This could happen sooner than you expect and it makes plenty of sense to find out exactly what your options are when you suddenly need a lot more bandwidth. Otherwise you risk having extended downtime when it is most critical that you do not have it, so as to retain the high traffic that you are attracting.

Get technical and you will know if the host has a stable server system

Most good web hosting services will post specifications of their web servers on their sites. Analyzing this information will help a client get a good idea of how stable the web host’s server system is. The more stable, the less the likelihood of frequent downtimes. Most people are not technical, but almost everybody knows somebody who can help them analyze the technical jargon at the web hosts’ site.

Check your site several times during the day and the night too

Most webmasters get so busy that they hardly have the time to check their own sites. It is absolutely critical that this is done. It is even worth the effort and cash of hiring somebody to do it for you on a regular basis through out the day. Not only should you get your site’s accessibility regular tested but you should also test everything on the site and make sure that it works. This is the only way your visitors are going to gauge you and what sort of business you run, so take the trouble to make sure that your site is not only up all the time, but that it is also running properly.

Be Prepared Before Buying Software


Before you go to the store to buy software write down your
computers specifications. You'll need the type and speed
of the processor. How much ram your computer has. What
kind of video card? How much disk space is available?
Usually, these things are easy to find on your computer.

On Windows you can navigate to "Programs >Accessories >System Tools." Then click on "System Information" and you should see a summary containing your computers operating system, processor, and memory information. Next click on the plus sign to expand the "Components" category. There under "Display" you will find your computers video card specifications. You may also need to know what kind of sound card is installed. Select "Sound Device" to see the name and manufacturer of this device. Under "Storage" you can select Drives to check how much available disk space you have. This will be labeled "free Space." Other information you may need, depending on the type of program, are network
and modem specs.

Once You have selected a piece of software make sure that it
is compatible with your computer. Most software programs
come on CDs now and will include their minimum requirements
somewhere on the packaging. They may require that you
have a special video card or adapter. It may require that you have a particular type of processor, so make sure that your computers processor is equal or better. Make sure you have enough ram to run the program. Usually, they will give a minimum and a recommended amount, but I have always
found that it is best to go with the recommended amount.

Another thing to take into account is pricing. Sometimes you can save a lot of money by purchasing an earlier version
of a particular piece of software. Just make sure that it has all the features that you want and that it is compatible
with your computer. The best place to look is on the Internet. You can compare pricing without having to run all over town. Go to your favorite search site, and search for the software that you are looking for. Sometimes you can buy online for less, but make sure you check the shipping costs.

Avoid, Shun, Thwart, Prevent, and then Filter Spam


Email is rapidly becoming the standard means of communication among businesses, associates, and even friends. While many people have now been using the internet and email for years, there are thousands of new users on the internet each day. With inexpensive web hosting, free email services, and the blog burst upon us, getting your own slice of the internet pie has never been easier.

Whether you’re a seasoned professional looking for a refresher course, or you’re new to the internet and email and want to start off right, here are some easy steps to follow to reduce the amount of spam you receive.

Don’t choose an obvious email address. Spammers will generate lists of email addresses based on common names. A common list would be something like: nick@yahoo.com, nick1@yahoo.com, nick2@yahoo.com, etc. If you create an email account with less obvious combinations of your name plus some numbers, chances are better that you won’t find your way onto one of these lists.

Treat your personal email address with care. Only give out your personal email address to close friends and family who you trust. Give your direct business email only to clients and other contacts you trust to only use your address for legitimate business purposes.

Use different accounts for different functions. Create different aliases with your business’s domain name or create a few free accounts from free email servers like Hotmail, Yahoo!, Excite, etc. Use one account that you don’t care about for posting to forums or discussion groups. Use another to subscribe to newsletters and newsgroups. When any of these addresses starts to get spammed too heavily, simply delete the account and switch to a different one.

Remove your email address from your website. Between blogs and cheap web space, it seems everyone has their own piece of cyberspace. Before you put a link to your email address on your site, remember that spammers have bots that harvest these addresses. They will even find addresses printed in plain text. Consider using a web-based form for communication from you website, or place your address as a gif or jpeg.

Do not open, respond to, or purchase from spam. Interacting with spam in any of these ways indicates to the spammer that not only is your address valid, it’s also active. Do not respond with “unsubscribe” in the subject line, or click on any links to remove your name out of the database, as both of these are common ploys to confirm your email address. Remember, because sending email is so inexpensive, spamming can be profitable even if only a small percentage of people purchase what they’re selling. Don’t support what you’re trying to stop.

Finally, Filter you incoming email using filtering software. Even if you guard your email address religiously, you’ll likely still receive spam. Filtering software is usually inexpensive and effective, but there are some important features to consider with any filtering package:

• Make sure you can control what comes to your inbox and what gets deleted. The best programs create a spam folder for you to review before permanently deleting emails.

• The software should block images from incoming emails. Many jpegs in spam actually hide code that notifies the spammer when the email is viewed. Blocking images will not only keep offensive content off your screen but will also help prevent more spam in the future.

• Choose software that provides you with updates - as new spamming techniques are created and proliferated, filtering software should keep up.

While eliminating spam from coming to your email address is nigh unto impossible, following these simple steps will mean you’ll have to spend less time deleting spam from your inbox, giving you more time for the important things of life – like reading this article.

Advantages and disadvantages of having a reseller account


Advantages

You can have more flexibility with your web hosting accounts.

You can save money.

You can earn more revenue at little cost to yourself.

You can focus on customer support and leave technical support to your web host.

Your web host, not you, absorbs server maintenance costs.



Disadvantages

Your service is only as good as your upstream provider. If the server is frequently down, for example, you may lose clients.

If you ever have to change web hosts, the move will be an inconvenience for your clients as well as for yourself.

40,000 new blogs are started daily - how your web hosting business can cash in


The fact that an estimated 40,000 new blogs are being started daily should be of great interest to anybody already in the web hosting business or intending to go into it. Especially those planning to go into the business as affiliates or as resellers because this group of online entrepreneurs are in a very good position to cash in quickly on this amazing growth rate of blogs with hardly any investment necessary.

While it is true that a vast majority of blogs are hosted free, it is also true that many blogs are gaining high traffic so quickly that they are forced to quickly find paid web hosting as they exceed their allocated bandwidth.

The other fact to bear in mind is that virtually all successful bloggers own several blogs. This is significant because it is not easy to own several websites since lots of technical know-how and time are required to maintain a single website, let alone several. This is not the case with a blog that mainly requires content and very little technical knowledge to run very successfully. In terms of business volumes this simply means that a web hosting business that targets blogs is bound to grow a lot faster than the one that only seeks clients from the ranks of traditional websites.

The other significant factor in blogs that should be of great benefit to any web hosting business is the huge traffic that blogs seem to enjoy almost effortlessly.

All a web host entrepreneur needs to do, is to find a way to advertise their web hosting services to this blog traffic. There are several ways of doing this. You can for example look for acceptable ways of creating as many links from the blogs to your web hosting sites as possible. You can even start your very own blog on the subject.

Tips to Find the Web Host That is Right For You


Choosing to make a web site is a very big decision. However, even more important than deciding to make the website itself, is choosing your web host. There are many web hosts out there, and so it is very difficult to find the web host that’s right for you. In order to find the best web host, it is important to find as many options as possible, and have a clear idea of what you want out of your web host. Following these four tips will make your search for a solid web host a lot easier.

1. Use search engines. Search on Google and Yahoo using keywords such as “web host.” Carefully going through the results will give you an accurate idea of the web hosting options available. Some may say that the web hosts ranked the highest are clearly the best, but this is not always true. Taking the time to look at a large number of the results will give you an ample group of web hosts to compare.

2. Know how your site is going to work. This tip may sound confusing, but it is important to know what your goals will be for your web site. If you plan to have a great number of large files hosted on your site, then you want a web host that gives you ample amounts of space. Bandwidth should also be taken into consideration. Is the site a personal site, or a commercial site? If you plan on making money with your website, than a larger investment for more storage space and bandwidth is justifiable. If you are making your site a blog and hosting it with a service such as TypePad, you want a web host that allows domain mapping.

3. Have a price range in mind. Knowing the general amount of money you are willing to spend will save you a great amount of time. If a certain web host is simply too expensive, then you move on to the next one with no issues. Additionally, if you set a specific price range, you can search for the best offer within that price range. Some web hosts may offer more space for $20 than others do for the same price.

4. Finally, make sure that you have web host support based on your needs. If it is your first web site, then you might want a web host that is willing to give advice on building new sites. Some web hosts offer a very “hands on” approach to new users. Other web hosts simply let users do whatever they want and no help is offered.

The most important thing when finding a web host is knowing exactly what you want. Your search for a web host will be a lot easier if you search for hosts using Search Engines like Google and Yahoo, and you know what you are looking for. Every web host offers something a little different than others. Simplicity and customer service should be high priorities when searching for a web host. Remember, the most expensive, and highest ranked web host may not always be the best web host for your needs. Beginning your web host search with a clear, informed mind is the perfect way to assure a successful venture.