What to look for in a web host

Finding a web host can seem like a daunting task, but it really doesn’t have to be. I’ve filtered through no less than a dozen hosts in my 4 years online, and have been with one host for about 2 years now. For me, the important features of a prospective web host:

* Reliability
* Support
* Affordability

Reliability is a very important thing if you’re running a website for profit. It would be difficult to keep a membership if your web site was consistently unavailable. I had 2 web hosts
that were plagued with downtime. One of them was great for the first few months, almost no downtime - but then it’s like the bottom fell out. Support started getting backed up, 20 minutes to 2 hours of downtime every few days. . . Eventually the company was gone.

Support is crucial. If you are trying to run a business and you’ve got a problem with your website - you want someone to talk to or someone to respond in short order. There are so many web hosts around that you simply do not need to choose one that only offers email support. My current webhost offers 24×7x365 support by phone, email and live chat. They are available whenever you need them, and most of the times when I have a question or issue (and send an email versus using live chat) it’s normally handled within an hour or so. You can’t beat dependable support.

Finally - Affordability. Having a great web host won’t do you any good if you can’t afford to keep them. Web hosting companies abound. There are so many that if you just do a tiny bit of searching you can find a good hosting plan with great support for between $5-$10 per month. The web hosts that charge $20 per month for 500MB storage and 10GB bandwidth are most likely either small reseller hosts (where their support might lack) or they are catering to the people that don’t know any better. You do not have to pay an arm and a leg for good hosting.

My suggestions for finding the best web host for your money:

1. Only choose a web host with a $0 setup fee. There is no point in paying a setup fee unless this particular host has something unique to offer.

2. Only choose a host that allows month to month payments. Just because your service starts out great with your web host, doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way. Things change and it could happen to your host. Keep your options open in case things go south.

3. Only choose a host that offers true 24×7 support. If the web host states 24×7 support but doesn’t provide a phone number, send them an email in the middle of the night. See how quickly they respond. If you don’t get the response for a day or two - Stay away.

If you stick by these basic guidelines you should be able to find a web host that works without losing a bunch of money in the process.

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How To Host Several Websites Under One Account

If you operate several websites, each with its own domain name, signing up of separate hosting accounts can be an expensive proposition. Even if your hosting company offers the add-on domain feature (which will allow you to add different domains to the same hosting account) you will be charged a monthly fee for each domain you add, sometimes costing almost the same as your full hosting fee.

The solution is to open a reseller account. Reseller accounts were created to allow web designers to offer hosting services to their customers, to create a one-stop-shop for all their web
design and hosting needs. However, you don't need to be a reseller to buy a reseller hosting plan.

Reseller accounts are usually slightly more expensive than regular hosting accounts, but they will allow you to host different domain names without incurring in the add-on domain fees, making more efficient use of your space and bandwidth.

You want to choose a reseller account that offers:

* no limit to the number of domains you can add.
* the possibility of hosting your main website free, without using any of the space and bandwidth in your hosting plan. If you are a reseller, your main website will be your business website, and the space and bandwidth will be reserved for your customers. If you are not a reseller and just want to manage different websites, you can designate one of your domains as your main website (usually the largest and/or most popular, since you won't accrue any space or bandwidth for it).
* the possibility of upgrading to another plan without any penalties or fees.

To find out how much space and bandwidth you will need, first determine how many sites you are likely to host, how many pages each site may have, and how many visits will those sites most likely have. If you plan to host 10 sites with 20 pages each, at an average of 50KB per page and 100 page views per site per day, you will need 10MB of space (10 x 20 x 50KB) and 1.5GB of bandwidth per month (10 x 100 x 50KB x 30).

As far as pricing is concerned, there are reseller accounts costing as little as $10 / month up to several hundreds (or even thousands). It all depends on your requirements and the hosting company you choose, so shop around to get the best possible deal in terms of cost and reliability.

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Money Doubler Madness

After being around in the background for a while, money doublers suddenly became a huge craze on the internet. Forum message boards sported hysterical testimonials like "I Cycled!" and "I Got Paid!"

I wonder if they call it a craze because it only crazy people fall for it. Well, I’m certainly not crazy, on the dull side of sensible I’d say if I was pressed on the subject. I am not given to trusting people and you won’t find me accepting a free lunch.

So why did I get involved? I put it down to an unattractive little green mean streak of greed. Once that little green fellah gave me a nudge, there
was no stopping me; I went from weakness to weakness.

I thought that it would be safe to join one of the established programmes, so I joined the Easy Chair Club’s My Magic Doubler. I invested $100. Their server crashed and they closed to new members with bewildering suddenness. I wondered if I was their last ever member to sign up.

My natural mistrust of human beings became even deeper and I resolved not to make a similar mistake in future; I would not be tempted to join another money doubler.

Some days later, I received $120 back from Easy Chair Club. I had not doubled my money, but I was in profit. I began to like the human race a little better and to think maybe money doublers were not such a bad idea.

Double Bot caught my attention. People were getting paid out and, best of all, they had what they called a "spam" section on their forum where members could discuss money making opportunities (ie other doublers). I invested $50. After my success (I did not see it as a lucky escape) with My Magic Doubler, I was feeling confident.

At this time Matrix Twisted was about to launch. This was my chance to get in at the very start of a doubler and make some big money, so I funded my account with $50. The difference in time zone meant that I would have to buy shares in the middle of the night. Regrettably, I slept through the excitement of the launch. I also missed the trauma of the instant crash and the first howls of "Scam!" I began to feel less confident and more like a Jinx.

Cycle It Fast had already been re-launched and people were getting their money doubled within hours. Strangely, once I had taken the plunge and invested, things changed and I reckon it would have been better named Cycle It Extremely Slowly. Instead of cycling times being expressed in hours, they rose to days and then weeks. Cycle times are no longer mentioned. I think the wheels fell off the day I joined.

I decided Cycle It Fast would have to be a long term investment. I still had Double Bot for quick profit. I was surprised to note, when I visited the forum, one day that the popular "spam" section had been removed and posts along the lines of "10 days and I haven’t cycled" and "Where is my money?" were appearing. I started to feel a little uneasy. I was disappointed but not surprised when the Bot hit the rocks. How strange, it had been doing so well before I joined. I asked for a refund but I think admin were too busy baling out.

Anxious to recover my losses, I invested $50 with Profit Sharing Hits. Money doubling with advertising hits on top. What could go wrong? I was stunned when the members’ forum disappeared overnight and Admin announced that a re-launch was necessary. I again got that eerie feeling of being the last one in before the doors closed.

After several emails from me, a reply arrived from Double Bot. As admin had not got round to refunding my money before they re-launched, they were offering me a choice of paying them a 35% fee to process the refund or reinvesting in the Bot even though doubling had stopped.

That is the absolute end! Pass me that albatross and call me Jonah. It seems that any doubler that takes me on board will immediately sink. I might as well go and throw my money straight into the sea, at least I’ll get some fresh air at the same time. I have learned my lesson. I’ll concentrate on my Plug In Profit Site and will not waste any more time or money on these stupid doublers.

Wait up! I just got mail and there’s a money tripler about to launch. Now that’s different…

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Wise Words On Website Content

Wise words on website content.

Websites come and websites go; it’s a fact. It’s also a fact that websites which have exceptional website content don’t go very often. In order to win and retain business you need to be able to attract, keep and excite people’s attention but for many that isn’t always an achievable target. However without website content that can do this and do it quickly you are losing visitors and potential customers to your competition so
if you can’t create the website content that will achieve this and more you should consider getting someone who can.

Website content for visitors.

In bygone times keyword cramming your website content was the order of the day; it got you ranked high on search engines affording you plenty of hits to your website but in due course people realised that the visitors they were winning weren’t actually taking advantage of the offers on site or clicking the affiliate links. Search engines also cottoned on pretty quickly to the art of keyword cramming and eventually devised a cunning plot that penalises you for the excessive use of keywords within your website content. This article uses a keyword density of just over 6% for the keywords ‘website content’ and that is just about right. You need to get the balance just right; not making readers obviously aware of the over existence of the term website content but including it often enough that it will get you brownie points with search engines.

Website content for search engines.

Search engines don’t employ millions of people to trawl through the millions of websites and then judge how good the content is, instead they use robots or spiders that will crawl your website and measure the use of your keywords in order to ascertain the relevancy and usefulness of your website content. If they find it has too high a percentage they judge you to be a keyword crammer and you will be penalised. If it’s too low they determine (rightly or wrongly) that your website content isn’t relevant to potential visitors. Again you get penalised. You have to get the balance just right.

Website content that sells your product.

Your website visitors are your potential customers and they should be treated as such, but the average online shopper is very different in temperament to the high street shopper. They want to see useful content surrounding your products and they want to see it on a relevant topic. The latest and most common way to do this is through the use of a number of articles; these articles serve a couple of very useful purposes that we will discuss in a minute.

You should use website content that informs, excites and compels people to purchase your product and it should do so quickly. The average website visitor will give you 3 or 4 seconds before they decide whether to read on. If you can hook them within those few seconds then they become very strong leads; you know they are interested in what you have to say. That gives you the first sentence, possibly two to get your message across.

Don’t forget that it can take up to four times as long to read off a computer screen as it can on paper so your website content should be restricted to a minimum of 300 words on a informative page to 1000 words on a page. Any less and you may struggle giving them anything useful but more than this and they’ll stop reading. The optimum word count is between 500 and 700 words.

Articles that give value to your website content.

Used well a number of article pages on your site will serve as keyword specific website content pages and also to give your visitors even more information. If you have 50 keywords you want to use you could use 1 article for each keyword. This article would then act as a separate page of website content that will rank on the search engines for that one keyword. Each well written article that your visitors read will move them one step closer to purchasing your product so use them well.

A final word on website content.

The final thing to remember about website content is that it HAS to be unique. Copied or plagiarised website content will see you heavily penalised by the search engines and where a few dollars may have got you high up in the rankings with very well written website content, using stale copied website content will see you plummet to the bottom end of the search results.

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Discover Online Discount Coupon Codes - Why Pay Retail!

Clever Internet shoppers continue to improve their search tactics of the broad directory of online retailers with the focus of finding the best price on the product or service they are interested in purchasing. At the same time, online retailers are doing their best to bring those shoppers to their store. How you ask? With online discount coupon codes. Countless premier online retailers, travel companies, and merchants providing
consumer services, grant coupon promotional codes to online partners (advertisers) to place on their web site for their visitors.

So where do you find a web site that will provide you with a direct link to all of these discounts? The discount coupons will often be hosted on partner web sites as a method of advertising for the store or retailer. The coupon links may offer either a percentage off the sale price, free shipping, a free gift with purchase or in some cases, a combination of all.

Discount coupons for "free shipping" can save the shopper a generous amount of money for shopping directly with the retailer's warehouse location as compared with shopping traditional brick and mortar stores. In other words, they pass the handling savings onto you!

"Percentage off" promo codes can be as high as 50%, with deals such as $25 off a $50 purchase. Almost all online retailers have a space to enter a promotion or discount coupon code generally during the final check-out process.

So how do I shop with online coupon codes? Launch your favorite search engine directory and execute a search for the specific coupon you are looking for, i.e., "merchant name + coupon code or promo code". There will be thousands of results, so it is up to you to access which coupon offers are current. Bookmark those web sites which offer up-to-date discounts for future shopping and for sharing the coupon site with your family and friends.

After you find the coupon you would like to use, click on the link provided and shop the merchant's site. Take note, if a coupon code is provided with the link, you will need to enter this code during the final steps at check-out. If there is no code provided, then the discount is embedded in the link and will be applied automatically for you. Coupon offers are subject to change and can expire at anytime. Verify that the savings have been applied to the shopping cart before finalizing your purchase.

Online promotions and discount coupon codes will often change weekly with most offers changing monthly. Holidays, special occasions, i.e. the beginning of the school year, will increase the number of online coupon offers available on partner sites and often prompt other merchants whom rarely offer online incentives to review their current promotions and advertising strategies. The months of October, November, and December are also the busiest shopping months of the year, so expect an increase in coupon code offers and promotions.

Always look on your favorite partner site for new discounts before you complete that next online purchase, and remember to share those sites and savings with your family and friends.

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Internet And Business Online – The Act Of Interdependence

The best role of business online is that of interdependency. We’ve all heard the old saying, “No man is an island.” When it comes to online business this is especially true.

If a business owner who takes their business into the online world determines they will be self reliant and never accept the help of anyone then that individual will not be in business long enough
to change their minds.

It is accepted fact that the greatest tool for long-term exposure to your website is through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Without it potential customers can’t find you. It is unreasonable to expect that you can adequately develop a website without optimizing your website for the best possible search engine ranking.

Search engines also place a high value on sites that have links placed on existing sites. These ‘backlinks’ demonstrate to search engines that others trust your site. By placing your link on their website these other businesses indicate a trust and recommendation for your site.

In effect the two strategies listed above rely exclusively on what others can do for you when it comes to your online business.

Shirley Temple once proclaimed in her movie Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, “I’m very self-reliant.” American westerns are filled with lines dealing with pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and holding down the fort. Many of us have grown up to believe if we want something done right we have to do it ourselves.

This thinking is in opposition to the rules associated with an online business.

The online world can only exist because people share. Individuals share technology, but the also share links, reviews, blogs, forums and a wide range of other marketing strategies that find a commingling of interdependency.

In online business you are as dependent on others as they may be on you. Unlike the word ‘dependent’, the term interdependent indicates a mutual dependency. In other words you are depending on others to help provide links back to your site while they are equally dependent on you (or others) for the success of their business.

Have you really taken a proactive approach to networking? It’s possible you are reading this today and you’ve never considered asking someone else to place a link to your site on his or her online business site.

It can feel awkward depending on others to achieve online success especially if you’ve been lead to believe reliance on others is also a sign of imposing on their otherwise brilliant generosity.

I suppose it could be a deep-seated sense of pride that makes it hard to consider the need to ask others for help. However, the truth is depending on others is really what has made the Internet possible. The growth of this online world is comprised of a link of computers, networks and servers that are connected in a way that provides the maximum benefit for all.

Building an online business can feel a bit like trying to build a house of cards. Without the ability to rely on the other ‘cards’ around you it is virtually impossible to build.

Interdependence. This is the essence of online business.

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