A Sundry of Options for Web Hosting

Since the birth of the internet, millions upon millions of websites have been created. They may contain different information and designs, but they all have one thing in common. Web hosting, one of the most important functions in the website process, allows website owners to put up their creative masterpieces. Regardless of what they do decide to display, this type of program gives them the independence to say whatever they'd like.

One of the biggest misconceptions of web hosting is that every package is the same. We all assume that one size fits all, and that there are no in betweens. Surprisingly, this is just the opposite. Depending upon the type of website you are making, and its popularity, you may need something much more professional and expensive. Nonetheless, there are affordable packages, no matter how tiny or large your budget is.

If you are just starting out and want no string attached, there are plenty of alternatives. Free hosting allows you to not only create a website, but it helps beginners, no matter how much experience they have. Although there are popup downsides and other annoyances, free web hosting will give you everything that you need. If you are not sure if you even want to extensively design one, Geocities or AngelFire is great to experiment with.

Are you looking for something a bit more customized? For many webmasters, shared hosting is a favorite. This means that an abundance of websites are actually on one server. While this only costs a few dollars a month, there are still issues that come along with it. For instance, if a fellow webmaster were to have done something illegal, chances are your website would be shut down as well. This is because you share an IP, which of course can be quite dangerous. For this reason, you must be careful when choosing people to share a host with.

While these are great alternatives, many professional companies enjoy dedicated hosting . Fortunately, the website is the only one on the server, which results in a lot less complications. With freedom comes a plethora of features, which include extra bandwidth, visitor trackers, and your own I.P. As a result, you do not have to worry about illegal situations occurring within your server. Everything is based around your needs.

Reseller hosting is another admired amenity. If you are a webmaster and are looking to make some extra cash, this is a great opportunity. In simple terms, you purchase a web hosting package from a company and divide the space into several sections. These sections can easily be purchased by fellow webmasters, who are in need of space. With this business in place, you will effortless make a few dollars.

Regardless of what you are looking to make, web hosting is necessary. From free companies to dedicated servers with only one website, there are endless opportunities. Although people assume that there is only one type of package, this article clearly shows how wrong the myth can be. The only requirement is that you are ready to work hard, be innovative, and stand out among the crowd. With these factors in mind, you could be to the top in no time.

Virtual Domain Hosting

If you are new to web hosting, you might be encountering words or technical terms whose definitions are strange to you. Among them could be the words “domain,” “domain name,” “web host,” “virtual host,” “web hosting” and “server.” First and foremost, you should understand that creating a website does not end with producing a well-made site design and coming up with a name for it. You have to register its “domain name,” and find a reliable “web host,” that could provide a secure “server” for your website.


In order for your website to be accessible by others via the Internet, you need to use a server. This is a huge computer or hardware that stores all the information contained in your website. The server has an IP address (a series of decimals) that is represented by an easy to recognize name, called a domain name. This is part of the website URL you place in the address bar and is used to identify your website’s location on the Internet.


A virtual domain is a domain hosted by a server that concurrently hosts other virtual domains. In contrast to a domain on a dedicated server, virtual domain shares with other web sites its access to the features of the single server that hosts all of them; thus, virtual domain hosting is also called as shared domain hosting.


The ways that a domain on a dedicated server and a domain on a virtual server are hosted are almost the same. The biggest difference between the two is that the first exclusively makes use of all the resources in its server, while the second has to share them.

Learn about ebay

Since its arrival ebay has changed lives of millions. If you want to make easy money ebay is the only answer. Ebay provides an excellent opportunity and a market place to sell anything. How to sell on ebay is the question on everybody’s mind. Selling on ebay is the easiest thing you may come across. With some small tips and experience you may master the question of how to make money on ebay.

Ebay has a wide variety of products starting from ebay motors to used goods. You can sell almost anything on ebay. Ebay has a global presence. Ebay is present in every potential market including America, UK, Australia, Canada, and India. Here we make an effort to help you learn how to sell on ebay. Learning ebay is very easy itself. You can find all information about ebay on ebay.com itself. Motive of this website is introduce and help beginners start a business on ebay.
Ebay is one of the genuine money making ideas on internet. There is no such thing like a fraud on ebay. Ebay over a period of time has developed very good safeguards to avoid frauds. Ebay protects both buyers and sellers. With the safeguards and size of business ebay manages we can now safely say there are no alternative to ebay.


Do you Know

Do you know ebay is the world's biggest online market

Do you know ebay if members are counted as employees is the second biggest employer in America.

Do you know ebay has more transaction conducted than say NASDAQ and New York stock exchange.

As on 2006 ebay had 212 million members worldwide out of that 128 million members come from America alone.

Step by Step guide to earn money online

Step by Step guide to earn money online . Great source of information, guide & tips and tricks for earn money online.

•Google Adsense : Google adsense tips, guide that will increase your website revenue easily. Know more about choosing the right AdSense format, get keyword suggestions.Find out how you can increase your earnings with some simple changes and creative ideas.The Google AdSense an extremely easy way to make money online. If you own a blog/website/forum that receives tons of traffic then you have a great opportunity to make money with adsense.
•Affiliate marketing: Complete guide on how to earn money online as an affiliate marketer. Here you find great tutorial/help on affiliate marketing. We give you all the info to start making money online and become a successful affiliate marketer. To being successful with affiliate marketing is to develop a good content website with ton of traffic and put your affiliate links into all your content for visitors.
•Blogging : Learn how to earn money through blogging and internet. Would you like to learn how to get more traffic and earn more money from blogging?
•Internet marketing: It include everything related to make money online like search engine optimization (SEO), PPC, blog marketing, banner advertisement. article marketing etc….
•Link building : One of the most important factor to increase traffic on your website so you can earn more money online. Here you find Link building tips and guide.
•Search engine optimization(SEO): Absolutely free way to promote your blog/website/forum on major search engines likes Google, Yahoo, MSN. Step by step seo tutorial guide to increase traffic and earn money online.
•social media marketing : New buzzword in market social networking and social bookmarking. Learn how you can use social media marketing to get more traffic and customer so you can arn money online.

Eco-friendly web hosting

We all want to do our part to help the environment. Businesses of all kinds and sizes can play a really active role in reducing waste and energy consumption. How? Recycling, purchasing supplies made from recycled materials, telecommuting options, using alternative energy sources and, of course, choosing green web hosting services.

What are green web hosting services? There are a few varieties, but for this discussion we will focus on the groups that use eco-friendly sources for electrical power. Servers are delicate creatures and require everything from stable and cooled environments to massive amounts of electricity. This all adds up to a lot of energy consumption and the green web hosting services work to ensure that they reduce or totally eliminate their reliance on anything but renewable resources.

For example, if a provider is unable to supply their own electrical service through wind, solar, biogas or geothermal equipment they can opt to buy Renewable Energy Certificates. This means that the power they are using is supplied from a company that uses only natural and renewable methods of generating electricity for public consumption.

Of course there are those green web hosting companies that actually create all of their own electricity. These groups will also employ solar panels, wind turbines and other mass energy production techniques to keep their equipment performing at optimal, reliable and impact free levels.

In addition to having no impact on the planet, many of these web hosting companies also make carbon offsetting a possibility as well. This allows other companies who want to mitigate their own greenhouse gas emissions to purchase offsets and thereby underwrite emission reducing projects like the green web host's wind farm or solar equipment.

The green web hosting providers might also extend special discounts to non-profit agencies and organizations or to companies who offer telecommuting to their staff or employees. They also may provide totally free software; use offices powered entirely by renewable energies and may be completely paperless.

Do they cost more? That is something that requires a little thought to answer. While they may not save loads of money, and run at the same price as many other competitors, it is crucial to remember how a single paperless company can reduce energy and materials wasted by the hundreds of tons. Imagine the positive and beneficial global effects of hundreds of companies participating in the green initiative simply by signing up with a green web hosting service!

Godaddy web hosting

Often times those seeking to create their own webpage with a unique domain name encounter a little difficulty when identifying a web hosting provider suitable for them. Many providers charge a hefty price for domain names and the services they provide, which are frequently inadequate. However there are numerous web hosting service providers who offer a great variety of benefits at affordable rates. One such provider that presents superior cheap rates is go daddy Simply visiting GoDaddy.com just once will enable you to view the many services and advantages of hosting with Go Daddy and also browse through an abundance of available packages and domain names.
Being one of the world's largest and most popular hosts, one would expect Go Daddy to present quite an extensive array of services and options as is the case. With every single package offered by Go Daddy you get the promise of continuous monitoring, maintenance and security that has essentially made Go Daddy such a reputable and sought after provider. The world-class data center allows this provider to constantly watch over your webpage and the constant presence of a top-notch firewall serves to make your website extraordinarily secure. Along with the benefit of cheap rates and the aforementioned advantages of hosting with Go Daddy, users can also receive custom support, thus you can truly receive a remarkably accommodating service with Go Daddy.
There are a fair number of providers offering very quick setup free of charge but none like Go Daddy. Their free rapid account setup is virtually unmatched. Browsing the website one will also notice the ease with which one can find a suitable package for them and also contact Go Daddy if necessary. Finding information about building your website and web hosting in general is also quite easy on the Go Daddy webpage. What's more sections of the website actually explain how to go about performing specific tasks that you may need to carry out when building your site

GoDaddy - a money making opportunitys

How can you make money online from GoDaddy.com? You can make money from the Go Daddy company with a few methods including:
- Domain parking and domain sales transactions
- Go Daddy reseller and super reseller accounts and affiliate marketing
- Creating your own websites through Godaddy.com to sell your own product or service or do affiliate marketing
- Selling information about Go Daddy including coupons or vouchers and then selling other related services to the same people.
Because Go Daddy is such a big company, they’re practically a household name. There are many ways to capitalize on this company to earn money yourself. You can make direct money by using them in several ways. Let us explore some of Go Daddy’s online money making programs with a closer look:
Domains
You can do domain selling through GoDaddy.com as well as domain parking. Domain selling enables you to sell your domains and or websites. Some profitable niches might fetch a great profit. This is commonly known as website flipping or domain auctions and GoDaddy has a marketplace for this.
Domains parking lets you earn commission from websites that are parked. This can be achieved two ways.
First, the domain name is something people will stumble upon often because it’s a common word or closely related to another website. The parked website has advertisements placed on it and you earn a commission based on that.
Second, you do the parking because you are working on your website. While you wait to create the site you do domain parking so you can earn in the meantime.
Reseller Accounts and Affiliate Programs
Another way of making money online is to sell hosting packages you can do this with Go Daddy. The company has something called a reseller program and a Super Reseller Hosting program so you can make money not only from selling hosting and services as well as from selling to others who will resell hosting as well. Go Daddy offers over fifty different products you can resell to others. You can sell products directly from your own website or through banners and links.
Creating your own website is fairly simple with Go Daddy. They have products and services for use from very novice users to programs suited for more technical people so you can sell to a broad audience.
Your Own Profitable Website
You can use a website you purchase from Go Daddy to set up your own money making blog, your own online store or affiliate sites and sales pages for products. The possibilities are nearly endless and you can purchase many different products and services from this company to help you grow and support your own home based business.
Go Daddy is one of the lowest cost hosting solutions out there. They are a popular and well known choice and because of that can be a great company for you to capitalize on.
When looking for money making ideas your best bet is to look for companies like this that one who can offer you multiple ways of making money through them. The shorter the time it takes you to learn programs and how to capitalize on a particular niche, the more money you can make and because Go Daddy is a company that works in multiple areas and is so widely publicized you can quickly learn enough to hit the ground running in your money making efforts.

Online job- a good idea

The idea of online home working is gaining a lot of popularity among people of all age groups. Whether a teen or an older person, a man or a housewife, everybody can find a job of his/her caliber. One has to have a basic know how of using a PC and surfing the internet.The rate of PC usage has increased exponentially over the past few years and is still on the rise specially in the developed countries like US, Japan and UK etc. but the interesting point to note here is that although the PC usage percentage is high in these countries, the number of PC users is increasing more rapidly in some developing countries specially China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh but if these figures are divided by the total population of these countries, it will still be on a much lower side as these countries have rich population, a large portion being in the rural areas.

Key factors of online job

Are you interested to explore the world of online jobs? If yes then you have to keep certain things in mind. There are certain key factors to remember before you apply for an online job.First of all you have to find yourself a reliable freelancing website and get yourself registered with it. Do remember that you have to express yourself in a very professional way so that the people who want their work to get done will see your qualification and experience working online. So present yourself in a professional way while filing your details in the registration process. If you have an attractive profile, you will find it very easy to get work online.Another thing to remember while searching for an online work at the first time is that you have to bid for the minimum. People will post their work online and will make available all the details he/she wants to get done. Many job seekers will bid for the job and place their bid amounts.

Data entry home oprate online job

Time is money? everyone these days wish to earn a lot of money and utilize each and every second of the available time. So how can you earn extra money while at work or even at home via Online Data entry?Well? it has become a reality these days and the concept of freelancing is becoming increasingly popular among the masses. Now you can easily get work at home and get it done according to your timetable with no one acting as your boss.Wow! Sounds great? well the idea is fabulous and it is a true one.Now let me explain you with the whole idea of getting such work and how does the idea work.You can find many freelancing websites on the internet where you have to sign-up and get yourself registered. This sign-up is totally free so you do not have to pay a single penny for the registration. Registration is necessary because they need to have the basic information about you and your address etc so that they could send you your earned money.

Onlinejobs-he skills to complete the job accurately

n an ever increasingly technological world online jobs are becoming more common and have come to include many different applications. The online job market is becoming a very feasible way to make good money if one is willing to put in the time and effort, needed to get started. As with jobs that are not web based, it is important to not only posses the skills to complete the job accurately and within the deadline provided, but to also do enough research in the field you are applying in to have a good founding knowledge of the factors that will get you hired and ensure fair payment. This is especially important when both the work you are hired for and the financial transactions occur over the internet. Today online jobs have come to include everything from copywriting, data entry and proofreading to telemarketing, website security and market research.

Online job is best for housewives

Nowadays, housewives can earn some good money via Online Jobs . The main problem that home staying Moms face when it comes to doing a job is that they can't leave their children alone. To do a job, you need to go to an office or some other place, but what if you have a little sweet baby at home? Obviously you can't leave your baby at home nor can you bring your baby at work place.So does it mean that home staying Moms can't do any job? And that they can't make any money? No, that's not true. Thanks to the Internet, you can now earn while sitting at your own home in front of your own PC. You just need a PC and internet connection for that matter. There are many different kinds of Online Jobs available on the internet but for me the best option is working at freelancing sites. I think freelancing sites are offering the best deal when it comes to home working.Wait, what kind of qualification is needed to do such Jobs. Hmm, sounds like a good question right? But don't you worry as .

Posting your resume online

When posting your resume online, be mindful of your formatting. Unless the website specifies that you can render your resume in html and you actually know how to do it, keep it as simple as possible. Use text format, remove bullets and extra lines. Remove formatting such as italics, bold and underline. You can substitute and asterisk (*) for a bullet point and dashes for lines.

Once you’re done. Publish it online and check how it displays. Do this before sending it out to potential employers. You may also want to take a look at other resume postings online to see how they styled theirs given the limits of online resume posting.

Next issue you need to think about is security. The internet is open to anyone. Job sites that allow you to post resumes may have some display criteria (public, private, employers only, etc) which helps increase your safety. However, for those that are not so clear about their privacy policies, don’t be so quick to post your personal information. Displaying your complete name, address and home phone opens you up to identity fraud.

You need to carefully evaluate the job sites where you will be posting your resume. Choose one or two large job sites that have big databases. You may also want to think about being industry-specific about your posting. This would limit the calls from employers that are not a match.

Idea of Increase traffic to your site

There are many different tactics that can be used to drive quality traffic to your sites. There’s posting quality articles to hundreds of directories and other viral methods. There’s PPC. There’s SEO. JV marketing, RSS…the list goes on and on. All of these methods do drive traffic to your website, and I wholeheartedly recommend that you employ them on an ongoing basis, but they also require a certain level of investment – either in your TIME or in your MONEY.

However, there’s one tactic that clever marketers have been using for some time in order to drive thousands, tens of thousands and more worth of targeted traffic to their websites – immediately, and without excessive effort while paying no more than $10 or so for the privilege. If this excites you (and it really ought to) then read on… this eBook is an introduction to the world of buying Expired Domain Names that come with traffic inbuilt from various sources. We’ll look at why buying expired domains can be so lucrative, what the various issues are and how you can get started right now.

The Concept Of Buying Expired Domains – One Of The Internets “Underground Stealth Tactics” For Immediate & Low Cost Traffic, Subscribers & Profits

Buying expired domain names is – a big traffic loophole. It works because over time a domain has been built up - A mixture of time, money and know-how have been ploughed into it – and it draws in a good amount of traffic. But now, for whatever reason, that domain has expired. Where once there may have been a thriving website pulling income in from various sources, it no longer exists. And it’s up for grabs to the first person who recognized what a potential goldmine it is. We’ll look at why domains expire a little later (it’s not always because some dopey marketer forgot to renew it) but for now let’s look at the underlying concept behind obtaining free targeted traffic simply by scooping them up.

Before we go on, I know some people may have moral objections behind purchasing expired domains, and that’s fine. After all, you’re taking advantage of a domain which has traffic coming into it because someone had invested a lot of time and/or money into it. From my perspective, I want you to understand that it’s my job to show my customers and newsletter subscribers genuine ways to make money online.

INTERNET-a usefull thing in business

The growth of E-commerce, Internet marketing and the world wide web as a whole is growing exponentially everyday. Businesses's of all shapes and sizes, products and services are now harnessing the power of the Internet to generate sales and ultimately expand their business.

The reason for this is the numerous benefits to business that the Internet offers.

Websites
By far the most obvious resource for business, on the internet, is your own web site. Giving you 24/7 exposure to potential cutomers world wide, aswell as offering existing clients 24/7 accessability to all your goods and services. An E-commerce website gives customers the option of purchasing goods and services directly from you in the comfort of there own home. Due to the direct link between buyer and seller, goods and services can often be offered at a far more competitive rate than your local retailers, who are paying large overheads in the form of there shop rental etc.

A Website is also relatively inexpensive to set up and offers business's, especially small business, a fantastic oppotunity to get exposure quickly and effectively to a global base of potential customers.

A professional website has the potential to generate business from all over the world.

At BrandonSymonds.com we realise that potential by implementing specialised techniques which enhance your website presence. Just having a website is not enough, a website needs to be promoted to get it to the top of a search engine where it will have a far greater chance to reach its full potential.

A website has varying degrees of profitability depending on how it is managed. Sure you can create a website and refer new and existing customers to it, and use it as another avenue where customrers can do business with you, however unless your website is promoted, the only customers who know of your site are ones that you have told either directly or through advertising etc. Although this is still beneficial, especially for small business as it gives a professional image and offers customers the ease of dealing with you online, it is limited compared to a website that is promoted effectively, has a good rating on search engines and therefore reaches a far greater global consumer base, competing perhaps with bigger multi national companies on an equal footing. It is quite possible to get your business a better listing on search engines than much bigger competitors, simply by aggressively promoting your site.

Search Engine Optimisation
Getting your site listed in the major search engines is the most important step towards successfully marketing your website. Your website may look professional and offer great products, but if its not optimised for the search engines you will not reach a global market place.

Search engines are looking for just one thing, content that is relevant to the search query. Search engines determine site relevance in the following ways:

Keyword density

The first thing a search engine looks for when determining if your site is relevant are keywords. Your keywords must be displayed prominently throughout your website and have the right density. Repeating your keywords too many times will result in the search engines thinking you are trying to cheat them. Not enough keywords and your site might not apperar relevant enough. The text on your website should read naturally with your keywords appearing a few times throughout your text and in your links and image tags.

Meta tags

Meta tags are code that is written specifically for the search engines, they generally can not be seen by the human eye. They include the title of your site, a description and a list of keywords. The major search engines now mainly look at the title tag and to a lessor extent the desciption. The keywords tag is no longer seen as a relevant part of the site content, so it is overlooked by most of the search engines. Including keywords in your title tag is crucial to acheiving a high ranking on the major search engines.

Amount of content

To the major search engines content is king. Relevant content that is updated regularly is exactly what the search engines want to see. Having lots of pages on your site with related content allows you to include more keywords and inevitably leads to more pages being indexed and more traffic to your site.

Link popularity

Most crucial and often most overlooked part of search engine optimisation is link popularity. This refers to the number of times a link to your site is found throughout the entire world wide web. If a search engine finds a link to your web site on another highly ranked, relevant site, it will think your site is relevant also. The more relevant links you can get for your website the higher your ranking will be.

Website hosting and domain names
A website hosting account provides two essential things for a small business; web space and email addresses at your domain name.

Your web space is where you store your web pages, images, videos and any other content you want to make available on the world wide web. Hosting plans vary considerably with the amount of space offered, and added features such as unlimited email addresess and data bases. it is a highly competitive niche in the infomation technology industry.

Domain names are simply website names. Your domain is your website space. Most businesses use their trading name as their domain name if it is available. Obviously you want your domain name to reflect your business. Choosing an appropriate domain name can be tricky, especially due to the large number of domain names already registered. .However it is an important decision and needs to be made with a clear view of what you are trying to acheive and how you want to be represented on the world wide web.

Email
Email or electronic mail is one of the most powerful tools on the internet for both private and commercial use. Having an email address allows you to communicate with anyone else on the web who also has an email address, It is virtually instantaneous and is a highly effective communications medium. An email address at your own domain name (your website) gives a professional image to potential customers and allows communication with your business 24/7. By replying to all emails asap a business can create goodwill and trust and promote an effecient image.

A powerful marketing tool, email can be used to target market sectors directly with promotional emails, follow up and thankyou letters. As well as being used to register with various websites as a member, or to receive news letters or special offers etc.

sell your products to customer online

Your website will have everything you need to sell your products online, track your customers, process your transactions and so much more, all from an easy-to-use web-based system that can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection. Run you business from anywhere in the world!
All you have to do is add your own products and you can
start making money from your website right away!

This is what's included in the package:

Installation of a complete eCommerce website

Customised with your own business details, logo and design

Configuration of your site to accept credit cards, paypal or any payment method you wish

Optimised for the search engines

Premium web hosting package with enough web space to store over 2000 products and images

Ongoing support for help with anything related to your website or web hosting service

Some features of your eCommerce website will include:

Secure password protected administration area

Easy to add your own products, categories, images, descriptions, prices etc.

Put products on special, give member discounts and have store wide sales

Create your own custom information pages, web links and banners ads

Access new orders from your website and though your email address

Accept payments through PayPal, Credit Cards, Bank Deposit, Money Order etc.

Calculates postage costs automatically using AusPost, USPS, flat rates, per item etc.

Built-in product notifications and newsletter system to keep your customers coming back

Online contact form so your customers can contact you directly through your website

Supports multiple languages, currencies and tax structures including GST.

Built-in search engine allows customers to search for products by keyword, manufacturer or price

Detailed reporting system helps you maintain records and website statistics

Fully optimized for the search engines

And much, much more!

Earn from your website/Blog

A friend once asked me: "Is there a way to earn money online without spending your own money first?" My reply was "Absolutely. Can you write intelligently about any topic?"

Of course, I was referring to blogging. There is no wonder why blogging has gotten so popular these days. It allows people to write about what they like to talk about and at the same time, make money from it. And you don't have to spend any money to get started. Yes, that’s right. Not a single penny. Let me explain.

First, you don't have to an expert in any particular field. You just have to write interestingly enough to make people want to read your blog. It could be about your experience with anything, your hobbies or your personal opinions about a particular topic.

Starting a blog is easy and requires no fee. That's right. You don't have to buy a domain name or pay to host your website. You can create a free blog from many websites on the internet. The most popular ones are blogger.com, wordpress.com and livejournal.com. Just register with any of these services to create your blog. It’s free. Start making posts that are worthwhile reading. There is a huge audience out there and any topic that you could write about could be of interest to hundreds ofthousands, if not millions of people. After making a few posts, you would need to promote your blog to attract your reading audience. There are many ways to promote your blog without spending a single penny. Get your blog listed in web directories like dmoz.org, WebSorter.com etc... Submit your blog entries to news sharing sites like Digg.com, Reddit.com and NowPubic.com. Publicize your blog in your myspace page and other social networking websites. Submit your blog feeds to aggregator sites like FeedBurner, Squidoo, Feedboy, Jordomedia, FeedBomb, ect...

There are many ways to make money from your blog. One of the ways is to add pay-per-click ads from services like Google Adsense, Yahoo Publisher Network, AdBrite and many others. Typically, these pay-per-click ads are targeted to the topic of your blog. If you are blogging about student loans, the ads that will show on your blogs will most likely be about student loans. Every time a visitor on your blog clicks one of those ads, you will earn some money. How much you will earn per click will depend on the kind of ads that are displayed on your blog and how competitive and lucrative that those ads are to advertisers. Other ways to monetize your blog would be to sell ad space directly to advertisers if your blog receives a significant viewership. To get advertisers, you can list your ad space for sale on AdBrite, AdEngage, AdSpace-Auctions Ad Marketplace etc.. If your blog has a decent Google PageRank (PageRank is an estimation from 0 to 10 of how importantGoogle thinks your webpage is), you can also get paid by webmasters to have their links on your blog. Webmasters typically try to get as many links as possible to their websites in order to increase their website popularity in the eyes of the search engines. The higher your blog's Google PageRank is, the more valuable a link to your blog becomes, and the higher webmasters will be willing to pay for a link. To get webmasters to buy links from your blog, join webmaster forums such as Digitalpoint, Sitepoint or WebmasterGround and post in their marketplace section about your offers.

These are just a few ways to earn money from your blog. Remember, it costs nothing to start a blog. Write about something that you can make interesting enough for people to read. Promote your blog. Add ads to your blog. And you are on your way to earn money. How much money you can earn from your blog only depends on how much effort you want to put in it. The sky's the limit.

Web Site Hosting - An Easy Guide

Web Hosting - Made Simple
What is web hosting anyway? What do I get when I buy a web hosting solution?

To make thing clear from start let's just say how it all works.
Web pages basically consist of text and images. Generically, the information contained by these files is called content. The look of the web page is called design. In order to be accessible to online users, all these files must be stored on a web server. You can think of web servers as computers storing the files of tens or hundreds of web sites. These computers are all connected to the Internet through high-speed connection. When you access a web page, your browser connects to the web server that stores that page and downloads it to your computer.


So a web server is a must when you plan to share your web site content with online users via the Internet. There are thousands of web servers in the world, and there are companies that own them. Such a company is called web-hosting provider.
A web-hosting provider can have dozens of web servers hosting thousands of web sites. The web server computers are found usually in large numbers and are all housed in special buildings or sections of buildings called data center. Apart from the high-speed Internet connection, these locations are set up to ensure the optimum operational conditions and security for the web servers. HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, & Air Conditioning) control, fire protection, virus protection, data backup facility, power backup, even autonomy in case of disaster. Another term for the web servers in the data center is a web farm.

To be able to run your site properly you need a space on the web server to store your data and an Internet connection to it. The amount of data available to you on a web server is simply referred as space and is usually quantified in MB. The Internet connection needed so that your web site can be accessed online is referred as bandwidth and is also measured in MB or even GB. Having the glimpse of the basics, it must be said that different web-hosting providers offer different space and bandwidth. Space and bandwidth are usually the main characteristics of a web-hosting plan.


The terminology associated with web hosting can be quite dazzling: virtual web hosting, dedicated hosting; co-locating hosting, shared hosting reseller hosting.
Shared Web Hosting
Shared web hosting or virtual web hosting are two terms for the same thing. Shared web hosting means that on a web server are hosted many web sites that all have a defined quota of HDD space and bandwidth. They all run simultaneously and there can be from hundreds to thousands of web sites on the same web server. Given the high number of web sites should you worry about exceeding the performance of the web server, issue better known as slow server response, meaning that your visitors will have to wait too long for your web pages to load. That is usually not a real problem when dealing with serious web hosting providers, because the operational parameters of the web servers are monitored and appropriate actions will be taken in order to maintain the level of service contracted. The greater number of web sites sharing the resources of a web server (HDD space, bandwidth, memory, CPU time), the web hosting provider can afford to offer its services at a lower cost. A minus would be that, even with high level of service, you will have to accept a slower server response time when choosing shared web hosting.
Reseller Web Hosting
When web-hosting providers offer their services, typically with a discount, to a third-party (a reseller that will thus become a web-hosting provider itself) and the latter subsequently offers web-hosting services under his branding. Indeed technically the reseller web hosting is very similar to shared web hosting, as many web sites end up sharing space and bandwidth on the same web server. The resellers usually are web designers or web developers who offer web hosting services as part of their integrated services. As the web-hosting provider offers resellers important discounts, the price they can offer is among the smallest in the industry. Compared with the shared web hosting, this system has technical support problem. It takes time and communication problems may occur on the course of your problem from the reseller to the web-hosting provider. Unless your site is a personal web site or non-commercial one, this poor support issue is enough to not consider this your primary option. Continuing this line of thought, how can you distinguish a reseller from a real web-hosting provider? It's not the professional design of the web site, not even the support contact facilities offered as may resellers might have contracts with the provider on the technical support and the person taking your calls might be working for the provider and identify himself to you as an employee of the reseller. Solid company information is made available usually only by serious providers. The price, that can get as low as under 5$/month is another hint, but you should consider it carefully with prices dropping through the industry.
Dedicated Web Hosting
In dedicated web hosting one single web server is rented to a single customer. Although this is the common belief, web-hosting providers usually divide a single web server computer between up to three customers. On the other hand there are web-hosting providers that actually give an entire web server to a customer. Even with three customers sharing the web server, the dedicated web hosting option offers the customers the option to host more than one web site, configure the software to best meet the needs of his site or scale the available bandwidth. The high prices combined with the availability of resources recommend this type of web hosting for highly important web sites such as e-commerce sites.
Co-location Web Hosting
Co-locating web hosting is similar with dedicated web hosting. The main difference is that while in dedicated web hosting the web server computer belongs to the web-hosting provider and is only rented by the customer, in co-locating web hosting the customer owns the web server computer. The web-hosting provider only houses the web server computer and sells bandwidth to the customer. This gives the customer using co-locating web hosting full control of the web server combined with the security of the data center.
Now you should be equipped with the necessary information to decide on you web hosting. You shouldn't try and find the lowest price possible, but give some extra thought to the quality of service you are buying and to the support offered by a web host provider.

Elements of Web Hosting

When you first start out trying to get a site on the Internet everything seems so confusing. Obtuse acronyms flow freely through the 'Beginner Friendly' information sites and definitions can be hard to come across. The main reason for this is that the Internet and the process of getting a website online is really very simple, and once people get past the first stumbling steps they rarely remember the difficulty they once had, which leads to them being unable to understand the next wave of dot com newbies.
So let's begin with defining some of the basic terms that are commonly thrown around when looking for a web host. You'll quickly realize that computer geeks like using big words for simple concepts. What do you expect from a group of people that decided to call half a Byte a Nibble?
Web Host: These are the people that supply your website with somewhere to sit and be accessed from. They're often a wealth of information, so when you're trying to find your feet it will often be worthwhile to contact their tech support and get your questions answered. Because of this, it's important to contact them BEFORE you sign up for any packages to ensure that you'll receive a timely response. Just fire an email their way and see what happens.
Disk Space: This is the same as the space on your own PC's hard drive. Web Hosts will allocate a certain amount of space to your website, usually in Megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). This determines how much you can store on your site.
Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be retrieved from your site within the bandwidth period. The bandwidth period is the length of time before your bandwidth gets reset once again, usually about a month. Bandwidth is measured in MB and GB, like disk space. Always find out the consequences of exceeding your allocated bandwidth before you purchase a hosting package.
Domain Name: The domain name is your personal identifier on the Internet. This is what gets typed into a web browser's address bar to reach your site. Some hosting companies will offer a domain for free, while others will have the facilities to provide one for a minimal cost.
SQL (MySQL, SQL Server etc.): Structured Query Language. This is the language used to interact with databases. Chances are that if you don't know about it when you start looking for web hosting, you're not going to need to know about it for at least a little while longer.
HTTP: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. Basically, how the Internet works. It is the protocol governing the transfer of web pages from one place to another.
HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language. This is (usually) what you'll be using to make your website, whether directly or indirectly. Don't be scared by the name, the 'language' is very easy to learn.
FTP: File Transfer Protocol. This is a method for sending pages and files from your home PC to a server. It is quite simple to use and your host will provide login information if this is the method that they use for file access. Typing "FTP://" into My Computer on a windows box allows you to use FTP as if your server were a regular windows folder.
POP3: This is a common email 'post box' system. It is use to store emails for retrieval.
SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. A common protocol used to send emails.

Free Web Hosting - Why Might It Be A Bad Idea

When talking about free anything the legitimate question that first pops into your mind is why pay when you can get it free?

And as for free web hosting there are plenty of places to get it from.

As spread as they are, if you are not a stranger to the whole Internet experience, you might even have a web site hosted for free. Are you satisfied with your provider? Is it everything you wanted? Probably not. Anyway it is true that is comes with no cost and no other aggravations? or are there any?
Free web hosting cost no money but what can you expect from one?
Your web site will be turned into an advertising machine that works for the free web host. Expect, banners, pop up windows, frames. They will all mess the look of your web site in terms of design and accessibility for your visitors that might be literally flooded with popups almost after every click-through.
You can't make advertising revenue of your web site, as most free web hosts don't allow it. This is not such a big issue when you are maintaining a personal web site, but the cutting-off advertising revenues can mean significant losses for a business. For this last case, only a paid web hosting solution might be the right answer.
Very little space for your web pages. With free web hosting provider offering 5 to 15 MB of disk space, your site's expansion will severely restricted. Growing your web site above the offered quota would result in transferring to a paid plan offered by the same hosting provider or finding a different paid web-hosting provider. In both cases you end paying for your hosting and you might loose traffic to your web site due to changing hosts.
No online store can go without secure server to enable secure online credit card processing. The great majority of free hosts don't support secure web servers. Customers fearing fraud and concerned about their personal information will make it impossible, at least very hard for an online store to survive on a free host. And anyway, have you ever heard of a successful online store hosted by a free web host? None will hear from yours either.
The uptime of your web site will be like the weather forecast. Hope for good, but prepare for the worse. Downtime through free web hosts is unfortunately very common. As web hosts generate their revenues from advertising, they don't feel very much compelled to care for the web site of a subscriber who doesn't pay them anyway.
To whom will you turn when experiencing the abovementioned downtime or other technical problem with your web site? Free web hosts usually have a limited budget and don't afford to hire large customer support teams, if any. You will find yourself alone, staring at the FAQ page.
Your domain name will be measured in feet and will tell nothing or very little of your business. This obviously results in low traffic scores, as your visitors won't be able to remember your URL. Can you rely only on search engines, linked sites and people bookmarking your web site? If yes, at least consider the fact that in the age when companies try to create a personalized image, your web site will be condemned to be just another subdomain of your free host.
Will your customers trust a business hosted by a free web host? What credibility will your web site inspire? Not a very high one.
The above list is really rather long, but as surprisingly as it might be, it is far from being complete. Other additions to it could be that free web hosts not always offer FTP access to your web site file, or you only have one e-mail address to work with and probably looks like mysite@anotherfreeserver.com.
Yes, paid web hosting requires money, but the prices are lower than they used to be, and the advantages are rather impressive. Just turn all the above you can't? or you have to do without? list around.
You are searching for a solution to host your business or even a professional personal web site, don't look for it at a free web host.

Finding a reliable hosting provider

The website hosting business is very competitive these days with hundreds of thousands of reliable hosting companies out there but what company is best for your needs and that will provide you with a reliable hosting service from customer support to the reliability of there web servers.
The following is what is the most important aspects you need to consider when choosing a web hosting provider:
1)Customer Service - Customer service is a very important aspect of any host if not the most important you will need to check there reliability by:
- Seeing if they have a 24 hour contact phone number
-FAQ section on there website to help you with the most common questions such as what are name servers?
-Ticket support to answer any non urgent questions that you might have
-Live support isn't essential but it is useful for quick help
2)Servers-The serer are the most important part of a web host since without them they can be a host.
-Here are some useful tips for finding a fast reliable server to host your site:
-The processor speed (CPU) e.g. Intel Pentium 2.8ghz (anything over 1.5ghz is sufficient)
-Memory (RAM) at least 512mb of ram
-Space this will all depend on your website needs if you are just starting at least 500mb is enough
-Bandwidth this will all depend on how many visitors your planning to visit your site in any given month. I would say that 5000mb will be more than sufficient for any small website.
-Operating system - Linux is the better and cheaper option for any website and is said to be better than windows in a web server environment. But if you are required to use any windows scripts such as .asp you will need to use the windows server
3)Customer Testimonials - See if other customers have voted for the web host on popular hosting directories or have made comments on the services that are offered by the host on there website.
These are the most important aspects that people look for in finding a web hosting provider these days and don't be afraid to pay a bit more than other companies as this usually reflects the service they offer but also don't be fooled.

How to Achieve # 1 on Free Hosting

A domain name and paid hosting are considered essential for an internet marketer.Majority of the websites that are successful have their own domain name and a paid host.However , is it possible to run a successful website on free hosting ?
A lot of people will answer no to that question.But it is very much possible if the right marketing techniques are applied.First of all , what is free hosting ? A website is basically stored for free on a company's server and in return some will put their ads on your site for free.
This can be very annoying indeed sometimes.In the case where there are two or more pop-up ads displayed , some people will not bother to look at your content.
Another thing to look at is that you will lose some credibility. Having a website on free hosting will not show you up as being truly professional. People will wonder what are you doing with your revenue if you generate any.
Still, this can be overcome to a certain degree. How can this be done ? Simply. By giving your visitors the best quality information as possible. Make that the best original content.
Optimising your website is also key. Title, description and keywords tags are very important to your site's success. The title, description and keyword tag combination can send your ranking mile high. Test several variations and see which one works best.
Link popularity can make or break your website. Almost all of the major search engines use this as the main factor when giving you a ranking. You need to find quality websites similar to yours to link with. The more quality links, the better it is for you.
So, you still don't believe it is possible ? My very first website is hosted free on the Geocities network. It has achieved #1 and top ten positions in dozens of search term categories on MSN, Google, Yahoo, Lycos, Excite and AOL.com.Plus two awards.
A domain name and paid hosting are considered essential for an internet marketer. However, if these are not in place your website can still be successful. All you need to do is apply yourself and the right marketing techniques.

Web Hosting - How To Choose The Right Provider For You

Thousands of companies, tens of thousands of different plans and only a few of them are really suitable for your web site and for your online needs. This is what you are confronted with when choosing a web-hosting provider.
Nowadays being part of the informational revolution that the Internet has brought along, it is compulsory for a business and also for individuals. No need to explain here why having a web site out there on the World Wide Web is such a must, instead we're only going to point out a few things related to choosing an adequate web host for your web site. As complicated this entire business might seem, once you know what to look for, it's really easier to find it.
Analyze your requirements and stick to them
When evaluating their needs in terms of space and bandwidth many inexperienced web owners often buy more than they will ever need. As this is unbelievably common, many web-hosting providers size their web servers taking this into account and actually over sell the space and bandwidth thinking that customers will never make full use of it. To avoid web hosts that result to just that or crowed their web servers to get an extra profit per customer, simply ask them their client per server ration. As a diligent buyer, you should do this with all the other companies you find interesting to do business with and are eligible to host your web site.
A web site is almost like a living creature. It grows. So try to leave some room for it, don't just buy a web-hosting plan that will fit your needs just perfectly. Buy a little more so when the time comes to expand you would have the resources available. Think of the possibility that your initial bandwidth evaluation proves itself insufficient. You might find yourself in the position not to be able to use your web site because you have exceeded your bandwidth. So leave margin for error too.
Most web hosting plans come packed with features and some even offer pre-installed scripts and programs that might come handy for both knowledgeable and less knowledgeable web owners.
As you could consider any extra feature a plus, don't forget to look for the things you actually need like the OS (Operating System) or the PHP support. You decide what you need, don't let the provider talk you into something you don't want or is less than you have expected.
Support - can you get enough of it?
Support is something you might overlook when you consider an offer that suits you in terms of space and bandwidth and is packed with all the other features you will ever going to need. It might be good to understand that the road to all those features goes through Support city. If the web-hosting provider is careless about the support he offers to his customers, any technical problem concerning your web site could be solved only after long hours of waiting and making plenty of irritating support calls.
To test the quality and the responsiveness of the support personnel, e-mail them some pre-sales questions. Is the response fact enough for you? Imagine that your web site is down and your company is just attending a congress? many clicks are expected, but is your web site online to get them? Is the response you are getting from the support team thorough or is it merely scratching the surface? Is the response easy to understand for you?
A provider concerned about the quality of his support, would make available as many as possible ways to communicate with its clients. So find out as much as you can about its online support staff, help desk, message boards etc.
Information on the reputation of a web-hosting provider is something you might find on forums or discussion boards. Any disgruntled customers there? Would you like to be one?
Reliability is another aspect of the problem. Ask for the uptime of the company's web servers. Some hosts offer an uptime guarantee, usually 99.9% (100% is not a realistic figure in the computer world). The guarantee means that if your web site is not available 99.9% of the time, you will be refunded the money for that month or you will receive free web hosting for a month as compensation for your web site being unavailable.
Price
Well, true it's paid web hosting and this means you have to pay for it. My advice would be don't try too hard to find the cheapest possible web host. You will probably end-up wasting an incredible amount of time and is very likely that within two weeks after you have bought it, you will stumble upon a better deal. Apart from the irony of it and the loss of time, cheaper is not always better.
The other extreme, paying big money to get what you could have gotten for less is equally bad. At $50 for 200 MB of space with 2 GB of bandwidth you are definitely getting robbed, but the same service for $5 or $10 is a good deal.
The thin line between a profitable and, why not, enjoyable web presence and a nightmare with slow server response, unreachable support and irritating server downtime is drawn by you. By you choosing the web-hosting provider. Choose carefully: there can be only one a few that will live up to their promises and deliver for you good quality web hosting!

Windows Hosting versus Linux Hosting

The matter of choosing between the operating system (OS) running the web server hosting your web site as old as the web hosting business. The OS controls all the functions of the web server hosting your site, so it comes naturally to pay special attention when choosing one over another. But what are really the options you have?
Mainly you can choose between web hosting based on Windows, Linux or Unix operating systems. A brief description and analysis of the different systems will narrow the list of options to only two.
Microsoft's Windows server operating systems (NT/2000/2003) have a rather friendly and familiar user interface, making IT teams to easier in this aspect. Another plus is given by it's excellent integration capabilities with other applications developed by Microsoft and let's face it their range is absolutely impressive. The main key point of Windows based hosting is its support for .ASP (Active Server Pages) or the advanced ASP.NET. This language for web development was created by Microsoft to facilitate the creation of dynamic web pages linked to SQL databases. It also provides capabilities for integration with other systems.
It can be said that Unix is the OS that powered the beginning of the Internet era and due to his qualities is still used today. Linux OS was developed having Unix as starting point and this is how the two share many features. Today the Linux version of the Unix system is more common on web servers and this has to do with the higher licensing costs and with the rather specific hardware requirements for Unix. This is why we will continue with Linux only, but Unix is taken into account as well. Linux hosting has its strong points in fulfilling one's requirements for a good web server and Web serving, file serving, mailing, and streaming are only a few. It proves itself is a very cost-effective choice from using hardware efficiently, and allowing an increased web sites per server ratio, this ultimately resulting in a decreasing the cost of hosting per account.
So here are our two choices Windows and Linux.
Reliability
In the past Linux OS were seen as more reliable over Windows. However with the release of Windows 2003 server Microsoft has gone a long way and closed the gap in this area. Linux servers are compatible with certain Microsoft extensions and applications and the same is true for Windows.
Web Programming
Even if trying to host a simple personal web site, your might want add some simple scripts to spice up your pages. The issue gets bigger when you are looking to host an e-commerce site supported by some serious server-side programming. So how are our two contenders doing in this aspect?
Supporting java scripts is not a topic to be argued upon as they are executed on the client side (the user's web browser) and both Linux and Windows have no problem feeding this content to your visitors.
It is a whole different matter when discussing server side scripting. For web site owners trying to implement forms on their site it is common knowledge that ASP is supported by Windows and PHP is the tool to do just that under Linux. However both developed solutions to support each other's programming language for web development. This support is not perfect and its limitations recommend Linux for a good PHP support and Windows for ASP, especially when it comes to hosting web sites that require the full use the advantages offered by PHP or ASP.
Linux offers a support for FrontPage extensions. Windows has a weak point in offering only limited CGI/Perl support, so if Perl is the scripting language of your choice, you should opt for Linux.
Databases
Dynamically driven web sites require some sort of databases. Beyond sites employing databases, most frequently you will encounter mySQL or MSAccess. If your web site is relying on mySQL, then you'll have no problems hosting it on either Windows or Linux. For MSAccess databases, look your only option is Windows.
Price
Linux web hosting is cheaper. The reason must be searched in licensing costs, that are lower that for Windows, and in the ability of Linux web servers to support a higher web sites per server ratio without compromising the quality of service.
Although Windows hosting cost a bit more, you will get something for your money. It's reduced development time and functionality
As the option of one over another depends basically of your actual needs and of the plans you have made for the future of your web site. For example will it move from a rather static web site to one relying heavily on server side scripting? And if it is so what would be the programming language used: PHP or ASP? Consequently your web site will be set up on a Linux or on a Windows web server.
Almost all serious web-hosting providers will offer you the choice between Linux and Windows.

How To Change Your Web Hosting Provider - Step-By-Step Guide

Whether you are disgruntled with the level of service your current web hosting provider, or you have discovered a provider that offers you better deal, or your online business has simply outgrown your present provider, any reason is as good as any for changing your web hosting provider. The only concern is how to switch your web site from a web host to another in the right way and no or as little aggravations as possible.
The very first step in changing web hosting providers is to find one that meets all your requirements. Although you should have some experience in finding one from your last search, let's still review the main issues when choosing one. Take a good look at the disk space and bandwidth your future plan will provide you. As you web site's bandwidth requirements may grow in time, purchase a little more than you need and take a good look at the costs of the bandwidth for exceeding your traffic quota. Also make sure that the new web hosting provider will offer you the same tools and installed software as your previous old one. Ask the technical support if the software or scripts in the offer are already installed and configured. It would be a bad experience to find out after you have completely migrated your web site that not everything is working properly just because the not all the software in the offer comes pre-installed and you should have requested its activation. All these are very important and ensure you don't have to go through this whole procedure of changing web hosts real soon in the future.
Sign up for the new hosting plan. It sounds obvious, but the thing you should look after is sign up for the new one while still having about two weeks until your old hosting plan expires. This will give you time to react if anything goes wrong during the migration of your web site and will smoothen the transition for your visitors or customers, your business enjoying as much continuity as possible.
Update your backup copy of your web site - you do have backups don't you? If not this is a very good place to start with. Best thing would be to have a backup copy of your web site burned onto a compact disk CD and store this CD into a safe location. Your backup will include the entire web site: files, images, directory structure, databases.
Upload your web site to the web servers of your new web hosting provider.
Now it is testing time. Most web hosting providers will offer you the possibility to preview your web site before it goes live. Use this feature to test if your web site looks good and its functionalities are all intact on your new web server.
Continue by configuring your existing e-mail accounts on the new web server. It would be a good idea to write down the new POP3 and SMTP you will be using soon.
If you haven't changed your web site design with this move, it will be a good idea to put mark the web pages on your new web server just o differentiate from the old one. In this way you will be able to tell when your DNS information is updated, which is the next step of migrating your web site.
It's time to change your name server. As anxious you might be to transfer, it would be a very good thing to announce your visitors and customers about the imminent change of web hosting providers you are making and to apologize for any possible inconveniences of downtime your web site might encounter. I don't need to tell you how important this announcement is for the overall image of your web business.
Now you can announce your registrar to change your DNS information, or if you can change it yourself, go ahead and do it.
All you have to do now is wait for the DNS information to propagate across all the DNS servers. This entire process could take as much as 72 hours to complete, but it is possible to start seeing the first results after a couple of hours.
Final step would be to update the e-mail client you are using to match the new POP3 and SMTP settings.
You have successfully changed your web hosting provider. Good luck with the new one!

Cheap Web Hosting, What To Look For And What To Stay Away From

Bargains for sale, Unlimited Hosting for only a Dollar."
"Get your hosting here, 50 cents for the first three months. "
"Use now. Pay later".
In today's world of hosting, instead of who's got the bigger and better thing, it's who has it for the cheapest and don't forget that they usually it at an "unlimited level". But if everyone is offering the same control panel, running off of the same type of servers or even from the same data center, why not get it for the cheapest price you can? The reason is, even though the servers may be the same, the service varies with each company and price. This is not to say that the cheapest can't offer the best service but always remember the old adage "you get what you pay for".
Let's break down the costs involved with running a small hosting company that manages a few, low-cost servers from a reputable data center. The dedicated server business has grown within the last few years and competition has created the availability of unmanaged, low-cost server rentals that can range as low as $49 per month.
For our case study, let's pretend that Bob has leased a server from a reputable data center at an average price of $89 per month. He was even lucky enough to signup during a special that waived the setup fees. At a cost of $89, he now has his own dedicated Unix server running one of the more popular control panels that regular hosting customers like to use. Like many small one or two-man hosting companies, he runs the business out of his house as it would be almost impossible to actually obtain office space on location of the data center, not to mention that he could be in one state and the server might be three states over. Leasing a dedicated server means that he is not responsible for the hardware and only has to maintain the software. This frees Bob up from the added expenses of hardware replacement and allows him to concentrate his investment on marketing, software, scripts and service.
Bob is an extremely good salesman and has a mature understanding of how to run a business. His best friend Billy has a vast knowledge of managing a server and its software, so together; they will be able to manage most common aspects of the business on a day to day basis.
They have purchased or designed a nice website and spent the average of $600 for support items such as tutorials and a customer forum. With the website design and extras, their initial investment averaged at $1000 which they hope to recoup within the first six months of operation. Now, this may be an added cost that some small hosting companies avoid at the beginning, but try to remember, if they are serious about running a company, they will put some type of investment into it. Taking the initial investment spread over 6 months and adding the cost of servers at $89 for the first one, Billy and Bob are spending more than $250 monthly during the first six months of operation on minimum expenses. This does not include other expenses such as their salaries and outside expenses such as phone bills (if they offer phone support), utilities, advertising expenses, etc.
An average amount of customers or domains to have on an individual server is 200 and since Bob is starting out with a new company and no customers, he can acquire 25-30 customers monthly if he works really hard at it. To fill a server, they would need eight months of growth, and that doesn't include the costs involved during that time. The cost of operation during those eight months is estimated at $1700, without any extra expenses and no personal income derived from the venture. If they were to charge $2 per customer on a recurring monthly basis and signed up 25 customers per month, they'd make $100 profit at the end of 8 months. Remember, this is done without any personal income made at all. Once they add in an advertising budget and allotment for person income for Bob and Billy, the cost jumps dramatically. They aren't in the business to make friends, they are in it to make money and $100 spread over eight months is not much.
Let's start adding a small income for Bob and Billy of $1000 monthly each and an advertising budget of $500 per month in order to acquire those customers and calculate what they need to charge to break even after those first eight months. A safe estimate would be $3,000 monthly to cover salaries, server cost, advertising and other miscellaneous items. If they were able to signup 200 customers during the first eight months, they would need to charge $15 per customer to cover the $3000 monthly overhead. If they charged only $2 per customer, they would need to signup an estimate of 2,000 customers to do the same. Because Bob and Billy decided to charge only $2 per customer, they have to support 2,000 customers by themselves because they don't have enough profit to hire any more technicians.
As a customer, you need to realize these things before you start shopping for a hosting company. Now that you are educated on the backend of a hoster's life, you can ask yourself what type of company do you want hosting your website and what kind of website you need hosted. If you are running a small personal site that doesn't need constant uptime and special scripts, then you could choose one of the many free or low cost hosting solutions available. If the company was to go under or lost all of your information due to hardware or software failure, then you are really not at a lost because your website did not contain critical information.
But what if your site does contain critical information and is the lifeblood of your company? Then don't go cheap. Research your options, find the one with the best solutions and don't be afraid to spend more for less. It is very important to find a stable company with quality support and service and that doesn't come cheap. Make sure that if your information is critical, the company offers reliable backup solutions and has a reasonable uptime.
Phone support is a must for quick response and let's not forget the numbers 24/7. Hosting companies with higher price tags can afford to hire the extra technicians to hold your hand as you build your web presence and your company, which can be important in today's market.
But does all of this mean that cheap hosting is a bad venture and should be avoided? Not really, just remember, "You get what you paid for."

Choosing Your Web Hosting Reseller Software

As a web host reseller, one of your most important business decisions is your choice of web hosting control panel software. The web hosting software you use will save or cost you time, money, and frustration. What reseller control panel features will reduce your workload? What hosting software programs are integrated with the reseller control panel or work with it? What website control panel features will your clients like? In this article, we've compared four quality web hosting reseller software programs:
Alabanza
cPanel
H-Sphere
Plesk
All of these reseller control panels come with control panels for your clients. They all have numerous features - advanced email management, web statistics, pre-installed scripts, multi-language support, and more. They all work on Linux platforms, while H-Sphere and Plesk also work with Windows. According to the cPanel website, a Windows version of cPanel is in development.
Other features that set these control panels apart are their degree of automation, the number of features and ease of use for the end user, and the features and ease of use for you, the reseller.
Alabanza When you become an Alabanza reseller, you don't just have a reseller account - you lease a dedicated server from Alabanza. Alabanza owns the control panel and the server, and you resell directly for Alabanza. If you lease a dedicated Alabanza server, you can create your own reseller accounts. However, only you can set up hosting plans; resellers below you will be limited to hosting plans that you create.
Alabanza offers resellers a high degree of automation with its Domain System Manager (DSM), which can significantly reduce overhead and time spent on routine tasks:
- Account creation
- Billing and invoice management
- Credit card processing
- Domain registration
- Email notifications
- Ordering fraud protection
Even novices can sell hosting with this level of automation.
DSM also integrates with bulkregister.com for domain name registration. It does not easily integrate with other domain registrars, though.
A key Alabanza feature that resellers can offer their clients is the Xpress Product Suite, which provides web development and email management tools. The Xpress Product Suite includes SiteXpress, a website-building program that features over 300 templates and requires no web design skills.
cPanel For resellers and end users, cPanel is known for its ease of use and range of features. cPanel's collection of over 50 pre-installed scripts and Fantastico auto installer help clients set up their sites with little web development knowledge.
A basic cPanel reseller account comes with two separate programs for resellers to manage their business:
WHM (Web Host Manager) is used to create accounts and packages, add and suspend sites, modify passwords, view bandwidth usage, park domains, install SSL certificates, and perform other administrative functions.
From the reseller's cPanel control panel, a drop-down menu takes the reseller to the control panels for each of the sites on the reseller account, including the reseller's site.
With the addition of an optional program, WHM AutoPilot, you can automate account creation and suspension, email notifications, and other tasks. WHM AutoPilot also integrates with common payment gateways and has a helpdesk, an invoice module, and other tools.
H-Sphere H-Sphere is designed for both Linux and Windows platforms. Moreover, resellers can set up plans for both Linux and Windows and administer sites on different servers from the same control panel. The control panel, actually a separate server, also provides administrative access to the integrated helpdesk.
The H-Sphere control panel server automates account configuration, credit card processing, domain registration, and email notifications. It also includes a built-in billing module and supports over 20 payment gateways.
From the reseller's point of view, H-Sphere has a higher learning curve than most other control panels because of its numerous features. For example, when setting up a new plan, the administrator has two pages of features to choose from, including setup and monthly pricing for optional services.
Beginning webmasters may find H-Sphere too complicated for their needs. More advanced users, however, appreciate the features and control that H-Sphere offers the end user. A key feature is the ability to have control over separate domains with multi-domain hosting.
H-Sphere comes with the website builder Site Studio, which guides users through a variety of style choices and stores content separately from the layout. No HTML or FTP knowledge is required.
Plesk Plesk is known for its stability and security. Resellers and end users like its simple navigation, its clean interface, and its professional appearance. It comes in versions for both Linux and Windows platforms.
With Plesk, all users use the same control panel but with different levels of control:
- Server administrator
- Client / reseller
- Domain owner
- Mail user
Each level of the control panel gives the user control of that level and the level(s) below it. Email users, for example, can log into their mail user control panel to change their password, add autoresponders, and change other personal settings without having access to the domain owner control panel.
Plesk handles SpamAssassin at the mailbox level rather than at the domain level.
This feature enables users to whitelist or blacklist email for each email address, allowing each email user to have individual settings.
SWsoft, the company behind Plesk, also offers Site Builder, a five-step website builder using pre-built templates. SiteBuilder has over 300 templates in different categories to choose from, and users can publish their sites without any HTML or FTP knowledge.
If your Plesk reseller account is with a web host that offers HSPcomplete, you will have some automation available with your account, such as credit card charges and email notification.

Importance of Educated Choice While Choosing A Web Hosting Provider

There are many attributes that makes a web hosting provider stand out from the crowd. But in this current highly competitive world the providers have become so adept in posing as the best out there that it becomes very difficult to choose the best for your business. Now it is the "knowledge" about what factors to consider becomes a must have, for your business. This is not an article about the factors themselves to consider but this makes the point for the need to have this knowledge and how to acquire this knowledge. In the services industry knowledge is almost everything. The knowledge about the technology behind the service, knowledge about the folks behind the service, knowledge of the customer service, quality of the hosting available and many more to list here. When you begin your search the first and foremost to decide is the budget allocation for the hosting. This may sound as something to decide at the end of the cycle, but it is important even before you acquire knowledge of the factors to consider. Let me put forward a small example if the budget you can allocate is less then 100$ then you ignore terms like dedicated servers collocation, etc. The more your budget the more you have to learn.
There are many ways to acquire knowledge the first and foremost is to read more articles like this one you are reading. If you are reading this one you have started the first step. The more you read the more you can acquire knowledge. This is the cheapest way to understand your needs. Based on the budget you have to choose the topics you read. Budgeting is not just about money it is also about time. It is more so important to choose topics that really fit your needs. You got to consider the sources correctly. The one thing that is as important as choice of a good hosting provider, is choosing the right sources to get educated about the choice. Do you understand the five nine's and do you need it for your business. Is PHP a technology you may need for your web site? Do you prefer a dynamic and faster website over a reliable standard search friendly simple web site? When you go to each provider they try to sell you a much bigger plan or plans with features you may never need. The main thing that you should note is "Are you paying for technology that you will never need?" Let's say for example the thing that costs the hosting provider is the Urchin stats, they pay a good license fee for it and thy bill it on their customers. But for any good business some of the free stats like Awstats or the open source solutions are more than enough for a typical business. The hosting providers add these to make the package attractive. You have to judge by the core features and then finally go in for the add-ons which may complement the core.
The other main source for research is to talk directly with the hosting providers and ask them for an honest opinion on what features your business would need. Based on my own experience once you endure the first phase of reading through articles and doing further research, you need to talk to atleast 8 providers. The common mistake done by the small website owners is settling for the cheap sources and ignoring the rest. There are a few crappy providers out there who give out services damn cheap and may just shut down shop and vanish when they figure a server is crashed. They should have the proper support folks and the right business model to bill customers for the support rendered. The last but not least is to consult with the web consultants a talk to folks who have hosted before. This is a long process but you will appreciate the knowledge you have gained when you negotiate that best deal and when you easily resolve issues or when you grow. I hope this article was of some help to get you initiated and in the resource box there is one source for articles and another to answer your hosting queries to initiate the process.

Cheap Web Hosting is No Bargain

Ever heard the saying "Penny-wise and Dollar-foolish"?
Well bargain priced website hosting may just represent the perfect example of watching a jar full of pennies while bucket loads of dollars fly out the window!
When I launched my first website way back in the "dark ages" of 1997 I paid almost $150 a month in hosting and data transfer charges.
My web host watched how many files I uploaded like a hawk and always seemed to send their hefty invoices earlier with each passing month.
I'm obviously not the only one who felt that way, because suddenly a whole industry of "bargain" web hosts sprang up all over the web.
On the surface they all sound great, especially when you think you can go from $150 a month down to $4.95 a month!
Five bucks a month sounds great, until you realize the amount of data transfer (number of page views) and bandwidth (the amount of data transfer your host allows in a 24 hour period) you get for that low price severely limits your ability to do business.
This realization - along with a panic attack and a quick lesson in how data transfer and bandwidth get calculated - usually comes at the least convenient time.
When you exceed your limits, a bargain host usually just shuts you down with no warning.
Most webmasters realize they've made a mistake by choosing a bargain host when their site suddenly gets shut down in the middle of a big promotion because of a traffic spike. Believe me, everything just stops!
Here are a few bargain hosts that provide good service, but you really need to really check the fine print for how much bandwidth they allow.
www.FeaturePrice.com
For $24.95 a month you get to host up to six independent websites with a single account. You get unlimited data storage, unlimited email and a variety of other higher end services, but their bandwidth policy seems hard to understand.
www.HostSave.com
Host Save is another low price hosting company that delivers a wide range of services for only $6.95 per month. They recently raised their allowable data transfer, but their policy on how much bandwidth you can use at a given time seems non-existent.
www.DotEasy.com
For $25 DotEasy offers a domain name purchase along with one year's hosting. Sounds incredible until you read the fine print to discover they limit you to 1 Gigabyte of data transfer a month. Not much data once you start getting reasonable site traffic.
The moral here? Either be prepared to have your business shut down mid-stream if you get successful, or pay a few extra bucks each month to ensure you have enough bandwidth and data transfer.
At a minimum, specifically ask and read the fine print about the host's bandwidth and data transfer policies before it's too late!