Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Make Money Using Ebay And Amazon

Everyone wants to make money on the internet and there are two companies that allow you to do just that. With Ebay and Amazon there are two ways that you can make money and it's very simple. Here's how you can make money using Ebay and Amazon.

One of the easiest ways to make money from both Amazon and Ebay is by joining their affiliate programs.

Making Money As An Amazon Affiliate

Joining the Amazon affiliate program, called Amazon Associates, is a simple three step process. There is an online application form where you give your name, email address, set a password and give details of your site. This gives you an Associates ID. Once your account is live, which takes only minutes, you can begin to create links to products in Associates Central. Your Associates ID is automatically embedded in the links you build.

There are many ways to use the links you create. You can link to specific products, use ads that rotate products within a particular category or you can even set up an online shop and host it on your website. You will earn money every time someone buys something. You can earn referral fees on video downloads and even gift certificates. Referral fees start at 4% but can rise as high as 8%.

Making Money With Amazon Sales

Of course, that's not the only way to make money with Amazon. You can also make money by joining the Amazon marketplace as a seller. This is also very simple, especially if you have already bought something from Amazon. The online retailer offers you the chance to 'sell your stuff' by becoming a vendor.

To do this, first select the category your item falls under. It can be DVDs, Books, Music or something else. The only condition is that the item be listed by Amazon (even if you didn't buy it there in the first place). Then you need to search for the item which will be easier if you know the ISBN or UPC number, though the title will also work. Make sure the item you have found matches the item you have for sale.

Next, you need to write a description of your item, which will include its condition. The right description will mean more people are likely to buy, so word it carefully. Set a price which is the same as or below the Amazon price for the same item. Check to see what others are asking for the same item and make sure your price is competitive. If you are asking a higher price than most, then it might be because your item is in excellent condition.

There are no fees for listing your item, though Amazon takes 99 cents plus 15% of the sale price. You get an email with a customer shipping label when the product has been sold and money is credit direct to your Amazon account. In some countries you can arrange for this to be deposited directly to your bank account. This is a simple way to make money with the unused stuff that is lying around your home.

Making Money As An Ebay Affiliate

Joining the Ebay affiliate program is slightly more complex than the Amazon affiliate program but it could be worth it. Ebay pays if you refer new members or for Buy It Now purchases. You get paid for new members if they use your affiliate link and bid or buy within the first 30 days, so the way you promote these links is important for your success as an Ebay affiliate. With a new member you could earn up to $20; if an existing member follows your link the payout from Ebay is more like 20 cents.

To join the Ebay affiliate program you need to wade through the complex Commission Junction signup form. This may take a while, but eventually you will get an email with all the information you need to get started. Make sure that you use tools such as destination tools, live content tools, the product kit and the RSS feed generator to make the most of the program. And look around the net for information on making the most of Ebay. You will need to do some research to make money, but it can be done.

Making Money With Ebay Sales

Research is also an important factor for the other major way of making money on Ebay, through sales. There are two ways to make money through Ebay sales. The first is by selling items individually. As with the Amazon Marketplace program, it is essential to see what your competitors are offering before you list your item. Look at the category, description and starting price they choose and see how best to position your item for a quick sale. Look at the bidding and buying patterns. Some people wait till the last second to put in a bid. Make sure that your item is listed at the right time of year - some items are best left for the Christmas shopping period.

In Search Of The Best Shopping Cart

If you do any online shopping, and many of us do, when you are ready to pay you will see a little shopping cart symbol that tells you it is time to start the payment process. But although the symbol makes it easy for us to know what's happening, the shopping cart icon hides a sophisticated process that you will need to understand if you are going to put online shopping facilities on your website. Here's what you need to know about shopping carts and a round up of some of the major players.

What Is A Shopping Cart And How Does It Work?

The shopping cart that you see is really a piece of software that runs a series of scripts to allow people to pay for goods and services. The shopping cart is only the start of the process, allowing people to add items and get a total, but when they are ready to buy, the shopping cart will pass them on to a secure payment gateway, which is where the money is actually collected.

In a speedy online process, the payment gateway takes the card details that you have entered, communicates with your card issuer or bank to verify that it's ok to take the funds, processes the payment and then returns you to the point specified by the retailer. So your shopping cart is both a front end and a back end for the payment process. This seamless experience is what you need to recreate for visitors to your site, but it's not as easy as it seems. There are hundreds of shopping cart packages out there and it can be difficult to decide which one is right for you.

Shopping Cart Compatibility

Shopping cart software comes in free and paid versions. Some shopping cart software has to be hosted on your own domain, while other programs are hosted by the providers. If you host the software on your own domain you have total control, but having the software hosted by a provider can help you test the waters if you're creating your first online store. However, you will have to pay a monthly fee which can be upwards of $80 and you may have to pay a set up fee as well.. Be warned, though, shopping cart providers can go out of business so be sure to make regular backups of all your customer and sales data. And there may be less opportunity to customize your shop than if you host it yourself.

Most web hosts offer a couple of free shopping cart programs, and you can be sure that those will be compatible with your hosting package. However, if you plan to purchase shopping cart software, then you need to be more careful. Shopping cart scripting can be in Perl, ASP, CGI, PHP, Javascript and other scripting languages so make sure the program you plan to buy is compatible with your web host. (PHP open source; ASP Microsoft integration)

How To Choose The Right VOIP Service Provider

Cheap phone calls - we all want them. The good news is that recent advances in internet technology have made it easy for us to get them. There are dozens of providers who offer an internet telephony service, but how do we choose the right one? Before we get to the specifics, let's have a look at what VOIP is and how it works.

What is VOIP And Why Do I Need It?

VOIP stands for voice over internet protocol. In other words, it's a way to send your voice over the internet, just like the packets of data that are exchanged whenever we send an email or look at a web page. VOIP is a digital technology that translates the sound of your voice into data and back to a sound again, all at lightning quick speed.

VOIP has been around for awhile, but it wasn't until recently that it became something to get excited about. That's because when VOIP was first around, everyone was on dialup, so data transmission was slow and making a VOIP phone call bore no resemblance to making a real phone call. It was slow, there was an echo on the line, sound quality was uneven and you could not conduct a conversation in real time. You can still have some of those problems if your internet connection is slow.

VOIP And High Speed Internet

But all those disadvantages have disappeared with the advent of high speed internet. Whether you're talking broadband, cable or DSL, the transmission technology has finally caught up with the voice technology. And there's another advantage, too. In the early days of VOIP, it could only be used to talk to someone who was also connected to a PC. Now, there are no barriers. There are adapters and other gizmos which ensure that your VOIP phone is a viable alternative to your analog phone. You don't have to be tied to your PC when you want to make or receive a VOIP phone call. And it's cheaper, too, since VOIP providers have no infrastructure to underwrite and are not subject to the same charges as phone companies. That means it costs you less than your regular analog phone service provider.

In this new improved market for VOIP providers are springing up everywhere and it can be hard to know exactly how to choose between them. There are a number of features you can look at when making your choice among the dozens of VOIP service providers. Here are some of the areas to consider. Think about which areas are most important to you when making your final selection.

Basic VOIP Features

Most VOIP providers supply many of the features that you would get with your normal telephone. These include caller ID number (you may be able to get the name with some providers), call waiting and call forwarding. Most will also provide voice mail but there's one advantage over your normal telephone - the ability to pick up your voicemail on the web. You may even be able to get your voicemail emailed to you as an attachment for even more convenience. And most providers allow free calls to other people on the same service, further reducing your phone bills.

Advanced VOIP Features

Some VOIP providers offer conference calling, where one person calls two others to set up a conference call. You will need to make sure that you have enough bandwidth though - each person on the line will use some of the bandwidth. It's worth checking to see what bandwidth a VOIP provider recommends before making your decision.

An even more advanced option is the ability to choose the area code for your phone, known as a virtual phone number. This means that if you make most of your calls within a certain area code, choosing this will keep the cost of your phone calls low. And if your family are all in a particular area code, choosing a virtual phone number with that area code will cut the cost of calls for them.

Other VOIP Features

There are other features to consider that may make a difference to your VOIP experience. VOIP fax and video phoning are available from some providers. Watch out, though, video is bandwidth hungry so make sure you have enough before getting started. You will also need software, such as the latest versions of MSN, AOL or Yahoo Messenger.

And if you are likely to make a lot of emergency calls then you will need to choose a provider that allows this. Call blocking may also be necessary. You may want to add a second line to your account, have a toll free number or be able to transfer calls. All of these features are available from some VOIP service providers.

With some VOIP providers you may have the option to access your service via a softphone. This is a phone that is attached to your PC and is run via a software program.. This can be useful for making VOIP calls while on the move. However, a provider who offers this option only may not be the best choice.

The Cost Of VOIP

With traditional phone services, you can end up paying a lot of money, especially if you make a lot of long distance calls. However, many VOIP providers allow unlimited long distance calls for a low monthly fee. This applies to the US, Canada and internationally. And even the basic call rates tend to be much cheaper than standard call rates, so this is another area where savings can be made. The cost varies considerably from under $5 for providers with a basic service to around $35 for those offering unlimited call plans. Business plans may cost a bit more, at around $80 to $90, but it's worth shopping around as prices change all the time.

Using VOIP With Your Existing Phone

A recent development in the use of VOIP has been the provision of analog telephone adapters which convert the VOIP signal for use with your existing phone. There are two different types of ATAs. One type plugs into your computer via a USB port and uses software, which means your PC must always be running. The other type works via Ethernet with your cable or DSL modem. This means you don't have to turn your PC on to make a phone call and can use your phone in the normal way.

What Is SSL And Why Do I Need It?

Web Hosts: How To Secure Online Data With SSL

What Is SSL And Why Do I Need It?

If you are dealing with sensitive data then you need a way to make sure it is protected. There's no point in making it easy for phishers and other fraudsters to get hold of sensitive information such as passwords and credit card details. That's why every online retailer of note protects your data - and you can tell it's protected when you see the tiny padlock on your browser window and the 'https' prefix on the website address. This protection is handled through Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology. The technology was created by Netscape in 1994.

How Does SSL Work?

SSL encrypts sensitive information as it leaves one computer. The data is then decrypted at the other end. If you've ever used PGP then you will know about public and private encryption keys. SSL uses the same principle. There is a public key which is used to encrypt data such as credit card numbers, identity information, drivers' license and social security numbers. When this type of information is entered on a secure website, a unique public session key is generated. When the information reaches the destination server, the private key decrypts the data. Anyone who tries to snoop on the data during the transfer should see only random data, rather than the information you want to keep private.

An SSL certificate is created by a certificate provider to be used on a particular server and domain. The certificate is created by a third party, just like getting in a firm to handle security. There are several well known SSL providers.

Major SSL Providers: GeoTrust

GeoTrust provides four different SSL certificates and two wildcard SSL certificates. The purchase price ranges from $249 to $599 for the SSL certificates (with renewal slightly cheaper) and from $995 to $1499 for the wildcard SSL certificates. Renewal of the wildcard SSLs is the same as the purchase price. SSL certificates are available to secure up to four domains, with 256 bit encryption. The certificate root is Equifax and most SSL certificates can be issued in ten minutes. Warranty amounts are between $10,000 and $250,000 depending on the certificate you choose. The certificate includes a Geotrust site seal, which may include real time date and time information as well as company information.

Major SSL Providers: Thawte

Thawte provides six different SSL certificates including one wildcard SSL certificate. The purchase price ranges from $149 to $899 for one year SSL certificates (with renewal slightly cheaper) and the wildcard SSL certificate is priced at $799. Renewal of the wildcard SSL is the same as the purchase price. Encryption level is up to 256 bit and Thawte also provides SGC super certificates. It doesn't take long to get a Thawte certificate though you will have to provide a lot of identity information to get one.

Major SSL Providers: Comodo

Comodo offers ten different types of SSL certificates, including two wildcard certificates and a free 90 day SSL certificate that can be used as a trial before buying a certificate. Certificate pricing ranges from $79.95 to $699.95, with wildcard SSLs priced at $449.95 to $749.95. Encryption is up to 256 bit, with the warranty amount up to $250,000 depending on the certificate purchased. Comodo also includes a HackerGuardian vulnerability scan with most SSL certificate purchases.

Major SSL Providers: Verisign

Verisign offers several SSL options, priced at between $399 and $1,499 for a one year certificate. With 128 bit encryption, the warranty amounts for Verisign SSL certificates are between $100,000 and $250,000. They also offer web based SSL management packages in various price ranges for bundles of ten or more certificates. Like other providers, Versign's SSL range includes some certificates with extended validation (EV) and server-gated cryptography (SGC). This is the latest in online security standards.

There are many other SSL providers, but these are the ones who account for most of the SSL market. Many others are resellers of this technology, and you may be able to get a better deal by choosing this route. Whichever provider you choose, look for the encryption level, the number of sites and subdomains you can protect and for user friendly features such as the green bar that lets you know a site is safe.

How To Install Your SSL Certificate

Installation of the SSL certificate will vary depending on the hosting control panel and host you are using. In many cases, Cpanel, Plesk, H-Sphere and others will provide their own instructions for how to install SSL. There is usually an SSL button on the control panel, which will walk you through the required steps. Cpanel, for example, allows you to paste the code for an SSL certificate into a form to generate the certificate. Although the steps you may follow may be different, most hosting providers have something similar. In many cases, there is a four step process, where you are required to generate some information on your server, pass this information to the SSL certificate provider, receive your certificate by email and install your certificate.

How To Start Your Own Web Hosting Company

Everyone knows somebody who has a website (or has his own) these days and they all need to be hosted. That's the reason that so many people think providing web hosting is a sound business idea. It may be, but you will need to know what you're doing before jumping in. After all, there are a lot of people doing exactly the same thing. Here is how you can start your own web hosting company. The only requirement is that you have your own domain name and website.

Before you even think about web hosting options, think about your new web hosting company as a business. Like any new business you will need a business plan. Even if you intend to fund the business yourself a business plan will help you develop your business in the right way and will help to keep you on track. It will help you to think about all the areas that are important for your web hosting business and will provide a road map for the development of your web hosting company.

Research Your Target Market

You will need to start with some market research. As part of your market research find out what products and services other web hosting companies are offering and how they are marketing themselves. Discover what market segment you should target and what your costs are likely to be. This will give you some ideas for how you can make your company different. Sign up for web hosting forums and seeing what people are most concerned about and what other web hosts are discussing. This will give you advance warning of future opportunities and may help you to decide where to position your web hosting business.

In thinking about starting your own web hosting company, there is one major decision that you have to make. Are you going to do it yourself or become a web hosting reseller? There are advantages and disadvantages to each option.

Do It Yourself Web Hosting

The DIY approach has the highest initial outlay, but all the profit is your own. If you are going to run all aspects of the hosting company yourself you will need a server on which to host others' websites. Your options for getting a server are to buy one or to lease one. Buying a server may seem like a good idea, especially since computers are no longer that expensive, but a good, reliable server is not cheap and don't forget you will need the latest technology and software for Windows or Linux hosting.

You will need to be realistic about how many websites you can actually host on your server. Overestimate this and you could be heading for a tech support nightmare - which you may have to handle all by yourself. You will also need to think about bandwidth, which means you need to get a company to provide that to you so that you can resell it to your customers.

An alternative to buying your own server is to lease a server (from a company such as Dell or Gateway) or dedicated server (from a company such as Rackspace.com or Cyberworldservers.com) and then resell the bandwidth to your customers. This saves you the up front cost of buying your own server, but it means you are not in control if there is a crash. When choosing a company to provide a server, look for one that has good customer support and as little downtime as possible. Servers do crash sometimes and you will need to be back up quickly so you don't lose customers.

Other costs that you will have to take into account are the costs of getting a control panel for managing the websites and the cost of technical support. All of these can add up if you are running a one person operation - and you will be working all day and all night, too, because most people expect 24 hour support from their web hosting company. So this is an important decision to make.

If you don't think you can be available all day every day you may need to consider taking on an employee or employees. This will make it easier for you to manage your own time but will make the cost of doing business add up. The employee will have to be paid even if you have had a slow month. However, it may be worth it so you don't have to do all the technical support yourself. Unless you employ a couple of people, you will still be working long days.

There are a couple more options for providing technical support. One is to include help desk software to manage support tickets or to set up a forum where your customers can help each other. A forum requires a low outlay and may run itself after awhile. You could also offer live chat to support your customers, though that may take time. Finally, you could outsource your technical support to a company which specializes in this area. It will add to your monthly costs, but could save you a fortune if your customers are kept happy.

Reseller Web Hosting

Another option for starting your own web hosting company is to act as a reseller for another host. This has several advantages, most of them to do with the time you save. Acting as a reseller requires a relatively low investment, with only the monthly reseller fee to pay. If you already have a couple of sites yourself, switching them to your reseller package could be cost effective. You do not have to worry about technical support, server size or bandwidth. All you have to do is promote and sell the web hosting package. Of course, this has its own challenges.

Some reseller accounts are anonymous, which means that you can brand your web hosting business as you like. Others require you to use the branding of the main host. With some reseller accounts everything is taken care of, which means that billing and any follow up are all the responsibility of the main web host. However, other resellers may require you to do your own billing so if you choose one of these you will need to think about how to handle that. This is the backend of your web hosting company and it is just as important as the front end.

Billing For Your Hosting Company

Most web hosting companies offer a choice of monthly or annual billing, and may offer a discount or incentive for the annual package. You need to think about options for taking money. Your choices are an online payments processor such as Paypal or setting up a merchant account so you can accept credit card payments directly. You may also accept money through the mail but this could be unnecessarily complicated, so it may be best to avoid this. An online payments processor is flexible and allows you to accept a variety of payment forms. In addition, it can handle automatic billing. If you are accepting payments online you will also need an SSL certificate so that your customers' sensitive information can be encrypted during online transactions.

How To Host A Gaming Server

Online gaming is a massive industry. The Entertainment Software Association says that 69 per cent of Americans play computer and video games, and 44 per cent of those play games online. Other researchers suggests that there are more than 13 million people playing MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games) worldwide. At close to $4 billion, online gaming is a huge market. That's why so many people like the idea of hosting a gaming server. After all if you already love gaming and spend a lot of time online, what could be better than going one step further and making some money while you're at it?

There are many other reasons why people may choose to host a gaming server. In many cases, it boils down to wanting to have more control of the online gaming environment than they can get from someone else's servers. Your own server means creating your own rules and a gaming atmosphere that you like, as well as the freedom to make modifications to the game that is running or update what you offer whenever you like.

Types Of Gaming Servers

When it comes to online gaming, there are two main types of server: centralized servers and distributed servers. Centralized servers tend to be used for MMOGs such as World of Warcraft and are often run by the companies that provide the software. If you are thinking of hosting a gaming server with other types of games, then you will need a distributed server. As the name suggests a distributed server is one of a number of servers that takes the game from a master server. The key to the success of a distributed server is ping - the length of time it takes for a packet of data to be transmitted from a game client to your server and back again. With ping, the lower the better, as the gaming experience will be smoother.

So what do you need to host a game server? The server is the key to a good gaming experience for both you and your users. They want a smooth and seamless game - and so do you, otherwise you will spend more time on tech support than on gaming. When choosing a gaming server, it's important to think about the hardware you will need. This will vary depending on the game you are running. Some games may need a high powered CPU while other games will be less memory intensive. So you need to find the best combination of CPU speed and memory for your games.

You can use your own PC as a listen server, but every time you shut it down the game will end and you won't be able to host many gamers. And for the best experience for all, you shouldn't play the game on your server, but on another PC. Instead consider a dedicated server. A major decision is whether you are going to rent or own a server. Owning your own server means that you are in full control, but you will have to be responsible for all maintenance and support, which can take up the time you would rather spend gaming. Having support on tap and backups will be essential if you are not to lose your customers.

Thinking About Bandwidth

You also need to think about the bandwidth you will need for running the games. A domestic cable or ADSL line may not provide the bandwidth and reliability you need as a gaming server provider and on a domestic internet connection there will be limits to the number of gamers that can play at any one time. Think about getting an even higher speed line for the best gaming experience for all.

An easier option is to pay a monthly fee to set up a gaming server on another company's equipment and use their bandwidth. This has the advantage of having almost unlimited bandwidth plus you don't have to worry about maintenance. This option will give you access to Windows or Linux/Free BSD servers, with a number of popular first person shooter and other games. You will have a gaming control panel to control games, mods and other aspects of the gaming environment.

However, there will be limits to the number and types of games, mods and maps you can offer as these will be regulated by the gaming server provider. Popular games include Call of Duty, Counter Strike, Day of Defeat, Doom 3, Half-Life, Natural Selection, Medal of Honor, Halo and Unreal Tournament, though there are many others. You will need to shop around for a provider as they all offer different games and mods.

The Importance Of Admin

If you are hosting a gaming server, good admin is what will keep gamers loyal. One part of being a good admin is being an active part of the gaming community. That means knowing and playing the game and taking part in discussions about what would improve the experience for gamers. Then all you have to do is put those suggestions into action.

Gaming is about fun, so a good admin has to minimize personal attacks, team killing, aimbots, software exploits and other forms of cheating as this will ruin the experience for most people. These practices need to be stamped on hard so that players will keep coming back. If you are running your own server then anti cheat software is a must. Most dedicated server companies provide anti cheat software (such as BanHammer, DMW Anticheat, GameGaurd, HackCam, Punkbuster or Valve Anti Cheat) as standard and will install more if requested by you. Lists of banned players (such as those provided by Punksbusted) are another anti cheat tool - these can be streamed between servers very quickly.

Game server providers will usually have their own rules, most of which will be enforced by the anti cheating software. If you are running the server, you may also have rules. It is important for the rules to be clear and for you and other admins to deal with breaches of the rules as soon as possible.

Many of those who host game servers say it is difficult to make money. Either you pay for equipment or you pay rental and this can be costly if you are funding it on your own. Don't expect to break even for a few months and you can anticipate dozens of support tickets each day from gamers. But if you love gaming and would be online anyway, there's nothing to stop you from giving it a try.

Spam Wars - Who's Side is Your Provider On?

Spam is unwanted junk mail that comes in various forms. The most common form is in email and if your host provider battles the unwanted mail, this is something that will benefit you in the end.

The different kinds of spam are numerous. Many people do not realize it, but anything bulk sent, such as jokes and family pictures, can be considered spam. However, this type of spam is acceptable because the pictures are cute and breathtaking and the jokes make us laugh. However, the commercial spam, the porn pictures, the fake lottery winnings, and other such emails are very unwelcome, and these are the ones you want to avoid getting.

Off site spam filters are always updating their databases with IP addresses. Users are continually sending them forwarded spam, loaded with the IP addresses of spammers. However, spammers have expanded how they are sending junk messages to the public. Hand held devices such as mobile phones and palm pilots are now targets of spam. They are also sending spam through chats, games, blogs, newsgroups, and search engines. And you can still find spam through the fax machine.

Hosting sites generally provide email addresses with your website. However, you need to find out if they provide spam and virus protection. You should not have to install filters for the sites contact email addresses. A hosting company can offer a variety of server level solutions to protect their users. Three main techniques are:

Local Blacklist Filters
Keywords and Regular Expressions
Bayesian Filters

Blacklist filters are virtually useless in today's spam world as it is rare to see raw and unsophisticated spam arriving from the same address or IP too often. Blacklisting is generally only good for blocking email from those you no longer wish to hear from.

Keyword filters are more effective than blacklisting. They look for particular strings of keywords. If those keywords are present in the email, it rejects it. Some filters try to use regular expressions to build a sophisticated rule to prevent spam from reaching your inbox. Regular expressions are syntax rules to identify strings of numbers or text.

Bayesian interferences are the most sophisticated and effective method to preventing spam. This method takes a large data set compiled from previous spam messages, and scans the emails. If they do not contain any of the data the filter seeks, it is sent to your inbox. Services that offer this type of filtering prevent billions of spam from reaching inboxes.

Sending spam violates most Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) of ISPs. However, providers may be limited in their ability or willingness to enforce their AUP because they do not want to lose profitable customers. In addition, the United States has made sending spam legal, as long as it has some specific content such as a truthful subject line, correct information in the headers and email address, postal address of the sender in a conspicuous spot, and more minor requirements. If it does not contain any of this information, it is considered illegal. Also, aggravated or accelerated penalties will apply if the spammer harvested the email addresses from somewhere. This is against terms of service (TOS) of many sites, including Yahoo!, Hotmail, and GMail.

Detecting spam by email content is extremely popular. However it can be an inaccurate way to filter your emails. If you set a filter for "Viagra," it can be most effective against the senders of those spam. However, if your friend sends you a joke in an email that mentions "Viagra," it will get listed as spam. Also, spammers are starting to use numbers in place of letters like "I". Spelling words like "v1agra" will bypass the filter and end up in your inbox.

Speed Up Your Web Pages

There could be a few reasons why your web pages load up slowly. When it happens look for some of these signs and look for ways to fix them quickly and easily.

One major reason that a web page loads slowly is the design. In most countries, users are still using the 56k modem for their internet use. Go easy on the graphics, ads, pop-ups, music, and video. All of these slow down loading. If you are using graphics use either GIF or JPG. These load much faster than any other type of graphic. Try not to use animation or other gimmicky effects unless you absolutely need to.

Do not use frames as each frame is considered a page. Proper HTML coding can speed things up. Also, avoid using excessive use of tables, applets, special effects, and overuse of java script. In addition, remove any unnecessary coding and empty spaces as these also slow down loading a web page.

Layout your site using CSS. CSS loads faster because tables need to be read twice before loading. Once to determine layout and the second time to determine content. Also, tables appear in one go - users will not see the table until it is fully loaded on to the screen. In addition, tables need spacer images for positioning. CSS requires less code than tables, which can be cumbersome. CSS coding can be set into a separate document which is called up only once and cached on the users computer while a table must be loaded up each time the web page is accessed. With CSS, you control what is downloaded first, so you can have the content loaded first and the slower images and graphics loaded after. This will make for happier clients and customers.

Unfortunately, your host's speed can also affect how fast your web pages load. Check their speed prior to hosting to avoid this possibility. If your web page is still loading slow and you have it so that it is supposed to load fast, you can always change host providers.

The speed of your local internet connection is a major factor. As mentioned before, some people are still using 56k modems. Are you? If you are, it might be time to upgrade to a high speed modem. Your computer itself might be the culprit. If your computer is loading slowly, there are several things you can do to speed it up. Once you speed up your computer, you will speed up the loading of not only your web pages, but others as well. Defrag your computer, scan for viruses and spyware, check the registry of your software, remove any unnecessary programs, delete your cookies, dump your cache, and anything else that will speed up your computer should be completed. Spyware is also a huge problem when it comes to slowing down web pages. Scan your computer often for these annoying things and remove them.

There could be a small glitch in your script that you need to find and repair. Often times, that could be the problem when you are testing or adding components to your site. A broken URL can even be caused by a simple error. A broken URL can cause hang ups and frustrate users.

Do not use graphics or images to display text. There is generally no need for it. Simple CSS coding can make a button appear pushed down when a mouse scrolls over it. CSS coding can even make a decorative image appear faster. Any user who has CSS disabled will not see any CSS imbedded images. Using contextual selectors will also speed up the loading of your web pages.

Use shorthand CSS scripting. Minimize the white space, comment tags, and line returns. Every single letter or space takes up a byte. May not seem like much at first, but the smaller the number of bytes to download, the faster the page loads. By eliminating these things, you can shave off up to 10% of loading time.

Use relative call ups whenever necessary. Absolute call ups take more time to load. Remove any META tags and content. They are unnecessary and achieve little. The most important tags are the keywords for SEO and description tags. If you do need to use META tags, try to keep it to under 200 characters as anything more will increase the size of your web pages. Lengthy META tags are not good as they dilute your SEO keyword phrases.

Put CSS and JavaScript into external documents. This is easy with the following coding:

Basic Website Statistics

Basic website statistics are something you need to pay attention to. These are broken down into six easy categories that can make your website owning experience confusing and frustrating. Web stats refer to the use of the data collected to determine which pages are generating the most traffic and sales.

Hits

What are hits? A hit is a person visiting your website. Hits are counted using a hit counter that you can have either visible or invisible on your site. These counters come in all shapes, sizes, colours, fonts, and designs.

There are drawbacks to hit counters - they tell you how many people have visited your site up to that point. A single web page has many discrete files and each one is considered a hit while the page downloads for the viewer. The number of hits is really an arbitrary number that is grossly misleading and exaggerated. While you could do a little bit of math and determine an average per day and per week of how many hits you get, an accurate count is sometimes a great thing. The total number of visitors or page views is a more accurate count of hits.

Page Views

This is a better tracking unit than the hit counter. Every time a page is viewed by a user, it leaves an impression. This impression is what a page view counter tracks. If a returning user views that page again, it leaves another impression. A banner or other advertisement is also considered an impression.

Again, there are drawbacks. It is not an accurate count of how many visitors there are to your site as a person can go back and review another page here and there while still on your site. Each time this leaves an impression on the page, and it is counted. So if your visitor is looking for something in particular, each page they visit more than once receives more than one impression, and those impressions are counted.

Visits

This is the best tracking system. This tells you how many visits to your site you have had in one day. Generally, a visit is considered one person, and it is assumed that the one person will visit more than one page, and thus creating more impressions or page views is expected. It is broken down into thirty minute intervals as well as how many page requests they made. This is a great way to determine how many visitors you get, how long they stay, and how often they return. This is a great tool to determine how wide your audience is.

Unique Visitors

Unique visitors are determined by IP address, domain name, or cookie. Many say that this is the number that counts. A unique visitor may visit more than once, but because it is that same person, it is only counted once. The mandatory metric for ABCe audits is solely the unique visitor.

Referrals

These are the number of people who are referred by another website or search engine. This number can tell you what advertising you have out is working and what is not. Referrals can be repeat visitors or new visitors. Often times, they are both.

Keep in mind that often a referral can also be someone who goes directly to your site from the start. They may have heard about your site from a television ad, friend, newspaper ad, or other reference.

Search Strings

Pay attention to search strings. This is the phrase that visitors use to find your site in a search engine. You can use these to focus your ads and other marketing methods to generate hits to your site. They are also useful in what does not appear there. If the keywords you have been targeting do not show up in your statistics, that should raise a red flag and cause an investigation to determine the reason.

Search strings, or keywords as they are also known, are important. They are the words that rate your site in search engines. The higher your site sits in the rankings of search engines, the higher the chances that someone will click on your site and visit it. This is because the majority of people do not scroll down to see the sites that are lower in the list because they are not as relevant in their search as the ones higher up.

Often times people complain about a website leaving cookies on their computer. There is a privacy concern with cookies that leave many users cold. A cookie is many things. It identifies users who have been to a website before. Cookies are supposed to help load the page faster and identify unique visitors. When people delete their stash of cookies, it throws off the statistics. However, due to the privacy concerns, people have been blocking or deleting cookies, first or third party.

Power Considerations for Your Server Hardware

One of the most important decisions you will have to make in regard to colocation is the server hardware you want to move. This could either be an easy of difficult task depending on a number of variables. You will need to consider various features including processing power, RAM, hard drive capacity and hard drive redundancy among others. While all are essential, perhaps the most vital feature you must consider for your server is the power requirements. To help ensure a smooth transition, this article will provide tips on some factors you want to keep in mind.

Energy-Efficient Hardware

Before purchasing any hardware, you should know that not all servers are created equal. For example, some are equipped with standardized components designed to be compatible with virtually any type of motherboard. Power supply can be very cheap in this instance and cost as little as $10. Purchasing one with a voltage that specifically matches the motherboard in your server will cost a little more, but will be far more energy efficient and help you save hundreds of dollars on power consumption. This is one of the most important considerations for choosing a server because the hardware you collocate should be as energy efficient as possible. Power consumption tends to vary greatly as most hardware is not designed to be conserve power. However, this is change rapidly as top tier manufacturers such as Dell and IBM have recently introduced more energy efficient hardware to the market.

Power at the Facility Costs

The average person believes that when investing in colocation, all they have to pay for is rack space and internet connectivity with the power being free with the service. Unfortunately, it is these type of assumptions that leads some people to make an attempt to cram all of their servers in one small area and save money on their monthly fees. What most do not realize is that the premium power and AC cooling needed to keep the hardware thriving generally costs considerably more than rack space. It is very easy for many to conclude that space comes for a fee while power is free, causing them to think if they can stuff 20 servers in a small space, they would then be able to save money on buying a full cabinet. These faulty assumptions result in companies shelling out thousands of dollars on blade servers only to learn that their power requirements call for substantially more than typical sized servers would have cost to store.

The misconception that power is free is on the colocation market is merely that, a misconception. The truth is that the tremendous amount of power a server requires can often cost a price that is equivalent to leasing three full racks of space in the facility. Simply knowing this can be vital when it comes to purchasing server hardware and planning to collocate your network. You can save yourself a lot of grief and money by knowing your exact requirements before entering an agreement with a service provider.

Why Reliable Web Hosting?

In today's competitive world reliable web hosting is very critical especially for the success of online businesses. Your message or information won't be conveyed on time unless you send it over high-speed network connections backed up by reliable web servers. You need to seek a web hosting company that can provide you with these components and much more.

People usually wonder “why reliable web hosting?” Critical components as listed below are some of the reasons why:

Server monitoring and 24x7 security to safeguard your site
Spam filtering
Firewall protection to protect the site from unwanted trespass
Daily site backups
99.9% uptime guarantee

Reliable web servers with multiple fast connections are critical in ensuring that your web site runs smoothly. Only behind the hosting company's firewall and additional security on their web servers can you seek to keep your website safe from unwelcome intruders. Spam and virus filtering is another essential feature which should be taken into account with all email facilities. This is again possible with only reliable web hosting.

Apart from the above, there are many other useful reasons. Certain components responsible for reliable web hosting not only decrease your stress but also increase productivity. Reliable web hosting is known to provide dependable uptime so that you can make changes on your website and upload it for customers to view in minimal time.

Reliable web hosting is vital for serious business clients who need their web sites to be fully-functional and their domains accessible at all times. These businesses could be any online industry, be it bank, financial institutes, railway and flight online booking sites or even ecommerce sites. Only with help of reliable web hosting can you maintain the highest level of security for discreet user transaction on any website. All ecommerce websites are integrated with payment gateways and if your web hosting is not secure or reliable then anyone can hack your site and you can lose essential online cash flows.

If your site is integrated with a dependable Content Management System (CMS) through which you seek to update your site on daily basis then reliable web hosting becomes all the same critical. To stay ahead in today's online competition you need a secure and flexible website and this is only possible with help of reliable web hosting.

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Technical Support

Why do we need technical support for our websites? If something goes wrong, and you do not know what the problem is, technical support can help you find what is wrong and help you fix it.

Technical support staff is people who have worked on websites and networks, have gone to school to become certified in this type of work. They know their hardware, software, wires, connections, and coding. If you can explain the problem clearly, answer all their questions to the best of your ability, they can pinpoint your problem and tell you, in terms you will understand, how to fix it.

Good technical support is not hard to find. Assess what you already know. If you already know how to build a website and make it look more than just presentable, but just do not know how to put that audio on to it, tech support can help you. Choose a hosting company that offers technical support at any time, not just business hours, because catching and fixing an error sooner rather than later can mean a sale or a client.

Another consideration would be whether your hosting company's technical support responds to service requests quickly or puts you in a queue to get to when they can. Your website is your business… and it is theirs. You pay them to be there when you need them, and if you need technical support now, that support should be there right when you need it. This comes right back to having the support at any time and not just during business hours.

Your host company should also offer proactive notification of maintenance. They should let you know when they will be doing maintenance on the server so that should have a chat room or other interactive item, you can let your users know that you will be down for a period of time for site maintenance. Most people are understanding and appreciative of being told that the site will be unavailable between certain times so that you can enhance your site for their benefit.

Providing documentation on new features of their hosting and their technical support is a nice feature your hosting company should have. Whether you use it or not is entirely up to you, but if you are technology challenged, it is a nice thing to have so that you can reference it at any time. The documentation should also be very easy to find on the website. The information is important to you, and locating it is essential to your business. Knowing how to use a feature you have never used before is an asset to your website - even if you never do use it.

If you ask your hosting company for training, your request should be answered promptly. The host company should be happy to provide you with any training you want or need to maintain your site. If you want to put an audio feature on your website, they should be the ones to train you how to put it on, how to maintain it, how to change it, and anything else that pertains to the audio features.

You should be able to access technical support any way you choose. Email, live chat, or telephone should be available. Live chat or telephone is generally the best way to access the help you require. Using the telephone or live chat, you can locate the items they tell you to find, make the small changes, and answer your questions as you go along. They will be patient with you as you search, fix, and edit your website.

Tech support is a great way to learn how to do things yourself. After you have been helped once, you know how to do it should your problem arise again. However, if you forget, they will be happy to assist you again. They will log your assistance and when they see that they have helped you with the same problem before, they will be happy to refresh your memory by going through it all over again with you. After all, that is what tech support is there for.

Which Web Hosting is Best For You?

With thousands of beginners trying their hand at websites, it is certain that the market is becoming quite crowded. From music blogs to gossip communities and technological havens – these online avenues can be a wonderful hobby for people who just want an audience. After all, who wouldn't want to be heard among thousands of visitors every day? For this reason alone, websites are one of the most popular forms of entertainment. While making a website is essential, the majority of beginners do not realize that web hosting is even more important.

In simpler terms, web hosting provides you with the space to create your masterpiece. When you design your layout, post thousands of pictures, and even set up a chat room, you absolutely need a place to do so. For instance, if you were to do something like this outside of the virtual world, and build a theatre, wouldn't you need your own space? Luckily, web hosting is extremely affordable and can be easy for even the beginners to use.

After you purchase a domain name, the next step is to find a company that will host your website. There are many different paths you can take to do this, but it depends on your main goals. Therefore, the first thing you need to do is ask yourself why you want to create a website. Is it for personal use – simply to post your pictures from college? Or perhaps your dream is to create the most popular music website on the internet. Regardless of your priorities, companies have built specific web hosting packages based around your needs.

If you are looking to just post pictures or create something for fun, a free web hosting company is the way to go. There are many of these around the web, including Geocities and AngelFire. These two companies are dedicated to helping beginners. As a result, new webmasters do not need to know extensive HTML or CSS. In this day and age, it is quite easy to build a masterpiece. While these hosts give you a large amount of space and freedom, there are downsides. The majority of companies will stick pop up advertisements on your space, in order for them to market their company. Unfortunately, this is an annoyance for most, and can cause visitors to leave immediately. Luckily, Geocities lets you close the box when you enter the website. Nevertheless, if you are looking for an easy website and do not care about visitors, you simply should try it out.

On the other hand, if you are looking for something a bit more professional, you should be emptying your wallet. Providentially, 3ix.org and GoDaddy are two companies that offer extremely cheap website hosting. This means that you can easily pay $12/year just for an abundance of space. Still looking for more features? These companies will let you add on everything from FrontPage Maker to extra bandwidth. If you are serious about your venture, these are places to check out.

Web hosting may sound like a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be difficult. With so many beginners flooding the internet, companies have put it upon themselves to make these programs much easier to use. As long as you can type in your name, have overflowing creativity and an e-mail address, the opportunities are endless.

How to Make Money with Web Hosting

We all know that web hosting is the basis of all web sites. It helps us attract visitors, it displays what we are desperately trying to get across, and it allows us to survive in the cut throat internet world. While these are all important qualities that come with web hosting, there are many other opportunities. Dying to make extra cash? Surprisingly, web hosting can actually help with your bills. In a few simple steps, you will be on your way to a richer lifestyle.

Fortunately, there is a new trend in the web industry. Reseller Hosting, which consists of purchasing a web hosting package and reselling it for a larger price, has been making webmasters just a few cents richer. Although this sounds like a daunting task, it actually only requires a large amount of space. Once the webmaster acquires such a large server and bandwidth, he/she is able to divide it up among other people. As long as they are willing to pay a monthly fee, you will never get screwed over.

Regardless of how much money you want to make, purchasing this re-seller hosting does not cost much. For an average of $30/month, you can purchase enough space to make a profit. While all of these websites will be on a shared server, the majority of webmasters do not mind this downside. After all, not everyone can shell out thousands a month just to acquire their own dedicated server. Once you have found a few loyal customers who will not create any illegal material, you will be generating a profit every single month out of the year. Fortunately, until you stop your hosting, you will never be out of a job.

In order to sell this type of hosting, you absolutely need to network. Regrettably, there are many webmasters trying to follow the trend. For this reason alone, you should look in unpopulated areas. Try and find a website or forum that has not yet been tackled by other masses of website owners. For instance, find websites similar to your own. If you do not have one, look on webmaster-related forums such as Digital Point or Webmaster-Talk. These areas are populated with thousands of interested clients, who will be more than happy to jump on the bandwagon, if you do have a great deal.

Still desperately trying to find other ways to market? Many website owners advertise through blogs and buy text link ads. As a result, people will be more apt to find what you are offering. If this doesn't work, you could even start marketing in a local newspaper or a newsletter that goes out to professional companies who are always looking for alternatives. Nevertheless, there are plenty of consumers out there. You just need to be creative and put in the effort, in order to get anywhere.

For years web hosting has been flooding the market. However, it has just recently become a form of revenue for webmasters who just don't own their own web hosting company. It is a wonderful alternative to an additional part time job, especially if this is what you love to do. Networking with others, controlling a server, while working on your website certainly sounds like the perfect occupation.

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.

Article Overview

Here's an idea. Why not take a break from your googling and net-adventures and dive into our deep and refreshing article archive? We offer in-depth as well as basic articles about the web hosting industry, its various components and possibilities and how you can get web hosting that is right for you.

Whether you're looking to learn more about web design, web development, the Top Level domain market, blogging, control panels, CMS, the web hosting industry or the perfect hosting provider, you're bound to find some real good reading right here.

This is your library, dedicated in offering the best and most valued reading on web-related topics. But if there is a topic or issue you feel we haven't yet to address, we would be honored if you would let us know.

So make your pick. Our articles are just waiting to be read.

Web Hosting

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Web Design / Programming

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Domain Names / Internet

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Interviews

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List of the Best Registrars

Rating: 5 / 5

When purchasing a domain name you'll have to make your way through a jungle of registrars. Since there are hundreds of registrars on the market it can sometimes be a tad confusing. Obviously there will be those that are better than others - but how does one know what registrars that are the best? Well, there a few things one should take a look at; such as price, reputation, support and the services that's being offered. We have done exactly this and compiled a list of what we believe to be the ten best registrars on the market today. So, without any further ado; here are the crème de la crème - perhaps needless to say but we will of course only list ICANN accredited registrars.

eNom keeps on getting voted the top registrar in the industry and it's not for nothing that it's constantly awarded. They have an excellent reputation and this has perhaps something to do with the fact that their security is market leading and that they're offering a ton of services for free. What about for example free domain name control panel, page parking, DNS Services and Web Site Creator. This is a strong registrar that we can recommend to anyone looking to buy a domain name.

When visiting the Network Solutions Site for the very first time you might experience it as a bit cluttered. However, in contrast to first impressions is it a very user-friendly site that only offers top quality to its clients. One big advantage with Network Solutions is that they present packages with for example domain name, web hosting and web design which means that you'll be able to get all of your web solutions at one place.

The iRegistry.com web site for sure ain't the flashiest and it can be improved in some ways but they still deliver what they're promising. Having been in the industry since 2003 they've built up quite the experience and their reputation is top-notch. If you have any queries it's easy to get in contact with them through an online form and thanks to a good response time you won't have to sit around waiting for long to get an answer. Uncomplicated and unflashy can sometimes be a good thing.

Web Hosting Control Panels: An Overview

The web hosting control panel is the nerve center of your web hosting business. In fact, you can't run a web hosting business without one. There are several popular makes of web hosting control panel. All of them have similar functions and features.

What Does A Web Hosting Control Panel Do?

A web hosting control panel is exactly what it says on the tin. It is an interface with menus and icons for controlling the services offered by a web hosting provider. A web hosting control panel will usually have an interface for administration and one for the end user. It may also have one for resellers. Sometimes these interfaces are wrapped into one, while at other times the interfaces might be slightly different.

The interface for a web hosting control panel usually consists of a combination of icons and text (and perhaps menus, depending on the particular software package) to control the various functions. This makes them very easy to understand and use, whether you are an administrator, a reseller or an end user.

Web Hosting Control Panels: Key Features

There are a number of important features that will be in almost every web hosting control panel. A key function of web hosting is being able to create and remove accounts and to add and remove domains, sub domains and parked domains. Most web hosting providers have a range of packages that they offer to users. These are differentiated by such factors as bandwidth allowance, number of mail and FTP accounts, number of MySQL databases, number of domains, disk space allowed and many other features. A web hosting control panel provides an easy way to set up and administer these packages and to change them when upgrades are needed. It makes it easy for your to set or change the number of mail accounts, FTP accounts, domains, sub domains and so on that are available to end users. This includes quotas and bandwidth, access to scripts and dedicated IP address.

Tracking is essential for every web hosting provider and tracking functions are built into every web hosting control panel. As a web host, you will be able to use a web hosting control panel to have an overview of the users who have signed up with you, along with their contact details, package and quota. You will be able to see the domains, sub domains and parked domains on each account. You will also be able to keep track of the bandwidth used by certain accounts and to limit this if necessary. There may be some warning if accounts are getting near to their bandwidth limit.

The web hosting control panel will allow you to keep track of server uptime and get early warning of any potential problems. As well as to manage functions such as Front Page extensions, DNS entries, MX entries and scripts, themes, applications and add-ons. A web hosting control panel may also allow you to control resellers and reseller packages in the same way, as well as manage support tickets.

Popular Web Hosting Control Panels - Cpanel/WHM

Cpanel is a very popular web hosting control panel and is widely used. There are two interfaces. The Web Hosting Manager is for the web host, while the Cpanel interface is for the end user. The WHM interface features a left hand menu bar, with icons on the right, both of which control the normal administrative functions. There is a similar interface for the end user, though all the functions are controlled in the icon panel. This includes management of mail, file transfers, scripts, statistics, databases, support requests and much more. Scripts can be installed with one click through the Fantastico interface. The Cpanel interface has been criticized for being cluttered and clunky, but it is easy to use and many people love it. Cpanel offers a one time license at $1,499 as well as a one year license at $425. Monthly options are available from Cpanel distributors at around $20.

Popular Web Hosting Control Panels - Plesk

Plesk is another popular web hosting control panel. The interface is a Windows XP style file interface, which gives access to news in the top half and server information, statistics and management functions in the bottom half, with a control bar on the left side to manage general and system functions. Unlike Cpanel, you can get an at a glance overview of statistics without even having to click. There are 12 main tools, each of which is clearly explained and there is also a bar to store favorite functions for easy access. The end user interface is very similar but with fewer functions. The one time licence for Plesk is $1,139, with monthly leasing starting at $29.99 for 30 domains.

Popular Web Hosting Control Panels - HSphere and Direct Admin

H-Sphere is seen by users as simple and easy to navigate and those who use it wouldn't consider changing to another web hosting control panel. However, H-Sphere has a lot of functions and if you're just starting out as a web host it might be challenging to learn the program. The admin interface and user interface are similar, with icons as well as drop down menus. There are at a glance statistics when using this web hosting control panel. There is a $95 installation fee for H-Sphere plus a one time fee of $4.50 per account. However, you must buy at least 25 accounts at a time.

How to Choose the Best Web Hosting Service

One of the most crucial decisions that most online businesses have to make is choosing the best web hosting service. With a popular or well known and reliable Internet Service Provider (ISP) you won't face many problems, however with a poor web hosting service provider it can be a nightmare.

Choosing the right kind of web hosting service can be a very daunting task at times as there are some very important features that you need to make sure of. Here you can find below what exactly to look for when choosing the best web hosting service.

Amount of web space: A web hosting service provider would usually assign you a certain amount of space on their server. You need to ensure that does it have the right amount of space for your website and your business requirements. You might want to expand your online business tomorrow and would require much more space. So it's imperative for you that the web hosting company should be able to provide you with ample of space especially if your website is rich in graphics or has video clips.

FTP access: FTP access is very crucial since it provides the ability to upload new pages. Some web hosting service providers allow you to just design your web pages with their own personal web builder. This may be useful for beginners however you need to ensure if they provide you the facility to expand later when you enhance your online business capabilities.

Degree of reliability, security and speed of access: Speed, security and reliability are extremely important for the success of any online business. While choosing a reliable web hosting service you need to ensure that this is taken care of. A site that is not available, not updated on time or is down, will lose many online visitors. If an online visitor finds your site listed on a search engine, and he tries to access it but finds it down, he is sure to move on to the next link and you lose an important customer or visitor. Even slow working websites are very frustrating. So how do you know if a hosting company is reliable or not? By word of mouth or feedback from others! If that's not possible then you can yourself try accessing your site during peak hours and non-peak hours too. Your site has to be secure of intruders at the same time, especially if it's an ecommerce website.

Dependence and support: Does the web hosting service provide 24x7 supports? Do they respond rapidly to your issue? Can you depend on them? If you need 24-hour technical support that larger companies need then expect to pay substantially more. In fact, people are much more expensive than machines.

Pricing plans : Price is also one factor that you should look out for when choosing the best web hosting service. It's not necessarily true that the most expensive hosts are the best. Simply compare prices and services before you finalize one.

Data transfer (Bandwidth): You also need to see if the hosting company provides you with sufficient bandwidth for efficient data transfer. After all it's your website and you need to ensure that you are getting the best services for the money you invest.

Googling Damages the Environment

Rating: 4 / 5

Did you know that two searches on Google equals one cup of boiled water? It's not only air travelling, car journeys and luxury consumption that affects the climate. It now so happens to turn out that such a common thing as doing a search on Google conduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The physicist Alex Wissner-Gross, at the University of Harvard, apparently has calculated the so called "Google Effect". His reports show that two simple searches on Google equals the same amount of energy that it takes to boil a cup of water in a teakettle. The carbon dioxide emissions come from the data terminals and data centers that Google are running all over the world. One search apparently equals an emission of 7 gram, while boiling a cup of water in a teakettle equals an emission of 15 gram.

Millions of Searches Every Day

It does not sound all that bad but it is estimated that the Earth's entire population make about 200 million searches each and every single day. When thinking about it, you start to realize that the statistics are really shocking. Google is regarded as an effective search engine that provides quick results but Alex Wissner-Gross says that it uses several different databanks at the same time which leads to a higher production of carbon dioxide than some of its competitors. Google simply says that they're one of the most effective search engines on the Internet and leaves it at that.

But now, wait a minute, it's all false

Within two days of the news that a Google search creates a boiling teapot of CO2 emissions, it was found that nothing was true. In fact, the original source, Times London, misquoted and made up everything, including the 7 grams per search. Alex Wissler-Gross who was quoted with the "Google Effect" did make the comments that there are environmental impacts but he never said anything about 7 grams.

Yep datacenters leave a footprint, just like anything else

Datacenters are some of the most energy consuming devices in the world. How this affects one single user is unknown but researches, including Wissler-Gross are trying to figure it out. While you may not be killing as many trees like you would if flying in a boing 747, there is an impact when you google. Power and material resources are consumed when you make a search. It's not just the discarded laptop battery having an impact, it's that search too.

Website Monitoring Services

If your website is up, your website search rankings are important. However, what about when your website is down and having problems? Obviously, they are not as important. Having a website monitoring service will help keep your website functional and operating so that the search rankings continue to mean something. Nevertheless, things like hardware failures, software lockups, viruses; hackers, databases, and Internet connectivity are important in your online success. Website monitoring serves one main purpose: to notify you when things go wrong.

Website monitoring services checks the site at intervals, and if it cannot log in for some reason or encounters a problem and alerts the administrator immediately. The administrator can then log into the website administration panel and fix the problem. Some services use a ping to check the site, and if the packet is returned undeliverable, then it will try again. If it is still returned undeliverable, the administrator is contacted. However, with a ping, all it does is verify that the site has power, not that it is functioning properly. Many website monitoring services provide a detailed report. This report is helpful in determining whether the site is still functional. The intervals depend on the package the user has purchased and can range anywhere from every two minutes to every sixty minutes. This service is generally used by e-commerce sites and is quite expensive, ranging from $30 to $99 per month.

When a website monitoring service checks a site, it can return a report that will tell you exactly what needs repair. Additional software may be required. They check connections and provide web server response codes and messages. If the server fails to connect, the service sends a message to the administrator. A firewall rule will need to be created if your monitoring service needs to access a site that is protected behind a firewall.

Monitoring your website is great for customer relations. Keeping existing customers is ideal, while gaining new ones is always great. Some monitoring services can help you keep existing customers by ensuring that your website is functioning. It can also help you gain new ones the same way. Rather than having your customer alert your ISP that the website is down, they may not even notice that it is down if you were to use an external monitoring service. The service can alert to you any problems so that they may be fixed, hopefully before the customer even notices that there is a problem.

Internet access customers usually enter into a service level agreement (SLA) with corporate hosting clients as the customers usually expect a certain level of service. Unfortunately, SLA's impose fines on clients that do not meet requirements. A website monitoring service can deter disputes by measuring and recording the levels of usage. The client and the host can review the reports and terms can be based on the levels recorded in the reports.

There are a few "rules" to website monitoring. Firstly, never monitor someone else's domain. It is the biggest problem among website monitoring companies. Any down time will get charged to your domain. Monitor only your own sites.

Secondly, never ignore alerts. They were sent to you for a reason. There is a problem and you need to fix it. Whether it is fixing a link or repairing something more important, there is something in need of repair. Your entire site might be down. The alerts tell you what is wrong so that you can fix it. If your website is down, you are losing sales. Every ten minutes your site is down takes off a percentage of your uptime. Being up 99.9% or 100% of the time is the ideal and is attainable.

Thirdly, use the "check all" feature. Once you have repaired your site, your next task is to inform your website monitoring service that your site is back up. This is so that they can resume monitoring it. If you do not, your downtime keeps going up (and your percentage keeps going down!) If there is an outage, you can use the check all feature. This makes sure that everything is repaired correctly and tests the server.

Fourthly, make your DNS changes carefully because of the TTLs of DNS entries. When you set up a DNS entry, you also set up a TTL. This permits internet browsers and other services to cache the mapping between the IP and your domain so that it does not have to ask for it each time the user visits your site. This speeds up the users experience and drops the load on your domain servers. So make your DNS changes carefully to prevent outages.

Web Hosting Coupons

HostGator
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HostUpon
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E-Commerce: Everybody's darling full of opportunities

Rating: 5 / 5

Blogs, RSS, Twitter, Cloud Computing, Social Networks... Today's online business is moving faster than ever. How can small and medium enterprises keep in step with ever changing technologies and marketing opportunities in order to increase turnover at minimum cost - especially in these financially troubled times?

Two IT trends have proven to bear great opportunities for companies of all sizes: Cloud Computing and Social Commerce. While Cloud Computing stands for flexible resource utilization and a highly technological concept, Social Commerce tools enable customers to experience much more transparent and effective information about products or services.

Cloud Computing: Flexibility and scalability at its best

Cloud Computing is more than just Software as a Service - and it has much more to it than a server that is not any longer in one's own basement: It is the combination of on-demand infrastructure and on-demand software. This concept does not only offer enormous flexibility but has also cost-saving potential.

Local resources like for example hardware are not needed any longer as companies may now store their data externally on virtual servers and use their software via web access. Generally, all essential features for a professional e-business such as CRM solutions, ERP systems and e-commerce software are available. In times of higher traffic, for instance before Christmas or Easter, additional server capacity can be ordered temporarily.

Companies pay only for their individual set of services - and hosting providers will take care of updates and bug fixes. There will be no more worrying whether the last update for example by eBay has been missed.

More than just e-business

It is essential for all online and offline businesses to inform their customers about products, opening hours or news from the company. Recent studies confirm that almost all customers have informed themselves online before actually buying a product. Would it not make sense to offer customers an appointment right away while they are on the website? An active community recommending and commenting your products is not only a much more reliable source than any marketing material but also offers valid feedback about your products.

A professional website can thus play a decisive role in being ahead of competitors. With ePages 6, both the website and the online shop can be combined on one platform, with the same design. Without special programming knowledge, installing and updating an online store and business website is done much easier than before. All that is needed is a computer with Internet access.

Extended by an appointment management and booking function ePages 6 widens the scope of e-commerce beyond the more traditional sales model.

21 Scripts and Tips to Decrease Website Server Load

Rating: 4 / 5

Once you have your website established and running properly it may be time to take a look at your server load and loading times. Over time, websites can start to get bogged down with large images, multiple pieces of Javascript, and hefty CSS files. All of these can contribute to a website that is less than optimized and may run slower and become irritating to the end user. Today, we will have a look at 21 great scripts, tips, and tools you can use to decrease your website's server load.

1. Use YSlow for Firebug

YSlow is a Firefox add-on that integrates into the firebug web development tool. YSlow grades website performance and download speeds based on a set of rules set by Yahoo Developer team for optimized web sites. YSlow can show you exactly how many resources and downloading times are required for your site, as well as providing tips on how to improve this.

2. Use Smush.it for your images

Smushit.com is a service that goes beyond the limitations of Photoshop, Fireworks & Co. It uses image format specific non-lossy image optimization tools to squeeze the last bytes out of your images - without changing their look or visual quality. You'll get a report of how many bytes you can save by optimizing your images and all the changed images as a single zip for download.

You can use Smush.it as a Firefox add-on, or you can simply go to their site and use the uploader that is provided. Smush.it is a must have plugin if you are a blogger or frequently use images on your website. Rest assured, no quality is lost when decreasing the size.

3. Move your Javascript files to the bottom of your page

Though this isn't always possible to do, it is a good idea to do so if you can. When a browser goes to download CSS, scripts, and images from your site, it usually has a maximum amount of information it can stream at once. By placing the scripts at the bottom of our page, we can allow the essentials to load first and then load the scripts at the end.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

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How to Choose the Best Web Hosting Service

Googling Damages the Environment

Millions of Searches Every Day

But now, wait a minute, it's all false

Yep datacenters leave a footprint, just like anything else

Website Monitoring Services

Web Hosting Coupons

E-Commerce: Everybody's darling full of opportunities

Cloud Computing: Flexibility and scalability at its best

More than just e-business

21 Scripts and Tips to Decrease Website Server Load

1. Use YSlow for Firebug

2. Use Smush.it for your images

3. Move your Javascript files to the bottom of your page

4. Compress your Javascript

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