Archive for June, 2007

Web Hosting - Avoid Web Hosting Problems

Why is it so important to find a reputable host and not to sign up with the hosting provider that only seems to be everything you wish?

The answer to this question could be reduced to a single word: problems. Hosting your site with unreliable provider will lead to tedious and nerves-consuming problems that will often remain unsolved. Here are some real life examples of problems customers are experiencing with their providers:

“After signing up for their hosting package I haven’t heard from them for days. 22 days after signing up with the first host I received a welcome message from them stating my account has been activated and my credit card billed. I contacted them explaining I decided not to have an account with them and asking them for a refund. Needless to say, again I haven’t heard from them for days and when I finally got in touch with them they were beating around the bush and more days passed. all the experience with them took so much of my time and health that it made me regret I ever bumped into their hosting offer.”

“With this company you definitely don’t get what you paid for. I wish I had checked better what reliable and honest hosts really were before giving my money to this one. It’s been nothing but a disappointment.”

“Their support insisted that the site was working fine. This was despite the fact that ANYONE could see clearly that the site was not working, just by clicking on ANY page.”

“On Friday, May 5 the web site went down. I sent a request to tech support to bring it back up. I got back a response stating that it is a known issue related to a server move. The problem should be resolved within 24 hours - they said. 24 hours had passed but my site was still down. It finally came up after 4 days but not for long. The site was offline once again by upcoming weekend, this time with a 404 error. Never been really informed what the exact reason for the downtime was. I can assure you this happens on a regular basis.”

“It was supposed to be managed hosting but this company managed only my money. I ended up doing all the work by myself with scarce support from their side.”

In this article I tried to point out just some of the numerous real life problems you may experience once you sign up with incompetent web hosting provider. For this reason detecting which hosting providers are reliable and proven is a must thing to do in order to avoid unpleasant issues.
http://www.ezinearticles.com

Comments

What To Look For In Web Hosting

It was not that long ago that when someone mentioned the word “web” it could be assumed that they were referring to the fragile creations of spiders. But today, the word web refers to something utterly different – an expanse so great we can barely understand it. The web refers to the World Wide Web – or the Internet – a creation that does not take up any physical space but still holds an enormous amount of information; all of which can is funneled to and from the network of computers worldwide that access the Internet. For most of today’s business, there is no true success without an online presence; keeping pace with this fact, companies small and large continue to craft their online persona through the creation of a website. As part of this explosion in websites has come the ever-expanding need for web hosting – a service that is offered through a network of providers.

Web hosting is offered through a company – or individual - that has direct access to the Internet through a server – a computer that gives and receives information to other computers. Like a landlord, the company that offers web hosting rents out space on their server to your company’s website. If you rent this space through your web host but have your own domain name – or website address – then this company is considered to be a virtual web host. A non-virtual web host still gives you space on their server but through their domain name or website address.

Not all web hosting is the same, however, and there are certain things that you should look for in order to get your money’s worth of service. First and foremost, an effective web host should be connected to the Internet almost all of the time. Granted – there may be times when your web host must be offline for service - or is booted offline due to a technical issue - but in general web hosts should be up and running at all times; you are paying for this consistency so that visitors to your website can access it without fail. A web host stores all of your data on its server and should handle all technical difficulties that may arise with responsiveness and professionalism.

Web hosting comes at a variety of prices – from a couple of hundred dollars to thousands of dollars per year. For websites that receive quite a bit of traffic, it is worth the money for a reputable and comprehensive host that can handle the myriad of services you require. For those with smaller businesses or those who have created their own personal web page, a smaller, less expensive web host will undoubtedly deliver all that is needed and a price that is affordable.
http://www.ezinearticles.com

Comments

Ethical Search Engine Optimization

Ethical Search Engine Optimization, in the proper sense, is the implementation of certain methodologies and formulas so as to top list the targeted websites for keywords related to their business. Most of the search engine users will not take the trouble to go through thousands of pages of search results. Therefore the sites ranked higher are likely to attract more traffic which is a crucial factor for the success of business.

The popularity of internet has made it a powerful medium for advertisement. This has seen the recent emergence of many search engine optimization companies. A search engine optimization company is persistently working to achieve the goal of making the websites more accessible to search engines.

Different search engines function differently. They may go through the sites and evaluate the contents, key words, links, titles etc. to assign the ranking. To get a higher ranking, or an optimal search engine placement, the content should be highly relevant. The search engine optimization specialists will analyze the drawbacks and redesign these sites. This entails manipulation of the keywords, working on the links, and the source code of the web page.

The primary step in the evaluation of a website involves obtaining all the statistics related to that particular website. These SEO reports demonstrate the ranking of the site for various key words in various search engines and the effectiveness of different pages of the same site. Also, the different guidelines and strategies employed by search engines for the collection of data from a site and ranking it will be informed, so that it is possible to revamp the site to make it search engine friendly.

Some of the search engine optimization companies resort to unethical practices to highlight the websites. But the sophisticated technologies employed by the search engines may recognize these deceptions and the sites may get blacklisted. Moreover, the algorithms on which the search engines work is variable and hence not entirely reliable. For a higher ranking, it’s always advisable to seek the help of SEO firms who strictly adhere to the search engine guidelines.
http://www.ezinearticles.com

Comments

Webmaster Toolkit Review

Today I am going to discuss the Webmaster Toolkit. This web site has a wealth of information which you can navigate by browsing the topics listed in the left hand sidebar on their web site. These cover topics like SEO tools, web utilities, domain tools, HTML tools and finally a list of resources. Let’s take a look at each of these in turn.

SEO Tools If you’re interested in marketing and promoting your web site then this is the section for you. In here you can find tools which will help you decide what keywords to use on your site, how popular your site is with the major search engines, how search spiders crawl your site, and various other analysis tools.

Web Utilities
If you’re interested in analyzing or tweaking your web site then check out this section. The two that you might find most useful are the .htaccess generator which is useful if you want to password protect part of your web site, and the Link Checker which will report any broken links on your site.

Domain Tools
There are a few interesting tools in this section. The two that you may find of most interest are the Domain Name Generator which will produce a list of possible domain name ideas based on a word or phrase you input. The other one is the Expired Domain Name Checker which could be a useful tool for improving both your link popularity and your website traffic whilst saving you money too! There are many expired domains still listed in many of the big directories, with the potential to drive large amounts of traffic to your site.

HTML Tools
There are couple of tools in this section which will clean up any un-needed code created by Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. There is also the CSS Menu Generator which might be useful if you want to generate some navigation buttons on your site. Have a good look round the webmaster toolkit. The above is just a small sample of what is available. Whether you’re a novice or advanced webmaster, there are some useful tools and utilities available.

http://www.ezinearticles.com

Comments

Get Free Google Traffic Fast

So you are looking for free Google traffic? I will explain the basics of getting free Google traffic fast in a few short steps.

1. Your site must be optimized and be ready to place in Google’s free listing area for the keywords you want to show up for. Use the keywords in your title tag, your description tag, you keyword tag, and your page content.

2. You need to create a Google sitemap.xml file. There are many sitemap generator tools for free on the web. Register your sitemap with Google Webmaster.

3. You need to get high quality high Google PR “Page rank” websites to link to you. You can request link trades by sending email request to websites that are in the same business as your site or you can purchase text link space on websites like textlinkbrokers.com. If you can place your site on a PR6 page or higher, you will be indexed by Google within 48 hours.

4. Write articles like the one you are reading that pertain to your expertise and the business you are in and include your website information in the author area of the article.

5. Continue working on your sites content keeping it fresh and continue to optimize your meta tags as your see your search listings rise.

New sites with new website addresses usually take 2-3 months to place well in the free Google listings, re-designed sites can take 1-2 months to place in the free Google listings, and existing sites that have been active for more than six months can show good search results within 1 week to 1 month.

The more time and effort you put into implementing the steps listed in this article, the faster you will start to receive free Google traffic to your site.

Until Next Time…
http://www.ezinearticles.com

Comments

Best Site Promotion - Intermediate Ways to Make More Profit With Site Promotion

Promoting your web site is very important. The number of websites on the World Wide Web is increasing on a very fast pace. The World Wide Web was never so crowded ever before. Now it has become really important for all the web sites to promote themselves. There are millions of websites which currently exist on the internet and it is humanly not possible to visit all of these websites. If you want the web traffic to notice you, you need to pay close attention towards promotion of your web site. If your web site is properly promoted and your web based business is properly marketed, you will get a higher flow of quality web traffic towards your web site. In this way you will be in the position to make some money through rendering promotional help to other web sites.

If you want to make more profit through web site promotion, you can do so by selling some spaced available on your web site to other web sites. If any other web site places their link on your web site, you can charge them for this service. Similarly, placing banner ads or Rss activity is also helpful in making money. Pay per click advertising is also a very common type of web site promotion tool which can pay you really good. People use all of these tools to make money through web site promotion. Generating quality web traffic is very important. If you do not get quality traffic, you will not be able to survive the competition in the online world.
http://www.ezinearticles.com

Comments

Making Money with Internet Domains

There are thousands of ways to make money Online. Almost all of these methods start with an Internet domain since your domain name tells people where to find you Online. Domain names can be purchased for as little as eight or nine dollars. This small investment can pay off many times over.

The usual model for making money from domains involves buying domains and selling. As with physical real estate, or any investment, the objective is to buy low and sell high. While a few people have made millions selling domains with this method, there is not usually a lot of demand for an individual domain name. Domains may sit for years before they get a single interested buyer and that offer is often too low to take seriously. Other models for earning income from domains have developed in the last few years, foremost among them being domain parking.

Pay-per-click domain parking has been a lucrative way for some to earn money from domains. This white paper will emphasize this approach. The domain parking services described here provide no-cost hosting of your site and pay you every time someone clicks on a link.

Where should you park your domains? These sites differ in important ways, and one company will likely work better than another for your domains.

Affiliate income programs allow you to sell a product on your site and keep a percentage of the profit. You can do this from a site you build, or you can redirect a domain to an affiliate page created for you by the merchant who is hosting the offer.

Developing your domain into a complete, stand-alone website can sometimes make the most money. It is also the most labor-intensive.

Evaluating PPC Domain Parking Services

Paid Domain parking, the easiest approach, is often the best. ParkQuick.com is a site that features objective reviews of domain parking services. Domain Parking Services are different from each other in significant ways. Some services require that you own a minimum number of domain names, and others do not. Changes appear immediately with some services, while others require approval in advance. (All of these services provide free hosting.) In some cases you can earn cash when someone simply views your page (pay per impression), or when they click through to another site (pay per click). Some of these services will automatically optimize your sites based on what people search for. RPM (revenue per thousand impressions) is not the whole story. Some companies make it easy for you to use single-click landing pages, while others do not.

These parking services change their sites and payouts often to keep up with rapid changes in this field. All have ways to detect click-fraud, and your account will be canceled if click-fraud is ever suspected. Never click on your own links. ParkQuick’s monthly Name Monetizer newsletter will keep you up-do-date on the most recent changes. You can also read the most recent recommendations for small and large domain portfolios owners.

Some newsletter readers have asked whether they can send paid traffic to their pages. Most parking services forbid all paid traffic because it generally does not result in sales. Some parking services do allow you to buy AdWords or Overture ads and send that traffic to your domains. This is usually not cost-effective, however. Unless you are extremely careful you will end up in the red by paying more for the clicks than you will earn off the parking.

There is actually a good deal of overlap among people who consider themselves to be “domainers” and those who consider themselves Online marketers. In both cases men and women are trying to make money Online, often with the goal of “quitting our day jobs” to live off a passive income stream. We earn money when someone visiting our sites takes some action based on content on one of our sites. We earn money when they click, or when they sign-up for a service, or take some other action.
http://www.ezinearticles.com

Comments

Domain Names - 3 Top Ways to Make More Money With Domain Names

With the ever increasing number of web sites on the World Wide Web, the competition amongst the web sites is on a rise. It has become very important for all the web sites today to stand out of the crowd. Those websites which do not pay due attention towards highlighting their businesses often fail to stay in competition with their rivals. There are many things which are important when it comes to staying in business and to make money in the online world. Domain names are very important in this regard. If your website has a nice and attractive domain name, your chances of staying in business increase. Domain names are important in this regard.

It is not possible for human beings to remember the numeric URLs of the websites. To solve this problem now we have domain names. A good domain name is the one which is closely related to the content of the website. If you have a domain name which can suggest the nature of your business, the chances of getting searched by the search engine are higher when any internet surfer performs a related search through the search engine. Thus choose a good domain name which is related to the nature of your business. This will ensure that you will be noticed by the search engine and the chances of getting quality web traffic will increase. Also, you must use domain names which are easy to remember. Very literary but difficult to remember domain names may not be able to pay you a lot.
http://www.ezinearticles.com

Comments

Does Your “Old” Site Work on the “New” Web?

Well, apparently there IS something new under the sun…..and it’s happening all over the web. New technologies, new applications, and new features are making all kinds of web sites more useful than ever before, including business web sites. You may have heard it described as “web 2.0,” the “interactive web,” or the “content-driven web,” but all of these terms reinforce the same basic idea – the web has changed!

It used to be that small businesses could simply use their existing brochures and product sheets as content for their web sites, add a few keywords, and maybe add a contact form to create a pretty good small business web site. But now, there’s a new web environment for business that’s based on multimedia, interactivity, and creative presentation techniques that make these old-school web tactics seem positively outdated.

So what’s a small business to do?

Content Delivery

For starters, you’re going to have to actively communicate with your site visitors, not just provide them with a static “brochure-site” that they can read. For instance, what can your visitors expect to gain by visiting your site? Can they sign up for an e-newsletter? Do you have downloadable reports or e-books to offer them? Does your content offer them actual useful information, or is it just page after page of sales pitch? You may need to rethink the way in which you deliver your web content, and determine better ways to provide value to your visitors.

Meet New Expectations

You may also want to pay attention to the new technologies available on today’s web sites, because users are quickly becoming accustomed to them. Visitors often expect to see technologies such as RSS feeds, blogs, and podcasts available from business sites, as well as video “ads,” interviews, and tutorials. Even adding simple features can make a big difference for a web site. For example, adding an interactive calendar of events to your site (especially if you allow visitors to submit events for publication) can send a strong signal to your users that you are able to meet their expectations both on your web site and in your business, making you a natural choice over your competitors!

Make the Right Impression

If you’re a small business, the temptation might be to think that these new expectations don’t really apply to your business, or that your customers don’t really care about how sophisticated your web site is (or isn’t). Well, that’s simply not the case. Studies have shown over and over again that customers make decisions based on emotional “gut feelings,” often based on their impression of your business. If you present them with an old-fashioned, outdated web site, what do you think they will remember (if they remember you at all)?

Make sure your web site is an accurate reflection of your business, and give your visitors a reason to “click around” and get to know your company. Offer them a variety of interesting material that’s presented appropriately for today’s web users. Meet their expectations on your web site, and they will be less likely to move on to the next site (a.k.a. your competition!) and more likely to do business with you.
http://www.ezinearticles.com

Comments

Web Page Design Software Review

Good web page design software makes it easy to produce good-looking websites. (Our website reviews the easiest ones to use.) But the content you select and how you organize it is the difference between visitors staying longer than 3 seconds or not. I’ve identified 10 common mistakes made by web design newbies:

1. Too Many Advertisements
Making money from your website is fine, as long as you don’t get too greedy by jamming too many ads everywhere. (Of course, by doing this, you will make less money anyway.) What’s “too many?” Go to your website as a visitor, and have someone else look it over, too. Trust your first impression and compare it to what your friend or family member thought about it. If you do have ads, make sure they’re not too intrusive or obnoxious–like flashing banners, for example.

2. Using Flash Intros; a “Splash Page” with a little movie
Bad idea! Don’t use a Flash intro on your website. Only rarely is it ever done tastefully and appropriately. Even when it is done well, it’s a waste of effort. It’s just too risky and the rewards are NONE. No matter how cool a flash intro may look, it has never, ever proved to increase traffic or website “stickiness.” It almost always has the opposite effect.

3. Too Many Plugins
Keep any media that uses plugins to a strict maximum of one per page. For example, if you’ve got Flash, then you shouldn’t have a media player, or if you’ve got a little program run by Java then you shouldn’t have Flash as well. Don’t be tempted to plug in stuff on your website just because you think it looks “cool.”

4. Confusing Layout and Navigation
Many websites seem to make the simplest task take several steps to achieve. Remember that web surfers are in an extremely short attention-span mode and won’t stick around to try to figure out your website. This is where choosing good web site design software pays off.

5. Unclear Website Theme
It’s easy to get tunnel vision about getting all the little tasks done to your new website and forget the big picture. What I’m talking about here is the need for you to have a main theme/main purpose for your site…One that is completely obvious in the first 3 seconds of someone landing on your homepage.

Think of television commercials that you finally figured out after seeing several times, because it wasn’t clear what the ad was about…It’s not that you weren’t smart enough to figure out those ads; you simply didn’t invest the mental effort–very slight though it may be–into figuring out the ad the first time.

Because watching T.V. commercials is often no different than surfing the internet as far as the mental effort you’re willing to devote to it. But with the internet, your visitors are only going to see your site ONCE–for about 3 seconds before making a decision to stay or leave. If they leave, they’re never coming back, unlike T.V. commercials. So you have to make your message and your site very clear. Slight confusion = Instant Back button or the red “X.”

6. Broken Links
You should check all your links regularly to make sure that they all still work. Think of the times you find a site that has links that don’t work: You instantly make some assumptions about the site–like it’s outdated and unprofessional. It’s the same feeling you get when you see simple words misspelled.

7. Weird Fonts
Never get too cute and creative with your website fonts. Stick to the most common web fonts like Verdana, Arial, Times New Roman, and Tahoma. Besides, many of your visitors won’t have other fonts installed in their browsers and computers, so all they’ll see is gobbledygook. If you do want to use non-standard fonts, then limit it to graphic header images or logos–where they’re displayed as part of the image.

8. Bad Sized Fonts
It’s important to keep your text around the standard size–like 10, 11, or 12. Making text too big or too small makes it hard to read and is a great way to get your visitors to leave immediately.

9. High-Contrasting Webpage Colors
You’ve seen those webpages that have a dark background with bright-colored or white text. Or sites with very bright or very dark margins, which contrasts with the actual webpage content. All of these puts a strain on the eyes, which makes it hard to read and = Instant Back Button. The tried and true method is to use black text on a white background.

10. Auto-Sizing Webpages
Look at this webpage: craftown.com and you’ll see an example of how not to use auto-sizing webpages. The idea behind auto-sizing webpages is to use the whole desktop real estate instead of limiting the page to say, 750 pixels wide. This way, on small monitors the webpage looks large enough to read. But the problem comes with larger monitors where the text gets stretched way further than is normal for reading. And nowadays, most people have larger monitors. The fix? If you do use auto-sizing webpages, be sure to limit the text to a specific pixel amount. If you don’t know how to do this, get a web design pro to do it or don’t use it at all.

http://www.ezinearticles.com

Comments

« Previous entries