Sunday, December 30, 2007
How to find an overselling web hosting companies
If you are reading this you probably need help on choosing a good provider as a hosting service. In the last ten years the pc industry has reached its limit. As a result to that there is even more competition than ever before. But not all services are good. They will promise everything and than once you pay them, they WILL leave you in the dust.
How can I avoid being cheated?
The so called frauds usually make a quite good review and story about their companies so if you can’t distinguish silly offers and if you don’t have some experience, than you are an easy target. Keep in mind. Most of the providers just care about money and not you and you needs. Here are some examples of a silly offer:
- 5000 GB of transfer, 500 GB of space, 1 free domain etc. just for 4$/month - 5000 GB of transfer, 500 GB of space, 1 free domain etc. + the site creation for just 10$/month
These 2 are just examples. Hardly anyone can fall for them. But in the real life, the offers can be much more cunning.
Some companies won’t even answer you the second you pay them by paypal or some other bank account. That’s usually considered the easiest way of getting money.
If you are just starting in this business than you should follow these steps so you can at least have an idea on which are real offers and professional providers, and which are the ones that just want to steal your money.
Examples:
» Cheaper is not always better, experienced webmasters say - you get what you pay for.
» Look for hosts who have multiple support options.
» Find out how long the hosting company has been in business.
» Chances are if the company’s main website is slow, yours will be too.
Anyway once you start getting in stuff like this, you’ll probably be able to figure out the frauds from the honest providers.
Also their own site can be used as a critic. You should be able to judge if the site is done professionally or not. If they can’t make a good enough site, believe me, than they can’t provide even the basic hosting. But don’t be fooled, some companies hire some cheap web designer to make an appealing site for them.
Actually when I think of it it’s all about luck and some brains. But is there a technique so that I don’t waste my money?
- Actually there is. Have you ever seen the ad “free web hosting”, if you aren’t sure about the provider, if he’ll be able to host your site and if that IS the thing you have been looking for? You haven’t got anything to lose except maybe some time, but even that’s better than wasting money. So I hope you have learned something from this article and good luck finding the right hosting service!
How can I avoid being cheated?
The so called frauds usually make a quite good review and story about their companies so if you can’t distinguish silly offers and if you don’t have some experience, than you are an easy target. Keep in mind. Most of the providers just care about money and not you and you needs. Here are some examples of a silly offer:
- 5000 GB of transfer, 500 GB of space, 1 free domain etc. just for 4$/month - 5000 GB of transfer, 500 GB of space, 1 free domain etc. + the site creation for just 10$/month
These 2 are just examples. Hardly anyone can fall for them. But in the real life, the offers can be much more cunning.
Some companies won’t even answer you the second you pay them by paypal or some other bank account. That’s usually considered the easiest way of getting money.
If you are just starting in this business than you should follow these steps so you can at least have an idea on which are real offers and professional providers, and which are the ones that just want to steal your money.
Examples:
» Cheaper is not always better, experienced webmasters say - you get what you pay for.
» Look for hosts who have multiple support options.
» Find out how long the hosting company has been in business.
» Chances are if the company’s main website is slow, yours will be too.
Anyway once you start getting in stuff like this, you’ll probably be able to figure out the frauds from the honest providers.
Also their own site can be used as a critic. You should be able to judge if the site is done professionally or not. If they can’t make a good enough site, believe me, than they can’t provide even the basic hosting. But don’t be fooled, some companies hire some cheap web designer to make an appealing site for them.
Actually when I think of it it’s all about luck and some brains. But is there a technique so that I don’t waste my money?
- Actually there is. Have you ever seen the ad “free web hosting”, if you aren’t sure about the provider, if he’ll be able to host your site and if that IS the thing you have been looking for? You haven’t got anything to lose except maybe some time, but even that’s better than wasting money. So I hope you have learned something from this article and good luck finding the right hosting service!
Labels: How to find an overselling web hosting companies
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Free Web Marketing
Not all web marketing needs to cost money. Aside from website submissions, there are a number of things that web marketers can do that are free, though they may be rather time-consuming. Other marketing tactics are relatively inexpensive, and are often well worth the investment.
Follow these basic steps to market your website and business.
1. Sign It
Include your website URL as part of your "signature" in any online forum and newsgroup posts. It is not uncommon for someone who appreciates the comments to click through to the websites found in the signatures of forum posts. This will not only increase link popularity, but will help establish your industry knowledge. It goes without saying that URLs should also be included in email signatures.
2. Utilize Social Bookmarking
There are a number of social bookmarking websites, where the collective users select the materials that they determine to be popular. If you have created resources that are worthy, be sure to bookmark them in the social bookmarking networks. List of
Social Bookmarking Websites - http://www.feedforall.com/social-bookmarking-icons.htm
3. Niche Networking
Network with key players in niche markets. Schmoozing with authorities in niche markets can often pay big dividends. Learn the "Who's Who" in any given niche market.
4. Donations
Goodwill goes a long way. Donate a percentage of sales to a non-profit organization or charity. If revenue is an issue, consider donating products or services to fund-raising auctions or other fund-raising efforts. Donations will often reach an audience outside the parameters of your normal market, and will show that you care... and aside from all that, your donations will actually benefit the organization or charity.
5. Answers / Askville
Use Yahoo Answers and Amazon's Askville to answer questions. The more answers that are endorsed, the more your advice will be valued. Provide genuine, honest answers and build your reputation. It appears that many "top" answers appear high in Yahoo search results, and Yahoo Answers captures a lot of long-tail traffic.
Yahoo Answers - http://answers.yahoo.com
Amazon Askville - http://www.askville.com
6. SEO
Spend the time it takes to properly optimize your website for the search engines. This is not an area to cut corners or skimp on. Proper search engine optimization, while an ongoing process and very time-consuming, can pay big dividends and will often result in long-term search engine traffic.
7. Classifieds
There are a number of free classified listing services. Add your products or services to any free classified listings that might be relevant.
8. Recommend It
Add a "Recommend To A Friend" script to the product pages on your website. Nothing beats a referral from a friend. Leverage viral marketing by providing your website visitors with the tools to easily spread the word for you.
9. Blog / RSS / Podcasting
Generate your own publicity using a blog, RSS feed, podcast, or video cast. Use these alternate communication channels to expand your audience. 10. Related Content Site Develop a content website that contains related information and materials. Content sites are often defined as "authority" websites. Authority websites are often quick to garner search engine favor and top ranking for relevant search terms.
11. Wiki
Update wiki listings with useful and helpful content. Good wiki editing will reinforce your reputation and help educate your audience.
12. Forum Participation
Actively participating in related forums will generate goodwill and increase your brand reputation. And be sure to add a company tagline and website link to the signature of your forum posts.
Marketing efforts need not break the bank for a fledgling company or struggling small business. Use the tools available, and build your business through smart marketing.
Follow these basic steps to market your website and business.
1. Sign It
Include your website URL as part of your "signature" in any online forum and newsgroup posts. It is not uncommon for someone who appreciates the comments to click through to the websites found in the signatures of forum posts. This will not only increase link popularity, but will help establish your industry knowledge. It goes without saying that URLs should also be included in email signatures.
2. Utilize Social Bookmarking
There are a number of social bookmarking websites, where the collective users select the materials that they determine to be popular. If you have created resources that are worthy, be sure to bookmark them in the social bookmarking networks. List of
Social Bookmarking Websites - http://www.feedforall.com/social-bookmarking-icons.htm
3. Niche Networking
Network with key players in niche markets. Schmoozing with authorities in niche markets can often pay big dividends. Learn the "Who's Who" in any given niche market.
4. Donations
Goodwill goes a long way. Donate a percentage of sales to a non-profit organization or charity. If revenue is an issue, consider donating products or services to fund-raising auctions or other fund-raising efforts. Donations will often reach an audience outside the parameters of your normal market, and will show that you care... and aside from all that, your donations will actually benefit the organization or charity.
5. Answers / Askville
Use Yahoo Answers and Amazon's Askville to answer questions. The more answers that are endorsed, the more your advice will be valued. Provide genuine, honest answers and build your reputation. It appears that many "top" answers appear high in Yahoo search results, and Yahoo Answers captures a lot of long-tail traffic.
Yahoo Answers - http://answers.yahoo.com
Amazon Askville - http://www.askville.com
6. SEO
Spend the time it takes to properly optimize your website for the search engines. This is not an area to cut corners or skimp on. Proper search engine optimization, while an ongoing process and very time-consuming, can pay big dividends and will often result in long-term search engine traffic.
7. Classifieds
There are a number of free classified listing services. Add your products or services to any free classified listings that might be relevant.
8. Recommend It
Add a "Recommend To A Friend" script to the product pages on your website. Nothing beats a referral from a friend. Leverage viral marketing by providing your website visitors with the tools to easily spread the word for you.
9. Blog / RSS / Podcasting
Generate your own publicity using a blog, RSS feed, podcast, or video cast. Use these alternate communication channels to expand your audience. 10. Related Content Site Develop a content website that contains related information and materials. Content sites are often defined as "authority" websites. Authority websites are often quick to garner search engine favor and top ranking for relevant search terms.
11. Wiki
Update wiki listings with useful and helpful content. Good wiki editing will reinforce your reputation and help educate your audience.
12. Forum Participation
Actively participating in related forums will generate goodwill and increase your brand reputation. And be sure to add a company tagline and website link to the signature of your forum posts.
Marketing efforts need not break the bank for a fledgling company or struggling small business. Use the tools available, and build your business through smart marketing.
Labels: Free Web Marketing
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Choosing the Right Shopping Cart Software and Web Content Management Software
Find shopping cart software and web content management software that will accommodate the smooth running of your online business and at the same time give your customers an effortless shopping environment.
Shopping cart software is ecommerce software which enables merchants to run a business online. The shopping cart software is made up of an ordering system, by which users can choose products from a list, place the product in their virtual 'basket' and then pay through credit card or other media.
Web content management software allows webmasters to organise and handle all information that is uploaded to a website no matter where they are located. The software provides users with all of the tools and features required to build and customise the content and appearance of their complete online store. Web content management software often comes complete with news management features to support the complexities of publishing continuous amounts of news, articles and reviews. Some support forums and help desk features that allow webmasters to communicate effectively with their customers, and additional features can include support for voting polls, banner management and more.
The first most important step in online selling, is choosing the right shopping cart system and content management tool. You need to find an ecommerce system that will accommodate the smooth running of your online business and at the same time give your customers an effortless shopping environment. It's therefore important to identify the features you think you will need from your shopping cart software and web content management software.
To identify the features you will need, it is essential that you know your product well and your future intentions. What you intend to sell online and how you intend to expand your business will greatly determine what features you need from your shopping cart system and web content management software.
To help you evaluate some of the features you may need to run your online business, it will help to think about how important the following features are to you. The level of demand for each of these features will depend a great deal on how experienced you are with shopping carts and web site content management.
In part 1 we will look at what shopping cart features you may want to think about:
Installation
Do you need an easy to follow web-based installation process to lead you each step of the way? Or do you have PHP knowledge often needed to install and customise an open source code?
Availability of Technical Support
If you do not feel confident about installing, running and managing your shopping cart software the availability of technical support will be important to you and will play a big part in helping you decide which shopping cart software is right for you.
Search Engine Friendly
Search engines drive a great amount of traffic to a website therefore it is important your product pages can be easily accessed by the search engines.
For ecommerce websites that offer a large number of products, dynamically generated websites offer some real benefits. However some search engines have been unable to spider dynamic websites in the past and they often do not appear high up in the search engines. Some shopping cart solutions have overcome this problem by producing static pages, so this may be an important factor to you. Similarly, some web content management solutions support the ability to add META data to each page and RSS feed support, an important factor in on-page search engine optimisation.
Conversion Friendly Checkout Process
The purpose of most online shops is to generate sales, therefore the less number of clicks a user has to perform to actually purchase the product, the better. If the shopping cart takes a user through too many stages before they get what they (and you) want, it is likely they will not convert.
Product Growth
It is particularly important that your shopping cart has room for growth. If your product line is small you may want to expand it in future if a particular line of products do well. Some shopping carts can offer unlimited products or have an upgrade feature should you need more from your shopping cart software. However others can limit the number of products allowed, therefore you consider this when selecting your software.
Test, test, test
The key to choosing the right shopping cart software is practical testing and this is the same for web content management software. You should download a free version of the shopping cart and experiment with their features to see if they are right for you.
Shopping cart software is ecommerce software which enables merchants to run a business online. The shopping cart software is made up of an ordering system, by which users can choose products from a list, place the product in their virtual 'basket' and then pay through credit card or other media.
Web content management software allows webmasters to organise and handle all information that is uploaded to a website no matter where they are located. The software provides users with all of the tools and features required to build and customise the content and appearance of their complete online store. Web content management software often comes complete with news management features to support the complexities of publishing continuous amounts of news, articles and reviews. Some support forums and help desk features that allow webmasters to communicate effectively with their customers, and additional features can include support for voting polls, banner management and more.
The first most important step in online selling, is choosing the right shopping cart system and content management tool. You need to find an ecommerce system that will accommodate the smooth running of your online business and at the same time give your customers an effortless shopping environment. It's therefore important to identify the features you think you will need from your shopping cart software and web content management software.
To identify the features you will need, it is essential that you know your product well and your future intentions. What you intend to sell online and how you intend to expand your business will greatly determine what features you need from your shopping cart system and web content management software.
To help you evaluate some of the features you may need to run your online business, it will help to think about how important the following features are to you. The level of demand for each of these features will depend a great deal on how experienced you are with shopping carts and web site content management.
In part 1 we will look at what shopping cart features you may want to think about:
Installation
Do you need an easy to follow web-based installation process to lead you each step of the way? Or do you have PHP knowledge often needed to install and customise an open source code?
Availability of Technical Support
If you do not feel confident about installing, running and managing your shopping cart software the availability of technical support will be important to you and will play a big part in helping you decide which shopping cart software is right for you.
Search Engine Friendly
Search engines drive a great amount of traffic to a website therefore it is important your product pages can be easily accessed by the search engines.
For ecommerce websites that offer a large number of products, dynamically generated websites offer some real benefits. However some search engines have been unable to spider dynamic websites in the past and they often do not appear high up in the search engines. Some shopping cart solutions have overcome this problem by producing static pages, so this may be an important factor to you. Similarly, some web content management solutions support the ability to add META data to each page and RSS feed support, an important factor in on-page search engine optimisation.
Conversion Friendly Checkout Process
The purpose of most online shops is to generate sales, therefore the less number of clicks a user has to perform to actually purchase the product, the better. If the shopping cart takes a user through too many stages before they get what they (and you) want, it is likely they will not convert.
Product Growth
It is particularly important that your shopping cart has room for growth. If your product line is small you may want to expand it in future if a particular line of products do well. Some shopping carts can offer unlimited products or have an upgrade feature should you need more from your shopping cart software. However others can limit the number of products allowed, therefore you consider this when selecting your software.
Test, test, test
The key to choosing the right shopping cart software is practical testing and this is the same for web content management software. You should download a free version of the shopping cart and experiment with their features to see if they are right for you.
Labels: Choosing the Right Shopping Cart Software and Web Content Management Software
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Basic Questions To Ask Yourself About Lifetime Web Hosting
We have all see these deals from time to time "Lifetime Web Hosting! Pay one price for the lifetime of your account!" On the surface the deal seems to be good. But is it? There are several questions you should ask yourself before you consider such a deal, because you may not get your money's worth out of it, and you may experience some other unfortunate consequences. So how do you know if lifetime web hosting is right for you?
1. How long will you have your web hosting account?
The first question to ask yourself is how long will you have a hosting account for the particular site you are building? The way most lifetime hosting offers work is they determine how long (in months) an average customer stays with their company and multiply that number by their monthly selling price for a web hosting account. They will then use that number to determine how much to charge as a one time hosting fee.
If you are only planning to have your account for 1 year or less, it probably isn't worth it to purchase a lifetime web hosting account, as you will be charged a premium for your hosting account.
If you plan on keeping your account for more than 2 or 3 years, it may be worth the price, but you will have to answer the following questions to see if a lifetime hosting account is really for you.
2. Is your web site going to require a lot of resources?
If you plan on having a web site that has a high amount of traffic, or will actively use a database, you may want to re-think your purchase. Companies that sell lifetime hosting accounts make money from you once, but their expenses happen every month. As a result, they have to continue to sell lifetime web hosting accounts in order to make enough income to pay their expenses, which gives them a strong motive to minimize.
One of the expenses, is server space and capacity. The more servers a web hosting company has, the more their monthly expenses are. One way to reduce their expenses, is to put more hosting accounts on a server than it can reasonably handle with the expectation that most websites will not use the full capacity of their account. Many times, these servers are oversold on space and bandwidth (think of an airline selling more tickets than they have seats for a specific flight).
The result is that sites on these servers tend to be slower than average, and if you have a site that has a lot of traffic, many of your visitors may have trouble getting to your site, and will leave before your web page shows up in their browser.
If this situation isn't important to you, the next question is certainly one you should be asking yourself.
3. What is the refund policy of the hosting company?
Since many of the servers in these lifetime hosting companies are overloaded, they usually take a zero tolerance policy on any web site that causes any extra load on the server, which may cause it to crash, and it can be a one strike and your out, with no refund.
On over-extended servers, (servers with more hosting accounts on them than they have capacity for), it is very easy to create an overload on the server. It can be as simple as having a lot of page views from the traffic the website gets, or having your blog attacked by a bunch of robot scripts trying to post comment spam to your blog. There is nothing you can do about it in these cases, but it can cause a server that is already at it's limit, to crash.
If this happens after only 6 months into your web hosting contract, you may be totally out of luck and have your site shut down with no refund. In this case, it would have been a very expensive hosting service. Be sure to check the terms of service before purchasing this type of hosting.
4. Do you expect a high level of customer service?
The quality of the customer service goes along with the theme of reducing expenses. One of the first places most customers experience in expense cutting is the level of customer service. Much of the time, customer service is outsourced and overseas. There may be language barriers to contend with as well as some delays in getting your questions answered, and problems resolved. Sometimes you may have to deal with less experienced hosting administrators, but by no means do you find the less experienced customer service representatives only in the lifetime web hosting arena.
This is an important factor to consider because if the customer service is really bad, you may be forced to leave the hosting company and walk away from your entire hosting investment. Be sure to get as much information as you can about the particular company you are considering, especially their level of customer service and their technical competency.
When asking the question, "Is lifetime web hosting right for me?" you want to determine what kind of site you plan on having, and how you plan to use it (will there be heavy traffic or not?), how long you plan on having your web site up, and some other factors such as how important are things such as customer service to you. In a limited number of circumstances, lifetime web hosting can be a deal as it is better than free hosting, but if you step outside of the limited situations, you may end up paying a lot more than you bargained for.
Look for resource sites to help you with deciding how to pick your web hosting.
1. How long will you have your web hosting account?
The first question to ask yourself is how long will you have a hosting account for the particular site you are building? The way most lifetime hosting offers work is they determine how long (in months) an average customer stays with their company and multiply that number by their monthly selling price for a web hosting account. They will then use that number to determine how much to charge as a one time hosting fee.
If you are only planning to have your account for 1 year or less, it probably isn't worth it to purchase a lifetime web hosting account, as you will be charged a premium for your hosting account.
If you plan on keeping your account for more than 2 or 3 years, it may be worth the price, but you will have to answer the following questions to see if a lifetime hosting account is really for you.
2. Is your web site going to require a lot of resources?
If you plan on having a web site that has a high amount of traffic, or will actively use a database, you may want to re-think your purchase. Companies that sell lifetime hosting accounts make money from you once, but their expenses happen every month. As a result, they have to continue to sell lifetime web hosting accounts in order to make enough income to pay their expenses, which gives them a strong motive to minimize.
One of the expenses, is server space and capacity. The more servers a web hosting company has, the more their monthly expenses are. One way to reduce their expenses, is to put more hosting accounts on a server than it can reasonably handle with the expectation that most websites will not use the full capacity of their account. Many times, these servers are oversold on space and bandwidth (think of an airline selling more tickets than they have seats for a specific flight).
The result is that sites on these servers tend to be slower than average, and if you have a site that has a lot of traffic, many of your visitors may have trouble getting to your site, and will leave before your web page shows up in their browser.
If this situation isn't important to you, the next question is certainly one you should be asking yourself.
3. What is the refund policy of the hosting company?
Since many of the servers in these lifetime hosting companies are overloaded, they usually take a zero tolerance policy on any web site that causes any extra load on the server, which may cause it to crash, and it can be a one strike and your out, with no refund.
On over-extended servers, (servers with more hosting accounts on them than they have capacity for), it is very easy to create an overload on the server. It can be as simple as having a lot of page views from the traffic the website gets, or having your blog attacked by a bunch of robot scripts trying to post comment spam to your blog. There is nothing you can do about it in these cases, but it can cause a server that is already at it's limit, to crash.
If this happens after only 6 months into your web hosting contract, you may be totally out of luck and have your site shut down with no refund. In this case, it would have been a very expensive hosting service. Be sure to check the terms of service before purchasing this type of hosting.
4. Do you expect a high level of customer service?
The quality of the customer service goes along with the theme of reducing expenses. One of the first places most customers experience in expense cutting is the level of customer service. Much of the time, customer service is outsourced and overseas. There may be language barriers to contend with as well as some delays in getting your questions answered, and problems resolved. Sometimes you may have to deal with less experienced hosting administrators, but by no means do you find the less experienced customer service representatives only in the lifetime web hosting arena.
This is an important factor to consider because if the customer service is really bad, you may be forced to leave the hosting company and walk away from your entire hosting investment. Be sure to get as much information as you can about the particular company you are considering, especially their level of customer service and their technical competency.
When asking the question, "Is lifetime web hosting right for me?" you want to determine what kind of site you plan on having, and how you plan to use it (will there be heavy traffic or not?), how long you plan on having your web site up, and some other factors such as how important are things such as customer service to you. In a limited number of circumstances, lifetime web hosting can be a deal as it is better than free hosting, but if you step outside of the limited situations, you may end up paying a lot more than you bargained for.
Look for resource sites to help you with deciding how to pick your web hosting.
Labels: basic Questions To Ask Yourself About Lifetime Web Hosting
Sunday, December 23, 2007
When choosing a host for our new site we needed transfer speed, server reliability and storage space.
When choosing a host for our new site we needed transfer speed, server reliability and storage space. After looking at numerous hosting companies, Easy CGI was the hands-down winner in all three areas. We couldn't be more satisfied with the services that Easy CGI provides.
Can't Stand Your Web Hosting Company?
Labels: server reliability and storage space, When choosing a host for our new site we needed transfer speed
The Reasons You Should Avoid Free Website and Hosting Deals
Do a search for free websites or free hosting on Google and you’ll get 191,000,000 or more links to websites that offer this so called deal. If you are planning to setup a family site, with the latest news, photos of the kids etc, or you’re a genealogist and would like to post your family tree and information for other genealogists, and all the traffic you want or need is your family, friends and whatever strangers you happen to meet and would like to send to your URL, then by all means take advantage of their offer. Because that is probably all the traffic you are going to get to visit your site. However if you are seriously considering becoming an internet entrepreneur, find yourself a reputable web design company and an affordable hosting plan. Too expensive? Not at all. Actually, the start up costs for an internet business is usually less than a hundred dollars (this figure is based on the average cost of a domain, a professionally designed website and set up fees).
Naturally custom built websites would be substantially more expensive but, unless you require the addition of unique features in order to manage your business, your most cost effective choice would be a professionally designed website.
There are three factors which I encourage my clients to keep in mind when selecting a website for their online business venture. The deciding factors when selecting your web design should be the ease of navigation and the suitability of the page layout to your content. Customers come to your site searching for a product, service, or information. If your site does not provide easy access to the content they want, they not going to hang around just to admire the design elements of your website. By selecting a layout suitable for the content you intend to place on your web pages, whether its product images and descriptions or informational content, like this article for example, you can save a lot of time and--if you intend to have your support staff setup your content-- money as well.
The third factor is the basic web design. While many experts, and myself as well, believe customers are sub-consciously motivated by colors, (red encourages them to take action, blue promotes a sense of trust, yellow and orange, a sense of well being or contentment, etc), the basic design elements of your website such as the background colors, images, bullets, flash etc, are really a matter of personal preference.
Your free provider offers templates you may use to create your website. However, before you go to the trouble, read the fine print. Those templates are the property of the free provider. You may only use them as long as you use the free provider’s services. If you decide to move your site to another hosting provider in future, that lovely site you worked so hard to design isn’t going anywhere bucko. On the other hand, once you purchase a professionally designed website, it’s yours. You can move it to Timbuktu if you’re so inclined.
A good support staff is an extremely valuable if not totally indispensable resource for a new website owner. Unfortunately it is also a resource that very few free website providers offer.
Would you like to know how to determine whether a web design company has a good support staff before you purchase your website? Simply email the seller these two simple questions.
1. How do I setup links on my site?
Naturally custom built websites would be substantially more expensive but, unless you require the addition of unique features in order to manage your business, your most cost effective choice would be a professionally designed website.
There are three factors which I encourage my clients to keep in mind when selecting a website for their online business venture. The deciding factors when selecting your web design should be the ease of navigation and the suitability of the page layout to your content. Customers come to your site searching for a product, service, or information. If your site does not provide easy access to the content they want, they not going to hang around just to admire the design elements of your website. By selecting a layout suitable for the content you intend to place on your web pages, whether its product images and descriptions or informational content, like this article for example, you can save a lot of time and--if you intend to have your support staff setup your content-- money as well.
The third factor is the basic web design. While many experts, and myself as well, believe customers are sub-consciously motivated by colors, (red encourages them to take action, blue promotes a sense of trust, yellow and orange, a sense of well being or contentment, etc), the basic design elements of your website such as the background colors, images, bullets, flash etc, are really a matter of personal preference.
Your free provider offers templates you may use to create your website. However, before you go to the trouble, read the fine print. Those templates are the property of the free provider. You may only use them as long as you use the free provider’s services. If you decide to move your site to another hosting provider in future, that lovely site you worked so hard to design isn’t going anywhere bucko. On the other hand, once you purchase a professionally designed website, it’s yours. You can move it to Timbuktu if you’re so inclined.
A good support staff is an extremely valuable if not totally indispensable resource for a new website owner. Unfortunately it is also a resource that very few free website providers offer.
Would you like to know how to determine whether a web design company has a good support staff before you purchase your website? Simply email the seller these two simple questions.
1. How do I setup links on my site?
2. What software will I need to manage my site?
If you don’t get a response to your questions within 24 to 48 hours, look elsewhere for your website. If the only answers you receive are an offer to setup the links for you for a small fee and a list of expensive software products, look elsewhere for your website.
A good support staff will respond to your request within 24 to 48 hours. A good support staff will offer to setup links on your site for you for a small fee--and provide you with a list of links to free software you can use to manage your site. The list will probably include some optional software products you may find useful for the management of your site. The key words here are free and optional. An excellent support staff will tell you up front whether a product is optional or not.
The two software products you absolutely must have to manage your website are a good text editor and FTP program. Any support staff worth their salt will tell you that there are several free text editors with WISIWIG (what you see is what you get) capabilities available on the internet. These editors are an excellent choice for those of you who don’t know HTML. The staff will also tell you that there you can get free FTP programs as well. An excellent support staff will offer advice similar to the advice given in the following paragraph:
"We would be more than happy to set up your links. However, with a good WISIWIG text editor, you can easily set up your links yourself even if you don’t know HTML. Refer to the help section for "hyperlinks" in your WISIWIG text editor to learn how to use this feature on your editor. By the way, if you don’t know HTML, it’s actually an extremely easy language to learn. There are free HTML tutorials available on the internet. In case you're interested, here is a link to the tutorial we recommend..."
A domain is an extremely valuable asset; you should most definitely have one of your very own. Without a domain of your own, you may as well save yourself the time and trouble of trying to start an online business at all. The average cost of a .com domain is approx $8.95 per year. You’ll find that some web design companies will include your domain with your professionally designed website at no extra charge.
If you are planning to use a free provider, then don’t bother purchasing a domain for your new site unless you intend to shell out the provider’s membership fee. Most free providers provide you with two membership options—free or paid. If you choose the free membership option, the provider will set up your URL for you website like this: FREE PROVIDER DOMAIN/YOUR USER ID, or even worse, like this: FREE PROVIDER DOMAIN/DIR/YOUR USER ID. Settle for either one these URLs, and you’ll be lucky to even get your site indexed by the search engines and directories at all. You see, many search engines and directories will not accept your website submissions if your URL contains a forward slash. Some major search engines and directories categorically refuse to accept submissions for websites hosted with free providers at all. Google rarely indexes sites hosted by free providers, and even more rarely gives the site a ranking greater than 0/10.
Even if you are lucky enough to land yourself a few customers for your site, the inclusion of a free provider’s domain in your URL can also have an adverse affect on your ability to get repeat customers for your site. Yourdomain.com is fairly easy for your customer to recall. Your provider domain.com/your user id would be extremely difficult for them to remember since they have probably never done business with your provider. . Look at it this way. Your URL is the name and address of your online company. If you were operating a brick and mortar business which name and address would you want to print on your business cards, forms and advertisements? Your Free Provider’s Company Name/ Your User ID, we’re located inside Free Provider Company's premises. Or Your Company Name, we’re located at 123 Main Street.
Of course your free provider will be more than happy to setup your website under your own domain—provided you pay their membership fee and purchase the domain yourself to boot. Sort of defeats your purpose of saving a few bucks, doesn’t it?
Now let’s take a look at the pros and cons of your hosting plan. They are not providing free hosting out of the goodness of their hearts, my friend. Read that fine print again. The majority of free providers offer limited amounts of web space, bandwidth and features. Better check the number of web pages you’re allowed to setup under your free account while you’re at it, because some providers set a ridiculously low limit. If you exceed whatever limits your free provider allows, you’ll have to pay their membership fee and/or purchase one of their hosting plans.
Paid hosting providers offer you a choice of plans tailored to fit your needs. If your needs change, you simply upgrade to the next plan. Although prices vary, hosting plans range from 8.95 to 14.95 per month, based on the amount of space, bandwidth and features you want. I’ve found some free providers who offer small quantities of additional memory for as much as 5 bucks each. Choose that option and you may find yourself paying twice as much for hosting as a paid provider charges for the best hosting plan they offer.
Again, you need to make sure your hosting provider offers a good support staff. So before purchasing a hosting plan, email them a couple of simple questions, such as; how do I set my DNS (Domain Name Servers) and will you set up my site for me? A good hosting company offers 24/7 support. Their support staff will respond within 24 hours and give you two options to both questions. A good support staff offer to set up your DNS at no charge and setup your site for a small fee An excellent support staff will also give you simple instructions on how to do these tasks yourself. Even if you have no intentions of doing these tasks yourself, you may want to learn how to do some tasks yourself in the future. You should make sure that if and when you do, your support staff will be willing to provide you with the information you need should you require it.
If you are determined to succeed in the online marketplace, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and trouble if you start out right. Before you leap on that free website, free hosting offer, do your research. Read the fine print and see if the deal they are offering will meet your needs now and calculate the cost that you could incur if you have to exceed the allotment of services they provide for free in the future. If you want your own domain, then add the cost of the provider’s membership too. Talley the costs of “free provider’s services”, then set it aside and shop around a bit. Visit a web design company offering professionally designed websites for less than a hundred dollars and see what they have to offer. Take a look at the hosting plans available with all the features you need. Now, compare the costs of both options. Keep in mind that, as with any business, you will eventually have to invest a little money if you truly want to succeed.
While we’re on the subject of money, please be very, very careful when it comes to investing your hard earned dollars. Sadly, many of the businesses deals you’ll find offering your own website and free hosting are at best affiliate sites or multi-level marketing schemes. Most major search engines and directories will not index these sites. If their sales pitch includes claims that you can make hundreds or even thousands of dollars within a very short time with no effort you’ve found yourself a full fledged scam.
You can make money on the internet, but just as with any business venture, you are going to have to invest some time and money in order to achieve your goals. The secret to being a successful entrepreneur is investing your time and money wisely.
Labels: The Reasons You Should Avoid Free Website and Hosting Deals
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
How To Create Your Own e-Commerce Site
E-commerce is touted as one of the most viable online business opportunities on the Web today. In comparison to traditional brick and mortar businesses, e-commerce site requires minimal start-up cost and is relatively low-risk. However that does not imply creating an e-commerce site is a simple process, neither does it guarantee your future success. The purpose of this article is to walk you through the necessary steps and plans you would need in order to set up a successful e-commerce site.
Un-earth Your Niche
The very first thing to do is find your niche. Examine your hobbies and interests for potential business ideas. If you love soccer, consider selling soccer supplies or team uniforms, online. Focusing on your expertise or something you have great passion for would give you an advantage over competitors who do not have in-depth knowledge of that niche.
Research Your Niche
Once you've whittled down a few ideas, explore each one further. Ask yourself these questions: How many people are looking for your services? Where do they go and find people like yourself? How many searches are created for your product or service on Google? You may not have a budget to create demand, so it's safer and cheaper to go where the demand already exists. Our use this step-by-step system that has helped THOUSANDS of regular people to launch Internet Businesses. Click here.
Scope out Your Competitors
Research your competitors inside out. Spend time to check out their websites and compare their products and services. Give yourself an idea of what you’re up against, so you can create your e-commerce site as professional as, or even better than theirs.
Write Your Business Plan
You want to have a foolproof business plan for your business. Work out a detailed formula - including your site theme, goals, business strategies. It's also a good idea to keep a record of expenditures, sales, profits etc. Your business cannot just be a 'me-too' business online. Develop a powerful USP (Unique Selling Position) that sets you apart from your competitors and makes you stand out from the crowd!
Create Your Website
Register a good domain name as marketing tactic. Name that ends in *.com is best of all. Try to include relevant keywords that properly describe your business or product if possible.
A well-designed website creates a good first impression with your prospects. Get yourself a professional Ecommerce website template at an affordable price and customize it to suit your need. Most templates can be easily customized using common HTML editors and simple graphics software.
You’ll want your website content to target specific keywords for high search engines ranking and traffic flow (Wordtracker Free Trial). This can be done by creating informative articles, product reviews, descriptions and comparisons. If you're short on time, many SEO (search engine optimization) experts are willing to help you out for a reasonable price.
Host Your Website
Find a dependable hosting company to host your website on their servers. A quick search on Google for “web hosting” should bring up hundreds of companies ready to do business with you. Select a reliable web host that provides adequate disk space and bandwidth with e-commerce scripts supporting features. Domain name-specific email accounts must also be available to give a professional image.
Your website files can be uploaded using a simple FTP program or file uploading service in your hosting account. Technical support personnel from your hosting company should walk you through the steps to upload your files and launch your website.
Implement a Shopping Cart
An e-commerce site is never complete without a secure shopping cart. The best option you can consider is a remotely hosted shopping cart which takes the burden of maintaining security and credit card numbers off your shoulder. Most remote shopping carts can be configured to look similar to your website so your customers may not realize that they have left your website when making a payment.
If a remote shopping cart is not within your budget, there are still lots of third party credit card processing companies that are ready to process your credit card orders using their merchant account for a small fee. Some popular ones to you can check out are ClickBank, PayPal.
Marketing and Promotion
You have identified your niche, set up your e-commerce site and you are good to go. Now comes the most crucial part - promoting your site! This could be a full-time career option for most people. Either you can learn to do this yourself or you can have an expert do it for you.
Begin by submitting your site to major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Dmoz, etc. You also need to optimize your site using profitable keywords and keyword-rich content. There are lots more business promotion strategies such as advertising, link exchange, e-zine promotion etc. which you may need to explore to create your online presence and build traffic.
Setting up your e-commerce site is sure a lot of work, but it's just the first step. Making it successful is even more work, but the pay-offs can be rewarding. Remember, success can be yours provided you work hard and smart!
Un-earth Your Niche
The very first thing to do is find your niche. Examine your hobbies and interests for potential business ideas. If you love soccer, consider selling soccer supplies or team uniforms, online. Focusing on your expertise or something you have great passion for would give you an advantage over competitors who do not have in-depth knowledge of that niche.
Research Your Niche
Once you've whittled down a few ideas, explore each one further. Ask yourself these questions: How many people are looking for your services? Where do they go and find people like yourself? How many searches are created for your product or service on Google? You may not have a budget to create demand, so it's safer and cheaper to go where the demand already exists. Our use this step-by-step system that has helped THOUSANDS of regular people to launch Internet Businesses. Click here.
Scope out Your Competitors
Research your competitors inside out. Spend time to check out their websites and compare their products and services. Give yourself an idea of what you’re up against, so you can create your e-commerce site as professional as, or even better than theirs.
Write Your Business Plan
You want to have a foolproof business plan for your business. Work out a detailed formula - including your site theme, goals, business strategies. It's also a good idea to keep a record of expenditures, sales, profits etc. Your business cannot just be a 'me-too' business online. Develop a powerful USP (Unique Selling Position) that sets you apart from your competitors and makes you stand out from the crowd!
Create Your Website
Register a good domain name as marketing tactic. Name that ends in *.com is best of all. Try to include relevant keywords that properly describe your business or product if possible.
A well-designed website creates a good first impression with your prospects. Get yourself a professional Ecommerce website template at an affordable price and customize it to suit your need. Most templates can be easily customized using common HTML editors and simple graphics software.
You’ll want your website content to target specific keywords for high search engines ranking and traffic flow (Wordtracker Free Trial). This can be done by creating informative articles, product reviews, descriptions and comparisons. If you're short on time, many SEO (search engine optimization) experts are willing to help you out for a reasonable price.
Host Your Website
Find a dependable hosting company to host your website on their servers. A quick search on Google for “web hosting” should bring up hundreds of companies ready to do business with you. Select a reliable web host that provides adequate disk space and bandwidth with e-commerce scripts supporting features. Domain name-specific email accounts must also be available to give a professional image.
Your website files can be uploaded using a simple FTP program or file uploading service in your hosting account. Technical support personnel from your hosting company should walk you through the steps to upload your files and launch your website.
Implement a Shopping Cart
An e-commerce site is never complete without a secure shopping cart. The best option you can consider is a remotely hosted shopping cart which takes the burden of maintaining security and credit card numbers off your shoulder. Most remote shopping carts can be configured to look similar to your website so your customers may not realize that they have left your website when making a payment.
If a remote shopping cart is not within your budget, there are still lots of third party credit card processing companies that are ready to process your credit card orders using their merchant account for a small fee. Some popular ones to you can check out are ClickBank, PayPal.
Marketing and Promotion
You have identified your niche, set up your e-commerce site and you are good to go. Now comes the most crucial part - promoting your site! This could be a full-time career option for most people. Either you can learn to do this yourself or you can have an expert do it for you.
Begin by submitting your site to major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Dmoz, etc. You also need to optimize your site using profitable keywords and keyword-rich content. There are lots more business promotion strategies such as advertising, link exchange, e-zine promotion etc. which you may need to explore to create your online presence and build traffic.
Setting up your e-commerce site is sure a lot of work, but it's just the first step. Making it successful is even more work, but the pay-offs can be rewarding. Remember, success can be yours provided you work hard and smart!
Labels: How To Create Your Own e-Commerce Site
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
