A Short Guide to Affordable Web Hosting

A Short Guide to Affordable Web Hosting

 by: Andy Lewis

For individuals & businesses, choosing an affordable web hosting plan (http://www.serverplex.com/sharedh.html) on a limited budget is a challenge.

The main reason for this is that most companies offering ecommerce hosting solutions focus on the higher-end corporate market and often overlook the small business web hosting (http://www.serverplex.com/) segment.

However, finding reliable web hosting isn’t exactly a cakewalk, but it can be relatively easy if you follow these simple steps: define your requirements; user review survey; create a short list of potential ecommerce web hosting as well as email hosting services and ask questions.

Define your requirements:

• How much disk space and bandwidth is necessary?

• Type of hosting – dedicated / private or shared web hosting?

• Will you require CGI or database capacities?

• What type of hosting plan will you need – Windows hosting plans or Linux hosting plans (http://www.serverplex.com/vps.html).

• Will your website have any streaming media requirements?

• Will your site change substantially in the future?

• Affordable web hosting only for your purposes or for clients – shared web hosting.

User Review Survey:

• Always take testimonials at face value. User forums are the best place to find the truth. Also mail webmasters to get a reality checks.

• Be wary of Web hosting directories and mailing lists, many are owned & operated by Web hosts.

• Read the declarations regarding service uptime, downtime, backup, security etc.

Create a shortlist:

• Make a list of potential ecommerce web hosting (http://www.serverplex.com/merchantaccounts.html) and email hosting services (http://www.serverplex.com/enewsletter.html) that you see are recommended the most and complained about the least.

• Determine which hosts offer specific services that you need, with scalability for future changes.

• Determine which host fits your price range.

Ask questions:

• Ask mundane questions to check the quality, speed & efficacy of their response.

• Ask the service providers technical questions to gauge their acumen, knowledge and accuracy.

• Ask a lot of question to determine the host's commitment to customers.

• Subject host to an honesty test: offer them the opportunity to up sell you needlessly. (simple yet effective)

The Tricks of the Trade

SOHO consumers can find the most effective hosting services for their business if they follow and understand the following recommendations:

• Make sure the hosting company offers 24/7/365 technical support by phone, email and chat whether you have opted for windows hosting plans or Linux hosting plans.

• Do not be seduced by hosts offering cheap shared hosting (http://www.serverplex.com/sharedh.html) services or extra services than you need. Most of them skimp on security & support.

• Choose a host who is flexible, scalable, and who can grow with your business.

• Ensure that you can add domains to a core plan and resell services.

• Ensure that the host offers a knowledge base of scripts, online marketing effective coding. (A surefire way to check their scale of operations)

• Check to ensure that the host offers some level of interaction.

• Watch for signs of rudeness, impatience and unresponsiveness.

• Do not sign a long-term contact for hosting services right away.

• If you have more than one site, consider spreading them among several hosts.

For a small web business start-up, choosing the right ecommerce hosting at the right time can be the best strategic move. It can enable your business to grow fast and offer you a high ROI. Reliable and affordable web hosting can be the crucial factor between failure & success.

Summary - For a small web business start-up, choosing the right ecommerce hosting (http://www.serverplex.com/merchantaccounts.html) at the right time can be the best strategic move. It can enable your business to grow fast and offer you a high ROI. Reliable and affordable web hosting can be the crucial factor between your failure & success.

How to Pick the Perfect Domain Name

How to Pick the Perfect Domain Name

 by: Adrian Mullan

What makes the perfect domain name?

Well, it has to be:

1. Relatively short

2. Simple to remember

3. Easy to spell

I was speaking to a customer recently who had a business called 'Otway Valley Trading Company'.

The domain name he wanted was:

www.otwayvalleytradingcompany.com

Can you spot some of the problems with this domain name?

Here's a few:

1. It's too long:

Having to type a long domain name into your browser is annoying and also increases the chances of your customers making a spelling mistake.

2. Too many keywords:

Having 4 keywords (Otway Valley Trading Company) makes it hard for customers to remember the name of the site.

Try to stick to one or two keywords in your domain name.

3. Easy to misspell:

The word 'otway' can be easily confused for 'ottway'.

4. Makes the email address too long:

An email address for this domain name would look like this:

sales@otwayvalleytradingcompany.com

.. that's a mouthful for anyone to remember.

Picking a Good Domain Name:

1) The shorter the better

Having a short and snappy domain name makes it easier for your customer to remember your website address, and easier to type into their Internet browser.

2) Go for something catchy

Keep in mind that your domain name doesn't have to be boring. In fact, if you can come up with something catchy - it's a great way to distinguish your business from the competition - just ask the people at Yahoo!.

3) Avoid using hyphens

We've found that hyphens in domain names tend to confuse people.

Sometimes you'll see websites that have a hyphen separating keywords (e.g. ace-accounting.com). This is almost always because the preferred name (aceaccounting.com) has already been registered by someone else.

If the domain you want is already being used by someone else, then you're better off coming up with an alternative name then using hyphens.

4) Avoid using numbers

If possible, try avoiding the use of numbers in your domain name, as this can also lead to confusion (e.g. was that 3phones.com or threephones.com ?).

But if you have to use a number, make sure you register both the written and numerical versions of your domain name (3phones.com and threephones.com).

5) Grab a thesaurus

If you're struggling for inspiration or finding it difficult to come up with a name that hasn't already been taken - grab a thesaurus (or visit Thesaurus.com)

Say you run an adventure tour company and you want to register excitingadventures.com - but somebody has already registered the domain name.

Lookup the word 'exciting' at Thesaurus.com and you can quickly find an alternative like 'breathtaking, sensational or fascinating'.

And don't be afraid to use a little imagination - companies like Google and Yahoo! have benefited a lot by having a unique web address.

Traffic Using Expiring Domains

Traffic Using Expiring Domains

by: Ainuddin Mohamad

Thousands of domain names expire everyday and can be used by others. If you want more traffic or want to resell the domains for profit, these expired ones can be a valuable resource.

An expired domain may have been used by one or more persons in the past. They may have designed a website, advertised it, linked it to search engines, done business deals on it and even had reciprocal link connections with other websites.

Why are valuable domains ever allowed to expire?

Many reasons, including but not limited to:

• Not enough funds to renew them

• Invalid contact e-mail address

• Loss of interest in online world

• Closing down of business

• Lack of knowledge about value of domain names

• Being away at time of domain renewal

There may have been any of the aforementioned reasons or any other cause, but whatever the case, the domain is now an available option for you. You can use it by designing a website on it or divert traffic to your existing website.

The main advantage of taking over an expired domain is the traffic. There may still be visitors who, on finding the better alternative offered by you, can redirect their business. It is not impossible to know the exact amount to expired traffic to a particular domain. However, the analysis of some specific aspects lets you gauge the amount of expired traffic. They are as follows :

LINK POPULARITY

This will give you an estimate of the number of portals or web pages that are linked to the expired domain. The more the number of links, the higher is the possibility of future traffic. Also, a higher link popularity betters the probability of quality traffic.

ALEXA RANK

An Alexa toolbar keeps tabs on the number of hits for a domain and then awards a rank based on this. If the site has had no traffic for the past three months, it is automatically dropped by Alexa. So, look for an Alexa rank to get an idea about the number of visits and the domain’s worth.

GOOGLE PAGERANK

The PageRank is a value that Google gives to a web page, based on the number of and quality of incoming links.

The popularity of a web page is ranked on a scale of 1 to 10 and this is called a Google PageRank. This ranking system takes into account the number of quality web pages that have links to the web page. Normally the homepage of a web page would have the highest PageRank.

About PageRank, Google says:

“The heart of our software is PageRank(tm), a system for ranking web pages developed by our founders Larry Page and surgery Brin at Stanford University. And while we have dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect of Google on a daily basis, PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of our web search tools.”

A Google toolbar is required to obtain a Google PageRank. You can type in the website name in the address bar of your browser and get the PageRank.

YAHOO AND DMOZ LISTINGS

A domain may have been indexed by search engines. The domain owner may have paid for registrations on search engines like Yahoo and LookSmart. A domain also may have been approved by a Dmoz editor. If you take over a domain, these listings are automatically transferred to you. You can do your own research by visiting these search engines and typing the full URL in the directories section. Your results page will show you whether the domain is listed with them or not.

An inclusion in the top search engines does not ensure continuous visits but it certainly increases the chances of receiving worthy traffic. If you do not want to use the domains yourself, you can easily turn it around and sell it. It will certainly be profitable if the domain is registered with the top ten search engines.

WHERE TO GET THOSE DOMAINS?

There are many sources but the author considers ExpiredDomains.com to be the best where he managed to get many valuable domains.

Getting Your Domain Name

Getting Your Domain Name

 by: Ainuddin Mohamad

Since thousands of domain names are registered everyday it is a really very difficult to get a domain name of single phrase in English language and other major languages. Given below are some tips to guide you to decide a domain name of single phrase.

Avoid Messing around with the New Domains

Most of the good domain names are already registered and owned by someone. Don't settle for number-ridden or a hyphenated domain name unless it is really unavoidable. Don’t despair because with some lucks you would be able to get some good domain names by backordering domain names about to expire in anticipation that the domain would be deleted and made available again.

So what are the resources which you need to know and understand to find expiring time of domains?

1. Expireddomains.com: A good source for domain names already deleted, about to be deleted with info about rank popularity and many other useful advices and tips.

2. Deleteddomains.com: This website has a search feature which helps you to see on-hold domain names and expiring domain names by keywords. This is most important and a core resource for finding those domains that you want to own and which will be expiring soon.

3. Pool.com: It is another great website for viewing the domains which are soon-to-expire. This website also offers backordering service and a keyword search.

4. Snapnames.com: This website is providing an original backordering service. As soon as you find a domain name that attracts you go to snapnames.com and from here you can ‘backorder’ this domain name for $69 only. This confirms that the price for backordering is $69 per domain name and this is registration fees of first year if the domain name is acquired by you.

Other Tricks and Tips

Since many people are using same tools to acquire best expiring domains you should be fast enough to acquire an expiring domain name. Additionally, SnapNames.com will only allow one backorder prospect for one domain name. Therefore, you should act quickly when a domain name is available for ‘backordering’.

Patience is important since your ideal name may not come for months. But you should not worry because each day there will be a fresh set of domain names expiring and you could get your choice any day.

Happy hunting!>

Get Yourself Reliable Web Hosting Service

Get Yourself Reliable Web Hosting Service

by: Ainuddin Mohamad

Unsatisfied with free web hosting services provided by Geocities, Angelfire, and Fortune City? Easily forgotten long domain name full of dashes and slashes which will fail the Radio Test, Pop-ups, banners making your life miserable! You start looking for a real professional hosting service for your beloved website. You start searching over the Net. Suddenly the possibilities are immense! $20 a month and 20MB space. Fantastic, isn’t it?

Is it?? Read on. Way back, when I was a real novice, when I was amongst that typical “The Internet is so wonderful” optimist, I signed up with a paid web hosting service provider. I thought I found the perfect solution. I was provided a chunk of webspace, a web address and content for my site. But before I could even realize what’s going on, I found out that the space was a useless chunk which won’t work properly, the address wouldn’t connect, the contents warped and too much downtime.

Wiser I grew as an year passed, I labored my way up to get a working website, having a helpful lovely support team. I knew what I wanted for my website. How did I achieve it? I had the advantage having a lot of wonderful friends who are working for several web hosting companis. But what about you? You see a world of opportunity waiting to be tapped and just dive-in into the vicious circle of money loss and disappointment!

I don’t seek to be the angel of all odds, but I thought some useful tips and hints on how to get started in the web might help the ignorant and also save you from the misfortune. So what is it? I don’t want to repeat the “Know what you want” statement because that’s too clichéd and not that simple to handle when it comes to the real thing. Sure you have a vague idea of what you want but what about the fine prints in all that, the “mumbo jumbo”, so to speak?

I don’t think you do! So relax, sit back and before you go jumping off to the last line, just read a bit.

MB of Space

What’s an MB? MB stands for MegaByte. Basically this is the storage place allotted to you. Before buying the space, spend a little time in thinking about your website’s requirements. Calculate approximately how much you require and then add another 50. Excess space will help you to add and alter and expand in the future. Always better to have too much in the bag than too little, isn’t it? Remember audio and video files need a lot of space.

Pricing (Monthly/Yearly)

The payment options are either monthly or yearly. Believe me it is wiser “test the water” first by starting with the monthly plan. Don’t be tempted by all the marketing talks about discounted rates for longer period of time and pay for the year (or more) at one go!

Domain Name Registration

What’s a Domain Name? It’s basically the www.yourdomainname.com. This Domain name has to be registered so that no one else can use it. Most web hosts would provide domain registration as a package. If you already own a domain name then you surely have to transfer to the new host. Ensure that the host provides this service. Also ask for directions on how to do it yourself. If you don’t have a name already, then ponder for a moment and think how many names you would need. Will one be enough? No extra names to be attached to sub-domains? Do you need redirects?

While selecting the suitable domain name for your website, make sure that it is relevant to what your site would feature. It should not be that you talk about “woodworking” while your website name is “cool-curtains.com”. That’s very embarrassing!!

Email Accounts

There are quite a few options here.

Mail Servers: You think you would be getting substantial amount of mail through your website, then opt for a mail server. It is basically an actual online site, like mail.yoursitename.com, where you have your personal mail box. An email address like info@yourdomainname.com would be more professional unlike those free email addresses like John6578@hotmail.com

Mailing Lists: Do you want to promote your site through newsletters, promotional informations, sending emails to lot of people, then you might look for this mailing list option. However, lists are not always a “must-have” service option for the hosting company.

Mail Catch all: This service executes what the name suggests. It collects emails which have wrongly typed names (typo), wrong names etc but have your domain written properly in the email ID, like typo@yourdomain.com

Mail Redirects: If you want the emails, to be redirected from your name@yourdomain.com email ID to another mail box e.g. to your hotmail account, then avail off this service.

There are many other options you might choose for your page. Like having multimedia, Front Page Support, Access/Database support, cgi bin, custom 404 error pages, search engine submissions etc. Think and make a list of your website’s requirements.

But before you initiate anything, send an email to the support team of the web hosting service provider, asking them whether they provide the services you require. Try to be polite and friendly and point to your specific requirements. Assess their feedback and response time, whether they are prompt or slow. This would give you a good indication of what kind of support you would get in the future.

Basically, the crux of the matter is that you think before you spend. Countless victims are there to tell their tale of woes and frustrations. I’m one of the one but I had grown wiser. Don’t be fooled by sweet talking marketing guys whop would spare no efforts to promise you everything. Are you sure they can deliver?

Hierarchical grid with ajax and php

By the past bringing Hierarchical data's form a db was impossible unless you do it by recursive function but imagine if a table has 50000 lines from where a user has to chose only one or tow records, loading all these records will stress the server and make your page very slow to show.

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