Pay Per Click Management to Firms for High Ranking in Search Engines
Posted on May 24, 2007
PPC Advertising stands for Pay per Click Advertising. There are several multinational companies around the world that are spending thousands of dollars every single month on their PPC advertising campaigns. According to Forbes, by 2008, companies will spend $8 billion a year on PPC advertising.
There are three major parts of your pay per click marketing campaigns that you can constantly improve.
• Create more focused lists of keywords.
• Split tests your ads for better conversions.
• Your conversion rate including how your keywords are converting into sales and the effectiveness of your landing pages.
Nothing is perfect in this world; Pay per Click Advertising has some benefits and drawbacks also. No matter which keyword you are choosing for PPC campaigns, you should be familiar with all benefits, and drawbacks of PPC Advertising. Some of them are given below
Some of the benefits of PPC Advertising are: -
• You can start immediately without any knowledge of Natural Rankings/ Organic SEO.
• You will start to see results within 4-5 days.
• There is no need to design a website which conforms to SEO guidelines.
• Even if your website doesn’t show up on top pages of various search engines, you can still opt for PPC Advertising.
• You can target every single search engine on the globe.
• You can target any keyword you want.
You should always choose top level keywords for PPC Advertising, but along with their benefits they have their drawbacks too.
Some of the drawbacks of PPC Advertising are: -
• You have to pay a fixed amount every month to Google, Yahoo, or Msn.
• You pay for every single click your website receives. Sometimes your visitors are just your competitors, and other people simply fooling around on search engines. They can really increase your expenditure.
• If you are unable to pay the fees for the next month, your website is removed from the paid listings immediately.
• This form of Advertising is temporary, thus can be difficult to manage for a longer period.
• This form of Advertising is not recommended for a longer period of times, due to costs involved.
In order to make more money with pay per click marketing you should always try and improve your landing pages. There are so many questions, which are very important to know. Some of them are below.
- What Is Your Conversion Rate?
- How to Use Google’s Ad Tracking Code?
- How to Insert the Tracking Code into Your Conversion Page?How to Test If you’re Tracking Code Has Worked Properly?
If you have no idea about these and want to know about these, check the following links PPC Bid Management India, Search Engine Optimization. The PPC advertising services at NDDW cover the entire range of PPC marketing services; covering sponsored and content page advertising as offered by Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
Author Bio: Our goal is to respond as quickly as possible to you. Please Mail your queries to us at info[at-symbol]nddw.com
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Get Effective, Affordable Advertising in a Few Clicks
Posted on May 23, 2007
One of the questions you ask yourself when planning your own text advertising program is, how much should you charge for your placement. We came up with a formula that works well for our objectives. We are building an information based website that is networked to helpful, professionals in the topics of PPC AdSense, SEO and SES, Business Planning, Real Estate and Affiliate Marketing. Our advertisers can choose from these categories when buying advertising for as little as $25/per month. When seeking the right text ads, the first thing you need is a good, related text links.
Ads on Your Site
When to make your advertisement make sure you choose a phrase or keywords in the clickable part (anchor text) that best describe your website. Help build your website’s reputation by advertising where it is seen in the right light. By strategically constructing a network of quality links, you can increase your chances to rank higher with the search engines and get targeted visitors to your website. With a couple clicks you have your advertisement in place within a day.
We Tag with Purchased Advertising
Without including the nofollow attribute your link may not be included with Google and may not pass PageRank with links coming from the site that sells links.
“It doesn’t mean that it is a bad link, or that you that you hate it, just that this link doesn’t belong to me.”
Matt Cutts
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050118-204728
Google has made it clear that purchased links that do not include that tag will eventually become of no value for Search Engine indexing. The purpose of this network is to advertise and deliver qualified visitors to your site.
Gain Traffic with Effective Ads
It is a known fact amongst website marketeers that one of the most effective methods to get traffic is to obtain quality links. The power to generate traffic in links in huge. But one-way links to your site should not come from link saturated pages that have nothing to do with your websites theme. You want to make sure your ads are being seen by visitors so you can reap the benefits of a click thru. This is your chance to convert qualified visitor to your site at very affordable rates.
What about Google?
To make your ad meeting Google’s parameters is something all parties must be aware of. Google will devalue or delete links that have been purchased for the purposes of manipulating result pages. Google AdWords made it easy for an advertiser to be active in their ad networks. But Google advertising can quickly add up to thousands with very little ROI if you are not familiar with how things work. The AdWords Program is the best out there, but it is not for everyone. For those seeking an affordable, predictable advertising cost the Create Online Business advertising Program is a wise choice starting at $25/ per month, flat rate for an adveristing link placement on related pages. This is not pay per click!
http://www.createonlinebusiness.com/advertising-online.php
Stuck on the net
Filed Under Pay Per Click | 3 Comments
Google AdSense Basics
Posted on May 22, 2007
If you really need to know, your earnings can be checked anytime by logging into your web site account. There are many different ways to optimize your earnings with AdSense, but I have always found best results on sites that have an established product line. One myth about AdSense earnings is that the most important factor in making good money is traffic. There is other equally, or perhaps ever greater influencing factors at work here. So let’s take a look at what you can do to optimize your set up easily and get to know the program.
Does your Site Qualify?
Who can participate in the Google AdSense program? Anybody who has a website can apply to Google AdSense program; there are few an exceptions such as gambling and pornography. When you are accepted and first log into your account you will see your statistics “Page impressions, Clicks Page, CTR, Page eCPM, Earnings”. You can learn more about what it all means here https://www.google.com/adsense/. Traffic to your site is a necessary ingredient but your website’s ranking plays a major role in determining your EPC (Earnings per Click). Some argue that without traffic you have nothing. This is true but I have a few blogs that get significantly more impressions and clicks but earn much less than the few clicks I get from well ranked sites. If you are making a site primarily for AdSense revenue then go after high paying keywords https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox. When your site is about a subject where advertisers are paying some dough for them, then you will likely receive a higher EPC with AdSense.
How to Make Money
I prefer AdSense not only because of the conversion rate but it can seamlessly be integrated into any site in seconds. One technique used by many of the pros is being able to find niche market(s) and expanding it quickly. Value for money is always different for every site so there are no real hard and fast rules. FACT: 95% of affiliates never make a sale. The other 5% are making money. Many are realizing that good money can be made with this program especially with a well respected, high traffic website. When it is time to start displaying ads on your site Google AdSense Bot will read your WebPages and serve those pages with ads that are relevant. There is a maximum of 3 ad units per page No doubt that AdSense is the best program out there for the masses, but we must always be planning other ventures. AdSense revenue alone is not a recommended prime source of revenue.
Authoritative Content
In the world of monitor real estate there is a term I am sure you’ve heard; “Above the fold”. Content that is below the fold translates to having to scroll. Sites that have useful, non-duplicated content will also help establish you as an authority and that effects how much you will earn. If your content reflects an expert in your industry it will permit visitors to respect your comment and recommendations. In the case where you establish placement for your special “News Corner” AdSense Ads tend to fair better in these locations. Google always attempts to find the most suitable ads for your websites content but sometimes the inventory may be low for your theme and ads may not appear relevant. If your site has content that is about real estate, you would likely want to see advertisements promoting mortgages, moving, Home Loans, Free Home Reports or Investment Loans. Most of the publishers that are making thousands of monthly dollars have plenty of unique, popular and authoritative content. This is why I think it is so important to become an authority first. Traffic will come; if it doesn’t you can buy it from many places. Google uses a very complexed number of algorithms to decide the content contained on the web page serving the ad and where the ads are best served
Approved by Niko123- Create Online BusinessFiled Under AdSense Help | Leave a Comment
XCart SEO Implementing Success
Posted on May 22, 2007
XCart SEO is a successful turning point for many websites.This software can empower your website into new ranges.Understanding the vast number of advantages of SEO X-Cart can help you to take full advantage of all that it can offer to you.In fact, it has many advantages over other products that are similar.It is a very search engine optimization friendly software product that you can easily take advantage of.The HTML Catalogue Generation feature of the SEO XCart software is one of the first and most beneficial parts to the process.From this aspect, realize the way that search engine spiders work is different for static pages as opposed to dynamic pages.For example, URL’s that contain such things as “?”, “%” or other symbols tend do poorly.By avoiding this, you will achieve a higher rank and faster inclusion into the search engines.
Yet, there are a few disadvantages that should be considered as well.The HTML code is messy, which often discourages people.The problems generally center around relatively easy to fix problems that any SEO firm can handle.This includes problems with outdated HTML tags, deprived compliance with W3C standards, and a good amount of nested tables.Because XCart SEO is an open source, though, anything and everything can be changed to enhance your experience.
Using XCart SEO Effectively
First, start by making sure that your HTML code is optimized for search engine results, as much as possible.Then, you can begin optimizing your XCart SEO software for specific keyword phrases.Here are some tips to use:
1. When not using CDSEO Links module from websitecm, you should then install the shopping cart into a directory (for example: http://www.yourxcartstore.com/store/).To do this, follow these steps:
Place the following robots.txt file in a public directory on the server:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /store/
Generate HTML catalog into the public directory on the server.
It is recommended that you use this with any Ajax Shopping Cart Mod instead of using ModRewrite.This is recommended because of the large load that it will have on your servers especially with stores that have a larger amount of traffic.Also, search engines will take a longer time to apply ranking to files that appear to be nested in directories of your server.
2. Remove Java Scripts from the body of your pages.If you used previous X-Cart SEO software, you may have noticed the large amount of JavaScript in the HEAD section of the HTML code. Yet, it is imperative to put this code outside of HTML as a separate file. Useto accomplish this task.If you have invested in a newer version of X-Cart SEO Software, this is no longer a problem for you to worry about.
3. Use CSS to eliminate any unnecessary table nesting in terms of the most commonly used template.Here is a list of some of the most important templates to optimize which will in turn reduce the sheer amount of HTML code.
skin1/head.tpl
skin1/menu.tpl
skin1/meta.tpl
skin1/dialog.tpl
skin1/rectangular_top.tpl
skin1/rectangular_bottom.tpl
4. To your detail images, add alt tags.
5. It is also important to use unique Meta Data for all pages and categories.Make sure that the keyword tags that you use are only those that are relevant to your website’s information.Use descriptions that are one to three sentences long.
6. Insure that you optimize your front page with the relevant keyword phrases.Also, add keyword rich paragraphs (just a few) to the text on your front page.
7. The title tag must be as descriptive as possible.You do not want to fill it with keywords.It should not be longer than 80 characters.
Avoid These Mistakes With X-Cart SEO Software
When you work with an SEO firm, you will clearly find benefits in avoiding these mistakes.No matter, you should notice and make changes to avoid these pitfalls.
A large mistake that people make with XCart SEO software is not taking full advantage of HTML catalogue.Your SEO X-Cart software will actually generate HTML catalogue in the /catalog/ directory by default.But, this will not allow it to be found by search engine robots.Instead, insure that HTML catalogue is generated into a public directory on your server.
Do not forget to update your Meta data with your XCart SEO software.Remember that this information is actually used when your website is displayed on a search engine results page.Therefore, you should make sure it is up to date even if the search engines themselves ignore Meta keywords and descriptions for ranking purposes.You should have a good, strong marketing message incorporated here which will help to win traffic to your website.
Another mistake that is commonly made has to do with not utilizing a title tag to the full extent that you could.You need to do this with your SEO XCart Software for search engine optimization.Your title tag is one of the most important tags on your page and therefore it should be keyword rich and very descriptive.
While simple and straightforward, do not forget that the point of reaching a good search engine rank is to drive visitors to your website.It is this visitor that will make the decision to purchase, use or act on your offer.For this reason, the website should be above all else user friendly and have a beneficial marketing message while still being optimized for the search engines.
With the help of a good SEO firm, you can take full advantage of everything that XCart SEO can offer to you.Using the tools presented here you can clearly take advantage of all that X-Cart SEO can offer to you.
Author Bio: XCart SEO company can help you search engine optimize your shopping cart to bring targeted visitors that are ready to buy your products.
Approved by No_BoD_e- Create Online BusinessFiled Under Search Engine Optimization | Leave a Comment
Personal Web Hosting
Posted on May 21, 2007
Personal web hosting has fueled a large part of the web hosting industry. Personal web hosts are booming selling powerful hosting plans tailored to personal homepages, blogs, digital photo albums, video files, etc. With Prices under $5/month personal web hosting plans are very affordable not to mention the full features. Most come with full control panels to manage emails, stats, and the website. Personal Hosting plans also come with a wide array of functionality already ready such as blogs or digital photo albums. A lot have a website builder tool that will let a non programmer build a website by following a set of options. These tools have become quite sophisticated and full of functionality. Even a novice can build a professional website without ever programming.
When looking for a personal web hosting company, look for one that tailors to your needs. If you want to start a blog then go to a blog web hosting site. If you want to build your own website but do not know how to program then go to one that has a website builder tool. Make sure they have a demo of the tool and give it a try before you sign up. Do some research to make sure the website builder tool that the hosting company uses will have the features that you need.
Most of all, your personal web hosting company should make your web hosting goals easy to achieve. If they do not then move on.
The cost should also be very small. Do not pay more then $10/month and unless you have real special needs you should be able to get a nice hosting plan from a reputable web hosting company for less then $5/month.
Go to web hosting directory websites and read hosting reviews of the potential personal web hosts that you are considering. Also, check out their website for helpful guides and tutorials. They should have everything you need to make publishing your website easy. If they do not then move on. They should have guides and FAQ’s that answer common questions and explain the process.
But also remember that you are purchasing a personal web hosting plan and not a dedicated server or virtual private server. You will get what you pay for. Plans for $5/month are also on shared servers with other customers. So, you will not have 99.9% uptime no matter what the web hosts says. A lot will promise this kind of uptime for their network or datacenter but not your server itself. But if it is truly a personal website then you will never notice these kinds of hiccups.
Support is another aspect to examine when choosing a personal web host. Since you are not an expert you will need to make sure that the hosting company has experts that are always available. Email support should be adequate for personal websites, but they should respond to hosting support request within 1 hour. A good way to test this is to email their Support team a question and wait for their response. This will be a good indicator. Doing this in the middle of the night will also help test their response during off hours, which is inevitably when problems occur.
Personal websites are also ideal for clubs, neighborhoods, teams, and churches. They allow any group or organization to publish news and coordinate activities. We even see people using personal hosting plans to just host photos for Ebay auctions.
Another common use for personal websites are resumes. People will buy the domain name of their full name and post their resume there. This is an excellent way to network for job hunters. You can post links to their website in forums and online discussion groups.
The next time you have the need for a website don’t be intimidated. Go to a top web hosting resource website and pick one of the personal web hosting companies that they recommend. The personal hosting plan should be easy for the novice. It’s time to take advantage of the internet and the expertise of web hosting companies.
About HostChart.com
HostChart, a Web Hosting Company Resource, is a leading web hosting directory website that has been in business for over 5 years. They provide numerous web hosting articles and tutorials as well as news, interviews, and reviews. You can use their extensive set of tools to research and evaluate your current or future web hosts. HostChart is a Property of Advantage1 Web Services, which also operates ResellerConnection.com, a a xhref=”http://www.resellerconnection.com”>Reseller Web Hosting Resource, HostingKnowledge.net, and FoundHost.com, a a xhref=”http://www.foundhost.com”>Budget Hosting Resource.
Author Bio: Rodney Ringler is President of Advantage1 Web Services, Inc., which owns a network of Web Hosting Informational Websites including HostChart.com, ResellerConnection.com, FoundHost.com, ResellerForums.com, and HostingKnowledge.net. Rodney has over 15 years industry experience from programming to internet marketing.
Filed Under Web Design | 1 Comment
Ten good reasons not to buy at Ebay
Posted on May 21, 2007
The famous online store, eBay is an auction site that you can access on the Internet to buy different types of items, from clothes to watches to cars to car batteries to jewelry, amongst others. You can even buy cast-offs from famous celebrities on this site. If you want to sell off items that you just feel you don’t want anymore, you can also sell them at eBay and get a reasonable amount for them.
However, eBay isn’t all good, especially for buyers. Because this is an online store, there are so many things that you have to watch out for in buying items at eBay. You have to be cautious about buying items such as clothes, as you don’t know if they have been used by the vendor. Further avoid any electronic item on the site because you are not really guaranteed if it is still in top condition. You might just end up getting more problems instead of gains out of the eBay item that you bought. There are so many reasons why you should be extra cautious and not buy items on eBay and below you will see some of these reasons.
The Reasons Not to Buy at eBay
* The system of quality control at eBay is quite weak.
Because of this, it is quite possible that the item that you want to buy at eBay is among the tons of junk items that are sold on the site. The description of the items can mislead you. They are either not the accurate description of the items or they pertain to another product. The pictures provided sometimes are even blurry or there are no pictures provided at all.
* You cannot trust the feedback system of the store.
Even if you base your purchase of an item on the feedback given, you are still not guaranteed that you are getting a good item. While this system was originally meant to reflect the credibility of the vendor, it does not really present an accurate picture. You might just be in for a big surprise.
* There are unscrupulous vendors at eBay.
To hike the price of their items on sale, there are vendors who will ask their friends bid up their items. Thus they can get a higher price for their item even if it is not necessarily worth that much.
* There is a “no return, no exchange” policy at eBay.
There are no such privileges at eBay that allow you to return an item, which you have either found damaged or not meeting your expectations. Because eBay is an auction site, it operates under the rules of an auction, which usually states that you buy an item as it is and get it as is.
* It is hard to get a refund at eBay.
If in case you bought an item in eBay that you want to return because of its defects, it is quite hard to get your money back. The process of trying to locate the seller of the item is quite long and tedious and would in the end, cost you more money. Because it is very hard to get a refund on the items that you bought at eBay, you might as well refrain from buying items on the site.
* There are scammers who use the eBay site.
There are certain sellers on the site who will try to contact you to complete the transaction of buying the item offline. These types of vendors are usually out to swindle you by posing some arrangement that may cost you more money in the end.
* Fake items are sold on eBay.
As there is no guarantee that an item you are buying on eBay is the real thing, avoid buying eBay items that can be easily faked. Examples of these items are tickets, which could have already been used before they were sold in the site.
* There are times when it is only the picture and not the real item that is sold on eBay.
Some people mislead others into believing that the picture they posted is actually the item that they are selling. It is only when the buyer has completed the transaction and has received the item when he’ll realize that it is just the picture on sale and not the item. Although this might have been mentioned in the fine print, you still lose your money.
* Your credit card used to purchase on eBay can be used by others.
There is a possibility that someone could get access to the credit card number that you provided to eBay for paying for an item purchased. Once your credit card has been accessed, there are people who will not think twice about charging just about anything on your account.
* Trading of illegal goods.
Of late there have been several allegations against eBay for undertaking in trafficking of illegal and fake goods such as clothes. You will find several associations, forums and groups warning others against buying from this online portal.
These are the ten top reasons why you shouldn’t buy at eBay. There are several other reasons that also feature so beware before you spend your money on eBay.
By Carlos Cabezas López
Original source at http://www.casoabierto.com/Actualidad/Internet/ten-good-reasons-not-to-buy-in-ebay.html
Author Bio: The author is the editor of digital journal caso abierto at http://www.casoabierto.com
Filed Under Business Planning | Leave a Comment
How to Develop One Way Links to Your Website
Posted on May 17, 2007
As the search engines are evolving each and every day, it’s getting harder and harder to get top search engine rankings.
The search engines now, highly favor, websites that have a large number of quality, one way links pointing to them. Because of this, it’s absolutely critical that we consistently try to get other websites to link to us, WITHOUT us linking back to them.
Yes, reciprocal linking is becoming less and less valuable. Submitting your website to website directories is an excellent way to get, quality, 1 way links pointing to your websites. You see, many of the website directories online have a high amount of page rank and have been online for several years.
These are 2 of the most important criteria for determining what a good link is, vs what a bad link is. These two criteria are:
-The age of the website linking to you
-The Page Rank of the website linking to you
With that said, many of these directories have both a high Page Rank AND are old websites, giving them more authority and power in the search engines.
Not only that, but there are literally thousands of website directories on the internet that are absolutely free for you to submit your website to! While it does take time to find these directories and then manually fill out all of the required criteria to submit your website, it is an excellent way to help increase your search engine rankings.
There are some good website directory submission software products on the market. The best of which is a product called Directory Submitter created by Brad Callen. Essentially you simply enter your website details into the software program 1 time, and then click on any of the 1600+ website directories in the software and it wil automatically fill in all of the submission criteria for you. Click the submit button and then your site has been instantly added to the website directory.
So, not only does it save you time in finding all of these directories, BUT it saves you an incredible amount of time filling out each and every website’s submission criteria. To learn more about Directory Submitter, visit the link below:
http://mfleisch9.bryxen5.hop.clickbank.net
But, please keep this to yourself, as I’d like to keep this our secret weapon 
Enjoy!
-Michael Fleischner
Author Bio: Learn more about Directory Submission tools. Visit http://mfleisch9.bryxen5.hop.clickbank.net/
Approved by Miner- Create Online BusinessFiled Under Search Engine Optimization | Leave a Comment
How Do Car Insurance Companies Calculate the Rates They Charge?
Posted on May 17, 2007
Depending on your jurisdiction, the insurance premium you pay, can be either set by the government or determined by individual insurance companies, based on a framework of regulations that are set by the government.
Figuring out the insurance premium that an individual companies will charge you, is a bit like putting different pieces of a puzzle together, because car insurance companies combine a number of different elements to arrive at your individual premium. The interesting part of it is that they all have a slightly different way of looking at things, and this produces a variation in prices between companies.
The following is a brief explanation of how the different elements may affect your final insurance rate:
What kind of car do you drive?
Car insurance companies have two basic methods of establishing premiums for your automobile. They use the relative claims experience of the makes and models of automobiles to establish your insurance premium. This means that they will check into the repair costs, the rate of injury, and the likelihood that the particular car may be stolen, to establish their risk and then price it accordingly. The current value of your vehicle is another factor, and insurance companies use a variety of methods to establish the current fair market value of your vehicle.
How is your vehicle used?
It stands to reason, the more you use your auto, the higher the odds that you’ll of be involved in an automobile accident at some time. So, all other factors being equal, people who don’t do much driving tend to pay much lower premiums than than those that have a long commute to work, or do extensive amounts of driving for other reasons. Also of major importance, is who is using the vehicle.
Your automobile insurance premium costs will also likely be higher if you have inexperienced drivers in your family or a number of different drivers using the car.
Where do you live?
Car insurance rates are generally higher in metropolitan areas. Cities with their considerably higher density of traffic and people, mean that there is a higher likelihood of accidents, theft or vandalism claims.
What’s your driving record?
Your driving record is based on the number of years you’ve been licensed to drive, your previous insurance experience, and the number of at-fault accidents (usually up to the last 6 years but sometimes even longer.) If you drive safely and defensively to avoid convictions and at-fault accidents, your premium will be lower than if you’ve had a conviction or accident. In a nutshell, the better your driving record, the lower your insurance rates.
What optional coverage limits and deductibles do you choose?
When you purchase your automobile insurance, you can select some of the coverage limits and deductibles.
Most states require the purchase of at least a minimum amount of coverage for Third Party Liability. If you choose a higher coverage limit, you can expect to pay a correspondingly higher premium. If you select a lower deductible, you’ll also pay a higher premium. Why? Because in both examples, you’re asking the insurance company to assume more financial risk if you’re involved in an accident or claim. If you select a lower limit of coverage or a higher deductible, you can reduce your premium costs, but you also shift more of the financial burden of liability and repairs onto yourself.
You could decide not to purchase optional coverage, and this is one way to save on your insurance premium costs. For example, if you have an older automobile, you might want to consider not purchasing collision or comprehensive coverage if the automobile is not worth the additional premium cost.
Interestingly, most insurers have a slightly different take on all of this data, and this is what leads to the wide differences between quotes that one sometimes sees for essentially the same insurance.
Whatever your auto insurance requirements are, be sure to get several comparison auto insurance quotes through kanetix before you buy your policy. You’ll be glad you did.
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The above description/explanation is intended as a guideline only, and is not to be interpreted as a recommendation to buy or sell any insurance products, or to provide legal or financial advice of any kind. Also, Kanetix Ltd. does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed.
Author Bio: You may be able to reproduce and republish our article content if you ask Kanetix Ltd for permission -click here to ask for permission. You may use our RSS feed with an active link to our site. Click here to get our RSS feed
Approved by Niko123- Create Online BusinessFiled Under Business Planning | Leave a Comment
Selecting A Web Hosting Company
Posted on May 16, 2007
As the owner of a network of web hosting information sites, I often get asked Which Web Hosting Company should I go with?. Most people are pretty disappointed by my answer. This is a question that requires a lot of additional questions. Which web hosting company is right for your website depends on many factors. What platform does your site run on? Which language was it written in? Is it a business or personal site? How critical is occasional downtime? How web savy are you? What is your budget? How much traffic does the site get?
The reason there are thousands of web hosting companies is because there are millions of sites and these websites use different technologies, have different memory and traffic requirements, have different downtime requirements, etc.
There are 2 large sections that I have broken this discussion into. What types of hosting services do you need/want? And what type of company do you need/want? The reason I chose the words “need” and “want” is because a lot of the answer are your preferences more then absolute needs.
What Type of Hosting Services do You Need?
The best way to start this discussion is to determine the type of hosting services that your web business requires. Notice I didn’t say website. A lot of people have multiple websites as part of their web business, and this, too, plays a role in selecting a hosting company.
In the big picture of the hosting industry, it all starts with datacenters. These are high availability facilities usually with multiple fiber feeds to them, backup power systems, network switching equipment, and racks of servers. Hosting companies that own and operate their own datacenter sit at the top of the chain. They can offer the complete range of services from shared hosting to co-location, although most specialize in an area.
Next in the chain are hosting companies who own and manage their own set of servers. These companies “co-locate” their servers in a datacenter. Which means they rent space for racks or slots in racks in a datacenter to put their servers. The datacenter provides the fiber connections to the internet and the facilities(power, AC, security, fire suppression, etc.). This starts to get into how to select the right hosting company for co-location services.
Then comes hosting companies that rent Dedicated Servers already in a datacenter. These companies do not have near the capital investment as the first 2 groups because they do not have to build a datacenter or buy servers. But they are dependent on the company they rent servers and rack space from. When selecting a hosting company that uses leased servers it is nice to know if the datacenter is local or in another city. Do they have the ability to troubleshoot their server themselves?
Finally, there are reseller hosting companies. These companies rent space on a dedicated server from another hosting company. They have the least capital investment, the least monthly overhead, but also the least control over there environment. In some cases their are hosting companies buying a reseller plan from a hosting company that leases dedicated servers from another hosting company that owns servers but co-locates them at a final and fourth hosting company’s datacenter. If you have a shared hosting plan with this company and the server goes down there are 4 companies that get involved to resolve the issue. At first glance you might ask, Why would I choose such a company? Maybe because he can offer super low plans with his low overhead, and he provides great fast service. But then again you may want the comfort to know that when you call your hosting company for support the server is sitting right there in their datacenter.
As you can see from the above discussion there are multiple types of hosting companies. But the services they offer can be broken into the following 4 categories, shared hosting, reseller hosting, dedicated servers, co-location.
There are subcategories in each of these. In the dedicated server category for instance, there are managed and unmanaged unix and windows servers. There are certain web hosting companies that specialize in each of these 4 aspects of dedicated server hosting. I would recommend a different company to someone who needs a managed windows servers versus someone who needs an unmanaged unix server.
How do you know what category of hosting services fits your needs?
The majority of all sites use shared hosting plans. These are ideal for personal, community, and small business websites. If your site does a lot of processing(like database transactions) or a lot of user traffic it may require a dedicated server. Otherwise a shared plan is fine.
Shared hosting plans can( and usually are) provided by all types of hosting companies. These are the most used and most available. The competition is high. Selecting a company for a shared plan depends on your preferences more then anything. There are literally thousands of quality companies that can provide you great shared hosting services. For Windows based website the selection is less and a little more expensive.
You can get shared Unix hosting plans for as little as a couple of dollars a month. But most companies offering these plans are small startups operating with a Reseller plan or in some cases an unmanaged server. This limits their initial investment, but also might leave you with a company that is out of business in a couple of months.
Reseller plans are used for 2 main reasons. First, people use them as a platform for their own hosting company. Many reseller plans amount to a “franchise” in the parent hosting company with everything included to run your own hosting company without all of the startup costs.
The other use is multi domain accounts. A lot of web business and web designers have more then 1 website. It gets hard to maintain several hosting plans even if they are from the same company. A reseller plan allows you to consolidate all of your sites under one plan with the ability to add more as you need them without adding to your costs(assuming the reseller plan has room left in it).
Next, are Dedicated Servers. These are most leased by small hosting companies who have out grown reseller plans. But some companies that run websites use a dedicated server instead of a shared hosting plan due to performance and security. These are mostly higher end sites with a lot of traffic and database interactions. If you have questions about your website start with a shared plan and if this does not have the speed you need then consider a dedicated server. Depending on your system admin skills and budget it can be managed or unmanaged. A managed server means the company provides support and maintenance such as troubleshooting downtime, OS upgrades, installing programs, monitoring system performance, etc.
Co-location is for the most part is a service bought by other hosting companies or medium size companies who do not want to invest in their own datacenter. It is really not a service that a website owner would need.
When a hosting company fills a 20-40 leased servers it usually makes sense to buy their own servers and co-locate them at a near by datacenter. The other market is medium size non internet companies who use a lot of servers to run their business but do not want to invest in a datacenter facility.
What Type of Hosting Company do you Want/Need?
Now that you know weather you need a shared plan, a reseller plan, a dedicated server, or a place to co-locate your server, the next question is which company is right to provide this service? This is the second part of our discussion.
The first discussion is more technical and determines the right service for your internet needs. This discussion is about what makes you feel comfortable. I have composed a list of questions to ask a potential hosting company and yourself.
Do they provide Unix and/or Windows? Does your site run on Unix or Windows. Almost every host provides Unix platforms but fewer provide Windows.
Are they a large or small company? Some customers like the comfort of a large company for their stability. Others like the personal service of knowing the owner and having his direct phone number.
Do they provide phone support or just email? There are a lot of companies who only provide email support. If your business is mission critical this might not be a good option.
Is the datacenter housing their servers local? A hosting company might provide great support, but if their server goes down and its located in a datacenter in another city then they are dependent on their datacenter provider to fix it.
How long has the company been in business? In the hosting business there are over 15,000 hosting companies. Many are one man companies or web designers that get a few customers but never develop it into a real business and fade over time. The cost of entry to the hosting business is very low especially if you use a reseller plan. Make sure the company has a history or if it is a one person company you know the person.
How many domains do they host? This will give you an idea of their size. This gets to your preference for a smaller or larger hosting company.
Your Value Proposition for the hosting company? This is best explained with an example. If you are one of 100,000 people paying $5/month then you provide 1/100,000 of their revenue, which is not much value for them. If your site requires a lot of work will they really help? Afterall losing your account will not impact them.
Do they provide their own server support or is it outsourced? This goes toward your preferences for support. Some do not want their hosting company relying on others to keep things running. Others prefer to let people who only do support do their support.
Is it a one person company? A lot of hosti
Author Bio: HostChart, a Web Hosting Resource, is a leading web hosting directory website that has been in business for over 5 years. They provide numerous web hosting articles and tutorials as well as news, interviews, and reviews. You can use their extensive set of tools to research and evaluate your current or future web hosts.
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How to use Social News to your Advantage
Posted on May 16, 2007
You have written an article on a really great topic, it is optimized and published to your website. The next question is how will people find it?
The biggest thing in news right now is user-generated content, citizen journalism or citizen media. These labels are relatively intertwined, but all mean basically the same thing: news written by the people for the people; the most important word in that phrase being people.
Sites like Digg, Newsvine and Reddit are just a few of the emerging social news sites. These sites allow registered members to delve into millions of pages of content on the web, grab the web address and post it with a captivating headline and brief summary. Users can then decipher whether it’s worthy of a visit or not. The process behind getting an article published on these sites is not difficult. What is difficult is enticing digs, votes and readers. It’s all about being popular again.
With that said, let’s get back to your fantastic article.
First, you must register yourself on the social news sites. You can join one or all of them if you like; the great thing registration is free. Once you’ve done that, submitting your article is easy.
Next is where “for the people” comes into play.
Once the article is submitted, other members of said social news site may stumble upon it. Users are then faced with a couple decisions, to either vote for or ban against it. Depending on what site you’re using, a vote against an article may not be allowed (Newsvine only allows positive votes). The interest, sensationalism or timeliness of the piece may also determine the amount of mercy voters are likely to have.
Interest typically peaks in a news piece when visual and auditory stimuli, such as video clips or sound bytes, are presented. A proactive tip to getting increased visilibity in social news sites is to email friends and family asking them to vote for or digg the article to increase its ratings.
However, if an article submitted by you is not backed by the “people,” it may never get the attention you want and need it to. This is definitely an unfortunate occurrence for some articles on Digg because it allows users to “bury” articles they don’t like, view as spam or are untimely.
If your article still seems to be at the bottom of the heap, the social news sites offer some tips on how to gain popularity; unfortunately when it’s up to users to determine what’s hot and what’s not, these tips will only get you so far. Sometimes, the Sanjaya-type voting makes number one stories out of things that seem far less newsworthy than more prominent issues facing today’s world, so it’s up to your discretion.
Here’s a suggestion on gaining popularity from Digg.com:
“After you submit content, other people read your submission and Digg what they like best. If your story rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of visitors to see.
What can you do as a Digg user? Lots. Every person can digg (help promote), bury (help remove spam), and comment on stories… you can even Digg and bury comments you like or dislike. Digg also allows you to track your friends’ activity throughout the site — want to share a video or news story with a friend? Digg it!”
Digg and Reddit are social news sites that really seem to attract the MySpace and blogging crowds. They are simple and cleanly laid out, but they have a certain feel to them appealing to a younger generation of internet users.
Newsvine is an emerging, still relatively small social news site. It is laid out more like an online newspaper with article briefs and pictures to accompany headlines. The topics covered within Newsvine are the latest news updates from all over the world. The news is not necessarily better, but caters to a different crowd, one seemingly more involved with political and international current events.
Newsvine was created by former employees of large media, such as Disney and ESPN, the ultimate goal being “to bring together big and little media in a way which respects established journalism and empowers the individual at the same time (Newsvine.com).”
The triggers behind story popularity are similar to Digg, where users within the community can vote on a story if they really like it, but they can only vote positively.
The real power behind social news comes from the people, the users. It’s hard to judge what the public is really looking for in a good news story, but depending on the sites you use, some stories will catch on faster than others. Be persistent and keep track of all the news you submit. The most you can really do is cross your fingers, sit and wait for your article’s day of discovery.
Author Bio: Katy Orell is a recent graduate of Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. She obtained her degree in Communications and currently works as Marketing Coordinator at TwentySix2 Marketing in Atlanta, GA.
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