Archive for August, 2008

Many individuals are venturing onto the Internet and accessing the World Wide Web to build a presence online. In the exciting world of technology we are in users can become online gurus sharing knowledge, or entrepreneurs of business. Web hosting allows people of all types to use the internet like never before. Space is purchased by the potential website owner and is accessible to viewers online. Web hosting companies offer these services at a monthly fee. They provide the processing and storage of data, disc space and connection to their services via internet. There can be large upfront investments required for such services. However, there are many high-quality low cost services available for those who seek them out. These services are perfect for the individual with limited financial resources.

When people start out to develop a website they should be aware of their goals for the site. What do they want to achieve? That is the first question they need to ask themselves before attempting to decide on a host. Most web hosts offer a variety of search engine applications and SEO guidelines to help the new site owner gain the traffic they desire. Targeted considerations like why people will read my website, what I can offer my visitors, how will I provide my service on the web: are all questions that enable a website to be designed in the desired format.

Some tips for hosting your website online are given below:

Selecting a web hosting company:

This is the first and the foremost, function that a potential website owner, has to perform. There are several parameters based on which you can make your selection of the websites.

* Technical support: Unlike a large corporation, individual’s seeking to operate a website have little to no technical knowledge of how the languages required work. Many web hosts are becoming aware of this and offer technical support 24/7 to give their smaller clients the knowledge need to get up and running.

* Packages and/discounts: Try to select a company that offers special package and discounts. Free templates and software provided by companies can interest user and they might be used for enhancing the web hosting service of a new website.

* All in one web host: Many web host services offer website designs that fit individual customer requirements and host it as well. It is wise to search for these companies as there is a great increase in value with having all of your needs met with one provider.

* MySQ Provisions: This is the most popular database systems. It should be in the basic hosting plan of any web host you consider. Whenever you have a need to build a database MySQL is the database you need to use. Many programs available to add to your website also use MySQL to function.

* SSL certificate security: An individual wishing to open an online business, service, or other eCommerce site needs to be capable of providing security to its customers. These types of web-stores often gather and store private information on their customers. Taking payments online with credit cards, and requiring insertion of addresses and other data demand the need for ‘Secured Socket Layer’ certificate security. Your web hosting service must provide this complicated service and be able to implement it as it needs vast technical knowledge to apply.

Calculating disc space needs:

The disc space you will need depends on the type of structure, and the amount of traffic your website will incur. Programs that need big portals such as chats, multiple email accounts, videos and forums will require a very large storage capacity. A typical 10 to 15 page site without those items will not consume nearly as much space and be cheaper to start up. A web host will charge for more space so it is advisable to use only what is necessary. You can always upgrade as your needs increase and you see the need for more space.

Go for dedicated server

This is not as expensive as it might seem, and it offers a great benefit for the cost. One of the many benefits with having a dedicated server are increased stability over a shared server. There is lesser risk of crashing due to the other operators sharing space with your website. You run into less chance of violating the search engine guidelines and devaluing your website on account of it. You have a much greater flexibility, degree of independence, and higher performance with utilities and abilities with a dedicated host for your website.

Deciding on bandwidth:

New websites usually do not require large bandwidths. Bandwidth regulates the level of traffic allowed, and transfer rates on pictures and files. The more your website is viewed or items downloaded from it, the more bandwidth will be required. Upgrades are available so start small.

Country specific hosting:

It is always desired that the hosting is conducted, country specific and this is a search engine rule. Google, a popular search engine, identifies a website with relevance to the country. For e.g.: If a England based software company hosts its website in US server, Google will identify the website as relevant for US searcher rather than searcher based in England or places nearby it. Hence the site would be ranked higher in Google.com than in Google.UK.

Selecting the proper operating system

Most new websites are created on a Linux, or on the UNIX based BSD software. Such applications support Perl/CGI, PHP, and FrontPage. You will need a Windows based host if you need, or prefer to run .NET, ASP, MySQL, Access, or SBS as they require Windows to operate properly. The technicalities of your website may be difficult to understand but are vital.

There are many varied needs to hosting a website and they will be different for every user. Extremely technical implements can hinder web-hosting services. If that becomes the case it is better to seek the aide of professional website developers to keep you from having problems.

The cost of doing online business is getting more expensive every day. Various fees are involved just to start up a website ranging from a few dollars to hundreds. Some of these fees are for web site design, hosting, email, software expense, and domain name registration. Although buying a domain name is not the most expensive part of starting a website, it is still a recurring yearly cost that is helpful to avoid if possible. Having your own domain name gives your business respectability so it is a great thing to have. Getting a free domain name and registration from your web host is a great way to avoid paying an initial fee and yearly maintenance. It cuts your expenses for running your business. There are some facts you should know about what is involved and what should be looked for in considering the offers of free domain names.

There are a few methods of obtaining your own domain name for free and it is not difficult to learn how. There are several strategies you can use to get your business, or organization a domain name and sidestep the nagging frees charged by external companies just to register your name. You can search for domain name companies’ online or local registration or hosting companies in your surrounding neighborhood.

A few ways to obtain a free domain name are:

* When you are looking for domain name companies online or a hosting company online make sure you completely investigate each one to obtain the best packages available. When you study the details make sure they include domain name registration for free. Many organizations get this service from their web hosts because of the massive business they send their way.

* The best way to obtain a domain name for free from a host company is to use them for the registration of that name along with using their web hosting service, and other options such as email registration, and if available design.

* Hire a local domain registration and hosting company as it is always a better option as they function from within spitting distance, which enable more human contact. Unlike their online counterparts, the local web hosting companies provides the probability of face to face negotiation and bargaining.

* Ask or check the FAQs section of a web host to see if their service offers free domain name registration with privacy. This protects the website from having outside sources attempt to view their privileged information. Many of these companies will alert the client if anyone tries to abuse the service and hack into the customer’s information. This is a great protection for being online.

* There are some free TLD domains which you can obtain for viewing a provider’s offers and signing up for what you can use thereby gaining points. The more points you earn the more likely you are of obtaining more free TLD domains.

There are many online domain name providers where you can find free domain names. These types of services offer sub domain names for free when you use their sites to build your website. There are some disadvantages to these programs and they are not top-level domain names. They include:

Freedomain.co.nr

This Free Domain Name Service Provider allows a number of cool features. They provide free Redirection services which are also popularly known as Domain Forwarding service. The other services offered by this online domain name service provider include URL masking services, Path Forwarding as well as Free URL cloaking. Another special feature of this site is that they provide support for Meta Tags and Favicon. This free domain name provider requires a button link back to their main service site.

Dot.tk:

The dot.tk is a leading online free domain name service provider. In fact, it is one of the best free top level domain service provider offering free .tk domains. However, this free domain name expires immediately after 90 days in case the site had less than 25 visitors within this period. One of the major drawbacks of this site is that it has an invisible structure that comes with a popup advertisement.

Uni.cc

Another very popular provider of free domain names is uni.cc. They offer some really great incentives to use their service in the form of site builders, free domain names, redirection, TLD domains. A major drawback is that this site no longer offers web hosting services, or email hosting as well as no longer providing FTP services. This makes them very limited for the use of a domain name.

GeoCities

GeoCities is a Yahoo company that offers free sub domains with advertising on the websites, and they also offer cheap web hosting solutions where you can obtain top-level domain names for free and no ad websites. Both of the fantastic offers from Yahoo come with a great many features including multiple email capability, excellent site builders, and large space even on the free sites. They are bolstered by the public’s perception of stability because of their branding.

Google Page Creator

It is a free website creation and website service provided by Google offering .googlepages.com domains. They provide 100 Megabytes of file and page storage, 41 web templates, page layout tools, HTML, CSS and JavaScript editing, and AutoSave option etc. A user is entitles for registering three unique sub domains. The best feature of this free domain name service provider is that there are no advertisements of any kind.

Fadlan.com

This domain name provider offers .fadlan.com domains. They give clients free URL redirecton and domain forwarding as well. They have other great features such as DNS that allows a site owner to put their own web server on a sub domain if they have a static IP address. There are a few drawbacks to this service but it is reliable.

Afraid.org

One of the best features of Afraid.org is the ability to pick from several extension sub domains. You need to sign up at their web site and they will give you many services such as updating your IP redirection. There is a 50 sub domain limit for each individual user. They are often used for domain hosting, free DNS and Dynamic hosting.

C-o.in

C-o.in is another effective free provider of domain names. They also include free URL redirection and sub domain forwarding as a free service and they offer the services in 4 available formats for ease of use.

A dedicated website hosting is a type of Internet hosting where you lease an entire server and you don’t share it with anyone. Basically you control the server. That includes choice of operating system, hardware, etc. As an addition to the service, a hosting company can add server administration.

Does your business require a dedicated hosting? No. It every single one relies on on in what way big your business is. There are too much advantages of using of leasing a dedicated server besides there are besides too much disadvantages.

The Advantages Of Using A Dedicated Website Hosting Service

Dedicated hosting services are great for large corporations that have a high volume of traffic. In addition it permits you to utilize multiple domain names. It also provides a compelling software support and strong email solutions yet as a powerful database support.

As a matter of fact, if you own a large corporation a dedicated hosting service is something you can consider. On the other hand, if you own a small business, a dedicated hosting is something you don’t need for know. You want to focus on driving more traffic to your site.

The Disadvantages

There are not many disadvantages of using a dedicated website hosting service. As a matter of fact there are only two bad things about dedicated hosting. The first one is price and the second one is usability. The price is too high, so if you are barely starting to run your online business you should really focus on getting more clients instead of getting a dedicated hosting. On the other hand, it requires you to have high skills which will require time for you to learn.

Like I mentioned before, if you own a large corporation this is a good choice for you. But if you have a small business with very few traffic you can look for some other type of hosting other than a dedicated website hosting solution.

Another thing you may consider is that it requires higher skills. If you know nothing about hosting or how to operate a server it will be better if you could spend more time learning how to grow your business instead of wasting time in learning how a dedicated server works.

Operating system support

This type of servers are commonly housed in data centers – similar to collocation facilities – providing redundant power sources and HVAC establishments. The service provisioner owns the server hardware – completely contrary to the collocation – and some of the times they’ll provide you support with your applications or operating establishments.

Employee familiarity, availability, and price are the factors that determine which operating systems are offered on dedicated servers are price, availability, and employee familiarity. The support for any operating system usually depends on the level of management that a particular dedicated server plan offers. Updates of the core system, system-wide vulnerability resolutions, and patches, are just a few things that an operating system support may include.

Connectivity And Bandwidth

Bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate and is often represented in bits (of data) per second (bit/s). For instance, your web space visitants apply bandwidth as the visitors moves from the Internet to your server and vice versa.

Connectivity, on the other hand, refers to the “enter providers” that supply bandwidth, or data transfer rate, through many connection points across a network or footprint to one or multiple data centers where dedicated servers are housed.

Starting up a business is an exhilarating, nerve-wracking thing. For starters, it?s a wonderful thing to finally work for yourself. Being able to control your own destiny and to make unlimited amounts of money is an amazing thing. Unfortunately, tons of stress goes along with all of the wonderful things. The technical side of owning a business can be very confusing as well, especially if you don?t know much about computers or the internet. Whenever a new program comes along, it may become very tricky for you to decide whether or not you should implement that program.

Hiring Technicians If you?ve got a small company that you?re trying to keep afloat, you probably don?t have the funds to hire an IT expert. There are two different types of IT experts: those who have been formally trained, and those that learned everything they know when they were goofing around in their basement at 15. The experts will cost you a fortune to employ, and the ones that don?t know what they?re doing are more trouble than they?re worth. One way to save yourself frustration is to choose a hosted exchange. In 2007, thousands of business chose to use hosted exchange 2007.

Making Things Easy When you chose hosted exchange 2007, you will be able to rest easy. Instead of having to worry about finding a way to pay for more than $20,000 worth of equipment and finding someone to take care of your technological details, you can allow a company of experts to take care of that for you. How good would it feel to know that you could have experts ready to help you through any dilemma you may have, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Instead of having to worry about the server going down at 3 a.m., you can feel secure, knowing that any work you may do and send will be safe in the hands of the company you?ve entrusted your hosted exchange 2007 with.

All the Extras Not only can you get access to Microsoft exchange when you choose a hosted exchange 2007, you can also get tons of extras, like the ability to use SharePoint. SharePoint is a program that allows you to share access with team members or clients that are anywhere around the world. Essentially, you use the hosting powers to retrieve all sorts of different kinds of information, so whether you?re having a business meeting or trying to tell your partner on a business trip about the latest project, you?ll be able to do so easily.

Another bonus in using hosted exchange 2007 is the ability to synchronize your wireless devices, such as your BlackBerry or your iPhone. Can you imagine being able to access everything in your inbox no matter where you are?

When it comes to keeping a small business moving forward, you need as many advantages as you can get. Hosted exchange 2007 is just one way that you can not only cut costs, but can save time and can keep your team connected with just a few clicks of a button.

In the past few years, Social Media and Social Media Marketing have become buzz- words. This is due to the popularity of sites like MySpace, Digg, etc. The social media have two components – user generated contents and the ability to form networks of friends for sharing contents.

In sites like MySpace and Facebook users create their profile pages and use texts, pictures, and videos to embellish the pages. They can then share those contents with others in their friends’ network, or the social network

In sites like Digg, YouTube, Flickr users submit a summary of news articles, pictures, videos and they vote on the contents submitted by others. Popular contents are featured on the homepage and it drives massive amount of traffic.

There are many variations of the two models described above, including a combination of the two.

Using the social media sites to promote your product or services (or a website) is called social media marketing. There are two types of traffic you get when your content becomes popular in a social media site.

The primary traffic or the direct traffic comes from the site where it becomes popular. For sites like Digg, it can be huge and your site should be ready to handle the surge in traffic without crashing.

When your site becomes popular in a social media site, people talk about your site and the post that becomes popular. They will put links to the content. The secondary traffic or the indirect traffic flows from those links long after the surge due to the primary traffic is over.

So, what are the benefits of primary and secondary traffic from the social media sites? The primary traffic exposes your site to people who have no other means of knowing about your existence. Some of those visitors will become regulars to your site if you are providing something that they want on a regular basis.

The greatest benefit is the natural links to your site given by others because they want to discuss your offering. Natural links from a large number of relevant sites improve your search engine rankings and organic search traffic.

Social media marketing lets you expose your site to a large group of people. If your search engine traffic has leveled off, shifting your focus to the social media marketing and becoming successful in that will take you to the next level in search engine traffic.

The only other alternative for increasing your search engine traffic is pay per click advertisement. If you are already running a PPC campaign, you can continue your PPC campaign through out the year to sustain increased traffic from search engines at a cost.

Social media marketing is free and making your site popular a couple of times in a year is enough to sustain increased traffic through out the year.

Our services at leaders excel include any where from a personal website to an elite Premium business package website. Our premium package features include creating a personal header with your company’s logo that communicates your product and/or services.

Check out Leaders Excel Solutions at www.leaderexcelsolutions today for all of your website needs.

The past few years have seen rise to millions of internet web site hosting services. It doesn’t matter if you are are a beginner or a professional, the internet offers you an abundance of opportunity.

Keep an eye out for price, customer service, and reliability. You want to make sure that you have a reputable company behind you when it comes to running your online store. No store means no sales.

Depending on what your website does, I would suggest finding a company that can tailor to your needs. You may need lots of storage space on your server if you have large files. Perhaps you rather have quality “uptime”. Choose wisely.

If you are not experienced in building a website, you may want to look for a hosting service that offers you a web design program as well. These programs are free and are great for the beginner webmaster.

Now let’s talk about price. You certainly don’t want to pay a whole lot for your hosting service. I would say you should not be paying any more than 12 dollars a month. If a company is charging you more than this, you may be getting taken to the cleaners.

You will be better off in the long run if you find yourself a company that offers yearly payment plans or monthly payment plans. Once you start paying for three year contracts and up, you are getting into risky territory.

If you get a decent host, you should expect to receive solutions to your problems very quickly. Any great company will offer customer service 24 hours a day, so be sure to look for this.

Take your time when it comes to finding a good webhost. The last thing you want to happen is finding yourself stuck with an incapable host. This would only put a great deal of stress on top of you.

Not all web hosting plans are created equal. The ownership of a website becomes an important thing. If you’re just getting your site up and running, you don’t have extra capital to spend on web hosting, so you’ll want the most bang for your buck. Website is a place where you can promote a product or service. That’s why choosing a reliable and affordable web host for your site is an important step to do. There are several issues that you would want to consider.

Some of the most affordable plans have more generous allowances than higher priced plans, and some have less. But if your budget is very limited, you need to consider how much you cost need to spend of using a hosting service. Not only the monthly cost, should you also think about other costs. Make sure that you choose a plan that will allow your site’s traffic to grow. Don’t box yourself into an upgrade the minute your traffic starts to pick up. There are plenty of web hosting sites out there that will allow moderate traffic with no additional cost.

Choose a web hosting provider that has a meaningful traffic statistic reporting feature. The storage capacity you need depends on the type of website you intend to build. If you have a plan to build an article directory where the web space required would grow rapidly you should think about the cost of that extra web space you would need. You need this information to analyze your traffic to keep your site growing. Many of the most affordable plans have simple to use, effective statistical programs that will provide almost every user the information they need to effectively manage their site.

There are many outstanding affordable web hosting companies on the internet. Make sure that you don’t have to spend extra money for setting up databases, putting FrontPage on your site, creating email accounts and using other common applications. They all should be free. They also have a program called Site Studio that helps you set up your website without HTML or FTP.

There are many other choices out there when you’re looking for affordable web hosting services. Compare plans and remember to consider your site’s growth when you’re choosing a provider. Keep in mind that today the count of hosting providers is endless and most of them claim as the number one company in the world with the very best cheap rates. You’re only there to increase your traffic be sure that your affordable web hosting plan can handle it.

If you want to launch your own website but are unsure what to do first, pay attention to the following list.

The first course of action is to get a domain name. There is a great deal of misinformation on this subject, so you may want to peruse the following criteria before settling on a domain name.

Select a domain ending with a .com.

Easy to spell.

Not likely to be misunderstood by a listener.

Free of numeric characters and dashes.

Try to include alliteration or other elements to make it memorable.

If possible, describes your product or service.

Of course, there are a couple of exceptions you should know. For example, if your site is a personal blog (whether business-oriented or not), then it is common practice to use your name even in those cases in which it is not easy to spell.

Another possible exception is the last criteria I listed. The best case is to have a domain name which is descriptive, but there are many sites where this is not the case. The best example is Google! (You would think a better name would have been “TheBestSearchEngine.com”.) Give some thought to your target audience and what makes sense to them.

Second, locate a reliable web host and sign up one of their plans.

The third step is to setup your website. You will need to make a decision fairly quickly what format will be suit your needs.

The fourth step is to put up content on your site. If you selected a blog format for your site, you will be pleased at how simple this step is.

Fifth, you will want to set up a schedule and program for promoting your site. After all, what good is having a website if no one knows about it? Some ways you can promote your site include article marketing, video marketing, viral friend scripts, press releases, forum marketing, and blog commenting.

Starting a website can be challenging and a little bit scary, but also extremely rewarding.

Planning, creating, and building a data centre can be one of the most expensive tasks an IT director can face. In order to maximize cost effectiveness and achieve optimum performance, reliability is key.

Data centre size can range from one room in an office to an entire building, but there are some basic requirements which must be implemented to ensure system reliability. When designing a data centre, efficient planning is very important. A number of areas must be addressed to ensure a dependable and efficient system which is capable of continued operation.

Understand the potential causes of failure

There are a number of areas cited as the most common causes of data centre failure:

- Environmental problems – Software failure – for example, memory leaks – Hardware failure – such as storage or processing problems – Operator or procedural error – Poor network reliability – Security breaches – for example hacker attack

Environmental considerations

When planning a data centre, there are a number of physical and architectural design features which must be implemented to ensure reliability:

Adequate Air Supply: temperature must be maintained between 20 and 25 ?C and humidity between 40 and 60 %. Too much humidity can cause water to condense on internal components. However if the air is too dry, this can cause static electricity to discharge. Malfunction is likely if the above ranges are not maintained. This is one of the prime causes of data centre malfunction. Implementation of adequate air conditioning and correct architectural design to allow for air circulation between units is vital. Particular care needs to be taken to prevent hotspots from occurring.

- Safeguard against power loss: external environmental factors such as hurricane or snowstorm can cause power black outs. It is vital to have a generator to ensure continued function, as well as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for emergency power. These should be of sufficient size to power cooling systems.

-Fire protection systems: the simplest forms of fire protection are smoke detectors, for early detection of a fire. It is also vital to ensure fire containment to prevent the spread of a fire to the entire data centre. For example: Contained sprinkler systems or gaseous fire suppression.

Software, hardware or network failure

Tested and quality assured hardware and software from reputable brands can help increase reliability. Common malfunction in one component, such as an internal fan or storage disc, can quickly lead to failure in another. Ensuring network performance and reliability can also have a huge impact on the performance of the data system.

Operational procedures

It is impossible to completely rule out human error and operational issues. However, devising an operations procedure to not only maximize performance but also track reliability and malfunction is key. Conduct regular back-ups on each production server to ensure quick file repair in the event of damage. Provide adequate operator training to implement protocol and avoid the most basic of errors such as leaving discs in drives, which would prevent an auto-reboot in the event of system failure.

Data security

Particularly important in large data centres with sensitive information, is to ensure adequate physical security. Corporations may consider outsourcing their data centre to an managed hosting services off-site location with 24 hour security guards and video surveillance. System security also requires keeping up-to-date with the latest security and anti-virus software.

Avoid single point of failure

One final key consideration is to avoid having a single point of failure. Test the system before it goes operational and ensure that if one component fails there is sufficient backup to ensure the data centre can still function. Back-up will make sure that your important data is never lost.

If you are building an online shop, you will need to address the question of taking payments for orders. You can, of course, request that a check payment be sent to you in the mail. Most shopping basket software allows you to select this option when you are setting it up. If you already have an offline, bricks and mortar business, you may simply wish to accept credit card payments over the phone.

However, there are some basic problems with these solutions and it all comes down to the way people shop on the internet. Customers expect to be able to add items to their basket and proceed to the checkout to pay. If they then find they must telephone you or print out and send their order, they may simply abandon their order and hop over to another website. Shopping online is all about convenience and if you are unable to provide this, you may be losing customers without even being aware of it.

So, what are your options and what is it all going to cost? Well, the good news is you can do it all very simply and cheaply. Paypal does not have a set-up charge and is a large and trusted online payment processor servicing 78 million accounts worldwide in 56 countries. Your only cost is a small percentage on each sale; a transaction charge. Payments from your website go straight into your Paypal account from where you can transfer amounts to your bank account with the click of a button.

Once you sign up with a payment processor, you can either link to their secure server from your shopping basket facility or build ‘add to basket’ buttons via a simple web query form. The html generated is then pasted next to items on your web page and your customers will be transferred to a secure server when they go to checkout.

Traditional merchant accounts are normally set up through your own bank and will become integral to your business account. Having your own merchant account gives you the choice of many different online payment gateways. Most, however, do charge a set-up fee, monthly fee and transaction charge. Just as you would offline, do make sure you research any company you sign up with on the internet. Print out and read their terms and conditions. Take particular notice of where they are operating from, their fees, when and how you will receive your money into your account.

Another point to consider is the question of chargebacks. This happens when a buyer requests a refund of an amount already paid to you. Reasons include not receiving goods ordered or items arriving faulty, damaged or not as described. Sometimes requests are made if the buyers card was used fraudulently.

If the chargeback request is successful, your merchant payment processor will charge you a processing fee. However, some companies will now provide you with insurance against chargebacks inclusive in your monthly fee. It’s certainly worth shopping around for the right solution for you but knowing you have done your research will give you some peace of mind.

Our services at leaders excel include any where from a personal website to an elite Premium business package website. Our premium package features include creating a personal header with your company’s logo that communicates your product and/or services.

Check out Leaders Excel Solutions at www.leaderexcelsolutions today for all of your website needs.