But This Host Is So Cheap!

One of the things that I find confuses a lot of my clients is what type of hosting package to buy. If you are new to the Internet business world and your have never had a website – a host is a foreign word to you, even if you do have a website you may not know what you need in a hosting provider. I hope this article will help clear up some of that confusion. I have met the most brilliant business people who have been confused by terminology so let me first start by explaining the difference between an ISP and an Internet hosting provider… ISP – Internet Service Provider This is the company that actually provides you with a way to access the Internet – if you have a dial-up then it would be something like PC People or Earth Link. If you have cable modem it would be Comcast, Quest – etc. This is the connection that goes from your computer to the Internet. Internet Hosting Provider Which is where you place your website – if you were/are a business owner that had a brick and mortar business you would rent a store and place your goods in that store. The same holds true with an Internet host they hold all the pages of your website, graphics, scripts and everything else. This is a simplified explanation, but you get the picture. Now that we have that out of the way lets talk about hosting packages and what to look for. As a web developer/designer I have worked with the best and worst of hosts. I have found hosting companies that look inexpensive but nickel and dime the customer to death by the time they are done. They look great in the beginning and even sound like a fantastic deal but are really not a great bargain. I have found hosting companies I have loved in the beginning but later have gotten so big or changed hands and the customer service was so bad I had to go else where. I want to warn you of the one stop shop hosting companies that do everything – they will register your domain name – build your website (usually template websites) and host them. Saving you money and touting the convenience of all they do… Ultimately you feel like you are hostage to them – they own your domain and website. Please see this article for more … Promotional Designer: I thought it was a good idea... What do I do now? I know as a business owner you want to save money where you can – which is just good business sense, there are a lot of choices – do your research - make sure that host will meet your needs. I want you to chose carefully – be wise about the host you pick this is so important because all hosts are not created equal.

Factors to look at when selecting a hosting company

• Live Tech Support This is one of the most important aspects of a host I want to be able to talk to a live breathing person – through chat on the Internet or phone. I do not want to rely on an email period. Which is my position – if my store (website) is down or my email is out of order my business is going down the drain. This is #1…

• Do they use a C-Panel What is a c-panel you say? A C-panel allows you or your web developer/designer to be able to control different elements of your website. You can add emails, change passwords, even point domain names and many other important tasks. It gives you control over many aspects of your website.

• What is the up Time If the the server is down and your website is not up on the Internet 24/7 then what happens when your website visitors go to your store? You lose business ! I look for a 99% up time guarantee . There are ways to monitor your up time go to www.artistadesign.com/resources.html you will be able to get a free website monitor. Just click on the monitor you see on the left hand side of the website. You will be able to register and get a monitor to put on your website - best of all it is FREE!

• Disk Space - Depending on how large you website is will depend on the disk space needed. If you have a logo and a lot of text you will need very little disk space.

• Bandwidth - If you are running a site with lots of images or downloads you will need a lot higher bandwidth than a small site with mainly text. If you go over your allotted bandwidth you will usually pay a lot of extra money or visitors may not be able to download files you need them to download.

• CGI Bin - It is very rare you will see a host without a CGI bin. It is important that you have one. If you do not have you own CGI bin you cannot install scripts and programs.

• MySQL Database - Some programs require a data-base. If you are going to have a shopping cart, a customer log in or a number of different functions for your website in the future you may want to store the information. Some hosts will want to charge you extra for MySQL included in a hosting package - but you will fine most good hosts will include it. Even if you don't think you will ever need it, I would find a host who has it in a hosting package even one which is an upgrade from the one you are purchasing. I find most websites grow as the business grows, and eventually you may need a database for something.

• PHP - Many dynamic scripts and programs require PHP support. Again, this feature can be extra with some hosts but most good hosts will offer this free. With this you will find free blogging scripts (WordPress) shopping cart scripts (Zen Cart) and many other things. As a matter of fact in the host that I use and would recommend these things are right in the C-Panel and can be applied with a click of a mouse!

• Perl - If you do not have Perl, you cannot run Perl programs. Many good scripts that you can get for free or buy are written in Perl.

• SSL (Secure Socket Layer) - If you intend to accept credit card orders directly from you website, you will need Secure Socket Layer included in your plan. This is an easily overlooked feature. To use this feature you need a merchant account – there is no essential need to make this a priority if you have no merchant account – or if you use a 3 party processor such as PayPal.

• FTP Access – Unlimited and unrestricted ability to transfer files to your site is essential. You will need an FTP program to transfer files.

• Statistics Program - I use to say have a great statistics program and it still is an essential tool to have. Most good hosts provide this as well.

  My preference is Google Analytics it is an impressive tool and you would not believe how much information you can gain from having that on your website. It goes way above and beyond anything I have seen a hosting package provide. Google provides the code for free you just need your web professional to place it on the pages of your website. You will be able to fine tune your marketing it is outstanding. Pamela@artistadesign.com

Web 2.0 – what does that really mean?

Are you confused by what web 2.0 really is? You are certainly not alone. If you are from my generation – the generation of horse and buggies (just kidding!) you may be getting dizzy just trying to get you hands around the whole idea of web 2.0 I have really been immersing myself in all the information I can find on what Web 2.0 really means true to form there is so much information that it boggles the mind. So after wading through e-books, e-courses, and articles I have been able to resolve some of the confusion in my mind and even had fun putting together a few marketing strategies of my own. So for those of you who are confused about what web 2.0 is lets clear up a fraction of the confusion. There are 3 types of websites that make up the structure of what is called Web 2.0 Social Media Sites These are sites where members provide most or all of the content. These sites allow members to upload specific media – Video, Pictures etc. Example: http://www.YouTube.com Social Networking Sites This type of site lets there members create personal profiles to share likes, dislikes, passions, and interests... and it allows others to connect with you through different communications channels like forums, groups, chatrooms, comments, private messaging. Business idea's etc. Examples: http://www.myspace.com http://www.linkedin.com Social Bookmarking Sites In a social bookmarking site, users save links to web pages that they want to share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, Most social bookmark sites encourage users to organize their bookmarks with tags or keywords. They also enable viewing bookmarks associated with a chosen tag, and include information about the number of users who have bookmarked them. Many social bookmarking sites provide RSS feeds for their lists of bookmarks, including lists organized by tags. This allows subscribers to become aware of new bookmarks as they are saved, shared, and tagged by other users. As these services have matured and grown more popular, they have added extra features such as ratings and comments on bookmarks Examples: http://www. Technorati.com http://www.digg.com These types of sites actually work in conjunction with each other and can work to your advantage – in fact when used right will provide a rich network of back links to your blogs and websites. Search engines love these types of sites and links. Generating marketing plans using web 2.0 link to your websites and blogs to pull you website high in the search engine rankings. I have read that this is actually in some cases out shadowing the old SEO standards, that is a debate raging out on the internet if you have not seen it! Don’t get me wrong you still need to search engine optimize you website however you may be seeing sometime in the very near future where that will be less of a factor then using the tools Web 2.0 has to offer. We shall see? http://www.artistdesign.com/

Create a Squidoo Lens and See New Traffic

A short time ago word started spreading about a brand new site called Squidoo (http://www.squidoo.com/). It sounded like an interesting concept, a little like a blog and a little like an "About Me" page, they asked you to sign up and create something called a "lens". It was certainly a unique idea, and everyone wondered if it would catch on. Now more than a year later the true benefits of making a lens at Squidoo are clear. It is a great place to create a new site about your hobby, passion or business, but even more it is a great place to promote any existing web site you may have. Not only can you tell Squidoo visitors about your site, but a lens gives the search engines another reason to place your site higher on the results pages; a Squidoo lens is a perfect place to build "backlinks" to your blog or web site. When making a lens at Squidoo you have the option to display RSS feeds from other sites. Place an RSS link on your lens and suddenly the site publishing the feed has a new set of backlinks from a popular and relevant site. That is just what the search engine spiders love to see. What other RSS feeds could you place on Squidoo? Do you submit articles to an article directory, and if so does that directory offer an RSS feed of your articles? If you operate an eBay Store you could post its RSS feed. Of course an RSS feed isn’t the only way to promote your site on Squidoo. You could create static links to specific pages on your site. Write a summary of one of your articles and link to that article. Write some information about an e-book you’ve written or promote and link from Squidoo. You could also simply place a list of links back to different pages of your website. The possibilities are only limited by the ideas you can come up with, but one important tip: don’t just link to your site’s main page, make keyword specific links to particular pages within your site. The general consensus among internet marketers right now is that Squidoo is slipping in the search engine results pages. Squidoo recently made some changes in their templates, and so over the last few weeks it seems to have affected their search engine optimization. Marketers are reporting a definite slip in their SERP (search engine results page) placement. Even so, creating a lens at Squidoo is a profitable way to promote and have back links to your site. http://www.squidoo.com/connectingthedots