7 Easy Business Optimization Solutions for Your Web Site

7 Easy Business Optimization Solutions You Can Apply to Your Web Site Today

Finding affordable business optimization solutions for your Web site can some time be a challenge. Many of the Web site owners I talk to on a daily bases are small business owners that have a limited budget when it comes to advertising and even smaller when they talk about their Web site. One general consensus is that they all know they need to beef up their Internet presence but they all believe the only way to do that is by hiring a company who specialized in Internet Marketing or Search Engine Optimization. What many don’t realize is that with a little time and effort they can apply some basic optimization solutions to their site themselves and usually for free if they are dedicated to making their Web site succeed.

Being a small business owner myself I know how hard it is to juggle advertising dollars and get the most advertising for my money is important. I am going to share with you a few tips on how you can have a sucsesful on-line presence by just putting a little time and effort into your site.

#1 - For Your Visitor

Lets start by taking a good look at your Web site. We all look at our site so many times often we overlook the obvious. Pick up the phone or drop an email to some of your most loyal customers and ask them what they would want to see on your site to help them be better informed about your product or services. Ask them their thoughts and comments on your site. Ask them to give you their honest opinion. Do they see anything that they could suggest to make it better for potential customers? Is there any specific information they fell would benefit a new visitor? It is amazing how getting the prospective of your customer will often open some windows you may have never thought of before and the greatest thing is it does not cost a dime.

Another great way to see how your visitors are using your site you may want to apply some click tracking software to your Web site so you can see how people are navigating through your site. It may be a real eye opener to how you have your pages set up. It will tell you just where and what your visitors are clicking on. Visit http://www.Crazyegg.com and apply a small piece of code to your Web site and start tracking your visitor’s clicks you’ll be surprised at what you discover.

#2 – For Your Visitor

While you are taking a look at your Web site have you given your customers easy access to your contact information on each and every page? Many Web site owners overlook this important aspect. You need to make it easy for potential customers to contact you. You want them to be able to find a way to contact you on each and every page and not just on a contact page. You’re working with split seconds every time someone lands on your page. Make it easy for them tell them exactly what you want them to do. Rather then just saying Call Now! Give them specific instructions.

For Example:

Go pick up your phone and call us now to hear more about this special rate. Time is limited so call now at 800-555-1234

Buy today to take advantage of free shipping ... delivered right to your front door in 48 hours!

Little things that you may not think are important usually are the things that result in making a sale or not. One important factor in advertising is trying to find ways to make what you say different then everyone else. Those that stand out in a crowd are usually the ones that are making the sale.

What can you do to make your information different? Think of your competitors and what they are doing then you do the complete opposite.

These are just a couple of Web design and layout tips to help with your business optimization solutions that will mostly benefit your visitor. Now lets concentrate on a few that the search engines will favor


#3 – For Your Visitor & Search Engines

You only have 3 seconds to capture someone’s attention so start your business optimization solutions right at your title tag. Go to your home page and make a mental note of your title tag (look in the upper left hand corner of your browser the words listed there are what it says in your title tag.) Now go do a search using your most relevant keyword phrase (what you want your visitors to find you on when doing a search) and look at the results that come up.

Look at the title of each result on the first couple pages. How compelling are they? Do they intrigue you to click on them by reading what is listed there? People are looking for instant gratification and they will read the results and normally will click on those that compel them to do so. For example let’s take a look at these results for coffeehouse:

Out of the following results which would you be more inclined to click on?

• Depot Coffee House
• Discover a Cup of Europe at Eurotazza® Coffeehouse
• DJ’s Coffeehouse
• Coffeehouse – Savor the Flavor of Brazilian Coffee

By addressing the instant reaction of your potential visitor you’re compelling them to click on your ad by writing a good title but you’re also creating a keyword rich
title tag that the search engines will favor.

The first impression most Internet users get of your company is the way you describe your site so use your title tag as the most part of your Web site.


#4 – For the Search Engines

Is your Web site compliant? A quick check of your HTML code will reveal if your site is complying with the W3C. I would recommend running your site through http://validator.w3.org/ to test your website for compliance issues with W3C.

Here is a short definition of what W3C compliance is;
The W3C is the World Wide Web Consortium and basically, since 1994 the W3C has provided the guidelines by which websites and web pages should be structured and created.
• Compliance help insure accessibility
• Compliance helps insure that your website is accessible from a number of different devices; from different browsers to the growing number of surfers using PDA?s and cellular phones.
• Compliance will also help insure that regardless of the browser, resolution, device, etc. that your website will look and function in the same or at least a very similar fashion.

Being compliant doesn’t necessary benefit you in terms of SEO at this point, however many of the processes you go through to get compliant code will automatically improve your “on page” factors and it will rule out a lot of crawling/indexing issues.

#5 – For Your Visitor

Pre-qualification of your visitors is one of the biggest problems many companies make when developing a Web site. Say your Web site is about “cell phones” and you’ve set up your site only for the keyword phrase “cell phones.” Do you know the competing pages for the terms “cell phones” is over 246 million?

Even as a Professional SEO I know it’s going to be pretty hard to compete with those kinds of numbers. Let’s say we break the keyword phrase “cell phones” down to the lowest and most detailed search giving your visitors exactly what they are looking for.

If I was working on this site I would be working on pages that are more concentrated around detailed keyword phrases.

• cell phone – competing pages – 246,000,000
• cell phone ring tones - competing pages 494,000
• custom cell phone ring tones – competing pages 225,000
• make custom cell phone ring tones – competing pages 177,000
• make free ring tones – competing pages – 31,700
• star trek ring tones – competing pages – 5,110
• family guy ring tones – competing pages - 1,950
• like to make my own ring tones – competing pages – 3

By spending just a little research time I was able to find some valuable keyword phrases that could be used to open additional windows into a cell phone site. The key is opening as many windows into your site as possible. Once you have given your visitor exactly what they’re looking for you have already earned their creditability and they most likely will spend additional time on your site looking at what else you have to offer.

Take a look at your site. Do you have a separate page for each of your products or services? Are you breaking it down in the smallest lowest detailed search?

Think of it this way …the search engines goals are to return the most relevant results to its users so break down your keyword phrases into the most detailed result and you are bringing very happy visitor to your site.

#6 – For Web Site Exposure

No one knows more about your product or service than you do so take your knowledge and put it down in writing. Nothing will give you more creditability then having a visitor reading something you have written about your industry. Still the power of the written word is priceless.

There are a number of Web sites on the Internet you can submit your articles to along with posting them on your own Web site. Most Web site owners think their Web site is just a place just to list services and company info. What some forget is most Internet surfers do much research before deciding to hire someone for a service or buying a product. Normally when someone is searching for they are gathering as much information they can about the product first. If they’re coming to your Web site reading valuable information about your industry and products they are immediately going to feel you are an expert in your field.

We are in a world laden with advertising so when writing about a particular product or service by-past the industry hype and stick to the facts. If your readers think you’re writing sales pitches they will instantly hit the back button. Give them detailed information or how to properly use your products something that will be of value to them.

Here is my top list of article marketing Web sites that you can submit your articles and remember the most important place for them is on your own site.

• www.BusinessKnowHow.com
• www.ArticleDashboard.com
• www.Buzzle.com
• www.ArticleBiz.com
• www.EzineArticles.com
• www.ArticleCity.com
• www.ArticleAlley.com

I found a great resource to get your content indexed on Google within 24 hours. Check out http://www.scribd.com. Be sure to read the terms of service Scribd does not like anything that resembles advertising.

#7 For YOU!

Learn learn and learn some more!

One of the best things you can do for your site is to learn as much about search engine optimization and internet marketing as you can. There are a number of free and affordable resources you can use to learn exactly what it takes to perform better in the search engines.

To start with here is a list of Blogs you can subscribe to so you can keep up to date with the latest changes on the Internet:

• http://www.searchengineacademysc.com/blog
• http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
• http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/
• http://www.keiobservationdeck.com/
• http://www.sew-wrc.com/idea-motivator/

A couple Internet Marketing Newsletters to subscribe to:

• http://www.internetmarketingsecrets.com/
• http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/

Affordable On-line Training:

• http://www.onlinewebtraining.com/
• http://www.sew-wrc.com/

For a qualified SEO Training Center near you try:

• http://www.searchengineacademysc.com

Sign up to receive FREE SEO Tips at:

• http://www.searchengineacademysc.com/seo-tip.htm

There’s no substitute for a little hard work and learning some small business optimization solutions starts right at your computer!

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Websites: Start to Finish

Wanna Website? Better yet, wanna website within your time frame and budget? Choosing the right designer for the job is critical for success. But before you hire, or even interview designers, you need do some “goal-searching”. Defining your scope and educating yourself will help keep delays and disappointments to a minimum.

Every company needs a website which should include their logo, marketing message, location, phone number, and products or services. Your ultimate site may include information collection, product sales, or integration with internal systems. Once you determine what you expect from your website and what functionality you need, you can begin searching for a web designer. Bear in mind the best design professionals act as consultants – understanding your scope, and proposing solutions.

Step 1: Build a “Wish List”

Whether you're creating a website from scratch or updating an existing one, the first thing to do is to identify your goals and objectives. It’s not good enough just to have a website; you should expect tangible results from the investment and setting goals will help you measure your results. Here are some common website objectives. Do you want to:

• Provide information? Many businesses just need services offered, contact information, directions, and hours. This type of website is the least expensive and works for doctors, dentists, restaurants, vets, local stores, pet service providers, and other small businesses.

• Sell your products online? An Ecommerce solution is more expensive, but can yield big profits for companies that offer unique products and can ship them.

• Provide customer support or customer service? Many companies have reduced staff just by including FAQs, Email capability, complaint forum, policies, instructions, troubleshooting tips, use and care info and more on their website. Some solutions include Real-Time chat with a customer service representative.

• Gather data for sales or marketing purposes? Like email messages, newsletters, testing products and services. These features can be added to static and Ecommerce websites.

Once you know the goals, you can address more specific questions:

• Do you need a URL (domain name) purchased?

• Do you need a hosting service for your website?

• What pages do you need to include in your website to meet the goals listed above? (About, Location, Rates, Menu, Services, Products, Customer service, Press Releases, Articles, Sign Up pages, Photo Gallery, Events Calendar, Archives)

• Do you need interactive features? (database connection, order tracking, log-in, calculator, or any feature where visitors would interact with your site)

• Do you have a content writer or do you need to have that service provided?

• Do you need to have photos taken or stock photos purchased?

Your website can be as simple or complex as your imagination and budget. Having your “wish list” will help the designer develop an accurate quote, schedule and resource list.

Step 2: Gain an Understanding

Understanding how a website is created is important. If you’re not educated in the basics, you leave yourself vulnerable, risking a poor vendor choice and unexpected problems.

Website design and development is a two-fold process that involves three parts. It consists of design (front end), what your website looks like (including images and text). Graphic designers concentrate on the front end, choosing appropriate images, fonts, and layout. A good designer has an understanding of what works visually on screen, how a visitor scans a page, and what technical limitations exist for web development. Your designer will rely on you to provide the content – written and visual, or help you find a writer and secure photos as well.

The second part of the process is web development (back end), programming needed to make your site functional. A good web developer will know several programming languages, most importantly HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). This code allows browsers to display images and text. Other code terms you may hear are:

• Javascript – for simple client side interactivity, pop ups, and some animation.

• DHTML – for interactive menu navigation

• ASP and PHP – for customization and interactivity (database connectivity, account information).

• CSS – control the look from a central file.

• Flash – creates interactive menus, tools and animated messages.

The third part to consider is future growth and updates. Most websites should be updated at least three or four times a year. Retail stores may want to change featured items weekly, and Ecommerce sites may need daily updates.

There are three ways to handle ongoing maintenance:

• Your design team makes updates. Typically you’d pay a set monthly fee, or by the hour.

• You make updates. Upgrading to include a content management system would allow edits of text and some images without programming skills. Cost depends on complexity.

• Your staff makes updates. If you have the staff in place or have the budget for an additional person, this option may be cost effective and give you more control.

You may find a combination of these solutions fits your needs. For example, your Ecommerce website allows you to add, change and edit products, but other parts of your site need the attention of a designer.

Step 3: Compare Options

Some firms can provide all the services needed to fulfill your wish list. These types of companies may have a staff of designers, developers, and technical support, or they may outsource portions of the job to another company, or to freelancers. Having your website designed under one roof provides these advantages:

• One point of contact and project management

• Better communication and integration of job elements and phases

• Big picture performance rather than simply completing daily tasks

Many larger companies offer other marketing services, such as email campaigns, search engine marketing, and other programs to help drive visitors to your website. Be sure to ask what additional services are available, whether you think you may need them or not.

Narrow down your choices for design companies – you need to select a group that will complete your project on time and within budget. Start by looking at the designer’s portfolio. Established design companies have a comprehensive portfolio of work on their website. Thoroughly review the portfolio for samples that have the same features you’re interested in (design style is important, but a good designer should be able to create a variety of looks). Features are super important because a company that designs a gorgeous static website may not have the programming capabilities to create a database driven Ecommerce site for you.

Here are 10 Clues that point to a successfully completed design project:

Clue #1: If you’re looking to hire a designer and they don’t have a website… RUN! These days there is NO excuse not to have an online presence for your advertising and marketing company.

Clue #2: If all or most of the samples on a web designers site say “Coming Soon” or “Page not found”… RUN! Obviously they’re probably a company that doesn’t finish projects.

Clue #3: If their portfolio has many samples, but they’re all for the same campaign or company (and one you’ve never heard of)… RUN!! Most likely these are samples done for design school, not real world business.

Clue #4: If their website or work samples have typos, broken links and outdated information… RUN! If they’ve done it before, they’ll do it again.

Clue #5: If you’re interviewing a designer and they don’t ask the three key questions… RUN! Your designer has to have these questions answered: what does the client do, what does the client want done, and what is the project deadline.

Clue #6: If you have trouble getting the design company on the phone, or they’re not answering your emails in a timely and efficient manner… RUN! This is just a foreshadowing of what’s to come when the real work begins.

Clue #7: If you don’t get a price quote (and or printing estimate) in writing… RUN! Verbal estimates are amateur, indicating that that designer is as well.

Clue #8: If the price sounds too good to be true… RUN! It probably is too good to be true. You’ll either never get the final project completed, or you’ll get what you pay for. Get several quotes to see what the ballpark figures should be if you’re new at this. And don’t rely on internet companies as many are in foreign countries making communication impossible, and again… you’ll get what you pay for.

Clue #9: If you aren’t asked to sign a contract… RUN! Do you know what the payment terms are, who owns the copyright, are there royalties or usage limits, and so on. Don’t hire any contractor without some agreement in writing.

Clue #10: If you aren’t asked for money up front… RUN! Think of it as a retainer, and typically, an assurance that your job is taken as a serious priority. If you’ve gotten to this point with your research, a deposit of 30 or 50% shouldn’t scare you.

After looking at samples, check references. Get a minimum of three and ask these questions:

• Were deadlines met?
• Was the company flexible?
• Did they make suggestions?
• What were their strengths?
• What were their weaknesses?
• Would you hire them again?

There are tons of reputable, talented, and yes, affordable creative service companies around. The care you take at the beginning should pay big when you receive a finished project that’s what you expected (or better), that’s within budget, that’s on time, and most importantly, that’s effective at meeting your marketing goals.

Step 4: Getting Started

Your selected website design team will interview you to understand your business, your goals for the site and your budget. They should prepare a project plan with pricing which lays out each step of the project, who is responsible for what, deadlines, included features, pricing, and extras with their costs. A contract is a must! Make sure your contract lists who owns what, the terms, the deadlines, and the method of approving additional charges.

Armed with good information, a well-thought out plan and scope, and answers to some questions up front, your website development should be smooth and painless from start-to-finish.

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What is Fantastico?

Fantastico is a program that comes with most hosting packages, integrated with the popular online control panel- Cpanel to offer web hosting useres the ability to install popular programs and scripts. The installation of these programs and scripts are significantly simplified, all with the ease of a click of a button. Web-hosting users are able to install multiple instances of popular open source programs for their web design needs. For users who intend to get their sites up and running in minimal time, Fantastico is the perfect solution.

Also referred to as Fantastico Deluxe, the popularity of this program seems to just keep on growing, and with good reasons. An interesting feature of Fantastico is that it is updated on a regular basis to ensure that users will always get the latest software patches and upgrades. Users will have that peace of mind of knowing that their scripts are kept up-to-date with security updates and functionality improvements.

It is important to note that Fantastico is available for Linux / PHP web hosting only. Having said that, this is not to be mistaken with its compatibility with the user’s operating system. Linux / PHP web hosting works perfectly fine for users using Windows as their operating system. In fact, most of the web hosting services on the web are running on Linux system.

Fantastico Deluxe also normally comes with Templates Express, which is a series of static templates for website building. This reduces the hassle of having to build websites from scratch, especially for beginners. Webmasters can expect to easily set up a fully functioning dynamic website and has many features such as polls, calendar, weblinks, message comments etc. Other features include multiple polls, templates, unlimited options, IP logging, IP locking, cookie support, comment feature, vote expire feature, random poll plus more. Fantastico includes easily over 40 scripts for you to choose from. For the more experienced users, you would notice that Fantastico is an amazing cPanel/PHP based Web application. It automatically installs preconfigured PHP/MySQL scripts and databases into a Cpanel-managed virtual host.

In short, Fantastico is ideal for any web designer or developer, ranging from someone with no knowledge of building websites to an expert web designer. It provides streamlined development and management process of your website, thus ensuring a hassle-free and a greatly reduce human error in web designing activities. The best part is that Fantastico would normally come as default and for free with every cPanel hosting plans and WHM Reseller accounts. So, needless to say that the next time you go on search for your web hosting solution, having Fantastico is a definite must.

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What is FrontPage Hosting?

FrontPage hosting is a niche market offering in terms of support for a web authoring software product. It is run on a Windows operating system. The FrontPage software itself refers to a complete package for web site creation, flexible web site management, and the ability to edit and format HTML. All these can be done through an interface that is user-friendly and easy to use especially for those already familiar with Microsoft Office. FrontPage hosting is designed for users who use a lot of dynamic functions for their websites and require FrontPage specific features like photo gallery, active web pages or if they are running FrontPage bots. It is a great platform for users who want to host their small or large e-commerce sites.

FrontPage Hosting is comparable with the normal hosting services but is differentiated by its ability to support for various FrontPage extensions. In fact, FrontPage can only work in perfection if the hosting provider has FrontPage Server Extensions installed. In terms of price, the normal cost for a FrontPage hosting is comparable to the normal Windows or UNIX hosting.

In view to extend the functionality and capabilities of the FrontPage hosting, FrontPage version 2003 was developed. It offers additional useful features such as a new photo gallery, usage analysis reports and instant team web sites. The features such as easy-to-use dropdown menus, check boxes and radio buttons enables easy website development and ensures pleasant experience for beginners in web development. There are also dynamic web templates for quick site modification. Remote sites can be connected to easily using the web import dialog can Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). It also provides a great advantage for data-driven websites where people can be connected in various methods through Extensible Markup Language (XML), using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor.

In conclusion, FrontPage hosting is a very feature-rich solution especially for beginners in web development who are already familiar with the Microsoft Office environment. The FrontPage web development software works perfectly with FrontPage hosting, which is designed to support the FrontPage extensions. This is the right solution if you are looking for a web hosting and web development environment that is easy and quick to learn through a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

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What is Managed Hosting?

Managed hosting is a hosting solution whereby the hosting provider takes care of all the running and administrative tasks of your dedicated server. It is the perfect solution for customers who are looking for a full turnkey service of managing a web server, encompassing hardware, software, space, network and all related requirements. It is commonly subscribed by companies who are looking for a dedicated support to provide 100% service uptime while maintaining a level of control on their servers. The infrastructure, technical support and responsiveness of support provided by the hosting provider are definitely greater than other hosting services.

Managed hosting breaks the traditional method of having to spend capital expenditure up front in purchasing and setting up hardware and software for a server, into an operating expenditure-based model of paying monthly fee for a fully managed service. From a company’s point of view, it is very similar to outsourcing the IT and technical aspects of their online business.

This hosting service is ideal for large online businesses that prefer to focus their effort on their core business rather than having to spend extra resources and time of managing their dedicated servers. Managed hosting greatly alleviates the issues security and performance normally associated to an unmanaged or shared hosting environment. While looking expensive on the outset, managed hosting is actually the cost-effective solution due to the fact that technical expertise, uptime, responsiveness and reliable infrastructure will be guaranteed at a fixed cost.

The service included in a managed hosting extends to products such as private networks, database administration and security products. There are also hosting providers that include managed SQL server hosting services. In terms of server administration, customers can expect services such as load balancing, managed storage, database hosting, connectivity, reporting and monitoring of their servers. Physical maintenance such as equipment servicing would also be covered by the hosting providers. For an additional fee, hosting providers also normally offer software-related services. Definitely this is a solution for webmasters and companies who require fully managed services while maintaining control over the server.

In summary, managed hosting is an environment tailor-made for online businesses to focus on their core functions while at the same time have their web servers run and maintained at peak efficiency by the experts. Furthermore, all these can be enjoyed without having to spend up-front expenditure related to a web server. With an uptime of virtually 100%, businesses can be assured that the servers would function seamlessly with optimum performance.

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What is PHP Hosting?

PHP hosting is a server-side scripting environment that is used to create dynamic web pages. PHP is an abbreviation for Hypertext Preprocessor, an open source language widely used by programmers and web developers. The fact that it is open source gives it a lot of advantages over proprietary programming languages. Due to this reason, PHP has been the most famous server-side scripting language and almost all hosting providers offer PHP hosting services nowadays.

PHP is an object oriented language. The way PHP hosting works is that the web server would filter a request document using PHP and generates the output from PHP to the web browser. These documents are usually in HTML format with PHP tags inside. The tags can be run on both Windows and UNIX servers. In terms of output text, PHP is capable to generate any format such as XHTML and XML.

With PHP, web developers would be able to perform any CGI tasks, such as generate dynamic contents or send and receive cookies. PHP is also capable of outputting PDF files, Flash videos and images on the fly at high speed. This is possible due to its ability to save the required files in its file system and forming a server-side cache.

There are a host of advantages of using a PHP hosting. For beginners, it is a relatively easy language to learn and work on. While for seasoned developers, there are a lot of advanced applications and features that comes with PHP hosting. In terms of cost, it is one of the cheapest hosting solutions as it is an open-source technology. There are also programming tools that come free with PHP hosting, contributed by programmers worldwide.

PHP is especially strong in relational databases, which are used for dynamic contents, product catalogs and e-commerce applications. The relational database application that comes with PHP is called MySQL, which is also open-source. It is known for its high reliability, precision and flexibility. These advantages have made it the more preferred alternative compared to proprietary databases systems.

Overall, PHP hosting is one of the most complete hosting packages available in the industry. It is perfect both for beginners who require easy-to-use hosting services and for advanced users who require powerful web applications. The value that it offers is even more significant due to its inexpensive pricing, especially compared to proprietary hosting services.

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What is Reseller Hosting?

Reseller hosting is a type of web hosting package where we can split up the allocated bandwidth and disk space of a hosting account, and then resell to other individual users as separate hosting accounts. It effectively means that we can buy hosting space from providers in bulk and then subdivide it to be resold to other customers. It is a method for people to start making money of their own with web hosting. Interestingly, reseller hosting requires very little knowledge on how to get started. Hence, practically everyone who is comfortable with the internet can start their own reseller hosting business.

The reseller hosting concept is a rapidly growing industry. This is due to the simple fact that it is an inexpensive way for hosting entrepreneurs to start doing business in this field. This type of hosting is normally used by companies or individuals who want to start a small web hosting company, and also chosen by developers, designers or internet consultants. From the cost point of view, it is a cost-efficient method for webmasters who want to manage and host multiple number of sites with separate control panels. It definitely has the potential to be a very profitable business if the costs and margins are well-managed. Resellers are able to offer custom-made hosting packages for specific customers that perhaps not offered by any of the current hosting providers. This added by the fact that resellers can better control the quality of service since they can pick their servers of choice.

In most cases, the resellers will be given freedom by the hosting provider to create their own packages and offers. Alternatively, most hosting providers would offer predefined packages for resellers to directly sell to customers. Some hosting providers even provide ready sites for resellers to use as a platform to promote their products. To manage the hosting accounts, resellers will be given an interface called the Web Hosting Manager. From there, they can get access to features which typically include payment systems, forms, applications and others. From here, resellers can manage their tasks such as adding domains and setting up DNS entries.

Overall, reseller hosting is great for small businesses or even individuals who intend to generate online profit through the web hosting business. Fortunately, the amount of effort required for resellers to set up this business has been greatly reduced by the ready-made hosting packages and website templates offered by hosting providers. This enables resellers to immediately launch their business without too much start-up hassle and effort. Considering that the market for web hosting is huge, there will be no shortage of demand and there are always opportunities for you in this business.

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What is UNIX Hosting?

UNIX hosting is the most common web hosting platform today. The term UNIX refers to a computer operating system which provides the base operating system architecture for many open source companies including Solaris (Sun), Linux (GNU) and others. UNIX has been around for years and is the choice language for mid-frame computer users. UNIX hosting solutions is considered more available due to open source distribution of its operating system. LINUX hosting is a version of UNIX that has gained popularity because of its stability as an operating system. You will find these two terms being used interchangeably, which effectively refers to the same type of hosting solution.

When it comes to choosing between UNIX and Windows hosting, the main thing to look for is what functions and programming languages that will be required by your website. Primarily, it is a choice between PHP and ASP, in which the former comes with UNIX hosting while the latter comes with Windows hosting. In addition, for plain and ordinary web sites which uses HTML pages with no or little database or dynamic pages, in most cases UNIX hosting would be the best option. UNIX should also be the option should your web site requirements include the use of PERL, PHP or Python.

UNIX hosting is associated with reliability, security and high-performance. UNIX hosting is an open system, which means that its source code is publicly available for free from various web sites. In addition, UNIX hosting providers usually provide free tools and applications that have been written primarily for the UNIX community. These companies are also more technically oriented and most of the systems on offer are custom designed. In terms of complexity, UNIX hosting is a very cost-effective choice, due to its efficient use of hardware. This enables an increased web sites per server ratio, resulting in a decrease of cost of hosting. Naturally for this reason, UNIX hosting is normally cheaper than Windows hosting.

For those concerned on e-Commerce solutions, most UNIX website hosting plans come with features such as free shopping carts. Websites hosted in UNIX web hosting services normally have very high up-time in the order of 99%. Therefore, UNIX website hosting for e-commerce is the logical choice and has become a trend in the market.

The main disadvantage of using UNIX hosting is that your provider may only allow access to your account via Telnet or SSH. Also, when considering the UNIX operating system and UNIX hosting, users need to consider their own technical abilities. A strong working knowledge of UNIX commands is an advantage in order to do customizations beyond the basic needs. There’ll be some minimal time required on learning the basics before you can fully utilize the advantages of UNIX hosting.

In conclusion, the UNIX hosting solution should be your choice if you are using PHP scripting for your website, and also if your website is pretty basic with mainly HTML language. It is also a more affordable option compared to Windows hosting due to its open-source concept. On top of all, it is widely regarded as more stable, secure and scalable.

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What is VPS Hosting?

Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting is the hosting of separate entities for different customers in a single server. This technology allows the hosting provider to partition and create multiple virtual servers from one physical server. Customers would share the server which includes the hardware itself and the connection. However, they would enjoy the benefits almost similar to dedicated hosting such as their private operating system and file system, allowing freedom of accessibility and security. Hence, VPS hosting can be considered as a hosting environment in between a shared and a dedicated hosting. Ultimately, an advanced performance and privacy can be achieved at a lesser cost than for a dedicated hosting.

In terms of control, customers would be able to access administrative tasks such as changing server configurations, installing software, hosting multiple sites and rebooting the server. Thus it is imperative that customers who require greater accessibility and security of their server to opt for this type of account. If you are planning to move from a shared to a dedicated hosting environment without having to incur significant rise of costs, the logical step is to move to VPS hosting server first. With the price dropping to as low as $10 per month for some hosting providers, VPS hosting is definitely a worthy proposition for a lot of users. Since the operating system and file system are separate for each customer, users can expect a guaranteed share of the server in terms of CPU, disk input/output and network.

For those intending to do reseller hosting, you will be able to have more control on the services that you can offer, therefore having the edge over other resellers in the market. For web developers who plan to set up a social networking website or function-rich blogs, VPS hosting would be a suitable option. It is also a good choice for webmasters who are already comfortable with managing a shared hosting and intend to upgrade their skills on server management, without being exposed to the risks of running a fully dedicated server. Webmasters would be able to install custom applications or change modules for the server. They would also be able to enjoy guaranteed security over the websites that they manage since every VPS environment has its own software to run its hosting and is allocated its own portion of resources, hence reducing possibilities of intrusion.

In summary, VPS hosting is the perfect hosting solution for customers who want the control and flexibility of dedicated hosting at a cost similar to shared hosting. With this technology that enables webmasters to enjoy the best of both worlds, it is indeed a great value proposition.

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What is ASP Hosting?

ASP hosting is a server-side scripting environment that uses the Active Server Pages (ASP) technology. It is designed for dynamic web pages and applications, offering a vast array of functionalities for web developers. ASP hosting is normally hosted on a Windows server, typically an NT server, and can be fully integrated into an Internet Information Server (IIS) or PWS. The concept of ASP is the same as scripts such as Java Server Pages (JSP) and CGI that enables web pages to work with databases and programs in the web server. An ASP web page is easily identifiable with the .asp extension on the URL.

ASP hosting works in similar way as other server-side scripting technologies. When your web browser sends its request to the web server, the web server will call ASP which would process the requested file. It would run any script commands and in turn sends the requested web page back to the web browser. Hence, it is the server who runs all the requests and sends the requested HTML pages back to the browser.

ASP hosting provides a platform for web developers to explore their own creativity and design customized web solutions. Web developers would be able to tap on Microsoft’s programming technologies and design web pages with powerful features. ASP hosting is also considered as an attractive hosting solution with the availability of free training videos on the Microsoft web site. This is extremely useful especially for beginners as they can learn the basic skills of working with ASP technologies.

It is also possible for ASP hosting to be run on non-windows operating systems such as UNIX. Some hosting providers do offer this kind of service, for example making use of ChiliASP on a UNIX server. However, there could be some compatibility issues that may come with it and users would not be able to enjoy the full features of ASP.

In summary, ASP hosting is ideal for web developers who intend to create websites that utilizes the Microsoft programming technologies especially ASP. There is a huge list of applications and features offered by an ASP hosting environment. There is plenty of room for creativity with all these available functionalities, which definitely suits those who plans to develop powerful, multi-feature websites.

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