What Makes A Good Web Hosting Provider!

by: Jonathan White
When building your website and getting it hosted online, you want your site to be up and running on the World Wide Web 24/7 without any hitches so that it is making you money all the time and all you have to worry about then is getting visitors to your site, doing seo, getting repeat visitors, maximizing your sites revenue, etc. You don’t want to have to worry about your web hosting and it’s stability.
So, when choosing a web hosting provider to host your website with, you want to try and get the best web hosting provider so that your site is always up and running smoothly on the World Wide Web.
So what makes a good Web Hosting Provider?
There are many things that make up a good web-hosting provider. Some of these include good support, good uptime, good backup system in place, good hardware, offers loads of web hosting features including email features, scripting features and more.
So where can some good Web Hosting Providers be found?
There are many places across the web where you can find some of these good web-hosting providers. A good place to start is probably using a web-hosting directory as you can easily compare these web-hosting providers against what other providers are offering that’s listed within any individual web-hosting directory. For example, with http://www.1hostseeking.com you can easily find and compare a large amount of some of the top and most reliable web-hosting providers online. You can easily compare each web host against each other so that you can easily see what they offer for the amount of money that they charge.
When choosing a web host it is also best to choose one that offers free set-up and also a money back guarantee. This is because if you find that they don’t quite offer what you need for your website, then you can easily get your money back and choose another web hosting provider.
Even if you found some web hosting providers from a web hosting directory like http://www.1hostseeking.com that offer the features that you need for your website, but you still would like further information about the quality of their service, then you could also go to a web hosting related forum and ask others about what they think about these web hosting providers that you have chosen.
After you have done all this, you should then have a good idea or a better idea of which web hosting provider you are most likely to choose to host your website.

New Techniques for Marketing Your Web Hosting Company in 2006

by: Rodney Ringler
There are many ways to market a web hosting company. Traditional methods include web hosting directories, banner ads on webmaster sites, search engine placements, ppc advertising, and so on. These are all effective methods if used and managed properly. These techniques, however, market primarily to a limited target audience: Webmasters, Programmers, Graphic Designers, and small hosting companies.
With the evolution of web hosting and website builder tools, as well as the ongoing education of the common person, the average web hosting customer is no longer a Webmaster. It is more likely an alumni association, a church, an artist, a soccer club, or a family photo album. Recently, the staff of Hostchart.com analyzed the signups from several popular web hosting companies across the month of January, and here is what they found: the number of signups from people in the industry was less then 20%. Over 80% of all Hosting customer signups were from people who are not Internet professionals! So, how best does a Hosting Company target such a wide audience?
Assuming that 80% of your customer base is non-internet professionals, a Hosting Company’s marketing methods should be greatly expanded beyond Webmasters alone. If your marketing budget includes online marketing only, then some potentially rich areas to find Hosting customers may be on sites like Vacation/Travel websites, Investment sites, Retirement websites, or any site that has a potential customer base with expendable time and/or income.
If a Hosting Company’s advertising budget includes non-Internet methods, it may want to consider marketing on billboards, in newspapers, phone directories, or even brief commercial ads. GoDaddy has proven how powerful a TV ad can be with it’s provocative Superbowl ads the last two years. Even a simple advertising method like handing out free t-shirts can have a farther-reaching impact on branding a Hosting Company’s name than one might think.
Another noticeable change in the Web Hosting industry is the comfort level customers have with switching Hosting providers. Historically, customers did not change hosting companies. Most people were not comfortable moving their website for fear of downtime and lost data. The times have changed. People are more educated on websites, and there are plenty of web Hosting services that will move sites at minimal charge and without downtime. People feel free to move from Host to Host when they are offered a better plan. It is an increasingly competitive market, where companies must find new and better ways to stand out from the competition, whether that be from decreased cost, increased Customer Service, or farther reaching advertising campaigns. But Hosting Companies need not lose heart, for although competition is increasing, the number of people Worldwide who are getting connected to the internet is increasing at an exponential rate. It is a good time to be in the Hosting Industry!

Web Hosting - The Internet Marketing Tool

by: Bjorn Hakans
An important part of doing any kind marketing today is definitely an effective Internet marketing strategy, and for that the first thing you need is reliable web hosting.
I know some people say that you can market this and that without having your own website, but I definitely disagree. Many affiliate programs and various business opportunities offer you "personalized web sites" that you can use without owning you own server space. However, replicated company websites and an often long and cumbersome affiliate link can only take you so far, with thousands of other people using the exact same material.
Another trick, that seems to be really in vogue these days, is people who want to advertise with Google Adsense or Yahoo using your money. Most often they make it sound like this is as easy as it gets, when it comes to making money online as an affiliate.
While Adsense and other pay per click advertising is definitely a viable option, one should remember that it requires thorough keyword research and continuous tracking in order to produce a good ROI. Additionally, according to Google's new Terms of Service, you can't point an AdSense ad directly to an affiliate link - the link must always point to an URL of your own. The very same thing goes for publishing articles in the popular article directories.
Finally, if you have your own company and product, your own high quality server space really is an absolute must these days. However, the big "dot-com bubble" was at least partially caused by people charging obnoxious fees for company websites that actually delivered very little results.
Done right, your online presense doesn't have to be that expensive, while still generating great revenue. The choice of web host is one of the crucial steps in turning your website into a great success.
Points to consider when choosing a hosting company
If you are serious about making it online you definitely need you very own web space, that you can do what you want with. As an affiliate you can, for instance, put up your own websites that offer some unique content to your visitors and pre-sells them on the affiliate product or business opportunity of your choosing. People do not like to be sold, remember - a friend with a genuine recommendation is always more welcome than a stranger with a business pitch.
So how do you choose a web host, then?
In my humble opinion you should be looking for the following:
* Reliability
* Support
* Integrated features
* Price
Exactly in that order. There are many services that provide you hosting space for free, I know, but if you are going to market in a professional manner you definitely need to get professional hosting. Besides, most free webhosts pack YOUR site full with THEIR advertisements.
When you are trying to build credibility with your audience this can easily be fatal.
The webhost I personally have chosen, fulfill the criteria I mentioned above. Their service is extremely reliable and their support is the best I have seen online anywhere - you can call, email or chat live with the friendly support staff 24/7/365.
I can not overemphasize the importance of this, because when working with websites, scripts and things like that, it is not a question of IF you will run into trouble but when. And unless you are a total guru yourself you will need help, the faster the better.
When it comes to features, it is naturally important to be allowed to run scripts like php, cgi, asp etc. Because these are widely used by shopping carts, sequential auto responders and other tools you may need.
Naturally, depending on your business strategy and goals, the features required of your webhost will vary. If you are an affiliate, promoting many different products, you need a web host that will allow you to set up many different domain names on the same server - creating separate web sites containing valuable information for your various target audiences.
If you are going to run a large web shop and/or send out large amounts of email, you should seriously consider investing in a dedicated or virtual server. Shared servers (which means you share a server with several other users) often place limits on how much email and bandwidth you can use per month.
When you have found a suitable web host, that can deliver all of the three first mentioned points according to your needs, you should start looking at prices. As the old saying goes, you generally get what you pay for. However, high quality hosting does not have to cost an arm and a leg these days. There are many excellent web hosts to choose from, and if you shop around a little you will find one that also fits your budget.

Different Types of Web Hosting Explained

by: Paul Hanson
There are many different types of web hosting available. Which type one chooses should hinge upon what one wants to accomplish with his or her web site. Some web hosting services are free, but place ads on web sites. Whereas other web hosting types can be more expensive, but provide a lot more assistance and bandwidth. The four main web hosting types are free web hosting, shared web hosting, and dedicated web hosting (both managed and unmanaged).
Free web hosting is the simplest kind of web hosting that one can get. This type of web hosting is usually supported by ads on hosted web sites. Features for this type of web hosting are limited, and therefore it is a better option for people who are just starting out on the Internet and are interested in having a small site with little traffic. The type of domain one receives in free web hosting is typically a subdomain (yoursite.webhost.com) or a directory (www.webhost.com/~yoursite). Most free web hosts do not have support for MySQL, multiple e-mail accounts, and PHP.
Shared web hosting is actually the most popular type of web hosting service. Shared web hosting allows more than one site to be hosted on the same server. Additionally, the hosts provide system administration. For users that do not want to have the burden of running a sever, shared web hosting is a great choice. The individual hosting plan may differ, but most hosts provide the user with elements such as PHP, ASP, MySQL, more bandwidth, and multiple e-mail addresses. More services are often available in shared web hosting than are available with simple free web hosting (including the ability to have your own domain name!).
The last two types of web hosting are managed dedicated web hosting, and unmanaged dedicated web hosting. Dedicated web hosting is a wise choice for someone who wants more storage and bandwidth, and also wants features that are not available with shared and free web hosting. In dedicated servers, users are not limited to a certain number of databases and e-mail addresses. Additionally, users usually receive a very high amount of bandwidth in comparison to other hosting types. The typical dedicated server plan provides the user with 500 to 1,000GB of monthly bandwidth.
In unmanaged dedicated web hosting, the user is the server administrator. This allows the user the greatest amount of control and flexibility. Of course, many people do not know how to handle the task of being a server administrator and do not want to learn. Therefore, this is not a viable option for some.
When looking for a web host, it is important to consider the purpose of the web site and what one’s capabilities are. Pricing for web hosts is dependant upon the support, reliability, features, and security one wants. Choosing a type of web hosting may seem like a daunting task, but simply doing research and making an educated decision should yield satisfaction and success on this critical matter.

Google's Secret Domain Name Registration Policy

by: Stone Evans
I was reading a forum post by Willie Crawford who is one of my favorite Internet marketers. Willie brought up a point that Google may favor ranking domains that have longer registration periods. His source, a domain name registrar, stated the following:
"As part of Google's recent patent application, Google made apparent its efforts to wipe out search engine spam, stating:
'Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith.'
Domains registered for longer periods give the indication, true or not, that their owner is legitimate. Google uses a domain's length of registration when indexing and ranking a Web site for inclusion in their organic search results.
To prove to everyone that your site is the real deal, register for more than one year and increase your chances of boosting your search ranking on Google."
Some domain name registrars are inclined to promote this position because it may motivate their customers to increase the terms of their domain registration, thereby increasing the profits of the registrar.
That being said, I can also understand Google and other search engines considering the term of a domain registration as a small part of their algorithm used to determine free rankings of a website in their search engine. It is the job of every search engine to provide the most relevant search results possible and it is often the website owners who have a long-term mindset that are providing the most value to their visitors.
Aside from the search engines, I do know that some website visitors also check how long a domain is registered as part of their own personal due diligence to decide if they want to do business with a company or not. Think about it... If you are providing a service and your potential customer goes to and finds out that your domain expires in less than a year, they might think you're a "fly-by-night" company that won't be there when they need you and decide not to do business with you.
All in all, I believe it's important to have a long-term mindset when building your Internet business. If it helps you even slightly to get a better search engine ranking or increase the trust that potential customers have in your website, registering a domain name for a few extra years is a sound investment.
Inspired by this insight myself, I just added 5 additional years of registration do my Dotcomology.com domain which is now currently set to expire in the year 2012. I plan to be around until then and hopefully much longer. What about you?

Is Expired Domain Registration Still Profitable?

by: Stanley Spencer
After the dot com crash, expired domain names and expired domain name traffic have been a source of potential income. It is important to inexpensively obtain the automated tools required to track the thousands of domain name registration and abandoned websites that are removed from the domain registry and become available for purchase.
Expired domain registration and the expired domain name traffic associated with them have been only available to those who had an automated system and tools.
Now, automated tools and resources are available for identifying, appraising and even buying these domain names on autopilot.
Expired domain names are those that had previously been registered to another owner. These domain name registration are available to the open market because of non-payment of the domain name renewal fees. Such domain names are returned to the open market about forty-five days after the expiration date.
Many domain names even point to fully functioning websites while many are registered for speculation. These names are registered by speculators in the hope of obtaining a profit on the resale of the domain name.
Numerous other domain names are registered for website development, but do not appear online. In a number of these cases, the domain name owners do not follow through with respect to the website development and allow the domain registration to expire.
However, there are a number of expired domain names with fully functioning websites, receiving daily traffic from the search engines, links and banner ads. The expired domain names that get this daily traffic can earn revenues if these are redirected to another website or marketed with affiliate programs.
Earning Profit from Expired Domain Names & Expired Domain Name Traffic:
1. Buying for speculation - There is now a large and highly profitable market for reselling domain registration at present, and speculators are looking out for developing technologies and trends. Evolution is constantly taking place in technology and trends. There are markets, being watched closely right now, that are expected to grow exponentially within a short span of time. It should be a good idea to locate and register expiring domain registration that are related to new trends, technology and markets in order to earn substantial profits.
2. Buying expiring domain names and redirecting the targeted traffic - Targeted keyword domain names can help to get traffic from those simply typing in keyword rich domain names into the address bar and hitting the enter key.
3. Buying expired domain name registration and putting up generic websites - Using tools like easy website building software, third party payment processors, auto responders and other applications, even a novice could put generic websites online with keyword rich domain names that should appear in the search engine rankings. These websites can be built using expired domain names to drive traffic to them and the domain registration and the developed website could then be sold together with the domain name, as a value added commodity.
4. Buying expiring domain names of websites that are already online – A number of expiring domain names are, actually, already functioning websites. The owners of these websites either did not renew their domain registration for some reason or simply stopped operating the website. In fact, quite often, these websites already have traffic from links to other websites, search engine rankings and even directory listings.
5. Buying expired domain names and using them for marketing affiliate programs - Affiliate programs are a good way to acquire an online business without even having a product. Affiliate marketers redirect traffic from the affiliate website to the website of the actual product or service and charge a commission or a fee when any of the redirected traffic results in sales. Affiliate programs have become an automated turnkey solution for a number of entrepreneurs, especially novices.
One can locate and register expired domain names that closely target the market of the affiliate programs and then draw that targeted traffic into the website with expired keyword rich domain names with content that satisfies the informational needs. Then the users can be led onto the sales page of the product.

Domain Registration For Great Search Engine Ranking

by: Stanley Spencer
A solid keyword domain name is the key to establish a strong presence and making the resources of the Internet more reachable. With a great name, it's always easy to reach new and existing clients. Therefore, a number of companies are ready to spend a large amount of money to get hold of and promote a good keyword rich domain name.
Choosing a keyword domain name can be vital to the success of a website. In order to take advantage of search engine traffic, people choose keyword domain. By selecting a domain that is equivalent to a keyword search, websites are able to rank higher for targeted keywords and thus benefit from added traffic and more potential clients. Whether to opt for a brandable domain or a keyword domain is a choice one must make in accordance with their business plan.
Follow these simple rules to maximize the benefit of a keyword domain, accomplish success in directory submissions, and enhance site keyword density:
Structuring
Order the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) in such a manner that more vital keywords are listed before those that are less important. For example, if he target keyword is "money" then money-online.com would be more effectual than online-money.com.
Length
1. A majority of studies confirms that a number of people use two words or more in a search; as a result phrases are very useful.
2. Always stick to two-three keywords, with hyphens in between.
3. A lengthy, complex URL is more likely to be rejected by directory editors’ sites from which one would like to receive links.
Correct English and Must Make Sense
1. In order to execute directory submissions and link popularity campaigns, the URL should be grammatically correct.
2. When examined by an editor, "money-online-white.com" might sound like a less-reliable resource while "white-money-online.com" sounds more justifiable and is less likely to be questioned.
Put together "power words"
In order to create a distinctive domain name that is still available, one way is to add another less important word to the mix. A few examples include: now, top, just, goto, pro, guide, online and find etc.
Avoid using most popular keyword phrases
There is intense competition for keywords in the marketplace, so stay away from the most popular keyword phrases. It is impractical to think that a new website could rank number one on a popular phrase like “Shop Online”. A number of well-known companies who have been on the Internet for a few years will have the big advantage of link popularity and click popularity.
Try to register a .com domain
Always use ".com". In case it is a business website, avoid using domains ending with "ru" or "org". At once, one can consider registering a ".net" domain, but as most people are familiar with ".com", it is better to stick to convention.
In addition to the above, an understanding of the domain name system (DNS) is also vital while choosing a domain name. The DNS is set up to make regular words map to IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. In order to connect all computers on the Internet, an IP address is used by networks. A domain name can be up to sixty-three characters, comprising of letters, numbers, or the dash symbol. For example, in the world of computer networking, the web address fishing.com becomes the IP address 124.133.1.1. However, it's the domain name that people around the world use when looking for Web sites or sending an e-mail.
Finally, it is very important to choose a keyword phrase very carefully. This can be considered as one of the most critical decisions one will make regarding the success or failure of a website. One must identify the exact phrase that searchers will use to find a website. The more targeted the campaign is, the more increase in sales will be achieved.

What A Newbie Webmaster Should Know About Domain Registration

by: Dana Goldberg
Domain Name Registration
Affordable domain name registration was extremely difficult to be found in the past. In fact, all domain name registrars used to charge a flat fee of $70 which was to register your domain name for two years.
Now there has been an explosion of companies that offer affordable domain name registration. Some will register your domain name for less than $15 a year, especially if you are registering multiple sites for a number of years at the same time. Be aware that you may have to have a number of variations of your ideal site name as you often find that the more popular terms have already been registered or reserved for future use.
If you are serious about your online presence then it is essential to consider a bulk domain name registration. The most obvious benefit of having a bulk domain name registration is that your site will appear higher on the search engines. That may be incentive enough but registering as a .net, .biz, .co.uk, .la or other domain names too has a far greater benefit which many people do not think about.
A major benefit of having a bulk domain name registration for your site is to prevent the more unscrupulous cyber sitters from piggybacking on the success of your website. Imagine if you could register as a google.au and benefit from the millions of people who use a Google site every day? You see how this could work to someone’s advantage if Google hadn’t performed a bulk domain name registration to prevent this. The extra cost to have a bulk domain name registration can be minimal and there are a number of web domain registrars who offer bulk discounts to their customers.
Wholesale domain name registration is an increasingly popular way for webmasters to register multiple domain names at the same time at a fraction of their individual costs combined. A new marketing technique has been sweeping the World Wide Web recently where webmasters create hundreds of websites with only a small amount of text to attract visitors by keyword searches and wholesale domain name registration has led to this process being simplified.