Dec

31

Recommended Web Hosting Provider

Filed Under General Issues | 1 Comment

We have recently moved our blog to Sh3lls.net. They are an excellent web host, we have had no outages at all since we moved to Sh3lls.net. Their support awsome and also their server and network stability is also too good. Sh3lls.net not only offers web hosting, but they even offer other services like irc shell accounts, bnc shell accounts, ircd shells, vps hosting, vpn hosting, shoutcast hosting, proxy hosting, dediated servers and lot more.

Sh3lls.net accepts paypal, credit card, liberty reserve, moneybookers, web money, western unon, wire transfer, money order etc.

They have online billing system, online support ticket system, live chat on their web, support channel on irc and even phone support.

We highly recommend to get your hosting from Sh3lls.net.

Jul

31

Web host and its effect on Traffic of user

Filed Under Companies, General Issues, SEO and Strategies, Server Hosting | 1 Comment

To get a great deal of traffic on your is no simple matter, and also to find a hosting company for a site that is well promoted. Having spent the time to drive traffic to a website, no one would like that the website should go down. As the old saying goes, time is money, and the right web host can make a big difference when it comes to your site.

Bandwidth is one of the most important design considerations one has to keep in mind before picking a web host. If the web host is who is providing metered bandwidth to its clients will not do a lot to drive traffic to the site. This caused sluggish service, severe customer complaints and general heartache all around. Bandwidth can determine how many visitors one can receive per month.

Web Masters do not know the importance of bandwidth until they start running out of it. At that time the start taking action as to paste notices all over their site begging users not to save every page. Think about the fact that it is the same bandwidth that is consumed by the user when viewing pages that is consumed when the user saves it. When the site is being uploaded the web master did take the fact that he or she would have to spend extra money every month on bandwidth.

No matter how excellent any website is in terms of design and programming, when it comes to hosting, the web host has to have the necessary software to make all the programming work. Apart from that there are a excess of factors such as security and space. But when it comes to traffic, only one factor is important, and that is bandwidth. Getting to any site can be similar to getting home during rush hour if you do not have enough bandwidth, it’s very uncomfortable.

One thing that will go a long way in making certain that one does not have problems is that should avoid taking shared web hosting. A major disadvantage of shared bandwidth is that if ten websites reside on a server, and share bandwidth, then bandwidth is served on a first come first served basis so the traffic which has to come to you will have to wait and by that time maybe the user will loose interest and go to another site.

The only advantage of shared bandwidth can be got when you are the biggest drawer of traffic on your server; however this cannot be a sure shot guarantee. The only advantage is when you are on a basic budget. But for serious traffic, you can be sure you will have problems.

Dedicated hosting gives you private root access, your own unshared bandwidth, secure access, and one server for you and no one else. This is the best kind of hosting if you are a fairly large site and you expect large amount traffic. So it will be better to generate more traffic the type of web host you choose should have all the facilities of guarantying good traffic.

Jun

25

Why do you need to create a Brand Name in Web Hosting Industry

Filed Under Companies, General Issues, Marketing | 2 Comments


Brand Name is the cornerstone for a web hosting company. It is more than just a business catchphrase. It has become the core of selling in the new economy. A brand represents many more indefinable aspects of a product or service. It gives an image of feelings and perceptions about quality, picture, lifestyle and status of any product. People don’t buy because of the product but because of the brand name. You have to create in the mind of customers and create the view that there is no product or service on the market that is quite like yours. In short, a brand offers the customer a guarantee and then delivers on it.

Creating a powerful brand will in turn let you create a powerful marketing program. The customers has to be convince that your product is worthy of purchasing. No amount of advertising dollars, fancy packaging or public relations will help you achieve your sales goals. Therefore, successful branding programs begin with superior products and services, backed by excellent customer service that permeates an entire organization.

Creating a strong brand identity will build mind share in the minds of customers and it is one of the strongest competitive advantages imaginable. As a result, customers will think of your business first when they think of your product category.

A brand once created will live up to along time A brand in one thing that will not go away in due course of time. It creates a lasting value above the other services of your product. There are many factors which help in creating a brand name.

The customer always associates a product with a brand. Whenever a person wants to search for any product it goes to Google. It creates the impression that a brand associated with a product or service has certain qualities or characteristics that make it special or unique. A brand image is generally developed by attributing a ‘personality’ to or associating an ‘image’ with a product or service, whereby the personality or image is ‘branded’ into the consciousness of consumers. A brand is therefore one of the most valuable elements in an advertising theme, as it demonstrates what the brand owner is able to offer in the marketplace. The art of creating and maintaining a brand is called brand management.

Branding in any form is used to create awareness among the customers. It helps the customers to e familiar with the brand and to recognize the service with the brand. It saves the customers their time as they go in for brand straight away instead of looking for other items. The customer can easily choose preferred brand among 1000’s of other times just because of a well recognized symbol, word or trade mark that can not be possible with out effective branding.

The outcome of effective branding can be seen in terms of ‘brand equity’ that is the value of a brand in terms of its perceived brand awareness, recognition, loyalty and associations from customers.

To launch any service by a known brand name is always under the same brand name as it gives an advantage to the company. People as soon as they see that brand associate it with the particular brand. When a brand name is created it will lead the customers not to check the background of the company.

Feb

22

Can Site Down Time Remove You From Google Index

Filed Under General Issues, SEO and Strategies | 1 Comment

Well Yes. I was under impression that google would not deindex your site if your site is down temporarily but today while i was browsing a Google Group thread and found this:

Problem:

I’ve been having problems with downtime from my hosting company (am
moving tomorrow as this is the final straw) and I’ve now practically
disappeated from Google. I was in 3rd position for 5 of the more
popular searches for my business and now - nothing.

Vanessa Fox of Google replies:

If the host is down when Googlebot tries to access your pages, then
those pages may disappear from the index until Googlebot can crawl
them again. In webmaster tools, do the pages you want indexed appear
in the crawl errors section? If so, then Googlebot was unable to
access them.
If you are moving the site to a new host and the pages are available
the next time Googlebot tries to access them, then you should see them
in the index again soon after that.
You’re right that requesting reinclusion is only for sites that have
violated the guidelines. This isn’t the situation in your case, and
there’s no need to contact us to let us know that your site has moved
and is available again, as Googlebot will keep rechecking for it
automatically.

So beware even a little downtime could cause your site to deindex, though it will get indexed again, but it does takes time. So stick with stable host.

Feb

16

Finding that Host that Offers the Most

Filed Under General Issues | Leave a Comment

Whether you already have a website or are thinking of setting up shop online, sooner or later you’ll have to deal with the issue of web hosting. Although it may seem like a “no brainer,” there are actually many factors you’ll need to consider before making this important decision. Your first inclination may be to look only at the cost, thinking “cheaper is better.” However, that old saying “you get what you pay for,”is especially true in this situation. Here are some of the more important points you’ll want to look at when considering your next host.

UNIX/ NT/ The two most popular hosting platforms to choose from are UNIX and NT. UNIX is by far the favorite, as it was the only choice way back in the early days of the Internet. It is easy to configure, great for setting your own file permissions and the platform for most of the free scripts available for download. It is flexible, reliable and supports scripting languages like Perl and PHP3.

NT is Microsoft’s baby. One problem that I have found with NT servers is a lack of readily available scripts that work on this platform. Also, (unlike UNIX) many NT users need assistance from their Web Host Administrators to set file permissions. NT supports MS applications such as ASP, Access, FP and scripting languages such as Perl, Cold Fusion and ASP.

TECH SUPPORT/ When you need help you’ll want to make sure you can get it. Some web hosts offer phone support or even live chat. Make sure they have good tech support in place as there’s nothing more annoying than needing assistance with your site and not being able to get it.

SET UP FEE/ MONTHLY FEE/ Some hosts charge an initial set up fee to get your site set up and running on their server. Make sure you check on this when comparing prices. I’ve seen monthly fees ranging from 9.99 to 39.99, depending on the plan and services offered. My advice to you would be to look past the cheapest and most expensive ends of the scale and go with a mid-range pricing plan to be on the safe side. You should be able to pick up a reliable web host for 20 to 25.00 per month.

HARD DRIVE/ SPACE/ How much space they’re willing to give you is important if you’re going to compare apples to apples. You need to keep in mind the size of your site when deciding how much space you really need. Generally, 20 to 30 MB is plenty for a small site. You might want to ask if you can pay for more space should your site ever outgrow its present state.

FTP ACCESS/ TELNET ACCESS/ Even if you plan on using Frontpage to manage your site, you’ll still need to have FTP access. It is usually standard, but it never hurts to ask. Make sure you keep your user name and password in a safe place. You’ll use FTP to set file permissions and to upload your files to the web server.

Telnet can be very useful for troubleshooting CGI scripts and changing server configurations. There are some servers that will not grant telnet access.

CGI-BIN/ A very important component if you’re planning on adding any sort of interactivity to your site like forms, shopping carts, etc. Usually comes as standard equipment, but I’ve seen some of the cheaper hosts leave it out entirely.

EMAIL BOXES & POP 3 ALIASES/ One thing that’s very important to me is the ability to use different aliases with my domain name. For example, if your domain is ezineadauction.com, you may want to set up separate addresses to sort your mail like service@ezineadauction.com or support@ezineadauction.com. They may all funnel into the same mailbox, but you can set up filters at your end, making customer service a whole lot easier.

If you have a “wildcard” account, you can set up as many aliases as you like. If you have other employees who will need their own private box, check with the web host to see how many boxes they will allow.

STATS/ Once you start getting traffic, you’ll want to know where it’s coming from and what pages of your site are being visited. Some web hosts will throw stats tracking in with their standard package or at least give you access to your log files, which you can then use with third party software to run reports on the traffic your site is receiving.

MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS/:

1) If you want to use Frontpage: Do they have the FP server extensions installed?
2) Do they offer autoresponders?
3) How about a secured server option for payment transactions?
4) Do they back up all websites in case of disaster?
5) Do they offer assistance in programming or design work if needed at an hourly rate?
6) Do they offer shopping cart software if you’re going to be selling products?
7) Do any customized forms come standard with your account, like feedback or order forms?
8) Bandwidth- Be aware that bandwidth is how much data can be transferred in a month’s time. This shouldn’t be a concern unless you’re getting a ton of traffic, but be aware that most hosts do have limitations on what they’ll allow.

As you can see, there are many factors to take into account when choosing a web host. Your host is essentially the spine of your site,so you want to make sure that the one you choose is reliable and solid. Nothing can ruin a site faster than an unreliable host. I know; been there, done that.

Remember, choosing a good host is essential to the success and reliability of your online business. Do your homework and choose the one that’s right for you.


About the author: Merle http://www.EzineAdAuction.com “Where some of the
BEST Deals in Ezine Advertising are Made” Buy & Sell Ezine Ads in a
live auction setting! Publishers sell off your excess inventory and Buyers pick
up some Fantastic bargains. Go now.

Feb

16

Frequently Asked Web Hosting Questions

Filed Under Companies, General Issues, Hosting Software, Server Hosting | 1 Comment

Congratulations! After much thought and consideration, you finally took the plunge and decided it was time to have your own web site. That’s a great accomplishment in itself. However, now you’re left with another daunting task — selecting a quality web host.

Selecting a good web host is of the utmost importance. However, with all of the technical mumbo jumbo, knowing what to look for can be very intimidating to say the least.

For this reason, I have devised a list of the most frequently asked web hosting questions.

Question: I’m not exactly sure what a web host is. Can you please explain?

Answer: A web host is a company that provides you with server space for your web site. This includes all of the files associated with your web site. When your web address is typed into a browser, the web host displays your pages.

Question: Is it true that a good web host will cost me a lot of money each month?

Answer: Although the old adage “you get what you pay for” still holds true, there are many quality web hosts that are reasonably priced. You can expect to pay $20 - $50 a month for up to 50MB of space depending on the company and your specific needs.

Question: I have been considering hosting my site with a free hosting company, but I’m a little concerned with their reliability. Can you shed some light?

Answer: NEVER host an ecommerce web site with a free hosting
service. These services are highly unreliable and could care less if your site goes down. Their main concern is with their advertisers. As long as their ads are up and running, for the most part, they could care less about you or your site.

In addition, sites hosted with free services look very unprofessional. If you’ve taken the time to get your own web site designed and your own domain name, why would you risk your success and host with a free service? It’s just not worth it.

Question: I’m at my wits end. I’ve been to so many hosting companies and am completely overwhelmed. I have no idea what
company to go with. Can you please tell me what I should be looking for in a good host?

Answer: Selecting a quality hosting company can be an intimidating process. Your first consideration should be the company.

• Do they offer fast connections?
• Do they have a back-up system in place to protect your
data in case there is a power outage?
• Do they require you to make payments in advance?
• Do they require a long-term contract?
• Do they charge set up fees?
• How is their customer support? Test them.
• Do they provide you with free access to a secure server
for order processing?
• Do they offer shopping cart software to process
your orders?
• Do they provide you with an online Web Site Manager?
• Do they provide you with an online support manual?

Ask for references. Talk with some of their customers and ask them if they have been satisfied.

Here are some basic features you should look for when
selecting a web host:

1) 24/7 reliable tech support
2) Your own domain name (www.yourname.com)
3) At least 10GB of monthly transfer (traffic)
4) A minimum of 20MB - 50MB of server space
5) Unlimited true POP email accounts - name@yourdomain.com
6) Unlimited email aliases
7) Email forwarding
8) Unlimited autoresponders
9) Your own unrestricted CGI-Bin
10) Access to SSL Encryption for secure transactions
11) MySQL Database
12) Perl
13) htaccess password protection
14) Server Side Includes (SSI) support
15) Design (and upload to) your site using Netscape or
other HTML editing software
16) Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions for those
utilizing FrontPage
17) Unlimited free access to your server via FTP/Telnet
18) Easy access to your log files
19) Statistics on visits to your site
20) Referral Program

When selecting a web host, you must look at the entire
picture prior to making your decision. You may find a host
that charges $5.00 - $15.00 a month to host your site,
however, their technical support may be poor, or your web
site may be slow or down a lot.

A lower monthly payment may look appealing, but how much is
it actually going to cost you in lost sales? Most likely much more than the amount you’ll save.

Feb

16

Is There Still Easy Money To Be Made on the Web? Absolutely…!

Filed Under General Issues | 1 Comment

Have you ever studied judo or any of the Eastern Martial
Arts? They all depend on one thing, levering the energy of
your opponent.

The web is exactly the same! The web has a flow; if you
can put yourself in the middle of the flow you will win. If
you try to dam the river, you may succeed for a time, but
eventually you’ll be swept away.

Sound poetic? But you can see it everywhere. The
get-rich-quick crowd, earnestly searching for the wrinkle.
And, of course, some folks succeed. Then they prey on your
and my dreams, once the wrinkle has disappeared.

But enough of me ranting!

What about the title of this piece – is there easy money
and if so where is it and why isn’t it just another wrinkle?

The easy money is in article writing. But, only if you
approach it properly, like the judo master.

Here are the rules:

** You’re going to have to pay more than lip-service to the
absolute reality that “content is king” on the web. If
you’ve taken that to heart you are in-synch with the search
engines and more importantly the customers…go with the
flow…

** You’re going to have to learn a skill – how to write an
article. Now, luckily that’s a lot easier than it
sounds…all the basic materials needed are on the web…Also,
as writing *is* a skill, the more you do the easier it
gets…you may never be a great author, but you can be a
superb writer of short, fact-stuffed pieces that people
absolutely love because they make a real difference to
their lives…

** You’re going to have to learn how to exploit your new
article writing skills systematically. Simply putting an
article out there isn’t going to do much good. You need a
planned program of articles that are written with multiple
uses in mind. And you’ll have to learn the skills of
monetizing the targeted traffic you will certainly generate…

** You’re going to have to make a vow, to avoid the
self-defeating abuse of article writing. Duplicate
articles, plagiarism, poor writing, unstructured and almost
unreadable drivel, all these and more have to give way to
solid, researched ideas with an original twist. If you do
that the article users and readers will love you and you
will succeed…

** You’re going to have to persist. There are ways of
making short term money with articles, but the real money
is in the residual income you get from the way articles
(and their links) stick around on the web, creating traffic
and building your search engine position…

** You’re going to have to take a vow of patience. I don’t
know if there really is a Google Sandbox into which all
newbies are put, or whether Google, faced with billions of
web pages, is simply ‘slow’ to get round the web.
Whichever, Google itself admits that finding all your pages
can take significant time! If that’s true of your site,
it’s true of the links you have placed on other sites… hold
on to your current income…if you can!…

** You’re going to have to invest in a few tools. Directory
memberships to find the ezines, maybe article submission
software or services, mailing list and autoresponder
services, and of course some web sites with domains and
hosting. None of these will break the bank…

** You’re going to have to be prepared to build expertise
and perhaps become an authority. It isn’t absolutely
necessary that you do this, but nothing writes articles
faster or gets them published more readily than manifest
expertise and a passion for your subject…

Article writing goes with the flow of the internet. It’s a
‘can’t lose’, long term skill that will never, ever go out
of fashion. If you do it properly it’s as close to a
guaranteed earnings generator as anything you could
possibly do. Not only does it generate income in its on
right, but it also hone the most basic skill on the web-
the ability to write. Think about it – advertisements of
many different kinds, books, reports, web content, sales
letters, email letters…writing dominates the web – even
audio clips have to be structured and often scripted!

Writing and in particular article writing, is THE heart of
web profits for the ‘everyman’ and ‘everywoman’ on the web
and practice makes it easy!

Author: Michael Kay

Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/easypublish.php?art_id=10919

Feb

16

Hosted Exchange: build in-house or use private label?

Filed Under Companies, General Issues, Hosting Software, Server Hosting | Leave a Comment

Businesses of all sizes are looking at ways to drive efficiencies and are increasingly moving towards hosted options, particularly hosted Microsoft Exchange. The analyst group Radicati suggests that Microsoft Exchange will have 200 million users by 2009, so as a Web hosting company it’s a great opportunity for you to increase revenues from existing customers, as well as to attract new customers.

The question is whether it is more beneficial for you to build and maintain the infrastructure in-house or use a private label service to deliver hosted products to your customers.

The hosted services you’ll deliver are business critical applications such as email, so it is essential that they are always available to your customers without any extended downtime. In order to guarantee this, it is critical that you start with the correct hardware and software, and that it is configured, maintained and supported by trained personnel.

In addition, the hosting environment must be kept up-to-date and under the correct conditions. Your customers will also need to know that their data is safe and that they can get help if they have a problem, no matter what time of day or night it is. This often makes support a deciding factor.

To build your own in-house infrastructure, you will need a capital investment of up to $100,000, and you can expect to continue to pay for running costs and upgrades. Building and maintaining an in-house infrastructure also requires experience, planning and a highly skilled team to make sure that everything is managed efficiently.

Using a private label service means that all of this is taken care of for you: there are no up-front costs of buying and configuring the hardware and software; there are no ongoing upgrade or maintenance costs; and the service provider manages the Exchange environment, security and backup 24×7.

All you have to do is sell the service and provide tier-one support for basic problems customers may encounter, such as mailbox creation, email access and updating their DNS – most service providers will also offer tier-one training for your support teams. Any tier-two (technical) problems and inquiries can be escalated to the service provider, where they will be dealt with by a specialist support team.

In order to sell hosted Exchange to customers with confidence, you need to know that the service is reliable and secure. Your service provider should be able to give you this confidence. Our private label services, for example, are run in the latest Class A datacenters with N+1 redundancy, which are designed to create the optimum environment for servers and other hardware. This includes redundant power feeds, uninterruptible power supplies, backup generators, cooling and the latest security. The state-of-the-art systems are also designed so that there’s no one single point of failure, which means that they are incredibly reliable and can offer a minimum of 99.9 percent uptime.

Further, access to servers is restricted to a limited number of authorized engineers and security is strictly enforced using the very latest technology, including video surveillance, motion sensors and controlled ID key-cards, as well as security guards stationed at every entrance to the site.
In terms of selling to customers, private label programs often have services that are completely customizable, so you can match all color schemes, wording and logos to your company’s other assets. Some suppliers also offer professional Exchange marketing collateral designed for easy re-branding and even run joint business planning programs with partners.

As a result, you can now offer customers the best products that allow them to take advantage of enterprise-class Microsoft Exchange email and collaboration tools for a low per mailbox monthly fee, without the cost of buying, running and supporting the hardware and software yourself. There’s simply no reason to do it in-house.

Feb

16

What does hosted Exchange mean for Web hosting companies?

Filed Under Companies, General Issues, Hosting Software, Security Issues, Server Hosting | 1 Comment

Web hosting is a difficult industry, with prices and customer loyalty both on the decline. Most Web hosting companies are expanding their service offerings to fight these trends, and many of them are looking to offer hosted Microsoft Exchange services.

Research confirms that the vast majority of small businesses do not have sophisticated email, with mobile access and sharing of calendars, contacts and files. This leaves enormous growth potential for an offering that meets those needs.

The challenge for Web hosts, however, is the same as that of your small and medium-sized business customers: in order to offer an effective Exchange service, you have to invest large amounts of capital in the hardware and software, then manage the systems, maintain the equipment and the network and also support end-users.

The total cost over the first year, can easily exceed $100,000, which is both a large risk and also a difficult investment to recoup.

There is now an alternative, however: a number of hosted Exchange providers now offer private or white label partner programs, which allow you to sell your customers the latest hosted Exchange services, under your own brand, but without having to invest heavily in infrastructure, software and specialist personnel.

These private label programs offer the same infrastructure that the providers’ own customers use, with clustered servers, SAN storage, guaranteed uptime and all of the latest features of Exchange, badged as your own service.

The suppliers also provide marketing materials, sales coaching and level two support, which is handled by their own in-house support teams with specialist knowledge.

Feb

16

‘Phishing’ Scammers Try New Tactics

Filed Under General Issues, Security Issues | Leave a Comment

It used to be that phishing attacks, a kind of computer fraud, centered around e-mails that attempted to trick users into giving up passwords.But the assaults are getting more sophisticated. In some cases, phishers are employing special software that allows them to persuade users they’re dealing with a legitimate Web site.

Scott London, an attorney in Santa Barbara, Calif., and thinks of himself as Internet savvy — not the sort of person who gets taken in by online scams.

Until he did.

“Everything just seemed like it was on the up and up — there was nothing that led me to believe I was on an improper site. In hindsight I look at it and say: What an idiot I was. Why didn’t I look at this and see this?”

London had recently bought a bike and a set of skis on eBay, so he wasn’t surprised when he got an e-mail claiming to be from the payment service Pay Pal. The e-mail asked for some information, then took him to a Web site that he says looked exactly like the real Pay Pal site.

He put in his password. Almost immediately London knew something was up, because money started disappearing from his accounts.

“It’s one of those things, you’re just going through all your e-mails, you’re not giving 100 percent of your attention to what you are doing — and before you know it, you’re getting a phone call from a watchdog organization saying, ‘Hey, you’re in trouble.’”

London was lucky. Someone saw his personal information on an online chat room and called to alert him. He put a hold on his accounts.

Experts say cases like London’s have become increasingly common.

Analyst George Tubin from the Tower Group said this kind of fraud is organized crime, and is based in the United States and foreign countries. He said for around $1,000, people can buy software called a “Universal Phishing” kit. The software lets them set up what’s known as a “Man in the Middle” phishing attack, where they create a phony Web site that sits between an unsuspecting computer user and a real Web site.

For instance, it can use a real bank site’s interactive features to fool users into believing they are talking to their bank, when in reality they are feeding information to an identity thief.

In order to curb the problem, new federal guidelines require banks to establish multiple authentication procedures. But Tubin said the banks are facing determined adversaries.

“I think the thing that banks are starting to recognize is, this is not a one-time war,” he said. “This is an ongoing battle, and as a gentleman from the FBI described it to me, the criminals try to come over our 10-foot wall with a 15-foot ladder. So we go out and build a 20-foot wall, and it’s just a matter of time before they come back with a 25-foot ladder.”

And researchers say there is another problem for the banks — human nature. They say as customers grow increasingly familiar with online banking, they tend to let down their guard.

A recent study conducted by Harvard and MIT found even when participants were confronted with increasingly alarming clues that a bank’s Web site had been compromised most logged on anyway.

Banks say there are safeguards designed to prevent attacks on their online systems which consumers and hackers can’t see.

However, the amount of money lost to online phishing attacks is on the rise.

There is also the fear that as big banks boost the security on their Web sites the fraudsters will simply move downstream, targeting smaller financial institutions with less elaborate security measures.

Source: http://www.npr.org

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