Chime School

Posts Tagged ‘email’

META: As our busy lifestyle takes its toll on our personal life, we tend to lose contact with our friends from yore. Rather late in life when we think of contacting them, we have to consider where there whereabouts might be and that can be difficult. We may want to search for their email address but do not know how to go about it.

As years pass by we move on from school to college, college to work, from city to city and may be from one country to another. In today’s society staying in touch with friends can be really difficult; by the time we think about contacting some of them we have lost track of their address / phone details. There may be times when you desperately try to look up an email address but in vain because you are not sure where and how to begin your search. 

There are some ways in which you can try and look up an email address but these are just options that you can use for you may not always be lucky in locating the information that you want. Typing your friends name into a search engine is a good place to start searching. If you do locate an address, just be sure it is the one you are looking for. This may not be the most appropriate solution to your problem, however, as there are thousands of people with the same name out there. 

The next method is to try looking up email directories, which are directories that you will find freely on the Internet. As these have a considerable listing of email addresses they are sometimes successful in helping you find email addresses that you are looking for. When search engines fail to come up with any information that may be useful to you, then an email directory is an alternative. This is because the address you are looking for may not belong to a website, blog or an organisations address. 

Most of the search engines have their own email directory and it is always advisable to look up more than one directory as they all have different lists that may possibly help you find the address you are looking for. However there are flaws to this search type because most of the genuine email directories require you to sign up to be on their list and there may just be a chance that your friend is not registered there. Another difficulty of finding the right person is that many people tend to give false identifications and fictitious names.

Another method of looking up an email address is through social networking, which has grown very popular in recent years. Social networking is a good way of searching for contact details because almost everyone on this network has some sort of contact details listed in their directory. You stand a better chance of finding your friends by finding their email address as most people want to keep their telephone numbers and mailing addresses secret.

However it is not as easy to get an email address or contact details of a person through this network without the authority of the person being sought. The person you wish to contact has to accept your ‘friend’ request before you are allowed to access their details from their profile. The messaging service available on the site could possibly give you an email address or other contact details. 

So, if you are keen on getting in touch with one of your old time friends and do not have their contact details, you could try out one of the above methods to find out about them.

iContact Autoresponder

So what do network marketers really desire in an autoresponder?

Wiki: Interpretation

An auto-responder is a computer software that automatically delivers messages. E-mails can be very simple or quite complex. The lone purpose of using an autoresponder is to keep in contact with your List. Your list is composed of people who trust and look up to you and respect you as a leader.

So many people say “The cash is in the List”.

So it is crucial that your autoresponder is capable of doing a few tasks well.

The base line to any successful network marketing business is always linked to a correctly operating auto-responder.

Face Off between Aweber vs iContact

1. Cost - $20/month (0-500 leads) vs $10/month (0-250 subscribers), $14 (500 subscribers)
2. Spots on Alexa – 256 vs 3,197
3. Ease of Use – Both are similar as both allow TXT and HTML messages but converting a HTML to a TXT in iContact sometimes requires additional changes as words get merged. Really frustrating. Also Aweber shows you the standard width so you can sentence wrap lines for {smaller} screens which many people have.

Sending a HTML and TXT email will help reduce your Spam score so make use of it when you can.

Use an auto-responder like iContact or Aweber that sends from YOUR e-mail and not some generated e-mail address. Another autoresponder I encountered, Isoresponder, distributes emails that are from a complex generic generated e-mail address which makes it a chore for new readers to follow someone if their email keeps changing.

Cost

iContact has a one dollar trial. Aweber basically gives you 30 days to try the system out and if you don’t like it they will refund your money.

So which one? So which is the better one, it really depends on your personal needs.

Both are industry leaders and if your list is small, the one difference might be price until you go over 250 leads. If your goal is 250 leads then you’re thinking too small. Personally, I was fed up with iContacts HTML email copy to TEXT and having to correct the mistakes of that conversion.

My fully customizable marketing system that generates leads even on auto pilot uses Aweber and that is more than enough reason for me to use it too.

Learn to grow your network marketing business using internet tools like auto-responder. I personally use Aweber to grow my MLM Marketing Business

Aweber

So what do network marketers really long for in an autoresponder?

Wikipedia: Explanation

An autoresponder is a computer program that automatically delivers messages. Emails can be quite complex or very simple. The main point of using an autoresponder is to stay connected with your List. Your list contains of people who have faith and follow you and respect you as a leader.

So many people quote “The cash is in the List”.

So it is vital that your auto-responder is capable of doing a few tasks well.

The base line to any effective business owner is always linked to a correctly operating auto-responder.

Run Down between iContact vs Aweber

1. Price - $20/month (0-500 subscribers) vs $10/month (0-250 leads), $14 (500 subscribers)
2. Spots on Alexa – 256 vs 3,197
3. Easy to Use? – Both are the same as both allow HTML and TXT messages but converting a HTML to a TXT in iContact sometimes requires additional changes as words get combined. Really frustrating. Also Aweber displays you the default width so you can sentence wrap lines for {smaller} screens which many people have.

Sending a TXT and HTML message will help reduce your Spam score so make use of it when you can.

Use an auto-responder like Aweber or iContact that distributes from YOUR e-mail and not some generated e-mail address. Another auto-responder I encountered, Isoresponder, distributes emails that are from a long generic generated email address which makes it a chore for new readers to follow someone if their email keeps changing.

Pricing

iContact has a one dollar trial. Aweber basically gives you 30 days to try the system out and if you don’t like it they will refund your money.

So in conclusion what do I pick? In terms of which to choose, it really depends on your personal goals.

Both are good autoresponders and if your list is small, the one difference might be cost until you go over 250 prospects. If your goal is 250 subscribers then you’re thinking too small. Personally, I was fed up with iContacts HTML message copy to TEXT and having to replace the mistakes of that conversion.

My full branded marketing system that generates leads even on auto pilot uses Aweber and my asset is my list.

Educate yourself to explode your network marketing business using internet tools like auto-responder. I personally use Aweber to grow my Network Marketing Business

This series of posts is for the person asking “How do I start my own website?”.  To begin with:  Strategic planning and long term vision will serve you best in your choice of domain names.  Careful consideration of your website’s domain name can pay off in dividends once your website is published online. Good search engine optimization, or SEO, begins with domain name selection.  Not to mention your positioning and branding with your customer.

You have searched for your desired domain name and it turns out someone else has already snagged it.  Now what?  Is it still possible to buy it?  It’s Possible.  It’s possible, but with conditions to consider.  With some research and hard work you can still possibly register that coveted domain name even if someone has beaten you to the punch.  There are other ways to get the domain name you want:

Hyphenated Names Sometimes it is a good strategy to just take the same domain name and hyphenate it as in turning bobsautoparts.com into bobs-auto-parts.com.  Is hyphenating the best way to go?  Yes and no.  For example, if the domain name you want is already taken AND well known, most likely this is not a good idea, because most web surfers would likely just type the non-hyphenated version into their browsers and thus could end up at your competitor’s website.  Not a good strategy.  Also, if you do decide to take a hyphenated domain name, remember to keep it short!  The longer the domain name and the more dashes you put between words the harder it will be for the end user to remember, and therefore makes it more error prone, which could cost you customers who never make it to your website.  So keep it short.  Another school of thought: IF the web domain you want is already taken, IF the owner of the domain name won’t give it up, and IF the website associated with it is non-existent or poorly designed with low traffic, hyphenating the name might make sense after all.  But be careful:  the last thing you want is to cause internet domain name confusion because you have decided on a domain name registration that is so close to a major competitor’s name that you end up losing business to them.

Longer or Shorter?  If you want to, you can purchase up to a 67 character long domain name.  You could purchase a domain name like thelongestdomainnameintheworldandthensome
andthensomemoreandmore.com which is 63 characters long, but why would you want to do that?  Can you envision anyone wanting to type it into their browser?  My website is www.StartYourWebsiteToday.com    When choosing my domain name I wanted something that in a few words would tell the web surfer what to expect from my website.  Good name selection can be helpful also with search engine ranking.  When choosing your domain name try to keep it short and concise, and if at all possible let the name tell the story of the site.  Shorter is better here.

Brand Name or Generic  The answer here is it depends.  If your business is known by a brand name, and it is a well known name, of course it is the best possible strategy to try to register that domain name.  Budweiser.com is a site that is well known and gets a lot of traffic, even though there is nothing specifically in the domain name that says anything about beer.  But because Budweiser is known all over the world as a beer brand, people know what they are getting when they surf to the website.  If your brand name is well known, definitely try to obtain your brand name as a domain name.  But if your company is Nike or Coca Cola or Budweiser don’t discount the idea of buying the domain name shoes.com or soda.com or beer.com if they are available as well.  People often search the web using generic terms, more so even than brand names.  A person is more likely to search the internet with generic terms like shoes or footwear or sneakers than to search by a single brand name, even one as big as Nike.  Research your domain name as thoroughly as you can, including looking for generic keywords which could be a good fit as a potential domain name.  You can have as many domain names as you want pointing to a single website, so the more generic terms you can acquire that directly describe your business, the better.   A generic name if your business is new or not yet well known can get great results, if you can find a good one.  To start your search for your own unique domain name, here is a link to a domain name search engine.  Bottom line, the beginning phase of how to start your own website is choosing the right domain name. 

The first step in building a website is the choice of a domain name.  Whether you are a doctor, lawyer, plumber, aluminum siding salesman, or if you want to start up a website to display photos of your newborn online, the entire enterprise begins with the choice of a domain name.

The next logical question you might ask- “What is the best domain name choice?”.  Well, what type of website are you planning on publishing?  For example, if you are someone who wants to build a website devoted to your cat, then your choice of a domain name really doesn’t matter.  What’s the difference?  Most likely in that instance you’re not looking for tons of traffic, friends and family are your target audience, to let them know about the latest goings on.  So your domain name choice in a case like that is not as crucial as it would be if you were looking for tons of traffic to the site.   

The point is that in a case like this, there is no real concern with getting a lot of visitors to the website other than friends and family and coworkers, so there is no real harm in naming the website ANYTHING, because you will be giving out the website address to a select few people.  BUT……

What if you are looking to attract customers?  And to get as much traffic coming to your site as possible?

It really can bring huge dividends to have a domain name that draws attention to your site or business.  If your website is about car parts for example, do you really expect the average web surfer to remember how to get to your website if it is named “bobsthingsforsale.com” or some other unrelated name?  So be sure and choose carefully when deciding on a domain name.  Best case scenario is to get the name of your business as a dot com or dot net, etc.  In lieu of that, at least try to get the category of business that you are in incorporated in your domain name.  For example, an antiques website should have a domain name like antiques.com or bobsantiques.com, something that immediately associates the domain name with the theme of the site.  It’s all about branding, and making a lasting impression on the target audience or customers.

You need to search the WhoIs database to find a domain name that has not already been registered.  For your convenience in searching, I have conveniently placed a domain name search engine on StartYourWebsiteToday.com for this very purpose.  After searching for the domain name, the results given will instantly show whether or not the domain name is available, and if so, give you the option to immediately register it.  If it’s not available, several alternative domain names will be proposed, to help you fine tune your search, or possibly giving you an acceptable alternative domain name to register instead.

Hosting plan choice is a major step when you choose to start up a website.  Prior posts from me were about domain name choice and website creation.  Which brings the subject of hosting into play:  One of the critical decisions you will have to make is what type of hosting plan to use and what hosting provider to choose.

Once you have created the pages for your website, now you want to publish it to the internet.  Publishing to the internet involves getting a hosting plan.  A hosting plan is different from a domain name.  You own your domain name but you rent a hosting plan.  To make your website live on the internet you will be paying a service provider to publish it for you.  That’s what a hosting plan is.  Let’s go over some of the key important factors to consider when choosing a hosting plan:

SERVICE  The most important consideration is the level of service provided.  It does not matter that a multitude of features are offered or if the price is low if the service you will be getting with your hosting plan is sub par or even worse, nonexistent.  After you have published, or “gone live” on the internet, the last thing you want is for the website to go down and become unavailable to potential customers.  Strategically the best thing you can do for your website upfront is to choose a hosting company that is reliable in terms of customer service as well as “uptime”.

UPTIME  What is the hosting company’s “uptime guarantee”? Many guarantee 99% uptime for their servers.  Even at 99% average uptime it can mean that your website will be off the internet for over 7 hours per month. If at all possible, choose a host guaranteeing up to 99.9% uptime.

SIZE  What size, or how many pages will the website have?  The amount of disk space all of your website’s pages takes up will determine the size of the hosting plan you will need.  Most websites do not require much space but if you’re planning on having a large site with a lot of multimedia content or an ecommerce site selling multiple items, you’ll probably need additional disk space on your hosting plan.

LINUX OR WINDOWS  Which operating system should your hosting plan use?  BTW it does not matter what operating system you are using on your personal computer.  What programming language was used in the Web site design?  For example, if you designed a website using ASP or ASP.NET, you’ll need to find a Windows hosting plan. If you have a Web site that uses CGI or PHP, you’ll need to get a Linux hosting plan.  Note that if you are simply publishing a basic html website, the choice of hosting Operating system won’t really matter as much until you get into more advanced languages such as PHP or ASP.

TRAFFIC  How much traffic or how many visitors do you expect monthly?  Most hosting providers sell their hosting plans on a sliding scale according to bandwith usage.  Obviously more bandwidth is better because it allows more visitors to visit your site, but at the beginning this will be hard for you to gauge.  The best advice here is to start off with a low cost, low bandwidth plan and upgrade it later as the traffic to your website grows.

SHARED OR DEDICATED HOSTING  Whether or not to choose shared hosting over dedicated hosting comes down to the following:  First a brief description of shared hosting, which is sharing space on a server with dozens or perhaps hundreds of other websites.  The main factor here is that you will have no control over the operating system, database structure, etc., and will have to work within the structure setup by the hosting provider.  Dedicated or virtual dedicated hosting is different in the sense that you will have full control over the environment that your website resides in, and you will have the only access to that space.  In other words, you would determine what operating system to use, what type database management software, what type of blog software, what type shopping cart, etc., etc.  This type of hosting is definitely geared to the more advanced user, and usually you won’t be able to get as much customer support because it will be a custom setup.  The best advice I can give to the newbie is to use shared hosting at first, until you gain more experience and abilities and are ready to take the plunge into something as advanced as dedicated hosting.

At StartYourWebsiteToday.com I offer 99.9% guaranteed uptime and offer customer service 24/7.  The hosting plans that are offered include a variety: shared hosting, virtual dedicated hosting, and dedicated hosting plans with either Linux or Windows operating systems for every need and budget ranging from the small personal website to large online multimedia sites to those interested in ecommerce website building. To review the options we offer, click HERE: Hosting plans.

Selecting a hosting plan is a critical step when you want to start up a website.  Prior posts from me were about domain name choice and website creation.  Which brings the subject of hosting into play:  One of the critical decisions you will have to make is what type of hosting plan to use and what hosting provider to choose.

Once your website has been created, it is time to make it go live on the internet.  Publishing to the internet involves getting a hosting plan.  A hosting plan is different from a domain name.  You own your domain name but you rent a hosting plan.  In it’s simplest terms a hosting plan is paying a company to broadcast your website onto the internet.  This article covers what to look for in a hosting plan.

SERVICE  First and foremost in your decision is to consider the hosting provider’s reputation for it’s services.  No consideration, including price, should supersede Good Customer Service as the criteria for choosing your hosting provider.  Once your website is live on the internet you will want it to be up all the time.  Strategically the best thing you can do for your website upfront is to choose a hosting company that is reliable in terms of customer service as well as “uptime”.

UPTIME  Does the hosting provider you are considering offer an “uptime guarantee? Many guarantee 99% uptime for their servers.  That sounds great, but it does mean that your site could go down for 1% of the time, which means over 7 hours out of each month! The best hosting providers will have a track record of up to 99.9% uptime, which essentially guarantees you that downtime is negligible or even non-existent.

SIZE  What size, or how many pages will the website have?  The amount of disk space all of your website’s pages takes up will determine the size of the hosting plan you will need.  Most websites do not require much space but if you’re planning on having a large site with a lot of multimedia content or an ecommerce site selling multiple items, you’ll probably need additional disk space on your hosting plan.

LINUX OR WINDOWS  This question refers to the operating systems available for hosting and which one to choose.  This question has no relevance to the brand of operating system you are using on your computer.  What programming language was used in the Web site design?  For example, if you designed a website using ASP or ASP.NET, you’ll need to find a Windows hosting plan. If you have a Web site that uses CGI or PHP, you’ll need to get a Linux hosting plan.  Note that if you are simply publishing a basic html website, the choice of hosting Operating system won’t really matter as much until you get into more advanced languages such as PHP or ASP.

TRAFFIC  How much traffic or how many visitors do you expect monthly?  Hosting plans are usually sold at different level plans according to the bandwith that will be required.  Bandwidth = Traffic.  Obviously more bandwidth is better because it allows more visitors to visit your site, but at the beginning this will be hard for you to gauge.  Usually the best way to proceed here is to start with a basic low bandwidth plan, and upgrade later as the traffic begins to flow to the website.

SHARED OR DEDICATED HOSTING  Whether or not to choose shared hosting over dedicated hosting comes down to the following:  A shared hosting plan is exactly as it sounds, and means that your website will be stored on a server along with lots of other websites.  In this hosting format you generally have no ability to make changes to the resident software on the system, meaning you cannot change or upgrade the operating system, or the database management system, etc.  You will have to work within the software structure provided by the hosting company.  Dedicated or virtual dedicated hosting is different in the sense that you will have full control over the environment that your website resides in, and you will have the only access to that space.  Dedicated server hosting gives you full control over setup of the operating system and auxilliary programs such as database management or shopping cart or database management software.  This type of hosting is definitely geared to the more advanced user, and usually you won’t be able to get as much customer support because it will be a custom setup.  The bottom line:  start off with shared hosting if you are a beginner, until you are advanced enough to progress to your own controlled dedicated hosting environment.

At StartYourWebsiteToday.com our uptime guarantee is 99.9% and we offer 24/7 customer service.  The hosting plans that are offered include a variety: shared hosting, virtual dedicated hosting, and dedicated hosting plans with either Linux or Windows operating systems for every need and budget ranging from the small personal website to large online multimedia sites to those interested in ecommerce website building. To see what is available, click HERE: Hosting plans.

So you think you want to start up a website.  Prior posts from me were about domain name choice and website creation.  Which brings the subject of hosting into play:  Early on in your decision making process, you will want to shop for a hosting plan.

Once you have created the pages for your website, now you want to publish it to the internet.  To have your website seen on the internet you will need to choose a hosting plan.  By purchasing a domain name you have branded, or named your website.  You own the name, but now you must pay rent to someone to actually get your website online.  With a hosting plan you will be paying a service provider to publish your website on the internet for all to see.  Let’s go over some of the key important factors to consider when choosing a hosting plan:

SERVICE  The number one thing to look for in a hosting plan is service.  It does not matter that a multitude of features are offered or if the price is low if the service you will be getting with your hosting plan is sub par or even worse, nonexistent.  Once your website is live on the internet you will want it to be up all the time.  Therefore should a problem occur it is important to select a hosting provider that is readily available and will resolve the issue in as timely a manner as possible.

UPTIME  When shopping for a hosting company, find out if they have an uptime guarantee. Many guarantee 99% uptime for their servers.  Even at 99% average uptime it can mean that your website will be off the internet for over 7 hours per month. If at all possible, choose a host guaranteeing up to 99.9% uptime.

SIZE  How large is your site?  The amount of disk space all of your website’s pages takes up will determine the size of the hosting plan you will need.  Most websites do not require much space but if you’re planning on having a large site with a lot of multimedia content or an ecommerce site selling multiple items, you’ll probably need additional disk space on your hosting plan.

LINUX OR WINDOWS  This question refers to the operating systems available for hosting and which one to choose.  BTW it does not matter what operating system you are using on your personal computer.  The determining factor here is what programming language was used to design the website.  For example, if CGI or PHP programming language was used, the best choice for the hosting operating system would be Linux.  For a website designed with ASP, the best choice would be Windows.  For the novice user who is building a simple html website the above may not be a consideration at first, but may become important later on as you become more experienced and add more features to your website.

TRAFFIC  Will you be expecting lots of visitors to your website?  Most hosting providers sell their hosting plans on a sliding scale according to bandwith usage.  The more visitors or traffic you expect on your site, the higher the bandwidth you will need, and the more the plan will cost.  The best advice here is to start off with a low cost, low bandwidth plan and upgrade it later as the traffic to your website grows.

SHARED OR DEDICATED HOSTING  Whether or not to choose shared hosting over dedicated hosting comes down to the following:  First a brief description of shared hosting, which is sharing space on a server with dozens or perhaps hundreds of other websites.  The main factor here is that you will have no control over the operating system, database structure, etc., and will have to work within the structure setup by the hosting provider.  Dedicated or virtual dedicated hosting is different in the sense that you will have full control over the environment that your website resides in, and you will have the only access to that space.  Dedicated server hosting gives you full control over setup of the operating system and auxilliary programs such as database management or shopping cart or database management software.  This type of hosting is definitely geared to the more advanced user, and usually you won’t be able to get as much customer support because it will be a custom setup.  The bottom line:  start off with shared hosting if you are a beginner, until you are advanced enough to progress to your own controlled dedicated hosting environment.

At StartYourWebsiteToday.com I offer 99.9% guaranteed uptime and offer customer service 24/7.  We also have a selection of shared, dedicated, and virtual dedicated hosting plans to suit all budgets and sizes and types of websites. To review the options we offer, click HERE: Hosting plans.

Selecting a hosting plan is a critical step when you want to start up a website.  Prior posts from me were about domain name choice and website creation.  Next we will discuss hosting:  One of the critical decisions you will have to make is what type of hosting plan to use and what hosting provider to choose.

Once you have created the pages for your website, now you want to publish it to the internet.  In order to do so, you will need a hosting plan.  By purchasing a domain name you have branded, or named your website.  You own the name, but now you must pay rent to someone to actually get your website online.  With a hosting plan you will be paying a service provider to publish your website on the internet for all to see.  This article covers what to look for in a hosting plan.

SERVICE  The most important consideration is the level of service provided.  It does not matter that a multitude of features are offered or if the price is low if the service you will be getting with your hosting plan is sub par or even worse, nonexistent.  If your website is not available on the internet you are losing opportunities to connect with customers.  Strategically the best thing you can do for your website upfront is to choose a hosting company that is reliable in terms of customer service as well as “uptime”.

UPTIME  When shopping for a hosting company, find out if they have an uptime guarantee. Many guarantee 99% uptime for their servers.  That sounds great, but it does mean that your site could go down for 1% of the time, which means over 7 hours out of each month! The best hosting providers will have a track record of up to 99.9% uptime, which essentially guarantees you that downtime is negligible or even non-existent.

SIZE  What size, or how many pages will the website have?  The amount of disk space all of your website’s pages takes up will determine the size of the hosting plan you will need.  If your website will be media rich with videos or music or photo files, or a large e-commerce site with a lot of catalogue pages, you will have to take space into consideration as a criteria for choosing the right hosting plan.

LINUX OR WINDOWS  This question refers to the operating systems available for hosting and which one to choose.  This question has no relevance to the brand of operating system you are using on your computer.  What programming language was used in the Web site design?  For example, if you designed a website using ASP or ASP.NET, you’ll need to find a Windows hosting plan. If you have a Web site that uses CGI or PHP, you’ll need to get a Linux hosting plan.  For the novice user who is building a simple html website the above may not be a consideration at first, but may become important later on as you become more experienced and add more features to your website.

TRAFFIC  Will you be expecting lots of visitors to your website?  Hosting plans are usually sold at different level plans according to the bandwith that will be required.  Bandwidth = Traffic.  The more visitors or traffic you expect on your site, the higher the bandwidth you will need, and the more the plan will cost.  The best advice here is to start off with a low cost, low bandwidth plan and upgrade it later as the traffic to your website grows.

SHARED OR DEDICATED HOSTING  The question of shared vs. dedicated hosting is really answered in a very simple way:  First a brief description of shared hosting, which is sharing space on a server with dozens or perhaps hundreds of other websites.  The main factor here is that you will have no control over the operating system, database structure, etc., and will have to work within the structure setup by the hosting provider.  Using dedicated (or virtual dedicated) hosting means that you have full control over the server your website is stored on and that only your data occupies the space on that server.  In other words, you would determine what operating system to use, what type database management software, what type of blog software, what type shopping cart, etc., etc.  This type of hosting is definitely geared to the more advanced user, and usually you won’t be able to get as much customer support because it will be a custom setup.  The bottom line:  start off with shared hosting if you are a beginner, until you are advanced enough to progress to your own controlled dedicated hosting environment.

At StartYourWebsiteToday.com our uptime guarantee is 99.9% and we offer 24/7 customer service.  The hosting plans that are offered include a variety: shared hosting, virtual dedicated hosting, and dedicated hosting plans with either Linux or Windows operating systems for every need and budget ranging from the small personal website to large online multimedia sites to those interested in ecommerce website building. To review the options we offer, click HERE: Hosting plans.

So you think you want to start up a website.  In prior posts I discussed choosing a domain name and creation of web pages.  Now let’s talk a little about hosting:  Choosing a hosting plan is a primary step in launching your fledgling web presence.

The next step after creating your website is to make it live on the internet, or publish it.  In order to do so, you will need a hosting plan.  By purchasing a domain name you have branded, or named your website.  You own the name, but now you must pay rent to someone to actually get your website online.  In it’s simplest terms a hosting plan is paying a company to broadcast your website onto the internet.  The key considerations for choosing a good hosting plan will be discussed here.

SERVICE  The number one thing to look for in a hosting plan is service.  Bells and whistles and fancy features will do you no good if you can’t get customer service in a timely fashion.  Once your website is live on the internet you will want it to be up all the time.  Strategically the best thing you can do for your website upfront is to choose a hosting company that is reliable in terms of customer service as well as “uptime”.

UPTIME  Does the hosting provider you are considering offer an “uptime guarantee? Many guarantee 99% uptime for their servers.  Even at 99% average uptime it can mean that your website will be off the internet for over 7 hours per month. If at all possible, choose a host guaranteeing up to 99.9% uptime.

SIZE  What size, or how many pages will the website have?  Most hosting providers set the pricing on their hosting plans according to the space taken up on their servers by the website.  Most websites do not require much space but if you’re planning on having a large site with a lot of multimedia content or an ecommerce site selling multiple items, you’ll probably need additional disk space on your hosting plan.

LINUX OR WINDOWS  This question refers to the operating systems available for hosting and which one to choose.  This question has no relevance to the brand of operating system you are using on your computer.  What programming language was used in the Web site design?  For example, if you designed a website using ASP or ASP.NET, you’ll need to find a Windows hosting plan. If you have a Web site that uses CGI or PHP, you’ll need to get a Linux hosting plan.  Note that if you are simply publishing a basic html website, the choice of hosting Operating system won’t really matter as much until you get into more advanced languages such as PHP or ASP.

TRAFFIC  How much traffic or how many visitors do you expect monthly?  Most hosting providers sell their hosting plans on a sliding scale according to bandwith usage.  The more visitors or traffic you expect on your site, the higher the bandwidth you will need, and the more the plan will cost.  The best advice here is to start off with a low cost, low bandwidth plan and upgrade it later as the traffic to your website grows.

SHARED OR DEDICATED HOSTING  Whether or not to choose shared hosting over dedicated hosting comes down to the following:  A shared hosting plan is exactly as it sounds, and means that your website will be stored on a server along with lots of other websites.  In this hosting format you generally have no ability to make changes to the resident software on the system, meaning you cannot change or upgrade the operating system, or the database management system, etc.  You will have to work within the software structure provided by the hosting company.  Dedicated or virtual dedicated hosting is different in the sense that you will have full control over the environment that your website resides in, and you will have the only access to that space.  In other words, you would determine what operating system to use, what type database management software, what type of blog software, what type shopping cart, etc., etc.  This type of hosting is definitely geared to the more advanced user, and usually you won’t be able to get as much customer support because it will be a custom setup.  The bottom line:  start off with shared hosting if you are a beginner, until you are advanced enough to progress to your own controlled dedicated hosting environment.

At StartYourWebsiteToday.com our uptime guarantee is 99.9% and we offer 24/7 customer service.  We also have a selection of shared, dedicated, and virtual dedicated hosting plans to suit all budgets and sizes and types of websites. To review the options we offer, click HERE: Hosting plans.