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Survey Part II & Choosing a Web Host
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Helping You Build a Better Website |
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In This
Issue of Site Builder News:
» More Survey Results
» Article: How To Choose A Hosting
Company
Greetings Site Builders,
Last week I talked about the results of the subscriber survey, and I
suggested a solution to those who are looking for help with their web businesses,
the Web Design Business
Kit. If you missed that issue, read it here or just download the sample chapters
from Brendon's book.
This week I want to address one of the other topics the survey
showed people are looking for help with. I would've talked about it last week, but
the Web Design Business Kit is worth talking about on its own, and I wasn't quite
ready to present my solution to the other topic yet... but here it comes.
What can I do to get more traffic to my
website?
This is probably one of the most asked questions among website
owners on the Net. There are several methods to gaining traffic, and here are just a
few:
- Spending $300 a year to try to get in to Yahoo! with
Express Inclusion
- Spending hundreds a month on pay-per-click search engine
listings
- Paying hundreds a month on banner impressions to get under 1% of
viewers to click through to your site
- Wasting your time submitting to FFA link pages that never bring
you anything but SPAM mail
- Building up word of mouth advertising over many years of hard
work
If your site is going to be successful, no matter what type of
site it is, people need to see it. The problem is that there's no easy or low-cost
way to get the traffic you want... until now.
A new service from the people who bring you Site Builder News,
Website Goodies and other resources for website owners, are now offering a solution
to getting the traffic you need, in predictible, guaranteed amounts, without costing
you a fortune.
TargetedVisitors.info: You Provide The Site, We Provide The
Traffic
 We can bring unique website
visitors to your website for as little as $1.95 per 1,000 visitors. At TargetedVisitors.info, we leverage
the traffic of abandoned domain names to send you the visitors you need for a
successful website at ultra-low prices.
Where does this traffic come from? Every day website domains that
were previously home to active sites expire when the previous owner decides to no
longer renew the domain. These domains are still listed in search engines, on
marketing material, mentioned in mailing lists... so when someone searches for "home
based businesses" and the search engine sends the visitor to an abandoned domain,
that traffic can now be sent to your home based business website! There are almost 2
dozen categories to choose from, so we're guaranteed to have one that fits your
site.
Visit our new site, TargetedVisitors.info, to learn more
about our services and to set up a campaign for your site.
--
Dan Grossman, Editor
How To
Choose A Hosting Company
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of hosting companies out
there. They come in all price ranges, and with all kinds of
bells and whistles. Here are some things you may want to look
for in a hosting company, especially if your website is part of
your overall marketing plan to sell products or services.
Money Back Guarantee - I put this first, because if you are
unhappy with your hosting site, you'll want assurances that
you'll get your money back.
24/7 Customer Technical Support - This is critical. Find
out if they mean "there's voicemail or email 24-hours-a-
day" or if they mean, "we will answer the phone and help
you 24-hours-a-day"
Control Panel - The Control Panel where you control all
aspects of your account, such as managing email accounts,
reading statistics, and configuring autoresponders. Make
sure your hosting company has a centralized control panel
for your management needs.
Website Statistics - From a marketing perspective, it's
important to know who is visiting your site and what pages
they read. Your hosting company should keep track of all
of this information for you, and present it in an easy to
read format. Make sure your statistics are updated on a
daily basis, and that you can configure the display to show
you by day, by week, by month or by year. You can learn
more about how to read and interpret your statistics here:
http://www.passionforbusiness.com/articles.htm
CGI - CGI stands for the "Common Gateway Interface" and is
a protocol through which web pages interact with scripts on
a server. Your hosting company should allow you to install
and run CGI scripts your account. They may also offer you
some pre-installed CGI scripts for free as part of your
hosting package, such as a message board or email forms.
POP Email Accounts - A POP (Post Office Protocol) Email
Account is an email account hosted on your site. Your
hosting company should allow you to have more than one POP
account, so that you can set up email addresses for all
your needs. For example, clients requesting information
about a workshop can send email to workshop@mydomain.com,
while clients can send their homework to
homework@mydomain.com. Also make sure your hosting company
support email forwarding.
Autoresponders - Autoresponders allow a visitor to send an
email to a specific email address and automatically receive
a reply. For example, if you have a FAQ, people can send
an email to faq@mydomain.com and automatically receive the
FAQ list in their email inbox.
SSL Secure Server - SSL stands for "Secure Socket Layer".
This is a protocol that allows for encrypted transmissions
on the web, and is especially useful if you are collecting
private information from visitors, such as credit card
information.
Shopping Cart - If you plan on having a catalog on the web,
like selling your ebooks or audio tapes, a shopping cart is
a must. It lets people browse through your "store" and
pick the items that they plan to purchase. When they are
done, they proceed to the checkout where they can review
their order and pay by credit card. If your hosting
company does not offer a shopping cart system, there are
plenty of stand-alone shopping cart systems you can use
with your website.
Password Protected Areas - If you want to create a "members
only" or "students only" section of your site, you will
need to make sure that your hosting company supports
password protected areas (folders or sub-webs).
FrontPage Extensions - Microsoft FrontPage is a web
development tool that's easy to use. In order for this
package to be completely functional, it requires that there
be special software installed on the server called
"FrontPage Extensions." Beware the hosting company who
wants to charge you for using FrontPage Extensions; most
hosting companies offer them for free.
Mailing List Software - Keep your users informed by
offering to put them on the mailing list. Make sure your
hosting company supports double-opt-in mailing lists, where
the person signs up and receives a confirmation email that
instructs them how to officially sign up for your mailing
list.
Streaming Media - If you'd like to add multimedia streaming
to your site, you'll need to find out if your hosting
company supports the use of streaming media such as
RealAudio or Windows Media files. Some hosting companies
will charge you extra for this service.
As you can see, there are a lot of things to consider. Remember,
while some of these may not be important to you now, you'll also
want a hosting company that can grow and support you as your
business grows.
About the Author:
© Karyn Greenstreet 2004
Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment Expert. Through
consulting, coaching and speaking, she shares tips, tricks and
techniques with self-employed people to create and grow their
businesses, stay focused and motivated, and work at peak
performance. Visit her website at http://www.PassionForBusiness.com
Site Builder News Recommends: LunarPages Hosting
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- 800 MB Storage Space
- 40 GB Bandwidth (Data Transfer)
- Unlimited POP Email Accounts and
Autoresponders
- FrontPage Extensions
- Toll-Free Telephone Support
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