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Are you disgusted or disappointed with your current web host? Have you switched web hosting companies too many times? Have you thought of hosting your own website(s)? Do you have the ambition to control and manage your own web server?
If you answered ‘yes’ to the questions above, then you may be ready to host your own sites. This article will give you things to consider while making the switch.
When being your own web host you should be technically inclined and have basic knowledge of operating systems, understand technical terms, understand how to setup a server environment (such as: DNS, IIS, Apache, etc.) have basic knowledge of scripting languages and databases (PHP, Perl, MySQL, etc.), be familiar with current technologies, and have a basic understanding of hardware and server components.
You should realize the pros & cons. It is one thing to say, you want to host your own web server and it is another thing to actually do it.
Pros:
Cons:
There could be many more pros & cons but I’ve pointed out some of the major ones. Managing a web server starts as a full time job, you must constantly monitor its performance and security. This can sometimes be an exhausting task, especially if you currently have other responsibilities. Though, the control you will have over your website and its performance is rewarding enough. You no longer have to wait for technical support or approval to install a script onto the server. You can have as many websites and databases you want, as long as your hardware can handle it. You no longer have to go into the discussion forums and search for the best web host or rant about how much you hate your current host. You can even begin hosting family & friends personal websites.
Ask yourself, how technically advanced are you? Many times you do not have to be a tech guru or anything of the sort, but you must be very resourceful. You must know how to find resolutions and answers to problems, quickly and efficiently. This means you must be internet savvy. Not just the average surfer, who surfs aimlessly, but you must be the surfer who can always find what they are looking for. This is key, because with any server environment you are going to run into problems and finding the answers are most accomplished online, using multiple resources, search techniques, and engines. Sure you can hire someone to fix your problems, but as we should have learned from the “web hosting”, having someone do it for you isn’t always the best option. Here is a test to see if you are ready to find solutions. I need a solution to a Microsoft Windows 2003 Server Event Error – “Event ID: 1056′ it’s a DHCP Server Error. How would you search? Go ahead find the solution.
Did you first go to Google? If you did, that was a nice effort and common for most, plus a good place to start, but usually it is best to start at the developers’ website. In this case “microsoft.com” would have been the first option. Why? Google would more than likely provide you with the answer from Microsoft and other sources, but you don’t want to get inaccurate information from other sources. It is common to get information from Microsoft that would not specifically resolve your problem, but the developer should always be your first place to search for the answers. Now search the error again and go to the Microsoft site and find the solution.
You should had found this link: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;282001 (Event ID 1056 is Logged after installing DHCP)
What search phrase did you use? It should have been Event ID: 1056, because the Event ID is the exact error, it pinpoints your exact problem without broadening your search. Sometimes the error description is also appropriate to search, just the error description by itself or in combination with the Event ID. It depends on your error, your search feedback, your ability, and technique. For this example I did not include the error description.
Google or Yahoo! should have been your second option (the two largest search engines). Then search other smaller and niche search engines. A good search site which makes use of Google’s operator tags is www.soople.com. Next you should search within forums and discussion groups. If you are pretty internet savvy and have a plentiful or few forums and discussion groups which you frequent then you might actually visit those places before visiting Google or Yahoo!. You can even visit those before visiting the developer site since it is a trusted source, but I wouldn’t recommend it, I still would go to the developers’ site first. Okay, so now we have planted our feet and have familiarized ourselves with being internet (search) savvy. We are ready to purchase a server!
When making a server purchase you need to consider a few things before doing so. What to buy? A top of the line, quadruple processor, and super fast turbo server is always ideal, but many times it is not logical or affordable. Therefore, you need to weigh your options (sensibly).
What to buy?
Example:
Daily Traffic Goal: 10,000 (Divided by) Current Daily Traffic: 500 (Times X) 5 = 100GB
In the example you should purchase a 100GB Hard Drive, it is best to buy 2 or more drives oppose to 1. In this case, since 50GB drives do not exist or harder to find, you would buy two 60GB drives giving you a total of 120GB. 2 or more drives are usually needed in a server to configure the proper RAID option, in some cases 3 or more are needed. Your backup storage space should be a minimum capacity of 200GB (or 240GB, optional).
Next, there are a few things to consider before installing and configuring a server. Where to put it? A secluded, cool location is ideal, but if this cannot be accomplished then adjustments can be made.
Where to put it?
Those are all some basic things to consider before hosting your own server. Hosting your own server is not an easy task, but once you have had some time and experience with it, it becomes a breeze. You will have a better web hosting experience, you will be more in tune and reliant to your customers, and you will gain greater technical aptitude. Hosting your own web server is rewarding, useful, and gives you the opportunity to host unlimited websites, databases, services, etc.
If your web traffic becomes too great for your server then it is recommended to choose an offsite web host. It is recommend to purchase a dedicated server with a quality web host. If you choose a server with the above recommendations then your server traffic should be fine for at least up to 25,000,000 page views per month. It could be greater or less depending on your operating system, your server configuration, performance, applications, and services. The point is you should be well in a position to purchase dedicated server space by the time your traffic gets too high, because if you are getting anything close to 1,000,000 page views a month you should have some competitive advertising or ecommerce income. And plus, with the knowledge you will gain from the experience you will be able to support your own server at a dedicated server (remote) location, thus cutting more overhead.
The biggest disadvantage of hosting your own web server is the uptime reliability. If your web server powers down for any reason then your website is offline. Usually web hosting companies have methods and networks to prevent this failure from affecting your website. Usually if the system goes down they have a mirror location where your site is rejuvenated and doesn??t experience much downtime. Some web hosts do not practice this method or any other fault tolerance. Imagine if a blackout or power outage occurs, then your web server could be down for hours or even days, this can affect your business greatly. There are some hosting companies who provide mirror web hosting for a small fee, I haven??t found one that is reliable yet. Or you could cross your fingers and hope for the best, until you are able to host your server outside your home on a larger network.
Hosting your own server usually is not a money-saving experience. It sometimes cost more to host your own server, when you total the up keep and maintenance. The benefit of hosting your own server is usually a better platform for your customers, because it is no longer a shared server and it gives you the ability to make global changes almost instantaneously. When your customers request more performance or specific applications, then you will be able to implement this immediately. Customers like to know that you are in control. If you tell your customers that the server will be down for maintenance from 6 a.m. ?C 7 a.m. then it would be best if that is when your server is down, not from 5 a.m. ?C 10 a.m. You know how your web host will tell you one thing and then you have to try explaining it to your customer. In the end it will benefit you to host your own web server as a web business, this helps you and your customers.
Author Bio
Ant Onaf is is in association with Data Center Life which is an employment portal for Data Center Jobs. Ant Onaf is an online internet marketer, web advertiser, content writer, and IT consultant. He has years of IT related experience and internet related experience. His ingenuity, dedication, and passion for technology, internet marketing, & writing has made him a monumental icon in the World Wide Web. His blog can be visited at www.journalhome.com/AntOnaf
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When looking for a host, it will be useful to obtain as much information as possible about the web hosting company itself and the services they offer. These pre-sales questions are a way to check several things about the web hosting company. You can obtain detailed information about the services they offer – the web hosting plans they have, the features included there, etc.
These days hosting plans on the web are getting very competitive and features of each plan are comparatively the same among web hosting providers. Whether novice or expert, you can find some useful information in this article to learn about some of the considerations to look at when you choose a web hosting service.
In this article I will not talk about things like space ,traffic and prices since there are plenty of related articles nowadays rolling around the net. My goal will be to clarify some of the most important features you have to look for when choosing your web hosting provider.
The following are 10 basic features that can be found in a Unix/Linux hosting plans that every serious hosting provider should offer you.
These are the most common features of a good web hosting plan. A reputable web hosting provider should offer you at least these ones in his hosting plans. There are some more additions you can get from a good provider. For more info on that topic you can visit my site www.itstandard.net and get what you need.
Author Bio
Richard Clement is an online publisher dedicated in helping online users in various categories. He is an online marketing specialist and owner of ItStandard.Net hosting company.For more info visit his site http://www.itstandard.net
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Can we take this whole internet thing one step further and host our site ourselves on our own PC? Well, the basic answer is no! If you need to get a site live quickly or cheaply, it can be nearly impossible to do it yourself. Outsourcing these tasks to professional web host prividers that will save you money and headaches. The company will lodge your site on a web server, make the necessary connections between your domain name and their server configurations and then you’re up and running. Your site is out there on the internet for all to see . But there are so many web hosts. How can somebody choose between them?
Different companies offer different plans, features, transfer rates and support levels, so how can you choose what’s right for you?
The problem is that there are so many, and to some shoppers, there is a lot of technical jargon that can get in the way of picking the right one. This article is meant to simplify matters a bit by giving a reasonable way to estimate a web host’s value.
The first thing to be done is to decide what you need your page to do.Is this you personal site, business site or some organization’s site. Do you think selling things on your site, or maybe managing a forum , do you need a hit counter ect. These are just some of the questions you need to answer yourself before even starting to choose.
There are more factors in what will determine the best hosting provider for you and that will be the primary goal of this artcle.
First thing to consider: Storage Space and Data Transfer
A small information site or personal site will usually only require a few megabytes of disk space, however, data transfer depends on the size of the pages your are offering your visitors multiplied by the number of visitors. Therefore, a popular and graphics heavy website requires a greater monthly transfer than a text site. You should look at a minimum of 2 GB (2000 MB) data transfer a month. Check with the company that they can upgrade your account if your site increases it’s need for storage or monthly data transfer. Prepare for growth now so that you are not caught off guard by unexpected costs when you go to expand your services.
Second thing to consider: Reliability
For any online business, uptime is critical. You absolutely cannot go with a host that has an uptime of less than 95%.
No web host can have 100% uptime, and it’s impossible to guarantee. Avoid any hosts promising more than they can deliver. Most claim 99.9% uptime, but due to the nature of computers and communications equipment, outages will and do occur occasionally. You can contact a company and ask, but they will tell you they’re very reliable. Instead, ask for a couple of sites they currently host, that you can check out for yourself. The word of mouth is probably most powerful in helping to judge these companies.
Third thing to consider: Technical Support
Critical to success, you’ll need an internet hosting company that can help you resolve problems quickly with the least possible disruption to your site activity. As most hosting companies offer inclusive technical support, you shouldn’t pay extra for this. If you’re not offered 24 hours/7 days you should look elsewhere. Most hosts have email support, but keep an eye out for hosts that have phone numbers listed. These are obviously more valuable. Though some hosts have excellent turn around on email service requests, there’s no substitute for actually being able to talk to somebody if you need to. The test is to contact the company and ask questions. If they don’t reply within 48 hours, or don’t reply at all, consider another hosting company. A good company should reply within 24-48 hours.
Fourth thing to consider: Added Features
Various internet hosting companies offer a variety of services. Web hosters provide a listing of overwhelming features to hosting plans to entice you into joining their services. However, more importantly, what features you need and what ones you don’t need. Make a list of what you know your website must be able to do and find out if the company you are researching can make it happen for you.
If you are paying for a website, you should definitely be getting email accounts and FTP access. Don’t settle for a site without them. Make sure the email addresses are for your domain and not at your host’s domain. FTP access is critical is you intend to do any amount of uploading files to your server. Don’t settle for web applications. Also, you will want a host that provides a user control over these two features. Examples of services include also visitor counts, e-mail forwarding options, real time chat, shopping cart functions, and web statistics. The list goes on. With a predetermined needs list in hand, you won’t forget to ask important questions.
Fifth thing to consider: Pricing Structure
If the previous four steps check out, then you need to consider price and this can vary widely. You need to consider setup fees, monthly fees, plan discounts and optional extras in your calculations. Don’t let price be the primary factor in your decision unless you are launching a personal page. For ecommerce, businesses and organizations, the quality of the service is more important. Some companies offer you no monthly fees, but check the fine print before agreeing to anything. Free sites almost always have popups or require space invasive banners. Don’t simply look for the lowest price. You need to know how much the prices will grow as you expand your services and customer base. Ask about a variety of scenarios. For example, a small business owner who knows he will only need a small site to get started should ask about internet service provider hosting prices for medium sized websites with a larger number of visitors.Think for the future!
Keep also in mind that the most expensive plan is not necessarily the best, and the biggest name company may not be the right match for you.
Many perfectly fine packages for small businesses now run between $15 – $25 per month. Some people say that there are three types of Web Hosts: free hosts, cheap hosts and good hosts – and there is more than a grain of truth in this.
A good web host company will not tie you into a long-term contract that will prevent you moving if you don’t like the service.
Final words:
The most important thing to remember is to research and shop around. The are options and features that are offered by a wide variety of web host providers that is bound to suit you. The more requirements you have, the most likely you pay more. But paying for a quality web host provider is a good investment especially if your business will in the future become more reliant on the Internet. Finally, don’t hesitate to ask questions and inquire about the services of web hosts – you don’t want to regret it later.
Finally you can find more information about web hosting services visiting my site www.itstandard.net.
Author Bio
Richard Clement is an online publisher dedicated in helping online users in various categories. He is an online marketing specialist and owner of ItStandard.Net hosting company. For more info visit his site http://www.itstandard.net
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Finding a Web hosting provider seems like a difficult job. You think you’ve found a provider, but then another one offers some Web hosting features a little different than the first provider. So you have to decide what to do. Many of the features you won’t even use. A Web host provider will add alot of features to your package to make it enticing. Instead of talking about all the features, I will discuss which ones are important. If you have a simple website, you can combine these features with a cheap web hosting package and be okay. Below are the most important features.
1. Disk Space
One of the biggest concerns you may have is how much disk space(also disk storage or web space) you may need. It all depends on how your website is created. First, let me tell you that Web host providers will show you disk space they provide you in either GB(gigabyte) or MB(megabyte). 1 GB equals 1024 MBs. A website with text only can get by with about 20 megabytes. However, if you add graphics and videos, you will need more disk space. The more things you add to your website, the more disk space you will need.
2. Bandwidth
Bandwidth(or data transfer) is the amount of information your website can deliver to visitors that surf your site. When someone surfs your website or downloads anything from your site, they are using bandwidth. A Web hosting provider usually gives you a month to month supply of bandwidth. If you are planning on having a website with few visitors, then the minimum bandwidth allowed by your provider(between 1GB and 5GBs) should be enough.
Here is some information you need to know when you are calculating bandwidth:
1024 Byte = 1 Kilobyte (KB); 1024 Kilobyte(KB) = 1 Megabyte(MB) ; 1024 Megabyte = 1 Gigabyte(GB)
Note: Some Web host providers don’t calculate bytes in 1024’s. They instead use 1000 to make it easier. This is something to remember if your calculations are a little different than the providers. You should ask your provider if you want to know which number they use.
3. FTP
FTP(File Transfer Protocol) is a method of transferring files from one computer to another. This gives you the ability to upload your website to your Web hosting provider. In addition, it makes life easier because you can copy lots of files at one time.
4. Customer Service
Technical Support is very important. You should find a company that gives you 24/7 customer service. You may have some issues with your website that need to get taken care of right away. The longer the wait, the more potential visitors to your website you could be losing.
5. Email Services
You definitely want to have email access so you won’t have to give your personal email address to visitors of your website. You should get a few email addresses to use for different reasons.
6. Site Statistics
Site Statistics are important because you can keep track of how many people are visiting your website. Therefore, you can know how well your site is doing. In addition, you will be able to determine how much bandwidth is being used.
7. Reliability
If you find a cheap web hosting plan, it doesn’t mean you can’t rely on them. Furthermore, you should have a provider you can count on to keep your website up and running. Most web host can guarantee your site will be up and running 99.9% of the time. If you come across a web host that guarantees less uptime, I wouldn’t recommend you use their services.
Conclusion
These seven features, in my opinion, are features you should have for a basic website. Now if you are planning on doing more than putting basic information on your site, then you should look at other features that may pertain with what you are going to do. For example, if you’re going to run programs on your website, then you will need to look into the different types of scripts(PHP, CGI, PERL, SSI, etc….). Another example is if you are doing business online then you want to have security on your site like SSL. As I said earlier, there are alot of features that come with your web host package, but most of them you won’t need. If you need more than the seven listed above, chances are you already know what you need because you will have built your website around those features. These seven are for a person who wants to put a basic website together, with information about their business. Now all you need to do is find an affordable web hosting provider to go with these features and you are on your way.
Author Bio
Carl Madison is an established author for www.hostdata101.com
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If you are reading this you might be close to setting up your first website ever or you can be a person with experience that is just curious to see if there are things that you might have missed. Whatever the case is I hope to be able to provide you with a few of the things that I personally feel are important when you are picking the right domain name for your new site.
I assume that you have already found the topic that you are going to be focusing on and therefore I will not go into any of the things that relates on how to find a profitable market online. The reason I say this is that I assume that you new site will somehow have a business related theme as a personal website with pictures of your family and stuff doesn’t need much consideration when choosing the domain name.
So let us get into the things that I strongly feel you would have great benefit from.
It is a know fact that more and more traffic (aka visitors to your site) comes from the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN (which has now launched their new site called Live). So with this fact in mind you will need to find out how to get the best possible placement in the search engines so that people will come visit your site.
Most online marketers agree that from a SEO point of you the right keyword rich domain name can help your site rank better that if you are not using a keyword rich domain name. You might say that site like Nike.com, Amazon.com and Ebay.com doesn’t have keyword rich names and you are absolutely right.
However the difference between you and the great site is that they have much larger advertising budget than you have and therefore they can get away with having names that doesn’t make much sense. So if you are on a small budget I suggest that you go for the keyword rich domain name approach.
Choosing a keyword rich domain name does not mean that you will have to end up with a name that nobody will ever remember. That can be the case but it doesn’t have to be. Let us say that you are going to create a site that deals with pets. Maybe you want to sell pet toys and other accessories.
What I would do is to go to the site called: http://www.wordtracker.com/free-trial.html and sign up for the free trial. Once you have received the e-mail from WordTracker you would enter “pets” in the field.
You’ll see that the word “pet supplies” has a count of 2,000-2,500 visitors in a 90 day period. If you had paid for the full version of WordTracker (I strongly recommend that you do) you would have found that for the keyword phrase “pet toys and supplies” and that 145 people are searching for that particular phrase every day and that there are only 857 sites competing for that exact phrase.
Now that is great information and you can now use it for finding a domain name that will 1) Tell your visitors what it is that you do and 2) hold some really great keywords that you will want to target to rank in the search engines.
If you go to the site called: http://idenion.dk/tools/multidomaincheck.aspx you’ll be able to enter domain names in the box and test whether they are available. I have just tested the domains pettoysandsupplies.com and pet-toys-and-supplies.com and both of them are available. That is great news as the domains names will help you some of the way to get the high rankings that you want.
Author Bio
2-register-a-domain.com provides you with information about how to register a domain name with free web hosting. Come take a look at 2-register-a-domain.com
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Let us start learning what a reseller web hosting is by understanding what web hosting is all about. This will give you an advantage over others who start web hosting with limited knowledge. Success may therefore be around the corner if you understand what you are getting yourself into. Next, you will need to learn what the types of web hosting are, and of course, this includes what a reseller web hosting is. What is web hosting? Web hosting is an internet hosting service that allows people or organizations to host their own websites by connecting to the server of the web host. It is like a Building Administrator who sub-leases his building with different individuals or companies.
What are the types of web hosting?
· Free web hosting service
· Shared web hosting service
· Virtual dedicated server
· Dedicated hosting service
· Collocation hosting service
· Cluster hosting
· Reseller web hosting
What are the Web services available?
· File hosting
· Image hosting
· Video hosting
· Blog hosting
· One-click hosting
· Shopping cart hosting
You now know what web hosting is, what the types of web hosting are and what we services are available. We can now move to the topic of our discussion. What is reseller web hosting? Reseller web hosting is a web hosting service that splits his hard drive space and bandwidth and resells web hosting. He is not necessarily the owner of the web hosting service, but he acquires a reseller web hosting service and resells spaces to individuals or organization. Using the above example, reseller is the unit lessee and he shares his unit to other business and charges them for the rent as well. This is of course illegal based on the Rental Code but in web hosting, this is a legal practice.
What are the benefits of reseller web hosting?
· You earn from reselling web-hosting service. You command your price and the web hosting company will not have any hand on your dealings with your customers.
· You may earn from the sales made by your customers using the reseller web hosting you offer.
· You are backed by the technical support provided by the web hosting company. You may then service your customers using this technical support. You therefore meet your customers’ requirement even if you have minimal understanding of the technicalities and support they need.
· You may also purchase add-on services from the web hosting company with discounted rates from 35% to 50%. You may resell this to your customers at your own discretion.
Of course, these benefits will depend on the web hosting company you hire. It is therefore recommended that before you hop on the reseller web hosting bandwagon, do you homework; this will ensure you know what you are getting yourself into. It will also allow you to know, which among the huge selection of web hosting companies will be beneficial to you and your customers.
Author Bio
Charles Ryder is a successful Webmaster and publisher for numerous web sites. He provides useful, always accessible information for his readers. Please visit Reseller Hosting.
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What is a domain name? A domain name is a unique name, kind of like an e-mail address is unique, which is registered in a database called WHOIS through an organization called Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI). The domain name corresponds to a unique set of numbers called an IP (Internet Protocol) address. The reason we use domain names instead of IP addresses is that they are closer to our language. It would be difficult to market a site like this: “Go to 64.233.167.99 or 216.109.112.135 to search the internet!” A much easier way to do this is to say “Go to www.Google.com or www.yahoo.com to search the internet!” (Both Google and Yahoo are trade marked by Google, Inc., and Yahoo, Inc., respectively).
A domain name points to a computer called a “name server”. The name server knows that your domain name corresponds to your web hosting server’s IP address and it routes the person who typed in your domain name to your web hosting server – to your web site. That is how people anywhere in the world can see your web site by typing your domain name.
In 1992, the National Science Foundation granted an exclusive contract to NSI to be the sole registrar of top level domain names. NSI also had a cooperative agreement with United States Department of Commerce (”DoC”). With no competition, consumers were at the mercy of NSI.
In 1998, NSI and the DoC amended their cooperative agreement to allow for competing registrars. NSI was forced to provide domain name registration to the competing registrars at wholesale prices, rather than the standard $34.99 annual fee. NSI still charges $34.99 per year.
In late 1998, the DoC assigned the responsibility of overseeing the transition to a competitive market for domain names and accreditation of new registrars to a new organization called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
In 1999, ICANN began taking applications from companies who wanted to become registrars – and then capitalism took over: companies had to compete for business. Prices came down and service improved, however some are better than others. For a more detailed history of this transition, visit www.icann.org/registrars/accreditation-history.htm.
Even with the positive effects of competition in the domain name marketplace, the process of internet domain name registration remains a mystery for many.
There are a lot of companies that want to charge you hundreds of dollars to do the simple task of domain name registration for you. There are some registration companies who will charge you $35 just to register a domain. And there are web site consultants who charge over $100 to do the work for you. But you can do it yourself in about 15 minutes and it can cost as little as $1.99 for a year. If you do some research, learn a little and work smart, you can save yourself some money – and some headaches.
I spend a lot of time emailing with online business owners. Since that’s my specialty, I find a lot of people asking me questions about my success. What amazes me is that many of those people are asking the wrong questions!
The questions I’m talking about come from site owners who want to know how to make themselves look good online. These site owners want to write copy that is all about *their* company. They want to have a flash home page because *they* like it. They want to use *their* favorite colors in the design. <Some of you might be thinking, “So?”>
The problem is, it isn’t *their* site! Let me explain…
Think about it a minute. Why do you believe most department stores now willingly offer refunds? Years ago they didn’t. In fact, it was a well-known fact that, if you bought it, you owned it for life. Yet, in just the last 15 years or so, that way of thinking has been completely reversed. The reason? Customer demand.
Retailers recognized a customer need, and they filled it. They understood that customers were the ones who made the purchases and, therefore, the ones who kept their retail stores in business. The smart thing to do? Reverse the refund policy and keep customers happy.
Was it the store’s idea to offer refunds? No. If it were up to the stores, no money would ever be returned. After all, it’s *their* store, isn’t it? They can do what they want. Yeah, right! Not if they want to stay in business.
The same principle applies to your website. Sure, *you* may want to use certain colors on your site, but what would your customer prefer? Your favorite thing in the online world may be flash intros, but your customers might despise them. You may not like the idea of offering a guarantee, but what about your customers? Whose site is it, anyway? Yours? No, not really.
Before you get too entangled in making your site everything you want it to be, consider your customers’ wants and needs.
ACTION STEP 1
Make Your Copy Customer Focused – Go back to your site and read your copy. Does it say anything similar to this? “Welcome to my website. My company does this, that, and the other thing. I am the best company of my type on the Internet. My site has been online since 1999. Buy from me.” If so, you have some work to do.
Focus on your customers. What are their needs/wants? Rather than copy that says, “Me, me, we, us, I, I, I,” you want copy that acknowledges visitors, makes a connection with them, defines their needs, and offers solutions to their problems.
ACTION STEP 2
Turn Your Site Into An Invitation, Not An Eviction – Do you have a flash home page? If you check your stats, I’ll bet you’ll find more people who skip the flash intro of your site than people who actually view it.
Flash is extremely popular with Web designers, but it is extremely unnerving to site visitors. Don’t force flash on your customers.
ACTION STEP 3
Check Your Navigation – Can your visitors find their way around your site easily? How would you know? The best way to find out for sure is to ask a few people who have never seen your site before to surf on over and take a look around. Ask them to spend 10 or 15 minutes browsing. Then ask them to tell you about their experiences.
Paying due attention to your customers and their needs is one of the best things you can do to improve your online business. Put yourself in your customers’ place. When you turn your site into a welcoming environment specifically designed for your visitors, they can’t help but want to return again and again.
Author Bio
Diane C. Hughes * ProBizTips.com
FREE Report: Amazingly Simple (Yet Super Powerful)
Ways To Skyrocket Your Sales And Build Your Business
Into A Tower of Profits! ==>> http://madmarketer.com/diane
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Redesigning your website to take advantage of new opportunities and solve problems can be challenging. Different political groups jockey for position and new ideas get shouted down or lost due to employee popularity or ranking. A technique that can strip away these “human” factors can make a big difference when planning and strategizing.
In the late 60’s Tony Buzan developed a technique he called “Mind Mapping” to make use of the latest in brain research. His goal was to help people use all their cortical skills, i.e. word, image, number, etc. to learn and problem solve. This technique has grown and developed over the years as brain research becomes more sophisticated.
This method works very well in corporate setting where the audience has diverse skills. Rather than focus on skills, you focus on ideas. People feel they are on firm ground and are more likely to share ideas and look for solutions. This is exactly the kind of atmosphere you want to create when groups congregate to solve business problems.
In my work with Internet clients, I have adapted this method to take advantage of different creative skill sets among staff members. The marketing group has their way of looking at things, the developers theirs, and management, still another. When mind maps are applied to internet planning (or any business plan) it removes the barriers and helps each group apply its best creative knowledge.
There are four main advantages to using a mind map in an internet setting. The first is that it’s non-linear. This makes all ideas important and eliminates ideas chosen by employee rankings. When there are open spaces on the map branches, the brain wants closure. Everyone wants them to be filled in. This promotes teamwork.
The second is it provides a look at the “big picture” and the details at the same time. This helps managers focus on their concerns while those tasked with the details can focus on their part of the puzzle and everyone can see the whole.
The third is it highlights omissions. When you follow the same process and look at the same lists you forget or “don’t see” what’s missing. Looking at the material in a new way helps you analyze it.
The fourth is it stimulates everyone’s creativity by using pictures and colors, lines of different widths and spaces. Programmers use their special skills and designers and managers use their unique skills.
When you redesign your website, your main goal should be to make it easier for your customers to find information and buy products. This tools makes it easier to achieve success.
Author Bio
About Digital Media Works Digital Media Works, Inc. (www.DigMediaWorks.com) is an Internet marketing and design firm that specializes in solutions for e-commerce companies. A seasoned 25+ year management/marketing professional, founder Stephanie Diamond is experienced in building profits in a broad range of product and services businesses. She created a highly successful line of multimedia software products that sold millions of copies for America Online.
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