Help Me Make A Difference

In 1991, I decided that I had enough. I decided to take back the control of my life when I separated from my husband. With two children and mounting debts, this decision was made with much fear and concern about my financial well-being. The relationship had been plagued off and on with bouts of Domestic Violence. For a year I often pondered to myself, "why did I stay so long"? During the two years after my separation, I spent a great amount of time reflecting on the choices that led up to the relationship and my experiences of Domestic Violence. I came to recognize that each moment I failed to honor my personal truths, I chose to compromise what I "felt" to be in my best interest for the sake of staying in the relationship. Each of these moments were a reflection of what I was beginning to believe about myself and what was possible in my life.

For a period of several years, despite the fact that I was in my early 20's, I had already began to think that their was no hope for me ever accomplishing any of the dreams and goals that I had prior to becoming a teenage mother. So I began to believe "his lie" when he said, "no one else would ever want you or love you because I had a kid". This lie began a series of lies that I began to believe and accept as "my truth".

My plans to complete college was derailed by my second pregnancy and so I accepted the reality that my first responsibility would have to be towards my children and that somehow I would have to do what I had to do until I could do better. But God. Their seemed to be a revolving door in our relationship where I would leave and then come back to him. This went on for years. Finally after hearing God's word spoken with an authority and in power I had never witnessed before in my life, my attitude about my life and my approach began to be transformed. So I decided to leave him. This time I thought for good. But instead, after getting back up on my feet with a new job at Marriott Hotels and a new apartment, I decided to give him another chance, hoping that somehow we could make it work for the sake of our children. We eventually got married. That was a mistake.

Fortunately for me, the foundation of God's word that I was receiving began to develop and fan an inner strength I had never experienced in my life. Despite my rocky marriage, God's word began to enlarge a bigger vision of my life then I had believed to be possible. After a transfer to Marriott's Courtyard division, I began to pursue and acquire management and leadership positions. I felt an overwhelming unction in my spirit to position myself to be as financially independent as possible.

The training and development of my leadership skills with the Courtyard division enabled me to tap into unrecognized potential. As my confidence in my professional abilities grew so did my self-confidence in my ability to lead my life with or without a man. During this time, I will admit, I was no saint. For that reason, I wanted to make sure that the marriage could not be saved before I would make a decision that would alter the lives of three other people.

When we had a physical altercation at the beginning of 1991, I knew that in that particular moment, my decision to leave my marriage had been sealed. I knew that I did not deserve to suffer physical abuse, nor did I believe any longer that I was damaged goods because of having children out of wedlock in my teens. I was fortunate that the support and encouragement from bosses and a few co-workers reinforced the new vision I held about myself and my life. He wouldn't leave the home we were renting, so I began to make plans to move and start over again. My son, Blease decided to live with his father. My daughter Dee and I moved to an apartment.

It took a few years for me to rebuild a strong sense of trust in my decisions related to relationships. The damage inflicted on my self-esteem and sense of self-worth was subtle. Today, my sense of self-worth dictates what I accept in any relationship. After my period of introspection, I came to the awareness that I taught my husband how to treat me by accepting and tolerating behavior that violated my personal truths and beliefs. I have sense then established a zero tolerance for any indicator that someone may use any of the forms of Domestic Violence in a personal relationship.

My first hand experience with Domestic Violence gives me the understanding that each situation is different and that the question, "Why did you stay"? is often a fully loaded question with as many diverse answers as is the diversity of individuals who suffer the damaging affects of Domestic Violence. Domestic Violence strips an individual of their self-esteem, self-worth and self-confidence. It is protected through silence. Yet, it is a destructive force that steals, kills and destroys hopes, dreams and human potential. If it had not been for the grace of God and the support network of many co-workers, I'm not sure if I would have had the courage to leave for good when I did. Many times after I moved, I wondered if I should reconsider my decision just because it would have made it easier for my children and I wouldn't have had to face my fears that I would never pay off the debt I owed.

I had to concentrate my energies towards redefining and rebuilding my life based on a new and revised script. My new script has continued to evolve and inspire me to make the most of my life, now. My company, The SaySo Group is the host of The Power of You! Empowerment Workshop for Women series being held in Columbia, SC from October 2010 through April 2011. We have designated SisterCare, a United Way agency, as our community partner. SisterCare provides support services and resources to battered women and children in Richland county and several other counties. We will donate ten percent of our ticket sales of all "live" workshop events held in the Columbia and surrounding areas to SisterCare.

For additional information, visit http://thepowerofyouwfw.eventbrite.com.

Jackie Capers-Brown has 20+ years of award winning management and leadership experience with Marriott Hotels, Pizza Hut and Burger King restaurant operations. She is the owner and CEO of The SaySo Group, a personal and professional development company located in Columbia, SC. Her company's website is thesaysogroup.webs.com. She is the author of four books available at lulu.com. She is the Host of The Power of You! Empowerment Workshops for Women scheduled from October 2010 though April 2011. Ten percent of the ticket sales from these workshops will be donated to SisterCare, a United Way agency, located in Columbia, SC.

Choosing the Best Email Hosting for Your Business

Email hosting may not seem like a big deal to you, considering
all of things to think about when launching a new internet
business, but trust me when I tell you that problems with email
is one of the most frustrating things you'll ever deal with in an
internet-based business.

In an internet-based business, the majority (if not all) of your
communications with customers are conducted via email.

Sure, some internet-based businesses have phone service and offer
their phone numbers to customers and potential customers for the
purpose of asking questions, calling in orders or obtaining
support.

But, the online customer is more apt to contact an internet-based
business via email or through the use of contact forms provided
on the business's website.

Notification of communications submitted through online contact
forms or order forms are also generally presented to the business
in the form of email.

As you can see, the very nature of an internet-based business
makes it highly dependent on email, not only as a medium for
communications, but also for operations.

Email difficulties or downtime can literally shut an internet-
based business down causing lost sales and poor customer service.
Lost revenues and customer dissatisfaction are the results, not
to mention the aggravation and resulting frustration.

Looking at things from that realistic angle, you can see that
email hosting is a business function that not only deserves, but
demands your attention.

So, you're probably asking, "What are the aspects of email
hosting that need my attention?"

In most cases, you won't choose an email host independent of your
web host because most businesses do (and should) use email
addresses that contain their domain name.

You can have an email host that is separate from your web host,
but there is really no reason for it since the hosting of email
is generally a feature of web hosting packages.

I definitely do not recommend using free email services for your
business communications. YourCompanyName@hotmail.com - seriously,
how professional is that?

When you use the email options that are part of your web hosting
plan, your domain name will be part of your email address which
will present a much more professional image.

Other advantages of using professional versus free email hosting
services are enhanced options and fewer limitations.

When choosing a web host, you should be concerned with the
hosting company's secure server capabilities, the speed of their
servers, the space you are allowed on the server, and the access
alternatives they provide.

Access to server logs and reports is important as is the
availability of certain scripts and software. You also want to
make sure that your web host has been in business for awhile, is
well established and is reliable.

A good web host or email host should be able to guaranty at least
99% uptime since downtime can be a serious hindrance to your
internet-based business.

The web host's backup procedures are also of importance as is
their technical support services.

In regard to email features that accompany your website hosting
package, full email services should be provided.

Email services should include unlimited email aliases, the
ability to set up auto-responders, and web-based access and
administration features.

If you exchange files via email, it is important that there are
no restrictions on the size or type of files that you can
exchange. And of course, reliability is crucial as is immediate
access to technical support when you need it.

Email hosting that uses IMAP technology is a fairly new and
highly desirable solution for your business's email needs.

Historically, POP (Post Office Protocol) has been common for
receiving email with SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) being
used for sending email.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is a nice alternative to
POP for receiving email.

With POP mailboxes, when you retrieve your email from your server
through an email program such as Outlook or Outlook Express, the
messages are generally removed from the server when they are
transferred to your personal computer.

This can be a problem if you use more than one computer, a
desktop and a laptop for instance. With IMAP mail receiving
capabilities, your message are archived on the IMAP server and
you can access and view your messages using a client program
without removing the messages from the server.

Copyright Christopher J. Enders. Are you at the end of your rope, fed up and confused by all the scrambled internet marketing advice you're getting? Whether you are new to internet marketing, or a website owner who wants to make more money from your website, learn the proven strategies that will sky-rocket your internet business at [http://Duplicatable-Wealth.com].

The Best Hosting Solution for Media Sites

With adverse advancement in the Internet technology and the popularity of usage of streaming video and music, media sites have witnessed equal recognition in the market today. This social preference of people has significantly opened doors for a more interactive, yet media-rich internet. All websites nearly contain at least one video embedded on either of their web pages. Quality media can always attract more traffic to your website. While some sites have more of multimedia content, they need special hosting requirements for their smooth functioning. Factors like server storage space, bandwidth, and customer support service and reliability should be given utmost importance to decide on the best hosting solution when considering hosting media sites.

Server storage space is a very critical aspect for the storage of large sized video and audio files, as compared to a simple HTML page with no video or audio files. This further means you would need a bigger, powerful server, like a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or Dedicated Server. When your site looms towards storage limitations, you experience problems like frequent downtimes and slower page loads.

Besides server space, bandwidth is equally important as it determines the amount of data that can be sent and received simultaneously. When there are several of hundreds of people watching videos on your website at a single point of time, it would be easier to check the performance of your server. VPS and Dedicated Servers are the best options available in the market for a better bandwidth, out of which Dedicated Servers are most frequently used amongst corporations worldwide and are also recognised as the apex of web hosting accounts.

Support coupled with Reliability are two key factors again for choosing the best hosting solution for media sites, without which sites are bound to suffer from frequent downtimes and with no logical explanation. With thousands of regular visitors on your multimedia site minus customer support service, you would earn a bad repute for your site and loss of business. A competent support staff would also guide you through the procedure of running your website smoothly in case of emergency situations.

If you suddenly start getting huge traffic to media based websites you need to ensure that the space and bandwidth requirements are scaled up and the server is able to handle all the resources. The final suggestion would always be that you should try to get a hosting account with a company which offers you with 100% uptime and the site is loaded on multiple servers for resource sharing.

Amit Bhawani is a Professional Full Time Tech Blogger who offers Web Hosting advices along with different tips for Best UK Hosting which are useful to consumers before they buy them.

Web Hosting With Cpanel

I have used different types of web hosting control panel since I started online and the one that really caught my attention is web hosting with cpanel.

cPanel is the number one used control panel in the world as it is feature rich and user friendly. Personally, I am using web hosting with cpanel control by Hostgator. The reason why I am a cpanel lover is because it is the only control panel that can gives me a full view of all the statistics for my web hosting account.

Below are the benefits of web hosting with cpanel:

Benefit of Web Hosting With Cpanel #1) It has a stats sidebar that list you everything from your domain name, disk space usage, monthly bandwidth transfer, email accounts, sub domains, parked domains, SQL database and many more. It gives you a complete view of your whole hosting account without the need to click here and there to view some stats.

Benefit of Web Hosting With Cpanel #2) My Cpanel web hosting with Hostgator has the Fantastico Deluxe feature that allows me to install up to 52+ FREE scripts instantly and easily with a click of a button. With a click of the mouse, you can instantly install a script without any programming knowledge.

Benefit of Web Hosting With Cpanel #3) Cpanel also allows the users to switch the interface of the control panel to suit their preference. Therefore it gives you an option to switch to a interface that you find the most easiest to use.

Benefit of Web Hosting With Cpanel #4) As most internet marketers are using web hosting with cpanel, therefore most of the scripts or softwares are demonstrated with cpanel instead of other control panels. Therefore you will find it easier to install those software to your website as you are using the same cpanel control panel as them.

Personally, I will only use web hosting with cpanel as it is the most user friendly control panel I have used so far.

Want to learn more about the benefits of Web Hosting With Cpanel and how it can help you in growing your affiliate marketing business, Read the Complete Web Hosting With Cpanel Review here

Shockingly Good Support From a Hosting Company - Worth Shouting About

In 1998 I started a small (miserably so) online business and had my first experience with selecting a hosting company. Back then it was really no big deal because mine was way too small a business to have many hosting needs and in those early times there was less competition amongst hosting companies. About all I was concerned about was having adequate storage space. Traffic wasn't even an issue. Still, I ran into unexpected difficulties and soon learned that even very small businesses have to be concerned with more than just disk space. Support was the detail I hadn't considered.

That first experience soured me somewhat because I learned that it can be like pulling teeth to get support from a company that doesn't take this aspect of business seriously. The company I first hosted with turned out to be located in someone's home -- a fact that was never divulged in the advertising. The man was nice enough, and he tried very hard to accommodate me as long as my support questions came about on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., his time. Even then, he did not impress me with his level of expertise.

I have since been through no less than six moves, and until this last one, not one of them were easy to tolerate. If I remember correctly, the second hosting company I tried had a penchant for going offline way too many times, and attempts to get support were frustrating. An eCommerce site cannot afford to be available to customers only on occasion. By this time my business had grown somewhat and I had become very sensitive to this aspect. It was a sour experience and I remained with the company for less than a year.

Next came a well publicized hosting company that had received some good reviews -- though I'm still a little suspicious of so-called reviews one finds online -- and while the initial move went well, I had ongoing problems with connectivity and, again, a horrible time getting support. For one thing, there was no phone support at all. Everything had to submitted via a support ticket. This is fairly common, I've found, and there is nothing inherently wrong with support tickets, unless they are slow to be addressed and there is no alternative route to Support. Also, there was a most obvious language barrier which led me to believe "Support" was located off-shore. I am certainly not racist, but I believe it is mandatory that both parties are able to understand each other for anything constructive to happen. It was ugly.

The next experience was awful, more so than any other, because after a few months of reasonably adequate hosting the company I had moved to simply went out of business, with absolutely no prior warning. This was so bad word spread throughout the Internet and it became a well known debacle.

Skip to my most recent forced move. The host company I have been with for the last three years, I will say, has been a good host. It shall go un-named because I have no malice toward it. I had to move because, as an eCommerce site, I am compelled to show that I am PCI compliant in order to continue accepting credit cards via the Internet. This fairly new security measure is one I applaud, as it goes a long way to giving the buying public the kind of hard and fast security that has been lacking up to now, but because my hosting company was either unable or unwilling to provide a PCI compliant environment I was forced to find a new host. I imagine there are thousands of businesses scrambling to find hosting companies that will meet this need, which is one of the reasons I decided to write this article.

I found TVCnet.com as a result of being referred to them by McAfee Secure, a well known company that provides online businesses with security scanning and certification. They told me TVCnet.com was one of the very few hosting companies they felt comfortable recommending. When I looked at the available packages this hosting firm offers, I have to say I was not blown away. The packages are fairly small, but the pricing is also very affordable. The BIG plus was that they obviously put themselves forward as the leader in striving to be, and stay, PCI compliant for the sake of all their eCommerce customers. I decided to give them a try. My expectations were low until I called the phone number on the TVCnet.com home page . . . and got the owner!

Not only did Jim Walker answer my questions, he did so with candor, amicability and enthusiasm. He did not over sell. In fact he went out of his way to make sure I knew exactly what the company could do and what not to expect. There was precious little of the latter. I didn't keep him on the phone, he kept me on. For over twenty minutes he spoke with me and would not hang up until he knew every one of my questions and concerns had been answered. Result was that I signed up an hour later, via the online process. Still . . . I knew not to expect an easy transition. There was a shopping cart that had to work, a Linkpoint gateway that had to work, and several other site functions, including installation of my privately owned SSL cert, that had to go well. I crossed my fingers and waited, while Jim and his support team handed everything. I didn't have to upload a single file. My entire site was moved from the current host to TVC and every script and application was handled with care and concern.

Yes, there were problems. My payment gateway to Linkpoint refused to install properly and I fully expected this to take days to fix. But Jim, himself, stayed at it on into the weekend without interruption until it was done and working flawlessly. We exchanged dozens of emails (less expensive than phone time and email affords a record of the process that can be saved), and all I had to do was provide him with access information to various sources where he knew he could find the information he needed.

Jim does not know I'm writing this article. I am doing this because, quite simply, I am blown away by the seriously impressive support -- no, let's make that Support with a capitol 'S' -- that TVCnet.com provided to me. Others need to know about this company. Hopefully, this article will make the road less bumpy for others who are compelled to find PCI compliant hosting, and for anyone with any sort of web site who would like to be hosted by an intelligent, helpful and friendly company.

George Robertson, licensed certified Professional Locksmith since 1983.
**********
http://www.LockPickersMall.com

Be sure to visit my web site for best quality and best prices on professional locksmith tools, special lock picking training aids, and complete lock picking starter kits! LockPickersMall specializes in helping the beginner and the hobbyist.

The Importance Of Good Hosting

If you are the owner of a domain you might been in the same situation as me. I remember when I registered my first domain online, I checked every hosting I could find to compare prices and their service. I was all new to this and did not know too much about what was important to get started.

After a couple of days I was ready to sign up with a hosting, and so I did. That domain was just left unused for a year, and then I wanted to change my hosting. That was not easy to do, and now I am very happy that I did not register more domains there.

I registered more domains at a host that does not support WordPress, but I do not need it there so it does not matter at all.

What bothers me now is the first domain that I registered to make a blog. The first problem was a few months back when I wanted to register add on domains. They wanted to charge me for hosting them, something I can get for free most other places. That made me open a new account at another hosting company.

Now I am about to sell my first blog, and what happens then? Problems again. I have tried the live support that tells me to contact someone else, and I have submitted a ticket to reseller but they can not answer my questions. Then I tried to send my email to billing, but they have 48 hours before they respond. That means 2 days for every mail.

What I am sure of now is that I was stupid and picked the wrong company for my hosting. I have 3 buyers that are ready to negotiate price, but in the worst case it will take weeks to get the answers needed from the billing department. That really is a bad feeling. I just hope my buyers will have the patience to wait.

When I signed up for my account and the domain I never planned to sell, and because of that I never considered that the situation could occur at all. Now I am in the situation and regret that I did not plan better.

I have sold a few other domains without any trouble at all with other hosting companies. What I do know now is that it is really important to pick the right hosting to avoid situations like this in the future.

I do not want to mention the name of the bad hosting, but I can say that it is not one of the big companies that is recommended by most people online.

http://knutofstbo.com
(c) Knut Ofstbo

What Are the Steps to Host a Website?

So you're ready to build your website and have been researching the steps. The information available online can so be conflicting and confusing that it leads you to just throw your hands up in the air and exclaim "Will someone just tell me - What are the steps to host a website?" Let's break it down into simplest terms. Here's how you get a website on the internet:

Step 1 - Choose a domain name. You need to make sure the domain name you choose is available. How to do that is to go to either a domain name provider OR a hosting company that also provides domain names. Bluehost is an example of a company where you buy both the domain name and the hosting. So in the second case you would direct your browser to the hosting company of your choice and then do a search for the domain name you would like to register and host.

Step 2 - Choose your website software or program. Now before you go off and buy hosting for your website you need to make a decision on how you are going to build it. You can use website builders, website software (like Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expressions), blogging software or other types of software programs that allow you to create a website. If you have no idea it's time to do some further research.

Here are some guidelines for the type of site that may suit your needs:

Website Builders - Website builders generally come with hosting built in. They typically also come with a number of templates you can choose and then edit fairly easily. This is a possible choice for someone who doesn't need a lot of flexibility and won't be doing a whole lot with their website.

Website Software - Website designers are usually the ones who use this type of software. Programs such as Dreamweaver and Microsoft Expressions require an investment in the hundreds of dollars and the learning curve is usually large. Not a good choice unless you know for sure this is the program you would like to use to build your website.

Blogging Software - Wordpress is an open source software program that allows you to set up a blog. But that's not where it ends. You can also use this program to build websites. There are many advantages to using this type of program to build a website, a few being the ability to interact with your readers, allow them to get automatic updates, easier search engine optimization and more.

Step 3 - You need a place for your website to exist, this is your hosting. Think of it like having property to build your house on. Without it, you couldn't lay a brick. Choosing your hosting will depend largely on the type of site you'd like to build and what program or software you will use to build it.

When you choose a host, it's a good idea to go with one that has cPanel. cPanel is a hosting interface that is very user friendly and makes is easy for you to do things that are important to your overall online business success. cPanel makes it easy to do things like checking your website stats, setting or forwarding email addresses, creating redirects, installing a blog with a few clicks and more.

The important thing to remember about setting up a website is that there are many ways to achieve this result. What you need to do is consider what will make the most sense for you.

If you need any help getting started, have a look at the services we provide to help small business owners create a website using WordPress

Benefits of Hosting Your Own Blog

Q. There are several big, well established blogging platforms that let you set up and operate a blog for free. Why, then, would you want to host your own?

A: Better SEO, total control, more traffic and more sales - although those reasons won't apply if you're not blogging for business!

When I started out blogging I opened a blogger.com account. That worked fine for me at the time because I was new to blogging. I was such a newbie that I didn't even realise it was possible to host my own blog.

Even if I had realised that, it's not something I would have given a moment's thought to. I was too new to working online. I was (still am) totally non-techie and it would have been too daunting a task.

So I happily blogged away on my blogger account until I logged on one day to find that Google had translated all the admin pages into Chinese. I live in Hong Kong so Google, thinking they were being smart, used my IP address as the basis on which to make the decision to translate it.

Not being able to find the help link (because I can't read Chinese) I logged into my Google account (Adwords, Gmail, etc,) to raise a request for them to translate my blog back to English.

After a week nothing had happened. I hadn't received a reply, I still couldn't read my admin screens, and I was seriously frustrated that Google should unilaterally decide to translate my blog, so I kissed the big G goodbye and shifted my blog over to Wordpress.com.

By this time I had learned enough about blogging to have heard that Wordpress was the place to be. So I imported all my old Blogger posts and started to learn Wordpress. Given what I'd heard I was looking forward to great things.

One thing I noticed immediately was that my posts were suddenly figuring much more quickly in the natural search results, so it looked as though at least some of what I'd heard was correct.

And I happily blogged away until...

...one day I tried to log on to be met with a notice telling me my blog had been suspended for infringing Wordpress' terms and conditions.

DAMN..!! Twice inside a month I'd been blind-sided by my blogging platform and the second occasion was even more damaging than the first. (It doesn't look too professional when your visitors are told that your blog's been suspended for infringing terms and conditions).

So, finally, I was pushed into the realisation that I had no option but to set up my own blog and host it myself.

So off I clicked to Wordpress.org to see what I could find out. And I was pleasantly surprised.

Firstly - the instructions they've set out for downloading and installing a WP blog are delightfully clear and easy to follow.

There are a few minimum requirements set out, which pretty much every hosting provider meets. You can always check with your provider if you're not sure. Mine does, so I printed off the instructions and got going.

First step is to set up the database. Easy to do - the instructions are very clear, include screen shots for every step of the way and are written in simple, non-techie language.

I then downloaded and unzipped the blog files, entered my newly created database details into the config file, (just followed the instructions), uploaded the files and accessed the installation screen via my browser (the URL is provided in the instructions). That kicked off the installation script and I was all done.

It was, literally, a 5-minute exercise.

However, the majority of hosting providers now give you an even easier method than that:

One click installation.

I've never done a 1-click installation so I can't confirm whether it really is one click or whether a few more are involved - but it's definitely very easy and it doesn't involve any downloading, unzipping and uploading of files.

So what are the benefits of running your own blog on your own server?

You have total control. You can write what you like, you can drive traffic to affiliate programs, no one is going to translate it into Chinese, and no one is going to lose your database.

You can customise it as much as you like. You do this by installing plug-ins - and there are plugins for pretty much anything you would want to do. You decide what you want to do with your blog, then you can either go to the Wordpress plug-in directory or do a Google search for a plug-in for the function you want.

Download the plug-in, unzip it, upload it and activate it through the blog admin screens. It's that simple. Really.

But of all the sexy things you can do with your self-hosted blog, probably the biggest benefit of all comes from the SEO elements.

This really turns your blog into an incredibly effective way of figuring strongly in the natural search results.

Optimising your blog for the search engines is simply a question of installing and activating the appropriate SEO related plug-ins. And you can find probably the best list of these in Jack Humphrey's Authority Blackbook.

If you've gone to the trouble of setting up your own, self-hosted blog then you should absolutely download this book and follow the guidelines in there for optimising it properly for the search engines.

Firstly, it's free and secondly, if you don't set up your blog properly you're wasting an enormous portion of its SEO potential.

It would be like buying a Ferrari but never taking it out of the city centre.

I'm now using my blog as my primary means of drawing in traffic. I haven't (and will not) spend a single penny on promoting it.

And yet my blog is now attracting a little over 50% of the total traffic I'm getting on a weekly basis - that's traffic to my blog plus traffic to all my other sites - and that's almost totally due to the SEO effectiveness of my plugin-rich, self-hosted blog.

Within the next year I'm aiming for that to be well over 80%.

Martin Malden grew up in Zimbabwe and now lives in Hong Kong. He writes a blog covering tips, techniques and resources for small- or home-business owners. For more information check out his blog here: http://www.wealthydragon.com/blog

Best Web Hosting For Beginners - Things You Need to Know

Finding a web hosting service that caters to both beginners as well as seasoned webmasters can help you directly move forward from your beginner stage to the upgraded webmaster level with the same hosting company. Changing from one service provider to another may require you some time to adapt to the new platform and control panel. Hence, it'd be perfect if you can get the best web hosting service right out of the gate. But how?

Best Web Hosting for Beginners is Free?

Hosting your website for free in the beginning sounds like a good deal. But it's a wrong move instead when you're building a website to make money online. Free hosting services come with conditions which users generally don't like:

-- They'll put up sponsored ads on all your web pages to steal your visitors' attention, whether you like it or not. You want them to remove? Upgrade to become their paid user.

-- The customer support will serve the paid users before they come to you. So you should expect sluggish customer response from them.

-- Free hosting services are infamous for their low reliability by virtue of the poor quality servers they purchase because like you, they also want to keep their business cost low. Having your website gone down anytime from few hours to few days is no surprise. Even when you become their paid user, you'll still be hosting your site with the same low-quality server.

-- You get only the basic features to build your website with. It's indeed a web host for beginners, but never good enough for veterans when your experience and skills improve. A best web hosting service should be friendly to the beginners as well as feature-rich for the experienced users to grow their business under the same platform.

There are a lot more disadvantages when hosting your website for free as an Internet beginner. I used a couple of free hosting services before and I knew how terrible their services are even though I upgraded to become their premium member later.

Believe me, free hosting service is definitely not the best web hosting for beginners to start with if you want your small business to get off to a flying start.

The best web hosting for beginners to go with should be the one that doesn't allow for free hosting service. That way the service provider can maintain the quality of their server resources without exposing you to the risk of server crash due to the abusive acts from some free users who run a fly-by-night spamming "business".

That's not all, you'll get all the advanced features pre-installed for your future business expansion and growth, so you don't have to spend hours migrating from one server to another when you need a more powerful hosting platform for your escalating business.

True. Keeping your initial investment cost down is your number one priority. But when it comes to investing in your business, you should never compromise on the quality of web hosting even as an Internet beginner.

Soon Chai Lim invites you to Internet's best web hosting guide that shows you more detailed, proven strategies to find the best reliable web hosting service, which will maximize your website exposure, help your online business generate more website traffic, and increase your online sales and profits, while keeping your operating costs down in the long run. Get more free web hosting tips at DieHardWebHosting.com now, and take your online business from ground to top in the shortest time possible!

Does Your Web Host Help YOU Make Money?

I have been in the Internet/web development/SEO game for a while now. Since 1999 to be exact. Besides trying to make a living I like to consider myself as one of the nice guys in the game.

What do I mean by that?

It means that when someone approaches me with the need to get a website and start an online campaign, I often start by trying to understand their business and/or business model. This way I get to listen also suggest ways to maximise their success online. It's not all about me just sticking certain graphics and logos online in red, yellow,blue,tangerine etc. It's about building a business online. One that works and will work for the persoin sitting in front of me, regardless of the size of their wallet.

Yes I charge for my services but I want to add value more than anything else. That's what makes my business.

Ok, enough about me but why the rant? Well more and more often I am getting clients and potential clienst consulting with me on actual sales and results and some the tools they are missing are the most basic of tools. If only someone had told them, their web developer or web host perhaps.

Case in point, this gentleman who repairs video game consoles and mobile phones (or cell phones) had been in business for over 15 years providing this service. He has literally worked with over 30 000 consoles and phones etc and sold accessories and repair kits in the thousands as well. His requet was for me to help with his Christmas 2010 campaign. So we had a meeting.

Turned out he was missing the following:

- A lead capture service on his website (with thousands visting and requesting repairs he could harvest a big audience or list there). He told me he did not know he could do that! I wanted to meet his web developer or host.

- He had never tried to keep his old clients' emails and database in an organized fashion to stay in touch and have customers on tap for his future campaigns. With over 30 000 interactions if all were in his list surely someone would buy again when he contacted them again, say maybe this Xmas? The only people he had were the few emails that were simply "laying about" but not actively collected. If I had been in his situation I would make my existing customers an army of affiliates and also make them over half my targeted prospects. They WERE already satisfied customers for crying out loud. He told me that after he had hit one or two thousand he got overwhelmed and never tracked them but simply concentrated on his repair work... Which to be fair had to have kept him very busy. Still, the gaming market is huge, you can sell your own products and services and offer other people's products through affiliate and joint venture partnerships. If only someone had told him this before. I wanted to meet his web developer or host.

- He had a Facebook account but never really did anything with it. He has a 14 year old daughter that is very active online and she had made him open one for fun but nothing else. Social media is huge. A few backward people are still refusing to catch on as they feel it is not professional enough. Well I'm sorry but the last person you sold your service to was probably not professional either but you were very happy to sell to them because that's what you do! Guess what? Facebook has half a billion of them and counting, all ready to buy from you. What with the extra super targeting features they have on there? Any business person should sell where the people are - period! I wanted to meet his web developer or host.

I could go on and on about the lack of advice on this particular person's online campaign but he is only one of very many out there. This is mostly because the developer has focused only on his pay check and left it there. This is the old pay for my time routine without the need to pay for results. Don't get me wrong, I charge for my time too but I get excited when I get an opportunity to get involved in an industry I like but never got into, like the gaming industry presents itself. I quickly worked out a deal with this gentlemen above to run his online campaign on partnership basis and we will have a win-win situation in the end.

Well, you guessed it, I wanted to meet his web developer or host!

Remember to ask about getting actual cash from your website itself over and above your main products. Ask your web developer or host, before I do.

REMEMBER: To get top notch Glasgow web design by experts who have done it and know what really works visit http://www.quicksitemaker.co.uk

Portable Kitchen Islands Make Entertaining Easy

People always say my husband and I throw the best barbecues and cocktail parties. They always ask what our secret is, and I never knew what to tell them. Finally, one day I decided to think about it, I mean what is it that makes it so much fun and easy? Then it occurred to me, there are a few secret weapons I use during all of our get-togethers, which not only make it easy for guests to enjoy themselves, but it makes it simple for me to clean up, and host the party too. Here are my secret weapons to throw a great party.

1. Have a go-to menu for all occasions. I use this menu for all of our barbecues, and sometimes I'll add to it, or tweak it just a bit, but for the most part I know what I'm getting every time I prepare for a party. For the most part it consists of some great appetizers, like chips and dip. The dip can vary for occasions, but typically it's a cheese and salsa dip that guests rave about. It's also about a vegetable platter with a sour-cream based dip. Then, onto the main course, you have to have your standard hot dogs and burgers. However, it's important to include, either some great chicken or steak tips, marinated of course, or some vegetable kabobs.

2. Offer the best seats on the house. It's very important to me that my guests (and my family and I) are as comfortable as possible. I take pride in finding the most comfortable chairs available, whether it's barstools, patio chairs, or a couch. I like my guests to sit down and relax, never to sit down and be uncomfortable or fidgety. Having a comfortable sitting area can make a huge difference both in the way you feel at your party and the way guests feel at your party. So make sure to keep comfort in mind when decorating your home.

3. It's all about convenience. I love portable kitchen islands, because they are so incredibly practical! I can use them in the kitchen when I need extra counter space to prepare the food, or I can wheel it out to the patio if I need additional serving space. No mess, no huge piece of furniture to lug around, only convenience! It's like my little helper, that I can wheel around to help me serve, and after the party, it helps me clean up. It makes my life a lot easier, overall.

While hosting a party is often thought of as being stressful and a lot of work, it doesn't have to be. These are just a few tips to throw a great party, without wearing yourself out...So, start enjoying your home with your friends and family, and get cooking!

If you would like more information on portable kitchen islands or kitchen island work tables, please visit the Kitchen Island Shop website.