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.

Why I Switched to Squarespace

As a busy photographer, my days are often filled with shooting, editing, and client communication. I need to know that my website is working properly, and is capable of being viewed on any computer, or device. When I started the site in 2003, I used a program called Dreamweaver. Although this was quite effective, there were a few downsides. First, was a lack of mobility. In order to make a change, I needed to be at my desktop computer running the software. Simple design changes would be very time consuming, and required a solid understanding of some of the program's complexities. In addition, a great deal of browser compatibility testing was needed. What worked in Firefox did not necessarily work in Internet Explorer or Safari. Considering how many different browsers are used, this was a daunting task.

I began to search for a solution with a web based interface. Ideally, this would be as easy as updating a blog. Just log in from any computer in the world, upload the image, add your photos and text, and you're done. Of course I still wanted the ability to quickly customize the design, and be confident that it would work on any computer, browser, and mobile device. Sounds simple right? Well, it should be, but there are many web based solutions out there. Each one has pros and cons. Over the course of a few months I carefully researched several options before making my ultimate decision. I believe the information I found will be helpful to those looking to build their own website.

Several photographers I respect use Livebooks, so I started my research there. All of their websites use Flash technology which most people either love or hate. It has a sophisticated look to it, but can be terribly slow to load. Also, it does not work very well on mobile phones. I tried visiting many of their sites from my iPhone and received a generic message that said "To view the Flash version of this website you must be using a Java script enabled browser, and a Flash plug-in." While there is a link to view the html version of the site, it appears to be a watered down version of the original design. With so many people surfing the net on smart phones, I find this to be a major issue. After giving Livebooks a "one time fee" of $3199.00 for a customized site, plus $90 a year for hosting, there's a chance that many people will not be able to access the site due to the limitations of Flash. Livebooks also offers basic predesigned sites for a one time fee of $1199.00 plus an annual $90 hosting fee. You are charged extra for any "add-on" features.

Next I checked out NeonSky. They also have Flash websites, but they seem to work much better on iPhones as mobile visitors are automatically routed to an HTML version of your site. Their package is a $350 one time fee, and $45 per month for hosting. Although this is priced very competitively, they currently only have two main navigation styles to choose from. You can modify many aspects of these two styles, but if you want to add more customization like a splash page or contact form, you have to pay a design cost of $125 per hour.

Clickbooqs runs $499 per year plus a $99 annual hosting fee. They also have an option to make a one time payment of $1699, plus the annual hosting fee of $99. Like Livebooks and Neonsky, Clickbooqs is a flash based site and requires users to have a java script enabled browser and a Flash plugin.

After reading many online consumer complaints about Bludomain, I quickly ruled them out. I also discovered that you can not add caption info with Bludomain. This essentially makes their services useless for Photojournalists. They seem to be catering more to wedding photographers who want music on their homepage.

I looked into BigFolio and their plan for a one time set up fee of $450 and a monthly hosting charge of $20. They have some really nice, simple templates that allow some modifications. Further customization is done by emailing them for a price quote. Unlike any of the options above, Big Folio offers a "small folio" add-on for people who are browsing with an iPhone or iPod touch. It is an extra $49 fee to set this up.

Finally, I came across Squarespace through a colleague who was satisfied with their services. Adding photos, video and text can be done very quickly from any computer with Internet access. There is no set up fee and the monthly plans range from $8 a month and up. They are not Flash based sites so everything loads rather quickly. Mobile visitors are able to experience your true website's design and functionality.

Then came the game changing announcement. Squarespace launched an App that gives users full control over their site or blog using an iPhone. You can post, edit, see your referring links, incoming traffic, and subscribers. You can even insert images stored on the phone. It also features one touch sync capability with your desktop computer. You can start a post on the road, and finish it at home. This App is free for all Squarespace users.

Squarespace also offers an excellent blog importing tool. This enables you to import all content from your old blogger or wordpress blog directly into a new Squarespace blog. I had 450 posts in blogger, and they transferred over without a hitch. This benefits my site's SEO as all of the blog content now falls under my domain name, rather than some third party blog host. No other website service offers this streamlined feature.

The design and customization of your site is virtually unlimited. You start by choosing one of many templates and modify it however you want. While this does take a little getting used to, the system is very user friendly and requires no HTML or coding experience. Since switching to Squarespace, the number of new clients I've attracted through the site has increased significantly. Best of all, it saves time and allows me to focus on photography and business. Whenever I've had questions, their customer support was very responsive. They are even on twitter, listening in real time should you need their assistance. Site uptime has been great with no noticeable slow downs or bottlenecking. For me Squarespace provides a next generation web solution that is both affordable and attractive. They are offering cutting edge features that no other web hosting company compares to. With a user friendly web based interface, SEO benefits, and real time traffic analysis, I believe Squarespace has quietly positioned themselves as a leader in web and blog publishing.

Chris Corradino is a professional photographer based in New York City. His photography, instructional videos, and informative articles can all be seen at http://www.christography.com

Eight Important Factors For Quality Cheap Web Hosting Plans From Reliable Providers

As all of us looking for affordable prices and sales everywhere, same can be said on the affordable web hosting companies offering the same features with slight differences here and there. In this article, we are looking at these differences.

For me as an end user; I think of the price besides reasonable quality of services and comparing among the features that are required as well as the additional features that can make my website easy to use when selecting an affordable web hosting company.

These are some factors; that should be considering when choosing an affordable web hosting company:

o Customer service and support: it is so important to have 24/7 assistance like email, online-chat and toll-free-phone service is essential to ensure the help when the customer need; because some of the low-cost web hosting saves cost by offering a very limited support where sometimes your website is down and you need support; and you can find nobody to help.

o Bandwidth: is so important to put it into consideration in choosing affordable web hosting; like if you have blogs, forums or many hits on your site; your need is unlimited bandwidth to avoid page load errors, slow loading pages or links on your site.

o Servers: check the servers, maintenance and number of users on each server by reviewing FAQ tab on this cheap affordable web-hosting web site.

o Domains: make sure the cheap web hosting providers a multiple domains which are good to provide links and back links to blogs, forums and other types of traffic.

o Cpanel: good advantage to have (cpanel) with the affordable web-hosting package; do you know what is a (cpanel)? It is a unix based web-hosting control panel that provides a graphical interface and automation to simplify the process of hosting a web site; which will make it easy to get your site online and manage it after it is up.

o Templates: For the beginner who use website; affordable web hosting services can be great if they have many different pre-set templates to design the website, by using very simple types of programs that are based on standard templates like the ones on a laptops or personal computers.

o Security: to those who sell items online it is very important to have a secure web site for you and your customers to be protected against fraud; because the website based on e-commerce programs protect both the domain as well as the customer. Using these types of programs from affordable web hosting companies mean that the setup is easy and secure and does not require a web developer to manage your site.

o Company Credibility: Reading the company brochure is obviously good thing to find out how many years of experience these companies have with no bankruptcy or debit history besides where these companies located.

Finally, from my point of view, if you want to choose not pricey web hosting company; look at affordable web host that has been in business for years and has a good reputation with quality of services by reading different forums and the features they offer comparing to the price they charge. Make sure you choose the affordable web hosting that meet all your requirements.

Jim Fonda advise you to visit VEXXHOST.COM for a reliable cheap web hosting plans with professional technical support and high quality hosting.

Host Gator Website Hosting Review

Host Gator started their business in 2002 hosting shared platforms. Over time the company grew up to be one of the most reputable and reliable web hosts out there.

The company keep winning many awards due to their honest nature of business, excellent customer service, and quality services for fair prices.

Most recently the Host Gator went green to support the environment. This makes them one of the, if not the only hosting corporation to go green for the first time in the industry.

Host Gator offers three different hosting types. 1. Shared Hosting, 2. Dedicated Server Hosting, 3. Reseller Options. Let me give you an idea of what each one means.

Shared Hosting is your basic hosting option. If you are starting up a website or don't have too much website traffic coming your way, a shared plan is more than enough.

With a Dedicated Server, you get your own server simple as that. If you are at the stage where your website is reaching traffic levels excess of couple of Million Pages Views a month or week, then Dedicated Hosting is your only option.

More on Dedicated Hosting, a Shared Hosting Account will never be able to handle the stress and network traffic on such a site. Your website will simply crash due to overload of network bandwidth. Make sure to switch to a Dedicated Server before you lose your customers for high traffic sites.

Finally, Reseller option is for anyone interested in running their own web hosting company like Host Gator. Basically you rent servers from Host gator, and they provide you with customer and tech support. All you do is create new customer accounts. You can name your own prices and keep all the profits.

From day one, the hosting was rock steady. When they say 99.9 up-time, they really mean it. All our sites are constantly monitor through third party services, and never once we had a problem with a site being down for longer periods.

We tried other hosting firms before the switch. Host Gator offers the best features and services for what you are paying with an unbelievable up-time and armed with a friendly and knowledgeable technical support team.

If you are serious about your web host, you can never go wrong with Host Gator. Be sure to use the coupon codes provided here while they last.

Click here [http://www.myfavpicks.com/host-gator-coupons] or go to myfavpicks.com/host-gator-coupons/ Use these coupons to get 20% off and Make Your first month is only $0.1 for hosting.

Project Web Design - http://www.projectwebdesign.com Website Design Tips (Development Methods/SEO and SEM Advice), Latest Tech News, and Product Reviews.