Included are some tools to help you with your keyword research (an important part of picking a domain name) along with some practical tips for helping you come up with great domain name ideas. Coming up with the ideas is the easy part sometimes. The difficult part lies in making a decision on the best domain name to use.

With that in mind, you’ll also be given some advice on how to make the final decision on the domain name for whatever project you happen to be working on. Even if you’ve picked domain names before, don’t let that stop you from reading as there may be some things you’ve never thought of before. Here’s a quick look at how to pick the best domain name possible.

Know Your Niche
One of the most important steps in picking a domain name is knowing your niche or topic very well. If you’re unsure of what people are typing into search engines to reach content such as you wish to deliver, it is a good idea to start a list of what you think people will type into a search engine to find your content. This list will begin to give you some ideas on what domain name you should go with. Beyond what you personally think they’re going to use to find the content, lies the truth – what they will actually type into the search engine, to find your website.

One way to get this information firsthand is to spend some time on the social networks that cover your niche or topic. From Facebook groups to Myspace groups, the big social networks most likely have groups of people interested in the topic of your website. Browsing their portion of the web can give you an idea of the types of people who are attracted to the topic (your demographics) and also the language they use to talk to each other (special jargon or urban lingo.) All this can give you a heads-up over your competition by giving you ideas on a domain name that will ‘click’ with an audience and make it easy for word of your website to spread.

Beyond the big social networks, spending time on blogs and forums, seeing what people are talking about when it comes to your niche or topic can be a great place to come up with ideas for domain names – possibly even some that are still available. Imagine you happen across a new word or term that quickly becomes popular and you own the domain name for it. Browsing forums and blogs can give you a feel of the pulse in your niche or topic.

Applying all this knowledge to domain names is the tricky part. The ability to know what’s going to be popular and what’s going to fizzle in any one area is a hit or miss thing. The more you entrench yourself in the online realm that surrounds your topic or niche, though, the more you’re going to be able to recognize new trends as they arrive and capitalize on them with strategic domain name purchases.

Knowing your niche or topic inside and out will go a long way in helping you pick the right type of domain name. Once you know what type of domain name you should get, it’s time to start researching the actual keywords and phrases that you’ve jotted down. This next part is important as well, so don’t think about skipping past it and making a quick, rash decision you’ll regret a few months down the road.

Keyword Research
There are tools available online that will help you figure out great new keywords that might be used in your domain name. SEO Book has the Keyword Suggestion Tool that’s really nifty (http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/). It gathers data from a lot of different sources and tables them together, making it easy for you to see similar phrases for just about any keyword.

The Google Adwords Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) is another great free tool to help you come up with keyword ideas for domain names (and other reasons too.) WordTracker (http://www.wordtracker.com/) offers a free trial and a paid subscription service for keyword data. Both companies will show you their estimates of how many people type in a particular keyword or keyword phrase each and every day on average. This data is important because you can use it to make sure you make the best decision possible when you choose a domain name based on keywords.

Generic or Specific?
One thing to consider when researching a domain name is whether you want to go with something that’s generic in a domain name, or something specific that can act as a brand. Sometimes generic term domain names can be hard to acquire, so going with something that’s easily made into a brand might be a better choice.

On the other hand, having a great keyword or keyword phrase in your domain name is going to have an impact on your search engine performance. Different people will argue as to how much of an effect it will have, but there are few who say it has no effect at all.

When it comes down to it, you should really try to stick with what makes more sense for your particular company or website. Sometimes a generic keyword phrase with a .com at the end works better than smithandsonselectricalandplumbingservices.com. That’s an extreme example, but hopefully you’ll see why the generic keyword rich domain name would be a better choice – for a lot of reasons.

You should start to keep a list of possible domain names you want to use for your next project. You shouldn’t be very restrained at this point, jotting down as many domain name ideas as you can. The more raw ideas you have at this stage, the easier the next steps are going to be as you begin to do keyword research to compare phrases and come up with new ideas.

Check Domain Availability
Once you have a short list of possible domain names you’d like, the nest step is to go to a Registrar and see if the domain names you want are even available. A good place to check availability of a domain name is Whois.net.

Network Solutions is another popular place to check domain name availability. Some websites, like DomainTools, give you extra information if a domain name is already taken, which is useful. With DomainTools, you may signup for a free membership which gives you some nice basic tools or one of the paid membership, giving you expanded capabilities for tracking and buying domain names.

Sometimes though, you only want to know if a domain name is available or not. And not only that, but if it’s not available, some suggestions on possible alternatives would be nice. Luckily, there are a lot of websites that offer this functionality.

Check Domain Variations
If the domain name you’re wanting isn’t available, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and start to come up with variations of your favorite domain name idea. Adding words or a prefix or suffix can be an easy way to keep the main phrase you want while still being able to claim a .com domain.
There are other websites out there that make coming up with a similar domain name easy. There are too many to list here, so we’ll only list two that take slightly different approaches to the same problem. If you search around, though, you’re going to find a lot of websites that will help you with keyword variations for domain names.

• Psychicwhois.com offers suggestions for domain names as you type them in, letting you know which ones are taken and which are available.
• Bust a Name is another website that can help with checking domain name availability and offer suggestions at the same time.

A lot of other websites exist that do similar things. Hunt around until you find one that you’re comfortable with. Once you find it, start typing in the names on your top ideas list, jotting down any suggestions that come up that might be better than your original idea.

Ask Real People
You’ll want to be careful with this – only sharing the domain name ideas with people you can trust not to rush out and buy them – but if you have a group of close friends you can trust, asking them to choose one domain name or another can help you decide which is better. It’s hard to get great advice from such a small sampling of people, but this also gives you a chance to talk about the domain name out loud – does it sound ok? Is it easy to pronounce? Talking out loud with other people about your domain name ideas can sometimes help answer these questions without the need for formal market testing.

Own them All
If you can’t make up your mind between one or two domain name ideas, why not buy several of them? You’ll want to make sure there’s only one primary domain used – that the others 301 redirect to the main domain – but having a few domains for occasional type-in traffic isn’t a bad idea. You’ll want to be as above board about this as possible, but branding yourself a little differently online isn’t always a bad thing.

Live and Learn
There are, of course, a lot of other websites and tips and ideas for coming up with the best domain name for a project. Part of the fun of the Internet, though, is finding things out on your own sometimes. Hopefully this guide has “taught you how to fish” rather than simply given you a fish. With the knowledge of fishing for keywords and domain names, you should be able to find tools and come up with ideas that work for you.

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After an hour of arguing about the possible solutions and options available, I realized that I’d found a topic for a new article—if my friend wasn’t sure about the reliability of cloud hosting (that’s what we were really arguing about), I thought there must be other people out there who had questions about it as well.

Cloud computing makes some people nervous because the technology is offered as a web-access application or service which leaves the user unaware of the architecture inside the cloud. For people who are used to seeing how everything works, this can be a little uncomfortable, but I see it as an advantage rather than a disadvantage. After all, if you don’t have to worry about how your server works, you’ll have more time to actually use it, right?

The fact is, cloud computing not only saves time and money, it’s the best way to ensure reliable hosting for your site. There are several service options available to make sure the cloud is always serving your project and doing what you need it to do.

One set of reliability controls involves passive and active backup, in which site content and OS settings are backed up on a pre-determined schedule (passive backup) or on the fly (active backup). Active backup tends to be more expensive, as it requires extra resources to be dedicated for backup processing.

The real value of cloud hosting, in terms of reliability, comes in the form of dashboards which display the status of your cloud nodes, and which your provider’s personnel monitor 24×7. In the event of a node failure, the failover protection system disables the failed node, and all controls are delegated to a backup node. Even in a worst-case scenario, the master-backup delegation is usually complete within a matter of minutes. But since your cloud hosting provider is monitoring node performance at all times, the operators usually become aware of issues before an actual failure, and failover measures can be initiated well in advance—this narrows the minutes down to seconds and all but eliminates disruption for end users.

To sum it up, if you’re concerned about the reliability of your website, I can’t think of a better option than cloud computing. Compared to purchasing backups and failover protection on a dedicated server, cloud hosting is more cost-effective and less disruptive for your clients and for yourself. If you need a little more convincing, let me know, and maybe we can discuss it over a couple of beers.

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Type of Data
The first step to take in determining the amount and type of storage that will be needed is to figure out exactly what kind of data will be stored and how frequently. Even more important is the fact that different departments or functions have varied storage requirements.  Described below are some of the different types of storage that you may wish to consider while analyzing the needs and requirements for storage systems.

Documents Storage – For most businesses, document storage is perhaps the most common type of storage requirement. This type of storage includes text documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and similar types of files. These document file types are usually smaller in size and infrequently accessed for viewing and editing purposes, so may not have specific hardware requirements.

Database Storage – Database storage is another important requirement for any small business. This type of storage would includes data for; financial systems, customer relationship management, email and similar applications. The important characteristic of this type of data storage is the level of frequency at which it is accessed and manipulated. There are a lot of software solutions which use ‘out of box’ database software like MS SQL, MySQL and Oracle which are optimized for maintaining large databases and support a variety of hardware systems. However, there is some software which use proprietary database engines and may have specific hardware requirements.

Media Storage – Media storage includes audio visual data such as video files, music files, and photographs. This type of storage may constitute only a very small percentage of the data storage for most businesses. However, for some specialized businesses, such as  media production companies, this type of storage may be the most critical type of data storage requirement. Due to the nature of this data, each file can command comparatively larger chunks of storage space than other data types

Data Access
It is typical that most companies have a need for all of the above types of storage in varying degrees. However, it is important to identify the balance between the storage requirement and the type of data being stored. Other factors which need to be identified can include how frequently the data will be accessed or modified and the method of access.
Frequency of Access:  Frequency of access addresses how often the stored files will be accessed for modification and manipulation. If the stored media is accessed frequently, it will need to be stored on high speed storage drives, which are usually more expensive. However, if not accessed frequently, then one may get away with storing it on less expensive varieties of media storage.

Method of Access: Another factor which needs to be identified while analyzing the need for small business storage is how the data stored will be accessed. Data will typically be accessed over a local area network or the Internet or on a single storage drive. Therefore, depending on the access method, different types of storage media will be preferred. Once the usage pattern for storage has been identified, there should be a good understanding of storage requirements for the business, as well as the amount of storage space that may be needed to store the data.

Types of Storage
After identifying the requirements of the storage, the next step is to analyze the kind of hardware that would be required for fulfilling the storage needs. Let’s look at the various categories of hardware storage solutions available.
Network Storage: Data stored on a network, be it a local network or over the Internet, is usually accessed or repurposed by multiple people. In order to deliver the stored data to multiple people, the storage device has to have high read-write speed. Without  a high read-write speed, corruption of data or hardware failure may occur. Such advanced speed devices are usually on the more expensive side as they requires a more sophisticated technology to deploy. As of recently, advances in Solid State storage devices has been improving in terms of performance, while  reducing the pricing for network storage.

Local Storage: If the storage is done on a local platform then there will only be a single read /write stream to the data storage device itself. This means that concurrent pressure on the read-write stream will be far less  than what would occur on a network storage device. Less pressure also means that it is possible to have a lower read-write speed, which in turn makes it possible to use less expensive storage devices solutions.

Backup Storage: Backup storage is another critical segment of the storage system that is needed by any company. It is important to keep in mind that no matter what storage device is used, it is never fail proof. For this reason it is important to have storage redundancy. A critical characteristic which differentiates backup storage from active storage is that the frequency of read-write activity on the backup disks is far less than on storage devices with operating systems running on the same system. Hence it is ultimately cheaper and easier to have independent, high capacity storage devices as backup storage devices.

Redundant Array of Independent or Inexpensive Disks (RAID) storage devices are a highly reliable storage and backup solution which replicate the data across multiple disks in real time. Hardware RAID storage devices can be much more expensive than your typical network attached or single disk solutions. However, they do provide superior insurance against data loss occurrences. A common RAID alternative to consider is software RAID.  Since it is beyond the scope of this article to fully discuss this method of storage, please use the following links for more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
http://www.adaptec.com/NR/rdonlyres/14B2FD84-F7A0-4AC5-A07A-214123EA3DD6/0/4423_SW_HWRAID_10.pdf
External/Removable Storage: Removable storage devices can be connected to, and moved among various systems. These devices may include external hard drives, magnetic disks, flash disks, and optical disks, among other devices. With an understanding of various types of removable storage requirements and the solutions available, the exact type of solution required can be determined after analyzinge the specific business needs.

Network Storage: Depending on the number of systems connected to the network or the storage of data on the website, the capacity of the network devices needs to be analyzed. Once this requirement is determined, the number of concurrent read-write operations that may take place needs to be considered. The more concurrent read-write connections exist, the higher the operation speed the device should be.

Storage Requirements

Local Requirements: No matter how advanced the network available to the business systems is, every network has a requirement for local storage, which includes  the operating system, the software running on the local machine, and  the network software. Since a large number of people are not expected to have concurrent read-write operations on the systems, it is possible to use have a lower speed device for this purpose. However, the local device should still have enough capacity to run the operating system and store the required data locally.

Backup Requirements: The storage capacity of the backup devices needs to be analyzed in connection with company IT policies concerning how often and how much data backup is regularly required.  Since the backup devices are not required to be under the constant stress of a read-write stream, it is possible to utilize a device with high capacity and lower operation speed.

External/Removable Requirements: Depending on the need for data mobility, regardless of the network, the space needed to store the files may be analyzed and external storage devices can be made available to key personnel who may need the data at any given time. These devices may include optical drives like DVDs and CDs, or external hard disks with high storage capacity.

How to Avoid Common Storage Pitfalls
Perform Regular Backups: No matter what storage device is used, there is always a possibility of storage device failure. Storage devices can suffer physical damage or may be impacted by electro magnetic fields, as well as other situations which may result in data loss. Because of this it is imperative to ensure that regular backups of all company data is routinely performed.

De-Fragment Regularly: If the device can be defragmented, such as a hard disk or a flash device, then regular defragmentation of the storage device can help with better conservation of the space, increasing the operation efficiency, and reducing overall wear & tear of the storage device. Defragmentation of the storage devices can consume a great deal of time if it is not done regularly. The overall increase in the efficiency of the device and potential for more usable drive space makes this time well spent.

Enforce Redundancy: With the prices of storage hardware lower than they’ve ever been, it is relatively easy to have a data redundancy (backup) system in place. There can be backup on a local level or it may be an option to have it located offsite. Many companies with a requirement for high data security choose to have offsite backup located in multiple locations.

Formal Data Policies: All companies should have formal data policies which define what roles and permissions  each level of personnel may have with regards to data access. It is also important to include within the policies how the data should be accessed, manipulated or transported.

Data Security: Data security is an extremely important consideration – not only with regard to physical security, but also security from hackers, espionage and accidental losses. As part of a good security system, all sensitive data that could damage or be used against the company should be encrypted and access to it strictly controlled. Audits of security procedures by accredited third parties is highly recommended for situations where the data security is highly critical; such as product formulas, proprietary processes, R & D results, etc.

In today’s world of networking, Internet based computing and telecommuting, the preservation and security of data is key to the prosperity and survival of a company. The risk of of losing that data, or losing control of it, could very well cripple an organization. Therefore taking proper steps to preserve and secure it are crucial for the maintainance, growth, and success of any type of business regardless of size.

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While having a social networking presence is crucial for Internet business, anyone who is even considering selling products or services on the Internet should have their main web presence on their own domain with a professionally run web hosting plan.  Below are some of the reasons why it is so important to have your own website hosted independently of a social network.

1.  Social Networking is for Networking.  A website that exists on a social network is essentially part of another web site’s content.  While your own web page on a social network is great for social development, when it comes to business, a social presence can be used to assist in business growth, but cannot and should not be relied upon to be the foundation of an online business.  This holds true whether you are writing a blog, or starting or thinking of running any form of web-based business.  As part of a social network, your online identity only exists as a part of that social network.  Therefore, your presence and its offerings are not entirely your own.  This is why it is imperative to have your own domain and website through a web hosting company, if you plan to establish your own online presence or business.

2.  The Website is the Online Professional Image.  Whatever online presence you choose to have, it is always better to host any kind of personal or small business web site with your own domain and use a web hosting company plan.  That is the only way that you will be able to establish a personal brand or get involved in the kind of business branding awareness that is necessary to succeed on the Internet.  Having your own website demonstrates the seriousness of your venture and that you are business savvy.  The professional online business image is essentially your website, and will be how people will perceive you on the web.  This will determine whether or not people choose to pay attention to what you have to say, take you seriously or not, and ultimately do business with you.
On the Internet, your domain name is literally who you are.  On a social networking site, your website is actually on a sub-domain.  This will require, for the most part, that you tell people where your web site is located.  When you have your own  domain, there is a better chance that people could find you through the search engines, especially if the website is setup properly with search engine optimization techniques in place.

3.  Freedom of Expression.  Not only will you have more design flexibility, but the look, structure, layout, and usability is 100% better with your own web hosting plan’s provided software.  By using a web hosting provider rather than a social network for your website, you are not limited by certain functionality and design options.  There is room for expansion with supporting pages for services, products, or various topics you would like to cover if you simply want to provide information.  This is generally not possible at all on a social networking platform.  The possibilities when you own your own domain and host your own site are endless, especially when it comes to site mechanics, style and content.

4.  Web Hosting Companies Offer Special Perks.  Most professional web hosting companies offer perks that are not available on a social networking site.  For example, a money back guarantee is usually in place, which indicates the seriousness with which the company takes its business – and that means your web presence as well.  It is their business to help you with your web presence, whereas, social networks are concerned with building their own social networking business, and not necessarily yours.

There are many other perks you can get with a professional web hosting firm.  As time goes on, you may find that you would like to expand and create sub-businesses, which is possible with web hosting plans, but not social networks.
Most web hosts offer 99.9% network uptime – something that a social network will never guarantee.  In fact, the busier social networks get, the more the chance that the site will go down at peak times or become very slow.  With a professional hosting plan in place, the chance of that is much, much less.  As a small online business owner, downtime means less revenue.

The relationship between you and a social network generally does not include any type of customer satisfaction, because you are using their web space.  Therefore, they are not obligated to provide a professional guarantee of any kind.

5.  Domains and Hosting are Inexpensive.  Despite what some people may believe, web hosting plans have become very affordable.  Domains may be purchased for under $10 per year from many domain registrars.  The less expensive hosting plans run from as little as $5-$10 a month.  The more serious online entrepreneurs can usually afford mid-level hosting for larger enterprise-level sites.

6.  Online Business Development is Easier.  You can link from your web site to a social network and vice versa, for great social media distribution.  Instead of building content on other sites, you can provide some content for those sites and let it act as a funnel back to your own website.  This will offer more traffic, readers, and influence as well. You can also integrate more social media feeds easily by owning your own domain.

7.  Website Mechanics for Marketing and Tracking.  The mechanics (analytics) of a domain and hosted site will be more easily tractable, and thus have more value and interest than they can ever have on a social network alone.  By having a website hosting company account, you can also have adjustments made for consistently better future results that are based on users’ online behavior.
For example, Google Image Search Traffic will allow you to draw more visitors to your domain site through tagging, titling, and publishing images on posts that may be picked up.  You can also check to see who is linking to your website.  It is possible to find out about valuable marketing info like search queries, and use online services such as Google Webmaster Tools much more easily. These are functions that are often not possible, or very difficult to realize, on a social network site alone.

8.  Your Own Website Allows You to Save the Traffic.  If you should ever decide to switch subdomain names on a social media network, it is nearly impossible to retain the same backlinks, PageRank, search placement and traffic.  However, on your own website, you can redirect the traffic and everything else if you decide to switch a domain with another one, by using what is known as a “301 redirect.”
You can build links much faster for your own web sites than it would ever be possible to do from a social networking site.  Websites with useful content including How-To’s, lists, and resource aggregation can be used for “linkbait” that helps your website to get more backlinks.  This will also help your web site’s search engine placement overall. There are also specific web directories that you can place your website in, to attain even more web traffic.

9.  More Business Marketing Opportunities.  When you own your own domain and have your website hosted by a hosting company, you can republish parts or all of your posts on to 3rd party social networking websites and social media profiles.  This practice will expand your online presence and  can help to funnel visitors back to your site.  The marketing capabilities with your own website, vs. one on a social network are really endless.  There is no comparison of a page on a social networking site to what you can accomplish marketing wise with your own website.
Having your own website also allows you to update content in ways that are simply not possible on a social networking forum.  For example, you can also host a blog that when attached to your website directory, can help with search placement for your overall website. By providing new data regularly, you will be giving the search engines what is necessary to stay on top: fresh content.

10. Create a Turnkey Business.  When you own your own website, you can sell it if it really takes off and you are no longer interested in running it.  This is not possible with a social networking site.  Web pages, when they become popular, have business value.  Advertising can be sold and linking opportunities exist, because high level web traffic is worth something on the Internet.  The web has become a media resource that is every bit as relevant as other media, such as radio and television.  Therefore, popular websites are where advertisers and those who have products and services to sell want to be.

Whether you are an entrepreneur, small business owner, blogger, interested in e-commerce, a reseller, or a service provider – you should have your own website under your own domain.  Social networks are great for link building and expanding business, but social networking pages should link to your own business, rather than serve as any form of online business foundation.  To do otherwise is to miss the opportunity of really establishing your online business.

Having your own web hosting plan allows you to gain influence, demonstrate expertise, promote your business, earn money, sales, connections, and express yourself in ways that it is simply not possible to do through a social network alone.  You will also be ensuring that you will never lose the all important identity of your web presence.
If you are still not convinced, consider that if you only have a web presence on a social network, then you are you working simply to build others’ web content and help grow their businesses.  Web content equates to currency on the web.  If your web page is merely a part of a social network, then your web presence depends upon another website and the operator of that site will have the say as to what, how and for how long that presence exists.  It is much better to increase your own income by selling on your website, instead of raising another entity’s revenue by providing content surrounding their ads.

Basically, why rent when you can own?  Just as in real estate, most anyone would rather own property than rent it, if possible.  When you are on another person’s network, you will always be beholden to their rules and regulations.  What’s more, your web presence is at risk because you do not have control of it, and it could be taken away at any time, so that years of work and content is deleted without your consent.  It is not worth the risk to leave so much to chance, when it comes to your online presence.
In essence, having your own domain and using a hosting company for your online presence is not only smart, but it demonstrates professionalism in the online environment. Professionalism is the order of the day for serious small business owners and entrepreneurs.
To find out more about choosing a web hosting firm, a great resource is Web Hosting Talk As an interactive web hosting forum, it is the largest community online that specializes in the hosting industry.  The forum contains some very useful information about its users’ experiences with web hosting and social networks.

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From Amazon, we will use the Standard, On-Demand Large Instance and the Extra-Large Instance as the basis of comparison. It is configured as such:

• Large Instance: 7.5 GB of memory, 4 EC2 Compute Units (2 virtual cores with 2 EC2 Compute Units each), 850 GB of local instance storage, 64-bit platform – cost $0.34 for Linux and $0.48 per hour for Windows – which translates to $245/mo for Linux and $346/mo for Windows
• Extra Large Instance: 15 GB of memory, 8 EC2 Compute Units (4 virtual cores with 2 EC2 Compute Units each), 1690 GB of local instance storage, 64-bit platform – cost $0.68 for Linux and $0.94 per hour for Windows – which translates to $490/mo for Linux and $677/mo for Windows

Our roughly comparable dedicated servers from SingleHop include the dual-core Intel Core2Duo E8400 and the quad-core Xeon Nehalem E5520

• Intel Core2Duo E8400 3.0 Ghz 6MB Cache; 4 GB (DDR2) RAM, 250 GB (SATA) Drive, 10 TB Monthly Bandwidth (note that the 10 TB is an April 2010 special at SingleHop and not standard): $179/mo
• Intel Xeon E5520 Quad-Core Nehalem 2.26GHz 8MB L3 cache; 12 GB (DDR2) RAM, 1 TB (SATA) Drive, and 10 TB Monthly Bandwidth (note that the 10 TB is an April 2010 special at SingleHop and not standard): $279/mo

Because of RAM configurations, a direct comparison is not entirely possible—SingleHop’s Core2Duo server has only 4 GB of RAM versus Amazon’s Large Instance’s 7.5 GB; similarly, the Xeon has only 12 GB versus Amazon’s Extra-Large Instance’s 15 GB. However, the costs are vastly different as well:

• SingleHop’s Core2Duo server is $66/month cheaper when running Linux and $167/mo cheaper when running Windows;
• SIngleHop’s Xeon E5520 is $211/mo cheaper when running Linux and $398/mo cheaper when running Windows.

Overall, the cloud hosting “pay-as-you-go” setup isn’t useful if you plan to use the services for the full month and utilize all the RAM. In that case, as demonstrated above, the costs clearly make better sense to go with dedicated servers, instead.

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Blog search engine Technorati’s ”State of the Blogosphere 2008” report indicates that more than 1.2 million bloggers have registered with the Technorati website alone. At present there are an estimated 39 million plus blogs in existence, with approximately 75,000 new blogs created daily.

Blog postings generally consist of fairly short essays that include links to relevant information, often with the ability for readers to participate in the comments section. Additional readers can add to existing comments, creating opportunity for a business to interact directly with their end users. This open and personalized dialogue style can create positive visibility and brand presence for any company. Below are just some of the ways in which blogs are being used to augment a business marketing strategy.

Building Online Visibility
It is fairly well understood that ”content is king” on the Internet. It is great content and information which generates the interest of consumers.Blogs that actively work on postive feedback, generate the higher interest among consumers and can typically expect more customer sales. With the ever-increasing proliferation of Internet access and competition websites, a strong online presence fortified by a committed core of followers can give a business the edge needed to prosper.

As observed in Technorati’s ”State of the Blogosphere 2008” study, “In many ways the proliferation of blogging has transformed the venture business — entrepreneurs expect a level of transparency that simply didn’t exist before venture investors started blogging. I can not imagine staying current in this fast moving, high tech world without using blogs and bloggers as a powerful filter of the overwhelming torrent of information we all face.” (David Hornik, August Capital, www.ventureblog.com).

Social Networking and Relationships
Long before the Internet exploded as a mainstay of business marketing, savvy professionals had learned the importance of building satisfied customer relationships. The power of a satisfied customer who tells his story to others is still a very strong tactic for increasing visibility and sales. Likewise, an unsatisfied customer can be equally powerful in changing the perception of a potential new customer. In marketing, this is known as “value attribution” and it has power to influence the reputation of a company or brand.

A blog is an excellent tactic to manage and control the information that is disseminated about a company’s products and services. In addition, blogging can also be an effective tool to use in balancing much of the information that is available about any given company. As an example, specific customer concerns that may have been expressed in an informal blog forum may then be acted upon in a variety of ways by the company. New customer service methods can be devised, products and services may be adjusted, and then those actions can be advertised and promoted for the benefit of the company. This will also serve to provide even greater visibility to attract new customers for the company.

Depending on how popular a product or service is, there may be many people who are already very familiar with that product or service. A blog that discusses popular products and services can be very effective in diverting the attention of potential customers toward your web site as a place to comparison shop or even purchase products and services.

Blogs can also be used to find the kinds of readers who may be more likely to become your customers, by reaching specific demographics. Existing customers could also be encouraged to remain some of your best customers, after you have taken the time to get to know them and have helped resolve an issue or provided useful information to them.

For example, by engaging readers with a comment or feedback form, you can glean what may be more important to people and make an effort to provide it to them. The company blog can also offer many opportunities in which to dialogue with customers and ensure a higher satisfaction rate. This method keeps the lines of communication open both ways, as opposed to marketing techniques that generally only send one-way messages.

Getting to know your existing customers and nurturing the relationship with the best information that you can provide, could also help you to find more potential consumers with very similar needs along the way. Using these methods could potentially create virtually limitless growth opportunities for your business.

Creating and Managing a Business Reputation
Generally, consumers like to do business with people and companies that they have developed a comfort level with. As a business, it is important that the concepts that define your company are being imparted to your market. One great way to strengthen all customer relationships is to let people know what your company stands for and what it is that you are trying to accomplish. This tactic, rather than just focusing on sales, can really serve to set your business apart from others offering similar products and services. By letting people know what’s important to your company, you can often be speaking to their needs, as well.

For example, if you are involved in a charity, you could indicate this and discuss it in a blog. In this way, you are informing people about the humanitarian culture of your company, without making a lot of fuss and fanfare that could obviously be looked upon as nothing more than a photo op aimed at cheap publicity. Instead, the charitable activity could produce a frame of reference that a others may strongly identify with, thus creating a potential for brand loyalty.

Sharing customer success stories, demonstrating solutions that your company offers, and discussing problems that have been solved, can serve very well in building a business reputation while further enhancing a brand image.

Establishing Customer Loyalty
By far, customer loyalty is one of the most important aspects in creating, building, and growing any business. Repeat business sustains companies at all levels, especially during economic downturns. The larger the loyal customer base, the less likely it is that a business will struggle to survive.

A blog’s showcase of many different solutions can ultimately encourage customers to do more business with your company. By detailing helpful and useful information, your credibility as a product or service provider can increase. This can help to establish you as an influencer of opinion down the road. Featuring some of your customers can enhance your business relationship with them and may increase their level of loyalty overall. By instituting a subscription option through RSS and email of your blog, you also have opportunities to interact with subscribers each time a piece is published.

By engaging new and existing customers through a blog and interacting with them, you will be in the best position possible to provide what it is that they need. This creates a win-win for you and your customers, and that will attract even more.

Traffic Building Techniques
Because of the keyword and informational nature of blogs, they are one of the perfect forums that adapt very well to search engine optimization. Search engine spiders live and thrive on fresh content. While a company website might be rather static with little need for content changes, a regularly updated blog provides the freshest, keyword-rich content for search engines. This can cause a web site to rank higher when potential customers search for the products and services that your company provides – which ultimately can drives more traffic to the web site.

Starting a Blog
The first thing to do when deciding to start a blog is to define the purpose of the blog. It is also a good idea to map out a simple plan of topics relating to the issues surrounding your business that are worth discussing. For example, in a fast-paced technology business, a blog could follow current trends to inform clients and attract new ones, as it continually details fresh and innovative ideas.

Blogging Tools
There are plenty of free and low-cost blogging tools available, and publishing is generally very simple. In determining which ones to use, you must decide whether you want to host the blog yourself, or use a free hosted blogging service.

Keep in mind that free blogging services, just like anything else, are not really free. For example, a free blogging service does not provide your own domain. Remember that if you use a free service, you may have no control over the website, and therefore, no way to manage your readership. There may also be some restrictions as to the kind of content that may be published on the blog.

If you are serious about using a blog to enhance your business, it is best to start with registering your own domain name. That way, you don’t have to be concerned about losing a readership if the blog grows and you need to move it elsewhere, or about the blogging service going out of business. Plus this gives you a more credibility as a source.

One of the best and more affordable ways to create a blog is to get a reasonably priced hosting service and use the blog software that is provided by the hosting company, or use Wordpress free blog software.

A great place to find out more about blogging is at Webhostingtalk.com. It is the largest online forum community that specializes in discourse concerning the hosting industry. The forum contains some very useful information about its users’ experiences with blogging. You can also join the forum and post an inquiry to receive feedback from some of the more experienced hosting industry professionals.

Regular blogging not only keeps fresh information about your products and services front and center for the online consumer, but it also can serve to lessen the visibility of competitors who are as savvy. The more useful and valuable information that you can provide to existing and potential consumers, the more visible your company will be. Higher visibility makes it possible for more potential customers to find their way to your website and become consumers of your products and services.

As Michael Arrington, Founder of the popular webzine TechCrunch said, ”Whatever happens next with blogging, it’s here to stay. And I can’t wait to see what comes next.” (http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere).

A really great blog can keep your company in the forefront so that those who have done business with you in the past keep coming back to your website for more information. Once your website is established as a resource for information about certain products and services, consumers will be more likely to think of your company first when they are ready to make a purchase. That fact alone makes blogging and social networking well worth the time invested.

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Why my business needs a blog and how do I get one started?

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There are a number of problems with the web sites that offer free hosting; most have limitations that will inevitably arise. These free sites are better for practice and should not be used to build your business website or any website that you want a large number of visitors to frequent.

Websites that offer these free services have a number of downfalls. The free web hosting limitations include not having much protection to backup the information stored on the web page. They are also not permanent website services and often will disappear. Not to mention that they do not offer any support services for you when you need help.

By choosing a host site that charges a fee you have the ability to decide what your website needs. The most popular hosting site is Godaddy.com; which is very popular due the high quality advertising and business plan put in place.

Godaddy.com is a popular web hosting sight that is well known across the country. Many businesses are now using their web hosting services. The first step is to make sure that no one already has the domain name you want to use. Most people know what they want their domain name to be but if someone else is already using that name then GoDaddy offers alternatives.

Godaddy.com will give you options for alternative names if the name you enter is already taken. They also provide options other than just .com; they have .net, .org, .us, and .biz just to name a few. Their program provides you numerous options as you work through building your web page.

The cost of Godaddy’s web hosting is not that expensive. They offer a number of different plans and all cost less than $20 a month. Using Godaddy.com gives you the ability to create a web page that will attract potential customers and keep their interest. It is important that you develop a page that showcases your products and it should convey professionalism in order to generate an influx of new customers.

Free web hosting sites are great for a beginner to learn the basics. This is a great way to teach yourself rather than having to hire a professional. Using a free website to teach yourself is an inexpensive way to learn. When you are comfortable with your abilities you can then move to a paid host site and build a professional website that will help increase your business.

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Limitations of Free Web Hosting

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1. I resolve to have a rock-solid title tag. Most search engines, including the big three – Google, Yahoo, and MSN – place some importance on a website’s title tag. You can prove this to yourself by searching for something in Google, and then observing the title tag of the search result. Odds are that the title tag contains some form of the term that you searched for – so should the title tag on your web site.

2. I resolve to use text and not graphics to describe things on my site. The search engine spiders can’t categorize what they can’t see. If you are using graphics for main topic headings on your site, you should switch these to text. As the spiders crawl your site, they can then review your text and sort your web site appropriately.

3. I resolve to have a better list of keywords for Google AdWords. If you don’t know how to use pay-per-click search to drive website traffic – find out how fast. If you do, then you should have an exhaustive list of targeted keywords. Since you only pay when someone clicks on your ad, it makes sense to have lots of different search terms in your list. Plus it keeps costs down. Google has also introduced a cool, new tool to help expand your keyword lists. It’s called the ‘keyword tool’. You can access it from where you adjust your keyword bids. Try it out – it will help you increase your targeted keywords.

4. I resolve to issue a press release on my website’s activities. I have released news a few times through a great service at www.prweb.com. It works pretty well. The site permits any level of financial commitment to release your news – from free to several hundred dollars. I have found that for a minimum of $80 you get Yahoo! news distribution – which seems to really boost penetration. You must have something to tell people about if you run a web site – so why not publish a press release and get some additional site traffic?

5. I resolve to give something away on my web site this year. Site visitors expect to get something for nothing at your web site. Either information, or a free download, or something. So this year I’m going to increase the amount of free stuff I give away. We’ll have more free information and more free tools. This will drive the additional traffic that is necessary to monetize my web site.

I am resolved to have a great new year for my web site. The resolutions listed above should help me increase my website traffic. If you have a web site, why not try a couple of the ideas listed above this year? Good luck in increasing your website traffic.

About Derek Vaughan

Derek Vaughan has been actively marketing on the Internet since 1995. His extensive online marketing experience includes the online direct marketing of books for $300 million per year NYSE traded book publisher Thomas Nelson. Mr. Vaughan has also marketed products online at the Walt Disney Company as the online marketing manager for the ESPNstore.com. Mr. Vaughan was also the marketing manager for the launch of the NASCAR Online Store.

In web hosting, Mr. Vaughan served for 3 years as Senior Director of Marketing for the Affinity Internet, Inc. family of companies. Most recently Mr. Vaughan has been consulting with Cheap Web Hosting Directory. Mr. Vaughan holds degrees from both the Indiana University School of Music and Purdue University. He has also received a Master of Business Administration degree from the Owen School at Vanderbilt University.

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Top 5 Resolutions to Increase Website Traffic in 2010

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Focus on Your Needs

What is your website going to do? Do you need alot of storage space and bandwidth? Or can you get by with just a little? Do you need email addresses @yourdomain.com? Or are you going to use a Yahoo! Mail account (or similar)? What about databases, and spam filters, and website builders?

Develop a list of all the features your site will use – this list will be your key to finding a website host that fits you. On this list, you also might want to include those things that you think your site will need in the not-too-distant future. While it’s not as hard as it used to be, switching web hosts can still be pretty complicated.

What Kind of User Are You?

Next, you’ll want to determine what kind of user you are. Are you new to the Internet? If so, 24/7 phone support may be best for you. If you’re a power user, however, you can probably do just fine with a host that offers only email or ticket support. The more you know, the less you’ll have to be in touch with your hosting company. Just make sure that there is indeed a way to get in touch with your hosting company if you need to. If you can’t find any contact information on the host’s site, this is a red flag and you should probably stay away.

You’ll also want to make sure that you will receive a response from your host in a timely fashion – having to wait two or three days just to get an email back is ridiculous. Make sure that your host offers a response-time guarantee somewhere on its site, before you sign up with them. If you can’t find it listed on their site, contact them and see how long it takes for them to respond. The ideal response time is a few hours – the absolute maximum amount of time it should take is a day.

Your Budget

How much can you afford to spend for your hosting account? As it is with buying anything else, you get what you pay for. That $1.95-a-month host may offer a really great value, but will they be there for you when you need them? Many of the ultra-low-priced website hosts are not turning a profit, and have not been in business very long – and probably won’t be for much longer. To check and see how long your host has been around, enter their domain name here: http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jhtml. The Registration Date field shows when the domain name was registered, so you can tell how long they’ve been around.

That’s not to say that every low-priced host lacks. HostGator and Site5 both have many happy clients and offer prices around the $6.95-a-month pricepoint. And you can find good website hosts that offer service for $3.95-a-month or $4.95-a-month. But I don’t recommend going any lower than that. Judging by posts on online communities such as WebHostingTalk, going with a cheap host just does not pay.

Reliability

Another important thing to find out is the uptime of any of the hosts you’re looking at. Many hosts have an uptime guarantee that is usually around 99.9%. One thing you need to be aware of, however, is that this uptime guarantee does not apply to attacks such as Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks, or to acts of God. What these uptime guarantees do cover are things like hardware failure and server operating system crashes. If you can’t find specific uptime information on a host’s website, call them or email them and see if they’ll share this information with you – if they do not, move on to someone else.

Where to Look for a Host

Now that we’ve covered the basic points of what to look for in a web host, it’s time to talk about where you go to find the perfect host for you. There are many sites available for this, such as Cheap Web Hosting Directory, Web Hosting Directory, and Compare Web Hosts. You can also conduct a Google search for ‘website host’ or ‘website host directory’. In addition, visit a forum such as Webmaster Sales to see what other folks are saying about different website hosts.

Conclusion

The main thing is to pick a web host that you are comfortable with and that works well for you. You’ll know when you’ve found the one that’s right for you – it will meet your website requirements, you’ll feel comfortable with its support, you’ll know you can afford it, you will have confirmed its reliability, and you’ll know that its other clients are satisfied as well.

About the Author

Daniel J. Briere is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GlobalWebBrands (http://www.globalwebbrands.com), a value-priced website hosting provider for small and midsize businesses.

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How To Choose the Best Web Host For Yourself or You’re Business

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Down Time Means Lost Sales

Reliable web hosting provides a small business owner with a way to advertise his or her business, and it gives business owners an opportunity to sell their products to customers from all over the world. If the web host has problems keeping the web servers up and running, customers will receive error notices more often than they receive purchase confirmations. Regular connection errors can be incredibly costly to a small company, because customers tend to leave the site permanently after they experience an error. The Internet is a very competitive place, and there are usually hundreds of sites selling the same products or services. Having good quality Internet hosting can give small companies an advantage online.

Search Engines are Important

Since the advertising budget for most small businesses is relatively small, they rely on search engines to find their sites and rank them high on the search engine listings. If the small business web hosting company experiences a large amount of down time, the search engines may have trouble indexing the web site. If the site can not be indexed, it can not get good rankings with the search engine. A large amount of potential customers will never know the site exists, and they will spend their money elsewhere.

A Small Company Relies on Every Dime

If you operate a small company, you understand that every dime your company makes is important to its ultimate survival. When a reliable Internet hosting service is used, your site remains available to customers 24 hours every day. If the site host is unreliable, however, you will lose sales and money that you would have made otherwise. Investing in good Internet hosting is as important as creating a quality product to sell. If customers do not find your site reliable, they will wonder how reliable your business is in general. Small companies should do some serious research before choosing a hosting service for their site.

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The Importance of Reliable Web Hosting for Small Businesses

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