If you’re not familiar with Sharepoint, here’s a little excerpt from WIKI:

 SharePoint is a web-based collaboration and document management platform from Microsoft. It can be used to host web sites that access shared workspaces and documents, as well as specialized applications like wikis and blogs from a browser. SharePoint does not intend to replace an entire file server (e.g., an imposed 2 gigabyte file size limitation). SharePoint functionality is exposed as web parts, such as a task list or discussion pane. These web parts are composed into web pages, which are then hosted in the SharePoint portal. SharePoint sites are actually ASP.NET 2.0 applications, which are served using IIS and use a SQL Server database as data storage backend.

I’ve used Sharepoint for a couple of companies I’ve worked with before in the past and I really enjoy the flexibility.  Sometimes it can be cumbersome to setup, but if you have the right team to back you up on that end, the rest is pretty straight forward.

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photo credit: John Griffiths

This four basic things will serve as the yardsticks with which you can gauge their worthinesses and help you to differentiate between those in the industry to set higher standard, satisfy their customers with innovation and renovation of trends and those in there to do the opposite.

EXPERIENCE

A good web hosting company should have experience. This is important in case any problem arises either on their part or yours. There is this saying that: “Experience tells you what to do;confidence allows you to do it”. When any problem arises, their experience tells them what to do and because they had probably faced the problem before, they have the confidence to apply a good resolution.

So, look at the years they have been in business, but make sure they are not primitive. A good web hosting company should be recognized and awarded by respectable institutions.

SUPPORT FACILITIES

The important of adequate support can never be over-emphasized. Make sure that the company has good support facilities like:

Tutorials: This can be in form of informative articles or video clips where you can learn how to use various features of their services and even design your website without employing a website design expert.

Dedicated Online Forum/Discussion Board: Here you can interact with the company’s officials and fellow customers like you, ask questions, learn new skills etc. But more important, make sure that the usual support facilities like phone calls, ticket submission etc, are efficient and acceptable.

EXCLUSIVE FEATURES

A world-class and forward-looking web hosting company will always want to step out of the box and be unique. Some of these companies offer special web hosting services that have special features that soothe the purposes of certain websites. For instance; an e-commerce website requires online cart, inventory space, and other necessary softwares.

Another nice feature is website design software. Almost every web hosting companies includes this feature in their packages, however not everyone of them is of good quality, some are good but hard and onerous to operate(require an expert), while some are nice, yet easy-to-handle(you can handle them yourself by making use of their tutorials). And any other feature you find interesting, be sure they not for a particular period only or tentative. You can do this by reading the TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THEIR OPERATION.

VALUE FOR MONEY

When we pay for something, we do so to get another valuable thing in return. All three aspects i have mentioned above are all part of the value you are paying for. Look around the website for feedbacks or testimonials from their existing customers to see what they are saying about them. You can avail yourself of their free trials to see how the product/service works before you buy.

Choosing the right web hosting company will be one of the best things you will do for self, your business or company. It either saves you money and time when you choose and buy right or costs you money and time when you do otherwise, so, choose and buy right today.

Reedwan Garnew is an analyst and affiliate marketer in the web hosting industry.To get more of his helpful tips and recommendations, visit his blogs @ nicehost.blogspot.com and nicehost.wordpress.com

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photo credit: derek*b

The problem with many web shopping cart programs is simply that they are heavy programs. Once you set up your web site, you need to integrate this software with your web site. This often requires learning entirely new skills or hiring someone else to do the work, and if there’s a problem down the road you’re often obligated to hire someone else to fix it. With Yahoo Merchant from Yahoo Small Business, your store can be built for you by the professionals at Yahoo, and if you run into a problem or issue you can simply submit a support request.

On the opposite side of the web store picture, there are the very simple, unprofessional sites that will, indeed, build you an online store. You won’t look like a professional store anyone wants to do business with, but you will have a store. With Yahoo Merchant Services, you can look professional and have the ease and simplicity of a hosted store solution.

Your entire reason for having an online store is to sell your products and build your business. The best way to do that is to have the best-looking store, at the best price, with the best support and the most uptime possible. In other words, you don’t want to become a programmer, a graphic artist, and a web designer just to run an online store. You just want to run your business. With Yahoo Merchant, you can concentrate on running your store.

Choosing a provider for your online store is one of the most important decisions you’ll make in setting up your online business. If you’ve already tried one or more solutions, either hosted or on your own server, you know how difficult it can be to get the right fit between your needs and the capabilities of a script or hosted store. If you haven’t built a store before, you want to find a permanent solution, not just try something out. Yahoo Merchant is your permanent solution.

The main thing you’re looking for in an online store is not low price or simplicity. What you need in an online store is a service that takes your business as seriously as you do. That’s the bottom line. If you go with a free script with no support, and there’s a problem, you’re out of luck. If you go with a hosted solution that focuses on low price, at the expense of professionalism, your visitors won’t become customers. Yahoo Merchant cares about your business!

Because Yahoo Merchant and ecommerce services are backed by Yahoo, you know you’re working with a partner that cares as much about your image and your business as you do.

Russell Blanc is an expert in the web hosting industry and Yahoo Small Business and manages an information-rich web site about Yahoo Small Business and Yahoo Web Hosting exposing the features and benefits of Yahoo products.

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When you go surfing on the net to look for an Internet hosting provider what you might want to do is check if they offer you a success guarantee. But how will you know if they do? Well if they offer you one-one-one coaching, free tools and resources, and a process that has been proven to work, then this company doesn’t just want your money it wants you to succeed.

Look for a hosting package that can provide you with the following:

* Good price: less than $1 per day

* Success Guarantee

* Money Back Guarantee

* Live support: telephone or email

* No Initial Set Up Fee

* Domain name included

* Fast, reliable hosting

* Unlimited Data transfer

* Point and click page building

* Unlimited Number of pages

* Unlimited e-mail accounts

* E-mail forwarding

* E-mail domain forwarding

* Spam ‘n Virus Blast It Best-of-breed, state-of-the-Net complete protection system against spam and viruses

* Upload your own HTML pages

* Page design templates

* Customized 404 page

* Access statistics

* Database storage for managing, searching and reporting of form data

* RSS/Blog It (automated site-blogging and RSS feed creation)

* Web site analysis for optimal Search Engine compatibility

* Tracking of Search Engine spiders

* Search Engine index checking (Google, Yahoo , Live Search, Ask)

* Search Engine rank reporting (Google, Yahoo , Live Search, Ask)

* Unique Keyword search reports for Search Engines

* Pay-Per-Click mass bidding

* Value Exchange (high value, relevant links)

* Keyword Research tool

* Keyword Brainstorm tool

* Real Supply Ground-breaking data about real content competition

* Monetize It Optimize content-building, ad-selling, PPC-buying

* Choose It Choose your perfect niche and domain name

* Search It E-commerce tool with over 100 advanced searches to build your business

* Private Forums - The single best small business, help-and-be-helped resource in the world.

* Focus on Your Success

* Step-By-Step Marketing Guide

* And much more

Any Internet hosting provider that really wants your success, not just your money, will offer you all of the above mentioned. It doesn’t really make a difference where you host your site, what matters is the process and tools that will drive you to the success.

What matters is how you host your site, not where. What is the point of building a website and just have it there sitting on the net. There is not point for that. You build a site to promote your business so make it work. There is not point on building a website if it is not driving business to you.

Before you sing up a contract with any Internet hosting provider, make sure you have researched every hosting company you can find online and compare it against each other

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Unlike the other DSL connections, an exclusive dedicated copper pair-line is required because with this technology there is no sharing of line resources, this then hinders the use of other phone and fax line services. Although a SDSL Broadband line is dedicated, there is no actual special wiring involved; the broadband line uses the same type of copper wiring as voice phone lines. Therefore connection speeds are similar to other DSL connections, ranging from 512k to 2MB. Also, the inclusive nature of this broadband service eliminates the need for the use of a Microfilter.A SDSL Broadband line runs from the Central Office Hub to a standalone DSL modem at the users end. The length of the line is directly inversed in concern with the connection speed; that is the further away from the Central Office, the longer the broadband line wire and the less speed available for use. Thus the fastest speed you can get all depends on the distance between Central Office and the DSL modem; this distance is the length of the copper pair, which is probably more than the direct, straight line distance.

The central office hub is usually located in the city centre or in the business district of a community. If the Central Office is too far, providers sometimes may consider putting in a “remote central office”, also called a Remote DSLAM. If a remote DSLAM is installed, the copper distance starts from the remote Central Office instead of the main Central Office. These are usually installed where there is a high concentration of potential customers.

In some very rare instances, very few clients might not be able to get SDSL Broadband connection because of their location. This may be due to them being is too far away from the Central Office and the installation of a remote DSLAM is impractical. Also, sometimes the lines have impairments that prevent having a suitable all copper connection, which oppose the purpose of a SDSL Broadband connection which aims to utilise the whole bandwidth of the copper pair-line. In such cases, other DSL Broadband connections should be sought after.

SDSL Broadband line consumption usually requires users to install separate or even second phone lines. Installation of such a line is pretty basic and not very complicated because of the similarities between regular phone and fax services lines and the SDSL Broadband line. Because this broadband has a higher monthly cost than a residential DSL, the providers will tend to work harder to make sure the installation is successful and glitch free for the duration of the line usage.

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Yet, is this a method that is recommended, especially if you don’t have the funds to get a regular server?  Well, if you do it just keep in mind that your information may not be as secure from hackers or other individuals that may want to do harm to your network.  For this reason it is best that you use a secondary computer as your server… one that doesn’t hold data that is vital to you.

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To get an expired domain name, you can pretty much go to the same sources you would go to for a regular domain.  Or, alternatively you can seek out sites that specialize in selling them.  Just make sure that you do your research before purchasing the domain name.  Check to see if it has been indexed for keywords that best relate to your site.  After that check to see if there’s any bad publicity associated with it, because if there is it would go for your site as well… at least until you get your own name established.

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Well, you can also use this concept to gain affiliate commissions for yourself.  To get such a setup started, you will need to have shared hosting, either through a service or through your own server.  You will also need additional scripting skills to allow customers to see the ads in their accounts.  If you do not have these skills on your own, consider finding a programmer through freelancing sites such as Elance or Getafreelancer.

Once you have gotten everything setup, make sure you advertise ads that relate to what web hosting customers would be interested in.  Cheap advertising, business opportunities and website design are some examples.  

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Some web hosting services do not require file transfer through FTP programs.  An example is Geocities hosting.  And honestly, this is one of the reasons why I like Geocities so much.  Basically, they have an online file manager that allows you to upload files.  It is quick and easy, and is even available for the free version of their hosting service.  The only stipulation is that you will need to name your homepage index, but this is common practice in the hosting world, even if webmasters are using a traditional FTP program.

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Now, if you think this business isn’t for you, think again… especially if you are looking for web hosting customers.  How can you get web hosting customers through site flipping?  Well, many of the people that buy established sites have no idea how to run them.  They want that process taken care of.  This is where you come in.  For an extra monthly fee, you can offer them web hosting.  You get a new customer for your business, while they no longer have to worry about how they’re going to manage their site.

Yet, what does a webmaster do if they are not proficient with web hosting either?  Simple… they can outsource another person to do the work for them.  In fact, if they begin to acquire dozens of web hosting customers, they may want to do this anyway. 

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