web hosting

Website Security – 4 Ways to Secure Your Website

One of the biggest priorities when running an online business is website security. Having a secure website will cause your customers to trust your business, thereby boosting sales and increasing your return on investments. The online community is teeming with malicious hackers that are willing to do whatever it takes to penetrate your site’s security and compromise the delicate financial information of your clients. You should have the same fervor when attempting to deter these careless intruders. Most customers will not shop at an online store that is not secure, therefore creating a secure environment is essential in the world of online business. The following 4 tips will help make your website a safer place for your customers to shop.

Strong Administrative Passwords

Protecting your website means protecting the administrative interface. Once a hacker gains access to your site’s administrative interface, they can gain control of your entire online business in a few short steps. Once they’ve access the administrative control panel, hackers can do anything from defacing your website, to committing identity theft or fraud in the name of your business. To prevent hackers from easily gaining access to your website, you’ll want to use strong passwords that are mix of letters and numbers. These alphanumeric password should be at least 10 characters in length. Try to avoid using any commonly used words or names. Also try not to use dates that are significant in your life, as a hacker may be able to access this information.

Firewalls

Firewalls filter information that is transferred to and from your website. By configuring a secure firewall, you’ll be preventing all unauthorized access to your website. Setting an industry standard firewall at the highest possible security preference is one of the best ways you can deter hackers with ease. Remember that simply having a firewall is not enough to keep you site safe. The firewall must be configured properly.

Antivirus

Make sure you use only the best antivirus programs. If your computer contracts a virus, the hacker that distributed this virus could gain access to sensitive information on your computer. Some viruses will install hacking utilities known as KeyLoggers, which record the data inputted from your computer’s keyboard. This means that everything you type is recorded and then sent to the hacker, including your system and website passwords.   It is imperative that you ensure that your antivirus program is regularly updated to the latest definitions. This will help you to protect your computer from hackers who attack your system in efforts of gaining control or information. Simply having an antivirus program installed is not enough. New viruses are created everyday, so it is important to keep your Antivirus program updated regularly.

Security Testing

Once you have all of the above security measures in place, you’ll want to test the security of your website routinely. Try to use a security analyzing tool regularly. These tools will usually find any existing security lapses and assist you in correcting them. Remember that in order to have good website security, these security measures must be practiced regularly.

How to Obtain a Memorable Domain Name

As each day passes, it becomes more difficult to obtain a popular domain name. Studies have shown that over 20 thousand domain names are registered on a daily basis. With all of these domain names being taken, a memorable domain name is very hard to obtain.  Gone are the days of obtaining main-keyword domain names such as “Domain.com” or “Keyword.com”. Simple domains like this are nearly impossible to obtain, unless of course you are willing and able to spend exuberant amounts of money. However, there are ways one can obtain a memorable domain name without lots of cash.

Obtaining a Popular Domain With Little Funds

One way you can acquire a professional domain name is by searching the database of infinite expired domain names.  Many times there are domains that have expired that would suit your keyword perfectly. Everyday new domain names expire that can potentially represent authoritative websites in your desired niche. Buying expired domain are not only more cost efficient, but it gives you the opportunity to gather a group of visitors that may have previously visit the expired domain. In some cases you may find yourself on the fortunate side of anothers misfortune. Domain names expire when the webmaster is unable to pay the renewal fees. Sometimes a domain owner may fall victim to an accident, or may simply be unable to maintain their website, leaving you to pick up where they’ve left off.

Where to Find Expired Domain Names

Finding the right expired domain is a task that requires plenty of diligence and searching. Settling for the first domain name that is available is not necessarily the best route. However, it may be advisable to rack up on as many domain names as possible, giving your business more visibility. If you are searching for that one domain name that is going to give your site the reputability you’re seeking, then you may need to enlist the help of an auction sniping software. Since domain names are sold at auction most of the time, it can be hard to squeeze in the last bid, thereby securing your chances of obtaining the perfect domain name for your online business.

Domain Name Sniping

However with auction sniping software, you can set a maximum amount of money that you would like to bid, and the software will automatically bid for you in set increments of time and money. For example, you can place the maximum bid of $500, and  the software will automatically place bids in increments of $10 every 30 minutes, or to the specifications you desire. In fact there are also sniping softwares that are made especially for domain name sniping, that will notify you when the best domain names are available as soon as they expire, based on your keyword preferences.

CMS: Creatively Maintaining Sites with a Content Management System

Running an online business can be very confusing, especially when considering how many tasks there are for the average business owner to complete on a daily basis. For this reason the website building industry has become a diverse market filled with a variety of different expertise fields, each one playing an important role in the success of a single website. You have web designers that specialize in improving the overall appearance of the website, programmers that specialize in writing code and creating web applications to boost the productivity of a website, freelance authors that populate the website with informative content, and various other experts that come together to form a collective effort towards the progression of the website.

Unfortunately, many website owners simply don’t have the money to outsource as much work as they’d like. Leaving them to handle a lot of the manual work involved with building and maintaining a website in solitude. Somewhere along the line, the immense amount of work it takes to create and maintain the project, deducts from the amount of creative fervor the website owner has.

Reducing Workload – Increasing Creativity

It’s a vicious cycle – the more you work, the less you’re able to conceptualize. As your creativity decreases, you have to work harder to maintain productivity, which ultimately is affected regardless of your efforts. The only way to stop this process is to reduce the workload you place on yourself, and as the old saying goes “Work smarter, not harder!”

Perhaps the easiest way to boost productivity, maximize creativity and improve the overall appearance and functionality of your website, is to use a capable content management system. Content management systems streamline the website creation and maintenance process by giving the user access to multiple user-oriented work modules. With a good content management system, users can automate content production and population, schedule tedious maintenance tasks, and even outsource work more efficiently than ever.

Outsourcing In Full

What is outsourcing? Outsourcing work is essentially defined as – delegating duties to employees. Sadly, most business owners who believe they are outsourcing work, are only partially doing so, as they still have to upload the work to the site once their employees send it in. While this doesn’t seem like much of a task, surely the individual that has to upload three hundred articles to various pages on his website would not agree. With a good content management system, you can outsource the uploading process to the very same employees that are responsible for producing the content, by assigning specific permissions to each employee. For example, one employee might be able to upload text, while another might only have permission to upload video content.

Focus on the Fun

It is common knowledge that those who engage in practices they enjoy, will ultimately be more successful at those practices. It can be very difficult to enjoy the production and progression of your website if you are constantly focusing on menial tasks. Using a solid CMS to outsource and boost productivity is a great way to restore the fun of building your business.

Assessing Storage Needs for Your E-commerce Domain

The practice of E-commerce involves much more than simply selling products and services online. Developing a good e-commerce website involves maintaining the security and administrative aspects of your website as well. Many people overlook the importance of storage when it comes to choosing a web hosting service provider. Many people make the mistake of relying solely on their hard drive, which eventually will become unable to hold your website’s data.  Aside from running out of space, using a personal hard drive is risky because a crash can occur at any time resulting in data loss. When it involves your business, reliability and security is the most important factor. With all of the possible selections available in today’s market, it can be difficult to choose a single solution.  There are certain things one must consider when selecting a proper web hosting service for their business.

How Much Space Do You Need

Purchasing a new storage device requires the assessment of your storage needs. If you only need to backup a few things, then a simple USB drive will suffice. Even though USB drives do not consume a lot of space, they are capable of holding vast amounts of data and are seen as a good way to backup your data.  If you need to store more then you may want to consider an external hard drive.

Outsourcing Storage Space

If you do not want to store your data on a physical device at your home or office, then you can always opt for virtual storage with a third-party provider.  With a good data hosting service, you will receive the benefit of an online interface that will allow you to easily transfer your files,  and you’ll also receive plenty of bandwidth. Before selecting a third-party data hosting service, make sure they are reputable and take plenty of security measures to help protect your website’s data. The data must be secure during the entire time it is stored on their server to prevent data loss.

Speed Necessity

If you need to transfer a lot of data at one point in time, then speed should most definitely be a determining factor. It is important to consider all of the aspects of the storage provider, including speed, memory and disk space. Normally the best speeds are provided by interfaces such as  IDE, Firewire, SCSI, parallel, and USB. These storage devices are of the plug and play variety and are very easy to use and maintain.

Making the Right Decision

There are plenty of options available concerning storage for your e-commerce website. It is not hard to find  a service that will accommodate your needs, however it is best to make sure you make the right decision initially.

Accessing the Money Back Guarantee in Web Hosting

Most web hosting providers compliment their service with a money back guarantee.  This is actually a very wise and effective strategy as it helps attract customers who believe that they are purchasing something that has little to no risk.  While the money back guarantee appears to work to the customer’s advantage, it is what lies beneath the surface that could possibly leave you at a disadvantage.

Types of Money Back Guarantees

In the web hosting arena, there are essentially two types of money back guarantees.  The first is the “no questions asked” guarantee, which usually means that you can receive a refund for whatever reason without having to explain why to the hosting company.  Although you may not be able to receive a full refund, you typically get a percentage that qualifies as minimal risk.  The second is the type of guarantee that comes attached with special stipulations.  For example, you may only be able to receive a refund if the service provider failed to meet something agreed upon in the contract.  This guarantee is often enforced to help the host minimize their risks and losses.  By allowing every customer to receive a refund with the no questions asked policy, they stand to lose a lot of business and money for reasons that may be unjustified.

However, the guarantee that comes with stipulations presents the customer with a completely new set of risks, which all depend on the underlying conditions.  This guarantee works more to the advantage of the hosting company for the simple fact that they can argue and make the customer jump through hoops in attempt to prove that their reason for wanting a refund is warranted.   This could put you in a situation where you are forced to choose between losing money, or keeping a service you are not completely sure of.

Should You or Shouldn’t You?

Regardless of the type, signing up with a web hosting company that offers a money back guarantee is highly advisable.   Doing so gives you the opportunity to try out the service and at least receive some of your money back should you decide that it does not live up to expectations.   What you must understand is that the overall quality of a money back guarantee all depends on the company that it is making the offer.   The firm with a questionable track record in the industry and claims to give you all of your money back with no questions may not be the company you want to instill your faith in.  Likewise, the firm that offers a guarantee that seems complex and unfavorable could be the company with the reliable service you need to make a name for yourself.

Summary

There is nothing etched in stone when it comes to a money back guarantee.  Every web hosting company is different and different companies have different policies.  To make sure you are not greeted with surprises later down the road, it would be a good idea to find out more about any advertised guarantees before investing in a hosting plan.