web hosting

Shared Hosting: The Ideal Small Business Solution

Shared hosting is the most popular web hosting solution today, ideal for individuals and small business owners as well.  So, what exactly is shared hosting?  Well, as the name implies, it refers to an arrangement where you share space on a web server and resources such as bandwidth and RAM with other hosting customers.  Though shared hosting providers are abundant, the key is finding a company that will set you up for success.  This article will provide a checklist to help you use the shared hosting platform as a vehicle to establishing your small business.

Finding a Reliable Shared Host

In order to give yourself the best chance of succeeding with a small business, you need a shared hosting provider that takes hosting serious.  First and foremost, they should be dedicated to making sure your site is always up and running, ensuring that visitors enjoy a smooth performance.  If your site is frequently down due to technical difficulties or performs sluggishly, converting visitors into customers will be nearly impossible.  You can better assure accessibility and performance by looking for these technical specifics:

Uptime - This refers to the amount of time your site will be available on the web.  Right now, the industry standard is 99.9% so anything less than that can be considered unacceptable.  Don’t simply take the provider’s word on its advertised guarantee.  Do a little investigating and find out how the percentage is calculated and what is actually covered in the guarantee.

Disk Space – If you are planning to start an online business, a shared hosting plan must provide an adequate amount of disk space to store your content.  You probably won’t require a tremendous amount of storage space so look for something that suits your needs rather than falling for the glamorous “unlimited” offering.

Bandwidth – Equally important is bandwidth, often referred to as data transfer.  Bandwidth is another resource that is often advertised as an unlimited offering, but just as with disk space, that simply isn’t true.  We suggest selecting a shared host that offers an accurate amount of bandwidth to support your web traffic.  Without enough, your site will lag.  If you exceed the allotted amount, you could be taxed hefty overage fees despite the unlimited offering.

E-commerce Tools – Shared hosting is your ticket into online business and essentially the world of e-commerce.  Depending on the nature of your business, some of the e-commerce features you may want to look out for are shopping cart programs, multiple email accounts, SSL support, and database access among other features.   These tools will give you the ability to open up an online storefront, keep in touch with customers and facilitate secure transactions on your site.

Support - A small business hosting solution just wouldn’t be complete without solid support.  A reliable shared host should offer support 24/7 to step in and make the save when you have questions or concerns.  If they can’t provide quality customer support, the overall quality of their hosting service is questionable as well.

The most attractive benefit of shared hosting is cost efficiency.  By referring to this checklist, you should be able to find a small business solution that is both reliable and affordable.

The Insecurity of the Open-source CMS

Open-source content management systems are incredibly popular these days.  Unfortunately, one issue that has always plagued this type software is security.  On the surface, it would seem as if open-source software is more secure than commercial products based on the reported number of security vulnerabilities and activity in the community.  However, this is far from the truth and a misconception that has resulted in trouble for many website owners.  With a proprietary solution such as the Microsoft Content Management Server, you are generally provided with support and insurance against security flaws.  With open-source solutions, you are forced to rely on the support of the software’s developers and user community which means that nothing is guaranteed.

Elements of CMS

The open-source CMS consists of various elements, many of which contribute to vulnerabilities.  The average software includes add-on modules, encryption mechanisms and a plethora of scripting errors.  These elements can simply be a part of a certain product or included into the entire system.  Completely securing such an application on a web server is no easy task.  All publicly accessible server applications are designed for around the clock availability, providing access to visitors and attackers alike.  Without the proper security implementations, an open-source CMS is essentially wide open for an attack.

Insecure software can inflict a significant amount of damage, especially when it comes to a program as functional as a content management system.  When vulnerabilities in such software are exploited, the best result could be the defacing of your website.  The worst case scenario would be the exposure of sensitive data that blemishes your credibility and possibly ruins your business.  There have been various reported instances where vulnerable systems resulted in the leakage of Social Security numbers, credit card details and other personal information.

Joomla, Drupal and other CMS Targets

It is no surprise that some of the most widely used open-source content management systems such as Joomla and Drupal are among the most targeted on the web.  The fact that the source codes of these systems are freely available and have numerous installations make them a prime target.  While the average visitor can’t distinguish between a commercial and open-source product, they tend to be easily identifiable to attackers.  A simple web browser along with the viewing of URLs and HTML patterns in search engine results can give a hacker all the information they need to strike.

One of the most attractive aspects of the open-source CMS is that you can customize and actually own a particular product.  On the other hand, because the software is originally developed by someone else, it is very likely that there are a few things you don’t know about the program, meaning you can’t ensure security after making changes.  This is why many open-source systems include disclaimers against third-party modification as well as the overall security of the software, basically telling developers to use at their own risks.

With so many people handling the code, it is unpractical to think that any open-source CMS will ever be 100% secure.  The best thing you can do when relying on these solutions is to understand the risks, make sure you are using the most recent versions and design your web pages with caution.  Attackers are persistent but not nearly as powerful when their methods of attack are limited.

SEO and SEM: What’s the Difference?

SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) are two of the hottest concepts on the internet today.  While these terms are often referred to as one in the same, there is actually a big difference between the two methods.  SEM is rather broad and can be used to describe various aspects of website marketing as it relates to the search engines. In this regard, SEO can simply be considered as an essential element of SEM.  Whereas SEO primarily consists of keywords and links, SEM is far more extensive.

Paid Inclusion

Paid inclusion is something that is heavily discussed when the topic of SEM comes up.  This simply refers to paying a directory or search engine to immediately add a website to its database rather than designing the site to naturally attract search engine robots.  Some view this method as their only option for being listed while others are totally against it.  The hard truth is that there is no way to pay your way to the top of the rankings.  Search engines are increasingly disqualifying sites trying to purchase listings, leaving all their efforts futile.  If this is a practice you choose to partake in, make sure you are aware of the consequences.

Advertising

Advertising is another SEM technique employed by online businesses.  This method involves taking out advertisements on search engine result pages.  These ads are typically display based on keywords a user inputs into a search engine with costs ranging on the number of impressions or appearances of the ad.  What this simply means is that you must pay for the advertisement whether it drives traffic to your site or not.

Pay Per Click

PPC (Pay Per Click) ads are common in SEM as well.  You can have complete control over your campaign with the freedom to select the keywords that trigger your ads, the copy you want inserted and usually how much you want to invest.  Hence the name, you are only required to pay when someone clicks on an ad and is then redirected to your site.  Two of the major PPC networks are Google and Yahoo Search Marketing, each of which come with advantages and disadvantages.  When signing on for either program, be prepared to invest a substantial amount of time and money into running such a campaign.

Unlike genuine SEO, the SEM practices mentioned above offer one major benefit: immediacy.  If money isn’t an issue and you want to increase your visibility on the web right away, one or a combination of these techniques could be the way to go.  Take heed that the disadvantages may be far more detrimental to your efforts.  If your site isn’t designed accordingly, visitors could be turned off when they do get there.  A site that is difficult to navigate and doesn’t deliver what the visitor is looking for is the easiest way to blow your SEM campaign.

SEO First and Foremost

In short, no SEM campaign can be complete without practicing sound SEO first.  The primary goal of SEO is to make the site friendly for both the search engine and your visitors.  So even if you plan to spend money on PPC campaigns and other SEM elements, be sure that SEO is covered before you start heavy promotions.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Ensim

Control panel software is a main fixture in today’s web hosting packages.  These programs are very important as they give you the ability to manage the essential features of your account from adding domains and creating emails accounts to setting up FTP accounts and performing web-based backups.  While cPanel is efficient and rightfully the leading the control panel software, this program is platform specific and can only be used in certain environments.

Ensim is one control panel available for Windows and Linux platforms.  This powerful software is able to cover a wide range of hosting needs from reseller and dedicated server accounts to providing solutions for small businesses and large enterprises.  Although Ensim does offer benefits over popular applications such as cPanel and Plesk, it does have a few drawbacks as well.

Advantages

The Ensim control panel gives you a well designed professional interface.  There are separate sections dedicated to various components for managing your hosting account.  Although most of  the essential features are made accessible on the screen, they are integrated nicely and serve as more than eye candy.

Unlike many control panels, Ensim supports a wide range of operating systems including Web and Standard versions of Windows along with Linux-based systems such as Fedora and RedHat.

Additionally, Ensim offers the same interface for all levels of control.  This enables familiarity for anyone that needs to use a control panel with a combination of root, reseller, end-user and mail user capabilities.

The Ensim control panel is powered by in-house software and doesn’t rely on third-party solutions.  One inclusion is Ensim Power Tools, a program that is comparative to the Fantastico script installer found on cPanel accounts.  Another Ensim tool is the built-in spam filter that performs well with the pre-installed webmail utility.  New versions also include comprehensive reporting tools for viewing critical resources and web stats.

Disadvantages

Despite its professional appearance, one of the biggest knocks on Ensim is that the interface is incredibly difficult to skin.  You can however, incorporate logos for your brand with relative ease.  In this regard, cPanel offers more extensive branding as Ensim has very few skins available.

Another disadvantage of Ensim is that it isn’t as widely installed as cPanel, a factor that presents challenges to the reseller.  This could be a turn off to potential clients who are not aware of the software and its capabilities.  Additionally, end-users may find the interface more difficult to navigate than the simple, yet user-friendly environment of cPanel.  Despite its professional structure, the newer versions of Ensim appear to be more geared for the experienced webmaster.  Fortunately, the software does offer tons of documentation to help you get more familiar with navigation and all the essentials.

Conclusion

As you can see, Ensim does have minimal drawbacks along with a plethora of features that make it a solid choice for web hosting.  The advantages greatly outweigh the disadvantages as this control panel has the ability to do what others can’t.  Whether you are looking to dabble with shared hosting or something more flexible such as a VPS, the Ensim software can provide the tools needed to effectively manage your business.

Web Hosting with PHP-Nuke

When searching for a web host, you need to look for much more than storage space and bandwidth.  The overall quality of service is critical and should include around the clock support, tight security and redundant backups.  Aside from that, a host should be able to provide you with tools that add ease to the tasks of building and administering your site.  There are several programs that will help you accomplish this; a dynamic CMS named PHP-Nuke is one of them.

What is PHP-Nuke?

PHP-Nuke began as a fork of a news portal called Thatware.  The software grew to popularity very quickly and has spawned various systems of its own including PostNuke, DragonFly CMS and Xoops.  Though primarily used for automated news publishing, PHP-Nuke is a full content management system capable of creating dynamic websites for many purposes.  Its main initiative is to allow webmasters to create huge online communities where moderators and users can post content and make comments.  The core of PHP-Nuke is packed with features and numerous add-ons are available to enhance its functionality.

The PHP-Nuke CMS is scripted entirely in the PHP programming language.  In order to function, it requires server components that support the language such as Apache and an SQL database like MySQL or Postgre SQL.  Under the GNU General Public License, the source code of PHP-Nuke can be freely distributed and modified.  The latest version, 7.5, is the first to come with a $10 download charge.  Depending on the web host, you could get this amazing CMS as a part of your monthly hosting plan.

PHP-Nuke for News

PHP-Nuke comes included with various modules.  One you are most likely to try first is the News module.  This component allows you to place news items in different categories and automatically sorts them by date on your homepage.  Another module is for archiving which enables easy indexing by users and the search engines.  When site members submit their content, you have the final say on which articles are approved and can manage the entire process from a simple administrative panel.

Whether you want to publish news and articles or simply a huge site for your business, PHP-Nuke can help you get it done.  Here are some of the features:

Advertising - Easy management of your advertising campaigns with support for HTML, JavaScript and Flash

Encyclopedia - A robust module for managing terms, phrases and their definitions

Forums – Simple implementation and management of discussion forms

Members List – Displays a full list of all the members on your site

Search Engine – Allows users to easily find content on your site

News Submission – A simple form that allows users to submit news and articles to your site

Private Messaging - Allows members to communicate or block out other members

Avantgo – Service that offers a mobile version of your last 10 published articles

Conclusion

On its own, PHP-Nuke is a dynamic CMS capable of building amazing websites.  With the aid of add-on modules, the system is greatly enhanced with twice the power.  If a thriving online community is something you are after, you stand to benefit tremendously from a web host that offers or supports this software.