Web Hosting

SEM Basics and Beyond

Regardless of the industry, online business is one of the most competitive fields in existence.  More than likely, thousands and possibility millions of other business owners have an ideal similar to your own and are working diligently to outdo you.  Competition is fierce but you don’t necessarily have to generate a million hits each month to be successful.  Believe it or not, there are many sites that bring in steady traffic but you couldn’t tell by the lack of sales.  In the end, succeeding at any online business requires continuous profits because this is what ensures longevity.  The best way to get the traffic you want – people who are more likely to actually buy what you’re selling, is engaging in targeted marketing – you need to learn the basics of SEM.

Short for search engine marketing, SEM is a method of devising your marketing strategy around search engine traffic.  Everyday, millions of web surfers are relying on search engines to find what they need whether its software or airline tickets.  The key to SEM is determining your niche market before you actually start marketing.  The niche market is the people you are looking for, potential customers that have a keen interest in your particular product or service.  You need to figure out where your ideal customers are located and most importantly, how you are going to use the search engines to attract them to your site.  It is critical to determine these factors in advance because delving into marketing without a sound strategy usually ends in failed results.

On the surface, SEM appears to be a strategy that calls for you to limit yourself.  After all, why restrict yourself to a niche market when your product or service can benefit almost anyone?  Despite how it looks, SEM is actually the exact opposite.  This method has been so successful because it qualifies your visitors by automatically disqualifying those who are not interested in your offerings.  Although this particular strategy is web-based, the goal is the same are any type of marketing plan – find the people who are looking for you and convert them into customers.  On the web, reaching this goal is about knowing how they go about searching as well as where they hangout online.

Thinking Outside the Box

While SEM is primarily based on leveraging traffic from the search engines, you don’t have to limit your marketing efforts to Google.  When optimizing your website for a niche audience, you are better assuring the possibility of generating traffic consisting of potential customers.  This can be increased by bringing in visitors by way of special invite.  These are people you find in discussion groups, blogs and other social networking communities.  Whereas traffic from the search engine is likely to stumble across your site and many others like it, these are visitors who took you up on your invitation.  They come in pre-qualified and very interested in what you have to offer.  When utilizing genuine SEM tactics and going beyond the basics, you have a much better chance of bringing in the traffic looking to find you.

Digital Realty Trust Honored by Datacenter Dynamics

Digital Realty Trust Inc. took home the “Innovation in an Outsourced Environment” award at the Datacentre Leader’s 2008 Awards.  The firm received the honor for the Turn-Key Datacentre it recently delivered to IBM to support the expansion of the company’s web hosting business in France.   Digital Realty Trust was presented with the honor on December 17, 2008 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.  The annual award ceremony is hosted by Datacenter Dynamics which also hosts a number of educational conferences for experts involved in mission-critical IT facilities.

Benared Geoghegan, Digital Realty Trust Senior Vice President, expressed what an honor it was to receive the award and aid in the project with IBM.  The completion of the new Turn-Key Datacentre in Paris, France provided IBM with the ability to eliminate a large capital investment and meet the financial and technical requirements for the project.  The award further proved Digital Realty Trust’s expertise in data center design and commitment to its partners.  Geoghegan says the firm was able to make it a successful project by utilizing environmentally sustainable development techniques as well as its industry-leading approach to optimizing energy efficiency.

Originally launched in 2007, the Datacentre Leader’s Awards were created to recognize technological innovation and reward excellence to organizations who specialize in facility design.  The award recognizes entities in London and throughout the entire continent of Europe.  The Datacentre Leader’s Awards provide organizations with the opportunity to showcase their ingenuity and professionalism in the essential data center industry.  Datacenter Dynamics launched the program to not only highlight teams, but individuals who make this vital sector what it is today, proving that it’s much more than sophisticated products and technologies.  Other than offering peer recognition, the Datacentre Leader’s Award also provide the opportunity to display the data center industry at its very best.

Located across Europe and North America,. Digital Realty Trust Turn-Key Datacentre facilities offer state of the art environments to support mission-critical infrastructures.  They are equipped with advanced power and cooling systems, multiple redundancy and sustainable elements to ensure that crucial applications are available and energy sources are optimized.  Each facility is physically secure, equipped with sophisticated power systems and environmental architectures that provide for efficient, eco-friendly operations.  All Digital Realty Trust Turn-Key Datacentre facilities are designed on the firm’s proprietary POD Architecture and utilizes metered energy to ensure that clients only pay for the power they consume.

The recent honor was fitting for Digital Realty Trust as the company is one of the most respected names in the data center industry.  The company is dedicated to providing its Turn-Key Datacentre facilities and Powered Base Building solutions for global clients across a wide range of industries.  Some of its partners include organizations in manufacturing, financial services, Information Technology and internet-based enterprises among other sectors.  This respected firm owns 74 facilities in 27 major markets throughout Europe and North America, each of which provide an infrastructure critical to the operations of its technology partners and corporate enterprise data center tenants.

How to Find Secure Shared Hosting

If you are looking to save money on building and managing a website, shared hosting may be the way to go.  Shared hosting is incredibly affordable these days, so much that you can have a personal or business website for just a couple of dollars a month.   What makes this arrangement so affordable?  With shared hosting, you are literally sharing disk space and various resources with other customers.  This allows the web hosting provider to rake in guaranteed profits while keeping expenses to a minimum.  Shared hosting is very economical but there are some drawbacks to this type of arrangement, mainly security.

The major issue with shared hosting has always been the same – the availability of security and the fact that this platform can only be so secure.  Without adequate protection, the web host’s server is vulnerable to a wide range of threats including DDoS attacks, malware infection and network intrusion.  You could also be exposed to attacks such as SQL injection, cross site scripting and even the malicious actions of your neighbors on the server.  When your hosting environment isn’t properly secured, you stand the risk of losing the most sensitive of information.

Security is definitely an issue in the shared hosting environment, one that could make the low cost an uneven trade.  The good thing is that several web hosting providers are aware of these vulnerabilities and they are taking the necessary approaches to deliver a secure service.  When looking for a company to host your site, we recommend keeping the following security considerations in mind.

Protection from Thy Neighbor

When assessing the security of a particular web host, you must not only analyze the protection offered against outside threats, but security that keeps you protected against other website owners on the server.  You never know who you’re sharing the server with, as they could be into dealing porn, distributing spam or malicious software.  A few of your next door neighbors just might be prolific computer hackers.  To keep yourself protected in this regard, you should make sure the provider doesn’t allow any unsolicited code to be executed or access to your directories.

Clean Code

One of the biggest threats to your website lies in the code used to build your applications.  When they are not properly scripted, intruders can use them as an entrance to your data and reap major havoc.  You can minimize the possibility of common website exploits by ensuring that the web hosting company offers the latest in development tools whether its PHP and MySQL or ASP and MS Access.  Most importantly, it is up to you to make sure you are coding your applications and web pages in a secure manner.

Security Features

There are also a number of features that will give you an idea of how secure a particular web hosting platform is.  This includes protection for the actual server such as software that defends against DDoS attacks and viruses as well firewalls and network intrusion systems to fend off hackers.  If your site is to involve online business transactions, you will also require SSL support to protect your customers’ credit card information.  When making sure all the vital security issues are addressed, you can better your chances of enjoying a smooth run in the shared hosting environment.

The Essentials of E-commerce

You may have been proficient at getting customers to buy products from your store in town, but online business is an entirely different game.  Similar to the traditional business, you must literally build your store yet take a different approach towards drawing in customers and accepting payments.  The essentials of e-commerce should go a long way in helping you succeed with your online business endeavors.

Building the Site

Obviously, creating your website is the first essential step.  There are several tools available to help with this process from simple web building programs to dynamic programming languages.  While a piece of cake for the experienced webmaster, this could present a huge challenge for someone who lacks web design skills.  In this case, you should strongly consider hiring a qualified designer to build your site.  A costly investment?  Perhaps, but look at it from this perspective – it will cost far less than paying the architecture and construction company to build the facility for a traditional storefront.

Collecting Payments

Whether you’re dealing in goods or services, you need a way for customers to select items and take them to checkout.  To accomplish this your e-commerce site will need a shopping cart.  A quality program will allow you to add different products and categories, add taxes and shipping options, accept payment in various methods and more.  When it comes to shopping carts you generally have to options: you can purchase a commercial product or go with an open-source solution.

Open-source shopping carts like osCommerce are widely available and may be offered at no additional cost with your web hosting package.  Such a program will provide all the features you need to set up an online storefront.  The disadvantage of open-source shopping cart is that some are not easy to customize and don’t cater to inexperienced users.  Additionally, stores created with open-source software tend to look very similar to one another.

Commercial solutions are generally easier to customize and offer more features.  This type of shopping cart will provide the uniqueness that allows you to standout from all the other store owners on the web.  The downside here is that a program like Miva Merchant carries a high-end price tag that ranges from hundreds to thousands of dollars.  You also need to make sure that your web host supports the software so it can be easily incorporated into your e-commerce platform.

Selecting a Payment Gateway

In addition to the shopping cart, you will require a payment gateway that enables credit card payments to be transferred to your banking account.  To accomplish this task you can either sign up for a merchant account or use a third-party payment processor.  Merchant accounts have setup fees, transaction fees and strict qualifications.  However, the transaction fees are lower than using a service such as PayPal.  In either instance, the overall cost are typically less when your monthly sales are over $1,000.  Keep in mind that you will also need to secure the payment environment and protect your online transactions.  The best way to ensure this security is with an encryption protocol known as SSL.  You may have to purchase a certificate with a merchant account while PayPal takes care of securing your transactions.

Bringing in Customers

After creating the site and setting up the store, it’s time to generate some traffic and sell your items.  There are many ways to go about this including advertising, getting your visitors to sign up for a newsletter, pay-per-click campaigns and specially crafted landing pages.  Succeeding with e-commere is no easy task, but when laying a solid foundation, you can give yourself a much better chance of making continuous sales.

The Beauty of Cheap Web Hosting

It seems as if everyone is working on a tighter budget these days.  Harsh economics times have not only affected consumers, but also caused several organizations to the rethink the significance of budgeting.  As elementary as it may seem, this presents a tremendous challenge for many professionals.  For most companies, budgeting involves critical aspects such as advertising and promotions, IT resources and general expenses.  Small businesses and large enterprises today both have to factor web hosting fees into the budget as well.

Saving Money on Your Web Presence

Owning an entire web server isn’t practical for every company.  After all, purchasing the hardware is quite expensive and the operation becomes even more costly when considering administrative tasks.  This is where web hosting comes in as it allows you to establish a web presence for a fraction of what it costs to maintain your own internet-based infrastructure.  Web hosting companies give you the power to run your business online while bypassing the cost associated with housing and maintaining a server.  Not only do they provide you with the hardware, but also vital resources such as memory, bandwidth and disk space.  They set you with useful features that allow you to create a dynamic site with relative ease.  You can pay a premium price for such a service or save yourself a bundle by opting for cheap web hosting.

The Evolution of Cheap Hosting

The birth of cheap services can be attributed to the highly competitive market that is the web hosting industry.  Whereas such services were simple and limited in the past, today’s web hosts offer a greater range of options at a price most small businesses can afford.  Although a dedicated server is a totally different environment, cheap web hosting isn’t necessarily limited to a shared server.  For example, you can easily find a VPS (Virtual Private Server) plan at a very reasonable price.  A VPS is the perfect medium in between a shared and dedicated server.  It provides the stability and performance that may be jeopardized by sharing resources with thousands of website owners and a level of flexibility that is similar to dedicated hosting.  Fierce competition in the market has raised the standards of cheap hosting, meaning you shouldn’t have to sacrifice on much of anything.

Cheap Isn’t Always What it Seems

Many people have a misconception of cheap web hosting, believing it requires you to trade features, flexibility and quality of service for an amazingly low price.  This is understandably so, as a number of companies have blemished the market with their shady practices.  Fortunately, there are several outstanding web hosting providers that offer a wide range of features and services to their customers.   Some of the most inexpensive hosting packages will provide you with numerous email accounts, e-commerce tools, security mechanisms and enough server capacity to support the growth of your website.  Can you accomplish more with a high-end web hosting solution?  Probably.  Be that as it may, a cheap alternative can set you up just as well and put you on the path to success.

Assessing the Open-source CMS

Many webmasters have a need to effectively manage content as it enables the creation of large, easy to maintain websites.  The problem is that not everyone can afford the high-end proprietary solutions such as IBM WebSphere and the Microsoft Content Server.  Fortunately, there are also several open-source systems on the market that offer a cost-effective means for achieving the same goal.  This article will shed some light on what you need to look for in an open-source CMS.

For the most part, every content management system is designed to produce the same results.  What mainly sets them apart is ease of use and features.  One product might lack some of the basic features but make up for them with add-on support.  A system that doesn’t have a WYSIWYG editor, for example, may offer support for an add-on module such as TinyMCE.   A product that has a complex interface could be enhanced by modifying the menu system or customizing layout templates.  When it comes to the open-source CMS, it isn’t so much about native features as it is flexibility.  You can access the overall flexibility of a system by viewing it from these angles:

Default Capabilities: The default capabilities of a CMS basically entail what is included with the installation, and determine if you can perform essential tasks without any problems.  When assessing the flexibility of any system, it is important to look for one that offers an acceptable level of basic functionality and provides the structure for creating a dynamic website.

Add-on Support: Most systems support add-on modules so it is up to you to find out what capabilities they possess.  Aside from features, consider how easy they will be to incorporate into the existing system as well.

Templates: Templates are a major part of any CMS as they allow you to modify the look and feel of your content.  If you are proficient with coding, you may want to find a product that lets you write your own templates.  In this case, you would need a system that supports the languages you are familiar with.

SEO: Many content management systems offer search engine appeal right out of the box.  However, not every product does.  Visibility is crucial for a large site so it is best to find a product that enables the easy creation of web pages and appeases the search engines.

Product Recommendations

The open-source CMS market is huge and there are a variety of products available.  Two of the most widely used systems on the market are Drupal and Mambo.  Drupal is a robust system with quality design and clean code.  It comes loaded with exceptional default capabilities as well as templates and layouts that are easily to manipulate.  Drupal is one of the most comprehensive systems available and the preferred choice for many businesses.

Mambo is easy to install and enables the simple management of content-rich sites.  The system includes a number of default features that provide support for multiple authors with little training required.  Both systems are SEO-friendly and support various add-ons for enhanced functionality.  Keep in mind that each product requires that you have a basic understanding of HTML and PHP.

The Emergence of Green Web Hosting

Few ever believed the internet would explode into its current state of popularity.  Everyone from young to old is signing online to surf the web – communicating, shopping and seeking out entertainment.  At the same time, millions of people are creating websites in attempt to meet the needs of visitors across the globe.  A webmaster can’t reach their niche market without servers and the associated hardware found in today’s data centers.  In order to keep the web thriving, providers must use tons of electricity, contributing to the environmental concerns plaguing the earth today.  Data centers are located throughout the world, most of them allowing CO2 among other harmful emissions to pollute the atmosphere.  To reduce data center emissions and help preserve the earth, a number of web hosing companies have opted to go green.

The Power Behind Green Hosting

Green web hosting was scarce a few years ago, however, recently this type of web hosting has come into the limelight.  There are a handful of companies who started off 100% green while others have gradually converted.  Even some of the most widely known providers have made the switch to offer a more eco-friendly web hosting product.  Many begin in the office by recycling waste paper and utilizing bio-fuel for heating purposes.  This leads to the data centers where servers thrive off alternative sources such as wind, solar and geothermal energy.  Some have went out and purchased RECs (Renewable Energy Credits), a certification which assures the company is using alternatives forms of power.

Slowly but surely, the web hosting industry is making the transition to more efficient operations.  There are a few companies that go far and beyond to make sure they deliver green hosting.  For example, Green Web Hosting is one host that encourages its employees to telecommute in attempt to reduce pollutants caused by everyday transportation.  Some run an entirely paperless service to cut back on the unnecessary usage of trees.  Others will actually plant a new tree for each new customer they sign up.  Many of them will also offer discounts to customers who aid in environmental causes with their websites.  Green web hosting emerged from nowhere to become the preferred choice for an increasing amount of people.

Reliability and Performance

There are some who question the performance and overall reliability you receive with a green web hosting platform.  In actuality, renewable energy is proven to be just as reliable and effective as conventional electricity.  Green hosts are successfully running their businesses just as everyone else is.  Like the traditional provider is equipped with electrical backup sources, these companies are prepared to produce renewable energy to keep the operation flourishing.

Is Green Web Hosting for You?

Green hosting is great for obvious reasons but not everyone is ready to convert.  Some are turned off because the price varies and can be more than traditional hosting.  Cost aside, you want to find a company that is reliable and provides a quality service most importantly.  With the backing of a respectable green web host, you can feel good about your role in saving the earth.

How Does Cheap Web Hosting Stack Up? A Closer Look at Your Options

Ever wonder why cheap web hosting is so popular these days?  Well for starters, it provides individuals and small businesses with a means for creating a presence online.  It makes sense – but why go cheap when you can pay for something that is more reliable?  Besides, “cheap” doesn’t have the most appealing ring to it.  Moreover, if saving money is the issue, why not cut your costs entirely by signing up with a free web host?  If you are still struggling with the concept of cheap web hosting, this article will explain why it makes a viable option between free and costly alternatives.

Free Equals Limited

Most free web hosting providers leave you very limited and are not recommended for business purposes.  For example, most of them will litter your web pages with banner and pop-up advertisements in exchange for their free service.  This can be a huge distraction to the people who come visit your website.  Many of them also limit you in terms of ownership.  Sure, they may provide you with a domain, but it is generally attached to their website, leaving you with a name that is both hard to remember and unprofessional.  Last but not least, free web hosts typically provide you with minimal bandwidth and disk storage.  Once you start to generate traffic and popularity for your site, you will eventually exceed the allotted resources and have no choice but to upgrade to a premium package.

More Freedom at a Great Price

The limitations of free web hosting is what leads most individuals and businesses to more flexible yet affordable solutions.  Cheap hosting delivers the features and flexibility you need at a price that is easily within reach.  With so many providers offering service, several companies price their plans considerably low to keep pace in the highly competitive web hosting industry.  Play your cards right and you can find a host offering service for under $10 a month.  It isn’t hard to get yourself a package with a generous supply of disk space, bandwidth and features.  Today’s cheap web hosting services are geared for individuals and businesses, providing email accounts, e-commerce applications and everything needed to open an online storefront.  These plans are widely available so why pay extra for something that could end up setting you back?

Don’t Forget the Essentials

Cheap web hosting offers many benefits but it can also be a disaster if you overlook some of the critical aspects.  Even though you are paying less for service, your hosting account should still come with acceptable customer service and technical support.  Getting answers from the experts is important as your customers will surely be needing an explanation from you if something should go wrong.  Additionally, you should never  go for any cheap web hosting plan that advertises an uptime guarantee less than 99.9%.  Excessive downtime is something you can’t deal with as it is the best way to cripple your web presence.  When knowing what to look for, you can go in on a strict budget and come out with a great web hosting package.