Web Hosting

Content Management Systems and Business Collaborations

Content management systems are robust server side web applications that facilitate the quick and easy management of web sites. However, many people overlook some of the benefits that content management systems have to offer. A good CMS can be used for many purposes, including but not limited to uploading, organizing, editing, and publishing content. Aside from the content management aspects of a CMS, there are also features that allow you to change the design of your site as well. Within the past few years a new type of content management system has been born; one that expands the boundaries of a conventional CMS and allows for business networking that is unprecedented.

Instant Collaborations

Some content management systems, such as Alfresco, let multiple people use the same interface simultaneously in order to work together on business projects. Traditionally, such software has been known as project management software, but as developers continue to expand open source content management systems, the line between project management and content management is being blurred.  With the ability to conduct instant collaborations with multiple workers lets business owners and project managers boost productivity and get more done in less time.

Setting Permissions

One of the most appealing aspects of a content management system pertaining to the management of projects and business collaborations is the ability to set restrictions, permissions and limitations for each user of the CMS. For example, you can create user accounts for each employee and assign a specific task to each persons. When your employees log in they will only be able to execute the functions that you have set in the preferences panel of your content management system. By setting permissions you have the ability to oversee and supervise the project efficiently by ensuring that no one is overstepping their boundaries.

Project Reports

During any project it is important to monitor the progress of your team’s actions. With a good content management system you can create a report of the actions that occurred during the last 24 hours in order to get a clear picture of what needs to be done. You can also receive traffic reports within the content management system, which is extremely helpful when your project involves increasing web site traffic. With the ability to monitor, regulate and control every task and duty performed by your employees, you’ll be able to keep every project operating smoothly, without unnecessary disagreements  or lack of productivity. You can even assign new tasks to people within the content management system as an administrator.

Conclusion

If you are serious about the success of your business, and the projects that are crucial to its success, then you may want to consider the aforementioned benefits of a modern content management system for your next endeavor. With proper organization and the right administrative tools you can accomplish almost anything in a timely and efficient manner. If you do not have access to the right resources, you may find project management to be one of the most difficult aspects of managing a business.

Cloud VPS Enterprise Web Hosting

VPS (Virtual Private Server) web hosting is one of the most popular types of hosting available, with plans starting at prices only slightly higher than that of shared web hosting. However, there is a wide range of plans available, with costs ranging from $20 to more than $200, depending upon the plan capabilities and the hosting provider. In conventional VPS hosting a single web server is split up amongst dozens of webmasters, and each plan holder receives a set amount of server resources. However, there is another type of VPS hosting that is extremely powerful – cloud VPS hosting.

What is Cloud Hosting?

Cloud hosting is a term used to describe the practice of combining the resources of multiple web servers to create a single network in which server resources are allocated and distributed to sites as they are needed. In essence, this gives every web site on the network access to a seemingly unlimited amount of server resources at any given point in time, as they are not limited by the restrictions of a single web server. Cloud hosting is often used by large corporations such as Google, eBay and Amazon. Most advanced search engines like Bing and Yahoo also utilize cloud hosting to deliver lightning fast search results.

How Can I Use Cloud VPS Hosting?

If you own a large online business or dozens of web sites that need access to vast server resources then you may want to consider purchasing a cloud hosting plan. Cloud hosting provides the best possible performance in comparison to any other hosting plan. If you have a large corporate web site that needs to perform optimally at all times then you may want to consider the incredible benefits of VPS cloud hosting. It is important to make sure you are in need of such an extensive hosting solution before purchasing an expensive cloud hosting plan.

Do I Need Cloud Hosting?

If you have more than ten medium to large sized web sites then you may need cloud hosting. Likewise, if you have a single massive web site that contains hundreds of thousand of products, then cloud hosting can help every page load extremely fast, keeping your customers satisfied with minimal server downtime and optimal site performance. It is important to consider the price and capabilities of the cloud hosting plan before making the decision to purchase. If you are unsure about your hosting needs you may want to contact the service department of your current web hosting provider, or call the customer service center of a prospective cloud hosting provider to discuss your site needs. A qualified agent should be able to listen to your needs and recommend a suitable cloud VPS hosting plan that can accommodate your requirements.

Conclusion

With cloud hosting there are no limits to how well your site can perform. When you execute a web search with Google, you usually receive millions of results within less than a second. This incredible speed and efficiency is only made possible through cloud hosting. If you want to give your site visitors the best possible site browsing experience then you may need to consider the aforementioned benefits of cloud VPS enterprise hosting.

Knowing the Value of Your Domain

The domain name industry is expanding rapidly, because there are so many people exploiting this industry it can seem as though every name you request has been taken. While this can seem like a negative in terms of finding the right name, it can actually work to the advantage of those that already own desirable domain names. Sought after domain names are in high demand and often times wear high price tags ranging from the thousand to the millions. If you are one of those people who is in possession of a good domain name then you will want to know the value of your product. The only question is: How do I access information relating to the value of my domain?

What is the Production Level of Your Domain?

Answering this question can be difficult. The fact is, there is no sure fire way to know the true value of your domain. However, there are certain aspects that will make your domain more valuable to consumers looking to purchase it. One factor in value is the production and popularity that a given site has and maintains. In terms of production, a website that yields several thousand dollars a month will obviously be more valuable than a page the only yields a few dozen dollars every month. Despite this, domain prices may still vary and the income level of a site is not the only factor to think about when placing a price tag on your domain. There are even some cases in which a domain that brings in no money will be more valuable than one that brings in lots of money. It is cases like these that owning a domain with a good name will come in handy.

What Gives a Domain It’s Value?

Although the ultimate value of a domain will be up to the person who actually purchases it, there are many ways to increase the value of your domain in almost anyone’s eyes. As has already been addressed, the value of your domain owes greatly to it’s popularity and exposure. It is because of this that search engine optimization contributes greatly to the value of your particular domain name. Buyers will always be more willing to purchase domains that have higher rankings with search engines due to the higher potential for return on their investment. Alternatively, domains with abstract names can even sell for thousands of dollars based solely on their SEO attributes. One other factor in determining the value of a domain is the amount of incoming links a domain has. The more incoming links to a site, the easier it is to gauge the popularity of a website and thus it’s ultimate value.

Basic Economics

While a value can be placed on a domain by the seller, it will ultimately come down to the highest bidder. Even after considering all of the factors listed above, it may be discovered that a domain with what seems to be little to no value can sell for one that is estimated to be worth thousands, all based on the name of the domain. Even though you may feel that your domain is worth little to nothing, it is important to remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And where you view a domain as worthless, others will see a gold mine and be willing to pay good money to obtain said domain.

Administrative Mistakes within a Content Management Systems

Content management systems are excellent pieces of software that perform many tasks. The most important are proper storage of content and retrieval of files in an efficient and timely manner. Blogs and personal and corporate sites all utilize this software for a relief of resources. Content management systems are fairly easy to use resulting in their huge popularity.

Due to the massive amount of information found within a content management system, they are a prime target for malicious attackers. There are five primary mistakes that administrators make within a content management system. These include:

• Password issues
• Poor web hosting
• Insecure plugins
• Liberal user privileges
• Lack of installed patches

One of the most common admin mistakes is using easy or blank passwords. Hackers specifically look for passwords that are easy to crack. Default passwords that came with the installation are simple to crack. To combat this simply change the password immediately following installation.

The second major mistake is utilizing a poor, insecure web host. Hackers look for vulnerabilities within the software as well as the operating system. This creates an easy entrance for them. Unfortunately the issue lies with the web hosting provider and not the admin so there’s little you can do if this occurs. The best method of avoidance is to take preventative measures like conducting proper research prior to selection a provider.

The third mistake is installing insecure plugins. Since most content management systems rely heavily on plugins, they are a huge security risk. To ensure this does not become a problem, find out if the plugin has been thoroughly tested prior to release. Also, remove plugins that are known to have security holes and risks.

The fourth mistake is granting liberal privileges to users. Many users will abuse their privileges and hack internally. The rule is to give users the least amount of privileges possible in order to use the website.

The final mistake is that admins don’t stay current with their upgrades and patches. These were created to patch a security hole. As soon as one is release, it’s advantageous to download and apply it. It’s not necessary to install several patches per day. Instead, be aware of critical updates that may come your way.

Many of these solutions are common sense. Simply take your time and be aware of any potential issues that may occur. Using preventative measures to ensure the content management system is robust will be beneficial in the long run.

E-Commerce Tips: Choosing the Best Font Size for a Website

On an e-commerce website, all font, text, and content should be easy to read, properly formatted and well-presented so the customer is able to make an informed decision about the products the site is selling. Like in any type of business, poor presentation can be the difference between a sale or not.

Small Font can be too Small

One major aspect of good website design and presentation is the font size of the content. The font size is the primary factor as to whether the website is readable and accessible or not. The most important tip is to not make the font size too small. A recent trend is to make the font small which makes the website appear sleek. It also provides more space per page for more content.

Unfortunately this often results in extremely small font sizes. With many platforms besides computers that display these websites, such as cell phones with small screens and projects hooked up to computers, excessively small font will distort the website. This will cause it to be difficult to use.  Most website visitors are extremely impatient so if they cannot read the text, they will move to a site where they can.

How to Adjust the Font Size

It’s correct to set the general font size in the body selector of the style sheet. For example:

Body {

font-size: 100%

}

In general setting the base size for a document to 1em or 100% is the same as setting the font size to the user’s preference. It’s best to avoid sizes smaller than 1 for the actual body of the text unless used with fine print like copyrights.   Once set, other base font sizes can be set by percentage, absolute sizes and relative sizes.

Base Font Setting

The percentage sizing increases or decreases the font size for the new element based on the original size in the main text. Absolute sizes are defined by CSS specifications including xx-small, x-small, small, medium, large, x-large and xx-large.  Finally, relative sizes can be set in either large or small.

Font size can be the difference in a website visitor staying on the page and potentially turning into a sale or leaving. A font size too small can have detrimental effects on the website. Experimenting with font sizes and styles is beneficial, but try to stay close to the default.

Managed Web Hosting for Serious Online Businesses

The success of your online business is directly derived from the amount of time, money, and hard work you pour into it. If you already own an offline business then you are certainly familiar with this concept. It is not foolish to want the best for your website, as this will be your virtual home, and a digital representation of your business. Price should not be an issue when constructing an online empire, as it is important to remember that quality produces success in any venue. However, the main problem people have with web hosting is that the best plans seem to require the most knowledge to operate. For example, dedicated hosting gives you access to a private server with an immense amount of resources at your disposal. However, an unmanaged dedicated hosting plan would be quite useless to most online business owners. The solution to this problem is managed dedicated hosting.

What is Managed Dedicated Hosting?

Having a dedicated web server is almost pointless if you don’t have the ability to use it to its full potential. Web servers require frequent maintenance in order to perform optimally, and unless you have the ability to perform such maintenance yourself you’ll be paying for a hosting plan that is of very little use to you. Managed dedicated hosting offers you complete technical assistance, which means your hosting provider will handle the server administration tasks for you, allowing you to focus on the more serious tasks.

Fully Managed Vs. Partially Managed

Before you rush into purchasing a managed web hosting plan, it is important that you realize the various types of managed hosting. Some web hosting providers advertise managed hosting plans, however many of these plans still require a great deal of maintenance. What some hosting companies consider fully managed may be partially managed in the eyes of other companies. A good rule of thumb is – the cheaper the plan, the less technical support and server administration assistance you’ll receive. If you want an automated server solution then your best bet would be to find a reputable hosting company and purchase their most expensive managed dedicated hosting plan.

The Boundaries of a Managed Hosting Plan

Although you should feel entitled to quality support and superior server administration, there are some tasks that your hosting company is simply not responsible for. It can be easy to blur the line between web hosting and other internet-based industries such as web design and programming. Many people get upset when they find out their web hosting company cannot help them with a certain problem.  It can be extremely frustrating to find out that you’re paying for a top notch hosting plan and there is simply no department dedicated to helping you with your problem. To prevent this disappointment you need to understand the boundaries of your managed hosting plan before you purchase one. It may help to speak with a customer service representative to find out which parts of your online business are dealt with within your hosting plan.

Critical Dedicated Web Hosting Factors for Arcade Sites

Online games are increasing in popularity every year, with more people signing up for flash gaming sites and playing games in all genres. The gaming niche is an excellent source of traffic, because there are so many different sources of traffic due to the wide variety of game types. Almost everyone enjoys playing games fr time to time, which means there is a constant demand for fun games online. Fortunately, you do not have to be a game creator or programmer in order to have hundreds of games on your web sites for your visitors to enjoy. You can find many flash games that can be uploaded to your site online, and the process is usually very simple. However, you will need adequate server resources, which is where dedicated hosting comes into play.

Having Adequate Server Resources for a Gaming Site

Dedicated web hosting is perfect for any site that needs to host a lot of multimedia content such as videos, pictures and games. In order to keep your site operating smoothly you need access to comprehensive server resources such as adequate bandwidth and disk space. Disk space is especially important if you are going to be hosting many games on the site at once. Bandwidth is important because it directly affects how many visitors can play the games at once without the game skipping and poor performance occurring. After all, no one wants to play a game that is constantly skipping, especially a flash game, which is noted for being easy loading and simple to play.

Adding Flash Games to A Website with Dedicated Hosting

Adding flash games to your web site is rather easy when you have a dedicated server, especially considering the comprehensive support included with fully managed dedicated hosting. If you have a lot of games to upload at once then you may want to consider using an FTP client to connect to your dedicated server and upload the content to your site. Once the games have been uploaded to the server you can embed them on your web pages by using a flash embed code to link to the internal location of the game on your server. If you have trouble carrying out this procedure you can contact the qualified support staff of your web hosting provider.

Accommodating Traffic Surges with Dedicated Hosting

One of the most attractive aspects of dedicated hosting is the almost endless amount of bandwidth that is allocated to your web sites. Since the server is only being used by your web sites you do not have to worry about other site and webmasters preventing your site form performing optimally. Thus, you can drive a seemingly unlimited amount of traffic to your site on a daily basis. The greatest aspect of flash game websites is the residual traffic they generate. Once an individual plays your games they will likely return to play them again in the near future. With a dedicated server you can ensure that their experience with your site will be just as enjoyable as it was before.

Online Press Releases: An Effective SEO Technique

Press releases are becoming a popular and effective method for search engine optimization. This technique will increase your search engine results page (SERP) as well as increase your presence on the web. Given this change, press releases should be a part of everyone’s search engine optimized campaign.

The Advantages of Press Releases

The circulation of a press release is an effective way to promote your company and advertise promotions, sales, major news breakthroughs and accomplishments. Journalists, bloggers and websites are constantly searching the web for news content; this is a great way to build backlinks to your site. Once they find your press release, it will be transferred across the global web.

Additionally, a quality press release will result in authority and niche sites picking up the article. This means you’ll have a well-establish, Google popular website linking to your creation thus increasing search results and ultimately traffic.

Methods of Distribution

There are a few methods for distributing press releases. First, try to post to different websites, blogs and other media outlets. Other options include distributing the release to PRWeb or Send2Press. There are different pricing plans to enable to site to upload the press release to multiple social networking sites, news outlets and search engines. These two methods are inexpensive ways of advertising your press release.

Reasons to Write a Press Release

One of the main reasons for creating a press release is for big news occurring at your company, like the hiring of a new CEO. Also accomplishments such as breaking a sales record or winning an industry award should be syndicated across the web. Major sales, promotions and specials are interesting pieces of news that people are interesting in and its good advertising as well as link generation which could result in traffic conversions.

Prior to the Release

Before releasing, you should generate a list of targeted keywords that will help you increase your rank within search engines. Scatter the press release with these keywords but keep the density at the back of your mind. An effective rule of thumb is to use one or two keyword per 100 written words.

Press releases are becoming one of the most effective tools for search engine optimization. Since so many others (including your competition) are utilizing this advantageous method, its time for you to jump on board and start bringing targeted traffic to your site.

An Overview of Hybrid Hosting

Hybrid hosting is a combination of collocation, dedicated and cloud servers through a private dedicated network. This form of hosting allows for standalone components to be run independently or a segment of an overall network. The result of this configuration is greatly increased computing power as well as an improvement in data management due to 100% availability and high-levels of security.

A Comparison with Off the Rack Hosts

Companies across the globe encounter issues that cannot always be solved by traditional hosting methods. For instance, legacy applications that needs their own servers; collecting, storing and managing confidential Government-client data or major spikes in bandwidth, resources, computing and storage. To solve these issues with conventional methods, the network infrastructure would be scattered across many self-managed data centers or a hosting provider for only data or web needs was used.

The biggest problem with this situation is that there’s no connection between these solutions. On the other hand hybrid hosting allows clients to connect a colocated or dedicated server to a public or private cloud computing environment. Clients have the ability to customize and build the specific solution to fit their needs in an economical manner.

The Power of Flexibility

Since business and information technology needs are constantly changing, the infrastructure will also change. Unfortunately large changeovers can lower company growth and lead to lost productivity. Luckily hybrid hosting has an easy, streamlined data migration process that delivers quality in a timely fashion.

Examples of Hybrid Hosting

When a company is working on a new project, they can utilize a cloud VPS on the same platform to test and develop. This can be launched on a private cloud or on a dedicated server. The flexibility eases the testing and development process. Most companies experience seasonal spikes; by utilizing a cloud enterprise system for additional computing resources, the client can scale up or down with the simple click of a button.

Additionally when regulatory concerns arise; a dedicated server, private cloud or colocation environment can be created to store the data and communicate with a cloud enterprise system. Finally, when disaster strikes the system infrastructure can be duplicated to a secondary data center to guarantee the security of critical applications and programs.

Hybrid hosting is the best of all three worlds. It offers excellent flexibility, security, scalability and speed compared to the traditional hosting channels. As this technology improves, hybrid-type hosting will become the norm thus surpassing the older methods.

The cPanel Advanced Menu

The cPanel software offers so many options that users have complete control and full customization over their website. The advanced menu within the interface provides a few important features that all website owners should learn and utilize in their website development.

The features in the advanced menu include

• Apache Handlers
• Image Manager
• Index Manager
• Error Pages
• Cron Jobs
• FrontPage Extensions
• Network Tools
• Support Requests
• MIME Types

This option allows you to add and run Apache handlers which control the way the website is managing the Apache web server software’s file types and extensions. The Image Manager provides three tools that help with the management of images on your website. The Index Manager is important as it permits the configuration of the directory index. This is the appearance of the directory to the users while viewing.

Error Pages are some of the most important functions to add to a website. When users receive an error, if your customized page is not displayed, it defaults to the web hosting provider. In turn this confuses the user and may drive them away. This Advanced Menu option allows you to create those customized error pages.

The Cron Jobs option allows you to schedule tasks for a specific time on the server of which cPanel offers two different interfaces for editing. The FrontPage Extension selection is simply to enable or disable this feature. Although Microsoft FrontPage has been phased out, it’s still widely used in the development community.

Network tools are for retrieving network information from the server. The Support Request choice is an easy way to submit support requests as well as change your email address. Finally MIME types allow you to create specific MIME’s which relay information as to how to handle certain file extensions.

The popularity of cPanel is directly attributed to the numerous options and feature-packed nature of their software releases. With so many different options, the user has complete control over the creation and management of every aspect of their website.

As cPanel continues to offer industry-leading software to web hosting providers, their popularity and wide-spread use will continue to increase. Although there are other options available, they don’t offer the same functionality as cPanel software. The advanced menu is not one to be overlooked as it offers many vital options to the success of the website.

Improving Ecommerce with eBay

eCommerce is quickly becoming one of the primary contributors to the global economy, with countless people purchasing and selling items online every day. One of the biggest and most famous eCommerce companies around is eBay, which has experienced phenomenal fiscal growth since its inception more than one decade ago.

The thriving online marketplace provides a venue in which private vendors and retailers can sell virtually any item they’d like, whether it be used, brand new or refurbished. The auction sales environment is perfect for bringing in consistently high profits, because bidding wars often result in items being bought at prices that are above retail cost! However, aside form the benefits of eBay itself, there are many advantages to using eBay as a traffic supplement for your own eCommerce site.

Driving Traffic From eBay

As an eBay seller you have access to tens of thousands of eBay buyers at any given point in time. In fact, there are many cases in which a single item receives dozens of bids, and hundreds of page views in just a few hours. Fortunately, it is possible to use this traffic to your advantage as an independent retailer with your own web site. A service known as Auctiva lets you integrate your online shop with eBay, which means you can drive traffic from your auctions to your actual store. By bringing clients from eBay  to your web site you are creating a client base that will continue to purchase items from you in the near future. However, it is also possible to have store within eBay itself, using eBay’s comprehensive eCommerce hosting solution.

eBay eCommerce Hosting

it was only a matter of time before such a successful eCommerce web site began offering eCommerce hosting plans of their own. eBay founded eBay Stores, their eCommerce hosting branch, a few years back and since then it has experienced exponential growth and great success. With eBay stores you can create you own store within the eBay marketplace, or you can host it on your own we  site. eBay Stores provides unique tools and resources that will help you integrate your store with eBay and your currently active auctions. For example, you can display a button next to your items for sale that reads “view other items likes this.” This button will then bring your site visitor to the eBay auction, letting them buy one of your items from your eBay account if they so please. By funneling traffic to and from eBay you will see a gradual increase in the total amount of daily visitors to your site.

Using Auctiva to Manage eBay Stores

Auctiva is an incredible solution that lets you manage eBay stores within  a centralized interface. There are many advantages to using Auctiva, however the most notable one is the convenience it offers for busy eBay sellers and eBay store owners. Auctiva provides a plethora of store templates, organizational tools, and resources that will make your job as an online store owner much easier.