The Freedom and Flexibility of Colocation Hosting

Online business owners usually require various services to keep their endeavors operating smoothly and supply the tools and resources needed to continually create new websites and online business opportunities. Web hosting is such a service, as it is the first thing that is needed by every webmaster. In essence, you need access to the web server if you want to host a website on the World Wide Web. However, some people choose not to utilize a conventional web hosting plan, and instead purchase their own private web server. Once the server is purchased it must be stored in a safe area that has an ideal environment for server operation, which is low in dust, has a continually maintained temperature/humidity index, and maintains constant airflow to the server at all times. Web server owners also need to consider the safety of the server in terms of vandalism, theft, and other forms of hardware damage. Fortunately, colocation hosting is a web server storage service that keeps your web server safe all times.

What Is Included with a Colocation Web Hosting Plan?

In essence, a colocation hosting plan is simply a service that allows you to store your private Web server in a data center that is connected to the Internet via multiple high-speed connections. Thus, the colocation hosting plan you will receive access to state-of-the-art facilities, a fully customized private server rack for your Web server’s, multiple connections to the Internet, automatic server backups and redundancy, and (with some more comprehensive plans) technical support. All collocation web hosting plans include 24-hour security, and the facilities are protected by both digital surveillance and state-of-the-art fire extinguisher systems. Without a co-location hosting plan you be forced to store your private Web server in your home, office, or in a storage space (none of which are an ideal location for an operating Web server).

What Are the Advantages of Colocation Hosting?

The main advantages colocation hosting is the safety and stability it provides for your Web server, giving you access to facilities and stability that would otherwise be unobtainable without spending millions of dollars. For a nominal monthly fee you’ll receive full support from trained technical staff, and your Web server will be stored in environmentally controlled server rooms. Many colocation hosting providers also ensure the web hosting equipment, so that if your Web server is damaged in any way while it is being stored at the facility it will be replaced immediately. Colocation hosting providers also make automatic backups of your entire Web server on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, in order to provide complete redundancy that will ensure your websites are online at all times.

Freedom and Flexibility of a Colocation Hosting Plan

Perhaps the most appealing advantages of colocation hosting is the ability to do whatever you would like that your web server in terms of software and hardware configurations. Regardless of how many web servers you own, or what type of operating system you prefer to use, you’ll be able to do it all collocation hosting, as you are not forfeiting your ownership of the web server. By having complete control over what your web server you can eliminate many of the conventional limitations and restrictions placed on bandwidth, disk space, databases, and other aspects of server expansion.

Seo-Friendly Links with mod_rewrite

Apache’s mod_rewrite module solves several typical Search Engine Optimization (SEO) problems. It is a module which provides a powerful way to do sophisticated url manipulations. Not only can mod rewrite be used to avoid duplicate content, redirect moved urls or non existing inbound links, and create search engine friendly urls. It can also be used for to gain higher PageRank and search engines rankings, get your web site indexed by the search engines, and receiving more visitors. Here are some the most popular url manipulations.

Avoid duplicate content

RewriteEngine On
# Redirect non-www to www.
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.example.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]
# Redirect direct requests for "anything/index.html" to "anything/"
RewriteRule ^(([^/]+/)*)index\.html http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Redirect relocated URLs

RewriteEngine On
# Redirect relocated old urls to the new urls
RewriteRule ^oldpage\.html$ http://www.example.com/newpage.html [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^directory/oldpage\.html$ http://www.example.com/directory/newpage.html [R=301,L]
# Redirect relocated directories to the new directories
RewriteRule ^olddir/(.*) http://www.example.com/newdir/$1 [R=301,L]

Redirect non-existing incoming links

# Get the requested URI, query string and hostname.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(/[^?]*)([?].*)?$
RewriteRule . - [E=myUri:%1,E=myQuery:%2]

# Replace hmtl, htlm, and thml file extensions with html extension.
RewriteCond %{ENV:myUri} ^(.*)[.,](hmtl|htlm|thml)$ [NC]
RewriteRule . - [E=myRedirect:yes,E=myUri:%1.html]

# Replace comma(s) or multiple filetype delimiter periods in the url
# with a single period.
RewriteCond %{ENV:myUri} ^(.*)([,.]{2,}|,)((s?html?|php[1-9]?|aspx?|pdf|xls).*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule . - [E=myRedirect:yes,E=myUri:%1.%3]

# Remove invalid trailing characters
RewriteCond %{ENV:myUri} ^([/0-9a-z._\-]*)[^/0-9a-z._\-] [NC]
RewriteRule . - [E=myRedirect:yes,E=myUri:%1]

# Remove trailing punctutation
RewriteCond %{ENV:myUri} ^(.*)[._\-]+$
RewriteRule . - [E=myRedirect:yes,E=myUri:%1]

# Do the external 301 redirect only if needed and the resource exists
# at the corrected URI.
RewriteCond %{ENV:myRedirect} ^yes$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}%{ENV:myUri} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}%{ENV:myUri} -d
RewriteRule . http://www.example.com%{ENV:myUri}%{ENV:myQuery} [R=301,L]

SEO-friendly URLs

For example, your urls look like this:

http://www.example.com/widgets.php?cat=blue&page=1

Obviously, you want to transform it into something that look like this:

http://www.example.com/widgets/blue/page1.php

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^widgets/(.*)/page(.*)\.php /widgets.php?cat=$1&page=$2 [L]

Keeping Your Website Free of Malicious Scripts

Most webmasters understand the importance of protecting their personal computer from viruses, as a compromised operating system is the first security flaw that often leads to stolen hosting credentials and hijacked domains. However, many people aren’t aware of the fact that web servers that are responsible for hosting sites can also be infected with malicious scripts rather easily. Although web hosting providers take all the necessary precautions to ensure that this does not happen on a regular basis, it remains rather common, especially for webmasters that utilize cheap shared hosting services. When a website is infected with a malicious script or virus it can be impossible for visitors to access pages, as their antivirus software, or the integrated protection included within some search engines such as Google, may automatically notify them that the page is high-risk. To prevent loss of traffic due to such an occurrence it is important to follow the tips below to keep your website free of malicious scripts.

Create Routine Backups

The first step in protecting your website’s data from being affected by malicious scripts is to create routine backups. By doing this you can effectively eliminate the possible negative repercussions associated with having your site infected, as you’ll be able to instantly restore it to the state it was in before the security lapse. Some malicious scripts are specifically designed to erase data on the server, while others give the hacker access to the server and allow them to “deface” the site by placing their own content on the home page and other pages. Fortunately, within your control panel you’ll be able to use the backup utility to backup your entire portion of the web server or a specific website individually. In addition to storing these backups on your local hard drive, it is recommended to have redundant copies stored on external media like a USB flash drive, external hard drive, or even an online file hosting service.

Utilize Reputable and Powerful Hosting Plans

It is well known that the most reputable hosting providers are the most secure, and have the most qualified staff to deal with security issues 24 hours a day. If you choose to utilize a cheap form of web hosting, such as plan that operates within the shared hosting environment, you’re placing your website at a much higher risk. This is because with shared hosting you are sharing a web server with dozens or even hundreds of other webmasters, and if one of their sites becomes infected with a malicious script and proper safeguards are not in place, it is possible for the script to become “contagious” and begin spreading to other sites on the server. In fact, this is the most common cause of websites being infected with malicious scripts.

What Do Malicious Scripts Do and Why Is It Important to Avoid Them?

Malicious scripts can perform a variety of functions for the hacker, including gaining administrative access to a server or site by installing a fraudulent login page that collects the credentials of the website owner, defacing the site with embarrassing or inappropriate content, installing spyware, adware, or viruses on the computers of individuals that visit the site, and simply causing site downtime and loss of sales for competition. If you do not take the proper precautions and deal with a web hosting company that is known for providing top-notch security, you could experience a significant loss in sales and reputation.

Expanding Your Client Base by Marketing to Businesses Owners

A large client base is the key to becoming a successful web hosting reseller, and is usually the most difficult step in establishing a successful web hosting business. Every other aspect of reselling is covered within the control panel of your reseller hosting account, including site/hosting plan creation. To solicit a significant amount of clients you’ll need to put in some hard work and creative thinking. The best way to increase profit margins and ensure continual residual income is to target demographics and audiences that are relatively unsaturated and inexperienced in the Internet industry. Thus, targeting store owners and service providers that operate local businesses is the best way to bridge the gap between your online services and the real world.

The Advantage of Targeting Physical Business Owners

By targeting people that already own businesses, you can guarantee that your target audience already has an interest in expanding their marketing outreach. As a self established hosting provider you can meet this need by offering comprehensive website creation/promotion/hosting packages that will streamline the process of placing their business on the World Wide Web. Business owners also have a lot more money to invest than the typical audience, and many of them are inexperienced when it comes to online operations. Since your target audience will not be familiar with typical hosting prices and protocol you’ll be able to demand a higher price than you would if you were to target online customers instead.

How to Find Prospective Clients

The first step in finding a group of prospective clients is to browse through business directories, as these databases are full of business owners that are already trying to market their services. Ideally, you’ll want to target business owners that do not already have a website or hosting plan. You can do this by searching for the business name in Google; usually any business that does not have an online presence will not appear within the search results. After conducting these simple steps you’ll have a two-tier prospective client base to target – one group of business owners that are trying to market their services online and already own website, and another group that are trying to market their services online and do not own website. Although you’ll probably receive higher conversion rates from the latter group, both will bring sales if your services are promoted properly.

Properly Promoting Your Hosting Services

Most business owners are more susceptible to custom sales pitches than predesigned sales pages. This is because they like to feel as if they are important and valued before spending their hard-earned money on your services. Thus, while it is ideal to create a web hosting site that advertises all of the main features of your web hosting packages, it is also wise to approach each business owner with individual selling points that are based on their specific industry. For example, you could approach an owner of a bicycle shop and tell them how beneficial it would be for their shop to be listed in various online directories and to have their own professional website that can effectively target tourists and generate additional income.

A Look at the Box Content Management System

Box, a leader in cloud storage, recently released a new enterprise content management connector that is integrated with its storage platform. Aptly named, “Box’s ECM Cloud Connect”, the software was developed in conjunction with EntropySoft; a company that helps enterprises extend the reach of their systems through a link to Box’s cloud storage platform.

Improved Access

The main premise of this collaboration is to provide improved access to content between employees through mobile devices, tablets, netbooks, iOS and Android software. This new service allows companies to seamlessly transfer content between Box’s cloud storage system and an in-house enterprise content management system. For instance, if an employee transfers a photo into a folder on a laptop, it will also appear on a Box software-enabled iPhone.

Link to Other Systems

ECM Cloud Connect currently links Box to over 40 other systems including popular content management systems like Microsoft SharePoint and EMC Documentum. The software basically allows users to create, modify, share and access files from any location, at any time on any device supported by the software. This is the definition of total integration technology.

The initial Box software provided a cloud platform for the storage and sharing of data with the ability to access that data from a variety of devices. However, the platform lacked one specific component; a connector which linked it to enterprise content management systems. This is where EntropySoft entered the equation.

Reluctance to Change

Through business analysis, these two companies discovered that most organizations already have a content management system and use them for records management, workflow and asset management. Therefore, they are hesitant to abandon their current system and migrate all their data to a cloud-based platform. Cloud Connect allows them to keep their current system and reap the benefits of cloud computing.

Compliance Policies

Additionally, Box assists with compliance and corporate records-management as well as archiving policies for all content on their storage platform. Utilizing Cloud Connect software sanctions new, existing and future customers to synchronize content between Box and the 40 in-house content management systems.

Applications Marketplace

Furthermore, Box boasts a unique applications marketplace with over 150 partner applications like Google Apps, Salesforce and NetSuite. This expands the amount of flexibility and customization that accompanies the software.

The Cloud Connect software is an excellent addition to Box’s innovative products. This highly-necessary product will take those in all industries one step closer to being a fully integrated unit of communication and information.

The Continuing Price War among Web Hosting Providers

The latest release of budget web hosting providers shows Netspaceindia offering monthly hosting for the low, low price of $1 on the Linux operating system. This monthly package is equipped with 500 MB of disk space. For most businesses this is not nearly enough, however, for any startup company or personal website, this is one of the best deals available besides free hosting.

Based out of Nasik, India, Netspaceindia is widely regarded as India’s fastest growing web hosting provider and domain Registration Company. Established in 2004, Netspaceindia has been providing users in India and other countries across the world with a variety of web hosting types including:

• Windows hosting
• Linux hosting
• Reseller hosting
• VPS server hosting
• Dedicated hosting
• Tomcat hosting

In 2011, Netspaceindia has found a way to offer the most basic services at $1 per month. With this package, webmasters can host a single domain, have 10 email accounts, are granted 500 MB’s of disk space, can utilize 2 MySQL databases, are able to utilize cPanel control panel software and can access around the clock customer support with instant activation. There is a small fee for the customer service.

The executives at Netspaceindia boast that their main priority is to deliver a reliable web hosting product and offer support to their customers to ensure they will succeed in the internet game. The Linux web hosting deal for $1 provides enough disk space to initially create and run a website. However, this will not last long and users must upgrade. Luckily, Netspaceindia has a plethora of upgrade packages that are affordable and provide a variety of features.

Every month you read about a web hosting provider that is lowering their price to beat the competition. Well, Netspaceindia is doing exactly that. At $1 per month with basic features, the price almost cannot get lower than that. Of course this is a marketing ploy to draw customers in and have them upgraded as their website grows. However this is simple capitalism and a great way to increase the number of clients.

Although their $1 Linux hosting plan does not offer much, do not judge the company solely on this. That plan is their most basic and the company provides a variety of other service and monthly plans chalk full of features. If you are looking for a web hosting company to start a site, try Netspaceindia and work through their many hosting plans.

Nimbula Director Released to the Public

Nimbula Director is an in-house cloud management system similar to Amazon EC2. Developed and launched at the end of 2010, Nimbula Director announced the public availability of the Nimbula Director Cloud operating system in addition to a free, functional enterprise version with limited scalability.

This software allows users to administer in-house as well as off-site resources guaranteeing the flexible and efficient utilization of data centers. The platform is solely based on Nimble’s cloud operating system which provides users with easier management of public and private cloud systems.

Due to the excellent innovation of Nimbula Director, it delivers scalability and flexibility. Therefore, users will experience the following features:

• Self-monitoring
• Zero touch installation
• Layer 2 networking provisions
• Federation to public clouds
• Distributed layer 3 firewall
• Self-service provisioning

With the self-monitoring function, the software will manage any failovers without the need for human intervention. This will free up time for information technology professionals for being required to maintain and manage the system so they are able to focus on development and implantation of innovative ideas.

Zero touch installation employs Nimbula across multiple servers including those that will be added in the future. This automated function installs the software and sets the configuration on new systems without the need for human intervention.

Layer 2 networking is provisioning guarantees resources are allocated to separate, individual users as they are entered into the system. Federation to public clouds provides a controlled association with public cloud servers like Amazon EC2. In turn, this permits limitless scalability options as users can draw from other sites resources.

Distributed layer 3 firewall protects users with security that is independent of network configuration, geographic location or topography. Finally self-service provisioning allows users to easily amend resources, create and launch instances all well reducing the need for interaction with information technology departments.

Although so many useful features are provided with this program, Nimbula Director is offering free of charge licenses for deployments fewer than 40 stations. For those organizations requiring additional licenses, an annual subscription is required which includes maintenance and support.

Nimbula is a promising new piece of software that can greatly benefit small to medium sized businesses for free. Many of the development team worked on the Amazon EC2 project; therefore the software is robust due to its roots. Add in free software for a limited number of stations and a software winner is born.

Conventional Web Development Vs Content Management Systems

Creating user friendly and informative web pages is perhaps the most important aspect of being a successful webmaster and online business owner. After all, visitors come to your website for one of two reasons only – to find useful information or resources, or to possibly purchase a product or service. Either way, you’ll need to ensure that site navigation is simplified and user-friendly in every way possible in order to maximize conversion rates and turn site visitors into customers and/or long-term clients. Of course, there are several ways to accomplish this; you can create basic HTML web pages, or you can utilize a content management system to automatically generate template-based pages that can be quickly designed and changed within a user-friendly backend interface. If you’re having trouble deciding which method would be most effective, consider the information contained within the following paragraphs.

Saving Time and Money

The above statement is somewhat redundant, as time actually equals money in the busy world of e-commerce. By utilizing a content management system rather than manually creating HTML pages, you not only save a lot of time (which directly equates to profit), you’ll also eliminate the need to pay a professional programmer to provide ongoing assistance and maintenance. You can easily invest the amount of money saved into new websites and online business endeavors, which you’ll have more time to promote as you’ll no longer have to go through the tedious outsourcing or coding process associated with creating HTML web pages. In fact, the content management system like WordPress it is possible to create an entire website within just a couple of minutes using predesigned templates.

Overall Site Performance

By using a CMS you’ll not only save time and money, you’ll also increase your overall web development capabilities and enhance the functionality of your websites in general. Content management systems can be expanded instantly with the addition of plugins, which are basically extensions that improve existing functionality or create new features within the user interface of the CMS. These plugins can aid in a variety of webmaster tasks, including search engine optimization, content organization, and even automated website promotion. Not only will your capabilities as a webmaster be improved, but the capabilities of your visitors in relation to site navigation can also be enhanced. For example, content management systems allow you to add widgets and sidebars that make  site navigation and browsing a more enjoyable experience.

Customization Capabilities

Content management systems allow you to use templates that automatically change the design of every page on your site, without changing the content of the pages. Thus, it is possible to customize your site to your likings by repeatedly applying different templates and previewing them within the backend interface of the CMS. You can even tweak individual themes by going into the theme editor of your content management system and making slight adjustments to the CSS stylesheet. Alternatively, you can utilize one of the many user-friendly theme design applications available, which let you utilize drag-and-drop and point-and-click functionality to create your own custom themes.

Google Docs Improving Social Commenting

Google recently released an enhancement for their Docs feature called “Discussions” in addition to the announcement of a new not-for-profit program. Discussions is an enterprise collaboration extending the comments feature within Google Docs. This enhancement combines the following important features:

• Structured discussions
• Time stamping
• Profile pictures
• @ mentions
• Unified stream discussion
• Email alerts

If the discussion stream becomes too large, comments can be archived as opposed to deleted. This ensures no information that may need to be accessed at a later date is lost or missed due to deletion. At this moment, the Discussions feature is only applicable to newly created documents and will not be applied to existing files. Discussions is currently available to all users with personal Google accounts and Google Apps customers.

Bundled with the release of Discussions is the announcement of Google’s new nonprofit program which is based out of the United States. The primary objective of the program is to assist U.S.-based nonprofits with reaching more donors, raising awareness for a specific cause as well as improving management operations of the organization. Basically this nonprofit program is helping improve other nonprofit programs.

According to Alfred Spector, Vice President of Research and Special Initiatives, Google has learned that many nonprofit organizations in the United States need hands on assistance with the optimization of Google’s many tools. Therefore, the Internet tycoon is attempting to provide that assistance.

There is another helpful feature working in conjunction with the program: Google Nonprofits Marketplace. This connects various organizations with certified providers that are offering their assistance for free or at a discount. In 2011, Google is looking to help nonprofits make a positive change to the local and global community and is excited about being available for support. Those that work for a nonprofit can apply to see if Google can help.

In 2011 Google is attempting to make serious changes to the way in which they do business and others help the world. By continuing to add features and upgrade the many software programs Google implements, the entire world will continue to become closer and more connected.

Since Google is such an industry giant, it is commendable for them to take corporate social responsibility and apply that to those that help others in crisis. It is unfortunate more large corporations do not have Google’s heart to give back to the community that supports them.

A Review of Social Commerce Trends

Aggregate Markets teamed up with Webtrends to develop and publish a study that examined the effect social networking and mobile sites have on regular website traffic as well as the rise of Facebook commerce by several leading online retailers.

The White Paper Report

The report entitled, “The Effect of Social Networks and the Mobile Web on Website Traffic and the Inevitable Rise of Facebook Commerce” analyzed unique visitors to websites of Fortune 100 companies in addition to their associated Facebook fan pages. The result is an interesting industry trend.

The Comparison

By comparing brand websites with corresponding Facebook fan pages across a three to five month period, 44 organizations revealed that 40 percent had higher traffic their Facebook fan page than website. The study was then split into two categories: e-commerce and non-ecommerce which disclosed these same companies have lost approximately 25 percent of unique visitors.

The number of Facebook fans has significantly grown since the platform’s conception. There is a noticeable distinction on Facebook between businesses that are engaged in e-commerce activities and those that are not.

In general, non e-commerce brands have more Facebook traffic than website traffic when compared to e-commerce brands. Webtrends believes this is due to the common misconception that Facebook marketing is unproven for online retailers; therefore some brands do not choose to invest in this medium.

Reliability of the Facebook Platform

This begs the question: Is Facebook a reliable platform for e-commerce? Since Facebook has proven to be constantly selected over regular non-ecommerce websites, traffic continues to find fan pages. However e-commerce websites also continue to generate traffic. Therefore, as the report suggests, it is only a matter of time before Facebook catches up with traditional websites.

Therefore, to answer the previous question, yes it currently is a reliable platform for e-commerce. However, due to the stigma from marketers of the reliability, traffic is not quite booming. As Facebook continues to expand, online retail professionals will witness the value of the platform thus beginning e-commerce at fan pages.

This report does not completely prove that Facebook will become the king of e-commerce. Instead, the report provides evidence that Facebook is here to stay and businesses cannot ignore its power. Given the industry, Facebook can be a significant advertising mechanism. For those that understand there is an entire world outside of a single website, Facebook e-commerce is a significant step.

Securing Windows for Web Hosting Safety

Although the current state of the global economy is prompting many business owners to cut costs in various areas of business management, no expense should be spared when it comes to securing your web hosting plan, especially if you are an online business owner that relies on the Internet for full time income. Many people don’t realize that hackers usually intrude the operating system of a webmaster’s personal computer with a virus (such as a key logger) before retrieving the login credentials of their hosting account. Fortunately, it is possible to completely secure the Windows operating system within without spending a lot of money or time in the process. The following tips should help you secure Windows to protect your hosting operating system from intruders.

Initiating Automatic Updates

Windows provides automatic updates for their operating systems, which include important security fixes. Without these updates the operating system is essentially incomplete, and there may be many exploits in existence that could be utilized by hackers to gain access to the user interface of your operating system. Although web hosting providers do an excellent job of encrypting data and protecting your web server from being intruded, without antivirus software and the appropriate Windows security updates your personal computer could be vulnerable to hackers. Thus, the first step in securing the Windows operating system is installing a robust antivirus software and ensuring that automatic updates have been initiated.

Using Generated Passwords

Hackers also use powerful software that is designed to continuously send and receive requests from web servers in order to guess a password through trial and error using databases of existing words and number combinations. The effectiveness of such software, also commonly referred to as brute force hacking tools, can be significantly reduced by using automatically generated passwords, which are far more random, complex, and difficult to guess than actual words and number strings. Password generators can be found on many websites online for free, and web hosting providers usually offer such tools as well. Ideally, you’ll want to use a randomly generated password for your personal computer’s operating system, and your web hosting account. To remember the password it is recommended that it be stored in a secured location on external media within an encrypted file (this encrypted file should use a password that you’ll remember, as it will contain your generated passwords).

User Settings and permissions

There are also various user settings related to the security of the Windows operating system, which can be adjusted according to your preference within the control panel. Unfortunately, the majority of webmasters are not familiar with these administrative preferences, so it is not recommended to adjust security settings without first researching the topic. Perhaps the most important aspect of user settings is the permissions granted to each user. By restricting the capabilities of each user within your Windows operating system, you can prevent employees and/or other members of your household from downloading malicious software accidentally.