web hosting

Choosing the Best Web Hosting Solution for Your Blog

Blogging has become a common way to publish content and express yourself online.  This popularity is reflected in the countless number of new blogs that go up each day.  No longer do you have to be restricted on who you to run your blog with because you can easily host it yourself on a variety of platforms.  Before creating your blog site and throwing up your first post, there are some important factors that deserve careful consideration.

What Blog Software Will You Use?

There are many blogging applications available to you, with WordPress, Blogger and b2evolution being among the most widely used.  This is all a matter of preference, but it should help to know that WordPress is the most popular of the bunch.  Supported by a large community of developers and users, WordPress is highly customizable through a vast selection themes, widgets and endless plugins.  Regardless of the platform, you may want to put an emphasis on ease of use as some blogging applications are more complex than others.

Free or Paid Blog Hosting?

When making the decision to set up a blog site, you also need to determine if you want a free or paid hosting service.  Free services are abundant and usually do not force you to litter your pages with third-party advertisements like free web hosting offerings.  However, there are some disadvantages you should know about.  Opting for free blog hosting restricts you in terms of features and control, factors that could possibly limit your potential.  If you want to make the most of your blogging experience, it would be best to purchase an affordable web hosting plan that comes with free blog support.  Being that blogging has become such a phenomenon, rest assured that these services are plentiful on today’s competitive market.

Finding a Host

If you decide that paid hosting is the best move for you, the next thing you need to consider is the company that will be hosting your blog site.  In the past, finding a good web host was a rather tedious process that often left prospective customers worn and frustrated.  Things have changed as more resources are now available to aid in your search.  There are numerous sites online that provide side-by-side comparisons of companies offering blog hosting services.  These sites generally tell you the price you will need to pay for the service and the type of blog supported along with other specifications such as the amount of disk space and bandwidth included in the package.  Review sites also make a good source of information, particularly the ones that offer both expert opinions and feedback from real users.

Technology just keeps moving along but it is hard to imagine an internet and World Wide Web without the blog.  This medium is here to stay and will likely evolve with improvements that make the experience even more worthwhile.  If you can find a web hosting solution that provides adequate support for your specific needs, a blog can give you a viable and near flawless connection to the rest of the world.

Incorporating SEM and SMM into Your Marketing Campaign

Webmasters are increasingly integrating SMM (social media marketing) right alongside their SEM campaigns.  This has become a very feasible practice due to the prevalence of next generation web technologies and social networking.  Let’s take a closer look to find out how an SMM campaign can be effectively incorporated into your search engine marketing strategy.

SEO Outside of the Box

Search engine optimization has long been viewed as the most affordable way to boost rankings, increase traffic and sales.  However, this crucial SEM technique has been heavily underrated in its ability to aid in traditional public relations efforts.  This method can be used to harness the power of press releases, online news rooms and article syndication to encourage organic search engine rankings.  For example, by incorporating URLs or tracking codes into a press release, an SEO campaign can be easily transferred into a vehicle that prompts direct responses while optimizing at the same time.

SMM Avenues

Though SMM is still coming into its own, it is quickly evolving into a popular method and effective component worthy of SEM.  With MySpace and Facebook pages now showing up frequently in search engine results, SEM experts can no longer deny the impact of social media and social networking platforms.  SMM can deliver a wealth of benefits when integrated correctly, including branding.  In addition, popular content syndication sites such as YouTube and Flickr provide opportunities for distributing an organization’s media assets to a larger and much more diverse audience.  The same can be done with traditional content through blog and micro-blogging platforms such as Plurk and Twitter. SMM extends its benefits in so many ways as social networking sites are quite effective for ORM (online reputation management) at the very least.

A Measure of Success

Choosing the right metrics tool is key for measuring the overall efficiency of integrating SMM into your marketing scheme.  The vehicle you choose will help you more precisely gauge your audience and set benchmarks as well.  Traditional media often depends on surveys and focus groups to gather insight on the effectiveness of an add or campaign.  For online marketing, web analytics tools and services have proven to be far more accurate and affordable.  The market for online measurement solutions is growing rapidly, now offering common services that include comprehensive details of search engine visibility, PPC impressions, and most importantly, conversions.  In this model, conversions may consist of sign ups, downloads, lead generation and sales.  It may also include offline activities such as leads tracked via toll-free phone, website address or promotional code.

Marketing Wrap-up

As it relates to SEM and SMM, integrated marketing calls for a company to take advantage of its existing assets and enhance its web presence through increased exposure, leads and sales.   There are many benefits to be reaped when grabbing hold of the two methods and utilizing them effectively.  In the end, this could be the one merger your business needs to climb to the top of the pile and stay there.

A Worthy CMS Battle: Joomla vs. WordPress

Joomla vs. WordPress has become one of the hottest topics around the web.  In actuality, the comparisons aren’t all that fair because these platforms are designed with different purposes in mind.  WordPress is more of a website engine based on the premise of installing the software, running it and publishing basic content in a fast and easy manner.  Joomla is completely different, built for publishing and managing all types of content.  This gives Joomla many capabilities WordPress lacks.

Distinguishing the Two

A good way to compare the two systems would be to look at the fundamental differences.  With Joomla, you can place ten different menus on a web page in any position or style you like.  Much of this can be done from scratch in a few easy clicks.  Its functionality is ideal for multiple users who have their own roles on the site as well as the administrator who needs to control the whole operation with ease.

If it has to be a user-friendly publishing tool for simple content that only requires one administrator, WordPress is the way to go.  This platform covers the blog scene with more efficiency, which is exactly what is designed to do.  It is very useful for attracting search engine bots with features such as ping and tracks, tag capabilities, and optimized URLs.  Though Joomla can be configured to produce clean URLs, it does take a little more work.  The overall theory is that blogs are search engine friendly and WordPress makes up a good portion of the argument.

WordPress as a CMS

WordPress has many beneficial uses but the results aren’t always that good when using it for larger jobs.  When the page count starts to add up in different categories, you may start to experience management issues  Joomla on the other hand, is made to handle such jobs and does it with relative ease.  If you’re looking to use WordPress for something that was created with a true content management system, you could be in for a rude awakening.  This platform will support a couple of hundred pages and basic content but don’t expect more than that.  Try to over do it and you could find yourself spending time on things that wouldn’t have been an issue with the proper software.

The Last Word

If your goals call for a blog or even a more interactive website, WordPress could be a viable option.  This platform is highly regarded as the most streamlined publishing tool available, allowing you to get online fast with little to no technical knowledge.  Joomla is better for managing a larger amount of more complex content.  In the end, an expert user should be able to make the most of both solutions.  With all the available plugins, WordPress can be extended to the point where you wouldn’t know the site was power by a blogging tool.  If this platform can’t deliver the functionality you need, a genuine CMS such as Joomla makes a great choice.  The key is knowing what you need to get the job done and making the right choice from the start.

A Closer Look into Siteframe

If you need a more effective way to manage your website content, Siteframe is one program that may be of interest.  Siteframe is a lightweight content management system that gives you the ability to quickly build community-based websites.  This user-friendly software allows a large group of users to send internal messages, share news stories and photos, participate in community activities and much more.  Siteframe permits this functionality through an intuitive web-based interface in an environment where users do not require experience with HTML or complex server-side programming languages.  Open-source and totally free to use, this CMS is often a first choice of beginners and advanced webmasters alike.

Features and Capabilities

There is a lot that can be performed with the Siteframe CMS.  You can build a corporate intranet application, a blog or even a subscription based site.  Siteframe is capable of dealing with wide range of content from articles and images to polls and custom URLs.  This program enables the creation of a dynamic website that can be easily updated by you, the system administrator or other members of your staff.

The latest version of Siteframe is loaded with features.  Some of the most notable include:

Enhanced security - Prevents community users from running malicious scripts and distributing spam.

Smarty template engine - This popular template engine lets you instantly enhance your site with a number of HTML and PHP-based themes.

Community-oriented GUI – Siteframe’s graphical user interface allows users to create folders that act as blogs and mini websites within the main community site.  Administrators can easily manage each folder while users have the freedom to choose custom templates for their own web pages and folders.

Automated image handling – The most recent version of Siteframe automatically creates thumbnails of photos and also lets you change them to the size of your choosing.  This provides added flexibility when designing pages and managing your content.

RSS support – This feature allows you to integrate content from other sites via RSS feeds.  In addition, Siteframe provides RSS feeds on a per site, per folder or per tag basis, offering enhanced flexibility for sharing content throughout the community.

Ad Hoc pages – This is a unique feature that lets you create items that are not included as a part of the regular user-orientated content.  This could be support pages or legal statements.

Administrative control – You can manage virtually every aspect of your site from the Siteframe administrative control panel whether its viewing reports, editing files or performing routine maintenance.

System Requirements

In order to get the most out of Siteframe, your server must meet the following requirements:

Apache 2.0 - Though it is speculated that Siteframe may integrate well with other versions of Apache, Apache 2.0 is the confirmed and recommended web server platform.

PHP5 - A server equipped with PHP5 is a must for running the Siteframe CMS.  This has to do with many essential features that are not provided by other versions of the language.

MySQL 4.1 or higher – Siteframe thrives off functionality that was introduced in version 4.1 of MySQL.  Though older versions may work, they are sure to lack the database features that make Siteframe such a powerful system.

Content Management with Geeklog

Blog engines are being increasingly used as cheaper alternatives to high-end content management systems.  Aside from cost-efficiency, they also offer a simplicity that allows the most inexperienced user to excel.  Whether you are trying to promote a business or simply have an opinion, the use of a blog is one of the easiest ways to reach out to a large audience

When comes to this type of software, the variety is tremendous.  And while there are many to choose from, one of the most comprehensive of them all is an application known as Geeklog.

What is Geeklog?

More commonly referred to as a weblog publishing system, Geeklog is an fully functional content management system used to build and manage websites.  Per the GNU General Public License, it can be used, modified and distributed freely.  Though it has the ability to create traditional websites, Geeklog is most often used to build content-rich blog and online communities.  This software has exceptional functionality right out the box, but can be dramatically enhanced when incorporating the wide range of add-on modules it supports.  The power of Geeklog gives it more capabilities than most blog engines while the simplicity offers a user-friendliness the average CMS lacks.

The Geeklog Advantage

The blog is all about interaction, a medium that allows you to connect with your audience and lets them communicate amongst each other as well.  With Geeklog, you can create a way for your audience to interact and also grant administrative privileges to multiple authors.  This is made possible by the ability to set permission levels for individual users, enabling you to determine just who is able to enjoy functions such as uploading files, publishing articles, editing content and adding more users to the site.

Geeklog is integrated with several interactive features to power your online community.  Some of the most notable include comment threads, mailing lists and shared image galleries.  The built-in calender gives administrators and users the ability to post information about upcoming events while the reader polls allow you to get a feel for what your audience is thinking.  There is also support for RSS feeds to keep readers abreast on the latest news along with the ability to integrate RSS headlines from other websites into your own page.  This array of features allows you to establish a close-knit community as small or big as you like.  Best of all, Geeklog delivers functionality where you thriving website virtually runs itself.

Geeklog Extensions

The default features of Geeklog are great but this CMS gets even better when extending its capabilities.  Though naturally search engine friendly, Geeklog add-ons help you create more appealing URLs, easily incorporate advertising campaigns, social bookmarking tools and simplify the process of maintaining your content.  These add-ons are easy to install and require little to no programming skills.

If you want to create a dynamic blog or content-rich site, the Geeklog system makes a fine choice.  All you need is a web hosting provider who supports the software that has PHP and MySQL installed on their server.  In most cases, the software can be installed directly through your control panel in a few easy clicks.