Archive for the 'Online Web Resources' Category

Tiscali Broadband

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

What Is Tiscali Broadband?

The name for Tiscali Broadband comes from a village in Sardinia. Tiscali Broadband is part of Tiscali Spa. Their headquarters are located in Cagliari, Italy. Tiscali is a provider of broadband in most of Europe, but they have the most subscribers in the UK. Tiscali is currently fourth in the rank of largest ISPs in the UK.

Tiscali has broadband connections at 1Mbps, and 2Mbps. They also give you a free connection and modem. Another perk is that they will allow you to download as much content as you would like, as they have no limit cap like some other ISPs.

The reputation of Tiscali as an ISP is not very good. The customer service with Tiscali has suffered along with all the other ISPs who lower their package costs to attract customers. Tiscali’s call center, which is located in India, is expensive, inefficient and downright frustrating to use. They offer little real advice, and emailing Tiscali does not seem to work, either. Tiscali sends automated responses that do not solve your problem. People who don’t believe that there are problems with Tiscali customer support quickly find out that it is a major problem. The email accounts at Tiscali are so loaded down with spam that this creates downtime and connection speed issues.

With BT opening their Local Loop phone line network, other ISPs now have the option to use their own equipment instead of BT’s. This has been good for the other ISPs, because they can provide ADSL service cheaper and have a faster connection than in the past. This is how Tiscali has been able to have such competitive prices. Tiscali has set up their own line at each telephone exchange. The problems arise when a number of local residents try to use this small line, which is split among all of them. BT and the other services that continue to use their equipment have the advantage of using larger lines that are connected to the BT network. Tiscali’s choice to set up their own equipment has a result of subscribers finding their connection is slow and their download speeds are also very limited. The speed of the connection for Tiscali subscribers is directly related to how many other subscribers are using the local Tiscali network. Tiscali plans to address this issue in the future, but many customers have become frustrated with Tiscali and moved to other broadband providers.

Tiscali has a Pay As You Go and unlimited dialup access that runs at 56kbps. Their service for this is currently cheaper than BT’s. There is also a package that includes a mid-band speed of either 150kbps or 256kbps. Tiscali offers email, web space, and exclusive downloads and video channels with all their accounts, whether they are dialup or broadband.

Tiscali offers good prices, which is why they are the fourth largest broadband provider in the UK. Their top three packages are very similar to BT’s. They also manage to stay close to their competitors in terms of speed and price.

The only thing that is considered reliable about Tiscali is that they are one of the cheapest options for broadband service. However, subscribers must put up with the poor reputation they have earned with their bad customer service and speed problems.

Robert Michael is the owner of Best Broadband Review which is a great place to find Broadband Links, Resources and Articles. For more information go to: www.bestbroadbandreview.co.uk www.bestbroadbandreview.co.uk © Copyright 2005

Compare Broadband Services

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Ways To Find the best broadband provider for you.

A little effort goes a long way towards finding the best provider. Most things in life take some amount of work. To find the best product at the optimum price takes some research. This is true for everything, including finding the best broadband provider. The first step is being familiar with your needs from a broadband provider. Anyone can say how well a service works for them, but if it is too much or not enough for your needs, it is simply a waste of time. Time and money are two valuable resources that should never be wasted.

It is necessary to get a good idea of what your really need from a provider to get the best broadband provider for you. Make a list of your needs. Decide if you only need Internet service or if you would do better with bundled phone and Internet service. So many great deals exist for bundled type services from companies such as BT broadband, Wanadoo Broadband, and Homecall Broadband. Each of these companies is well established in the UK market. They are eager for their share of the broadband market and each is notable for their services and prices.

Going back to your needs-perhaps you are the owner of a home business? Decide if the service is for a company that you own, or do you have personal home business needs? The answers to these questions will help direct your research efforts to find that perfect broadband provider. And once you have finished with this personal research, you will have a very well formed idea of what kind of broadband package you need. You will not be swayed into purchasing something you don’t need by a fast-talking salesperson. The fact that you have done your research will provide you with a blueprint of what you are looking for in a broadband provider.

Now comes the opportunity to discuss pricing options with the companies that are trying to get your business. Get a list of prices. Then go talk to people who are actually using the broadband services you are thinking about. Avoid the canned information available on the company website. Ask around, talk to your neighbours, friends, and colleagues about the advantages and things they don’t like about the various broadband providers. This is an invaluable way to weed out the providers who have great deals but don’t follow up with the best service.

For people who spend a lot of time on their computers, finding the best broadband service is key for making it a pleasant experience. It could even save you money on things like your phone bill, too. It is always interesting to see people who stop using dial-up for the very first time and try broadband service. Even if it is a smaller bandwidth type of service, the difference in amazing to them. It is very possible that dial-up could go the way of the Dodo bird and become extinct because of the ever-growing success of broadband services. This is becoming more apparent now with the excellent broadband deals available and the affordability of broadband for the average consumer. So it is even more important to stress that finding the right broadband service for you is the most important key to having a great Internet experience.

Robert Michael is the owner of Best Broadband Review which is a great place to find Broadband Links, Resources and Articles. For more information go to: www.bestbroadbandreview.co.uk

Wi-Fi Hotspot Security

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

You’ve set up your Boingo account, you’re hanging out at the Home Turf sports bar in LAX and you figure you’ll do a little business or check your e-mail while sipping a Chardonnay. Well, that’s the point of Wi-Fi hotspots; being able to take care of a few things while in a relaxing atmosphere.

Don’t, however, get so relaxed that you ignore security and give all your confidential information to some unscrupulous hacker. Yeah, you see the guy. He’s over in the corner wearing that fake nose and glasses with the ridiculous Bozo the Clown cap. Yep, drinking a Blatz. Dead give away.

Sorry, they won’t be that obvious, I doubt they ever drink Blatz and very seldom wear clown caps. When you’re thinking back, trying to remember who was around when your password was stolen, you probably won’t remember the woman in the tastefully tailored business suit, and if, by chance, you do, she won’t be the one you suspect. The best defense is to implement some simple security practices and measures that will safeguard your business and personal information.

Hot Spot Security: Simple Stuff

Be aware of those around you.

When you’re considering Wi-Fi security in public places one of the first safeguards is anything but high tech. Remember a few years ago when people were getting huge phone bills because someone was watching as they keyed in pass codes? It’s still happening to Wi-Fi network subscribers. Do what you can to keep prying eyes from your keyboard and screen. You pay good money for your monthly subscription and there’s no reason to let anyone piggyback or steal your credit card number as you sign up for a daily use fee at Starbucks.

Speaking of passwords:

Those of us who toil and travel are prime targets for those who may be of the persuasion to purloin. In other words, it’s quite possible to be targeted for laptop theft. Use a complex password to protect your files, folders and laptop from access by those villains of concourse and lobby.

Don’t Share!

Yes, I know, mothers have been telling us to share for centuries but, at least while using a Wi-Fi hotspot, make sure you disable file sharing. It might be great for the home and good at the office but it’s disaster in the making at your favorite coffee house.

Use a Personal Firewall.

If you’re using a corporate laptop make sure you talk to your IT department before you install any firewalls but if the laptop you’re using is your own let me suggest downloading a copy of ZoneAlarm. There are others of course but, for personal use, since ZoneAlarm is free and seems to test better than the rest I can’t see a reason to recommend another.

Most of the reasons for using a firewall should be self-evident but, to say the least, you’ll want to be made aware of any traffic coming or going and any unusual communication between applications.

Hot Spot Security: Less Simple Stuff

Beware the Evil Twin

Otherwise known as ‘Rogue Hotspots’ or the ’soft AP attack’ this Wi-Fi version of the e-mail Phishing scam is perpetrated by hackers who jam and mimic the signal and SSID of a legitimate hotspot. They then serve up a sign-in page garnering usernames, passwords and, in some cases, credit card numbers. If they go so far as to allow a connection to the Internet they’re then in the position to intercept unencrypted traffic as well as any files open to sharing (Don’t Share!).

There are a few things you can do to protect yourself from ‘Evil Twins’:

  • Don’t set your Wi-Fi card to allow automatic connection to any available network.

  • Check the list of available SSIDs to make sure you’re connecting to the right one.

  • Turn off the ad-hoc mode allowing other clients to connect directly to you.

  • Turn off your Wi-Fi card entirely as soon as you’re finished.

  • Use the personal or enterprise version of ‘AirDefense’, whichever may be appropriate.

  • Although a firewall won’t keep you from connecting to an ‘Evil Twin’ it will help to safeguard your information should you inadvertently fall victim.

Encrypt Confidential Information

Data that’s transmitted between yourself and a secure Web site can be counted on to be safe from the Starbucks Snidely Whiplash so when you’re purchasing goods, or banking on-line, you can do so without fear. When you’re logging onto the secure portion of the site, however, you may be doing so without the protection of security so be careful to note whether or not the sign in page is secured (https).

When sending e-mail there are a few things you can do to safeguard yourself. For example, instead of using Outlook or Thunderbird, take advantage of your ISP’s Web interface which, in most cases, will be secure and should protect your data during transmission.

If you frequently encounter the need to send large files via e-mail then using a compression program will meet your need to reduce the size of the file and most compression programs will also secure the data with encryption.

Another option is to use a free encryption program like Cryptainer LE. Cryptainer LE can encrypt any or all the files stored on your hard drive, protecting them in case your laptop is stolen or compromised, as well as allow you to e-mail them with the security of encryption. Cryptainer PE is also offered for enterprise applications.

Use a Virtual Private Network

Think of a virtual private network (VPN) as a solid conduit, or tunnel, between your laptop and your company’s network. By using a VPN your communications will be as secure as they would be if you were sitting at your desk.

Mac OS X, Windows 2000 and Windows XP have built in VPN clients and if you’re a user of Windows 98, ME or NT you can download the free Microsoft® L2TP/IPSec VPN Client from Microsoft®. If you’re a Linux user you can download the free S/WAN VPN client.

While the use of a VPN is one of the best ways to protect your confidential data when you’re using a Wi-Fi hotspot it is, unfortunately, limited to communication between your laptop and your company’s server. If you want to conduct personal business with similar security levels the best solution may be the award winning GoToMyPC software.

Use Anti-Virus Software

It’s somewhat surprising that so many people are aware of the dangers of ‘net borne viruses and, yet, so many either fail to incorporate anti-virus programs like McAfee & Norton or fail to keep them up to date. When you’re using a public hotspot it’s more important than ever to have anti virus software installed.

Once you’ve got the software up and running make sure that it’s updated on a regular basis and update it anytime you hear about a new virus or a new version of an old virus. If you’ve got an auto-update feature built into your program make sure you take advantage of it.

Conclusion

By following these security measures you should be able to enjoy, with the confidence that your private information will remain private, your favorite Wi-Fi hotspots around the world.

Phil Haley is a technical writer and the editor of Refurbished Laptop Computer Info. For more information regarding buying, maintaining, upgrading or enjoying a laptop computer visit Refurbished Laptop Computer Info where you’ll also find the complete Great Wi-Fi Guide.

What A Newbie Webmaster Should Know About Domain Registration

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Domain Name Registration

Affordable domain name registration was extremely difficult to be found in the past. In fact, all domain name registrars used to charge a flat fee of $70 which was to register your domain name for two years.

Now there has been an explosion of companies that offer affordable domain name registration. Some will register your domain name for less than $15 a year, especially if you are registering multiple sites for a number of years at the same time. Be aware that you may have to have a number of variations of your ideal site name as you often find that the more popular terms have already been registered or reserved for future use.

If you are serious about your online presence then it is essential to consider a bulk domain name registration. The most obvious benefit of having a bulk domain name registration is that your site will appear higher on the search engines. That may be incentive enough but registering as a .net, .biz, http://.co.uk, .la or other domain names too has a far greater benefit which many people do not think about.

A major benefit of having a bulk domain name registration for your site is to prevent the more unscrupulous cyber sitters from piggybacking on the success of your website. Imagine if you could register as a google.au and benefit from the millions of people who use a Google site every day? You see how this could work to someone’s advantage if Google hadn’t performed a bulk domain name registration to prevent this. The extra cost to have a bulk domain name registration can be minimal and there are a number of web domain registrars who offer bulk discounts to their customers.

Wholesale domain name registration is an increasingly popular way for webmasters to register multiple domain names at the same time at a fraction of their individual costs combined. A new marketing technique has been sweeping the World Wide Web recently where webmasters create hundreds of websites with only a small amount of text to attract visitors by keyword searches and wholesale domain name registration has led to this process being simplified.

How To Choose A Shopping Cart Vendor For Your E-Commerce Site

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

E-commerce has exploded on the internet and many successful businesses exist solely on the web. And why not? With a virtual storefront, the overhead costs of running a business are greatly reduced. Therefore, with effective marketing, these businesses can hang on during the difficult early stages of a new business and are less dominated by cash flow while trying to stay afloat.

One of the major reasons for the surge in online purchasing has been the convenience and security of the shopping cart feature on e-commerce sites. The virtual interface of putting things into a ‘cart’ has, at once, a comfortable familiarity and whimsy. It really is an elegant system that has won the confidence of the online shopper through its proven security.

There are many different vendors of shopping cart services. So how does one go about choosing the right one for their e-commerce site?

The very first thing you have to do is to decide exactly what, and how much product you are going to be selling. Are you selling 1 item? A line of similar items? A catalog full of many different products, and if so, then how will your site present this catalog?

What will be your volume of sales this year? Next year? In five years? Some shopping cart services are great for lower volume sales with less product variety and no catalog. Other shopping cart services allow for complex, high volume sales and catalog features.

In terms of cost of the cart service, you need to find the shopping cart option that matches your selling volume.

PayPal offers a fantastic, free-to-set-up shopping cart that is great for lower volume sales. Your fees to them are a percentage of each of your sales. In addition, you can automatically take major credit card payments without setting up credit card merchant services. This saves you $300-$400 right off the bat.

For high volume sales you may pay less going with a shopping cart vendor that charges you a monthly fee rather than a percentage of your sales.

You also need to look at the purchase process the shopping cart service offers. Potential customers abandoning the purchase because they weren’t shown the shipping costs before they were required to give their credit card information, for example, can be devastating to sales. The simpler, clearer and shorter the process from cart to sale, the better. At no point should the potential ciustomer feel that there is a surprise ahead.

Finally, the look of the shopping cart needs to fit the visual theme of your site. Most shopping cart services have several variations on a basic look. Make sure one of those variations works.

Basic services will range anywhere from $10 to $30 per month. Remember to add in the cost of credit card merchant services if you want to accept credit card customers. And this is highly recommended. The downside of online purchases is that the customer must wait for the item to be shipped. Having to wait even longer for a money order to be received, or worse, a check to clear, on top of shipping time reduces the convenience of online shopping to the point where sales could be lost.

Create An Online Business

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Your chances for success are directly proportional to the degree of pleasure you derive from what you do. If you have a job you hate, face the fact squarely and get out. You’ll never achieve real success unless you like what you are doing. Success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind, enjoyment, and happiness ©2006 by Max Steingart Reproduce freely but maintain © notice (which I did)

I fit well here. Although I can only write “Swinglish” (a mix of Swedish and English) I want to share with you some of my thoughts and will do it to best of my ability.

Since I travel between Sweden and America, I have decided that online marketing is the only thing I desire to do for a living – this takes only an access to the Internet.

I have plenty of enthusiasm, I love sitting in front of my computer, sometimes 9 hrs per day and more. So I can say, I am totally committed to my success online, learning and taking another step in this virtual jungle of source codes, html language, javascript, SEO……you name it.

I happen to be a total newbie with some….experience! O gosh!

Through a couple of seminars I got in contact with online business marketers who searched for the affiliate members. I jumped into that opportunity – got equipped with the preinstalled webpages, that I had to manage myself, within their software. It took hours and hours to understand what I was doing, since I was working on my own. And then, kind of half done with it, I asked myself, how do I go about promoting them, indexing them or finding out what the next step was. (And surely I haven’t seen one dollar in sales yet!)

My peace of mind was now gone for ever!

Details, details, doing steps without having a clue as what to do next… Once done with one step I had to go to another and when I went back to the first step, all knowledge was gone….I had to start all over again. My frustration and disability to organize myself skyrocketed.. (By the way, a little hint, I got my domains at Yahoo. The first domain cost only $2.95 additional ones are $8.95 with an assigned e-mail to it. You also receive a guide on how to manage your accounts with them. It was pretty easy actually).

Anyway… I have been living in chaos…yes, sleepless nights. There are many online marketers out there that want to mentor people for big bucks. They call you night and day and almost yell at you for not having this money to bring forth, or for not being able to come up with any credit. And there you sit, desiring to get knowledgeable, but you are still ways away.

Then one day by the recommendation of a special man who`s emails I immensely enjoy, I got this amazing invitation that dropped into my email inbox! A course with over 12 hours of videos and a free 120 pages e-book! Step by step outlined for you. Giving a Big Picture of what you are doing and what it all means. You learn your tricks, one by one. I can aim now at each specific task and hit it exactly as I should! Organized in pedagogical tutorial! I am so excited, I don’t have words for it. My nightmares are over.

So my Dear Reader! Here you can follow your step by step action and the best of all, you can follow videos, hear the recorded lessons and at the same time see the tutorials! It is a well known fact that through pictures and visualization You learn very fast and it stays with you. The way this course is brought to you is ever so intelligent. My energy level went up 100% and the stress is subsiding. So when You read this my Dear Reader, if you can identify with my story or if you ever wondered if it could be for you, give it a try and see for yourself what you can win here.

The best part of it, is that the Course is totally FREE. You get to know the community at the forum where people are very helpful and you will have plenty of chances to ask your mentor who has already gone through all the steps necessary to be successful. And, he is very successful in running online businesses. What you give is your willingness and your real commitment . You sure need to invest time and energy in the first place to make it work for you.

For priceless and truly informative details on internet marketing, go to http://www.internetprofitmentor.com/. Don’t forget to sign up for the free course that teaches you completely and thoroughly how to create your own internet business that creates money and a new successful you. And the true master is the one who creates other masters, is that promising or what?

Yours truly Anna-Maria Backlund

How To Avoid Getting Your Adsense Account Terminated

Monday, June 8th, 2009

Google, being the undisputable leader in search engines from then until now, is placing a high importance on the quality and relevancy of its search engines. Most especially now that the company is public property. In order to keep the shareholders and users of its engines happy, the quality of the returned results are given extreme importance.

For this same reason, doing the wrong things in the Adsense and other forms of advertisements, whether intentionally or unintentionally, will result in a severe penalty, may get you banned and even have your account terminated. Nothing like a good action taken to keep wrongdoers from doing the same things over again.

So for those who are thinking of getting a career in Adsense, do not just think of the strategies you will be using to generate more earnings. Consider some things first before you actually get involved.

Hidden texts. Filling your advertisement page with texts to small to read, has the same color as the background and using css for the sole purpose of loading them with rich keywords content and copy will earn you a penalty award that is given to those who are hiding links.

Page cloaking. There is a common practice of using browser or bot sniffers to serve the bots of a different page other than the page your visitors will see. Loading a page with a bot that a human user will never see is a definite no-no. This is tricking them to click on something that you want but they may not want to go to.

Multiple submissions. Submitting multiple copies of your domain and pages is another thing to stay away from. For example, trying to submit a URL of an Adsense as two separate URL’s is the same as inviting trouble and even termination. Likewise, this is a reason to avoid auto submitters for those who are receiving submissions. Better check first if your domain is submitted already an a certain search engine before you try to submit to it again. If you see it there, then move on. No point contemplating whether to try and submit there again.

Link farms. Be wary of who and what are you linking your Adsense to. The search engines know that you cannot control your links in. But you can certainly control what you link to. Link farming has always been a rotten apple in the eyes of search engines, especially Google. That is reason enough to try and avoid them. Having a link higher than 100 on a single page will classify you as a link farm so try and not to make them higher than that.

Page rank for sale. If you have been online for quite some time, you will notice that there are some sites selling their PR links or trading them with other sites. If you are doing this, expect a ban anytime in the future. It is okay to sell ads or gain the link. But doing it on direct advertisement of your page rank is a way to get on search engines bad side.

Doorways. This is similar to cloaking pages. The common practice of a page loaded with choice keyword ads aimed at redirecting visitors to another “user-friendly” page is a big issue among search engines. There are many seo firms offering this kind of services. Now that you know what they actually are, try to avoid them at all costs.

Multiple domains having the same content. In case you are not aware of it, search engines look at domains IP’s, registry dates and many others. Having multiple domains having the same exact content is not something you can hide from them. The same goes with content multiplied many times on separate pages, sub domains and forwarding multiple domains to the same content.

Many of the above techniques apply to most search engines and is not entirely for Google only. By having a mind set that you are building your Adsense together with your pages for the human users and not for bots, you can be assured of the great things for your ads and sites.

Not to mention avoiding the wrath of the search engines and getting your Adsense and site account terminated altogether.

How I Saved Thousands of Dollars on The Web

Friday, June 5th, 2009

I will tell you of a journey. For me, it started many years ago. Long before I ever had a website, I began this journey. The one thing people need to do before they ever have a website or web business, in my opinion, is to become familiar with the web. How does it operate? How can you find the things you need? How do I avoid those who prey on others? How do I avoid the sick sites of porn and nastiness?

In this quest, I got lost from the start. When I first observed the internet it was a maze of pictures, words, and sites. I did not understand how it all came together. This was at a time when my next door neighbors began a web domain startup company. It was located in a small basement apartment with one server. They even offered web service. This was a dialup with only 14,400 kb speed. Today, this company is big. They have bought out competitors, becoming a major player in the internet business. This provided my important first hand lesson. It shouted out loud that there was money to be made in this business and that anyone could do it.

The next lesson I had to learn was to negotiate the internet. This was not easy. The porn sites, sales sites, and other sites I did not want to visit were everywhere. Soon I learned that in the everyday business of the internet, do not put your email and contact info out. If you do, within a day, you will be swamped in your mail by companies wanting to sell you something. So today, this lesson is still seen. I have a number of email addresses. There is one I never put out in anything on the internet. It is for my close friends and those I want to contact me. The other emails are for my everyday correspondence in the web business. By being careful in putting out personal information, emails, and phone numbers, the risk of piracy is cut down. The bad guys can’t find you if they don’t know you exist.

That was until ’spy software’ came into my life. Overnight while surveying the web through the search engines, ads would pop up on my desk top. If they did not pop up there, it would be while I was surfing the net. Out of nowhere these ads would offer me everything and tell me how much I needed them. Then I got some ‘malicious’ spy removal tools, and other ’spy software’ from MSN. Then these bad guys started disappearing. Now, only those things I want are on my desktop. I also avoid sites that have too many popup or sales ads. These are annoying and don’t serve any purpose.

I managed to learn quickly that by going through my ‘options’ on the internet explorer in the tools area, that those sites I deemed bad would not be visited. I could limit the cookies these sites wanted to gather, and even visit only certain rated sites. The cookies tell others who you are and where to find you, which was one thing I did not want. Some sites, however, would only operate with cookies. I allowed cookies only for the reputable sites with security and validation. By doing this, and putting the options on my email to high, the porn sites and other garbage on the net stopped flowing in.

Now in the course of my journey I have not made a million dollars or even thousands. But by being careful and learning about the web, I have managed to save myself thousands. I have done this by watching where I put my information and how it is handled by others. Being careful to go to sites where their security certificate is validated by my software is a major boon. No one wants the secret information like social security numbers and the like to just float around cyber space like a satellite around the earth.

I have also saved thousands of dollars by learning web master duties. I literally became a crazed person going through seventeen hundred lines of script for a tiny error so it would work. This was done by first buying a WYSIWYG editor [What You See Is What You Get] editor. A good one comes from Microsoft, another one comes from Serif, and there are many others out there. The first site I did was simple and was just a template on a web host site. I experimented and made myself learn html. To me it was Greek, but with persistence I learned it. Then I started up my WYSIWYG editor and developed two web sites. These were not the best, but hey, I was learning.

Today I develop websites, write script, and generally know my way around a website. This is because of persistence, and learning from others. I do not use others to do my websites. Over time pushing myself to learn code, php, html, java, graphics, and other web related items, I have managed to save myself many dollars.

>From the start to where I am today, the web has been fascinating and also frightening. It has been my friend and my foe. But over time I learned how to navigate by search engines, develop links to my sites, promote my site, and do some business on the web. I learned to avoid porn and garbage sites. Along with this lessons on security came to the forefront and saved me from losing ‘privacy’ to others. Given time and persistence, you too, can save dollars and learn how to manage the web.

A Simple Guide to Web Hosting

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Personal Computers, Servers Or ISP?

You need a server to host your site so that it can be viewed over the internet. This server can either be an Internet Service Provider or of your own. Most websites are hosted by an Internet Service Provider because they can provide powerful server hardware, high speed connections and reliable server support.

Most providers have very fast connections to the Internet such as a full T3 fiber-optic (45 Megabytes per second) connections which is about 1000 high speed (56 Kilobytes per second) modems combined.

For those who are looking to set up their own servers and host their own websites, a personal computer is often not powerful enough to do the job. As the name suggests, a personal computer can hardly handle multiple visitors to your website- servers are needed to handle these visitors simultaneously.

Getting Your Web Hosting

There are thousands of companies that offer web hosting for your website. Which to choose and what to look out for? With the multitude of features and terms in each hosting plan, it can be puzzling for those who are just starting out. The golden rule in choosing your website: Nothing beats reliable web hosting. Many web hosting plans offer more space, more benefits than others. The decision to your web hosting should be based on reliability. We have seen too many disappointed website owners who chose benefits and space over reliability.

Leslie Boey works in an Australian Web Design and Internet Marketing company (Australian Seo and Web Designs Services). His life revolves around websites; providing full-time and freelance seo services to US and Australian businesses. Email: maintenance@definiteweb.com

Pre-Qualifying Your Audience

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

A lot of people design their business websites to make direct sales. That’s great, but in some cases such an approach is not appropriate.

For example a small service-oriented business like a landscaping company or computer repair service is more likely to use a website as a prospecting tool. Likewise, many network marketers are using their websites to build their contact list or promote some type of free e-zine.

If you are using the web to gather leads for your business, it is crucial that your site is a very clear representation of what you have to offer a prospective customer. This will save you loads of time and frustration in the long run, and will result in higher backend conversions.

It’s best to seek a business relationship only with those people who want specifically what you have to offer.

There may be hundreds of people selling the same product or service as you. But it’s a safe bet that you are not 100% identical to all of your competitors.

Perhaps you charge slightly more or slightly less for a particular product. Or maybe you have a radically different approach to rendering a given service.

Give your prospects as much information as possible about how you operate, what you charge, how they can expect to be treated, what you are unwilling to do in terms of scope of service, etc. Ideally, you want to capture clients who are a great fit for your individual business philosophy.

If you are intentionally vague with your promotional copy, you might end up doing business with people who don’t like you or your methods of operation. Of course this is going to happen, but you can eliminate some of the headaches associated with poor-fit clients by pre-qualifying your audience.

Tim Whiston - EzineArticles Expert Author

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Tim Whiston is a full-time entrepreneur and internet marketer. He publishes a monthly ezine, has written multiple e-books, and assists small businesses in his local area with the development of a web presence.

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