The Most Important Web Hosting Tips and Tricks
The investments in a website might often involve large amounts of money, often reaching 5 figures. However, regardless if you have a highly complex website or a personal web site, there are a few things that you want to know for sure. The hosting provider should guarantee a server up-time of over 99% and you should also have a backup server in case the main server has problems - these are essential requirements for any web hosting services company. FTP and email access should also be discussed and there are a few other details that you want to be certain of before you make a commitment.
A little shopping around can pay off for you in cheap web hosting and design services, especially if you’re building a business web site. There are several web hosting services that offer all-in-one design and hosting services starting at $9.95 a month for a one page business card site to $50 a month for a 9-10 page full service catalog. Some require a commitment of 12-24 months, though they’ll only bill you the monthly fee up front, and all require that if you leave their web hosting service, the site design belongs to them. If the web hosting company is otherwise dependable, reliable and offers all the bells and whistles that you need, an all-in-one package can be a great way to get a professional design at cheap rates.
As a novice who doesn’t understand all the web hosting jargon this can pose a problem. Are you an individual, small business, blog, or a big time corporation? What do you need and how do you get it. You know you are a customer and a person, not just a number on a sales receipt. I believe the hosting companies are the same. A smaller hosting company will probably treat its users with more honest integrity as well as having more flexibility in dealing with your individual situation. They can often tailor web site packages to accommodate exactly what you are looking for as well as the ability to update them quickly when your needs change. My advice is to contact a few of the smaller companies. Look for ones with good reputations or just arbitrarily email them and compare results from different places. Which one do you feel most comfortable with? Go for it; ask as many questions as you can, see how the different hosts differ in their answers. Try one; if it doesn’t work out try another, it’s really easy to move around. Don’t be afraid, you’ve got nothing to lose except the fear itself!
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Why Use Professional Web Site Designers For Your Next Web Development Project
Probably you know someone who has created a web site all by himself or herself. So if they can do it why use a professional at all? Can’t you create your own business or organization’s web site in your spare time and without the services of a professional web site designer? The answer is probably, yes. But following are some reasons why it may not be a wise idea for you.
Many non-professionals use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web page creating software. While this kind of software is nice in that it’s similar to working with a word processing program, many of these programs don’t write “valid” HTML code. The problem with invalid HTML code is that while the page may look fine on some browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.), it may not look even acceptably good on some other browsers or even on different versions of the same browser. HostTycoon designs web pages that WILL validate according to W3C validations specifications. (Try using the W3C Validation Service to test a web site that a non-professional has designed and see the results.)
For most of us, time is a precious commodity. Is it better to take the time away from your business and other activities to learn how to create and maintain an effective web site? You need to decide if you have the time to follow through on these necessary parts of web site design:
- Learn HTML coding (it requires more than just wysiwyg web editing software)
- Learn how to use the various software packages needed to:
- create and edit web pages
- scan or otherwise create graphics
- optimize graphics
- upload pages to the host
- run telnet sessions
- decipher raw log files to analyze traffic to your web site.
- Learn good web design principles - design your pages so they load quickly, are easy to navigate and do well in Search Engine queries
- Learn where to go and how to obtain a domain name
- Learn what to do with the web pages once they are created - where they go and how to get them there.
- Obtain several types of browser software to test your web pages for browser compatibility/validity.
Saving money is the main reason most would consider designing their own web site. But by designing their own, are they really saving? It’s takes a substantial monetary investment to purchase the necessary software to create a professional looking web site. It also takes a considerable amount of time to learn how to use the various programs effectively.
Many business owners don’t have that kind of time to spare and are usually better off investing their time in what they know best - running their business.
When a professional web designer is hired the customer receives the benefits of their business experience, artistic talent, technological skills and the expertise to help you establish a effective, highly visible presence on the Internet. They will work with you to analyze your competitions’ web presence - their strengths and weaknesses. Using that research they will construct your web site based on your business strengths and the weaknesses of your competition. Your web pages will be built to load quickly, be user friendly, appeal to your target audience and encourage repeat visits.
HostTycoon (http://www.hosttycoon.com) is a web design, web hosting & IT services company. We are a creative and very cost-effective business solutions provider for medium businesses and organizations.
Tags: design, development, e commerce, it services, o, site, Web, web design, web development, Web Hosting, web siteA Website of Your Own
What could be better than owning your own little piece of Cyberspace? To have the thrill of telling all you know to “e-mail me at me@my-website.com!” It is such a thrilling thing to be in complete control of your very first website. Akin to owning your first home.
I’m serious, let’s explore the two for a moment.
First you test things out, you see this wide world and decide to try exploring it. You go out and you make contact with others and get to talking to them. (Log into a library or school computer and enter chat rooms)
Now you’re hooked, you don’t want to have your parents or friends driving you around you want to be free to explore. You buy your first car! (First computer - YES! Now you can put whatever YOU want to on it! Oh a flame paint job! Yeah!) Okay as much fun as buying your first car was, and as much fun as souping it up was, that was not all you got it for. Time to get out there and explore!
You go out and get yourself a thankful of gas and go cruising. The world is a big place though, so you quickly start familiarizing yourself with how the highways are laid out, grab a road map or two and set off exploring. (Figure out what all those dot things are.. You know .com .net .gov .edu. Then you run off and find a search engine [road map] and set off exploring.)
This is kind of nice so you decide maybe you might like to get your own place. Just to try living on your own a while, you know, see if you like it. Your first apartment! (Free website space) Ahhhh this is the ticket! No one telling you how late you can stay up, no one complaining about the feet on the coffee table. This is the life until you get tired of that blinking Neon sign outside your bedroom window (Banner ad across the top of the page) Or the limited number of colors the landlord said you can paint with (limited selection of templates) and worst of all them damn neighbors who keep calling the cops whenever you turn the music up enough to hear it (VERY limited bandwidth and/or site traffic allowed).
Living on your own is not quite as wonderful as you had first thought. Too many restrictions cramping your style and in more and more places, you can’t even get mail delivered (no-email service) so you have to go get yourself a Post Office box! (separate e-mail account)
Okay, this is just not working. Your style is too cramped. What do you do?! Buy a place! That’s it! If you own your own place then you can do pretty much anything you want (within reason). That annoying neon sigh could be YOURS! (your banner ads), you could invite all your friends to a party at your place (your own blogging site!), heck, you could even set other poor saps up in low-rent places on your property and make them put up with your annoying neon sign flashing in *THEIR* bedroom windows!
But where to start?
Well, in the real world you would probably start with a Realtor in Cyberspace you start with a hosting company.
This is where you get the pages on which to create your world. Where you set up your home, your store, your museum, and invite others in to see what you have to share. Where you place your work and share it with the world. When you get your site the first thing you want to do is add stuff to it how? Well, you can generally get design help from your hosting service, or, if you’re like me, you can dive in and try to build that world yourself. I suggest that unless you are familiar with site design (or go with a site like PlatonicSolid.info that has easy to use ‘what you see is what you get’ site editors) you bypass the headaches (and there are a LOT of them) and have someone build the site to fit your dreams. However you decide to build your site, you will find a pride to be had from pointing your friends and family to your own little section of Cyberspace.
Sandra Fikes is a freelance writer living in Alaska.
Her website can be found at Phantascene.com
For more Articles and information, on the Internet and Writing, check out her blog.