Choosing a hosting company

Here are a few things that I look for when I'm choosing a website hosting company. Affordability, Services and Reputation - these are all very important aspects when it comes to deciding which hosting company to use.

Affordability: how much is the website hosting package going to cost? Trust me when I say that "you get what you pay for" - this is apparent when choosing hosting. You don't want to spend too much, but you might also spend too little. If you spend too little you may not have access to services such as FTP, php, mysql etc... However, by spending a larger amount you are bound to have accesses to these features.

Services: As I mentioned before, website hosting companies often offer such features as FTP, php, mysql. These are only a few features that can be offered by a website hosting company, however there are dozens more. You will have to check the list of included features before you purchase your hosting package. For instance: It is much better to make sure you have access to mysql, when you don't need it. Then need it, but don't have. "It's better to be safe than sorry" - I love these proverbs.

Reputation: is everything when it comes to website hosting, you'll almost certainly find that the largest hosting companies have the best reputation. This is due to them building up their reputation over time by offering great services such as costumer support. I highly recommend that you use a well known company over a less known hosting company. For two reasons, a lesser known company maybe slightly untrustworthy and offer inferior products/services . Whereas, a larger company has their reputation to worry about and will do everything in their power to insure that you are kept happy.

To summarize, when looking for a website hosting company it is important that you keep an eye out for these three aspects. Then again, this is only what I look for, you may have different guidelines to follow. Though, I bet we can both agree that when choosing a website hosting company, you should accept nothing but the best.

by Jayden Smith

Technorati

Technorati Profile

Is eBay working for you?

eBay is the world's largest auction site. EBay is like the ultimate e-commerce store, where else can you set up a shop and have highly search engine optimized pages instantaneously. eBay is definitely one of the online money making opportunity, I'm not so sure about it being untapped though. eBay is also an easy place for unscrupulous sellers to market counterfeit merchandise, which can be difficult for novice buyers to distinguish without careful studying of the auction description.

Auction

Auction-style listings allow the seller to offer one or more items for sale for a specified number of days. Auction pages on the site tend to rank well in search engines for product related searches. In addition to paying eBay listing and completed-auction fees, sellers also could pay eBay a fee for getting an Internet call, or lead, via Skype. When eBay has gone off on its own, such as doing a deal with Christy's for live auctions, its efforts have fallen flat.

Paypal

PayPal, which offers the most popular means of payment on eBay, provides clearing services for the execution of online transactions. Paypal only offers seller protection to buyers from US, Canada, and UK. PayPal also faces several class-action lawsuits from customers who claim the company illegally froze their accounts.

Skype

Skype, the Internet phone business that eBay bought two years ago, recently said it had more customers there than in the United States, and its growth rate in China is faster than anywhere else, Ms. Skype, which makes up less than 5% of eBay's revenue, has brought in $364 million in the last six quarters, equal to 14% of the $2. Skype has nothing to do with the core competency (which admittedly is weak) of eBay. Skype is a mistake for Ebay because most sellers dont have time to chat with everyone except maybe the lonely person selling nine auctions.

Auctions

The majority of people who use eBay under optimize their auctions. The rate of successful auctions -- those that receive at least one bid -- has fallen from 62% a year ago to 56% now. The powersellers on eBay remain leaders precisely because they do little things just a bit better than the average, resulting in a higher closing price for their auctions and more total sales.

eBay is the world's online marketplace; a place for buyers and sellers to come together and trade almost anything. eBay is the world's largest marketplace for rare, discontinued, collectible, or hard-to-find items, no matter what the type or price. Ebay is widely considered the digital flea-market of the Internet. eBay is one of the few Internet companies that shows huge profits quarter after quarter. Ebay is now quite probably the least interesting of the Net's biggest websites.

by John B Galt

10 Simple Steps On How To Make Money Online!

1. Find out what you love to do and if possible link a business, product or service to it so that you will be doing what you love, something you are passionate about.Take baby steps first, learn the basics from an ebook or a workshop, Invest a few hundred dollars first before you jump into more advanced seminars, workshops or coaching.

2. Register a domain name, find a good name that is relevant to the business you are promoting, for free domain names with reliable hosting, go to: www.1and1.com/

3. Get a reliable autoresponder. It is very important to have an autoresponder that gives you an opt-in box to build your e-mail list - your database is your goldmine. It also automates your efforts and it personalizes your e-mail and helps you build and maintain the relationship.

4. Do your market research and find out what people are hungry for? People are basically motivated by pain and pleasure. Find out what are the pain people are suffering from and what solutions you can offer them. Find out what are the pleasures that are attracting people and find out what products or services can satisfy their wants!

5. You can start with free affiliate programs and promote ebooks and softwares for a start and later you may want to move to physical products. For newbies, digital products or services are easy to promote, there are no physical delivery involved, and it is truly business at a click of a mouse, your customers simply pay with their credit card and download the products. Go to: http://www.clickbank.com

6. The foundation of business is made up of these important factors: Integrity, Sincerity, Benefits, Relationship and Value. Go that extra mile to give value and serve your clients well and they will stay with you for life!

7. You offer must be irresistible! That means you offer lots of value and benefits that it will make your prospects feel silly or stupid not to take advantage of it! Be very clear on your USP (Unique Selling Proposition).

8. For a simple global online business that includes domain name, website, hosting and email accounts! Go to: www.1and1.com/

9. Be true to yourself and others and build lifetime friendship with your clients. For free ebooks on how to make money online, go to: http://www.BruceSeah.com

10. Have a question on online business? Send an email to: bruceseah@gmail.com

Getting Started In Ecommerce part 2

When it comes to graphics, be conservative. Sites that are laden with graphics and flash tend to take longer to load. If your site takes more than 3 seconds to do so, you will loose many visitors and potential buyers. If you must use graphics, make sure the files sizes used have been reduced as much as your image editing/compression software will allow.

View your site using as many different browsers as possible. In addition to Internet Explorer and Netscape, there is Opera, Mozilla, Lynx and those are just the ones that run on Microsoft Windows. WebMonkey has a chart of those supported by Macintosh, Unix/Linux and others. Also, many people will surf with their browser’s graphics switched off. Make sure you know what your site looks like without the graphics and that it is still easy for visitors to surf.

One last thought Make sure all your important information is above the fold. If you know that visitors are looking for something specific and you make them scroll down to find it, chances are they won’t.

Excerpted from The PMS Principles - Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business - www.pmsprinciples.com - © 2005 - Heidi Richards

Getting Started In Ecommerce part 2

Your website must load quickly and function easily. If your site loads slowly people will get impatient and go elsewhere. Do all your links work? Have you tested your order page by running sample orders? Have you tested load time using different connection speeds? You can get a fr*ee analysis by visiting Submitplus.com.

Make your website easy to look at and read. I find dark background tend to be more difficult to read than do pale backgrounds. The overall look of your site should be clean and professional. When we were first creating the Women’s ECommerce Association, International we did everything in-house. Not being truly adept at HTML coding we thought we could just use a simple program to create a professional site. It was okay, but the one we now have is so much better. Why? Because we hired a professional. You can create a website with a good template program. We are using ECommerce Templates to create our new look for WUN Publications. It is simple to use and relatively inexpensive.

Getting Started In Ecommerce part 2

FOCUS

Emphasize the benefits and the results the customer will get from purchasing from you and using your product or service. You can discover the benefits by listing all the features and then converting them to benefits. List everything your product or service offers. For each feature list a relative advantage from the customer’s perspective. You can discover the customer’s perspectives when they buy. Simply ask them, “ Why did you place an order today or use our service?” BE very specific when creating your benefit statements. An example of this is, “You will save $100.00 sells better than “you will save money.” “You will loose 20 pounds in 10 days” sounds better than “you will loose weight.” Rank your benefits in order of importance to the customer. If you have enough of them, use bullet points for emphasis.

Emotion sells. People make most buying decisions with their heart and not their head. Paint a picture of the results the customer will get when they purchase from you. “ You will look 20 years younger.” “You will be $100 richer.”

Make sure you include a call to action. Want them to make a buying decision today? Give them a reason to do so. Offer a bribe (discount, bonus, something for nothing).