Saturday 30 December 2017

Email Hosting, Web Hosting, Hosting Guides, Hosting Learning

Email hosting has been around for a long time. Not many may be aware of it, though, since most email users rely on free email services like Gmail, AOL Mail, and Yahoo! Mail. Businesses and professionals, however, may want to look into email hosting as it can possibly have some impact in the field of business. What changes are expected to affect email hosting in the year 2018? If you are planning to get email hosting in 2018, what do you need to be aware of? 

Why Get Paid Email Hosting?


Before anything else, it’s important to understand why there are those who want to have their own custom emails. Why would they want to abandon feature-rich and tested email services like Gmail? The reason mainly boils down to the following: credibility building, branding, and being in full control.

Businesses and professionals want to be taken seriously. Having an email address that bears the company’s domain name is one of the ways perceived to boost credibility. This is but logical considering that getting a domain name and a web host is not free. A business that invests in its own email hosting is most likely one that is seriously doing business.

On the other hand, having an email address with a suffix that is the URL used of your business website is a good way to make it easier for people to remember your business. It’s one way of subliminally promoting your brand name.

Moreover, having your own email system guarantees that you have full control of it. Running your own email server with your own domain may not be a simple process; but doing so gives you full control of your email. This means you get to decide on the amount of storage you allot for it and on what features to use. 

Advantages and Disadvantages


The advantage of email hosting, basically, are mostly summarized by the reasons for getting email hosting discussed above. It’s about establishing credibility, furthering your brand name, and being in full control.

When it comes to the disadvantages in running your own email server, there are also a number of them to bear in mind. For one, email servers are complex. The usual email server involves the use of several software components. The more functions you want, the more software you will have to deal with. These include the mail transfer agent, mail delivery agent, IMAP or POP3 server, as well as the antivirus and spam filter.

Additionally, maintaining an email server takes time. You need to continuously monitor the rules set for your spam filter and virus protection system. Also, you have to ascertain that all your software components to make sure that everything is working properly and that your system is adequately protected.
These advantages and disadvantages haven’t really changed that much over the years. In 2018, these will be the same advantages and disadvantages you have to weigh as you make your mind up on whether or not to get your own email system.

Things to Look for in an Email Hosting Service in 2018


If you decide that you really want to have your own email server, don’t forget to check for the following features. 

● The Necessary Protocols - To have email flexibility, the email hosting company you choose should be able to provide IMAP/POP and SMTP access. IMAP and POP (also POP3) are protocols needed in accessing emails. IMAP is generally regarded as the better protocol since it is great for accessing emails through multiple devices, something most email users are likely doing. As emphasized by UK email hosting provider LCN, “IMAP is the preferred way of getting mail across desktop, tablet and smartphones.” With POP, emails are downloaded to a device and the server copy is deleted, so only one device can access the emails received. SMTP, on the other hand, is required for the delivery of emails.
● Security - Needless emphasizing, your email system should be secure. As such, you must find an email hosting service provider that comes with virus protection and firewall features. It’s also an advantage if the email hosting service provider provides TLS encryption.
● Spam Protection - This is a basic feature email hosting services should include. See to it that the spam protection system provided is reliable and efficient.
● Email Filtering - Different from spam filtering, email filtering is the ability to organize or segregate your emails according to rules you set. This feature lets you sort emails as you receive them or sort emails you have received as you deem fit.
● Customer Service - As mentioned, setting up and maintaining your email server can be a complicated and tedious process. You don’t want hiccups or glitches making things even more difficult especially if you are handling everything by yourself. You need to make sure that your questions, complaints, and concerns will be promptly addressed. 
● Other Features - Other features worth considering are autoresponders, email forwarding, and webmail. Autoresponders allow you to send automatic replies to emails you receive based on certain triggers. Email forwarding is a feature that lets you forward the emails you receive in one email address to another email address you own. This means you don’t have to switch to a new email account if you want to get emails using a different email address. Webmail, on the other hand, makes it possible to access your inbox using a web browser, which is basically what happens when you use the web-based interface of free email services.

Decent email hosting companies can provide most of these features. Regardless of your location or the location of the hosting company you choose, most companies provide similar services. You can find a UK email hosting service provider, for example, with a package that includes TLS encryption, autoresponders, email forwarding, spam filtering, a user-friendly control panel, webmail, and 24/7 support.

In 2018, the features mentioned above can be considered essential, especially if your intended email users are accustomed to the features being offered by popular free email services like Gmail. For the sake of comparison, here’s an enumeration of some of the top features of free Gmail: email forwarding, spam filtering, encryption, webmail, POP3 and IMAP, and the ability to install plugins. You can install an autoresponder plugin to Gmail as well as the ability to send emails according to a schedule (the Boomerang plugin, for example). Perhaps, the only thing it notably lacks is the ability to add your own domain name. It would be good to use these features as your guide as you evaluate the features of the email hosting service you are considering.

Is It Better to Just Use the Enterprise Versions of Free Email Services?


It can be said that if you want to avoid the complicated processes and tedious maintenance of maintaining your own email server, you can just use the enterprise/business version of free email services you have already been using. This way, you can change your email address to one that bears your domain name without having to go through the tedious tasks of setting the server up and doing maintenance.

There are some email hosting companies, though, that can help you set your email server up with ease. If you find a company that provides competent and accommodating technical support, along with a good range of features, it may not be that difficult to set things up and maintain your own email server.

Thursday 28 December 2017

E-commerce, Web Hosting, We Hosting Guides, Web Hosting Learning

Reliability and customer satisfaction: two important things that every business owner should always keep in mind when it comes to selling online. With buyers being more careful in terms of online shopping, make sure that your online store provides a pleasurable experience to buyers and this will keep them coming back. The first step towards having a user friendly e-commerce website is finding the right web host provider for your site. There are a number of web host plans offered by different companies but it is better to go for one that specializes in the field of e-commerce since they can address your issues right away and work on improving the website if needed.

Here are some important features that must be included in a web host offer for an e-commerce website:

Secure Sockets Layer 


Website security builds the customers’ confidence especially since online shopping presents a risk for fraud and identity theft. Secure Sockets Layer or SSL is an important feature that should be included in a web host plan. This will allow a safe gateway for making payments online. It protects personal and credit card information by producing encrypted data as information is a passed along from one computer to another as part of the transaction process. Remember that in any sale transaction, order and payment processing are two different aspects wherein personal information are often included. Without SSL, there is a risk of having the data compromised during the process.

Web Design


Choosing a hosting package that already includes website design will not only save you time but money as well. Designing a website is a tedious task that involves a great deal of planning. This is to ensure that every detail is being considered and the final output will provide customers with a good shopping experience. A number of providers now offer web hosting packages to make it easier for business owners to launch their online stores with ease and in no time.

Shopping Cart


To make online shopping easier, a shopping cart feature must be present in an e-commerce website. Just like an actual cart, it allows customers to place their purchases in one place and proceed to check out once everything is all set. With a shopping cart, customers can browse through several pages of a website and just conveniently click the shopping cart button for items that they want to purchase. Upon check-out and payment all the items will be processed as one order rather than having to pay individually for each.

Since more and more people are finding it convenient to shop online as it eliminates the drive to a store and the products are delivered right at the doorstep, online stores should step up and ensure that its customer service is excellent and that the website is easy to navigate.

Saturday 23 December 2017

Cloud Computing Security, Web Hosting Guides, Web Hosting, Hosting

Although cloud computing is becoming a household phrase, uptake of this radical new paradigm is to some extent being restricted by security-related concerns. Enterprises especially are reluctant to rely on a solution they don’t fully understand, and one which just might pose security risks.

Regardless of how secure providers profess their systems and solutions to be, the fact is that high profile outages and security issues have dented confidence in cloud-based options, and cloud customers need an insight into the potential difficulties inherent in the cloud. Some basic strategies can though help safeguard companies against possible threats. Here are some ideas on knowing your provider and keeping your cloud-based data secure.

Background Checks


Trusting your provider is key, and key to trusting your provider is trust in the companies your cloud provider trusts. It is all very well doing a background check on a provider, but unless the same background check is done on the third-party providers that underpin a cloud provider’s service, then you really do not know exactly the nature of companies that just might have access to your sensitive data. In particular, establish whether there is a hosting company behind your provider’s cloud, and ensure they have been independently vetted for security.

Provider Performance


If your cloud provider’s basic performance is problematic, they are probably going to have security issues – if they can’t manage a basic cloud service, how much effort are they putting into keeping their cloud secure? Look at a provider’s reliability records. If there are holes, probably best to move on to another provider.

Basic Security Procedures


Beyond checking your provider, some of the basic procedures that companies employed with their more traditional hosting and IT solutions also pay dividends as far as cloud security is concerned. How companies assign passwords, and who to, is just as important in the cloud as it was when you had your own servers.

Updates 


It is great to have the latest and greatest software, but if your cloud provider is going to make changes without informing you, chances are this is going to impact your security settings. And that means the potential for security threats. Establish how your provider will manage updates and get assurances that changes won’t impact security.

Where is the Data?


Unless you know exactly where your data is going to be stored, you have no idea which data laws will apply as far as your data is concerned. Will the US Patriot Act mean the US government will be able to access your data? Or will it be located in the UK and under the jurisdiction of multiple European countries? Find out before you lose out!

Conclusion


So, as you can see, background checks are good - applying the same checks to your provider’s providers even better. Make sure that your provider can manage his/her business effectively, if not, security is probably way down his/her list of priorities. As far as the cloud is concerned, apply the same approach to security as you applied to your server – just who has your passwords anyway? Make sure that a provider’s updates aren’t going to leave you widen open to a range of threats, and most of all, ensure you know where your data is and who might be snooping on you! If you do all of the above, your visit to the cloud could be a pleasant one.

Tuesday 19 December 2017

Web Hosting Guides, Web Hosting Learning, Web Hosting Learn
If you are planning to establish your online business and looking for hosting services then this article may guild you to choose a better web host. First thing that take place for a website it’s the design, and development part however there is a lot of value of your host provider that ensure to host one sites online. Being online of website is not sufficient nowadays however there is some more support given by Host provider that could not be avoided while selecting hosting company. Hare we have listed some of them and should take look before hiring any service-

Secure Transaction – Online transaction is one of the most important factor considering today’s some of host may charge you separately for providing you SSL certificates for your website however it should be included with your ecommerce website.

Software Support – Every hosting provider do not support for all software so ask everything related to software support by company such as My SOL etc. The control panel should be user friendly so client may handle most things from itself. It may save huge time for

Full control – Ask for full control as some non experience host provider doesn’t give your whole control of your site. Another quality is the web hosts' security. Since you will be putting much information about yourself, your account and the information of your client's there, it is important that the website hosting provider is secure enough. With all the skilful hackers out there, robbing client information and using it in an illegal way is not too far fetch.

Secure Servers - As you will be putting much information about yourself such as your account information, it is important that the website hosting provider is secure enough and should not get passed anywhere. Shared hosting ever considered as an unsecured hosting and hackers may harm your personal and important data so ask for an secure server that may secure your data.

Reliable - You can research the background profile of company and the experience on related industry and look for client’s reviews on services. Website hosting company should also be trusted source in market as well know company for their products and services. Check for customer service, technical support, maintains that will give you an idea for getting best deal.

Affordable - On this competition environment one just ask for more affordable service without compromising on quality of services. So now you get the most import point that you can mark any hosting company for choosing them to run once website.

Saturday 16 December 2017

Web hosting remains one of the most misunderstood concepts of the technological world, as many individuals and website owners consider it to be far more complicated than it actually is. By misunderstanding its nature and its purpose, however, they are missing out on a considerable opportunity to develop their online venture and brand.

Web Hosting, Hosting Guides, Hosting Learning, Hosting Materials
Essentially, a web hosting service provides the expertise and support required to ensure that your website is accessible through the World Wide Web. Beyond this, modern service providers are able to offer comprehensive and flexible online solutions, so that your business can prosper in a difficult and challenging economy.

The 5 Leading Myths about Web Hosting


With this mind, what are the top 5 myths that distort the general perception of web hosting? Consider the following: -

◉ Web Hosting is Costly and Unaffordable: While many website owners feel that they can ill afford to employ a web hosting service, the truth remains that they can hardly afford not to. Contemporary web hosting services in fact offer excellent value for money, and allow you to focus on driving the creative aspect of your business while they attend to functionality and accessibility of your website.

◉ Web Hosting is an Inflexible Online Solution: Far from being an inflexible and limited online solution, web hosting is in fact extremely malleable to the requirements of consumers. With a number of alternative options including shared and managed hosting available to website owners, you have the influence to determine how you site is operated and whether it has its own private server.

◉ There is No Tangible Financial Return from Web Hosting: If you consider the core purpose of web hosting, then you will understand that a competent service provider can save you significant sums of money over time. For example, in the event of your website going down or experiencing server issues, you will be able to rely on 24 hour technical support network to repair any errors and restore your website within moments.

◉ Only Those who are New to Online Business Need a Web Hosting Service: There is a school of though which suggests that experienced online entrepreneurs need not concern themselves with the intricacies of web hosting, and that it is only truly beneficial to novice website owners. This is a false perception, however, as placing your trust in a reputable service provider can allow you to focus on the more strategic elements of business planning.

◉ Web Hosting Stops with the Procurement of a Domain Name: Web hosting is a diverse and comprehensive online service, and one which goes far beyond the procurement and registration of a viable domain name. Instead, online web hosting services offer their clients a range of innovative solutions and services, covering everything from technical support to the creative elements of website design and theme.

The Bottom Line

Whether you consider yourself to be knowledgeable about web hosting or not, it can do no harm to refresh yourself on exactly what can be gained by employing a reputable service provider. After all, technological advancement is a continually evolving concept, and one which will forever shift the boundaries of possibility and opportunity.

Thursday 14 December 2017

You can never be a good poet unless and until you are aware of the basics of the literature. In the same way, entering in to the world of web just randomly going with any hosting company is a blunder. In fact, a good host can solve most of your worries. Prior investing on a host, you need to enquire about certain points from him. Here we have mentioned about some of these. Have a look!

Web Host, Web Hosting, Web Hosting Guides

10. Share or Dedicated Host


If you are having a professional intention regarding your web presence, then going with a free hosting is never recommended. They can just make your life sleepless. Yes, being a tyro you may initially go with the shared hosting options. And, as the site grows you can shift for the dedicated hosting plan.

9. No Hidden Cost


Undoubtedly, shared hosting will cost you less and the dedicated hosting a bit more. But, make sure the hosting company involves no hidden cost. Enquire in detail about the bandwidth, storage that they offer with each package.

8. Go Through the Reviews


Go through the reviews, forums, and discussions about the particular hosting company and then make a decision. If the customers have provided the contact number there, you must make a call. Going through the host’s own site is fine; but read different blogs written in a comparative way on it as well. You can get a clear picture through the process.

7. Customer Support


Irrespective of the discussion kind, it is obvious to be a point there regarding Customer service. Reason is apparent. Not every one is an expert in terms of server, hosting, and all those; neither can you guarantee everything is going to be all right for ever. Hence, make sure they put all out effort in solving your queries.

6. If Anything Wrong Happens in Future


It is important to mark that your name is mentioned as the administrator with InterNIC regarding your domain name. The host must register the domain name for you. This is important to stay assured if any inconvenience happens in future with that particular hosting company.

5. Which Others Are Sharing Your Server?


If you are on a shared hosting plan, make sure the server you are sharing is not hosting any porn site. These sites generally affect the bandwidth at a great extent. In fact, you should have every detail about the other sites those are sharing your server.

4. Protection


Protection is the utmost importance of any business, and so with this. Make sure your host offers high-end security arrangements. Ask them about the kind of solution they are having for something like spam, viruses cross site scripting, etc.

3. Prior Going With Bigger Deals


Going through the annual plans might sound lucrative, but sometimes they have turned out to be regretting. Prior going with these long term plans have strict enquiry about what are the conditions if the performance is not up to the mark. On these occasions, ask for money back guarantee.

2. Control Panel Flexibility


Have a clear picture on the kind of server you are going to be functional with, and their statistical impact on your site. If you want full control over the cpanel, then the internet based solution might not be convenient for you. Discuss in detail on these aspects with your hosting company.

1. How Your Company Does Get Internet Connection


Ask the company about the way your host gets linked with the web. If they answer something like UUNET, then be sure the connectivity will be good. T3 (Transmission) line connectivity signals a weaker connectivity. The other ways available for connection are through optical carrier, and digital signal. OC3 connection ensures the best among all.

Tuesday 12 December 2017

As a web hosting reseller, aside of having servers that are connected to the Internet and letting new customers know about your services via a webpage the most critical part of your company will be the set of hosting automation tools you use to manage your customers and your servers and the tools that you give your customers to manage their websites.

Web Hosting Reseller, Web Hosting, Hosting Guides, Hosting Learning

This article is meant as an overview of the kinds of automation tools that are out there for web hosting customers, i.e. web masters and web site owners, and what advantages or gotchas there may be for these items as well as a list of the bare minimum set of tools you will need to run a reseller hosting company.

In general, server management tools can be divided into software suites, like control panels, that provide control over a range of tasks and specialized tools or tool sets for a more granular control over smaller groupings of tasks. Control panels and other suites usually do not control everything in as fine a detail as you may like although they do offer the advantage of single vendor support and interoperability. That is, everything naturally works together and there is only one vendor you need to deal with if something doesn`t work (although this could potentially be a disadvantage as well).

Control Panels


Let`s start by talking about the some of the software suites or control panels that allow a hosting reseller company to get off the ground quickly and easily. Three of the biggest and most well known reseller control panels currently offered are SWsoft`s Plesk, cPanel, and H-Sphere.

Plesk supports both Windows and Linux and handles administration by giving different users different levels of access to the same control panel. Plesk has user accounts for Server administrators, Clients & Resellers, Domain owners and Mail users. If your web hosting provider offers Plesk with their HSPcomplete application this will automate credit card purchases and email notifications for you as well

cPanel`s WHM (Web Host Manager) application can create web hosting accounts and packages, add websites to an account or suspend them, monitor bandwidth usage, park domains, and install SSL certificates, etc. A drop down menu will allow you to go to the control panel for any of your customer`s websites as well as your own.

An upgrade purchase, WHM AutoPilot, will automate account management, and includes helpdesk software and a payment component among other tools.

A downside for some hosting companies is that cPanel doesn`t currently support Windows or Apple (or Solaris) although all of these are in development according to cPanel`s website.

H-Sphere is a difficult control panel to master but offers more options than either cPanel or Plesk. While H-Sphere requires its own server it also allows the administration of sites on different servers from the same control panel.

H-Sphere offers control over separate domains with multi-domain hosting, can automate account setup, credit card purchases, domain registration, and includes a sophisticated helpdesk application.

Going it Alone


If you would like to develop your own solutions you should, as the reseller, at a minimum have an automated way to setup and manage accounts, process credit card purchases, manage websites with the ability to manage by account and monitor and log bandwidth usage and disk space usage per account. Some other nearly necessary automation tools include billing management, domain management, help desk and email notification applications. Your customers should, at a minimum, be able to manage some of their account details and email accounts including the ability to make online payments, manage their files and database, manage some of the aspects of their website, and view their site statistics.

If you are planning on developing your own set of management tools or you are going to add in a few specific tools to patch the gaps left by a control panel there is a highly developed methodology called CRM or Customer Relationship Management that helps companies manage their customer relationships in an organized way that can also be applied to how you think about your automation tools. As an example, a customer database might help Sales to predict their target markets, while being used by the Help Desk for simple information look-ups, while being used by the IT staff to determine the configuration for a server setup based on the customer`s hosting plan, while the Customer could use it to update their personal account information. While thinking about automation and web hosting it`s good to keep the goals of CRM in mind.

Automation Tools for the Customer


Another way to think about hosting automation tools as opposed to thinking of them in terms of control panels or software suites vs. individual tools is to think of them in terms of tools for the web host and tools for the customer. Website and server management tools will contain a lot of overlap for the customer and the web host in terms of what the web host and customer use the tools for. What is different in these overlapping areas of management is the level of rights the user has. Obviously the web host and the customer will have different rights access levels. This is something that needs to be planned for whether you are using a suite or set of individual applications.

Another important reason to divide your automation tools into customer and web host administrator categories is the applications you give to your clients add value to your company. Hosted applications are an area where hosting companies can diversify and be competitive beyond simply offering low prices.

For example, a robust email application that acts like a desktop application through a web interface adds a huge value to your customer far beyond a simple hosting plan. If your customer hosts a small brochure website for their company but is able to replace Outlook with your email platform your hosting company will make more money on email than on the website and you will engender far more customer loyalty. There is no way this customer will move to a cheaper web host without the same kind of email support and even with it they will be unlikely to want to move their email archives, contacts and calendars, etc. without a strong reason to do so beyond a small price break. Following is a list of customer automation tools, most of which can generate profit for a web hosting company by creating a hosted service application, although the items in the list are also areas that need plain and simple management as well. We will leave the subject of hosted applications for now and focus on the items below in terms of hosting automation.

Customer Tools


◈ Account management
◈ Site statistics
◈ Email & Spam
◈ File management
◈ HTML editor
◈ Site Builder Wizard & Web Templates
◈ Site & Directory Security
◈ Database & ODBC management
◈ Web site management (IIS/Apache)
◈ Domain name
◈ eCommerce
◈ Tech support

Account management

From the client-side perspective, your customers should have the ability to manage their accounts in terms of how they relate to your sales, IT and tech support areas of your company. By automating tasks in these areas you can reduce the amount of man hours needed to run your company.

Customers should ideally be able to retrieve forgotten passwords in a secure way, pay for their hosting plan, change their personal details, upgrade, cancel, downgrade their hosting plan, or add/drop web sites or plans to an existing account.

They should also be able to find information about their account in terms of billing, site and domain information, access to tech support and how to use the tools you provide them.

The more automated these tasks are the fewer calls and emails your support staff will have. Also, most people enjoy being able to do things for themselves rather than wait for someone else to do it, for example, a customer`s website that allows users to upload images might exceed their disk space late one night. If the webmaster is alerted instantly and can add more space and pay for it right away through an automated interface and their site then continues working they will be much happier than having to find out about the problem from their customers and then email the help desk or sales about getting more space.

A security concern regarding account management software is that hackers will love fully automated system even more than the customers. Fraudulent accounts can be used to send spam, distribute viruses or host illegal content and without a human being watching over the process your fully automated process makes it easy to do.

Site statistics

Site statistics are important for most companies with a website as a gauge for how they are doing. Without knowing how many hits they are getting on each page, the time users are spending on each page, or what keywords are leading users from which search engines to their site it will be nearly impossible to engage in a serious SEO effort. These kinds of statistics are not only important for marketing and sales but for IT as well. One important feature that shouldn`t be overlooked is a tool that alerts customers when they are nearing their monthly bandwidth allotment or maximum disk space usage. If you let your hosting plan kill your customer`s website they may well move to another host even if it is technically, "their fault". Save your customers from themselves. This is a matter of policy as much as automation as well. By nailing a customer to the wall with a steeply escalating price scale for going over their bandwidth usage in an `unlimited` usage plan you will probably be kissing them goodbye as a customer.

Email & Spam

For many web hosting companies email is the red-headed step child of software applications. It`s there but ignored when this can actually one of the most important tools a web host has for retaining their customers. If a web hosting provider can also provide a company with a hosted email service that feels like a desktop application without any client side software they will keep their customers. Email is a very `sticky` application. Companies will be extremely reluctant to move to from a web hosting provider that can provide an enterprise level collaborative email solution to one that simply provides a mail server. Customer loyalty is low in the web hosting industry and is often determined almost solely on price. This is the killer app that will tie your customers to you. This pertains to hosted applications again which is not the focus of this article but it`s worth noting since it is such a money-maker. On a pure management basis customers should be able to add/manage/delete email addresses and delimit their access rights according to the kind of email you are providing them. This begs for automation and can really eat up a help desk`s time if the customer doesn`t have their own tool to manage this themselves.

File management

Your customers will need a way to get their files to your servers. Whether you go with tried and true FTP or a web based solution is up to you. When evaluating any software or contemplating building your own you may want to consider whether or not the system you are considering contains most of the elements from the Orthodox File Manager (OFM) 10 Commandments list. This is the time again to think about policy. Are you going to allow customers to upload custom applications to the server and how are they going to install them? Do you want to allow them to customize the Linux kernel or install Active X components?b

HTML editor

HTML editors come in an infinite variety of feature sets and prices. The lowest form of editor on the evolutionary scale is Notepad although this classic application still has its proponents while more advanced editors feature WYSIWYG(What You See Is What You Get) and source editing, scripting, hotkeys, integration with FLASH and other apps, etc. Technically, you don`t have to provide an editor and many web hosting providers don`t but it will help you keep your less technical clients if you have a good one.

Site Builder Wizard & Web Templates

Site Builders on the low end are little more than a basic HTML editor with some templates to get started with. More robust site builders offer automated graphics tools, style sheets, automated web blogs and forums, site navigation(menus), upload capabilities, site security wizards, shopping carts, SSL, PayPal setup, credit card authorization and even sales & promotion management tools. These range in price from nothing to thousands of dollars for an enterprise license. An extremely advanced web-site builder will help with less technical customers or customers without a high development budget but may be wasted on customers who have a substantial development staff in place.

Site & Directory Security

Site and directory security is something you will have to carefully plan in terms of how much control you want to give your customers. You will have to balance the risk of allowing your customers a high amount of control vs. having your support staff take time to help your customers setup their security environment.

Database & ODBC management

Database & ODBC management should give your customers the ability to manage their connectivity to a database and to manage the objects in the database itself. Database management tools range from very sophisticated and expensive heavy hitting analysis tools for serious research to tools that are a bit like WYSIWYG editors for web development or have a spreadsheet kind of feel to help beginning users tackle setting up and managing a database. If you are targeting the low cost hosting market the best scenario may be to invest more in a site building tool that will automatically create the database and hide it from your users although you are still going to need an interface for your users to manage tables and rows.

Website management (IIS/Apache)

Depending on your target market you will need to offer a different level of access to your customers for controlling their website. A low-cost shared hosting plan website may need little more than to know the root directory name of their website where a dedicated hosting customer will most likely want full access and control of all the features that are available for tweaking their site. All or nothing control is the easiest to provide because you can either give access or not, where the shades of gray in-between create the most difficulty when you have to find a way to create very granular levels of security. Your technical support staff will be very busy if they constantly have to look after constant small requests from your customers because they can`t do things themselves.

Domain names

Customers should be able to relate the domain name they`ve purchased to the IP address you are providing for them. They will need to contact their domain registrar to help with this as well and is something that is probably more on the `would be nice` list in terms of full automation than an absolute necessity.

eCommerce tools

eCommerce tools will help your customers set up the infrastructure for their online revenue streams by allowing them to manage an inventory of goods and processing credit card and PayPal purchases. This is one of the most important tools to provide your customers for a web host targeting the small business market.

Tech support

Tech support access can very largely determine how your customers feel about your company and its services. By providing easy access to information on how to get things done and even tutorials on how to manage and build a web site with your tools you will greatly lessen the load you tech support has to carry and there is almost no technical overhead in simply providing a well-organized set of information. Email is obviously a must for tech support and chat is a very nice feature for a customer as well.

Saturday 9 December 2017

It's a common scenario: You create a website for your business and choose a Web hosting company that promises to meet your needs for space, bandwidth and customer service, but over time, you become increasingly frustrated as your business Web hosting company fails to meet your needs. Just like a family that's outgrown its starter home, your business now needs a new Web hosting company to call home.

Web Hosting, Hosting Guides, Hosting Learning

You may be reluctant to make the move to a new Web hosting provider, as you anticipate the headaches that lie ahead – especially costly Web hosting downtime. Luckily, you don't have to feel stuck with a Web hosting provider that is not meeting your needs. By following a 7-step plan for changing your business Web hosting company, you can move your website with minimal downtime.

#1: Back-up your website


When you switch to a new Web hosting company, the possibility of problems always exists. Give yourself a safety net by backing up your website. To do this, use your chosen Web development tool (such as Frontpage®) to download all current files used in your website – graphics, HTML files, etc – to a local computer.

#2: Record important information


Don't rely on your memory when changing to a new Web hosting provider – take the time to record important information that you'll need when you make the move. This includes details such as security settings, email boxes and software and configuration information.

#3: Select a new Web hosting provider


Want to make sure you never have to change your business Web hosting company again? Take your time selecting a Web hosting provider that can meet your needs now – and in the event of future growth. Look for a Web hosting company with an uptime guarantee, and make sure that their server can support everything that you are running on your site. When you find a Web hosting provider, create an account - but don't close your old one just yet.

#4: Alert your visitors


Changing to a new Web hosting provider doesn't just affect you, but your visitors as well. This is especially true for ecommerce websites whose visitors may panic upon not being able to find a website from which they recently placed a purchase. By giving visitors prior warning – and perhaps alternate contact information – you can ease the transition.

#5: Load your site


It's best to load your website with your new Web hosting company before dealing with your domain name change. You can do this by loading all your site's files to the IP address provided by the Web hosting company.

#6: Change your domain name record


Update your domain name information with the name server information of your new Web hosting company. If your business Web hosting company is also your domain name registrar, this will be very simple. However, if your domain name is registered elsewhere—or you are not registered as the administrative contact – it will require more effort. Once a change has been initiated, it will take up to 2 days for domain propagation to take place – or, in simpler terms, for DNS servers across the Web to "get the message" that your website now lives on a different server.

#7: Cancel Your Account


Once the domain name propagation period has passed, you can test for issues and -- once you feel confident that everything is in place -- close your account with your old Web hosting provider.

While changing your Web hosting provider requires planning, it doesn't have to be stressful. By following seven simple steps, you can move to a new Web hosting company that meets your business Web hosting needs.

Wednesday 6 December 2017

Web Hosting Business, Web Hosting, Hosting Guides, Hosting Tutorials and Materials
A web host, or web hosting service provider, is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for the website or webpage to be viewed in the Internet. Websites are hosted, or stored, on special computers called servers.

1) Social Networks


You are probably familiar with social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. What you may not realize is that these social networks can be powerful marketing tools, when they’re used wisely. Start by setting up an account for your business on each of the major social networks. Before you start adding friends or soliciting followers, make sure you populate your profile with information about your company, images, and links to your website. As a general rule, don’t start posting promotions right away. Establish yourself as an interesting person to follow. Post links to relevant industry news articles and build a following in the tech community. This takes time but, once you’ve got loyal followers, you’d be surprised how many of them turn into customers.

2) Search Engine Optimization


SEO is a term that is bandied about all over the place these days, and for good reason. The higher up your site appears in searches, the more customers you’ll get. It’s a one-to-one ratio. If you’re not familiar with SEO, head over to one of the many SEO forums and start reading up. It’s not complicated, but improving your SEO is a skill. A good way to start is by using a tool like Google Analytics to see what search terms people are using to find your site. Once you know what people are looking for you can start seeding your site with those terms to boost your relevance in searches. You can also boost your SEO by earning backlinks from other websites in your industry.

3) Backlinks 


A backlink is just what it sounds like: a link back to your site from another site. Backlinks are heavily indexed by Google and a few high-profile backlinks can send you right up the search result list, fast. The more popular the site is that links back to you, the better. Consider soliciting backlinks by offering products or services, or by reviewing other providers. Backlinks grow naturally as you grow your business, so the real grunt work comes at the beginning. Don’t despair if you don’t see immediate results. Chances are, when you do start seeing results, they will snowball quickly.

4) Press Releases


Press releases will get you immediate attention, and they can be great for marketing specific products or promotions. There are many websites where you can post press releases for free, and some where you can pay for your release to be indexed faster and more comprehensively. If your release is particularly newsworthy, you can submit it to local papers and radio and television stations.

5) Email Newsletters


Email newsletters get your message out to the people who care to hear it: your opted-in subscribers. There are many email newsletter platforms you can use to manage your contacts and automate your messages. Most of these cost under $30/month and include widgets for your website. Start sending out a monthly newsletter about happenings in your company along with special promotions just for newsletter readers.

6) Ad Buys


Ad buys are a classic, tried-and-true advertising tactic that work best in conjunction with other forms of online advertising for grabbing consumer attention and driving sales. Ad buys work best on forums or magazine websites, where readers are spending a lot of time. Ad buys can be expensive, so, in order to maximize your ROI, you should wait until you have a special promotion or a new product line before purchasing them.

7) Classifieds


Classifieds are free, there are a ton of them out there, and they are thoroughly searched by consumers on a daily basis. You probably won’t be able to post a straight-up ad without getting flagged, but free giveaways, free trials and contests are all fair game for most classified sites. Work classified posting into your weekly schedule and the benefits will accumulate over time.

8) Articles


Well written, well researched articles may not be easy to write, but the results can be exponential. If you write something people want to read (and include a link back to your website) people will follow it just to learn more about you, the esteemed author. There are tons of free article-submission websites where you can build a following fast. A single article can continue to drive traffic for months, and it gets you noticed, both good things for your business. Writing one really good article that impresses readers is infinitely more powerful than twenty mediocre articles nobody wants to read. Take your time. Think it out. It’ll pay off.

9) Forum Participation


Forums are communities and, as such, participating in the discussion and making friends is just like networking in person. Build trust with the people you meet. Contribute interesting or helpful information. Establish yourself as an expert in your field and be sure to include a link to your website in your signature. Many no-follow forums may not get indexed directly, but if you do your job, they will get followed.

10) Customer Reviews


Customer reviews are a critical part of any established business. Reviews allow current customers to express themselves and share their experiences and they allow new customers to learn about your business. As a business, you can learn a lot from the experiences of your customers. If you strive to deliver top-notch customer service, you will see it reflected in your reviews. You may want to consider partnering with a third-party review service. This lends authenticity to your reviews, so your customers know they are real and unbiased.

Tuesday 5 December 2017

There are many ways to host a website. While some businesses and individuals choose to run their own hardware and software, the most popular option for hosting a basic website is to take advantage of shared web hosting. It`s easy and it`s inexpensive. A hosting company places hundreds of websites on a single host server with the idea that few of the websites will be overly active at any one time, so sharing the resources of one large server is cost effective.

VPS Hosting, Web Hosting, Domain, Hosting Guides

Shared web hosting is quite adequate for most individuals and some small businesses with simple needs such as hosting a blog or providing a few web pages that are mostly informational in nature. However when needs grow, or something more advanced is required, things don`t remain quite as simple.

While a viable option for many customers, there are some definite disadvantages to shared web hosting. A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is the next step up in the hosting hierarchy. A virtual private server looks to the customer like a stand-alone computer and is managed just as if it were your own machine. Behind the scenes virtual servers are another form of shared computing; the hosting company uses a single large physical machine to host a number of VPS installations. The big difference is that a VPS gets guaranteed resources while a shared host website never does.

How do you know when to make the leap to a VPS? Whether your needs demand a Linux VPS or a Windows VPS, the basic principles are the same.

1. Your website has become very busy with substantial traffic, and sharing processing power and bandwidth with hundreds of other sites is not giving you the performance you need. A slowdown in the responsiveness of your website is a key indicator.

2. You need the ability to obtain additional resources. Your business may be growing quickly and you need to upgrade your server capacity at increasingly frequent intervals. A VPS arrangement allows you to work with the hosting company to get a bigger slice of the resource pie, something that can`t effectively be done with a shared hosting arrangement.

3. You need to run special applications, such as media streaming or real-time gaming. While this can sometimes be done with a shared host, resources and performance will be limited and often the hosting company frowns on your running such intensive applications.

4. You need more control over the server, especially root access, to properly manage your server content and performance. You`ll almost never get this with a shared hosting service.

5. You have concerns about information privacy in the shared hosting environment, which relies on shared data storage; with a VPS, your data storage has significantly more isolation.

If any or all of the above describe your situation, it may be time for you to make the leap into virtual private server hosting services.

Of course you should look, at least a bit, before you leap. The additional power and flexibility comes with new responsibilities and some additional work. But if you or a member of your staff have a little experience with server operation or are willing to learn, this will be an opportunity, not a problem. Some modest work up front will pay enormous dividends down the road. Here are a few things to consider.

1. You run the VPS, not the virtual server hosting company. This means that you may have to do some of the software updates, you ensure adequate system security, and so on. With full control comes full responsibility. This, however, is not as onerous as it may sound. Many easy to use system administration tools are available and often these are supplied by the hosting company. Plesk, cPanel, and other hosting control panels ease the transition into system administration with a minimal learning curve.

2. You can break things, and when things break, you`re the one to fix them. Again, this sounds worse than the actual reality. Yes, you`re completely free to make trouble. But acting with care and deliberation will help you avoid 99% of the problems. It`s those who take a cowboy approach who cause issues, and unfortunately get the headlines.

3. Some old-fashioned gumption is required. Running a Windows VPS or a Linux VPS is not for the faint of heart. But then, neither is being in business, so chances are you don`t have this issue.

VPS hosting provides a significant step up in capability from shared hosting arrangements without the costs and difficulties of running your own hardware and software. There is some effort involved but it is easily managed, and you`ll be rewarded with better website performance, increased flexibility and resource availability, the freedom to run intensive applications, and the freedom to manage the virtual server to best support your business.

Are you ready to make the leap into better website performance and flexibility? VPS hosting may just be the next big move in empowering your business.

Saturday 2 December 2017

There are many things that can increase profit, revenue and turnover of any business. The main function of generating business is promotion and it can be in different way like banner, off line seminar, exhibitions and online. Online business grooming and ignoring the online customers could be a wrong decision for any business. If you are business man and handling a business then you need a website to represent your business it’s not matter that you have small business or you are an owner of a big organization. Because it has been proved that there are many small web businesses has climb on success rock from a small platform but It’s really necessary to go with quality hosting platform so your visitors can enjoy uninterrupted web experience. Naturally we all don’t perform on sites those takes much time to download and just show round circle running on browser. Now customers need fast web experience and if you are unable to feel them such experience then your competitor will do that and finally you will close the door for you customer. I think now it’s not need to repeat that why web hosting is really important for your web business. Now let’s know the various type of hosting and which hosting suit to your business.

Shared Hosting, Web Hosting, Dedicated Hosting

Shared Web Hosting - Most famous hosting type among small and mid size business because quite cheaper and affordable. As name is defining “SHARED” so many web site hosts in single server in this web hosting. Best part for this hosting is more affordable and worst part about shared hosting is it unsecure hosting as multiple sites shared single server. Even we recommend this hosting for start-up company those have less data base on their website.

Dedicated Hosting - It’s totally opposite of shared hosting so it’s quit expressive but give secure environment because only one site host in server. Mostly preferred by big sites like ecommerce those have more confidential and big data and those don’t want to compromise from security. The best part of this hosting a site have less down time and unlimited way to customizing hosting but it’s quite expensive so it’s only worst thing of this type of hosting.

VPS Hosting - VPS stand for virtual private server which is made with combination of shared hosting and dedicated hosting so it’s really famous hosting among web business. Now most of the business hire virtual private server because users get benefits of shared hosting and dedicated server through VPS hosting. It’s quite safe and affordable service and better from shared hosting in every manner but no doubt less grade from dedicated server. VPS provide significant space in server to users and that area is not shared by anyone so there are benefits of dedicated environment too.

Basically there are the three types of hosting and some people can use other hosting types like word press hosting, ecommerce hosting and other CMS hosting which all are serving on above manner. So you just need to get updated with basic hosting information that will support to change gear of your business.

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