Everyone would like an increase in traffic to their website or an increase in their PR rating. There are many companies and websites offering promotion and optimisation services, however how much should you spend?
I have found two ways; which have had a huge impact in the amount of visitors I have to my websites and of which has pushed up the PR ratings of my sites.
Firstly writing articles. Writing articles like this one and submitting to article directories is a way of spreading your message across the internet. Other webmasters download your article and add it as valuable content to their website. This not only gives you free advertising on their site, but also creates a backward link for your website. Over time these links start to add up.
Secondly is a link exchange program. I have many websites in my portfolio and am able to offer a free link exchange program. I add a link to the bottom of my homepage to ten of my sites, with your chosen link text. In return I ask you to add a link on the bottom of your homepage to ten websites of mine. This is explained further at http://www.internet-webdesign.co.uk.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at info@stammering-stuttering.co.uk.
About the Author
Stephen Hill is a web designer who has produced many websites. His main website is http://www.internet-webdesign.co.uk
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Web Server And Web Hosting Services - An Overview
Web hosting providers provide the following basic services for web servers - anything else can be considered add-on features in theory, although in practice they are essential to run a successful Internet business or business website.
A web hosting provider should provide the following functionality for your web server:
1. Hard Disk Space.
This is what you are actually renting, for all practical purposes. You need hard disk space on a web server to host your website. A website really consists of a lot of files, much like MSWord documents, or Excel spreadsheets. These files take up hard disk space. The web hosting provider provides you with space so that people around the world who has access to the Internet can access those files on that web server.
The price or hard disks have come down dramatically over the past year or so and it is not unknown for a hosting provider to make provision for packages from 250Megabytes up to 2000 Megabytes and even more.
How much would you need? The average web site that just makes use of static HTML pages need about 5 MB to 10 MB of space. If you use a dynamic website where some of your data is stored in a MySQL database the database will also take up space. These types of sites require more space and anything between 100MB and 250MB should be enough.
If you are going to store emails on your server you need to add these into your calculations. Emails can take up a lot of web space very quickly if people send you large files. You will need to monitor the space taken up by Emails very carefully since I have seen individual mailboxes go up to 50 or 60 MBs very quickly.
If you want to host video or audio files on your server, you will have to make provision for quite a lot more disk space. One audio file can easily take up 30 to 40MB.
2. Bandwidth
Bandwidth depends on your traffic. Every visitor to your website will consume bandwidth since this is what they will use when they open any pages on your site. Once again, if you have video and audio files on your site you will require more bandwidth. A good rule of thumb is to have an allocation of about 100KB (Kilobytes) for every visitor. This means that 500 visitors per month will consume about 50MB of bandwidth - although this is only true for an average site with mostly text and a few pictures. If you have large picture galleries, audio and/or video files you should rather work on 150KB per visitor or even more. Search engine spiders also consume bandwidth! You should monitor your bandwidth usage through your CPanel control panel or your website statistics and make sure that you communicate early enough with your hosting provider in case you need to purchase more bandwidth to prevent penalties and/or lockouts.
3. Access to your site
Under this can be counted access to a control panel, such as CPanel, Plesk or Helm, that will help you with setting up of emails, sub-domains, software installations and your MySQL database if you are running dynamic functionality such as shopping carts, forums, Content Management Systems etc.
You are also going to need FTP access to upload files to your web server. Without being able to use FTP you will not be able to maintain the content on your site (unless you make use of a Content Management System). FTP access is still required even in that case since you will definitely have occasion to have to upload files such as pictures, audio, video and other files to your server.
These are the very basic functionality that a web hosting provider should provide!
About the Author
A web hosting provider should provide the following functionality for your web server:
1. Hard Disk Space.
This is what you are actually renting, for all practical purposes. You need hard disk space on a web server to host your website. A website really consists of a lot of files, much like MSWord documents, or Excel spreadsheets. These files take up hard disk space. The web hosting provider provides you with space so that people around the world who has access to the Internet can access those files on that web server.
The price or hard disks have come down dramatically over the past year or so and it is not unknown for a hosting provider to make provision for packages from 250Megabytes up to 2000 Megabytes and even more.
How much would you need? The average web site that just makes use of static HTML pages need about 5 MB to 10 MB of space. If you use a dynamic website where some of your data is stored in a MySQL database the database will also take up space. These types of sites require more space and anything between 100MB and 250MB should be enough.
If you are going to store emails on your server you need to add these into your calculations. Emails can take up a lot of web space very quickly if people send you large files. You will need to monitor the space taken up by Emails very carefully since I have seen individual mailboxes go up to 50 or 60 MBs very quickly.
If you want to host video or audio files on your server, you will have to make provision for quite a lot more disk space. One audio file can easily take up 30 to 40MB.
2. Bandwidth
Bandwidth depends on your traffic. Every visitor to your website will consume bandwidth since this is what they will use when they open any pages on your site. Once again, if you have video and audio files on your site you will require more bandwidth. A good rule of thumb is to have an allocation of about 100KB (Kilobytes) for every visitor. This means that 500 visitors per month will consume about 50MB of bandwidth - although this is only true for an average site with mostly text and a few pictures. If you have large picture galleries, audio and/or video files you should rather work on 150KB per visitor or even more. Search engine spiders also consume bandwidth! You should monitor your bandwidth usage through your CPanel control panel or your website statistics and make sure that you communicate early enough with your hosting provider in case you need to purchase more bandwidth to prevent penalties and/or lockouts.
3. Access to your site
Under this can be counted access to a control panel, such as CPanel, Plesk or Helm, that will help you with setting up of emails, sub-domains, software installations and your MySQL database if you are running dynamic functionality such as shopping carts, forums, Content Management Systems etc.
You are also going to need FTP access to upload files to your web server. Without being able to use FTP you will not be able to maintain the content on your site (unless you make use of a Content Management System). FTP access is still required even in that case since you will definitely have occasion to have to upload files such as pictures, audio, video and other files to your server.
These are the very basic functionality that a web hosting provider should provide!
About the Author
Christine Anderssen is the owner of Tailormade4You Web Design and Web Development Services and Internet Web Hosting for South Africa. Read the original article on http://www.internet-web-hosting.co.za/webhosting-info/web-server-and-web-hosting-services.html
Web Server And Web Hosting Services - An Overview
Web hosting providers provide the following basic services for web servers - anything else can be considered add-on features in theory, although in practice they are essential to run a successful Internet business or business website.
A web hosting provider should provide the following functionality for your web server:
1. Hard Disk Space.
This is what you are actually renting, for all practical purposes. You need hard disk space on a web server to host your website. A website really consists of a lot of files, much like MSWord documents, or Excel spreadsheets. These files take up hard disk space. The web hosting provider provides you with space so that people around the world who has access to the Internet can access those files on that web server.
The price or hard disks have come down dramatically over the past year or so and it is not unknown for a hosting provider to make provision for packages from 250Megabytes up to 2000 Megabytes and even more.
How much would you need? The average web site that just makes use of static HTML pages need about 5 MB to 10 MB of space. If you use a dynamic website where some of your data is stored in a MySQL database the database will also take up space. These types of sites require more space and anything between 100MB and 250MB should be enough.
If you are going to store emails on your server you need to add these into your calculations. Emails can take up a lot of web space very quickly if people send you large files. You will need to monitor the space taken up by Emails very carefully since I have seen individual mailboxes go up to 50 or 60 MBs very quickly.
If you want to host video or audio files on your server, you will have to make provision for quite a lot more disk space. One audio file can easily take up 30 to 40MB.
2. Bandwidth
Bandwidth depends on your traffic. Every visitor to your website will consume bandwidth since this is what they will use when they open any pages on your site. Once again, if you have video and audio files on your site you will require more bandwidth. A good rule of thumb is to have an allocation of about 100KB (Kilobytes) for every visitor. This means that 500 visitors per month will consume about 50MB of bandwidth - although this is only true for an average site with mostly text and a few pictures. If you have large picture galleries, audio and/or video files you should rather work on 150KB per visitor or even more. Search engine spiders also consume bandwidth! You should monitor your bandwidth usage through your CPanel control panel or your website statistics and make sure that you communicate early enough with your hosting provider in case you need to purchase more bandwidth to prevent penalties and/or lockouts.
3. Access to your site
Under this can be counted access to a control panel, such as CPanel, Plesk or Helm, that will help you with setting up of emails, sub-domains, software installations and your MySQL database if you are running dynamic functionality such as shopping carts, forums, Content Management Systems etc.
You are also going to need FTP access to upload files to your web server. Without being able to use FTP you will not be able to maintain the content on your site (unless you make use of a Content Management System). FTP access is still required even in that case since you will definitely have occasion to have to upload files such as pictures, audio, video and other files to your server.
These are the very basic functionality that a web hosting provider should provide!
About the Author
A web hosting provider should provide the following functionality for your web server:
1. Hard Disk Space.
This is what you are actually renting, for all practical purposes. You need hard disk space on a web server to host your website. A website really consists of a lot of files, much like MSWord documents, or Excel spreadsheets. These files take up hard disk space. The web hosting provider provides you with space so that people around the world who has access to the Internet can access those files on that web server.
The price or hard disks have come down dramatically over the past year or so and it is not unknown for a hosting provider to make provision for packages from 250Megabytes up to 2000 Megabytes and even more.
How much would you need? The average web site that just makes use of static HTML pages need about 5 MB to 10 MB of space. If you use a dynamic website where some of your data is stored in a MySQL database the database will also take up space. These types of sites require more space and anything between 100MB and 250MB should be enough.
If you are going to store emails on your server you need to add these into your calculations. Emails can take up a lot of web space very quickly if people send you large files. You will need to monitor the space taken up by Emails very carefully since I have seen individual mailboxes go up to 50 or 60 MBs very quickly.
If you want to host video or audio files on your server, you will have to make provision for quite a lot more disk space. One audio file can easily take up 30 to 40MB.
2. Bandwidth
Bandwidth depends on your traffic. Every visitor to your website will consume bandwidth since this is what they will use when they open any pages on your site. Once again, if you have video and audio files on your site you will require more bandwidth. A good rule of thumb is to have an allocation of about 100KB (Kilobytes) for every visitor. This means that 500 visitors per month will consume about 50MB of bandwidth - although this is only true for an average site with mostly text and a few pictures. If you have large picture galleries, audio and/or video files you should rather work on 150KB per visitor or even more. Search engine spiders also consume bandwidth! You should monitor your bandwidth usage through your CPanel control panel or your website statistics and make sure that you communicate early enough with your hosting provider in case you need to purchase more bandwidth to prevent penalties and/or lockouts.
3. Access to your site
Under this can be counted access to a control panel, such as CPanel, Plesk or Helm, that will help you with setting up of emails, sub-domains, software installations and your MySQL database if you are running dynamic functionality such as shopping carts, forums, Content Management Systems etc.
You are also going to need FTP access to upload files to your web server. Without being able to use FTP you will not be able to maintain the content on your site (unless you make use of a Content Management System). FTP access is still required even in that case since you will definitely have occasion to have to upload files such as pictures, audio, video and other files to your server.
These are the very basic functionality that a web hosting provider should provide!
About the Author
Christine Anderssen is the owner of Tailormade4You Web Design and Web Development Services and Internet Web Hosting for South Africa. Read the original article on http://www.internet-web-hosting.co.za/webhosting-info/web-server-and-web-hosting-services.html
VoIP Service Provider A vs. VoIP Service Provider B
Copyright 2005 Gobala KrishnanWhile doing research on the Internet, I realized that most people are absolutely confused when it comes to selecting a VoIP or broadband phone service provider. I can't say I blame them either, when you consider that there are now thousands of companies out there with as many different service plans. What I often come across though, is the question "Is company A better than company B?". To be honest I have no idea how to answer that question. All I can offer is a simple guideline that can help you discover the answer for yourself. Here it is. 1) Where is the company located? Does the location of the company matter? Perhaps not, if the service provider is located in the same country as you are. However, if you have been offered VoIP or broadband phone services offered by foreign companies, it probably WILL matter. The danger in subscribing to companies that don't have a presence in your country, legalities aside, is the quality of the service. Imagine making a call from Malaysia to your friend in Singapore. Now imagine your call being routed all the way to the US or Australia before it is routed back to Singapore to complete the call. Physically, this takes less than a second, but the consequences are sometimes obvious. More often than not, you get a delay in your call. If you understand communication, you'll understand than even a one second delay before hearing a YES or OK can make all the difference in your sales talk or discussion. The solution? Make sure your VoIP service provider has at least a few gateways located in your region, and most importantly, your country. This would reduce the distance the call is carried and usually result in better call quality. 2) Are the call plans unique? All VoIP service providers out there suffer from the same symptom - the need to differentiate themselves. That's the reason why you get 100 different plans from 10 different companies. Understand, though, that they are all basically the same thing. So if water is water, how do you choose when you flip open the refrigerator door in that 7-11 store? Is it the color of the bottle or the price? The same question can be asked when choosing a VoIP plan. Choose what appeals to you, but don't get carried away by all the "Unlimited calls" talk. Understand that any VoIP provider worth their salt can offer you unlimited calls from one ATA (analog telephone adapter) to another ATA that they own, for free. However, consider this - how many people you know are using an ATA from the same company you are? Making unlimited calls to regular phones, though, is an entirely different ball game. Not everyone can offer you this. Vonage for example, can offer you unlimited calls in their business package, to US only. For unlimited calling to Asian countries, the only company I know of that can do this is TelExtreme. Here's a complete "VoIP A vs. VoIP B" type of comparison chart if you really need it: http://www.mybusinessvoip.com/compare 3) Quality - who owns the technology? I am not an advocate of buying from the company that everyone is buying from. You know, companies like Vonage and AT&T CallVantage. I'm not an advocate of "following the crowd", but in some cases, the crowd may have a point. Most of the smaller VoIP providers don't own the technology. Why should they, when they can get the whole deal at wholesale, and all they need to do is put their brand on it? This works for the short term. For the long term, however, such companies have no way of ensuring the stability or quality of their service. Bottom line - find out if the VoIP service provider owns any, or all, of the technology behind the service they provide. A "cut and paste" company comprising of different ATA manufacturers, different call routers and different gateway providers may not survive in a few years when the VoIP industry matures. You can count on that! 4) What’s in store for the future? In plain words, why spend on a VoIP provider that is limited to just making calls, especially when many of them already have video and data applications in the works? Packet8 already has their own video & voice over IP plan, and many others will follow suit. “Triple Play” as it is called, will soon be available, so make sure that your VoIP service provider has this in store for you. More importantly, it should be available at little or no extra cost.
About the Author
Gobala Krishnan is a small business entrepreneur and publisher of the "VoIP and Me" newsletter, designed for smart entrepreneurs who want to avoid all the technical jargon and get straight to the information that really matters. Learn how you can drastically cut communication costs by 70%, get more customers and expand to new markets using VoIP at http://www.MyBusinessVoIP.com
About the Author
Gobala Krishnan is a small business entrepreneur and publisher of the "VoIP and Me" newsletter, designed for smart entrepreneurs who want to avoid all the technical jargon and get straight to the information that really matters. Learn how you can drastically cut communication costs by 70%, get more customers and expand to new markets using VoIP at http://www.MyBusinessVoIP.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)