Shared hosting vs Dedicated Server

I have come across a lot of people who start an online business, spend hours and hours in deciding the appropriate domain name, hire a very good web-designer who designs a beautiful website and yet are bogged down with a poor hosting provider or, a hosting account, to only think that they committed the biggest mistake by choosing to start an online business.

This is not something that is uncommon. Most of us face this situation. The biggest reason why our websites keep encountering problems is our choice of the wrong kind of hosting. Lets first understand the difference between a Shared Hosting and a Dedicated Server.

1. Shared Hosting - Shared hosting as the name suggests is shared by a lot of people. This means that the server on which your website is hosted is only a part of a huge server which is being used by a lot of other website owners. What difference does it make? This means that the bandwidth available would be shared by the multiple websites thus resulting in slow browsing speed and delay in loading when your visitors visit your website.
2. Dedicated Server - In such a hosting account you are assigned a dedicated server depending upon your space and bandwidth requirements. This means that you would not be sharing the space or, bandwidth with anyone, thus ensuring that you get better browsing speed and better satisfcation to your visitors.

When should you choose a Shared hosting account? This is good when the site you are going to host is not meant to be a commercial venture targetting huge amount of traffic. For eg: a private online album can be hosted on a Sharde hosting account. Similarly, Company websites which are meant only to share some information wiht the visitors can be hosted on shared hosting. So the consideration, as is evident is the usage of bandwidth.

A dedicated server is the best option when you decide to launch an online store which would consume a lot of bandwidth.

So choose cleverly before you start off, as it would be difficult at a later time to switch servers or, hosting accounts.

Choosing your hosting company

When you normally choose a hosting company, your web host will charge you a fee for monthly service that ranges from $10 or $20 to the more expensive $50.00 per month. You should be prepared to pay upto $500 per year to your web host.

Choosing a free or very inexpensive web hosting services is not really a great idea, because this means, inviting bouts of server downtimes and you are likely to have significant limitations in storage, number of email addresses, FTP upload etc.

Be sure your web host can accommodate e-commerce and storefronts, wireless capability, bogs, forums, chats, online interactive helps and anything else you want to add onto your site.

Estimate what your growth needs are and ensure that this web host can serve you as you grow. The last thing you want to do is change host mid way unless you absolutely have to do so.

Check your bandwidth capability to be sure that, if your website traffic grows rapidly, your customers will not have to wait to download or view information. Three things to look for in a web hosting company are:

1. Class Customer Support: Your hosting provider should be there for you 24/7 and give you instant access to the technicians you need to solve your problem. Ask them how long it takes for them to typically respond to your problem. A good test is to call them in the mid night to check if you get to a live, level 3 support.

2. Infrastructure: Check whether they offer a multi-homed network powered by multiple bandwidth providers to ensure redundancy. Some offer a 100% guarantee on its network availability or network uptime.

3. Financially stable: If you're running very critical operations, you can't afford to be with a hosting company that may not be in business in a few months.

How to Effectively Use PPC Advertising and Not Burn Your Pockets

PPC or, pay-per-click is the best way of advertising your websites on the internet. This could also prove to be the worst option available in case you set out for PPC advertising without appropriate knowledge. The moment one talks about the internet, the first thing that comes to your mind is a search engine. There are thousands of searches done by internet users on various search engines everyday, the most prominent of them being Google, Yahoo and Ask. This is why search engine advertisements are the best available options for online advertisements. To understand PPC let us first understand, what a 'search' is. I, as a common internet user would answer this question as "typing a term in a search box on a search engine to get relevant information about this term". This would normally be the answer from any internet user and this statement says it all - what is ppc,what is the appropriate strategy to be adopted,how to optimally use the PPC.

1). In the definition of a 'search', above we used the word "TERM". This term that we would normally enter in the search box would be called as the "KEYWORD". This is the most important aspect to be considered while advertising in search engines.

2). The second most important aspect to be considered is again there in the definition. The phrase "to get relevant information" is this aspect.

On understanding these 2 aspects we get to know that an internet user would use a KEYWORD to search something so that he "GETS SOME RELEVANT INFORMATION ON THE KEYWORD USED FOR SEARCHING". Also to be noted is the fact that in most of the cases the search is only to get some "relevant information"

How PPC ads work? - Search engines have a bid attached to each keyword that you select for your website. For eg: if your website sells spectacle frames and you select a keyword like 'light-weight carbon frame' and would like to use this is your PPC ads, then this keyword would have a bid attached to it. There would be hundred others using this same KEYWORD for their sites. Suppose you bid at $1.50 for your keyword and there is somebody who has a bid of $2.00 for the same keyword, then when somebody searches for this keyword on the search engine, your ad would only be placed below the above said high-bidder's ad. You would be charged the amount you bid when somebody clicks your ad.

So does that mean that you always bid higher than others. No not always. The technique lies in understanding and selecting the appropriate keyword for your products or, websites.

Most of the people searching the internet only do this to find information. How many times have you searched the internet to actually buy something? Very less. That is exactly what anybody would do. So the technique is in understanding that you need to select a keyword that a prospective customer (somebody who searches the internet to buy something) would use. The keyword used in the above example is one such word that only somebody who really wants to buy a spectacle frame would use. The best way to find these keywords are to assume you are the customer and think of terms you would use to search something that you intend to buy. In more generic kind of products that you are selling, you can also prefix your main keywords with terms like "buy", "get", "purchase" etc. If I am looking to buy something on the internet, I would sure use one of these terms to search for something.

These terms would normally show a very less number of searches in any given month, but that should not worry you, because you would rather prefer only interested customers searching and clicking your ad than anybody searching just to get information, clicking on your ad.

Once your KEYWORDS are selected, bid carefully step-by-step until you know that your ad would be in the top 3 ads. Once you are there, you ROI would be much better than what it normally would have been and you would be able to use your monetary resources optimally.

Selecting a domain name

Choosing a domain name for your online business can seem to be the most easiest thing on earth, before you start searching for one with any domain registrar.
The first thing that you would come across is a search result saying, "The domain name xyz.com is already taken" and you would wonder what next. The same easy thing would now seem difficult.
A few simple things to keep in mind when you decide to go online with your business is:

• Choose a name that reflects your nature of business. This could be anything in your product range which could symbolise your line of business.
• Take a pen and paper and write combinations of names that you would like to give your website, keeping in mind that the name has to reflect your nature of business.
• Also keep in mind that these names should not be containing more than 3 word phrases. for eg: eggsandchickens.com is fine but prefer not to go for eggsandchickenpoultry.com
• Names with a hyphen (-) would also do but is not recommended because it is dificult to narrate your website's name with a hyphen in it.
• Preferably write about 10 combination of names.
• Arrange the names in a descending order of preference.
• Search and find the most suitable name for you website.