Hy Per Lative

Free Web Hosting

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 00:00:57 +0000

A free web hosting service is offered free of cost to the users. This service is normally supported by advertisements and has limited functions. The free web hosting facility provides either a directory or a sub domain. In contrast to this, these services that are paid, usually give a second level domain to the users along with the service of hosting.

Some of the services that are offered for free allow the use of domains that are separately purchased. The free web hosting service rarely operates as the domain name register. Amazingly, the registry services of such services are expensive than the other services.

Features and Limitations of the Service:

Some of the free services of this offer free basic packages and the enhanced packages, having more features for a basic cost. This helps the users to take an initial trial of the service for comparing it with the other hosting services and then, elevate the service as and when required.

The limitations of the free hosting services are mentioned below.

o There is a limitation on the size of every file that is hosted here.

o It gives a small bandwidth for a month as compared to the other services.

o It prevents the hotlinking of the files.

o Certain types of files are not allowed on it.

o It requires the mandatory placement of the banner of web host and the pop up ads on all the web pages.

o It does not provide uptime guarantee.

So, in a sense, you get what you are paying for.

Domain Suffixes Explained (Domain Names Simplified Series)

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 00:00:24 +0000

Domain names (or DNS addresses for the geeks) are a system by which people like you and me can reach the computer we want and get the information without the hassle of remembering a sequence of seemingly unrelated numbers ( called IP addresses )

Domain names are further suffixed to provide the user with some means of identification of the nature of the website and a means of classification for the web sites themselves. These suffixes are referred to as top – level domains.

The common examples of these are .com, .org, .net, the newer .biz, .name, .info etc.

These suffixes help to provide further information about where the computer is located and what is it prime reason for existence i.e. for commercial purposes, non-profit organization, networking purposes or purely as a B-2-B site (business to business site).

On the basis of their primary motive, domain names are registered. Hence, since most businesses exist for commerce, the most common suffix is … yes you guessed it right! .COM!!

So common is this particular top level domain that it is mostly implied when we visit a website. Hence, for more purposes than purely commercial is this suffix used.

A brief overview of the common suffixes is outlined below

SUFFIX Meaning

.com Commercial Site

.org Non-profit organization site

.net Site within a larger network.

.biz Purely for Business-to-Business sites

.name For identity purposes of an individual or organization

.info Informational sites providing no e-commerce

.co.uk Site based in the United Kingdom

.co.in Site based in India

Note: The last to suffixes can be replaced by most other country’s two letter abbreviation. Eg. For a Japanese site .co.jp would be the suffix.

Check whether your domain name is available here.

Web Hosting – An Investment Or an Expense?

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 00:00:03 +0000

Is having your own website an investment or an expense? The following article will help you gain clarity on this issue.

First of all, let us consider the costs of having a website. A domain name with sufficient amount of space (that also includes a database support for interactive websites) costs under $30 per annum. This is roughly $2.5 / month.

Then comes the designing and maintenance costs. Depending on your requirement, web design can cost as little as $50-$100. There is no upper limit; it can go into several thousands depending on what exactly you want and who is doing it. Ideally, you should ask your friends and associates to refer web designers who have done a good job for them and also charged reasonably. Prepare your requirements in advance before taking quotes. Be very clear on what exactly you want for your website. This will save you a lot of pain. Be sure to cross check the quotes with sites like Elance. Discuss the maintenance charges also, if you need to update your site often.

There is another option where you can save on web design costs if you don’t need a very fancy / customized design. Most hosting providers will offer you site builder options at a nominal cost. In fact, you can even use a blog platform like WordPress or a CMS platform like Joomla and Drupal. Most hosting providers will offer fantastic support, which enables you to install these open source softwares with a few mouse clicks. I would advice you to first go with one of these options, preferably the WordPress / CMS option before you spend on web design.

Once you’ve worked out these costs, you now need to consider the returns. Business is all about ROI (Return On Investment) and you should seriously track all leads and / or orders you receive through your website. First of all, you need to accept the fact that you won’t start getting orders the moment your website is live. “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t work here. You need to work towards promoting your website.

There are several online and offline ways to do this. For offline promotion, you should include your website URL in every piece of communication as you can, like visiting cards, yellow page ads, invoices, quotations, etc.

For online promotion, you should first make it a point to include your URL in email signatures and forum post signatures. Next, you should consider spending a little on PPC (Pay Per Click) ads. The most important online promotion is free traffic from search engines. If you want to win the SEO game, there are only three things that you really need to concentrate on:

1. Unique content: Don’t ever copy content from other websites, create your own. If required, hire a decent copywriter, but first start on your own.

2. Updated content: Search engines love websites which have new content added regularly, so make it a point to add something new to your website at least once a week. If there are no new products or services that you add, consider adding some latest news in your industry. Or you can simply add useful tips that cater to your industry.

3. Backlinks: The more websites that link to yours, the more weight search engines give to your ranking. So try to get more websites linking to you, preferably from related content sites. You can also write articles that are beneficial to your targeted audience and submit them at article directories. Remember to add your website link in the author’s bio (you are seeing this in action right now; check out the bio following this article).

These are the three pillars that SEO stands on. If you do nothing else except follow these, you will get much more targeted traffic than your competitors. You don’t even need an SEO consultant.

If you can generate enough business from your website, it makes sense in continuing it. It then becomes an investment with good returns. You should give it a try for at least 2 years, to track proper ROI. Once you’re fairly successful, you can think of other ways to improve your website. If you’re making more than you’re spending, its time to take your website to the next level. Start by hiring / outsourcing people to write content for you. Use lead generation tactics by giving away free reports in exchange for people to sign up to your mailing list.

While your website is certainly an investment worth making, you can also claim the costs as business expenses! Consult your accountant for details.