Hosting is Easy these days!

It's hard to imagine that Hosting a website used to cost a small fortune in the early 1990's, and that these days it costs as much a number 5 and a shake at Mcdonalds™. There used to be no easy to use interface and tech support used to be a few people. THese days Hosting has grown to expand the need of the gigantic interent! The interface most people use these days to manage there website is a "look" we are all used to on you home computers. I think everyone will agree that hosting website's is getting easier and easier each year and that is good for everyone.

Below I have answered and explained the questions I hear all the time and some I wish I woudl get. I do not claim to know everything, but I can give you rock solid advice based on my experience.

Impress people, don't design your Website?

This is a question I think a lot of people forget to ask themsleves. In this Plug and play world we live in, a person can almost create a complete website and never stroke one key of code, but STOP, let me save you a lot of your precious time and money. Do not design your own site unless you REALLY know what you are doing. Really?? Yes I am serious! Over 80% of the sites I designed as a web designer were fixing people's sites they did on there own. Some of these people wasted weeks and months attempting to do it themselves, with meger results. These days to become sucessful not only do you need a fuctional website, it needs to look graphically appealing and have the right guts inside. Those guts are just like inside engine, no guts no glory on teh web. Besides you owe it to yourself to have a beautiful website, one that expresses your vision and goals, trust me you will be so happy you did. If you have a site already and are thinking of redesigning it, seek a expert graphic designer who designs website's, that way it will be both functional and beautiful. The graphic designer aspect is huge, most sites look like a lybodoamy with hightlights.

You might be saying "What about templates, I see you sell them on your site?" Templates work slick for people just starting off, and if you are using Wordpress blog templates or themes are what it is all about. Templates can be very personalized, sometime so much that it does not even look like that same template. :) People that know basic HTML can easily buy a template and replace everything in it, so I never rule them out 100%. Templates also can give you an idea of what you might like it to look like even if you do not buy it.

What about site-builders? They are great, but again it is a pleasing enviroment we are after here. Site-builders are not as easy as you think, some people your sign up for hosting and then bild there site and then hire a web designer. Eventhough site-builders are improving every year they do not hold a candle to a fresh CREATIVE designer.

 

Quick money on the internet slums?

If I was a banner ad and got clicked evertime someone would say "I want to make money on the internet" I would be recieving tons of that "mail box money." It's true you can make a fortune on the internet, and a lot of people do. You could setup 100 sites and sell links and advertising, You could sell ebooks, You could sell products, and million other things. Most people think "Hmm Bill made $3100.00 a month with Adsense (Adsense is google pay per click program by the way), writing about movies." Then the person does the same and goes running after the money like a person chasing 100 dollar bills in a wind storm, running all over the place. Let me help you out. Ask yourself this question. What would I like to write, sell, provide? Then do that, seriously. It is way better then 6 months of putting together something you HATE and then finding the more you hate it the more it goes nowhere. I know money is a great motivator, but happiness is a better one.

Lets say I put up a blog site and wrote about ice-skating, uhg! I would not enjoy it and eventually I would drop off, or I might limp along and could hire some kid to write the stories for me, the site would look run down. You can find these types of run down sites all over the web, it the slumloard metality but on the internet. Make money! Make money! Please do this Earn the money, give them somethign great! The people will thank you for it everytime.

Get your mind pumping.

Do you have some expertise and your friends go "WOW you are good at that," and you say "this is easy."

Do you have home remedy for something, want to write about it and help people? EBOOK IT BABY

Do you just have a knack for quick opinions and think other might want to read about it? BLOG IT BABY

Sit and think ideas everday and always strive to improve what youare doing each day, Focus!

Look at me I am BLOGGING mama!

Wordpress blogs are the best thing to come about on the internet. :) Blogs have take the web from the "information super highway" to "INFORMATION!!!! super highway!" Everyone is genuinely an "expert" on something and blogs are a way to share the wealth or useful and useless information swimming in their brains. Blogs are creative expression, service and opinion at is finest. Before you sign up for some blog service make sure to read these suggestions.

DO find a really good template.

DO host it on your own. Not with blogger,wordpress.org through one of the many great hosts recommended on here.

DO get a fast host (see blogger section)

DO make sure to install the right plug ins. SEO, Sitemaps, etc.

DO Personalize it a lot - Nothing worse then surfing the web and find your Fashion Template being used for a Salami Shops site.

DO Right something on interesting as much as you can! A story a day is 365 & for 10 years is 3650 pages of surfable bliss.

DO Keep researching new way to improve you blog constantly, don't get STALE :)

Earn Money $$$ Blogging sign up for PPC (pay per click)

These are the big three for blogs and of course all other sites too, very easy to install and setup, sign up today! But be pretty with your placement, don't be a slum lord.

Google Adsense

PPC Ads look like this ad below. Google feeds these to your site based on content, it can show image ads too, but I never had much success on those sites. Some key things to keep in mind is make sure to blend good with your website. Match the top "Title" color to site link color used on your site, use #666666 for the "URL color." The biggest part is to put them in you content do not just stick an ad on the side. Put the ads in your content as if it were a picture with text around it, people will click you ads if you have good content. Google finds the relevant ads and handles everything else. Signup at adsense.com

 

Kontera

in content links like this example below. kontera are those popup links with ads in them. Easy setup one little script code on each page, or in the footer of you blog. Signup at kontera.com

Text Link Ads

Where people can place links on your site and you earn $$ from clicks. Signup at text-link-ads.com

 

Ego's vs. Webmasters?

My SQL database needs to be re-uploaded for my php script and the POP account is forwarding to the wrong email, and my javascript redirect is not putting the frame in the right spot. If you understood that you might not need a webmaster, but you are thinking WHOA slow down, then you might consider getting a webmaster or a web genius down the road. Most people that have a webmaster's run a business and do not have time to learn or manage a HUGE site. Like a flower shop or band that is always on tour and needs there live calendar and myspace managed. If you are setting up your own site odds are good that you will be able to handle it for awhile, however you should still have a person that knows way more than you. I have been a webmaster for a few sites and I can tell you honestly that it is best to pay someone to check your sites daily, instead of call them only when you have a problem. Imagine your site is down when you visit it and you have no idea how long it has been down, people that have bad hosts, I know you understand.

CMS or not to CMS

Content Managment Systems is Web Design Geeks like Netflix is to Video Stores. The explosion of CMS is the best thing in years! People being able to edit there site on there own with ease, add stories, edit pages, etc. Make sure to have CMS running under your site, and more importantly learn how to use it. You will feel so empowered to be able to edit your pages on your own, and not be locked in with your web designer for life.

If you build it they will come....Maybe

I laughed really hard at the title of this one. I remember putting up a site for someone and they put up like 300 pages of stories and thought the traffic will pour in. I though maybe in the 90's baby. Did you consider how many other people are doing the exact same thing? The amount of junk or web slums has cause search engine companies to get sober and allow passage to the TOP spot to only a select few. If you went and searched for a keyword like "Cheap Airplane Tickets" you would see sheer Madness!! If you searched for "Best pooper scooper" you could hear a pin drop (or maybe doggy do do). The climb to the top used to take a few months, now it take about 2 years... Wait not for everyone. So don't give up on me here. I mean to truly excell without tricks, or a family fortune. Here are some searches to do on google and read up on, how to use h1 h2 tags, Backlinks, blackhat SEO, whitehat SEO, and my favorite Meta tags.

Don't get taken for a ride. There are people that can get you the top spot and there are people that can get you really angry. :) The way to tell if someone knows what they are doing with SEO and SEM is to see their results with other BIG sites! If someone says I can do it in 3 months, they are more than likely lying to you. The key with SEO and SEM is the long term, you can have the top spot one month and be on page 2 in a week. Apply Consistant effort until you can not be knocked down cause people love your site, when people love your site they will keep you alive and #1. Some great reads out there are SEO book

More coming...