If you are hoping to use the Internet to promote your company, there are many terms that you may be encountering. It can be hard to tell what the difference between web design and web development are, for example, and how both are involved in the creation of your website. Understanding how both are used to create a seamless and effective website may be one of the most important things you can do to help promote your business.
When a web site is being created, it uses both design and development before the site becomes \”live\”. That is, before a web site becomes visible and accessible by potential customers. When you are working with a company that is building your web site, they should be able to explain the importance of each of these processes to you and show you how your site is coming together at all of the different stages of completion.
The main thing you need to remember about web design is that it deals with how the site looks. It involves the positioning of the navigational buttons, the positioning of photographs and any other graphic elements, and the look of any borders or background textures for the different portions of the website.
You want to find a site design that your customers will want to look at. Often, customers may have problems looking at a website that is too busy and if you add too many things or put design elements in the wrong spot it can leave you with a website which looks cheap and amateurish. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing when it comes to the number of items on a web page. Experienced designers can help you pare down your page and make it look elegant and professional.
Web development however tends to deal more with the way the site works. This is also referred to as the back end of a website. You want to make sure that your site works well in that you want to make sure that you can navigate from one page to another easily, that the links work and that the images used will load properly and consistently.
If you have elements such as a shopping cart, you also need to make sure that this feature will also work well. The last thing you want is for clients to be unable to accomplish the business they need to do using your website. You can see how important proper web development is to the success of your site in general.
Working with an experienced web design and web development firm is important. Your website speaks for your company and is often the first contact that a potential client will have. You want to make sure that your website is professional and put together well. They can also give you guidance about how to make sure your website will appear high on any internet search and provide you with analytical tools that can help you decide which areas of your website are the most popular.
If you work with the company that is creating your website, you may be amazed at how much of an increase your customer base will experience. So many people are using the Internet to research and locate the companies they want to deal with that if you do not have a website you are missing out on a huge potential customer base.
Vancouver Web Design is a full service design firm that have both the technical expertise and experience needed to provide the solutions to convert audiences into your customers. Toronto Web Design Company: Acro Media First Canadian Place, 100 King Street West, Suite 5700, Toronto, ON M5X 1C7(416) 915-3136 – (877) 763-8844
Filed under Domain Name Hosting by Adriana Noton
March 3, 2010
Domain Hijacking Prevention
Domain protection is a top priority for your Internet business. Your domain name can be taken from you. This is often called domain hijacking. This is where your domain is stolen through various means, sometimes re-registering, getting into your e-mail, after finding out your e-mail address from your registration, or false identification is used. We will discuss ways to stop this in this article.
There are different reasons why someone would desire to hijack your domain name. Individuals can just be hacking for hacking sake. It can also happen your going to get quoted an amount from them to get it back. They could assume that it is more expensive to go through the legal struggles than to just pay up. They are taking a significant legal risk but it does happen.
The first mode of protection is we need to assure all of our registration data is up-to-date including our e-mails for contact, address, phone number, and owners names. When utilizing an e-mail make for certain you\’re using a secure service and a complex password. Avoid using words coming from a dictionary within the the password on account of password guesser tools. Which goes for the registration company where you registered your domain. It\’s a good decision to utilize a password memory tool that is fully encrypted rather than a internet browser to save them, so you won\’t have to type in these complex passwords
Another step that one could take is to lock your domain in your control panel where you registered your domain name. If you do not see a lock in there you then must contact customer service to verify that it is either already locked or should be locked by them.
Rules for domain transferring plus more details which are current are controlled by ICANN and you can find out about the newest information for this about transferring. When someone attempts to bring about a transfer from your name to theirs or fake name you ought to be notified by the company that registered your domain that the attempt is being made. You\’re given a few days to respond usually this is going to be by e-mail.
Another point is to register with a top domain company or hosting service. If you get a low budget, unprofessional service, you may not be notified properly by them that the transfer attempt is being made.
Some of these hijackings are done when people do not update their e-mail address. The key reason why they forget to get this done many times is they switch Internet service providers, and they use the e-mail service that includes the Internet service. Then when they switch companies the former e-mail is no longer valid and they forget to update the address in their domain registration control panels.
If you cannot be contacted, the domain transfer might go through and unfortunately your permission isn\’t necessarily required at the time this informative article was written. It is vital that you receive these e-mails, or other notifications by phone or address so that you can monitor any transfer attempts.
There is some argument about making your information private whenever you register. Making your information private after you are already registered is possible.
You must also make certain that when you are employing a wireless network that it is an encrypted network. Eavesdroppers make use of these networks to acquire information. Encryption may not be available where you\’re at, for example a coffee shop, restaurant, or other public place. In case you are not sure do not access any one of these domain accounts or the e-mail account which is the contact address to your domain. Always run first class anti-virus and ant-spy-ware programs while taking care of your accounts.
Learn more VIDEO here Domain Protection. Stop by Glenn Heitkoetter\’s site for FREE internet business tools http://informedfish.com/domain-protection/
Filed under Domain Name Hosting by Glenn Heitkoetter
February 11, 2010
Cheap Web Hosting For Beginners
Options for finding the best web hosting for beginners exist in abundance today as more people race to establish their own place on the internet every day. (By “beginner” I mean someone who will soon be publishing their first web site.) The skills required to put up your own website are not as difficult to acquire as you may think. In fact, it’s a cheap, easy, and fun way to put yourself on the map. But first, you have to decide what exactly you want your website to do.
A personal website is one of the easiest to get started with. Most personal websites contain several standard features – some pages for your pictures and written content, another page listing your “favorite links”, and perhaps another one for your visitors’ log. Providers of the best web hosting for beginners all offer templates like these that can be installed using an automated script. This makes it very easy for a beginner like you to do it yourself.
Are you going to be adding a lot of new content to your website on a recurring basis? If you’re planning to, then you should probably consider using the “blogging” application like Nucleus, b2evolution, and Cafe’s WordPress. Even the cheap web hosting for beginners hosting companies provide them. Updating a blog is usually easier than updating a static webpage, so you may want to think this one through a little.
Now that you’ve decided on your website’s preliminary design, it’s time to identify who’s going to get their hands dirty. I’d suggest doing it yourself! There are many web hosts for beginners that make it about as easy as it can be to publish a website yourself. Really, all you need to provide are some basic to intermediate skills on that PC you’re using and a general, high-level understanding of how the Internet operates. You’ll learn everything else you need to know.
Don’t have the time to put up your own website? Or don’t really think you can do it yourself? Almost all of the providers of easy web hosting for beginners offer various levels of hands-on support. Although most of them incorporate it into their higher-end monthly web hosting plans, some still offer those kinds of personalized support a la carte. Be sure to look for that feature before you sign up for a hosting plan.
For the most basic types of websites, you needn’t be too concerned about the version of operating system (OS) your website runs on. All of them – Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and other Unix variants – offer similar functionality for your website, and they generally all cost the same. Each also provides you with an easy-to-use user interface called a control panel. Unless you have a preference between them (cPanel and Plesk are probably the most ubiquitous), you’ll find each equally easy to operate.
Since your website won’t require either high server availability, high through-put network bandwidth, or data encryption like a business website would, you needn’t concern yourself too much with these issues either. Again, the services and features offered in many cheap web hosting for beginners plans already include appropriate levels of performance in these areas.
You’ve done it! You have now identified your basic requirements for your personal website. It’s now time to look at some of the easy web hosting for beginners providers.
In Part 1 of his article, Internet guru Markys Robertson guides you in determining your website’s requirements so you can choose a cheap web hosting for beginners type of solution. Be sure to also click here to read Part 2 of Markys’ article – how to compare and choose between the many best web hosting for beginners options available today!
Filed under Web Hosting by Markys Robertson
February 10, 2010
Best Web Hosting For Beginners
After considering several characteristics of your intended website – complexity, content, and your own technical abilities – in Part 1 of this article, we arrived at the following conclusions. It will be a personal website of a very basic technical nature; it will have a fair amount of dynamic content on it; and, that you’ll be doing the website development, publishing, and maintenance yourself. (We’re assuming, also, that you’ve already identified and registered an Internet domain name (e.g., www.mysitename.com) with GoDaddy.com or any of the other domain name registrars.
Because the site you’ll be putting up will be simple and basic in nature, you’ll only need some of the more fundamental tools. All of the cheap web hosting for beginners providers include a simple web design tool (usually a set of automated templates), a file manager utility to manage your website’s files on the server, and more than enough email accounts. As far as disk storage and network bandwidth allowances go these days, the trend is to offer unlimited levels for both, even in the most basic hosting package. (You can always purchase more later if you want to take your website up a notch or two in complexity.)
Beyond those preliminary requirements for your basic website, here are several more factors to consider. Do you plan on keeping your website online for a significant length of time? You can choose an easy web hosting for beginners monthly plan, or you can save quite a bit of money by signing up for a multi-year plan. Since it will take some time for you to get your site established on the web, I’d suggest you purchase at least a one-year deal. You’ll also probably save some money on that, too.
Virtually all hosting companies charge their customers’ credit cards these days, and it’s not uncommon for them to keep your credit card number on file for auto-renewal purposes. This provides two benefits for you – security, as using a credit card online is very safe, and availability, as your website won’t be deactivated mistakenly due to lack of renewal payment. I’d suggest having them set up your account in this fashion.
Even the easy web hosting for beginners providers’ plans differ a little, so you’ll probably want to do a little comparison research. You’ll want to try to get a sense of their server and network characteristics. Here are some things to stay alert to while you’re making these comparisons:
- Take a look at your prospective hosting plan and see if you can tell what kind of hardware your website will be hosted upon. If it’s not a brand name like Compaq, Dell, HP, or Sun, it’ll probably be a cheaper, less-reliable “white box” server.
- Is toll-free technical support included in your web hosting package? Email and chat support are common, but you may want – or need – the ability to talk “live” to a technician for some support issues.
- Be aware that if you’re sharing an IP address with other websites on that same server (as is usually the case for cheap hosting plans), your own website may be at risk. Should any other website sharing that IP address with you demonstrate bad behavior like spamming, that IP address may be blocked. This would effectively render your website useless. Get your own IP address for an extra couple of bucks a month and avoid this issue altogether.
If you can remember most of these tips as you’re shopping for the best hosting provider for beginners, you’ll end up with a good selection that you can be happy with. Pricing between hosting companies can be pretty aggressive, so you should also be able to save some money too. Enjoy the learning experience, and before long you, too, will be joining millions of other people on the World Wide Web.
With 15 years of technical experience, author Markys Robertson writes frequently about website design, cheap web hosting for beginners, domain names, and other Internet related topics. If you’re seeking the best web hosting for beginners, click here to see some of Markys’ top recommended providers.
Filed under Web Hosting by Markys Robertson
January 14, 2010
Web Hosting: Bluehost Review
Bluehost will not just ring a bell to the ears of those who are conversant with hosting services, but it is one of the oldest web hosts on the internet. They have been dynamic over the years while repositioning and adding more services to keep their old customers and of course attract newer ones.
The hosting plan: It is commendable that this company has been able to drastically lower their pricing. It is also important to note that their prices are not just affordable but their services are easy to use as well. You may agree with me that Linux control panel which their hosting plan is based on is one of best control panels ever. Asking you to pay $6.95 per month for a two year hosting contract is quite understandable. But you will be required to add extra $1 per month if you are opting for a yearly contract.
The performance: Bluehost services lead other hosting company when we talk about performance. Though their advertised 99.9% uptime is not entirely met at the onset, but an average of 99.5% showed by a test account is not bad at all. It is important to note that the downtime decreases as your account get older. For a period of about 8 months, the downtime was noticed to have reduced from around 470 minutes to mere 1 minute. Interpreting this simply means that Bluehost services only gets better with time. The longer you stay with their services the better it gets.
Bluehost hosting features: Bluehost hosting plan is full of excellent features that’ll keep customers happy. Bluehost offers one hosting plan that includes pretty much everything. Their hosting plan comes with unlimited space, unlimited monthly transfer and unlimited add-on domains. In addition to that you’ll get modifiable PHP, MySQL and SSH Shell access, which is a superb feature for any advanced user. They have a great power backup system and they take security risks very seriously with highly rated protection mechanism for security attacks. There are lots of add-on modules you can install with a few mouse clicks.
Customer support: Bluehost has a toll-free telephone support as well as a live chat that make it easy for customers to contact Bluehost support. Bluehost has sometimes been criticized for not responding as quickly as they should. This may be true, although our questions have always been answered quickly and professionally. The truth is that there are web hosts with better customer support than Bluehost.
Conclusions: As a conclusion to our Bluehost review, we can say that Bluehost is one of the best shared web hosting providers on the market. They have received a good number of positive reviews. Although their customer service could be better, they offer great value for money with their excellent web hosting plan. If you are looking for cheap shared hosting package with plenty of features, you should seriously consider Bluehost.
For more information see our full Bluehost Review and also visit our list of best affordable web hosting.
Filed under Domains by Bob D. Jones
