Written by hostinggeek on 13 September 2009
Blog webhosting has gotten so competitive these days that you really can just pick anyone to host your site but here are a few things you might want to keep in mind.
- Cheap webhosting is cheap because they don’t offer daily backups which means you have to do your own backups. You could easily lose your whole site and income in a minute.
- Webhosts that advertise being able to host unlimited sites for one low price and allow you to create add on domains actually do have limits for the amount of traffic the site can handle. Ask them for the details. They usually don’t say it out right on their sites or anywhere. Your sites will slow down when traffic gets high – which is your goal!
That is basically it in a nutshell. Most companies offer easy blog installation software with most using something called Fantastico that you can just click install wordpress or whatever blogging software you want to use. Wordpress is the software that I recommend and that I am using for this blog. I did look at others a few years ago when I got more serious about blogging but none of them really compared. The reason I like it is that I could easily figure out how to use it and more importantly how to optimize it for the search engines and install something called an xml sitemap that is required to submit your sites to search engines.
My favorite webhost for blogs is EZ Web Hosting- mainly because they do automatically do a daily backup of each site. Their customer service is outstanding.
Written by hostinggeek on 13 April 2009
The best wordpress plugins and themes are really what is best for you and your site but will need a few of the basics to get your blog optimized for the search engines:
- xml sitemap of some kind. There are a few out there.
- Spam filter – Akismet usually comes with wordpress.
- Related posts – keeps people reading about related topics
- sociable – to add social bookmark symbols to your posts so that people can book mark them.
- twitter to update your twitter feed automatically
The best word press themes I think are the ones with two columns and the smaller one on the left hand side which is the old website standard. Why? Because it creates more focus on the content and the ads if you want people to click on ads or buy products. The busy 3 column templates are usually too much information and people miss the most important things. It also makes you think about what is most important.
I am actually still trying to find some nice two columns with the small column on the left.
See also:
Wordpress hosting
12 week class- how to start an online business
Written by hostinggeek on 05 April 2009
Webpage Search Engine Optimization will soon be offered in 6th grade! (joke!) Seriously, knowing how to create a website and webpage that are optimized for the search engines AND the readers is essential if you want to do anything online.
The basic formula is very simple.
- Research keywords related to your topic. Try to find the best words that are in demand yet have a low supply of sites using those keywords. Keyord phrases are also being used successfully on webpages, blog posts and for article marketing.
- Use the keyword(s) in your domain name (or lens on squidoo)
- Use the keyword in the title of your page or post.
- Use the keyword in the metatag section of your page – in the keyword, description and title section.
- Use the same keyword in the first sentence of the post or page. Use it a few times throughout the page/post.
- Use it in a text link to another page!
That is basically it! It is all explained further when you take the Site Build it! 12 Week Online Class on how to Start a Website Business.
Written by hostinggeek on 05 April 2009
Article Marketing is the art of writing articles to promote your website or to promote affiliate products. You don’t actually need a website to promote affiliate products. You can start without one but I recommend that you do get one eventually. Most of the things you have to do using article marketing could easily be done more easily with a website.
You will need to learn how to write effective articles that will get people’s attention and also get people to click on your links in the article to go to your website or to your affiliate product.
Some good places to start with article marketing is ezinearticles.com, hubpages.com, Google Knol and squidoo.com. The first two are fairly straight forward but squidoo.com is more of a learning curve to use and to get the ‘lens’ found by the search engines. Here is a free guide to using Squidoo that will help you get started. This “How To Squidoo” guide is 50+ pages of step by step instruction. It will show you how to do everything from the very beginning ( setting up a new Squidoo account) all the way to lens creation steps to get their first lens live and online!
The other key to using article marketing is to create articles that are optimized for the search engines. You do that the same way you would for creating a website page. With article marketing you can focus on the ‘long tail’ keywords – long phrases that people would use just before they would buy your product. Like if you are selling a guide to article marketing you would not just use the keyword ‘article marketing’. You would use the keywords ‘how to use article marketing’ or ‘learn how to use article marketing’ or something like that. (That’s not the best example but I hope you get the idea.)
The idea is to create a list of about 10-15 good keywords that you want to use in an article marketing campaign and write about 2 articles a day and submit them to various article directories. Here is a list of more article directories to start with.
Written by hostinggeek on 05 April 2009
Learning about starting an online business can seem like an overwelming task and ongoing project. It is difficult to keep up with all of the changes on the internet and make heads or tails out of most of the information.
To start with you will need to research a profitbable topic or niche to create an online business around. Begin with what you know the most about and are most passionate about. There are some companies that just tell you to find trends and narrow them down into niches but what if you don’t know anything about golf swings or weight loss?
Keyword research usually starts with one of the free research tools that will tell you how many people are searching for your keywords to see if it is worth doing a site on. You also need to know how many sites out there that are doing the same thing you want to be doing. Finding a topic that has a good demand and low supply will give you the best chances of being profitable. It is more difficult to find really good numbers these days with so many people on the internet so the second best thing it to just go with your guts.
After you get some ideas of what you want to do a site on start researching how you will make money. There are lots of ways like using Google Adsense which really requires having a very large site over 300 pages and getting a lot of traffic (like 500 people a day). You can also learn to make money promoting other people’s products. It works best if you use and understand the product because you can speak from experiene instead of always having to make sales pitches.
The keyword research will also help you choose the best domain name for your website and then help you plan the layout of the pages of the site.
Getting traffic to your site depends on you using the keywords throughout your pages and site in a strategic way to attract search engines and readers. It is fairly easy to do but you need to know how to create an optimized site.
The other way to get traffic is to get other sites to link to your site (backlinks). It isn’t so much that you get traffic from the site but backlinks are needed to show that your site is popular to the search engines.
All of this is more clearly outlined and the 12 Week Class – Starting an online business offered by Site Build it! It includes one year of hosting and all of the tools that you need to start and run an online business.
Course Content
The course uses theory and proven practices to help students through all the steps of starting and operating an online business. Using smart tools, but not requiring technical knowledge, the course takes students step-by-step through all the stages of developing an online business.
In addition to the training from the experts you will receive:
- Full Set of Integrated Software Tools
- Access to Small Business User Forums
- Mentoring Via Case Studies of Many Successful Business Owners in a Variety
of Niche Markets
- 24/7 Technical Support – 12 Months of Web Hosting For Your Business
- Ability to Integrate Other Web Design Software
- Many Free Supplemental E-Books on E-Commerce, Traffic Building, Google
Adsense, Creating Links and much more.
After completing the 12 week course you will have a functioning online business which you can continue to nurture using the skills learned during the course.
If you want to start making money online without a website you can begin by promoting affiliate products through article marketing.
Written by hostinggeek on 25 March 2009
When comparing webhosts be sure to read the fine print!
My favorite webhosts are hostgator.com and ez-webhosting.com because of their value but they are not always up front about their hosting plans.
Hostgator.com advertises unlimited sites being hosted on one hosting plan which is quite a savings. Instead of having to shell out money for each website or blog you can host as many as you want with them. The thing is that after the website gets to be a certain size they no longer will do backups for you which could be a really big problem if your site goes down -and all sites will go down at some time or another.
Ez-webhosting.com also has a catch that when you prepay for a yearly hosting plan with them you have to stay the whole year. If you leave or end your website for whatever reason before your time period is up you still have to pay for the space even though you aren’t using it.
So how does one get around these hosting problems?
Well Site Build it! you have none of these concerns. They will gurarntee the website and offer partial refunds if it doesn’t work out before your time is up. They don’t charge extra for space or backups. Actually I don’t think my sites with them have ever gone down really. I don’t think that they actually have backups because the system they use isn’t a regular server. It is database driven.
Written by hostinggeek on 25 March 2009
You can easily learn to make a website on your own these days. You don’t always need a fancy design or complicated systems. What you do need is a website that gets found by the search engines.
You can learn to make a website that does just that by taking the Site Build it! elearning classes that take you step by step through their action guide and the process of creating a website.
But the basic outline goes something like this:
- research topics that you know a lot about or are interested in learning about and see what others are searching for in that topic so that you can craft a niche website on that topic. Understand your potential buyers so you can write for them. Use the research to also create a list of keywords that are popular that you will create pages around on your website.
- Plan how you are going to make money. There are many ways the two most popular are using Adsense and selling other people’s products through affiliate programs.
- Choose the best domain for your website based on what you are planning on doing and what solution you will be providing for people.
- Create pages that are optimized for keywords that are related to your topic. Using the keywords in the title, description and keywords metatags along with using them in the first sentence of the page and a few times throughout that page and also in a text link or picture file.
- Get other sites to link to your site to make it look popular to the search engines and get traffic to your site. You can use article marketing, direct link exchanges or getting one way links by posting on other people’s blogs or websites.
This is just the basic formula. It does take some time and research and learning how to create a website that can get found by the search engines and also get your most wanted response – whatever that may be.
It actually is all thoroughly explained in the Site Build it! Elearning course that comes with a website package too. Once you understand the basics and get to know how to make a website with Site Build it! you will want to be creating sites on many different topics.
Written by hostinggeek on 22 March 2009
Learning how to start a website business takes some time and research but can easily be done with the right guides and tools. In today’s economy it is essential to have multiple streams of income because you can’t really count on any jobs or careers for that matter.
You can start a website business and create a website on a topic that you know a lot about or are an expert on and learn how to grow it into a profitable business.
Start with Site Build it! and go through the whole process of learning how to start a website business by researching keywords and what people are looking for online. You can brainstorm your possible topics and see if they would make good niches.
Using Adsense is one of the most popular ways of making money but it reaquires that you have about 300 pages of content and about 500 vistors a day to make anything worthwhile. You can make much more money by selling other people’s products through affiliate programs or create your own ebook or digital product to promote.
Written by hostinggeek on 20 March 2009
You can’t learn how to make passive income online because there is just no passive way to do it. It takes some time and energy and researching and testing and implementing programs so it isn’t really passive. You can make residual income or make a steady flow of income with little effort after you get the business set up and running or even hire someone else to run it for you or even start it for you for that matter.
The basic steps to creating so called passive income online involves researching various topics to create a niche website and/or blog on, planning on how to make money online, learning how to choose the best site concept and the best domain name, planning the pages of content that will be using the best optimized keywords for your niche and then putting it all together and creating a website and/or blog.
You will also have to learn about getting your website/blog found and therea are many things you can do to create a steady flow of traffic to your site. It includes using article marketing and getting backlinks to your website along with providing the best information on your topic. People love information!
Written by hostinggeek on 16 March 2009
To find the best wordpress hosting you will have to weed through a lot of ads and various packages. The top 3 wordpress hosts are in my opinion:
- hostgator.com
- bluehost.com
- ez-webhosting.com
Why am I recomending those? Because I use them and know that they are reliable and work – it is as simple as that!
See also:
Settings for Wordpress
Niche Blogging- How to find a topic for niche blogging
