Wordpress as a CMS

You can do quite a bit with a website powered by WordPress. So let’s do it.

WordPress can manage several types of content for you, including Posts, Pages and Links.

• Posts are your basic time-driven content and are used for standard blog entries.
• Pages are basically posts that aren’t time-driven—they’re added to the menu and serve as the basic meat of your site.
• Links are just that—links. This can be handy for a list of recommended services or helpful sites.

Make the Big Decisions

Before diving in you need to sit down and make some big decisions. If you don’t think things through now, you may end up regretting it later. The biggest thing to figure out is what you actually need your website to do. What kind of content do you need to manage?

• Do you need posts? (Maybe you don’t need one of those fancy blogs, but do you need a news section?)
• How many pages do you need?
• Will those pages have a hierarchy? (Do you just have five pages, or do you have a dozen pages where some will be filed under others?)
• What do you want to feature on the homepage? (This could be basic intro text that doesn’t change or it could be your latest news or it could be highlights from within your site)

These are the kinds of questions you need to answer. Basically you’re trying to figure out what you need from your website. Once you have that sorted out, it’s easier to find a theme that offers what you need.

Pick a Theme (Or Have One Designed for You)

Once you know what you need it’s time to pick a theme that can meet those needs. While it’d be ideal to find a theme that works perfectly, keep in mind that it’s pretty easy to switch themes. So don’t stress out over finding the perfect theme. It’s OK to try out a few different themes and see which one fits better.

Here are a few things to consider as you pick a theme:

• How is the menu handled? Will it easily display the number of pages you need or handle the hierarchy your site will require? If you’ve got a fair amount of hierarchy a drop down menu might be a must.
• Is what’s front and center on the theme’s homepage what you want front and center on your homepage?
• Is your theme widget ready? If so, you can pop sidebar items in and out with ease. If not, it gets trickier. Be sure to test a theme to make sure it’s actually widget ready—some themes, especially free ones, say they’re widget ready when they’re not (very annoying).

Install WordPress

Next you need to download and install WordPress. Don’t worry, it’s a pretty straight-forward process. But it can be intimidating, so we’ve got a few tutorials that can make it easy.

Put Your Site Together

Once you’ve picked and installed a theme, it’s time to build your site.

• Basic details like your site’s name and tagline can be added under Settings.
• Go to Write: Page (or Write a New Page from the Dashboard) to start adding pages to your site. While editing a page look under Advanced Options for Page Parent and Page Order to change the hierarchy and order of your pages.
• If you’re using a blog (or a news section) go to Write: Post (or Write a New Post from the Dashboard) to start populating your site with content.
• Under Design: Widgets you can customize the sidebar or feature areas of your theme.

Keep it Maintained

Once your site is up and running you just have to keep it going. Update your news or blog frequently, change out features or highlights and keep your static content up to date.

Updates are a breeze, thanks to WordPress, which means you can spend more time on your content and less time pretending to be a techie.

Virtual Private Server

A virtual private server (VPS, also referred to as Virtual Dedicated Server or VDS) is a method of splitting a server. Each virtual server can run its own full-fledged operating system, and each server can be independently rebooted.

The practice of partitioning a single server so that it appears as multiple servers has long been common practice in mainframe computers, but has seen a resurgence lately with the development of virtualization software and technologies for other architectures.

Overview

The physical server typically runs a hypervisor which is tasked with creating, destroying, and managing the resources of "guest" operating systems, or virtual machines. These guest operating systems are allocated a share of resources of the physical server, typically in a manner in which the guest is not aware of any other physical resources save for those allocated to it by the hypervisor.

The Guest system may be fully virtualized, paravirtualized, or a hybrid of the two.

In a fully virtualized environment, the guest is presented with an emulated or virtualized set of hardware and is unaware that this hardware is not strictly physical. The hypervisor in this case must translate, map, and convert requests from the guest system into the appropriate resource requests on the host, resulting in significant overhead. Almost all systems can be virtualized using this method, as it requires no modification of the operating system, however a CPU supporting virtualization is required for most hypervisors that perform full virtualization.

In a paravirtualized environment, the guest is aware of the hypervisor and interfaces directly with the host system's resources, with the hypervisor implementing real-time access control and resource allocation. This results in near-native performance since the guest sees the same hardware as the host and can thus communicate with it natively. UNIX-like systems, such as Linux, some variants of BSD, Plan9, and OpenSolaris are currently known to support this method of virtualization. However, installing operating systems as paravirtualized guests tends to require more knowledge about the operating system in order to have it use special hypervisor-aware kernels and devices.

Some examples of paravirtualization-capable hypervisors are Xen, Virtuozzo, Vserver, and OpenVZ (which is the open source and development version of Parallels Virtuozzo Containers).

Hybrid or partial paravirtualization, is full virtualization, but in which the guest uses paravirtualized drivers for key components such as Networking and Disk I/O, resulting in greatly increased I/O performance. As such, it is a common solution for operating systems which cannot be modified (for various reasons) to support paravirtualiztion.

Uses

Virtual private servers bridge the gap between shared web hosting services and dedicated hosting services, giving independence from other customers of the VPS service in software terms but at less cost than a physical dedicated server. As a VPS runs its own copy of its operating system, customers have superuser-level access to that operating system instance, and can install almost any software that runs on the OS. Certain software does not run well in a virtualized environment, including firewalls, anti-virus clients, and indeed virtualizers themselves; some VPS providers place further restrictions, but they are generally lax compared to those in shared hosting environments. Due to the number of virtualization clients typically running on a single machine, a VPS generally has limited processor time, RAM, and disk space.

Virtual private server hosting

A growing number of companies offer virtual private server hosting, or virtual dedicated server hosting as an extension for web hosting services. Some web hosting companies call a Virtual Private Server a Virtual Dedicated Server/Dynamic Dedicated Server or the other way around. There are several challenges to consider when licensing proprietary software in multi-tenant virtual environments.

Unmanaged Hosting

The customer is left to monitor and administer their own server.

Unmetered Hosting

This type of service is generally offered with no limit on the amount of data-transferred on a fixed bandwidth line. Usually, unmetered hosting is offered with 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps or 1000 Mbps. The customer is theoretically able to use 3.33~ TB on 10 Mbps, 33~ TB on 100 Mbps and 333~ TB on a 1000 Mbps line.

Virtualization software

For some of the software packages commonly used to provide platform virtualization, see comparison of platform virtual machines.

Green Computing

Green computing is the environmentally responsible use of computers and related resources. Such practices include the implementation of energy-efficient central processing units (CPUs), servers and peripherals as well as reduced resource consumption and proper disposal of electronic waste (e-waste).

One of the earliest initiatives toward green computing in the United States was the voluntary labeling program known as Energy Star. It was conceived by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1992 to promote energy efficiency in hardware of all kinds. The Energy Star label became a common sight, especially in notebook computers and displays. Similar programs have been adopted in Europe and Asia.

Government regulation, however well-intentioned, is only part of an overall green computing philosophy. The work habits of computer users and businesses can be modified to minimize adverse impact on the global environment. Here are some steps that can be taken:

• Power-down the CPU and all peripherals during extended periods of inactivity.
• Try to do computer-related tasks during contiguous, intensive blocks of time, leaving hardware off at other times.
• Power-up and power-down energy-intensive peripherals such as laser printers according to need.
• Use liquid-crystal-display (LCD) monitors rather than cathode-ray-tube (CRT) monitors.
• Use notebook computers rather than desktop computers whenever possible.
• Use the power-management features to turn off hard drives and displays after several minutes of inactivity.
• Minimize the use of paper and properly recycle waste paper.
• Dispose of e-waste according to federal, state and local regulations.
• Employ alternative energy sources for computing workstations, servers, networks and data centers.

Getting started with green computing

To explore how green computing is used in the enterprise, here are some additional resources:

Green IT guide for the midmarket: In this guide, get information about green computing tools and products available to improve energy efficiency in your data center.

Green computing ezine: Today green is everywhere, in the mouths of marketers and the minds of CEOs. Learn how to tame the environmental beast with the resources in this ezine.

Learn more about Server hardware packaging, recycling, e-waste

Data centers deal with e-waste: Data center managers must find a way to dump leftover electronic waste or e-waste, and many are turning to third-party waste management firms to do the dirty work for them.

NextPhase wants your data center trash: NextPhase's new "asset recovery" services allow data center managers to easily -- and legally -- dispose of unwanted computer equipment.

Understanding green IT and data center energy-efficiency regulations: This tip outlines current and pending green IT and data center energy-efficiency regulations, how to ensure compliance and the penalties for ignoring the policies.

NComputing Advances Multiuser Computing with Windows Server Technology

NComputing, a global leader in desktop virtualization, announced that it has entered into an agreement with Microsoft to align with the Microsoft Windows Server technology platform for multiuser computing.

NComputing has made a commitment to develop the next generations of NComputing vSpace software products to take advantage of current and future Microsoft Server operating systems for multiuser computing. Microsoft fully supports this effort and will provide technical support during NComputing's engineering development efforts.

Initially, the collaboration with Microsoft is aimed at helping educational institutions take full advantage of multiuser computing on the Windows Server platform. NComputing and Microsoft share a commitment to advance multiuser or shared resource computing to make it easier for teachers and students in libraries, labs and classrooms to gain access to a genuine Windows experience at a lower total cost of ownership.

"NComputing lets schools get the most from their desktop computing investment so they can focus on educating the leaders of tomorrow," said Will Poole, co-chairman of NComputing. "Our multiuser computing solutions have been installed by tens of thousands of schools and colleges around the world. With our Microsoft collaboration, we will use multiuser computing to further improve computing economics and bring computer access to millions more students and teachers around the world."

"We are excited that our collaboration with NComputing will be able to help educational institutions increase appropriately licensed access to technology through multiuser computing in labs, libraries and classrooms," said Bob Kelly, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft.

To simplify multiuser computing for customers, NComputing will help customers understand licensing policies to ensure the benefits of properly licensed software and reduced complexity. All customers need is one easy Microsoft server operating system license for the host computer and appropriate client access licenses for each user station in order to run multiuser configurations. Microsoft's Windows Server products are the only Microsoft operating systems designed with the scalability, security and licensing rights needed for this solution.

NComputing recommends that customers use Microsoft's Windows Server for multiuser computing, bringing world-class security, reliability and performance to educational computing. For example, NComputing's new USB-connected devices and vSpace software will support the new Microsoft Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 (WMS) platform, which was announced last week with availability early next year. By using the new Microsoft WMS with NComputing's ultra-low cost devices, educational institutions will be able to dramatically reduce their computing costs and expand access to computing.

NComputing expanded its lineup of innovative multiuser solutions last month with the introduction of the industry's first USB-connected client. The revolutionary U170 plugs into a computer's USB 2.0 port, and with NComputing vSpace software, enables additional users to share the excess resources on that computer. Each U170 delivers a high-definition multimedia experience and has connections for the user's own monitor, speakers, microphone, keyboard, mouse, and other USB peripherals. The U170 draws only 2 watts of electricity and is powered through the USB cable. Multiple U170's can be connected to a computer either directly or through a USB hub.

Over the past few years, multiuser computing has emerged as a significant trend, particularly in educational institutions worldwide. This computing architecture allows a customer to tap into a computer's excess capability to enable a single host computer to support multiple users simultaneously. Multiuser computing is ideal for educational institutions that are looking to:

• Provide more students with computing availability at a lower overall total cost of ownership and get the most out of their existing technology investment.
• Give teachers the time and tools to provide a personalized learning experience for each student using familiar technology
• Manage and support a secure IT infrastructure with little or no dedicated supporting IT resources.
• Cut electricity and carbon footprint by sharing computers.

Data Center Reference Architecture Document Set

It is highly recommended to start with Data Center Reference Guide. This document provides a general overview of data center framework and the Sun best practices, technologies, and products applicable in implementing a data center architecture. The rest of the technical documents provide the relevant detailed technical information under each section title.  

Data Center Design Principles:   

• Sun's Pattern-based Design Framework: The Service Delivery Network
• A Route to Standardized Operating Environments

Dynamic Infrastructure   

• The Service Delivery Network: A Case Study

Data Center Virtualization   

• Energy Efficiency Strategies: Sun Server Virtualization Technology
• Beginners Guide to LDoms: Understanding and Deploying Logical Domains
• The Sun BluePrints Guide to Solaris Containers: Virtualization in the Solaris Operating System
• Consolidating Legacy Applications onto Sun x64 Servers
• Application and Database Server Consolidation on the Sun Fire X4600 Server using Solaris
• Consolidating the Sun Store onto Sun Fire T2000 Servers
• Web Consolidation on the Sun Fire T1000 using Solaris Containers
• Slicing and Dicing Servers: A Guide to Virtualization and Containment Technologies
• Solaris Operating System Hardware Virtualization Product Architecture

Server Platforms:   

• Introduction to Dynamic Reconfiguration and Capacity on Demand for Sun SPARC Enterprise
• Sun Customer Ready HPC Cluster: Reference Configurations with Sun Fire X4100, X4200, and X4600 Servers
• Sun Customer Ready HPC Cluster: Reference Configurations with Sun Fire X2200 M2 and X2100 M2 Servers
• The Tokyo Institute of Technology Supercomputer Grid: Architecture and Performance Overview
• Developing and Tuning Applications on UltraSPARC T1 Chip Multithreading Systems
• Tuning Symantec Brightmail AntiSpam on the Sun Fire T2000 Server
• Multiboot Environments on Sun x64 Systems with AMD Opteron Processors
• Configuring JumpStart Servers to Provision Sun x86-64 Systems
• Installing Microsoft Windows Server 2008 on Sun x64 Servers

Storage   

• Sun Lustre Storage System
• Using iSCSI Multipathing in the Solaris 10 Operating System

Disaster Recovery:   

• Disaster Architecting Availability and Disaster Recovery Solutions

Security:   

• Solaris 10 Security Eliminating Web Page Hijacking
• Privilege Bracketing in the Solaris 10 Operating System
• The Solaris Fingerprint Database - A Security Validation Tool for Solaris Environment System Files
• Toward Systemically Secure IT Architectures
• Enforcing the Two-Person Rule Via Role-Based Access Control in the Solaris 10 Operating System
• Restricting Service Administration in the Solaris 10 Operating System
• Limiting Service Privileges in the Solaris 10 Operating System
• Using Computer Forensics When Investigating System Attacks
• Integrating BART and the Solaris Fingerprint Database in the Solaris 10 Operating System
• Automating Solaris 10 File Integrity Checks
• RBAC in the Solaris Operating Environment
• Solaris Security Toolkit
• Using the Cryptographic Accelerators in the UltraSPARC T1 and T2 Processors

Management:   

• Remote Monitoring of Sun x64 Systems using ipmitool and ipmievd
• Service Management Facility (SMF) in the Solaris 10 OS
• Automating Initial Setup and Management of Sun Fire V20z and V40z Servers

Applications:   

• Sun's High-Performance and Reliable Web Proxy Solution
• LDAP Reference Implementation
• Understanding the NIS to LDAP Service (N2L) Architecture

Sun Data Center Services:   

• Sun Dynamic Infrastructure Solution for Web Services
• Sun Datacenter Express Services
• Sun Connection

.NET Compact Framework and the .NET Framework, What Are the Difference?

Let us looks into few features that differentiate between .NET Compact Framework and the .NET Framework:

1 – Common Language Runtime

The common language runtimes in both Frameworks benefit from managed code execution, just-in-time (JIT) code compilation, and garbage collection. They support the Common Language Specification (CLS).
Both Frameworks have built-in primitive types as well as other types that you can use and derive from when you build your application.

2 – Classes and Types

The .NET Compact Framework supports a subset of the .NET Framework class library. This subset is appropriate for applications that are designed to run on resource-constrained devices and is semantically compatible with same-named classes in the .NET Framework.

3 – Assemblies and Global Assembly Cache

The .NET Compact Framework does not currently support multi-module assemblies, but does support satellite assemblies.

4 – How about Deploying Applications ?

To deploy an application, you can easily copy the assembly to the target device by using a cable from the desktop computer, its infrared port, or a wireless Internet or intranet connection. In Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, you can deploy directly to the device while debugging.

5 – ASP.NET Features

The .NET Compact Framework is primarily a rich client platform and does not provide ASP.NET support. To develop Web pages for mobile devices, you can use ASP.NET mobile Web controls. To develop Web pages for personal computers or Web service providers, see your ASP.NET documentation.

To get the latest .NET 3.5 Framework hosting enabled hosting plan and support, log on to SeekDotNet.com to view more information realize how you can deploy your .net Framework application right away.

Ajax Hosting

The Advantages and Disadvantages of ASP.NET Ajax

With ASP.NET Ajax, web applications can retrieve data from the server asynchronously in the background without interfering with the display and behavior of the existing page. The use of Ajax has led to an increase in interactive animation on web pages and better quality of Web services by developers and webmasters. But their are still advantages and disadvantages that ASP.NET Ajax contributed to the users.

ASP.NET Ajax Advantages

1. When using Ajax, a web application can request only the content that needs to be updated, thus drastically reducing bandwidth usage and load time.
2. The web application will be operated faster or more responsive, even if the application has not changed on the server side.
3. Ajax enable to reduce connections to the server, since scripts and style sheets only have to be requested once.
4. State can be maintained throughout a Web site such as Javascript variables.

Disadvantages of ASP.NET Ajax

1. Clicking the browser’s “back” button may not return the user to an earlier state of the Ajax-enabled page.
2. Dynamic web page updates also caused some troubles for a user to bookmark a particular state of the application.
3. Ajax opens up another attack vector for malicious code that web developers might not expected for.
4. Any user whose browser does not support Ajax or JavaScript, or simply has JavaScript disabled, will not be able to use its functionality.

However, wise and professional usage of ASP.NET Ajax technology still brings a lot of greater user experience on a particular website. This is an added advantages for both developers and end users sites with the ASP.NET Ajax enable web applications.

To fully enable the ASP.NET Ajax features, the website should be hosted on ASP.NET Ajax hosting compatible hosting accounts.

5 Steps to Choose the Correct Content Management System (CMS)

How to look for the correct content management system (CMS) for you?

To ensure successful implementation and adoption, the content management system (CMS) solution must be implemented like any other large enterprise application, with clear objectives and systematic planning mechanisms. So let’s look at some best practices that should be on everyone’s checklist before deploying any CMS within your organization.

Step 1: Evaluate Your Content Information

Rather than looking only at the type of the the CMS platform, you should look at how processes, business rules, and the content are defined. The free ASP CMS or other ASP CMS purchased should also easily integrate with multiple systems that affect this landscape as well as are necessary to help meet your defined business goals – such as your company / business content management process or even building a customer relationship management system. It is advisable not to buy a CMS without any plan to it as this will waste your time and resources.

Step 2: Choose the tight CMS for Your Business Needs

This can be evaluated by following these few points:
1 – Speed of installation and deployment
There is a direct correlation between CMS implementation/configuration time and costs incurred. Avoid using the CMS that requires excessive programming coding efforts. Hence, a user friendly CMS will only be effective if it can be easily install, configured and deployed to the hosting server, and even can be used by non- IT professionals.

2 – Ease of users and administration process
Like any other business application, the success of a CMS depends on adoption by the end user community. A user friendly content management system will be able to manage by all users with within the easy to use graphical interface. As for the IT professional / webmasters, they are also expecting seamless effort to integrate multiple company websites using a single console, and integrate the CMS effortlessly into the organization’s IT landscape. Eventually, a great CMS can meet different users roles and demands.

Step 3:Make sure the CMS involves all users in the company

As we know, the purpose of using the CMS is to able to create a easy to use portal for every person involved in the company / business. Hence, they are all leveraged to build and customize the system. Involving non-technical SMEs in the design of the new CMS will also help minimize reluctance to use the system.

Step 4: Now we talk about the maintenance aspects of CMS

On top of ongoing support and management, you also need basic application and infrastructure support of the installed software. This requires the efforts of a dedicated team, responsible for managing hardware, software, and the network.
Change is a must with most Web sites and your CMS needs to be as flexible as your organization, whether this is a simple template change or an entire site redesign. You need to factor in and expect that you will need to have some level of service be it from your internal IT department.

Final Step: Plan ahead for more in the future

You must make sure that the chosen CMS has the technological bandwidth and capability to quickly capitalize on emerging communication media. It is also related to the hosting plan you choose to host your content management system, make sure it will be able to upgrade or add on extra features to handle to growing size of your CMS, it will be a great advantage if the hosting companies provide support for any issue arise in the long run.

Suggested CMS system and Hosting Provider

ASP.NET CMS
1 – DotNetNuke - Compare DotNetNuke hosting plan here.
2 – Kentico CMS – Compare Kentico CMS hosting plan here.
3 – Sitefinity CMS – Compare Sitefinity hosting plan here.
4 – mojoPortal - Compare mojoPortal hosting plan here.
5 – Umbraco - Compare Umbraco hosting plan here.

Php CMS
1 – Drupal - Compare Drupal hosting plan here.
2 – Joomla - Compare Joomla hosting plan here.
3 – Mambo - Compare Mambo hosting plan here.
4 – Exponent - Compare Exponent hosting plan here.
5 – Nucleus CMS – Compare Nucleus hosting plan here.
6 – Xoops - Compare Xoops hosting plan here.

DotNetPanel Control Panel for ASP.NET Hosting

What you can get from the latest DotNetPanel control panel?

DotNetPanel support reseller hosting features with unlimited tier hosting. Which means that your client can become reseller hosting too.

The control panel is available for all webmasters to manage various Web Hosting account functionalities.
DotNetPanel is unique, feature-rich Windows hosting control panel. DotNetPanel simplifies Windows hosting and ASP.NET hosting management operations including the following:

Account Management

• asp.net hosting control panel with contact update feature Contact Information Update
• .net hosting control panel with password update tool Account Password Update
• asp .net hosting control panel with disk psace usage meter Disk Space Usage Meter
• aspx hosting control panel with addons ordering system Addons Ordering

Email Management

• email hosting control panel with email account list Email Account Summary
• mail hosting control panel with pop manager POP Email Manager
• email hosting control panel with email box quota manager Email Forwarding/Alias Manager
• email hosting control panel with email autoresponders Email Autoresponder Manager
• email hosting control panel with email catchall manager Email Catch-All Manager
• email hosting control panel with spam filter manager Spam Filter Manager

Website Management Tools

• asp.net hosting control panel with application starting point manager Multiple Application Root Manager
• asp.net hosting control panel with web stats and raw log files Web Statistics
• asp.net hosting control panel with user manager User Manager
• asp.net hosting control panel with directory permission manager Directory Permission Manager
• asp.net hosting control panel with domain pointer manager Domain Pointer Manager
• asp.net hosting control panel with dns manager DNS Manager

IIS Management Tools

• asp.net hosting control panel with site start stop tool NEW Site Start/Stop Tool
• asp.net hosting control panel with custom error page management Custom Error Page Manager
• asp.net hosting control panel with directory browsing manager Directory Browsing Manager
• asp.net hosting control panel with default document manager Default Document Manager
• asp.net hosting control panel with asp.net version chooser tool Real Time ASP.NET 2.0/1.1 Version Chooser
• frontpage hosting control panel with FrontPage extension manager FrontPage Extensions Installer/Uninstaller

SQL Database Hosting Tools

• sql hosting control panel with multiple sql add-on ordering Multiple MS SQL 2005/2000 Database Addon Ordering
• Microsoft sql hosting control panel with sql password reset tool MS SQL Password Reset
• sql server hosting control panel with sql disk space meter MS SQL Database Disk Space Meter
• mssql hosting control panel with sql backup tool NEW SQL 2005/2000 Database Backup Tool
• Automated real-time SQL backup tool
• ms sql hosting control panel with sql restore tool NEW SQL 2005/2000 Database Restore Tool
• On Demand SQL Database Restore (of SQL backup from above tool)
• sql hosting control panel with shrink sql database tool NEW Shrink SQL 2005/2000 Database Tool
• Save SQL disk space by shrinking your SQL database
• sql server database hosting control panel with attach mdf file tool NEW SQL 2005: Automated Attach MDF File Tool
• Transfer local SQL Express/SQL 2005 to live hosted SQL 2005

Automated Software Installer

• Joomla Installer (PHP CMS
• DotNetNuke Installer (.NET CMS)
• ASP.NET Starter Kit Installer
• Community Server Installer (ASP.NET Community Tools Blogging, Forums)
• FlexWiki Installer (Wiki Site)
• PHPBB Installer (PHP Forum Site)
• WordPress Installer (Blogging Site)
• Click here for full List software installation supported.

How to Get the Best Web Hosting Plan

If and when you’re interested in starting an online business, there are a lot of things that you have to study first before you can rightfully expect a high return on investment.

First, make sure that your company website has a user friendly interface which basically means links are visible, easily located and properly labeled and that the content provided in the website is complete, interesting, effective and grammatically correct.

There’s the matter of search engine optimization or SEO which requires you to employ a number of strategies that your company website is heard and seen by the right people. Common search engine optimization strategies would be keyword listing, site code optimization and top search engine placement.

Optimize your plan by understanding web hosting. No matter how great your website looks or how effective your SEO strategies are, if you don’t have the right web hosting plan, none of those would see the light of the day because your web hosting plan simply prevents them from being properly uploaded and viewed.

Web hosting is important to your plans if you want your website to have its own niche in the Internet so do read carefully what weíre about to teach you.

You have a couple of choices when it comes to web hosting – you can get it for free or you can spend for it. Naturally, it would be lovely if web hosting would be free for all of us but understand that all the needs of your company website must be met by the free web hosting plan if you want your future to look rosy.

These are key issues to address.

Are you willing to deal with advertisements that may take too much space or would have an irritable effect on your readers? These ads are often required by free web hosting plans because it’s the only reason they can continue letting people enjoy free web hosting.

Are you “cool” with low bandwidth access and minimal web space?

If you’re not okay with the following facts I presented, then I suggest you go with a web consultant and let them handle all of your work.

What is a Web Hosting Service?

A web hosting service provides a service that allows individuals and businesses to post web pages to the internet. A web hosting service provider sells or for free (with advertisements on the web page) is a business that provides the servers and technologies to view web-sites on the internet.

Web hosting services are services that customers can utilize after they have purchased monthly dial up or broadband services that allow them access to the internet. Web hosting services use hosting and client architecture to load content to the server so web pages and information can be viewed on the internet in its original HTML format.

A web hosting company will offer clients access to a server that will provide the clients’ content to individuals on the World Wide Web after they make a URL or domain name request. To view pages on the web, you must have a web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator to request the web page from the server after you have purchased internet access.

Web sites are pages that are stored on a computer called a server. The server is a part of a network of computers on the internet or World Wide Web that allows users of the internet to reach your site anywhere in the world at anytime. The internet is open 24 hours, seven days a week around the clock.

Host computers are configured so that when your URL or domain name is typed in, the address will use a pointer routine (look for the address
from terminal to terminal) until it reaches the computer that hosts your web-site. Then, if all is okay, your web site should display itself on
the users screen.

Hosting companies require that you buy your URL or domain name first before you purchase hosting services. Most hosting companies have a
package that will allow you to buy the domain name and hosting at the same time.

How To Choose Windows Web Hosting

Windows/ XP Web hosting provides web hosting on Windows operating system platform. Microsoft Corporation provides host based software operating system for servers. Windows XP web hosting programs are considered to be easy to cope with, reliable and inexpensive.

The simplicity of the Windows XP operating system is what stands out with these applications. Windows provides its users with friendly, familiar environment that is easy to work with. Today as so much work has been done by developers it’s very easy to administrate your site with using Windows/ Server Side operating system. The Windows/NT platform is also reliable. You also should know that reliability of any platform, same as Windows/NT platform, depends mainly on maintenance and technical knowledge.

Windows/XP platform is scalable and very cost-effective because at a relatively low price you can set up a fully functional Internet server with Windows XP in a matter of hours.

The big question is what do you want your web-site to do? Interactive websites usually rely on ASP (Active Server Pages which allow scripts on a web page to be run on the server before the files are transmitted to the client), PHP, or Perl (Practical Extraction and Reporting Language which is a scripting language used for receive and process data stored on web page forms).

And if you prefer ASP most of all Windows/ XP – based web hosting is the perfect choice for you. There are also some more only Windows available applications such as Access, MS SQL, Windows Media and Virtual Basic scripts. Windows XP offers benefits over other operating systems. Using these benefits gives you an opportunity to be productive and publish your information on the Internet rapidly developing your website or web application.

Windows XP server packages have great programs for individuals who are familiar with MS Windows XP software. The server package for hosting even allows for optimization of hard disk space and RAM which eliminates computer lock-ups while loading web applications.

Using A Managed Dedicated Hosting Service

Managed dedicated hosting  is for an individual or company that wants storage and bandwidth without the restrictions that you get by choosing a free web hosting service.  If you have a site which you want to have more bells and whistles programmed into it, then managed dedicated hosting is the way to go.

Dedicated services give you more email addresses, sometimes up to 500 addresses. It also has storage to support basic database applications on the server side of the web host. This allows for the development of applications that enable you to store data on the server side also and have queries and other types of program and programming scripts embedded into your web-site.

But the key to these kinds of servers are the bandwidth thatís available to the user. Monthly bandwidth can range from 500 to 1000GB for the user.

Thatís good for your basic SOHO business or home office because if youíre running a small audio or flash application or database on your site, this type of hosting service should do just fine. Also, you can assign the other email accounts to co-workers, family members or whoever you want to.

When you are running web applications over 1,000GB, thatís when you should consider steeping up your web hosting package. There are various types of web plans based on the types of internet applications that you are developing for your business. For example, if you are developing online streaming video content for your site, then you might want to go past the 1000GB limit on your account and get more bandwidth.

As a SOHO or company grows, the need for more bandwidth is paramount especially if you have an intranet in your office or you have people accessing the back end of your web-site to load data from various locations.

Dedicated web hosting is what the majority of individuals and small businesses use until they start growing out of their bandwidth. They usually upgrade their web hosting packages and buy more storage and bandwidth.

Choosing a Proper Domain Name

Choosing an appropriate domain name is very important. First and foremost, when it comes to domain names, try to stay away from the silly, stupid, ridiculous or clever. Keep your domain name simple and make it something your customers can remember if they lose the link to your business website.

Take note that, while your domain name on Geocities or AOL may seem like the least expensive way to go, it may also get you dropped from certain search engines. Some search engines ignore domain addresses that reside on these ‘free servers’ or on the ‘cheap’ servers.

Even if your site is recognized and considered by search engines, a professional domain name that uses your primary company name or associated words is likely to get more attention and be considered as a stable business by your prospective customers.

Purchasing domain names are not that expensive which cost about $100 and there are many companies that can register the name for you, provided it is available and has not already been used by another company.

Using one of your keywords in your domain name can increase your score on some search engines. For example, solderingirons.com could be more effective as Electric-soldering-irons.com, if that domain name was available.

You might also choose to establish more than one domain name using keywords and then link your ‘doorway’ domain sites to your primary site. But you will have to pay for each of the domain name and also the monthly hosting fees. It all depends on the type and size of your business and your competition.

Keep in mind that some search engines disregard ‘doorway’ sites. So put at least a page of content on the doorway site with some useful information and then link it to your primary site. But don’t design it as an empty page. The other reason being, you can have one, three, five, or even more email addresses that all contain your business name, and give your business a professional feel. When customers get emails from dominicstone@solderingirons.com they feel as if they are dealing with a stable, professional business operation.

No need for customers to understand how you manage all your email boxes on your domain. They just need to feel your business is dependable and reputable.