Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
10 Reasons Why You Should NOT Have a Web Site
In the past, I’ve advocated using WordPress to manage your own web site. I’ve said that having your own web site is critical to the success of your business. I’ve said you should blog, that is, write posts regularly.
I’ve had people question that advice. People don’t want to follow it. They want a web site, but there’s a leap there, that they are not ready for yet.
I understand the hesitation and the confusion. In order to support those people who do not have web sites yet, here is a list of good, valid reasons why they should not get one.
This is list is for them.
10 Reasons Why You Should Not Have a Web Site
1. They are expensive.
When I worked for a video game company, our budgets for a new game web site were usually between $20,000 and $30,000. Most of that money was spent on going to meetings and arguing with the Marketing Department about the graphics. As a guy who loves learning about new technology, I was shocked to learn that the bulk of the cost was in the politics of building the site, not the technology of building the site. Building a web site is easy and cheap. Figuring out what it should look like and what to put in it, that’s the hard part.
Of course, if you already know what you want it to look like and what you want it to say, then maybe the only expense is your time.
2. They are technical.
Web sites live on web servers, or web hosts. They are built with HTML, a coding language that uses tags and variables and attributes. Domain names need to be configured so that the whole system of moving parts works together. Cars are technical too. They have engines and transmissions and differentials. You need training to learn how to work on them, just like you need training to configure web servers.
Of course, if you just drive a car without knowing everything under the hood, you could update your own web site using WordPress. Let the mechanic take care of fixing the car. Let me take care of configuring your web site.
3. They take too much time.
Updating your own web site takes time. You have to learn a few things about how to update it first, then you have to set aside time each day to write something new. You have to log into WordPress, then click on the “Add New” button. Writing out a title, then putting something into the body of the post takes, well, maybe 15 minutes.
Of course, maybe, 15 minutes every couple of days isn’t that much time.
4. You use other sites.
It’s possible to sell products on sites like Etsy. It’s possible to connect with your clients on sites like Facebook. It’s possible to communicate with people on Twitter. If all these other sites do the same thing, there’s no reason to have your own web site.
Of course, if you want a central place that will coordinate all of your efforts on FaceBook, Etsy, and Twitter, then maybe your own web site might work better.
5. You can’t write no good.
It takes some skill to organize your thoughts and write them out in logical paragraphs that make sense to people. You didn’t go to school to learn how to write. You’d be embarrassed to have people read your stuff. You’re just not a good writer.
Of course, if you talk to people on the phone, you can communicate. If you can talk to people in every day conversation, then you know how to get your point across. Besides, practice would only make you better, then you wouldn’t have this excuse any more.
6. You advertise other ways.
You use some other means of advertising, like print for instance. You pay the newspaper for ads that are seen by, well, they could be seen by, thousands of people already. Maybe you spend money on cold calling your customers. Maybe you sponsor a softball team in your city. Maybe you hand out flyers on the street corners, or dress up in a costume and spin those big arrow signs around. You’re doing just fine, thank you very much!
Of course, maybe a web site is actually cheaper and more effective than those other methods.
7. It’s just a hobby, not a business.
You don’t really want to make any money. You just want to make pretty things. You don’t want to mess with accounting or marketing or sales. Do what you love and the money will follow. The reason that they call it “hard work” is because it’s hard. You didn’t start your business to do things that are hard. You just want to make money.
Of course, you might want to make money with your business, then you might want to treat it like a business and not a hobby. Doing some hard work might pay off.
8. You don’t really like people
People can be such a pain sometimes. They complain. They insult. They are stupid. They do things that you don’t want them to do. You don’t need the grief. There’s no reason to put anything out there yourself, if all they are going to do is complain. They aren’t worth it. They don’t need your product anyway. They wouldn’t appreciate the hard work you put into it.
Of course, if someone actually might like your products or your service or what you wrote. They might compliment you. They might say nice things. You might actually make a new friend. Your life might actually be better because you write something and made a connection.
9. You already have enough money.
You’re good the way you are. You have a nice car and live in a nice house. You go out to eat whenever you want (Chinese food every night!). You can buy whatever you want, whenever you want. Life is good. You don’t need to put out any effort to make it any better.
Of course, if you happened to want more money, then maybe a web site would promote your business, develop some client relationships, and make some concrete sales.
10. You don’t have a computer.
OK. You got me there. This is a good reason to not have a web site.
Of course, you could go to the public library and use theirs.
Posted in Wordpress |
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
I’ve recently updated some existing web sites to use WordPress for a couple different clients. They just wanted me to make some changes to their site.
They had no idea that WordPress would allow them to update their own site themselves. They thought that a web site is just a web site. Only web developers could make changes to them. They had no control of their own site.
The old school way of building a web site, the way I did it since 1994, is to manually write out static HTML files and put them on a web server. Each page lived on it’s own, like having a bunch of pieces of paper laid out on the living room floor. You have to change each one individually.
Smart people got the idea to develop a “Content Management System”, CMS, to take care of the hard, repetitive stuff. There are now many of them. Drupal and Joomla are the primary competitors to WordPress these days.
The idea of a CMS is that some of the elements on a web page are the same from page to page. Generally there’s a header, a sidebar, and a footer, with the content in the middle somewhere. The content changes, but the template stays the same.
If you had an automated system that would just add the same header to every page, then you only have to update the header in one place, one time. If you can have a system that manages the static stuff and lets you play with the changing stuff, life would be easier.
Using WordPress allows me to build that template, all the hard stuff, the common stuff, as a web developer, then allows my clients to manage all the stuff in the middle, the content.
I haven’t built a web site without using WordPress in years.
Why WordPress? Control.
In any CMS, there are “admin” pages, a section of the site that is password protected. Those pages control the images, the posts, the pages, the content of the site to be updated easily.
Want a new page? Log into the admin and add a new page. Want to write a blog post? Log in and write a new post. Find a typo that someone else did? Log in and fix it. Add an image and put it in your blog post.
WordPress puts the control of the content back in your hands. You don’t need a web developer to write HTML every time you want to change something. You don’t need to know how an internal combustion engine works to drive a car. You just drive.
WordPress takes all of the technical, hard stuff and handles it for you. You just create the web site. Type some stuff. Click a button. It’s a piece of pie.
You do need to know how to move the shift lever and turn on the engine. You need to know how to turn the steering wheel. The level of technical knowledge required is like driving a car.
If you are still paying someone else to update your web site, or if you don’t have a web site yet, now is the time to use WordPress. It’s cheap. It’s easy. It’s available.
Take control. The road is waiting.
If you use WordPress, what do you think about it? If you don’t, why not? Leave a comment.
Posted in Wordpress |
Saturday, November 21st, 2009
How much control do you want?
Here is a great, simple explanation of the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
It’s a balance of simple and no control against difficult and total control.
Being the control freak that I am, I always choose control. I want you, as my client, to have as much control as you can. I can make the total control of your own web site a little bit simpler, and be there when you have questions.
Which do you choose?
Hosting: Self or Other
The biggest major difference between the two WordPresses is that the dot com version is hosted for you for free on Automattic’s servers, while the dot org version is software you install on your own web server. Automattic is the parent company of WordPress. Hosting with WordPress.com means you save a lot of money, because it’s free, and you never have to worry about your server crashing. You never have to worry about upgrades, because they’re automatic. Everything just works.
To receive those benefits requires you to give up something very important to a business: sovereignty. You don’t control the software or the server. There are incredible extras and freedoms unavailable to you if you go with the dot com version of WordPress. If you install WordPress on your own web server, we call that self-hosted WordPress to quickly tell which flavor of WordPress we’re talking about.
Self-hosted is a double-edged sword. With great freedom comes great responsibility. You have access to scads of themes and plugins that will let you do amazing things with WordPress that you can’t do on the dot com version—it’s like getting the keys to the kingdom. But you’re responsible for managing everything and keeping it updated. Plugins, themes, and WordPress itself require constant upgrading and backing up. Sometimes there are glitches that can only be solved by people who really know what they’re doing. If that’s not you, then you must have access to a qualified person.
Read the entire article at:
http://remarkablogger.com/2009/11/19/wordpress-com-vs-wordpress-org-the-definitive-overview-for-business
Posted in Wordpress |
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
The Care and Feeding Of Search Engines is the new name of the SEO book that I’m working on. It’s very, very close to being ready to publish.
Like any project, the bulk of the work was done in a few days, then we started to edit. That took a week. More material was added, which took a few more days, then a second edit, which was two weeks worth.
We’re down to the last edit and adding the illustrations, so we’re THAT close to being ready.
But.
And like PeeWee Herman said, “There’s always a big butt.”
Tomorrow, Thursday night, Sept. 17, at 8pm, is the first episode of Survivor Samoa. That means that one of the 4 busiest days for my poor little web server will be tomorrow. After the show, I’ll have to update the site to reflect what happened and what everyone else said about what happened. On Friday, I’ll be interviewing the poor person who got thrown off the island first, then updating all of that new information. That will take up all day Friday.
Sigh. It’s a glamorous life, isn’t it?
The book should be ready by the beginning of next week. Or so.
Posted in SEO |
Monday, January 12th, 2009
I ran into an old friend recently. The usual questions were asked about what’s happened in the 20 years since we’ve seen each other. Yes, I do web sites.
They said they were about to update their web site. Their spouse had created it and they wanted to add some features and update the look. I suggested that they use WordPress. I sounded like the fan boy that I am.
They were pleasant, but said they already had hosting with GoDaddy and they would just use the web blog application that they provided as part of the hosting package. They had heard of WordPress and that it was good, but they would use what they had.
I continued on about how cool WordPress is. They were very nice, but had decided that they didn’t want to pay anything extra when they already had a blogging application included in their hosting package.
I checked it out on my own GoDaddy account. It sucked! It had a tenth of the functionality and the interface was horrible.
Did I mention that it's free?
I told them again that they should use WordPress. I told them that it is free. You can install it anywhere. It’s got features, and blah blah blah, and IT’S FREE!
Oh. That’s quite different. It’s free you say? You don’t have to buy it?
No! It’s FREE. You can download it, install it, pick a theme, put in some plug ins and have a complete, professional web site FOR FREE.
They said they would check it out. They thanked me profusely. Told me that I had motivated them to get going on their web site.
I have no idea if they will do anything on it at all, but I guess I was shocked that not everyone has the same understanding and knowledge and beliefs that I do. Silly me.
People seem to think that to get cool software, you have to spend money. If you don’t spend money, then you can have cool software. People can’t wrap their heads around the whole “open source” thing.
If you happen to not be aware, WordPress is free. There is no cost. You can download it and install it on any web server that’s running MySQL and Apache (which is almost every web server these days). You can control all aspects of it. You can build your own theme if you want. You can do anything with it.
Did I mention that it’s free?
Posted in Wordpress |
Monday, January 5th, 2009
In the recent debate on how evil Network Solutions is, I neglected to give you the non-evil alternatives.
JumpDomain Whois
The easiest thing to do is go to an old registrar that quit answering my emails so I moved all of my domain names away from them. They had non-existant customer support, so I’m sure they won’t mind us using their tools.
https://domains.jumpdomain.com/whois/whois.cgi
Go to the URL above and put in your domain name. Hit Submit Query. It will also return all of the DNS info. Bookmark that page. I use it all the time. It’s by far the easiest and fastest way to look up available domain names without getting into trouble.
Whois?
First, if you are a Mac user (and I won’t get into that religious debate now), if you go into your utilities folder, there is an application called “Network Utility”. If you open that up, you’ll see all of the tools listed across the top. Click on “Whois”.
You can type in the domain name you want to check on and click on the “Whois” button. It will return all of the DNS info for that domain name or it will say “No match for…” the domain name you are looking for.
Terminal Whois on a Mac
If you are brave, you can open the Terminal application and type in “whois” followed by the domain name. That will also give you the DNS info.
Posted in DNS |
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
Here are the advantages of having a “managed web host”. They are in fact true and good reasons. If you require 100% uptime, hardware replaced within 30 minutes, the best support, and remote backups, then yes, you need managed web hosting.
If you want a Ferrari, then buy a Ferrari, but know that it's a Ferrari.
However, know that it comes at a cost. If you can handle having periodic issues so that you have 99.9% uptime instead, then normal web hosting is much cheaper. If you want a Ferrari, then buy a Ferrari, but know that it’s a Ferrari.
Advantages of Managed Web Hosting | What It Is
The reasons why to opt a managed web hosting account compare to unmanaged cheaper web hosting service are as follows:
No Downtime: Your online website works as official brand of your company presence over the internet thus it’s a must for you to make your site alive 24*7 hrs for the world wide web visitors so that they can access your website without any such issues like downtime. Major online web hosting providers gives you 99.9% uptime guarantee while the fact is this that its too insufficient to the practical need for better presence in front of your customers thus you need a web hosting company which can ensure you 100% optimal uptime as there are a lot of managed web hosting providers which offer 100% uptime in real due to their multi-home bandwidth network lines.
When you are a newbie webmaster even it’s a must for you to ensure that your web hosting provider gives you 100% uptime guarantee in this manner you can cut off a lot of hassles and frustration sort of unwanted things in your daily business role with your website.
Better Equipments: There are a lot of managed web hosting providers over the internet world which gives you 30 minutes or even 15 minutes hardware replacement guarantee sort of unmatchable performance for your website as when your hardware by chance goes failed this is a must as nobody knows what’s going on when as everybody just know either the past of the presence nothing can be predicated for future reference point of view when you are dealing practically over any such technical things as web servers.
Better Support: When you go to search any web hosting company you shall check their Support SLA things to let you know that how good they are to the support needs as there are a lot of managed web hosting providers which offer you maximum 30 minutes guaranteed response over your any trouble with your website so it’s always better to keep your eyes on their detailed SLA agreement too so you can secure yourself that you are working with the best supporting team for your web hosting needs.
Remote backups: Proper planning for backups shall be always carried when you host your website anywhere on internet and if you have a properly planned remote backup that makes you 200% more secure to what you are doing on internet.
Read the entire article at Advantages of Managed Web Hosting | What It Is
Posted in web host |
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
This is one of those questions that will get a complicated technical formula from the web development engineers, but it’s really not that hard.
If you have to ask, then you don’t need very much.
Don't be seduced by the flashing neon signs screaming *unlimited* at you.
If you are just starting out, you probably won’t have much traffic. Sorry, but it’s true. You can calculate the page files sizes and multiply by the page views you get a day or a month, but you won’t be able to do that without knowing how many people hit your site. If you have no history, then you can’t calculate, but it won’t be very much at all for a while.
Start out with the cheapest, least amount of space and bandwidth. Don’t be seduced by the flashing neon signs screaming “unlimited” at you. Don’t upgrade until you have to.
You will be surprised by just how little bandwidth you really need. If the average page is 100k, which is not unreasonable, then 100,000 pages a month is one gig. That’s over 3,000 page views a day. Do you have that many? If you have 10,000 views a day, then you’ll want 3 or 4 gig. I think “unlimited” bandwidth would probably cover that.
I really, really mean that you shouldn’t get more than you really need and you probably don’t need as much as you think you do. Really. Don’t do it.
Much more important is the reliability of the company. Do they answer emails quickly? Put in a support ticket and see how long it takes them to answer. Ask the sales people technical questions about redundancy and latency. See how long it takes to answer and does the answer make sense to you. Just tell them that you were told to ask about “redundancy and latency” and please explain what that means. If you are happy with the answer, then great. If you have no idea what this technical jargon they give you means or it takes them 3 days to answer you, then move along and find another web host company.
Posted in web host |
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
WordPress is a system that allows you to manage your content. You might call it a content management system, or CMS, but only if you cared about this stuff. It’s a system built on a bunch of files that talk to a database. Sorry if that’s too technical for you. There are a bunch of people working on it, making it better. Because you, or someone who cares, can see what those files have in them, it’s called “open source”, where the “source” of the system, the files, is “open”.
Wordpress is a system that allows you to manage your content.
It’s possible to go to http://www.wordpress.org and download the whole bucket of files and install them on your own web server. If you were a programmer or a developer, you could change them and do whatever you wanted to with them.
So, if you spent all of your time to build this really cool new CMS thing, but you just give it away to everyone for free, how would you ever make any money from it? If you’re smart, you create a hosting company that lets people use it for themselves and then charges those people for add on special features. This means that you can get a free web site using WordPress for your very own small business. You’ve heard the phrase “The first one’s free”? It’s like that.
Posted in web site build |
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
The Internet is a bunch of computers that all send little packets of data back and forth between each other. The computer that you are reading this on is one of them.
Each computer must have some sort of identifier so that it knows where to send the data to and so that other computer knows where to send it back to. These identifiers are called “IP Addresses”. IP stands for “Internet Protocol”. The address itself looks like this: 63.74.159.145. I’m sure you’ve seen something like that somewhere before.
But when you want a web page, you don’t tell your web browser to go get data from an IP address. You use a “domain name”, like “www.google.com” or “www.walton.com”. That domain name needs to be “resolved”. It’s got to be translated into an IP address so the data knows where to go. That all happens behind the scenes.
I’ll go through all the steps that happen so you’ll know what you need to do to get your own domain name set up without being taken advantage up by low life registrars. More about them later.
When you type in a domain name into your browser and hit enter, your computer goes and asks another server, called a “DNS” or “Domain Name Server” what the IP address is for that domain name. When your computer knows the IP address, it sends off the request and receives that answer back. In this case, the request is for a file that creates the web page in your browser.
Before I go farther, two terms you need to know are “client” and “server”. Each is a computer that can talk to other computers. The difference is that a “client” sends a request, while a “server” responds to requests. One asks and the other answers. Any computer can be either, or both, a client and a server.
Web pages are only one type of request, but probably the most common type. There are time servers that only respond with the time. There are Instant Message servers that sit between two people and send IMs to each of them as they are received. DNS responds to domain names with IP addresses.
So how does that DNS know what IP address is correct? From the “Root Servers”, of course! (No, they don’t serve roots.) There are 13 root servers that contain all of the information for each domain name that has been registered. Yes, they are pretty critical.
When a request for a domain name is received by a root server, it only knows which DNS to go ask for the IP address. DNS servers (Yes, the S is redundant, but who wants to call them “DN servers”?) are also called “name servers”.
Too many technical names? I think I got them all out so I can stop now.
The DNS are located all over. Anyone can have one. I have one here. Anyone can provide the service for you if you really wanted. Now, the DNS manages the relationship between the domain name and the IP address. Root servers know which DNS to ask and the DNS knows the IP. There are local DNS for each computer that needs to look up stuff. There are DNS that have authority over specific domain names.
The root servers get their information from “domain name registrars”. (That’s not really a technical name, so it doesn’t count.) You’ll hear people talking about their “registrar”. GoDaddy.com is one. Networksolutions.com is also one, but they are evil, so NEVER, EVER use them for anything. Did I mention that before?
A registrar will charge you some money per year to register your name. They usually provide a web interface so that you can manage what the name servers are for that domain name. They might provide the DNS for you and they’ll let you manage that too. The strength of that interface and what it will allow you to do is very important.
So, to review, you type in a domain name into your web browser. Your web browser asks the local DNS what the IP address is. If the local DNS doesn’t know, it asks the Root Server, which then tells it which DNS has authority for that name. Your local DNS then asks the DNS with authority, which then responds with the correct IP address. The web browser then sends off the web page request to the proper web server to get the web page.
All of that happens in the blink of an eye, which is a technical term for “under 200 milliseconds”.
Posted in DNS |
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
Using The Wrong Web Hosting Service Will Kill You | Gwizz IT by John Bear
Picking the right web hosting will be one of the most important decisions you will ever make with your online business. Why? Because the web server you choose will really make or break your online business.
It Could Kill You
Today I am going to discuss two types of servers; Virtual Web Hosting and Virtual Private Servers.
Lately, Virtual Web Hosting has been the only way to go when choosing a web server. One of the reasons that Virtual Web Hosting became so popular was because they supported the necessary files and allowed you to have more freedom than other conventional web hosting accounts. But now you can have more freedom than ever before with Virtual Private Servers. Moreover, Virtual Private Servers should not be confused with Virtual Hosts, because they are completely different types of accounts.
Before we go any further I’d like to explain what the difference is between a Virtual Host and a Virtual Private Server, so that you can really fully understand. In this article I will also go over the advantages and disadvantages of both types of servers, to help you decide which is right for you and your business. Let’s start off with Virtual Hosting.
Virtual Hosting
Virtual Hosting is also known as Shared Web Hosting, where you are sharing the physical server and a single set of software applications with other users. Virtual Hosting has been extremely popular in the past for its fast deployment, strong resources, and most importantly for having a very reasonable price. Another advantage to Virtual Hosting is that you have a powerful, reliable, and professionally managed server without having to have advanced technical skills, making it ideal for an individual, small business, or even a beginner.
Posted in web host |
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
Don’t register your domain name with Network Solutions. Use any other registrar. Not only do they charge you 4 times what most other registrars charge, moving your domain name to another registrar is almost impossible.
We had a client who had a name registered at Network Solutions. I showed them the difference in cost and customer support, so they wanted to move to GoDaddy.
La Brea tar Pits, Where You Get Sucked In And Never Get Out
First, they needed to submit a request. Then the request had to be approved. You have to actually call them to have the transfer approved. In this call, they try very hard to get you to stay. This isn’t a technical call or a call to protect you from someone stealing your name, it’s a sales call, a hard ball sales call.
When they finally do approve your request, it’s 5 days later, after multiple emails and a sales call.
Customer service is another issue, but this one is more subjective. They generally are not helpful and it takes twice as long to get things figured out with their support.
Bottom line, no matter what, don’t register your domain name with Network Solutions.
Posted in web site build |
