Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
This is a server that is shared by multiple web sites.
1. Shared - This is a server that is shared by multiple web sites. You get to put your web sites on there, along with everyone else. You share the hard drive space and you share the bandwidth. You have privacy. Everyone can only see their own files. Upside - these are the cheapest out there, maybe $5 to $30 a month. Downside - if someone else uses a lot of bandwidth or has CPU intensive scripts, then your site might be affected. You usually have less bandwidth on a shared server.
This is your own personal piece of hardware that you drive down to the hosting company
2. Collocated - This is your own personal piece of hardware that you drive down to the hosting company and they put it on their rack and plug it into their bandwidth. Upside - you can do anything you want and have complete control over the entire machine. All you are really paying for is the bandwidth. Downside - all you are paying for is the bandwidth. You have to back it up. You have to fix any problems. You have to manage the whole thing your self. If a hard drive fails, you have to buy a new one and replace it your self. You own the machine.
You get the entire machine, usually with more access to it than with a shared server.
3. Unmanaged Dedicated - This is their machine that you are renting from them. They give you file space and bandwidth. You get the entire machine, usually with more access to it than with a shared server. Upside - you get huge bandwidth and all of the CPU. You can run a lot of traffic through one of these. They can handle probably 500,000 page views a day. You want one of these if you have a huge site with a lot of traffic. Downside - they are expensive. They might be $200-$500 a month. You want a Ferrari, you pay for a Ferrari.
The hosting company will all monitor the server for you and fix things if they go wrong.
4. Managed Dedicated - These are the as Unmanaged Dedicated servers, except the hosting company will all monitor the server for you and fix things if they go wrong. If you have a large commercial site that MUST be up all the time, then you want one of these babies. Upside - these can handle anything, all the time. Downside - you guessed it, much more expensive.
If your site has little traffic, you won’t need the power of a dedicated server. If you are not a geek, then you probably don’t need to collocate your own server. If you are not running a huge commercial site, you probably don’t need a dedicated server.
I use these guys and they give me enough bandwidth and customer service to make me happy. I don’t promote anyone else, just Powweb.
Posted in small business website, web host | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
I’ve put up a link under my short bio over there on the right. Put up a new head shot while I was there. If you click on the button, it’ll pop up a window and you can ask me anything you want to know about small business web sites. I’ll answer it as soon as I can. I want to build some traffic to the site, so I thought I’d put that possibility out there for you.
If you have any questions about small business web sites, web hosts, HTML, design, development, management, Wordpress, or anything at all, go ahead and send me the question. We’ll see just how much I really do know. You can also leave a comment below, if you want to do it that way. Either way should work.
Thanks!
Posted in small business website | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
It's always best to plan out what you need to do before you do anything.
No matter what kind of web site you are creating, no matter what size or what content, it’s always best to plan out what you need to do before you do anything.
I always start with a planning document. It can be formal or informal. It just needs to have all of the information you need in a way that makes sense to you.
Start out with the technical, web hosting issues. What is the domain name? Where will it be hosted? Are there any other technical requirements like SQL or PHP? You may not know all of these right now, but be aware of them. They might cause problems later if you don’t plan for them now.
Once you have a handle on the technical issues, which will take way more time to explore, the next step is a site map. This might be called the site architecture or site plan. There are various names for it.
You need to have a list of every page on the site and a description of the content for every page. You also need to know the relationships of each page, which will be defined with the menus.
Most sites have a list of things that are exactly the same on each page, so we call this the template. These things would be the header and footer, the sidebars, and the logo. Whatever else you might have can be put into the template.
If your site has nothing common on each page, then you’re better off creating them individually. You still need to make the site map.
You can make this list as a text outline or as a graphic with little boxes and lines running between them. Use whatever tools you have that make sense to you.
Posted in development, free, small business website | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
Things never go as planned. Never.
I’m a Project Manager when I have a day job. My skill is getting everything to come together at the same time and making it all work. That’s a skill that I’ve learned over years of building web sites.
I won’t tell you everything I know because you don’t have that much time and I have to go watch Fringe, but I will tell you a couple things to watch for when you’re trying to start a web site.
First, things never go as planned. Never. Always add some cushion. If you can ever get anything done early, do it. Always have a plan B or a way to work around the things that will go wrong. Never work to up to the deadline, work to a point ahead of the deadline, then maybe you won’t be as late.
I might be getting a consulting gig for a company that wants to get a store up on the web by Thanksgiving. I thought “No problem!” before I realized exactly when Thanksgiving is. Yeah, it’s days away. And you want to do what?
Second trick of the trade, do it in phases. The web can be changed easily. If you print up 10,000 catalogs and need to make a price change, your stomach is going to hurt. If you need to add another page on a web site, just add it and change the menus. Boom. It’s done. It’s just a matter of time and effort to make changes.
Figure out what the bare minimum is that you need to get your web site started. Do that, then add on features and pages later. Don’t worry about it. Don’t make it perfect. Make it now.
I told this new gig to have all of the design work done by the end of business yesterday. They said they could have by the end of business today. It’s after 10pm and I haven’t seen anything yet.
It’s going to be an interesting project.
Posted in development, small business website | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
Find out what unlimited bandwidth really means by reading the fine print.
I don’t know how you can be sure about your web host without going out and trying them all, which I’m not going to do.
I’ve been through a few web hosts. Some have been good. Some have been bad. Price is usually not the issue that makes one “bad”. The problems that you’ll have with web hosts have to do with service, both technical and customer support.
I own a very popular web site, survivor.com. I would get huge spikes in my traffic on Thursday nights, when the show was on. One host saw the spike and extrapolated that out over a month and decided that I would be in violation of my bandwidth for the month, since every day was Thursday night, so they shut me down.
No warning. No email. I came home from work one day and checked my days stats. I had no traffic. Poof. Just like magic, it all went away.
I emailed them and got a notice that I was in violation. I begged and promised and they turned me back on again. I bought a second account and linked things back and forth to balance out the load. What a load it was.
So, look for reasonable terms of service. Find out what “unlimited bandwidth” really means by reading the fine print. Ask around and see if they have good customer service. Do they answer emails quickly? Getting along with them is key. You hope it’s like a good friendship and that you’re not dating a psycho who’s going to steal your car.
Oh, and my personal recommendation? That would be the web host that I use now, Powweb. There’s a button over there on the right that you can click and sign up with. If you use my button, I get a commission. I could have a lot of other affiliate links over there, but I only have the one. They are the only one I’d recommend. They advertise “unlimited bandwidth” and it’s not, but it’s probably more bandwidth than you’ll ever need. I like them.
Posted in small business website | No Comments »
Monday, November 17th, 2008
I've created a new site for the Web Site Starter Kit.
I’ve created a new site for the
Web Site Starter Kit.
It will be an eBook that will walk you through everything you need to know to get a web site up and running, which is why I named it the Web Site Starter Kit. It is written for people who know they need a web site, but don’t know the first thing about how to get one or manage it once it’s there. The Web Site Starter Kit will tell you the technical background if you want to know the details, but it will also tell you the quick and dirty method. Web Site Starter Kit will outline the step by step tasks you need to do to make a great site happen quickly and cheaply.
If you are trying to start a web site, build a web site, this will help. If you already have a web site, this will also give you a checklist of things to make it better.
We’ll talk about SEO, search engine optimization. That the general term for all the little things that you can do for free to get your site up higher in the search engine results pages. Build traffic to your site from the search engines. Web Site Starter Kit will give you all this information and more.
Posted in SEO, design, development, domain name, marketing, small business website, web host | No Comments »
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
Here are the steps it takes to create a GOOD small business web site for FREE.
There are a lot of business owners out there who have a vague feeling that they should have a web site, but don’t want to learn anything about it or spend any money on it. Maybe times are tough, but marketing is the only way that business will get any better.
If you have a small business, and I mean like less than 5 people or less, then here are the steps it takes to create a GOOD small business web site for FREE. This will get you a real live, working site, that does the basics of what a business site needs to do.
It’s possible to do a GREAT site if you spent a little money on it. I am going to constantly berate you for being cheap through out this FREE process. Spend a little and get a lot. I figure that you’ll build the GOOD, FREE site now, realize just how effective it is and want to make it better. Then you’ll come crawling back to me, all crying like a baby, asking me to take you back and show you how to make a GREAT CHEAP site to replace your GOOD FREE site.
You go read the posts below. I’ll wait here.
Free Small Business Web Site 01 - The Foundation - Wordpress
Free Small Business Web Site 02 - The Downside
Free Small Business Web Site 03 - Before We Begin
Free Small Business Web Site 04 - Wait!
Free Small Business Web Site 05 - The Exciting part
Free Small Business Web Site 06 - Confirmation
Free Small Business Web Site 07 - Set It Up
Free Small Business Web Site 08 - Do You See A Theme?
Free Small Business Web Site 09 - Building Houses
Free Small Business Web Site 10 - Content
Free Small Business Web Site 11 - Navigation
Free Small Business Web Site 12 - Fancy Stuff
Free Small Business Web Site 13 - Review
Posted in SEO, design, development, domain name, free, marketing, small business website, web host | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
Wordpress is a system that allows you to manage your content.
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”.
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 free, small business website | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
The downside to this is that you only have the ability to make it do what they let you do. If you wanted to spend money on this, you could have the ability to do whatever you felt like. Sorry, getting off track again. They only allow you to use one of their approved themes and their approved plug ins. But remember, it’s free, so don’t whine too much. We’ll figure out a way around most of the limitations any way. Follow me.
Posted in free, small business website | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
What is the goal here?
We need to know what we want to accomplish. What is the goal here? You have a business. You want more customers. How do customers find you? Search engines. “Google” has become a verb. How do they use a search engine? They type in a words and hit enter. Those words, those “keywords”, are critical to your success.
You first need to decide what keywords you want to be found for. What does your company do? How would you describe your company?
You also need to know that you have competition. You are probably other companies out there that do the same, or similar things. They also have web sites for those very same keywords that you want to be found for.
As you search for more keywords at one time, you will narrow the results. Let’s pretend that you have a car repair shop in Torrance, CA that specializes on transmissions. If you search for “auto” you’ll get 1 trillion, 280 million results. If you search for “auto repair”, that narrows it down to 22 million results. Dude. That’s still too many. You don’t want to compete against everyone in the country.
Let’s try “auto repair torrance”. That’s better. There are only 226,000 results for those terms. Not all of those are repair shops. Some of those are on Torrance Blvd. in another city. Some of those are blog posts by some guy, sitting in his underware, complaining about the work some shop did to his Corolla. We can do this.
Let’s decide that these are the keywords that we’re going to try to optimize for, “auto repair torrance”. Another acronym to make you feel smart; “SEO” means search engine optimization. It also means “spend a lot of money” if you pay someone to do it for you. You’re going to do this yourself.
Posted in free, small business website | No Comments »
