When you’re in business, especially e-commerce, one of the most important factors you need to consider any time you put money into anything is your return on investment (ROI). Whether you’re putting money into traditional advertising, choosing a web hosting company for your website, or hiring employees, it’s important to know that you’re getting the maximum bang for your buck.

When it comes to web hosting, in particular, there are a few things you need to consider for return on investment, namely:

• Can you count on the web hosting company to be up and running at all times? Even if the company provides free hosting, it doesn’t do you any good at all if your website is down when a potential client or customer is looking for it. If you’re paying for your website, it becomes all the more important.
• How much of the content on your web page is your own? It is common with many web hosting companies (especially free ones) to advertise for other businesses by use of banners and pop ups. While there’s nothing wrong with that, per se, you need to be sure that people who visit your website are drawn to buy your products.
• How fast is the access speed? Web surfers can be notoriously impatient. If your web page doesn’t pop up immediately or sooner, most people will just click on something else.

For web hosting, you are likely to get the best return on your investment if the website is easily accessible, allows fast access, and is designed in such a way that those who find your website are more likely to buy your products. If you find that your web hosting company falls short in one of these areas, consider moving your web operations to another host. If you find that your design isn’t up to snuff, consider hiring someone who is familiar with SEO (search engine optimization) to rework your website. You’ll find the ROI is generally well worth the expense.

Of course, ROI is important for more than just web hosting. Most businesses would do well to go over all of their operations with a fine toothed comb to determine which functions and employees are costing more money than their worth, and which are raking in the profits.

Whatever you are trying to promote on the Internet, whether you are trying to sell a product or service, or to bring attention to an organization or cause, there are a few things you need to do to be effective. You need to find a quality company to do your hosting. It doesn’t matter how much web traffic you generate if your website is down every time someone tries to find it. You need to find a way to attract attention to your website. This is best done with SEO (search engine optimization) marketing.

Let’s go surfing

Consider how you surf the Internet. If you’re like most people, you pull up your favorite web browser, be it Yahoo, Bing, Google, or whatever, and you type in a few keywords which relate to what you’re looking for. Almost as if by magic, the screen lights up with multiple website listings which (more or less) pertain to your topic.

Unless you’re highly unusual, you click on the first one (or maybe two or three) websites which seem to be related to what you want. You probably never look beyond that first page full of websites unless you have exhausted all of your possibilities and still haven’t found what you were looking for.

Most people surf the web the same way. What that means for you, in all practicality, is that you are never going to generate much web traffic unless you are on that first page when someone looks up your product, service, or organization. You can have the best constructed website on the World Wide Web, aesthetically speaking, and it does you very little good if no one finds it.

How the pros get on page one

Enter SEO marketing. SEO marketing involves putting content on your web page in such a way that the major search engines are most likely to find it and put it on the front page.

There are several little tricks you can use to accomplish this. With a little research, it isn’t difficult to find out what exact phrases web surfers are using to find websites similar to yours. Once you have this vital piece of information, make sure that those phrases find their way into your content.

Ideally, your content should contain some value for the reader, but you want to make sure that the key phrases web surfers are using appear in the first paragraph (ideally, the first sentence) of your web content, and are sprinkled generously throughout the body of any content on your site.

If you don’t want to do the research and writing yourself, you can hire an expert in SEO writing. They are actually quite reasonable, in most cases, and can provide you with a lot of quality content in a short amount of time for a very reasonable price. SEO marketing is, in fact, one of the most cost effective ways to promote your company and its effective regardless of which company does your hosting.

If you’re involved in web design or related fields at all, you’ve probably made lots of recommendations to clients regarding which sites they should use for their web hosting needs. What you may not have considered, though, is that by throwing out free advice, you’re throwing money out of the window.

There are many ways you can use your knowledge of Internet marketing and web hosting to your advantage. Here are five ways you can make money with web hosting:

1. Reselling. You’re going to pay a bit more for your web hosting needs if you choose to do this, but it’s an excellent option. When you resell web hosting, you basically set up accounts for your clients within your own service. Your clients will pay you directly. Of course, you need to deal with support issues yourself, which can become a bit trying if web hosting isn’t your primary business concern.
2. Resell from Multiple Accounts. The difference here is that you’re actually obtaining and reselling a separate account for each client (at a profit, of course). You can often take advantage of discounts from multiple web hosting companies this way. This is often a good option if you are also handling web design for the client, as you can put the whole package together for a single price.
3. Affiliating. If you affiliate with an existing web hosting company, you basically act as a sales agent for their services. It’s the simplest way to handle things, and it doesn’t cost you any money out of pocket. When a client decides to go with the web hosting company you are promoting, you basically sign them up and receive a commission, much as a salesperson would.
4. Do it yourself. If you’re going to set up a web server yourself, you need to know what you’re doing. If you’re questioning whether or not you can do this, you probably can’t (at least, not yet). If you do know what you’re doing, however, you can make a lot more money this way than with other options, even if it does mean occasionally shelling out money to manage a growing client base.
5. Use a third party server. This is a bit more costly than other options, but it saves you the need of purchasing hardware and handling the IT end of web hosting, as you will be outsourcing most of the actual web hosting functions.

If you’ve been trying to break into the exciting world of e-commerce, you’ve probably encountered one of the most common problems online entrepreneurs face: getting noticed by the search engines. If you’re still somewhat of a novice, you’ve probably blamed it on your web hosting company.

And why not? Who else could possibly be to blame? After all, you reason, you’ve put together an attractive web site with lots of useful information, good, clear photographs relevant to your product or service, and every feature under the sun which could possibly be of use to potential clients.

So, why aren’t they breaking the doors down to order from your website?

What’s wrong

What most newbies fail to realize about Internet based business is that the search engines are programmed to look for particular things in relation to what a web surfer types into the search engine. And the quality of your website isn’t really one of them.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t spend the time or expense to put together a quality web site. Quite to the contrary. Getting someone to visit your website is only the first part of the battle. A website that is well laid out will go a long way into converting a visitor into a customer or client.

The problem, though, is that you can’t convert a visitor who is on someone else’s website. You may have a better product or service, but the search engines (i.e., Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) don’t know that.

Try this

Type in the name of your product into one of the major web browsers. If your website doesn’t appear in the first page full of listings, chances are that very few people will ever find you, unless they’re looking specifically for you (which isn’t usually the case). And your web hosting company has little to do with whether you show on the first page.

One of the best investments you can make is to hire an SEO (search engine optimization) expert to rewrite any content on your website. He or she can keep the content virtually the same, changing only a little of the phrasing here and there to improve your chances of landing on the front pages of the major search engines.

If you’re a do-it-yourself type, you can educate yourself about SEO fairly quickly. A simple Google search of “SEO” will garner tons of information on the subject for you.

The simplest thing you can do to improve your web presence is to make sure that your content is unique and that you use keyword phrases that a web surfer looking for your product might type into his browser. After you have done that, spend a little time researching other ways to improve your SEO. Be aware that changes are made constantly to the web browsers, in attempts to improve them, so you need to continually research and pay attention to the trends in online marketing if you want to stay ahead of the game.

If you’re new to the world of building web pages, you undoubtedly have lots of questions regarding how to get started. One of the most common questions asked by those who are seeking a web hosting company is, “Should I go with a free web hosting company, or with a commercial one?”

The answer largely depends on what you hope to accomplish with your website. Either can be useful for disseminating information or for getting the word out about your product, service, company, or cause. And if you plan on using your website to build a business and earn money, either can still be useful, albeit in different ways.

If your purpose is primarily to get the word out about whatever it is your website is dedicated to, then a free web hosting company will probably work just fine for you. Free web hosting companies don’t charge you anything for hosting your website. Instead, they make their money by placing advertisements on your website. These ads can come in several different forms, including:

• Pop ups. Everyone who has used the Internet knows what a pop up is, and most of us don’t like them, but if it makes the difference between paying money you don’t have for a website or having a free host, you may decide it’s worth it.
• Banners. These are basically ads which appear at the top and/or bottom of your website.
• Advertising frame. Consider carefully whether or not you want to use a web hosting company which uses advertising frames, as they can hurt your chances of being picked up by the search engines.

On the other hand, if you are planning on using your website to earn money through advertising yourself, you’re much better off going with a commercial web hosting company. In this case, the actual content on your website will usually serve the purpose of attracting web surfers to your clients’ advertisements.

Regardless of what you want to promote with your website, you will want to make sure that your hosting company is reliable, has sufficient web space, and has a relatively fast access speed. The last thing you want for yourself or those searching for your site is for them to be unable to view your site due to slow access speeds or, worse, the hosting site being down.

Understanding the difference between Linux and Windows web hosting is crucial for anyone in the market for a hosting plan for their personal website or ecommerce business. Although you will find that the hosting companies out there will make it seem like there are very few differences between these two hosting servers, there are differences and you should be aware of them before making any purchase.

Windows web hosting is a very effective and reliable platform of hosting that any size business can take advantage of. Whether you are interested in using a small shared amount of server space or you are looking for your own dedicated server hosting package, Windows web hosting offers the many options you need to make a website successful in today’s Internet world. Windows web hosting is competitively priced. which makes the services affordable for everyone and anyone out there looking to setup a website or page online today.

You will find that there have been many constant upgrades to the Windows web hosting and corresponding packages that are making web designers take a second look at what they have to offer. Windows offers a unique array of different communication applications which can easily be integrated into your Windows hosting account by your web programming team. This is one of the most unique advantages of choosing Windows over Linux as it gives you as a business more options.

Mainly, Windows web hosting is used for larger corporations and businesses because of their communication upgrades and applications but many people have chosen to use Windows for their single website or page when it comes time to choose adequate hosting. When you look through the different web hosting packages on your host company’s website you will not be able to see the difference between Linux and Windows and therefore you may think they are the same. It is important to take this time to research and find out exactly what is it that sets each of these different platforms apart from the other before choosing the hosting package for you.

Depending on the programming team you are working with you may find they have a preference to one or the other and it is important to go with their instincts because they are the ones who have to work with the application platform you choose. Windows web hosting can take much more time to setup than Linux and for simple websites, many programmers will advise you to go with the easier hosting. Windows has taken their time to integrate some very advanced features into their hosting and therefore they ha ve created it for businesses and people looking to set up their own communication system through hosting, etc.

Understanding what Windows hosting really does can help you not only save money in the long run but also choose a web hosting package that will be reliable to your website size and expected traffic. You will find no benefits in choosing a web hosting package without knowledge of what it can do for you.

After you purchase your own web hosting plan for your domain, you are going to want to find ways that will help you promote your site. One of the best ways that is proven to increase the amount of visitors to your domain is the use of articles. These informative articles serve a dual purpose. First, you will be finding ways to spread the news about your site and what you have to offer and second, you will be establishing yourself as an expert.

The first step to begin this type of promotion is to find your niche. You will want to write articles that are relevant to your site’s topic. For example, if your domain is dedicated to the latest fashions, you will want to write articles that tie into this field. Examples of topics that you could cover would be emerging fashion trends, specific designer news and tips on how to save money while still looking great. The sky is the limit when it comes to finding ideas on what to write about for your site.

After you have determined which niche fits your domain, you will want to find new places to send your articles. Thanks to the boom of user created content this is easier than ever. There are numerous sites that offer users the chance to publish their own articles for free. You can also approach other site owners to see if they would feature your content in their own sites to increase your readership. Don’t forget sites such as Associated Content and Helium, as these places cater to content producers.

Once you have found places to promote your articles, you will need to get down to the business of writing. It is a good rule of thumb to keep your articles short and sweet. Most successful articles are less than 500 words, with 300 to 400 words being the norm. If you find that you go longer than this, split your article up into two parts. Don’t fall into the trap of being too brief either, as this is counterproductive. You want to provide readers with a resource that teaches them, entertains them and keeps them informed.

If you do not feel comfortable writing your own articles, you may want to consider hiring a freelancer. Most will work as a ghost writer, allowing you to put your own name in the byline. There are numerous job sites that cater to those who need articles written their sites and it is very easy to connect with a freelancer at no cost to you. Article prices will vary depending on complexity, but the price is usually well worth it, once you begin to drive users to your site.

Don’t forget to mention your site’s domain in your articles. This is a common mistake that many people unfortunately make. You want to use the article as an incentive for readers to come to your site to learn more, not as a standalone reference.

One of the first decisions you will have to make regarding your Web hosting is whether you want Linux or Microsoft. Although this is generally the preference of your Web designer, Linux has become the more popular choice for many Website creators today. Every Website owner wants their site to be accessible to their prospective clients or visitors and without this type of hosting reliability your Website could quickly disappear into the World Wide Web abyss and never be seen again.

Some of the advantages of Linux Web hosting include:

• Low Cost Ownership: The Linux operating system (OS) is mainly free with no large licensing fees which make it incredibly accessible for anyone looking to host their Website. Also the Linux OS offers all the features you need including DNS, FTP, File Server and Web Server to setup your Website adequately and
• Linux is Easy to Use: Web hosting is made easy with Linux as it is incredibly easy to upload your Website through the Linux system onto your designated system.
• Linux is the Most Widely Used Platform: Linux is the preferred hosting platform in the eyes of IT professionals as well as many Web hosting companies. This in itself should make your hosting decision easier!
• Linux is Stable and Reliable: Linux systems are known for their stability and they are not generally prone to virus attack, which means your Website is safe from intruders with Linux. You will experience 99.9% uptime with your Linux hosting, which makes it incredibly reliable in comparison to some of the different Windows applications.
• Most File Extensions: You will find Linux offers compatibility with extensions such as cgi, .html, .htm, .pl, .php, .shtml, .asp (requires an additional plug-in), .xml, and others like Java plug-ins and applications.

These are very impressive advantages for any host company today. You will find that each and every Web host company offers their packages for Windows and Linux alike so you always have the choice no matter which company you choose in the end. This overview is not to persuade you from using Windows hosting options, it is simply designed to help you see what advantages can be found within the Linux hosting servers.

It is impossible for a Website owner to make this decision, you will have to speak with your programming team and find out their working preferences when it comes to this type of customized hosting options. They will tell you what they prefer to work with and you can go from there and make the rest of the decisions on your own if you choose. Unfortunately, many Website owners only get to choose the domain name and have a say in the design, when it comes to technical details such as Web hosting plans a and packages, you must rely on the expertise of your programming teams. Although, as the owner it is always a great idea to have the basic understanding of what you are buying and how it works so you are not totally in the dark.

ASP or Active Server Pages is the technology which allows you to create the web pages and sites that require hosting. The main feature of ASP is that it uses server side scripting to create your website and pages so that it can be viewed by absolutely any browser and visitor without errors or flaws in the site. It may not seem necessary for you as the website owner to be aware of how ASP works, but when it comes time to speak with your web design team and you don’t know what they are talking about, it can be easy to get lost in translation and not have a clue what is going on with your website.

You can imagine that ASP pages have extensions of .ASP instead of .HTML and this is to tell the hosting server to interpret any ASP contained in the web page before sending it to HTML for viewing on any browser. There is not a webhosting company out there today which do not offer ASP to their customers as it is quite literally the only way to create the dynamic website you need to make it in the competitive Internet world

ASP was first introduced through a Microsoft hosting platform and still today Windows hosting platforms support ASP the best even compared to Linux which has recently become more popular. You can download simple operating systems for those of you running on a Windows hosting plan that include Internet Information Services (IIS) which can be used on your home computer to play around with ASP at your leisure. You do not necessarily have to be a computer programmer or web designer to use ASP applications but of course you must know a little bit about VBScript which is the default script for ASP. If you are running a different operating hosting system such as Linux, there are applications that can be used to access ASP as well such as Apache and a few other popular applications which can be generally downloaded directly from online.

ASP is a feature which although it has not existed that long, has taken the Internet world by storm and 100% boosted the plain old websites that were first created years ago. ASP allows you to push the envelope and create new features on your site such as voice activation, flash animation, video and more. These features were not even considered or thought of before Windows created Active Script Pages to further enhance what the Internet had to offer.

When you are searching for your web hosting package, you may not immediately see ASP listed in the specifics of the plan; today many hosting companies find this to be standard and may not even bother to list it. If you have questions regarding the ASP specifications with your prospective hosting the technical support of your hosting company should be able to tell you everything you need to know so you are sure you are buying the web hosting you need.

Since search engine marketing or search engine optimization (SEO) is the most popular marketing technique used online today, as an online business owner it is important to fully understand this marketing strategy so you to can use it to your potential. Since the search engines literally decide whether or not your website appears in the search results of any particular search, there is no better idea than to learn how to use this system to your advantage.

First, you may be wondering how a search engine works and this is literally how the understanding of SEO marketing begins. Google is not the only type of search engine available to you online today, and it is important to understand the difference between each search engine as the term is often used so loosely. Many people assume they all work the same, but this is not the case. Google is considered a crawler-based search engine creating their listings automatically through literally crawling or spidering the web for results. Human powered search engines are just that, results are compiled manually by people. Basically, you submit a description of your site to the directory and they go through each description and match it to the proper search. Lastly, there are Hybrid search engines. These search engines such as MSN take a combination of crawler-based search engines and manual search engines and create one great mixture to satisfy both types of searchers.

Now that you can see how the different search engines work it can be easy to see just how important it is to make your web pages as targeted as you possibly can with hopes to get higher ranking throughout the different types of search engines. In order to make your webpage targeted you will want to use specifically high searched for keywords in relation to your website and web design’s category of interest and always make sure every bit of text on your website is directly related to what you are trying to sell. Useless or filler content is instantly spotted by search engines, whether they are looked at manually or automatically and this can risk your rankings in a big way.

One of the main factors that need to be considered in regards to how your page is ranked and reviewed by search engines is quite literally the location of the keywords on your webpage. The HTML title tag is most often first looked at and if you are promoting a travel website and the world “travel” is not in your HTML tag than you may get overlooked as a non-relevant source. Search engines will also check if the targeted keywords are near the top of the page, this can make for an easy high ranking as well.

The location of your keywords is so incredibly important that you need to take the time to go through each and every keyword on your website and make sure it is placed properly, otherwise you will find your site may be marked as irrelevant or ranked so low that it might as well not be listed at all. The search engines are what can make or break a web company today, whether you are selling travel packages or web hosting packages, so learning this important marketing technique can be crucial to your success. It’s not just about having good web hosting, although that is also a must. Build good SEO practices in your web design to get the great rankings.