Posted by: Che Cooper
in Web Hosting on Feb 19, 2010
Most of us are probably aware that once we have a website designed, we need a web hosting company to put our pages on the internet and make them accessible to others. Without someone or somewhere to host our website, it would be useless: no one would ever be able to see all the hard work that you, or someone else, have put into it. The importance of choosing the right company to host your website is critical.
Even if you require just a personal web page or something quite small or if you happen to require a site more suitable for a business, then you’ll need to contact a specialist company who provide web hosting as one of their services to make sure you get the best deal and best service possible. Heart Internet are experts at providing web hosting facilities. We provide a range of services that allow you to fully manage and maintain your website.
Most web hosting companies will provide basic features such as FTP for uploading files. However, this is where the services offered by some companies stops. We provide advanced database support and application development platforms such as Ruby and Rails. Features like these allow our customers to write and install scripts for applications on their website. We also provide out customers with an advanced control panel. This control panel has loads of features that allow you to manage your email, setup databases, manage servers, view bandwidth statistics and much more.
Posted by: Che Cooper
in Promoting Your Site on Feb 19, 2010
Blogs are a great way to increase traffic to your site but only if they are given the same amount of attention as the rest of your marketing.
The power of a successful blog is well documented and the promise of more traffic and brand engagement draws in countless webmasters every year. At Heart Internet we first started our blog in 2007 instantly making the same mistake many other businesses have made when it comes to blogging; we didn’t know why we wanted one, we just knew they were the fashionable thing so we needed one! The posts were irregular and were often just product updates or press releases. At the turn of 2009 the blog’s existence was called in to question and it was agreed we needed to make wholesale changes or remove it altogether. Since then we have seen a 400% increase in traffic to the blog and a marked increase in reader engagement thanks to a fundamental shift towards providing our readers with useful content to help them make the most of their website, encouraging comments and a conscious effort to market our blog as resource.
Content is king
What you say, how much you say and how you say it should all be constructed with your target audience in mind. The two big questions to ask are “Why should anyone read the blog?” and “Why would they want to come back and read it again?” Corporate press releases or staff hires are fine in moderation, but not if that is all the blog is about, people simply won’t read it. To gain traction with a reader a blog post has to be informative, interesting, amusing, original or shocking. Committing yourself to this long term takes a lot of time and effort. If you approach the blog something to be done when you get a spare minute, it will fail.
Posted by: Che Cooper
in Web Design on Feb 19, 2010
Despite this I can happily build a website that looks pretty good and has working (and secure) scripts. Below is a list of resources for you to take advantage of if you need an element for your website but creating it yourself is beyond your skill set.
Have an attractive looking website without HTML/ CSS or Illustrator
I can hold a paint brush but that doesn’t mean I can paint and just because you know how to use the software that doesn’t mean you can design a beautiful website. To get yourself started or even to use it as it is “out of the box” here are some great websites to download readymade designs. Some are free, others require payment.
Edit images without Photoshop
Admittedly you’ll never be able to hit the dizzy heights of those that can use the likes of Photoshop but you don’t need to for most sites. Being able to rotate, re-size and crop an image is enough for the majority of editing requirements and you can do it all online with these programs:
Posted by: Che Cooper
in Search Engine Tips on Feb 13, 2010
Tagged in: Untagged
Search engine rankings are not set in stone and are constantly shifting as your site and your competitors sites are analysed and ranked by the search engines. Going up the rankings can be exciting and rewarding and there are plenty of guides on how to do that, but what do you do when you start to fall, and fall, and fall, and fall, and fall…?
Nothing
The first thing you do is absolutely nothing. Sit back, chillax and wait. The search engines are constantly fiddling with their algorithms and the weighting of ranking factors which affect how websites are ranked in the results. Sometimes a change can occur that doesn’t have the desired effect they wanted and penalises sites that were previously well ranked. When this occurs (and they notice it) the changes may be rolled back or amended and you can find your site jumps back to its previous positions over night. Give it a couple of weeks or so before you start making any changes.
SEO audit: Is your site fully optimized?
Do an audit of your on-site SEO to make sure you have covered all the areas you can optimize. Your website doesn’t exist within a vacuum and there are thousands of websites working to grab your position and who are squeezing every bit of juice out of their website to do it. Make sure you are using your target keyword(s) across these areas: title tag, H tags, image alt tag, image file name, internal link anchor text, internal link alt tag, site map, first paragraph of copy and page URLs.
Roll back any ‘black hat’ tactics you have undertaken
You can click here to read Google’s guidelines for webmasters which spell out what Google expects from a website as well as what not to do. If you have recently undertaken any of the following practices you may have been slapped by Google!
Posted by: Che Cooper
in Your Business on Feb 13, 2010
Despite this I can happily build a website that looks pretty good and has working (and secure) scripts. Below is a list of resources for you to take advantage of if you need an element for your website but creating it yourself is beyond your skill set.
Edit content with minimal knowledge of HTML
If you are a I.T Studio Hosting web hosting customer you can install Content Management Systems (CMS) such as WordPress (yes its officially for blogs but it is being used more and more as a CMS), Joomla, Drupal or Mambo with just one click. Once these are set up you need never edit an HTML file again (although you can if you still want to!).To get started log in to your web hosting control panel.
Have an attractive looking website without HTML/ CSS or Illustrator
I can hold a paint brush but that doesn’t mean I can paint and just because you know how to use the software that doesn’t mean you can design a beautiful website. To get yourself started or even to use it as it is “out of the box” here are some great websites to download readymade designs. Some are free, others require payment.
Posted by: Che Cooper
in Web Hosting on Feb 13, 2010
A lot of web hosting companies, including ourselves, make bold claims about offering unlimited web hosting features such as unlimited web space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited databases etc. We see a lot of discussion on forums about what this actually means and questioning how anything can really be unlimited when no one (not even Google or Microsoft) can have an unlimited number of servers to draw power from.
What we mean by unlimited is that we have so many resources at our disposal and we have invested so much money in to our infrastructure that our customers never have to worry about hitting a limit because the allowance available is so large it won’t ever be stretched to breaking point.
Posted by: Jennifer
in Domain Names on Feb 11, 2010
How do people get your attention when they want to engage in a conversation with you? They call you by your name. The same is true of business websites as well. When you launch a business online you must also have a domain name and the name that you choose can have a big influence on your success and how well your customers remember you.
This makes a huge difference when you are competing in a big market and need to stand out, yet retain a strong company identity which is related to your industry. At I.T Studio Hosting, we can help you to find the domain names that suit your purposes.
A domain name is your identity on the internet
We provide a few simple steps to help you buy the domain that fits your requirements and we also provide free features along with every domain that you buy. You usually pay for your domain name on an annual basis, and along with that identity, we also provide multiple types of free web forwarding, unlimited email forwarding, webmail, 24-7 technical support and much much more, because we want your business to be a success too.
Posted by: Jennifer
in Domain Names on Feb 11, 2010
Setting up a website really can be as easy or as difficult as you want to make it. There are enough user friendly tools and software packages available for you to be able to create your own or, you could contact a specialist web design company and ask them to create something a little more professional looking. Possibly the most important aspect of website design is the name. The name of your site is what people will hopefully remember. A meaningful name is what’s really important. At I.T Studio Hosting we offer domain names from as little as £3.66 for a .co.uk domain. If you’re after a real bargain then you can also take advantage of significant discounts from buying domain names in bulk. What’s more impressive is that we offer fantastic features that would usually only be found from more expensive domain name hosting companies, we offer web forwarding and unlimited email forwarding, most companies would readily charge for these features.
With such feature rich and cheap domain name hosting available, there really are very few alternatives out there. A quick and easy search facility also enables you to quickly identify desirable domain names for your website, you then have to register the site and you’re away, it’s that simple.
Posted by: Jennifer
in Promoting Your Site on Feb 11, 2010
What is thought leadership?
What sets apart a thought leader from other experienced or skilled people, websites and companies in an industry is the perception that they have a deeper understanding of the market place and the needs of its customers. Whether they actually do is almost irrelevant, it is enough that people believe they do!
Why become a thought leader?
The great thing about being a thought leader is that it honestly doesn’t matter how big you are! You can be a one man band running your website out of your bedroom or a company with a multi-million pound turnover; websites will link to you, quote you, ask for your opinion and generally hold you up as an authority to be consulted. All this leads to more traffic which in turn means more sales or the ability to charge higher advertising rates depending on your revenue model.
Becoming a thought leader
As much as I wish you could (being an online marketer at heart), a strong reputation cannot be built on advertising. Advertising will help raise awareness but to develop trust and build up your reputation you need to create positive word of mouth.
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in Promoting Your Site on Feb 11, 2010
But what if you sell a product and / or service and whilst you don’t want to advertise other people’s goods on your site, you do want to get involved in earning money from the affiliate marketing channel? In this post we will look at successfully launching your own affiliate program without having to spend thousands on setting it up. Affiliate programs are not the preserve of large websites and you could have your own affiliate program up and running for under £100! The affiliate networks require £000’s for set up and monthly fee’s however with your own in-house run program you can be up and running with minimal investment.
Why have an affiliate program?
An affiliate program is essentially the online equivalent of having a sales team out there driving traffic and sales to your website. Because affiliate marketing is pay per performance it is one of the most cost effective marketing channels available, especially when compared to other forms of online marketing such as display (e.g. banners) and pay per click advertising (e.g. Google AdWords). With a set cost per action (CPA) determined by you, you always know what your ROI is going to be and you can ensure each sale will be made at a profit.
An affiliate program…
