Tag Archives: web hosting

Web Design

Beginning Web Designer Tips On Designing On The Web

Use your creative ability to design your own website. An appealing and user-friendly site will stand out from the competition. You need to know what you’re doing when it comes to web design. In order to further your knowledge base about designing websites, you should check out the tips discussed in this article.

Create and install a website icon on your page. This graphic shows up both in the address bar and on your bookmark, allowing people to recognize your website without even looking at the URL. When a visitor browses his bookmarks, a distinctive favicon will stand out. Besides being memorable, your favicon should be consistent with your business name and logo.

Attempt to make all content globally friendly. Many people from all over the world may view your site, so make sure things like dates, times, currencies and measurements can be understood by all. Not everyone that views your site is going to live in one country, so you must be sure to make it viewer friendly for viewers, all over the world.

Regardless of how the design of your website is created aesthetically, be sure to make all of your files small. The smaller the size of each of your files, the quicker your pages will load. Of course, having your website load quickly is the best scenario for visitors. You must keep in mind that not all visitors will have a fast Internet connection. Check your site, and make sure that it can load quickly even with a slow dial-up internet connection.

Sign up for forums, newsletters and podcasts that discuss web design to help you keep up with the trends. There are many newsletters that will provide good information and tips for both beginners and seasoned web designers!

The design of your website should not look anything like other websites selling similar products. It’s easy to see what others are doing by visiting their site. You won’t rise above the competition if you create the exact same, or even a similar, website to your competitors’ website. You’ll just be another version of the same old site to visitors.

Open space on a website is restful and allows the visitor to focus. It is a mistake to pack as many bells and whistles as possible into your website. White space helps people to clearly see your site, which in turn allows them to read and absorb the information much better than a site that is packed with too much stuff.

When designing your website, try to be consistent when you use certain fonts and color schemes. Being consistent in the design of your website lets visitors know they are still on your site. This can be easily avoided by using consistent colors and images on all of your site’s pages. For best results, utilize a consistent color scheme and font in all your company literature and stationery.

Always include a clearly visible tagline on each webpage in the domain and sub-domains. The text needs to be obvious and placed conspicuously on every page. A good tagline should inform your visitors about the goals of your website and encourage them to read the content.

In the “About Us” area of your site, write some good content about who you are. So many sites have dull, boring information on these pages. You can share personal information, education history and career choices that have lead you to this point in your life. Let people see who you are by sharing your educational background, career moves and future goals.

If you plan to design your own site, you should use grid hosting or shared hosting. These options are superior to VPS or dedicated hosting. This is because when your site is new you will have no idea how much traffic it will receive, and the last thing you want to do is pay for bandwidth that you don’t need. Remember, you can always upgrade your web hosting if needed.

Content is the most important element of any business website. Try to keep things on the simpler side, and limit photos and information to those which will truly help your visitors to understand your products. Simple pages will load much quicker than complex pages.

Newsletters can generate repeat visits. Giving your customers a reminder that you’re still online and have some great deals or new content that will bring them back to your site for more. Have a signup form in one of your sidebars, and document everyone that signs up. You can avoid some reputation-damaging trouble by making sure that your newsletter only goes out to visitors who have explicitly requested it.

Make sure that your website is designed to be attractive and easy-to-use. If your website is not set up like this, there is not a person out there that will spend a lot of time looking at your site. Give your visitors any necessary information, but make the site easy to navigate so that visitors buy your products or perform whatever other action you might want them to perform.

Look at domain auctions to find a good name for your site. It could profit your website if you purchase an existing domain name from SEDO or another domain auction site. While this option might be costly, having a great domain name is really worth it.

Do not use a web hosting service that is free if you are going to be designing any type of commercial website. You never want your business site to be bombarded with advertisements from other companies, as this takes away from the chief focus of what your site should be, selling your own products and services. A hosting service that you pay for would be the better option.

As previously stated, web design can be a beautiful thing to view, but only when it’s done correctly. It’s simple to tell the good designs from the bad, and you can always make a good design even better. Use the tips you’ve just read an start creating great web designs today.

Richard Vanderhurst reviews the Kingston SSDNow E Series SNE125-S2/64GB SATA II SLC Internal Solid state disk

Web Hosting Tips To Get The Best Out Of The Relationship

Finding web hosting can seem like a big hassle at first glance. However, when provided with the right information, it is simple to comprehend and can be of great benefit for business owners. The following tips can shed some new insights on the ins and outs of web hosting.

It’s possible that you might have to upgrade services that you get from a web host, once the traffic of your site increases. Ask about the ways to accomplish these upgrades with minimal effort and disruption to your service. Items added to your account like hard drive space and bandwidth should happen almost instantaneously. It shouldn’t be difficult to change to a server dedicated to your hosting needs from a server shared with others.

Look for a long-term relationship with your web host. It is likely that you foresee your website’s success, and will have no need to sever ties with your host anytime soon. Ask them about a cheaper rate for a longer term contractual agreement. You may find that you can save considerable amounts of money this way.

A cPanel can be beneficial, ask your web host if they provide it. This feature allows you to quickly add a variety of popular digital applications to a website. The most popular applications are often quite intuitive, and they don’t take much time or effort to install. Also, this will allow you to efficiently manage your website.

Does your computer have a dial-up connection? If so, don’t host your own site. A fast and reliable Internet connection is necessary for keeping your site online and up-to-date. Dial-up will result in a lot of lagging and downtime for your domain, which means losing money and customers.

Once you choose a web host, pay monthly instead of a lump sum payment. It is impossible to know how good business will be in the later months. If your web host’s service goes down the toilet or you end up having your account closed for a breach of terms of service, you’ll lose out on what you’ve already paid.

Always register your business’ domain name on your own, outside of your hosting site. This way, if a shutdown or argument ensues, your valuable domain name will remain protected. If you register your domain with your host, your host will control the registration instead of you.

Shared or dedicated hosting, which one fits your needs? If your website has a lot of traffic and is very involved, shared hosting may not be to your advantage and may actually hurt your business. Therefore, you should probably search for dedicated hosts.

Some hosting services give prorated refunds for site outages. At most, you will likely receive a refund of what only amounts to a few pennies. The loss in sales, however, could be significant. Choose a web host who has a good track record for uptime as opposed to offering refunds.

You should take extensive time to research the reviews of every potential web host you are considering. Some web hosting companies make claims that are completely unsupportable or untrue in their quest to win your business. Researching on your own will keep you from being swindled.

While most web hosting sites suggest you back up your data; you should make a practice of doing so, regardless. This is absolutely necessary to ensure your data is safe besides complying to what your server’s requirements. In case your website or host goes awry, you have all of your data secure and poised for quick relaunch.

If you plan to register your domain name with your web host, be sure that they accept most forms of payment. By using PayPal or other popular services, you will not be charged without your knowledge.

Read the website of your host carefully. You will know a site is reliable if it provides you with information you’ll need in order to optimize your website successfully. Look into options for additional tutorial content for subscribers, as well.

It is important to be certain that the web hosting service you obtain is dependable. You can read online reviews and see whether you can get your money back if you’re unsatisfied. You want to make sure that your web page will work all of the time, and you do not want to deal with a company that is going to give you more hassle than help.

Always review the safety and security features of the host you choose. What protection do they provide from hackers? A good web host backs up its servers frequently.

It is essential that your web host supports the features that you are most likely to use. Make sure you get the basics you need as well as add-ons that will be useful to your website.

See what your potential host’s website looks like. Beware of any hosting company with an unprofessional, poorly designed website. This could indicate a number of problems, from lack of experience to a generally shady operation. A well constructed site shows that they have a good attention when it comes to detail and they have good experience when it comes to web design as well as in terms of HTML.

Check around to see what the past and present customers of your potential web hosts are saying. Having the ability to ask questions to address any concerns you have can assist you in eliminating companies that don’t meet the needs you require. You can be more confident about your site after you choose a good company based on these discussions. Getting feedback from current clients may be the smartest way to distinguish among firms.

Ultimately, your web host should be capable of supporting multiple programming languages, including current ones, and any that could be used in the future. You will not have success when it comes time to launch your site, if you inadvertently chose a host that does not support your programming language. Additionally, you may decide to apply a new language later, and if it is not supported, this could cause problems. It can be difficult when switching web hosts.

Now that you have read about web hosting, and the best way of selecting one, you should have a much better understanding of what to do when its time to set up your own website. Continue using the tips above so that you can get a good web host.

Richard Vanderhurst

What Everyone Needs To Know About Web Design

You only get one chance to make a first impression, and this is as true of websites as it is of people. Due to first impressions, it’s important to get this right the first time to avoid people leaving the site the minute they enter it. Read on to find tips which will help you create the most effective website possible.

If you are using FileZilla for your file server, you must manually program the quick start menu settings within your domain, username and the right port. When you enter the server, you will have instant access to everything that you have personally stored. This will save you time and money!

You want to make certain the search box is at the top of your webpage, and allows 27 characters at least. The button that turns on the engine should read “Search.” Follow these tips to ensure that your visitors find and use the search box and can easily find information on your website.

Make use of free software in your site setup. Many people falsely believe that they need to purchase expensive software in order to create a good website, however, there are currently numerous excellent free tools on the market that help you to develop a very professional looking website. You just have to search a little to locate the free tools that best suit you.

Be sure that your website has small files, no matter how aesthetically designed your site is. File sizes are directly responsible for how quickly a website loads. You always want your site to load as quickly as it can. Remember that there are still lots of people who do not have high speed Internet. Take the time to test your site, and make sure that various connections speeds receive quick load times.

Make your design different than that of other sites in your niche. You can check this by simply checking your competitors’ websites. You don’t want to be classed as “one of the pack”, the more unique you are, the more noticeable you will be. If yours is too similar, then you may be seen as the generic version of a site that was there before yours.

Domain auctions are great for finding your website’s domain name. Check out a domain site like SEDO to see if domain names they may have for sale would be suitable for your website. Although it could be costly, it is worth having a great domain name.

If you allow advertisements on your website, do not go overboard. Including too many of them will make your site appear spammy and can make you seem to be less than professional. Only place advertisements on your site that are relevant.

Visitors often care more about your site’s content than the aesthetic quality of your design. Keep things simple. Put only the photos and information that your visitors need in order to understand what you want them to know. Simpler pages load more quickly.

Most people know about Photoshop, and they realize that it takes some effort and knowledge to use it effectively in web design. Yet a lot of people aren’t familiar with Dreamweaver, and all that it has to offer for web designers, check into this program and see how it can help you.

If you are agonizing over what color your website’s background should be, don’t be afraid to go with plain, effective white. White backgrounds make copy much more easily readable and give your site a more mature look. However, intricate background images are often difficult to pull off; more often than not they appear sloppy and distracting. You will find that simpler backgrounds are better.

If your website is intended for commercial use, a web hosting service that is free is not a good idea. The reason for this is that, with these services, you’ll have other ads on your own site, pointing readers away from your wares. A hosting service that you pay for would be the better option.

The design tools which come with your web hosting account are a great way to practice your skills, but they are no replacement for real design know-how. Work your own individuality into your website by adding your own touches beyond the basics that the host provides.

An excellent tip which will assist web designers in creating their own site, is discovering an excellent selection of checklists and cheat sheets that you can go back to when you encounter any problems on your site. You can revisit them as necessary for solutions to problems or inspiration for your design.

Keep in mind that the site you create does not have to be built entirely by you. Lots of knowledge from different areas must be known about web design, which includes user interface design, search engine optimization, web programming, content creation, and graphic design. You should never feel embarrassed asking for help when you do not know how to do something. You can always hire some company or other professional who specializes in a certain area you aren’t very familiar with.

Go ahead and draw some concept sketches of how you think you want your site to look. With a sketch in hand, you can solicit feedback from family members and friends and start to develop your first impressions of how visitors will react to your site. Using this information, you can start to improve your website even before you sit down at your computer.

Have someone visit your website, and provide you with feedback on its functionality and attractiveness. When you finish a new site feature, have an impartial observer test it and give feedback. A video that loads slowly may mean nothing to you, but someone else may disagree. Even more importantly, a video may load quickly for you, but not load at all for someone else. Always seek feedback from outside sources.

A site’s design is what can help determine whether your audience decides to further explore what you have to offer or instantly clicks somewhere else. You want to give off a good first impression. We hope this article will help you do just that.

Richard Vanderhurst

Tips For Making Your Website Look Professional

Web design can be attractive when the designer is aware of what they are doing. Effective web designs separates the stellar sites from the poorly constructed. Knowledge is vital to good web design. Try increasing your knowledge base with the following tips and advice, and you should see an immediate improvement in your ability to design well.

Make sure that your website links are current and in good working order. Good web design always keeps the user in mind, and broken links are frustrating to users. To prevent these things from happening, create a time frame at regular intervals where you check all the links for proper functionality.

Be careful when you upload video content for your site; remember that a lot of Internet users are still operating with very limited bandwidth. A video running at 5,000 kb/s may be faster than some people’s connections. You will end up giving them a video that spools and buffers constantly, and the viewing experience will be quite slow.

Ask your friends what they know about web design, in case there is something you’ve overlooked learning. They can be a great resource for those times when you get stuck on your design and need a little help remembering how to do something for your site.

Make sure to check whether your site works on all Internet browsers. Your site may look quite different on different browsers, so don’t be caught unawares! You can do a little online research to discover which web browsers are most popular at the moment. Test the website on all browsers, even the popular mobile ones.

If your website is intended for commercial use, a web hosting service that is free is not a good idea. Don’t let advertisements detract from the products and services you sell! Purchasing web hosting services is a much better option.

Use all the resources you can find. There are numerous magazines and books about every aspect of web design. It is a good way to know your craft as well as being a better designer.

Concept sketches are an excellent tool for the beginning web designer. This will help you to figure out the requirements for your website and what sort of layout you wish to have. It is always a great step to begin with.

Have the data that users enter into fields preserved so that it can be transferred over to other portions of the site where the same information has to be filled out. For example, if someone registers for your site, and some of the same information is needed to fill out another form, make sure data that they have already entered is preserved, so users do not need to re-enter this information. Your clients will thank you for saving them the time it takes to fill in information that they have previously done on your site.

Make sure to include a way to get feedback from site visitors. This will give you a mechanism where your visitors can let you know if something is broken, doesn’t work as well as it should or is confusing. Remember, when your visitors feel like they are involved with your website, they are more likely to make repeat visits.

Try to avoid using Flash elements on your website. While it can seem high-tech and exciting, it can cause computers to lag, and decrease a visitor’s experience on your website. In addition, some tablets don’t have flash capability, which can negatively impact your site experience for them.

Pay close attention to the backgrounds of your site design. Your background should not be too distracting and allow your reader to read the text easily. Your audience will have a more pleasurable browsing experience if your background is conducive to reading your text.

On the Internet today, speed is where it’s at. So you must make sure everything on your site loads fast. If a visitor has to sit and wait for several minutes while your pages load, they are almost certainly going to click away from your site and go somewhere else, and they probably will not come back to your site.

If you are determined to purchase a particular domain name, but discover that it is already in use, you should visit some auction sites that sell used domain names, for example Sedo. These sites are clearinghouses for outstanding domain names that are now unused or have been sold which you can now pick up for comparatively little money.

If you are building a basic website, then a site hosts design tools are fine, but it is not something you want to completely rely on. Going beyond templates means you’ll have a website that stands out, offers your visitors content they’ll come back for and gives you greater profits.

A basic layout should be used for your site in the beginning, this way you can get an understanding of the basics of web design. Starting simple will allow you to add more advanced techniques as you expand your site, giving you a chance to learn each one by one.

Putting together your own site? Use grid or shared hosting, not dedicated hosting. Most new web designers won’t make sites that get tons of hits, and buying dedicated hosting for a small site will waste hundreds of dollars over the course of a year.

When using FileZilla for a file server, use their quick menu settings, with a username, correct port, and domain. This way, when you log back on to the server, all you need to do is select your personalized settings from the menu. This will save you plenty of time.

While development platforms can ease the coding process, many are not as efficient as a plain old text editor. The idea behind platform is that you are responsible for designing site features, then just paste in the generated code. But if you desire a true creator experience and want to reduce errors, stick with classic text editors.

Good web design, as stated in the introduction, can be breathtaking to behold when it’s really done well. It’s easy to distinguish good from bad in web design, but getting from good to better — or best — takes more subtle touches. The advice in the article above should help you become a better web designer.

Richard Vanderhurst reviews the Kingston SSDNow E Series SNE125-S2/64GB SATA II SLC Internal Solid state disk

Everything You Need To Know About Web Hosting

What is web hosting? A lot of people aren’t sure. If they have a website, they may have a vague idea, but if they are starting up a blog or an online business, they usually have no idea what it is. This article offers a number of tips that anyone can use to learn more about web hosting and choose the best hosting solution for them.

When deciding between a Linux and Windows hosting package, you should consider the technologies that your website will be utilizing. If you plan on using PHP, Perl, MySQL databases, or other technologies that are generally associated with the Linux operating system, then you should obtain a Linux hosting solution. On the other hand, if you plan to use ASP, Cold Fusion or Microsoft Access databases, then Windows will be the ideal solution for you.

Give a web host a limited time to meet your expectations. Do not settle for a company and then stay there no matter what. Three months is adequate time to judge whether a web hosting company meets your needs. If you are not satisfied, start shopping for a new host well before the terms expire.

You should know that not all web hosting services support Flash plug in. Using Flash on your site allows you to create a more interactive experience for your visitors, for instance with videos, games and new design possibilities. If you are not planning on using Flash, this is not a feature you should worry about.

Choose a hosting service that allows you to instantly and easily view your web statistics. You will want to know things such as how many people are visiting your website and what pages they are viewing. You can even find out how long they stayed on your site, and what search words they used to find you. These can be important in the long run, so use a server who has these tools.

Do not neglect the value of user reviews when it comes to choosing a web hosting service. There are often others who have had experience with the company you are considering, whether it is good or bad. It will never hurt to do a quick check on what others have to say, then you can make your decision accordingly.

Be sure to pay for your host by the month. Avoid being sucked into a discount plan where you would have to pay for several months in advance. You never know what could happen with the host or what issues you may encounter. By paying on a monthly basis, you will be able to switch hosts quickly if needed.

You should always back up your data on your own, instead of relying on your web host to protect your information. The more backups you keep of your data, the more protected you will be. Before paying a hosting provider, ask them about their backup services and how much redundancy protection they have available.

If you have a small to mid-sized company and want to cut hosting costs, you should go with a shared server. If you do not get lots of traffic or do not wish to have control over your server resources, then go with a shared host. Just keep in mind that you will be sharing CPU, disk space, and bandwidth.

You should never pay in advance for hosting services. Many companies will offer you a discount to sign up for a longer term. What if the hosting company goes bust? Worse yet, what if you do not like something about the hosting company and wish to switch? It is better to pay as you go with web hosting.

Finding the right host will require a good deal of research on your behalf, unless you want to risk making a bad judgement. A decision like this may not have as important of a meaning when dealing with personal websites, but if the host behind a highly popular site collapses, that business will likely lose a lot of customers.

If possible, pay for your web hosting with a credit card. Every year, several web hosts go out of business and just disappear without a trace. When a host disappears, its customers are typically left out of pocket. The customers that paid for their hosting with a credit card, however, are able to get a full refund of their annual hosting costs from their credit card provider.

Be aware of what type of storage the web host offers. This is only relevant for certain site owners, though. If you have a site that requires a lot of videos and music, then you need to ensure the host offers the space necessary. Decide how much space you need in advance to ensure you are getting a host that supplies you will just what you need.

Consider registering your domain name with a separate company, instead of your web host. This way, if things go awry with your web host, there will not be the possibility of your domain name being held for no good reason. As well, web hosting companies often do not have the most robust organizational tools for domain names. A company dedicated to domain names may be better suited if you have a lot of websites.

Before you decide on a web host, find a reason to call or online chat with their customer support. This is the best way to figure out if you have a legitimate safety net for times when things go awry. If customer support takes too long, is rude, or seems to lack knowledge, consider looking elsewhere.

Make sure to do very thorough research when looking to purchase hosting services. You do not want to rely on only one or two recommendations when it comes to this. By doing thorough research on the intended host, you will be able to read about both the good and bad experiences. Choose the one that has the fewest of the bad ones.

There is a lot to learn about web hosting. It can’t be learned in a day, but the tips in this article provide a hefty wealth of information so that anyone with a website can start with a great foundation. Think of these tips when you come across hosting issues, and you will be able to make smarter choices.