Is a Hyphenated Dot-Com Better Than a Clean Dot-Net?

What makes for a better domain name, a hyphenated dot-com like "Cheap-Domains.Com" or a "clean" dot-net name like "CheapDomains.Net" with no hyphen? To find the answer you first have to ask yourself what "better" means in this instance. Better for what? What do you plan to do with the domain?

Are you just planning to register and park it with hopes that people will stumble across it by accident and hit on an ad or two? If that's the case than forget the hyphen; people aren't in the habit of typing hyphens in the address block and you won't see much traffic. But keep the dot-com if you can; dot-nets aren't exactly second nature for address-block typists in the real world either.

Planning to auction it off with hopes of a high price? In that case the hyphen will probably weigh it down; for better or worse, the people who make the market in domain names have decided that hyphens are a negative influence on price. A dot-com is usually preferred; but burden it with a hyphen and the same domain name with a dot-net would be much better.

Or maybe you're planning to build your business website around the domain name? If that's the case than be careful with the hyphenated name. If you have to use a hyphen that means somebody else already has the clean dot-com and you don't want to do his advertising for him; he will likely get the most benefit from address-block searchers. It's possible to run afoul of the trademark laws too; a name like I-B-M might cost more in legal fees than you could ever hope to make with it. Go with the dot-net or even a dot-biz or dot-bz.

Looking for reasonably priced domains and web hosting as well as great 24/7 support? Visit Mike at Cheap Mike's Domains and get all that and a lot more!

Alternatives to Stock Market Investing

The recent downturn in the stock market has caused many investors to look "outside the box" at alternative investments. Not all of these different types of investments can be compiled into your 401k plan, but they are worth looking at.

PRECIOUS METALS:

One of the most reliable safe-havens for your money is precious metals. Gold has long been the standard repository for stashing investment funds. During the Great Depression, President Roosevelt actually made it illegal to hoard gold because people were buying large amounts of the shiny stuff, which hurt the U.S. Dollar. Gold sells at a high premium compared to other metals, such as silver and copper. Gold hit an all-time high around 1980, and it has never eclipsed that peak until 2008, when it surged over $1,000 per ounce. Today, gold is back into triple digits, and given the recent bank collapses and unreliability of the American Dollar, this may be the last chance to see these prices for a long time. Check Nymex.com for current precious metal prices.

There are several ways to invest in precious metals. One is to go down to your local pawn shop or gold dealer and actually purchase coins, bars or other objects made of the desired material. Another method of investing in precious metals is buying shares of mutual funds or other securities that fluctuate with commodity prices. For instance, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) currently trades at around $90 per share, and seeks to closely track the price of gold.

For those who can't stomach the price of gold, silver and copper are priced much lower than gold, and are used in many industrial applications around the world. Some commodities experts are predicting that silver will outpace gold's return in the coming years due to silver price suppression in the past.

LAND:

Even though Real Estate prices have generally dropped across the United States, the same can not be said for land prices. Homes have lost up to 20% of their value in the last couple of years as supply outpaced demand. However, land is still very much a desired commodity. It's usually very expensive to buy large parcels of land in populated communities, but good deals can still be easily found in uncivilized areas. One good thing about investing in land is that due to the ever-increasing population, usable land will continue to become more scarce. One good website for finding cheap land bargains is Land Bazaar, which shows land for sale listings by state. There can be many formidable aspects to buying land, so be sure to due your own due diligence when purchasing any property.

INTERNET DOMAIN NAMES:

Investing in domain names is a relatively new phenomenon, with the first domain names having been created only 20 years ago. While it's true that most of the "best" domain names were snatched up in the 1990's, many domains are still purchased and then "flipped" for many times the value of the original investment. One way to start in domaining is to search for unregistered domains using a registrar like GoDaddy or Moniker. It's a good idea to concentrate on .com domains, as they have traditionally held their value better than the other domain extensions (such as .net or .mobi). Another tip for novice domainers is to search for domains inside a niche that one is familiar with, such as auto parts or mystery novels.

A great website that frequently produces lists of unregistered domains is Domain Bagger. Also visit the various Domain Name forums, such as Dnforum.com or Namepros. You'll find a wealth of information there.

Get Thousands of Free Hits With YouTube

Many people mistakenly believe that once a website goes live traffic will automatically come. Unfortunately, this is wishful thinking. If nothing is done to bring traffic to a website, chances are it will never get seen, despite it now being a part of the Web. Yet, webmasters don't have to fret, because with YouTube not only can they get thousands of free hits, but they can also have fun in the process.

So, what exactly is YouTube and how can you get traffic from it? YouTube is a website that allows members to share videos they have created. The content of these videos can be on virtually anything that is not violent or pornographic. In fact, even advertising is allowed, which is where the site's traffic-building possibilities come into play.

Yet, you don't want to make a blatant advertisement, since these types of videos are less likely to get views. Instead, you want to create a video giving information on a topic related to what you're selling. Then, at the end of the video, you can advertise your website. Make sure when you get to this point you use a URL that is short and memorable, since members won't have an opportunity to cut and paste your domain name into their browser. This means affiliate links and subdomains are out of the question. Of course, if all you have is an affiliate link or a subdomain, consider redirecting it to a more marketable domain name.

As far as creating the video, you can use Sony's Vegas Movie Studio. This program is not very expensive and works with most computers. To use it, you basically upload images or videos and manipulate them.

If you have no video, you can create one with images and a microphone. You can get the images from royalty-free photo sites, Microsoft Power Point, or you can take pictures yourself if you have the time and photography skills. Either way, as you are acquiring them, think ahead of time about how they're going to be presented in your video. You will want them to relate to what you're saying. For the best organization, consider writing a script before you find the images. That way you'll know what you need to look for ahead of time.

After you have uploaded your images into the program, read your script into your microphone. If you want you can even incorporate music into your program, though like your images, you will have to make sure they are royalty-free.

When you are finished with your video, you can upload it into your YouTube member account. From there, YouTube will take care of everything. If your video is interesting, people will watch it. Some may even incorporate it into their own websites, making your video even more visible.

To get more help in determining the flow of your content, look at other videos on YouTube. The most popular ones tend to be humorous, though there are others that get a lot of hits because they evoke a variety of emotions.

The 12 part E-course walks you through step by step on how to get the traffic coming to your site. This is traffic that you just put your time into, you don't have to spend any money for it. Find out more at www.newwebtraffic.com

Free Traffic to Your Domain

You've just launched your new web site using your favorite web building tool, and then published it to the Internet. The next thing you'll be wanting is traffic - and ultimately lots of it.

You've thought about using pay per click ads to get the ball rolling, but having to pay for traffic means your bank account takes a hard hit and then your profits are decreased every time a visitor clicks through to your website. How about if you could attract people to your site by using traffic generating techniques that don't cost a thing!

Free traffic is sometimes viewed as being less effective because you don't have the ability to fine-tune it like you can with an AdWords ad, honing in on specific keywords and phrases that are only shown to an audience that would care, but it is an avenue you should seriously consider, whether it is for your primary method of generating traffic or in addition to various other methods.

While free traffic options may not let you pick and choose the keywords in the same way as Adwords would, you can however still create content built around specific keywords and phrases so that the pages automatically get indexed for your target audience.

Take a Squidoo lens, as an example. Squidoo allows you to have several free accounts (so that your expertise isn't diluted) and an unlimited number of free lenses (pages) per account. Take advantage of this opportunity and point every lens toward your own website and you have a frenzy of feeders that funnel visitors from Squidoo to your domain through text links and banner ads!

Article marketing allows you to do the exact same thing. Write an article based on keywords and phrases you want your web site to be searched and found for and then submit it to the various high-ranking article directories for inclusion.

A press release can achieve similar results. While many online press release sites charge a nominal fee for inclusion, some have free options - and they create RSS feeds so that interested publishers can find the content that is relevant to their niche.

Forum posting can also act as a conduit between your target audience and your website domain. Join the forums for your topic and then include a link to your website in your signature file. Don't give your web site obvious plugs in any posts you make, this is usually looked badly upon (unless it is relevant to a particular thread on the messageboard), but the inclusion of your web site url in your signature (i.e. The part that appears at the very bottom of each of your posts) is usually fine.

A side benefit of the forums is that as you participate in group discussions not only will your traffic will steadily increase, but your reputation as an authority figure to your target audience will be given a massive boost too. Don't forget to add a link to your web site into your forum profile, too! Profiles are the perfect tool to help channel people to your domain.

The above are just a handful of ways that you can generate a stream of free traffic to your web site. Unlike paid advertising, the response will not usually be straight away, but over time, and with enough effort, you will generate a constant flow of traffic to your web site and it won't cost you a thing.

Copyright (c) 2008 Paul Smithson

Paul Smithson is the creator of Intellimon and the driving force behind the best-selling XSitePro web site development tool (http://www.xsitepro.com). Paul has also set up five multi-million dollar companies, one of which is now owned by the BBC. His areas of expertise include business strategy, e-commerce, on-line and off-line marketing, software development, and maximizing the potential of on-line businesses.

Starting a Business - Part One

Have you ever wanted to start a business but did not know where to begin? Have you asked people who have a business and they could not quite tell you how to get started? Well, it happened to me! Therefore, I spent countless hours researching the topic of starting a business, and I also learned through trial and error. Below you will find 5 of 15 major steps you'll need to know something about. Although some of these areas I mention are much broader, I wanted to make it simple enough to understand. Keep in mind that if you want to start a large business, I recommend seeking advice from an accountant and a lawyer. This list is basically for a small business and for businesses run outside the home. Part Two will contain another 10 steps.

1. Get a business name for your business and your web site. Come up with an alternate name in case the one you choose is already taken. If you plan to start a web site, you will need to check and see if your name is available as a domain name. You will also need to check through the City Clerk's office to see if that name (d.b.a.) is available for your business in the county in which you'll be doing business (See Part Two, Step 1).

2. Check to see if that web site (domain) name is available. Then immediately register your domain name (it's like getting a business license) for your web site either directly through a registrar or through a web host that can do it for you.

3. Get a web host. It's like leasing office space. There are tons of web hosts available. It depends on your needs. They range from about $4.95 per month and up. Although you can get a "free" web site, this is very risky. The web host can register your domain name as part of the package or you can do it yourself. The prices vary because it depends what you require for a web site (how many pages, templates, etc) and what type of service you need from the web host. There are web sites available that do comparisons and reviews of web hosts. I highly recommend reading this type of information (do a web search) in order to make a good decision on a web host.

4. Get a business license through City Hall. You will need to know what type of business ownership you plan to have (sole proprietor, partnership, corporation, etc.) Accountants and attorneys can advise on what's the best type for you. "S" Corporations offer the most protection for your assets but it costs more to have. Again, there are web sites that offer information on types of business ownerships. Educate yourself in order to choose the right one for yourself.

5. Get a mailing address if you're working from inside your home. The Post Office requires a copy of your business license if the mail box will be registered to a "business" name. They only charge $20.00 for six months (in Orange County, CA). If you go through a mail center, you get a real mailing address, not a P.O. Box. However, it costs around $10.00 a month and up.

In Part Two, you will read about ten more steps to starting a business.

Copyright 2008 Mary L. Weinstein. All Rights Reserved.

Mary L. Weinstein is a certified Life Purpose Coach and a Biblical Counselor. She holds a Bachelor of Theology in Biblical Counseling. She is an ordained minister. Mary is founder and CEO of Friends with Purpose Ministries. She offers several services including coaching, counseling, articles, resources, links, a radio show, and a blog. For more information visit: http://www.friendswithpurpose.com

Why Internet Marketing?

Why You Need Internet Marketing Training

Have you tried many years to escape the rat race but still ended up in the same place? Have you postponed your retirement again because your plan did not work as expected? One reason is that you are only paid by the hour, the day, the month or per transaction but you are billed 24/7 by the utility company, phone company and cable company just to name a few. Your speed of making money is too slow. It can not beat the speed of expenses and inflation.

The emerging of the Internet has dramatically changed our way of doing business. A person who understands how business is conducted in the 21st century and quickly adopts the changes will make a fortune. It doesn't matter you are in your 20s or 70s. Paul Tobey said it is unwise to claim ignorance with anything to do with the Internet marketing. The Internet will not go away only you may be left behind.

The good news is that you have a chance to catch up no matter where your start point is. Because the Internet is open to every one who wants to jump in the driver's seat. This is the fastest train you can take to escape the rat race. It is 24/7 from anywhere to anywhere. It is super, isn't it?

If you want to get out of the rat race generating 24/7 income, if you want to expand your business, you need to have Internet marketing training.

Many of you may feel like a headless chicken not knowing where to start. You are bombarded by emails from different sources and overloaded with information. You are confused and don't know whom to follow.

Before we go any further, I would like to give you a snapshot of what you are going to expect in the world of Internet Marketing as a beginner.

Internet Marketing Basics Training for Beginners

1. Register your domain name. What is domain name? It is a string of words used to identify computer addresses on the Internet. Commonly points to the top level of a World Wide Web site on a host machine. In layman's words, it is the name of a website.

You first choose a keyword phrase that is related to your business or interest to be your domain name. Then find out whether this domain name is available. Namecheap.com and godaddy.com provide both domain name search and registration service.

2. Choose a domain hosting company - A hosting company provides space on its server to host your website. HostGator is highly recommended for its low cost and reliable service.

3. Set up WordPress on HostGator - WordPress is a content management system (CMS). It is the most popular blog software in use today. You can have your WordPress blog with your own domain on HostGator. It only takes a minute or two to set it up. If you don't have a website, start to build one using WordPress. WordPress is very user-friendly and you don't need any programming experience.

4. Keyword research. Keyword research is to find and research the words and phrases that people will search when looking for something. It helps you determine which keywords to use on your website for better traffic and ranking. Among the keyword analysis tools on the market, Market Samurai is highly recommended for its low cost and comprehensive information provided on keywords and competitive websites. It is a tool you need to use daily.

5. SEO - SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It can be defined as the activity of optimizing Web pages or whole sites in order to make them more search engine-friendly, thus getting higher positions in search results and more traffic.

6. Build your list using AutoResponder - Once you have a steady traffic to your site, you need to build your list. Because Money is in the LIST. AutoResponder is a piece of software that collects the data you need to build your online business. You can do follow up emails and broadcast easily with it.

7. Social Media Marketing - Social media marketing uses social networks (such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc), online communities, blogs, wikis or any other online collaborative media to promote your website, products and services.

8. Copywriting - Copywriting is one of the most important elements in online marketing. It is the use of words to grab your reader's attention in order to promote a person, business, opinion or idea. Everyone who is serious about online marketing should be a good copywriter the sooner the better.

Now, would you be interested to learn how to build a successful online business in a couple of months? In the next section, you will be introduced to the most successful Internet marketers of our time and their strategies / techniques that are working NOW and working the BEST online. By the way, you don't have to be technical to do Internet marketing. These gurus are from different walks of life and many of them even without any technical background. If they can do it, you can too!

Learn to Build a Successful Online Business From the Industry Gurus Paul Tobey - a Canadian Jazz pianist for more than 20 years got into the internet marketing field about 5 or 6 years ago. His unique strategies generate tons of traffic to his websites promoting his music and business. In the last few years he owns a very successful business training company teaching Internet marketing from beginner level to advanced level as well as other business trainings. Paul Tobey's 12 Essential Internet Marketing Lessons is a must to anyone who wants to market his products and service online or establish his home-based online business. You will learn how to do keyword search, create backlink to your page, set up your blog, install auto responder to build your contact list (because money is in the list) and social media marketing. Paul Tobey offers a FREE 3-hour Marketing and Mastery seminar once a month in Toronto and other major cities in Canada and US.

Mike Dillard - a former waiter and self-made millionaire online before he was age 30 is an Internet marketing legend. His most famous "Magnetic Sponsoring System" has successfully applied Internet marketing strategies to MLM industry (multi level marketing), which has long been advocated as a vehicle to escape the rat race. Mike Dillard's attraction marketing is a break through in the industry because many people shun away from the traditional ways of building MLM business. Mike Dillard's other well-known products are Black Belt Recruiting, Building on a Budget. Mike gives away many valuable FREE Internet Marketing training videos that will teach you how to build your MLM business online. If MLM is your vehicle to financial freedom, you don't want to miss him.

Joe Vitale - a best-selling author, father of Hypnotic Writing and one of the stars of the hit movie The Secret. He is one of the greatest copywriter of our time both online and offline. One of his best-selling books is Hypnotic Writing. It is a must read for everyone who wants to make serious money online.

What is hypnotic writing? Dr. Vitale explains it as intentionally using words to guide people into a focused mental state where they are inclined to buy your product or service. In this book, he teaches you how to use your words to seduce and persuade your customers to bring out their wallets and credit card to you. In the world of Internet marketing, besides web traffic and a good product/service, it is all about copywriting. it is the copywriting that turns your leads into your customers and it is the copywriting that sets you apart from thousands of other websites online. Dr. Vitale's internet marketing success formula is: List/Traffic + Offer + Copy = Success! Many successful internet marketing entrepreneurs have followed the exact path to their success.

In Conclusion, Internet Marketing Training provides average people unconventional ways to promote products or services and create great wealth. Now it is good timing for you to get started the learning curve before everyone else gets in. Entrepreneurs, wish you greater success in growing your own Internet Marketing business!

To search other high-value added research articles written by Oliver Gu, please visit Oliver's website at Internet Training | Marketing Training or simply click here Business Marketing | Business Training!

Understanding Web Hosting

You've got your new business all established now and you're ready to take the next step and set up a website to tell the online world that you're here and you've got something to offer. You've found a catchy domain name to call your own and now... what next? Well, the answer is that you need to find web hosting for the website you're going to build. So what does that mean and how do you figure out what kind of web hosting you need? First let's start with the basics.

Just what is web hosting anyway?

In simple terms, web hosting is renting space on a web server. A website is not simply a domain name, it is a collection of files linked together by HTML code to display text and graphics on a computer. In order for anybody to see this collection of files you've created, it has to be housed on a computer somewhere that has access to the internet. Not just any computer will do, of course. A web server is a computer set up with special software that allows it to receive requests from the internet for the website files it has stored on it and to send those files out over the internet so that the requesting computer can display them. It is very much like a waiter in a restaurant taking your order and bringing the food that you ask for from the kitchen, hence the name "server."

Along with making sure your files can be seen by internet users around the world, a web server provides other important services as well. First and foremost is the ability to create email addresses based on your domain name and to send and receive email with them. The web server also has various types of software installed on it that allow your website to run programs, create and manage databases, display video, and many other functions you might find useful. Almost any type of computer can function as a web server, but it's the software that's on it that makes it a server.

When you buy webhosting, the monthly fee you pay goes to the continued maintenance and upgrading of the server's hardware and software, the cost of keeping it online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in a secure data center with a fast and powerful internet connection, and to pay for the expertise of the people who do all that work. It is completely possible to turn your own home or office computer into a web server if you really want to, but in most cases it is far more economical to pay someone else who is dedicated to providing this service in a properly reliable manner than it is to try and do it yourself.

What kinds of web hosting are there?

Shared Hosting - Most websites are not huge affairs with hundreds of pages and thousands of files and graphics, and they are targeted toward a particular audience, so they will not get as many visitors as the large general sites like Yahoo! that are targeted at everybody who uses the internet. As such, the average website therefore is not going to require the full resources of an entire web server to run it. Web servers are designed to be able to handle dozens, even hundreds of websites at once because they are powerful machines.

Shared hosting is simply the concept of hosting more than one website on a particular server. Over 95% of all websites on the internet are being run in a shared hosting environment. Since the resources of the server can be split among the clients hosted on it, so can the costs of operating the server, so shared hosting is universally cheaper than any other type. Shared hosting packages are generally designed so that each client is allotted a certain amount of each resource, with different payment levels representing different amounts of resources such as disk space, bandwidth, email addresses, and so on. Shared hosting is also known as virtual hosting.

Dedicated Hosting - If you do have a big, powerful website that gets lots of visitors and has a tendency to hog resources, then you might want to have a web server all to yourself. Some companies also prefer the extra security of not having to share the server with anyone else who could do something accidentally or on purpose to crash it. Renting the use of an entire server is known as dedicated hosting. The web hosting company still owns the machine and takes responsibility for maintaining the hardware and the web hosting software, but you have greater control over the configuration and use of the server. There is also such a thing as semi-dedicated hosting, in which a web server is only split between a very small number of clients, such as 2 to 4, with strong partitions between each to prevent them from interfering with one another. Since the hosting company is still responsible for the upkeep of the server, this type of hosting is also known as managed hosting. For obvious reasons, dedicated hosting always costs significantly more than shared hosting.

Server Co-Location - If you really want complete control over every aspect of your web server, you might very well choose to buy one and maintain it yourself if you have sufficient knowledge. However, chances are that you still don't have the resources to keep your server completely safe from power outages, roof leaks, thieves, unwary employees and other hazards and keep it on the internet on a fast, high-bandwidth connection at all times. You need a data center to provide those services for you. Co-location is the rental of physical security, continuous electrical power and a fast, reliable internet connection for a server that you own. The data center is not responsible for any of the hardware or software maintenance of a co-located server, you are. This can be a cheaper alternative to dedicated hosting if you have the necessary expertise and time to run a web server yourself.

Some web hosts are offering UNIX hosting and Windows hosting. What's the difference?

The terms UNIX hosting and Windows hosting refer to the operating system (OS) that is running on the server. The operating system, of course, is the software that allows the computer to function and manage all of the other hardware and software that is installed on it. Chances are good that you are reading this on a computer running a version of the Windows operating system, the most popular operating system in the world for personal and business computers. Other operating systems that are growing in popularity are Macintosh and various versions of Linux. However, the operating system you use on your computer is irrelevant to which type of hosting you choose. Here are some of the main features of UNIX and Windows:

UNIX Hosting

Most of the web servers in the world today run on one of the many variants of UNIX. The UNIX operating system was originally developed by universities for servers and networking, and many different versions have been written by programmers around the world under the open-source protocol, which means that the code for the operating system is openly available for programmers to customize and make improvements. Linux and BSD are the most popular forms of UNIX and come in many varieties, such as Red Hat Linux, Debian, SuSE, and FreeBSD. Most of these different versions (and much of the software that runs on them) can be obtained for free, which makes UNIX hosting cheaper for a web host than other operating systems and allows them to offer lower prices. UNIX hosting platforms are generally considered to be stable, secure, powerful and fast. Most web programming applications can be performed by software that is available for a UNIX platform. "UNIX hosting" has become a generic term to refer to any platform that is derived from the original UNIX.

Windows Hosting

Microsoft has developed its own operating system for servers as a special version of its Windows operating system, Windows Server 2003. It is a commercial product which requires the operator to purchase a license, which increases the cost of operation for the web host and usually results in higher hosting prices. Windows is designed to be user friendly, but it is generally considered to be less powerful and secure than UNIX for operating in a network environment. ASP, ASP.NET, and ColdFusion are scripting languages which will only run on a Windows server, as will the Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access database programs. These are popular for certain web programming applications, and if you are planning on using them to build your website, you will need to find a Windows host.

What are some of the terms I need to know when I choose a web host?

Disk Space or Storage - Because your website is a collection of files being offered on the internet for viewing, they have to be stored somewhere for retrieval and take up space. Each web server has a finite amount of hard disk memory to divide up and offer to hosting customers. Typically that space is divided up by different package levels so that the more you pay, the more space you are allowed to store pictures, web pages, videos and whatever other files you like on the web server's hard drive. If your website gets bigger than the space you are given, you will need to purchase more disk space from the web host.

Bandwidth or Data Transfer - Whenever you visit a website and view a page, you are transfering a copy of the files that make up that page over the internet from the web server to your computer. If the page you are viewing consists of an HTML file that is 3KB in size and three pictures of 47KB, 100KB and 250 KB, then you have just used 400KB of bandwidth or data transfer, because that is the total amount of data you just downloaded from the web server to view that page. Bandwidth is a commodity like disk space that the web host has to buy from its internet service provider, so it too is divided up and offered to the customers in specific amounts. Bandwidth amounts are usually measured in gigabytes (GB), because while only one copy of your files needs to be stored on the server, thousands or even millions of copies may be downloaded for viewing. If your website is viewed more times than the amount of bandwidth you are allowed can handle, your website may be turned off until the next billing period starts, or you may simply be billed for the excess amount used, depending on your host's policies. You can always purchase more bandwidth as your site's traffic increases.

Uptime - In an ideal world, every web server would be up and running and offering your web pages to the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week forever. However, web servers are computers, and like any other computer, things happen to make them fail, or they get old and out of date and require maintenance and repair. When a web host gives you a 99% uptime guarantee, they are saying that the web server will be up and running for 99% of the billing period. If they fail to meet this guarantee, most web hosts will refund a certain portion of your money depending on the amount of excess downtime they experienced.

Traffic Statistics - Website traffic statistics programs try to track visitors to your website. They can track how many times your site was visited, how many visitors were unique and how many returned more than once, which pages were most popular, where the visitors came to your site from, what search terms they used in the search engines, and many other types of information which could be useful to you in marketing your website to a target audience. These statistics can be displayed in tables, graphs and charts by hour, day, week, month or year. Some statistics programs are better than others and offer more types of data, better displays, easier navigation or other useful features. Most web hosts today offer some sort of traffic statistics software with their hosting packages.

CGI Scripts - Many web hosts offer a variety of free CGI scripts with their packages. These are things like hit counters, guestbooks, form mail programs, message boards, and other programs that allow your website to perform commonly desired functions. You can use the ones your host provides you with or you can upload and run custom CGI scripts written by yourself or somebody else to perform different tasks like conducting a survey or processing customer information to produce an automatic price quote. Most CGI scripts are written in common programming languages like Perl, PHP or ASP.

You could spend a long time trying to learn everything there is to know about web hosting, but if you've read this far then you should be armed with the basic knowledge you need to understand what different web hosts are offering you. Your next task is to figure out what you need and go out and find a host that wants to give it to you at a great price!

© Copyright 2005-2008 by Stacy Clifford
Stacy Clifford is the founder of ChiliPepperWeb.net and has been assisting customers in understanding how their web services work since 2001.