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How do you choose a web host for you business?

• Search online?
• Word of mouth?
• Online advert?
• Printed advert?

Businesses are forever being told to invest in a website, a well designed site will generate business through sales leads both online and offline. Having your website provide you with constant web traffic is between you and your SEO company. Having your website visible online all of the time is between you and your web hosting company.

Providing your web site with a stable hosting platform to operate on is a key component of any business strategy. Without a suitable web hosting provider your business will suffer as potential traffic is denied to you through down time. In business reputation is everything and your presence online will be spoiled by inaccessibility errors.

Finding a good web host is important. Online searches only provide you with a fraction of the potential hosting suppliers available. Let’s outline 3 key components of a hosting company, get your pencil and paper ready.

Reliability

Your biggest concern is reliability, so choosing a company that provides a reliable web hosting service is very important. You want all of those potential customers to get to your web site. So look for a web host that provides a high percentage of up time.

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Support

Web hosting support is another important factor for your business. You need to know that any problem experienced by you or your hosting company is going to get fixed quickly. So 24/7 support by phone and email is vital. Any web host that does not meet these criteria ignore.

Web Hosting Package (domain name, hosting space, bandwidth, email accounts etc.)

Web hosting packages are starting to look very similar these days, which means that you need to pay more attention to the smaller details. Since you are looking for a web host you should make a few notes. Write a list of what you want to include in your website;

Think about what you want your site to be able to do. Once you have put together a list of your needs its time to go shopping. For your convenience if you wish to compare several web hosting providers then click here . This page includes a list of different web hosting providers covering those on a budget to companies looking for dedicated managed hosting. Each of these hosts have also provided a special offer so why not check them out and save yourself some money.

From paper books to ebooks, from paper manuals to CDs, from a human teachers to virtual presentations and video clips. From film cameras to digital cameras, from drawing by hand to designing on computer screens and it goes on and on.

So what is it exactly "Web Conference Call", web conferencing is when two or more users who are all connected to the Internet share information.

Web Conference Call is in-line with this trend of digital, virtual, electronic world we are all living in the western world.

My father came to visit us and saw my five years old son playing with my laptop, he smiled and said, well, first they minimized the computers now I see they started to minimize the users as well... :-)

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This amazing technology of web conference calls is taking a huge leap towards the creation of the world as a one small village that is very efficient and saving much time, money and energy.

These technological advances have tremendous impact on our economy, environment and our lives. The Web Conference Calls technology is strengthening the tendency to allow employees to work from home, and in the future to cut on commuting, save time and money, reduce the amount of cars on the roads, to lower the death rates on the roads, to cut on pollution, gasoline consumption, amount of flights etc'.

One CEO of large corporation estimated that Web Conference Calls technology is saving his organization more than 40 million dollars per year on travel and accommodations alone.

Web Conference Calls is taking advantage of the Internet's two most notable qualities of sharing information and connecting people from around the globe.

Imagine, ten people need to meet at an office in NY at 9:30 am sharp. Each one of them is driving his own car or fighting to find a cab, they drive during rush hour surrounded by many nervous drivers around them, they arrive to the building area and there is no free parking around.

They park at the first free parking lot they can find and they pay anywhere from $25 - $75 an hour. They walk ten minutes by foot during the humid summer or rainy winter.

Then there is a delay because not every body made it on time. They drink coffee and chat and the meeting that was supposes to be 90 minutes is becoming two and a half hours. When it finally ends, each participant need to drive back to his office and waste some more time...

Now compare all that to a Web Conferencing virtual meeting!

Whether it's joining an online training session, initiating an online brainstorming session, or reviewing a meeting that was missed, conferencing and "meeting" online has never been easier.

=============This Resource Box must be included with the Article copy!=============

Amit Laufer is a writer and Internet Marketer. MBA - International Trade & Finance. Bsc. Computers and Information Systems.

Owner Editor of: Web Conference Call

(c) copyrights 2006 http://www.web-conference-call.com/

Who will design my website?

This is a very important step in your online endeavor as it will be the end result of all of your research and work.

There are a few options that you may want to consider:

- Pay a Web Designer – This will allow you to have a custom built website complete with all of the bells and whistles that you would like. While this option is the most flexible it can also be the most expensive. Custom web designs can start at $99 for a 5 page website to thousands of dollars for a website of 20 pages or more. Do your research and ask to view a company's portfolio, and ask for references before you decide.

- Website Templates – Website templates are pre-built websites complete with graphics and pre-built pages. All you will need to do is make a few changes to the graphics to add your logo, and replace the existing text on the pages with your own. You can download free templates from several websites that sale website templates. You can Google “Free Website Templates” and you should have a pretty good list to get you started. If you would like a larger selection of possible templates you can expect to pay from $29 for a standard template to upwards of $100 for a premium template.

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- Site Builder – A few years ago website builders were considered web based applications that built very cheesy sites with huge menu buttons on the left or top with huge banner headers. These sites were for individuals that wanted to have a website NOW! Or individuals or companies that absolutely could not afford to have a website designed by a professional. There has been a dramatic change in this area of website development. Today there are website builders that will allow an individual or company to build a professional website that rivals one built by a professional. You can usually pay a monthly price to use the site builder starting at $4.00 per month with web hosting included. Small Businesses and individuals can now have a professional site that will allow their company to project a professional image on the web and with a price that will not send them to the poorhouse. This is worth a look.

Who will host my site?

This will be the most important decision you make regarding your online presence as this is your online infrastructure. Your web host will store your WebPages on their server for potential clients and customers to access and view. Your host must be reliable, have a solid support system should you need assistance and their servers must be connected to a network that is fast and stable.

How will I know which web host is the best?

There are many web hosts on the internet. Many web hosts will offer a great deal of hard drive space and bandwidth for a very low price. Don't be swayed by these offers. To start you will not need more than 5GB (5000 mega bytes) of disk space and will require no more than 250GB (250000 mega bytes) of bandwidth. If you require more your web host should provide the ability to upgrade almost immediately. Your web host should not be chosen by how much they offer or by their rock bottom prices – a web host should be chosen by there support infrastructure and your ability to contact them when you need them.

Try calling their support phone number or email their support and test the response. A 24 hours response is acceptable for non-emergencies and if you should have an emergency you should have the ability to contact your web host via phone.

Establishing your presence on the Internet can be very exciting so enjoy yourself but also do your research before you take the plunge.

Bueford Copeland is a Technology Consultant and has been managing computer networks on the Windows and Linux platforms for 10 years. To obtain web hosting, website builder services and for affordable domains names please visit 561Design Group .

Here are some tips on how to make your web site effective and boost online sales:

Target your audience. Your web site must be focused and appropriate for your target audience. If you target the wrong audience, they won't buy. Don't try to sell to everyone. Speak their language. Use colors and images that are appropriate for your audience and topic.

Convey a clear message. Express the topic of your web site clearly with headlines and images. Provide benefits and provide a headline at the top of every page. Carefully select your images to best represent your theme and support your sales message.

User friendly. Your web site must be easy to read and navigate, and your pages must load fast.

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Easy to read. Use easy-to-read text with plenty of white space but avoid large open spaces. They can be as distracting as too many graphic images. Use fonts that are appropriate for your subject matter and for your audience. Use text colors that contrast but do not clash with your background. Dark text on a light colored background works well for text-based web sites.

Easy navigation. Easy navigation is essential to keeping prospective buyers at your site. Make it easy for your visitors to find what they're looking for. Use consistent, logical navigation links. Provide plenty of links on your home page, giving visitors an overview of your web site's content and choices. Provide links to your home page and main sections (such as order form, contact page, products, and articles) on every page. Visitors may not visit your pages in the sequence you would like them to. Provide a site map (table of contents) if your site has more than twenty pages. Make sure all links are working.

Use images without sacrificing speed. A slow web site will cost you sales. Optimize your images. Keep images and graphics as small as possible in file size. If large images are necessary to illustrate your products, display smaller images (thumbnails), and provide links to the larger versions (which will open on a new page).

Professional-looking. Use only quality images. Use clipart sparingly. The important thing is to use graphics that support your sales message. Don't clutter your web site with graphics that have nothing to do with the content. Avoid animated graphics.

Be consistent. Keep the look, layout, banner, navigation, typefaces, and colors consistent on all your pages.

Be unique. Be original; stand out from your competition with custom design. Design original graphics to obtain a unique look.

A user-friendly, quality web site will inspire confidence and your prospects will feel more comfortable buying from you. A shoddy-looking web site will have the opposite affect. Put some thought into combining layout, graphics, text and colors into a unique design. It will pay off in sales and profits.

Boost credibility with images! http://www.qualityebookcovers.com/templates.html">Header templates/web templates. FREE 34+ clipart and photo resources. Custom design of Web graphics.

Many of you are probably already asking why eCommerce website design is different from any other website design. They all need to be attractive, well organized and use the right colors that fits the website spirit and so on. Your instincts are good. However a close look at some successful eCommerce websites will reveal the conceptual differences that are typical in a successful eCommerce website.

An eCommerce website needs to follow certain selling principles:
1. Give the user a pleasant experience during his online shopping.
2. Make certain you provide sufficient information on who owns the website and why they should be trusted.
3. The website must be easy to use. If it isn't, the visitor will go to your competitor.

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Those principles are not new. We all know those basics from our day to day experiences in the mall, shopping center and every other market place that is waiting for us to open up our wallets. The big challenge for a web designer is how to translate those conventional marketing techniques to the virtual world of the internet. I'm sure you've all noticed that in most supermarkets the bread stand is placed at the far end of the building, yet you can smell the fresh bread at the entrance (sometimes they even use a special air duct to carry the smells). That has been done deliberately. Marketers use our sense of smell to draw us through the store where we are exposed to all sorts of tempting goodies as we go to get our loaf of bread.

How do you draw an imaginarily path in a web page? A path designed to lead the visitor to do what you want him to do...make an online purchase. Unlike the supermarket our website has no smell. In a website the distance from one point to the other is pretty much the same, so the exit is always right there. In a website you can try to order the "shelf" in the way you think will best expose the visitor to many of your products, but there is always a chance that he will find a short cut to another page that can also be the way off your site.

As can be see, although putting your products on the web is much easier then renting space and opening a supermarket. However, selling your products on the web can be difficult.

A good eCommerce website design will lead the visitor to the right page in one click or two at the most. Sometime web designers will use techniques that would never be considered for non-eCommerce websites. Everyone has seen at least one sales letter website. On these web pages the only link is to the order form. Sales letters are not the most typical eCommerce website because they usually sell only one product. That allows the web designer the ability to exaggerate the one click principle and make it an advantage. All the facts about the product have been presented to the user is a smart way while every few lines he has the option to click on the order form. If he is not yet convinced he will have the option to continue to read more facts and testimonials about the products. Believe it or not, those sales letter websites are actually selling.

"What about online shops?" Online shops have to deal with more then one product. Of course, the greater number of products increases the complexity of the website. Sophisticated eCommerce websites use a variety of personalization technologies in an effort to determine the best selection of products to offer to the visitor. Personalization technologies are a major part of advanced eCommerce websites. However this topic is beyond the scope of this article. The cleverness of an eCommerce website's personalization technology has a major influence on its design. The first to use such technology was Amazon.com who decided to push their client's books to a visitor based on that visitor's past orders combined with the statistics they had collected on all visitors used to predict what someone looking at a specific book might also be interested in reading. Today the goal is to try to predict what to offer the user on his first visit as well.

An eCommerce web design is also about the layout. One important aspect is where the user's eyes look first when accessing a web page. Lots of research has been done on this topic. Most research showed that the middle left side area will attract the most attention followed by the center of the page. By using these techniques web designers try to draw the "walking path" for the visitor's eye, much like what was done at the supermarket. An experienced eCommerce web designer will know how to create designs to meets those demands.

If you are about to open an eCommerce website or you are already own one, make sure you understand the web design principles for online selling. Consider consulting with an experienced website designer preferably someone who has experience with eCommerce websites.

Good luck with your sales.

About the Author:
Warren Baker is an Internet business consultant for WebDesigners123.
WebDesigners123 connects the Freelance Web Designer with Webmasters who need their services.
If you would like to read more of Warren Baker's writings, visit our Website Design Articles page.

Many think a website is hard to understand, harder yet to use, and hardest of all, to afford. Not true. A good website design firm, that speaks plain English, and is well versed in Internet marketing will help. These agencies should also give you a free review and perhaps samples of what they can do for you. Depending on your needs, some websites can be had for as little as $10 per month after the initial design and marketing fee. Caution should be exercised here. A very high priced website may not bring you all you imagined, but a very inexpensive one will surely disappoint. After your website is built and ready to begin working for you, there is the tricky task of submitting and marketing to the search engines. Search engines like Yahoo and Google are where most of your prospects find you. Submission and marketing is a tricky proposition because the search engines change the rules often and there are very specific steps you need to follow so that you are ranked well. Everyone wants a first or second page listing, but getting there takes the work of an expert. Don't undertake this task yourself. Let a search engine specialist do it for you. Their fee will be worth its weight in gold.

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Make no mistake about it; the Internet is the most powerful marketing tool we have ever seen. Build your website, market it well and watch your fortunes grow.

Betsey Duggan is president and CEO or McMann & Tate Advertising a midwest agency that specializes in making its clients stand out from the crowd.

STEP 1: CHOOSING A DOMAIN NAME/WEB SITE ADDRESS To begin the creation of your website you will need to come up with a domain name or website addresss. Try to get an address that has specific keywords for what your business or website is about. This will make it easier to remember and will also benefit with keywords searched for on search engines. There are a lot of additional domain extensions to choose from .com .co.uk .co.nz .net .biz .tv etc.. A new domain extension is recently available .ws (WorldSite or WebSite) Try this domain name extension as there may be more names available than the .com's. Top 5 Tips: * Make the address easy to remember. * Choose an original domain thats reflects what you are about. * Include keywords in the domain for what your site or business is about. * Decide what domain extension to use (.com .ws etc.) a local or international domain. * Buy multiple domains if required. Similar wording for the domain names.

STEP 2: SETTING UP YOUR WEB SITE HOSTING AND EMAIL ACCOUNTS Once you have your domain name, you can signup with a hosting account web server. There are many hosting account deals out there on the web. Search around for something suitable for your website and business. It can sometimes be best to get a hosting account that is within your country. There are even hosting deals called 'resellers accounts' where you can create hosting for unlimited domains plus divide and sell webspace! Top 5 Tips: * Search online for an appropriate hosting provider. * Choose hosting that is within your country. * Check details for MB allowance, email accounts, databases etc. * See if the hosting account has an easy to use control panel. * Decide if you want to run a 'hosting resellers account'.

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STEP 3: THE DESIGNING OF YOUR WEBSITE BY YOURSELF WITH WEBSITE TEMPLATES OR USE A PROFESSIONAL DESIGNER! If you have the skills you can design your website yourself by learning HTML or use web design software. Otherwise hire a web site designer to create your site. If you design yourself, there is a range of software available that is freeware and shareware, although we recommend buying Macromedia Studio 8 as a professional web design package. You can take shortcuts in your design by using web site templates. Pre-designed sites that have navigation and colour schemes already created. These can save hours of time, lots of money and make your websites easier & enjoyable to design. 1000's of free and professional templates are available on the internet. Top 5 Tips: * Create the website yourself or hire a designer. * Choose suitable design software. * Surf the internet to get ideas and learn from other websites. * Use free or professional website templates. * Search for free scripts and tools.

STEP 4: ADD SITE CONTENT AND PROFIT WITH GOOGLE ADSENSE! Google adsense is a great way to earn money online and add content to your web site. Google makes it easy for website designers to display relevant Google ads on their site. Because the ads match your keywords and content, your visitors have will be interested in the links, plus you will profit from the links they click on. It's as simply as that. You can also make extra money by referring others to the program. The first time they make $100US, your account is credited with $100US. Additional to this you can be credited $1 for every download and install of the Firefox web browser. Top 5 Tips: * Use text ad units for best results. * Blend link colours to match your site. * Place the google ads amongst content. * Have links for referral signups. * Place ads on all your pages and websites.

STEP 5: MAKING MONEY WITH AFFILIATE PROGRAMS! Affiliate programs are a great way to make money online. You simply have links to products and services on your website. Once a visitor makes a purchase through your link your can receive some great commissions on sales or even simply by people clicking on your links. Top 5 Tips: * Signup to a selected few good programs. * Create your own affiliate program for your products. * Signup with Google Adsense to create profit fast & easy. * Create multiple streams of income on different sites. * Use your mailing lists to advertise your affiliate programs.

Stay tuned for the next part where we'll look at promotion of your website your created..

Phil M. is the author of this article 5 Steps & Tips for creating Websites that Generate Revenue! To read other articles and discover more on these topics please visit: http://www.makemoneyonline.co.nz