What is a domain name? Domain names are human recognizable names assigned to websites. On the Internet the machines talk to each other using what is called an Internet Protecol Address or IP Address. This address is a set of numbers you have probably seen that looks something like 123.45.123.45. For machines this makes it easy to locate the host or destination machine they want to communicate with. But for us humans remembering hundreds of IP addresses would be very difficult. So a naming convention was devised to make it easier. The domain name and it’s associated IP address are linked together in what is essentially a big database (think phonebook) called a Domain Name Service (DNS). When you enter a domain name in your web browser, your computer sends a request to the DNS to find the IP Address it needs to talk to.
Why is it important to have your own domain? If you are not in business, it probably is not that important. However, if you want to put up a website whether it is for personal use or business you will need a domain name of some sort. Many people will use a free or common ‘host’ (place to store the website) and others will rent space on a web hosting provider like rd-webhosting.com. Besides cost the main difference is in the name. On a free host, your ‘domain name’ is often a combination of the host name and a unique name (your name perhaps) combined in some fashion. For example: If the host was rd-webhosting.com and your name was Jane Smith you could have a domain name of janesmith.rd-webhosting.com or rd-webhosting.com/janesmith. For email you would have janesmith@rd-webhosting.com if it was offered by the hosting company. Many free host do not offer email support. If you use a paid hosting service, you will need your own personal domain name, IE janesmith.com. In this case you would almost always get email accounts at well that you can set up, so your email address could be me@janesmith.com or anything that you wanted it to be, If you are starting a business, domain names make you look more professional. They also establish more trust. Think about this, who would you rather buy from, Company A with a website address of CompanyA.com or Company B with an address of rd-webhosting.com/companyb? In the second case, who are you really dealing with rd-webhosting.com for company b? Also the cost of a domain and web hosting is almost nothing.
What will it cost to have your own domain name? Well the prices you will find on the Internet will range from $1.99 if you purchase other services to as high as $24.99 a year to register your domain name and post it in the DNS. Remember all domain names are posted in the DNS. So a service that charges $7 is doing the same thing as a service that charges $25. Sometimes you may find extra services or features available but if you are just registering a name, go with the cheaper service. Also, you want to make sure that YOU are the owner of the domain name. I have seen some registrars that claim ownership of the name and require you to host your website with them. This is usually the case when hosting is free. They charge a steep fee if you want to ‘buy’ your own domain name back from them and move to a different host. So ask questions first. Once you get your own domain you will need a place to host or store your website. There are thousands of web hosting companies. With prices ranging from $1 a month to hundreds of dollars a month. Some have contracts however, most do not. If you are putting up a business website, I would recommend not using a free web hosting service. Support, availability, features, disk space, data transfer and email accounts of free hosting usually will not meet your requirements.
How do you get a domain name? First you need to find a domain registrar. These are companies, like rd-webhosting.com, that are allowed to register domain names and place them in the DNS. Once you find a registrar, you need to enter the domain name you want to register. You will also need to enter some personal information, such as your name, address, and phone number. One very important piece of information is the IP Address of the server where your website will be stored. This is important as it will be entered into the DNS so people can access your website or send you email. When you purchase (whether it is for free or a fee) web hosting space you should be provided this information.
Once you have registered your domain name it will take a little while, up to 72 hours before your new domain name will be able to be used. This is because the registrar has to enter the domain name into the DNS and then it has to be copied to all the other DNS servers on the Internet. In most cases your domain name will be registered and you will be able to access your email/website usually within 24 hours sometimes less. But to be on the safe side 72 hours is usually stated.
That’s it. You registered a name, found a place to host the website and email. Total cost, from a couple of bucks on up.

Raymond Laubert is owner of http://rd-webhosting.com a web hosting provider specializing in home based business web hosting. He has written many articles related to web hosting and home based businesses which can be found at http://rd-webhosting.com.

Every entrepreneur is interesting in boosting their business income. After all, that’s part of what being in business is all about. There are some who would say that the enjoyment of being your own boss is the primary reason for starting your own business, but the bottom line is that the business must turn a profit eventually or it cannot stay in business for long. Even though controlling expenses is important in having a positive cash flow, the fact remains that there must be business income in order to make a profit.

INCREASED SALES

Increased business income can be achieved by selling more of your product. You, of course want to increase your sales. That’s the reason for offering your product to the market. Utilizing the best possible marketing techniques to display, present, advertise or showcase the product you provide is the best way to increase sales. Ultimately, the more potential customers you can attract to your product, the more likely you are to make increased sales.

INCREASED PRICE

This method of boosting business income sounds like a good idea on the surface, but it can be self-defeating, so you will want to be very sure of your ground before raising your prices. You will need to do extensive market research to determine not only what the market is, but what your competitors are doing.

Generally speaking, if you are priced at the top end of the market for a particular product, the product will need to have other features that will be perceived by the customers as reasons for the higher price. While there are always people who believe that higher price indicates higher quality, there are also going to be those who will realize they can get the same quality for less money elsewhere. After all, Starbucks Coffee successfully charges more for their cup of coffee than anyone else in town. They do this through successful marketing of their product.

If, however, you have a product which is absolutely unique or substantially different than anything else on the market, you can probably get away with boosting your business income by charging higher prices. If you are first in the field, your product and price will be the benchmark by which others are measured.

INVESTING CAPITAL

A third way to increase business income is to put temporarily unneeded existing income to work for you. This is an indirect method of business income growth, but it works just as well as the first two. You will need to do the research to find the best vehicles to grow the business income; or, you can select a reputable financial advisor to do the investment for you. If you decide to use this method of growing business income, you need to make sure that your needed operating funds are still available to you. Only invest those funds which you will not need to access for whatever period of time your investment vehicle requires. In other words, if you will need to purchase a new vehicle for your business within 6 months, don’t invest the funds in a certificate of deposit which matures in twelve months.

The Weekend Chef has over 300,000 recipes and 9,000 drink recipes, visit them today!

Posted in Articles for Home Based Businesses, Business Basics | No Comments »
What you need to sell info products!
Saturday, June 9th, 2007

There are a lot of people who would love to be able to create a cool informational product and be able to make a great living (even get rich) while sitting in a comfy chair in front of their computers knowing that never again would they have to drive in rush hour traffic with all those crazies or put up with an unrelenting, over zealous boss who never had and never would or could be pleased. What a beautiful vision! The truth is that that lovely vision can become a reality but you will have to pay your dues first. Successful niche markets for an informational product don’t grow on trees or fall out of the sky.

The first thing you need and must have to create an informational product is an idea…a subject…a topic…that will fill the needs, solve a problems, or just make life better for some particular and very specific segment of the general population. You are surrounded by ideas if you just look. Look at yourself first. What is your biggest problem? Do your friends share the problem? Are you passionate about a hobby or a sport? These kinds of things are the stuff of which informational products are made of. So the very first thing you need is to identify a topic and, thereby, a market.

Another thing that you need to have in order to create an informational product which will become successful is research. Every topic and every subject are not going to make money. Many of them will…but just as many will not. The best research is accomplished by reading and talking to people who have succeeded in niche marketing informational products. Savvy niche marketers can spot a great topic from forty paces with one eye shut. Ask. Read. Research.

When you have an idea and have done the research that has proven that there is a market for your informational product, the rest is just a matter of creating the product building a great website and advertising it.

New Project Information:

Please check out Zero to Won, Guaranteed Internet Success Program that I am writing. The program is designed to help those looking to start a home based business, The program includes everything they need  to start and grow a successful business including domain registration and web hosting from RD-Webhosting, over 1000 articles and e-books on all aspects of business and over 20 software packages for managing and running a business.

Posted in Business Basics | No Comments »
Using Yellow Pages to Market Your Web Site
Saturday, June 9th, 2007

If you have a local business then you probably already have a business phone number. Most business phone services come with a listing in the local yellow pages. Be sure to list you web site address. This is much more powerful form of advertising then just placing your address and phone number.

Let’s take a look at how your business can use the Yellow Pages, even if you only have a web based business. First as a form of communications, it is always more professional to list a phone number on your site as a form of contact. You can always have a recording to take the call. But it makes people feel more comfortable when they can reach a human if they have questions or problems. Now with that business phone number you also get a listing in the yellow pages. This listing usually includes your business name, address and phone number and is place in a specific category. Not much for the client to go by. If you have an advertising budget, you could purchase a bigger ad and provide some more details about your business, but these are expensive, I have seen 1-inch column ads cost several hundreds of dollars and it only covered one area. If your business falls under several categories, you will need to place your advertising under multiple headings, again an added expense. Now if you have your web site listed in your listing, the reader can go to the web site and read all about your business.

Your web site can start by giving the reader a more warm and fussy feeling about you and your business. It can explain how long you have been in business, your background and experience. Who you have performed services for and even provide testimonials from some of your customers. Next you can provide information about common problems or issues that the reader may be of interest to the reader in the form of articles. While the reader is looking at the site, you can offer them a pamphlet on what your services are or on the article of the month etc, in the form of a newsletter. Maybe provide a free service or information when they sign up. Having a forum for them to post their problems is another great way to get their email and to build a good solid relationship. When you set up the forum require that they provide an email address and verify the address. Then they can post their questions, which of course you or other members of the forum will answer. Now that you have their email address you can send them additional information and notifications of specials or new products that they may be interested in. Some web sites send out notifications when they update the web site with new articles, which brings the reader back to the site again.

Your web site is the center of your business, whether you have a physical location or are strictly online. This is the only form of advertising that works 24 hours a day when the reader is actively looking for information related to your business. Linking your phone book listing to your site is the most cost effective use of the yellow pages you can have. Take advantage of it.

Remember your site can offer specials, gather email or contact information, give away items or gifts to your customers to get them to visit your store, tell the customer so much more than you could afford to do in the phone book itself. Plus many people will bookmark your site and return time and time again once they see all the great information that you have available on the site.

Raymond Laubert is owner of RD-WebHosting which specializes in Home Based Business Web Hosting. He is an author of over 20 articles and several e-books related to finding, starting and running a home based business. His latest venture to help home based business owners is the Home Based Business Library which has over 1000 articles related to Home Based Business Management.

For my article I outlined 4 things

Warnings
Initial cleaning
Oils to use
Curing Process

With the outline I can begin to write.I find when I am writing a technical piece that it is best to ask myself questions.Such as why do an initial cleaning or how do I initially clean the Dutch oven? Then proceed to answer the questions.Each question becomes a new paragraph.So this article will have an opening paragraph that will provide an overview on curing a Dutch oven, 4 paragraphs or more on the actual process and a closing paragraph which sums up the process and maybe provides links to more information.

Nothing says you have to be an expert in order to write about a topic.Finding the information and putting it into your own words helps you understand it better and in many cases will help others as well.As a trainer I often found that just rephrasing a topic will help someone who has problems understanding it.

I know this seems like a lot of work, but lets take a minute and see how this article can be used.Some places it can be used are:

People are always looking for the secret to become wealthy. There is a common belief that it’s going to be just one little change that will make the difference between living from paycheck to paycheck and having enough extra to buy the dream possessions without thinking about the cost. In one sense, it is as easy as one little change. In another sense, it’s a whole new way of living and thinking about wealth.

Many books have been written purporting to tell you how to become wealthy; most of them have some of the same tips in common. By having an attitude of wealth, you have already taken the first step toward becoming what you want to be.

1) Wealth isn’t the amount of money in the bank; it’s about an attitude of success. A study of the wealthiest people in America found that they spend only a few minutes per day on average on matters such as their bank account balance. They’d rather be doing what gives them pleasure. The money and the possessions are often just a footnote.

2) Keep a positive attitude. If you can conceive it and believe it, you will achieve it.

3) Think differently than others. Challenge your mind by taking a procedure that has always been done that way and figure out a different way to do it.

4) Decide what you dislike doing the most and stop doing it. If you continue to do a task in quiet desperation no matter what the reason, you will never have the energy left over to do what you want to do.

5) The other side of the equation in number 4 above is to find what you love to do and find a way to make it your job. Another trite old saying which is nevertheless true is: “Find a job you enjoy doing and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

6) Determine to find out who the real you is. That could be through career counseling, reading, personality tests, even sitting down with a ream of paper and start listing all the things you like to do. Some people never take the time to discover who they really are.

7) Become an entrepreneur. The opportunities are endless, particularly with the internet reaching more people every day. Books, courses, counselors and mentors are available to help you realize your dream of financial success. If you invest in yourself, you will succeed both in self-esteem and in financial matters as well.

Live and enjoy every minute. Some have called it “Live with passion.” No matter what your surroundings, find a way to enjoy them. If you do what you enjoy, you will always have something to enjoy. If you only live for money, you will never have time to enjoy it.

9) Live in the present. If you never truly enjoy the life you have as you pass through, because you plan to enjoy something after you retire, or after this next bonus arrives or after the kids are out of the house, you will have a life that’s truly bleak.

10) Help others achieve. Share your positive attitude with those around you, even if you don’t have a dime to share. Your positive attitude will attract friends and that’s the true meaning of a successful life.

The Weekend Chef has over 300,000 recipes and 9,000 drink recipes, visit them today!

Free web hosting companies are all over the Internet and many people ask me if and when should they use one. Having looked into some of these companies and being a free web hosting provider myself let me answer these questions and a few more.

First, should you use a free web hosting client. Simple answer is: Yes, IF…
Now the if comes into play depending on what you are using the website for. If you need a site to test out modifications, if you need a site to post some family pictures, if you need a temporary website for some reason, if your site is for your own or a small group of users to exchange ideas or information then I would definitely say yes, free web hosting is appropriate. In addition, if you are a small or home based business and just getting started on the web and the free web hosting provider you are going to work with will allow you to use your own domain name then again I would feel fine with using a free web hosting provider.

However, if you are going to use the site for a growing business, exchanging files with a lot of friends and family, going to be using the site long term, doing a lot of transferring of information via the web site, running any web business more than a startup site then I would say spend the extra $40 a year or so and get a paid web hosting provider. Web hosting is not that expensive for the basic packages and it is a tax write off.

How much free web hosting space will I need? – This is a question that depends on what you are going to do with the web site. Most family and home based and small business sites will hardly ever use more than 100 MB. I have a dozen sites and the largest site uses 80 MB or so. Now I am not hosting a lot of music or picture files. They will require more space. In fact another question I get is:

How much space will i need for a Picture forum? – This is going to depend on the resolution used when you took the picture. Today it is common to see 5 Mega Pixel cameras which can store 5 million bits of information per picture times the quality of the picture. So a 3.1 Mega pixel camera at low quality will take 3.1 Million Bytes of storage and high resolution the same picture can take over 25 MB of storage. Simply put you could store approximately 48 pictures on a web site that had 150 MB of storage at low resolution. Naturally there are compression routines and better storage methods that can be used. For example you could change the format of the picture to jpg

Some times it is just a matter of knowing what you actually need. Among the Free web hosting companies there are a wide range of plans. So how much free web space will a personal/family web site with few Logos/images need? – Again depending on the images I would say 25 MB will do for the vast majority of web sites.

My pages average less than 10k how much bandwidth do I need? - A 10 k page accessed 10,000 times would use approximately 100 MB per month. Honestly, if you follow the advise above and you are getting more than 10,000 page hits a month it is probably time to look at going to a paid web hosting provider.

How Much will a Flash file Use? – Flash sites are most commonly used for gaming. As such they kind of fall into the realm of business. Fine to start with a free web hosting provider but after a while you will want to move to a paid hosting service. In general Flash files are small less than 50 M. But the bandwidth will be much higher and you may find yourself in trouble with the free hosting provider very quickly. If you start getting the emails from the host saying you are exceeding the bandwidth, it is time to look at a paid hosting provider.

I want to host direct downloads for my site, how much space will i need? –This is an area that free web hosting is NOT meant for. If you have a lot of files to transfer or make available it is time to go with paid hosting. Most free web hosting companies strictly limit the amount of bandwidth that you will get. Bandwidth is the expense that all of us have to pay for on a monthly basis. So Forget it.