Archive for May, 2010

How to Choose a Good Domain Name

May 5th, 2010

Here is some information and tips to help you select the best domain name for you:

Keep it short.  The shorter, the better.  It’s best to keep your domain name less than 15 characters if possible.  A shorter name is easier for people to remember and it also reduces the likelihood that your visitor will mistype it or spell it wrong.  For example, BuyIt.com has a lot less chance of being mistyped than isellthispleasebuyitfrommetoday.com.

Keep it sweet.  The more memorable the name, the easier it is for people to remember.  You can have the best site in the world, but if people can’t remember your domain name it will cut down on your return visitors.  It’s hard enough to get traffic on the web without “losing” visitors that want to come back but can’t find you.

Keep it simple. Make sure the domain name is easy for people to spell.  Don’t spell words unusually.  Unless you have incredible branding, people will type in the common spelling of your domain and your competition will get visitors who were looking for you.  For example, BlueRight.com is much better than BluRite.com

Choose a domain name that reflects your business. Don’t just choose a random name.  For example, if your sell horse supplies, you should choose a name that has the word “horse supplies” in it such as YourHorseSupplies.com.  Or, your domain name should refer to horses in some way, like whoa.com.  The former will help you in the search engines.  The latter will be memorable.

When in doubt, choose a .com.  If you are debating between several different domain names, go with the .com.  It’s what most people think of when they are typing in a domain name.  It’s true the best names are gone, but you can still find a good .com if you look. Thousands of .coms expire and are released back in the market each month so there is always a steady supply of new domains coming into the market.

http://www.version-next.com/domain-names/index.html

3 Reasons to Choose a Dedicated Server

May 5th, 2010

3 Reasons to Choose a Dedicated Server

A dedicated server is a web server that is devoted to one customer, thus giving that customer all of the resources they need to effectively run their website without experiencing server downtime or other pitfalls. Although dedicated servers are available to every customer, they are usually only used by larger businesses due to their high cost and overwhelming amount of server resources. Most small business owners would not necessarily need a dedicated server, but nonetheless it is a common solution for small business owners as well. One of the reasons why a dedicated server is so suitable for the large business owner is because the server setup is completely customizable and expandable. The following reasons should help you decide if a dedicated server would be suitable for your online business.

Enhanced Customer Service

Aside from nearly unlimited server resources, dedicated hosting plans get the best customer service from any hosting company, as these plans are given priority over other hosting plans. Since your server is dedicated to your site only, the host can work with you to make sure your server is meeting all of your needs. You’ll usually have shorter wait times on the support line, and you’ll be able to have the server configured to your likings, unlike shared hosting plans which only give you restricted access to server configuration. In essence, having a dedicated hosting plan is the same as leasing your very own private server in a remote location.

Multiple Domain Hosting

With your own dedicated server, you could also host multiple domains without having to use different software to manage each domain. Meaning all of your domains could use the same control panel, the same shopping cart, and even the same point of sale software. All of this software could be installed on multiple websites simultaneously since each website is hosted on the same server. You could also have several dedicated IP addresses for each website to maximize site performance. Hosting multiple domains on the same server is a must for any online business owner that regularly operates several websites at once.

Reselling

Perhaps the most advantageous aspect of having a dedicated server would be the reselling capabilities. If you want to have all of the aforementioned features of a dedicated web server, but you do not necessarily need all of the extra resources, then you could opt to resell some of the resources allocated to you and then use the rest as you please. Most dedicated hosting plans will give you the right to resell your resources, since the server resources will only be used by you. If you’re in the business of offering web services such as web development, then you may want to consider a dedicated hosting plan as you’ll be able to offer your customers server resources in combination with the existing plans you have on offer. Bundling your services is one of the best way to sell hosting plans and make a profit with a dedicated server.

http://www.version-next.com/dedicated-servers/index.html

How to Choose a Web Host

May 5th, 2010

To create a Web site for your business, you need to find a place to store your files. One choice is to let your internet service provider (ISP) host your Web site — most ISPs provide some amount of server space as part of a standard dialup Internet access account.

extra for hosting services, although some ISPs can’t provide the bandwidth or the reliability needed for a fully functional business site.

True Web hosting companies resemble ISPs in that they also provide servers connected to the Internet. But good Web hosts invest in more powerful servers and faster, more direct connections to the Internet. A Web hosting service is also likely to offer other features that you can’t get from a regular ISP, such as special commerce servers that provide additional security for online transactions.

Factors to consider when you choose a Web host include:

Server space. Initially, 10MB of disk space on a server should be enough for a typical business site. If your site has lots of graphics or multimedia files, you may need much more room; many hosts offer 100MB or more of disk space at reasonable rates. Also, find out whether email, log files and other “overhead” files count against your space limit — once you exceed your disk quota, the hosting service will charge a penalty. It’s always better to have too much space than too little.

Traffic. Your host may impose a limit on how much traffic your site can attract each month before you have to pay a surcharge. You don’t want an increasingly popular site to suddenly become a financial liability, so look for a plan that offers unlimited traffic or at least low over-limit charges.

Support. Make sure you can get technical support during the hours you’re most likely to need it. When you evaluate a hosting service, call its support lines a few times to see how long it takes to get through.

Other features. Make sure you can get your own domain name (www.yourbusiness.com) rather than one incorporating the name of your host (www.hostname.com/yourbusiness). Most hosting sites will register a domain name for you at no extra charge (although you’ll still have to pay the standard registration fee). Also check into how many email addresses you get and whether they support aliases, which allow you to set up addresses such as sales@yourbusiness.com. Ask about programs for managing mailing lists and generating automatic email responses.

You will want to find out about the visitors to your site — what links they followed to get there, which pages they view most often — so make sure that your host is equipped to track and provide that information.

If you or your Web developer uses Web authoring and management software (such as Microsoft FrontPage) that offers nonstandard features, look for a host that can support that software. And if your site provides interactive functions such as forms or surveys, or if you allow online transactions, you need to ask about features such as CGI script and e-commerce support.

Buyer Beware

Just as you need to make sure your host can provide the features you need, you want to be equally careful not to pay for ones you don’t. If you don’t plan to take credit card orders online, for example, you don’t need to pay for secure socket layer (SSL) or other special security features.

Once you’ve narrowed your list of Web hosting candidates, ask each service you’re considering for a list of the sites it houses. Visit those sites to see how quickly the pages load, especially sites with pages of similar size and complexity to yours. You can also try sending email to the Webmasters at the sites to ask for their opinions of the hosting company. Internet mailing lists, computer user groups and professional associations are other good sources of information on finding the right Web host for your business.

http://www.version-next.com/web-hosting/index.html

What is Reseller Web Hosting?

May 5th, 2010

Reseller web hosting is a type of web hosting that consists of an arrangement between a web hosting company and a client that purchases a portion of their services at a wholesale price and is then able to resell the bandwidth and server space. There are two methods which this can be accomplished, one would be to purchase a dedicated server plan and then set it up to resell the services, or you could also purchase a ready made plan which normally consists of a large shared hosting plan that is specfically designed to make reselling of the services easy.

Web hosting is a very profitable market to get into and the good news is that it does not require the reseller to have extensive technical knowledge of web hosting, however good business sense would be a good quality to hold. Technical knowledge isn’t necessary because the web hosting company will do most major tasks such as maintaining the servers, dealing with downtime issues, upgrades, changing out hardware, etc. for the reseller.

The downside in all of this is that the web hosting industry is a very crowded and competitive market place which means you will need to have a large advertising budget. Having a large advertising budget will help to get the word out about your services and help you to be found over-top of some of the larger hosting companies. Even when you start making money most of it will have to be pumped back into your advertising to keep your endeavor growing.

Typically web hosting resellers are web developers, system integrators, or web design firms or some other type of online services oriented business. Reseller hosting allows them to offer the services as an add-on to their already established business. However many other also resell web hosting, entrepreneurs are especially attracted to reseller hosting because it’s a great and inexpensive way to start a business with very little overhead.

Many hosting companies offer reseller hosting plans, and others that offer dedicated hosting plans will allowing reselling of their services. They also allow you to modify many parts of the plan from pricing to the amount of disk space and bandwidth, this allows resellers the ability to re-brand the services as their own. Everything that happen can easily be monitored via the web in a control panel.

Affiliate Reseller

This is another form of web hosting that allows you to participate on an affiliate level. In this case the reseller acts as an advertising agent for the hosting company. The customers will actually purchase the services directly from the web hosting company, with the reseller receiving commission for their efforts.

Marketing Reseller

This type of reseller hosting also involves the reseller acting as the advertising agent only with this type the reseller will also sell the initial service plan. The customers will actually purchase the plan from the reseller, but after-wards they will deal with the hosting company for all follow-ups, technical issues and/or complaints.

Portioning Reseller

This is the final type of reseller web hosting which involves the reseller purchasing a large chunk of bandwidth and storage space, and then breaking it up into smaller portions and selling it to consumers branded as their own. Customers will also contact the reseller for any and all issues they may have.

As you can see there are many different reseller options available within the web hosting industry. Since the web hosting industry generates tremendous profits, this type of hosting will allow resellers to get a small piece of the action without having to invest a lot of capital upfront. Making this a great way to start a profitable business with low over head.

http://www.version-next.com/reseller-hosting/index.html

7 Critical Factors to Consider for a Dedicated Server

May 5th, 2010

A dedicated server can provide the best possible performance for your website.  It is also considerable decision that requires careful planning on your part.  This is a responsibility that exceeds anything you have ever had to encounter in a shared hosting arrangement.

Before leasing service and deploying the server, there are a number of factors that must be taken into account.  Below we have listed seven of the most critical:

1. Server Hardware – Perhaps the most essential element of a dedicated hosting solution is the actual server itself.  There are various types of hardware available produced by a wide range of manufacturers.  This is why it is so important to ask prospective hosting providers about hardware components such as hard drives, processors and RAM.  All the benefits of a dedicated server are null and void without the aspect of reliable, high performance equipment.

2. Network Connectivity – When leasing a dedicated server, you also receive a dedicated connection to the internet.  If you are concerned about the performance of your website and the availability of your mission-critical applications, you will certainly want to inquire about the status of the provider’s network connection.  Are they providing you with a T1 or T3 line?  Are there redundant connections?  Who are their backbone providers?   The answers you get here can tell you a lot about performance and the overall reliability of dedicated server solution.

3. Bandwidth Allotment - Bandwidth is a very critical aspect of the web hosting business and the internet itself.  Most hosting companies provide you with a specific allotment of bandwidth every month.  However, some do not.  When choosing your dedicated server, it is strongly recommended to select a package that gives you a specific figure instead of one that is simply advertised as “unlimited.”  Find out how much bandwidth you are allocated each month and the requirements for obtaining more as your needs increase.

4. IP Options – Having a dedicated server usually guarantees you at least one unique IP address.  However, there may be instances in which you require more.  For example, if you are running two e-commerce stores on the server, you will need at least two unique IP addresses for security purposes.  It is important to keep in mind that every SSL certificate requires its own IP address in order to be installed on the server.

5. Data Backup and Restoration - Many customers overlook backup options when shopping for a dedicated server.  This is an area you definitely want to put emphasis on as data can become loss of corrupt due to failures, theft, sabotage or natural disasters.  There are a variety of proactive measures you can take to ensure that the data on your server is routinely backed up and can be restored.  Hosting providers typically offer backup services as well but a combination of efforts on both sides would be the best solution.

6. Technical Support - Even though a dedicated server is often viewed as a do-it-yourself type of arrangement, you should never be left out in the cold when it comes to support.  The level of support is something you need to be aware before entering a contract with the service provider.

Make sure you can get in touch with the company 24 hours a day and 7 days a week whether it is through a phone number of email.  Being that you don’t have physical access to the hardware and network, you simply cannot succeed without quality technical support for your dedicated server.

7. Server Uptime and Network Reliability – Dedicated servers are generally more dependable than the shared variety, but the crucial aspects of uptime and reliability are never guaranteed.  Almost every web hosting provider offers what appears to be a respectable uptime guarantee but you must dig a little deeper when making such a commitment.

http://www.version-next.com/dedicated-servers/index.html

Elements of Web Hosting

May 5th, 2010

When you first start out importunate to get a site on the Internet everything indisputably so confusing. Obtuse acronyms flow freely through the ‘Beginner Friendly’ information sites and definitions can be hard to come across. The main reason for this is that the Internet and the process of strenuous a website online is really very bare, and once people get past the first stumbling back up they rarely flash on the difficulty they once had, throughout leads to them living unable to understand the next wave of dot com newbies.

So let’s begin with defining collected of the basic terms that are commonly thrown delay when examination for a web host. You’ll quickly realize that computer geeks alike using big words for easy mark concepts. Intelligence do you expect lately a group of territory that decided to supplication half a Byte a Nibble?

Web Host: These are the state that supply your website with somewhere to sit and be accessed eschew. They’re often a wealth of information, so when you’re annoying to find your feet it will every so often be worthwhile to contact their involved support and get your questions answered. Because of this, it’s important to contact them BEFORE you sign up for any packages to ensure that you’ll accommodate a timely response. Just fire an email their way and see God’s plan happens.

Disk Space: This is the same as the space on your own PC’s hard drive. Web Hosts will allocate a certain amount of space to your website, usually in Megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). This determines how overextend oneself you can store on your site.

Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be retrieved still more your site within the bandwidth period. The bandwidth period is the length of time before your bandwidth irks reset once again, usually reversal a month. Bandwidth is measured in MB and GB, corresponding disk space. Always find out the consequences of exceeding your allocated bandwidth before you proof of sale a hosting luggage.

Perimeter Reputation: The ilk credit is your life identifier on the Internet. This is notification burns typed investigate a web browser’s Filofax [tm] bar to reach your site. Variegated hosting companies will offer a style for free, while others will have the facilities to provide one for a minimal cost.

SQL (MySQL, SQL Server etc.): Structured Query Language. This is the language used to interact with databases. Prayer are that if you don’t know near it when you start marvelous for web hosting, you’re not going to need to know approximately it for at least a little while longer.

HTTP: Hyper Topics Transfer Protocol. Basically, how the Internet works. It is the protocol governing the transfer of web pages more than ever one place to another.

HTML: Hyper Significance Markup Language. This is (usually) data you’ll be using to win your website, whether directly or indirectly. Don’t be scared by the head, the ‘language’ is very easy to learn.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol. This is a method for sending pages and files refuse your home PC to a server. It is quite sample mean to use and your host will provide login information if this is the method that they use for file access. Typing “FTP://[server details]” scrutinize My Computer on a windows box allows you to use FTP as if your server that is a regular windows compilation.

POP3: This is a low-grade email ‘post box’ system. It is use to store emails for retrieval.

SMTP: Honest Mail Transfer Protocol. A hack protocol used to send emails.

The beginner will not really need to know too when about-face the above two email technologies. If they’re listed, good. It estate you have email accounts with your website (i.e. the email name@yourdomain.com will reach you, somehow)

There are excessive ‘languages’ used to enhance websites, such as Java, Perl, ASP, .NET, PHP, etc. If you’re just starting out you should try to learn expectation HTML first before you worry too very much about-face these more advanced languages. In general they’re not too difficult to learn, but you’ll want a solid grounding before you tackle them.

The Internet is a wonderful source of knowledge, so whenever you want information just fire up your favourite search engine and type in your problem. The Internet is full of sites come about the Internet, so the information you want shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Building virtuoso websites takes a lot of time and skill, so divers companies hire family to do it for them. If this is the situation that you’re in, talk to the author you’re hiring close to hosting, as they may have struck a concurrence with a webhost to provide prot?g?s with cheaper hosting packages. Also, the workaday hard drug will know scripture features you’re going to need in a hosting plan.

The world of web hosting is not as complicated as public out of the clear blue sky approximate to pull out. Just dream pumped up you do a little bit of research before diving in and you’ll be less rare to get burned by a shifty ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ company. Check out the host’s rankings on a few Web Hosting Directories, do a search for reviews of the company, contact the support staff before signing up and enjoy the world opened by having your own online presence..

http://www.version-next.com/web-hosting/index.html

SMS Applications

May 5th, 2010

SMS Gateway – Creative Web Designers can manage simultaneous connections to one or more SMSCs, supporting the major SMSC protocols, including SMPP, UCP/EMI, CIMD2, HTTP, and/or GSM modems. Creative Web Designers handles the low level protocol details, and makes it easy to switch between different providers, as well as making it easy to add additional connections for situations where it is advantageous to route messages for different countries via different providers.

Creative Web Designers offers simple SMS gateway connectivity for those who need to SMS-enable their systems, websites, or applications. Using Creative Web Designers API (Application Programming Interface) integration is fast, simple and reliable.
Our API is immediately multicast messaging enabled, allowing integration to any front-end or legacy system, with a direct connection into Creative Web Designers global gateways.
Learn more about each of our API connectivity options below:

* HTTP/S API
Our most popular connection, HTTP is one of the simpler forms of communication to the Creative Web Designers API. It is used in the form of an HTTP/Internet Post.
* SMTP [E-mail to SMS] API
Another firm favourite, the SMTP API allows messages that are sent via e-mail to be converted to SMS. Popular with customers who already have an e-mail messaging system in place.
* SMPP API
Our most robust connection, suitable for customers who send large volumes of traffic. Creative Web Designers offers a global SMPP connection using the SMPP 3.3 standard. Customers are required to have SMPP client software in place, and unlike our other APIs there are minimum volume requirements when using SMPP.
* XML API
If you are familiar with XML, Creative Web Designers offers an XML interface with its own set of DTDs. Currently supports XML over HTTP.
* FTP API
Suitable for once off, high volume messaging. The FTP upload facility allows customers to upload text files to Creative Web Designers FTP site, and have the files automatically dispatched to message recipients.
* COM Object API
Popular with windows-based developers, the Creative Web Designers COM API object’s rich set of methods and definitions make it easy for a user to integrate SMS sending into their programs or ASP pages.

http://www.version-next.com/bulk-sms/index.html

Dedicated Short Code SMS Gateway

May 5th, 2010
Dedicated Short Code SMS Gateway
Just like Short Code the same functionality is in Dedicated Short Code only the difference that it will be six, seven or eight digit means on the working Short Code you will get suffix of any one, two or three number (subject to availability) i.e. 56006xy, 56006xyz, 56006x, 56006xx, 56006xxx. This is useful for whom want to start own SMS Gateway business because you will get any number of keyword creation facility (number of keywords depends on operator) and can sale at your own price, can manage through your own database admin panel. You can integrate your dedicated short code in any of your application as well as bulk SMS, Short Code; we will provide all the integration tool kit / web API / Code in ASP, PHP, ASP.NET, JSP to integrate in your application
Benefits of Dedicated Short Code SMS Gateway
Your own Short Code identity on mobile users community

On a single short code you can create any number of keyword (number of keywords depends on operator) and can use for your personal or commercial purpose

Unlimited auto response message

When any mobile user send sms to your short code, user will get a confirmation sms that sms is received, keyword owner can set any number of auto response

Admin Panel

You can create your own control panel to manage keywords, users, MIS of SMS inflow on every keyword while with every dedicated short code we provide our own panel

Revenue sharing

You have option to share inflow revenue on different inflow slab on every keyword that you will using on your short code.

http://www.version-next.com/dedicated-servers/index.html

Benefits of SMS GatewaySMS Applications

May 5th, 2010

SMS Gateway – Creative Web Designers can manage simultaneous connections to one or more SMSCs, supporting the major SMSC protocols, including SMPP, UCP/EMI, CIMD2, HTTP, and/or GSM modems. Creative Web Designers handles the low level protocol details, and makes it easy to switch between different providers, as well as making it easy to add additional connections for situations where it is advantageous to route messages for different countries via different providers.

Creative Web Designers offers simple SMS gateway connectivity for those who need to SMS-enable their systems, websites, or applications. Using Creative Web Designers API (Application Programming Interface) integration is fast, simple and reliable.
Our API is immediately multicast messaging enabled, allowing integration to any front-end or legacy system, with a direct connection into Creative Web Designers global gateways.
Learn more about each of our API connectivity options below:

  • HTTP/S API
    Our most popular connection, HTTP is one of the simpler forms of communication to the Creative Web Designers API. It is used in the form of an HTTP/Internet Post.
  • SMTP [E-mail to SMS] API
    Another firm favourite, the SMTP API allows messages that are sent via e-mail to be converted to SMS. Popular with customers who already have an e-mail messaging system in place.
  • SMPP API
    Our most robust connection, suitable for customers who send large volumes of traffic. Creative Web Designers offers a global SMPP connection using the SMPP 3.3 standard. Customers are required to have SMPP client software in place, and unlike our other APIs there are minimum volume requirements when using SMPP.
  • XML API
    If you are familiar with XML, Creative Web Designers offers an XML interface with its own set of DTDs. Currently supports XML over HTTP.
  • FTP API
    Suitable for once off, high volume messaging. The FTP upload facility allows customers to upload text files to Creative Web Designers FTP site, and have the files automatically dispatched to message recipients.
  • COM Object API
    Popular with windows-based developers, the Creative Web Designers COM API object’s rich set of methods and definitions make it easy for a user to integrate SMS sending into their programs or ASP pages.
  • http://www.version-next.com/bulk-sms/index.html

What is “XML sitemap”?

May 3rd, 2010

Sitemaps are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling,They allow you to specify the importance of each page, the frequency which they should download them and the last time you modified them. or The Sitemaps protocol allows a webmaster to inform search engines about URLs on a website that are available for crawling. A Sitemap is an XML file that lists the URLs for a site. It allows webmasters to include additional information about each URL: when it was last updated, how often it changes, and how important it is in relation to other URLs in the site. This allows search engines to crawl the site more intelligently. Sitemaps are a URL inclusion protocol and complement robots.txt, a URL exclusion protocol.
Sitemaps are particularly beneficial on websites where:
The webmaster can generate a Sitemap containing all accessible URLs on the site and submit it to search engines. Since Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Ask use the same protocol now, having a Sitemap would let the biggest search engines have the updated pages information.

Sitemaps supplement and do not replace the existing crawl-based mechanisms that search engines already use to discover URLs. Using this protocol does not guarantee that web pages will be included in search indexes, nor does it influence the way that pages are ranked in search results.Google first introduced Sitemaps 0.84 in June 2005 so web developers could publish lists of links from across their sites. Google, MSN and Yahoo announced joint support for the Sitemaps protocol in November 2006. The schema version was changed to “Sitemap 0.90″, but no other changes were made.
In April 2007, Ask.com and IBM announced support for Sitemaps. Also, Google, Yahoo, MS announced auto-discovery for sitemaps through robots.txt. In May 2007, the state governments of Arizona, California, Utah and Virginia announced they would use Sitemaps on their web sites.
The Sitemaps protocol is based on ideas from “Crawler-friendly Web Servers”.
The Sitemap Protocol format consists of XML tags.Sitemaps can also be just a plain text list of URLs. They can also be compressed in .gz format.
The File format of XML Site Map is shown below in image:

Sitemap Index
The Sitemap XML protocol is also extended to provide a way of listing multiple Sitemaps in a ‘Sitemap index’ file. The maximum Sitemap size of 10 MB or 50,000 URLs means this is necessary for large sites. As the Sitemap needs to be in the same directory as the URLs listed, Sitemap indexes are also useful for websites with multiple subdomains, allowing the Sitemaps of each subdomain to be indexed using the Sitemap index file and robots.txt.
Sitemap limits
Sitemap files have a limit of 50,000 URLs and 10 megabytes per sitemap. Sitemaps can be compressed using gzip, reducing bandwidth consumption. Multiple sitemap files are supported, with a Sitemap index file serving as an entry point for a total of 1000 Sitemaps.
As with all XML files, any data values (including URLs) must use entity escape codes for the characters : ampersand(&), single quote (‘), double quote (“), less than (<) and greater than (>).

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