SEO For The Common Webmaster

Building your first website is fun and exciting. You have tons of ideas of what you should do and how to go about it. You plan for the big launch by finding the right domain name, writing some good content, planning how to monetize it, and then you get to the point of where do you get web hosting.

There are thousands of web hosting companies that are willing to take your money. However, many fall short on performance. With the many choices out there, it is easy to find Cheap Web Hosting. To do so, you must do your research and read all the fine print. All prices should be clearly marked and there should be no hidden fees.

The first thing you want to look for is the company’s uptime. This should be at least 99.8%. This is the amount of time your site will be live and ready for your customers or visitors. Every hosting company out there has a time or two in their life that they go down for either maintenance or from no fault of their own. This should not be often because if it is, your site will not be viewable for those times and you will lose visitors.

The next step is to evaluate what features you need and if the plan you are looking at offers those features. Fir example, if you are hosting a lot of scripts like Word Press or a forum, you need My SQL databases for each. You need to know how many you need so you can make sure your package offers those.

The third step is to see if they allow additional domains hosted on the same account and also how many sub domains. This is very important if you plan to host many sites on one account. It would suck to buy a hosting account with the intention of hosting five blogs and find out you are limited to just one or two.

The fourth step is to look at the additional services offered. One important feature is Fantastico. It is system that allows you to easily add many of the most popular scripts and programs such as Word press, PHPBB and more. If you are like me, I hate to install scripts. That is the reason I always make sure my host offers this feature.

Also make sure the host is up to date on the latest PHP and others. If it is not listed, do not be afraid to ask questions. If they respond quickly, this is a good sign that they will have great support. The more research you do up front, the less hassle you will have later. If you do not know what to ask, check around and ask friends or fellow webmasters what you should ask. There are no stupid questions when it comes to buying web hosting. The only stupid thing is not asking first.

The final step and one of the most important I will mention is the price. Be sure to read carefully. Some host offer by the month but require a year worth of payments. Other hosting companies charge strictly by the month. If you are lucky to find a quality host that has a flat yearly rate, you can often find a great deal. Be extra careful to buy the package that is right for your needs. If you are starting a blog and have no intentions of doing more than that, you do not need the top package. However, if you plan to do several sites or buy or sell sites, it might be wise to look at the reseller packages; no these are not just if you are selling web hosting. I have a reseller package and never sell a single web hosting package.

There is much more that can be written on looking for web hosting. I have written many some post on this blog and will continue to in the future. It is not rocket science but you also have to be smart. Doing your homework and lots of research will prevent you from pulling out your hair later because something went wrong. Being a webmaster is rewarding and having a quality host along side you for the ride is even better.

If you find this article useful, please feel free to link to it and leave a comment or two. Webmasters helping other webmasters is what this blog is all about!

One of the things I see often when browsing through the webmaster forums is the same old question; how do I make money online? I decided to see if there were some good resources out there that could help give some ideas.

I ran across a blog called Money Make Info. This blog has all kinds of ideas to make money. They offer ideas from the traditional eBay route to freelancing. The articles are well written and explain all the pros and cons of each money venture. There are ideas for earning money for webmasters up to just the part-timers who wishes to earn a little extra cash.

When I first found this blog, I was at first disappointed because it is hosted on the free site blogger. However, I soon forgot that as I browsed through the extensive information found on the site. The articles are easy to find with a very nice side bar on the left side of the blog broken down by categories. Most ideas are easy to implement and one can be earning money quickly by following their advice.

If you are new to the world of making money on the Internet or you are just a webmaster looking for more ideas to make extra money, it is worth checking them out. I thought I was aware of just about everything out there to earn money but I even learned a few things.

Stop by and visit them and as with any blog, I am sure they would enjoy a comment or two. If you do visit, please stop back and share your opinion with the rest of my readers by leaving a comment here.

Many people who make a living through the Internet as a webmaster or a writer or whatever source find that summer is a slow time and earnings decrease. At these times, we struggle to find income to fill that void. One of the best ways to do that is to find a good temporary job to fill the need.

There are many companies that offer such jobs. These are easy to apply to and you can find many sources on the Internet to get started right away. There are K-Mart Job Applications online that will make it easy to find a quick and reliable part-time or full-time job in a fun to work retail setting. If you do not have a K-Mart near by, there are also Target Job Applications that are easy to fill out and can get you a job in no time flat.

If working in a retail store does not interest you, maybe you would like something in the food field. Taco Bell Job Applications are easy to fill out and can offer very flexible hours. These are just a few examples of jobs you can find to fill that money void during the times when everything is slow on the Internet. They all allow you some earnings while not giving up your dream of making a living off the Internet. For many, they also offer great benefits that are not provided when you work as a webmaster.

The whole point is, you can call your self a webmaster or an dot.com mogul but what it boils down to is that when times are slow, you have to feed yourself and your family. By finding a flexible job, you can have the best of both worlds.

The biggest dream that most webmasters have is to earn lots of money and become rich. They seek the next big trend and they look for that magic eBook that will tell them how to make millions. The truth is, there are very few d who become rich.

Looking for your dream in a $19.95 eBook is useless. I have read many and reviewed a few and most the information is so vague and does nothing but earn money for the author or seller of the eBook. Very few people who have truly became rich will take the time to sell an eBook. Rich people are not willing their secret methods for small amounts of money unless their system is no longer working well. Think about it, if you were making $5,000-$10,000 a day, why would you sell that idea to others? Most times the idea is a possibility to earn money but no proven track record. The author does not want to take the time and energy to try it out so they make their money by writing an eBook.

I once read and reviewed a eBook on a not so well known referral program. The book was well written and gave you tools to help with the program. However, the author had not made money from it and it was purely a possibility. This is common in many eBooks.

I can tell you how to make millions of dollars on any affiliate program. Basically, you have to have targeted traffic and get lots of sign-ups and sales. That sounds too simple, doesn’t it? Well it is not that simple but many of the eBooks will make it sound like that. They fail to tell you that millions of others are competing for the same sale or sign-up. They fail to tell you that you will be spending a lot of time and in many cases money for advertising just for the chance to make money.

I am not saying you can not get rich. I am not saying that you can’t pull a nice above average income from being a webmaster. What I am saying is that it takes lots of work, sometimes a lot of risk, and at all times it takes patience. The people who tell you that you can build a site and put it on auto pilot while you sit on the beach of your private island are feeding you a long of BS. You will not get rich overnight! It takes time. In many cases, it takes a lot of luck and being in the right place at the right time.

Be a website or blog owner because you enjoy it. Look for every opportunity for making money but make the best website or blog you can. There is  money to be made but you have to be willing to open your eyes and not fall for every get rich quick scheme that comes along. Follow your dreams not the dreams of others!

If you have a success story to share or some words of encouragement for other webmasters, please leave a comment for others to read.

If you are not familiar with Stumble Upon, it is a social bookmarking site owned by eBay. It works best if you are using the Firefox browser. It is an installed tool bar add on that allows you to thumbs up or thumbs down a site you come across. It puts that site in a cycle where it is sent out to people who are looking for a certain topic.

On Stumble Upon, you can also get friends (up to 200) and have fans of your personal page. When you have friends and fans, you can send pages to them for them to view. When you hit the stumble button, you will also view pages that your friends have sent.

Along with thumbs up and thumbs down, you can give a review of the page rather you liked it or not. This is helpful to other people.

Stumble Upon is fun and you can spend hours just stumbling sites and finding interesting sites to view. However, I just wanted to give a basic overview as an opening to the main point of this article so to find out more, just download . Once you have the browser go to tools and add ons and download the Stumble Upon add on and sign up for an account.

I use Stumble Upon everyday and every time I write a post on any of my blogs I stumble them. At one point I started a blog dedicated to website reviews and stumble exchanges but I was told this is no longer allowed so I changed the site to just website reviews.

Now on to the point of traffic from Stumble Upon. In my experience and the experiences of many webmasters that I converse with everyday, Stumble Upon provides a lot of traffic. The problem with the traffic from Stumble Upon is that it does not convert well. If you are selling something or trying to make money on clicks from ads, this traffic does not turn into money as well as regular search engine traffic.

Many users of Stumble Upon just keep clicking through and do not stay long enough to even read what you have on your site. I would venture to say that less than 1% converts into any ad click or sale. I am not sure what the percentage is that stay on your site and read it but I would say that is low too. There are those who search for your topic and are really interested in your site but like I said before, many just click right on through.

So after reading that, I am sure you have one big question. Why should I use Stumble Upon at all? The answer is clear. It is free and though it may not be the best traffic, it is still traffic. If you get just a few people out of thousands that will really enjoy your site and make you a little money, that is more than you had without Stumble Upon. It is also a great way to get your site seen. If you site get many thumbs up, you can thousands of visitors a day to your site. Many will not return. However, some will and you could end up with a nice loyal reader base.

I love Stumble Upon and find it both fun and a good way to drive traffic to my site. Do not use it as your only source of traffic because you will be disappointed. However, mixed with other sources, it can add visitors to your site and money to your pocket.