ping! zine web hosting magazine issue 37
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Ping! Zine Web Hosting Magazine Issue 37 - 15 Fantastic First on the InternetTRANSCRIPT
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Trailblazers, creatives and innovators have taken the internet to where it is today and made it an essential part of our everyday lives. We have selected a number of interesting “firsts” from the history of the Internet (and the Web) for your reading pleasure.
032generaTing Leads WiTh WhiTe PaPers
036KemP TechnoLogies inTroduces VirTuaL LoadmasTer TechnoLogy
041The arT of managing
045WebsiTe hosTing niches
046hosTing comPanies for saLe
049hoW To WriTe a beTTer WebsiTe TiTLe Tag
051hosTingcon 2010 sTeadiLy gaining momenTum
052Ping! Zine serVice direcTory
054ruLes To LiVe reVisiTed
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GeneratinGLeads With White PaPers
bY dave Young
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012Cloudlinux unveils Cloudlinux os at Parallel’s summit
013Parallels small Business Panel attraCts the largest industry Players
014hostdime announCes the launCh of hostdime india
015google loses domain name trademark arBitration
016turnkey internet PurChases dataCenter in new york’s teCh valley
018CPanel releases free ConferenCe session videos
PayPal founder matChes donations to seasteading institute
019Comodo dragon ProteCts online PrivaCy
visi exPands minnesota data Center to aCCommodate Customer demand
020weB host Boot CamP 2009 wraP uP
wikimedia foundation announCes $2 million grant from google
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Publisher Keith duncanManaging Editor/Designer derek morrisExecutive Editor robert LangSenior Editor dave youngMarketing Director marcus spencer
edItoRIal staffTechnical Editor John burmeisterCommentary Editor david dunlapMarketing Editor Trey gardnerHeadlines Editor derek Vaughan
contRIButIng WRIteRsPingdom.comQuint studermitch Keelerrob ferrel
contact InfoRmatIonPing! Zine, LLcPost Office Box 516Denham Springs, LA 70726
Phone (225) 791-3963Website www.pingzine.comGeneral Info [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Ping! Zine Web Hosting Magazine © January-February 2010, Published and copyrighted 2010 by Ping! Zine, LLC, P.O. Box 516, Denham Springs, LA 70726. all rights reserved.Permission to reproduce part or all of this issue must be secured in writing from the publisher. for more information email: [email protected] subscriptions are at the discretion of the publisher and may be cancelled or modified at any time. unsolicited submissions are welcome. We assume no liability for lost or damage of submissions. We assume no liability for the content of this issue and all points and ideas are strictly that of the writers involved and not that of the publisher, publishing company, printing company or editors.alright everyone, this is your final chance! Tear out this disclaimer and mail it to the above address with your name, address and telephone number and we will send you a new car!** Ping! Zine will not actually send participants a new car upon completion. By “car”, they actually mean whatever prize they find around the office and want to mail out. yes, this promotion sucks!!!!!!!
002 gawkwire.com
005 codero
007 black Lotus
009 uptime safe
010 cdg commerce
014 Press advance
014 assistanz
015 spamhero
017 isP systems
021 unity mobile
022 rackmounts etc
027 Versaweb
029 Parallels
034 Turnkey internet
037 young copy
038 Web host bootcamp
039 easy support
039 binary canary
040 rackmount specialists
043 Lagniappe internet, LLc
044 host 4 yourself
048 Lionfire Solutions
050 hostingcon 2010
055 Sprynex
056 host gator
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CloudLinux Founder and CEO, Igor Seletskiy delivered his first public address at the popular hosting industry conference, the Parallels Summit, on February 23 in Miami, FL. Mr. Seletskiy debuted CloudLinux, the only Linux–based, commercially supported operating system (os) optimized for shared hosting providers and datacenters. mr. seletskiy addressed how hosting service providers can squeeze more efficiency from their infrastructure while simultaneously increase profit margins and new revenue opportunities.
in his address, mr. seletskiy discussed how to strike the perfect balance between number of users per server and the load the server can carry, especially when resource hogs and load spikes remain a constant challenge. This challenge is compounded by the foggy visibility administrators have into servers, making it harder for providers to respond efficiently to ever-changing needs. The new CloudLinux os solves these issues by leveraging its proprietary LVe™ technology.
“I created CloudLinux OS based my previous work developing the H-Sphere Control Panel. I could see the need to give providers a way to control the cPu and io demands of individual users to achieve high level of server stability,” states Igor Seletskiy, CEO of Cloud Linux Inc. “This work is based on a lot of research that has been done over the years. We went deep into Linux kernel to achieve high level of resource isolation. We also wanted to be able to offer the os with a professionally staffed, 24/7 support operation and at a low cost for providers. so on behalf of my team and after these many months of hard work, i am proud to be introducing this new technology here at the Parallel’s Summit.”
CloudLinux was founded by Igor Seletskiy who has a 13-year, successful track record of delivering innovative new products to the hosting industry, including: H-Sphere, the first multi-server, commercially available control panel; FreeVPS, a container-based virtualization product; CP+, a simple, single server control panel; WebShell, a web-based file manager and SiteStudio, a browser-based website building tool. CloudLinux builds on Mr. Seletskiy’s extensive understanding of the unique needs of hosting service providers and is now available for download at http://www.cloudlinux.com/download.html.
CloudLinux Unveils CloudLinux OS at Parallel’s Summit
Congratulations to all of the readers who played the Ping! Zine crossword puzzle and mystery Word game. We mailed hundreds of random items to our readers, including ink pens (some actually worked), mousepads, water bottles, t-shirts, flashlights and one lucky winner received a Toshiba Laptop that we were using as a doorstop to the kitchen.
congrats again and look for more contests in future issues. Who knows what we will give away next time. Maybe that fooseball table that prevents the staff from working when they are on the clock.
Managing Editor, Derek Morris
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Cloud-enablement leader, Parallels, announced that Parallels small business Panel has attracted some of the biggest names in the industry within months of release. go daddy, the world’s largest domain name registrar and leading Web hosting provider, began offering Parallels Small Business Panel to its more than 7.5 million customers, many of whom are small businesses. other successful adopters of Parallels small business Panel include The Planet, softlayer, softcom, codero, Layershift, servint, arsys, network group europe and host europe. “This has been one of our most successful product releases and delivers profitable services to small businesses. To have such a quick uptake of our product by some of the largest companies in the industry is a testament to how Parallels Small Business Panel fills the growing IT needs of small businesses,” explains Jack Zubarev, President of Worldwide service Providers at Parallels. “Parallels really values partnerships like go daddy and is committed to delivering products that enable cloud services providers to move beyond basic hosting services and offer value-added applications and services.” Parallels Small Business Panel features a game-changing control panel designed for small businesses, offering simple wizards and productivity tools for collaboration, file sharing and business management. This makes self-service possible for all employees using the solution. “offering Parallels small business Panel at go daddy helps small to mid-sized businesses receive the advantages larger companies do with similar, advanced products for a cost small businesses can afford,” said Go Daddy President and Chief Operating Officer Warren adelman. “These businesses don’t need an iT administrator to take advantage of the small business Panel because of the easy wizard-driven interface. Parallels understands what small businesses need and go daddy is pleased to offer their small business Panel to our customers.” Parallels small business Panel 10.1 gives users an intuitive interface designed to connect employees to the right applications, which can be installed with a single click with no need for special training or technical knowledge. in addition, Parallels small business Panel incorporates the functionality of additional Parallels solutions for free, including Parallels sitebuilder and Parallels Power Pack. users also have access to over 200 applications that increase productivity, efficiency and creativity but require no prior knowledge of the product to utilize the benefits. some of the top applications available for free include Wordpress, sugarcrm, droopal and mumbo.
Parallels Small Business Panel Attracts the Largest Industry Players
HostDime officially launches HostDime India, its sixth international division based outside of the united states. The new division will provide shared, dedicated, VPs, and reseller Web hosting and colocation to clients in india and surrounding asian countries.
The new Indian division operates out of offices in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India and hosts clients in both hostdime’s central data center in orlando, fla., and the division’s data center in mumbai, india. Transaction currency and sales/support operations are native to india, giving hostdime an edge over many other hosting companies that do not maintain a local presence in the country. all hostdime international divisions follow a similar strategy.
“India is in every sense a global marketplace of tomorrow. With more than 60 million Internet users and growing, and a highly educated, largely English-speaking population, India holds the promise of significant online growth and an emerging opportunity to deliver hosting solutions for individuals and small to medium sized businesses,” said Sherimon alamar hostdime india’s director. “asia represents the latest strategic frontier for HostDime, and India is an ideal launching pad.”
hostdime india enables clients to host locally in the india data center or choose to have their sites hosted in the United States, at a lower rate. This flexibility allows HostDime India to serve a wide variety of customer needs, and work with customers who want a partner for India based hosting or in any of the other six branch locations where HostDime has data center operations.
as part of its anniversary announcement, hostdime india is offering a 100% discount off the first invoice, enabling new clients to try the service without any financial commitment. New clients can take advantage of the promotion with coupon code “HDIN”.
HostDime Announces the Launch of HostDime India
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internet giant google has lost an arbitration over the domain name, groovle.com. in a decision released by The national arbitration Forum, it dismissed google’s complaint (Claim number: Fa0911001293500) that it was entitled to the domain name, groovle.com. google had claimed that the domain name groovle.com, is “confusingly similar” to its trademark for “google”. The national arbitration Forum is an international arbitration service accredited by iCann, the international agency that oversees the internet, to provide resolution services for domain name disputes around the world.
The unanimous three person panel composed of two retired american judges and one american law professor, ruled that groovle.com “is not confusingly similar” to google’s trademark, “google”. To-date, google has commenced 65 domain name disputes and this is only the second time that it has ever lost.
Young Canadian entrepreneurs Jacob Fuller and Ryan Fitzgibbon, who have been friends since high school, launched the innovative groovle.com web site in 2007 and it has proven immensely popular with young internet users. as Fuller explains, “groovle was created to provide users the ability to upload photos and customize their internet start page. We thought it would be a cool feature to have a nice photo of friends, family etc., every time you launch your web browser, instead of the very plain google.com and Yahoo.com page.” Says Fitzgibbon, “Since we launched groovle in 2007, google, Bing and ask.com have each come out with something similar.”
groovle’s young creators are elated with the decision. “We were stunned when google launched the domain name dispute as we have great respect for google and have always had a good relationship with them,” said Ryan Fitzgibbon. Jacob Fuller added that, “google never had anything to fear from our web site. The arbitrators’ decision that the two domain names are sufficiently different should put Google at ease and we look forward to a renewed positive relationship with google.”
groovle was successfully defended by renowned domain name lawyer and internet law expert, Zak muscovitch, who says, “google clearly miscalculated here however my clients are prepared to put this behind them.”
Google Loses Domain Name Trademark Arbitration
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TurnKey internet, inc. recently announced the purchase of a former federal government building in colonie, new york as the site for a new datacenter, as it expands operations to meet growing demand. The facility will securely house TurnKey Internet’s infrastructure, increasing its capacity by 12,000 servers. Slated to go live for traffic in the 3rd quarter of 2010, the increased capacity will expand TurnKey internet’s operations in new york and will bring new business to the region.
The acquisition represents a multi-million dollar investment for the company that has seen tremendous growth from businesses looking to control costs for web-enabled applications and IT services.
“We are very excited to continue to expand here in New York. New York has been a great location, providing access to the best qualified staff, reliable green-friendly power sources and high-speed fiber optic Internet connectivity. It has provided us with the ideal centralized geographic location to meet the demands of our clients across the globe,” said Adam Wills, President and CEO of TurnKey Internet and 15+-year resident of New York’s Capital Region.
currently undergoing upgrades to increase power and cooling capacity, the new building will protect TurnKey internet’s infrastructure behind 1-foot-thick concrete walls, built to federal government specifications. The 10,000+ square foot facility will feature redundant, green-friendly electrical systems, multiple high-capacity fiber optic Internet connections, video surveillance, and state-of-the-art biometric security protocols. In addition to the 12,000 new TurnKey Internet servers, the datacenter will also include fully-managed colocation suites for businesses looking for secure, reliable, enterprise-class connectivity for their own servers and equipment.
With the acquisition of the new building and multiple new hires in the past 60 days, TurnKey Internet is starting 2010 with record growth. The new tier 1 datacenter will be consistent with TurnKey Internet’s industry-leading standards for power availability, environmental control, high-performance web application hosting and 100% network uptime.
TurnKey Internet Purchases Datacenter in New York’s Tech Valley
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The Seasteading Institute, a non-profit with the goal of establishing the world’s first economically and politically autonomous settlement on the ocean by the year 2015, has received renewed financial support from noted entrepreneur Peter Thiel, president of clarium capital and founding investor and board member of facebook.
Peter Thiel, president of clarium, technology investor, and libertarian philanthropist, has renewed his financial support of the Seasteading Institute (Tsi) for 2010. he has pledged to match every donation to Tsi made before July 24th, 2010 dollar-for-dollar up to $100,000. In addition, he is giving TSI a $250,000 grant.
“I think seasteading is not just possible, or desirable, but necessary,” said Thiel in his keynote address to the second seasteading conference, held september 2009 in san francisco, ca. “seasteading is one of the few technological frontiers that has the promise to create a new space for human freedom.”
“Peter Thiel is one of the most rigorous and effective defenders of liberty. his vision and generosity challenge us all to think big in what we can do to expand the frontiers of freedom,” said TSI founder and executive director Patri friedman. “Thanks to his support, we will stay on track to launch the first seastead in 2015 and to keep building our large, diverse community.”
PayPal Founder Matches Donations to Seasteading Institute
cPanel recently announced the release of select sessions of videos from their 2009 conference. The videos are repeat performances of some of cPanel’s most popular and informative conference sessions. “We decided to offer video recordings of some of our sessions, in response to user demand,” said eric gregory of cPanel. slated for release on a monthly basis, these videos will provide a sample of the detailed knowledge that flowed freely at the cPanel conference in houston, back in october, 2009. future video releases will cover the most important and attended sessions from cPanel’s 2009 conference. “cPanel places a high value on sharing tips, techniques, and knowledge with our customers to help grow their businesses,” said Aaron Phillips, Vice President of Operations at cPanel. The first video will be available for online viewing, free, with slides, January 29. Over the next few weeks, cPanel will provide information about future video releases. Videos will be released monthly and can be viewed at http://www.cpanel.net/conference/10/session-videos.html The first video release will center around the updated cPanel::Locale system. cPanel::Locale makes it easier for hosting providers and server owners to cater to an international customer base. Languages and character sets for many languages work seamlessly within the updated cPanel::Locale system to provide a great user experience, no matter what the language. further locale information can be found here: http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/cpanelLocale/Localeintroduction
cPanel Releases Free Conference Session Videos
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comodo, a leader in cybersecurity, announces its new internet browser, comodo dragon. Like google chrome, comodo dragon is constructed on the open-source Chromium Project browser. Dragon’s enhancements increase security and protect user privacy. Comodo Dragon offers a new feature for Internet users. Websites all have digital certificates attesting to their identities, but some certificates offer more security than others. If Comodo Dragon encounters a Domain-only certificate, it warns the user that the website may not be reliable. Domain-only certificates are available to any webmaster at low cost and with no verification, providing no guarantee of authentication. With Comodo Dragon, information about online exploration stays as much as possible within the user’s PC. Comodo Dragon does not transmit information about a browsing session to a remote server. Such a transmission exposes information about where the user has been on the Internet. For example, other Chromium Project-based browsers refer software errors to remote servers. When it finds software errors, comodo dragon responds with error messages found on the Pc browser, keeping information about the user’s internet travels private. Comodo Dragon eliminates a potential threat: that attackers could find vulnerabilities by looking for the software errors that the browser was compiling to report to a remote server. comodo dragon neither tracks nor reports errors Comodo Dragon protects Internet users from inadvertently exposing information about themselves, enhancing online security. For more information, visit http://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/browser.php
Comodo Dragon Protects Online Privacy
VISI has recently begun the expansion of its Saint Paul, Minnesota Data Center. This expansion will allow VISI to meet the needs of recent new customer additions.
“This expansion in our Saint Paul Data Center is well under way and will be complete in less than two months,” said Mike Sowada, CEO of VISI. “We are confident that our customers, both present and future, will benefit from the growth of our Saint Paul facility. With hiPPa and other regulatory requirements becoming more strict, Visi’s saint Paul data center is one of the few in the Upper Midwest that offers SAS 70 Type II certification.”
Sowada commented that one of the major benefits of the data center is the high level of security. “We have a security guard present 365 days a year, video surveillance, and three-token authentications including a biometric hand scan.”
VISI currently occupies 11,000 net square feet of data center space at 180 East 5th Street in downtown Saint Paul. After the expansion to 18,000 net square feet, VISI will still have room for over 150 additional cabinets along with space to continue expanding the data center.
Sowada added that VISI is also investing substantially to equip VISI’s Eden Prairie Data Center with additional raised floors, high-density power capacity and environmental and security controls.
VISI Expands Minnesota Data Center to Accommodate Customer Demand
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The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that operates Wikipedia, recently announced that it has received a $2 million (usd) grant from the google inc. charitable giving fund of Tides foundation. This is the Wikimedia Foundation’s first grant from Google. The funds will support core operational costs of the Wikimedia foundation, including investments in technical infrastructure to support rapidly-increasing global traffic and capacity demands. The funds will also be used to support the organization’s efforts to make Wikipedia easier to use and more accessible.
“Wikipedia is one of the greatest triumphs of the internet,” offered Google co-founder Sergey Brin. “This vast repository of community-generated content is an invaluable resource to anyone who is online.”
Wikipedia founder and Wikimedia foundation board member, Jimmy Wales, also commented on the google gift. “We are very pleased and grateful. This is a wonderful gift, and we celebrate it as recognition of the long-term alignment and friendship between Google and Wikimedia. both organizations are committed to bringing high quality information to hundreds of millions of individuals every day, and to making the internet better for everyone.”
The two organizations have a long-standing working relationship. most recently, google and the Wikimedia foundation have partnered to support translation of Wikipedia content into key languages with relatively small Wikipedia editions. google’s Translation Toolkit supports direct online translation of Wikipedia articles, and has been used by google in Wikipedia translation pilot projects with speakers of arabic, hindi, and swahili.
Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, offered: “It is wonderful that google has stepped forward as a major supporter of a global, non-profit information commons. With this generous grant, we will be able to fund additional operations and development work to increase access and contributions to our free knowledge projects globally.”
Wikimedia’s support comes primarily from individual donations made by regular users of Wikipedia. The Wikimedia foundation completed its 2009-10 fundraiser in January. During the drive, 240,000 individuals donated more than $8 million, representing three quarters of its planned revenue for the fiscal year.
Wikimedia Foundation Announces $2 Million Grant From Google
bITS & byTES
in case you missed it, Web hosting boot camp 2009 was a great success. With 780 attendees, the virtual convention was the largest Web host boot camp to date. several speakers and industry professionals participated in Web host boot camp 2009 making the three day convention a helpful and informative event for web hosts, whether new to the business or with years of experience under their belts. Technology advancements affect the hosting industry causing many changes. This year’s convention provided a platform to introduce “cloud hosting” and “virtualization.” These new topics intrigued many attendees and conversations were buzzing as presenters and web hosts discussed the possibilities. many other topics were covered as well including selling a hosting company, going green, and new software and hardware for advances in web hosting technology. every web host needs to stay on top of new technology and its utilization if they wish to succeed in this ever evolving world. speakers included in the winter 2009 Web host boot camp were W. david snead P.c., Jacob colton, ben fisher, frank and hilary stiff, richard Jimmerson, chris West, douglas hanna, mario rodriguez, owen deLong, Josh bell, and hartland ross. each speaker presented imperative topics for web hosts to consider and implement.
some of the topics presented included legal issues, Twitter, Pr, new technologies, growth, fraud prevention and many others. media sponsors for the event included inetmania, Ping! Zine, and hosting discussion. Web host boot camp sponsors are dedicated to the advancement of technology and web hosting. Web host boot camp 2009 was made possible by event sponsors who support the ever changing world of web hosting including cdgcommerce (www.cdgcommerce.com), Kayako (www.kayako.com), Verio (www.verio.com), uptimesafe (www.uptimesafe.com), and Turnkey internet (www.turnkeyinternet.net). We look forward to seeing you all in June for Web host boot camp 2010.
WHBC 2009 Wrap Up
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Trailblazers, creatives and innovators have taken the Internet to where it is today and made it an essential part of our everyday lives. We have selected a number of interesting “firsts” from the
history of the Internet (and the Web) for your reading pleasure.
After all, if we can look back on March 10, 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell initiated the first phone call with the words “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you,” we can surely have a look back at some more recent events that
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First Email.Ray Tomlinson is credited to having sent the first email back in 1971, and is also famous for having introduced the use of the @-symbol in email addresses to separate the name of the user from the name of the user’s machine. There had been similar systems since the early ‘60s but those had been limited exchanging messages with users on the same mainframe computer, but it wasn’t until 1971 that email started to look like it does today and could send emails over the network. Note that at this time, the Internet didn’t even exist, but its predecessor, ARPANET, did.
Trailblazers, creatives Internet First
First Domain Name.The first domain name ever registered on the Internet was “symbolics.com”. It was registered on March 15, 1985, by the now-defunct computer manufacturer Symbolics.
First Spam Email.The first documented spam message was sent out to 393 recipients on ARPANET on May 3, 1978. The message was sent by Gary Thuerk and advertised the availability of a new model of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) computers. In other words, Gary Thuerk has the dubious honor of being the world’s first email spammer. It even earned him a spot in the Guinnes Book of World Records. Back in 1978, the term “spam” didn’t exist yet.
First Mobile Phone with Internet Access.The first mobile phone with Internet connectivity was the Nokia 9000 Communicator. It was launched in Finland back in 1996, but in truth the viability of accessing the Internet was at first limited by very high prices of the operators. In 1999, NTT DoCoMo launched i-Mode in Japan, which is considered the birth of mobile phone Internet services.
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Trailblazers, creatives Web First
First WebsiteThe first website (in late 1990) was info.cern.ch and ran on a NeXT computer at CERN. The first web page had the address http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html which contained information about the World Wide Web project. That specific page no longer exists but a later copy from 1992 is available on W3C’s site.
First Ecommerce SiteAlthough it’s Amazon and eBay who became really big and famous, they weren’t the first ecommerce sites. Online retailer NetMarket claims to have conducted the first secure retail transaction on the Web. On August 11, 1994, the site sold a copy of the Sting CD Ten Summoner’s Tales for $12.48 plus shipping. Another contender for the crown is the Internet Shopping Network, which claims to have sold an item a whole month earlier.
First Online BankThe first financial institution to offer online internet banking services to all of its customers was Stanford Federal Credit Union in October, 1994.
First Search EngineAlthough Internet search engines had been around even before the WWW, they were limited in nature and usually only parsed page titles. The first full-text web search engine (like the ones we have today) was WebCrawler, launched back in 1994.
First BlogJustin Halls started a web-based diary called Justin’s Links from the Underground in 1994. It offered an early guided tour of the Web, but became increasingly personal over time. New York Times Magazine has referred to him as the founding father of personal blogging. Of course, the term “blog” itself wouldn’t be introduced until years later (“weblog” in 1997, which led to “blog” in 1999).
First PodcastFollowing discussions in October 2000, blogging pioneer Dave Winer added functionality to RSS to include references to audio content inside RSS feeds, making syndication of audioblogging possible. On January 11, 2001, Winer demonstrated the new RSS functionality by enclosing a Grateful Dead song in his Scripting News blog. The last part of the equation, downloading the sound files to an iPod to listen to them, started to gain popularity in 2003. The term “podcasting” for portable listening to audioblogs was introduced in 2004. | continued |
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The needs of your customers are changing, fast. Parallels’ Service Provider Partner Program helps you adopt enabling technologies — like virtualization and automation — so you can better serve your customers, bring more value to your offerings, and increase revenue for your business.
Learn how you can become a Parallels Partner by visitingwww.parallels.com/partners.
Profit. With the Parallels Service Provider Partner Program.
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Web Service First
First Item Sold on eBayBack in 1995, when the site was founded, eBay was called AuctionWeb. The first item sold on the site was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. When asked in an email by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar if he was aware that the laser pointer was broken, the buyer replied that “I’m a collector of broken laser pointers.”
First Book Sold on AmazonThe first book sold on Amazon.com (which started its service in 1995) was a book by Douglas Hofstadter called Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought.
First Edit on WikipediaThe first edit on Wikipedia was a test edit with the text “Hello, World!” made by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, but it’s no longer available. The oldest surviving edit on Wikipedia is from January 16, 2001, adding data to a list of countries. (The exciting stuff obviously came later…)
First Video on YouTubeThe first YouTube video was uploaded by YouTube cofounder Jawed Karim on April 23, 2005. It’s called “Me at the zoo” and is a video of him at the San Diego Zoo. It has been viewed more than 1.5 million times and is still available on the site.
First Message on TwitterThe first tweet recorded (and still existing) on Twitter was Jack Dorsey’s “just setting up my twttr” on March 21, 2006. Jack Dorsey is the man who came up with the idea for Twitter. And no, twttr isn’t a typo. For a short time Twitter was referred to as “twttr”, partly inspired by Flickr, and partly because its five characters could be used as an SMS short code.
Unfortunately it’s often easier said than done when you want to find out the first occurrence of something. Even for “young history” such as this, the details have often been lost in the mists of time. So, if you’re launching something innovative today and expect to make it big, make some notes for posterity to make articles such as these easier to make. P!
Final (not first) Words
About: Pingdom is an uptime and performance monitoring service. Their customers monitor the uptime and response time of websites, servers and services on the internet, and can be alerted when problems are detected as well as view and analyze the monitoring history. www.pingdom.com
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Offer More. With Parallels Automation.With the Parallels Automation suite, you can completely automate your business and empower your customers, from a single software platform. Parallels increases your revenue per user by enabling the widest set of automated services including hosted Microsoft Exchange with many add-on services, shared hosting, Microsoft SharePoint, virtual private servers, SaaS and more.
Don’t settle for just another plain vanilla solution — give your customers more of the good stuff with Parallels Automation!
www.parallels.com/pas
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White papers – What are they and how can they help your business generate leads? Over the years i have written dozens of white papers for leading hosting, software, and technology companies. White papers are one of the most valuable marketing resources your company can use to generate qualified leads that are ready to purchase your products and services. But what exactly is a white paper? many clients ask that question so I set out to write this article to define a white paper, the purposes white papers serve, the people who read white papers, where to publish white papers, the cost of developing white papers, and taking the next step.
DEFINING A WHITE PAPERa white paper is a document, typically 10-15 pages, that educates prospective customers on how to resolve a particular problem or issue by using possible solutions available in the marketplace. But the primary objective of a white paper is to show how your solution is the ultimate solution to resolving a particular problem or issue compared to “other” available solutions.
White papers use a variety of promotional writing and marketing techniques to engage readers using proven, statistical data to backup claims and statements, charts and graphics, proper flow of content, and other elements necessary to educate prospective customers. Well-written white papers start by introducing the problem or issue, including points that can seem painful to any business owner or business executive. The idea – make the reader understand that if they do not read this white paper, it could hurt business in terms of attracting new customers and increasing revenue. White papers do in fact, generate leads.
WHITE PAPER’S MULTIPLE PURPOSESYou want to generate leads for your business, right? every company does. Doing so increases revenue. There are many ways to generate leads. Some are better than others. White papers are at the top. Below is a partial list of things a white paper can do for your business.· educates customers· Resolves an issue· answers a complex question· Provides multiple solutions· Utilizes statistical data· generates leads· Builds brand awareness· enhances company image· increases professionalism
Those sound great, right? i think so. Here’s why. i see multi-million dollar companies utilize white papers everyday successfully to do all of the above. They hire a professional writer to develop a white paper that grabs prospective customers’ attention, keeps the reader engaged, educates the reader, and demonstrates why the company’s solution is the ideal solution for the prospective customer’s needs. But not just any white paper will do. They must be written well.
They must have the basic elements that make a white paper effective enough to generate leads. and most importantly, they must be written by a professional writer – a good professional writer.
WHO READS WHITE PAPERS?Simply put – key decision makers. even if they are not the CEO, decision makers come in all flavors from IT Director to CFO to account manager to Project manager and so on. You get the idea. Decision makers have influence on purchasing new products and solutions that will help their organization overcome the problems or issues you describe in your white paper. and people who read white papers are intelligent decision makers. They want to know available solutions and what makes one solution better (or worse) than other solutions. That said, the most effective way to educate those decision makers is give them a detailed white paper. Decision makers want lots of information so your white papers must provide enough details and the content must be well written and well defined with plenty of examples. Otherwise your white paper is useless. So in order to get those important details and examples in your white paper, the length must be at least 10 – 15 pages, not the one or two page technical paper people often call white papers.
DEBUNKING THE WHITE PAPER MYTHmany people think a white paper is a one or two page technical paper describing, well, something technical. That’s not even close and should never be considered a white paper. if you only write one or two pages describing something technical, you are missing the most important pieces that make up the heart and soul of a white paper. However, i do encourage those of you writing technical papers to keep doing so. Publish them on your website, in your knowledgebase or resource center, maybe even a blog post or two. Just make sure you call it a technical paper, not a white paper. Of course, over time, you can develop your technical paper into a lead-generating white paper, even if you have already published it on your website.
WHITE PAPER LAYOUTLayout is extremely important when writing a white paper. The layout determines how your prospective customers will learn and understand the problem or issue. Layouts also provide substantial evidence to help your readers understand why other solutions may not work to resolve the problem or issue. and layouts help the reader understand why your company’s solution will help resolve the problem or issue. Few professional writers truly understand what an effective layout should look like when writing a white paper. When i say layout, I am specifically referring to the order of information presented. Below is an example of a layout i use when writing white papers.· introduction (complex question, problem, or issue is introduced)· Question/Problem/issue (problem is described in detail)
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· Possible Solutions (available solutions that resolve an issue)· White Paper Sponsor (introduce the company sponsoring the white paper)· Sponsor Solutions (state why the sponsoring company’s solutions are the right choice)· Conclusion (include call-to-action elements)
Layout in terms of design includes formatting, colors, branding, and other elements that keep the reader engaged from beginning to end.
WHITE PAPER DESIGNDesign is also crucial to the success of your white papers. White paper designs always utilize the sponsoring company’s logo and colors. White papers do not have to look like the rest of your marketing materials as long as your logo is displayed. The reason – a white paper is about content, not your company’s branding. Remember, decision makers want well-written, proven examples and solutions.
Formatting plays a vital role in the success of your white paper. Sections of content should be clearly marked and identified by headings and sub headings that use different fonts. White paper formatting should make it easy to read so your prospective customers (decision makers) can get to the information they need quickly.
PUBLISHING WHITE PAPERSThere are many places to publish your white papers – some free, some paid. The first place to publish your white papers is on your website. Some companies will require prospective customers to fill out a form before they receive a copy of the white paper. By doing so, the sponsoring company can collect data from the prospective customers and either follow-up by phone or email. i will save going into detail about double opt-in for another article, but to give you a quick summary, a double opt-in confirms the email address your reader used when filling out your form is legit and not someone else’s email address.
You can also take it a step further by having a field option on your form asking the reader if you can follow-up by phone, email, newsletter, or not at all. it is okay to collect data and it’s completely up to you on whether or not you want to require your readers to fill out a form before they have access to your white papers. aside from publishing white papers on your website, there are dozens (maybe even hundreds) of websites where you can publish your white papers. i will not provide examples here because the best place to publish your white papers really depends on the topic. Some topics are better suited for specific websites.
COST OF DEVELOPING A WHITE PAPERa well written white paper takes time to research, develop, and design. The average turnaround time depends on how much research has been done or needs to be done. Some companies have already done a lot of research (for marketing, sales, competitive analysis, and other reasons), which reduces the cost of developing a white paper. You get far more return on investment (ROi) with a well-written white paper, especially when you take the next step and hire a professional writer.
TAKING THE NExT STEPSome clients have a list of topics they want to write about. Others need help determining the best topics. either way, a professional writer can help shape your topics or help you generate topic ideas that will generate leads. even if your team has attempted to write or start writing a white paper, but unable to take it to the next level, send what you have to a qualified professional writer to get the job done. When everything comes together and your white paper is completed and published, your company can start generating qualified leads.
Writer’s Bio: Dave Young is a professional writer, technical writer, website auditor, marketing consultant, SEO guru, and founder of Young Copy, a lead-ing promotional and technical writing services firm. Visit www.youngcopy.com to learn how you can boost your company’s revenues.
White PaPers are one of the most vaLuabLe marketinG resources your comPany can use to Generate quaLified Leads!
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KEMP TECHNOLOGIES INTRODUCESVIRTUAL LOADMASTER TECHNOLOGY
Kemp Technologies, creators of the Loadmaster series of load balancer products, recently announced the launch of its latest product a virtualized load balancer. The new Virtual Loadmaster (VLm) will be sold under a Service Provider Licensing agreement (SPLa) starting at only $99 per month. Web Hosts will also be happy to note that there are no startup or setup fees involved.
The idea for VLm was born from the needs of customers. many were impressed by the technology of the hardware load balancers and the price was already far below the competition; however, even at the low costs, end users would have to have long-term contracts to recoup the initial costs of the product. Other added costs such as shipping, hardware maintenance costs, installation, removal, et cetera also hindered growth “Three years ago we toyed around with taking the highest end box and splitting it into individual load balancers,” reminisces Peter melerud, Kemp Technologies VP of Biz Development. Though the idea was shelved, it served as a basis for developing VLm. instead of splitting a box, VLm takes the same technology used in the hardware load balancers and places it in a virtual environment in a server supplied by the client. | continued |
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although the solution is software based, it should not be confused with most forms of software based load balancing. “The VLm offers the same functionality as our hardware appliances, including advanced Layer 7 content switching, health checking, persistence, caching, compression and SSL offloading. As MHPs and mSPs consolidate and virtualize servers in order to reduce hardware and related management costs, the Virtual Loadmaster delivers high value at an incredible price point from which both the provider and its customer can benefit,” said Kevin Mahon, founder and president of KemP Technologies. essentially, the client receives a user-friendly version of the firmware and installs it to its own virtual machine using Vmware.
The benefits for Web hosts are many. Due to a lack of setup fees or long-term contracts, the system can immediately pay for itself the day it is turned on, unlike hardware load balancers. The solution is scalable to the constraints of the hardware. For instance, if a Web
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host wanted to offer a higher end load balancer using VLm they could increase the amount of resources going to that virtual machine or use a higher quality box. The hardware and software necessary for running VLm are already a part of most Web hosts’ inventory reducing upfront costs. maintenance costs such as power, cooling, and the like are also reduced because of the virtualized nature of the system.
matthias machowinski, Directing analyst, enterprise Voice and Data at infonetics, put it simply, “as businesses increasingly demand sophisticated application delivery solutions to maintain their competitive edge, managed hosting and service providers are trying to figure out how to offer these while keeping service pricing affordable and maintaining margins. By decoupling the application from the hardware through a virtual machine, they can offer advanced application delivery functionality in a software-only application, which allows them to deliver cost-effective and profitable services.”
End users also benefit from VLM. The low-cost makes it appealing for SMBs, e-commerce sites, application hosting, and media sites. On the other end of the hosting solution equation it also provides more flexibility for cloud and application delivery models.
Kemp Technologies’ Virtual Loadmaster offers Web hosts a unique means of providing end users with load balancer technology without the added costs of hardware solutions.
Writer’s Bio: David Dunlap is celebrating his 10th year as both a Web host industry analyst and commentator. Prior to his active writing career, David was a network and communications technician for four years for the U.S. government. He currently is the Editor-in-Chief for www.WebHostMagazine.com.
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Accentuate the positive and you’ll reap amazing business benefits. Quint Studer offers some practical, powerful ways to manage up bosses, direct reports, and your entire organization.
Leaders, are you looking for a highly effective way to gain support for meeting established goals, create more autonomy within your organization, save time, and better control your personal destiny? Learn the fine art of "managing up." That's right. according to Quint Studer, CeO of Studer group, Sm accentuating the positive is more than fodder for classic song lyrics and self-help books—it's brilliant business advice.
"managing up is, in essence, positioning people well," says Studer, author of Straight a Leadership: alignment, action, accountability (Fire Starter Publishing, 2009, iSBn: 0-9840794-1-6, $18.00). "it sounds quite simple and in theory it is: just work to align staff instead of dividing them. But managing up is actually a skill of some delicacy. it's not always our first impulse. But it's a skill that managers should focus on and hone until it becomes second nature."
When you don't manage up, you inadvertently contribute to what Studer calls the "We/They Culture." as in: i fought hard to get you that raise, but administration said we just don't have the budget for it. See? We = manager and employees. They = administration. Perhaps you've said something similar, "managing down," not deliberately but subconsciously.
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This is just one example of what happens when you manage down by default. But it serves to illustrate why you must make a conscious effort to manage up whenever possible. Studer says there are three major ways to do so:
Manage up your boss.
managing up your boss positions the organization well, aligns desired behaviors, helps senior leaders be more visible, and creates an opportunity for praise. "Don't think your boss is getting overwhelmed with praise," says Studer. "Bosses hear what's wrong all the time. Very rarely do they hear what's right." Here are a few suggestions:
Write your boss a thank you note. Be specific about what you appreciate, because it will align your boss's behavior to your own and help you control your own destiny. For example, if you say, "Debbie, i really appreciate the fact that you always make time for me because I find this to be so important," what do you think will happen the next time you see Debbie? She will make time for you.
give your boss information that helps him connect with staff in a sincere way. in Hardwiring excellence, Studer gives an example of a staff member telling him about another employee whose sister-in-law had died. This gave him the opportunity to offer the bereaved employee his condolences. "Otherwise, i might never have heard about it," he writes. "Then one day, someone might ask the employee, 'How do you feel about Quint?' and that person might say, 'Oh, he's a machine. He has no feelings!'"
Manage up your staff.
managing up employees is more than "a nice thing to do." it's a practical tool for reinforcing specific behaviors. "Recognized behavior gets repeated," Studer points out. "When all managers start managing up their direct reports on a regular basis, pretty soon you have a whole company full of people making it a point to replicate the behavior that got them recognized. The impact of that can be enormous." Here's how:
Single out high performers for public praise. Corner your exemplary employee when he's with a group of his peers to say thank you. Be specific, not general. Don't just say, "Bob, you're doing a great job." Say, "Bob, you did a great job on that marketing report. Thanks for staying at the office so late last night
to finish it up." "Yes, this reinforces Bob's thoroughness and work ethic, but it also lets other employees in the vicinity know what kinds of behaviors get praised," says Studer.
Ask your boss to recognize the high performer. You might send an e-mail to the CeO that says, "Bob Smith did an outstanding job on the marketing report. He knew we were in a crunch, so he stayed until 11:00 p.m. to finish it. If you don't mind, please drop him a note to say thanks . . . it would mean a lot coming from you." (note that you're managing up Bob and the CeO, simultaneously!)
Manage up your organization.
"People need to feel good about the company they work for," says Studer. "no one can achieve excellence—which means having a sense of purpose, doing worthwhile work, and making a difference—if they're in an environment where people denigrate the company or its products. Look for every possible opportunity to manage up your organization." Here's how:
never down talk other departments. This is another manifestation of We/They syndrome. if you're in marketing, don't make disparaging remarks, even jokingly, about those short-sighted "bean counters" in accounting. Remember, you must seek to create alignment, not division. a company divided against itself cannot stand.
Promote your brand to customers, family, and friends. in Studer's health care work, managing up hospitals to patients is a big issue. it makes sense. Saying, "We have an excellent radiology department," or "Dr. Jones is the best cardiologist in the industry," goes a long way toward reassuring jittery patients. But Studer insists that the same principle applies to any industry. and walk the walk; don't just talk the talk, he adds. "if you make Fords for a living, you don't drive a Chevrolet," he says. "it sends an unfavorable message."
"There are plenty of opportunities to manage up," Studer concludes. "Do it when things are going well, when you have good news to share, or when you need direction on how to achieve specific goals. When you look for ways to focus on the positive, you will find them. And they will ripple outward, creating more opportunities. Ultimately, you'll find that managing up makes you a better leader, your employees better employees, and your organization a better organization. it's a win for everybody."
Managing up makes you a better leader!
Writer’s Bio: Quint Studer not only teaches it, he has done it. After leading organizations to breakthrough results, Quint formed Studer Group®, an outcomes firm that implements evidence-based leadership systems that help clients attain and sustain outstanding results. For more information, visit www.studergroup.com.
About the Book: Straight A Leadership: Alignment, Action, Accountability (Fire Starter Publishing, 2009, ISBN: 0-9840794-1-6, $18.00) is avail-able at bookstores nationwide, major online booksellers, or directly from the publisher by calling (866) 354-3473. Copies also can be purchased online through the Studer Group website at www.studergroup.com.
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Website Hosting nicHes
nicHing by PriceProbably the most obvious and pervasive niche in website hosting is that of price. One typically sees three tranches of pricing emerge: discounters, mid-tier providers, and premium hosting services. examples of discounters would be: 1&1 and GoDaddy. Mid-tier companies are represented by firms like Hostway. Premium hosting is the scope of web hosting companies like Orcsweb and Rackspace.
geograPHical nicHesWhile web hosting is easily accessed via an internet connection anywhere on the globe, there are still strong boundaries of culture, language and currency that draw customers to a local firm. For example in Japan one will prefer to read website content in the Japanese language, access sales and support in Japanese, and pay bills in Yen. There are as many examples of geographic website hosting niches as there are countries. Here are just a couple of website hosting companies in this niche: UK website hosting firm 34SP.com and Australia’s Digital Pacific.
nicHing by oPerating systema powerful niche can emerge based on supplying a particular operating system. Since most web hosting companies prefer a LamP (Linux, apache, mySQL, php) environment, the prevalent OS in this niche is Linux. Typical of this type of host is linuxwebhost.com. another operating system that has tremendous market power is the microsoft developed and supported OS – Windows (now Windows Server 2008 or aSP.neT). microsoft has built this niche among Windows developers. Hosts specializing in the microsoft platform would be DiscountaSP.neT and maximum aSP. another operating system that was once much larger, but is now being replaced by Windows and Linux is ColdFusion. although ColdFusion is typically installed over a Windows operating system, it has properties that make it unique and desirable for ColdFusion developers. HostMySite.com is a web hosting firm that offers strong expertise in ColdFusion.
reseller Hostsit is possible to buy multiple accounts from just about any web host. However, those companies that have developed the reseller niche have honed their expertise in making accounts that hold a bundle of separate websites under one owner. These reseller accounts also often come with substantial discounts for each sub-account. This enables the account holder to resell the hosting and gain a profit. Examples of reseller hosts include the venerable HostGator and Resellers Panel.
Niche by AccouNt typeAnother very common segregation of web hosting firms occurs by account type. These are usually a separation between shared accounts, VPS and dedicated servers. Shared hosts offer multiple customer accounts sharing a common server. For example, DiscountaSP.neT. VPS companies have fewer virtual accounts per server – often with isolated environments and guaranteed resources. an example would be SliceHost. Dedicated server firms will give a single server to each customer. An example would be managed dedicated hosting firm NaviSite.
as you can see, there are many ways that website hosting companies have created niches for themselves and their customers. While the above list is certainly not exhaustive, it does give you a sense of how the marketplace has established niches for both buyers and sellers of website hosting products and services.
in my work with web hosting companies and also those designers and developers looking for a website host, i often encounter a specific set of needs that falls clearly under a web hosting niche. Why would a hosting company focus on a niche? Which niches are out there for those desiring a great hosting provider? Here are a few specifics.
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The market for buying and selling web hosting companies ebbs and flows with the general business climate. it may be the case that the current economic downturn has created a buying opportunity for anyone looking to step up and buy a hosting company. You might think that buying a hosting company would take tons of cash. in some cases that is true, but in many others the size of the property is so small that the entire web hosting operation can be bought for thousands of dollars – not millions.if one were inclined to seek out a website hosting company to buy – where do you look? How do you know what the market prices for any given type of hosting company are right now? i asked the advice of the experts at website hosting company 34SP.com. Here are a few resources they recommend you check if you are researching or considering buying a web hosting company.
mergernetwork was the first online marketplace for buying and selling businesses. It went online in May 1995 under the name M&A Marketplace. The site now claims to have an additional 2,000 businesses listed for sale each month. You can see a number of different types of businesses for sale as well. The category link that displays web development and web hosting businesses is: http://www.mergernetwork.com/businesses-for-sale/industry/135. You will need to register if you want to see the listing details.
Claiming over 50,000 businesses for sale, BizBuySell is the ”internet’s most active marketplace for businesses and franchises for sale. each month BizBuySell receives over 700,000 visits from individuals looking for new business opportunities and from business owners looking to sell their business or franchise.” Similar to mergernetwork, you can search by category or geography. The site is vast and the categories and search make zeroing in on a web hosting company for sale pretty tricky. The site is here: http://www.bizbuysell.com.
Flippa is billed as ”The #1 marketplace for buying and selling web sites.” Clean and easy to use, just go to the homepage and click the ‘Buy a Website’ button. i did a quick search by using the keywords ‘web hosting’. The results of that search query were 7,070 listings. While there are many other types of sites included in the search results, there were a few web hosting companies listed as well. The nice part of this site is that the information about number of visitors, PageRank, and Alexa rank are all listed for each site on the right column. This saves you a few steps of research. also has a ‘Buy it now’ feature in addition to bidding.
another option in looking for a web hosting company to buy is Web Hosting Talk forums. This is a community made up of web hosting professionals, so the offers tend to be right to the point. You can usually find at least a few companies currently for sale under the category of ‘Other Related Offers’. Here is a direct link to the section that frequently has the web hosting companies listed for sale: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=97.
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as described on their website, Cheval Capital is: ”a boutique investment bank that specializes in mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance.” The company is run by Frank and Hillary Stiff. Together the team has vast amounts of experience and have handled many hosting-related transactions over the past few years. What i have found to be supremely helpful over the years has been a list of web hosting companies for sale that the company distributes via email. Dubbed the ”Cheval Opportunities List” it is comprised of assets currently for sale. The companies for sale are usually in the range between $50,000 US and $5 million US. The list is emailed out about every 2 weeks.
Cheval acts as an advisor in the transactions and is paid a modest fee by the buyer. The fee is paid as the buyer pays the purchase price – so if the seller is paid over time, Cheval Capital is paid over time as well. To get added to the mailing list for the Cheval Opportunities List, contact Frank Stiff at: [email protected], or phone directly at 703-549-7390.
So there you have it. a few places to check and see what types of hosting companies are for sale and get a sense of prices as well. Good luck in finding the right web hosting company for you.P!
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HOW TO
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HOW TO
WRITE A BETTER
WEBSITE TITLE TAG
bY MITCh kEELER
The Title Tag might be a feature many people overlook, but it is just as important as having a nice looking web site layout. Some might even say it is the most important thing, because it is often the first thing a web site visitors sees. Today I’ll be telling you what the title tag is and what you can do to make yours better.
Use keywords phrases specific to your web site. Now this one might seem overly obvious, but some people still forget it. Use your most popular keywords that lead people into your site, or that best describe your site in the title tags.
What is so Important About the Title Tag?The title bar is important because it tells your readers what they can expect on that page. If you are missing a title tag, often the Internet browsers out there just name the actual file name as the title. If that happens, the title tag is not doing the job of telling the web site visitor what that page is about. Title tags are also used by search engines. The title tag is typically used as the first line of the search result. Once again, this is another reason why it is important to use a title tag.
How do you Write a Better Title Tag?Now that we have gone over the importance of a title tag, let me tell you how to write a better one.
Keep the title under 65 characters. This is mainly for search engine optimization reasons, so your last few words or your title don’t get replace with a “…” when showing up on the search engines, like Google.
Put your web site name at the end of the title tag. Now some people put the site name at the end, some people put it at the beginning and then some people leave it off, all together. Unless your site name is keyword rich, like “Best Coupons for Hosting” – I would say bump it to the end of the title. It helps to identify what page you are on. Then you can put the web page title before it, such as:
How to Write a Better Title Tag – Web Hosting ShowThere you have the page’s name first, and the web site’s name second. Both are relevant when describing the web page in question so both should be mentioned in the title tag.
Re-use your title tag in your web site too. Your web site’s title should mirror your headline title on the web page you are editing. This is easy to remember to do with blogs, however it might be overlooked with hand coded HTML web sites.
There you have it. Those are my own personal tips to help you write a better web site title tag. Have any other advice or tips to share? Give me your feedback in the comments.
Writer’s Bio: Self proclaimed “media rockstar” of the hosting world, author and broadcaster, Mitch Keeler works at helping both hosting clients and owners get the most out of the web hosting industry. Mitch is the executive producer and host of the “one and only voice of the web hosting world”, the Web Hosting Show which can be found at WebHostingShow.com
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HostingCon, the largest gathering of hosted services professionals in the world, will be celebrating its sixth anniversary in austin, Texas from July 19 – 21 at the austin Convention Center. The annual event is the premier conference for the web hosting and hosted services industry. Over 1,500 industry professionals from over 30 countries attend the event annually to network with peers and learn about the latest industry trends. HostingCon 2010 has been steadily gaining momentum since the doors closed on the 2009 edition of the conference last august. Thanks to glowing feedback from the Washington DC show and a fantastic new location in the heart of it all, over 40% of the 2010 exhibit hall floor was sold before HostingCon 2009 even ended. To date over 76% of the show floor has been sold out! The trade show portion of HostingCon is not the only aspect of the conference benefiting from the buzz the 2009 show generated. The total amount of attendees registering in the super early bird time frame increased by 35% over 2009! attendee registration for HostingCon 2010 opened to the public in november of last year. Those who registered before the end of 2009 were able to take advantage of super early bird rates and save $240 off the regular full conference registration rate. early bird registration rates are currently in effect and offer a discount of up to $140 on a HostingCon 2010 full conference pass, which includes access to the HostingCon educational program. The educational program at HostingCon is comprised of multiple tracks and sessions spanning a range of industry topics. each track concentrates on a specific area of the hosting industry including marketing and sales, technology and operations, industry trends, and business development. HostingCon is currently accepting session proposal submissions from individuals wishing to speak at the 2010 conference. Web hosting industry veterans who have intimate knowledge of industry trends are encouraged to submit a proposal. Session proposal submission closes after February 28, 2010. For more information about the session proposal submission process, including all applicable dates and deadlines, please visit http://www.HostingCon.com/Speakers. HostingCon 2010 is quickly shaping up to be the largest and most exciting HostingCon event to date. The entire web hosting industry will be in austin, Texas this July. Will you be there? Save up to $60 on your HostingCon 2010 registration by using the coupon code PINGZINE2010!
HostingCon 2010
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054 | Ping! Zine magaZine
Truth is relative. Best to give Users explanations they can Deal with.
Bad Way:
Tech: There is a way to do that, but i don't think you're literate enough to follow my instructions, nor do i have the patience required to walk you through.
Better:
Tech: Sorry, i don't know any way for you to do that. if you give a list to a user, give "quick-out" options at the beginning and end
Tech: What type of account are you using mini, mano, macho, grande, or Beni?
User: Uhhhh... Beni
Tech: i'm sorry, Beni was discontin-ued you probably need to upgrade. Reading instructions to the user works. When their reading them, it doesn't.
Tech: <after spending 10 minutes reading straight from the manual> and what's it doing now?
User: it's working!!! i wonder why it didn't work when i did it.
Tech: no idea. Pregnant pauses or holding can be useful and give added credence.
User: When will you change/add unlimited bandwidth to your plans?
Tech: Let me check on that for you. <Places caller on hold and finishes a few chapters of their book.>
Tech: it's tentatively scheduled to be coming out in the future, but it's rather low on the list of priorities so it might be a while. Don't try to force your knowledge on someone.
Tech: Which control panel are you using?
User: internet explorer.
Tech: Hmm, are you using cPanel or Plesk.
User: i just told you i use internet explorer to access my site admin.
Tech: internet explorer is a browser not a control panel.
User: Well, i am using it. Can i talk to your supervisor; it’s obvious you don’t know your job. always annunciate properly.
Tech: ok you are going to want to access the Windows Error Reporting screen.
Customer: air reporting? How is that going to help me?
Tech: er-ror reporting.
Customer: arrow reporting? i think i am really confused.
Tech: i think i am too. There are some words, perfectly nor-mal words, that should be avoided... like type.
Tech: Ok i want you to type a colon then press enter.
Customer: a c-o-l-o-n t-h...
Tech: Sir just press the a key on your keyboard then press and hold the shift key while pressing the key left of the L and then press the enter key.
Customer: Well why didn't you say press A: and hit enter in the first place!
bY DavID DUNLap
It has been quite some time since the last time we poured through hundreds of technical manuals and support texts and interviewed dozens of senior support staff. We even managed to have a fairly lengthy if not somewhat dangerous conversation with the Bastard Operator from Hell. Consider these rules as an extension of the original found in Ping! Zine's issue 19. So sit back, get comfy, and try to keep your blood pressure under control. Support techs take notes, all else avert your gaze from the powerful words of wisdom contained herein.
RULES TO LIVE REVISITED
P!
