Minding Your Business-Advantages and Disadvantages of Hosting your own website and Outsourcing

Presented on US Sports Net By Yahoo Small Business!

By: Andrew Marshall

When deciding on your business hosting first you must decide whether you would like to host the site yourself or outsource it to an established hosting company. There are advantages and disadvantages to both of these options. Advantages of hosting your own website Those who decide to host their website themselves are those who want complete control over their hosting. This can be a major advantage to some, especially those who would like to constantly monitor everything about their website and their web hosting. Those who would like to make regular changes to the hosting setup (and want to do it themselves) will benefit from hosting their own site. In some circumstances it can be cost effective to host your own site but only if you have the requirements to have your own server. This is because you won’t have to pay another company to do it for you. There is also the potential for an extra income stream, because if you are hosting your own website you may have the equipment and expertise to host websites on behalf of others as well. Disadvantages of hosting your own website Although in some circumstances it can be cheaper, the majority of the time it is more expensive to host your website yourself. You may have to hire staff just for this purpose, and the relevant expertise can be costly. You will also have to have you own server and other equipment, and if you don’t have the requirements to use this to its capacity you will still be paying for it. If you don’t have the necessary expertise it can pose obvious problems, especially if something goes wrong. It is also another area you have to worry about, and can distract you from the rest of your business. Advantages of outsourcing your hosting Yahoo Small Business Web Hosting - Build a great web site with our easy-to-use tools The main benefit of outsourcing your hosting is that you are leaving it in the hands of experts. You therefore should be able to forget about it, which allows you to focus on your core business. Most hosting companies offer 24/7 support, something you are unlikely to be able to manage if you are hosting your own site, unless you have a large team employed for this purpose. This support means your site is being watched around the clock which gives you peace of mind. For some sites this can be extremely important. If shared hosting is adequate then you can share servers with the hosting company’s other customers which will be cheaper than having your own server. Colocation can also take away one of the disadvantages of outsourcing: that you have no control. With Colocation you own and maintain your own server but rent rack space at a Colocation centre which will cost less than hosting it yourself as you are sharing bandwidth and other variable with other customers. With outsourcing you can purchase Managed Hosting. Managed Hosting means all your hosting is completely managed for you. This should take the worry completely away from you. Disadvantages of outsourcing your hosting As already mentioned, you don’t have the same control if you are outsourcing. To an extent things are dictated to you by the limitation of the hosting package you choose and the operations of the hosting company. If something goes wrong with the hosting company, for example if they go out of business or make a mistake, you could have a problem. There could also be a potential security risk if confidentiality is a major issue. For the majority of businesses, outsourcing is the better option. Most do not have the expertise to host their own website, and can make use of the support an established hosting company can offer. In the end it all comes down to the hosting needs and hosting knowledge of each individual business. Andrew Marshall (c)

Interoute offer a variety of quality Business Hosting packages including Managed Hosting and Colocation.

Minding Your Business! Five things you are messing up in content marketing

By: Jodi Mccoy

Content marketing is really important for your business. However, it should be implemented properly as mistakes here can have a significant effect on your business. This is why you have to avoid these mistakes so that you don't end up messing up whatever you planned to achieve through content marketing. 1. Poor quality content This is the biggest mistake you can make because poor standard content is harmful, and has a negative impact on your target market. It reflects on the quality of your business, where poor quality content means that you offer poor quality services or product.  Your Content Shines Bright With US Sports Marketing! Get Your Business On The Air Today For As Little As $5! Click Here To Learn More... Not only does your content have to be unique, you also have to make sure that there are no grammar or spelling mistakes in them. Your content also has to be well formatted to attract your target audience's attention as intended. In case you cannot achieve all this through your own writing, there are so many freelance writers ready to write for you. 2. Useless content While it is true that the main intention of content marketing is to sell your services or products, this should not be apparent. You have to provide useful content through which your customers will learn something and benefit from after spending their time reading it. You could present them content offering solutions to possible problems they may face which gives them a reason to read it. Also make sure you know who you are trying to reach out so that you can accordingly create some high-quality and interesting content for them. 3. Not documenting content strategies No matter what tactics or strategies you have planned for your content marketing, they will not work if nothing is properly documented. Only verbal implementation of strategies, or not having any strategies at all, leads to a minimal improvement to your business. It's not too late to start to immediately document your strategies. This way everything in your mind is clearly explained and implemented well and your audience then responds or acts accordingly. 4. Absence of SEO Content marketing without SEO is never complete because you miss out on lots of traffic, conversions, and sales. Even if social media does help, it is the SEO in your content which gives your website a ranking in the first few pages of a search engine, where you get most online traffic from. Some interesting and effective SEO techniques to implement in your content are to create longer and better-ranking content, integrating media like images in your content for a better ranking and keep monitoring keywords to use for your content and key pages. 5. No call to action As mentioned earlier, the main reason for your content is to generate sales or awareness about your business or product. So, you cannot afford to forget placing some call to action in the content matter. It's the call to action that guides readers on the next step you want them to do like giving their contact information or telephone number. They will be lost without it, and don't end up doing anything. Once you start avoiding these 5 mistakes, you will notice a marked improvement in the effects of your content marketing without chances of anything messing up. Visit TruEdit to find out more information about workflow management and content marketing.

Yahoo Small Business Presents: Methods to Boost PPC Conversions Through Correct Relevancy

By: Janise Majette

Pay per click advertising is not very difficult to do, but still there are thousands of people who have been unsuccessful using it. We are really serious when we say that pay per click is doable, but you have to learn correctly and exercise sound judgment. Google is always trying to enhance their services and customer experience, and that is why they have become more strict in the last two or so years. Even though Google has angered a lot of past PPC marketers, the trend is to simply make a better environment for Google customers. What everything comes down to is you must use the right practices if you want to generate profits with Adwords. With all that said, you will find there's a particular concern with this advertising method that is extremely important to understand. Adwords advertisers must work for the highest quality score achievable with their campaigns. A score of 10 represents perfection, and that is the very best any person can do. This is tremendously important as it will essentially determine the success of your promotion. Therefore, what you need to have in every part of your promotion is relevance. The basic idea is for your whole PPC advertising to incorporate relevance, and that actually is all about the end user. Relevance is for everybody which includes Google, the prospects who are your potential customers plus your profits. You can work to develop the most relevant experience in several different ways. The typical path after your ad is clicked-on is to visit possibly your primary website or perhaps the new kind of squeeze page required by Google. Quickly, you can no longer use the common type of squeeze page at Adwords given it is considered too thin or inadequate content. But you could build a thicker landing page containing some content on it and accomplishes the same effect. Your landing page will need to have clear relevance to the advertisement the prospect clicked on. That would seem like common sense, but we certainly have seen and read about promoters who violate this basic principle. Register Your Domain for $9.95 with Yahoo So what we are looking at is constructing the first landing page site so it is simply in agreement with, or relevant, to your final main site. If someone opts in to your email list, and you send that person to your money site, then it's a very important cross over point for both of you. Be sure to employ very similar layout types and colors on your main site as well as the landing page. The copy on all your web pages, landing and primary site, have to always be on the same topic which you would think is obvious. If you have everything lined-up, then you certainly will be in a great situation. The reason behind that is the person will come to feel more at ease at your main site. You may possibly change a promotion from a week one to something genuinely successful using this concept.  yahoo web hosting yahoo web hosting hosting website small business web services internet services hosting services web design domain domain name homepage webpage small business services web server dedicated hosting shared hosting online services online hosting online web hosting web site hosting small business hosting

Yahoo Small Business-5 Tips for Choosing the Best Business Domain Name

BY | SMALL BUSINESS

Brainstorming business domain names is an exciting time. It’s the first step to launching your online business. But how do you choose the right one that’ll stick with searchers and contribute to your overall growth?

Deciding on a domain name isn’t something you want to do frivolously. The name you choose can impact your ability to rank for certain terms, affect how likely searchers are to click on your pages, improve your paid advertising, and even make it easier for searchers to type in your website directly, bypassing the search bar altogether.

The last thing you want is to be stuck with a website on a domain name that hinders, not helps, your online and offline marketability.

So get your thinking cap on, search for available domains, and check out these five tips below. 

Your Domain Is Your Brand

The domain name you choose will be the lifeblood of your online property. How do you make that property stand out? You brand it. You want a name that describes what your company does while still sounding like a brand. Think of brands like Pinterest, Facebook, or Reddit. Their names all communicate what their brands do, and sound awkward or illegitimate like “Affordable Fish Tanks.”

Make sure to think through how it’ll sound. You don’t want to end up with a laughably bad domain name and be the butt of the internet’s joke. You should also avoid using special characters or dashes in your name. The less brand-worthy your domain name sounds, or the more ambiguity it communicates, the harder it’ll be for you to grow your online presence. 

Brevity Is Best

A shorter domain name helps people remember, spell, and pronounce it. It will make it easier for people to talk about your business even when they’re sharing to their friends about interesting sites and businesses they’ve come across. Having a site name that can be easily communicated and thought of will contribute immensely both to your online and offline presence. 

.com Lends Legitimacy

These days, there are countless TLD (generic top-level domain) extensions to choose from. However, getting that .com on the end still matters. Why? It’s the most recognizable and common TLD out there with a history spanning over 30 years. People are comfortable with the familiar. Domain extensions are no different. But if your chosen .com name isn’t available, there are lots of options.

Is It Legal?

Getting a letter from a trademark lawyer after the excitement of christening a new site probably isn’t the type of “ups and downs” you were expecting in the online business landscape. Make sure the domain name you want isn’t already trademarked by someone. You can search for this information on Trademarkia or Markify. Even hiring a trademark lawyer for questionable cases is money well spent, compared to being sued.

Don’t Give Up If Your Desired Domain Is Taken

If the domain you want is owned by someone else, all hope isn’t lost. Visit the site and see if it looks well maintained or vacant. If it’s well maintained, your odds of securing the domain aren’t great, at least for a good price. But if the site looks inactive or vacant, then the site owner will be more likely to want to sell it, and you’ll probably get a good deal. Use Whois to search domain name registrations. Once you find the site owner, inquire about purchasing. Know what you’re willing to pay and be firm with your negotiations. If you can’t find the owner because the domain is privately registered, you can use a broker to negotiate on your behalf.

Choosing a business domain name isn’t so different than choosing a business name in general. It needs to be brandable, memorable, reflective of your offering, legal, and legitimate-sounding,

Take your time deciding on your name. Seek outside opinion once you have a list with some potential winners. Gathering feedback from different viewpoints on how a name sounds will uncover angles you hadn’t thought of yourself. The more time you put into your name, the better it’s likely to be, which means a huge opening win for your online business.

Have some domain names you’re considering? Use Yahoo Small Business to check if your domain name is available.

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