My Christmas Wishlist

How to get a Domain Name for your Business

Businesses are fooling themselves if they think they can continue to conduct business without a website.  This is because in today’s age, having a website makes many think a company is ‘official.’  But a website by itself doesn’t mean anything without a decent domain name.  Granted, a company can try to cut costs by using a free domain name or a third level domain name offered by free web hosting companies, but visitors won’t view their site as being genuine.  Long, complicated domain names are associated with affiliate marketing or even scammers, so businesses need to try and stay away from them as much as possible.  The best solution involves getting a normal domain name from a reputable domain name company.  One of the best domain name companies around is GoDaddy.

GoDaddy is a great alternative for individuals who do not know much about domain names or website hosting.  At GoDaddy, a person can find and register a unique domain name and set-up a hosting account.  We always recommend hosting at Hostgator though because of all the great features they provide.  But that is for another article.

Another reason one should choose GoDaddy is because of their domain name locking system.  This helps prevent hijackers from stealing the domain name.  With GoDaddy, the process of domain name locking is as simple as clicking a button.  Webmasters can check to make sure their domain name has been locked by looking up their Whois information.  If it says Status: Registrar-Lock, then they can feel assured that their domain name is safe from unauthorized individuals.

GoDaddy offers private domain name registration.  Without private domain name registration anyone can find a webmaster’s basic contact information.  This is because ICANN has designated that webmasters have their contact info posted in a database that is accessible online.   This feature is essential in making sure a webmaster is protected from spam email and even worse, identity theft.

Lastly, GoDaddy offers 24/7 technical support.  Many webmasters overlook the importance of tech support when managing their domain names, but it is still important, especially if one is a newbie.  This is because domain names sometimes point to 404 error pages if something goes wrong.  With 24/7 tech support, GoDaddy users can pinpoint what is exactly causing the problem and get it fixed immediately.

In conclusion, if a company is having trouble deciding both where they should get their web hosting and their domain name, they should consider GoDaddy (domains) and Hostgator (hosting).  Both are  affordable, offer great features and most importantly are trustworthy.

Tiger Direct is the Best

TigerDirect.com is an online store that sells all kinds of computer parts for building systems and a huge variety of brand new or refurbished computers. They have great prices on laptops and desktops alike. On top of their great prices is amazing customer service. Oh, I forgot to mention fast shipping and hassle free returns.

The company that owns TigerDirect.com, Systemax, pounced on a great opportunity to buy Circuit City’s domain name when they went out of business. So now if you go to CircuitCity.com you will see a huge site loaded with all of the same products and competitive prices that you would be use to seeing with TigerDirect.com minus the crazy big-box store prices you might be use to with the original Circuit City.

You may have heard of CompUSA also. Well, it is the same owner as well. These people are brilliant.

Another reason I love this company is because Systemax computers boast of being U.S.A. made. All of their PC’s are manufactured in America and they employ Americans. Plus, if you phone into customer support, you get to speak to someone in America.

Tiger Direct is a major source for finding top quality products at the most affordable prices. I highly recommend this online retailer!

Artisteer Rocks!

There is this incredibly easy to use program that can be used with a couple of different goals in mind.

1. The main one of course is to create a website theme or template that works with Joomla, Wordpress, or Drupal.
2. The other cool goal could be to generate themes for others and either charge a fee ($$$ making idea!!) or give them away as bonuses to get people interested in other things that you might offer.

No matter what goal you have, the  Web Design Generator – Artisteer can make a custom theme specific to your needs and tastes for content management systems such as Joomla, Drupal, and Wordpress.
#1 Automated Web Design Software for Blogs, CMS and Portals. Generate templates for Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal.

Even with a ready-made theme downloaded from Wordpress, there are always so many things that need to be done to tweak it and make it look the way you want.  For a novice this can be a daunting experience especially if you are unfamiliar with HTML, CSS, PHP, and all those other nice acronyms for coding.  For the more experienced this can still be a challenge and more time consuming than simply making a unique theme from scratch.

Artisteer eliminates the learning curve.  Plus, it gives you so many suggestions and the  ability to change virtually every aspect of your theme until you are satisfied.  This is a great program that can help someone come up with great themes without having to spend a ton of money on education on web design.

Joomla, Drupal, and Wordpress allow people to put up very powerful websites in a very short period of time for very little money.  With Artisteer, you can put up a theme that is completely unique to your goals and make it look like you paid thousands of dollars to a professional web design firm.

The basic edition is only $49.95 but if you want the most features and have goal #2 in mind you will quickly see how the Standard Edition is definitely the best choice.  And, like any really good software company, Artisteer offers a free product trial.

Best Web Hosting Service Provider

Hostgator is my web host provider of choice.  I have run into problems over the years where I needed help fast.  Their customer service is incredible.  They always take care of any problem I have quickly and efficiently.  The features they provide are unbeatable for the price.  I have tried out a few hosting companies, left Hostgator, and returned to them.  They have not disappointed me yet.  But, if you want more information on other companies, read the article below.

Best Web Hosting Service Provider
Posted by the Generator; Original Article Written By Anand Maheshwari

Finding a web host for your business is a very important decision and should be dealt accordingly, as the quality of web host services determine the user’s experience with your website. Thus, you can’t afford to play gamble with a web host. A wrong choice can affect you adversely. Look out for the best web hosting service provider; one which is known for its reliability must be preferred over the others.

A bad web host can lead to the loss of potential sales as customers find it difficult to reach your website. Therefore one must aim for the best web hosting to avoid any complications or in extreme cases your website being disconnected from the World Wide Web. Check out on Google search for finding the best web hosting service provider. You must look out for potential web hosts and check for the reviews. The one which has maximum of positive reviews by experts or notable persons should be preferred. The three things which you must look out in your web host are:

• Features
• Quality
• Cost

The best web hosting provider would understand your needs well and accordingly chart out the plan for you. They will suggest you which feature to opt for keeping your website in mind so that you get maximum profits by spending the least amount possible. In most cases the best web hosting provider would tell you how much disk-space and bandwidth is required. Bandwidth commands the flow of data in and out of the website. Also the web host which offers technical support is the best, as it would help us rectify the errors in no time The best web hosting service must offer uptime of more than 99%, to ensure that website is really fast and most of the time is live.

The other way to look out for yourself the best web hosting service provider is to check out the discussions and forums where web hosting and topics related to it are being discussed. One of the forums where participants are really active is The Warrior Forum. The participants are really helpful and are even ready to walk an extra mile to help you. The people here are actual users and give their honest reviews. But don’t be influenced by them completely. Use your rationality and judgment before you take any decision as your needs may differ from them or your website layout differs from their website.

It necessarily doesn’t mean that the best website hosting service provider has to be expensive. As there is tremendous competition between various web hosts, many offer discounted website hosting. But, remember never compromise on quality owing to the price range.

Anand is a webmaster for Website Hosting visit: wefindyouhosting.com

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