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.

5 Reasons to Use Bit Defender Antivirus Software

A common question that I get is what Anti-Virus program do you recommend?  Out of my 3 favorites, Bit Defender has taken first place.  If you are running Microsoft it is critical to have a good anti-virus program.  Investing as little as $30 a year can save you from having to pay for virus removal, data recovery, or time without a functioning computer.

Bit Defender Internet Security 2010 keeps your Internet-connected family safe, without slowing down their PCs. It locks out viruses, hackers & spam, while providing parental control and firewall protection. Learn more about Internet Security from BitDefender!

Top 5 reasons to buy Bit Defender Anti-Virus Software

1. Affordable
2. Effective
3. Does not hog resources
4. Easy to use
5. Feature rich

Affordable: The basic version starts at $29.95 for a year of updates.  If you want to add Parental Controls consider buying the Internet Security version for just $20 more.  Of course all of the bells and whistles would start at $79.95.  But for the average user, the basic version is more than adequate.

Effective:   Bit Defender continues to meet the tests and requirements of many research labs and certification organizations when it comes to staying abreast of security threats and stopping them.  It protects from viruses, spyware, malware, Trojans, worms, and even phishing scams.

Conserves resources:  Other Anti-virus programs can really slow down the performance of your computer.  Bit Defender goes to work quietly and effectively in the background while you carry on with all of your regular tasks.

Easy to use: Bit Defender gives you 3 different options for managing the program from a novice to an advanced user.  If something is not right with updates for your computer or for the anti-virus software, this program will show a big red button that you can click to fix the issues.  It really can’t much easier than that.

Feature rich:  Bit Defender has active virus control features and plays well with “gamers” to prevent annoying pop-ups and alerts.  It has a special mode for laptops to help preserve battery power.

Click here to get Bit Defender