A speaking avatar is one of the newer tools out there in terms of website development. It is simply a character, either a cartoon or an actual photo that says what you want it to say. Having a speaking avatar makes a website stand out above all the others out there that are silent. In fact, you can even put a speaking avatar in email messages, on a blog, auction pages and on your social networking profile. There are available sites where you can create a speaking avatar for your website or other online location for free.

If you choose to go with a speaking avatar you may want to use a cartoon one for the fun comedic value. Depending on the audience and the type of site you have this may be very effective. Alternatively, you can create an avatar using an actual photo and use it to deliver information. You can record a script that you have created teaching, informing or selling a product. If your website could benefit from sound and more “realistic” forms of communication, a speaking avatar may just be the way to go. SitePal, Voki, Gizmoz and Digital Worlds are all very helpful resources for the creation of a speaking avatar to give your site a more human touch.

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There are many things to consider when selecting the best small business web hosting. With all the options and features available in the web hosting industry, it may be a good idea to take time out to educate yourself on what is the best type of small business web hosting. Your particular needs are crucial in finding the best web hosting for your small business.

There are three categories of web sites. Personal/Small Business Homepages, E-Commerce, and Information sites. The type of web hosting you choose will depend on what category your business falls into. Your small business may be related to information and small business services. This is one reason why it’s important to find out what web hosting is best for your situation. You may not need the expensive types of hosting services that some people need for large sites. With a small business you usually do not need the massive disk space and bandwidth large E-Commerce business sites need for their hosting needs.

Important Considerations For Small Business Web Hosting:

Unlimited space, transfer. This is in many cases an advertising ploy. Be sure to check out the web hosting Acceptable Use Policies to see what they say about unlimited plans. You may end up kicked off if you use too much space if you do not upgrade.

Setup fees. Many small hosting services don’t tell you about the fees until you go to the sign up page.

No POP email access to emails. Some web hosting services only offer you access to site’s email accounts.

Limit on monthly traffic. Some small business web hosting services will limit you on how many hits your site or sites can receive.

Customer support. Does the hosting service have good customer support 24/7? Do they offer weekend support?

Control panel. For experienced webmasters this is not a problem, but for new users a small business web hosting control panel is a must.

Does the small business web hosting service require long term commitments? Many times you can go month to month with a good web hosting service.

Uptime guarantees. Take a good look at the hosting uptime qualifications.

FTP transfer limits. Few small business web hosts have limits on FTP use to their customers.

There are many aspects to consider when looking for affordable small business web hosting. The time you spend on educating yourself on the different features can be invaluable in choosing the right small business web hosting service for your needs. You will know you have made the right decision for your small business hosting solution.

Author: CY Fok
Provided by: Beading Necklace

If you are going to sell anything on your website you will need to know about SSL Certificates. SSL Certificates are used so that the person buying from your website can be assured that they are actually buying from a legitimate site and not being scammed out of their money. These days there are many online consumers who will not purchase anything from a website that is not SSL Secure utilizing SSL Certificates.

An SSL Certificate contains the following information:

•    Domain name of website that certificate was first issued to.
•    The physical location of the owner of the website.
•    Dates of validity for the certificate.
•    Owner of the certificate and the owner’s domain name.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and is a way for you to literally prove that you are who you say you are. Here’s how it works. When someone connects to a secure web server that uses SSL Certificates, the server tells the web browser it is authentic by giving it a certificate. That certificate is proof that an independent and trusted third party has already verified that the website does in fact belong to the company that it is claiming it belongs to. This in turn gives that person the confidence needed to make a purchase without having to sweat bullets over the thought of being ripped off.

Think about it, piece of mind goes a long way when it comes to buying something that you are not physically touching. I know that I like the secure feeling that SSL Certificates bring and if a site is not SSL Secure I definitely do a double take. So if you plan on having a successful online business you have to look into getting SSL Secure using SSL Certificates.

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If you have decided to hire a professional website designer to create your company’s website or to revamp an existing one, it is important to make sure you find the right design company to fit your needs. Carefully review a selection of the sites the designer has created to see if you like his style. Ask questions about the types of technology he uses in building sites. Talk to him or her about your vision for the web site. This conversation should provide you with an opportunity to gauge how well you will be able to work with the designer.

In addition to a price quote, get an estimate of how long it will take to complete the site. Find out if web hosting and email addresses are included in the price. If you are dealing with a big firm, make sure that one person will be your point of contact throughout the process. Ask if support personnel are available 24/7. They should be. Select companies that offer month to month plans instead of yearly ones, and companies that allow your service hours to roll over from one month to another if they are not used. Another big plus in choosing a website designer is one that offers a satisfaction guaranteed policy. This shows their commitment to customer service and should instill confidence in their abilities.

Create a professional website with no programming by using a website builder service.

If you are looking to create a new website or redo the one you presently have, you will first need to consider whether or not you want to use one of the software programs that exist for making websites or if you want to hire a professional web designer. Each has its own sets of pros and cons.

Creating a website yourself is much less expensive that hiring a professional. It is now much easier to do it yourself as software has improved greatly and you don’t need to know anything about programming codes or other technicalities in order to do so. Doing it yourself also tends to be more time efficient than waiting on a designer to do it. Most off-the-shelf website packages can be set up in a day or less. Changes to the site can also be made much more quickly.

If you do decide to opt for a professional web designer, in all likelihood you will be able to request cutting edge technology on your site and the site should have a unique design. If you have technical problems with your site, you can simply handle them by contacting the web designer who will fix them for you. If you build the site yourself, you will be solely in charge of fixing problems with it.

No matter how your website is made, the important thing is to have a solid web presence now and market it effectively.

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Here’s the big question, ‘Is SEM the same thing as SEO?’ Well the short answer is yes and no, but let’s look at what each is first.

SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing and SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In short, both are done in an effort to get your website ranked as high as possible in the major search engines to increase your online presence and hopefully your bottom line. So what are the differences?

SEO is using keywords and phrases in the body of your text in a relevant manner in order to gain the attention of the search engines. SEM is really a wide-ranging term. SEM is everything that can be done using current technology to get the attention of the search engines and thus promoting the website and increasing its web traffic, its web presence, and in the case of a business website, it’s all important bottom line. That being said, SEO is a vital part of SEM and without it SEM is a moot point.

There are however certain aspects of SEM that are definitely on the outside realm of SEO. These aspects include:

•    Pay Per Click or PPC Advertising
•    Paid inclusion
•    Traditional advertising

While all can be important to your websites success, they have nothing to do with optimizing your website for the search engines.

So the next time you hear SEM think of SEO only on steroids. Here’s the catch….once you get the web traffic to your website you have to make sure that the site is a good one, so don’t waste your time with SEO and SEM unless your site is up to par.

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When you look at getting web hosting a big mistake can be to look at the price first. This is because many web hosting companies offer an introductory price but don’t make it so cut and dry that the rate is only good for a few months –usually three or so.- The problem with jumping right into one of these web hosting companies that offer you this cut rate deal is that often times you will be accidentally neglecting the number one factor in web hosting; customer service.

We are all guilty of this behavior from time to time. You see a deal and you leap before you look. But in the case of web hosting you have to look at all aspects of the deal not just the price and be sure that the company you are choosing has customer service that is available by phone, that you can call toll free, and that you actually get to talk to a person when you are connected.

Another oversight that can occur when buying on introductory price alone is how much that price jacks up to in the long run. If you go with a service that starts at $1.99 for three months that is wonderful; until they go up to $9.99 a month after that. Take this out for a year and you will pay $95.88. Compare this to a web hosting company that offers service at $6.99 per month where you would pay only $83.88 for a year. What’s more is that you could have sacrificed service and still paid more in the long run.

I know it’s not the natural thing to do, but when you are looking into a web hosting service, price should be the last thing you consider. Look at everything else first and then ponder the price last. Trust me when I say you will thank yourself for doing so.

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Alright so you know that a great SEO technique is to write articles that are relevant to your website and then submit those articles to article directories right? Do you also know that you should be spinning your articles? Allow me to explain.

If you write a wonderful article about something that is relevant to your website and then you submit that article to 50 different article directories you can actual hurt yourself, not help yourself. Why? Too much of the same thing is no good when it comes to pleasing the search engines and this type of action will quickly be viewed as spam. Do it enough and without knowing it you will be penalized by the search engines. This is where spinning comes in.

Take that same great article you wrote and re-write it or ‘spin’ it four times. Now go to those same article directories and submit one spin ten times each and you get a total of 50. Your content and your name are still going out to 50 article directories and the search engines don’t whack you for spamming. Win, win.

When you spin your articles, just be sure they are actually spun. Don’t change a word here and there as you will not be helping your cause. You actually need to change the article by at least 30 percent for it to be considered a unique article, so take your time and really do a good job spinning. Trust me, on the World Wide Web it is much better to be labeled a spinner than a spammer.

Save money with cheap website hosting.

Are you looking for reliable and inexpensive hosting for your small business website? If so, compare our list of the best cheap business web hosting providers and check out their reviews from other customers. If you’re looking for managed web hosting solutions or a dedicated server and knowledgeable technical support, you should consider one of the web hosting companies below. Any one of the top seven web hosts listed on CheapHostingSites.org are excellent choices in terms of reliability, security, speed and money back guarantee. All this at greatly discounted business hosting rates.

There are two main types of business web hosting to consider. Dedicated web hosting provides you with a server that is yours alone. The server will host only your website, so you don’t have to worry about other sites hogging the bandwidth and slowing the delivery of your webpages to visitors. This option is more expensive and is really only necessary if you start getting a lot of traffic to your site (many thousands of visitors a day). Shared web hosting is the most affordable type of hosting for small businesses. Shared hosting uses one server for many customers, and is fine for most all purposes. Unless you have a lot of traffic or have very specialized hosting needs, shared web hosting will be just fine for your small business website.

Is free web hosting really free? On the quest for cheap hosting, what could be cheaper right? Well, as the old saying goes, ‘Nothing in life is free,’ and free web hosting is no different. It may not cost you money up front, but if you plan on having a serious website, it will cost you in the long run.

How can free web hosting be bad? Let me count the ways:

•    Advertising: Yes the free web hosting is free, but they more times than not will litter your site with tons of ads. Along with banners, you may also have pop-ups too. Nothing is more agitating to a potential customer than dealing with this stuff.
•    No credibility: Because your site is being hosted for free, this will more than likely be advertised in some way by the hosing company. This gives you less than adequate credibility with potential customers and they may click off your site as fast as they clicked on.
•    Search engines ignore you: The goal for any website should be to get listed high on the search engines. This is much harder with free hosting as many of the search engines will simply ignore your website because it is hosted for free.

Now I could go on all day, but I think you get the point.

Remember though, there are plenty of companies out there that offer cheap web hosting and can still give you excellent service. No, they won’t be free, but when you look at the facts of what you get with a free hosing service and what it can cost your website, is it really free?