Posted by admin in Website Hosting on June 29th, 2010
With aWith a myriad of options to choose from, selecting a web hosting plan can really be frustrating and challenging at the same time. The web hosting industry is so big and many web host providers offer the same basic features. But deciding which plan to opt for simply boils down to your business needs, while also keeping in mind its long term potential.
Here are some things you need to know when selecting a hosting plan:
First off, familiarise yourself with the different types of web hosting plans.
Free Web Hosting – Providing zero-cost, free web hosting plans have many restrictions and rules, as well as limited capabilities in customising your site. This type of hosting plan is not recommendable for online businesses because of ads placed on web pages. Free hosting is only suitable for small personal websites that are not expected to gain a large audience. Any business-oriented website that has a regular flow of traffic should always choose a paid hosting service, where you have better control of the site and the ability to customise it.
Shared Hosting – Most commonly used and most economical web hosting service, shared hosting service uses a single server that hosts multiple websites. Each site is allotted an agreed amount of bandwidth, disk space, etc. While shared hosting is a cheaper way for businesses to establish web presence, it is usually insufficient for websites with high traffic.
Dedicated Hosting – Providing more flexibility and control, a dedicated host uses a single server that hosts only one website or several sites for a single client. Dedicated hosting means you don’t need to share system resources with other websites. Getting a dedicated hosting service is only advisable only after gaining a large volume of visitors for your websites. Although generally pricier, a dedicated host can be inexpensive than shared hosting for people with multiple websites.
Now, after learning the various types of web hosting plans, you have to determine some of the important factors to be considered when assessing the right web host for your needs.
Space and Bandwidth – Your space and bandwidth requirements will considerably depend on how huge or how heavy on graphics your website is, including the expected amount of traffic. Though a small website may only take up between 10-100 MB, if you consider expanding in the near future, it is best to choose a web hosting plan with ample web space. Bandwidth or data transfer is usually around 500 MB for most small to medium-sized sites. Depending on your website, you may need more or significantly less.
Speed and Uptime – Of course, you want a reliable website that does not lag or go down. It’s terrible to have visitors leave your site because it is not working or is too sluggish that they totally lose interest. An excellent web host has an uptime guarantee (at least 99.9%) and has the initiative to notify you any scheduled downtime or maintenance.
Scalability and Flexibility – What are the implications should you run out web space or consume up your bandwidth limit and need to upgrade to a more robust plan? Can you easily change packages if necessary—and without penalty? If so, then you can save more by starting off with a small low-priced package with peace of mind that you can upgrade anytime for free. With that, you should select a web hosting plan that enables you to upgrade if your site becomes in demand, and downgrade if you are not getting enough visitors.
Extra Services – Are there any additional services included in the plan, such as free scripts, web traffic statistics tool, shopping carts, free email accounts, web design help, and other features? These perks can come handy and are worth looking into. Nevertheless, avoid paying for something you don’t need.
Technical Assistance – Reliable customer service and technical support are a must when it comes to deciding on a web host. You want to make sure that if you encounter a problem, you can get help fast and hassle-free. So, you need to identify what types of help are provided, what the support hours are, and whether the support is free of charge. You’d be surprised to know that different web hosts offer anywhere from virtually no technical support and all the way up to free phone, email and chat support 24/7.
Price – Last but definitely not the least, is the price—the value for money. Keep in mind that the lowest priced-package is not always your best bet here. Verify if payment terms are monthly or annually, and if there is a contract. There are even some companies that offer great discounts if you sign up for a multi-year contract. To absolutely avoid any unpleasant surprises, be sure to read carefully the fine print before agreeing to sign up.
Posted by admin in Social Media on June 22nd, 2010
Social Media has evidently reached its tipping point as an effective marketing tool. Popular social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter now boast millions of active members. No wonder more and more companies are starting to become particularly visible on these major sites and have embraced social media marketing as part of their business strategy.
Although many top executives either view social media as a time-consuming distraction or regard it as a potential risk management problem, social media is a great way to establish a customer-oriented company and of course, generate more revenue.
To make this happen, here are some tips on how an CEO can utilise the power of social media:
Get inspiration and learn from the best – There are plenty of CEOs who have founded their brands and succeeded with the use of social media—John Olilly of Mozilla, and Jay Andelson of Digg are just some of the famous executives who tapped the potential of social media. Another great example is e.l.f. cosmetics company, which concentrated on social media interaction to build their brand and avoided traditional marketing methods and yet found success in the consumer world.
Take advantage of microblogging platforms, such as Twitter – This is especially true for the hectic executive. As Twitter is only limited to 140 characters per update, CEOs can simply post brief thoughts and comments related to their brands. It is as well perfect for CEOs who are always on the run meeting with people and who have some useful opinions on their industry. CEO of Zappos, Tony Hseih, has proven that sending tweets regularly to interact with employees and customers is highly effective. In fact, Zappos has now reaped thousands of followers on Twitter. And in 2009, it was ranked #23 by Fortune as one of the best companies to work for.
Post videos via YouTube – For most customers, prospects, media, and even employees, CEOs can often seem too elusive, elite, and hard to reach. But by regularly posting video clips, an executive can go a long way developing stronger relationships. Have a YouTube channel wherein your business can feature interesting updates about the company, such as events or new product release, or perhaps about the CEO’s job and even personal interests.
Employ social media to discover more – Whether Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and other social media tools, CEOs can use these methods not only to communicate but also to learn from customers, employees, suppliers, and the public. Several companies spend huge amounts of money trying to determine what people think of them. Connecting into the blogosphere or reading feedback on Twitter definitely presents a more useful and cost-effective technique of discovering how to approach customers’ needs and wants.
More than discovery, social media allows CEOs to prompt action and become a more efficient leader. Social media tools like blogs and podcasts positions an executive in more direct communication with staff, eliminating middle managers who can discourage direct contact. A convincing CEO can utilise social media to boost confidence, promote creativity and increase the importance of open collaboration.
Posted by admin in Web Design on June 18th, 2010
Knowing that it only takes about 10 seconds to make an impression to your visitors, it is indeed crucial to have a functional, great-looking website. Whether for business purposes or personal use, building an impressive site is very important, here are some essentials to create a great site:
User-friendly navigation – The menu navigation should be simple and easy to understand. Ensure that there is a systematic hierarchy of text links on your website. Your home page must be easily accessible on each page. Place links that would smoothly take your visitors from one page to another without any complication.
Content will always be king – Your content is the basic foundation of your website. A website with informative content never fails to end up becoming popular in the long run. Aside from having numerous visitors obtaining useful data from your site, optimised content will also rank well in various search engine results. Update your content on a regular basis to ensure the information is always fresh and current. It would also be helpful to check for spelling and grammar errors on your website copy text.
Test for usability – Be sure to test your website using different browsers. What works with Internet Explorer may not do fine with Mozilla or Safari. To guarantee a more professional appearance of your site, test your web pages using every available browser used online.
Less is actually more – Go easy with distracting flash animation or huge files that take a while to load. Music and videos are fine, as long as they are not auto-played because they can cause pages to load slower. In some circumstances, they can also crash the user’s browser. Just refer to Google’s website and you’ll understand that less bytes mean quicker loading of web pages.
See to it that there are no broken links and blank pages – Nothing is ever more frustrating for visitors than encountering the “Page cannot be displayed
Posted by admin in Web Design on June 18th, 2010
Lately, there have been positive changes here at Total Marketing Australia, and they are so good that we wanted to share them with you.
First of all, Total Marketing Australia is glad to unveil its newly revamped website — fully functional and very informative, and contains all of our latest marketing projects (link to portfolio). Feel free to browse it and we are sure you will love it as much as we do.
Along with this launching, we would like to introduce to you our newest team member, Stuart Anderson, who is in charge of Search Engine Optimisation & Hosting. Stuart’s boundless creativity will definitely be a great asset to the team.
Also, we would like to extend our warm greetings to one of our clients, Macchiato Pizza Bar and Grill, who is celebrating their 10th anniversary. Their birthday celebrations include the launch of their brand new website, mix 106.5 FM broadcasting from their restaurant every Monday of September, and a range of amazing Birthday Specials.
Some more good news! We want to you to meet our newest clients: Peta Hastings. A Famous make-up artist for movies and celebrities, Peta Hastings has styled various prominent icons, such as Susan Sarandan, Emily Blunt and Eric Bana.
Vodafone – Top mobile network phone provider which actually means Voice-Data-Fone, is geared towards further delivering innovative wireless services to Australia. TMA has been enrolled by one of their longest clients, Successful Executive, to support Vodafone in the development of one of their internal sites.
We will keep you posted for the next buzz. Meanwhile, enjoy our new website!
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