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SEO: The Basics

The best SEO practices have not changed all that much over time, and the essential points will continue to remain steadfast. In order to get your webpage to rank high, you need to deliver quality content that is optimized. There are multiple search engines, so what may work for one, may not prove effective for another. It’s imperative that you utilize proper SEO techniques if you want your webpage to succeed. Content is king, and luckily, you can control what is placed on your webpage. You need not hire a consultant; just follow these easy steps to start ranking yourself for the right reasons!

Step One: Write for the user, not the search engine.

Everyone always assumes that when you are writing for SEO, you are writing for the search engines, but in reality you should be focused on writing for your readers. Keywords should be properly tagged and utilized throughout the article. For example, if you are devoting a website to helping others buy property, you need to utilize as much information as you can that is relevant to that topic. You may choose to enlist various topics on interest rates, home buying tips, foreclosure opportunities, financing your property and so on.

Step Two: Write quality content in a focused area

Content is extremely important in implementing a killer website. Anyone can take a few minutes and set up a website in no time at all, but having the proper content is what is going to matter in the long run. You need content that is useful, informative and helpful for the readers. The content needs to be kept current through a consistent stream of updates. Having quality content and a unique voice that stands out above the rest is what is going to set your site apart from all of the others. It may not be necessary to write a new piece every day, but you should make sure that you are taking the time to gather information and allow your readers a chance to absorb what you are providing them.

Step Three: Give credit where credit is due

If you can provide links to other websites, that is a great way to showcase what others may have to say about the topic you carry on your website. A lot of people fear that having a bunch of links will essentially drive away visitors, but this is actually false. You will receive far more positive views about the subject rather than having any negative impact. Make sure that your links are directed toward trusted sites and not just anyone. Once you’re writing information that’s helpful and/or entertaining for your readers, you’re ready to move onto advanced tactics like guest blogging, link building, and social media— all vital pieces of the SEO puzzle. There is a plethora of extensive research and detailed information regarding SEO and the science of search available from reputable brands on the internet; we recommend SEOMoz and Search Engine Land, both of which are ethically conscious thought leaders who are well-known and respected in the search industry.

Start A Web Hosting Business with Reseller Space

For those wanting to start an Internet business, reseller web hosting is a great choice. It has a low start up cost, and is profitable for those who are dedicated to making it work. A reseller is an individual who purchases bulk web space, packages it and sells it to others who are seeking to establish a presence on the web.

As with any offline business, a reseller web hosting setup should be taken seriously. It requires planning and financial management in order to thrive. The following list outlines important points to consider when going into the reselling business.

Research the Market
The first and most vital step is to conduct research. Valuable information and advice can be gained by speaking with people who are already running a reseller web hosting business. Looking into how the direct competition does things can provide valuable insight as well, especially in niche markets.

Setup the Business
When choosing the business and domain name, it’s always best to keep things simple. The domain name should be easy to remember and the company name should complement it.  The company name should also be properly registered with a county clerk, and a bank account opened under the name of the business.

Some people may wish to incorporate a business or form an LLC. As there are a number of different structures and legal issues at stake, getting a tax accountant or attorney involved in the process may be quite helpful. Anyone starting a company should always familiarize themselves with local business laws.


photo by Jamison_Judd

Find a Provider
A search for web hosts that offer reseller packages should be done and narrowed down by reputation and reliability. Packages and cost can differ quite a bit from one host to another, so it pays to shop around. The right host will offer a balance of desired features with affordable cost.

Entry level reseller packages are usually offered at the shared hosting level, which is suitable for beginners. There should be options for future upgrades to VPS or dedicated server environments, to allow for growth.

A good way to test a potential host’s reliability is to live chat or make a forum post to the sales department and see how fast the response is. A good host will not mind answering presales questions.

Build a Site
The reseller hosting website is what potential clients see first, so it is a worthy investment to have it professionally designed. It should load fast and clearly explain what services are being offered, along with price. The sign up process should be easy to find and execute, and the entire site should have effective navigation.

Utilizing a billing software platform (such as WHMCS) to run in tandem with the website can be a big time saver and a great organizational tool. It can automatically keep track of invoices and payments, and send alerts when action needs to be taken.

Good search engine optimization, or SEO, is necessary for a high search engine placement. Consulting with an SEO expert can give the reseller business an extra step up, especially at the beginning.

Running a reseller web hosting business has the benefit of being relatively low cost while bringing in a steady stream of profit. It also does not require an extensive knowledge of servers and hardware, as this aspect is the responsibility of the hosting provider. Not having to worry about the technical side allows the reseller to concentrate on bringing in clients and focusing on quality, first level service to them.

While a reseller business is relatively easy to start up, it does require dedication and hard work to be successful, just like any other company. Customers and revenue are not guaranteed, so the reseller must commit to an excellent standard of service in order to build a solid reputation. A good website and solid SEO are necessary tools but nothing beats word of mouth, or a great online review.

With the ongoing economic crisis and high unemployment, many people are looking for ways to generate extra income. Starting a reseller web hosting business may be a good option without a lot of upfront cost.

HostNine 2012 Resource Round-Up

Happy belated 2012 from HostNine. For the last couple months of 2011, we’ve been collecting and posting a wide range of links on our various social media channels. We want to share helpful resources with our customers (and passers-by) to deepen their existing knowledge of important things like content creation, WordPress, web design best practices, SEO and more. We want to help you make your website (or someone else’s) the best it can be in the new year and beyond.

If you have some specific resources or topics you’d like to see featured in the HostNine blog, give us a shout on Facebook, Twitter or G+. We’re always happy to help!

WORDPRESS RESOURCES


This flexible, free and extremely popular (over 65 million downloads as of December 2011) content management system is the first choice for many Webmasters and bloggers. This list of links covers everything from security best practices to plug-ins and site optimization.

15-Step Checklist To Creating The Perfect WordPress Website

The Best WordPress Tutorials of 2011 on WPBeginner

The 14 Best WordPress Plugins For Social Media And SEO Optimized Sites For 2012 

10 Tips To Optimize Your WordPress Theme

Top WordPress Security Plugins for 2012 | Web Sigmas

11 Quick Tips: Securing Your WordPress Site | Wptuts+

WordPress Security: Seven Ways I Could Hack Into Your WordPress Site

SEO / DIGITAL MARKETING / BUSINESS RESOURCES
Make your site more visible. Learn SEO. Increase conversions. 

Grassroots SEO – Strategy, Process & Life Cycle

Five Questions to Streamline Your Keyword Research

How To Increase Conversions by 50% Overnight » SitePoint

Building Links & Driving Traffic with How To Posts

Sales Oriented Website Needs

5 Ways to Turn Social Customers Into Brand Ambassadors

CONTENT GENERATION RESOURCES
Sure, you can write, but can you write for the web? Learn more about idea generation, blogging best practices, copywriting, headline writing, and more.

How to Write Great Blog Content

A 5-Minute Guide to More Persuasive Copywriting

Ideas for Creative (& Efficient) Content Generation

Proven Headline Formulas | Steal These Formulas For Your Next Blog Post…

WEB DESIGN RESOURCES
No matter what your level of familiarity/unfamiliarity is with web design principles, it helps to understand the basics. Remember- it’s code, words and pictures, not rocket science!

Clear Indications That It’s Time To Redesign 

The State Of Web Design Trends 2012

Don’t Fear the Internet (A fantastic primer on HTML/CSS for non-designers)

Building  A Website In Progressive Steps (a series of screencasts that goes through the process of designing and building a website)


HostNine Customer Spotlight: PyroFactor

Welcome! The Customer Spotlight is a new feature for the HostNine blog, where we’ll be taking a peek at one of our customer’s sites. Our inaugural post is about a company called “PyroFactor”, an organization that specializes in creating fireworks displays.

Who are you?

Mathew Ierston. I am the owner of PyroFactor, the UK’s most exciting and dynamic fireworks display team. We specialize in customizing and creating unique displays for all types of outdoor and indoor events.  We cover everything from controlled on stage explosions to full city centre firework displays. Our team bring the WOW factor to any event. You can see the other types of events we handle here.

Where is your website?
www.pyrofactor.com

What makes your website interesting?
My website is simple, fast-loading and dynamic. It was created using WordPress, and is hosted on HostNine’s UK shared hosting servers.

Thanks for participating, Mathew! You’ve got a pretty interesting business!

Do you like free publicity? Interested in spreading the word about your H9-hosted site? Look no further! Fill out this short form, and we’ll be in touch.

HostNine Community Newsletter Volume 1, Issue 2

Welcome to the final HostNine Newsletter of 2011!

 

UK-based VPS and US-based Dedicated Servers are on Sale! 

15% off our UK-based VPS hosting plans.

Click here to take advantage of this offer.*      

25% off dedicated servers!

We’ll give you 25% off your order  when you purchase a US-based dedicated server plan!**

Coupon code: DedicatedSale

Click here to order!

Specifics about this offer can be found here

What’s New

New Amsterdam server location for Reseller accounts

In our ongoing effort to give our customers and resellers access to different server locations across the globe, we’re happy to announce our new  data center in Amsterdam!  

 


What’s Next

Tell us your story!

You may have noticed that our homepage has a new, fresh look to it. We’re still in the process of remaking some other pages, with the goal of sharing what HostNine is all about. We also want to showcase some of the people and businesses that have helped HostNine to succeed. Here’s how you can get involved (and get a bit of free publicity in the process)!

1) Send an email to newsletter@hostnine.com with a company logo or photo of you and your team (no larger than 250px by 250px). 

2) Provide a short paragraph of your hosting story or how HostNine has helped and include your first name, last initial, company name and position in the company. 

That’s it! We’ll be in contact if we use your story on our website.

Thank you for your support through 2011. We look forward to serving you in 2012! 

The HostNine Team

* Discount is only available for customers who upgrade from their current package or are buying a new UK-VPS package. Our team of Support Technicians will review orders before migration and notify you if you do not meet any requirements. The promotional value lasts approximately 1 year from when you sign up or upgrade  with the UK-VPS package. At that time, we cannot guarantee your discounted price for your plan will roll over past 1 year.

** Discount is only available for customers who upgrade from their current package or are buying a new US Dedicated Server package. Our team of Support Technicians will review orders before migration and notify you if you do not meet any requirements. The promotional value lasts approximately 1 year from when you sign up or upgrade  with the US Dedicated Server package. At that time, we cannot guarantee your discounted price for your plan will roll over past 1 year.

Why do you need a social media management tool?

The facts
Social media is no longer a “craze”. We’re less than a decade into its existence, and it has already been linked into just about every other media channel there is. Above all, it’s an essential component to growing an online business. Whether you’re a developer, designer, reseller, or self-obsessed web celebrity, a steady online presence on a variety of social networks is a must.

Is this you?
You like sharing videos on YouTube, but still like to Tweet and post to Tumblr and Facebook while maintaining an outpost on Google+.  You have a strong online presence, but spend far too much time ping-ponging back and forth from network to network, logging in and out. You get a lot of followers on Twitter, but some of your profiles are beginning to collect digital dust from not being tended to. There’s a simple way to avoid this kind of disorganization- a social media dashboard.

What’s a social media dashboard?
A social media dashboard is a tool that lets you manage all your different social accounts in one place. You can post to multiple sites, set goals for campaigns, and most importantly, get a larger view of how your online reputation is doing across different channels. Here’s some of the main reasons why you need to jump on the dashboard train:

Collaboration
Do you have more than one person handling the social media duties in your organization? With a social media dashboard in your life, you and your team can share a broader view of what’s going on with your brand in the social world, and pool your resources so things get done faster.

Scheduling
Some dashboards provide you with the ability to schedule posts and Tweets, which can help to amp productivity during busy periods. Take care not to over-schedule, though- too much automated content can sometimes dilute the quality of your efforts and make everything sound too stilted.

Analytics
As social media marketing budgets have increased, there has been a growing emphasis on the measurability of social initiatives.  What are you doing with your social media campaign? How does it benefit your bottom line? Do you have measurable goals? Social dashboards can help you find out how many people you’re engaging, and provide insight into who follows the links you’re posting, among other things.

Many dashboards also let you can create reports that can help you provide concrete explanations for why a campaign is succeeding or falling on its face. If social media is a large part of your job, and you need to produce actionable insights and results related to your social presence on a consistent basis, a social dashboard application is an a essential component for your day to day tasks.

A great tool
HootSuite is a free social media dashboard tool that performs all of the aforementioned tasks, and more. Some of its features include:

It’s free
HootSuite costs nothing. You have the option of upgrading to a “pro” account (which eliminates ads and gives the ability to customize reports and profiles), but there’s also plenty of great features in the free version.

No downloads
HootSuite is a third-party application that doesn’t hog space on your computer,  because there’s nothing to download! You can tweet and post without the added hassles of another application gumming up the works on your laptop/desktop.

Thorough analytics integration
HootSuite lets you integrate your Google Analytics and Facebook Insights accounts into your dashboard, so you can create customizable reports from a variety of different perspectives.

Endless resources
HootSuite also provides a large, diverse archive of video tutorials for users. They cover everything from the basics of using HootSuite to the ins and outs of maximizing your social media efforts. There’s an entire series called “HootSuite University” and a live chat called #HSUchat that helps to steer users towards new heights in social media.

A new tool for a new year
Social media is only going to keep growing into 2012 and beyond, so there’s no reason to succumb to time-wasting traps that hinder productivity. Getting the right tool can make a world of difference for you and your organization.

Click here to check out HootSuite and take the first steps towards getting your social media strategy right for 2012!

 

6 Reliable WordPress Resources

Finding the best WordPress resources can be a pain. How does one separate the wheat from the chaff when faced with 2 million results for “WordPress Tutorials”? There’s only so many hours in a day!

Here’s 6 reliable resources that will get you absorbing WP knowledge like a hungry sponge.

1) WordPress Lessons (from WordPress.org)

 

The best place to start for the newbie. Divided into 4 sections that touch on all the essentials: “WordPress for Beginners”, “Designing Your WordPress Site”, “Lessons for Theme Development”, and “Website Development”. Solid.

2) WordPress Forums

 

The official WordPress forums. Along with the WP documentation, there’s valuable, regularly updated information that stretches across any WP topic you can think of.

3) WPtuts

 

WP tuts is part of the “Plus” network of tutorial sites that cover everything from app development to Adobe’s Creative Suite. You’ll find helpful WordPress-focused articles, videos and tutorials that benefit users at any skill level.

Check out this collection of WordPress cheat sheets they put together. Good stuff.

4) Smashing Magazine

 

Somewhat similar to WPtuts, the Smashing Magazine network collects the best articles and tutorials from across the web for WordPress users, and also covers topics related to design, web development and user experience. An endless resource.

5) Sitepoint

 

Another great provider of info for the web professional or the newcomer interested in WordPress. You’ll find tutorials, podcasts, a bookstore, and online courses available for developers and designers for a reasonable price. Highly recommended.

6) WPCandy

 

While this contains content similar to the resources listed above, there’s also solid opinion and interview articles with WordPress experts. Looking for an experienced WordPress developer to make your site? There’s a easy-to-search directory of WordPress pros for hire.

 

Take Reseller Central for a Test Drive

One of the best features about our reseller hosting plan is the fact we have built our very own dashboard for our customers to manage THEIR customers.  It is fast, robust with features, and quite easy to learn. Did I mention, it is really easy to learn?

We have recently launched a public demo of our dashboard and we would like you to try it out. Granted, you can’t do everything you would if you were a customer (for Technical and Security reasons) but you can get a really good idea of what you are getting when you signup for our reseller service. Click Here or the screenshot to check it out:

Click the link to demo Reseller Central

 

Here are some of the features you get out of the box…

Reseller Central Features:

    •  Automated Billing software included: Easy to setup a reoccurring monthly/bi-annual/annual payment system with your customers. No hassling with envelope-stuffing invoices or dealing with importing your data into a 3rd party billing software.

 

    • Support/Ticket System-  Don’t hassle with emails back and forth with customers. We give you the power to have your customers submit tickets so you can answer them on a timely basis.

 

    • Worldwide Reselling-  We don’t limit you to a specific country when hosting your customers websites. Go global and if customers want to move from one server to to another, country-to-country? Well, it is as easy as point and click (limited locations apply*).

 

So go ahead and give us a test drive– let us know what you think!

 

CMS Alternatives To WordPress

Are you still undecided on what CMS to use? Are you working with PHP? Although WordPress is the omnipresent force in the CMS world, you DO have other choices. The people at Web Hosting Geeks wrote up a short, helpful piece that covers some alternative PHP-based management systems. Please comment if you have any additional suggestions we missed!


Geeklog

One of the most popular of the WordPress alternatives, Geeklog is a feature-full CMS that can use mySQL, PostgreSQL or Microsoft SQL server for its databases.  It includes among its features content syndication, forums, calendars, polls multi-language support and mass user deletion.  If you need help, it actually uses a wiki for its official documentation.  Popular sites Groklaw and Mac OS X Hints have used it for years.

concrete5

Open-source CMS concrete5 has attracted attention for its ease of use.  Not only is there easy editing of individual pages without having to go through an administrative interface of some kind, but even images can be edited from directly within its interface.  It includes among its features search engine optimization, a tracker to check for latest software revisions, and a page history so that you can revert to any previous version of any page on your site.  It’s among the newer CMSs so 3rd party content and themes are still catching up, but it appears that this is happening quickly.

Drupal

Drupal might be the largest and most far-reaching CMS outside of WordPress. In fact, one estimate has one in 66 web sites using it, including the governmental web sites for both the US and the UK.  It has about as much compatibility as any software out there, running on any operating system using PHP and working with just about every main database software in existence.  Among its arm-length long list of features are multi-user file editing, multiple security restriction methods, support for multiple sites, and support from communities in multiple languages (“multiple” seems to be the central word here).  The gigantic community, in fact, seems one of Drupal’s main selling points: the Drupal web site lists more than 11,000 user-created modules.

PHP-Fusion

For something with a lot of miles on it but still simple and lightweight there is PHP-Fusion.  It comes with most of the basic features like themes, forums, picture gallery support, spam protection and an in-site search, and it has support sites in 20 countries.  It is considered one of the most stable and reliable CMSs out there.

Joomla!

Also, with strong community support is the open-source Joomla!  Using object-oriented programming, Joomla!’s features include RSS feeds, polls, search capability, and language internationalization.

WordPress’s reputation is well-earned, but don’t fear the alternatives.  One of the advantages of the information era is that there’s almost always more than one right way.  If your web host uses them, take a closer look.  You’ll find a lot of them to be of a high enough quality to make you not miss the biggest names.

  



  

 

 

HostNine Community Newsletter Volume 1, Issue 1

Welcome to HostNine’s first newsletter!
We promise to keep our content brief and relevant!

What’s New?

Server Upgrades

We’re happy to announce that HostNine has added significant backend server updates to improve your overall experience. We also changed the pricing AND hardware in our dedicated server packages. Check out the details here.

No matter what package you choose, HostNine gives you an infinite number of possibilities. You can always run an unlimited number of websites and applications in high-resource, fully customizable environments.

Looking for a custom quote? Click here, and we’ll be happy to help.

Connect with HostNine on Google+


HostNine has also created a Google+ page!

Click the G+ badge to stop by and put us in your circles!


What’s Next?

HostNine will announce a new server location for our reseller clients at the end of 2011 or the start of 2012, so you’ll be able to reap the benefits of another international location within Reseller Central to offer to your customers. Stay tuned for details!

H9 Team Update

HostNine GM Taylor Barr attended the Internet Summit 2011 in Raleigh last week, and took in all sorts of great presentations on everything from search and analytics to cloud computing and social media.

Check out his conference wrap up here, at the HostNine blog.

Click here to subscribe to our monthly newsletter!

Thanks for reading!

2011 Internet Summit Wrap up

The Internet Summit is a great event that happens each year in our neighboring city of Raleigh, NC. It’s a regional event that attracts talented speakers, conducts exceptionally informative sessions on business, marketing, design and technology  as well as offering ample opportunities for networking.  I attended on behalf of HostNine to learn, meet new partners, and stay up to date on industry news.

This years conference “brought the thunder” as keynote speaker and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk would put it. Gary is an energetic speaker, successful owner of several businesses, and an accomplished best-selling author. He spoke about how the technology landscape is changing right in front of us, how companies need to improve the quality of their customer service, and how marketers need to move to a pull rather than a push model when it comes to targeting customers. 80% of the audience didn’t know him before he spoke, and at the end of his talk there was a standing ovation. Pretty impressive.

Another great part of the Internet Summit is the pre-conference sessions. I was able to catch a great presentation by Matthew Muñoz on using “Design as A Strategic Tool.” The session went beyond designing your website, application, etc and talked about aligning self-interest with a shared purpose and  how to create an architecture of participation within the walls of a company. There are some great tips for all in this presentation. Feel free to check it  out here.


Lastly, HostNine’s CEO Douglas Hanna was in attendance and lead a presentation entitled, “Taking Online Reputation Management to the Next Level.” You can find his informative presentation here.


Overall, the turnout for this show was great, with close to 2000 attendees participating. I had a great time networking and meeting companies that might be great partners for HostNine. We will have to see what happens in 2012!

Our mission began in 2006. Thousands of awesome clients later, we are now one of the most popular hosters in the world. Most of this is because of our fantastic support. Join us, youll be glad you did - thats a given.