Internet Marketing For Small Business

Non-techies listen up – now you too can have a WordPress blog set up and running at your own domain.

The how-to instructions on how to do a manual install of WordPress can be rather intimidating. This is because you need to set up a database on your web hosting server to run WordPress, and in order to do so, you need to get into the “tech guts” of your server. Spooky.

That’s why One-click installs are great – all you have to do is follow the instructions set up by your web hosting company, which usually amount to clicking a few check boxes. The trickiest part in the operation will be naming the database, but that’s basically all you have to do: name it. The rest is done for you.

Another thing that is great about One-Click Installs is that they make handling updates to the WordPress software easy. The kind WordPress developers keep making their software better and safer, and so it is a good idea to keep updating to the latest version of WordPress. With one-click installs, the web hosts will upload the latest software for you, and when you are ready to install it, it’s just another click away.

Here are a few reputable companies that offer one-click installs. Sign up with either one and you could be blogging in about 10 minutes.

Hostgator

We are happy to say we have started using Hostgator as a web site hosting company and are delighted with the servers and with service. With packages starting at $7.95 USD per month, Hostgator is a sweet deal. It is also the host of choice for many pro Internet Marketers who use the Reseller Package to host all their web sites. It boasts Cpanel and WHM control panels.

• Click here to check out the Hostgator web site or to sign up for an account.

Dreamhost

Is probably the most popular one-click install company, probably because of their very popular affiliate program. There are as many Dreamhost evangelists as there are detractors, but the one thing you can be sure of is that Dreamhost’s newsletter will make you laugh, as it boasts the wittiest corporate writing out there.

A big plus – the company is very honest about what’s going on with their service and have a blog and wiki set up so that you can stay up-to-date with what is going on with your server’s status.

Dreamhost’s Crazy Domain Insane! package costs $7.95 a month if you sign up and pay for 2 years up front. This will get you 150 GB of web host space, which increases weekly by 1 GB. Yes, this incentive is quite unique, but it seems to be working.

Your allowed bandwidth or transfer amount increases weekly too, starting at 1.5 TB and increasing weekly by 16 GB.

With Dreamhost, you can host as many domain names as you like on this package and have unlimited MySql databases running – enough to set up a blogging empire. You also get 1 year of free domain name registration.

I am currently hosting this site and a few other blogs with Dreamhost and I have had very little problems with them and found their support service quite speedy.

• This way to review the Dreamhost package in more detail.

Midphase

Is growing quite a strong fan base. Their packages tend to be a bit more costly, but advocates swear the service is worth it.

Midphase’s basic package is $7.95 and will get you 200 Gigabytes of space, a domain name for life, and 3oo GB of bandwidth. You have to bump up to the $11.95 pro-phase package to get unlimited domains.

• More about Midphase

AN Hosting

An Hosting is offering a lot of great deals recently. Their usual package is 250GB of disk space, 2,500GB of bandwidth, 20 fully hosted domains and a free domain for life, all for $6.95 a month. But if you wait for sale time, you can get some pretty good deals – like this $4.95 a month special that is available until Nov, 22, 2007.

• More about AN Hosting

As usual, do your research to choose the right company for you. A quick Google search of any company name above and you will find tons of fan mail, heated debates, as well as a few horror stories. But I think you will be safe with any of the companies above unless you plan on getting millions of hits a day, which in that case you should be able to afford a dedicated server (one that you do not share with anyone else.) And that is a good problem to have

This post is part of my “Blogging with WordPress Made Super Easy – Well, Almost” series. More coming soon.

Tags: wordpress, blogging made easy, one-click installs, web hosting, blogging for beginners

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Email marketing and newsletters are a practical and economical way to keep in contact with your clients and fans. That is – if your emails are being read.

The business of sending newsletters or email blasts is tricky. Spamcatchers are everywhere and your emails may be getting caught and trashed before they even reach their destination. Viewers all use different email software, so you have to make sure they will end up seeing your email the way they intended, instead of a broken tangled mess.

Then finally there is the writing itself. Is your newsletter compelling people to read it? All the way through? Geez – are they even being opened?

One way to make sure your email marketing campaigns are working is by thorough testing. That’s why companies that specialize in email marketing tend to get it right. They have plenty of time to test, refine, then test again. Not to mention keep up with all the tech changes in the industry.

So, when these smart companies put out their own newsletters full of tips and advice, I say we should listen.

Here is a list I have compiled of industry best practices, strategies and resources for email marketing campaigns by some of the most reputable or popular email marketing service providers or experts out there.

Following the advice of these guys should mean a very successful newsletter campaign:

• Email Strategies from Thindata this Toronto company has been handling the campaigns for some pretty highfalutin’ companies. Sign up for their free newsletter.
• Constant Contact Learning Centre and Live Webinars – Constant Contact became one of the most popular email marketing companies because of its free service for mailing lists with less than 50 members. They continue to stay in the lead by offering these handy resources.
• Best Practices from Email Labs offers a most comprehensive list.
• Email Marketing Tips from Email Address manager is a nice collection of articles written across the web.
• Top 21 email marketing information sources is a grandaddy of lists of some hardcore Email Marketing gurus and experts. Prepare to go deep.

Remember, “out of sight, out of mind,” so make regular contact with your clients through an email marketing campaign a part of your marketing strategy.

Tags: email marketing tips, online marketing, newsletters, best practices

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This video shows Blaise Aguera y Arcas, an architect at Microsoft Live Labs, demonstrating some amazing software that can manipulate images into the most wondrous things.

Seadragon let’s you interact with enormous amounts of megabytes, some in the 300 megapixel range. Watch him zoom in and out of a complete issue of The Guardian and be able to get right down to the tiniest detail – a bit of technical information they embedded in a car ad to showoff the power.

Photosynth takes Seadragon and melds it with computer vision research done by Noah Snavely, with Steven M. Seitz, and Richard Szeliski, developing software that creates breathtaking composite images from photos taken from the web.

Here Blaise presents a reconstruction of Notre Dame made entirely from pictures uploaded to Flickr, the popular photo sharing site. The three-dimensional image is composed of thousands of photos taken with a wide range of cameras – from cell phones to professional SLRs – and even a poster. Once again, you can zoom in and out from a wide angle shot to the tiniest detail of a gargoyle with Seadragon’s extraordinary navigation features.

You can explore Photosynth for yourself on the Microsoft Live Labs web site. Works only on Microsoft PCs, bien sur.

The video is a tape of Blaise’s presentation this past March at TED – the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference that’s all about ideas,and putting them into action. See more TED presentations by the brightest and most entertaining minds at TED Talks.

Tags: photosynth, seadragon, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, microsoft live labs, digital imaging, flickr

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