What is Hosting?

Hosting is where you buy space on a server (which is a big commercial computer storage space). You usually pay a monthly fee for your hosting service and the fees can vary a lot depending on the hosting company that you choose.
When you buy hosting you buy your very own space on a server. Your server is where you put all of your website files so that your website can load when someone enters your domain name into the browser bar of your internet program.

Hope I haven’t lost you there.

If you want a different analogy. Your domain name is essentially your address on the internet and your hosting is the land where you build your house. Your house is where you store all of your files that you need for your website (or blog)

Why do you need your own hosting?

It’s a matter of control.
There are many different website options out there and it’s really hard to figure out what the best web site hosting solution is for you. It really depends on your individual situation. As an internet marketing newbie, the easiest option would be to choose a package where domain name, hosting and website templates are all bundled together in the same package.In this scenario, setting up the website is extremely easy especially for the newbie because you don’t need to know anything about websites, hosting, ftp or html. All you have to do is choose a template, add your content and bingo you have a website.

The problem is that you have no control. You can’t customize the website template. You can’t choose your domain name. You have no idea which keywords have been used on the site. You cannot control the layout of the site. If the company you choose to design and host your website goes out of business or changes its terms and conditions then you may loose your entire business.

Yes, buying your own domain, organizing your own hosting and using ftp programs is harder, but you know exactly what you are doing and you have complete control. Once you have all of the information, you don’t necessarily have to do all of the work yourself.  It all comes down to what you have more of  – time or money? If you have more time then use it to learn how to do all of this stuff yourself in the beginning at least, anyway. If you have more money than time then you can pay someone else to set up your website for you but if you have the knowledge yourself you can ask for exactly what you want and need and you can check that the job is done properly at the end. (Paying someone else to do a job is called outsourcing).

When you own your own domain name and hosting no-one can take your business away from you.

Hosting Platform

Linux or Windows?

This does NOT refer to the operating system on your computer. It refers to the operating system of the server. Linux is better because if offers more features. It is the more commonly used server operating system and is supports mySQL databases. (You need this for a self-hosted wordpress blog) Read more »

Let’s go the good news bad news approach again.

The Good News – Google has ranked my site!

As you might have realized by now, I am documenting my internet marketing  journey in this blog. It’s not even a remotely original idea but at least it will be a record for me and entertaining for my few readers! (I hope)

So I after a few false starts I have decided that the way to learn the basic skills of internet marketing is to start off promoting other people’s products – affiliate marketing.

I have had my affiliate site up for a few weeks now and I have done some things to get links to my site and to drive traffic to my site. I’ve written a few articles and made a few videos, done some social bookmarking and it has definitely paid off.

As of today my site is ranked no.1 in Google for my keyword!

Read more »

Before we start with choosing products and keyword research and all the other things that will make you a successful internet marketer, it is extremely helpful to know some of the basic skills required to have your own website.

Don’t worry I’m not going down Geek St. I’m just going to teach you a few basic things about domain names, website hosting and FTP so that when you are ready to start marketing you have a fair idea of what to do next. This is where I would have liked to have started so that I didn’t end up in so many blind alleys.

What is a Domain Name?

A Domain Name is your address on the internet. It is also known as your URL. Basically it is the phrase that you type into the Internet browser to nativage to a particular website.

Read more »

Well good news and bad news.

First the good news (I always like to hear good news first)

No longer am I languishing on page 4 or 5. I am happy to report that for a couple of my keywords the Internet Marketing Newbie Diary is on page 1 of Google ready and waiting to be a resource for all of those newbies out there searching for good information.

Here’s what happens when I type my keyword into the Google search box

See down here at result no. 8 on page 1

Visitor rates are gradually increasing (it’s good to know that someone is actually reading my stuff)

Bad news – no optins yet for my free report “10 Newbie Mistakes to Avoid” but that will happen all in good time.

I have started working on an affiliate site and I have something on page 1 of Google for that keyword too.

All in all a good weeks work!

The first things that you need to know as an internet marketer is how to get traffic to your website.

Next you need to know how to build a list or database of names and email addresses.

Number 3 is…

Conversion

What is Conversion?

Conversion is the ratio of the number of visitors to your website, compared to the number of people who actually buy your product or service. Usually your conversion rate is significantly lower than 100%.

Think about it…

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