Web Hosting: To Switch or to Stay?Web Hosting: To Switch or to Stay?
Author: Joelene Wickens Orlando
That's a question that can only be answered by you. Depending on your current status and relationship you have with your provider, along with your evolving business objectives and needs, can determine what course of action to pursue. What are your issues and concerns? Ask yourself some basic questions and see where you stand after you've answered them. -Are you no longer satisfied with your current provider? -Did they deliver on the level of services that you signed up for? -Has technical support and customer service been to your satisfaction? -Or has your business grown considerably, and the hosting company cannot provide you with the level of capability and technical support you require?
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Banner Design Tips
Here are some tips for effective banner ad design and obtaining a higher click-through ratio (CTR):
- Large Banners
Generally speaking, the larger a banner is the more likely it will be clicked on. A banner that is 468 or 500 pixels across takes up more screen space and therefore is more likely to get noticed. The banner size is generally limited by the site on which you wish to advertise.
- Have a Call to Action
Banners featuring the words "click here", "enter" or similar in many cases generate a higher response.
- Animated Banners
People will notice an animated banner more than a static one. The banner does not have to be continuously animated; 3-5 repetitions should suffice.
- Don't Let Your Banner Get "Stale"
Click-throughs tend to drop off after a week or so, but go back up when a new banner appears (even if it advertises the same product or site). When starting a major banner ad campaign, have several banner ads designed and rotate them to keep a single banner from becoming stale. This will also help you determine which banner design has the best CTR.
- Link Banner to the Appropriate Page
If you are promoting a specific product or service link the banner directly to that particular page on your site. Linking the banner to the home page instead forces the visitor to try to hunt for the products - and many won't bother.
- Tell Them What It Is
Don't be vague or misleading about what you're trying to promote. Not having enough information on your banner for people to make a decision to click on it can create disappointing results. Having a banner appear to promote something when in fact it leads to something entirely different only serves to annoy people. Be clear and concise in your message. The visitor will likely make the decision whether to click on your banner (or not) within the first second or so of seeing it. Give them the information to make the decision, but not so much that they're overwhelmed and move on.
- Offer Something For Free
Having the word "Free" appear in your banner can entice people to click on it. Naturally, you should only do this if you actually are giving away something of value for free (product, information, etc.)
- Be a Diamond in the Rough
Have you ever tried to find something in a search engine only to be bombarded with 148,293 results? Sure, we all have. Yet at the top of the screen is a banner that is well-designed, attention-getting, and is promoting exactly the product or service that we were looking for - a "diamond in the rough". Immediately the user has a positive impression of the company simply because it saved them a lot of time and delivered the message clearly. Chances are very good that the user will click on the banner and become a potential customer.
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Elements of Web HostingWhen you first start out trying to get a site on the Internet everything seems so confusing. Obtuse acronyms flow freely through the 'Beginner Friendly' information sites and definitions can be hard to come across. The main reason for this is that the Internet and the process of getting a website online is really very simple, and once people get past the first stumbling steps they rarely remember the difficulty they once had, which leads to them being unable to understand the next wave of dot com newbies.
So let's begin with defining some of the basic terms that are commonly thrown around when looking for a web host. You'll quickly realize that computer geeks like using big words for simple concepts. What do you expect from a group of people that decided to call half a Byte a Nibble?
Web Host: These are the people that supply your website with somewhere to sit and be accessed from. They're often a wealth of information, so when you're trying to find your feet it will often be worthwhile to contact their tech support and get your questions answered. Because of this, it's important to contact them BEFORE you sign up for any packages to ensure that you'll receive a timely response. Just fire an email their way and see what happens.
Disk Space: This is the same as the space on your own PC's hard drive. Web Hosts will allocate a certain amount of space to your website, usually in Megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). This determines how much you can store on your site.
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