Archive for the 'The World Wide Web' Category

Online Shopping Safety and Tips

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

If you would like to take full advantage of the chances for buying on the web then you will need a method of settlement which is acknowledged by the vendors and financial institutions. Many online stores and tickets suppliers will be able to accept credit cards provided with the Visa and Mastercard logo. If you have one or more of these then you will be fine. Determined by which country that you are from then you may likely have the possibility to make use of different payment cards which are valid in your location including Maestro for example. It might also be feasible to utilise alternative payment methods like Paypal, Moneybookers plus direct bank transfer with some stores.

If you are not able to get a credit card thanks to a bad rating then you can try a prepayment card. These cards can be found using the Visa and Mastercard logos and have absolutely no credit checks necessary. You’ll be able to either buy your preloaded credit card, or get one which you’ll be able to reload as you go. These commonly work just as effectively for all online purchases.

Among the list of issues which might influence people who shop on a regular basis on the internet is delivery. This can bring about headaches as things can go missing or take a long time to turn up. Certain retailers can also be very strict on the subject of their delivery policies and will only ship to certain nations and only to the purchasing cardholders address. If you’re not in your home country when you try to create a web-based purchase this can additionally cause you difficulties as the merchant may question the transaction as they may think it is fraudulent. Your locale will be spotted by the vendor and if it does not tie in with your home address they may cancel your purchase because they feel it is being done with a compromised or copied credit card.

A different concern to consider when shopping online can be the potential of paying import duties in your state. For instance for anyone who is in the European Union and you order from a vendor inside that area then you will have no fees. However if you buy from outside Europe, the USA as an example, then you can be charged customs duty on your transaction. You might well get a unpleasant surprise when the postman requires a big payment while he delivers your package of women’s coats!

Finding the Right Hosting

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Getting the Right Hosting

Apart from pricing there are a lot of features to reckon when picking out a hosting company. The first matter to be conscious of is what kind of web site you are going to run on the server. If you’re preparation to run a dot net or ASP web site you have to take a Windows IIS answer and if you program to run PHP or a Word Press blog, you must choose a UNIX dependent Apache Host.

After pick of the right platform you have to make sure you receive unlimited bandwidth and transfer and often it is also for your vantage to be able to setup limitless email accountings. If you operate dot net or ASP you must have admission to a MSSQL host and make sure the cost for that is reasonable. Operating PHP or Word Press site demands a MySQL database and of course a PHP5 installment.

Uptime is critical, 99.99 % uptime is essential, no host will promise you 100 % uptime. You will also claim to look at the service and backup from your host to be able to run your site as fast as possible, which is also necessary for Google optimisation and SEO in general.

Word Press is advocated for a inexpensive and adjustable WWW result and hosting your web site on a UNIX supported server working Apache and MySQL is an canonized web hosting answer which is simple to keep up without programming acquirements and knowledge and Word Press is also easy to optimise for search engines like Google and Bing.

Your web ISP is the foundation of your web presence and it is very important to select the correct web host from the start. You can change server subsequently, but doing special search to retrieve a complete hosting company from the set out is the most intelligent move, especially if you program to get a large number of traffic which should be able to establish without the downtime which will take place during transference from one server to different.

Put the World on Your PC With Google Earth

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Google has a fantastic, new, free program for those of you with a broadband connection. It’s called Google Earth. And it’s just flat amazing.

First, how you get Google Earth

Getting Google Earth is simple. Just go to google,com, and click on More When the next screen opens, scroll down until your see Earth in the Tools category. When you click on Earth,,, a window titled Google Earth -Explore, Search and Discover will open Scroll down to and click on Get Google Earth (Free Version). Click on Download Google Earth and follow the directions to install the program on your computer.

What you will see

When Google Earth opens, you will see Earth as seen from space, a search box and two panels labeled “Places” and “Layers.” You can ignore these for now and just type in an address in the search box. You need to include, the street address, city and state, with these three elements separated by commas. For example, 1108 Walnut St, Omaha, NE.

After you type in the address – and your house might be a good place to start – Google Earth will rapidly zoom in on the address just as if you were zooming in from outer space. It will stop about 1,000 feet above the address you searched on. You can zoom in even further using the + and – buttons at the bottom of the program, but the picture may eventually become blurry, depending on what resolution your display is set to. (Note: Be sure to check your display’s settings to make sure they match Google’s recommendations.)

What happens next

After you’ve zoomed in on your house (or whatever address you typed in the search box), you can pick another address or a place such as the Grand Canyon. Google will do “fly over” to the new address or location just as if you were flying over the globe in a very fast jet plane.

Once you get the hang of it, you can go to and zoom in on locations all over the U.S. Or the world for that matter. You can even save addresses or places to make it easy to get back to them in the future.

Google Earth is just a kick. Go ahead and try it. I’m sure you’ll find it’s literally hours of fun.

Douglas Hanna - EzineArticles Expert Author

Something else that’s new and free is HD Radio that enables AM and FM radio stations to broadcast their programs digitally. These digital broadcasts provide listeners with radically improved audio quality, more radio channels through multicasting, and new data services. To learn allabout this amazing new technology, just go my Web site, http://www.hd-radio-home.com, to get all the buzz.

Douglas Hanna is a retired marketing executive and the author of numerous articles on HD radio, the Internet and family finances.

A Dummies Guide to Broadband Phone Service

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Did you know that the Internet can totally replace your existing phone line? With broadband phone service (also knows as VoIP service), you can make and receive telephone calls using a regular phone without the assistance of your local phone company. Instead, the phone plugs directly into a broadband internet connection, either cable or DSL.

You need two things to turn your internet connection into a personal phone line: a subscription to broadband phone service and any traditional phone (analog or digital). Most service providers charge between $20 and $30 a month.

Once connected and installed, broadband phone service works just like a regular phone: Pick up the phone and you will hear a dial tone – dial a phone number – wait for the person to answer – and start talking. In most cases the person on the other line won’t even know that you are using broadband phone service; the quality is that good.

Some of the benefits of using broadband phone service include: unlimited calling to the U.S and Canada, free features like call waiting, caller id, call forwarding, voicemail and the ability to choose your area code. This means that you can live in New York and have a California phone number. Most broadband phone service providers also offer a trial period or a 30-day money back guarantee.

Some additional features of broadband phone service are virtual numbers (a number in a different area code, that when dialed rings directly to your main number). Virtual numbers eliminate long-distance phone charges for anyone calling within that numbers’ area code. Most broadband phone service providers also offer toll-free numbers and 411 directory assistance for a low monthly fee.

Due to the recent FCC regulations, all broadband phone service providers must have E911. What this means for you is that you if you subscribe to broadband phone service and dial 911, the call will be routed to the local public safety dispatcher with your address information pre-populating on their screen. When searching for a broadband phone service provider, ensure that they offer E911.

Click here for more in-depth information about Broadband Phone Service. Michael Brito is a freelance writer for VoIP product and services.

21 Simple Ways To Make More Money From Your Current Clients, Part 1

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

It is easier to make additional money from your current clients than it is to go out and find new ones! See 21 simple ways in this three part article series.

PART ONE:

1. Insert a brochure for another product in the first product package your customer buys from you.

For digital products, this can be done by:

* Adding a “special Offer” to the thank you page

* Add a 2nd Offer to the download page

* Add an affiliate product to your ezine thank you page

* Add a JV partner offer to Ezine sign up thank you page

For physical products, this can be done by:

* Adding a printed “flier” with a sales letter for another product on it

* Adding a flier with several products on it – These could be a “coupon” page for your products only or for affiliate or JV products

* A printed Newsletter with articles and review of products on it and of course web urls or a phone order number

* Adding a “giant” sized postcard with a bonus or sale item on it

* Adding your catalog (If you have one) in the box with your physical product

2. Sell a basic product and tell people for a little more money they can receive the deluxe edition.

You can create a deluxe version by adding:

* Audio

* Transcripts

* Templates

* Interviews with experts

* A printed version of an ebook

* Complimentary products. For example a planner with a time saving system or a calculator with a financial product

3. Give your customers a free subscription to your e-zine and include back end products in each issue.

I recommend always telling your customers they will be added to your follow up list with the new emailing laws. You don’t want to assume anything with email anymore.

4. Charge people extra money to get the reproduction rights.

You can expand on this by offering a reprint rights and a master reprint rights where the buyer can also offer reprint rights to their buyers.

5. Send your customers greeting cards at holidays with your back end product offer included.

I recommend that the backend offers are sale priced and geared to the holiday such as birthday or Christmas if you can. If not, just a special offer will be better than a “regular” product.

You can also send thank you cards to clients when they purchase your product.

Ask my students how surprised they were – especially in Australia and England – to get a thank you card in the mail from me when they signed up for my web master training class!

6. Offer your customers a discount if they buy more than one of the same product.

Look for a shopping cart system that has a built in discount for second, third, etc. purchases by the same person.

7. Offer a “Reward Club” to repeat buyers.

This would give discounts, gifts and special offers to repeat buyers. You can also increase the value of the gifts as the purchase amount goes higher.

Look for Parts Two and Three for the rest of the great ways to make extra money from the clients you already have!

Earning Income with your Blog Site

Monday, June 8th, 2009

Affiliate Yourself and Start Earning Income with your Blog Site

The following article presents the very latest information on blogging. If you have a particular interest in blogging, then this informative article is required reading.

Not only are there a lot of people out there blogging for fun, many of them are finding ways to make money by blogging. There are a number of ways an income from blogging can be achieved, but one of the most popular is by affiliating your blog. If you are blogging or considering starting a blog and you are not yet affiliated, you will quickly find that you should. Otherwise, you are just leaving money on the table that you may not have to.

The first thing you may be asking yourself is this: what is an affiliate program? Well, that is a great question and one easily answered. An affiliate program is one where the seller offers a part of the money generated by a sale to those who refer customers to them. There are, in fact, a lot of websites out there who are parts of affiliate programs.

With these companies, you need to sign up. You will, in most cases, be given a unique ID from that affiliate. That ID is for identifying you as the one who has referred the customer to the site and made the sale. If, then, you are successful in helping to sell the product, you receive payment that is generally stated in whatever your affiliate agreement includes. The amount you might get paid ranges greatly. You may make as little as one cent in US dollars or as much as one hundred US dollars depending on the product, the company, and sometimes the amount you help to sell.

Hopefully the information presented so far has been applicable. You might also want to consider the following:

Once you have made the decision to use an affiliate program and have figured out which one you want to use, then you are ready to get started. Sign up and register for the affiliate program and start adding your affiliate’s codes to your blog. Ah, but there is the next issue: how do you include affiliate links? There are a few ways you can do that. First of all, you can do reviews about a product and then link to that product through your affiliate program (obviously you would need it to be a product offered by your affiliate program). A second way, if you don’t want to do a review, is to compile a recommended list that is either in a blog entry or along the side of your blog. A third way to get your affiliate program involved in your blog is to use codes or scripts in your coding that will generate random links to products in your affiliate program.

Once you have your links and your program in place, it will be all about product. It is important to note that most people are not going to keep reading a website if they think it is just all about selling. Make sure your content, which you update regularly, is useful to the reader. You want that reader to keep coming back and hopefully working through your affiliates, so you really should concentrate on good, solid, useful content that is going to keep your readers coming back and not make them feel like they are being sold all the time. If, however, you really want to sell, you should try to label your site as a commercial endeavor. Keep those things in mind and your affiliate program will hopefully help you turn a profit.

No matter what your blogging experience may be, it is possible that you can blog for fun and profit at the same time. There are a number of ways to make a profit off of your blog, but the most common right now is to affiliate yourself with certain other sites and products. Affiliate programs generally cost little or no money and can help you make money on your own. They are basically a way of getting commission from helping someone to sell a product or service. So find the ones that work with the theme of your blog and get those codes up on your site. Once they are up, make sure you are finding ways to drive traffic to them without going overboard on the selling and making sure your content is useful. Stick with these tips and stays focused and before you know it, your blog can become a success through the use of a good affiliate program.

If you’ve picked some pointers about blogging that you can put into action, then by all means, do so. You won’t really be able to gain any benefits from your new knowledge if you don’t use it.

Articles for Website Content SEO Tips

Spam like the Flu, Seems to be no Real Cure

Monday, June 8th, 2009

It seems more and more these days, I am seeing increased similarities with spam and the flu. With Yahoo and AOL in the news lately about a possible pay to email to avoid spam, this brought be to think about the flu and spam correlation.

If you cannot beat it, or at least stop it completely at this time, why not try to make money off of it (that is unless there’s a permanent solution against it). Right now you could easily relate this statement to spam or the common cold/flu.

We can easily relate spam emails to the virus that will cause you to get sick. With some of the top email providers, you have the option of upgrading your email (pay of course) and have the option of increasing the number of filters to help combat the war against spam. With the flu/cold, we try our best to avoid it, purchase products to help prevent it, and once we do get it, off to the store to get the good ole cold/flu medicine.

With Yahoo and AOL, which I am sure you have probably heard of by now, a possible (most likely) option of paying to avoid the spam filters so your email will get to its intended place.

It will be interesting to see how paying to avoid the spam filters will work out for some of the major players such as Yahoo and AOL. I just hope if the pay to email does come through, I just don’t see an increase in spam emails, but I guess as time goes on, that is very unlikely.

Creating a Website. How easy is it?

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

My brother’s wife is creating a website and she has asked me to come to her house to guide her through the process. She is extremely aggravated by the process and she seems very confused and frustrated. I agreed to give her a hand, but I really do not know that much about creating a website myself. I was flattered that she thought that I did know how to create a webpage, but I was not sure why she thought that I had experience with it.

I came to the sudden realization that my sister in law is under the impression that I am efficient at creating a website because she has visited my blog. I think that she is confusing blogs with websites. I may know how to set up a blog but this does not qualify me to tutor someone on creating a webpage. I have come to the realization that many people do not understand the difference between a blog and a webpage.

I am not sure if I understand the difference between creating a blog and creating a website, but I’m going to give it a shot. Actually I have trouble describing the difference between a blog and a website. A blog is a kind of online journal. The person who creates the blog posts short articles, pictures and various entries to give the blog some depth. There is little work in creating a blog. Blogs are free and very user friendly and I am quite comfortable with the format.

I imagine that there is significantly more work involved in creating a website. After all, there are professionals who work full time in the field of web design. I did suggest that my sister-in-law should use a service like Bravenet in her attempts at creating a website. Bravenet has everything a lay person needs to get started and it has a lot of information and technical support. I am going to walk her through the steps as they are presented by Bravenet and see if we can work together in creating a website.

If all goes well, I may even create a website of my own. For now, I am going to stick to blogging. Like I said, blogs are user-friendly and they are free. I really do not need anything else right now. In the future, I may call my sister-in-law to see if she can help me when I try my hand at creating a website on my own. Hopefully, she will get me moving in the right direction.

Creating a Website – How easy is it?
Vita Vee.

Broadband over Power Lines

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Hi-Speed Internet Access Through Your Power Plug!

It’s called BPL and it’s being tested right now. Is it coming soon to a power plug near you?

Imagine this:
You plug your BPL modem into any power socket in your home and you’re instantly connected to a high speed broadband ISP. Sound too good to be true?

Maybe… maybe not.

BPL does seem to have more than its share of pros and cons.

The Pros

Aside from the fact that nearly every home in the country is connected to the power grid, this exciting new technology offers several other advantages over current broadband Internet service connections.

First is the fact that no professional installation or additional wiring would be needed in your home. True ‘plug-and-play’ technology.

Another interesting aspect of BPL is that every electric device is connected to the electric distribution network. That means that BPL could let chips in every electric device talk to each other. Much simpler and more cost effective than putting a wireless chip in every appliance.

Imagine the possibilities if your alarm clock, light switch, water heater and coffee maker could talk each other! Or how about this scenario: You unpack and plug in your brand new flat-panel TV and it automatically connects to the cable box, DVD player, your Home Theater system and the Internet.

Even more than the communications aspect, electric utilities are interested in BPL because it could give them an intelligent electric grid that is both more secure and more reliable. That in turn could lead to less pollution and lower electric power costs.

The Cons

The above-ground utility wires that carry BPL signals can also act as antennas and cause radio frequency interference with airplane radios, emergency, military and police radios, HAM radios and short-wave broadcasts. This possible interference is central to the debate over whether or not the FCC should allow BPL to exist.

How Broadband Over Power Lines Works

There are two different technologies under development: Access BPL and In-house BPL.

Access BPL

Access BPL combines the technological principles of radio, wireless networking, and modems. It uses medium voltage power lines carrying about 7,200 volts (the ones that you see at the top of electric utility poles) to carry broadband Internet traffic. It can send data over power lines and into homes at speeds between 500 kilobits and 3 megabits per second which is currently comparable to cable and DSL modem speeds.

But turning the power grid into a stable, high-speed system of data transmission is tricky.

Those medium voltage power lines lines are just one component of a power grid. In addition there are generators, high voltage lines, substations and transformers that help carry electricity from the power plant all the way to your plug. And all of them interfere with data transmission.

So first BPL bypasses high-voltage power lines using either fiber-optic or telephone lines to inject the data into the medium-voltage power grid downstream. However the data can only travel so far before it begins to degrade. So special devices (called repeaters) are installed on the lines to take in the data and amplify it for the next leg of the journey.

There is also no way to run a clean data signal through a transformer. To overcome this, one BPL model uses two other devices, a coupler and a bridge to distribute Internet traffic. These are attached at the power pole and allow the data to bypass the transformer and enter the low voltage lines attached to your home. There are also wireless systems that bypass the low voltage lines altogether.

From there Access BPL uses a special modem that is about the size of a common AC adapter. It simply plugs into a 110 volt wall socket and has an Ethernet cable that connects to your computer (wireless versions are also available). BPL modems use silicon chips specifically designed to send signals over medium voltage power lines and separate data from 110 volt electric current. These are available right now and several electric utility companies in over 26 states are quietly doing pilot programs.

In-house BPL

In-house BPL networks machines within your home or office. In-house BPL products can easily comply with the radiated emissions limits listed in Part 15 of the FCC’s Rules, because they connect directly with the low voltage electric lines inside your home or office. This technology has little to do with actually connecting to the Internet and is available in stores right now.

Is BPL coming to your neighborhood soon?

Bottom line… Don’t count on it! At least not soon. The radio interference issue is serious enough that at least one utility company was forced to terminate its pilot program prematurely.

Is the idea going to die? Don’t count on that either. The concept has enough merits and profit potential that BPL developers and investors alike refuse to give up. And that attitude will most likely persist until the FCC finally says “no way”.

Dave Oetter is the managing editor for http://www.CheapandFreeISP.com who have been helping people find the best affordable Internet access and other TelCom products and services since 2001.

Customer Support for Web-Hosting Newbies

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

Webhosting is a highly competitive field where only those who provide quality service succeed . Quality support increases customer retention which is as important as new customer acquisition.

There is no hard and fast rule on how to provide support. However for a startup webhosting company, its better to be aware of the options available. This article would show how effectively support can be provided with the limited resources available. Many of the ideas and points in this article would help all those who are presently stuck up running their businesses from their homes to foray into this business in a organized way and make it big.

While deciding on how to provide the support, the same rules don’t apply everywhere. Larger hosting companies should be handled differently from smaller hosts. If you are a newbie ask yourself the following questions.

1) How many hours can you spend daily for providing support ?
2) What is the level of technical skill you have ?
3) What is your support budget?
4) Are your clients more technically proficient than you are?
5) What are the technical services you would like to provide ?

The answers to the above question will help in deciding what support system is to be used . Lets see how the answers to each question would influence the plan.

1) How many hours can you spend daily, for providing support?

A proper customer system can give you more time to spend on other departments like marketing and sales. So when you are designing the customer support system, you should decide on how much time you should be spending on providing support.

What happens if there is not much time available for support? For a startup company, spending just 3-4 hrs ( not necessarily in one go ), would be more than enough. Since there would be only few support queries coming in, it wouldn’t be difficult to handle all queries . But here instead of concentrating on replying to each email or phone call, start building a solid self help options for customers . Build a knowledge base and also provide tutorials . A new hosting company with a well laid out tutorials and walk-throughs gives a better impression to the clients. It has been observed that, there is a 60% reduction in the number of support queries coming in, once the above tools are provided.

What’s advised is, instead of trying for a 24×7 support system running, concentrate on providing self-help-support for customers. A customer would appreciate a site that says “Customer Support from 9am to 5pm” along with self-help support documentation rather than going for the more expensive 24/7 support when your business is small. With competitive pricing this would paint the company to be one run by a professional rather than a newbie.

2) What is your technical capability?

Many startup companies are run by a single owner who juggles the roles of sales, support and billing person by himself. Support is one department where his technical skills would be tested daily . Single owners who are not technically ready, would end up losing more money and time which otherwise could have been used effectively for growth of the company.


There was this owner of a company who was brilliant in marketing and sales .Since he was not a tech guy, he used to spent time googling to find solutions for the support queries from his users . However the support tickets took a long time for getting responses . Due to his customer relation skills, he was able to hang on for some time, but soon clients started leaving . Even after 2 years in the industry, he is still owns a single server, while others have moved ahead. Funny fact, is he is still not ready to accept the fact that his tech skills are not good enough.

The support determines the customer retention factor, which is deciding factor for the company’s growth . Hence it should not be neglected . Its okay to try your luck with 50 or so clients at hand . But once your client base grows over 100, get a proper system running . If you are not familiar with systems involved, contact any outsourced tech support company and get a single tech from there to get the system ready . You just need a dedicated tech for 12 hours to install the system for you . Make sure that you get the following services done by the tech.

1) Ticketing System / Help desk installed
2) Backup procedure installed ( if not available already )
3) Customer Contact Form in your site installed.
4) Security auditing of your server.

All of this will cost you very little. Once
done, you can start providing quality support for your customers.
Remember to get the tech from a good company, as there are many out
there . A few are Bobcares, Touchsupport ( Don’t forget to
checkout the testimonials of their customers before coming to a decision ).

There are a lot of newbies, who would like to take care of their customers themselves. Problem is most of the issues that can be solved by an experienced person in 10 minutes will take an hour or more for a non-technical person. This will leave a bad impression for a startup hosting company.

If you are technically good, then have an email-based customer support. That’ll help archive all communication, and also give time to think twice before providing response. As a startup company, its always safe to read through what you are responding before sending it. The problem with chat/phone is that your knowledge level gets thrown open in front of the customer. A single mistake in the response can bring in bad reputation.

3) What is your support budget ?

Like in any industry, the amount invested can make a major difference in webhosting too . Just in the support department, there are a lot of things that could be done if there is a lot of money at your disposal.

Having a telephone support is the best option. Clients could be handled better over phone, than through any other media. Nothing can beat the personal touch a telephone conversation can provide. On the negative side, you’ll have to prepare for understanding all kinds of pronunciation and slangs. This could become more difficult customers are from different parts of the world. Also be aware that phones have to be attended even if you are vacationing with your girlfriend on a lovely beach.

With more money, you can setup a nice informative site and tutorials. Having flash based Howtos can be of real help for the users. Further having a professional looking tutorial will make customers at ease with the services. Also spend money once in a while to get the servers audited for security and resource management. Many outsourcing companies like Bobcares provides this service at low rates of $12/hr.

Also take advantage of the systems like Alertra, Web Site Monitoring system. They can alert you to your Mobile phone or PDA as soon as a support ticket is submitted or the server load goes high. It can save a lot of working time, and since the ticket notifications are alarmed instantly, prompt service can also be ensured.

4) Are your clients more technically proficient than you are ?

A good businessman will know who the future customers are going to be . Market study prior to starting of business, is needed in webhosting too . Decide whether the services are to be offered to hosting novices or power-users . Knowing your customers well can really help in providing efficient support.

Hosting novices prefer to go to the companies charging very less . Their requirements are very less, and the sites would consist mostly of static HTML pages . These are people who’ll be asking questions on everything under the sun especially startup questions like “how can I upload files” . Just keep a really good knowledge base, and most of the issues will get resolved there. Newbies prefer to go through tutorials than asking questions . Give phone numbers to clients on need-to-know basis. Together these services would give a newbie a homely feeling. But its not suggested to have a user-forum in this situation. There was this company that setup user-forum, but ended up getting bashed on daily basis for no fault of theirs. Newbies are more worrisome people. hence its best to keep them separated .

Power-users are those who use a lot of resources and services ( SSH, CGI, ASP, Java, Coldfusion ..etc ), . They make the best use out of the resources available, but at the same time are experienced and often patient . In case the power-users are being targeted, get a geek ready. Otherwise lot of time would be spent on googling than answering the support queries . A tech guy who is experienced on the services provided will make life easy .

Another benefit of this market is that you’ll have a pool of skilled users . Just get a user forum running, and that’ll relieve you from most of the support job. The users would be able to help each other here. Many established companies have a well kept user-forum that acts as a support system. However keep a watch on the forum, to avoid getting back-bitten, though that wont take up much time on daily basis . Phone & chat support can be avoided here. Users would prefer to have an efficient email based ticketing systems like Cerebrus HelpDesk or kayako.

5) What are the technical services provided ?

A hosting company would use a lot of softwares and hardwares that are technically complicated . This includes Control Panels, Server’s Operating System, Coldfusion, Java, ASP .. etc . Selection of the services that are to be offered will influence the support department too .

Technology changes fast, and its normal to be forced to update the softwares and servers quiet often. But a frequent change and upgrade can cause lot of downtime . Users would also get agitated over it . There would be a rain of support queries after an upgrade or change . If a control panel like CPanel is being used, which updates every fortnight, you would have to be on the toes all the time. Be selective on the services, and prefer using softwares that requires minimum changes . Plesk, another control panel, is a good example for it . Once installed plesk would not require a change very often, which means less support queries.

Further, for a starter its better to start with limited services . This will help in getting a solid support base, and as the company grows keep adding new services. Also update tutorials, and problem solvers as new services are added.

Support is just not about responding to customers, it includes how support is provided. Having a complete support system running, with a professional touch added to it, will make a great impression on customers . Add to it a competitively priced packages and then there will be nothing that can stop this mushroom from growing into a tree.

Sojish Krishnan - EzineArticles Expert Author

Sojish Krishnan is a freelance author and is currently emplyoyed by http://bobcares.com . He can be reached at sojish@sojish.com