Your data must be backed up on a regular basis so you lose as little as possible in the case of a problem. In the computer industry, it is a MUST to backup your data, both on and off site! With all the viruses, worms and hackers – you wont know in advance when you need the backup or why so taking good regular backups has become mandatory!

All of Sasquatch Hosting’s accounts come with a solid reliable backup scheme for your safety. If you have a reseller site that has many users, it is mandatory that you backup your users data as well as your own. Under such situations it is better to backup the site data and the users’ data separately so that you can restore which ever you want.

A backup can be incremental or full backup. Full backup is to take a backup of all the data available in the site, whereas the incremental backup is to take a backup of the data that has changed since the last backup. It takes a lot of time and space to take a full backup of your site. Backup is taken usually in the tar format or the .gz format. Taking backups in these formats saves a lot of space and time.

Most web hosting services provides a backup plan which could be on a   monthly, weekly, or daily basis. The data that is backed up is stored on a secure server, preferably in a different physical location. Some providers will charge you for backup services that they provide. Some hosting providers provide you the necessary tools to take a backup so that you can schedule backups on your own. If your site has critical data then hourly backup can also be a great idea. This will usually result in an extra charge from your  hosting provider.

Also depending on how critical the application is, please keep multiple backups. Do NOT trust your businesses life and future to your hosting company. Anything from disgruntles workers to hacks can destroy their backups too! Always keep a copy in a safe place! I suggest 3 backups is the minimum needed for safety. One should be your web host -- if they take backups. Another should be to a cloud server using backup software. The third and last should be to your computer!

I hope you now understand why having a current backup of both your site and the data it contains is mandatory in this day and age. This way no matter what happens your site can be restored as fast as possible.

Importance of Data Backup

Whether online or offline, data is a very important thing to all businesses. Losing the data stored in your server can harm your business, making you spend large amounts of time and money to recover or replace them. Replacing the data, though, is not that easy with some critical applications. In order to avoid all this you should find ways for retaining your data. This is what data back-up does. You save your important data either to a remote server or another media. If and when you need it, you can use the data to restore it back. Corrupt applications, corrupt data files, natural disasters, intentional damage and hardware failures are among the situations that can make you lose data. In such cases, you can restore the data by using that which you backed up on the remote server. In order not to lose much data when a situation like those above-mentioned occurs, you should perform periodical back-ups.

Data backup is not just common, but also necessary in web hosting industry. Because of the increasing number of viruses or worms, it is possible that you don’t even notice that you have lost data. Considering everything, always take a backup of your data. You will usually receive a comprehensive data backup scheme when purchasing a web hosting account. If you have a site with many users, you should also backup their data, but separately from the site’s data, so you can restore whichever you want.

There are two types of backup: incremental or full backup. The former implies taking a backup only of the data that has changed since the last backup, while the latter means taking a backup of all the site’s data. Taking a full backup generally take a lot of time and space, which can be saved by taking backups in the tar format or the .gz format.

The backup plan provided by most web hosting services can be monthly, weekly, on a daily basis or even hourly, depending on how critical your data is. You may be charged for this service by the hosting provider. You can also schedule the backup yourself, if the web hosting services provides you with the necessary tools.  The backed up data is stored online on a secure server or even off line on your computer. 

In the web hosting industry, it is very important to take backups of your data and your site. This way no matter what happens, what ill wind comes along your website will be up and running in no time at all.

Keeping your website safe

In this day and age, it’s very important to insure your website is safe and secure at all times. With an increased number of hacking attempts, there is a very good chance someone will attempt to deface or destroy your site. Or they can even use it for illegal purposes without you ever knowing about it. So how can you keep your website safe? Well really it’s pretty easy.

1. Stay up to date! ALWAYS! Gone are the days of put a site up and forget it. If you use Worpress, Joomla, osCommerce or any other CMS, make sure that you sign up to hear about updates. When a security update comes out, install it right then.

1. Use strong passwords! And ‘passwd’ does NOT qualify! A password should not be a dictionary name, or a short group of numbers. For a tip on making a password that’s secure and easy to remember, try this. Take a word such as sail. Now add 4 numbers to it, such as sail1234 or 1234sail. Now don’t use 1234! Pick the numbers at random! Now add a special character such as a @ # $ & or even a capital A X E B. Add this to your password, so now you have A1234sail – now we have a good reasonably strong password.

1. Ok we covered the password, but what about the user name? In Wordpress, it gives you a default of admin – Joomla uses administrator. DO NOT use these! When setting up your site always change the default name to something else, even if its joe or john. Now a hacker has to guess 2 different names instead of one! Now we have more than doubled his problem!

1. Keep your home computer secure! Use a good antivirus and update it. Also stay off sites such as warez, hacks, illegal downloads and porn. A lot of these sites are infected or are traps to infect your computer. If you’re broke, there are several good free antivirus programs out there, just do a Google search.

1. Ok, our password is secure and our computer is too. But what about the data we send to the site? Use SSL! You don’t want anyone to read your data as it is sent to your website, and yes it can be done! There are reasonably priced SSL certificates out there, and you may even be able to setup a free one as well.

Ok, there are 5 tips to keep your website secure. Remember to use a good password and user name, run a good antivirus program on your computer and always stay up to date and you should have a safe, secure, money making website. Guarantee

There are some features you have to consider when you are looking for a web hosting solution for your e-commerce website. These features depend on what you intend doing with your website.

1. Technical support should be excellent, responding to your requests within hours. A toll free telephone support 24/7 is offered by some web hosts. You don’t want to lose money if there’s something wrong with your website.

2. Bundled Software. Decide if your website will require any specialized software (content management system, shopping cart system) before building it. Then see if you are offered the specialized software as part of the package by the web host. If, for instance, your web host offers cPanel control panel software, you will be able to easily install a variety of software, like weblog, discussion board, content management, customer support or shopping cart. They will be for use on your website, all due to a component called Fantastico.

3. Editing tools and script support are offered by many hosting companies. Check for support for FrontPage extension if you are using the FrontPage software package. You should also be certain that your web host is compatible with PHP, ASP, Perl and other scripting languages, if you plan to use them.

4. Speed and uptime. You web host should guarantee an uptime of 99.9%. Check to see if this is the case in order to make sure that their connections are high speed, and you can also look into the information regarding their data center.

5. Do your due diligence. Check for magazines’ awards or seals of approval and the Internet Better Business Bureau Seal of the web hosting company before signing up for a web housing account. You can also look for reviews, to see which ones are consistent, the bad or the good ones.

 The small business web hosting service you’ll find will most definitely be reliable and stable if you take into consideration all these tips.

    When it comes to looking professional the importance cannot be stressed enough.  People are very hesitant to trust a company or individual who doesn’t look like he/she is capable.  In a sense the clothes make the man here.  Those who appear qualified will have a much easier time attracting customers, employees, and even be courted by vendors/suppliers.  People are by their very nature timid and worrisome.  If you can appear professional and legitimate it appeals to primal urge to feel secure and that will make people instantly feel more comfortable with you and your business.  Screen printed t-shirts do just that by making you appear like you have it all together.  Think about the following two scenarios.  In the first a people from you firm show up to do a job in a hodgepodge of random and assorted clothing.  They look, although are not, unprofessional because they offer no sense of order and thought.  In the second scenario, the crew arrives wearing the same t-shirts with bear your logo and demonstrate the legitimacy of your business.  If I had to guess, the second scenario is how you as the owner of a small business would like to present your business.  If you do nothing more than have the appearance of thought before hand, your business appears to be professional and inspires confidence.

    The second way custom screen printed t-shirts can help out your small business is through the wonder of advertising.  Custom printed t-shirts are among the best ways to advertise for small businesses.  Think about your target audience and it is easy to see that small businesses benefit exceptionally well.  Small businesses more than likely want to target people in your area.  That is what custom printed t-shirts do.  They walk around and give you unlimited advertising in your own local area.  Give the t-shirts to your friends and family and they can wear them around and advertise for nothing more than the cost of the t-shirt.  Another idea I find often works is giving a t-shirt to people for whom you do a job.  These people will unlikely make it their favorite piece of apparel, but even if they wear it to the gym then they offer advertisement and can offer their own form of advertising.  Consider if you will Ralph as he stands outside washing his car one Saturday morning.  His neighbor Jim walks by and sees Ralph’s shirts offering services that Jim is looking for himself.  Ralph now has advertised for you and can do even more by saying that he loved your services and describe the great job you did.  This strategy offers both printed advertisement as well as word of mouth advertising.  My company keeps the images that you used on file, so ordering more t-shirts down the road is a snap.

    I hope have found this article to be somewhat informative and thought provoking.  Small business are the majority of my clients and I’m always happy to help come up with design ideas and ways to improve not only their t-shirts but promotional products as well, all with the same idea of advertising and looking professional.  After all those two key points can really set you own small business above the completion.  Isn’t that what you want?

Ok you want to make some money writing for a website, or even sell stuff yourself on the web but you are not sure what to do. Heck, you may not even know what the terms mean! The top three things to learn and remember are keywords, article length and plagiarism.

Article length is important. Try to boil the article down to 400 to 550 words because that’s all most folks will read and that is usually what most web masters want. Remember most people do not read on the web, so short paragraphs and good headers will help get your article read.

Plagiarism – stealing what someone else wrote – will not fly! There are sites like Copyscape that can check an article to not only see if it’s copied from elsewhere, they will catch if as little as 5 or 6% of your article matches an existing article. There are article spinners, but please use them only for articles you own. Just do your research and write with your own style and everything will workout just fine.

The last thing to remember is the most important – keywords! Keywords are what you enter into Google or Bing or any search engine to find whatever you want. Say your wanting to sell red widgets. Your main keywords would be red widgets, and you would want to use that keyword in the title and maybe in headings as well. You might also use related terms such as colored widgets, widget sales and maybe even fresh widgets! Your keywords should be scattered through out the article, and must be used naturally. Here is an example. Instead of “We sell the best items on the web at the best prices” try to use something closer to “Sasquatch Hosting sells the best red widgets at a better price than any of our competitors sell their red widgets for”.

So remember these three things when you start – article length, don’t plagiarize and most important, learn to use keywords properly in your article. This is not all there is to do of course, but this will get you started on the right course! After these, if you are signed up at Ezines, make sure you read their article writing course for more tips and tricks.

Bar Camp Nashville To go or not to go – that is the question!

Ok, so I live 90 miles from Nashville – why should I go to Barcamp Nashville? I have missed the last 2, why start going now? Come on, I go to PHP meetups, Drupalcamp Nashville, this camp that camp – why add another?

Well lets look at it. On the negative side its on a Saturday. So no sleeping in late, no coffee in my pajamas! Its an HOUR AND A HALF drive people!! Why the heck should I be forced to put myself out like this? I mean come on I can go fishing instead!

Ok on the other side, a lot of people have worked hard to set this up. They have spent time, money and energy working on BarCamp Nashville so we can have a great time meeting people and learning new things! And if no one goes, when I do want to go, it might be gone forever!

Well why else would I want to go? I already know everything, so why bother? Oh wait, look at all these speakers – maybe I dont know everything, I might learn something here that will get me a raise! Hey raises are good! Or maybe that company is looking for a new developer and will give me a raise to boot!

Well maybe I can go to meet cool people! Lets see, are there going to be any cool people like Cal Evans and Paul Jones there? How about industry leaders like Marcus Whitney? Oh there is? Cool! Maybe some of their cool will rub off on me – oh wait, I am cool I dont need that!

Ok so why go? Well I am not cool, so maybe some cool will rub off! And I can use a job, so maybe I will get lucky and meet the perfect match! And I do want to show the folks who set this up and the speakers that their hard work wasnt wasted. And I dont know everything, maybe I can learn some new skills to help at work!

Well there it is – the reasons not to attend BarCamp Nashville dont add up to a hill of beans  and a lot of really great reasons to attend! If you want to learn new things, be cool and spend a day with industry leaders and fellow tech folks, come on down to BCN11 and have a blast! Make sure you tell the folks volunteering a thank you -- they are all volunteers! Dont forget to support the sponsors too!

So remember October 15th in Nashville at the Cadillac Ranch, come join the best brightest tech community in the world -- right here in our great area! Looking forward to seeing you there!

To see the previous blog on the tour go to how to make money at barcamp

And dont forget this is all brought to you VIA BarCamp Nashville!

What is SSL is a question we get asked a lot. In simple terms its a way of making sure a customers information to your web site is secure and no one can see it.

Why do I need SSL? Well if your customers use a credit card that information has to be sent secured. But in this day and age, its a good idea to use SSL anytime a customer needs to add personal information ranging from name and email to passwords!

The first step is the hardest. What are you doing on the web? If your swelling widgets, and your front page talks about sprockets -- no good! Make sure you use content that uses the words you want to be found with. If you sell widgets, that could be as simple as this.

Welcome to widget world, your home for the best widgets. We have green widgets, red widgets and can get gold and gilded widgets as needed!

See how easy that was? Your customer knows what you sell, and Google or Yahoo know what you want to sell! This will allow them to send you the best potential customers.

Ok now look at the rest of your site. If you are using Wordpress, Joomla or any other content management system see if they have a search engine friendly package -- if they do have one install it. Again, this helps the search engines find you and know how you want to be found.

Ok now Google and Yahoo are happy! Well, not quite. Make sure to look for a sitemap generator. These just make a web map of where everything is. If there is one install it and run it! If there isnt, just google one and run it.  Now you have made Google, Yahoo and Bing happy!

Now for the hard part -- shameless self promotion! Do you hang out on blogs? forums? If you do, and they allow it, creaqte a signature to use. Mine is always a link to Sasquatch Hosting, Inc. This will help send more traffic to your site. Also link to other local businesses, and ask them to do the same. Again, this will help youy to be found. Remember your goal is not to get number 1 in google, but number 1 locally!

Now do a google search again for the google local directory. Find out how to get listed, and do the same for Yahoo and Bing.Follow the instructions and get listed in the local directory, since a lot of customers will look there first.

Now you can sit and wait, or be a bit more proactive. One thing to do at this time is to start a blog on whatever you sell, and write an article every week or so. This will help bring traffic to you, and hopefully they will stay and shop.

Just follow a few simple steps and jaybe you can buy google some day!

Its so easy to start a new project. Just enter your web site, color code it (if you want it to stand out) and tell advanced web ranking to update it. Boom thats it! From here you can check your rankings -- or your competitors!

Starting a new project? With integrated versions of Wordtracker and Google Suggest and a built in keyword research tool you will find it a breeze to develop new keywords for your web site no matter if your an SEO expert or a web site owner! Of course this is great but when you add in the built in keyword analyzer tool that allows you to check not only your sites keywords but also check your competitions keywords and keyword density for maximum effectiveness.

Also Advanced Web Ranking has the ability to use multiple proxies to help speed up a search and once your done, all reports are printable to make it easier to share with clients!

One of the first things mentioned to me about advanced web ranking was that it is search engine friendly. By mimicking a human user, there are no more worries about being banned for your searches. All searches are done on the local machine after downloading the page so no more being blocked by search engines! Also with over 200 search engines, you should have no trouble finding the one you need.

Need proxies for customers in different areas of the world? Google page rank? Local search by region? Quick reports? These are some more capabilities of this great search engine optimization tool! It even supports multiple API keys for both Google and Yahoo.

I am still learning all the features of advanced web ranking, but I can say now it will be my companies tool of choice to help increase our clients rankings!

So I have now been using it for 2 weeks. In that timespan I have raised my site from not ranking at all for some search terms to being on page 2 or 3. This was done just by looking up keyword combinations and picking better choices than I was using. This immediate boost has energized my own efforts! The ability to track on a regular basis and see immediate results has been a great help as well. Now to spend the next 2 weeks working on a friends site to see how it helps on a site that has been around for a while.

4 week update. This script rocks! Being able to track customers site rankings is a very valuable tool. While I still havent scratched the surface of all its capabilities,  in a month it has allowed me to make changes and bring up get several sites get ranked better in Google, Bing and Yahoo. The keywords tools and the density tools are a huge help!

Bottom line is go get a 30 day trial and see what happens!

So lets get into it – The first thing you need is a domain name and a place to host your site. A domain name is how you are found on the web, so whenever possible, use the name of your business. You want the .com extension, because that is what most folks automatically type. Hosting is where your site is kept, and it is very important. You do not want to use any service that advertises unlimited storage or transfer – there is nothing that really is unlimited! Most sites can be hosted on less than 1GB of disk space and 1 to 30GB of data transfer!  Use a reputable host who will not lie to you. Your website is a major business asset. Make sure you have 2 backups at least or better yet 3! NEVER rely solely on your webhosting company! While most companies do backup daily (Sasquatch Hosting, Inc backs up to cloud storage nightly) they do not warrant their backups to work – they just do not wish the liability!

For a small business website just looking for advertising, Wordpress is a great choice. If  you need a small 4 or 5 page site to help bring you more business, a simple Wordpress site that you can update or change without needing to hire someone will do the job. Once it’s up, you can buy a great template for less than 100 dollars to make your site look good. If you want to sell on line, you need an ecommerce solution.

How do you get found on the web? The fancy name for it is SEO (search engine optimization) but the normal name is Google! You must anticipate and use the words your customer will use in a search to discover your site. If you are a bookkeeper, then you might say “Bookkeeping in Linden TN for local businesses and we specialize in bookkeeping for doctors”. SEO should be targeted to your ideal customer.

Your ideal customer is the customer who you have recently served, who was a pleasure to work with; who loved everything about what you do, and will very likely tell all his or her friends.  Words that describe what that customer is looking for and how you can satisfy those needs or wants will attract that kind of customer to your page (and business). Your goal is to be on page one for your subject in Google.

It is the cheapest advertising you can do and it targets the people who are looking for you! A normal yearly cost is under $100 if a webmaster is needed. If no work is needed, your cost could be less than $30.00 a year including domain name. Update the information on your site on a regular basis. One short article a month will work long term.  Stay alert to topics during your work day. Remember, most folks under age 50 NEVER use a phone book. To get their business REQUIRES a website. Whether you host through Sasquatch Hosting, Inc or anyone else, make sure you can be found on the WEB! . By using a blog, and posting to it, as time goes on you will become known as an expert in your field, which will send more traffic (and business!) your way.

I hope this helps you to get your small business on the web. If you need help, I can be hired through Odesk.com or through Sasquatch Hosting, Inc. On Odesk I test in the top 30% of all professionals in Wordpress, HTML and CSS and in the top 10% on internet marketing.

No - its not a factory. It’s not a new road! What it is in embracing change, and riding the winds of chaos! It’s a simple idea to solve rural Americas problems, and it has worked so far in my community. It does involve things politicians don’t like -- taking chances and building jobs 4, 5 or 10 at a time instead of big factories for them to stand in front of!

What it takes is the internet! Sounds easy, BUT most politicians right now are older and less comfortable with the net as the rest of the world is -- and they haven’t thought through the implications of competing in a world arena. The factories are gone. Don’t get me wrong, they will be around, but not as many as before. So how to get jobs? Service is ok, but pays nothing. so what to do?

Embrace the web and ride the future. So how do we do this? The short answer is to change the culture of your area. The longer answer? Well keep reading!

I will break this into 3 parts, why you need to revitalize rural areas is part 1. Part 2 is how to revitalize a rural community. And part 3 is the possible future of a revitalized rural area!

Why restore a rural community? Because people live there! And those people need jobs! And all those jobs can’t be broom pushers or making hamburgers. What would 10 or 20 new high paid high technology jobs mean to your rural area? How about that many a year? Money brought into a local economy doesn’t raise the living standard of just the person who earns it. It boosts the bank tellers job! It helps the local lumberyard! Realtor! Doctor! Plumber! Money spent in the local economy stays there. What that means is 10 good jobs, will add several regular jobs.

How to do it? Well this is going to take a bit of time, but here we go. Its called education! But not government education, if it becomes a government program they will be turning out broom pushers 20 years after brooms are gone. So instead we look at needed skills, and understand that skill sets change now on a regular basis. This means we have to teach a new way of life. No more going home to TV, now its going home to study! So we teach a base course in programming for the high skilled end. For the lower skilled side, we teach customer service work that can be done at home. At the same time, people must go and comb local big cities for companies that want to save money, and are willing to help train. They need to setup remote offices while people are trained to a higher level than the initial class can cover.

Can this idea change the future of a rural area – yes! Not short term, but over some time the brain drain will cease. More businesses will start to support the new jobs. And best of all, this is a cheap solution. All that’s needed is 1 trainer, some high speed internet and some time to teach and look for companies. So good luck and go RURAL! For more information drop me a support ticket!

1. A lot of people DO NOT HAVE brodband or DSL! Make sure their site loads FAST! I like a page to load in no more than 1.5 seconds and here is why. How long do you wait for a site to load before clicking elsewhere? 3 seconds? 4 seconds? 5? Most people are gone by 5 seconds! And the ones that are left really dont like your site very much! Faster IS better!

2. FLASH is bad! Ok not really, but its not very good for SEO, usually takes a lot of bandwidth (see rule 1) and a lot of folks wont stick around. Remember simplicity rules! VALID HTML and CSS will do wonders for your traffic.

3. Bounce rates matter.Try to keep your website as sticky as can be, and remember every page can be a landing page. The longer they stay, the better the chance of them buying from you. And thats the point, right?

4. Shorter is better! Shorter articles are read more often than longer ones! A 500 word article in most cases will be read 3 or 4 times as much as a 1500 word article. People want instant gratification, so keep your articles short! And your paragraphs short too!

5. Spelling Counts! Yes it does! Honest! If you cant spell, use spell check! It will make a difference!

6. Make yourself or your customer an expert! I went to a presentation a while ago by someone brought in from out of state to talk to local businesses about websites, Now I have said everything this person did BUT they are considered an expert! They did a lot of blogging, and work in that area so they are the experts in that field. A blog article every month is minimum, better is one every week or 2. Become an expert and reap the traffic!

7. Think like your customer -- its not what you want, its what they NEED! Solve their needs and the sales will follow!

I do hope you have enjoyed this, good luck and best wishes!

Also, do a whois on your web host. See how long they have been around, and also look at when their domain name expires. If it expires next week, you might want to look for a new web hosting company. If it expires in 2 or more years, you know they at least plan to stay around for a while. Also make sure they are not using a free domain name. Nothing says fly by night, like a free domain name being used by your web hosting company.

Another warning sign is lack of an address and phone number. While they do not need a 24/7 number, an address and phone number will help you rest easy at night knowing the web host you chose does exist somewhere! On that same idea, if they have taken the extra steps to incorporate or form an LLC, you can be assured they at least plan to stay in business.

Also check on the version of PHP and MySQL that they run. They should be at least 5.x for PHP and MySQL. If they havent updated yet -- run to the next choice!

Big or little hosting company? I dont think that really matters. There are big companies who have gone out of business and small ones as well. As long as you get great service, thats what really counts in this business. Well, now you have a few ideas of things to watch out for so I wish you good luck in your search for a hosting company. I would like to suggest us, Sasquatch Hosting Inc. as a candidate to help you get on the web and prosper. Good luck, and may you be blessed in life and business!

The presentations I attended were fantastic! Adam Kalsey from Tropo was a great speaker, knowledegable and very good. I also was wowed by Ligaya Turmelle, Michelangelo Van Dam, Travis Swicegood! The whole conference was wonderfully put together and if you can make it -- do it! Ligaya on MySQL was unreal, she really knows here stuff and if you can see her talk about it -- go for it!

Chicago was cold though! Coldest for one day since they started keeping records, and it felt worse! But the Best Western had a killer restuarant, great prices and good service. Never did see the bar so I cant help you there! I do know next year I will have some Sasquatch Hosting tshirts made up to wear and to pass out, of course that assumes I get a good sasquatch picture by then!

All in all, My thanks go to Cal Evans and Marco Tabini for letting me go. It was a great experience and will help improve my teaching to my students.