Consider the following web hosting blunders and do not allow yourself to make these mistakes that can have a seriously negative impact on your website.

Blunder #1 – Contact Information

Make sure your web host has contact information available to you 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. This should be in the form of phone numbers as well as e-mail addresses that correspond to the web host domain name. Make sure you are dealing with a real company that is serious about both their business and yours.

Blunder #2 – Lots of Bandwidth

If you are using a free or cheap web host then more than likely you will not have a lot of bandwidth which could cause you problems with your website. Even if you have to pay a little bit more money, it is worth it to gain additional bandwidth. Make sure you ask about this before signing up with a web host.

Blunder #3 – Generous Disk Space

Many times people find a cheap or free web host and just sign up without ever checking for the amount of disk space. A questing to ask yourself, what happens when the diskspace is filled up? Make sure that the hosts you are considering provide generous amounts of diskspace, if it is limited you might consider using a web host that is larger and offers more services.

Blunder #4 – Web Host Domain Name

Make sure the company domain name matches the web host company name before giving out your credit card information or hosting your website with them. On the Internet it is up to you to decide whether a company is legitimate or not, check out the domain and company name to find a match to be sure.

Blunder #5 – Security

Regardless of the web host you use and your website design you must ensure that you have secure websites for purchases where people will enter the banking and or credit card information. If your site does not appear to be secure, customers will leave. You want to avoid this at all costs and go to all lengths to make customers feel secure and confident buying from your site.

Blunder #6 – Plan Ahead

Make sure you have a plan for the future and an idea of your websites growth. Without this you could run into some serious problems if you outgrow your website, shopping cart, or bandwidth too quickly and do not have a plan on how to handle things. Make a plan for slow, medium ,and fast growth so you will know what to do in every situation.

Blunder #7 – Slow Server

Make sure you web page loads within 10 seconds for a 56 k modem. If not, then people will leave your site before the page ever opens. The reason for this is people are looking for instant gratification on the Internet. If you cannot provide them with the information that they want in a timely fashion, they will leave. It’s as simple as that.

Blunder #8 – Design

Make sure that whatever web host you use allows you to design your site for ultimate success. If there are any rules or regulations regarding your site design that will possibly impact your sales and the way customers perceive your site then find another host. There are plenty to choose from.

Blunder #9 – Checkout

Ensure the checkout process is clear, easy, and to the point. People want to buy their products without giving you a ton of personal information. Let them do that or simply make certain fields optional if you are trying to conduct market research.

Blunder # 10 – URL

You want your own personal URL that reflects your business and services. Do not use a free host that gives you some kind of space using their URL with some additional information at the end of the URL that directs it to you. Spend the money and get your own URL that is unique, easy to use, and says something about your company. It will be worthwhile.

Michael Turner shows you exactly how to increase web site traffic in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it today at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/

A trend that has been growing on the web is the use of blogs. These may be quite useful in your home business since e-mail applications including newsletters have been hard hit in recent year due to UCE (unsolicited commercial e-mail) or spam. Blogs are a content delivery method which might eventually replace commercial e-mail to a certain degree. As a matter of fact, a blogs may contain any content that you want. By using them to help promote your home business you are accessing an entirely new audience. Getting a blog going is not really that hard. Blogger(owned by google) might just be the best way. Tblog is also a free service, and paid ones include salon dot com and the blogging network. Tripod offers a free blog builder and hosting service as well. It was one of the first such free services, yet may be inferior to some services in certain respects. You can also use software applications if you want to to create a more personalized blog for your home business.

One of the big advantages of using a blog is that they tend to get good search engine posititioning due to interlinking and their inherent content. Search Engines know that most blogs are updated on a regular basis. Blogs have brought in a whole new texture to the media relations world because bloggers are often seen as opinion leaders and such. Topic specific blogs have become a kind of “speaker’s corner” for the internet due to their relevency. Area specific blogs can also be a useful resource. You might want to set up a city based blog. Or a blog that covers certain topics or news effecting a certain state or other geographical location. Blogs can also be a source of news for subjects not covered by the mainstream media. You could use blogs to either promote your home business directly or use the traffic to promote an affiliate program like Google adwords to set up another stream of income.

Once you have your blog up and running, there are a number of superb resources that you can use to promote it. Blog-city is a blog search engine and directory, blogsearchengine.com, blogwise (paid) and bloghop dot com(paid). Using blogs effectively can certainly improve the internet marketing results for your home business! For additional home business tips go to Home Business Match.com and look at the free reprint original home business article archive there.

Ryan Joseph is writer of home business and other topics. More info at http://www.home-business-match.com and http://www.aaronsfreebies.com/

The top ten fonts for website design might change in order, but for the most part the fonts that make up this list stay the same due to their popularity. In general, the top ten list includes Arial, Frutiger, Futura, Gills Sans, Helvetica, Lucida, Optima, Palatino, Agfa Rotis, and Univers.

The reason these fonts are so popular is because they are simple and easy to read on computer screens with low resolution. As a result, most of the time fonts that are unique, wild, and distinctive are not used on web pages so as not to distract the reader from what is trying to be said and communicated through the font on the page. Since the website uses content to get the point across, it is prudent to use fonts that are easy to read. If you make it difficult for a visitor to read the content, they will more likely leave than put forth the effort. Consider the following points as well when developing your fonts for your website.

- Big Fonts

This is your web page and likely your livelihood, not a term paper or research project that has a defined style. Because of this, you can use big fonts, bold them, make them stick out and attract the reader. You can drive your point home with larger fonts and they also will be significantly easier for your visitor to read. The object of your website is to present information that is easily seen, read, and found by visitors. So, go ahead and increase the font size even in regular text that is not in a heading or title. Many of your visitors will thank you because they will not have to put on their glasses or strain to read the text. Sometimes bigger is better.

- Sans Serif

If you have no idea about fonts, how they translate to your web page, or how they will affect your visitors and ultimately sales, then you should definitely stick with a san serif font. The reason for this is that these fonts are the most legible and provide the best readability for visitors in a low resolution atmosphere. Don’t take risks with your fonts, go generic and use a sans serif font. Your visitors will thank you for it and your sales will not suffer from it.

- Simple is Safe

Again, don’t let yourself get carried away with your fonts and designs. Instead, keep the thought in mind that simple is safe. If you want to be bold and brazen in your website design then don’t take that route with your fonts. Keep it simple, basic, and easy to read, and you will benefit significantly more than if you try to mix it up.

Michael Turner reveals step-by-step how you can increase search engine traffic in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it now at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/

An organically-grown subscriber list is one that’s been cultivated 100% naturally. Much like garden vegetables, your organically-grown subscriber list will at first be smaller than those whose growth was enhanced using artificial means. But the fruits of your labor, your subscribers, will also be sweeter and packed with “vital nutrients” to help your business thrive. Harvest a perfect crop of interested prospects, and weed out the feigned interest and fake number counts that make you look good but yield no real business!

Organically-grown subscriber lists are “truer” than ones that were bought or rapidly collected in mass quantities. The reason is because each subscriber is hand-selected and fresh-picked based on a high level of interest. Some subscribers may arrive on your list by chance and picked YOU out as their expert to learn from. Others, you may gather in your business dealings after networking with them any number of times. The important thing is not so much HOW you got them to click the “subscribe” button on your submission box, but the fact that they possessed a strong desire to do so.

Where to obtain organically-grown subscribers for your email newsletter?

1. Articles. By writing original articles and circulating them around the Web, you can attract fellow businesspeople who share your ideals and appreciate your ideas. Link your article to a landing page where your reader can learn more and include a newsletter sign-up box on the page.

2. Networking. Participating in online forums is the perfect way to get to know people slowly, in a no-pressure situation where folks can take their time in realizing ways you might help them to further growth.

3. Referrals. As you expand your circle of contacts, folks who walk away pleased with your services will likely recommend you to their friends and associates who may also have a need for what you offer.

4. Classified Advertising. Find a highly-trafficked, reputable site to post the news about your business, and wait for people to find you by way of their own searching. Take out an ad in the newspaper and do the same.

5. Sales Letters. Pursue a group of businesses who may find your offerings useful with an informative sales letter. In this letter, isolate their wants and needs and position yourself as having the solution. Keep the letter campaign going with follow-up mailings.

6. Volunteering. People will be less willing to pay your fees if they don’t know what to expect from your work. If you’re just starting out, offer up some of your time by helping someone for free. Sure, everybody wants to get paid, but you have to start somewhere and that’s by offering a sample of what you can do.

7. Your Website. To me, this goes without saying, but many internet marketers start off with no website, and that’s like having no home. Your business needs to take root and you must give people a place to go when they want to know more about you. Yes, your domain is literally your domain! Send people there at every opportunity, work on your search engine position, and soon you’ll be sowing the seeds of a well-tended business.

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Dina Giolitto is a copywriting consultant and ghostwriter with 10 years of experience writing corporate print materials and web content. Trust her with your next e-book, article series or web project, and make a lasting impression on your audience of information-hungry prospects. Visit http://www.wordfeeder.com for more information.