Anyone with a blog faces this conundrum at one time or another. Some people start out with a free blogging service like typepad or blogger, and, as they grow their audience, decide they need their own property. Others start out managing their own blog and get mired in the wordpress updates or spam and bail for a free, fully managed option. Before leaping right in, there are several items to consider when deciding which arrangement is right for you.

What are your Goals?

Are you planning on world domination or is your blog primarily for your friends and family? If you’re aspirations are modest, there is no reason to invest your time and money into a privately hosted blog. On the other hand, if you have loftier goals and think  you might, one day, want to become a pundit or amass a million followers, hosting your own property could pay dividends.

Design

Are you a designer? Does it matter to you to have your blog look just so? With free blogs, you have severely limited options design-wise. You can pick colors and templates, but you can’t go much beyond that. If you want to design your blog from the ground up, a privately hosted blog is right for you.

Maintenance

How good are you at computers? Do you understand how to configure a database? Do you understand PHP, blog software installation stuff or server-side configurations? None of this is particularly difficult, and it is very possible to learn it all with a little elbow grease. But, if you haven’t got the time, or don’t want to be bothered, a free blog is the best choice.

Branding

Generally, a blog with its own memorable domain name is much more brandable than a free blog domain (that includes .typepad or .wordpress within the URL). A private domain projects a professional image and sticks in people’s minds. Name your blog something clever to really capitalize on the memory factor. If you have big dreams, think about the promotional materials and business cards you may use in the future. Your own domain will look smashing on both.

Making Money

If your blog is popular, you can sell ads and make money, regardless of what format your blog happens to be in. Arguably, advertisers may be more inclined to take you seriously with your own domain name, but numbers talk. If you have the traffic, they’ll be interested.

Ready to Get Started?

If you’ve decided on hosting your own blog with your own domain name, look no further than TurnKey Website.

Recently the company Canon announced that it will be buying its own top-level domain, which means its web pages will end with .canon.  If Canon can successful buy it, the .canon top-level domain (TLD) will open as soon as late 2011.  With this TLD, Internet users will be able to navigate to “http://canon” to reach its website and Canon employees could create e-mail addresses like “Abbey@canon.”  Recently, in a press release, the company has said, “Canon hopes to globally integrate open communication policies that are intuitive and easier to remember compared with existing domain names such as ‘canon.com.’

The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has loosened restrictions this year, making it possible to create new TLDs.  The rules regarding TLD ownership will not be finalized until the middle of 2011.  Currently, ICANN has the TLD application fee set at $185,000.  However, fees can increase if there are disputes and multiple organizations apply for the same name.  In these cases, the name would go to the highest bidder. 

Rob Beckstrom, the CEO of ICANN, has stated, “One of the least innovative spaces in the Internet is the global top-level domains.  It’s an anomaly.  When the Internet opens up, then there is innovation.”  The new CEO plans to make the approval process for new domains quicker.  Along with Canon, Beckstrom predicts that one hundred of the most popular websites would eventually apply for their own TLD.  In addition to these TLDs, Beckstrom plans on reinstating the approval of the “.XXX” domain for pornographic websites.  He is also proposing that cities receive their own TLD and other languages get their own domains in their own language using language-specific characters.  He believes it will preserve local cultures and promote global interconnection.

Many people are criticizing Beckstrom that his new plans for the Internet are inspired by greedy motives.  Opponents claim that with all these new domain name possibilities, ICANN will make even more money from domain registration fees, and in turn, Beckstrom will be a richer man.  Beckstrom reinforces this is not the case and stands behind his statement that “adding more TLDS will add innovation.”

For many clients just starting out with a website or a new business, a virtual private server is often enough to get off the ground. But, for many there comes a point when the VPS offerings just aren’t enough.

The most obvious sign that it’s time for an upgrade is when your website has started regularly requiring more bandwidth or power than your current plan provides. Sure, this is kind of a no-brainer, but it’s a good idea to upgrade before you start running into trouble. If your site starts topping out the charts, it could temporarily go offline and that’s not good for business. Often we will see clients explode all of a sudden because they ran a special promotion or got some good press, and we will always work with them to make the transition to a dedicated server as seamless as possible. But, if you start seeing things getting busy, you can avoid a stressful situation with a preventative upgrade.

Another time an upgrade is a good idea is when a web application transitions out of beta. While your working the bugs out of your application, a VPS can work fine. With just a few developers and beta testers in the system, a dedicated server would probably be overkill anyway. Once you release your application to the public, however, you’ll want to make sure you plan for the inevitable boom in traffic. Nobody wants their newly released project going down right out of the gate!

Regardless of the content of your website, if you’re worried about stability, dedicated servers are always the safest bet. Below you will find a summary of all the benefits a dedicated server provides (and how TurnKey maximizes those benefits for our customers)…

• Speed and Performance: Server and network response times in a shared hosting environment depend highly on the activity of others with whom you share space and resources. With a dedicated server you have significantly faster response and page load times because all the systems resources (such as CPU, disk, RAM and network bandwidth) are controlled and utilized solely by the applications on your server.
• Reliability: With a dedicated hosting environment, you have unlimited access to the operating system, server resources and software applications. This gives you a reliable way to manage the needs of your web site and database system: it’s all there when you need it. If a neighbor causes a problem by over using resources, it will not impact your web site or your business. All TurnKey Dedicated Servers are bundled with our Managed Services (http://www.turnkeyinternet.net/webhosting/turnkey_managed_services.php) to ensure you have remote off-site backups, 24 x 7 monitoring and security to maintain the highest level of reliability on your server.
• Security: Dedicated servers provide better security than any other form of hosting since you are the only one with the root “administrative” access to your resources (disk, CPU, RAM, etc.) and can configure customized security policies server-wide such as firewall protection, user-level permissions and even restrict the types of applications that run on the server. With other forms of hosting, such as shared hosting, the neighbors you share space with could jeopardize the security of your web and database systems.
• Customization and Flexibility: Dedicated Servers offer unlimited customization and flexibility to meet your hosting application needs. You have access to fine tune and optimize all aspects of the server such as custom versions of Apache, PHP, MySQL, Perl/CGI or custom database configurations to suit your application needs, providing substantial performance gains over any other form of hosting. You maintain full root ‘administrator’ access to the server and can install, remove, or modify any applications you wish. Need even more power behind your hosted application – and TurnKey can customize your server with additional RAM, disk and bandwidth to suit your needs or provide you with advanced enterprise level solutions such as clustering, virtualization, load balancing and mirroring of your dedicated server.
• Easy-To-Use-Software: TurnKey Internet provides easy-to-use, pre-installed and pre-configured hosting applications for your web, database and mail system needs. If you know how to use a web browser, you are ready to use a TurnKey Dedicated Server with your choice of Administrative Control Panels. You can even select your choice of Linux or Windows operating systems.
• Multiple Domains: Dedicated servers provide a cost-effective and management-friendly solution to multiple domain hosting. Rather than dealing with the burden of numerous accounts on shared hosting servers, you can host a virtually unlimited number of domains on a single dedicated server. With our server management software, it’s easy to create, manage and delete accounts whenever you want, and all from one interface.
• Worry-Free Operation: TurnKey Internet backs every dedicated server with our Managed Service to ensure you don’t have to worry about your server and can keep your focus on running your business. From offsite backups to London and New York, to managed Firewall and Security monitoring, TurnKey takes care of everything for you.

As you can see, dedicated servers are the best solution for those that are serious about their web site and want the assurance that hardware, software and resources are dedicated exclusively to them. If you are considering hosting numerous domains, a high traffic site, an e-commerce site, reselling hosting to others, have sensitive data contained in your site or simply want more speed, power and control, it’s time to upgrade to a dedicated server. We hope you’ll choose TurnKey!

As a girl working in the technology industry, I’ve got a lot of tech-obsessed buddies on my list this year. So, I’ve been paying pretty close attention to what’s new and exciting in the bright and shiny electronics world. At this point, I’m panicking. December is rolling on under me like a breakneck speedster and, well, I am completely overwhelmed by the stunning volume and variety of new tech gadgets: Nanos and Kindles and Androids in The Cloud or something? Not only don’t I know what my friends want, I don’t have time to figure out what everything even is! If you’re feelin’ me right now, then stay tuned, because I have the solutions to all of your tech gift-giving problems:

1) Web Hosting
2) Domain Names

In today’s world, many of us spend more time interacting in cyberspace than we do in originalspace. It’s where we socialize, do business and stay informed. As more and more people all over the world gain reliable, regular access to this global marketplace, online real estate will only become more and more vital and necessary in our everyday lives. What better gift at the holidays than a juicy plot of land in our global village? No matter what gadgets your friends have, they can always use online real estate.

Once you’ve got the house, you need an address. Giving the gift of a domain name, with web hosting or on its own, is a great inexpensive way to help your friends expand their online empires. Tell them to think of picking their domain like naming a band. That always helps me.

Whether your friends are techtastic like mine, or have always wanted a website but haven’t gotten around to setting one up, web hosting and domain names make excellent gifts. And, if you’re really ambitious, install WordPress and build a blog to get them started! Think of it as the ultimate holiday card.

Anneke Rudegeair
Marketing Director

While Cyber Monday has come and gone, all the studies show that the shopping season is far from over. In fact, we’re being told now that consumers will most likely continue to increase their spending through the end of the month. If you’re an online retailer, you will probably be seeing a steady increase in traffic to your website. As a former online retailer myself, I remember my greatest fear around this time of year: website slowdown, or worse! Today, as consumers expect faster and faster shopping experiences, this is an even scarier prospect. When the tiniest glitch during selection or check-out can send customers surfing, making sure your website is running at top speed is just smart business.

Take this snowy day (if you’re in the right half of the country) to have a look at your stats and, if they’re in the red, upgrade your service to handle the extra load. If you don’t have stats to look at, get in touch with your hosting provider and ask if your current plan could handle double the traffic it has now. If not: upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. Doubling your capacity might be overkill, but you only have do it once a year. Besides, the potential lost sales from a slow-down will more than pay for the upgrade.

If you don’t upgrade and your site goes down, I won’t say “I told you so” because I’m not that kind of girl… But I’ll be thinking it!

Anneke Rudegeair
Marketing Director

It’s a curious thing about people but, despite tough times, when it comes to gift giving we always feel generous. In hardcore, ramped-up holiday America, that makes us delicious morsels for anyone who is selling something. Don’t get me wrong, I’m the Marketing Director for a web hosting and web conferencing company: I’m selling something too. So, maybe don’t trust anything I say. But right now I’m putting on my hypocritical hat to balk at the maelstrom of advertisers all around me. I’m in an advertising soup. These noodles want my money! And, strangely enough, while one part of me is bothered by the assault, another part of me actually does want to buy stuff.

So, the question is: What advertising actually works? What cuts through the creamy broth? Where’s the beef? (And by that I mean sales.)

Personally, I appreciate an up-front, old-fashioned discount. What can I say? I enjoy a sale. But I don’t just want to feel like I’m getting something for less than I should be. As a consumer, I actually want it to be true. Needless to say, at the same time that I want an honest-to-goodness bargain, all those business-ladies out there still have to make a buck. So, you might ask, “Where, Anneke, do the twain meet?” Well, reader, I might answer: in the lovingly-crafted compromise.

Before you call me a Socialist (and I wouldn’t be mad if you did) remember: in tough economic times more than any other, it’s the returning customers that sustain your business. Loyalty leads to word-of-mouth and word-of-mouth leads to more customers (which leads to more word-of mouth, which leads to more customers… see where I’m going with this?) With big corporations leaning heavily on the tax-payer, honest, sustainable businesses have become an invaluable commodity in America. And in an age of social networks, reputation is more important and spreads faster than ever.

The focus-on-the-customer idea isn’t new. But the give-the-customer-a-real-discount-such-that-you-don’t-make-a-big-profit idea, is. I contend that the potential value of that customer’s positive experience outweighs your immediate monetary profit. Obviously you can’t run your business that way all year round or you’d never make a dime, but at the holidays in a tough economy, when customers are inundated with options and strapped for cash, your deep discounts will really matter. Allowing a customer to be able to afford your product or service at the holidays can make it possible for that customer to give a meaningful gift to a loved one. If that doesn’t engender loyalty, I don’t know what will. This is an honest, legitimate, practically and emotionally significant way to build your business.

In summary: providing unprecedented discounts can really set retailers apart in the mad scramble this season, and can set them up for unprecedented success in the new year.

Anneke Rudegeair
Marketing Director