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How to find the best hosting company on the web for the least amount of money

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 01:44:08 +0100

There are a lot, make that 35,100,000, web hosting companies (according to a Google search). How do you choose one without losing money? First, of all, make a list of what you need to create the website you want. Do you have knowledge of html, css or software programs for creating websites such as Dreamweaver? Are you offering products that require an ecommerce site? Do you require a database, membership logins, or a forum or live chat? There is a lot to consider and once you know your needs you can start comparing host companies. Prices are very competitive and you can find what you need for around $5 to $9 per month. A good tip is to do a Google search for the company and add the word "review". This will bring up any reviews that people have posted. A good paid hosting company will offer the following: a Cpanel (this is a control panel or dashboard that allows you to control a number of things in your account such as My SQL databases, FTP, your domain name settings, email accounts, etc.); lots of bandwidth and storage (look for the ones like HostMonster with unlimited amounts) as well as numerous email accounts and sub domains; easy installation of software with the use of Fantastico or Simple Script; Uptime of their servers of 99.9 percent; good support through email, live chat, phone, database, etc.; at least one free domain name and credits for various third party programs such as Google and Yahoo ads.

There are also a number of free web host companies, and this is a very good way to get started. The best ones follow a "freemium" model. This means they offer a basic free package and you can upgrade to a premium package. The best host company in this category is Yola.com. They offer for free the following: 1GB storage; free, unlimited bandwidth, upload file limit of 15MB; a very easy, drag and drop site builder; you can build up to 5 sites. Their premium package is quite reasonable: $49.95/year for 5 GB of storage, upload file limit of 100MB and you can build 25 sites.

The one thing you have to be aware of with free hosts is that if they provide an easy site builder, they usually do not allow FTP uploads of software or database support. So be sure that what you need for your site is available. The nice thing about Yola.com is that it is quite flexible and while they do not allow software uploads, you can usually figure out a work around. Yola is also tops in the support department. Their employees are extremely helpful and many of them have actually built their own sites with Yola. They have lots of tutorials and videos and a large, active and helpful community forum.

Getting good video footage

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:02:05 +0100

I. Preparation

A. make sure battery is fully charged
B. take an extra battery if possible and/or power cord
C. take enough videotape
D. take a tripod along if you can

II. Shooting

A. Camera

1. use a tripod for shots with no camera movement
2. use the image stabilizer function when doing handheld shots
3. don't overuse the zoom lens
4. get a variety of coverage; wide shots, close-up details, etc.
5. be sure to get enough coverage to convey the topic you are covering

B. Composition

1. for talking heads, frame the person off-center, not dead center
2. have proper headroom; not too much, not too little
3. note the background behind the person

a. make sure nothing looks like it is sticking out of their head

b. make sure there is no distracting background activity

c. choose where your subject should stand or sit while talking

d. if possible, use a background that relates to the person

or what they are talking about.

4. for all shots, be conscious of what is at the edges of the frame

a. look at the image in two dimensions, compose for the screen

b. is the subject of the image obvious from the composition

c. people concentrate on certain things while cameras pick up

everything, so be watchful of everything in the frame

C. Lighting

1. be sure you can see everything you want the audience to see
2. if possible choose time of day, location, and subject for good lighting
3. if possible, avoid monochromatic lighting (all blue, all green, etc.)

a. outdoor shooting tends toward blue (daylight)

b. incandescent lights tend toward orange

c. fluorescent lights are greenish, avoid using as a light source

4. video cameras average the light in the frame to set the aperture

a. be sure the subject is lit brighter than the background

b. avoid bright backgrounds as they will make the subject dark

c. try not to have light sources within the frame if possible

5. use natural lighting whenever possible, or natural-looking lighting

D. Sound

1. be sure the person being interviewed can be heard clearly
2. avoid having too much background noise; remember, people focus
their attention, but the microphone picks up a lot more
3. remember that on most cameras, moving the camera means moving
the microphone and where it is aimed

A very simple way to make and embed audio on your website

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:13:38 +0100

Here's a simple way to record an Mp3 file and embed it into your website. First sign up with http://www.drop.io This is a file storage and sharing website.

"A drop is a 'discrete' (yes, "ete") chunk of space you can use to store and share anything (pictures, video, audio, docs, etc) privately, without accounts, personal registration, or email addresses. Our site is not searchable and not 'networked', only people that know the URL of a drop can access it. You can create as many as you want and set things like a password, whether visitors can add to the drop, and how long you want it to exist." (source: http://drop.io/faq#2)

They give you 100MB of free space. Although there are lots of free file storage places out there, I chose drop.io because it is a Firefox addon. Once you have your drop made look at the right side bar. You should see a voicemail phone number. Call this number, record your message and it will appear in your drop as an Mp3 file. Now view this file and you will see "embed code" just copy and paste this into your website. Below is an example of the default way it looks on the page:

Michael's audio sample original

Here is the same file but with the size and background color changed. You can also change it to auto start when the page is loaded as well.

Michael's audio sample

Prologue of Shadows In Still Water

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:19:47 +0100

Shadows In Still Water

by
Diane Wolf

Prologue
Calcutta, India, 1756

Fort William, prized jewel of Britain's East India Company, lay smoking in the stiff, still Calcutta midnight. Governor Drake had angered the Nawab, Siraj-ad-daula, with a number of offenses both real and imaginary. For three days, since Wednesday, June 15th, the Nawab and his forces had besieged the fort, repelled mainly by luck and the heroics of a handful of junior officers. It was beginning to crumble now, under the continuous onslaught.
It was on days like these that John Holwell, chief magistrate, wished he had never left his comfortable medical practice at Guy's hospital in London. Wiping his face with a handkerchief already gray from smoke, he passed beneath the arcade formed by a series of arches along the east wall and onto the fort's parade ground. The last two arches in the arcade had been walled in to form a small prison eighteen feet long by fourteen feet wide called the Black Hole for unruly soldiers to sleep off a drunk. Here Drake had imprisoned the powerful Hindu merchant, Omichand, who sometimes acted as intermediary between the Nawab and the British. That had been Drake's first mistake.
Holwell had been assigned the task of trying to placate the man into writing a conciliatory letter to the Nawab for them. Holwell had talked himself hoarse to no avail in the stifling, foul little room while Omichand peered at him from his perch on the sleeping platform like an enormously fat vulture waiting for his dinner to die.
The air outside the Black Hole smelled little better. Every breath left the acrid taste of sulfur in his mouth. It was midnight but the Indians had abandoned their usual practice of stopping before sundown and were still haphazardly shelling the fort.
Holwell hurried across the huge parade ground, pushing his way through the more than 2000 native women and children who had sought refuge in the fort. They swarmed around him, crying with their palms held up to plead with him.
One wealthy family sat eating rice and lamb, oblivious of the dark, hungry eyes of the bony children who squatted nearby. Holwell's own stomach rumbled. He had eaten only one hot meal and a handful of dry biscuits in the last few days. Swallowing hard, he turned his head.
Inside the governor's mansion, Holwell threaded a path around the European women and children gathered in the grand ballroom. This group was quieter but the little white faces looked just as hungry. The humid air seemed to grow heavier by the minute with the perspiration of fear. He stopped to help button a shoe, smiled, patted a few heads. It was all he could offer.
Hearing the angry voices from inside the council chamber, Holwell drew in a breath then opened the door. George Minchin stood with his hand on his sword, his red tunic noticeably unsoiled, nostrils flared, dark head thrown back, arguing with the much shorter Charles Manningham. Minchin's voice had risen to almost feminine pitch. Apparently, now they were down to arguing who would get what spoils.
Slipping into the room, Holwell wondered for the hundredth time how Minchin had made commander of the garrison. He had lost all control over his subordinates.
Governor Drake sat on a keg of gunpowder as if ready to defend it with every ounce of strength in his corpulent body, wiping his round face with his sleeve and making no effort to end the argument.
Holwell sat down beside the young clerk, Darton, who tried to take notes as fast as his hands could move. His paper had great splotches of ink from his haste in dipping into the inkwell.
Doomsday could come but the East India Company would have a proper record of it.
Drake waved his arms at last and raised his voice. "Enough gentlemen. We must think of the safety of our people first. Manningham, go make sure the women and children get safely aboard the Dodaldy."
From his position, Holwell could see the triumphant look on Manningham's ferret face. Manningham had spent his year of service to the Company in a constant state of dissipation, his capacity for drink exceeded only by his capacity for complaint. They would never get the young man back off the ship.
As Manningham scampered away, Minchin turned on Drake. He never had the chance to speak.
A great screech of air filled Holwell's head. The resulting bang he felt more than heard and found himself on the floor with drops of limestone raining down around him. The Nawab's cannonball put an effective end to the council.
Although unhurt, the others seemed to have lost their senses. They abandoned the chamber, becoming part of the melee outside.
The Hoogly River fronting Fort William's west side proved to be their only strategic advantage. The European women and children quietly evacuated, half through the governor's wharf, the other half through the back gate to the northwest. Quietly that is until a cry went up, reverberating across the water.
Pulling himself up on the wall above the governor's wharf, Holwell strained to get a better look at the ship. It was lighter now and he could see a knot of women at the edge of the water. The young Indian girl, Mary Carey, who had married a British soldier only a month ago, stood in their midst, hers the one calm face. Lady Russell, like an angry bantam rooster stood in a protective stance beside the girl. It was not difficult to figure that Manningham had refused to allow Mary aboard.
Several men joined Holwell on the wall to watch. A grubby, sweating sergeant tore the cap off his head, swearing, and pointed a gun-powder stained finger toward the Dodaldy. The ship had raised anchor. Drake and Minchin were on the beach arguing with a sailor in a boat. With all his years of ingrained cynicism about human nature, Holwell still could not believe what he saw next. Drake and Minchin got into the boat and rowed out to the ship without a backward glance.
Feeling a tug on his sleeve, Holwell looked into the frowning face of the sergeant.
"What do we do now, sir?" the man asked.
"We negotiate."

***

Holwell was never quite sure afterwards how it happened but the ensuing panic was calmed at last. The remaining Company officials elected him emergency commander. Knowing that they would have greater negotiating power if the Nawab thought they might last indefinitely, Holwell pushed his men, his powder and his own soul to hold out one more day.
At the last moment, the Dutch mercenaries betrayed them by opening the back gate. Within a few brave deaths, Fort William fell to Siraj-ad-daula.
That was around 10:00 on the morning of June 20th. Sometime around 8:00 that night a drunk soldier fired a shot at an Indian guard. One hundred and forty five men and the only woman left in the fort, little Mary Carey who had refused to be separated from her husband Peter, were herded into the Black Hole. The temperature was 100 degrees.
Holwell felt dread lapping over him, a tide of panic swelling behind him as he stepped over the threshold, the first one in. The air was as foul as it had been on his earlier visit to Omichand. The vulture was free now. He would not have to wait long for his feast.
The men cried, shouted, pushed and shoved for a space to breathe. Holwell swayed in twisted agony, crushed into his position by one of the two tiny windows. His own will to survive held him there despite the intense pressure. Within an hour, dead men stood among the living. The rising steam created a palpable stench so smothering, Holwell could turn his head from the window only a few seconds at a time. Still, he called out to the men trying to calm them, bring some order in that roasting sarcophagus.
More men died.
In the waning hours of the night, Holwell could no longer control the raging thirst that was burning the life from his body. Relinquishing his position, he forced his way to the sleeping platform.
His eyes met the dark stare of Mary Carey. She held her dead husband in her arms, her eyes dry. No drop of moisture remained in the room. Her fingers brushed Holwell's then fell back limp to her side. Holwell laid down beside her and waited to die.
At last, by 6:00 the morning of June 21st, the desperate entreaties of the prisoners induced the guards to release them. Twenty three people including Holwell and Mary Carey came out alive from the Black Hole of Calcutta.
The outrage this tragedy ignited would change the East India Company's course in India forever. It would lead to the creation of the largest empire the world had ever seen.
Years later, when John Holwell recalled the cowardice of Governor Drake and Captain Minchin, the horrors of the Black Hole, and all that the East India Company became afterwards, he would sometimes wonder, what if it had been planned that way?

How to create your own free forum

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 05:57:50 +0100

Would you like to have a forum on your website where visitors can go to ask questions, provide feedback, or post information? There are two basic ways to do this: software you install on a server or a forum hosted elsewhere.

If your website is with a paid host, you should be able to install forum software. Most major hosts will provide Fantastico or Simple Scripts (SS) that will install it for you. Go to the Fantastico or SS control panels and choose a forum script. A couple that are provided are: phpBB and Simple Machines Forum. Follow the directions and these are fairly easy to set up. You will have a front end (the part that visitors see) and a back end (your control panel where you can set the appearance, permissions, other administrative details).

If your website is with a free host, you probably cannot upload to their server, so a free forum hosted elsewhere is the way to go. Simply perform a Google search for "free forum" and lots of sites will come up. These are free because the host places ads on your forum. Sometimes you can get the ads removed for a small fee.

Two such free hosts that I have tried are: YouForum.cc and OwnForum.org. YouForum is very simple and quick to set up. They have about 42 themes to choose from and you can add a logo, etc. There is a strip of Google ads across the top of the forum, but that's it. There are no popup or popunder ads. OwnForum is based on phpBB and is fairly simple to set up but the themes are more difficult to work with than YouForum. You can also add a logo but I had trouble with it. There is a strip of Google ads across the bottom of the forum, and again, no popups or popunders. With both of these you can handle all the administrative details like user permissions, how users can post, passwords, forum rules, censored words, etc.

Once you have your free forum set up, you will want to integrate it into your existing website. The way to do this is with an iframe coding. YouForum actually provides you with the embedding code for this that you can just copy and paste. Here's the code you will want to use: <iframe src="paste the url for your free forum here" name="frame1" scrolling="auto" frameborder="no" align="left" height = "1500px" width = "900px"></iframe>
You can change height and width as needed to fit your website.

How to build your website on a shoestring budget for selling products and services online

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 01:56:13 +0100

If you want to design your own website and start selling products or services online with a shoestring budget, you must first ask some basic questions for each step in this process.

What am I selling?

This may seem obvious but what you decide to sell affects the type of website you design. If you plan to buy wholesale products and resell them, you will probably be handling a whole catalog of products from your wholesaler. You will need some kind of dynamic, ecommerce website with a shopping cart and the ability to process credit card payments. If you are making your own products, you will need your own website with an order form and payment buttons or a shopping cart or someway to take payments. Here is a list of questions, by no means exhaustive, to ask yourself about your products:

1) If I am buying wholesale, will I buy the products, store them, then ship them out myself?

2) If I am buying wholesale, will I have the products dropshipped to my customer (the customer places the order with you, you place the order with the wholesaler, and the wholesaler ships the product to your customer with your name on it)?

3) If I am making my own products, how will I store them, price them, and ship them?

4) How many products will I sell?

5) Do my products have variations such as size, color, etc.?

6) Will I sell digital products?

7) How will I take payments?

Again, how you answer these questions will determine the type of website you build. For instance, the answer to #5 may determine what shopping cart you use.

Can I build the website myself or do I need a professional?

If recording on a VCR seems frightening, you probably should find a web designer. You can find a wide range of pricing-just try a Google search. Building a website yourself is really not as difficult as it seems, and there are a lot of choices. Costs can run from a few dollars a month to nothing but your time and labor. You should decide if you want to pay for web hosting or find a free site. There are pros and cons for both:

Paid Web Hosting

You can get some good deals at decent web host companies such as Host Monster, Blue Host, Lunarpages, etc. There are lots of choices but don't get overwhelmed. Always start with a search for "web hosting" and "review". (Be aware that some companies post their own reviews.) You can find lots of reviews and rankings for most of the major hosts. Check four review sites and find the web host that appears on all four, and meets your requirements for price, storage (you need space for all those pictures, videos, and cool stuff you're planning), bandwidth (my definition: the amount of traffic your website can get before your web host demands more money), ecommerce capabilities, etc. Average price is about $5 or $6 dollars per month though you usually have to pay for a whole year up front. Most give you one free domain name as well for a savings of about $9 or $10 dollars.

If you've never had a website before be prepared for a bit of a learning curve. Once you sign up you will be handed a CPanel and turned loose on the world wide web. Don't panic. Explore your CPanel (or control panel) first-it will have things like email accounts, a site builder of some kind, lots of things you've never heard of like Mysql, Cron jobs, MIME, Ruby on Rails, etc. It hopefully will have Fantastico and/or Simple Scripts. These two will help you install the software to build your website. They will also uninstall them so don't be afraid to check out all the programs available. Follow the instructions, don't panic and utilize the help sections and forums. Some of the programs that will be provided include: Joomla, Magento, OSCommerce, Cube Cart. If I can build a website myself, anyone can. These programs do have a learning curve, some more than others, so be patient and don't get frustrated. Most of them have forums where you can find answers to your questions. But don't expect to design a website in a day with these. Also, these are all free so you may get what you pay for.

Free Websites

There are lots and lots of free websites. Again, do a search for "free web hosting" and "review". Check www.free-webhosts.com which has a great chart listing 254 free hosts. Many of these are free because they place banner ads on your site; others limit storage and bandwidth and hope you pay for their premium services; some are easy to use but not very customizable.

A few of the ones I've used are: www.wix.com-no ads and they do have a premium service. Wix is all flash and very fun to play around with-it's just drag and drop. I have found it to be a bit buggy but that may just be my browser. For selling products, they provide flash Paypal buttons. Yola.com (formerly synthasite.com) is another free one-no ads and no limits on storage or bandwidth. You can only use their templates and there's no way to access the CSS, although they say they're working on this. Again, Paypal buttons is the way to sell products and services online with this site. Yola is very easy to understand for even the newbiest Newbie. A third free site is www.webnode.com -no ads, 100MB storage and 1GB bandwidth. They also have premium services. This is also very easy to use, and you can download their templates to customize the CSS and some HTML. You can use Paypal buttons or they have a new ecommerce program. The free one allows only ten products. With all of these you can use your own domain name, you can buy from them or have it redirected to your free website.

The Internet provides a lot of choices for building your own website. You can get online and selling your products or services with a budget as low as $10 and your time and labor. I will be writing more about this as time goes on.