As an internet marketing specialist, with 7 years of experience working with people who are trying their best to get their online business off the ground, I came to realize three things as facts:
1. People will never stop liking pictures of cute cats. NEVER;
2. It’s never wise to order or sell fine china via eBay;
3. No matter who you are or what you sell, you need to choose the right host for your domain.
Although all of these three statements deserve to be further on explained in a blog post for itself, right now I’m only going to focus on the last one.
Starting an online business that has potential to become something more than just another company in this endless sea of brand names, requires your full dedication. It’s not just something that you can do on the side or over the weekends. No. If you want people to recognize you as a leader in a certain niche, you have to spend a lot of time thinking about all sorts of different things that concern your brand.
Once you have an idea on how to present your work on the Web, you have to turn your focus to all sorts of different details. A lot of research and networking has to be done before you can even think of participating in this online game.
Like I already said many times on this blog – in today’s online business world, everything is a competition. The better your competitors are, the harder and smarter you have to work to stay relevant. For most businesses, it requires a lot of work to beat out competitors and attract and retain customers. That’s why even the smallest of things are worth doing right.
There are a million things you can do online. I see the Internet as an infinite market of shoppers and consumers – all you need to do to conquer it is to figure out what people want and how to give it to them.
No matter what you choose to do, and how and where you decide to market your product and services, you’ll have to build a website. Not just that. You have to manage and update it on regular basis as well. Everything starts there.
Everyone Needs a Website
If you read some of the articles on this blog, you already know that I firmly believe that every company, big, medium or small, should have its own website. Even if a certain firm is not going to make any money from it directly, it should still invest in its web presence.
Why? – Well, because your website can help you better market your business. Next to that, it can help you gather valuable feedback on your products and services and gain new customers by showcasing your expertise to them on daily, weekly and monthly basis.
When creating a website, a lot of people make the same mistake: they think far, far ahead. They focus on marketing their website before they even build a solid foundation for it.
If you’re in the process of setting up a shop, the first thing you should do is research your hosting and domain options.
Your Domain Is Your Temple
As you probably already know, Google factors in over 200 items into each ranking. Domain name being one of them, it is of crucial importance that you do all you can to choose a great name and a great hosting solution for your domain.
Thanks to Google’s newest updates, other factors came into play here. When picking out a domain name for your website, nowadays it’s important to focus on how long it is, how memorable, is it easy to spell and, of course, is it really relevant to what your website is all about? You don’t want your domain name to have a negative effect on your SEO.
Owning your own domain and making sure a good web hosting firm is doing it’s best to keep it alive for you is just as important as offering great services as a business.
We at AltusHost have many clients who host their domains with us. Why? – Well, because they know that their domain name is extremely important to their business. They have built their brand around it. It’s their home. It’s the address of their online office.
Picture this scenario: You’ve been running a success online business for years. You have a lot of great and satisfied customers and every day new people come to your website, looking to buy something from you. Everything is going great, you couldn’t be happier. But then, one day, your domain expires and you, distracted by all the work, forget to renew it. Before you even turn around to see what’s going on with your website, your direct competitor grabs your domain. You try to buy it back, but he just isn’t interested in selling it to you. What now?
You have to settle for a new domain name, which means all your hard work on marketing your business and your brand with your previous address has gone down the toilet. Pretty awful, right?
Where Should I Host My Domain? How Do I Keep It 100% Safe?
Choosing a web host can be a tricky thing, mainly because there are so many companies out there to choose from. Although it’s tempting to select a free hosting service for your website, there are A LOT of factors that suggest that you’re making the worst possible choice for yourself and your business.
Selecting the right web hosting company is one of the most important tasks you have to perform when working on your website. It can be difficult for inexperienced webmasters to find the right hosting plan for their website without asking for help.
There are so many hosting companies on the web that offer all sorts of different deals. Some of them are good, and some of them are just awful. This can get a bit overwhelming for those who don’t really know what they want, and what kind of package will best suit their needs. Luckily for you, we wrote a couple of articles to help you turn this frustrating task into nothing more than just a common numbers game.
I hope this blog post provided you with all the essential information on why you should invest some serious thinking into finding a solid hosting solution for your domain and your online business. If you have any question on the matter, feel free to write them down in the comments section below. I’ll do my best to answer as soon as possible.
That’s it for now,
See you soon again,
Goran @ AltusHost B.V.
The author is highly qualified and writes blog posts weekly.
