The Hurbicide Guru

If you have a website, there will probably be data that you don’t want to fall in the wrong hands. But there is also a good chance that you’re increasing the odds of this happening when you don’t follow basic data security guidelines
The cost of breaches to data security has been increasing every year. According to a study conducted by the PGP Corporation and the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of data breaches was at $6.7 million in 2009. The largest breach recorded last year cost about $31 million to straighten out.
Here are a couple of tips on how to reduce your risk of falling prey to data breach.
• Don’t store sensitive information in plaintext. Passwords and other sensitive data shouldn’t be stored in plaintext.
• You shouldn’t store sensitive data such as credit card numbers when it doesn’t have to be there. Website owners tend to store this information even when they don’t need to.
• Manage server permissions properly in order to prevent unauthorized access to information.
• A lot of businesses cannot afford to install firewall but this is an important component when securing your dedicated linux server. At the very least, it should have software in place as its first line of defense.
• It’s also important to manage your users. The people who work for you can also be security risks. A disgruntled employee that has administrator access or one with a lazy password can be dangerous. You have to actively manage user accounts along with access permissions.
• Security is an ongoing technology. New threats will come up constantly so you can’t just treat security as something you do only once and then completely forget later on.

The very first project when launching a site is deciding on the best domain and selecting the best suited web registration for your unique requirements. Indeed it is usually advisable not to speed up this decision without some prior help. In a nutshell, the most dependable method of making sure that your requirements are fulfilled is to carry out some thorough preparatory research. Reviews of domain hosting are unquestionably useful but how to establish what precisely it is you are looking for? Well, as with any other business decision, you must make up your mind which points are most significant for your business. A common option is to host your site with the same provider that you register your domain with. Service is another important consideration that can affect you even long after your domain is registered. Never trust a review only available on the hosting provider’s site. It’s vital to look at an unbiased assessment prior to making a choice. Find the time to evaluate different domain hosting customer reviews bearing in mind what all the customers have to say. Do you see some of the problems recurring more than once? What do current customers believe is best about the company? Is the overall feedback good or bad?

With any business, you will read positive and negative feedback. It’s usually a good idea to take a look at all the customer feedback with objectivity and take everything into consideration. Naturally, the significance of pricing can’t be forgotten, but think about what extras are offered for the price. Below are some questions to ponder over when trying to find which provider to go for.

During what times of day do the company offer customer support? Do they offer a free phone number, and do the reviews reflect a fast response time? What uptime will they guarantee you? What about bandwidth? It’s feasible to negotiate a bundle featuring unlimited hosting and bandwidth, now and then they offer extras like software to run your site, vouchers redeemable for Google Adwords, and discounts on additional domain names. Do they offer an uncomplicated way to pay? Are all payments automatic, and are rebates extended for full payment? In the event of a server going down, what happens? The replies to questions such as these are critical for any business operation.

In the long run it’s up to you, all the same, before you decide, make sure you have correctly determined all the alternatives. After all, reading over those pertinent domain hosting reviews will give you the chance to save tons of time and money at some later point.

Microsoft’s software-plus-services strategy appears to cater to the federal sector. The Software+ Services covers a number of services including on-premises software to full-blown private and public cloud hosting services. But for now, Windows Azure is being offered to the feds.
It could be because of federal rules, procurement policies and other regulations but in the Federal sector, the technology giant’s strategy is crystal clear when it was originally criticized as over-hyped and blurry at the very least.
At the FedScoop Cloud Computing Shoot Out, Susie Adams, CTO for the Federal Sector of Microsoft and Yousef Khalidi, engineer from the same company along with the members of the founding team which created the core of Microsoft’s cloud platform helped clear out the hype on the Windows Azure.
Adams and Khalidi revealed Microsoft’s plans to deliver software across a full-spectrum channel – from the on-premises IT to cloud platforms – covering cloudlike environments. The company also plans to apply lessons learned from the conferences and, in doing so, it parlays those concepts back into the service and product lines.
Khalidi said that they are taking what they have learned from building Azure into the Windows Server product and other technologies. Adams also noted that they private clouds are still going to stay for quite some time. A lot of agencies that handle sensitive information and workloads are not too keen on the idea of seeing their data in public clouds.
While Windows Azure is marketed as a public cloud, Adams said that Microsoft is also going to offer dedicated clouds and other similar solutions. This is composed of a dedicated network pipe, the computing services provided by Microsoft as well as the clients that are provided access to the data that the company runs for them.

The Elgordo Loteria is a part of the Euromillions Euro lotto, but if that’s all you’ve ever heard there’s a great deal more to find out. Boasting payouts up to more than two and a half billion Euros, the Elgordo Lottery claims one of the world’s richest jackpots. However this is not where it ends. There’s lots more to it you will want to know about. The Elgordo Lottery offers up more than 13,000 prizes, which works out to a prize winner for every six contestants. Pretty good, actually, if you hold it against what other lotteries are set to part with.

Thinking of entering this drawing? You have two choices; the first is that you can purchase a full ticket, called a “serie”. There is also a cheaper option; called a “d©cimo” which is worth one-tenth of a full ticket. Unfortunately, both these choices are costly ways to play and they don’t upgrade your prospects of a payout . That’s why many people playing the Euromillions Euro lotto instead use the e-lottery system.

With the Euromillions Euro lotto one draw is made every month. Three months a year see bigger draws guaranteeing way grander prizes. More specifically: January’s “El Nio”, the Summer “San Ildefonso”, and the Christmas “Elgordo” with the Xmas El Gordo lottery being the grandest of the 12.

Balls numbered between 00,000 and 84,999 are not typical in lottery systems, but this draw employs a unique system taking full advantage of them. During the draw one ball is drawn from a bowl to find the winning number while a second is pulled out of a second bowl to find the value of the prize.

Using the e-lottery system, you can be sure that you will win a prize. Simply buy into the Euromillions Euro Lotto syndicate where you’re sorted into teams. Each team is assigned a number from zero to nine when the draw is made, the last digit of the winning number identifies which team will receive the prize. The prize is divided evenly among the team members. After that, subscriptions are offered ready for the lottery held next month.

Playing The El Gordo

Visit and check out our splendid site for (the elottery) information…

Most people are comfortable with using search engines in 2009, as they allow us to locate things so quickly. This is great, nonetheless search engine results aren’t moderated by humans, instead it’s done by an algorithm. Why is that remarkable? Imagine you’re looking for a hotel in London as an example. You would enter these keywords into a search engine, then a number of results would appear. How do you know if these results are reliable if they’ve never been vetted by a human editor? Here’s how: search engines use human-edited online directories as a basic filter.

Directories still play a part online, and the best directories will be unavoidably human edited. A human may recognize that (for example) : “hmm, that hotel has a particular rating for cleanliness and having certain standards, that’s a really encouraging sign”. A good online directory will receive a number of submissions everyday. An official will look into these submissions, and if the official is content that the quality of the submission is of a particular standard, it is appended to the internet directory. And this is why Google still loves internet directories. Both the Yahoo! directory and dmoz.org are looked up by search engines as filters to discover the veracity of a website - whether it’s listed in dmoz.org / Yahoo! directory or not, since they are human-edited and have rigorous rules-for-entry.

And So don’t minimise the implication of online directories now that almost everyone uses search engines to discover websites. A directory with demanding guidelines can be a great measuring device as to how trusted a website is. If you are a website owner, seek to get your site added in a niche directory, like a furniture directory, a hotel directory, or a pub directory.

How many ads have you seen just today for different internet companies? It can be a staggering amount. Think about this as well. For every commercial, every billboard ad, and every internet ad that you see there are hundreds of thousands of dollars promoting it. That is quite a huge amount of money being used to get your attention and get you to switch from one company to the next. The real question is though, who has what you need and the right price.

It is often hard to choose one from the next because they all claim to have the best rates out there. Sure, when you compare one company’s dial up rate to another company’s cable rate, there is a large difference. The first order of business for you, then, is to choose the type of method you want to use for your internet access. You can choose dial up which uses your phone line. You can be charged by the minutes, hours, or a flat rate here. But, remember, being online means to access to the phone.

Another option is the cable modem or DSL. In each of these cases, you are accessing the internet in a different manner, but the process is basically the same. DSL runs through your phone line, but does not clog up the lines. A cable modem is used to access the internet through your cable company. This type of internet access costs much more than dial up but allows you the flexibility to be online and on the phone for a flat rate every month.

When you compare apples to apples, you’ll be able to see what the differences in internet companies are. When it comes time to choose, you’ll have a different way of choosing. Compare prices, yes, but do not forget to compare other factors like abilities, speed, features, and the ease of use. Some internet companies offer spam blockers, virus scans, and even firewall protection. Others are a basic internet hook up that offers fewer frills at a better rate.

One of the best ways to know which company has a good history with its members is to look for testimonials. But, stop, don’t get them from the companies, get them from people you know. Did you get an email from a friend? What is his ISP, or internet service provider? Ask him how he likes the company. First hand knowledge of the ISP will allow you to make a fair choice in one company to the next. They are all competing for your business so give them a run for your money!

Mike Wall
Internet Directory

A client of mine paid for a solo advert to promote
his website in the newsletter I publish at
e-bizministry about two months ago. As I
was about to send his advert to my list, he called
me up on phone and told me not to send it yet.
Naturally, I asked him why. His reply shocked me out
of my wits.

He said he had just discovered that his website had
disappeared from the net. He even said the same thing
had happened to the same website earlier in the year
when it disappeared in January only to reappear for
just one week in May. I could not help but laugh
because I knew his problem. He had made a wrong
choice of web host.

Your choice of web host can either promote your business
or ruin your business. You have to be very careful
when choosing your web host or you will be consistently
losing up to 80% of your income due to your web
host’s inefficiency.

Here are a few quick tips on how to know which
web host is reliable, affordable and right for your
website.

1. Check if the web host has a web presence. Face it,
if a company claims to be a web host and they don’t
have a functional website of their own, then they
have no business hosting other people’s websites.
Any web host you will use must have a functional
website where you can check for domain availability,
get support and order for their hosting services.

Additionally, you should conduct random checks on
their website. If you visit their site randomly ten
times and the site is not available more than once in
those ten times, forget about that company except you
want your own website too to be unavailable almost
all the time.

2. Any web host you will use must have an appreciable level
of relevant experience. A minimum of a full year of operation.
A new web host will only experiment with your website and
the result may not be good for your business. Visit
the web host’s website and read about them. If they
don’t talk about their experience, then they don’t
have it. Just leave them alone.

3. Look out for their present clients’ testimonials
on their website. Call or email the clients and ask
them questions. If they confirm that the web host is
good, then the company has passed this test. However,
if you don’t even find a single testimonial on their
website, they probably don’t have any satisfied client.
What to do? Just leave them alone.

4. How fast or how well does the company respond to
support emails? You can find out by conducting this
small test. Visit the web host’s website and submit
or email an enquiry to them. If you don’t get a
response in 24 - 48 hours, please run away as fast
as your legs can carry you. Why? When you host
your website with them and you have a problem,
it will take them more than a month to respond to
your support emails or requests.

5. You should not forget to check out their prices.
The prices must be within reasonable limits and
their packages must have the features you desire;
adequate monthly transfer, email addresses,
MySQL databases, CGI bin, FTP access, control
panel etc. Very high prices don’t necessarily
translate into very good services. Don’t be
fooled by high prices. It’s a common trick,
please don’t fall for it.

6. It must be easy and secure to make payments
to your web host. It is not advisable to fill
in your credit card details when making your
payment. You should rather use a web host that
accepts other forms of payment that do not
require you to fill in your credit card details
e.g. paypal and egold. If you are in a country
where you don’t have easy access to credit card
facilities, it is even better to use a web host
that accepts payment in your local currency.
This will ensure that you won’t have any
problems when you want to renew your domain
and your hosting accounts.

7. Use only web hosts that give 24 hour online
access to your account. With that, you have
total control over your domain and your website
and you can change anything including your
name servers (DNS)whenever you want.

8. It is better to use a web host that offers
additional web services such as web design,
website promotion, search engine submission
and website management. They can be of help
to you in future if you have any problems
with your website or you need any additional services.

9. Before you make your payment, read the
terms and conditions of the company carefully.
If you don’t understand or agree with any
of their terms contact them for more explanations.

10. Finally, I know it may be very time consuming
for you to conduct these tests on the hundreds
of web hosts out there before choosing one. I
have therefore taken the pains to analyse
hundreds of them. I recommend two web hosts
that have passed our simple tests. I can put
my reputation on the line and guarantee their
efficiency, reliability and affordability.

Oyeleke Toye is a web consultant, with expertise in web
hosting, web design, web promotion, website management and
custom scripts installation. The web hosts I recommend are:
http://www.netkonsults.com
http://www.hostplusng.com

Since I made the switch 6 months ago to a tableless design on my
main site, I’ve noticed some interesting things:

* My search engine rankings have dramatically improved * My
bandwidth usage has dropped about 50-75% * I can now make
changes to the look and feel of my site easily by just changing
the one file, the stylesheet.

Let’s look at why my search engine rankings improved. Now that I
have less un-indexable code on my pages, the search engines can
now spider my site quicker. Less code, more content, therefore a
better ranking. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Bandwidth costs money, and unless you have a really good hosting
plan with lots of bandwidth, then your larger files will take up
more room on your server, and take a lot longer to load.
Tableless designs use up considerably less bandwidth and are
more accessible.

Every once in a while I may want to alter the look of my site. I
like to change font colors, link colors, menu items, etc…Before
I started using tableless designs, these changes took me hours
to do. Now I just open up my stylesheet, make the changes I
want, and in a few minutes I have my site updated with the new
look and feel. It’s so easy!

For a client who wants to make their own changes, tableless
designs could literally save them thousands on tech costs.

Most of my clients still want sites with tables. I now give them
the choice of either style. After all, the customer needs to be
happy, right?

Some people have the misconception that utilizing tableless
designs means having a boring and less graphical site. Nothing
could be further from the truth.

Take a look at one of my favorite websites:
http://www.csszengarden.com/. At that site you can really
appreciate what can be accomplished through css-based tableless
designs. Beautiful!

Make the switch to a more profitable, usable, and accessible
website!

I have discovered that even though domain names have been around since the beginning of interaction on the Internet, there is still a great deal of confusion surrounding them. How do I pick the right one? Can I have more than one? Where do I find out if the name I want is available? How much do they cost? These are a few of the questions I answer in this article.

Pick a domain name that has the following attributes:

• It relates to your name, your company name, or your product. If you are a solo-preneur, your name is a good choice. What if www.JohnSmith.com is already taken? Some suggest ww.TheJohnSmith.com. I also think that using .info or .biz or even .net will work.
• My company name has been Creative Keys since 1992, so when I purchased my first domain name in 1999 and found that www.CreativeKeys.com was already taken, I chose the .net ending and since then have registered the .biz ending for my business site. I don’t feel that it has hurt me in any way. If anything, it separates me from the norm.
• Use your website’s title, topic, product and/or keywords.
• Don’t be too cute, clever, or obtuse. It will either rob you of credibility or confuse surfers.
• Misspelled names. Now that domain names are so reasonably priced, I know some top website gurus who suggest buying several variations of the spelling of your name or topic and then pointing them to the correctly spelled website.

Once you have picked a name, you need to first make sure it is available, and then register for it. Below are the steps:

1. I suggest going to an accredited registrar. Check out several, because there is a wide range of prices.
2. Usually, there is a box where you can input your choice(s).
3. If the name is available, you can follow through by ordering it. Back in 1999, domain names cost $35 per year. Now they range from $6.95 to $9.95 a year. Caveat: don’t order all of the extras that are offered. In my opinion, they are not necessary.
4. If the name isn’t available, you will be given other available idea names or the name with other endings.
5. You can also check the WHOIS directory to see to whom a name is registered and for how long (when we register a name, we are only renting it).

Once the name is paid for and registered, you will have an account that lists your domain name(s). I now keep all of the ones I register right in an account which gives me:

• Free parking.
• Free pointing. For example, I point my information site names to the home pages of those sites, which are included under the umbrella of my main information site.
• The opportunity to change the DNS endings so the domain name is hosted at its own IP address.

Be patient. To have changes in the files and on the Internet take effect sometimes takes as long as 72 hours.

Final warning: If you have or once you have a domain name, your post office address will be listed in WHOIS. Therefore, you may receive a mailing(s) that looks like a bill for renewal, or just a bill. Read the small print. If you pay it, you will be registering your name with another registrar — and often for a lot more than you have already paid.

Chris King is a professional website creator / designer, storyteller, writer, free agent, and fitness instructor. You will find her business website at http://www.creativekeys.biz where you can sign up for her monthly Internet Tips E-zine. In addition visit Chris’ information website at http://www.creativekeys.net and her blog at http://www.curiositycubed.blogspot.com

Regardless whether you manage a small business, charitable organization, or Fortune 500 company, choosing the right web design firm can quickly become a full-time research project. With thousands of design firms to choose from, what factors truly determine which design firm is best for your business?

The primary considerations for choosing a web design firm are:

* Price

* Customer service/access to support

* Credibility indicators of the design firm

* Portfolio and design experience

* Other services offered (domain renewal, hosting, SEO)

* Turnaround time

Let’s take a closer look at each consideration in detail, and explore how to identify and qualify the right design firm.

Price

Like many products and services we purchase, both personally and professionally, deciding on a web design firm can often come down to price. But the value of the services rendered is really what’s important. A $200 web site usually turns out to look, feel and perform like a $200 web site.

The price of your site’s development will depend on three factors: the features of the site, the amount of content, and the service options included with the design package, such as hosting.

Because pricing varies by firm, here are several principles to use when determining the validity and value of a web design quote:

* Does the quote state one all-inclusive price for the entire project?

* Is there a reoccurring monthly fee for hosting?

* Is the site custom-built, or is it customization of an existing template?

* Is there a separate fee for content development, such as writing sales copy?

* Is domain registration/management included in the package?

* Will the firm provide multiple design concepts, prior to actual development?

It’s important to compare quotes from at least three firms to, determine the value of the services offered. Looking for the best value is important in a competitive service market.

Customer Service

There’s nothing worse than signing with a firm that offers a great product, only to find out they are impossible to contact. Consistent, open contact with your web design firm is important for ensuring success before, during, and after your web site is developed.

Throughout the design process, you may identify text, photos, or contact information you’d like to change before the site goes live. If you have immediate questions regarding your site’s development, you’ll be glad to have immediate contact with customer support staff by e-mail, telephone, or live chat.

If you are limited to e-mail technical support, consider other firms that offer a wider range of customer service options such as telephone and live chat support. E-mail is great for convenience - when it’s convenient.

Credibility Indicators

Identifying “credibility indicators” can help ensure a firm is trustworthy, and will be around after your deposit or full payment is sent. Credibility indicators include, but are not limited to:

* Toll free telephone support

* 24 hour customer service

* Better Business Bureau affiliation

* Human e-mail address contacts

* Google PageRank of 2 or above

* Presentation of a hard-copy quote/design contract

Design Experience/Portfolio

Does the design firm have experience in working with similar types of businesses? Even if a designer doesn’t have a web site in their portfolio related to your industry, the firm you select should have a strong working knowledge of how to develop an effective site for your business type. Product and service web sites are not the same. Your designer should have a plan of action for developing a site that reaches the maximum number of prospective customers in your target market.

A few good questions to ask about a firm’s design experience include:

* Does the firm offer a number of diverse, finished web sites available for review?

* Will the firm conduct research regarding my competition?

* Will my web site highlight the features, benefits and value of my product or service?

* Has the firm outlined a plan of action for creating an effective site, start to finish?

Design experience need not always relate to the type of web sites the firm has previously developed. If you have a specific look in mind, ask the firm if achieving a similar design is possible. The ultimate goal is to know you’re going to get a tangible benefit out of your site through effective, affordable web design.

Additional Services

Many web design firms offer design, but do not provide other required services such as hosting and domain name registration. Ideally, your web design company should be a full-service firm, offering at least basic hosting, domain registration and search engine optimization services tailored to your needs. Research each firm to determine other key lines of business, so that any future expansion of your site will be seamless as your business grows.

Turnaround Time

An effective website should take 30-60 days to go live, from the start of production. Unless you’re offering hundreds of individual products or services on your web site, the entire development process, start to finish, should take no longer than 60 days. Turnaround time should include:

* Upload of your web site to the hosting provider

* Configuration of any scripts or forms on your site

* Domain propagation (accessing your web site and e-mail via yoursite.com)

Hiring the cheapest, fastest, or most elaborate web design firm does not always equate to hiring the right web design firm. A limited amount of front-end research can save time and money in the long term, and maximize the sales revenue from your web presence.

Jim D. Ray is a seasoned web developer and president of Web Presence, a national web design firm serving the small business market sector. To learn more, or for a free quote for your own web site, visit the Web Presence at http://www.web-presence.net.