Ask.com Search Share Increases…… Again

Ask.com has increased its search share again for the 4th straight month. While Ask.com only gets an average of 3.44 of the search market they provide advertisers with a loyal following of users, who by the way spend money online.  This is an excellent opportunity for you to get in on some cheap pay per click traffic with an average cost of .30 per click with Ask.com. Get a $25 advertising credit here.

Unlimited Web Hosting

If you have been searching for a web hosting company, you have probably noticed the never ending offers of unlimited web hosting (or nearly unlimited) plans. You know, the companies offering unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth for $10 or less monthly. While these sound like excellent deals, you need to stop a take a look at what is being offered and how it will impact your business. You see most of the time web hosting does not get a second look, but you really should consider what you are buying before you buy.

So what is there to consider? Let me ask you something…. have you ever seen a unlimited space hard drive at Best Buy? Definitely not!! Why? Simple, it does not exist. So another question for ya? If an unlimited space hard drive does not exist, how can a hosting company offer you unlimited disk space. You see where I am going with this. The next argument is that they can keep adding hard drives to the server. While that is true, they can only add so many hard drives before the cabinet is full. So as you can see, these unlimited web hosting companies are actually offering a service that they can not deliver and what ends up happening is that when you use more than 2 or 3 Gb of disk space, your account is suspended for violation of other terms and you are forced to move or upgrade to one of their VPS or dedicated servers.

The same thing goes with the unlimited bandwidth. While they can certainly justify this claim by saying that they will give you the unlimited bandwidth that you want, it would be far to expensive for the hosting company to do this. Let me explain. The average cost of bandwidth is .50 per Gb. At this cost, if you use 20Gb of bandwidth in a month,  the hosting company is breaking even and start using 20.5Gb and they start losing money. The hosting company is in business to make money, so breaking even and losing cash is not even an option. What happens is if you start using more than 2-3 Gb of bandwidth per month, your account is suspended for violation of other terms and you are forced to move or upgrade to one of their VPS or dedicated servers.

So the question remains; if they can’t honor the promise then why are they offering it. Simple, this is purely a marketing ploy to get business and they know the average customer will never use it. In fact, the average web site uses less than 1Gb of disk space and 1Gb of bandwidth per month. Therefore, the chance of the hosting company ever getting caught for lying losing money on you is slim to none.

So if they will not get caught and I will never use what is offered, what is the big deal. Looking past honesty, the issue is that your site will be hosted on an oversold server and your site will lag in speed as well as having intermittent down time issues. While this may not be a big deal for a personal site or a small affiliate site, you should not put your business web site in the hands of a company that can not deliver reliable service and starts off the business relationship on a questionable note.

So how do you who is honest and what hosting companies to do business with? Well for starters look at what the hosting company is offering. Do the offerings sound to good to be true? If so, they probably are. Look for sites that have a definite limit on disk space and bandwidth. Web hosting companies such as Downtown Host, Host Nexus and Fused Network are all stable and reliable hosting companies who offer top notch hosting solutions at affordable pricing.

In closing, I am not trying to bash someone’s business model. I just want to make you aware that these companies are offering something that they can not deliver and you should reconsider doing business with companies that start the business relationship on a questionable note.

If you need any assistance finding a web host or have further questions, please give us a call at 757-271-3315

Importance of Social Media to Your Business

Did you know that Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Myspace – in that order, have been found to be very effective marketing tools by businesses. In fact Dell released figures stating that they have made an extra $3 Million since 2007 just from twitter posts. Start a tweeting today!

Business Card Website

CAMM Media offers business card websites at an extremely affordable $250. The price includes 1 year of hosting (domain not included), 5 branded emails (you@yourdomain.com), 1 custom image (if applicable) and a contact form. This is the perfect option for those needing an online presence, but have a small budget. You can view examples here,  here and here. Call us at 757-271-3315 or send us an email and get your business online today.

Adwords Alternatives – High Targeted Low Cost Leads

There are a lot of small businesses and affiliates that have packed their bags and are leaving Google. Whether its from the notorious Google slap, or the bad customer service or just  from being priced out of the market; business owners are willing to leave the leader in search and taking their money elsewhere. If you are wanting to join the pack and get off the Google train, we have 2 recommendations for your advertising dollars. Both of these Adwords alternatives, will provide your business with targeted traffic at a much lower cost.

ASk.com – Access the 4th largest network and over 95 million unique users from sites like ask.com, cnet.com, excite.com, match.com, iwon. com and almost 100 more high traffic sites while enjoying an average cost per click of only $.30. The PureLeads technology of ask .com, ensures that you get the highest quality targeted traffic at the lowest possible cost, ensuring your advertising budget goes further. Get more info and a $25 advertising match if you sign up today!

Yahoo Search Marketing – While their is no denying that Yahoo does not have the reach of Google, they do have a solid 2.3 billion searches per month across their network of sites.  These  searches come from a loyal Yahoo customer base that tend to convert better than Google. While Google gets the traffic, it has been my experience that Yahoo gets the conversion and at a much lower cost. So while your click through may not be as high as it is with Google, your click through will be more targeted, cost less and should convert at a much higher rate. Get more information and a Yahoo Search Marketing $25 advertising credit here.

MIVA – Our next recommendation is a much smaller network, but provides very solid advertising. The MIVA Precision Network is a vertical pay per click network that is designed to deliver highly targeted, cost-effective higher value leads to their advertisers. Miva is an excellent Adwords alternative that will significantly decrease your monthly spend, while driving targeted leads to your business. Get more information and a $25 advertising credit here.

While Yahoo and Miva will not deliver the level of visitors Google will, they will provide you with more targeted leads at a much lower monthly spend. If you are ready to get off the Google train, it is time to give Ask, Yahoo and Miva a look.