Ricky Says

Question: How do I choose a web hosting provider, and which ones do you recommend?"

Answer: For readers who are wondering what a web hosting provider is, it's a company that stores your web pages and makes them viewable on the Internet.

There are literally hundreds of web hosting providers to choose from, and here are a few pointers to help you choose the right one for your website:

Know what kind of web site you want

If you're just looking for a place to experiment or load family pictures to share with friends, then you may be better off just using a free site like Facebook, or a site like Picasa Web Albums where you can store up to 1 gigabyte of photos and videos completely free thanks to Google.

Are you looking for a basic brochure/info site to let people know about your company, or are you looking for something collaborative with discussions and blogs?

I often have people ask me to help them build a new web site for their business, and the conversation usually goes something like this:

"Ricky, I'd like a real simple website for my new business idea. Nothing complex, but I want it to..." and they go on to explain how they want it to be a great user interface that's easy to use and let's people find everything they're looking for and makes them rich overnight. "Oh, and btw I only have a couple hundred dollars to invest and I need it right away".

LOL. My wife bought me a t-shirt for Christmas and it says "No, I will NOT fix your computer". I wish it said "No, I will NOT build your new web site!" :-)

Bottom line, you get what you pay for and if you want an amazing site for your business then you need to be willing to invest some serious money... or time - which brings us to our next point to consider.

What site building tools do they have?

I often have friends, coworkers, and even business clients ask me how I make money online with my blog, and here are a few tips I've learned over the last couple of years.

I've actually learned more from my failures than anything else, but if you follow these tips you can avoid the mistakes I made early on, and can turn your blog into a money making machine.

Get Traffic

This is easier said then done, but is one of the most important aspects of monetizing your blog. Your chances of making money from your site increase as the number of visitors consistently increases (assuming you follow the other tips listed below).

Long term, steady, growing traffic comes from your articles finding their way higher up the search engine results, which happens when:

1. Your articles contain useful content that gets them listed high up on the search engines results.

2. Your articles are linked to from other sites that are high up on the search engine's results.

Bottom line, if your site isn't getting much traffic, then it won't make you much money either. Some blogs just weren't cut out for making money, and if your blog isn't getting a lot of traffic then don't bother trying to monetize it.

Get Bookmarked

The majority of my site traffic comes from Google search results, and from social networking sites that link to my articles (Digg, Delicious, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Diigo, etc, etc)

Knowing that most of your long term traffic will come from search engine results and social bookmarking sites, why not jumpstart the process by submitting your own articles to these sites?

Question: I have an idea for a new website, but how do I get the web site name, and how much will it cost?

Answer: The website name is called a domain name and it can end with .com, .net, .org, .info, .us, .biz, .tv and a few others.

You'll first need to check with a web hosting provider to see if the domain name is available. Once you find one that's available, then you'll need to reserve it.

Reserving a domain name gives you the rights to create web pages that people can view on the internet when they enter your domain name, but you'll also need to purchase web hosting service to actually make those pages visible on the internet.

Checking if your domain name is available is completely free, and doesn't obligate you to actually buy it.

I use HostMonster for this site, and you can check if your domain name is available by visiting their site and clicking "Domain Check":

You can enter any domain name and it will check if it's not already being used by someone else.

If your domain name is available, then you can purchase it from HostMonster, which reserves it for a year or however long you choose.

HostMonster also gives you the domain name for free when you sign up for a year of web hosting, which you'll want to do anyway because you'll get the lowest monthly rates that way.

Web hosting is very affordable, and you shouldn't have to pay more than $6 or $7 a month. This will give you plenty of data storage, bandwidth, email addresses, and even databases for installing things like Wordpress for your own blog.

If a picture can tell a thousand words, then a video can be even more effective on your blog or website.

You can add your favorite YouTube video to your blog by following a few easy steps:

1. Find or Upload the YouTube video

   There are thousands of videos on YouTube that you can show in your blog. You can also upload your own video by creating a free YouTube account and using their simple upload form. They'll even convert your video into the right format for you, and will give you the HTML you need in order to view your video from your blog.

   One of my favorite YouTube videos shows a few guys who built a radio-controlled, jet-powered F14 model plane. They show the whole take off, some Top Gun flying stunts, and a near perfect landing.

   
   
   

I'm often asked how to set up a website, either for personal use or for a new business. Fortunately, it's easy and very affordable to create a new web site, or to add a blog or forum to an existing web site. You don't even have to know HTML or web programming, thanks to several free and powerful website templates.

Here are three steps to creating a new web site from start to finish.

Check if your domain name is available.

A domain is the name of your website, such as rickysays.com or dad-eblog.com. Domains normally end with .com, .org, .net, .biz, and .info - the most popular being the .com ending.

Here's a link to check if your domain name is available: Check now (click "Domain Check" once you're there)

Checking if a domain is available is completely free, and there's no obligation to purchase the domain. However, if you think of a great idea for a website name, you're smart to reserve it as soon as possible - before someone else snatches it for themselves!

In fact, most web hosting providers give you a free domain name when you sign up with them - read on:

Sign up with a web hosting provider.

A web host is a company that stores your web pages and makes them viewable on the Internet. They also provide email accounts, blogs, forums, and even online store fronts.