Akismet - Get Rid of SPAM

Akismet is a must have for any website that allows user added content, such as comments on articles.  I first learned about Akismet because it comes pre-installed with WordPress–all it requires is an activation key.  Depending on the type of blog you’re using, you may choose two types of keys-commercial or personal.

Akismet looks over the comments on your site and determines whether they are legitimate or SPAM. The nice thing is, Akismet is a smart program, meaning it learns from the patterns it perceives.  If you mark something as SPAM, it will remember where that SPAM came from, and mark similar comments as SPAM in the future.

Here’s a picture of how much Akismet has helped this blog:

Could you imagine trying to moderate over 13,000 comments on your website?  Once you’re blog has been around for while, you’re going to get hit by SPAM.  Don’t wait unitl it happens, install Akismet now.

Anatomy of an affiliate link

This post is for one of my clients, who will be building part of her website herself by putting together some affiliate links in table format.  View the video and written instructions below:

So what we want is rows of 4 horizontal affiliate products. Here’’s how we’ll begin.

First step, open your text editor. If you don’t have one, I suggest using Notepad++.

Next we’ll place the following code at the top of the page.

<table border="2" cellpadding="10" frame="box" rules="none" bordercolor="#69c1b5">
<tbody>
<tr>

Next, paste all your affiliate links.

Then, past the following code at the bottom after your affiliate links.

</tr>
</tbody></table>

Next, we need to arrange to have 4 affiliate products on each row. So well count down four affiliate links and paste the following code. Continue to place it after the 4th affiliate link. Do not place it after the last set of 4 affiliate links.

<tr></tr>

Next, we need to establish each products place in the table. To do this, we’ll insert the following code before each affiliate link:

<td align="center">

Next, you want to close this by adding the following code at the end of each affiliate code:

</td>

Now the table is laid out and if we want to add more affiliate links later, we can.

Next, we want to make sure the affiliate pictures all fit nicely on our page. To do this, we need to control the width of each affiliate picture. An affiliate link looks like this:

<a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=hZL6UR2PgQ4&amp;offerid=125531.2771&amp;type=2&amp;subid=0"><img src="http://www.cafebritt.com/images/Products/2771/oferta4.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><img src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=hZL6UR2PgQ4&amp;bids=125531.2771&amp;type=2&amp;subid=0" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" />

Let’s break it up into pieces. Piece one is the link. It looks like this and there’s nothing that needs to be done with it:

<a href=”http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=hZL6UR2PgQ4&amp;offerid=125531.2771&amp;type=2&amp;subid=0″>

The next code looks like this:

<img src=”http://www.cafebritt.com/images/Products/2771/oferta4.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”" /></a>

Notice it begins with img src and closes with the /a. This makes the image (img) a link. So the first img code you see is where you want to make some insertions.

First, insert the width. For ease, let’s just insert it right after the img:

<img width=”216″ src="http://www.cafebritt.com/images/Products/2771/oferta4.jpg" border="0" alt="" />

Next, let’s fill in the alt tag and put in a title for the image. Note that we are using some code that will automatically take the title and create a caption from the title. In most cases the alt and title will be the same.

<img width=”216″ title=”The Plantation Tour” src=”http://www.cafebritt.com/images/Products/2771/oferta4.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”The Plantation Tour” width=”216″ />

Lastly, there’s this second image code. Nothign needs to be done with this code, just make sure not to mistake it for the first img code. This image code almost always has a designated height and width of 1, so it’s easy to recognize.

<img src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=hZL6UR2PgQ4&amp;bids=125531.2771&amp;type=2&amp;subid=0" border="0" alt="" width=”1″ height=”1″ />

How to Select the Right Hosting Plan

There are many types of hosting plans available for your small business website from many different companies. Clever Monkey Domains offers three types of hosting plans:

1. Shared hosting
2. Virtual Dedicated Server
3. Dedicated Server

These hosting solutions range from low cost to high cost respectively.

Shared hosting is the least expensive option.  Shared hosting means that many websites other than yours are all sharing the same computer.  This isn’t bad, it just means that your site may not be super fast, and it may not be able to run certain programming.  It’s the best solution for websites that are just starting out and don’t expect a lot of traffic. Cost starts at around $5/month

Having a dedicated server means that one computer is completely dedicated to running your site.  Generally you have more control over a dedicated server, so you can run almost any programming language on it and install any type of software you want.  These are good for sites that have a lot of traffic and require a lot of control over the hosting environment (for installing software and custom programs). Your site will load more quickly with a dedicated server too, but the cost is much higher, starting around $80/month.

Virtual dedicated servers give you a cross between shared hosting and dedicated servers.  They are good for people who need improved performance, but don’t require as much control over their hosting environment. They boast many of the benefits of a dedicated server, at a lower cost, starting at $30/month.

Questions to answer before you purchase a hosting plan

1. How much traffic do I think I’ll receive to my website in the first year? This will determine the amount of bandwidth you’ll need.  If it’s a low number, than you won’t need as much bandwidth and could choose a lower cost hosting plan.  If it’s a high number, you may need the higher cost shared hosting or you may look at a virtual dedicated server or dedicated server.
2. Am I going to be running any programs on my website, like an email service or other software that requires additional resources?  If the answer is no, then shared hosting is probably okay.  If the answer is yes, you may need a dedicated or virtual dedicated server.
3. Am I hosting one website or many websites? - Some hosting plans allow you to host multiple websites.  For instance, my dedicated server hosts multiple websites.  If you only plan to have one website, however, the lowest priced shared hosting plan may be enough for you.
4. What programming languages am I using for my website? Make sure that the hosting plan you choose supports the programming language of your website.  (i.e. MySQL,  PHP, Ruby on Rails, etc)

When in doubt, contact a professional to help you make a good decision about your hosting plan. But don’t sweat it too much.  You can always upgrade a shared hosting plan or transfer your site to a dedicated server down the road when you start getting more traffic to your site.

Purchase hosting now

How to select a good domain name

Selecting a good domain name is essential for the success of your small business website. Here are a few tips to help you select a good domain name.

1. Make it memorable - a domain name that’s easy to remember is much better than one that’s difficult
2. Make it short - the short the better.  This makes your domain name memorable and easy to type into the browser.  You run a bigger chance of mis-spellings with longer domain names
3. Avoid misspellings - Don’t use words in your domain name that can be easily misspelled.
4. Purchase multiple domains - You may want to purchase the .com, .net, and .org versions of your website to limit competitors from purchasing those domains and developing websites on them.  There’s also .us, .mobi, .biz, .ws and .me to consider.  It just depends on how much of the market you want to capture.  I would also purchase common misspellings of your domain name (i.e. craigslist and craiglist) and plural forms of your domain name (i.e. hotspring.com and hotsprings.com)
5. Use keywords - This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but generally, putting the main keyword in your domain is a good thing for search engines. For example, if your site is about Yoga, then try to have Yoga in your domain name.

What to do if the domain name you want is taken

1. Use hyphens (i.e. hotsprings.com is taken, use hot-springs.com)
2. Use alternate extensions - I’ve recommended to you that you buy the alternate extensions of your domain name, but if other people haven’t secured them, purchase the .net or .org version of your URL first.  If those are taken, you may choose one of the other extensions like .us or .me.
3. Get creative - Brainstorm all the different ways you could describe your business and what you do, then see if there’s a creative name for your website.  I did this with my meditation website, which I named MayAllBeHappy.org
4. Use a phrase - A great example of this is Jim Edward’s website Igottatellyou.com.  It’s an easy to remember phrase, and highly unique

Are you ready? Purchase a domain name now.

If you have other suggestions, add them to the comments below.

Achieve 80% Productivity by Working Just 1 Extra Hour a Day

I recently read Rich Schefren’s Uncertainty Syndrome Report. In it, he discusses how to make major breakthroughs in your business by changing your mental state. Yes…this may sound very new age, or even too simple. But if you have an online business, it’s really worth reading. Time management is a big part of what Rich emphasizes. Here’s just one thing I learned.

Rich has a productivity rule that demonstrates how you could work less and be more productive. I think it’s a good principle for anyone who’s running a business. Here’s how it works.

If you’re working on your website 20 hours a week and you’re productive 4 of those hours, then you’re productivity rate is 20%. If you want your productivity to be 80%, then you would work 5 hours per week. That’s right, you could go from 20% productivity to 80% productivity by simply working one extra hour per week. Of course, you also have to cut out the hours that you’re not productive–work less, be more productive.

Sounds simple, but how are you going to do it? Well, that’s why I joined Rich’s Guided Profits System. For the next 30 days, Rich is coaching over 80 people on how to hone their skills to do this and many other things. The primary premise of the program? Your business is not limited by your ability–it’s limited by your constraints. Eliminate your constraints and you’ll have a successful business.

More to be revealed…

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