Site Review Blog

Are you one of the approx 52 Million who visit the Orlando Area each and every year?

Well, with that many people visiting the area, there must be something that draws everyone to the area.  Well, there is quite a lot of things, but you would have to agree that with Disney World being only 20 miles from the City of Orlando it just might have a bit of an influence as to why. There is more than Disney world including the Universal Orlando Resort.

With this many visitors to the region you can imagine that there is a plethora of places to stay and you are right! When looking at Orlando Hotels you will want to find one at a good price and close to the things that attracted you to stay in the first place . Lets just take a quick peek at 1 of Orlando FL Hotels - and see what makes it attractive.  Well there is more than just a single thing - especially since they have listed  the distance from the Hotel to several of the major attractions.

The Orlando Vacations Hotels website is all about providing information on some of the Accomodation that can be found.  They have put together some great info about each hotel and the closest attractions to them.  You cannot do a booking online, but on every page in the header there is a toll-free 1-800 number to call to arrange bookings or find out more information.  The design of the site is what I would personally call old school - simple mavigation, good content and no fancy gimmick such as flash to distract you from finding out what you want.  Not evey site has to look like a design team spent months on it to be useful - the only time that is useful is if someone is promoting Art!

When you want to be 1 of the 52 million and visit Disney world, Universal Orland Resort, Seaworld or any of the other Attractions then find a week or 2 and see for yourself why the area attracts so many visitors.

Visit www.orlandovacationhotels.com

Technorati Tags: Orlando, Orlando Florida, Orlando Florida Hotels

No matter what it is you are thinking of buying if you are like me then you will be on the lookout to get it for the best (read cheapest) possible price. You could just keep an eye on your favourite discount retailer and wiat until the Item you want is on Special or you could go and do some searches online for what you are looking for.

Now, recently, I was looking at some digital Cameras and one of the ones in my short list was the Sony Cyber shot DSC-T100.  I managed to find a store with it, but it seemed quite expensive to me so I did some further research.  Shopping .com was one of the sites that came up in the search and it provided not only a list of retailers rated from cheapest to dearest who had the particular item in stock, I could also directly compare things like shipping costs etc.

Not only is Shopping.com a great place to find the best prices on the Digital Camera I was looking at, on the search page it also has links to reviews and the ability for me to leave my own review.

The website itself is all about putting customers in touch with Retailers and it does this quite well.  What I also like about this site is that it is not just targetted to US shoppers and covers the UK, France, Germany and Australia as well. Regardless of where you are in the world, you will be able to find similar items.

I actually found something on the particular page about the Sony Digital Camera quite amusing - there was an advert for energiser batteries. Now in itself this is not funny, but when you consider that this particular camera uses a special Sony battery I had to laugh!

No matter if you are looking for a Digital Camera or anything else, then shopping.com is a worthwhile website to check.

Visit www.shopping.com

Technorati Tags: digital camera

Be prepared is not just a motto for the Boy Scouts, but something that applies to almost all aspects of our lives. Being prepared means a lot of things to a lot of people depending on the context. The context that we are going to look at today is insurance. 

Insurance is all about being prepared for an unlikely or untimely event and making sure that if the specified event occurs that you are not financially disadvantaged as a result of the said event.  If we think Motor Vehicle Insurance, we never want to be in an accident, but in the event we are, we would want our motor vehicle repairs to be sorted out - so we insure for such an event.

One of the types of Insurance that we don’t think about too much, especially when we are younger is life Insurance. Life Insurance, just like motor vehicle insurance is planning for an untimely event. Now, there are many  reasons why most people don’t consider life Insurance when they are young.  Well lets face it, when you are young you think that you are going to live forever!  As you get older, start a family, buy a car and a house you have a lot of financial commitments. It is normally around this time that most people consider Life Insurance.

Lets look at a “typical” Family, A husband who goes to work each day, has a wife and children.  There never seems to be a lot of money left each week after paying the Mortgage, Car loan and School fees.  Have you ever considered how your wife and children would survive if for example, you were caught up in an accident and couldn’t provide for them?

It could be a pretty bleak prospect for them just to survivie. With massive debts, no income and just a small amount of savings, they are likely to be in trouble pretty quickly.  They would probably lose the home you worked so hard to provide for them.

This is just one example of why we should consider Life Insurance coverage. Now, I have been looking around to find some additional insurance, and trying to come to terms with all the different types.  What I found was a lot of people wanting to sell you insurance but not many offering solid, easy to understand information about the different types of Life Insurance that is available.  I did eventually find a site that had a a whole section on just that - with great explanations on Term Life, Return of Premium, Whole Life and Mortgage Life Insurance.  After reading each of different types, I then used their “Instant Quotes” page to get an idea as to how much each type of Insurance would cost and with this information, I can work out what is best for me and my situation.

The liefeinsure.com website was unlike most other sites - it was not just trying to sell me a policy, but provided valuable information as well so I could make a sensible and informed decision. The information is easy to find and written in a language that is easy to read and understand.

Visit www.lifeinsure.com

Every website needs a web host and in this field there are a lot of options.  For a new webmaster they often have no idea of where to start or even what they might need.  The best way to understand what the needs are are to follow an example of a website.

Ok, we get this flash of inspiration to create a website.  You spend several weeks researching, creating content and writing the web application needed to manage the site and need to get it online.  You will probably get your site online with a Hosting company that offers shared hosting.  This means your website will sit on a server shared with several other websites.  You will get a hunk of disk space - probably a few hunderd meg to a gig or more to store your files and an allocation of  a few to several Gig of bandwidth for people to browse your site.  You are restricted to the software already on the server, so you need to choose carefully who will host your site.

Now, this is probably just fine for a site just starting out - as you will probably not have very many visitors until the site is promoted.  Once your site starts getting a lot of visitors you might find that you want to customise it or offer more services.  In most cases this will involve moving your website to your own web server so you have the flexibility to install software that you need and provide much more server resources.

Making the jump from a shared host to a full hosting server is both a costly and daunting task.  There is of course another option in between and that is a Virtual Server.  Now, a Virtual Server offers all of the advantages of a full dedicated server such as full root level admin access, ability to install whatever software you need, customise and tune the web server and database to suit your requirements etc.  The biggest advantage offered by a virtual server is the cost.  Dedicated servers usually start at over $100/mth up to several hundred, whereas a Virtual Server costs much less.

A virtual server is in essence a chunk of a very big, powerful expensive server.  By using special software, the big server is effectively divided into several Virtual pieces that for all intent purposes appear to be a seperate server in their own right.  The Virtual server gets allocated an amount of RAM, Disk Space, CPU etc, and within this space a complete Operating system and applications can be installed - you could even use a virtual server to set up as your own shared web host!

Another popular reason for getting a Virtual Server is to learn how to admin a server or as a test and development environment.

VR Hosted offers Virtual servers which you can use when your website grows beyond shared hosting.   They have a range of plans - all of which are cheaper than a dedicated server.  Their website is easy to navigate, easy to find out info on their virtual server plans and includes FAQ’s and contact information. 

Visit www.vr.org

The most memorable and cheesy line from the 1997 Movie “Titanic” where Kate, arms outstretched, held By Leonardo saying “I’m The King Of the World!” - Well, Who wants to be the king of the world? Yep, Not many - unless you are an evil meglomainiac seeking world domination! But regaridng the other part - standing at the Bow of a great ship with the wind in your hair - more realistic. 

At the Turn of the 20th Century the only way to travel from one continent to another was by Ocean liner, something that was surpassed buy the Jet aircraft. When it was an Ocean Journey of several days, the catch phrase was “Getting there is half the fun”.  At least they got that right - and we certainly see that this is still the case, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to get onto a Holiday Cruise ship.  Now, with A cruise ship, getting back is the other half of the fun as well!

Taking a Cruise or even considering one then a cruise leaving from Norfolk puts you in easy reach of a lot of wonderful and exotic holiday destinations such as the Caribbean or Bermuda. Well, they are not “next door” but close as far as ships go.  A modern day cruise ship is a far cry from the passenger liners of yesteryear - you get everything and some these days, from restuarant eating, Island stopovers and dancing that goes all night. We cannot all afford a round the world trip on the QEII but that doesn’t mean that the folks at Cruise Norfolk cannot find something that fits your budget.

CI Travel website is all about taking holidays on a cruise ship and they have a heap of info on various destinations, attractions and much more.

Visit www.cruisingnorfolk.com

Technorati Tags: cruse norfolk, cruise boat holiday

With all marketing you are aiming to get your product advertised and seek a return on investment. It seems that a lot of people didn’t learn from the .com crash in the late 90’s and they are still behaving in an irresponsible way in their online marketing efforts. We have all hear the old joke on how you end up with a profitable small business - by starting with a profitable large business then building a website!. Unfortunately this is still true to some extent.

It is really in the last few years that people who are getting pushed to be online with hype that they will be left behind if they don’t that there has been an increase in consultants that are not only willing to help. but wanting to see their clients prosper. When looking for a Search Engine Marketing Company you want to find one who will not only get your site in front of your target audience, but one who understands the importance of actually making a profit while doing it. It can be a tough road to tread in finding the right balance in the Marketing efforts and if you are caught up in the crush to get online it is very easy for you to turn your big company into a much smaller one.

There are so many aspects to SEM that it simply cannot be summed up in a few words. By understanding that just like any other advertising that you do, your aim is to spend as little as possible and get more clients/customers through your doors. Your advertising budget should be a calculated gamble that will grow your business. Now when looking for a SEM to help you get the best return you want one that understands all aspects and they should be asking questions about your business, your aims and what you know about your market. With this in mind, it makes sense if you are a small company serving a specific geographical location to start with a company that understands your market - for example if you are in the UK, you would seek a company in the UK or if you are in the US it makes sense to pick someone like Virginia SEM to work with.

Agilis Marketing has a great website that explains how to go about marketing your website - not as a website but as part of your business. The site has a clean layout that is easy to navigate and provides information in a simple way that makes sense. They will help you acheive a positive ROI on your internet advertising budget and work as a partner.

Visit www.agilismarketing.com

Technorati Tags: SEM, Search Engine Marketing

No matter what your business is it won’t be much without advertising.  You could spend hundreds (or even thousands) and get a listing in your Yellow pages business directory or you could speend your adversting dollars much smarter.  Getting your business website known will mean getting it listed in as many business directories as possible.  Yopu will probably seek out free to submit, paid to submit and every other business directory that you can find a relevant category on.  You could choose a free directory and then choose to pay a small amount to get a featured listing to make your listing more prominent and always on the first page of the results.

Visit www.businessedirectory.com