Site Review Blog

Whenever you participate in an online forum or social networking site you nearly always get an option of uploading an avatar. Firstly, an avatar is simply a small photo or picture that represents you.  Most people tend to use a picture or a photo that they took.

As an avatar is usually a fairly small square image the challenge is turning your photo into an avatar. You will need to resize the photo and additionally crop it into a square as photos you take with your camera will be a 4:3 ratio.

To create an avatar from your photo it no longer has te be difficult -by using an online tool such as the create avatar tool offerred by shrinkpictures.  It both resizes and crops your photo to a square at the same time.  Simply select the size you need and upload your photo.  All you need to do is to save the new photo to your computer then upload it as your avatar at your favourite forum or site.

A simple solution to a common problem and with no software to install by using an online tool.

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

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

Thats right Bloggers - there is a new way to get your blogs earning for you.

All Bloggers will probably be interested in a new service that not only provides you content for your blog but also PAYS YOU to post it The Content all comes from the News Room which is a consolidation of several news resources from around the Globe.

What you are doing is being a publisher for news articles - and the best part is that yopu get paid on a CPM basis. This means you get Content for your blog and every time someone views your blog you Earn! Check out The Newsroom Payment chart to find out more

Ok, you want to know what it looks like - well I can show you! I went to The News Room, signed up for an account and then browsed the news categories. I found a story that I wanted to add to my site and simply follwed the simple instructions to get the code and included it in my post.

It took only a few seconds to sign up, then I browsed the current news stories and found something that interested me. If you are short of an Idea, or just wnat to include a news story with a blog post nothing could be easier! With everyone having an opinion, embedding a news story in your blog is great - because it will then allow you to put your own editorial comment in your post.

The best part is that you can find plenty of up to date news stories in the one place and you get content for your site that pays! Even better, if someone grabs the content from your site rather than visitng the newsroom you also get paid. When I have a day that I need to find some content for my blog, I know where I’ll go looking for it!

Visit www.thenewsroom.com

Everyone who has a website is on the lookout for layout or design. Some people spend hours painstakingly creating their website, spending many hours in the process only to end up with something that is either not that great or ends up with pages that take about a week to download on your broadband connection.

When it comes to web design it is often cheaper in terms of time, effort and end result to outsource the design part so you can get on with creating your content. Outsourcing can be done in several ways from paying a designer to create something for you or by finding someone offering Website Templates. When it comes to Templates there are a few places around where you can go to get great templates, but there are not that many where you can get a great Web template at a great price!

Well, lets face it, some places charge upwards of $50 for a template. What would you say if I told you that for less than the cost of a single Web Template that you could purchase a subscription and get access to over 1,000 templates. Not only do you get access to a huge number of templates in over 30 different categories, you also get access to around 700 Flash Templates in the same Categories as well.

For my money, I would much rather buy a subscription and get access to a library of several thousand templates and other graphics with unlimited downloads for the subscription period than blow my dough on a single template.

It doesn’t stop there - there are a lot more benefits to be had as well - you can not only subscribe and download an unlimited number of web templates and Graphics, but you can also join their affiliate program. Think about it - every time someone subscribes by following an affiliate link on your website you earn some money! It is easy to sign up, and even easier to get paid!

Visit www.boxedart.com

… Me!

We do not often think or consider that we are all have a limited time on the Earth and it is normally only when we lose a loved one we realise how much they meant to us. We all wish we could have had 1 more day, the chance to say I’m sorry or just to share a joke with a friend. While it is not (directly) possible, there is now a way where you can leave a message for loved ones when you are no longer here.

People have been doing this for a long time in may ways, from making a video or home movie, to writing a letter and having it stored by your Laywer but now there is a new way to send a message from beyond. The concept is simple and easy to do.

Not only can you send a message, but you could even write your own Obituary and have it deliverd once you are gone. This may sound a little morbid to some, but lets face it, You are the only one who knows how you would like to be remembered. The system is simple - sign up and create your “messages from beyond” and then follow the instructions for sending the message. They have all sorts of safeguards so that a message is not sent until the pre-defined rules you set out are met. With a service such as this that is dealing with a very emotive issue they have to take all reasonable care to ensure that a message is not delivered unless it has to be.

Not only can you leave a message, but you could also leave instructions for your service - one example is that you could write your own poem for your funeral service.

Visit www.obitua.com

Wow, that is a pretty big claim isn’t it. The new MasterMOZ Directory is making a stand with some great innovations that have the real potential to make it the most accurate (and useful) directory around. Sure, we have looked at other directories in the past and your first question, like mine is probably what makes this one so unique immediately followed by how can they claim to be the most accurate! Well, after just a couple of minutes looking, the answer to both questions can be found.

The MasterMOZ directory is unlike any other, but similar to all. It has a totally different paradigm for a listing. First, you sign up for a free account, then you are eligible to immediately make a listing. In order to test this out, We signed up and created a listing and yes, the listing was available immediately!

With such a system in place you might think that is is open to abuse and that everyone will sign up and add all sorts of spammy sites. Well, that is true BUT the listing is unlikely to stay around for very long. You see, the power of this directory is that with a free account, you can only list a single site. Every single member can add a rating, review and comment about every site listed. This means that a listing that is not accurate will gain a lot of negative feedback by other people listing in the same category! In addition to this, there are reviewers in each category who will flag any in-appropriate listings. If a listing is flagged the Author will have 14 days to correct it otherwise it will be removed from the directory.

Of course, we signed up and tested it. It was simple and only took a couple of minutes to sign up and create a listing. As far as the site goes, it looks similar to other directories so it is easy to use. The members page gives you info about your listings along with details about upgrading your account so you can list more sites.

They have put together a directory that is a bit different which I hope gets the support of the Webmaster community and grows to be a useful directory that lives up to the claims.

Visit www.mastermoz.com

Technorati Tags: directory