If you have thought of starting a personal website, you are not alone. Tons of people have their own personal websites, for a variety of reasons: keeping friends and family updated on their lives, sharing photographs, or as a natural continuation of a favorite hobby.
There are plenty of options available for you if you are interested in having a personal website. However, in order to narrow down your choices to what will work best for you, here are a few questions to ask yourself.
What are your goals with your personal website? Do you want to keep a blog, or an online journal, to let friends and family know what you are doing in your life right now? If so, there are plenty of quick, easy, and — best of all — free options available to you. For example, Blogger and WordPress are two popular blog platforms that don't cost anything if you host your blog on their site.
There are other reasons you might want a personal website, of course, and one is to share photographs with friends and family. Before starting a website, take a look at the photo sharing platforms available, such as Flickr, as well as free file transfer services. An account with one of these services may allow you to share photographs without paying for a personal website.
Do you want your own domain name? If you don't care about domain name, you can easily host a blog on Blogger's or WordPress's websites. Your blog will then have a domain name such as yoursite.blogspot.com. However, if you want your own domain name, you can either go through a blogging platform such as Blogger, where you can buy your own domain name for $10 a year, or use an FTP hosting provider to buy your domain name and provide hosting and other services.
Do you want free hosting or something better? The answer to this question often depends on your budget. If you don't want to spend much on your website, you might prefer to go with a free hosting plan. This will either mean that the hosting provider runs ads on your website, or that your website's URL is a subdomain of their website (such as the free Blogger and WordPress blogs), or both.
As an alternative, many hosting providers offer paid plans that are small enough — and inexpensive enough — to justify getting them for a personal website.
No matter what you ultimately decide, just make sure it is appropriate for what YOU want out of your personal website.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Beware What You Read Online!
The Internet is the greatest tool we have for getting information. You can find information about pretty much anything online, from medical diagnoses and treatment, to hobbies and collectibles, even to tracking down an old friend.
However, in some ways the Internet can also be your worst enemy, as there is also a lot of wrong information to be found. You don't have to have any particular credentials in order to post something to the Internet — all you have to have is a username and password for a forum, or perhaps the money to pay for a domain name and hosting account.
For instance, if you always feel tired, no matter how much sleep you get, a little online search might reveal that you could have sleep apnea, a condition where you actually stop breathing at intervals during the night. Obviously, this interrupts your sleep patterns and negatively impacts the quality of rest you are getting.
A little more Internet research reveals that there is a way to ensure you still get a good night's sleep: with a sleep apnea machine, also known as a CPAP machine. This machine has a mask that you strap to your face to cover your mouth and nose, so that it can blow a light but continuous stream of air down your airways all night to prevent them from closing (which is the usual cause of sleep apnea).
If the idea of breathing out against a constant pressure makes you a little nervous, you could do a little more research and discover that they also make something called a BiPAP machine, which has two different pressures: one for when you breathe in, and another, lesser pressure to make it easier to breathe out.
However, if you keep researching the subject, you are bound to run across some pretty scary stories. I remember reading one guy's story about how bad his sleep apnea was — pretty much nothing worked. Reading these kinds of things can quickly discourage you and lead you not to seek treatment, even if in reality you case is very mild and would actually be very much improved with treatment.
And of course, there are tons of incorrect things that you could come across in your research, too: Old wives' tales and home remedies that just don't work, and could lead to wasted time and a lot of frustration.
So be careful what you read online! Your best bet is to stick with sources (i.e., websites) that are respectable and well-known. For instance, Wikipedia probably isn't your best bet, though it can be a good jumping-off point if you utilize the links and sources listed down at the bottom of the page!
However, in some ways the Internet can also be your worst enemy, as there is also a lot of wrong information to be found. You don't have to have any particular credentials in order to post something to the Internet — all you have to have is a username and password for a forum, or perhaps the money to pay for a domain name and hosting account.
For instance, if you always feel tired, no matter how much sleep you get, a little online search might reveal that you could have sleep apnea, a condition where you actually stop breathing at intervals during the night. Obviously, this interrupts your sleep patterns and negatively impacts the quality of rest you are getting.
A little more Internet research reveals that there is a way to ensure you still get a good night's sleep: with a sleep apnea machine, also known as a CPAP machine. This machine has a mask that you strap to your face to cover your mouth and nose, so that it can blow a light but continuous stream of air down your airways all night to prevent them from closing (which is the usual cause of sleep apnea).
If the idea of breathing out against a constant pressure makes you a little nervous, you could do a little more research and discover that they also make something called a BiPAP machine, which has two different pressures: one for when you breathe in, and another, lesser pressure to make it easier to breathe out.
However, if you keep researching the subject, you are bound to run across some pretty scary stories. I remember reading one guy's story about how bad his sleep apnea was — pretty much nothing worked. Reading these kinds of things can quickly discourage you and lead you not to seek treatment, even if in reality you case is very mild and would actually be very much improved with treatment.
And of course, there are tons of incorrect things that you could come across in your research, too: Old wives' tales and home remedies that just don't work, and could lead to wasted time and a lot of frustration.
So be careful what you read online! Your best bet is to stick with sources (i.e., websites) that are respectable and well-known. For instance, Wikipedia probably isn't your best bet, though it can be a good jumping-off point if you utilize the links and sources listed down at the bottom of the page!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Pay Per Click Is a Great Deal
Have you ever heard of pay per click advertising? It’s based on the old internet marketing concept of payment based on the number of “hits” that a site gets. Sometimes this is arranged so that advertisers that tag onto someone’s site can get greater exposure. But nowadays, the concept is being re-tooled so that a business can control its own site using this concept.
At a recent business conference that I was attending in Tampa ppc was the big hot topic. I’d never heard of this strategy, per se; my husband has some experience with a service that lists his name and qualifications on a contractor’s list, but then when someone actually calls and they’re forwarded to him, he pays for each and every call. This isn’t quite the same thing. And it’s better not to be bugged all day long on your phone when people can have their questions answered on your own site. Then maybe once they’ve visited your site, the phone call would be much more expedient.
I bet that pretty soon, each and every business that advertises on the web will utilize this marketing strategy. Then, that would sure motivate the web masters to get that site out and prominent in the public eye, wouldn’t it?
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