At DomainDjinn.com there are 3 Standard hosting plans that start as little as 3.99/mo and 3 Dedicated Server hosting plans which start at 109/mo. 

Dedicated server hosting is perfect for eCommerce, multimedia, gaming and other sites that need advanced performance, reliability and control. You can choose from pre-designed Windows 2008 and Linux plans featuring multi-core processors, enhanced options like managed backups and much more or you can customize a server to fit your specific needs.

The virtual hosting plan is a shared envirionment which allows for lower overall costs for the owner.  The economy plan starts at 10 gigs of hard disk space and 300 gig of internet transfer.  It includes 10 sql databases and up to 100 email accoungs.  There are about 50 free add on applications that you can easily install and integrate into your website with a click of a button.  These applications include Blogs, message boards and forums, social networking, Wiki’s, Photo and file gallery’s, content management and ecommerce solutions. 

For most new company websites, the Economy package is a great place to start.  The Economy plan can easily be converted into the unlimited plan which runs at only $14.99/mo which sports unlimited hard disk space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited my sql databases and 1000 email accounts. 

The virtual Host can also allow you to have your own dedicated IP address should you want one dedicated to your site.  A dedicated IP address can be useful to nearly any company should you want to build a reputation around your own IP range.  The cost is only $4.75/mo more for that added benefit.

Another consideration is the platform you want to run on.  MS Windows or Linux.  Linux is great, fast and very powerful.  However MS Windows is compatible with Microsoft Frontpage plug-ins and Microsoft SQL.  If you are working with a web designer you should find out what their preference is before setting up your hosting platform.  However, it is easy to change to another platform once you have set up a hosting plan from within the control panel.

I generally recommend the dedicated hosting option to large established corporations with dedicated IP address ranges.  You can customize the server and access the server directly.  The server can dedicate all of its processing power to your application.  You still get 24/7 support, superior backup and all the features that the virtual hosting has, but you get the added flexibility of being able to customize your server as you like it.  You may want special server side configurations that are not available in a virtual environment.   Or, you may want to put dual quad core processors in a box with raid 10 configurations to get the most extreme uptime available.  You can do it all with dedicated hosting.

I have thought much about this since our lowest offer is $1.99 for domains along with a hosting or other package.  Specifically I am referring to the former AOL package.  Although they don’t offer domains for free any more, this is really the only free domain offer I really trusted to some extent, primarily because the domain company was AOL–a fairly trustworthy company. 

So, they offered the domain which you could use to host a website, email, etc.  However, it didn’t seem as if you could easily transfer service to another domain host.  It seemed as if AOL would be the defacto owner of the domain and you were sort of renter of their service even though they didn’t charge anything. 

Was it a scam?  In AOL’s case, No, I don’t think so.  However I could see several instances where true ownership of the domain would be far preferable to avoiding under 10 bucks a year that it costs to own a typical domain. 

What if you wanted to sell the domain property?  Since AOL really owns the domain, this would be impossible unless you could wrench it away from them. 

What if the AOL hosting company didn’t offer you what you needed in terms of a web host?  Again, you are locked in unless you could get them to point your A record somewhere else (for example, domaindjinn.com ). 

What if AOL stopped servicing your domain and let it lapse into the internet universe.  Could you lose your name that you spent so much time developing? 

This is not to say that AOL is a bad company at all.  I like AOL, and use their services for many things.  I actually am upset that the free Antivirus offer they used to make available is gone.  But I am in the domain name business.  And in my experience it is better to have the power than relinquish it to another party. 

All in all, I feel that owning your own domain property is far superior to getting something for free.  You get what you pay for after all.  Since most domains are going for $8.75, it makes total sense to own it.  Almost anyone can make $8.75 selling nearly anything, from slippers to books on making sand castles. 

Secure Sockets Layer Certificates assist in making sites more secure and valid for sales online.  Most sophisticated internet users are keenly aware to NEVER buy through a website that DOESN’T USE SSL.

But what about the unsophisticated users?  Well, many newbie surfers may not be aware of the little secure icons, but newer browsers and antivirus programs are, and may prompt the user to NOT give information to an unsecure website. 

So, how do you incorporate SSL?  It is fairly easy for most webdesigners.  If you don’t use DomainDjinn to assist you with the task, check out an inexpensive coder from Elance. 

The cost on an SSL certificate starts at only $27.99/yr.  That is a no-brainer for any business owner.  However if you plan to have many subdomains, you should go for the $199/yr Unlimited Subdomains option.  There are also multiple domain ssl options if you have several websites. 

Here is the bottom line: You spend alot of money and time to get traffic to your website.  Don’t give a customer an excuse to turn away.  Secure your website today with low cost SSL from Domaindjinn.com

http://www.securepaynet.net/gdshop/ssl/ssl.asp?ci=1789&prog_id=ccardillo

http://www.twitterlocal.net/ is an Adobe Air developed product that allows you to search for location on Twitter.  So, let’s say you look for Miami, FL, you will be able to see recent tweets that are local to that region.  This is a great way to build an audience or a list of friendships in a particular niche location in the country.

If you don’t have Adobe Air, you can download it for free at http://adobe.com and then you can go to http://www.twitterlocal.net/ and download their application in order to Twitter locally. 

The big difference here is the source of the tweet.  If you did a search on twitter for a location anybody can write a tweet with a location in it.  They may be located in Texas, Nebraska or Canada for all you know.  Twitter Local changes that and allows you to focus only on tweets originating from the physical location that you are targeting. 

I give this app 4 stars out of 5.  ****   In certain circumstances this application is very useful.

Google’s new Caffeine search infrastructure is built atop a complete overhaul of the Google File System.  The new file system is codenamed GFS2 and has taken 2 years to complete.  Google Caffeine is really just Google.com, only faster.  In tests Caffeine is producing results around 2 times faster than the original Google.com.  Of course with so much hubbub around Microsoft’s partnership with Yahoo and recently Microsoft’s release of Bing, people are expecting Google to come out with something new. 

However, Google seems to be content with just making their product better.  If you notice when you do a Google.com search the results come back with a time stamp for how long the results take.  This is what Caffeine does, but only the results appear faster.  Really nobody has an infrastructure as fast as Google.  So, Google is really competing against itself.  And we are glad that they are.  It means faster searching for all of us, and less time sitting around waiting for results. 

We know that social networks such as Twitter, Myspace and Facebook are very powerful tools to utilize for your business.  Just by searching google alone you will see that google places these properties high in its rankings.  It is amazing to me how a twitter message I send out today can outrank a website that has been on the net for years.

Anyway, this is all I am saying for this posting:  Since google is giving such power to these entities, you should consider using social networks as part of your regular networking.  One way to do this is to add your social network to the signature block of all your outbound emails.

To make it easier for people to remember your social network or facebook page, give it its own domain name.  For example:  chooseyourname.com and then go into your domain screen and point it at your twitter, myspace or facebook page.  It is way easier than telling someone to remember http://facebook.com/whatever your screename is.  People are used to domain names.  Once you add the forward slash and some other screen name people start to forget or make mistakes.  Make it easy for them.  Domains start as low as 8.75 and give you free pointing and masking services.  Masking allows you to change the title that appears at the top of the browser.  If people save a link to your page, this can be very powerful and a useful tool. Rather than publicizing Twitter.com or Facebook.com you can publicize your name or your product instead.  Obviously you don’t need a hosting plan since you are just pointing to a hosted social network.

Also, another reason to do this is that let’s say you ever get kicked off of twitter or whatever, all the work you did to drive traffic to that page is not lost.  You own the rights to YOUR DOMAIN so you can now point your domain at a new website, another social network, or wherever you want.  This is powerful!

The best site design is much simpler than you may think.  It is a structure where you have a top banner, a left side navigation bar and a right side content screen.  At the bottom is a footer.  So when you create your table you need to have 3 rows and 2 columns.  On the top and bottom row, merge the 2 columns so it appears as one.

If necessary, you can add a row under the header row that has links to HOME, SHOPPING CART, ABOUT US.  But make this bar in Flash or Javascript so the search engines don’t try to rank you for the keywords home, shopping cart, etc. which are meaningless.

Your left navigation bar should have a structure that  can be really long.  Be fully descriptive with the links and use the basic blue underlined linking structure.  The home page should have your main categories.  For example:

Domain Name Registration
Web Hosting
Web Design

It may not look pretty, but people understand that the blue underline text is something that can be clicked on.  You then create your sub structure on the next pages and put links to your products.

Your footer can be used to put in misspellings, alternate ways to say your key products, plurals, and put direct links to those pages.

Your content section in the right middle column should be used to target your main keywords.  Use H1 title tags and use descriptive language.

It seems simple enough.  But why do you see alot of flash websites, and sites that don’t use this basic structure?

Once you have realized that this is the best site structure and implement it, you can tweak so much of it to optimize the # of click throughs you are getting and sales that you are getting.  You need to use things like compare your sales offers and split A/B testing to test whether people will click more in this senario or the other.  However, if you aren’t getting enough traffic, then split testing is a waste of time until you do.  Keep it in mind as something you will need to do once your site is rolling and doing decent business.

A few things you may want to consider right away with your web design right from the beginning:

• Show the credit cards you accept on the home page
• Show the SSL and Secure Site certificates
• Put your phone number on the top
• If you offer free shipping, free sales tax, match offers from other sites, say so on the home page
• If you have a money back guarantee–say so on the home page.
• Use HTML for the entire site.  You can still have a search box, but make all your product pages in basic HTML.
• Have an Opt-In to a newsletter, free offer, discount coupon.  You want to capture their information immediately.  This is potential gold for you in case you want to make repeat sales and in some cases, first time sales.

This is just a short list of a few things I look at for my clients.  Of course there is much more.  But it is easy to get overwhelmed into inaction.  The best thing to do is follow these few ideas and finsh them and then move on to the next level things to further optimize your site.

I catch alot of flack for the name of my Web Hosting and Domain Name Registration company. However, early on when I was designing the site I wanted to come up with a name that was unique, only 3 syllables and packed a punch. I thought for awhile and kept thinking about an ancient creature called the Djinn. The djinn is what the word Genie was based on. It is a large ghostlike and magically powerful force. As a player of Magic the Gathering, I always liked the Juzam Djinn, Mahomati Djinn and all the other Djinns that MTG players liked to fill their deck with. Juzam was my favorite and is one of the most expensive cards in MTG collections. I thought he was appropriate since he didn’t cost much to play and if you got him out early you almost surely would win. He would certainly inflict pain on your competitors. So, how appropriate. My hosting services and registration services all are inexpensive and if you use it, you will likely inflict pain on your competitors.

Happy Djinning

This is a very tricky situation. It is important to enlist the services of a lawyer, preferrably one with intellectual property and trademark experience. Go to http://martindale.com to find a firm nearest to you. Once you enlist an attorney, you should decide what kind of rights you want to sell and for what price. I recommend against partnering with the entity looking to rent your property. Partnerships have a way of going sour and presents a problem with collections. I would recommend a strict payment schedule with ratcheted increases each year.

Otherwise design the project yourself and do it alone. You would probably be better off doing it yourself anyway. Websites start at $500 and work up from there. However with a domain you don’t always need to have a hosting account and a website to make money with it. Stay tuned for more information on this.

The last thing I want to say about leasing or renting your domain, is that you need to maintain control over the domain name. Point the ns records to the renter’s web host, or do a forward. You can do free forwarding with domains from http://domaindjinn.com . Most domains cost less than $9 and hosting is cheap too. However, do not transfer rights of the domain or ownership to the domain to the renter. This is a sure way to lose control over your domain.