In this, the last entry in the series of five centered around blogging and the essential elements you need to get started, we bring you Web-Hosting.

So, what is web-hosting anyway? Well, simply put, it is a Internet storage service that gives you, me, businesses and organizations the ability to publish blogs and websites online. By providing rented space on their servers, for a small fee i may add, hosting companies allow clients to store their personal website.

Therefore, any website on the World Wide Web is stored on someones server somewhere in the world. If you are looking to create a presence on the Internet finding and establishing a web-host is a requirement.

Many different types of hosting services are available depending on your needs. The first thing you to do is ask yourself some questions. For instance, “how much money do i want to spend?’, “how much traffic do i anticipate having?”, whats my objective for the site?”, etc. It should be noted here that 90% of all websites online all work perfectly with a shared hosting plan.

What to look for in a Web-host? Factors that need to be considered are, firstly, does the host offer a monthly rate i can afford (this is hardly ever a issue), secondly, you look for a host that has proven, stable and reliable servers and support. With the many reviews available you can easily gather this information. I encourage you to spend some time researching and reviewing the companies providing these services. There are some great choices available for $3.95 per month, so, there really is no need for the majority of folks to ever pay more than$7-8 bucks per month.

According to AlreadyHosting, a independent web-hosting review company, the top ten web-hosting companies are as follows: 1. BlueHost $3.95, 2. HostMonster $3.95, 3. JustHost $3.45, 4. HostGator, (my host) $4.95, 5. FatCow $3.67, 6. InMotionHosting $6.95, 7. iPage  $3.50, 8. GreenGeek $6.95, 9. FastDomain $3.95, 10. WebHostPad $1.99.

In the end it will all come down to who best fits your needs, as you can see from the above, pricing probably wont be an issue, and as i said earlier, 90% of you will use a shared hosting plan. All of the above mentioned service providers will make excellent choices.

There you have it, i have attempted in this series to give you a basic but thorough working knowledge of blogging, the essential elements needed to be fully functional, the many choices at your disposal, how everything works together and most importantly, just how powerful the marketing strategy of blogging is and why you need to incorporate it into your Internet Marketing Strategy.

I hope i have educated and added value to your experience, stay tuned.

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According to Wikipedia, a domain name is an identification label that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control on the Internet, based on the Domain Name System (DNS).                                                                                                                                                                                                 In the 1960′s, when the computers began connecting to each other, identification was needed for the various systems to be accessed. As the numbers of connections grew so did the need for a more effective system.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) was created and responsible for assigning the  unique address for each computer connected to the Internet, by 1973 the Internet Protocol (IP) system was born.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Still unable to keep pace with the frenectic growth and demand, University of Wisconsin technicians developed the first “name server” that was a  more simple easy to remember system. This represented the birth of the current addressing system in use today.

By 1990, the Internet exploded commercially and a year later the “WORLD WIDE WEB” was originated and introduced by Tim Berners-Lee.

Domain names are typically classified by levels, for instance, the more prominent .com’s, .net’s and .org’s are considered your top level names. Below these would be the second and third level names, usually open for reservation by end users like you and me who wish to connect to the Internet. Each domain must be registered and administered through domain name registrars.

To give you an example of how the different levels of names work in conjunction with each other consider that you would start with the top level such as .com, directly to the left of that would be your second level as in, domain.com and the third level would be immediately to the left of that,like, yournamedomain.com. So, for clarification “your name” would be the 3rd level domain, “domain” would be the 2nd level domain and “.com” would be the top level domain.

There could be 4th,5th,6th levels domains on into infinity.

So, now that you have a little background and understanding, how do you get one of these names. Well, thankfully, it is rather simple. There are many companies referred to as domain registrars, GoDaddy is one that comes to mind, that offer a littany of services from providing names, web hosting, marketing, website builders etc all under one roof, however, you will find that spreading these services around to other vendors may be better for you because one providers web-hosting may be better than another, and another’s may have a better overall marketing plan, still, another may have better pricing, you get the point. Take your time and do some homework.

Once you’ve decided on a vendor it really boils down to you simply choosing the name of your choice based on what you want to do with your business or hobby. Should it be your given name, something memorable, eye catching, a great sound to the ears, only you know for sure. If it’s for business you want to make sure it reflects what the business is about so you can correctly position yourself for the search engines. You will have to take your time with this process and come up with many choices because it’s common for the name you like the most to already be taken. It’s a process, but, still, a simple one.

There is a science to choosing the most effective name for your website or blog as it relates to search engine optimization and its vital that you understand it if you will be blogging for business. That’s outside the scope of this article but can be easily achieved by scouring the search engines.

The intent here was to give you a good, clear and basic understanding of domains and how they relate to blogging and the Internet, hopefully, I’ve done that. This is number four in the series of five about BLOGGING.

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When we speak of blogging platforms we are referring to the device you use to design everything from the look, feel, color schemes, font sizes and graphics. This is where you get creative and personally brand yourself and set yourself apart from the rest of the Blogosphere . Branding is a very important part of your online success.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         To get a accurate picture of the major players in this arena let’s take a look at the blog platforms of choice among the top 100 blogs as listed by Technorati, (a blog search engine). Surprisingly, there were only 12 platforms making up the 100, which speaks volumes to the awesome effectiveness of those chosen. For this article, we will focus on the best of the best which brings us to only four that garnered double digits usage ou tof the 100 spots. They are as follows, Word Press with 27, TypePad with 16, Blogsmith with 14 and Moveable Type with 12. As you can see, these four superstars took 69 of the top 100 spots.  Word Press is the clear leader among the leaders. Very impressive.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     When choosing your platform you’ll also need to decide on  hosted versus non-hosted features. Hosted simply means the blog is housed on that platforms server, whereas, non-hosted means your blog would be housed on your own sever which is usually a third party vendor you pay a small monthly fee to host, the latter choice gives you more control and ownership, so, if you’re blogging for profit there’s only one way to go.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Of course, there are pros and cons to both of these methods and they differ slightly depending on the platform you choose . But generally speaking the pros of the hosted platforms are, for starters, they are extremely easy to set a up and interface with. Almost all come with very efficient how to tutorials and, again, generally speaking, “are free”.   A few of the cons to be noted are they don’t appear to  be as professional, there is not as much room for personalization, branding, search engine optimization suffers and you could very well lose all your content   because it’s not on your own server.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       The pros of using a non-hosted platform are many, but in my humble opinion, the main one is that unlike the hosted version you own and control the content you produce and in general have more control of your entire blogging experience, and believe me, control is good. Personalization and branding capabilities are only limited by your imagination and non-hosted versions can be fully optimized for the search engines.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     This may sound a little bias, but, in my humble opinion, unless you are a seasoned techie you’ll be hard pressed to find any cons, for the average user there is no need for concern.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             So, as far as platforms go, Word Press seems to be the clear cut overall leader and for several reasons but mainly because of it’s all around excellence, as in ease of use, making changes, upgrading and the ever growing extensive variety of plug-ins to make your blog more efficient, the seemingly endless selection of themes  in which to personalize your blog. Word Press also gives you an option of the hosted or non-hosted versions.  Word Press. com is the hosted version and Word Press. org is the non-hosted version.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            This is the third in the series of five on the marketing magic of blogging.

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To understand blogging it will be helpful to know some history as well as what the future holds for this phenomenon. Simply put, a blog is short for the term “web-log” which is sort of a diary of online content  referred to as” posts” displayed in reverse chronological order.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            This practice dates back to 1997 when there were just a handful of sites identified as web-logs (so named by Jorn Barger Dec 97). The short version of “blog” was coined by Peter Merholz in April or May of 1999. Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs devised the term “blogger” which popularized the terms we have today.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 As of December 2007, Technorati, a blog search engine, reported more than 112,000,000 blogs.                                                                                                                                                                  The types of blogs are many, differing in the way content is delivered as well as the type of content. For Instance, a personal blog, where you have ongoing commentary is the most common type of blog, though many of them are rarely read by the masses it gives the owner satisfaction and has sentimental value. You have corporate and business blogs for the purpose of branding, public relations and inner office communication, travel blogs, technology blogs political blogs, etc. The classification is virtually endless and limited only by your imagination.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Blogs can also be classified by media type or device, such as photo blog, video blogs, audio blogs (pod-casting) etc, there’s even a category called “sousveillance” where you use text and video together and used as evidence in legal matters.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Becoming increasingly mainstream by 2004, blogging would eventually be used by news services, influential businessmen, political consultants, candidates and governments around the world all taking to the Internet in an effort to get their message out, influence people and insure market share. My, how times have changed.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The collective community of blogs in existence is commonly referred to as the Blogosphere. By definition all blogs are Internet based and somewhat interconnected through blog-rolls, link-backs, track-backs and back-links..                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Because of the ever growing popularity, importance, reach and influence of blogging, savvy Internet marketers would be prudent in  paying close attention to the trends in the blogosphere which in a real sense is still in it’s infancy. With the online population of 1 billion seven hundred thirty three million nine hundred ninety three thousand seven hundred forty one users as of September 30, 2009 and the prediction that, soon, half the worlds population will be on the Internet, it’s safe to say the blogging community and all it’s related services will increase as well.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      To give another illustration of the growth, when Bill Clinton was inaugurated there were 200 domain hosts in use with only 8 of them ending in dot com or dot net. As of January 1, 2004, there were 194,000,000 domain hosts in use and dominated by the dot com ending.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Again, this little brief history should shed some light on why Internet marketers should be blogging as a means of not only communicating and promoting but marketing for profit. Already a force to be reckoned with, from the lens I’m looking through, it’s clear to see, blogging is here to stay, don’t resist, embrace it. This is the second in the series of five on the marketing magic of blogging.

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Internet Marketers are always looking for ways to drive traffic to their website, landing page, product and or service. If not they should be.

Many are spending hundreds even thousands per month on pay per click and other forms of paid marketing strategies to reach their targeted

market and desired audience. One of my colleagues, who is a multiple seven figure earner spent $225k last year. By far , one of the most

effective strategies out there and one many marketers don’t seem to get is BLOGGING. Blogging has many advantages and benefits, the one

factor that makes it so powerful is it’s free. FREE MARKETING, what could be better than that. If you’re blogging for profit you will want to have

your blog self hosted so that you maintain ownership of the content and the ever so valuable list of prospective clients you attract, in this case

you will pay a nominal monthly fee ranging from $6.95 to $16.95 in most cases depending on the additional bells and whistles. Other than that

your only other expenditure will be your time and creativity.

Marketing your self, your product, your service, your message online has never been easier or more productive, if your product or service doesn’t

limit you to the local market place then the entire world is your market. Little wonder why fortune 100-5oo companies, minor and major

newspapers, roofing companies, sports organizations as well as the average Joe & Jane Blow are jumping on the bandwagon. Unlike a

traditional website, and, a blog really is nothing more than a website, you can interact with your audience and they with you through the

comment function. In this internet marketing social media universe blogging is king.

Your readers can communicate directly with you, carry on a conversation and essentially turn your blog into a community, and, for internet

marketers there’s nothing sweeter than having your own loyal legion of fans to market to. Blogs by their nature have a greater level of trust

because of it’s conversational style, it’s a two way street, a natural communication tool that allows you to create and environment where people

become to know like and trust you, where you become an authority, and expert on your chosen topic. Again, music to your marketing ears.

If you are still reading this chances are you are currently a internet marketer or contemplating being one and usually for the purpose of

generating income, understand, just like it’s predecessor, the traditional website, you can’t just build it and expect them to come. You have to

attract them by gaining attention. On the internet, attention and traffic are synonymous terms, and, to get traffic you need only do two

things. First and foremost, last and not least, always and forever, you MUST write good content, content that adds value to you readers

experience, period, end of story. The other indispensable ingredient is marketing, it’s how people will find your

great content. It should be noted here that no matter how stellar your marketing effort, when people find you, if your content is not good, if it

is not informative and adds no value they’re never,ever coming back. On the flip side, if you’ve done it right then chances are you have a reader, a friend and a

potential customer for life.

So, let’s recap, since a internet marketer is always looking for ways to get traffic, blogging is one of the most effective tools you have and its

free. People buy from people they know like and trust, no better way to establish this than with a blog. As a marketer, you want to establish

yourself as an authority, a expert, giving your reader what he/she needs, without doubt blogging does this. You want to create a community of

loyal followers eager to read your next post, open to your suggestions and ultimately buying from you. Mission accomplished, happy blogging.

This is the first in a series of 5 articles about the art and magic of blogging and why you should be doing it to increase your exposure, traffic and bottom

line. Stay tuned…

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Hello, greetings and welcome,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Jamaal Ali here, i want to personally thank you for visiting. It is my intent to provide content and information that adds value to your browsing experience by sharing with you the tools, training, resources and inspiration that will educate and enhance your internet marketing strategies that ultimately leads to more money in your  bank account.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Now, so that i may better serve you, it’s important that you interact with me and let me know how i am doing by leaving a comment, after all, this is your blog too, together we learn, together we grow, together we prosper. Come back as often as you like. Again, thanks for visiting and enjoy your stay…                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Peace and Prosperity,

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