How to Make Money on the Internet

There is a great deal of hype, misinformation and consequent uncertainty about webhosting on the Internet. Many webhosting companies make claims to be the best and you see all sorts of pricing out there.

So if you are starting out, where should you start? Here are some guidelines that should help:

1. Remember that there are lots of webhosts out there, and there is much competition amongst them. If you shop around, you can find good deals.

2. Those that make the most “noise”, that advertise the most and agressively seek new clients, are spending a lot on promotion, the costs of which will come out in the prices you pay. Go cautiously with these. Don’t get pushed into a bad deal.

3. What you want is good quality hosting with account options that leave you room to expand. Generally speaking, you will want:
A. High uptime (99.9%) with a guarantee. A cheap webhost whose servers go down frequently means that your customers will not be able to find your website and will go somewhere else. Uptime percentage is very important to you, the user. Also, many SAY they have 99.9% uptime, but it’s not true. Look for a guarantee with teeth, like one that refunds a portion up to all of your webhosting fee if they do not meet the 99.9% goal.
B. Accounts that allow multiple domains. In reality, the web host’s costs are mainly for storage space and bandwidth. You can find webhosting accounts that set limits on these and then let you put up as many domains as you wish within those space and bandwidth limits.
C. Good support, 24/7
D. Up-to-date servers that support all standard protocols and features such as fantastico, latest versions of php, etc.

4. It’s difficult to tell whether a given webhost lives up to its claims or really knows what “quality” support is. For this reason it’s best to pay by the month, at least at first. If it doesn’t work out, you can try another. Don’t get trapped into a one-year prepaid contract with a second-rate webhost!

If you want to study and learn a great deal about webhosting, visit Web Hosting Talk. That’s a huge industry forum of webhosts, with all kinds of info.

You can scroll down to the bottom of the home page to “Advertising Forums”. Under that look for “Web Hosting Offers” at the top of the list. Here you will find literally hundreds of webhosts offering their services, side by side.

That kind of cuts through the hype and claims; gets down to “What do they offer?” and “What does it cost?”    Like going to a farmer’s market where different vendors sell similar products. No way to price gouge, all sellers have to be competitive or they sell nothing…

Of course it takes time to sort through the offers. I went through that, tried several. One was a disaster! Search on my username there, (jorchav) to read about it. A few more were tried and culled out for one reason or another.

Finally I settled on three.

Cube Host for good service and excellent prices. I use them for plain-vanilla applications and websites and they are fine for that. Their prices start at $3.95 a month for 5 gb of web storage space and 75gb of bandwidth (that’s a LOT!). That comes with unlimited domains, subdomains and e-mail addresses.

I also use Hawk Host for good prices and excellent support. I use them for high-volume sites and anything complex. They always help me out of problems. Each time I ask for support they solve the problem AND give me more experience and education in solving server-side problems in the process.

A basic account is 3gb storage, 30gb bandwidth, unlimited domains. It goes at $3.95/month, but you have to pay three months at a time. Well, what the heck! That’s only $11.85 every 3 months.

India Nets is another great low-cost webhost with excellent service and a friendly, helpful tech support group.  I’ve had two accounts with them for over a year now; I can testify to their better than 99.9% uptime!.

Their hosting plans start at 1gb of space, 10gb bandwidth for 1 domain at $1.99 a month or $19.99 per year, 2 gb space 2gb bw, 10 domains $2.99/mo.  or $29.99/year and go up from there.  They can also supply you with hosting on up to 100 different class C IP’s for about $2 per month each.

Why do I use more than one webhost?

Good question. I discussed that in in another blog entry here, “Defensive Webhosting and Domain Name Registration.”

Jorge Chavez

If you are going to do almost anything on the Internet, sooner or later you will need domain names and web hosting.  O.K.  No problem. There are lots of suppliers of domain name registration and web hosting space, right?

Right.  But it’s best to use a bit of planning first. Ernest Hemingway once said, “Life is a game. They put you in without telling you the rules, then shoot you when they catch you off base.”  No one told me the rules of the domain name and web space game. I had to get “shot” a couple of times and learn them as I went along.

What did I learn? Well, here’s a summary:

1. The sellers who advertise the most, push hardest, are easiest to find, are the most expensive.

2. Never get your domain name and your web hosting from the same place. Keep them separate.

[The reason is that if your web host has problems and their servers go down, you can simply redirect your domain's DNS info and have your site up and running on a different webhost in minutes. But ONLY if your domain is registered elsewhere. When problems come up (as has happened to me on 3 separate occasions, 3 different webhosts) the webhost will be unavailable for contact or unwilling to redirect your domain. With a separate registration service, YOU are in charge. With domain registration and web hosting at one place, that company will be in charge!]

3. Always have more than one webhosting account, each with capacity to handle the rest of your domains.

[Personally, I have 5 web hosting accounts, three of which each has the capacity to host all 60+ of my domains and websites. (2 are small experiments.) If one webhost goes down, I can move my websites there, immediately to another of my web hosting accounts. I can do this without having to ask anyone or open another account. I can do it at 2AM on Sunday morning on a holiday weekend if I need to. That way I am in control and relatively sure of being able to keep my websites up and running.]

4. Always have a recent copy of each of your websites on your hard disk so YOU can restore that site anywhere, anytime. Then backup your HD frequently.

[Either get a portable hard drive to use for backup, make CD's or keep backup copies online. You can get a free personal 2gb of backup space at mozy.com ]

So who would I recommend you deal with? Well, here’s the ones I use:

Registrars:

Name.com

Dynadot.com

Both are no-nonsense, low overhead, customer-oriented outfits with good prices, good service.

Webhosting:

Cube Host

Hawk Host

Both provide 5-6gb of storage, 30-75gb of bandwidth with unlimited domains and 99.9% uptime, starting at $3.95/month!

Also:  India Nets that can start you off with excellent  hosting for 1 domain for  $1.99 a month or $19.99 per year! 10 domains for $2.99/mo, $29.99/year!

All three provide great support, very good prices and over 99.9% uptime. Again, these are not outfits I have just heard about, they are the ones I use every day and have been using for over a year now.  I know from experience that these guys are good, and their prices are at rock-bottom for the quality of service they provide.

Jorge Chavez

Most of us have been through it, in spades. We have our plan to make money on the Internet.  We are working along on it, then something new/different catches our eye and we get distracted.

One IM friend called it the NNSO syndrome; Next New Shiny Object. It’s hard to avoid getting caught up in that cycle.

Marketers make a persuasive case for their particular NNSO, why it’s going to be the latest and greatest. They point out that THIS NNSO will put you light-years ahead of the competition; those that don’t get on board now will be left in the dust, etc., etc.

After a few days or weeks you look back and realize that you have spent more time exploring new approaches than you have in making anything actually WORK for you.

And your HD has bunches of free data you have eagerly downloaded and have not yet found the time to read/listen to/watch.

In that regard, there is a huge difference between acquisition and consumption…

Acquisition is easy; consumption is harder; effective utilization is harder still.

It takes a lot more time to read an eBook than it takes to download it! It takes still more time to absorb what it teaches and apply it.

We’ve all been there, right?

So how do you deal with it? How do you manage this type of Internet Overload?

The answers are to be found in three words: Priority, Focus and Discipline.

There is an old Chinese saying to the effect of, “A man who chases two rabbits will catch neither.”

The same is true in Internet Marketing.

First, make your plan. Then, every day you set your priorities for that day; what do you need to get done next in order to accomplish your plan.

Second, focus on doing the things most needful in order for you to accomplish your plan. All else are “busy-work” distractions. FOCUS.

Third, concentrate, don’t waiver. Find, cultivate and maintain the personal discipline you need to stay on track, to work your plan. Tell yourself that when you get to the initial finish of your plan, THEN you will look around, read those eBooks, etc.

When you catch yourself going off course, grab yourself by the scruff of the neck and haul yourself back to doing the things that are necessary to carry out your plan.

Remember that one plan completed is worth 10-20 in process. Sure there will be other opportunities other NNSO’s out there. They won’t put any money in your pocket. They could use up your valuable time. Visualize how happy you will be when you receive the first actual money that your plan will bring you. Concentrate on making that happen.

Become aware of how you are actually using your time. Use this test:

Is what I am working on know contributing directly to completing my plan to put money in my pocket? If it is, do it.

If not, ask yourself why are you doing it? Why are you wasting your time? Do you want to make money or not? Focus.

Think of those NNSO’s as Sirens attracting you to put your boat on the rocks. Don’t let them. Stay on point.

At the end of each day, ask yourself, “What did I accomplish to forward my plan today?” You’ll have good days and bad. When you have good days, congratulate yourself. When you have bad days, resolve to do better, starting tomorrow morning.