Tag Archives: dedicated-servers

4 Mistakes Made By New Entrepreneurs That You Can Avoid

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Hosting

The post 4 Mistakes Made By New Entrepreneurs That You Can Avoid appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Being an entrepreneur is all about taking risks. Sometimes it can feel like we’re kayaking up stream with a soup ladle, not realizing the ease of which our travels could be made by reversing our direction, or you know… using a paddle? While there’s a tremendous amount of appreciation for the art of trying, and the lessons learned from failing, entrepreneurs never set out with the intention of being unsuccessful their entire career. I’d like to share some of the best tips for those of you who are on the up and coming path of running a business and working under your own determination. Mistakes are guaranteed to happen, but here are four ways to prevent some of the bigger ones from adding your business to the 50-70% that will fail in the first 18 months.   1. Not Asking For Feedback From Your Customers I have a good friend, brilliant in all ways business but one: getting to know the people he wants to buy his product. While your idea, service, or art may sit pleasantly in the realm of personal admiration and approval, those you intend to buy it might have a suggestion (even small ones) that will take your sales to the next level. Not being able to take constructive criticism will only hurt your business in the long run. The biggest companies out there also have the best methods for customer surveys and outreach. Would you want to buy from someone who doesn’t care about the experience you had with their service? Treat every customer knowing they’re ultimately the one helping sustain your lifestyle.   2. Going Into Business With The Wrong Partner “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”-Jim Rohn A quote that we believe will live on timelessly, and has everything to do with those you’re setting out to be successful with. In College, institutions place high value on social science as a supplement to nurturing the way in which we work among others, knowing how we act emotionally (EQ) plays a bigger role in successful businesses than (IQ). Sometimes we select a business partner based on a particular skill, knowing nothing about their ability to work cooperatively on a regular basis. Making a partnership work starts well before the union is formed, and we suggest asking yourself six questions when you’re looking to pick a partner.   3. Choosing Not To Emphasize Marketing I have another friend, and in this instance he believes the best businesses are found organically. While this may be true for your local restaurant, word of mouth cannot compete with the way in which search engine optimization has gripped our culture. When you’re visiting a new city, how do you choose where to get a hotel? Where to eat? You Google it, right? Right. It’s that simple, and like it or not most businesses will not survive without maxing out efforts to be seen online where 70% of mobile customers will call a business directly from the search pages.   4. Going Too Heavily Into Debt There’s a strong temptation we all face when we’re planning out our first business, and that’s to borrow a reckless amount of money in hopes the investment will pay for itself once the profits start rolling in. For most, that loan will be spent much faster than intended, and there’s nothing to show for it. Nowadays, there are brilliant ways to replace, or even supplement the money you take out on credit, a few being: Crowd Sourcing – If you have a great idea, try taking it online where people may be willing to help you get it off the ground. Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and Crowdfunder are three of the best and largest user bases to help forgo money borrowed. Government Grants – Although regulated and sometimes difficult to qualify for, these grants are in place to help you become a contributing entity of this country. What’s great is you won’t have to pay it back! Think you qualify? Pockets – Yes, as in your pants and wallet. Having the money up front will save you the pain of having a business fail, and still owing $50,000 with no foreseeable income. Sell an asset, consult friends and family, or get to saving. Perhaps the fifth mistake most entrepreneurs will make is not taking advice. I sit here reflecting on all the times in which actual recommendations could have saved me from unnecessary turmoil. Don’t be afraid of failure, but even more important don’t forget to learn from those mistakes so they won’t happen again.   Image Source: http://ericaduran.co/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Erica-Durans-entrepreneur-mistakes.png web hosting Continue reading →

Posted in HostGator, Hosting, php, VodaHost, vps | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

HostGator Brazil & The World Cup

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Hosting

The post HostGator Brazil & The World Cup appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . It has been almost 3 weeks since the World Cup started in Brazil, with the first round bringing a lot of surprises and countless emotions experienced by fans all over the world. Great teams have gone back home earlier than expected while other teams have overcome everyone’s expectations by doing a great job. Brazil team is still competing and we, Brazilians, could not be more excited, after all the World Cup is being held in our country. Moreover, this is our chance to become a six-time soccer champion, a position that has never been achieved by any team. The fact is that soccer is more than just a sport in Brazil. It is the most loved one. Soccer makes no differentiation, attracting people from all classes, ages and genders. It is a promising career to ones, a hobby to others and the favorite sport for the most of us. And every four years, it unites the whole country, making us proud of being Brazilians. The excitement could not be different in HostGator’s Brazil office! We have got all prepared for the Brazil games, with Snappy joining us and cheering for Brazil as well. He has a big heart! 😉 We know Brazil soccer team has a big challenge ahead with so many good teams to play with, but if the results depend on our desire to win, Brazil has already won. web hosting Continue reading →

Posted in HostGator, Hosting, php, VodaHost, vps | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rackspace Intros Dedicated Servers That Behave Just Like Cloud VMs

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Hosting

Seeking to make cloud infrastructure performance more predictable for its customers, Rackspace is launching a new “bare-metal” server offering, giving users the ability to spin up and down dedicated servers just like they spin up and down virtual machines in its OpenStack cloud. Continue reading →

Posted in HostGator, Hosting, VodaHost | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Responsive Web Design: A Goal For 2014

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Hosting

The post Responsive Web Design: A Goal For 2014 appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . If your business depends on its website to any extent, and you haven’t made the switch to a responsive design by now, you’re at risk for losing a lot of business in 2014. The primary reason being the massive shift happening in how people browse the internet nowadays. During a study conducted at the end of 2013, Smart Insights discovered that of all web browsing just over 25% was done either on a Smartphone or Tablet. Signifying a potential 25% loss in business due to the sub-optimal experience many visitors encountered on web-pages that did not adjust for their particular device. What’s more notable is that by 2015, mobile browsing is expected to surpass desktop use, making it imperative your website will be ready for use across any screen as soon as possible.   Responsive Web Design (RWD) Defined Although it has been around since May of 2010, RWD is still a fairly new strategy to the majority of business owners. Most simply put, Responsive Design is: a website design that will adjust flawlessly to fit on a desktop, smartphone and tablet browser. If you’ve ever pulled open a website on a mobile device only to see the desktop version you understand it can be difficult to zoom in, navigate and ultimately achieve what you had intended by opening the web page in the first place.   How It Works RWD aims to make the browsing experience seamless from one device to the next; therefore, retaining visitors no matter how they choose to access your site. As you can see in the image above, the web-page’s content has re-sized and adjusted to fit within the confines of available space. The principles of RWD use “media queries” to figure out the resolution of the device it’s being served on, coupled with flexible images and fluid grids to then size everything correctly to fit on the screen. In the past web designers would develop a desktop site, and then an entirely different mobile version to try and accommodate for all the different emerging devices. In November of 2012, the popular website Mashable was accessed by more than 2,500 different devices, a number that helped them declare 2013 to be the Year of Responsive Web Design .   The Top 5 Reasons To Adopt RWD Beyond universal accessibility, there are several other benefits to having a site that can exist under one URL, the first being: 1. Google Highly Recommends It Much like anything Google recommends, marketers and web professionals are usually keen with interest. In 2012, Google deemed it a best practice for smart-phone optimized websites. Having one URL and the same HTML allows Google to easily crawl and index your website within its algorithms. Leading into our next benefit: 2. One SEO Campaign In order to promote your website within the search engines, you’ve probably managed an SEO campaign to help your website rank. With a Responsive Design you no longer have to worry about ranking two individual sites (Web and Mobile). Instead all of your efforts can now be concentrated towards one page. All of the links, all of the content will now be working twice as hard to ensure your page gets seen no matter what device it’s searched on. Talk about a good deal! 3. Positive User Experience Without the satisfaction of your visitors, all of this talk of technique and strategy would be utterly pointless. RWD’s main purpose is to allow the users of your web-page to browse however they feel most comfortable. For if a potential customer arrives onto your page while browsing on a mobile device and feels the need to leave seconds later, you may have just lost a potential sale. Research on mobile website usability shows that websites that are responsive and mobile-ready significantly improve user experience and satisfaction. By 2015 50% of visitors will be on a mobile device, be ready! 4. Adapting For The Future The combination of media queries paired with fluid grids will give your web design sustainability in a time of rapidly changing technological trends. Users may keep updating their devices, but no matter how the screen sizes keep changing your website will be able to adapt which is an excellent feeling knowing your investing in a long-term design. 5. Saving Time And Money While RWD aims to serve the satisfaction of your visitors, the bottom line is you’re tired of having to keep up with all the marketing trends when ultimately you just want to run a business. Cutting out dual websites, dual SEO campaigns and constant website maintenance will prove to be incredibly valuable both to your bank account and time management. It’s time to get back to what’s really important, so where do you sign up?   Getting Started Much like hiring a web-designer there is no fixed cost when it comes to implementing RWD. If you have a simple brochure website for your business, modifications may cost as little as a few hundred. Perhaps you want to start from scratch, most web hosting domains have templates with RWD built right in with no experience necessary. We recommend reading the book Implementing Responsive Web Design , if you”re serious about being on the forefront of RWD and learning how to build these sites yourself. Otherwise, get in touch with your preferred web designer and see how you can go about optimizing your site today. You will not regret it!   Image Source #1: http://poweredwebdev.com/tag/responsive-web-design-2/Image Source #2: http://www.cascadingmedia.com/responsive-web-design web hosting Continue reading →

Posted in HostGator, Hosting, php, VodaHost, vps | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

6 Online Apps To Help You Focus

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Hosting

The post 6 Online Apps To Help You Focus appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Approximately two thirds of working Americans find themselves on a computer during the day. Many of which spend their entire shift glued to a screen, only a mouse click away from accessing the endless distractions that can be found on the internet. With so much information coming at us daily, our focus is quickly becoming diminished in exchange for the stimuli of the latest YouTube sensation. For some it can become a serious problem, leading to low productivity, bad performance reviews, and the additional stress of bringing work home. Luckily we’ve compiled a list of six applications proven to break bad habits and help you get your work done on time!   1. Freedom – Block the internet for a certain amount of time Have you ever played the psychological game with yourself that only after X amount of work, you’ll reward yourself with X amount of entertainment? Easier said than done. Freedom has one simple use, and that’s to block your internet completely for a specified amount of time. You’d be surprised just how quickly a glance at Facebook, or reading that ‘crucial’ article can take hours out of your day. If turning off the internet completely is not an option, take a look at Anti-Social. It’s built for those who still need the internet, but would like to block certain sites while the web browser is open. Freedom cost: $10 Anti-Social: $15   2. StayFocusd – Limit the amount of time you spend on distracting websites With opposite functionality to ‘Anti-Social’, Stayfocusd is a productivity extension for Google Chrome that works by restricting the amount of time you can spend on certain sites, rather than blocking them entirely. Once you’re allotted time is spent, those websites will become blocked for the remainder of the day. Many prefer this calculated approach as they still desire intermittent breaks in working, but do not like to go beyond a certain point. Want to give yourself 45 minutes to space out? This app is right for you. StayFocusd cost: Free   3. TrackTime – Understand how your time gets spent while online While we acknowledge we spend a lot of time on the computer, most of us have no idea how that’s broken down into individual application use. How much time did you waste on Twitter today? How often were you actually using your Word Processing application? TrackTime allows you to monitor your activities daily by providing you with statistics and colorful timelines of where you spend your time, and how often you’re switching between applications Tracktime cost: Free (only available on Mac)   4. RescueTime – A more in-depth look at where your time goes and how to take action RescueTime will give you one of the most accurate picture’s on the market as to where your activity is performed on your computer. With detailed activity reports, weekly email summary, and daily goals built right into the interface you’re guaranteed results in becoming more efficient. With premiere, you also get the benefits of: Customized Site Blocking Track Offline Activity Notifications- Notify yourself when spending too much time on something, or for being super productive. RescueTime cost: $9/month or $72/year   5. Concentrate – Work and study more productively between tasks Many of us are responsible for more than one type of task throughout the day; for instance, there’s times when I’m writing, budgeting, updating my web-page, or producing new content on Social Media. Needless to say these tasks can become intertwined unintentionally and break our focus. Concentrate allows you to create custom activities that run a corresponding set of actions to only allow applications and websites to run that support productivity within that activity. In English, that means if I’m writing I can only access my word processor, and websites I haven’t placed on a block list while I’m working. You can set up multiple forms of activity to segment your work day and focus on each item individually. Concentrate cost: $29   6. FocusWriter – Creating an optimal environment for your thoughts Writing can require the greatest self-discipline of any profession, especially in the last decade as life and internet have become so intertwined. FocusWriter commandeers your desktop to provide a distraction-free writing environment so you can focus on what really matters, the words. Some additional features, include: Daily writing goals (word count or writing time) Typewriter sounds Standard text-editing features FocurWriter cost: Free, but with a suggested “tip”   Do you have any other apps or tips that you use to stay focused? Let us know in the comments section!   Image Source: http://betanews.com/2014/02/26/are-you-reading-this-when-you-should-be-working/internet-distraction/ web hosting Continue reading →

Posted in HostGator, Hosting, php, VodaHost, vps | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment