Online Publishing: The back-end, fulfillment issues of an online business.
If you recall in the section on Internet Marketing, we said that a website
is not the whole story... and that "It's only one small component of
the technology infrastructure needed to market yourself and make money
online."
Well, in addition to a Website and Internet Marketing issues,
Online Publishing refers to the back-end & fulfillment issues of an online business. It's not as exciting (or "sexy") as some other aspects I've discussed, nor does it impact your visitors initially like the layout or copy of your website. Heck, it doesn't even deal with issues of traffic and conversion which is really where we need to be!
But without knowing something about Online Publishing, you couldn't make a dime online.
Some examples of tasks that fall under "Online Publishing":
Online Publishing can be anything from registering a domain name, to uploading a webpage, installing a content management system, setting up an affiliate program, providing a download link for an e-book, integrating a shopping cart, merchant account or PayPal payment button, setting up an opt-in email software, adding a Helpdesk, forum administration and the like.
As with web design, these are technical and administrative aspects of an online business that can and by all means should be outsourced to programmers and online professionals whenever possible.
Why?
Even though you may just be getting started, I'll share with you a little secret right off the bat that many don't know...
Please read it carefully:
To make money online, you need to get to a point where you spend 80-90% of your time on traffic and conversions and only 10-20% on the technical stuff.
Read that again if you need to, to make sure it sinks in.
Now that you have that in your head, I'll add, to do this, it helps to know a bit about it yourself so you can manage others.
So what should you know and what shouldn't you worry about?
Online Publishing Basic Recommendations - What to know:
Here's a list of some basic tasks that are commonly done when managing and publishing websites and information online that we recommend that you become familiar with:
- How to register, manage and change name servers for a domain name.
- How to host and manage a website on a remote server.
- How to upload and download files to and from a remote server.
- Understanding basic file hierarchies on your PC and on the server.
- How to do backups.
- How to address password and security issues.
- How to create email addresses and set them up in MS Outlook.
- How to add anti-spam filters to your email addresses.
- How to check site statistics.
- How to create a new account on the server.
- How to create bandwidth (BW)/data "packages" for your accounts.
- How to check, upgrade and downgrade BW/data quotas for accounts on the server.
- How to install scripts to your website.
Now, one of the most common questions we get regarding hosting and servers is,
"What host should I use?"
That's a fair question and We're going to answer it here and now:
First of all a host is not just someone who will store
the files of your website. To a reputable web developer, they're a partner
in your online business.
If you've ever had problems with host issues, trust me
it's worth paying for a reliable hosting service that
will be there for you 24hrs. a day, 7 days a week, 365
days a year. That way, you can sleep at night and not
worry about that part of your business.
We can host your website and take your money. Almost anyone
can. But it's not my core competence. Hosting resellers
may offer cheap or even free services but it may not be
their core competence either and unfortunately they don't
tell you this.
Having said that, my first choice, with data centers (servers) in North
Virginia and St Louis, Missouri (USA) is Myriad
Networks
Why?
- They are a Tier-1 Internet backbone provider - that means faster data-transfer speeds and fewer visitors lost.
- They guarantee 100% uptime - fewer visitors lost.
- They provide backups and redundancy in a secure, climate controlled environment.
- They have a 1-800 number that actually reaches a live human being at any hour day or night! - We've used it several times.
- They are hosts to Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, IBM and GE - If it's good enough for them - it's good enough for my company.
- They offer good value in terms of cost / bandwidth.
- They use standard cPanel and WHM interfaces written in PERL for Apache/Unix-Linux Servers.
- No gimmicks like inflating data space on hosting plans (when bandwidth is the critical factor), showing annual pricing, or has a problem with automated email or blogging programs etc.
- We've used them for over two years and never had a problem.
I love Myriad Networks. They are truly the Cadillac of hosting.
But we also use Hostgator
in Florida with data centers in Dallas, Texas as well. Customer Service
was a bit lacking the few times we needed it but many people in the industry
swear by them. So if you need a good hosting company, these guys are a
very close second.
BTW, Everything we recommend, we use ourselves and have found to be top-notch
through hard-knocks trial and error (and using products and services that
were not so great).
One last thing. Go for the reseller accounts. It's the best value if you
plan to host 2 sites or more.
Here's the math:
Myriad
Networks
> To host 1 website / domain (1Gig Data with 50GB BW) is $14.95/month
> To host up to 50 websites / domains (4Gig Data with 100GB
BW) is $26.95/month
Hostgator
> To host up to 50 websites / domains (4Gig Data with 100GB
BW) is $24.95/month
Despite the dollar amounts, our first choice for hosting is Myriad Networks in Virginia and our second choice is Hostgator in Florida.
Contacting Us
If you would like more information on reputable hosting companies or submit your suggestions, please sign up for The MBS Report.