I have been using the Google Email App for a while now and I’m very impressed. In my experience most small business owners use either a free web email like Hotmail or Yahoo or they use the email that comes with their hosting. The problem with web mail solutions like Hotmail is that it looks unprofessional having your email @hotmail.com (although some allow you to use your domain if you pay) and many are limited in the ways you can access your email (some don’t allow IMAP for example). Using the email provided by your hosting company is not great either. Usually their web access applications are sub par, their spam filtering is lacking, and most people switch hosting companies all the time. This means you have to always have a local copy of all your emails at all time.

Here is where the Google Email App comes in. With Google Apps you can change the MX records on your hosting account to redirect all email traffic to Google. What this does is provide a 3rd party who will handle your email no matter what hosting company you use. Another great feature is the Google web mail interface. In my opinion their web mail interface is one of the best in the business! They also allow IMAP access to your account. By using IMAP you can sync all your computers and mobile devices including all folders! Another great thing about having IMAP access is that if you wish to switch from Google to another email provider the new provider can easily pull all your email data using IMAP.

I recently had an issue arise when a client wanted to switch from Yahoo Small Business Email (which is a paid service) to another service. Yahoo does not allow IMAP access so moving to a new service would mean either losing all his emails or downloading them to his local computer. Even downloading them to his computer would be a massive undertaking because without IMAP access none of the folders he has created on Yahoo would be transferred. Ultimately he decided it wasn’t worth the effort and chose to stay with Yahoo. This situation can be avoided by choosing an email provider that allow IMAP access.

Google Email App also allows you to create multiple accounts for yourself or employees all on your domain with their own unique login. However the best part of the Google Email app is the price… FREE! Google also offers a paid version with a few features more suited to larger companies.

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One of the first things you need to have in place before building out your web site is the hosting. Hosting is basically the server where your web site sits. These servers have very fast connections to the internet and can then server your web site to anyone who types in your domain. Pretty straight forward. However once you start looking for a web hosting provider you will see many different terms and plans that can range from $5/month to over $100/month. In this post I’m going to try to clarify some of these options for you. Lets get started.

Linux or Windows?

This first thing you need to decide before you start searching for a good host is if you want Linux or Windows hosting. Usually the main difference is that a Linux account will run PHP and MySQL while a Windows account will run ASP and MS SQL. There are Windows accounts that will run PHP and MySQL however I recommend sticking with a Linux server if you want to run PHP and MySQL. If you don’t know if you need PHP or ASP ask your web designer or if setting up a pre-made site from a template take a look at the requirements and it should specify if its PHP or ASP.

Now that you have decided on either Linux or Windows we can move on to the different types of hosting accounts.

Shared Hosting

This is the most basic hosting option most companies offer and can be found for as little as $5/month depending on the amount of space, bandwidth and other services provided by the hosting company. A shared hosting account basically means that your site sits on a sever that also hosts many other web sites. So you are sharing the server with others. If you have a small web site and do not expect to get hundreds of thousands of hits every month this will probably work just fine for you. Although there are many sites on these shared servers they are all usually small and don’t require as many resources from the server. The down side is if you do plan to have a lot of traffic a shared server may not be able to handle it.

There are also sometimes restrictions on how much of the server you can control. For example the hosting company may block access to certain scripts or protocols to protect the security and stability of the server. So if you are building a complex web application that required a lot of control over what can be installed on the server then shared hosting may not be for you. For most people however, a shared hosting account will do just fine.

Dedicated Hosting

A dedicated hosting account is usually one of the more costly options usually starting at around $100/month. Unlike a shared host where you share the server with many other web sites on a dedicated server your web site is the ONLY web site on that server. You usually have full control of the server and can install any scripts and access pretty much anything you would need to. You also have more bandwidth and of course processing power. This is a good solution for large web sites that get a lot of hits and require a lot of processing power for searching large databases or what not. However with great power comes great responsibility. Since you can pretty much control everything on the server you can also bring down the server if you don’t know what you’re doing.

VPS Hosting

Virtual Private Server hosting is a combination of shared hosting and dedicated hosting. On a VPS server there can be several sites hosted (usually less than on a shared server) however the software on the server is such that it simulates each web site being its own server. Basically it creates a virtual private server for your site. The site can run completely independent of other web sites on the server and can be rebooted and modified without affecting the rest of the web sites on the server. This may be a good training stage before going to a dedicated server.

Colocation

Another type of hosting you may come across is colocation. With colocation you are in charge of providing and maintaining the hardware so you would be required to have your own server that the hosting company would then allow you to basically hook up to their network. So you have full 100% control over your entire server including hardware, but don’t have to worry about having the infrastructure, bandwidth etc to support it as the hosting company will provide this. I would only recommend this method to those who have advanced knowledge of server setup, maintenance etc.

Conclusion

For the majority of web sites a shared host is more than adequate. Make sure you know what kind of server environment your web site will require Linux or Windows and start your search from there. Keep in mind you can always upgrade to a VPS or dedicated server as your site grows.

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When building a new web site many people like the ability to manage their website on their own once it has been setup. This is especially useful for websites with a lot of content that gets updated frequently. Having your website content updated frequently not only keeps your users coming back for more but it may also help your search engine rankings. This is where a content management system (CMS) comes into play. When you have your web site built you will usually have the option of including a content management system to go with it. This will allow anyone without any web design knowledge to update the web site content. If your website will not be updated frequently then you may want to consider having your web designer update your site as needed. This may be more cost effective if you don’t update often.

So now you have decided to have a content management system installed on your site but your not sure which route to go with. In this post I will try to explain some of the fundamental differences between two of the most popular open source content management systems Joomla and Wordpress. I will discuss what they can and cannot do and when you should consider a custom build content management system.

So lets get started!

An open source content manager is basically a content manager that has been developed and released to the public under an open source license agreement. This usually means anyone can download it use it and modify the source code as needed to meet their own needs. The biggest advantage of using an open source content manager is the time savings. Since the application is already made the web designer only has to spend time modifying the code to fit your needs and site design. This means significant cost savings vs building a content manager from scratch. It’s like putting snow tires on a car for winter vs buying a brand new car made specifically for the snow.

Let take a look at two of the most popular content management systems:

	WordPress (www.wordpress.org) WordPress is a great simple content manager for simple web sites! Built mainly for blog websites like this one (which uses WordPress) but can be used by almost any site as a quick and nimble content management system. If you are building a blog web site then this is definitely the content manager for you! If not WordPress still has many features that can help you manage your web site. It allows you to create content using a basic text editor and publish it to your site instantly. It allows you to create categories to sort your content and upload images, audio and other media with an easy to use interface. WordPress also features integrated link management, a search engine friendly link structure and the ability to assign nestedcategories to content. Another great thing about both WordPress and Joomla is that they offer a vast array of plugins that can expand the capabilities of both content management systems. These plugins can allow you to add functionality that is not available out of the box such as integrating adsense on your site, adding a Twitter stream etc. Depending on how knowledgeable you are about web design and development you may want to leave the installation and setup of plugins to your web designer. Now on to what WordPress should not be used for. WordPress is a great content management system, but it is not designed for eccommerce websites. If you are setting up an online store WordPress is probably not for you (niether is Joomlas for that matter). There are many other content managers designed specifically foreccommerce sites and you should use consider of those (we may discuss these at a later date). WordPress is also not recommended for community sites or sites that require memberships. If you want to have a membership site with special member only content then you may want to go with a more robust content management system like Joomla. Overview: Pro’s - Simple to install and customize (for a web designer) - Many themes available right out of the box - Very stable and reliable - Image and media capability (upload your own media easily) - Many plugins available - Supported by many third party systems Cons - Little support for community and membership based sites - Limitations on how much it can be expanded and customized - No real ecommerce support
	Joomla (www.joomla.org) Joomla is a more robust content manager. Still provides the same basic functionality as WordPress allowing you to create content using a simple interface. However Joomla has many features that set it apart from WordPress and make it the ideal content management system for those looking to build a more complex web site. Unlike like WordPress Joomla has very good membership controls to allow for member only content and different membership levels. It also support a more complex menuing system. So if you need advanced menus and sub menus then this is the content manager for you. Right out of the box Joomla supports most features any web site will need such as banner advertsing, memberships, user access control, news streams, polls and much more. As I mentioned before Joomla also supports third party plugins which can expand it’s functionality even further. Now what Joomla should not be used for. Although I do not recommend Joomla as an ecommerce system there are third party plugins that will support this. I still recommend a content manager specifically developed for eccomerce web sites. Given all the extra functionality Joomlas interface is a bit more complex than WordPress and may require a bit steeper learning curve. So if you do not need the extra functionality that Joomla provides and have no plans of ever needing it I would go with WordPress. One more thing to keep in mind for both Joomla and WordPress. Both of these content management systems are designed for a LAMP environment. This means they need PHP (a programming language widely used for web sites) and MySQL (a database program also widely used for web sites) in order to work. Before you decide on either of these make sure your web host supports PHP and MySQL and that you have a plan that includes both of those. Overview: Pro’s - If you can imagine it chances are you can create it - Great membership functionality - Many plugins available - Allows for complex menus - User access control Cons - More complicated and time consuming to setup - Interface requires a steeper learning curve - Not recommended for ecommerce
Conclusion Ultimately it comes down to your specific needs. Both of these content managers are great but choosing the wrong one may cause headaches down the road. If you have simple needs for a simple site WordPress is a great easy to use, quick to install solution. If you have a complex site or plan to expand your web site functionality down the road then Joomla is probably your best bet! One final option is a custom made content management system. If you have a highly complex site or very specific needs (ex real estate, manufacturing etc) you may want to consider a custom system. Although the cost may be significantly higher it can be made to do exactly what you need and can be expanded indefinitely. If you would like to setup a content mangement system for your web site or just need help choosing what content manager is right for you V2-Media can help!

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