Welcome to project-blu.com
|
Web Hosting - Do It Yourself Administration, Things to Consider
The choice of whether or not to try to administer your own web site brings with it a host, pun intended, of issues.
For most web site owners, the primary focus is naturally on creating, maintaining and enhancing the site. That often is just part of managing an entire business, for which the web site is just the means to an end.
That implies there will be little interest in or time left over for technical administration like database maintenance (tuning, space management, security, bug fixes), establishing and maintaining backups to ensure they're successful and usable, email administration, disk space management, applying operating system fixes for bugs and security, and other tasks.
But cost is always a factor in any business. Paying for technical help can burden the budget of a new and struggling business.
Consulting fees can range from a few dollars an hour to over $100. On the lower end, the poor skill level and quality of work will make it not worth even that small amount. On the higher end, you can quickly rack up expenses that will bust your business.
Permanent employees are usually somewhere in the middle of that range when you add up salary, employment taxes and more. Often, server and/or web site administration can be paid for as part of the web hosting package. That cost is usually lower than independent contracting help, but those staff are usually tasked with maintaining dozens if not hundreds of servers and sites. They can, therefore, give very little individual attention to yours.
Often, novice web site owners are intimidated by some of the technical requirements for server or site administration. But, as with anything, a little familiarity can show that the knowledge required is more modest than one might expect. Administration in many cases involves fairly elementary, and frequently repetitive, tasks. These can be learned easily. Using a test site or a free hosting service is a good way to practice and learn without risk or cost, other than time invested.
Once that initial hurdle is jumped over, administration can be done quickly and some even find it interesting. It allows the site owner to exercise additional control over the total product, and there's satisfaction in being able to say 'I did that' even if you prefer not to do it forever.
That real-life learning experience also allows the site owner to better judge any consultants or staff that are hired. It's much easier to judge if someone is providing you with an accurate assessment of a problem if you've solved it yourself. Any time-estimate they provide to fix it can also be better calculated if you've had to do it yourself.
Every web site relies on a variety of factors, usually unseen, in order to continue to function properly. But the fact is that they misbehave from time to time. Deciding whether to tackle those problems yourself depends on your available time and skill set, and what it will require to get things back on track. In other words, it's a standard cost-benefit analysis that everyone has to undertake every day in life.
Evaluating your Free Offers of Stuff Getting free stuff can be a lot of fun, and for many people, the hunt for freebies is as fun as actually enjoying the free products themselves. There is a dark side to freebie offers, however. Many scam artists have come to realize that pretending to offer free things is a great way to trick people into handing over sensitive information about them than can be used in identity theft operations or even bilk them out of cold, hard cash. For that reason, it is important to make sure you know how to stay out there when you’re looking for free offers. There are some things you can do to make sure you freebie hunting only brings you good times – these common sense rules are a great place to start. You’ve heard it a million times before – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The reason you have heard it so many times is that it almost holds water. Think about the reason that companies give away free things. They’re usually not doing it for charity. They want you try to their products in the hope that you will come back to them as a paying customer in the future, and they’re doing it to build good will for their company over all. They’re definitely not doing it go broke. So consider whether the freebie offers you come across make sense according to these criteria. Does it make sense that a company will give you a free bag of their new flavor of chips or a trial size jar of their new face cream? Sure it does, because if you like it, you may buy these products in the future. Does it make sense that a company will give you an all expenses paid, two-week first class trip to Bali for you and ten of your friends? Not so much. Don’t waste your time on these too good to be true freebies – they may end up costing your big time in the long run. By the same token, the more outlandish an offer sounds, the more you have to look for the small print. Sure, maybe the hotel chain is willing to give you a free weekend in their beachfront hotel. The small print in the offer might say that you have to agree to spend 10 hours a day at a sales seminar or that the free weekend is yours after you pay for a two week stay. One particular airline ran an offer for a free coach class plane ticket from New York to London. The small print said you had to buy two, full price first class tickets on that same route before you could get the free on – at a cost of around $8,000 per ticket. Before you jump, make sure you get all of the details. Freebie offers that actually require you to shell out some money are very tricky. Sometimes they are legitimate – after all, if you are accustomed to paying full price first class airfare, a free coach class ticket can be a real score. But many times, when you have to pay to get something for free, that is a red flag that a scammer is at work. You should never send money, even for postage, to a company that you don’t know. Also, keep an eye on the costs for things like postage even if you do know the company name. If they’re asking for $50 postage to send you a free magazine, then you know something is up. Lastly, beware giving out too much personal information. There’s no reason a company giving away free shampoo needs your bank account details. Protect your private info and if you’re unsure, move on to the next freebie offer. Non copyright music downloads Non Copyright Music Downloads Offer Growing Options for Music Collections Non copyright music downloads are growing in popularity and providing much needed exposure to many 'starving artists'. The truth of the matter is that many artists are turning to open source applications or creative commons licensing which allows them to provide their music to others while still retaining their ownership. It's a great idea that has actually worked quite well within the software community and is just now taking hold within the music industry. The idea of services such as this that offer non copyright music downloads to consumers for their listening pleasure is a relatively new concept that is beginning to take hold throughout the online music community. It is important to remember that while there are a few names that are recognizable and reputable in this particular industry there are also those that have less scruples than others and are more than willing to take advantage of music lovers for the fees they will pay and/or a credit card number and personal information. It is always wise to be aware of the information you are sharing online and to take great pains not to give information to companies that aren't absolutely secure and reputable. There are so many 'back room' websites that offer you unlimited music downloads for a yearly or lifetime subscription fee that sounds to good to be true. The problem is that many of these have a very limited selection of non copyright music downloads or quality music and only offer substandard and non mainstream music that no one has ever heard of or they offer music sharing that is not at all legal and puts you in a precarious legal position. The law holds you accountable for what you do rather than what you understand you are doing more often than not. Thinking you have non copyright music downloads is not the same as actually having them. So don't believe everything you see when it comes to defining legal and illegal music downloads. Find companies that have good reputations and don't go with cheaper services that are suspect and vague in their description of services. Non copyright music downloads or open source music is still relatively new. There are a lot of questions that leave a lot of room for misunderstandings, confusion, and consumers being taken advantage of. Educate yourself before subscribing to any of these services. Check out several do searches online to see if there is any negative feedback about these companies, read the feedback and see what people have to say. You can't believe all the negative you read but if many people complain about selection or quality it's quite likely that they don't have a good selection or great quality. Know what you want and find a service that will give it to you in non copyright music downloads. Another thing to know about non copyright music downloads is that many of these services are not offered free. There are expenses involved for the company, the hosting, website advertising, the fees they pay the artist, and any other number of fees-also keep in mind that this is a very time consuming business for them and they have overhead costs in addition to wanting to get paid as well. Remember this is a business for them. You should not expect less of open source music than you expect from other music that you pay a subscription in order to download. Non copyright music downloads are definitely the wave of the future and the technology had better be able to keep up with the demands of consumers. |