Writing Your Sales Text – Some Facts

Date: 2011.02.21 | Category: Writing | Response: 0

Do you know the difference between writing sales text for print advertising i.e. magazines and, writing sales talk for websites?

Well some of these differences will go against your intuition however, these differences are based on how people read specific items.

Where Do Eyes Go First When Your Page Loads?

Contrary to what most webmasters think it may not always be towards the thumbnails and banners on your page instead, surfers eyes will more than likely go to the first few lines of text on the page therefore, your first chance at making a sale before the surfer starts to burn your bandwidth is to have some enticing text on any site or page you build. Another reason why learning to write good text links can benefit you long term.

Also, as most surfers will only look at a page for between three and fifteen seconds before they decide whether they want to stay on the site they are at or close it this now starts to question webmasters use of heavy graphics on their sites, if a graphic takes three to four seconds to load you have just lost valuable sales time on your site.

How Much Of Your Copy Do Users Actually Read?

On average surfers will read about 75% of the length of any given page. Again, this is good news because it now means we can draw our surfers attention tot he ‘important’ sections of our sites by using headlines and bullet points to make them stand out. Also, this means that, given surfers will read only the first 75% of any page that the bottom half of your pages may not be as important as what was first believed.

Why Do Most Banner Ads Produce Poor Click-Through Rates?

Again as with any advertising media there is only a specific time frame that anyone will look at something, in this case it has been found that the vast majority of surfer will spend a mere 1.25 seconds looking at a banner which, is about enough time to read say 5 words based on the average college students reading time of 350 words a minute.

Therefore, banners which are animated and can take up to 5 seconds to get all the information across may in effect be completely worthless on our sites. More bad news for webmasters who have fancy animations and the likes on our pages.

Why Is Reading Online More Frustrating Than Reading Print?

Did you know that reading text on a computer screen can cause your reading ability to slow by up to 25% in some cases? This means that over inflating pages with text heavy content may actually aggravate the surfer instead of draw there attention! But, how can we stop this from potentially losing us a sale? Simple here are a few suggestions.

Rather than having one long continuous stream of text have several smaller one or two line paragraphs of text.

Use headlines to summarize what you are telling the surfer for example, if you sponsor has free trials tell them in bold lettering ‘Free Trials’ you get the point across and, you may draw their attention to click on the text.

Are Your Web Page Users Not Getting The Whole Picture?

Can surfers ‘scan’ your website? Lets look back at the above figures, 75% of the page gets read, banners have an attention span of only 1.25 seconds on average, that’s not much time for a surfer to look at your pages.

I think that would probably explain the reason why surfers tend to ‘scan’ our sites and only concentrate on the free images, how many of us actually take the time to read word for word EVERYTHING on a page?

I know I hardly do I just sit there and scan the page for things that draw me into the text or site. This is true again for surfers in fact, estimated figures show that roughly 21% of surfers actually spend the time to read every single word on any site meaning the other 79% only scan through our sites this again, cuts down our marketing capabilities dramatically making it more important to have headlines and well laid out pages highlighting the part we want our surfer to look at, namely, our sponsor links.

If we do not do this we are in effect only making 21% of our marketing efforts count again, taking away from our profits. That’s a huge chunk of our surfers we are losing out on gleaming a sale from.

What do all of the above figures tell us? Simple, we need to keep our pages quick loading, concise and more importantly unique, we need to draw our surfers to the specific areas that we want them to go to first and, in the process we should start to make more money from each of our sites.

Article written by Lee

What Is The Golden Ratio?

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: Sponsors | Response: 0

Its a little known marketing technique that say that, as long as the longest side on any oblong is 1.6 times the length of the shortest side of the same oblong people will be more likely to prefer that shape over any other shape.

Why do they prefer this size? Because it occurs naturally and, subconsciously EVERY LIVING PERSON is attracted to this trait.

An example of this is as follows:

1) Stand Up
2) Measure the distance from your head to your feet and write this measurement down
3) Measure the distance from your Navel write this figure down.

The length of your ENTIRE body is 1.6 times longer than from your Navel to your feet!!

The same is also true for the length of your arm from shoulder to finger tip, then from elbow to finger tip.

The same is true for credit cards, the longest side is 1.6 times longer than than the shorter side!

Think about this for a second, banner ads, what shape are they? Oblong except, they don’t employ the ‘golden ratio’ what if, just what if, you used some banner ads that employed this ‘golden ratio’ who says banners have to be 468×60 in size?

Why not try making some ‘basic’ banners in paint or a decent graphics program utilizing the 1.6 rule and see if your click thru’s increase, personally, I will bet my earnings last month that they will.

On the same way of thinking towards marketing, table ads, money bars, etc, why not incorporate this idea into them also? It cant hurt and who knows it may just work.

the math to work this ‘golden ratio’ out is as follows for Image a above:

shortest side (60) x 1.6 = (90) Longest side

You don’t even need to be a genius to make your own ads using this method as the people at Microsoft supplied you with a calculator.

Article written by Lee

JavaScript Know How

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Scripts | Response: 0

JavaScript can be one of the most useful additions to any web page. It comes packaged as standard in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and, Netscape Navigator and allows webmasters to perform field validations, mouse-over’s, pop ups and a whole entourage of other nifty little features on our sites.

In this article we will show you how to:

– Display the browser name and version number
– Change the text in the status bar of the browser
– Use an input box to get text from the user
– Use a message box to display text to the user
– Change the title of the browser window

Before that, however, we need to know how to setup our web page so that it can run the JavaScript. JavaScript code is inserted between opening and closing script tags: <script> and </script>, like this:

<script language=”JavaScript”>

–> JavaScript code goes here <–

</script>

These script tags can be placed anywhere on the page, however, it’s common practice to place them between the <head>and </head> tags. A basic HTML page that contains some JavaScript looks like this:

<html>
<head>
<title> My Test Page </title>
<script language=”JavaScript”>

function testfunc()
{
var x = 1;
}

</script>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hello</h1>
</body>
</html>

For the examples in this article, you should use the basic document format I have just shown you, inserting the JavaScript code between the <script> and </script>tags. When you load the page in your browser, the JavaScript code will be executed automatically.

Displaying the browsers name and version number.

The “navigator” object in JavaScript contains the details of the user’s browser, including its name and version number. They can be displayed in a browser using the document.write function:

document.write(“Your browser is: ” + navigator.appName);
document.write(“<br>Its version is: ” + navigator.appVersion);

I run Windows 2000 and Internet Explorer version 6, so the output from the code above looks like this in my browser window:

Your browser is: Microsoft Internet Explorer
Its version is: 4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0b; Windows NT 5.0)

Changing the text in the status bar of the browser.

To change the text in the status bar of a browser window, just change the “status” member of the “window” object, which represents the entire browser window:

window.status = “This is some text”;

Using an input box to get text from the user.

Just like in traditional windows applications, you can use an input box to get some text input from the user. The “prompt” function is all you need:

var name = prompt(“What is your name?”);
document.write(“Hello ” + name);

The prompt function accepts just one argument (the title of the input box), and returns the value entered into the text box. In the example above, you get the users name and store it in the “name” variable. You then use the “document.write” function to output their name into the browser window.

Using a message box to display text to the user.

You can display a message box containing an OK button. These are great when you want to let the user know what is happening during their time on a particular page. You can use a message box to display the “name” variable from our previous example:

var name = prompt(“What is your name?”);
alert(“Your name is: ” + name);

The “alert” function takes one argument, which is the text to display inside of the message box.

Changing the title of the browser window.

To change the title of a web browser’s window, simply modify the “document.title” variable, like this:

document.title = “My new title”;

One bad thing about the “document.title” variable is that it can only be manipulated in Microsoft Internet Explorer. Netscape’s implementation of JavaScript doesn’t allow for modification.

In Closing.

As you can see from the examples in this article, JavaScript is a powerful scripting language that can be used to enhance a visitor’s experience with our site. However, you shouldn’t use JavaScript too much because in some cases it can annoy visitors and send them packing before your site even loads!

Article Written By Lee

Everything You Need To Know About Meta Tags And More!

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Search Engine Optimization, WebDesign | Response: 0

Everything You Need To Know About Meta Tags And More!

There’s a plethora of different META Tags that you can make use of on your site. Because there are so many, it’s impossible for me to cover all of them in this article. However, I will describe the most common ones. But let’s start from the beginning, shall we?

What Are META Tags?

META tags are similar to standard HTML tags. However, there is one big difference: You have to insert all META tags between the <head> </head> tags on your page(s). META tags are used primarily to include information about a document. The META tags will be invisible to your site’s visitors, but will be seen by browsers and search engines.

For The Search Engines.

Several of the major search engines make use of the META Keyword tag, and virtually all of them make use of the Description tag. These tags help the search engine spider determine the content of your web site so that it can be indexed properly.

This is what they look like:

<META name=”keywords” content=”Webmaster Resource Site”>
<META name=”description” content=”Online Webmaster Resource Site”>

You can also instruct the search engine robot/spider how to index your site using the robots META Tag. This is what it looks like:

<META name=”robots” content=”noindex,nofollow”>

What the tag above does is tell the spider not to index the page that it appears on, and not to follow the links on that page. Here’s a complete list of attributes for the robots tag:

index – the default, the page is added to the search engine database

noindex – the page is not added to the search engine database

nofollow – the spider doesn’t follow the links on that page

none – same as “noindex, no follow”

To use any of these attributes simply replace the “noindex,nofollow” text in the example above with whatever you want to use. If you need to use more than one attribute, separate them with a comma.

Client Pull.

Have you ever seen a page that automatically refreshes to another URL after a few seconds? Did you ever wondered how it was done? I’ll tell you. The page made use of one of the http-equiv META Tags to automatically “pull” you to a different page after a few seconds. Here’s what the code looks like:

<META http-equiv=”refresh” content=”1; url=newpage.htm”>

The value of content denotes how many seconds will pass before the new page is called for. If you want it to happen as soon as a person hits that page, then set the value to “0”.

Prevent Caching.

If you want to prevent a page being saved in your visitor’s cache you can do so by inserting the following three tags:

<META HTTP-EQUIV=”expires” CONTENT=”0″>
<META HTTP-EQUIV=”Pragma” CONTENT=”no-cache”>
<META HTTP-EQUIV=”Cache-Control” CONTENT=”no-cache”>

Why would you want a page not to be cached? If your site is updated frequently and you always want your visitors to see the newest content/changes, or if you want to ensure that a new banner is loaded each time from your server when a page is accessed, you’ll want to use the tags above.

A quick note here on banner caching: In addition to using the tags above, you’ll want to append random numbers at the end of the tag calling the image.

Rating Your Content.

By using the rating META tag on your site, you can specify the appropriateness of your web site for kids. The tag looks like this:

<META name=”rating” content=”general”>
In addition to the general rating, you can use three others. They are:

mature

restricted

14 years

Misc. Tags

Below I’ve listed several other popular tags that you may have seen around the web.

The generator META tag is used to specify what program was used to create your web site. Many HTML editing tools automatically insert this so that a company can gauge their market penetration. The tag looks like this:

<META name=”generator” content=”program name and version”>

The author tag is used to identify the author of a page. Simply replace “author’s name” with your name or email address.

<META name=”author” content=”author’s name”>
The copyright tag identifies the individual or company that holds the copyright to a particular page. This is what it looks like:

<META name=”copyright” content=”This page and all its contents are copyright 2003 by Lee Windsor. All Rights Reserved.”>

I hope this article gave you some insight into the usage of Meta Tags and how they can benefit your day to day business.

Article written by Lee

HTML Page Load Times – Making Them Quicker

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: WebDesign | Response: 0

Surfers on the web are here for one thing and one thing only, they want information, they want it to be correct and, more importantly, they want it now. We cant always help when it comes to getting the information however we can help them so far as making sure that when one of the surfers clicks on our pages they load quickly.

Taking Control Of Speed.

For many webmasters hand coding their HTML pages is an often timely and costly method and, because of this they turned to the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You get) editors such as Dreamweaver and Frontpage to create their pages for them however, even this in itself requires some manually intermission on the webmaster part. Many of the older style WYSIWYG Editors added a fair amount of un-needed code to the HTML so, spending a few minutes after you have your pages created to physically go through the HTML code and clean up the junk html can in effect, cut down your page size by up to 25% in some instances.

HTML Quotations And Hyphens.

In addition to un-needed HTML tags you may also want to consider removing any quotation marks or hyphens from your HTML code, both of these can quickly clutter up a page and laden it down with more code than is actually required.

For example, ‘HTML Coding’ makes just as much sense as me telling you HTML Coding when read in sequence. The trick with using quotations and hyphens is actually knowing at what point in your text you can ‘get away’ with removing them and, this is only something you will know yourself after proofing your completed page.

Hyperlinks.

If you are only going to provide links from one page of your site to another then, why use absolute paths? http://www.domain.com/linking.html is the same as /linking.html when you use it in a link from one page on your site to another and, well, in all honesty you have increased the load time of your page by only linking to the relative url instead of the absolute and that’s what we are trying to do here right? Make our pages load faster.

White Space.

White space on a web page can be a good marketing tool however, white space in your HTML code is a bad thing, placing spaces between certain parts of your HTML code can quickly bog down your load times instead, try to use the tab key to separate certain parts of code likewise, keep the use of &nbsp to a minimum, this can quickly become the most relevant term on your page if used in excess.

One other benefit of making your pages as small as possible is that a webmaster wanting to steal your HTML code is going to have a harder time finding the exact piece of coding if the HTML is all on a single line than they would if the code was laid out nicely however, this in itself is only a deterrent and it wont stop those webmasters determined to steal your HTML code.

Page Load Time Overview.

Hopefully this brief article has given you some idea of ways in which you can practically reduce the load time of your pages without affecting the overall look and feel of your site and, who knows, if your page loads quicker, then you have a better chance of your surfer getting to your sponsor quicker.

Article written by Lee

Networking – Not Just For Computers

Date: 2011.02.23 | Category: General, Promotion | Response: 0

Networking – Not Just For Computers.

“Networking” is a buzz word today. Everybody talks about it. Everybody hears about it. Everybody wants to do it more effectively. But why? Why do people network, and what do they hope to accomplish?

Primarily, networking is the process of meeting new people, either through a contact that you initiate, or through an introduction by a third party.

Networking allows you to meet, and establish a relationship with, people who may not have heard of you and your business through any other method.

For most professionals, networking is done to increase revenues. Sometimes new clients are found, sometimes suppliers and, sometimes new ways of doing things that increase your bottom line are found through networking.

When networking you should work towards these common goals:

To exchange business ideas.
To get better service.
To develop your business skills.
To potentially increase your revenues.
To establish long term friendships.

This means that networking is an essential part of building up strong business relationships. We need each other to buy from us, sell to us and, brainstorm with us in order to progress in our fields. In order for us to do these things we must give something back in return, its all about give and take.

we must be willing to hone our relationship building skills. We must be great listeners. We must be willing to give before we receive. We must get into networking mode in our own minds before we ask the same of others. This must be constant.

Through consistent contact with others, you will, instinctively start to put 2 and 2 together. When you begin speaking with someone your mind will automatically start searching the inner most recesses of your brain to remember people, places, even products, that will assist the person you are networking for and, at the same time, you will also be thinking of what they can do for you in return.

This Is Networking.

This is the state of mind you should be in whenever you are talking to someone in your industry, to get your mind in this state takes a while but, once you have focus and determination, you will immediately see how you can help others and, how they can benefit you in return whilst listening to them. this is the first step in getting them to help you.

Networking, as its name would suggest is WORK, hard work, the process is also a learned skill, its not something that we are all born with or, can all do. It can often be frustrating when you have a goal in mind but, your networking functions are not achieving that goal. All in all, networking is the building block of many a business venture, it can make and it can break you. Take some time to consider this fact the next time you are posting on a board or go to one of the tradeshows, you might just come away with more than you hoped for.

Article Written By Lee

Content – Keeping your members coming back for more

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Content | Response: 0

We know that the first battle for pay site owners is getting the traffic and the signups. But, sometimes this becomes such a focus that we forget the other battle: keeping members interested once you have them. When people pay for a membership to a site they are expecting to get their money’s worth. In return for their monthly fee they are looking for a site that encompasses quality, variety and originality.

As the web grows, so does the online entertainment industry. Four or five years ago there was only a handful of pay sites around compared to the thousands and thousands that are on the net today. Back then, you could literally put any kind of content on your sites and you would have membership, there just was not much choice out there for the connoisseur of porn. Now, potential members are more informed, they know what is out there, they know what they like, and they know what they want to see.

What has to be done to cater to these more discriminating porn shoppers? You have to give them what they want. Here are some useful tips for choosing a content provider and/or content for your pay sites that will keep the members coming back for more:

Go for the exclusive content.

You want to be able to provide your members with something that is fairly fresh and that is not pasted on every pay site on the Internet. The last thing a potential buyer wants to see is a site that is a carbon copy of half the sites out there.

Choose leased content.

Choosing leased content over buying CD’s is a good way to keep your site fresh. Most leased content providers will update their content on a bi-monthly or monthly basis. As well, with leased content, it is just a matter of adding the feed into your site. This alleviates the need for extensive extra graphic design work.

Have a wide variety of content.

Make sure that your site has a little bit of everything a potential member could want: pictures, videos, live feeds, etc. The more you have the better. Many content providers have great package deals available that will include all of these things all set up and ready to put on a site.

Choose a reputable content provider.

You want to make sure that when you choose a content provider that you do not just go for the best deal out there. You want to also look at things like: how much bandwidth they provide, what their technical support is like and last but not least, do they have good customer service.

These are just but a few helpful suggestions to follow when choosing content for your pay site. There are certainly many ways to achieve a high rate of member retention. One thing that many of our customers tell us is that they find that having a least one voyeur feed on their site great for keeping the members coming back for more. Laura’s Condo, one of our voyeur feeds, has one of the best member retention rates around. Visitors get attached to the girls, develop a rapport with them and they do not want to lose that. Hence, they will keep renewing to be able to keep their relationship going with their favorite girl.

The number one thing that pay site owners must remember is that members equal money and in order to keep the cash flow rolling in they must keep the members interested and give them what they want. By spending a little extra money to get high quality exclusive content, you will actually be putting more money in recurring memberships back in your pocket at the end of the day.

Article written by Meredith Murray

Do You Keep The Surfers Attention?

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Traffic, WebDesign | Response: 0

A new discovery says that people are born to respond to information a certain way. It also indicates that when we use our in-born or natural style to process information, we relax and feel good. The same research also indicates that 92% of thousands tested have changed that style to one they think works better. The change causes stress. So 92% of the viewers of your site are stressed. Because people often visit your site and click off almost instantly, you face the problem of getting their attention and keeping it long enough to persuade them to buy.

The fact is that people today have shortened attention spans. If you don’t get them in the first few seconds, you lose them! You can either build a terrific web site — or just end up with “click thrus.” Many site owners think it enhances a site to add animation or cool sounds. But the answer is to make your site appeal to the individual. Great sites of the future will know how to “individualize” their message.

Even though we all have to learn how to use a computer, high tech has not made people think the same way. You are not battling high technology; you are fighting to keep the attention of three (3) basic in-born styles. This may sound overwhelming, but it is really a simple matter of anticipating a viewer’s response before he or she gets to your site. Anticipation of responses makes or breaks your site.

So how do you anticipate how a viewer responds before it happens? It is really simple. You start by learning how you personally respond to information. Why is this the beginning place? It is because you and the way you react when receiving or giving out information influences everything about your site. Next you learn about the other ways people respond to information. It is easy to begin anticipating reactions as you get a whole new perspective on how people are born to process information. Things start to make sense to you and people are no longer such a mystery.

These conclusions are drawn after over 20 years of research. The research verifies that it is possible to appeal to most views rather than 2 – 4 in a thousand. So, when someone tells you how to write killer copy, or make your site jazzy with new technology, you are hearing from only one of the basic in-born styles. Take everything with a grain of salt until you evaluate it according to the simple guide that lets you appeal to ALL styles rather than only one.

Article written by Lee

The Next Big Traffic Craze – Thumbnail Link Lists

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: Link Lists | Response: 0

As adult webmasters are constantly thriving to create the next craze in traffic sources to garner sales from their sites it comes as no surprise that there is already talk amongst the ranks of the next big thing, what is this new idea? The Thumbnail Link List.

Thumbnail Link Lists – Re-Inventing The Wheel.

As the past year and a half have taught us as webmasters, regular TGP’s have almost become a thing of the past with more and more thumbnail TGP’s being created and submitted to daily, why then, has it taken so long for someone to think up the idea of the Thumbnail Link List? Quite simply I think it has been a case of to much has happened over the last 12 months in the adult industry for webmasters to think this idea up.

So What Is A Thumbnail Link List?

A thumbnail link list is in effect a way of displaying free sites on your own standard Link List by utilizing small thumbnail samples of the images contained within the free sites galleries, in fact, much the same way that a thumbnail TGP works however, instead of only listing single image galleries your link list will consist of links to individual free sites.

Much like the Thumbnail TGP traffic source, the thinking behind the Thumbnail Link List is that by showing your surfers what type of pictures the sites within your link list contain they will be more likely to visit the free site thus improving your CTR to your webmaster submitted sites and, ultimately, your site overall allowing you to manipulate the traffic to garner more sales for yourself as the Thumbnail Link List owner.

Submitting Your Site To A Thumbnail Link List.

Looking at the Thumbnail Link List idea from a webmaster who would be submitting your free sites for listing (and ultimately traffic) how do the rules of the Thumbnail Link List differ to that of the regular link list which we are all used to seeing, well for a start, the main difference will be that you either need to submit a thumbnail yourself or, enter the url to one of your gallery pages in addition to the main entrance to your free site, this will actually be the only significant change in how you operate your link list submissions compared tot he current link list method, however, as each Thumbnail Link List owner will have their own individual rules you should check before submitting as to what is required from you as a submitter.

Thumbnail Link Lists – Overview.

The whole Thumbnail Link List idea is one that, in all seriousness should mean more traffic not only for the submitters of the free sites but, also for the Thumbnail Link List owner themselves, by offering the surfers a preview of the content contained within the free sites they will be visiting they can simply reduce the amount of sites that do not appeal to them and focus more on the sites that do meaning that the webmasters who submit highly niched free sites to the links lists will now be able to benefit from a larger traffic base and ultimately, more sales.

Article written by Lee

Adult Hosting Glossary

Date: 2011.02.21 | Category: Hosting | Response: 0

Adult Hosting Glossary.

With so many adult hosting companies looking for our business all of them telling us we need a variety of applications and software packages to run our sites, just how do you know what you do need and, more importantly, what you don’t?

Below you will find a list of a variety of common terms used in relation to hosting your website and, hopefully, you will in turn, discover what your requirements are when looking for a new or alternate hosting company.

Alias
A name that points to another name. Aliases are used to make the original name easier to remember or to protect the site’s identity.

Applet
An applet is an embedded program on a web site. Applets are usually written in the coding language called Java. They are normally used for creating a virtual object that may move or interact with the web site. An applet is like a small piece of executable code that needs a full application to run it.

Active Server Pages (ASP)
Active Server Pages allow web developers to make their sites dynamic with database driven content. The code is mainly written in VB Script, and it is produced on the server of the web site instead of the browser of your web site visitors. The server reads the ASP code and then translates it to HTML.

Audio Streaming
The process of providing audio content on a web site. This takes up a large amount of bandwidth, especially if you get a lot of visitors at your site. Some hosts do not allow audio or video streaming because of this.

Auto Responder
An automated program that acknowledges receipt of an e-mail message, and then sends back a previously prepared email to the sender, letting them know it was received. Once you configure your auto responder, it sends e-mail with no further action required on your part, making your web site interactive around the clock. Most hosting companies let you set this up through their control panel.

Availability (Uptime)
Refers to the amount of time within a 24 hour period a system is active or available for servicing requests. For example, if a hosting company says it is available 99.9% of the time, they are claiming that your web site will up all the time except for about 8 seconds each day. Over the course of a year, in this example, the hosting company is claiming that your site will only be unavailable (couldn’t surf to it) for 48 hours.

Backbone
A high-speed line or series of connections that forms a major pathway within a network. The term is relative as a backbone in a small network will likely be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network. In general, the better the backbone of the hosting company, the better the availability of the web sites that run on their computers.

Backups
Web hosts back up data on their servers. Many host packages offer backups every 24 hours. This is supposed to prevent the loss of data should something happen to the server. . If you think you may need to restore old data in case of a disaster, it may make sense to choose a hosting company that performs regular backups.

Browser
This is the client software that displays (interprets) the HTML code it receives from the server. All browsers work slightly different and one may not display the pages correctly if the code was developed exclusively for another browser. Today the two main browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape.

C +/++
C+ and C++ are programming languages. Some hosting companies provide access to C+ and C++ class libraries if your web site contains these types of program modules. Once your web site has been constructed, you will know whether access to C+ or C++ will be required.

CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
A CGI is a program that translates data from a web server and then displays that data on a web page or in an email. CGI involves the transfer of data between a server and a CGI program (called a script). This allows HTML pages to interact with other programming applications. These scripts make web pages interactive. Page counters, forms, guest books, random text/images and other features can be driven by CGI scripts. Some servers have pre-installed/pre-defined CGI scripts, meaning that the scripts are already installed on the server for you to use on your site. Some servers permit user-defined or custom CGI scripts, which means the site owner creates his/her own CGI script and runs this custom made script on the web site. Not all servers allow user-defined (custom) scripts for security reasons. Almost all hosting companies offer CGI today. If you think you will need forms on your web site, CGI could be a key requirement.

Chat Server / Software
Some hosting companies allow you to develop a chat room or other type of chat service for your visitors. Be sure to check with the web host company about the details of the chat services offered. Some servers permit you to configure the service, and others pre-configure everything for you while others do not allow chat rooms at all.

Click Through
This term is used to describe the ratio of clicks to impressions on an advertisement, usually a banner ad. If a banner has been shown 100 times and 3 people click on it, it will have a 3% click through ratio.

ColdFusion
An application which simplifies database queries by allowing for a simpler programming language to handle functions between the user’s browser, the server, and the database. After you have developed your web site, you will know whether ColdFusion is a requirement. If you have not used ColdFusion to develop your site, you should ignore this feature.

Co-Location
Co-location means housing a web server that you own in the facilities of a hosting provider. This option is perfect if you want to own your own server, but do not want the hassle or security risk of maintaining that server.

Control Panel
An online package of tools permitting easy site management and editing. Almost all hosting companies provide this option today. It is a very important feature to have. By having your own control panel, you can maintain basic information about your site, mail boxes, etc. without having to send emails to the hosting company or call them on the phone.

Cookie
A message given to a Web browser by a Web server. The browser stores the message in a text file called cookie.txt. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and possibly prepare customized Web pages for them. When you enter a Web site using cookies, you may be asked to fill out a form providing such information as your name and interests. This information is packaged into a cookie and sent to your Web browser which stores it for later use. The next time you go to the same Web site, your browser will send the cookie to the Web server. The server can use this information to present you with custom Web pages. So, for example, instead of seeing just a generic welcome page you might see a welcome page with your name on it.

Credit Card Billing
What is a merchant account? Why do I need one? A merchant account gives a business the ability to accept credit cards as payment for the company’s goods and services. It provides your customers with an extremely popular payment option, beyond cash and checks. This is usually done via a 3rd party provider such as Ibill.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
Used to add more functionality to simple HTML pages. Internet Explorer 3.0 and up support a good portion of CSS, while Netscape 4.0 and up supports a small amount of CSS – a fully compliant browser does not exist yet.

Database Support
If your web site will leverage a database to store information, database support by the hosting company will be required. After you have developed your web site, you will know which database will be required. Some commonly used database programs are SQL Server, MySQL, Access, Oracle, and FoxPro. Databases can be difficult to configure properly. Before you sign up with a web host, first inquire if the host can support your database needs.

Data Transfer
This is the amount of data that is transferred from an account as visitors view the pages of the web site. If you have a web site with lots of video, audio, and images that gets many visitors per day, you would have to make sure that you choose a host that will allow large amounts of data to be transferred. If you choose a host that only allows 200 MB of data transfer per month, and your site transferred 500 MB per month, then the host may stop half of your visitors from viewing your site and you could lose potential customers. Your best bet is to try to find a host that offers unlimited data transfer or at least a Gig of transfer. A gig is more than enough for most web sites. As a general rule, 500 MB of data transfer is equivalent to 20,000 page views.

Dedicated Server
A more expensive type of account in which the web hosting company provides you with an entire hosting setup including your own server hardware that only you can use. This usually means a much faster loading time for your site because the entire computer is “dedicated” to running the server software. This is different from most other hosting accounts in which your web site will share space on a server with many other web sites, called a virtual server. A dedicated server makes sense for web sites that require higher availability and higher data transfer rates.

Disk Space
This indicates the amount of disk space that will be available to you on the hosts server to hold your web site files. Normally because HTML files are small, a web site (unless it has extensive graphics or database functionality) will be small, as low as 1 or 2 MB in most cases.

Domain Parking
Many hosting companies give you the option to ‘park’ your domain name without actually having your web site up and running. This is a nice option if you want to acquire a domain name for your web site well ahead of having the web site itself designed and constructed.

Domain Name
The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Domain Names always have 2 or more parts, separated by dots. The part on the left is the most specific, and the part on the right is the most general (adult-hosting-companies.com). Technically, the domain name is a name that identifies an IP address. To most of us, it simply means www.yourname.com. Because the Internet is based on IP addresses, not domain names, web servers depend on a Domain Name System (DNS) to translate domain names into IP addresses. Simply stated, domain names allow people to find your web site by name rather than by its numerical (IP) address.

Domain Name Registration
Often a hosting company will offer to register your domain name at the time you sign up for a hosting plan. This normally incurs an additional charge but may be cheaper and more convenient than using a separate domain name registration service. We recommend that you go ahead and register your domain name as soon as possible, especially if you think it will take some time to develop the site itself.

Domain Name System (DNS)
A model for tracking other machines (that contain web sites) and their numeric IP addresses. Translates domain names (for example, www.adult-hosting-companies.com into a numerical IP address). When a computer is referred to by name, a domain name server puts that name into the numeric IP address assigned to that computer. So when you buy a domain, say www.yourname.com, it does not become accessible until it gets assigned an IP address from a hosting company. Once the IP address is assigned, a cross-reference record (DNS record) is created that points your domain name to the numeric IP address.

Email POP Account
POP (Post Office Protocol) is an actual e-mail account on your web host’s e-mail server. Think of each POP account as a unique email address (lee@adult-hosting-companies.com, advertising@adult-hosting-companies.com, etc.) Before you choose a specific hosting plan, you should know exactly how many email accounts are required to meet your specific needs.

FrontPage (Microsoft)
Front Page is an HTML editor made by Microsoft. It is commonly used to create web sites

Frontpage Extensions
Frontpage extensions can be thought of as “mini programs” that allow features of a web site created with MS Front Page to operate smoothly. It is possible to use MS Front Page to create a web site and host that site on a server that doesn’t offer FP extensions, however some of the powerful features of the program cannot be used in these web sites. See Microsoft’s Front Page site for more information. After you design your web site, you will know whether FrontPage extensions will be a requirement.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
A way of transferring files (uploading and downloading) across the Internet. Most web sites are uploaded to the Internet by means of an FTP program. This is how the web site you create on your computer at home is transferred (uploaded) to the Internet. Some software, such as Microsoft Front Page, does not require use of an FTP program but the use of most any other HTML editor requites the use of and FTP Program. There is a free FTP program called WS_FTP and you can download it at download.com. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name anonymous, thus these sites are called anonymous FTP servers.

Host (Name Server)
When you hear the term “host” in the Internet world, it is referring to an Internet company that has the required servers and software to connect domain names to (IP) Internet Protocol numbers so that your site can be viewed by the public when they type your domain in their browser window. Basically this is where you house your site, and you usually have to pay a monthly or annual fee for this service.

Host Country
Specifies which country the hosting company resides. The internet is a very complex web of server computers connected through telecommunications devices. In general, it is best to host your web site in a location closest to the users that access it. For example, if you plan to deploy a web site that will attract mostly German visitors, it may makes sense to choose a hosting company located in Germany.

Host Platform
This is the platform of the hosting providers servers. Hosting companies will typically having a hosting platform based upon Windows 2000 (Win2K), Windows NT or Linux. If you have a basic web site that does not make use of server side applications such as a database then you do not need to worry which platform is used.

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
Stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. This is the code that web pages are written in and the browser interprets to turn into the web page you view on the screen.

Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP)
The protocol for transferring hypertext files across the Internet. Requires a HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server program on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in the World Wide Web (WWW). You see it every time you type a web site in your browser http://…

IP Address
A unique number used to specify hosts and networks. Internet Protocol (IP) numbers are used for identifying machines that are connected to the Internet. They are sometimes called a dotted quad and are unique numbers consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, They would look something like this 111.222.333.444 Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP number – if a machine does not have an IP number, it is not really on the Internet. Most machines also have one or more Domain Names that are easier for people to remember.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)
A company or institution that provides access to the Internet in some form, usually for money. They will usually allow users to dial up through a modem, DSL, or cable connection to view the information on the Internet Access is via SLIP, PPP, or TCP/IP. Picking your ISP is an important decision but has more to do with how you access the Internet rather than which host you choose.

JavaScript
A scripting language which enables web designers to add dynamic, interactive elements to a web site.

Java Servlets
A servlet is an application or a script that is written in Java and executed on a server, as opposed to on a client. It is analogous to CGI, although servlets are more than simply CGI scripts written in Java.

Mailing List Software
A mailing list is a discussion group based on the e-mail system. You may want to set one up – they’re very useful promotional tools. Even if you don’t want to host a discussion group, you can use a mailing-list program to distribute a newsletter similar to http://www.adultwebmasternewsletter.com. Many companies have mailing-list software available for their clients to use — if so, ask whether there’s an additional cost, how many mailing lists you are allowed to have, and how many members per list

ODBC Sources
Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a generic way for applications to speak to a database. ODBC acts as an interpreter between an application (say a Cold Fusion or ASP application) and a database (like Microsoft Access). By using ODBC, a connector can be created that will allow a web application that you create to read data from and insert data into an Access database that you’ve created. An ODBC source is a directory entry that specifies database information. This ODBC source (or DSN Source) allows your site to point to the correct database located on the web server.

It is possible to connect to a db without ODBC, but it is a safe bet to assume you need 1 ODBC connection per individual database you will have.

Perl (Practical Extraction and Report Language)
Perl is an interpreted language optimized for scanning arbitrary text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing reports based on that information. It’s also a good language for many system management tasks.

PHP
PHP is another scripting language. Like ASP, it’s commands are embedded within the HTML of a web page. The commands are executed on the web server, making it browser independent. The web browser only sees the resulting HTML output of the PHP code.

Post Office Protocol (POP)
This is a method of retrieving e-mail from an e-mail server. Most e-mail applications (sometimes called an e-mail client) use the POP protocol, although some can use the newer IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). There are two versions of POP. The first, called POP2, became a standard in the mid-80’s and requires SMTP to send messages. The newer version, POP3, can be used with or without SMTP. The newest and most widely used version of POP email is POP3 email. You will see the term POP3 in most of the web hosting plans available today.

Price
The monthly amount that you will have to pay a hosting company to provide the hosting services requested. Paying monthly is normally perfectly acceptable, but discounts may be available by paying quarterly or annually.

Reseller Plans
Many hosting providers allow you to be a reseller of hosting space earning a commission off of each sale. If you intend to be a provider of hosting services, you should investigate this option as you decide where to host your web site. Many hosting companies offer discounts (in addition to revenue opportunities) to companies that wish to remarket their web hosting services.

Root Server
A machine that has the software and data needed to locate name servers that contain authoritative data for the top-level domains.

Setup Fee
Some hosting companies charge a one time setup fee to set up your hosting account. It is worth to also take this into account when looking at the monthly fee.

Server
A computer, or software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such as a WWW or HTTP server, or to the machine on which the software is running. A single server machine could have several different server software packages running on it, thus providing many different servers to clients on the network. More specifically, a server is a computer that manages and shares network resources.

Shell Account
Something experienced computer users often request. Permits you to edit your files online in real-time, rather than making changes to your site offline and then uploading the changes. Unless you intend to manage the web server your site runs on, a shell account should not be needed.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
The main protocol used to send electronic mail on the Internet. Most Internet email is sent and received using SMTP. SMTP consists of a set of rules for how a program sending mail and a program receiving mail should interact.

Server Side Includes (SSI)
Commands that can be included in web pages that are processed by the web server when a user requests a file. The command takes the form <!–#include virtual=”/path/to/file”–>. A common use for SSI commands is to insert a universal menu into all of the pages of the web site so that the menu only has to be changed once and inserted with SSI instead of changing the menu on every page.

Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
A protocol designed by Netscape Communications to enable encrypted, authenticated communications across the Internet. It is used mostly (but not exclusively) in communications between web browsers and web servers. URL’s that begin with “https” indicate that an SSL connection will be used. SSL provides 3 important things: Privacy, Authentication, and Message Integrity. In an SSL connection each side of the connection must have a Security Certificate, which each side’s software sends to the other. Each side then encrypts what it sends using information from both its own and the other side’s Certificate, ensuring that only the intended recipient can decrypt it, and that the other side can be sure the data came from the place it claims to have come from, and that the message has not been tampered with.

Shopping Cart Software
A software program which acts as a “virtual store front”. Such software typically allows a web site user to create and manage a virtual shopping cart to which items can be added or removed. Once a customer is ready to “check out”, this same Shopping Cart Software typically includes interfaces to allow customers to pay with their credit card directly on the site. Shopping Cart Software is critical for those web sites that intend to sell products and services directly over the Internet without human intervention.

Statistics
Many hosting companies run software on their web servers that collect usage information about your web site and compile it in a user-friendly, easy-to-read format for you to analyze trends about your web site. Having access to statistics is critical if you need to know how many visitors are coming to your site, which web pages receive the most attention, and how much time people actually spend browsing your site.

Support
Telephone or e-mail technical support provided to a web hosting company’s customers. When there’s a problem with your site or your e-mail, you want to be able to get an answer promptly by e-mail or on the phone. Some hosting companies offer email only support, telephone support, or a combination of both. Some hosting companies provide 24hr 7 days a week support (24/7). This is important if your site is an e-commerce site with a lot of daily visitors.

TCP/IP
This is a set of communications protocols to connect hosts on the Internet.

Unix
A computer operating system designed to be used by many people at the same time (it is multi-user) and has TCP/IP built-in. It is the most common operating system for servers on the Internet.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
The standard way to give the address of any resource on the Internet that is part of the World Wide Web (WWW). www.adult-hosting-companies.com is an example URL.

Unique IP Address
In many hosting plans, you share an IP address and you will be able to view your site through your domain name only. Obtaining a unique IP address (see IP Address) provides a one-to-one relationship between your domain name (www.yourname.com) and an IP address.

Video Streaming
The process of providing video data or content via a web page.

Virtual Server
A web server which shares its resources with multiple users. It’s another way of saying that multiple web sites share the resources of one server. If you do not need your own web server (i.e. your own server class computer), you will use a virtual server to host your web site.

Article Written By Lee.