What is Colocation?

Colocation is a type of Internet hosting, often used by small businesses. It is a type of hosting that is useful for a company who wants something more than basic web hosting from a web hosting company, but doesn't have the requirements for hosting their own server.
Many web hosting companies offer rack space for colocation. Colocation works by hosting companies renting out this rack space within their data centres for other businesses to place their servers. These businesses will buy their own server, which they will configure and alter when necessary. This will then be placed in the rack space they have bought from the hosting company. The hosting company isn't actually involved with the server in any way; they just own the rack space which they rent out to businesses to do with as they please. This means that the business owns the server just as they would if they had the server at their own site, but they use certain resources provided by the hosting company.

The hosting company will provide the bandwidth, power and the right air and temperature conditions for the server to operate in. Responsibilities with regards to the server are completely in the hand of the business that owns it. Whenever maintenance needs to be done, the business that owns the server will have to go to the data centre and do this themselves.

Businesses that get the greatest benefit from colocation are those than need to run their own website, email and perhaps a database, while keeping complete control.

They will not have to rely on a hosting company; if they need something doing they just do it themselves. Colocation is a type of hosting that has increased fairly rapidly over the last few years. As more businesses have the demand for extra needs on top of basic web hosting, colocation is a good alternative to hosting their own server. Colocation is more expensive than web hosting, but can be significantly cheaper than some of the other options.

With colocation a business runs its own server. This gives them much more control over their server, and has many of the same strengths of hosting the server themselves. There is a lot less work and expertise needed though. This saves them both time and money. A disadvantage is that if something goes wrong or needs changing, they will have to do it themselves.

Colocation has many benefits over other types of hosting. If a business needs more control over their hosting than they currently have but does not want to host their own server, then colocation is one of the alternatives.
source: Andrew Marshall
Colocation

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What Should I Be Paying for Web Hosting Services?

That's a good question: what should you be paying for your web hosting services? Surfing online you will see many price quotes anywhere from $2 a month to over $200 a month for web hosting services. There's no easy way to answer whether or not your service is worth it or not, except to say that if your hosting services helps you earn money, then you have made the right choice.
Some website hosting services may only charge a few dollars a month. If they can promise 99.9% reliability and a 24-7 customer support staff, then the cost for the service will be justified. On the other hand, if you invest in a dedicated server packaging plan, you may find yourself spending hundreds of dollars a month and struggling to maintain a cash flow. Dedicated servers are ideal for high traffic, heavy online commerce sites. Promotional sites or link sites may not merit the full cost of a dedicated server.
Another pressing question is whether or not you should pay for your web hosting services at all. Some sites offer free webhosting plans, and may even offer to get rid of the banners. If you want to cut as many controllable expenses as possible then a free hosting plan may be more practical than a low-cost plan with recurring charges. (Especially considering that many of these low cost companies charge large setup fees or make you prepay for three years)

Free services do have limitations. Not only do some services force you to put advertising banners on your site, but you may also have to endure more downtime, poor customer support (and probably no live support via telephone) limited space and bandwidth, restrictions as to what you can advertise on your site, no secure server access and file type restrictions. Some free sites also do not allow for your own custom domain name, but force you to take an unusually long homepage address like http://www.AFreeWebHostCompanyService.com/Area31/Remains/2310/YourPage/ Index.htm. (Kind of hard to brand!)
Whatever you choose, your logic should have a good sense of business, cash flow and expenses. Whatever you spend on web hosting should be replaced with income from online sales or sales traceable to website promotion. (Web statistics could tell you this) Web hosting is a lot of fun but if you're not careful, it could easy lead to a massive amount of debt. For more information on this subject compare popular website hosting packages at free review sites.

source: Leon Belenky
You can find the best cheap web hosting, Linux web hosting and Windows web hosting online at CompareWebHosts.com.

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Top 9 Tips for Launching a New Website

Whether you are hosting an online magazine, an ecommerce store, an informational site or a promotional website for your company, you can benefit from these beginner tips. Take these with a grain of salt (as we know you always do, reading anonymous articles online and such) but try and give them some thought. You may be able to use at least one of these strategies in your business.
1. Create a mailing list among your friends, family and professional acquaintances. This is an old school tactic but it never hurts to try. You want all the traffic you can get at this point in time.

2. Use web tracker statistics. These statistics can serve as progress reports. It helps to review the trends with your management team to help plan new directions.

3. Submit articles to article directories. If you are an expert in any subject (and you should be, considering that you're selling something) then it's time to share your knowledge with the world by posting at an article directory site. At the very least, you get an additional link which will help your search rankings.

4. Look into social media sites. This is the wave of the future and traffic reporter sites suggest this is where most of your customer base is. Travel to them and take an interest in their lives before you try and sell them anything.

5. Use plenty of original pictures. Products are only as attractive to the public as they appear online. Don't use stock photography if you have a camera and can take a beautiful picture of a product that's ready to sell.

6. Offer a free something as an incentive. This free product can be anything from a free download to free advice or even a free give away. Everybody loves free stuff right? Hence, why you're reading this free article instead of subscribing to ten high priced news magazines.

7. Brand your company whenever possible. Think about letterheads, logos, clipart, promotional giveaways, catchy slogans and punchy nicknames. You're not selling yourself literally, as in an ordinary guy…you're selling a company and idea that's larger than life.

8. Look into joining an affiliate network. Though you can try and attract your own advertisers, it also makes sense to join an affiliate network and earn income from a complete network of traffic.

9. Blog your heart out. Blogging is what keeps people interested in your business. If you don't feel like blogging then just add search-friendly articles to your website on a regular basis. Keep fresh information rolling in!

source:Leon Belenky
You can find the best cheap web hosting, Linux web hosting and Windows web hosting online at CompareWebHosts.com.

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Will All Cars Soon Be Made of Plastic?

Car manufacturers are rushing to design and engineer a more fuel-efficient yet affordable vehicle. While doing so, much of the metal that made up the cars of yesterday will be replaced with highly sophisticated and much lighter plastics.
When we think of cars, we traditionally picture them as being made of metal, iron and steel. But according to the director of automotive studies at the American Plastic Council's Automotive Learning Centre, "Ten years ago, about 150 pounds of plastics were on the average North American vehicle. Today, more than 250 pounds are being used. We expect more than 320 pounds of plastic to be on 2010 cars." These figures are especially important when one considers that every pound of material used in an automobile speaks for billions of dollars being spent by the automotive industry.

What does this mean when one major type of material is replaced by another? To start, it affects individual industries. Companies who produce metals will suffer while those who are making plastics will grow.
Of course the types of plastics used in cars has to meet regulations which means companies who are plastic suppliers have to keep up with the demand and science of making more and more sophisticated composites. Such composites must be engineered at the molecular level to exhibit specific physical properties such as scratch resistance, flame resistance and greater degrees of stiffness.

But it doesn't stop here. Although a plastic company may come up with a new plastic, it also has to be incorporated into the design of a car and proven that it can reduce costs and improve the product. This is tricky to do when there are also numerous requirements on the plastic industry such as how the plastic will be recycled to finding ways to educate design engineers about new materials and their properties.

The most common plastic used for vehicles is a lightweight, high-strength aerospace material called carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic. It's used in the doors, hoods, fenders, chassis and also in support frames for the engine and transmission. This plastic can be molded into almost any shape the designer wants.

What about recycled plastic? At the Geneva Auto Show, Hyundai announced a concept vehicle using recycled plastic bottles to create most of its outer skin. The QarmaQ, an Intuit word for "dwellings made of Earth, whalebone, and animal skins", was an idea brought about by Hyundai's Europe's Design and Technical Center, along with GE Plastics. The design of using plastic as opposed to glass and steel, they say, allows for a 130-pound weight reduction, equaling 20 gallons of gas savings every year.

In addition, to the use of recycled plastic bottles, the rest of the vehicle uses less chemicals and paint than regular vehicles. A new Exatec coating protects the glass outside, preventing it from scratching and also reflecting heat to keep the inside cool.

Plastics' other advantages besides making the weight of the car lighter and improving its fuel efficiency is that it is also more durable than metal, which can rust and wear. And while a more fuel-efficient vehicle that costs less seems appealing, there is also the downside. One example is the design of the new car by Tata, which will be first seen in India. It is expected that in a country of 1.1 billion people, sales of small cars are expected to double to two million in the next three years. This means double the air pollution and double the already crowded roadways.

So is designing a lightweight plastic affordable car going to be the answer to tomorrow's transportation problems? It's hard to tell, but one thing is sure, it is a trend that is here to stay

source: David Etienne

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