Archive for the ‘What I have learned about...’ Category
Do you have a Wordpress blog that is getting ignored by Google?
I have two new blogs that I am working on and I was wondering why it was taking so long for them to get indexed by Google.
It turns out that wordpress has an automatic setting that stops search engines from crawling your site! So, when you set up a new blog you need to turn off the privacy setting.
To do so, go to the dashboard and click on Settings and then privacy. Choose the first option which allows search engine bots to visit your site.
An additional tip for getting your blog indexed quicker – post in discussion forums that allow you to have a link in your signature. For example, I often post in Linda Buquet’s forum called 5 Star Affiliate Programs. Google likes to visit busy forums often. When the Google search engine bot visits the forum it will follow the link from your signature to your site and your site will be indexed.
Happy blogging!
Marie
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Tags: This arcle is part of my “What I have learned…” series. I am learning about all aspects of affiliate marketing. If you can teach me more about this subject then leave a comment and I will mention your helpful tip in my blog. Top Commenters get a do-follow link as does anyone whose tip I use in my blog….thanks! Marie.
Yesterday I started a Twitter account for Christian Affiliate Marketing, @ChristianMrktng. My first tweet was about a background that I installed from Twitrounds. My second tweet was about a blog post that I had made.
After that I had 10 people follow me. I suspect they followed me because they subscribed to an automated program (such as Social Oomph) that follows people when they tweet certain terms.
Later that night I had written a new post and went to tweet about it and was told that my account was suspended for suspicous activity. Huh?
I thoroughly read through the terms of service. I could get suspended for spamming, trying to hijack someone’s name or other unscrupulous things, none of which I had done. So, I filled out a request to be reinstated. I was a little bit disappointed that an automated reply told me that I would hear back from Twitter within 30 days!
But, by the morning, I had the following reply…
Hello,
It looks like you got caught up in some sort of spam cloud (through no fault of your own). I’ve restored your account; please let me know if you encounter any issues in the future.
Thanks,
BFF
So, what is a spam cloud? Through research I have found that Twitter goes through extensive measures to fight against spam. If someone starts sending out a massive number of tweets or retweets to promote a certain product (quite often porn or illegal websites) then they will get suspended from Twitter.
However, it seems to be that Twitter has a hard time figuring out who started the spam and who was simply an innocent bystander. Most likely one of my new followers was the bad guy. And then, Twitter simply shut down anyone who was associated with him (or her).
Anyhow, I am glad to be back!
Do you have any experience to share with us about the Twitter Spam cloud? If so, leave a comment below.
This arcle is part of my “What I have learned…” series. I am learning about all aspects of affiliate marketing. If you can teach me more about this subject then leave a comment and I will mention your helpful tip in my blog. Top Commenters get a do-follow link as does anyone whose tip I use in my blog….thanks! Marie.
Want to have a new background for your Twitter page? It is so easy to get a great background.
My current twitter background comes from Twitrounds. It was free and it was really, really simple to install. I simply followed the following steps:
- Search through the available backgrounds and chose one that I wanted
- Once I clicked on my background I filled out this form with my Twitter login and password:
- And that’s it!!!
There are similar sites for free twitter backgrounds at:
Installing a Twitter background
- Twitter Backgrounds
- Twitter Background
- Twitbacks – This site helps you create a custom background for free
- Twitter background images
If you know other sites or other tips for people who want to set up a twitter background, please leave a comment!
I have done my best to write an unbiased review of each of the hosting companies. Many review pages will rank a company based on how much of a referral fee they get paid!
I’ve done a lot of research to find out the pertinent information that you need to know.
…Marie of christian-affiliate-marketing.com
Click here for a quick overview of available hosting companies.
ix WebHosting review:
Click on the above banner to visit the ix Webhosting website.
ix Webhosting has been in business since 1999, which is a long time in this business! Their really inexpensive basic plan at $4.95 per month ($3.95 if you sign up for 2 years) actually is quite good. This basic plan includes:
- Free sitebuilder
- Unlimited multiple domains
- Unlimited disk storage
- Unlimited data transfer
- 1 free domain name registration
- Ruby, Php 5, 50 MySql databases (1 GB)
- 24/7 phone or live chat support
The Unlimited Pro package is $8.95 per month ($7.95 if you sign up for 2 years) includes all of the above with the following improvements:
- 3 free domains
- Windows hosting available
- Unlimited MYSQL (10GB)
With all of the above it would appear that ix Web Hosting is a good deal for everything you get. However, a careful study of reviews on the net shows me that a good number of people who have used IX webhosting are not happy with their service. There are complaints of poor customer service, lots of downtime and lots of spam.
Do you have any experience with ix Webhosting Hosting? If so, let us know what you think!
I have done my best to write an unbiased review of each of the hosting companies. Many review pages will rank a company based on how much of a referral fee they get paid!
I’ve done a lot of research to find out the pertinent information that you need to know.
…Marie of christian-affiliate-marketing.com
Click here for a quick overview of available hosting companies.
Bluehost review:
Click on the above banner to visit the Bluehost website.
Bluehost has been in existence since 2002 and offers a very affordable hosting plan that is combined with lots of extras and support.
Bluehost offers the following for $6.95 per month:
- Unlimited Disk Storage
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Unlimited Domains
- Free domain name
- PHP, MySQL, Ruby, etc.
- 24/7 support
I have been pouring over the online reviews for Bluehost. They mostly get good reviews. However, there are a good number of people who have complained about downtime and poor service.
Do you have any experience with Bluehost Hosting? If so, let us know what you think!
I have done my best to write an unbiased review of each of the hosting companies. Many review pages will rank a company based on how much of a referral fee they get paid!
I’ve done a lot of research to find out the pertinent information that you need to know.
…Marie of christian-affiliate-marketing.com
Click here for a quick overview of available hosting companies.
Fatcow review:
Click on the above banner to visit the FatCow website.
Fatcow hosting has been in existence since 1998. They pride themselves on great customer service and ease of use. Their hosting is a very good price for what you get.
The $66 per year plan includes:
- Unlimited Disk Space
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Free domain name
- 24 x 7 customer support
- PHP, MySql, Ruby on rails and more
- 30 day money back guarantee
It is hard to find a negative review about fat cow. However, there may be a reason for this…
Why I am concerned about all of the positive reviews of FatCow hosting:
FatCow pays an incredible referral fee to webmasters who send business their way. What this means is that if I get you to choose FatCow, I get paid a good amount of money. Very few people will post a negative review of Fatcow because they want you to choose this host!
That being said, I don’t want to be accused of judging FatCow harshly without reason. I would love to hear your reviews of Fatcow hosting, both positive AND negative!
Do you have any experience with FatCow hosting? If so, let us know what you think!
I have done my best to write an unbiased review of each of the hosting companies. Many review pages will rank a company based on how much of a referral fee they get paid!
I’ve done a lot of research to find out the pertinent information that you need to know.
…Marie of christian-affiliate-marketing.com
Click here for a quick overview of available hosting companies.
Lunarpages review:
Click on the above banner to visit the Lunarpages website.
Lunarpages is a company that prides itself on customer service. Reviews on the net tell us that their service is great!
There are several plans that are offered:
- $2.95 per month starter plan (however you need to purchase a $19.95 per year domain name). This is a very limited plan and only offers 5 gb of storage which is not very much.
- 4.95 per month basic plan which is adequate for most websites. The $4.95 price tag only applies if you sign a 60 month contract. Otherwise it is $6.95 for a 24 month contract or $8.95 for one year
The basic plan includes:
- free domain name
- unlimited storage
- unlimited bandwidth
- unlimited mysql databases
- php, ruby on rails and more
- a control panel that gets really good reviews for ease of use
Conclusion:
I have spent a lot of time pouring over the reviews of Lunarpages and it looks like this is one of the better hosting companies out there. They have excellent reviews for customer service. Their prices are good. Their server up time is incredible. I would definitely recommend this company.
Do you have any experience with Lunarpages Hosting? If so, let us know what you think!
I have done my best to write an unbiased review of each of the hosting companies. Many review pages will rank a company based on how much of a referral fee they get paid!
I’ve done a lot of research to find out the pertinent information that you need to know.
…Marie of christian-affiliate-marketing.com
Click here for a quick overview of available hosting companies.
Web.com review:
Click on the above banner to visit the Web.com website.
Web.com is a company that has been in existence since 1999. It is a publicly traded company (NASDAQ WWWW).
The biggest advantage to using Web.com for hosting is to take advantage of their professional web designers who can design your site for you. They also can help greatly with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which means that they can help to get your site to appear high up on Google searches. Of course these addons cost extra money.
Cost: Their basic plan is $11.95 per month which includes
- unlimited disk space
- unlimited email accounts
- unlimited bandwidth
- a do it yourself site building tool
- the latest versions of php, mysql and more
The cost can be reduced to $9.95 per month if you sign up for a 2 year contract.
Support: Web.com has an excellent support structure with live phone help available.
My concern: Web.com has many ads that state that their cost is $7.95 per month. Yet, I cannot find anywhere on the website where you can get hosting for that price. Are they misleading us?
Do you have any experience with Web.com? If so, let us know what you think!
I have done my best to write an unbiased review of each of the hosting companies. Many review pages will rank a company based on how much of a referral fee they get paid!
I’ve done a lot of research to find out the pertinent information that you need to know.
…Marie of christian-affiliate-marketing.com
Click here for a quick overview of available hosting companies.
Hostgator review:
Click on the above banner to visit the Hostgator website.
OK, I do have to admit I have some bias in reviewing Hostgator. This is because all of my websites are hosted with Hostgator. I am a very satisfied customer! The Hostgator staff and the Hostgator Forum have helped me several times with my questions about how to start up a website. I asked some really basic newbie questions and was never laughed at. My websites have never been down and the server response time has been excellent. I highly recommend hostgator!
- Number of hosted domains: 2,200,000
- Cost: As little as $4.95/month (but you need to buy a 3 year plan). $6.95/month (a 1 year plan) gets you unlimited bandwidth and disk space.
- Server Reliability: 99.9% up time. I have never had a problem with the server not responding.
- My overall opinion: I highly recommend hostgator. If you are new and just starting out, it is very inexpensive. If you are an advanced web designer it really has everything you need. It has a great cpanel including fantastico, ruby on rails, the latest php version, mysql and more.
Do you have any experience with Hostgator Hosting? If so, let us know what you think!
Unbiased Hosting Reviews
Did you know that most reviews of hosting companies are extremely biased? Hosting companies will pay website owners a referral fee to send customers their way. Therefore, often the hosting companies that are listed as the best, are actually the companies that pay the best referral fees!
I have done my best to write this review from an unbiased perspective. The hosting companies are not listed in order of who pays me the best referral fee but instead, I have listed them in order of how many domains they currently have registered.
| Hosting Company | Review | Cost for 1 year of hosting | Server reliability | # of registered domains |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Click here for Marie's review of Hostgator | $6.95 per month for 1 site $7.95 per month for multiple domains Unlimited bandwidth and disk space | 99.9% up time | >800,000 domains | |
| Click here for Marie's review of Bluehost Web Hosting. | $6.95 per month | 99.9% up time | >800,000 domains | |
| Click here for Marie's review of ix Web Hosting. | $4.95 per month (basic plan) $8.95 per month (business plan) | 99.99% up time | >300,000 domains hosted | |
| Click here for Marie's review of Web.com hosting. | $11.95 per month As low as $9.95 per month with 2 year contract | 99.98% up time | >300,000 domains | |
| Click here for Marie's review of FatCow hosting. | $66/year which equals $5.50 per month | 99.98% up time | >125,000 domains | |
| Click here for Marie's review of Lunarpages hosting. | $8.95 for basic plan (which is what most people will use) As low as $4.50 with a 60 month contract | 99.7% up time | >99,000 domains |
