13/01/2010 at 11:36 am · Filed under Crikey! It's Internet. and tagged: web design, web hosting
What is This All About?
Potatograss is a trademark belonging to AusBusiness Review Pty Ltd – an online company based in Perth, Western Australia.
Many of you would know that I no longer work for Fast Hit. After ten years of running the company I had to re-assess my goals and priorities, went back to uni to complete my MBA (at Curtin University) and currently look for a job, for a place to join another exciting team.
In the mean time, I thought I would do some web development work. I’ve got a lot of experience with Wordpress and running SEO/SEM campaigns. So, this is how Potatograss – web design Perth – was born. And here is our first commercial Wordpress site developed under this brand: Glass Pool Fencing Perth (The Glass Fence People).
So, if you need a site, or have too much to do – send some work my way.
26/09/2009 at 3:10 pm · Filed under Crikey! It's Internet. and tagged: web hosting
There are thousands of web hosting companies on the internet offering a wide range of services for all types of small and large websites (see web hosting reviews). With the development of virtualization technology and reduction of hardware prices, companies are now offering dedicated and virtual private servers (VPS) hosting. Dedicated hosting offers more power and security but it is not always the best option to choose for hosting of your business website.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is the most common and the least expensive type of content hosting. It’s called “shared” because multiple websites and multiple database and email users share the same server hardware. Hosting technology is very well developed and allows single servers to be shared among many customers without breach of security of individual websites. Normally clients use a “control panel” that allows them to add domains, create websites and access their files from a browser.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting is more expensive than shared, purely due to the fact that instead of hundreds of customers sharing the same server, the server is dedicated to one client. This client has full administrator access to the server and is normally responsible for server security maintenance, updates and server backups.
Shared is Better Than Dedicated
Unless there a specific need for a dedicated server hosting, shared accounts is a far better option for many websites. With shared hosting customers get more support, free server maintenance, server backups and server monitoring. Let me clarify this a little further:
With shared server, web hosting companies are responsible for the uptime of all websites hosted that each machine. And to maintain that, they normally perform the following maintenance tasks on shared servers:
- Hardware monitoring, for example watching out for RAM failure, hard drives, etc.
- Software monitoring – making sure that web server, database, email services continue to run.
- Service monitoring – if web server becomes unresponsive, failed services are automatically restarted and service logs investigated in order to fix the problem and prevent it from happening in the future.
- Powerful account management tools, including data backup and restoration features.
There are some companies that offer managed dedicated hosting, but additional services are usually included in the price that customers pay for their servers. Normally, at its best, dedicated servers only include hardware maintenance, and even that, customers need to know what failed before they can request a fix. So, with dedicated server customers need to organise the following service for an additional cost:
- Hardware monitoring (how will you know if your ram is faulty or the whole server is overheating?)
- Service monitoring. If your website goes down, who is responsible to login and bring the site back up?
- Security maintenance. If the server is hacked, who will login to investigate the problem?
- What about backups? How backups are preformed and what is the procedure to restore them on a new server?
As you can see, shared hosting is a better option for most of business and personal websites. Unless there is a specific need for power and security and the client has appropriate budget for security and backup maintenance.
26/09/2009 at 3:06 pm · Filed under Life. and tagged: share trading
For people who trade shares and invest in stock, having access to stock analysis tools is critical to success. Most of stock analysis tools available commercially are sold for hundreds of dollars, often out of reach for beginners. There is, however, a way to get the data and it comes from the most obvious place – Google.
Free Stock Analysis Tools
Google Finance stock analysis tools allows traders to view historical data of any public company listed on a stock market – including Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). They system provides historical data from today, back to day 1 when the company was first listed. The dynamic share price graph allows users to zoom-in on a particular day, week or a month. And that’s not it. Following the share price graph with the mouse pointer lets users to analyse the stock even more – it displays the share price and volume of shares sold and bought at any particular point of time. The share price graph has anchors which link to the company’s stock market announcements. The graph displays exactly when the market announcement was made and shows how the market reacted to it. Clicking on that anchor opens the actual text of the announcement.
How To Use It
1. Go to http://www.google.com/finance
2. If you’re in Australia, don’t be alarmed by the US company sample data. To view ASX listed companies, just prefix the company code with an “ASX”.
3. So, to view Woolworth (WOW) share price, enter: ASX:WOW and hit “Get Quotes”
4. That’s it! Enjoy. Play with the graph (there is a slider at the bottom right corner. Drag it to select a period to zoom in).
Online Share Trading
If you are new to stock market, there are many companies that offer online share trading facilities. In Australia it is worth checking ComSec and eTrade. Both allow users to join online and start trading as soon as the sign up data verified by mail. www.ComSec.com.au, for example, includes two bank accounts – one for share trading and another for cash management purposes, with a high interest rate. The company also provides a free charge card to have immediate access to funds. The company provides market research facilities online, including market watch, historical graphs and access to companies’ stock market announcements.
Share trading can be done online via secure website, over the phone or using a specially created iPhone application that offers full functionality of online trading, anywhere you have access to mobile internet network.
For beginners, share trading can be an overwhelming experience, but the right tools make the journey so much easier and so much more enjoyable.
23/09/2009 at 7:48 pm · Filed under Crikey! It's Internet. and tagged: domains, web hosting
The current shape of the Internet is heavily dependent on domain names for accessibility and online searches. And with the introduction of more and more new domain extensions, domains are here to stay. When buying a new domain it is important to understand the nature of the new website and select the online name appropriately. Here are a few suggestions that may be useful for beginners.
The Nature Of The Website
Ask yourself a few questions. What do you want to achieve by setting up a new website? What kind of website this is going to be? Is it for your existing company or a completely new venture? What is more important, being found by search engine or for the domain name easily remembered?
If you are setting up a website for an existing company, it is recommended that the domain name matches the business name as closely as possible. It is likely that customers will try to go to your-company-name .tld or similar URLs before they start searching. If your name is already taken, try to add “online” or “site” suffix to the end of the name. You will also find that search engines will favour websites that are closely relate to the business name on the contact page and next to the copyright sign in the footer of every page.
However, if you are registering a company or setting up a totally new online venture and will heavily relate on organic search engine traffic, it is suggested to register a domain name that contains keywords and key phrases that you think people will use when searching for your products. In this case longer domain names can actually be more beneficial than shorter ones as you are able to include whole words in it.
Geographical Location Of Target Audience
What, who and where is your target audience? Where do you expect your visitors to come from? Is your product or service region specific? It is critical to take into account the fact that the domain extension (e.g., .com or .com.au or co.uk etc) and location of the server that your site is hosted on, have significant effect on your online engine search results. For example, if your target audience is in Australia it is highly recommended to register a domain with an .au extension. In the same way, if your market spans across the world, you should not register a country specific domain name. There are some exception to this rule, however. Search engine webmaster tools allows website owners to specify the target market in their webmaster tools control panel. This feature, known as “geotargeting” however, is only available to top level generic domain extensions like .com or .net. In this case, if you use a generic extension and don’t specify your target market, the search results will default to the country where your server is hosted.
So, to sum it up:
- Choose a country specific domain extension if you targets this particular country.
- If using a generic extension, make sure your website in hosted by a hosting provider in your target country.
- If targeting worldwide audience, use a generic tld, such as .com or .net.
Waiting Period For New Domains
Search engines prioritize their searches based on the website (and domain) age and the number of external back links. When setting up a new site, keep it easy on SEO and other online promotion activities. You may see some good results at the start, but if you overdo it, you’re likely to be banned or “sandboxed” by search engines for a few months. Though questionable, many website owners report that this is the case. As with any other business idea, online marketing and promoting new websites take a lot of commitment and perseverance. Stay focused, have a plan of attach and make sure you devise an appropriate strategy before you launch on your online venture journey.
29/06/2009 at 1:25 pm · Filed under Crikey! It's Internet., Life. and tagged: online marketing
Online Marketing Report: 45% of respondents said they would prefer to receive ads targeted to their interests.
Were they told that in order for Google (and other ad providers) to do that, they need to collect web surfing data from each individual people’s computers? Privacy issues? Ethics?
Anyway, this is the data.
“The report’s findings provide a clearer picture on user habits that need to be considered when developing a campaign, such as, actively avoiding advertisements that automatically play sound by turning their volume down and not watching videos more than five minutes in length.”
Find out more about Online Marketing Report at AusBusiness Review.
28/06/2009 at 12:37 pm · Filed under Life.
The Australian Government offers free insulation to up to 2.9 homes as a part of the $4 billion Energy Efficient Homes Package. Free insulation is offered to owner occupied and rented properties from 1 July 2009 until December 2011.
So, with winter coming and all, this is a very good time to get ceiling insulation for your home.
There are two programs:
1. The Homeowner Insulation Program. and
2. The Low Emission Assistance Plan for Renters.
Find out more about free insulation and insulation rebates at TipsReview.
22/06/2009 at 1:27 pm · Filed under Life. and tagged: global warming
Global warming debate is becoming stronger everyday. The government and companies instill fear into our minds that the world is getting exceptionally warmer, that the sea levels are going to rise etc. etc.
Every debate about Global Warming links the problem to the level of CO2 gases in the admosphere. But is this true?
Joanne Nova, a writer and a science presenter looks into various evidence that is conventionally used to support the role of CO2 gases in the Global Warming debate. Does CO2 contribute to Global Warming? Is the world getting warmer? Are we wasting our time and money being misled about the link and correlation between the CO2 and Global Warming? “The Skeptics Handbook” addresses these questions. It’s a must read for anyone concerned about the future of our planet.
Download your free copy: The Skeptics Handbook.
21/06/2009 at 6:49 pm · Filed under Life. and tagged: LEGO, lego factory
Have you seen LEGO Factory? Lego developed design software that you can download on your computer, design your LEGO masterpiece and the order all the parts that it needs, online. I think it’s rather amazing! C’mon, admit it, we all love playing lego, young and old!
Has anyone used Lego Factory? What do you think? What did you design?
More info on LEGO – LEGO review www.lego.com.au – LEGO Factory: http://factory.lego.com/
20/06/2009 at 4:34 pm · Filed under Life. and tagged: global warming
What is Carbon Trading and how much are Carbon Credits?
From the carbon trading information article posted on AusBusiness, “Generally, a carbon credit is $20, though this will probably rise. The Government will be setting a cap on its carbon credits at $40. So, currently, if an average Australian household emitting 20 tonnes of CO² wants to go ‘carbon neutral‘, it would cost $400 per annum. The equivalent would be to plant about 80 trees.”
If each house plants 80 trees (you can buy a tree seedling for about $2), to plant 80 trees would be around $160 mark..
19/06/2009 at 9:19 pm · Filed under Life. and tagged: coffee
We’ve had a Nespresso coffee machine in Fast Hit’s office for about two years and I also had a Nespresso Cube coffee machine at home for about a year and a half. I still enjoy it very morning, every day and every night. The best thing I’ve ever bought.
They just launched a new range – Nespresso Citiz. Looks very slic. Highly recommend. And… there is a Nespresso shop at Myers in the city (Perth) now too!
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