Simple Randomness

Are You Looking For Web Hosting?

Are you to the point where you’re just getting ready to start a website?  Maybe you’re looking to be the next big blogger on your favorite subject, or maybe you’re looking to open a new online store selling some great stuff.

Either way, one thing that can help to make or break your website idea is the web hosting you decide to use.

Here’s an example scenario that you could run into if you’re not careful: you set up your site, things are going well, but then all of a sudden it takes 5 minutes to load your page! Or worse yet, your site just doesn’t come up. You haven’t changed anything, but things beyond your control with your hosting company have happened.

Make sure you get a good host.  To do this, I recommend you check out WebHostingGeeks.com.  They have reviews and recommnedations depending on the type of site that you’re going to be setting up.  Honestly it’s a great service and can help you to avoid a lot of problems that you might run into otherwise!

You can also check out their web hosting blog to get additional tips on hosting and other internet news.

Check them out if you need some new hosting!  Save yourself the headache by getting the host that’s right for you.

Online Trading With TradeMONSTER

I’ll admit, I’ve always been at least a little curious about investing in the stock market and have always wanted to learn more about.  I actually hope to get involved in the not too distant future.  We’ll see how that goes.

One of the great things about trading stocks online is that most of the systems that are out there have a way for you to trade for free, or have some kind of a trial account so you don’t actually have to spend any money and can just play around with it.

TradeMONSTER is this way as well.  They have a learning system where you can do practice trades just to see how you do without spending any actual money.  I’ve always been someone that learns best by doing, so i think this would be the best way for me to do it!

The other great thing about TradeMONSTER is that the interface of it is completely customizable.  I always hate it when I have to adjust myself to the format of a program or interface.  It’s so much nicer when you can customize the platform to what you want to see.  That’s the way TradeMONSTER works!

They’re also a lot cheaper than most of the other services out there.  TradeMONSTER has a pricing page that compares their trading prices with some of the other major sites such as E*TRADE, TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, and others.  Another thing that impressed me is that they were honest enough to show another system’s prices taht are actually cheaper than what they offer.  To me this shows that they have integrity, which is always good to see these days.  They aren’t afraid that they aren’t the cheapest, so they have to make it up in quality.

TradeMONSTER was started by some guys that you may have seen if you ever watch FastMoney on CNBC - Pete and Jon Najarian (along with Dirk Mueller).  So hey, they even have some well known guys behind it!

All in all, I’m impressed with what I’ve seen so far with TradeMONSTER.  So if you’re like me and want to get into trading, check them out!

Full-Color Postcards for Business or Personal Use!

I’ve written about VistaPrint a couple of times now, and they just keep coming out with cool stuff!  So in the past I’ve written about things like car door magnets, business cards, t-shirts, and I’m sure a number of other things.  Well, today I’m going to tell you about another personal or business item you can get from VistaPrint: Custom Full-Color Postcards!

There are tons of things you could use these for.  Maybe you have a bridal or baby shower coming up and want to send out some really nice invitations.  Maybe you’re running a sale at your business and want to get the word out.  Whether it’s personal or business related, using full color postcards is a great way to grab some attention!

As with everything at VistaPrint, they have a lot of templates you can choose from to design your cards, or you can just use some of the pre designed templates that they have.  Either way, you’re going to get some great looking cards in a short period of time.

They also have two different sizes of postcards.  You can go with the standard size (139mm x 107mm), or the extra large size (216mm x 139mm).

Direct mailings have been a standard way to promote your business for decades now.  And if it is something that you’ve never taken advantage of, maybe now is the time.  Rather than using a printing house that requires you to create thousands of cards that you may not be able to use, you can use VistaPrint to create a smaller quantity.  This way you don’t have a ton of extra cards and wasted money.  You can run targeted tests to see if this is an advertising medium that will work for you.

If you haven’t given VistaPrint a chance, you really should.  They have a lot of really great products for personal and business purposes.

You Have to Have a Good Host!

So a friend of mine recently has been complaining because he keeps getting some sort of database error from time to time on his blog.  I can understand his frustration!

Hosting is a huge deal when it comes to starting a website or really doing anything online.  And sadly, there are a lot of unreliable hosts out there.  That’s why it’s always a good idea to do some research and checking out different hosts through some good webhost reviews before you just sign up for some company your friend told you about!

That’s why it’s a good thing that companies like Web Hosting Geeks are around.  They’ll go through and do the research and give you suggestions on who the best web hosts are.  This can save you a lot of time and a lot of headache!

I’ve actually talked to tons of people that at one point or another were very unhappy with their webhost, and most of the time when i ask them who their host is it’s some company that I’ve never even heard of before.

Another cool thing about Web Hosting Geeks is that they have a webhosting blog that you can subscribe to that will keep you up to date on everything going on in the hosting world. It’s good to keep up to date!

So if you’re in the market for a new webhost, check out some of the companies that are being reviewed at Web Hosting Geeks. You might just save yourself from pain later :).

Transcription on the Go!

Have you ever been riding a bus, driving, flying in a plane, sitting in an airport, and had a really good idea that you wanted to get down but didn’t have enough time to do it? Or maybe you have a voice recorder that you used to record some good ideas but didn’t want to have to go through and transcribe the whole thing so that you could actually publish it.

Well, enter again the voice recognition software Dragon Naturally Speaking! As I check this thing out I’m finding out that there are more and more uses for it.

There are so many times that I’ll be driving somewhere and have a really good idea for a blog post or something like that, and if I just had a digital voice recorder and a transcribing software I could do blog posts as I drive! But I’ve never really known of a good way to do it. Now I do.

In fact, I may have to seriously give this one some good thought. Especially for posts on this blog with it’s random nature, it would be very easy to just record things here and there, even if it’s just an idea for a full post later.

So anyway, if you can think of some other uses for this product, share them below. You can also read Dragon reviews or take Dragon’s typing speed test! if you have any doubts of the power of this product.

And, in case you missed it, here’s their demo video:

Holiday Season is Coming…Time for Holiday Photo Cards!

Wow, I can’t believe that today is already the first day of October!  A good sign that the holiday season is coming is that last night my wife picked up a Halloween costume for our 2 year old.

Have you ever sent out holiday photo cards before? Honestly, I’ve never been one to do it, but I know that a lot of families do.  In fact, each year my wife and i talk about doing it, so maybe this will be the year that we’ll actually get around to doing it for real!

Well, the good thing is that there are plenty of services online that can help you get this sort of thing done.  One of those services is VistaPrint.  And right now VistaPrint is having a sale so you can get your holiday photo cards done early this year!

The deal is that they are offering 10 free holiday cards.  All you have to do is use the code XmasFree at checkout and you’ll get the discount.

Just as a side note, they have a lot of other deals going on right now, too.  You can get discounts on a lot of their business printing services such as car door magnets, t-shirts, and anything else.  So check them out!

Reliable Web Hosting

When you’re starting up a website, it’s very important that you have a good and reliable web host.  The problem is that there are so many to choose from!

I’m using a particular host, but honestly I think of changing it from time to time.  So as I’ve been thinking about this I’ve been checking out different ones from time to time.  One that’s been around for quite some time is Network Solutions.

Network Solutions overs a variety of web hosting services to match your individual needs. They also have a few great characteristics such as:

• 99.99% UNIX uptime reliability
• 30-day money back guarantee
• Award-winning customer service
• Free domain name
• Website building tools
• Website marketing tools

One of the other things to consider when it comes to choosing a web host is the cost. For example, right now I’m doing month to month hosting for about $7 a month. With Network Solutions it is $9.96 a month. Now, this isn’t such a big deal if they can justify the cost, and having a really reliable up time can be worth it.

Another thing to compare would be the amount of space that they give you and bandwidth. Honestly, I haven’t done any direct comparisons but that would be another factor in determining if a particular host is worth the price.

Anyway, if you’re looking for hosting, Network Solutions is one to look into!

Online Processing

I always assume that at least a portion of the people that read this blog from time to time are either currently online business owners or are at least thinking about it.

Either way, if you’re going to sell stuff online, you have to be able to accept credit cards.  Otherwise, how are you going to get paid for the products that you are trying to sell?

I know this is a very basic thing for a lot of you, but I also know that there are people out there that have no idea where to start.  Well, there are a lot of different options for handling credit card processing. One company you might take a look at is OnlineCheck.com. They have some really good rates and what looks like a pretty good program.  Anyway, check it out!

Cool Zip Code Locator for Businesses

I love it when I can go to the website of some company and then use some kind of a store locator that helps me to find out where they are in my area or some other place that I might be visiting in the future. It makes it so much easier!

Well, if you are a business owner and don’t have this type of service on your website (and you have a physical location/storefront), the good news is that there are companies out there that can help you get one of these services! These programs help you set up a program that will find your stores based on their zip code.

One such company is the ZipCodeWorld Store Locator Live. And the best thing about it, its free!

Here are some interesting facts about their program:
a) The ZIPCodeWorld Store Locator Live is supporting 1089 companies and total of 30692 unique stores and growing.
b) The ZIPCodeWorld Store Locator Live is supporting 33 countries worldwide including United States and Canada.
c) The ZIPCodeWorld Store Locator Live is free for business with less than 100 stores. The only thing we would like in return is to display a banner linking back to our Web site.
d) The ZIPCodeWorld Store Locator Live is also available in .NET and PHP. Programmers can install it in their local servers.
e) The company also provides comprehensive ZIP code and postal codes resources for United States, Canada and Mexico.

So if you need this type of service on your site, check these guys out!

Another Cool Idea from VistaPrint

I know that I’ve done several posts in the past talking about different things that VistaPrint can offer for your business.  Well, here’s another one: Yard Signs!

You see these all the time for real estate agents, election campaigns, and lately I’m seeing a lot of them with phone numbers on them to teach me how to make money off the falling dollar.  But the thing is, they get noticed!

So maybe this is something that you could use in your business.  If so, now’s a great time to give it a try because VistaPrint is offering a special discount on their lawn signs.

If you use this code, you can get 25% off your next order of yard signs: YardSigns25. What a better time to think about using this type of advertisement?

VistaPrint is running a bunch of discounts on all sorts of their products right now including stamps, checks, car door magnets, t-shirts, and more.

The thing that I’ve always liked about VistaPrint is that you can either go with one of their designs or you can completely customize and upload one of your own.  So if you aren’t very good at design, they can help with their designs.  Or, if you’re pretty schnazzy with the computer you can do it yourself and just have them create the actual product!  Not a bad deal either way!