Bad news for the go-getters, your opportunity to enter is over – the submission time has now come to a close; Good news for the voyeurs, the fun is just getting started as voting begins today – and we received some very original, wickedly inspiring and deliciously hilarious videos.

Now we need your help: Pick Your Winner!

Winners will be selected based on the number and quality of views, favorites, stars, and comments – so get in there and get voting!

And they are as follows:

Wouldn’t It Be Nice

Pop Quiz: What’s Cool?

Hosting with Attitude

Ever Wander?

Email With Attitude

Life’s Your Adventure

The video entries can be found on our myhosting and mail2web youtube channels

Now What are you waiting for, get voting!!

Which is your favorite? What would you like to see? Let us know!!

Related posts:

1. Call For Entry: SoftCom Video Contest

That’s why myhosting.com offers a web hosting package with everything you need to start blogging. With modern web users demanding interaction, information, and immediacy, static sites are a relic of the past — and blogs are a necessity for any business seeking maximum exposure.

When it comes to blog hosting, myhosting.com provides superior uptime, exceptional customer service, and a free installer for WordPress — one of the most popular and intuitive blogging systems available. But the benefits don’t stop there. Take a look at these 10 essential ways blogging can help your business burgeon, and see for yourself why more and more companies are blogging their way to success.

1. Broadening your audience

The world wide web is just that: wide. By launching and maintaining a blog, your business reaches the fingertips of internet users across the globe — including prospects you couldn’t access through other marketing methods like direct mail and print ads. With millions of people surfing the net each day, your blog can capture countless clients who would otherwise remain unaware of your business, exposing them to your products or services. The broader your audience, the larger your pool of prospects — and the greater your potential sales.

2. Improving search engine rankings

Thanks to fresh content and keyword saturation, blogs are search engine darlings. Web crawlers love multi-page, frequently updated sites like blogs, and as long as the text is relevant and well written, search engines tend to bump such sites to the top of search results pages. This is particularly true for blogs receiving multiple backlinks or exposure on social media sites. Even if your business already has a website, a regularly updated blog will yield more pages, more content, and more indexing on the web. Higher visibility means more hits — a surefire boon for any business.

3. Gaining customers’ trust

Most people are weary of companies they know little about — especially when those companies only promote themselves through advertisements and self-praising “marketing speak.” By providing valuable and personable blog updates, you do more than demonstrate authority in your field: you also give fence-sitting prospects a chance to grow familiar with your business before investing in your services. Additionally, supplying free information through blog posts creates an image of both generosity and expertise. Blogs serve as a powerful strategy for building trust among customers.

4. Providing Useful Resources

Your blog will give you more opportunities to write about topics that interest you, your business, and your customers. Although your website is a valuable tool, your blog will allow you to take it to the next level, delving deeper into the topics that interest your company and your customers, with content that may not fit anywhere on your website. This could include a wide range of topics, from industry news and information, to How-To articles relevant to your products and services, or even information on events and activities your company is involved in.

5. Promoting brand awareness

Chances are, your business is wrestling against dozens — if not hundreds — of others promoting a similar product or service. Securing an advantage over your competition requires imbedding your business’s name into the minds of potential consumers. By creating a blog, you wield an avenue to spread knowledge of your company, inform customers of the services you offer, and differentiate yourself from competitors — the latter being particularly critical for gaining the edge in your industry. Because blogs quickly disseminate content, they encourage brand awareness among a vast audience of internet users in a short period of time.

6. Interacting with customers

Unlike traditional websites, blogs are two-way streets, promoting dialogue via comments. Rather than viewing your information in anonymous silence, readers can ask questions, raise concerns, make suggestions, and offer feedback — all without exiting your blog page. As a result, even customers who aren’t comfortable leaving personal contact information can directly communicate with your company. Interaction keeps customers involved and engaged with your business, which increases your opportunities for promoting products, gaining exposure, and making sales.

7. Conducting easy customer research

While some forms of market research are pricey or labor intensive, blogs grant you quick, easy access to client response patterns and trends. With the help of simple tracking features, blogs allow you to see which posts are generating the most feedback, the most emails, the most page views, and other pertinent data. By examining the trends, you gain insight into the issues that pique your readers’ interest and the topics they find most relevant. This knowledge lets you tailor your services to fit the needs of your customers — and helps you draw more traffic by blogging about subjects proven to incite the most responses.

8. Encouraging ongoing visits

Because blogs, by their very nature, promise recurring updates, readers have a reason to come back — over and over and over. As long as the content you publish is relevant and worthwhile, your business can develop a loyal readership of current and potential customers interested in what you offer. The more frequently your readers visit, the more often they’re exposed to the products or services your business provides — boosting your odds of landing a sale.

9. Developing a “human” image

Business success requires breaking away from corporate facelessness and adopting a more personal presence. As the saying goes, people do business with other people — not with companies. For this reason, the casual, approachable atmosphere of blogs can help your business blast through corporate shackles and create an image customers relate to. Readers build a perceived relationship with the “voice” behind the blog, which promotes feelings of comfort and safety. Even if rivaling companies offer competitive prices and deals, customers may be more inclined to buy from your business simply because you have a more personable image.

10. Encouraging sales

One of the greatest advantages of blogs is that, to readers, they aren’t obvious marketing ploys — they’re free repositories of information. As a consequence, new product announcements, links to sales pages, newsletter signup prompts, and other promotional efforts look more like friendly suggestions than aggressive sales tactics. Readers normally leery of web ads may be more tolerant of advertisements smoothly integrated into blog content. The result is deeply beneficial for businesses: blogs are an effective tool for advertising products, introducing new items to customers, and ultimately generating sales.

Related posts:

1. Welcome to the new blog
2. Using Social Media to Build Traffic for Your Website
3. Creating a Business Online: Starting your Website Storefront

Fortunately, scholars of the future will surely be less conflicted about Microsoft’s latest offer for your web development business. Listen up, Muster Mark, because this may just be the Spark you’ve been waiting for.

If you felt your fledgling web development team was missing out last year when Microsoft launched BizSpark to help new start-ups (or its complement program DreamSpark, for students), we’ve got some good news for you: Microsoft has just launched WebsiteSpark, a new flavor of their innovative assistance programs for the precariously-funded.

Conceived with web developers and designers in mind, Microsoft’s WebsiteSpark program will empower your company with the necessary tools and support you need to succeed with your business, at no cost to you upfront.

Microsoft’s goal is to provide professional tools and services to your small business free from the financial burden that might normally prevent you from employing these top-end offerings. Microsoft will front the cost of offering you the full power of its tools to help your business. For real!

While it may be hard to believe in recent times that some corporations are still out to do some good, WebsiteSpark is a savvy move for a company facing competitive heat with an earnest motivation to support your business. With Microsoft on your side, this offer is a compelling deal.

Let’s look at what you get.

Website Development Solutions

For the design and development of websites, you’ll get up to three user licenses (plus the full, unrestricted software for download, of course) for:

• Visual Studio Professional
• Expression Studio 3 (1 user)
• Expression Web 3 (up to 2 users)

So far, so good. What else?

Server Solutions

Here’s what’s on the table for you to deploy your own server and hosted solutions:

• Windows Web Server 2008 R2
• SQL Server 2008 Web Edition

The Website Spark program grants you licensing for up to four processors on a dedicated or virtual server.

Of course, you’ll need an actual server to host, which is normally prohibitively expensive to set up and maintain. As a Web Professional, your strength is probably in designing and developing websites, not in managing servers.

Fortunately, with the WebsiteSpark program you can get up to 3 years of Virtual Dedicated hosting that is fully maintained for you, with all the latest updates and security patches. This allows you to focus on what you do best, without the worry and hassle of maintaining your server.

Support and Developer Networks

To sweeten the pot even more, Microsoft has also bundled the program with unlimited access to its support and development networks.

For the duration of the program, you’ll receive access to online training and managed support newsgroups via MSDN {http://msdn.microsoft.com}, boasting an active community of over six million registered participants.

Promotion of your business services to new clients and customers in Microsoft’s Marketplace and Partner Solution Profiler, a Microsoft Partner Network resource linked with searches for technology experts via Microsoft.com.

You’ll also have the opportunity to develop connections through Microsoft’s Network Partners and Hosted Partners, which Microsoft describes as “an entire ecosystem that can provide a wide range of technical and business resources for every Web professional need”.

Break something? If you run into trouble, Microsoft will be there to help, with two professional “get-of-jail-free” support incidents that grant you an emergency bail-out with live real-time assistance when you need it most.

But wait, aren’t all those “free couch” offers really just a delayed interest scam?

It’s true that you pay nothing for all this goodness upfront for up to three years, while reaping all the benefits of Microsoft’s development tools, platform technology, and server products — not to mention unlimited access to Microsoft’s extensive technical support teams and affiliate networks.

So what’s the catch?

Upon graduation from the program, you agree to pay a one-time $100 fee for participation in the program. But that’s it. Really.

Yes, but what’s the real catch?

None. Just $100, at the end of the program. Other than that, all this is yours for nada.

Thank a competitive free market, kids. This offer really is a fantastic solution for qualifying developers. If there’s a catch besides the modest exit fee, it’s that your business must first qualify.

In order to eligible for the WebsiteSpark program, your business must:

• Have fewer than 10 employees.
• Build websites for others.
• Launch a new site within 6 months of using the program (to continue eligibility).

(If you’re building your own website, your business is probably considered a startup, and might be better suited for Microsoft’s BizSpark {http://www.microsoft.com/BizSpark/} )

I’m sold, where do I sign?

First, you should sign up as a Web Professional for the Microsoft WebsiteSpark program.

Once you are registered with WebsiteSpark, you should speak with a representative at myhosting.com to see how your sites can be deployed on your own Virtual Server Hosting account. I hear they are just waiting to hear from you!

Related posts:

1. Virtualization with Microsoft Hyper-V
2. The Advantages of VPS & Virtual Server Hosting
3. myhosting.com offers a great range of Microsoft SQL Hosting Plans including a Free Starter Plan!

We begin strong with a stand-out site with an equally dynamic team behind it: 5^th Element Events

Feature of the Month: 5^th Element Events

A lesson in being yourself, starting your own company, and being ahead of the curve

5^th Element Events is a Toronto-based event design firm whose website is hosted with myhosting.com. Their event design site’s flair, simplicity, usability and overall aesthetic appeal demonstrates the importance of having one’s site professionally designed. 5thElementEvents.com is also intuitive and engaging while offering easy navigation and accessibility.

Unlike the majority of their event design peers, this company is making a huge splash online with their use of social media and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. They stay ahead of the game with their online community building by means of actively blogging, maintaining a presence on Facebook and engaging in conversations on twitter.

The faces of the company consist of President Aaron Kaufman and Community Marketing Manager Jared Golberg. They both had a lot of tips to offer on having a great site, a niche company, and online presence.

Kaufman, who considers himself a serial entrepreneur, started as an event emcee at 17 years-old. By the age of 19, he was headlining video dance tours, which quickly evolved into the planning and executing them. Now, a seasoned veteran in the events industry, Kaufman looks back on his early days as an eager event entrepreneur and offers a few pieces of advice I will now call “Kaufman-isms.”

• I don’t do pretty. Instead, I have a great florist who does killer work and understands what I need. I know its cliché, but you’re only as good  as your team.
• Don’t try to be the jack of all trades, master of none; some things need to be left up to the masters. Accept it.
• Never bite the hand that feeds. Never bite off too much. Relationships are huge; you never know when you’ll need someone down the road.
• Just because you can conceive an idea yourself, doesn’t mean you can execute it yourself.
• Becoming a reputable design firm took time and patience, but having the ability to push the envelope in every campaign made our journey worth the struggle!

They now do events for the likes of such high profile clients as Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Avon, Staples, General Electric, Sony Electronics, Rona, Hilton, Westin Harbour Castle, Absolut and Canadian Niagara Hotels.

They also use their website to promote their extensive sponsorship, as well as charitable and CSR initiatives with which they are involved. This is a great tip for any company or brand, no matter the size. Fostering, creating and empowering one’s community is something to be proud of and definitely worth sharing.

The ways they give back are by sponsoring local charity events as well as a few causes near and dear to their hearts. These include Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre’s “Grant a Wish Foundation” and Centre Camp. They also like that both charities cover a wide spectrum of age and life experience, a focus that they wanted to cover when developing their 2009 campaign.

For more information on their charitable initiatives, please click here. You can follow them on Twitter @5ElementEvents @AKthe5th @JaredGolberg

Have a website hosted with us that you would like featured? Know someone that does? Let us know!

melissas@softcom.com

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We have now received further reports of phishing emails that were sent to myhosting.com users that appear to be from “customersupport@myhosting.com”. The email indicates that your account has been deactivated and asks you to run an attached utility in order to restore your mailbox. The email is not actually from myhosting.com and the attached file is in fact a malware utility which may be used to compromise your account.

We recommend that all myhosting.com customers and users exercise extreme caution when it comes to such notification emails. We will never ask you to email us your password, and we will never instruct you to run such a utility to restore your account.

If you receive any emails of this nature, please err on the side of caution and report it to abuse@myhosting.com or contact us at 1-866-289-5091 before following any instructions.

If you have fallen victim to one of these phishing attempts, please contact us for further assistance.

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2. myhosting.com supports Entourage 2008 EWS!
3. iPhone 3G and myhosting.com Email Integration Options incl. Free Exchange Account

This welcoming is the transformation of you, the student, to you, the prospect. A brand competing against other brands, taking everything you’ve ever learned and applying it to a service that you offer and charge for. This pivotal time is when you need to work the hardest and make the most out of your resources. That’s why when it comes to finding new opportunities and seeking added value over others, marketing yourself online has the potential to be one of the most effective communication tools that you use when looking to start your career.

How you can leverage your career through self-promotion and online branding.

Now by all means I am not suggesting you cover the world wide web from corner to corner and success will be in your near future.  If you’re unable to do a face-to-face interview your career will be over before it even starts. But marketing yourself online is extremely advantageous, and it will help you get that interview. For example, look at how effective and popular social networking sites have become in the last few years. They present instant global communication and connection which in turn create far more opportunities than the Classifieds’ ever could.

Facebook and Twitter have become popular with social groups around the world and present a benefit to the newly graduated job-seeker. Facebook is an excellent way of taking word of mouth marketing and blowing it up a million times. Suggest in your profile what profession you’re interested in, update your status when you’re actively looking, and always keep an ear open for that friend of a friend’s boss who could be hiring soon.

Twitter has become epic among celebrities, organizations, businesses, and people. If you’re interested in a cause or specific company- follow them, communicate with them, and know who they are so when the opportunity arises for an interview, you’re already an expert on their brand.

LinkedIn is a social media site that is specifically geared towards building professional relationships. Although Facebook and Twitter have the potential to create positive relationships, they could also present negative ones as well. When the line between social life and professional life cross networking sites like these make sure everyone knows about it. LinkedIn is all about getting down to business and connecting people to new opportunities, but its downside is that it does have substantially less regular users than the first two.*  Either way, there are pros and cons to any of these devices so it’s up to you use them effectively and to your advantage.

Another way to continue leveraging your brand online would be to launch your own personal website. Start sending your website around to potential employers instead of your resumes and cover-letter, and make sure you include a personalized email address that you can be reached at. Coolguy49 may be a very respectable candidate, but that person’s skills are masked behind this anonymous and childish web name.

Having your own website and personal email domain does two very important things for your brand. The first is that it gives the people on the other end more to consider when looking at you as a potential hire. You’ve not just stated your qualifications and broken them down in a timeline, but instead created an online network about your brand and communicated it in various ways.

The other benefit to having your own website is that it allows you to have full control over your brand.  It looks professional, mature, and it shows that you’re prepared and went that little extra distance. Not only have you created a brand for yourself, you took the time to build it and develop it 360 degrees.

The framework has been laid, you know what you need and what outlets are available to you, now all you need to do is create the content. Ideally you’re going to want to go to a one stop shop; a web-hosting company that can provide you with a website and domain name, the tools needed to develop the site, a personal email account, as well any other features that can make the student to prospect transition as smooth as possible.

At myhosting.com and our sister company mail2web.com, we create products and services that help you get your brand online with as little stress as possible.  For the online newbie trying to develop their brand, we have the resources to put you in the right direction.

Our web and email hosting services allow for you to have your own website and email address. It’s an opportunity to be clear and concise about you the brand. Don’t be shy; get your name out there. We provide a wide range of hosting plans as well incorporate numerous online applications that can also help you make your site look the way you want. Even though it’s important just to get the www.you.com done, you must remember that your website is your brand, and people will be interacting with it, so make sure it looks and works the way you want.

Utilizing some of our other services like email exchange and email retrieval keep you up-to-date with everything that’s coming your way professionally. Once you’re ready to start getting your work out there, companies will get a hold of you and want to meet. Our Exchange service provides you with everything from calendars to appointment notifications, all things you will need to stay connected once you start getting busy.

Busy means on the road, and if you’re on the road you’re going to need to stay connected to what’s happening within the confines of your inbox. That’s why our mail2web.com services can also help you check your email from any computer or smartphone that’s internet ready. It’s fast and reliable, making you… well fast and reliable.  We provide these services because we are passionate about growing brands online, creating a community with our clients, and helping them out, every step of the way.

In the end you are your brand. You are the website and the email address. You are the blog and the tweet. You are the mobile application and the busy schedule. You are the 2am e-mail blast. You are late. You are early. You’re working from home or on the go. You are that fourth latte you drank while trying to think of a really clever mission statement. You’re that person sitting on the other end of that table being asked “what can you bring to our company?”  And hopefully it all leads to you being the one shaking someone’s hand; receiving a warm welcome into the real world.

*results based on www.compete.com’s top 25 online social networks

Related posts:

1. Your Online Identity – part one
2. Profiting as the Middleman: Creating Online Revenue with Affiliate Marketing
3. Domain Names, Web Hosting & Branding

And so it is with making Internets, dear son.

So, in the tradition of such timeless wisdom, we proudly present the following primer of Must-Have Web Design Tools to git’ ‘er done.

First things first.

Selecting the right tools means knowing what you need in the first place.  If you’ve got a yearnin’ for some learnin’, we can help with that.

Here’s what you’ll need in your website development toolbox:

1. An HTML editor.
2. An image editor.
3. A web host.
4. A web browser.
5. Support resources.

Here’s the skinny on each:

1. HTML Editors

The Code That Makes the World Go Round

In addition to being a series of tubes, the Internet (or at least, the “websites” part of it) is built on code. This code, not unlike The Matrix, defines everything you see online. To make Internets, you need to write code. And for that, you’ll need a good HTML editor.

Fear not.

Although entire websites can still be developed in a simple plain text editor,  in recent years, some editors have become fancy enough to be called WYSIWYG: what-you-see-is-what-you-get. In a WYSIWYG editor, you can just create a website, and the editor will (mostly) write the code for you.

Microsoft Expression Web is a feature-rich WYSIWYG editor that can help you build websites visually on-the-fly, with a handy library of drag-and-drop controls to simplify using complex interactive media like video, Adobe Flash, and Windows Media files. It’s part of Microsoft’s Expression suite, a collection of tools to streamline the whole website development process.

How simple is simple? If you can edit a Word document, you can probably build a website using a WYSIWYG editor like Microsoft Expression Web or Adobe Dreamweaver.

2. Image Editors

Making It Pretty

A website without graphics would be pretty dull.

To make those graphics, you’ll need to delve into the exciting world of graphic design. Fortunately, for the time or talent challenged, there are many ready-to-go template solutions online that can give you the polished look of a slick website design without the inconvenience of having to create it from scratch. Just be wary of looking too “template-y” — that’s the online version of showing up to a party wearing the same shirt as the host. Ouch.

Most templates can very easily be modified to create a totally unique final solution. Crowd sourcing sites like http://www.getafreelancer.com allow you to post your “customization” gigs for very reasonable rates. And why stop there? If you don’t even know what you want your site to look like, you can post a brief describing it on http://www.crowdspring.com and let designers submit spec designs.

3. Web Hosting

Getting It “Out There”

A website’s no good if no one can see it. To be seen, a website requires a computer to host it. You put your files on the host (AKA “server”), and it “serves” your website to the world, like a tireless butler bringing forth your goodness.

Now, you probably don’t want to leave your computer running 24/7 to serve your own website, nor would it be very reliable or quick if you did. Running a server is a serious business best left to dedicated professionals.

Fortunately, at myhosting.com, we offer professional and reliable hosting for all your web needs at very reasonable rates. We offer many features, but in short, they can be summed up as: a whole lot of awesome.

There are even website applications and a site builder offered within the packages themselves to help you get started!

4. Browsers

Not All Browsers Are Created Equal

It’s difficult to make Internets if you can’t see them. You need a web browser to load and view your pages. Of course, as a conscientious and studious standards-compliant web developer, your big, beautiful, bold webpages will work in any browser — right?

Sadly, this is often not the case. All browsers are not created equal, and even supposedly standards-compliant sites designed to dot every “i” will often break across cross-browser compatibility tests.

You’ll need to pick one browser to preview your work-in-progress in, so we’re here to remind you that your choice of browser will impact your development strategy.

A list of usage shared among web browsers can help you understand which browser your audience will likely be using.

The only real solution is rigorous and thorough testing across many browsers. Fortunately, handy utilities like BrowserCam can help ease some of the legwork.

Regardless of which browser you use, always preview your site in a real browser. Many WYSIWYG editors offer built-in browser previews, which may appear to work convincingly well, but are notorious for missing critical subtleties that are very annoying to discover later. Save yourself the trouble by previewing in a real browser.

Remember too that Internet Explorer in particular is notorious for poor standards compliance, meaning what works in IE may or may not work outside of it, and vice versa. It’s a good idea to brush up on your known browser bugs to spare yourself falling victim to popular head-scratchers.

5. Support resources.

Google is your friend.

Last but not least, with all your tools in place, you’ll need to know what to do with them.

To help you get started, there are literally a billion tutorials on how to build websites.

Books are also a good start for the basics, if you don’t mind the price-tag and having the information go out of date in three months.

While you develop, just search for whatever you don’t know. Someone, somewhere, will have described how to do it online. Even seasoned developers may be paralyzed if cut off from near-constant access to a good search engine for code references, syntax searches, bug fixes, and forum support.

Consider enrolling in a good (read: paid) support community or forum to get the help when you need it. Or even better, enroll with myhosting.com and enjoy free 27/7 live telephone support with your account.

We can even help you set up your hosting account even if you’ve never built a website before. Give us a call today!

Related posts:

1. Web Design tools: Life after FrontPage
2. Creating a Business Online: Starting your Website Storefront
3. Profiting as the Middleman: Creating Online Revenue with Affiliate Marketing

FTP or File Transfer Protocol, is a network tool which allows exchanging and manipulating files over a network, like the Internet.

It is built on client-server structure and able to separate client and server applications.  FTP is a must for hosting, since you have to upload your site files to your hosting package web space, in order to publish them to the web.

Why do I need to use FTP?

• To promote sharing of files (computer programs and/or data).
• To encourage indirect or implicit use of remote computers.
• To shield a user from variations in file storage systems among different hosts.
• To transfer data reliably, and efficiently.
• To perform web site publishing and/or maintenance.
• To create backups of local or remote files.

Some examples of FTP programs

Filezilla

FileZilla is a free FTP solution and available for both client side and server side. It’s open source software and is distributed free under tems of the GNU General Public Licence.

SmartFTP

SmartFTP is an highly secure FTP client which allows to transfer files between local computer and a server on the Internet. It’s a licensed software and home editions price is 36.95 USD)/year.

CoffeeCup

CoffeeCup Free is a very simple and free FTP client. It allows pausing or canceling transfers aswell.

Go FTP

It is another free FTP client, which is famous for its fast upload and download facility and also supports encryption of SFTP-SSH2 and FTPS-SSL files.

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2. Domain Name Transfers made easy
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Nowadays, it seems that everyone and every business uses a Facebook page, LinkedIn account, blog, Twitter account and all for good reason. There are a myriad of long term opportunities for businesses willing to utilize these incredibly popular social networking sites to support their brand recognition and customer base. Marketing teams will strongly recommend that their organization start implementing such tools, but it seems that management is worried about what the return on investment will be.

It is true, that such tools offer a gamut of opportunities, however it is important to consider the question of how effectively can I use these tools? What are the best options? And how do I start?

By implementing these popular online social tools, such as Facebook, Twitter or a blog you can create new branding opportunities for potential customers to come to learn about your brand, your services and your products. It allows you to target more people in a wider field, hitting customers you may not have known existed. And the benefits do not stop there.

In addition to establishing new leads, creating an online presence on social networking sites lends itself to opportunities for improving your ranking on search engines as you can have your website and various important links to your products or services strategically placed throughout the social network webspace and vice versa.

This can increase the web traffic that hits your webpage, but is it the right traffic you are trying to attract?
The answer lies in how you best position yourself on these networking sites and whether you have chosen the right one for your target audience. With the right mix, interest in your business can flourish.

As a business owner, you need to sit down and figure out how you can effectively use these networking tools. Like any new campaign or project, you need to decide what you want to achieve by setting yourself goals and objectives within a set time frame. Understand what applications and tools within the site are available and whether they are right for your business.

A blog such as this keeps readers informed of new products, services, tools and initiatives that are available from myhosting.com, hence why you are reading this right now. Social networking sites can give the chance to provide specific sales offers, special promotional features or exclusive news and information to its users.  Perhaps a blog is the best way to communicate to your customer base in a new way? Maybe a Facebook Fan Page is ideal for promoting your product that is hugely popular with university students? Or perhaps a Twitter account is perfect to constantly update customers about the latest offers available in your store? It all comes down to doing your research and understanding how each site and tool can help achieve what you want to achieve and integrating it successfully.

Keep in mind that you must stick to your niche. Try not to be everything to everyone. You can run the risk of missing out on the opportunities that social networking sites offer, miss your target audience completely or end up with a dead web page that is under-utilized and wasted. So remember to know what you want and how you want to achieve it within a realistic time frame.

As only a social networking site can do, it will prompt interaction with your customer base which can be beneficial in helping you move forward with your business and what you are able to offer in terms of products and services. These sites create a social environment which promotes dialogue between you and the customer. While you may be afraid of negative feedback (which may or may not happen), keep in mind that any criticism is constructive and you should use it to your advantage to improve on your offering. Be available to interact and respond to your customers concerns if they provide feedback on your blog, LinkedIn or Twitter account. It will not only show that you are listening to what they are saying and where they’re coming from, but will also provide the much needed human element to a world that is continuously becoming faceless.

Once you decide on what social networking tools you want to use, and how you want to use them, it is always smart to promote it to your existing customer base. You should integrate the social networking page with your website. Start up a blog site with myhosting.com and link to your various social networking systems. After all, they will start to go hand-in-hand before you realize it. Create links, icons or tabs, click through buttons, web banners promoting that you have a new Facebook page, Twitter page or blog. Include a hyperlink at the base of your organization’s email signature promoting that you have a social networking presence. Send out an email campaign to your database encouraging them to join, read and discover your social networking presence. The marketing opportunities to create interest in your new online ventures are endless, so use them wisely.

Not sure where to start? Check out the many starter applications myhosting.com has to offer. Be it a Wordpress Blog application or phpBB discussion forum software. You can get started on your online presence in a real way.

So what kind of return on investment does having a social networking page offer? By creating new avenues for your customer base to access information on your business, products and services, and attracting new traffic to your social networking site, and inevitably your website, you will be able to see a positive fiscal return. In the long term, you are creating new opportunities for business, new opportunities for growth and new opportunities to venture into new services or offerings.

Whether you have a blog, a Twitter account or a Facebook page, you can be assured that maintaining a social networking presence online is a key marketing tool for businesses looking to further their reach, increase their customer base and increase sales. Remember to do your research thoroughly, understand what tools work best to ’speak’ to your customer base, and be specific with what you are saying. Like the old adage says, the wider you cast your net, the more fish you catch.

Related posts:

1. Using Social Media to Build Traffic for Your Website
2. What is social media?
3. YOU.COM – Self Promotion and Online Branding

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This launch follows our other recent launch of a 3 other ccTLDs, including .IN (India), .WS (short for “Web Site”, or Western Somoa) and .BZ (short for “Business” or Belize).

For more information about all the different domain name extensions we offer, please visit our full Domain Names & Pricing page.

Related posts:

1. Domain Names, Web Hosting & Branding
2. .ASIA domain name registrations now available!
3. 6 Tips for Picking a Good Domain Name