Websites crucial to customer buying decision, retention, interaction

Survey finds lack of web site can drive customers elsewhere

PHILADELPHIA, Mar 29, 2007; 1&1 Internet, Inc. (1&1), the
world’s largest Web-hosting company, today announced the results of it's latest survey.

In an age when consumer loyalty can make or break a business, a recent survey found that securing and retaining customers can be as easy as providing a comprehensive Web site.

Commissioned by 1&1 Internet, Inc. (1&1), the world’s largest Web-hosting company, the survey of 520 U.S. households, revealed that a Web site improves interaction between consumers and businesses, and lack of a Web site could drive business away.

More than one-third of respondents (36 percent) agreed that lack of a web site would lead them to shop elsewhere or select an alternative business, while 28 percent agreed that they would have “doubts or reservations buying from a business without a Web site.” In addition, an overwhelming number of respondents (76 percent) felt it was easiest to contact a business via a phone number or e-mail address provided online.

“Web sites provide a link between consumers and their retail experiences,” said Andreas Gauger, Chairman, 1&1. “Providing an online service is essential to keep consumers happy and loyal.”

About 1&1 Internet Inc.:

1&1 Internet, Inc. is a subsidiary of United Internet, a profitable public company with a market cap of $4 billion. 1&1 was established in 1992 and hosts more than seven million domain names, while 38,000 servers run on the company’s state-of-the-art data centers. 1&1’s global community is more than 6 million customer contracts strong. The company’s U.S. headquarters is located in Chesterbrook, PA. For more information about 1&1, please visit the company’s Web site at www.1and1.com or call 1-877-461-2631.
em>

All other logos, company and product names may be trademarks or registered

trademarks of their respective owners.

Journalists: Access 1&1 press kit materials, logos, graphics, and current

and archived press releases in the 1&1 Press Room: http://press.1and1.com

Read More..

Ways To Get A Dedicated Server

It is not difficult to get a dedicated server. There are many that are available by a large assortment of providers online. You need only decide what type of service you need and then take a look at one of the dedicated server directories online.

Many businesses start out their internet business by using a shared server. A shared server can be the ideal host for your personal or small business website. In addition to being inexpensive, a shared server can also be user friendly. There is usually a small start up fee and a monthly maintenance fee. Fees for a shared server can be practical for the small business owner or someone who has a personal website in which to keep in touch with friends or family.

If you have a growing business, however, you may do better by having a dedicated server. A dedicated server only hosts your website and no other. This can be quite beneficial if you have a large amount of traffic, hope to have a lot of traffic or need a lot of space.

When you use a shared server to host your website, you have to share bandwidth and space with other websites. You will be given an allotted bit of space and bandwidth. In some cases, you can increase your space for additional money. However, without increased bandwidth, you may not be able to draw customers to your website. People may be trying to log on to your website and be told that there is a problem with the server. You may lose potential customers in this manner.

By having a dedicated server, you do not have to worry about sharing bandwidth with other websites. Customers will easily be allowed to access your website. In addition, you will have much more space available if you choose to expand your website.

Before choosing a dedicated server, think about what you want to do with your business. Do you need more bandwidth, more space? Figure out what you hope to attain by switching to a dedicated server. In most cases, you will want more of both.

You can find many different providers on the internet that offer dedicated servers. You will most likely want one that can offer you customer service and be on call in case you have a problem with the server. Nothing could hurt a business like having a server go down. An internet business that depends on revenue from customers and needs to allow them access to the website depends on their server.

Because your business will depend upon your dedicated server, you will want to make sure that you choose the best service provider that you can find. While there are some providers that offer budget servers for less than $100 per month, price is only one objective. Do not sacrifice quality service for a low price when it comes to your web server.

Once you have found several companies that offer what you are seeking in a web host, call them up and speak to them on the phone. Make sure that customer relations are as important to them as they are to you. Read More..

Free Web Hosting

Free web hosting sound so tempting. Like everything else that is free, however, there is usually a catch. The catch is usually the fact that the web host will put ads on your website over which you have no control. This is the price you pay for your free website.

You cannot blame the host. They have to generate income somehow. What better way than to promote their ads on your content. Every time someone comes on your site to visit you, they are hit with a barrage of ads. In some free websites, they may have a hard time not clicking on the ads. The ads can move all over the page causing you or your friends to accidentally click on them.

After someone has clicked on an ad on your free web page, they can then expect to receive quite a bit of e-mail from not only the site that they clicked on, but also any other similar business.

Free web hosting is fine if you want to have a social page, a resume page or even a small website devoted to a celebrity. For business revenue, however, it is not the best choice.

Although you may have the most wonderful products for sale through your website at bargain prices, you can only sell them if people visit your website. When using free web hosting your are limited. In most cases, you can have one account and cannot post links between accounts. Most free web hosting is for personal purposes only and rarely allows business selling.

If you want to make money on the internet, the way to do it is to use a dedicated server. This way, you can not only place any ads that you want on your site that will generate income for you as you are the website host, but you can also use the extra space to make up other websites that can use keywords to draw people to your sales website. The content containing keywords shows up on the search engines and people are directed to your small, content site. Here, they read some information and receive a link to your money making site.

Free web hosting is good for those who only want to use the internet sparingly, but not for the purpose of making money. Even a shared server, which is a step up from a free server, and is basically the same thing only gives you more space and bandwidth as well as freedom, is limited. To truly make money on the internet, you have to make use of all aspects, including the ads and affiliate links.

Advertising on the internet can be free if you understand how to use the search engines to generate interest in your products as well as use a dedicated server to its maximum abilities. While a free web hosting service is a fine idea for a personal website that can help you keep your family updated about your life, it is not the way to make money on the internet. Read More..

Best Dedicated Servers

If you have been looking for web hosting on the internet, you have probably observed the abundance of ads for dedicated servers. If you are a novice when it comes to computers and website hosting, you may not understand what a dedicated server is.

A dedicated server hosts only your website. You are, in essence, hosting your own website. You have total control of the bandwidth, space and security of the server. In most cases, the provider will give you the equipment that you need as long as long as you continue to use their service.

You can usually get a better deal with a dedicated server if you pay annually for the service instead of monthly. Most service providers ask for a monthly fee. Monthly fees for a dedicated server usually run a couple of hundred dollars. If you pay annually, you may be able to save a bit of money.

There is a risk of paying annually, however. If the provider goes out of business and the equipment becomes obsolete, you may be out of luck. If you become unhappy with your service provider and their customer service, or the actual server, you may find yourself stuck with them for a year.

To get the best dedicated server, you need to shop around. Make sure that you find a service provider that will give you quality service. If your server goes down, it will be imperative that you can contact someone for help immediately. The longer your service remains down, the more money you lose.

A budget dedicated server provider may offer such attractive incentives such as no start up costs. In order to get your website going, you will have to upload it onto the server. Most server providers will charge a fee for this. The fee to get your server going and your website up and running may be substantial. This sometimes puts some people off, but it is a one time fee. Once your business is up and running, you only need to only pay the monthly fee to the service provider.

Although it may be seem prudent to reduce costs as much as possible when starting up your website on a dedicated server, this is one area where you do not want to sacrifice service for cost. The best dedicated servers are reliable, offer excellent customer service and have large bandwidth and space. While you may find some budget servers that offer a low monthly rate, take a look at the bandwidth and space that they are offering. In some cases, it may not even be as much as what you can get on a shared server.

To find the best quality dedicated servers, shop around on the internet. It may also help to talk to other website owners that you know to find out if they can recommend a provider. Remember that good customer service is as crucial to the maintenance of your business as is the expanded bandwidth and space afforded by a dedicated server.
Read More..

Dedicated Servers

What are dedicated servers? A dedicated server is not someone who is attentive to you in a restaurant. When you hear the term "dedicated servers" online it usually refers to the type of web hosting provider for a website.

If you have started an internet website, you are probably aware that you need a host. There are several different types of web hosting available. You can get hosting through a free server. This is usually used by people who want to have a personal web page for friends and family. A free server will most likely put their own ads on your web page so that they can generate income.

There are also shared servers. A shared server is the logical choice of most businesses starting out on the website. Because internet hosting can cost hundreds of dollars per month, most small businesses choose a shared server so they do not have to invest so much money at the onset of their business.

A shared server can be a good option for a small internet business or a personal website. There is no reason for a personal website owner to have a dedicated server. A small business or personal website can keep costs down if they share the cost of hosting with other businesses.

However, if your business suddenly begins to take off, or you find that you want a lot more space for forums and shopping carts that your current shared server cannot give you, it may be time to look into getting a dedicated server.

Dedicated servers host only your website. This means that all of the space and bandwidth on the server is yours and yours alone. You do not have to share hosting with other businesses. You can generally make your website as large as you want and include databases such as shopping carts as well as forums, that normally take up quite a bit of space.

This also means that you have total control over the safety of your server and your website. You can add additional features that can make your site even more secure, to the benefit of both your customers as well as yourself.

Dedicated servers usually cost a lot more each month to maintain, but there are different sizes as well as services available for this type of web hosting. When perusing the different options when it comes to dedicated servers online, you can generally find everything from larger servers to budget dedicated servers.

Nothing can be worse for an internet business than the following:

- Customers not being able to access the website because there is not enough bandwidth, leading the customer to believe the website no longer exists.

- Customers not trusting the security of the website because last month their credit card information was lifted because the website was not secure.

- A severe limit on the website with regard to space that eventually costs you customers.

All of the above scenarios can be avoided by using dedicated servers instead of shared servers. Dedicated servers add space, bandwidth and security for internet business websites. Read More..