It doesn’t matter if your are starting a brand new blog… setting up a sales page for an affiliate product… or you want to just find a hosting company that won’t fail you in your hour of need.

Well, over the years (and many headaches later), I’ve come up with a checklist of essentials that your web host must have before you even consider working with them.

1. Excellent Reliability.

There is nothing more frustrating than finding out your website is down, and has been for hours. Although no time is a good time to have your site down, the timing can be just terrible.

That sinking feeling when you’ve purchased advertising and you know the ad is about to be sent out and
you go to your website for last minute touches and … it’s down.

That is not cool. That is not acceptable.

You must make sure that the web host you select not only has good reliability, but superior reliability. This is your business on the line, not some hobby site. Treat it as such and get hosting that works for you when you need it. But, you can’t just trust a website that says they are reliable. Make sure they can prove it.

2. Superior Customer Support.

When you do need help, make sure that your hosting will provide it. One thing I recommend is to contact support to ask a simple question about the hosting, before buying. That will give you an idea of what the customer service is like before you make a commitment.

Yes, customer service has a difficult job – making sure they do not confuse less-experienced customers, yet, at the same time, also making sure not to talk down to the geek types.

However, you should never feel like you are a “bother” or that your question is not as important as anyone else’s.. or worse, dumb. You should find a web host with superior customer support.

3. The Stats You Need.

Several of the most popular hosts do not offer the web stats that every online business needs. You may not think that you need stats, but, how else are you going to know what is working – and what is not?

You need stats that tell you where your visitors are coming from, how long they are staying, and which pages they are coming in and going from.

Does your web host offer that?

If they have a CPanel as their control panel, they do. Find a web host that uses a standard CPanel.

4. Affordable.

Why spend more if you don’t have to? When looking for a web host, price is always a factor. So, shop around and make sure that the web host you decide upon offers a great price.

5. Room to Grow.

The web host you choose should offer unlimited hosting. This means, that, if you add more websites to your package down the road, the price does not increase drastically for each one. Many online businesses start with one site and grow over time. Can your host grow with you?

6. Bandwidth and Disk Space.

Also, make sure that the host you choose is in the ballpark for bandwidth and disk space. Most programs offer approximately the same amount, but, especially if you plan to add a lot of audio or video, be sure to look into this, as well.

7. A History of Happy Customers.

New hosting companies are popping up daily. Some are being run by a couple of teenagers in their garage. Obviously, that’s not who I want to entrust my business to. Do you?

I want to know that one of the companies I’m choosing has been around a few years, and has a history of happy customers to show for it. I don’t think that’s too much to ask, and you shouldn’t either.

Those are the key features that any web host should offer before you consider doing business with them.

Choosing a web host can be more important than any other decision you make in your online business – if you choose wrong. So, take the time and find a web host that will work with you, and help you to succeed.

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You can see my personal review and why I’m such a happy camper here:

My Favorite (and now only) Blog Hosting Service

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Nicole Dean is co-owner of Mom Webs Hosting – www.MomWebs.com where you’ll find the host that offers everything a work at home mom needs – reliability, unlimited hosting, and customer service that never makes you feel intimidated — all at a price you can afford.

What Business Tasks Can You Accomplish While Your Sick In Bed?

I’ve lifted my head off the pillow and strung the laptop cord across the floor to get some business tasks accomplished.

This blog post is going to be short and not very pretty.

I’ve got a nasty cold and I am sick in bed.

My head feels like someone stuck a wad of cotton up my nose… and I can’t breath. Aches and pains… oh great.

But- I’ve vowed to keep working at least on something that doesn’t take much brain power.

• I’m caught up on email – which is always a huge blessing.
• I’m not starting any new Squidoo pages – they take a bit of creative thinking and I don’t have much of that right now.
• I downloaded a podcast today from Nicole Dean. Her Online Business Success-Cast is one of my favorites. Today I listened to her interview Mark “The Marketing Bum” Shilensky.  I’m not going to go into the detail of today’s podcast… I’m to tired.

You can listen to it here: http://www.nicoleonthenet.com/3457/online-business-success-mark-marketing-bum-shilensky/

It’s a long podcast… which is nice when you don’t feel like doing much else.

This is what made me rewind and listen again:  Nicole  and Mark were talking about Affiliate Marketing Strategies, and Nicole said one thing that really caught my attention.

It went something like this: “If we would all go through our blogs and look at the high traffic pages (from our stats) we might find some pages that need some love”.

Oh sure… Isn’t this business a “Set It and Forget It Business”? Write blog posts… link to affiliate products… publish… move on.

Now – I know some of my old pages from several years ago probably need some love. So I went to Google Analytics and looked up my most visited pages this month.  Guess What? Some of them are 3 years old!!!

That Nicole… she is a smart one.

Why should I be spending so much time building new pages when I have all these high traffic pages that have stopped making sales.

It doesn’t take much brain power to “re-work” these pages and make them better little sales machines. So that’s what I’m working on over the next few days.

What Business Tasks Can You Accomplish This Week? Even if you are sick in bed?

How Has The Economy Changed My Business?

Wow… all I can say is Wow!  I just read an email from Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net and was blown away. I’m letting you in on a secret. His email is always on my “must read” list. It’s powerful stuff. Oh – some days it’s just a fun read… but Darren usually gets us all to thinking in new and creative ways – even when he is just sharing a fun story.

Last year I had the pleasure of watching Darren in action at a Live Blogging Conference. I even won a chance to have dinner with him. It ended up I had dinner in the same room – not at the same table.  But I did get to sit next to Jim Kukral and share my ideas with him. Let me tell you… it’s a bit un-nerving to spend a weekend working at getting to talk to the “Guru’s”… especially when they are mostly men!

Anyway… As I was reading this email I felt like I was reading some of my own story. In fact I just shared a similar story with my sister-in-law over the Thanksgiving weekend.

As you probably already know… most of our friends and family have no idea how we “internet marketers” make money on line. It looks like a mystery (and possibly shady) to them. Most of my “group” thinks I sit around on my butt all day and watch reality telivision shows.

Darren explained in his email that the majority of his income came mostly from two sources…

• Advertising Revenue
• Affiliate Promotions

It’s hard to explain to anyone who isn’t an internet marketer just how money is made by promoting other peoples products and selling advertising. It just doesn’t seem to the “average Joe” that anyone could make a living doing just that all day. Of couse we all know that it can be done… but it’s hard to explain how. Do you remember when the light bulb first went on in your brain?

Sell Your Own Products

I am a huge advocate of affiliate/advertising business model. I make about half of my monthly revenue from advertising and affiliate marketing alone. But… early on – I learned that you must have your own products to sell as well.

Of course - you can have a profitable business model without selling your own products… but why would you?

Darren explained in this email that he had finally added a few of his own products to his online efforts and they had increased his income by 6 figures over the last 12 months. Wow! He is now walking the talk. He is selling products because of his blogging efforts… people just want to learn “more” from him.

I do have several different products of my own and I admit that they provide about half of my income. It does take time and effort to produce your own products… but once they are done… they just keep selling themselves. Why? Because of my blogs… people just want to learn “more” from me!

I’ve learned over the years what works (and doesn’t work) for me. To try to “start” your online business with your own product is a bit overwhelming for most… and it’s just plain easier to blog and grow your income with affiliate sales and advertising income.

Yes… you read that right… Start a blog! Put a few blocks of Google Adsense advertising in the articles and link out to products (with your own special affiliate code) that you feel good about recomending. I set my sister-in-law up with her first blog this weekend. She is pretty excited to finally “know” how to make money on line… now she just has to start writing content… and see if she really likes the “online business” model.

You have to treat blogging as a business for it to be a business… otherwise it’s just a hobby.

Then… when you are ready (you will know when it’s time) you can start creating your own products to increase your income potential.  And… don’t get caught up in the idea that you have to be some big “Guru” to sell your own products. I sell products that don’t have anything to do with “Internet Marketing” and I do quite well with them… thank you very much.

Never Stop Learning!

Several months ago… I picked up one of Darren’s products. 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.
I’ve been blogging for several years… and after looking over articles I wrote years ago… I know I’m a much better blogger today than I realised. But… we all have to know that we should Never Stop Learning! And… learn from those that know what they are doing is really key!

This little course is so easy to follow and it works like a charm. Every day you will find a task to perform. The task at hand is explained in detail and you are also given a link to the discussion group for that particular task. I can’t tell you how many ideas I found in just the first 5 days.  I admit that I haven’t even finished all 31 days yet… because I’m still using the formulas I learned in the first 5 days to write more new blog posts and get traffic to all of my blogs.

Yes… you read that correctly… I have a ton of blogs. They are so easy to set up and of course I have my own secret ninja ways to fill them with fantastic content that draws traffic to my blogs every day. And… I don’t spend a dime on advertising! I get all my traffic organically.

How has the economy changed my business?

• I’ve had to cut back on outsourcing… which means I have to work on being a bit more creative with my marketing. Everyone is on a tighter budget… so I am learning to add more value to everything I do.
• I’m cutting out spending money on stuff I don’t need. I cleaned the decks (so to speak) and purchase only what I need right now. If I see something of value that I can learn an USE right now… I’m more than willing to spend the cash.
• I spent some time focusing on weeding out the time wasters in my business day… and am focusing on the biggest bang for my time. Analysing your business and what makes the most profit for you is a very smart use of your time.
• I have products that are half finished on my hard drive. Geesh… they can’t sell until they are finished and have a “buy button”. So I’ve created a better to-do list that focuses on finishing projects and promoting them wisely.
• I am an affiliate for products that sell themselves. I just need to ramp up my promotions of those products and my income should increase in direct porportion to my efforts.

The economy has driven many marketers to make significant changes in their online efforts. I watched Tiffany Dow explain how she reinvented her online business on her blog (she shared with a video every day for 30 days).  Watching Tiff and others reinvent their business is an eye opening experience. The best lesson I learned was how they are focusing on the profitable portions of their business and letting the “time wasters” go.

I have a long way to go to get my business “focused” and easier to maintain… what about you? What are you doing now in your business now that the economy has changed?