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some images have extra borders like the last one on the left for example showing the chairmans pic, try to work also on increasing margins of text within their containers. Applies to all the site content.

Animation might work for this site, but not too much. Something is missing, but I still cant figure it out. It looks dry.

The Key to making your site rank high in search engines with respect to keyword of relativity is Good Site presentation. Try to understand the analogy that, your site is the host and the search engine is your guest. So how you best accomodate your host, would determine how well he speaks of you, and also determines whether he would pay you another visit or not.

If you want search engine optimization to work for you, you have to determine one phrase that best describes what your website is all about. This is precisely what is called a target phrase. In choosing target phrase, following points should be kept in mind:

- It should be accurate.
- It should be popular .

Overture is an effective tool for assessing popularity as well as brainstorming ideas for target phrases.

Word Tracker will be of your help in assessing popularity and also comparing how the competitors use the target phrase you're after.


Evaluating your competition.

Attempt an analysis what's working for them; how they market their products and services, and even evaluate their target phrase and description tags. Mind you I didnt stay steal !!, I say analyse !!

- Check out Yahoo and Google to see what shows up when you search for your target phrase.

- Examine the pages on the first page; analyze where and how they use your target phrase. You can use the "Cached" page option in Google to get your targeted phrase highlighted.

Make your website content driven.

Search engines, especially search giant, Google loves content, content, and content. The more rich content you provide using your keywords or target phrase the better your page rankings will be. The best method employed here is to update your pages 2 to 3 times a week, for an instance Monday, Wednesday and again Sunday. While updating the content regularly, you may work well on focusing on your keyword or target phrase.

The tricks you need to know.

- The index pages should have links to all the pages on your portal if possible with the title tag if possible in the url construct.

- Include your target phrase twice in the meta title tag.

- Include your target phrase in the title or headline for your page. Put that headline using a header tag for your headlines, as search engines quite often weight words in these tags higher.

- Do not forget to include your target phrase in subheads, using header tags there too.
- Include it in other locations on the page, like external links, headlines, and sidebars.


Go for your site promotion


Make sure that when you announce your page everywhere you happen to go. Forums, blogs, anything.

List your site in Link Directories that provide a specific category for your services, these are also effective ways to create inbound links as the more inbound links you have generated to your web-site the higher the page rank you are likely to get in Google.

List your sites in Link Directories that provide a specific category that best suits your site content and services.

Check Your results in top of the rankings

Remember that this can not be done in a single shot; it is long, continuous process putting your patience to the test.


Search engine optimization strategies at a glance


- Ensure that your website is tested for good load time, dead links and cross-browser compatibility . Netmechanic.com is a good website to do this.

- Optimize you web site pages . Make sure your top keywords appear in your title, meta tags and content.

- Provide quality content that have something unique to offer and that have keywords or key phrases people might search to find your site. If you are into selling products, give something away free (The word "free" is one of the top most searched for words on the net).

- Continually build quality links to your site pages from other well ranked sites on your target search engine.

- Enlist your top keywords and key-phrases and track your listings/ranking in the top 10 search engines and analyze it in a periodic manner

- Focus on your web site attractiveness and easy-to-use feature with clear navigation and easy to read layout and fonts.

- Stay focused to cater to your visitors needs - don't throw in a free-for-all links program to just attract traffic. In the long run your website will be recognized for what it is.


And last of all, always remember that the SEARCH ENGINE IS YOUR GUEST !! , How well you treat it determines, how well it rates you!!

Before I forget

1. Do not use image maps without accompanying text links.
2. Do not use drop down menus without accompanying text links.
3. Do not use frames.

You dont have time, too, besides most of the part-time job pay below 4USD an hour, mainly telemarketing type of jobs.

The macdonals etc wont employ a foreigner. The law allows you to work with certain organisation, such as tourism, etc, so does it makes it compulsory for you to attend 70% of your class, which means you cant skip class, or you would get barred from writting exams, and after like 2 sems you wont get your visa renewed.

Maybe Sarawak (East Malaysia), I heared its more relaxed there, there are a lot of ibgo boys there.

Yes Nigeria has an embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

In regards to the fundings, you dont have your proof to support your facts, besides you are deviating from the topic at hand. So lets let that rest.

4 Play:
Bocs of lack of mgt expertise they have failed to expand throughout the continent to match their South African counterparts.

Thank goodness you agree, so how do we work on the current managerial skills, besides mentality and role playing?

Living expense is reasonable depending on the location.
Room rent for example ranges from 39usd-300USD a month.
If you cook, your expense would be about 80USD a month.
if you eat outside, good food that is, and non local you would spend x 2 in a month.
Clothings are expensive, so do your shopping before you come.
Electronics are cheap, so you can buy them here.
Entertainment is cheap too.
Climate is tropical.
You can't work and study at the same time, so don't think of struggling cos the payment stinks.
The country is preety developed, and you can save a lot using the train for transportation.

There you go again

I insist, the problem at stake is not related to fundings but rather competency . We Nigerians are too used to the conventional way of buying and selling for example, I am sorry to say that anything beyond that, its too complex for them to explore or even comprehend. A good question would be:- How many Multinational Nigerian owned companies do we have?

Or don't say they don't have money for expansion, If Dangote wants too for example, he can, That guy has the dough, and thats only an example out of many we have there, but the question is, does he or many out there have that kind of zeal, to go beyound the borders? I really doubt so.

GDP has nothing to do with how succesful a company becomes, not in Nigerian case atleast, and capital is not the problem.

One company that needs to be on the watch is globacom, I heared they are expanding to India, thats after how many years of evolving? Or the fundings is from a foreign company?

its a franchise if I am not mistaken, just like NBC, but still the performance is poor, the managers are Nigerians, and the business model is Nigerian related for that which was reviewed, and thats exactly what I am driven at !!

Or rather you might want me to pick other companies like Dangote plc, the so called role players?

And the greatest companies like Guiness dont have? Man lets be realistic, the problem is not capital oriented, but rather company structure and business models.

Robert Kiyosaki is rich but he is not a billionaire. Point of correction. His books are very good for paradigm change but they do not help beyound that.

But I would recommend it to people who are trapped in the world of rat racing. But not for already entrepreneurs or business minded folks.

@ 4 Play, So are you saying that the current state of the GDP is the cause of the poor performance of the Nigerian companies?

MTN Nigeria and other foreign companies in Nigeria, would not agree to that you know

A sample of your site ?

Consistent dynamic content is the key to a successful online income from adsense.

Things you can do .

1. Sell imported condoms.
2. Start a room delivery service for food supplies.
3. Setup a phone credit reload loyalty program to students. So that they would buy only from you.

Your submission should reach us before the closing date, which is on the 30th June 2006.

Please forward your enquiries to competition@nairahost.com .

Nairahost needs a corporate logo. A cash prize of 10,000 naira, or a free starter reseller package worth 15,000 Naira, would be won by whoever designs the best logo that best depicts our name and market target with a corporate feel. You have the choice to choose which of the two prizes you want.

For more information regarding this competition, visit Nairahost at Nairahost Logo Competition.

I don't see how co-location from Nigeria to the USA would work, except you have a technical friend that is located in the USA that would do all the runnings. Shipping such a hardware from Nigeria, would cost you a fortune.

if you choose to co-locate, you first must purchase all of the hardware (a server - worth between $2,000 and $5,000 low-to-mid end.) We are talking about using the right racks, and cooling fans and hardware for such an implementation. Not just any system.
This option is attractive when you have knowledge in the hardware and software running on your system, but nevertheless it is costly.

The disadvantages of collocations are:-

1. You or your employees must be technically sound in that relation.

2. Software licensing cost can surg very high, especially when it comes to renting the panels of today, and paying through the nose for original OS platforms like Windows, besides other softwares like Firewalls etc. You cannot use a pirated software !!

3. Possible Hardware failure that might affect your business due to the dowtime , during replacement. As the owner you need to have backup hardwares, unlike conventional dedicated servers the replace hardwares without charging you.Parts, labour and warranty is your responsibility.

4. All configuration and loading of the OS and software is carried out by you.

5.Another drawback to collocation can be fluctuating prices. Since one of the factors in the monthly rate of collocating a server is the amount of data transferred via the server in the monthly period, an unusually large amount of traffic in a monthly period can cause the bill for the service to jump dramatically.

Is Colocation the Way to Go?

If you are a big organisation and need a dedicated secure custom software besides hardware to run your applications. Then yes, its the right choice.

If you are a new company trying to go into the web hosting industry. No, because it would bankcrupt you.

We do use a co-located server located in Malaysia, so I really know what I am talking about. I use it to host a Nigerian government site.

As a starter depending on what kind of knowledge you have, it is either you go for a reseller package, and see how comfortable you are, or you just jump into getting a dedicated server. But whatever you choose, please note your cashflow, how much is the running cost, compare to the amount you are making every day.

My advice to starters, is get your market share first, in a duration of 1 year, and then expand based on that. Dont rush unnecessarily, we made some mistakes at the beginning, due to our inexperience, and we don't want you to repeat the same mistake again.

You want to make money? Start small and expand generously.

Thank you guys

Now I got an email here it is

whats this all about how do i start 1 and how much can i make?
can u give me a lay man explanation of web-hosting and if it a reasonable
business..u can give me a feedback here or on the forum
thanks mate LB2006
Loverbwoy

How do I start?
First design a web hosting site.
calculate how much profit you plan to make from 15,000 Naira.
design your packages arround 2000Mb.
Launch your website with the products after enrolling for the product.

Yes it is a reasonable business, with 2000Mb , you can design a lot of packages.

For example.

60MB packages at 7000 Naira each, which means you have 33 packages to sell. break even point would be after selling 3 packages. Getting 3 clients in 1 year, shouldnt be a problem, especially with a reliable server.

So leaves you with 30 packages which gives you a profit of 210,000 Naira. Depending on how aggresive you market and how well you can convince people to buy hosting under you. In short you can make a lot of money from hosting if you havce customers.

Now assuming you plan to give free domains too, no problem would just reduce your profit by 2000 Naira proportionally. But I advice you to treat domain products differently. EVen if it means reducing the cost of the hosting packages but maintaining your domain profit.

Reseller overselling is basically when a host allows a reseller to oversell their resources i.e selling more than the available resources.

Well Nairahost does not allow over-selling due to its effects if abused. It might affect server performace etc.. Nevertheless Nairahost can be very flexible, based on your budget, when it comes to space we are always available for negotiation. If you are thinking of higher specification or anything special, just let us know. We would always have something to suit your needs. As I said we have our own servers and we can always accomodate any reasonable offer.

We follow our load balancing and CPU consuming scaling policies strictly. Instead of allowing overselling , we upgrade "sometimes" for no additional fee or at a very discounted price. As I said we are very flexible.

Are you thinking of starting your own web hosting company? Or are you looking at the possibility of starting one?

Whatever it is as long as it falls or boils down to having a certain interest in that industry especially in the emerging Nigerian market, you can be rest assured that it is feasible and quiet profitable now. I can't speak of the future, but honestly this is the early stage, and the need for hosting is at its peak. You can boast of even beating your main provider hands down. Who knows

Now what does it take? What do you need to know? and How can you get started?

It takes courage, and the mindset, so if we can do it, why can't you do it?

Well honestly, to begin with, you have to start as a reseller, and that would save you from so much trouble. This is, if and only if you are with the right web hosting company. Things like simple support to your customers as a reseller, can be done by understanding how to use the tools especially the control panel and the webmail panel, and also understanding basic hosting terminologies, main server support should be provided to you by the main provider. So it is that easy.

The criteria, I would encourage you to look at before buying a reseller package from any web hosting company are :-

[list]
[li]Good uptime record, you can't really tell, but knowing someone using their web hosting service would do.[/li]

[li]A company with at least 1 year track record, and still alive and moving higher. [/li]

[li]A company which is at least listed in webhosting.info, which means they have at least 50 customers. For the Nigerian section it is at http://www.webhosting.info/webhosts/tophosts/Country/NG. [/li]


[li]If a company claims to be providing reseller packages, it should at least have its own dedicated server. Or you would end up facing a lot of trouble if it is a reseller itself.[/li]

[li]The servers should be hosted in locations that have a high response time from Nigeria especially. USA has good response time.[/li]

[/list]



So how much would it cost to start a hosting company?


[list]

[li]The current amount you spend on receiving phone calls..[/li]

[li]15,000 Naira only for a year, from Nairahost at http://www.nairahost.com/product-reseller.html ..[/li]

[li]A website to display your products..[/li]

[li]The time to spend replying support mails..[/li]


[/list]


Why Nairahost?

Nairahost fullfills all the criterias listed above and below. You can check it out for yourself.


Do you have any enquiries or you need more information in regards to starting your web hosting company? Please free to email me at support[at]nairahost.com or just drop me a PM on Nairaland. Or just throw your questions carelessly in this forum.

The Nigerian Web hosting industry is less than 5 years old, but already we've seen dramatic changes. But we should always keep the following questions in mind when we decide to choose a web hosting company.

1. How long would they last?
2. Is the pricing really realistic?
3. What do their customers say about them?
4. How Reliable are they?
5. What kind of online infrastructure do they have?
5. How old are they?

olutoyin:
What about web hosting companies outside Nigeria for Nigerians?

It worth to Note that Nairahost uses USA located servers and has a branch in Malaysia. Besides that Nairahost has clients from Malaysia, France, USA and even Australia. That means our hosting is not only dedicated to the Nigerian market only.

We also have reseller packages currently which gives you total control over your clients using the Web Host Manager by Cpanel and this also comes with client management script for your hosting management.

It cost only 15,000 Naira for 2000MB and 15GB bandwidth Reseller package. It comes with 2 nameservers of your choice and total anonymousity is ensured. Other features can be viewed by visiting our site.

Our servers are totally maintained by professional dedicated technicians of fastservers in the USA. we provide 24/7 e-mail support too. on yahoo messenger we provide 12 hours support from 12pm GMT to 12am.

More Information can be obtained at Nigeria Web Hosting . Please feel free to use our support desk if you have any enquiries regarding our identity or services.

We also have a promotional package of 500MB at 10,000 Naira only.

We accept paypal, credit cards, GTB and STB bank transfer.

If you need any proof for our claims please feel free to contact us too .

and the renewals are at 2.99 USD ?

hmm so it is. Everybody is trying to do something about the problem at stake.

hmm is this a competition or something . hehehe chill.

Besides @ Nairahost the package includes branding. All your clients information would be using your companies information and nameserver. All we do is reduce your burden of maintaining the hussles and troubles of providing direct hosting.

We help you do everything. All you need is to forward your support request mails to us, and we reply directly to you and you give your clients that support. All jobs done for you.

Domain reseller pricing is 1200 Naira. Point of correction.

gentleone:
whatever happened to www.computervillageikeja.com?

The fate of which most Nigerian websites catch up with it, after the first year.

Nigeria na wa o. Just some freaking .ng domain. why is it so complex. I think I would get to the bottom of this issue.

Nairahost reseller programme is only 9,000 Naira, and the package also comes with a domain reseller programme at 12,000 Naira which comes in credit for 10 domains automatically. That means this 12,000 Naira would be used by you, to register domains for your clients at your own convenience. domains is @ 1200 Naira. Where else do you get it at this price. So it depends on what your want really.

I am lonely today , the whole city is dry, nobody to go out with, everybody is busy doing their stuffs, I am free. Almost rang my ex, but stood still and well its ok now . I think :-?

hmm God blessed my face, I dont have pimples, only had acne. But one thing that worked for my younger brother is just avoiding oily snacks (peanuts etc) and using face washers at night, and keeping his face always clean.

hmm really, Seun is very right, many hosts dissallow remote mysql connection for obvious reasons. Just install it locally and fire it on.

lolz seems you guys are new into buying domains at special pricings. hahahaha.

I have 2 questions for you.

1. Do they allow you to transfer the domain after 1 year?
2. How much does it cost to renew the domain?

mind you that is after 1 year, not current rates please.

If you don't know, contact their support and get back to us. Thank you. Nothing comes cheap in this world. this is marketing man.

@nddy
hmm I saying trash? Na wa o. Honestly I dont remember pointing fingers, and if you here to insult people. Then I am not in it with you. Enjoy.

my bad , maybe out of excitement i just bulldoze it with heavy numbers?