We all complain day after day.  We complain about little things.  We complain about big things.  We complain about things that do not make any sense.  In web hosting, the main thing we complain about is the relationship between a web host and a customer (or vice versa depending on which side of the fence you are on).  Today, we have a very special guest that will help us all curb our complaining habits.

Meilena Hauslendale personal development author, and has been providing life guidance and insight for over 11 years.  She has published six books and in those books, her style of writing really gives the reader a step by step guide to achieving success.

Her most recent book, Stop Complaining: Your Guide to Living Life Instead of Complaining About It, really brings home the idea that you can live a much happier life if you curb your unproductive complaining and how to really redirect your energy towards bettering your life, rather than depleting it.

On today’s podcast I talked with Meilena one-on-one about not only her projects but the frustration we sometimes have when it comes to web hosting and customer relationships, or the other way around.

You can check out more of Meilena’s work on iMotivate.org and also you can pick up her book Stop Complaining: Your Guide to Living Life Instead of Complaining About It at Amazon.com.

Hope you enjoy this special edition of today’s show.  I hope it serves as a reminder that we don’t need to get all stressed out and worried about silly situations in the web hosting world.  There is always a better solution, you just have to go out there and grab it. 

What things do you complain about when it comes to web hosting or web development these days?

Now, anybody who has been following my websites over the years should know by now that I like to go down the, do it yourself route most of the time.  However, if you are a company with a budget to spare, hiring a search engine optimization expert or firm might be a worthy investment.

However, before you sign on the dotted line and hand them over your hard earned cash, I would suggest you go over these seven important factors when it comes to the search engine optimization business.

1. Don’t Fall for Getting Listed
   If a company simply says they will get you listed in X number of search engines, run away.  You can simply do that yourself for free at each search engine’s website.
2. Know What You Are Paying For
   Be sure they you get it in writing, each service that they are doing to be doing for you, and get details on each as far as how exactly it will be helping you become more optimized for the search engines out there.
3. Beware Link Exchanges
   Stay away from any company that says they will do link exchanges for you.  Most of the time you will just become a part of a large network of websites that link to other websites, and the search engines don’t like the whole link farming idea.
4. Stay Within Your Budget
   Do not get talked into spending more money than you have put aside for search engine optimization.  Stick to your budget, and find an SEO firm that will work with you and you financial status.
5. Ask for References and Results
   Always be sure to ask for a list of clients websites they have done work for in the past, and where they were able to help.  This is another way they can prove to you they are a legitimate operation.
6. Stay Away from Guarantees
   Do not do business with people who guarantee things that sound too good to be true.  Nobody can promise the number one spot in Google for your favorite keyword.  If they do offer a guarantee, ask for proof and examples.
7. Read Customer Reviews
   Make sure you read all the reviews you can from the company and from other resources around the Web about the company to see if they have ever had any complaints about them.  Now you have to take each review with a grain of salt, but overall you should be able to get a good idea of if they are a good or bad SEO company.

Last but not least, expect to pay a hefty price when it comes to hiring an SEO expert or buying into a SEO business’s services.  They don’t come cheap, and that is why most of the time I personally like to go down the “do it yourself” route when it comes to optimizing my own websites for the search engines out there.

Want More? – Check out the rest of the SEO conversation in Podcast 209!

Let me share with you my tips on how you can faster web hosting support, with any web host out there on the planet.

There are three central points you need to make when you contact your web host when you notice a problem with your web site.

• Verification
• Details About the Problem
• What You Have Done to Troubleshoot the Problem

I can guarantee you that if you include these three things in your e-mail or help desk ticket to support, you will get a faster resolution to your problem.

Verification

The reason verification is important is because every web host wants to make sure they are talking with the account owner or somebody that has the authorization to give the thumbs up to them mucking around with the website to fix the problem.  Always include your primary domain name on the account, your first and last name, and whatever the web host uses most often for verification.  This can sometimes be the last four digits of the credit card you have on record, the first and last digits of your password or some security question like, “What is your mother’s maiden name?”.  If you are unsure, it might be a good time now to check with your web host to see how they handle account verification when support issues come up.

Details

Next, you want to include the details about the problem.  Do not just write, “I can’t see my website, fix it!”.  Give exact details about the problem.  Include details like:

• Exact Error Message You Got
• What Time Did the Error Happen
• What Changes Did You Make Prior to the Problem
• What Scripts and Services are You Running

Think of it as reporting a crime to the police.  You do not just tell police, “Hey, a guy stole my wallet”.  You tell them where your wallet was stolen, what your wallet looks like, what the thief was wearing, and more.  The more details police have about the situation, the faster they can find the guy who robbed you.  The same could be said for giving information to a web hosting support team, so they can fix your problem.

Troubleshooting

Now, this last nugget of information is one that is often overlooked by many when discussing problems with a web hosting support team.  What have you done on your own to troubleshoot a problem.  You want to make a list of things you have tried to fix the problem, so the web host does not turn around and suggest things for you to try that you have already tried.  Make it clear that you have already tried to do this, that and the other, so they can be eliminated as solutions to the problem.  This helps the web hosting support team to narrow down the issue causing the problem and the troubleshooting steps needed to be taken to find the problem.  Rather than tell you to do A, B and C – you have already done A and B, so they only have to suggest C now.

They key thing to remember when contacting any support team is that information is the most important thing you can provide. Remember to always verify you are the account owner, give details about the problem, and tell them what you have done to fix the problem.  This will make for shorter back and forth conversation with a web hosting support team and will lead to your problem being fixed faster.

A web hosting company can not keep a customer base happy with sloppy support habits.  Think of your reply back to a web hosting customer as a sandwich.  You start out with the slice of bread introducing yourself, you have the goodies inside which represent your reply and you have the second piece of bread to finish things off.  If you learn how to build your sandwich reply, then you can handle support situations in a much faster way than the web host down the block is doing it, making your web hosting company just a little ‘bit better.

Introduce Yourself

First impressions are important, so you never want to jump right into the reply without letting people know who you are.  In the first part of your reply, you need to state who you are, what company you are working for and thank the customer for doing business with you.

Here is a perfect example:

Hello Bob,

Thank you for hosting your site with the Web Hosting Show.  My name is Mitch, and I will be helping you with the problems you detailed for us in your help desk ticket you sent earlier today.

In those two sentences, I was able to greet the customer, tell them who I am, what company I am working for and generally start the customer/client conversation on a happier foot.  Also note that I used the client’s name too.  This is very important.  If you know the customer’s name, make sure you use it to start the message.  This makes for a much more customized reply to the client.  They feel like they are talking to a real person, and not just reading some pre-defined message you send out for these types of situations.

Meat and Potatoes of Support

Next, you will want to give the proverbial meat and potatoes of the reply.  You want to make sure you give the impression that you understand the problem, clarify the issue (if needed) and then give suggestions for fixes they can do or thing you need for them to do.

Now this is highly flexible depending on the situation at hand.   Just make sure you read and re-read your reply before you send it back to the customer.  Make sure this makes sense to not only you, but to somebody who might be less knowledgeable on the topic than you are.

Wrapping Up Communications

At the end of a reply to a customer, you want to hit some of the basics you touched upon in the introduction.  You want to thank the customer for doing business with your company, and you want to leave the proverbial door open, just in case they have any other problems.

Here is another example:

Thank you for your time today Bob, and I hope this helps to solve the problems you were having.  If there is anything else we can do for you, please feel free to contact us again, anytime.

See what I did there?  I called the client by his name again, thanked him for his time and told him if he needed anything else, then to please let us know and we’d be happy to help out.

The golden rule comes into play in any customer/support team contact. You do not just want to get them the answer.  The golden rule says, “treat others as you would like to be treated”.  You must put yourself in that person’s shoes and think, what kind of reply would you like to see if the shoe was on the other foot?

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 208!
Running Time: 10 minutes | File Size: 4.69 MB

Having been on both sides of the web hosting support fence, both as a client and as a web hosting customer support guru, I will give you all the insight I know about this topic today, in a handy mp3 format.

Now some might say a lot of what I suggest on today’s show is common sense.  This is true.  Sometimes though, common sense gets thrown out the window when it comes to just getting the job done.  I don’t want to just show you how to do the job.  I want to share with you my advice on how to get the job done right.

How to Get Faster Web Hosting Support

You might not know this, but there are plenty of ways you can get faster support from any web host out there.  You have to learn how to ask your question, give as many details as possible, and do so in a way that covers all the bases and speeds up the web hosting support response times.

How to Give Faster Web Hosting Support

Your web hosting company is only as good as your web hosting support team.  Make sure your support replies are built like a brick house, and not like a sloppy sandwich.  Company to client conversations are always delicate, so best not to get sloppy when your customers are having a problem.

What do you have to say about this topic?  What advice would you have out there for the web hosts or the web hosting clients when it comes to making the entire support experience better?  Feel free to share your questions, comments and suggestions in the comments.

Nobody likes having their web hosting account suspended for any reason.  Going through a server resource usage suspension though can be on of the more stressful combination of web site hosting problems because of the many factors that come into play.  Let me see if I can help you, to make your next server resource suspension at least go a little smoother, or at least let you know what you can expect.

Notification of the System Resource Usage Problem

Now the situation starts with getting some sort of notification via e-mail about the problem at hand.  Often, web hosts will give you details on where the script is hosted on your site that is causing the problem.  It is often up to you to decide what that script is though.

Next, you have to figure out a way to disable that script or disable the part of the script that is causing the problems.  For example, if you were using WordPress to manage your web site, turn off all the plugins.  I wouldn’t disable WordPress all together, but switching off the plugins or changing to the default theme might help find the cause of the problem.

Fixing a Server Resource Usage Problem

The truth of the issue is you will have to turn things on and off, disable this, delete that and more.  It will take some detective work to find the root of the issue that is causing the shared server’s RAM and CPU to go up so much.

Your web host will often review your account status ever 24 hours or so, to see if your changes are having any real impact in reducing your server resource usage.

Although it sounds like a way to get more money from you, upgrading to a VPS or dedicated hosting plan are a reasonable fix for the problem too. Your web site might have grown in popularity and usage so much, it is time to look for a hosting plan that will give you more proverbial “elbow room” when it comes to RAM or CPU usage.

I hope that helps with fixing your own server resource issues or, at least, lets you know what you can expect if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.  Feel free to post your own tips or questions in the comments, would love to hear what you have to say about this debatable topic.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 207!
Running Time: 8 minutes | File Size: 3.39 MB

Learn on this week’s podcast how to reduce your impact on the shared hosting server your web site is hosted from and have a little fun.

Has your web site gotten suspended due to you using too of the server’s memory or processing power?  Here’s some of the topics we discussed on today’s show:

Website Using Too Many Server Resources?

Before you can fix a problem, you have to know what the problem is.  So what does it mean to be using too many system or server resources?  We will discuss this in detail, so you know exactly what the problem is your web host is trying to explain to you.

How to Fix a Server Resource Site Suspension

Now that we know what it means to use too much RAM or CPU power of the server, how can we fix the problem?  How long will it be before your web site is back up and running?  I will let you know, from my own experience, how long this might take and what you can do to help lessen your own downtime.

Would also love to hear what you have to say on the topic.  Make sure you leave your comments to let us all know your questions, answers, suggestions or tips when it comes to getting your web site back up and running after being shut down due to a server resource suspension.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 206!
Running Time: 8 minutes | File Size: 3.48 MB

The world of affiliate hosting, for both web hosts and web hosting clients is surrounded with a lot of buzz words and scariness.

Today I will cut through the clutter to help you understand it all.  Here is what I have lined up for this week’s show:

Earn Cash on Web Hosting Referrals

There are hundreds of web hosting providers out there that provide affiliate programs for you to join.  The questions now are, what is an affiliate program? Why would I want to join one? What can I do to make my affiliate links more successful?  Well, I hope to bring you up to speed as I discuss the benefits of affiliate programs for your average webmaster.

How to Setup an Affiliate Program

Are you a web host looking for a way to bring in new customers, and reward current customers or web site owners for doing the dirty work for you?  Then you might want to look into setting up an affiliate program.  It takes some capital stored up to get started, but once you do – you will see your new accounts list grow and grow every single day.

This week’s podcast should be a lot of fun.  Hope you enjoy listening to it, and let me know some of your favorite affiliate tips and tricks too.  By sharing our ideas and opinions we can all make the world of affiliate hosting a better place for everybody to make money in.

If you can remember the word M.I.D.G.E.T. you too can run a successful set of forums.

M ight Need to Setup the Rules First – The most important part of your forums are the rules.  They set the mood, and the guidelines for what people can and can not do.  Keep the general rules short and simple (under ten would be nice) so people will actually take the time to check them out.

I nactive Forums Are No Fun – Try your best to keep your forums active with new threads and topics every day.  If needed, you might ask a few of your friends to stop by and post here and there to help you get started, ‘till you have your own community built up anyways.

D on’t Forget Contest and Promotions – A good way to start building some free press for yourself, and to get people interested is to start a contest, giveaway or promotion.  People like free stuff, and they will flock to you for giving it to them.

G et Some Interactive Topics and Discussions Going – Whatever your forum’s main topic is, try to start some topics that encourage contributing to. Asking for people favorite this, that or the other is a great conversation starter, just as one example.

E void Controversial People and Ideas – OK, I know Evoid isn’t a word, but I had to make it fit.  People who like to pick fights should be dealt with quickly.  While some debate is healthy, make sure you run things, and you kick people who are ruining the party for everybody else.  Don’t let the inmates run the asylum.

T hanks for All the Fish – It might sounds cliche, but going to say it anyways.  Remember to have fun with your forums.  Enjoy what are building, and the community you are helping to found.

So there you have my few suggestions on how you can make your forums a little more successful from the start.

If anybody else out there in Web Hosting Land has any suggestions – feel free to leave them in the comments or drop me an e-mail.  Would love to hear your thoughts on this issue.

A web site visitor should never be confused by your web site’s navigational layout.  Every web page out there should have an easy way to navigate both to new web pages and categories, but also back out of them.  Think of it as reaching a fork in an old country road, choosing to go down the left road – and then turning around and finding a pink hippopotamus in a tutu.  While that might sound ridiculous – many web sites leave visitors with the pink hippo more often than not.

Keep it Clean, Simple and Easily Recognizable

Every web site should start off with a clear, upfront way to navigate from one section to the next.  A web site visitor is not going to stick around long if they can’t find their way around the site.  The web site navigation should be around the top and stick out enough so it does not get lost in your web site’s content.

Don’t Use Crazy Names for Navigation Links

You should also use obvious names for each navigational link.  Don’t use the name “Ice Box” if you want to give a link to your page about yourself.  Instead, use the word, “About” or something to that effect.

Less is More

Keep it simple.  Less really is more when it comes to web site navigation design.  Giving your users too many buttons, links and sub-links right from the start will just lead to confusion.  Rather than link after link, you might consider using a drop down list to give your web site visitors access to pages that fit under that specific category.

Never Leave Your Web Site Visitors Lost

My last ‘bit of web site navigation advice would be to remind people where they are.  Each web page on your web site should be labeled telling the user where they are at.  If they are looking through your list of articles on bugs, then at the top of the page it should say something to the effect of, “Bug Articles”.  Also, always leave your web site with a path back to the front page – just in case they need to start over navigating through your web site.

Now, I want you to investigate your own web site’s navigation.

Is it simple enough to use?

Are you using obvious link and page names?

Are you keeping things nice and simple?

Do you remind people on the page of what they are looking at and where they are?

If you answered, “no” to any of these questions it might be about time you invested some of your time in making your web site navigation better.

Like This Article? Listen to it and more like it on podcast #202 of the Web Hosting Show!