Lately, I've developed an annoying twitch that makes my right eye blink uncontrollably, stiffening my hands and causing me to sweat profusely. It generally happens whenever I hear a business owner say "Web site? What for? I really don't need that so...

E-mail is an indispensable tool for today business, however, there is one account you should never use: the email account your internet connection provider gives you.

Most business owner would get a web hosting account with their own domain, yet, some will chose another path: when you hire an internet connection, your provider will generally offer you one or more email accounts, something like yourname@yourprovider.

Lately, I've developed an annoying twitch that makes my right eye blink uncontrollably, stiffening my hands and causing me to sweat profusely. It generally happens whenever I hear a business owner say "Web site? What for? I really don't need that sort of thing".

These words are enough to trigger the twitch, followed by a barely-contained need to punch something repeatedly (hasn't happened yet, but I am close).

This week I received for the hundredth time a chain email that's appallingly stupid. This one announces the closing of Hotmail.com, the popular free email service. As it explains, the user must send the chain email to all of his/her friends in order to avoid the cancellation of the service. It goes like this: since hotmail.com administrators don't know who is really using the service nor the real popularity of it, they are sending this email to contact all their users and find out if the service is being used and then decide if they keep the service active or close it, because of the economic problems they were having.

This week I received a new client interested in a search engine optimization service. Since he already had his website developed, we visited it to check it out. What a disappointment! His whole web site was created with Macromedia Flash.

Yes, the site is pretty and has enough sound-effects to rival a town fair (fireworks included); however, it's completely useless to submit it to search engines, and to anything else, for that matter.

When developing a new website, you should consider a lot of things: design, search engine optimization, script installation, copy, etc.

However, your home page, the one your visitors will see the first time when entering your site, is the one that requires the most attention and detail. You have between three to five seconds to capture your visitor's attention before she/he decides if it's worth spending any more time with you or move on to your competitor's site.

A weblog or blog for short, is a news system that is frequently updated and provides information about a specific topic. Blogs generally represent the personality and concepts of the person or company who publishes them.

The reason they are so important nowadays is because they are one of the most efficient ways to reach your public and offer relevant information about what your company does/offers.

It seems that nowadays everybody and their grandma sells Web hosting services. Don't get me wrong, I'm the first one to believe in good competition and I defend this principle firmly. Nevertheless, there are people who think that they can start a web hosting business without knowing the first thing about developing and maintaining a business.

Those who surprise me the most are the ones that offer hosting services at ridiculous prices.

The basic concept of marketing your Web site and your business on the Internet is to give something away. It is in offering something for free on the Web that you make money.

If you keep in mind two basic rules for the Internet you'll succeed in marketing your firm on the Web. These two rules are that consumers expect something for nothing when they go to the Web, and they expect it NOW.

Web hosting is the backbone of your online business and it is one of the most crucial services that ensures your online presence. There are thousands of web-hosting service providers and all of them claim to be the best. Therefore, it is a difficult process to identify the right web hosting service provider.

There are a few important questions that you must ask your web-hosting service provider before you sign up.