Predictions are always fun (almost always), so when I received this email from my great friend, Janet Giacoma, over at BabyBoomersBlueprint (just one of her blogs), I thought I’d pass it along to you.

Let’s see if these 2010 predictions come true… or not

The original comes from Michelle MacPhearson on her blog.

More often than I’d like (okay I really enjoy it but you have to be careful), taking a trip around the root directory of one’s host and/or the admin areas of wordpress blogs (or any type of database-driven “website) means finding ways to cut back on the use of resources.

Recently, and forgive me but I cannot remember where I was or who said it, but they quoted Yanik Silver as saying if you are running more than (more…)

I don’t know about you, but in the past 10 years or so being online, I don’t know how many times I’ve changed hosting companies. It really has gotten so out of hand, that I cannot count on one hand the number of times I’ve moved websites.

I wish I’d known about the reviews you can find over at webhosting geeks.

Visiting their website today I was astounded at the number of hosting companies – not only out there – but listed in an easy-to-use directory. Yep, they’ve taken most of the work out of finding a decent one and posted it all there in black and white (and other cool colors) so you can select a hosting company just right for you.

A visit to just their front page immediately shows you:

o  The top 10 highest rated hosting companies

o  Features like how much space you get, how much traffic you can have without it impacting your bandwidth, and the price

o  Bonus features! Every hosting companies offers something extra (okay maybe not every one, but those listed in the top 10 certainly do) like a free domain forever, and marketing bonuses to get you headed on the right track for doing business online.

You also can easily click on any link for even more information.

But it doesn’t end there!

Down the left hand sidebar you’ll be astounded at even more ratings, the awards these “geeks” have won since 2004 (I love a website with longevity, that says a ton), along with links out to the Web Hosting Geeks’ Blog.

Loving blogs, of course I had to click.

Their most recent post (at the time of the writing of this post) is their April 14th, called Is Your Business Website Secure?.

Excellent advice to read, especially with the increase in attacks and hackers apparently with a ton of time on their hands. Why be sitting on hosting that does nothing to protect your hard-earned, hard worked asset – your online domain!

Here’s another post I found, that I think you’ll also find fascinating. It’s called Fantastico: cPanel’s Best Kept Secret.

Of course you’ll find even more information and stay up to date just by bookmarking the webhostinggeeks blog

If you’ve chosen the “lazy man’s (or woman’s) way” of creating a website, you might find your current hosting company short on this amazing feature. Fantastico is a wealth of ready-made, one click installations of a large variety of extra goodies for your website:

o  Forums
o  Shopping carts
o  Blog installations
o   Drupal (community building)
o  Wikis
o  and a whole lot more.

The great thing is you don’t have to know how to install a single thing, if your hosting includes Fantastico!

Frankly, I could spend hours looking around Webhosting Geeks at all the tools, resources, suggestions, and recommendation the folks over at webhosting geeks provide (and you should, too!)

Never, ever rush into choosing a hosting service. Always do your homework. And again, their website is the perfect stop to begin to make sure you choose the best hosting for your needs.

Enjoy!

During the past week, we’ve been super busy!

A great addition to our Whole Hog Blog family is the not-for-profit website and blog for ALS of Nevada. The entire state of Nevada coverage for ALS patients and their caregivers is provided by just three individuals (and an outstanding Board of Directors). Two people cover the state, with another fine individual up in the Reno area providing assistance to those in need suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease.

We’d like to ask you to please visit the site, comment on the blog, and help get their traffic and alexa rankings rolling.

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We’ve also added a blog to My Wizard Ads, an ezine advertising information blog. “Diane’s” first true business online after a several year stint as a publisher herself (weird talking about myself in the third, or would that be fourth (?) person). Day in and day out I field questions for not just the new but veteran internet marketer. Ezine advertising gives people the freedom to use other people’s lists as contact points to announce and promote the businesses and programs they join online.

Again, a visit to that new blog and your comments would be greatly appreciated, too.

Both of these new additions have do-follow linking, so your trip gains you that valued backlink in the process.

Enjoy!

I’ve been meaning to write this post for several days now, ever since I read an article in our Las Vegas Review Journal dated Monday, February 16th. In fact, it’s been sitting on my desk just waiting for the right moment to go from paper pile to post.

What really caught my attention was the headline, “Cultural differences: Economic values may explain why businesses owned by Chinese-Americans are faring well in the recession.”

We see all too often people pulling away from the very thing they should be doing during down times or slow times or tough times – especially online. The energy exerted to build a business is tamped down (or shut down) in the hopes that somehow, magically, sales will continue – in spite of no advertising or marketing.

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Here’s something that very well may (and should) change your perspective on “should I or shouldn’t I be advertising and marketing or even blogging?”

“The fortunes of a newspaper published out of a second-floor Chinatown Plaza office may give us insight into differing attitudes about money and ways of surviving tough economic times.

In a time when a 162-year-old national news chain such as the Tribune Co. file for bankruptcy protection, the Las Vegas Chinese Daily News is actually growing, fueled by an increase in advertising. The paper has gone from 16 to as many as 36 pages since printing its first copy five years ago.”

The article goes into further details by defining how different cultures view our current times; “…many Chinese business owners consider a time of economic stress a time to spend money on advertising.”

This advertising “outlook” is considered to be a definite separation of U.S. and Chinese cultures. Where the former sees nothing but doom and gloom when it comes to doing business, the latter are taking advantage of great rates and exceptional deals. These factors also attribute to the fact that over 20,000 valley residents of Chinese heritage are surviving the highest unemployment rates in a generation.

“Chinese attitudes about money include the notion of saving profits and growing slowly, instead of leveraging long lines of credit and expanding rapidly, several business owners said.”

Now here’s the best part, and what I’d really like you to come away with (having read this post… thank you):

“The Chinese rely more on what is known as a relational economy, compared to Americans, who function more in a “me economy.” The Chinese system is based more on, “I do something for you, you do something for me,” with everyone being on the same level.”

Sounds a lot like the Golden Rule applied with a fine paint brush to the art of keeping customers coming back by treating them right.

So if you’re asking yourself, “Is now a good time to slow down with my marketing and advertising?” we think it best to tell you the answer is no.

Recovering lost ground is costly.

Instead, plan and budget for an amount comfortable (and affordable) for you in today’s economy. Be it $10 or $1000, keep your business plans afloat and keep them growing.

We’ve said it before and we’ll keep on saying it. The internet waits for no man, woman, or child. Let up for even a tiny bit of time and your competitors are going to sweep right over you.

Your wise move is again budgeting. Keep your ads out there, continue investing your time and energy, too.

These rough times will not last forever, even if (in the moment) the light at the end of the tunnel doesn’t shine very brightly.

Stay on top of what you’ve been doing, and when the sunshine hits, you’ll be well positioned – ahead of your competition – in the months and years to come.