The design team has long searched for a solution to its clients hosting needs without ever finding an answer that would give the most up-to-date technology’s available and have absolutle adminitrative control over the accounts.  It is very frustrating when a client wants something done to their site immediately and we have to contact the hosting company to turn a feature on that should have been there to begin with or have the account moved to a different location on a hosting company’s server in order to upgrade PHP or MySQL component.  Hosting company’s can take days or even weeks to have these features upgrading and clients waiting and waiting for the project to be done.

At our wits end we dug deep and found the perfect solution from a well known hosting company called Host Gator.  Host Gator allows you to sign up for a reseller hosting account, which basically gives us complete control over our own hosting space with the latest technology and lets us pass this onto our clients. The lowest package, called the aluminum package, which is what the team subscribes to, gives ample resources to offer our clients for about 25 dollars a month.

So up-to-date technology and complete control over our clients accounts, why would you go any other route.  The team highly reccomends Host Gator’s services and have even gone as far as moving our own website to our reseller hosting location.  We say give the control of your hosting back to the people.  If you are a designer or programmer for a small company and continually have these sorts of issues with hosting company’s, why not take control of it yourself and make a little bit of money off it while your at it.

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My motivation tips – As a self employed individual who works from home, it is not always easy to stay focused and motivated. Here are some tactics that I use to make sure I spend most of the day being productive instead of watching reruns of Style By Jury and surfing FaceBook (you will notice I said most of the day!).

1. I give myself a choice. For example, I really hate doing the bookkeeping, but I hate doing the dishes even more, so I say “You can either do this week’s invoicing or you can do the dishes.” The invoicing almost always gets done, and if not, at least I have clean dishes!

2. Have a deadline. I make sure I establish a realistic deadline for the completion of a specific project, or in the case of larger sites, a series of deadlines for the various stages of the project. Then I make sure the client knows about these deadlines so there is accountability. I dread the idea of letting anyone down, so if I have told someone I will have something done, I work really hard to make it happen.

3. Take a break. It is difficult when you work from home to distance yourself from the office, but it is important that you give your brain a rest. Occasionally eat lunch away from the computer. Maybe even go outside (gasp) and get some fresh air. If you are having a difficult time staying focused, a little break might be just what you need.

4. Keep working. When something is going really well, I like to keep at it while the ideas are flowing. This means ignoring the dinging of your inbox and the ringing of your phone. Much to the annoyance of my friends and some clients, I rarely answer the phone. There are several reasons for this beyond my dislike of talking on the phone. The primary reason is when I am working I don’t want to lose my focus and momentum.

5. Always know where to start. When I stop working for the day or even when I take a break, I know what I am going to do next and I write it down. That way when it is time to start working again I know what I was planning to do. Once I have begun to work, it is much easier for me to continue.

6. Get praise. Though in essence all of my clients are my boss, I really am my own boss, so there is no one directly above me to let me know when I am doing a good job. I hope that all my clients are pleased with the work I do, but sometimes in the midst of a project (before I am ready to show my ideas to the customer), it is nice to get some positive feedback. I am lucky enough to have another member in my company that I can show my work and he invariably tells me I am doing a good job. Sometimes that is the push I need to keep on working and working well. Find someone who praises you.

7. Network. Working from home can sometimes get lonely. There is no inter-office camaraderie and as great as computer social networking is, there is no replacement for actual face-to-face contact. I get out and meet with my clients and I try to attend various small business networking functions that take place in my community. In addition to giving renewed motivation it is an excellent opportunity to make valuable contacts.

8. Set aside some time to surf. Make sure you contain your searching to sites that have some connection to what you do, but I find that checking out other sites can give me inspiration and ideas.

9. Don’t feel guilty. No one can be productive 100% of the time and everyone has an off day. So if you had a day where all you did was randomly search websites that have no relevance to your business, watch Oprah and fold laundry, so be it. Just remember if you are having too many days like that, your issue isn’t about motivation.

10. Remember why you wanted to work from home. On those days where none of your clients want to pay you, your computer keeps malfunctioning, every time you set something down you lose it, you can’t find the file you were sure you saved to that folder, you hate Vista, you wish you had a 9-5 job that gave you a steady cheque… Revisit why you really do love what you do. No rush hour traffic or commute, no having to dress up if you don’t feel like it, listening to the music you like, as loud as you like, being creative… If you take a moment and a deep breath you will realize how good you really do have it.

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2.  Put your website address on EVERYTHING. If you have business cards, brochures, a company vehicle (I have been behind many a vehicle and later on checked out their website) the yellow pages, your store front if you have one, flyers, shirts, your children… well, you get the point.

3.  Tell all your friends. It is a Catch 22 of search engine optimization – the more people that visit your site, the higher your site gets ranked, the more people visit your site. Hardly fair, but little in the SEO world is.

4.  Update your content regularly. Search engines and customers are bored by the same thing all the time (well, okay, the search engine isn’t bored, but the robots and spiders can tell how long it has been since the site has been updated, and they frequently index sites that are regularly changed).

5.  Have relevant content on your site. Please get rid of the flash intro. No one cares anymore. Everyone has seen amazing graphics do fancy things. Get to the point. Have actual text on your site. This is what the robots search. Search engines can’t see all your fantastic images.

6.  Get relevant links. The more links that come to your site the better, as long as they come from a site that has a connection to yours. But beware of sites that charge for links. Google doesn’t like bought links.

7.  Keywords are not nearly as important as you think. And be realistic. How high do you think you are going to rank on Google for the keyword “accommodation” or “shop”? Unless your web site budget is a gazillion dollars, you will need to accept the fact that the days of adding a couple of keywords and getting on the first couple of pages of a search are over. Be specific. Where do you live? Add that to your keywords. Do research. What other sites exist for your keywords?

8.  Your Title tag is very important. Pick the right title for your page. Bob’s Place is not a good title. What kind of place is it? Where is it? Who is Bob’s competition and what are their keywords? A better title would be Bobcaygeon Restaurant – Breakfast Food at Bob’s Place. Remember that Google usually only displays the first 63 characters of the title tag, so make sure your relevant words are at the beginning. Oh, and make sure that every page on your site has a different title that reflects the keywords of that page.

9.  Hire a professional. I am all for doing things yourself – The Home Depot is one of my favourite stores, but even I know there is a time to call an electrician or a plumber. Someone who has been trained. A good web site designer or search engine marketer really will save you countless hours and headaches and probably do a better job than you can. No offence intended, but this is what they do every day, all day. You have spent how long creating websites?

10.  Don’t get frustrated. Ranking on a search engine is not an overnight game. Slow and steady (and follow the other 9 tips!)

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2.  We aren’t good with money. We are too engaged with creating and programming and learning to be bothered with that sort of thing. Now we can’t guarantee that we won’t ever hire someone who loves counting the beans and forces us to actually charge for the number of hours we put into your project, so quick, take advantage of the fact that right now we are too busy to come up with an advertising campaign that would let us charge astronomical fees for the work we do. And speaking of money…

3.  We know what it’s like to have no money. Though we’ve been part of the Web for a while, we are still a pretty young company, relatively speaking, and we remember starting out and struggling to make ends meet. Even now that we are better established, we would rather have money to spend on fun stuff for ourselves, our family and friends and we know you have other things to do with your cash than spend it on stuff your business needs. This brings us to…

4.  Your business needs a web site. You really can’t put it off any longer. Or if you already have a site and you are thinking it needs some updating – it does. People have less and less patience for sites that don’t (immediately) provide what they are looking for. There is way too much competition, and you need to give yourself every possible advantage. Also, as the population ages, those that use to just be kids are becoming your customers, and to them the Internet is second nature and has always been part of their lives. (If you don’t believe me, ask a teenager to look up a phone number for you. You can bet the Yellow Pages will not even enter the equation.)

5.  We are vain. We put your site on our site. Once we have completed your web site, we post it on our site as part of our portfolio and we are way too egotistical to have ugly stuff up on our site. So, we only create pretty, functional things.

6.  We work from home. I know that lots of you would like to hire a firm that you can imagine working diligently in beautifully appointed office filled with high tech equipment, slightly avant-garde art on the walls (it’s okay ’cause we’re creative types) and maybe a lounge with a ping pong table where the staff can let off steam while they work late into the night on fantastically important projects. I have to admit that I have this vision too, but the reality is – guess who pays for that amazing office? That’s right – the customers. Truthfully, with wireless technology we can do what we do from anywhere and wouldn’t feel right about charging you way too much so that we can have extravagant overhead. Though once we start consulting for Microsoft or Oprah… Until then, if it makes you feel better to imagine us in that gorgeous office instead of picturing me sitting in my living room in my pyjamas, please do.

7.  We come to you. Part of having a home office means that I will meet you where it is convenient for you. I will come to your place of business, or if you prefer we can meet at a cafe, restaurant or I’ll even buy you a Tim Horton’s coffee. (Not to worry, I won’t show up in my pyjamas. I clean up pretty well! )

8.  While we try not to take ourselves too seriously, we take you and your business very seriously.

9.  I’ve mentioned that we aren’t good with money and we are vain right? But, I have not pointed out how good it is for you that we have these attributes in tandem. Because we don’t like to spend a lot of money on advertising and we live in a small community, we rely on our customers to spread the word. We want all our customers to think their site looks amazing, because a) it makes us feel really good, which we love and b) they will tell their friends and families and that is how we stay busy and c) keep our advertising budget low. This all adds up to a site that you will make you very pleased.

10.  We love what we do. Maybe it is because we have great customers, who are a pleasure to work with, or we are always learning new things and the Internet is exciting and fascinating or maybe it’s that we get to work from our living rooms in our pjs. It is probably a combination of all of these things, but what it means for you is that we are enthusiastic about your project and can’t wait to see what we can create for you.

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