If you’re frustrated with the inability to send and receive large files via email, you’re not alone. Most businesses today are experiencing the same problem.

As software programs evolve, the files they create are forever increasing in size. Programs like AutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop, and a host of many more can create files in excess of 5MB to 300MB.

One of the best ways to send large files via the Internet is by utilizing what is called an “FTP Hosting” service. FTP stands for “File Transfer Protocol.”

How does it work? An FTP Hosting service is simple and effective. Unlike email, where you send files from one person to another, FTP hosting allows you to upload files of any size or type to a secure storage location on the Internet. Once you’ve uploaded your files, the recipient of the files can then download them at will.

So how do you go about selecting the best “FTP Hosting” service? We’ve come up with a list of “Seven Tips” that will help you in the selection process.

1. Good Track Record & References:

The provider of the “FTP Hosting” service should have a solid business track record. You’ll want to select a company that has been in business at least 4 to 6 years.

Remember, you’re entrusting the “FTP Hosting” company with proprietary corporate information. Make sure they are a legitimate company. These days it’s easy to develop a website and call yourself an “FTP Hosting” company. Avoid any company that looks like a “Fly-by-night” operation.

Ask for references! If the provider is good, they’ll ask you how many references you would like! Also, their web site should provide an indication of their length of time in business and references, if they have any.

2. Phone Number:

Make sure the “FTP Hosting” company provides you with a phone number to call, preferably a toll-free number. If you have any problems at all you’ll want to speak with someone.

You’ll also want to call the number they give you and verify that someone answers the phone and can talk intelligently about the service they provide.

Avoid any company that does not answer their phone during normal business hours, as they most likely won’t answer it when you have a question or problem.

3. Guarantee or Trial:

Look for a service provider that guarantee’s their service and will allow you to test it before you subscribe. Ask for a 30-day free evaluation period. If that’s not available then ask for a 30-day, unconditional satisfaction guarantee. It should allow you to cancel within 30-days and pay nothing if you’re not completely satisfied with the service.

In addition, look for a service that provides discounts if you pre-pay for six or twelve months. You’ll be surprised as to how much money you can save by paying in advance.

4. Adequate Bandwidth:

Ask your “FTP Hosting” company how much bandwidth is available for file uploads and downloads. Avoid any company that limits the amount of bandwidth available for transferring files.

If a company puts limits on available bandwidth, they are either an extremely small business and won’t be able to service you properly, or they may charge you for bandwidth in excess of a given amount per month. Either way, you won’t be happy at the end of the day.

Look for a company that can provide you with unlimited bandwidth and does not charge you for it.

5. Ease of Use:

The service must be easy-to-use and support file transfers from Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. Ask the service provider what, if any, software is required on the client side in order to transfer files to and from the secure FTP site.

Make sure you’re not required to purchase a vendor specific, proprietary software program to transfer your files. You should be able to use any off-the-shelf, downloadable FTP client software program such as CuteFTP, WS FTP, SmartFTP, Fetch, or FTP Voyager.

6. Storage Space Limitation:

Most “FTP Hosting” services are available on a month-to-month subscription basis and their rate is set according to the amount of storage space you require. Make sure your monthly storage limitations have what’s called a “Soft Cap.”

A “Soft Cap” allows you to exceed your storage limitations without incurring an additional fee. More importantly, it allows you and/or your customers to continue uploading/downloading files to your FTP site after you have exceeded your storage space allotment.

In other words, you can continue doing business without worrying about your FTP service provider shutting down your FTP site.

7. Technical Support Via Email:

Avoid any provider that only responds to technical problems via email. There are a lot of providers out there that have great prices but they lack the support you may need. Remember, sooner or later you will have a question or problem and you will want to speak with a live person.

Choose a company that provides you with a technical support phone number, not an email address. Call the number and ask for help! Make sure they answer the phone and provide the type of you support you’re looking for.

Now that you know the questions to ask and what to look for in an “FTP Hosting” service, you’re ready to go out and find one. The best place to start looking is Google www.Google.com. Just type in the phrase “FTP Hosting” and work your way through all the selections. The “Seven Tips” outlined above will assist you in quickly finding the best providers of “FTP Hosting.”

Author Biography:

Karl F. Radke

Karl is the president of “InstantFTPsites.com” and “Prevail Marketing.” He is an online marketing expert, speaker, and entrepreneur. You can learn more about “FTP Hosting” services online at http://www.InstantFTPsites.com

© 2006 InstantFTPsites http://www.InstantFTPsites.com You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the “Author Biography”).

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karl_Radke

You have one chance to make a first impression. Potential customers will form an opinion of a business within seconds. A company’s logo is therefore extremely influential, as it is almost always the first thing a customer will see. In addition, once a customer becomes familiar with a business, the company’s logo will always be associated with that company name, and in turn, the company name will be associated with the logo. For these reasons, a considerable amount of thought should go into choosing a logo.

A logo should be simple, recognizable, and effective at conveying the desired message to the public. Each aspect of a logo’s design should be carefully analyzed to ensure that it does in fact communicate the right message. The logo’s colors, style, size, shape, font (if it is a logotype), and overall design each play a part in the logo’s overall design, and are all important components to consider when creating an effective logo.

Color is immensely important, as color has a dramatic effect on an individual’s reaction to almost anything. Restaurants not only carefully choose the colors of their logos, but also carefully select the colors of the restaurant interior. In their case, color affects how appetizing a potential customer views their restaurant, and in turn can have a dramatic affect on the amount of business they receive. The colors of the logo or restaurant can be the reason a hungry customer chooses one establishment over another. Financial businesses and banks tend to choose strong conservative colors such as darker blues and reds, to convey stability, trust and success. In some cases, a particular color itself often becomes associated with a business. As the background for their logo, UPS has used the color brown, which is now generally associated with their company. Since the color brown communicates stability, they have been able to use the association as a way of conveying a message of reliability to their customers.

In addition to color, the general style of a logo will determine the overall feeling conveyed to the public. The logo’s style will determine whether people will view the business as conservative or trendy, casual or formal, expensive or low-priced, friendly or exclusive, etc. If a logo includes the actual company name, the font type used in the logo is part of its style as well, and will therefore also come into play by affecting an individual’s overall response to the logo.

Size is also important to consider. A logo will be used in large-scale settings such as advertisements, store-fronts and billboards, but will also be used for small-scale needs like email communication, websites, business cards and corporate stationery. A logo should be designed so that it will be effective and recognizable regardless its size.

Overall, a good logo is a vital part of a successful business, and much more influential than many people realize. Since individuals are often unaware of the effect logos have on their own decisions, they may also be unaware of the influence a well designed logo will have on their own business. By taking time to evaluate the different aspects of a logo, business owners can ensure that their company logo will have a much greater impact.

Liz Jackson writes articles for Logo Design companies such as InstaLogo.com. Create the perfect logo in minutes with our online Logo Creator.

Linux, Solaris, and Windows Servers can run an application called ColdFusion for accessing web pages. A request for web pages is made through an HTTP server in conjunction with a ColdFusion Web Application Server. When a request for a ColdFusion web page is made, the ColdFusion Server assembles the data and sends it back to your web browser.

ColdFusion can help you create and modify variables just like other languages, but it’s not a database language. Program flow controls like IF, Switch Case, Loop, plus many other complicated tasks are made easy with its built in functions. Using ColdFusion makes interacting with your database easier. By using SQL, you can easily retrieve, store, format and dynamically present information on you web page.

If you are comfortable with HTML you will love ColdFusion Markup Language. Many of ColdFusions powerful features like reading from and writing to the server’s hard drive are tag based. Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to write all the JavaScript for your pages? The CF tag CFFORM will automatically build all the JavaScript code to verify required fields before the form submits.

ColdFusion is designed to run on multi-processor machines and store your web sites on a cluster of servers. This helps with the biggest problems web designers have of complex, high volume web sites.

Basically, if you have plans to have a web site built that is more than just an advertisement for your business, ColdFusion enables you to perform many more functions. You can spend a large amount of time building a site and, over the years, adding more ideas and therefore more complexity and more functions.

Many new and powerful features are available for Mcromedia’s ColdFusion MX7. MX7 is the most significant release of ColdFusion within the last ten years. You can create dynamic web pages utilizing some of CodFusion MX7 (13 min.) new features. These features are faster and more cost- effective than many other solutions on the market. They can help you easily create, manage and deploy web applications. Using a single tab, web content can be transformed into portable documents in PDF and FlashPaper formats.

Coldfusion makes it possible to create rich Flash forms in minutes using just a few ColdFusion tags. You can re-skin forms easily across applications. Besides, you can easily interface to SMS text-messaging, instant messaging clients, and other Internet protocols to reach customers in new, exciting ways.

It’s time you explored ColdFusion MX7 and experienced the power that ColdFusion has to offer by browsing code snippets, examining sample applications, and seeing new features in action.

Many of our ColdFusion customers include organizations like Boeing, Goodyear, and Lockheed Martin along with many other organizations, education facilities and government offices. ColdFusion MX 7 is considered to be an incredible release with nearly everything desirable incorporated in the software. With ColdFusion MX 7, you can do more work in less time.

Fusionen Freddal is the editor of http://www.justcoldfusion.com which is a premier resource for Cold Fusion information. For questions or comments, go to: http://www.justcoldfusion.com.

Search engines list web pages in order of relevance to a search. How relevant to a search is the content of your web site?

One of several factors contributing to relevance to a search is the content of a web site. If you search the web for say toys, then it goes without saying that websites at the top of the search results will be all about toys, more toys and have many details about toys.

Times have changed:

If Website A displays its products, details of their uses, descriptions, related information and articles about them, and Website B just displays its products, obviously Website A has more relevant content than Website B. Website A will be more highly ranked than Website B. If there are a million listings for that product, then it’s unlikely that Website B will be found in the first few pages.

How to get relevant content:

Your customers can provide all the content for ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ pages and ‘Testimonials’ or ‘Feedback’ pages. If you can’t spend time writing articles, or can’t write articles, there are many article publishing websites happy to provide these to you. It all increases the content of your website.

Be relevant:

Ken McKay is an Australian web designer. More information on web design is available at platypus websites – www.platywebs.com.au

Every good Internet business understands the value of conversions versus hits received. Far too often, businesses become fixated on the hits they are receiving instead of monitoring their hit to sale conversion rate. This misguided focus is the road to ruin because it fails to take in the issue of abandonment.

Abandonment

“Abandonment” is one of those terms that has a unique meaning when applied to the Internet. The term refers to reasons why a user abandons a site before taking the action the site owner desires, typically purchasing a product or making an inquiry.

There are a number of beautiful sites on the Internet with unique innovations. Unfortunately, these sites rarely turn a profit or unnecessarily limit their profit potential. Site owners must focus on only one thing when building a site – converting visitors to customers. To avoid abandonment issues, you should focus on the following:

1. The site should always load as quickly as possible to accommodate visitors that are using 56k dialup modems.

2. The site should be designed for ease of use, not “what looks good.”

3. All advertisements must click through directly to the items that are being searched, not the home page of the site.

4. Site pages should be kept short to improve load times.

5. Information that is not germane to the product or service should be removed.

6. Flash, music and other “atmosphere elements” of the site should be removed or optional to speed up load times.

7. Signing up for the site newsletter must be incredibly easy.

8. Customers should be required to fill out the minimum of information to make a purchase.

9. Newsletters should be issued in HTML and text since some email systems do not accept HTML.

10. All images should be compressed for quick loading.

11. All links and emails must also include AOL friendly equivalents.

12. All emails must have automatic text wraps at 60 spaces so that the recipient does not receive a disjointed mess of code in their email box.

13. Email communications from the public must be responded to within 24 hours.

14. Communications made after business hours must be responded to first thing in the morning.

15. The site should offer accumulating bonus points for purchases that eventually lead to a “free gift”

16. When an order is shipped, an email should be sent to the customer telling them as much.

The list is fairly endless, but you should always view site designs and advertising from the perspective of the customer. The universal question for each project is, “How could we make this easier for customers?” By emphasizing this approach, you will bypass many of the problems you see on the net and avoid wasting your advertising dollars

About The Author

Halstatt Pires is an Internet marketing consultant with http://www.marketingtitan.com – an Internet marketing firm in San Diego.