You put a lot of time and effort into your website, and you want to see who’s using it, right?

It’s easy to do just that with “stats” programs, which give you clear and concise statistics as to who’s using your site. There are many choices, some of which come with Cpanel.

Webalizer and Awstats are both well-known programs that provide detailed daily statistics for each of your domains: how many “hits”, how many “unique visitors” (different visitors), file sizes, as well as referrers, which tells you where your traffic is coming from: search engine searches, or links on other blogs and forums.

Speaking of search engine traffic, you can also see what “keywords” people are using to come to your site, which will be helpful if you use services such as Google’s AdWords. Even if it’s only to satisfy your curiosity, it will at least show you how people are finding your site.

There are numerous things you can do with the data. You can see which sections of your site are popular, and use that to your advantage should you attract potential advertisers. On Cpanel systems, Webalizer and Awstats automatically run after you choose them in the “Stats” section of your control panel. Then, every day you can check to see what the previous day’s traffic was like.

Whether you use the data for advertisers, or to satisfy your own sense of curiosity, stats programs are an easy way to show what is and what is not working for your site.

If you have trouble remembering to pay for renewal of your domains, you may wish to look into automatic renewal, which is a service that most major registrars offer.

As the name suggests, every year on the renewal date, the registrar will bill your credit/debit card or Paypal account (whatever you used to buy the domain, or whichever method you have on file with your registrar) automatically for the renewal cost. This service could save you money, because if you forget to renew your domain, and it expires, you may have to pay $80.00 or more to get it back.

Another tip, of course, is to renew your domains for several years at a time. And one small step that many people forget to take is to ensure that you have a valid e-mail address on file, and one that you check often. Registrars will send out numerous reminders prior to the expiration date. Many people have let a domain lapse because they didn’t get their e-mail reminder.

There are many ways to ensure your domains stay current, but automatic renewal is a surefire way to make absolutely certain that your domain doesn’t lapse due to not being current.

If you run a website, but do not sell a product or service, there are still many ways to bring in money. Perhaps the most popular choice is to carry ads.

There are numerous sites, such as Google’s Adsense program, that pay you for carrying ads. For the most part, you’ll get paid per click, but sometimes you’ll only get paid per purchase.

Also, there’s something else to consider: Google requires that you earn up to $100 before they pay out. Depending on the size of your site, and depending on how many people actually click on the ads, that could take a week, a month, or longer. In other words, unless you run a large site, consider ad income to be a bonus, and not a certainty. And, the money you do bring in will likely serve to let you break even on the cost of a server.

Still, money is money, and there are many choices out there for bloggers and forum hosts to choose from. Some things to consider when choosing one:

• Minimum required for payout.
• How do they pay out: Paypal, bank wire, or cheque?
• Do you get paid per click or per purchase?
• Can you filter out ads you feel are objectionable?

If you take these factors into consideration, you can make a wise choice as to who provides your ads, and you will likely earn some nice side income as well.

Passwords are vital to keeping your information protected. As an administrator, you’ll have many passwords, and you should have different passwords for each service:

• Your domain registrar
• Your control panel
• Your SSH connection to your server
• Any forum, blog, or other accounts relating to your website

In order to keep your passwords secure, always use a password that uses a variety of characters: lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, and other characters [&, (, ), !, @, etc.]. And, remember to change your passwords often, perhaps once a month.

By doing all of this, you will help minimize your exposure to hacking and brute force attacks.

So you’re thinking about starting a website, maybe a blog. But you don’t want to spend a lot of money, right? We here at Pickaweb can help with that. For as little as 2.98, you can have your very own website.

You can upgrade to the webmaster plan, or the business plan, and still spend less than 10 pounds per month. Choose the plan that’s right for you, based on how much disk space and bandwidth (traffic) your website will use.
Our sales department will be more than happy to help you choose the plan that’s right for you.

There are so many things to remember as a web host, or someone who runs a website. One of the most important things to do is to maintain current information in the WHOIS database, which is a requirement set forth by ICANN.

You must at all times have accurate name, address, phone number, and e-mail information. If someone runs across outdated information and reports you to ICANN, you can lose your domain. Perhaps the easiest thing to forget is the e-mail address. You can set up a special e-mail address at Yahoo, MSN, etc. so that you do not disclose your private e-mail address. You should also check this address at least once a week. This is because of official messages that may be sent. Anything pertaining to your domain would go to this address, and in some rare cases, if you do not respond within a certain amount of time, you stand to lose your domain.

It’s really not as scary as it sounds. All you need to do is keep the information current, and keep an eye on your e-mail, and you have nothing to worry about. Putting false information in the database can lead to loss of the domain, or missing important communications.

So you’re getting ready to purchase a domain, but you don’t know what’s better? It’s okay to be confused, since there are so many different TLDs, or top-level domains: .com, .org, .net, .biz, .co.uk, and so forth. But which is right for you?

If you’re starting a business, you know that your domain is your identity, so you may do well to invest the money in registering the .com, .org. .net, .biz, and .co.uk domains. This way, someone else can’t snatch up a domain that would be likely to confuse potential customers.

Even if you’re purchasing a domain for a personal website or a blog, you may wish to consider purchasing several TLDs, so that others don’t try to step on your unique identity. Domain registration is typically for one year (some require two years up front), so if you find that a domain simply isn’t carrying its weight, you aren’t obligated to renew it. Simply let it expire.

When it comes to establishing and protecting your business or your online identity, it’s always good to be overprotective, because you don’t want to find out too late that you weren’t careful enough.

One of the biggest problems facing resellers or web hosts is abuse. Sometimes, “abuse” is unintentional, and sometimes, as in the case of spam or phishing, it’s quite intentional.

One of your duties as a reseller or customer is to pay attention to abuse e-mail messages sent to you from your host. These messages contain important information pertaining to the problem, and what you need to do to fix it: disable the customer’s account, or remove content. If you do not pay attention, your server could be shut down.

To prevent this from happening to you, simply provide an e-mail address that you check often. It’s a good idea to check at least three times a day, and more if you can. Doing so will give you a chance to resolve the problem without losing valuable uptime.