2010 will hardly be a revolutionary year for the web hosting industry. Nobody can say for sure, but it is hard to expect that there will be radical changes. In a sense, no news is good news. Similarly to almost any other industry, the development of the web hosting industry will be a function of the economy. This means that if the global economy finally manages to get back in shape, the web hosting industry will also benefit. However, even if the recovery of the economy doesn’t happen the way we like, here are some trends which will most certainly dominate in 2010:

• The wide scale adoption of virtualization will continue. Virtualization has already become part of the web hosting industry. Even now top 10 web hosting companies’ use a lot of virtualization but it can be adopted in many more web hosting companies, which are presently not using it. This will lead to cheaper website hosting, especially cheaper VPS hosting.
• SaaS will gain more ground. The SaaS (Software As A Service) model will conquer new territories – there will be more clouds not only because it is cheaper but also because this model is more efficient. Again, this will lead to cheaper website hosting, which is good for customers.
• Shared hosting prices will hit the bottom of $2-3 a month. The trend for cheap web hosting is endless but for some segments, namely shared hosting, the bottom is near. $2-3 a month from a major web host (i.e. a company from the top 10 web hosting companies) is reasonable and even though there are offers for even less, usually lower than that is at the expense of quality.
• Reseller hosting might become more popular. Reseller hosting is still relatively less popular than the other types of hosting but due to its benefits, such as that it could be a great form of cheap web hosting with many more advantages than just shared hosting, reseller hosting now finally stands a chance. However, since the major market for reseller hosting is web design companies and IT consultants, who later resell to their clients, the overall gloomy business climate might make it hard to find end clients to sell to.
• IDN’s will make their debut. One of the really new and exciting things in 2010 is IDN (Internationalized Domain Names). For many web hosting companies, which offer domain name registration in addition to web hosting, these domain names in world languages will become another source of income. Well, IDN’s will hardly bring in more money than the hosting itself but still it is something new for the hosting companies to try.
• Moderate to no investment in new equipment. 2010 will hardly be the year for major capital expenses. Even if a miracle happens and the economy starts its recovery, web hosting companies will be cautious to spend a lot of money on new equipment.
• Mergers and acquisitions. The process of slow enlargement of web hosting companies will continue but still since many of the Top 10 web hosts are small to midsized companies and bigger is not necessarily better, there is no reason to panic for one man shows and small companies with less than 5 or 10 employees in web hosting disappearing.

2010 might be the last year for the global recession but less optimistic predictions say it might not be so. Since web hosting is not a cheap industry, it is not possible to underestimate the money factor, which inevitably will block many projects. Still, even pessimists will agree that 2010 will be a quiet year for the web hosting industry and no major trouble is to be expected.

*This post has been submitted by a guest contributor.

Everyone uses Google to search, but are you being efficient and getting the best results? Here are some tips you can use to increase your search productivity:

Leave out small words like the, or and of unless it is part of a title or famous phrase, like to be or not to be. Searching for how long is a piece of string achieves mostly the same result as how long piece string.

Searches are case insensitive. So searching for fred, Fred and FRED will deliver the same result.

To search for an exact phrase or sequence of words, enclose it in double quotes. Searching for engaging online educational resource brings up amazon.com, whereas “engaging online educational resource” brings up something altogether different!

Lastly, to see how many pages of your website are in Google’s database, prefix your website address with ‘site:’ like this site:www.yourwebsite.com.

The term ‘long tail’ comes from the shape of a line chart that reflects the habits of groups of people when searching or buying.

Here’s an example – books people buy. The most popular books sell the most, and less popular books don’t sell as much, but there are many more less-popular books than popular books.

Popular books (less books selling more) v less popular books (more books selling less)

The quantity of books sold in the long tail adds up to more than the best sellers peak at the left.

The long tail concept is used often when analysing website visitor statistics, especially what words people used to search for something before they land on your website.

In search, the long tail tends to contain more specifics, targeting niche subjects, which generally means more targeted or qualified leads landing on your website. The generic searches can be a hard sell.

Imagine you’re selling websites on the internet (I have some experience at this). A lot of people will do general searched like ‘websites’ or ‘website design’, but there will be a lot of more specific searches, such as ‘how do I get a website that works’ or ‘the biggest website designer on the sunshine coast’.

At the end of the day, all of the specific searched added together will amount to more than the more generic searches. In addition, because the people are using more specific keywords, they are more likely to know what they are looking for, and therefore be more likely to convert into a sale.

Have a look at your business and consider how you can more effectively market to the long tail.

If you’re wondering whether you should be using Twitter, here are 5 reasons why you should:

1. Follow trends – Keep track of what’s being discussed based on keywords
2. Make announcements – Use Twitter as part of your media strategy
3. Stay informed – Twitter has become the place where breaking news breaks first
4. Network – ‘Meet’ new people with similar interests and have (short) conversations
5. Generate website traffic – Always link back to your website when making an announcement

Not too long ago, self employed tradespeople and similar small businesses didn’t need a website. Things have changed. Now if your business doesn’t have a website, you’re probably missing out on potential customers and opportunities.

Take a plumber for example. Plumbers never used to need websites, people used the yellow pages or the classifieds in the local newspaper. Now people use the internet, and especially Google, to find and research services.

If you’re in small business and don’t have a website, then your competitors will get first go at getting the customer.

On your website you can educate your potential customers about your business, and let them know why they should use your services. You can use a promotional offer or specials to encourage enquiries, and you can include testimonials from satisfied customers to reinforce your message.

Tradies generally don’t require a complex and expensive website, just something basic that does the job well.

Fig Creative is offering a website package which is perfect for tradies. It’s low cost, super easy to use, and you can update it yourself with very little computer knowledge.

It has everything you need to get started on the internet right away, so you can start capturing some of those Google searchers!

Call 1300 775 182 to get started.

In business today, the internet must be a part of your strategy. Where do you start?

First, get your website in order. Your website is the cornerstone of your internet strategy, it’s the place that you want people to go to, and it should be designed to make it easy for people to find, and easy for them to achieve their (your) goals.

You want people to go to your website because that’s where your message is, and that’s where you educate people about your products and services and prompt them into action, whether it be making a purchase or enquiry, or just signing up for your email newsletter, allowing you to market to them later.

You want people to end up at your website, but they won’t necessarily start there. They may start at Google, or an online business directory. The more places your presence can be found on the internet, the easier it will be to find, or stumble across, your business.

Consider a twitter account. Twitter allows you to ‘tweet’ about what your business is doing; new products, announcements etc., and link back to your website. People will find your tweets and click through to your website to read more.

Are you passionate and knowledgeable enough about your business that you can write about it? On the internet, information is gold. Start a blog and write about things that your business does. Write regularly. People will find what you are writing about when they search or browse the internet.