The site is less than a week old and there is a lot of empty space as I build the framework and then start adding the content.
The goal of this site is to teach small business owners why a website is necessary, how to build your site to get the best return on your investment, and how to promote your business online around the clock, year-round.
It will have additional information about topics related to the mechanics and operations involved in creating and maintaining a profitable business website.
Additionally, there will be links to top selling books, links to other websites and blogs, and news sources related to webhosting, content management, search engines, RSS syndication, internet access, telecom, online marketing, and similar topics.
Even Beginners Can Create Great Websites With WebMax Studio
Posted by johndilbeck on Monday, March 21 2005 at 3:07 PM Category: webhosting
Cognigen recently announced a new webbuilding and hosting service called WebMax Studio.
Whether you are a beginner or a professional webmaster, or somewhere in between, you can build professional-looking websites in days using WebMax Studio to design, build, and host your personal or business website, all for the price you would normally expect to pay for just one or two of the services included.
Choose from over 1,000 templates and ten different basic web page layouts. That's just a start of what this service offers.
Link to other sites with a Link Page. Host up to hundreds of photos in your Photo Album. Upload multimedia files including music, video, flash, pdf, and other formats for presentation on your site or for downloading. Create a custom Feedback Form for collecting visitor feedback. Host a Recommend this Site page. Host a discussion on your Message Board. Create a newsletter and mail it to anyone who subscribes on your site. Do you have to answer frequently asked questions? Create a FAQ page. Email information to anyone who requests it using your built-in Autoresponder. Maintain a Calendar to show any special events, meetings, or other items for all to see. Publish articles and announcements on your Articles Page. Offer coupons for your customers to print out and bring to your physical location. Post your Press Releases online. Create a shopping cart for hundreds of products. Learn about marketing your website and make use of the free services and tools to get more visitors.
All of this -- and more -- are included in the basic monthly price that is less than $20. Don't forget, you would normally expect to pay more than that for just one or two of the services offered in this package.
I'm rather particular in the webhosting services I recommend. WebMax Studio offers one of the best webhosting services I've ever seen.
(I still think Site Build It! offers a better set of tools and more flexibility for professional marketers, but I think WebMax Studio is a great bargain for everyone else.)
In less than two days, working part-time on it, I was able to create a very nice website that would have taken much longer using any other service or tools I've ever used, and I've been building websites since shortly after they were invented. Not only that, but it may be the nicest-looking site I've ever made.
You can see the test site at 21st Century Small Business. The main parts of the site were created in less than two days during the 10-day free trial period. I like it enough that I'm going to pay to host this site on the service as soon as the free trial ends. At that point, you can find it at 21stCenturySmallBusiness.com.
No experience is necessary, but WebMax Studio is powerful enough for professionals. The beautiful part of this service is that you don't have to activate or manage any of the parts you don't want. You are free to add a page or a section as you need it. Build your website one step at a time on your own schedule. Even if you have never built a site before, you can have a professional-looking site in days, without paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to someone else. If you build your own site, you'll learn a valuable skill and will be able to modify it any time you want.
If you choose, however, you can hire someone with experience to put up the initial site for you and get you started quickly with a site you will be proud to tell people about.
Webmasters can benefit by using this service to build a site for clients who can then take over editing and expanding the site, thus freeing the professional website creator to get more sites online during any given time period. You'll have happier clients, too, because they'll be able to update the site at their convenience, without waiting on you.
For more information about WebMax Studio -- and to get a free, no obligation, 10-day trial of their service, you are invited to visit WebMax Studio
Posted by johndilbeck on Friday, March 11 2005 at 12:11 PM Category: webmaster_tools
Earlier today, I wrote an article about using blogging to help bring more visitors to your website -- for free. I'm sure that's something that everyone with a website would like.
If you are technically inclined, it will take less than an hour to do this and you should see more visitors to your site in the next couple of weeks or less.
If you are not particularly technically inclined, follow the steps just as they're shown and you can do this in less than two hours. I think you'll be happy with the results of such a small amount of time and effort.
If you've been having a hard time getting your site listed in the major search engines -- Google, Yahoo, and MSN -- this technique has been known to be effective in getting your site spidered and indexed in under a week.
Of course, you have to do your part and create quality content for both your website and your blog on a regular basis, but this will help you get into the search engines or get higher placements in the results.
Pioneer Telephone
Posted by johndilbeck on Sunday, March 6 2005 at 6:52 AM Category: cognigen
A new one plus long distance has been added to our family of products and services featuring interstate rates from 2.7 cents/minute anytime and ultra-low international rates.
As always, Dilbeck Communications and Cognigen strive to provide outstanding service for you at the best price. Don't forget that you can compare rates for long distance, bundled services, and International calls using our Best Rate Calculator.
MyPhoneCompany Launched
Posted by johndilbeck on Sunday, March 6 2005 at 6:36 AM Category: cognigen
Absolutelly great VoIP product - unlimited calls anywhere within USA and Canada for only $24.99 per month.
Posted by johndilbeck on Sunday, March 6 2005 at 6:04 AM Category: cognigen
World Verge Internet service was established to provide low cost Internet service with reliable connections and superior customer service. With World Verge ISP, you will have incredible service at your fingertips, while paying only $9.95 a month - about half the cost of big name providers like EarthLink and AOL. Not only are we more affordable, 9 out of 10 of our Internet service customers experience a faster connection speed with World Verge Internet service than their previous ISP.
We even have a local access number for my hometown of Murphy, NC!
Posted by johndilbeck on Sunday, March 6 2005 at 5:36 AM Category: cognigen
Get all of the features and pricing of post paid cellular service in a pay as you go platform. No contract, no credit check, no deposit, no worries! Wide selection of phones, and plans with unlimited nights and weekends starting at only $29.95 a month.
Now, you don't have to sign a long-term contract to get your cell phone service.
Posted by johndilbeck on Wednesday, January 5 2005 at 5:33 AM Category: rss_syndication
It looks like I picked the right year to focus on adding more blogs and more RSS (also known as XML) feeds to my sites!
From the Pew Internet & American Life Project site:
By the end of 2004 blogs had established themselves as a key part of online culture. Two surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in November established new contours for the blogosphere: 8 million American adults say they have created blogs; blog readership jumped 58% in 2004 and now stands at 27% of internet users; 5% of internet users say they use RSS aggregators or XML readers to get the news and other information delivered from blogs and content-rich Web sites as it is posted online; and 12% of internet users have posted comments or other material on blogs. Still, 62% of internet users do not know what a blog is.
If you're one of the 62% who don't know what a blog is or what RSS is all about, let me recommend the following sites to start learning about them.
RSS was co-developed by Dave Winer and you should read about Radio Userland, the product I use to manage this blog and nearly 5,000 pages on several websites. Also, be sure to read All about RSS.
Another good resource, and one that keeps getting better, is written by Ken Evoy. One of Ken's claims to fame is presiding over the company that developed Site Build It!, which I think is the best web design, hosting, and promotion service on the planet. I am one very happy customer. The product just keeps getting better. Visit the Site Build It! link first so you can see where he's coming from. Then, go read the information he wrote about RSS: Really Simple Syndication for his Site Build It! customers.
I spent several months in late 2004 developing my blogging infrastructure and staking my claim on several blogs at blogger.com. Now that the development work is mostly done, I can pass along newsworthy information to a wider audience faster and more efficiently than ever before.
Also, from the other side of the story, I use Radio Userland to read others' RSS feeds using the news aggregator that is built in. I subscribe to a little over 50 feeds and read them on a more-or-less daily basis. It's a lot easier to read the RSS feed and then click on a link that interests me than it is to remember to go to all 50 of those sites and try to find the new information.
I'm to the point now that I'd rather get newsletters and site updates in an RSS feed than in an email message or newsletter.
I have commented on quite a few blogs and I always meet an interesting person on the other end when he or she responds to my comments.
One of the most interesting recent developments -- for me at least -- has been the addition of RSS feeds to the Site Build It! customer forums. Now, instead of having to go to the forum every day, I added the RSS feed and I can easily read down the list of posts to see which ones I want to read and perhaps respond to. This is a very busy forum, and the addition of the RSS feed has shaved a couple of hours off my forum reading time every day.
I think we'll be seeing much more about blogs (also known as weblogs or journals), RSS, XML, and similar topics this year.
If you have a business with information that changes on a regular basis, you should look into blogs and RSS syndication.
Site Build It! - Buy-1-Get-1 Free Sale until Midnight Dec. 25. Get two websites for the price of one!
Posted by johndilbeck on Sunday, December 19 2004 at 7:51 AM Category: webhosting
I've been telling you for a long time how much I like Site Build It! and how much the tools included with this outstanding website design, hosting, and promotion service have helped me earn more with my sites.
From now until midnight on Christmas Day, you can buy one SBI account and get a second one free. That's an outstanding bargain and I just wish I had the time and energy to take advantage of it.
If you are looking for a way to build a site that attracts targeted visitors instead of sitting there and growing cobwebs, this is your opportunity.
You can get both sites for the price of one -- or you can keep one and give it to a friend, relative, or colleague to help them build their business, too.
I host my Act On Your Dream! site using Site Build It! and I couldn't be happier. I haven't had the time to build that site to where I want it, but that will be one of my major priorities in January and February.
I can tell you, however, that I've been using the tools that are included with an SBI site to help me on all my other websites, even though they are hosted on other services.
If I were starting all over from scratch and if I were only going to build a few websites, there is no doubt in my mind that I'd use Site Build It! to do it.
If you want to build your business and promote it online, don't pass up this opportunity! If you wait just one second after midnight on December 26, you'll miss the special sale. Don't delay.
If you'd like to display this feed on your website, use the following code. Please email me and let me know where you're showing the feed and I'll link back to that page of your site.
Below is the code you need to copy and paste into your web page to include this RSS Feed.
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