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My Experience with Affiliate Summit West 2015 #ASW15

Join me on my report about my crazy adventure with Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas. For those that know me, I lean heavily towards being introverted but force myself to do things outside of my comfort zone to grow as a person. Usually, this means taking that unknown number phone call or going to a concert with humongous crowds.

One day in mid-December, I received an email from SiteGround (a web hosting company) asking for people to apply to  win one of 3 Affiliate Summit passes by replying to their email. I’ve entered these types of things in the past and always lose, so whatever, it’s worth a shot. I write a quick email explaining how I just spent four months completely overhauling Top Five Advisor and I explained how a ticket to ASW would open the doors to network with some of the best in the industry. My third paragraph simply said “A ticket would change my life.” I sent that email on December 19th just after midnight and headed to bed.

That morning, I had an email telling me that I was selected as one of their winners and to reply within 24 hours to confirm I’ll be able to attend! WHAT!?! No, that can’t possibly be right, I DO NOT WIN THESE THINGS. I was freaking out, my hands started to shake, holy crap, I won!?! What have I gotten myself into here?

I hop on my phone, ask my wife in a text message if she can put in for some vacation time at her work because apparently I’m throwing myself to the wolves on January 18th – 20th. I had confirmation that she will be able to get time off to watch our 4 year old while I attend this event. Well crap, that was my last chance at an excuse to not go, apparently *I* am the only excuse left. Screw that, I won’t hold myself back anymore, I’m going! I quickly fire off an email to SiteGround that everything is cleared, I can and will attend and provided my details.

They registered me with a Networking Plus badge which gave me access to a few sessions, the exhibit hall, meet market and keynotes. This is really happening, I’m going to an event full of my peers in Affiliate Marketing with over 5,500 people in attendance, yeah, cool, what doesn’t kill me will make me stronger, that’s what they say. Let’s do this!

Preparing and Planning for Affiliate Summit

I immediately started researching how to prepare myself for this event. I read several guides into this older guide by Adam Riemer, this guide by Tricia Meyer, and finally, the official Affiliate Summit blog with several posts including this, this and this were very helpful.

I  still had about a month to wrap my head around this event while continuing my latest project, a WordPress training series including WordPress training videos on YouTube. I ordered my business cards, did some clothing and shoes shopping and of course, I bought my business cards:

Woohoo! My new business cards are in for Top Five Advisor… http://t.co/RZBXY4WmOc pic.twitter.com/WrMJwCDuMg

— Scott Buehler (@TygrScott) January 12, 2015

Most importantly, as soon as I knew I was attending, I started hotel room shopping. The best deal was the Paris Hotel that was pre-planned by Affiliate Summit, however, that was already booked solid. I started researching nearby hotels and managed to find a king suite at the Flamingo hotel, which was just 3 hotels away on the same side of Las Vegas Boulevard and it was also the cheapest room I could find (a few days later, that and most surrounding hotels were booked solid too). I certainly didn’t need a suite, after all, I just needed a few square feet to curl up into a ball and cry.

A couple weeks before the event, I started taking the advice of the guides linked above, business cards ordered, business card holders ordered and I took to social media hard and started hitting that #ASW15 hashtag like there’s no tomorrow. I make several announcements that I’m headed to the event from my @TopFiveAwards Twitter profile (business dealings) and my @TygrScott profile (attract fellow affiliates). I hit Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook and more. I’m headed to the event, let’s meetup I said as if I’m some sort of extrovert. I’m already torturing myself, let’s take this all the way to maximum anxiety.

At one point, I randomly reached out to Shawn Collins saying I was looking forward to ASW not expecting a reply. Not only did he reply, we had a small conversation. Check it out. This is when I announced my wife decided to come to the event to do a little shopping and to hang out with me for meals since meals were not included with the Networking Plus level (this worked out to my benefit, more on that later).

With over 20 meetups scheduled in my pre-planning, bags packed, Google Calendar updated with all the events I wanted to attend along with all meetup appointments marked in bright red (so I don’t leave people hanging), I’m ready.

I came up with a battle plan and goals about a day before leaving. Taking in all the advice I learned, I decided on the following rules for myself:

• I will only use my phone for the Google Calendar, calling my wife to meet up for meals and, if needed, to call/text my scheduled appointments.
• I will not use social media.
• I will not browse the web.
• I will take phone calls that weren’t event-related.
• I will not “dump” my business cards around. If you wanted my card, you had to “earn it” by talking to me.
• Every business card I collect will be from the result of actually meeting/talking to that person.

Let the Torture Commence – Let’s Do This Thing!

My wife and I hop in the car and drive to Las Vegas, a short 2 1/2 hour drive for us. As I see Las Vegas in the distance, the anxiety builds. I’m definitely feeling freaked out and excited at the same time. I keep telling myself that this event could change my life, it could be pointless, who knows? All I know is, my hands and legs are starting to shake more and more as I get closer and closer to the Flamingo Rd exit.

We arrive.

I grab my messenger bag, walk with my wife to the Paris hotel, find where the Affiliate Summit is located, we wait in line, get my badge and exit the check in area. My wife gives me a few words of encouragement, we kiss and off she goes to shop leaving me to venture my way through my first ever conference.

Awkward. I have several acquaintances that I’ve talked to on the phone and email, however, I have no friends attending this thing. As I observe the crowd, I realize that this event is literally reunion time for most. Hundreds of people all around me saying “Hey XXXX! It’s been way too long since we’ve seen each other! How’ve you been man <handshake>.” What have I gotten myself into here? Whatever, there’s orientation in 10 minutes, I’ll just go find the ballroom and take a seat.

Anxiety Level: 9/10

First Up – ASW First Timer Orientation

I arrive 10 minutes early to a surprisingly relatively-empty ballroom. I immediately learned my first lesson, people take advantage of every second at these events. By the time it started, the room was packed and by the time Shawn Collins took to the mic, most empty seats were being filled.

Shawn provides us all with etiquette along with helpful advice and tips during this event. My favorite part was when he was telling us guys how to deal with the placement of the badge on women we want to connect with. As it turns out, the placement is just below the breast line and if you walk up to a girl THEN go looking for a name, she’ll get the wrong impression. The way he explained it was absolutely hilarious.

Introducing awkward moment number 1: Shawn goes into how important it is to network and gives us several minutes to introduce ourselves to our neighbors in the audience. I failed hard. Everyone around me started talking and I only introduce myself to one person and talk for about 10 seconds. Damnit. <shrug>. Another lesson learned, do not hesitate.

Anxiety Level: 6/10

Affiliate Program Showcase – I Start Learning How to Network

Well, the orientation was cool, let’s check out the showcase. It was a room filled with circular tables with people sitting there waiting to talk. By this time, I’m starting to get a little more comfortable and walk around each row checking out what people are offering. I introduce myself to 10 people and learn about their produces/services from social media tools to an electronic vaporizer solution.

This was when I first started passing out my business cards after sitting down at several tables.

Anxiety Level: 7/10

First Event: 20 Digital Marketing Strategies

For me, the event covered the basics and I didn’t learn much by attending. However, it did give me an hour to decompress and evaluate my decision to attend this summit in the first place. I’m feeling pretty good after the hour goes by and I tell myself I’m starting to get a handle on networking.

Anxiety Level: 4/10

The Meet Market

As you may notice, I’m feeling pretty good by now. Getting comfortable, starting to network, all is good. I walk into this Meet Market and I’m absolutely overwhelmed. I’m a guy who uses swears when talking to others but I don’t swear much online, but I’m making an exception here:

Holy shit! If I go to hell, it will be where I’m surrounded by a massive crowd with no escape. Meet Market, you are my hell on Earth.

I’m a bigger guy and this room was absolute packed with people. Getting around to all the booths was a damn nightmare. I forced myself to stay and introduce myself to the booths but I’ve never been more uncomfortable in my life. You’ve got lines at each booth at least 3 deep and a tiny pathway to walk but this pathway was blocked by people networking and other network attendees working the crowd to pitch their programs.

I forced myself to stay in there though and I worked my way through every row while picking and choosing who to talk to. I planned to stay there for 4 hours on my calendar but I only made it 90 minutes before I just had enough and had to get out of there. That moment came when I finished a row and rounded down to the last row of booths when I noticed that they had a big projection screen with the football game on. I’m a huge football fan but I have to say, having that setup there kind of pissed me off because it encouraged a lot of standers and they didn’t look like they were getting any networking in.

Looking back on it, I understand why it was there and what their goal was having it there as well. But from my point of view at the time, it just caused way more crowding in my mind. Also remember, my anxiety level was building, building and building more as I forced myself to stay.

Anxiety Level: 4,000/10

The Rest of Day 1

After feeling that the Meet Market chewed me up and spit me out, I call my wife and arrange to meet for lunch. We also take this time to check in to the Flamingo, get our luggage from the car, get settled and of course, watch the Patriots kick some butt with underinflated footballs.

SiteGround Dinner

I was invited to join SiteGround for dinner this evening as one of the winners of their Affiliate Summit giveaway. I had no idea what to expect but what happened that night was absolutely amazing.

We met at The Eiffel Tower Restaurant and I’m instantly star-struck. Who do I see walk in along with the SiteGround crew? Syed Balkhi of WPBeginner! It just got real. You can put me in a crowd of famous Hollywood stars and I wouldn’t give a crap but you put me in a room of people I’ve respected, admired and secretly learn from for years? Now I’m star-struck and geeking out.

Unfortunately, as we walk to our table, my wife and I are one of the last in the group and I hear Syed say “I want to sit here with you” and he takes his seat. That entire side of the table quickly filled in and I found a seat clear on the other end of the table. Dang it man.

After sitting, I see others walking around introducing themselves so I decide to join in on that as well (again, forcing myself to shake hands and network). I come to Syed and pat him on his back and say Syed, I know you man and continue introducing myself to the rest of the table.

As I finish, I’m at Syed’s end of the table and we had this awkward conversation where Syed said, “Hey, I know you.” and I said something to the effect of, “nah man, not likely” and he returns with something along the lines of we met each other before, where, again, I said nope, this was my first networking event. The conversation ended as I’m one of the last to be standing and take a seat.

My side of the table had the three winners, Will Tang of Going Awesome Places and Kerwin McKenzie, another travel guy. We spent over 3 hours at this dinner where we talked about all sorts of topics including Kerwin’s traveling adventures, SiteGround newest technologies they are soon to roll out, other hosts and all sorts of topics in-between.

The dinner was absolutely amazing. As a big fan of Chef Ramsey and his dramatic reality TV shows, my wife and I added Beef Wellington to our bucket list of things we absolutely had to try. Eiffel Tower Restaurant had it on the menu and my wife and I both order it. It. was. amazing!

On a side note: I ended up running into Kerwin several times afterwards where it finally became a joke about who was stalking who at the event.

At the end of the meal, I learned that the guy Syed wanted to sit next to was also an amazing marketer. It turned out to be David Henzel, co-founder of MaxCDN. After learning this because he came up in one of our conversations at the table, I really wanted to give him a proper introduction. Unfortunately, at the end of our meal after talking with Kerwin in private to give him my business card, Syed and David left.

A Quick Thank You

To SiteGround, thank you so much for including my wife and I to your dinner. Whether you realize it or not, your dinner was the turning point where I started to settle in to the Affiliate Summit and get comfortable with these types of events. Being included in with all of the awesome people of SiteGround and the marketing kingpins you had there really helped calm me down to where I started feeling more and more at “home” with my fellow affiliate marketing peers.[/content_band]

Anxiety Level: 3/10

Day 2 of Affiliate Summit Begins

I’m definitely feeling more comfortable. I’m nowhere near as anxious as I walk to the Paris hotel, in fact, I’m walking at a much faster clip because I’m excited to begin this day. I doubted it would get any better than being in the same room as Syed, but wow, was I wrong. Let’s get started.

Anxiety Level: 5/10

Event: Selecting Affiliate Programs

Starting the day off with a little coffee from the lounge, I head over to this event.

Once again, I didn’t really take much from the event because the focused in on niches that I am not involved with. I did learn a few tips about those niches (retail, travel blogging, etc) but it wasn’t something I could immediately use. Considering Shareasale was the premier sponsor of the Affiliate Summit, I thought they would have a speaker there that would talk more about choosing Internet Service and B2B type affiliate programs that Shareasale offers. Nope.

On a positive note though, sitting down to the event helped me settle in to another day at Affiliate Summit.

Anxiety Level: 5/10

After this event, I grabbed another cup of coffee and took a quick peak of the Exhibit Hall.

Lunch with Jason Hong of InMotion Hosting

Jason and I have talked via email for years and years. We’ve worked together on several projects, he’s helped with advice on my sites and has remained one of my best business partners throughout the years. As an affiliate manager, he’s one of the best and really goes above and beyond.

When Jason found out I was going to ASW, he offered to take my wife and I out to lunch at the Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris hotel. This meetup was a no-brainer and I said heck yes, let’s do it!

This was an awesome experience finally getting the chance to meet with Jason. We talked about family, where we live, how he absolutely loved his job and most importantly, we talked strategy in regards to my websites and future projects I have planned in 2015.

To my fellow introverts: Let me tell you, I don’t care how you feel about having most of your conversations in email or text chats, when you meet in person, it’s a whole new level and in-depth conversation. In this instance, we discovered we were actually the same age and had a lot in common with each other.

I will now call Jason a friend. Amazing guy.

Another Thank You

To Jason: Man, you rock. Our lunch was one of the biggest highlights of the entire event for me. I looked forward to our meetup the most and the conversation far, FAR exceeded my expectations. Thank you so much for treating my wife and I to dinner. Next time I’m in California, I hope to meet with you again. That lunch was amazing.[/content_band]

After lunch, I part ways with my wife. Jason and I decide to walk together back to the conference center.

Anxiety Level: 1/10

The Exhibit Hall

As Jason and I enter the Exhibit Hall together, I made a comment to him that this is SOOOOOOO much better than the Meet Market from the day prior. The room is bigger, there’s FAR less crowding and I saw the potential for better networking with all the companies in attendance.

As we’re walking, Jason asks me to follow him to the InMotion Hosting booth where I was promptly introduced to the owner of InMotion Hosting, Sunil Saxena. Well, that caught me off-guard!! Hey Jason, how about a little heads up next time brother? LOL.

Anyway, Sunil asks me to sit down and have a chat on the couches they have inside their booth. Heck yeah man, absolutely! This is where I learned the how and why he founded the company, his goals at the time and a little bit of his history. We also talked more about strategy, where my goals are, what I should focus on and a few ideas. He thanked me personally for being a customer, a long-term affiliated partner and we parted ways due to an event he wanted to attend.

From there, I started working the Exhibit Hall. I walked down a little bit and had my first run-in with Kerwin from the SiteGround dinner. We had a little chat and he gave me a hard time for not understanding that SiteGround wanted me to create a paper airplane for a little competition thing they were having (I thought it was a drawing and dropped my half-folded paper in the bowl, haha). My anxiety was high as I was just starting to network in the hall so I didn’t quite understand what they asked me to do (I was still trying to calm all the voices in my head).

I worked the Exhibit Hall for a couple hours and met a ton of people. At this point, I had a scheduled meetup with Adam Reimer. He wanted to show me a new SEO tool that was sure to blow me away. Although he couldn’t get the Internet to work, we stood outside the Blogger’s Lounge and had a quick talk about what his product does. We agreed to get on the phone sometime after the event where he could walk me through this tool. I had no idea who this guy was and was surprised to find out he was a speaker at the event and a well-respected guy in the industry. Oops, guess I should have done a little research BEFORE and not AFTER meeting him. Haha.

After that, I worked the Exhibit Hall more until I started feeling exhausted and called my wife to plan our evening together.

Anxiety Level: 4/10 (surprising right?)

Day 3 – The Day Everything Changed

This morning as I prepare for Day 3, I’m feeling really good. I’m now used to being around so many people, I’ve got a lot of networking under my belt, introducing myself and my projects is easier, asking specific questions to vendors to see how what I do and what they do can come together in future projects and I’m just far more comfortable. This morning was good and I’m actually hurrying to get out the door to head back to ASW.

Anxiety Level: 1/10

Event: Driving Massive Traffic

This was the event I looked forward to the most. The event, obviously about driving traffic, is a strong interest of mine as I wrap my head around paid traffic, paid traffic solutions, tracking, landing pages and more. This event had it all.

This is partly why my anxiety level was non-existent this morning, it was less about anxiety and more about learning how to drive traffic. I was excited.

I enter the event room and sit at the third row and notice how few people are in attendance. I quickly think to myself, are you serious? This event should be packed with people standing because there is nowhere to sit! Without traffic, you are dead in the water! What is going on?

Then it happens.

I look over to my left and there sits a well-known super affiliate Greg Davis and his wife. Wait, what?!?!?! My heart starts racing. I’ve been watching every YouTube video I could find of this guy over the past year, I’ve watched how he marketed his “Affiliate Millionaires Event” and he’s just been a guy I’ve highly respected and wanted to learn from.

I was about to get up and introduce myself when a guy behind me introduces himself. Alright cool, who are you and what do you do? We start talking, he asks me if I am a super affiliate, I respond that I used to be before Google’s Penguin update wiped me out, I tell a bit of my story and this guy walking along that side joins us in conversation. He tells us how he wishes the event was the day prior and that after the event, he has to catch a flight within a couple hours. He also commented how there was less people there that day because people were flying out.

The event was nearing start and this guy heads up to the table. Wait, what?!? I didn’t even realize I was talking to one of the speakers of the event! Are you serious?!?

A Lesson Learned: Hey moron (talking to myself), when attending events, how about doing a little research about who is speaking? I felt like such a dumbass. Haha.

Anyway, as the event gets underway I notice who is speaking. I actually recognize the other three speakers there including JJ Alan, Ian Fernando and Derek Lester. Derek is another guy I’ve closely followed and a dude I highly respect as a traffic expert.

I quickly hop on my phone, snap several pictures, starting adding all of these guys as friends on Facebook and listen in to what they have to say.

I’m impressed about the 30 minute lecture they gave, a learned a little bit (I already knew most of it from my prior 6 months of studying about getting traffic) and listened to the Q&A. I used my phone to enter in a few notes about a couple sites I wasn’t aware of and started preparing for the end. At this point, I took a look behind me and noticed that the room was packed with people. Guess I was right, many people realize the power of getting traffic!

As the end nears, I remembered during my other two events I attended, that people would go up and talk to the speakers privately. I knew that this was my time to do this. Right after they close the session, I get up and start walking towards the front when I notice that Kerwin is at the front table! I joked with him that we were stalking each other and had a really nice conversation about the event. He mentioned how he didn’t understand a lot of the acronyms used by the speakers. I told him that I thought this event was the most important event of the entire Affiliate Summit, that I’ve been studying this topic for several months and I asked him to get in touch with me anytime and I’ll gladly help where I can. I asked Kerwin for his business card and parted ways.

After that, I noticed that the speakers were finally coming down from the stage. The first person I introduce myself to was Bryant Hussey. I told him a bit about my back story, told him I friended him on FB, handed him my business card and told him I REALLY want to have a talk with him in the future. I told him I knew he had a flight to catch so I hoped to talk with him at a later time when he isn’t pressed to make his flight.

After that, Derek is starting to walk by and I introduced myself and complimented him on the event. I told him my situation, told him about how much studying I’ve done, told him I friended him on Facebook and practically begged him to work with me. He told me about his prior experiences with having his income wiped out, knew where I’m coming from and agreed to talk with me in the near future.

WOW! I sincerely hope that comes true. My hands are shaking as I write this at the mere thought of this happening. That will likely be a life-changing connection.

After that, I look over to find Greg Davis but he ended up having several people surround him and left by the time I had a chance to introduce myself. I look back over, compliment the other speakers and finally started my exit.

Anxiety Level: 0/10
Confidence: 10/10

Back to the Exhibit Hall

I’m riding high now. I just some industry leaders on traffic-getting and my confidence is absolutely through the roof. I feel my legs shaking a little bit as I headed to the Exhibit Hall but it wasn’t for anxiety reasons, it was from pure excitement of what just happened to me in that traffic event. I’m now in cloud 9 and feeling absolutely euphoric.

When I get to the exhibit hall, I realize what my friend (who couldn’t make the event) told me about on day three. The hall is noticeably less busy, way fewer people walking around and I quickly realize that all of the booths I skipped over because they were so busy were now all walk-up and ready to network with.

In fact, because there were so few people there, I managed to talk with several founders of their companies and had some really nice conversations. I told many of the CPA networks the truth, I’m still learning this industry but look forward to working with them in the near future. For some, this is off-putting because they are looking for experienced established people, but for others, I really got the impression that they wanted to help me out after finding out about my 10 year history in affiliate marketing.

During my rounds, Jason Hong and I happened to cross each other’s path and he said “Scott! Did you check your Twitter?” and I’m like, uhh, no? (remember my “No social media” rule I mentioned above?). He said “well, you better check it!” So I do:

Winner of the Go Pro Camera is Scott Buhler! @TygrScott congratulations. Please come by our booth to pick up your prize!

— Jason Hong (@IMH_Affiliate) January 20, 2015

Just as I thought the day couldn’t get any better, I find out as I follow Jason to his booth that I just won a GoPro! Now that I look at the tweet, I’m reminded of why I didn’t use @ScottBuehler as my Twitter handle. Nobody get’s my last name right. LOL.

Anxiety Level: 0/10
Excitement: 4,000/10

In Conclusion

What an event! It started off rough but it ended up being a complete game changer and I actually felt disappointed that it was all over. I expected to feel like “FINALLY, the nightmare has ended” but I ended up thinking “Damn, that went by way too fast and I wish I could have met more people!”

I did follow my rules about distracting myself a little too well. I only took 22 pictures but most of it was when I was with my wife and they were all my surroundings. The “Driving Massive Traffic” event was where most of my pictures were taken because it was full of people I highly respect and have watched for years. In that regard, I do apologize for not having many pictures of this event. Heck, the main picture of this post is grabbed from Jason Hong’s Twitter announcement because it wasn’t taken on my phone.

A Few Regrets

• After getting home, I started reviewing social media and realized that at one event, a guy I didn’t know, Zac Johnson, was a speaker at the “Rise of the Six Figure Blogger” event which I couldn’t attend due to my level of access. As it turns out, he was also at the dinner with SiteGround and I wish I could have connected with him. Dang it!
• I didn’t do my research about who the speakers were at the events. Had I done so, I could have better prepared myself for what the sub-topics of the event would be. Additionally, I probably would have shown up to that traffic event 30 minutes early in hopes of meeting these awesome guys before everyone else showed up. Missed opportunity there.
• Never got the chance to introduce myself to Shawn Collins. I saw him around the event at least 5 times, once in the bathroom (not gonna happen). He was either surrounded by people or I was rushing to make an appointment. It just never worked out.

The Future

I’m absolutely hooked on conferences. I’m now keeping my eye out for future events to attend. As I continue to recover from my devastating wipeout of 2013, I look forward to having enough money to attend more and more of these events.

I quickly learned that these events are all about the people and networking. Now I want to attend as many of these things as possible because you never know who you might run into and you never know if that person will have a major impact on your life.

My Seal of Approval

Whether you are new to conferences, new to affiliate marketing or you are the type that knows your industry and feel that there’s not much value in attending these things (like I did), I strongly encourage you to go. The value I got out of this Affiliate Summit event is mind-boggling and I look forward to following up with everyone I met in the near future.

Personally, I have never been more excited about my future than right now. The stuff I learned, the strategies shared with me and all the things I will learn when I reconnect with the people I met, I guarantee you, will drastically change all of the lives within my immediate family.

I can’t thank Shawn Collins and Missy Ward enough. This 5,000+ word blog post is the least I can do to show my appreciation for their event. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone I met and interacted with. Words just cannot share the massive amount of appreciation I have for what this event has and will do for my life.

If you are questioning whether to attend a future event, I implore you to go even if you don’t know anyone attending (which was my case). It just may change your life too.

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Save Over 50% Off InMotion Hosting Services

Who doesn’t enjoy saving money? On this page, you are going to learn how to save money on your InMotion Hosting business hosting order.

Below, you will find an embedded YouTube video that proves the savings just by using our ordering link when you make your purchase. Besides the actual savings and InMotion Hosting plan review, you will also learn:

• How to claim the 50% off InMotion Hosting discount offer from TopFiveAdvisor.
• The differences between the three business hosting plans they offer.
• How to choose the right plan for your needs.
• A full walk-through of the ordering process.
• How to have InMotion Hosting automatically setup your WordPress during the ordering process.

Here are the links we discuss in the above video training:

InMotion Hosting Review – This is our main featured InMotion Hosting review page where we go over the full plan offers, hosting features and more.

GoDaddy Domains – This link will take you to the current GoDaddy discount offer for the cheapest domain name registration they offer.

During the video, you’ll see me, Scott Buehler, make choices during the ordering process. Let’s take a moment to explain exactly why I made those decisions.

I chose the Launch plan. For most customers, they will not likely need more than 2 hosted websites for their shared hosting account. Unless you have a reason to believe you’ll need more, you’ll save the most by choosing this plan. Of course, if you need to upgrade at a later time, all it takes is a quick support email and they will let you know what the fees are to upgrade and activate your upgrade, typically within an hour.

I chose the 12 month prepay option. For most, you’ll want to save the most and spend the least to get your web hosting started. The cheapest plan and the cheapest payment is done by choosing the 12 month option. If you’d like to save more for a longer period of time, then feel free to choose the 24 month option. Your cost will be $83.88 instead of $47.94 by choosing the 24 month prepay option.

I skipped ordering the domain through InMotion Hosting. If you attempt to order your domain through InMotion Hosting, you’ll pay $11.99 for the first year and $14.99 for each additional year. If you go through our link to GoDaddy, your first year with your new domain is just $1.49 at the time of this writing. Your renewals will be around $14.99 but you can search the Internet for renewal discounts to get that under $9 as well.

I skipped “managed hosting” as this simply adds a lot of cost to your hosting plan ($49 for 2 hours of help) for something you won’t likely need. If you run into difficulty, you can submit a ticket to IMH and they will be very willing to help you. We wouldn’t recommend them if they required payments to get support.

I skipped McAfee Anti-Virus. For most people, if you download an email to your computer that has a virus, their current antivirus solution on their computer will clean and remove it automatically. This is an unnecessary add-on.

I chose the “Content Management System Auto-Installer option WordPress. This option will automatically install WordPress on your domain without any headaches. When you get your welcome email, you’ll have access to your WordPress installation immediately without anything required on your part other than checking that radio button during your order.

Free WordPress Training Bonus

Besides the InMotion Hosting Discount we offer, did you know that if you order your hosting through us, you’ll also get access to a premium WordPress video training series? We offer this service for $49/year but it will be your free of charge simply by ordering through our discount link. Follow the instructions below:

As always, if you have any questions about this InMotion Hosting discount or about our WordPress training, please feel free to comment below. If you don’t want us to publish your comment, let us know in the comment you write.

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The Differences Between WordPress.org and WordPress.com

One of the most frequent questions we receive in our client work is about WordPress.com versus WordPress.org. Specifically, which version do I need? Why is one better than the other? What are the pros and cons of each system? What do you recommend?

Both systems, WordPress.com and WordPress.org are confused frequently. In this WordPress guide, we will go through both systems so that you will have a full understanding of each system to help you make an informed decision about which system is right for you. We want you to feel confident in your decision so if you have any questions at all, please feel free to ask in the comments section at the bottom of this guide.

WordPress.com Overview

What is WordPress.com? The WordPress.com website is a commercial site that allows you to create and host a site for free. It includes the ability to use your own domain name, they provide the web hosting for you and they offer add-ons to enhance your experience.

If you do not have a domain name, your website will use a subdomain on the WordPress.com website similar to https://tygrscott.wordpress.com where tygrscott is your username you select during the account creation process.

WordPress.com runs on the WordPress.org software which is important to understand. The WordPress.com website is simply a hosted solution that runs the WordPress content management system, however, if you choose WordPress.com, you will be locking yourself into a set amount of themes, set amount of available plugins and no way to customize your theme PHP files to enhance your website. The system, put plainly, is locked down.

WordPress.com Premium Plans

Once you have setup your free website, you’ll notice in the backend that they have a “Store” option which includes enhancements to the free plan which you should be aware of. Most will setup their website, spend months writing content and then they will find out that they will need to pay in order to access certain features. Let’s go over these enhanced plans now:

• Free Plan: As explained, includes 3GB space, create pages, posts, links and allows comments from your users. Some pages you create may surprise you with advertisements that cost money to remove.
• WordPress.com Premium: Cost – $99/year. This plan will include a domain registration of your choice, domain mapping, removal of ads, ability to host your own videos with VideoPress, an upgrade to 10GB of space and the ability to customize the design of your chosen WordPress theme.
• WordPress.com Business: Cost – $299/year. This plan includes all of the premium features plus it enables live chat with support specialists, enables access to all 50+ premium themes sold in the store and upgrades your storage to unlimited space. Offers access to eCommerce features from Shopify or Ecwid.
• WordPress.com Enterprise: Cost – $500/month. That’s right, the isn’t per year, it’s per month. This plan allows full front-end customizations including CSS, fonts, JavaScript and more. You’ll gain access to 100+ plugins, have unlimited access to all WordPress.com themes, unlimited storage, ability to run your own advertising campaigns, choice of analytics and includes customer support.
• WordPress.com VIP: Cost Starts at $5,000/month. Enables cloud hosting, enables 200+ certified plugins, hourly backups and is intended for high traffic websites that need scalability for optimal page delivery to all visitors.

WordPress.com Conclusion

As you can clearly see, the easiest way to setup a website isn’t always the best way to go. At one point or another, you will need to upgrade your plan to enable certain features that are blocked on the free plan. Whether you need to add a domain name, remove ads, upgrade to a professional theme, or heck, customize the theme to your liking, you’ll have to dig out your wallet.

Remember, with WordPress.com, your content is subject to their Terms of Service. If they designate your content to be spammy, includes threats, uses any form of spammy links to drive traffic, they find your content misleading, your site generates content via automated methods and many other reasons, your site will get shut down.

By submitting Content to Automattic for inclusion on your Website, you grant Automattic a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting your blog. This license allows Automattic to make publicly-posted content available to third parties selected by Automattic.

The above quote is taken right from their Terms of Service as well. Your content is not under your full control like it would be if you hosted your own WordPress website. Additionally, WordPress.com includes a reblog feature that allows any WordPress.com user the ability to repost your content on their website.

WordPress.org Overview

What is WordPress.org? An open source content management system that powers 22% of the Internet now including T5A.com. WordPress.org is the website you visit to freely download the latest version of their software including installation files.

Almost all of the guides and tutorials for WordPress on TopFiveAdvisor is based on the WordPress.org software that is installed on your own web hosting provider. Many web hosts include access to an automated WordPress installer which means WordPress on your own web hosting is about as easy as WordPress.com. If you happen to have a higher quality VPS hosting service that doesn’t offer a WordPress installer, you can use our installing WordPress manually guide.

Our Recommendations

If you are just getting your feet wet, don’t care about making money from your website and just want to setup a quick personal blog, your choice is best with WordPress.com. However, considering all the fees you’ll likely face as you get more serious with your website, there may come a point where you’ll wish you started with your own hosted WordPress installation.

Therefore, for the majority of viewers who are unsure, we highly recommend starting with the solution that gives you much more freedom, far less hidden costs and you are in full control of your content. The clear winner is WordPress.org. Of course, besides your web hosting, you’ll still need a domain name from GoDaddy (that link offers you their best domain registration discount) to use with your WordPress website.

Ease of Use Factor: Whichever you choose is essentially the same as far as creating your content. Since WordPress.com uses the same software that you download from WordPress.org, you won’t have a different experience for the most part. The only difference, as we’ve discussed, is the fact that you’ll need to do additional research about which plugins and themes to use. Remember though, that research and testing is what makes WordPress.org magic because you are in full control.

Did we miss something that you love about WordPress.com or WordPress.org? Be sure to leave a comment below and let us know. Of course, please consider sharing this guide on social media (sharing options below), in email, or with a friend. We’d appreciate your support!

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How to Manually Setup WordPress in cPanel

Many people that want to start using WordPress on their web hosting account are lost because they either have a web host that doesn’t offer an automated script installer like Softaculous or Fantastico, or they have a type of hosting such as VPS Hosting where these automated systems add an unnecessary extra monthly cost to their hosting bill (especially if they are using their VPS for private use).

Below, you will find a high-definition video (1080P) that will walk you through the entire process of setting up your WordPress to work on your web host. Even if you do not have cPanel and instead have an in-house or Plesk control panel, you can use this video to guide you along.

We record our videos in full 1080P resolution. To enjoy the full experience, click the icon shown in the image to the left to maximize the video during playback.

Setting Up WordPress Manually

Below, you will find the steps to setup your WordPress manually using cPanel as explained in the video above. We like to provide a textual guide as well as video to cover both types of learning methods (we all learn differently!). I like to use the cPanel file manager to upload the files to the server because you just need to upload one file and then extract the files on the server. It ensures that all files are uploaded correctly, ensures zero corruption during the upload process and is the most fool-proof method I’ve found.

Step 1 – Download WordPress

The first thing you’ll need to do is download WordPress. From that page, click the blue “Download WordPress” button to download the latest version. Be sure to download the file to a location you can remember such as the Windows desktop.

Step 2 – Extract the Files

Windows 7 and higher include native support for zip files. You can double click the file and use the “Extract all files” button in Windows explorer or if you have software such as WinZip or WinRar, you can simply right click the zip file and extract as I show in the video.

Step 3 – Rename Config File

Now that you have the files extracted, you’ll want to rename the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php. Once renamed, open the file in a text editor such as notepad.

Step 4 – Login to cPanel / Open File Manager / Upload

Once logged in to cPanel (reference your welcome email or get hosting from our web hosting review section), you’ll want to find the button labeled “File Manager” and open that. In the popup, Start from “Web Root (public_html/www)” and click the “Go” button.

In the actual file manager, find the “Upload” button. Click that and then “Browse” to your downloaded WordPress file from step 1. You should now notice on the bottom right of the screen, a progress bar shows the file being uploaded from your computer to the server.

Step 5 – Extract the File

Once the file is uploaded, return to the file manager and click the Refresh button. Now you should see the WordPress zip file uploaded to your website. Simply right click the file and “Extract.” Follow the prompts and it will extract the file onto your server.

With the files extracted, you will be left with a “wordpress” folder with all of the files necessary to run WordPress inside. Since you will not want your website to be http://www.mywebsitehere.com/wordpress/ you will want to move these files to the main root. So, double click the wordpress folder and click the “Select All” button. Once all files are blue/selected, find the “Move File” button which will bring up a screen similar to the one above.

1. Change /public_html/wordpress to /public_html/
2. Click Move File(s).

Congrats. You have now uploaded and placed all of the files required to run WordPress on your web host! Using this method of uploading ensures that no files are corrupted or skipped because we didn’t upload each individual file separately via FTP.

Step 6 – Setup Your Database

Now we need to go back to the file we opened in our text editor from step 3. With it open, return to cPanel and find the “Databases” section and click the “MySQL Databases” button.

The screenshot to the left has been edited to only show the sections you should be looking for. Referencing this screenshot:

1. Type in a database name. Click “Create Database” and then copy and paste the full database name to your wp-config.php where it says define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘database_name_here‘);
2. Type in a username. This username is strictly for access to your database. Feel free to use the “Password Generator” to create a 16+ character encrypted password. Click the “Create a User” button. Copy the username to wp-config.php where it says define(‘DB_USER’, ‘username_here‘);. Copy the password to wp-config.php where it says define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘password_here‘);
3. Once the above 2 steps are complete, the “Add a User to a Database” fill show your username and database from above. All you need to do is click “Add” then in the next screen, click the “All Privileges” checkbox then click “Make changes.” What this does is allows your database user to fully access the database to make database changes (for which the WordPress setup process requires).

Step 7 – Add Authentication Keys and Salts

The final step to your wp-config.php editing is to add the authentication keys and salts which will help secure your WordPress installation. Go to the WordPress salt webpage and it will generate unique phrases automatically. Just copy all lines to your clipboard and replace the 8 define lines with the content in your clipboard.

Save the wp-config.php. You are done editing this file.

Step 8 – Upload wp-config.php to Server

The final step is to upload your wp-config.php file to the server. Go back to the cPanel control panel, click File Manager (location Web Root again), click Upload, click Browse, select your newly saved wp-config.php file and begin the upload.

After the file is uploaded, return to the file manager, click refresh and verify that you have a wp-config.php file located along with your other WordPress files as shown in the screenshot.

Step 9 – Setup WordPress

Now your WordPress should be ready for install. Visit your website and you should see a language selection option. Click your desired language, click the blue “Continue” button and finally, fill out the site information including Site Title, login username, login password, your email address and make sure the check box “Allow search engines to index this site” is checked. Simply click “Install WordPress” and the setup will configure your database and prepare your site for first-time use.

Step 10 – Complete!

Congratulations! Your WordPress site is now ready for use. After clicking “Install WordPress,” you’ll be taken to the WordPress Admin Dashboard where you can start configuring your website, add posts, add pages and much more. You may also visit your main website URL and verify that your site is showing default content. At the time of this review, the setup uses the default “Twenty Fifteen” theme.

In the coming weeks, months and years, we will continue creating guides to help you get the most of your new WordPress website. We’re going to show you how to change WordPress themes, add WordPress Plugins, teach you how to configure your WordPress and much more.

What would you like us to cover here? How did you like this guide? Let us know in the comment section below!

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Remote Monitoring Program Uses

The internet is a wonderful avenue to learn about new things, be updated with the latest news, getting in touch with friends and playing some online games. There are a lot of uses for the internet and our generation is lucky to have the privilege to make use of this technology. Previous generations can only dream about having the same opportunity as we all do.

Kids no longer have to spend hours finding out information from encyclopedias and other books as you can easily type in your questions and find related answers through a search engine like Google or Yahoo. The opportunities given to us are mind blowing to someone from the past. We are indeed lucky to have this technology but it’s not all opportunities and benefits that the internet has to offer. It’s also filled with dangers especially to innocent young ones and the internet can also exploit us.

Remote monitoring programs are there to help parents and employers to monitor the activities done on the computer. Knowing all the danger you can find over the internet, it is best to find a solution that will help us have that peace of mind. Learn more about Realtime-Spy, the TopFiveAdvisor Diamond award winner. Exclusively through T5A.com, you’ll save 10% instantly during your order with our Realtime-Spy coupon offer.

Family Computer Supervision

Your family’s computer would be best if safeguarded with a remote monitoring program so you can keep track of what your kids do when they use the internet. You can watch over them when you are around and inform them about the dangers of the internet but then you’re not always there to keep watch. So, the best way to go is to get a program that will do the monitoring for you.

Parents always want to keep their kids safe and knowing about the dangers of going online, you just can’t get the peace of mind knowing that your kids are going online without you by their side.

Kids are not always being honest about what they do online. Sometimes they get too curious and even though they know some websites display images that they shouldn’t be exposed to, some curious kids would try to visit them. It’s a horror for parents to know their kids do this so you shouldn’t even let this happen by blocking the sites that are off limits to them.

Kids like making new friends too. Unfortunately, not everyone they’d meet online are friendly young ones as some are predators out to victimize on innocent kids. Also, cyber bullies can victimize your child too. It is a horrible thing to experience especially for kids and teens. Don’t let your kids suffer by always being on guard and protect them the moment something raises a red flag.

Facebook and/or Twitter Monitoring

Millions of online users have their own Facebook and Twitter pages. It’s a great way to get updated about what’s going on with your friends and family. Facebook is a very popular social networking site and many are addicted to it. It’s fun to join Facebook but you also have to make intelligent decisions about what you are posting online. It can victimize people too such as with cyber bullying. Some share photos that are humiliating and it can go viral. Twitter is popular too as you can get in touch even with celebrities and athletes. You can send them tweets and they could respond to your tweets as well. It’s real time updates from all your Twitter friends thus it’s very popular. Protect your kids from harm’s way by monitoring their activities when they log in to Facebook or Twitter.

Remote Internet Recording

Remote internet recording software lets you silently observe the activities on the computer even when you’re somewhere else. It records keystrokes, take screenshots, gives you a copy of emails sent and received and so much more. It even records the history of searches online and even usernames and passwords.

The remote internet recording software requires that you send a module to that computer and the user must accept it then it will automatically install itself. It is different from spyware which is illegal remote monitoring that steals all your details such as credit card details and passwords.

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How to Remotely Monitor Employees

Having an efficient workplace is all that employers want and dream of. But, how certain are you that you have an efficient workplace? It’s hard to tell what your employees are actually doing when you’re not around. If you’ve been an employee before then you probably know that they always give the best impression when the boss is around and rejoice when the boss is gone. The most efficient employees are those who know that the boss is always watching their moves to keep them on their toes.

Many employees, if given a computer with internet access and without being monitored, would end up browsing through websites unrelated to their work, would chat with friends, browse through social networking sites, play games or even watch videos on YouTube or watch movies online. They can spend hours doing these things- hours that you are actually paying them for their time and service. If only they used this time for work, they would have provided better results. Thankfully, there are monitoring software that are known to be reliable and works on complete stealth so users won’t know when they are being monitored. One such software is the Realtime-Spy remote monitoring software. It is the best when it comes to remote monitoring as it has the complete features for this type of product for Windows operating systems.

Why Use a Remote Monitoring Software?

The question really isn’t why but why not? With a software like this installed in every PC in your computer your employees would become more productive and your company will be even safer. Without it, employees can waste company time being idle when you are paying them to work and not play. Also, without it any employee can be a traitor and leak important files and email them to another party. Just imagine how horrible it must be when this happens to you if it did not happen to you before.

Don’t wait until you end up losing a lot of money before you take action. In fact, if you haven’t taken action and installed monitoring software in the workplace yet, then you’re already left out. Many companies in the United States are already enjoying the benefits of such software and they are more efficient than before and employers have the peace of mind knowing that important data will never have the chance to be leaked out.

How Does Remote Monitoring Work?

As the term goes, it’s a way to monitor the computers remotely. For example, the top remote monitoring software Realtime-Spy lets you install the software remotely. You don’t need to be physically there to install the software. You just need to send the installer file and the user clicks it and it automatically installs. After that, the software will start running but the user won’t know when it runs and when it’s not active because it is on stealth and you can’t find it on the task manager, the registry or anywhere. Not even firewalls can disable it. It lets you spy your computers in real-time. You can check what they are doing at the moment you are monitoring, what browser they are using, what they are typing and a lot more. You can even get screenshots to see what appears on the monitor.

With Realtime-Spy you can take control of the PC as well. You can shutdown the computer or restart it as you wish. This is perfect for employers who notice computers are set on idle or have been left on after office hours. You can turn it off and save electricity.

With Realtime-Spy you can also block the use of certain applications, software and block certain websites. This will make it impossible for your employees to be tempted to visit those sites or chat with friends while at work or play games.

Interested in learning more about Realtime-Spy, see our comprehensive Realtime-Spy review!

Is it Worth the Cost?

Remote monitoring software products are not at all expensive. Considering how it’s going to help you monitor your employees and how it can give you that peace of mind especially when you’re out on vacation. Realtime-Spy for instance it’s worth $79.95 and an additional $19.95 for every additional computer. If you sum it up you’d think it’s a bit expensive but it pays off after a short time.

Just try to calculate how much you are paying your employees per day. If, for example, you pay an employee $12.00 an hour, if they normally end up wasting 2 hours a day playing online games, watching Youtube videos or going into social networking sites you’d already be saving yourself $24.00 a day from the wasted hours from each employee. Just imagine, in less than a week you’d already save up the amount you paid for the software. And the good thing about this software is that it can be used for years with no additional fees. There are other remote monitoring software that have annual fees but even that is okay because you’d still be able to save up that amount from the efficiency of your workforce because of it.

Things to Consider Before Setting up Remote Monitoring Software at Work

Before setting up the software on every computer, make sure you follow your local laws regarding invasion of privacy. Every employee must be informed early on about this move. They must be informed comprehensively about what the software can do and what they must avoid doing especially when typing in their personal usernames and passwords. The software’s keylogger can catch it and log it for your viewing and if they don’t want that to happen then they must refrain from logging in to their personal accounts while at work.

In most states, it is already implemented that computers at the workplace should not be used for personal matters and the employers have the right to disallow it. As long as you have the information about your decision out then you can go on and install the software and start monitoring.

If you suddenly installed the software without the knowledge of the employees and you use the information without their consent then you will still be liable for your actions. Use the software wisely and respectfully for the growth of your business.

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Windows Hosting VS Linux Hosting

Making a choice on what web hosting provider to choose from really depends on your needs, budget and want. There are two most popular types of web hosting and those are Windows hosting and Linux web hosting. Linux hosting had been around for many years and it was only in recent years that Windows Hosting was introduced. Slowly it is getting more and more people to make the switch.

What is Linux Hosting

Linux Hosting is the most popular type of web hosting that utilizes the server software MySQL, PHP and many others. It uses the Linux open-source operating system thus the hosting provider can offer theirs for a low price. Since Linux is free, all the updates don’t require any additional fee for licensing.

Linux Hosting can read scripts like Perl, PHP and other HTML scripts. It uses the MySQL and the PostgreSQL databases as well.

The great advantage of going for Linux website hosting is that the disk space is unlimited. That’s great for serious website designers as they are not limited with the amount of disk space they can use for each site. Also, sites run fast.

What is Windows Hosting

Windows hosting is using the Microsoft Windows Server. This hosting is powered by Microsoft so you know you are getting excellent service and ease of use. Windows is known to be a very easy to use operating system and it makes sense that the Windows Web Hosting is also quite easy to use. You don’t need to have the expert techniques of web designers just to design your own site. Windows Hosting makes it very easy for you to understand the procedure on how it’s done and you can work your way around it.

A serious web designer knows the difference between Linux Hosting and Windows Hosting thus they know when one is better than the other. There’s really no comparison between the two as they both have their own field of specialties. As for Windows Hosting, it is the best hosting solution to choose when you are in need of MSSQL, .NET, MS Access, Plesk, Windows Media Streams, FrontPage, ASP and other applications from Microsoft. If you believe your website would work best with these applications then there’s no other choice but to use Windows Hosting.
One great advantage of Windows Hosting is that it can also work with SSI, PHP and Perl. With this in mind it’s a great advantage to hosting resellers. This means that they can provide a wider option for their customers. They can use the technology that Linux can handle and they can also use the Microsoft based technologies.

Windows Hosting can run in Windows 2003 and/or in Windows 2008. It depends on the hosting provider what they offer but it’s best to always get the updated version of Microsoft Windows. It is also important to note what are the features included in the Windows Hosting so you can get the best experience possible. It’s important to note whether it features the 3 versions of ASP.Net, AJAX, IIS7, Python, SSI, Perl, PHP and many others. Get a comparison between the hosting providers you are interested in and weigh out what you actually need, how much it costs and what may seem unnecessary for your own particular requirements.

Windows Hosting vs Linux Hosting; Who is the Winner?

There are no grand criteria that will really outweigh one type of hosting from the other as both are great. The choice really is based on what the web designer needs and choosing which is best is subjective. What could be great for one may not be what the other needs.

Choose wisely. Read and learn about the hosting services and the hosting provider before making a choice. Don’t be deceived with pricing as some providers offer theirs for cheap but the services and features are limited that you’d end up paying more to add to the features.

In Summary

Here are the programming reasons for choosing Windows web hosting instead of Linux Hosting:

• MSSQL
• MS Access
• ASP.NET
• Other Microsoft Applications

If you don’t need to use any of these programming platforms, then basic shared web hosting or VPS hosting will be the solution you are looking for. Linux-based hosting is usually cheaper than Windows hosting because of the licensing requirements to use the Windows OS whereas Linux is free for hosts to use and resell. If you do need MSSQL or other Windows-based platform, then be sure to see our Windows web hosting reviews to choose the best fit for your needs.

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ASP.NET Windows Hosting Explained

What is Windows ASP.NET?

Windows developed the web application framework called ASP.NET to allow users the ability to build their own dynamic websites, web services as well as web applications. It was released with the 1.0 version back in 2002 as a successor for Microsoft ASP.

ASP.NET Comparison for Versions .NET 2.0, .NET 3.5 and .NET 4.0.

ASP.NET 2.0 Features Include:

• Supports 64-bit platform as compared to the earlier version that is only available in the 32-bit platforms.
• Support for ACL or Access Control List
• .NET Micro Framework
• Improved web controls
• CLR Features

ASP.NET 3.5 Features Include:

• The enhanced version for ASP.NET 3.0
• Uses the same CLR for ASP.NET 2.0
• .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 installed
• .NET Framework 3.0 SP1 installed
• LINQ

ASP.NET 4.0 Features Include:

• Parallel Extensions
• PLINQ
• Code Contracts Support
• Visual Basic .NET
• Entity Framework
• Windows Workflow Foundation
• Dynamic dispatch support

Why Use ASP.NET

• Building large applications would be less daunting when you are using ASP.NET whether it’s 2.0, 3.5 or 4.0
• Website development made simple
• Language Flexibility- It supports many scripts such as Microsoft C#, Visual Basic .NET, VBScript, Jscript, and many others.

Uses for ASP.NET

The .NET framework is a collection of libraries that programmers use to find the right codes in writing their software. With the use of ASP.net Windows Hosting you can easily create a website or webpage. With Windows Hosting, ASP.NET even improves the web designer’s ability to create, edit and improve the design of their sites. Since the .NET framework contains a vast number of codes that you can use for whatever purpose you need, you don’t need to start from scratch with creating your codes.

A vast number of applications can be created with the use of ASP.NET Windows Hosting. You can create a web game application, chat application or any other application you wish to add on your web page. Any Windows-based web programming can benefit from ASP.NET.

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Why an Online Backup is Important

Virtually every individual or business uses a computer presently. Each one of these computers almost always has some type critical data or information that is stored on it, which under no circumstances can be lost. This is precisely where online backup companies come into play, they provide you the means to backup your most valuable information at a location other that your own, which is extremely secure.

There are almost an unlimited number of ways that you can lose or no longer have access to the data that is stored on a computer’s hard-drive. A few of them are your hard-drive can become corrupted and you know longer can get into it, you can misplace your laptop, or your computer can be stolen, to mention only a few of them.

When any of the above happens, most individuals and business would be in a very poor situation, if they did not have that data backed-up. Online backup companies allow you to automatically schedule backups of your data whenever you want or need to, thus taking the thinking and remembering process of the equation, completely out of play.

In fact, it is possible to have access for up to 5GB of online backup space for free. While 5GB does not sound like too much, in reality it is quite substantial, and more than most people will ever require for their personal computer, if they select their backup files carefully.

Before there were online backup companies most people either used portable storage sticks, or additional hard-drives –placed within their computers to supply the backup space that they needed. While these types of devices did provide some protection, they certainly were not a perfect solution.

In many instances, the portable storage sticks were simply not large enough to hold everything on them that was required. Putting another hard-drive in your computer solved that problem, but only created another one. Which was what happened to your data if your computer was lost or stolen?

Introducing Online Backup Services

Today, there is a much better solution, and they are called online backup services. TopFiveAdvisor has conducted comprehensive reviews of what we believe to be the best company’s presently operating in this fast growing industry. We strongly recommend that you read our reviews thoroughly; since there is no doubt that you will learn a great deal about what these firms can do for you.

Each and every one of our reviews of the online backup companies points out each firm’s strengths and weakness, and leaves it up to you to decide which one will best suit your needs. Since not all individuals or businesses will have the same most important points of interest when deciding which online backup firm would be best for them, we have broken down our reviews by category.

We are firmly convinced that the online backup firms that we have reviewed are the finest ones presently operating, and without question, one of them should be exactly what you have been looking for. Our last piece of advice is this; please make sure that you select an online backup firm, even if it is not mentioned on our website, to secure your most important data and information permanently.