123-reg.co.uk

As our sister site highlighted at the start of the year, cloud technology is changing the way we lead our everyday lives but many aren’t even aware the are using it. Now with the launch of 123-reg Cloud Servers we are changing the way you do business too.

Imagine the flexibility of VPS coupled with the performance and power of a dedicated server. That is what 123-reg Cloud Servers offer and much more too. Taking advantage of a state-of-the-art virtualisation platform, Cloud Servers benefit from dedicated CPUs, RAM and and hard disk drives. All meaning increased performance, less bottle-necking and flexibility to upgraade without complicated and time-consuming manual migrations.

123-reg Cloud Servers provide dedicated resources but at an affordable price with unmetered data transfer. Allowing you to host multiple websites, install your chosen OS and handle virtually everything you throw at it.

Our Cloud Server range has been designed to be accessible for all to afford but just to help you even more, we’re launching with a special introductory offer – Order NOW with voucher code cloud2013 and we’ll even waive the usual set-up fee. Offer ends 30th June 2013.

So if you looking for a cost effective hosting solution with near dedicated server performance our Cloud Servers range are here to change the way you do cloud and change the way you do business.

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I remember when I first started with my own website.  I hardly knew any code so how was I supposed to build a website from scratch? Sure, I had some friends that were doing web design and programming, but I couldn’t ask them to do it for free because I knew this takes time and they had their own jobs and paid projects.

I was seeing all these beautifully designed websites everywhere on the Internet and of course I was wondering: do all these people know web design and code? If not, then they must have paid a fortune to build it. Not long after I tried an online website builder for the first time, just for the fun of it, and I loved how easy it was to use.

Why it’s better than a desktop app?

Unlike desktop based apps, with the website builder from 123-reg there is no software to download, no programs to install, just a simple application that can help you build your website online from scratch, exactly the way you’ve imagined it.

The best thing about working with online tools is that you can build your site and edit it anytime and no matter where you are. Everything is online so you don’t need to use the same computer as you would with a desktop tool that requires you to install the software and only use it from the PC where you installed it.

There’s no such thing as the perfect template. Wrong!

While you can get a free template online to use it for your new site, chances are you’ll never be able to find the perfect one that needs no alteration, which means you have to have some programming skills. There’s always something you want to change: a text box, a font, the header or the footer, the background image, etc.

Also, the most common complaint about free templates is that they feel “template-ish”.  Who knows how many other sites are already using it? You probably want a template that’s unique and that no other site is using, right?

When you use the online website builder from 123-reg, you can create your website starting with a classy or professional pre-made template (we have over 100 templates to choose from!) and then decide what you’d like to add to it and where.

Maybe you want three text boxes at the middle, each with an image above to make it more attractive.  All you need to do is drag’n’drop those text and image boxes onto your template. You can resize them to any size you’d like and add the content right then and there. Then just hit “Publish”.

Customising your website’s design

You can always go back and rearrange the elements or change whatever doesn’t look right – images, fonts, text – and your site will be updated instantly.  It’s just a matter of dragging and dropping elements on the page and that takes seconds.

With the website builder from 123-reg you also have the options to add all types of forms to allow your customers to contact you or leave a feedback.

Most of us never thought we would be able to build our own websites without the help of a web designer or a programmer but with the online website builder from 123-reg, web building is so easy that anyone can do it.  Go to our site, sign up for an account and try our website builder for free for 14 days.

What was your first website building experience like? Did you need any help?

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When I’m a fan of a website, whether it’s an online clothing shop, a travel agency or a restaurant, I usually become a fan on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. I think that’s what we all do so we can engage with them and to ensure we don’t miss any of their offers.

Everything is moving toward social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and many others so it’s only normal to add them to your site to let your visitors and customers know where they can find you online. When you’re building your site, whether it’s a personal site, an e-shop or a presentation site, integrating widgets into your site is very important.

Let’s look at a few reasons why you need to add 3^rd party widgets to your site and how easy you can do that.

Help your customers find you

Whether you’re a lawyer or you own a shop or run a coffee shop, people need to know where they can find you. Adding a Google Maps widget on your site is the easiest way to give them directions, rather than writing your address in plain text.  People are looking for directions from a specific location and with Google Maps they can see exactly what route to take to get to you.

For instance, last week I was looking up directions to a hotel in Berlin that I booked for this month. As I’ve never been to Berlin before, I was having trouble finding their address based on the limited directions offered on their site. No step-by-step instructions from the airport, just an address.

When you add a Google widget on your site, it makes it easier for your customers to find you as they can see exactly how they can get to your location. When you’re building your site with the easy website builder from 123-reg, you simply need to drag’n’drop the Google Maps widget on to your template and add a line of code from Google Maps to show you location.

Engage openly and ask for feedback

Most every company in the world is using Facebook, Twitter and many more social networks to interact with their customers and to also attract new customers. You can also use these networks to ask for feedback from your customers and encourage them to share their opinions on the products or services that you’re selling. It’s the easiest way to communicate with your clients and find out first-hand what they think about your products and what you can do to improve them.

Your customers’ testimonials are seen as recommendations and that’s why so many companies or brands have included social networks into their marketing strategies.

With our easy website builder, you can add these widgets to your site by simply draggin’n’dropping them from the Social tab on the left menu onto your template.

Find out where your customers are spending their time online and add widgets for those social networks on your site so they know where to find you online.

Show how your product works

YouTube is such an amazing tool to grow your business. There are so many things you can do with it to connect with customers, promote your products, share your knowledge and show off your expertise.

You can upload videos, testimonials from your customers to add to your credibility, promote events, share a tour of your office and many more. So, why not also add a YouTube widget on your site?

If you’re a fan of Flickr, you can also add a Flickr widget to your site so your visitors can see your photos directly on your site, without having to visit your Flickr account. Add pictures of your office, your team or show how your product works.

You can do all this and more with our easy website builder. Not only can you build a new website from scratch with little to no programming skills, but you can also create a more engaging experience for your visitors. We’re offering a 14-days free trials so you can see for yourself how easy it is to build a great website that you visitors will come to love.

What other widgets are you using on your site?

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How can you build an online business from scratch without spending loads?

In the past you may have needed a whole team of people to help you design and code your site, but now there are easier and cheaper solutions that can help you build your site from scratch even if you don’t know any code.  These days, it’s so easy to start an online business even with a small budget.

With an all-in-one website builder not only do you get to create your new site by yourself, with no outside help needed, but you can create it exactly as you’ve imagined it.

Getting started with the all-in-one website builder

When you get the website builder from 123-reg it comes with everything you need to get your site online. You can register a free domain name for your site and also get plenty of web space to host your personal or business site online. Our packages are designed to ensure you have enough space for your site, whether you’re building an online portfolio or an e-shop. Now that you have your domain and hosting in order, you can start building your site.

Customising your website

With a website builder you get to design your site the way you want with no extra help and for a lot less.

Think about it. Hiring web designers and web programmers is expensive, not to mention time-consuming.  You need to review examples of templates, choose one and then if there’s something you want to change, it may take days or even weeks until they’re completed. If you’re a perfectionist and have already an image in mind of how you want your site to look like then why not create it yourself?

Choosing a template

Our website builder allows you customise your site easily. Choose a template from our wide collection of pre-made templates and then customise it as you see fit so your site is unique and doesn’t resemble any other site on the Internet.

Drag’n’drop elements

You can change anything from background images to header, footer, colour schemes and text fonts.

From the menu on the left, you can choose to add everything from text and images, site search, navigation menus, slideshows, videos and more. Simply drag and drop them onto your template and then move them around to where you think they would fit best. The great thing about it is that you don’t need any technical knowledge to build and design your site from scratch.

You can even add a carousel gallery at the top of your homepage to showcase your products and special offers. To do that, simply go to Widgets on the right menu and drag and drop the Carousel onto your page anywhere you want.

Using a carousel can help make your site look more dynamic and interactive. Check out this simple example of how you can implement the carousel into your new site.

You can add as many as 5 pages with our Personal package and it’s more than enough if you need to create an online portfolio or a presentation site. However, if you want to build an ecommerce site, the Business package allows you to add an unlimited number of pages so that you can create various pages to present your products.

You will also be able to add ‘Google Add to Cart’ or ‘PayPal Buy Now’ buttons on each page to allow your visitors to buy products directly from your site. Take a look at our customers’ sites to see how they’ve used our website builder to create their site from scratch.

Another great thing about using our all-in-one website builder is that you can add widgets to your site to enrich your visitors’ experience on your site. You can easily integrate Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Google Maps to let your customers know where they can find you online and offline.

Getting visitors to your new site

Optimising your site is very important as it will help Google and other search engines show your site in search results and people will find your site faster.  Our website builder allows you to optimise your site for search engines easily.

Click on the Manage tab (1) to set the title and description (2) for your site that will appear in search results. Click Save settings (3) when you are finished.  You can do this for every page of your site.

URLs are also a very important part of the optimisation process.  With our website builder you can control how your URLs look. When you create a new page you’ll be given the options to give a title and page URL for your webpage so include the appropriate ones to help you with your SEO. Find out more about the value of URLs.

If you go to Manage and click on My Site you will see that you can also add the Google Analytics code for your site so you can track your site’s performance directly from your Website Builder account in 123-reg.

This makes it so much easier for you as you won’t have to access the source code and add the Google Analytics code to every page on your site.

As you can see, the all-in-one website builder from 123-reg provides you with everything you need to build your website from scratch easily and without spending loads. So, why not give it a try? Sign up now and try it out free for 14 days.

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When it’s a fully functioning website.

Image courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net

The concept of blog hosting should be taken as a mere description of the tools available at your disposal and not the content you are going to use it for.

Yes, WordPress and the like were designed to primarily host blogs and they do that very well, but it is also a great engine to drive almost any type of site.

With 123-apps you have several choices of blog hosting free with your shared hosting package and here are six ways you could use your blog hosting to good effect:

1. Campaign website

If you need a stand-alone site for a one-off campaign quickly and effectively, a blog back-end is the perfect way of ensuring a professional looking website with the minimum of fuss.

2. Online store

Of course there are other more advances options like our eshop offerings but your blog engine with some nifty plugins (most are free) can very easily become a working shop for you. You don’t need high level programming expertise and you don’t need to spend hours trawling through help guides. Using a blog engine and ecommerce plug-ins is usually intuitive and you can produce a very respectable shopfront and link that to payment sites such as PayPal to turn it into a full working shop.

3. Community site

If you are involved in a local club, society or organisation the chances are the majority of people you are dealing with have a very limited techie knowledge but ideally you would want them to be updating the website. With a blog engine that is possible. If people can point, click and type, they can use a blog engine to update content.

4. Portfolio

We all have things we like to show off and if time and money are tight, using your blog to host that is the perfect idea. Using plugins, almost every type of content (written, drawn, photographed, on video, in audio, sculptured, etc) can be presented, promoted and archived. Plus if you fancy writing a bit about yourself, blogs are perfect for those About Us pages.

5. Online News site or Magazine

The Huffingon Post, Mashable, TechCrunch; all blog driven and all rather successful. Blog engines offer the ability to prepare articles ahead of publication, schedule them even update them once live. You can include dynamic content from Twitter, RSS feeds etc and very soon have a dynamic news channel up and running.

6. A traditional static website

Dynamic content is great most of the time, but sometimes something like an online business card or brochure is all that is required and while blogs can also help provide dynamic sites, their great forte is being at the heart of a clean, simple, informative site.

If you’ve got a 123-reg shared web hosting package, you’ve got blog hosting included free, so make sure you are making the most of it. Quick, easy and very flexible it is probably one of the most powerful tools that people on almost any level of web design expertise have at their disposal.

What’s the most unusual use you have employed for blog hosting?

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How building a wedding website can help you to save time and money

Summer is right around the corner and with hopefully warmer weather coming it also brings on the wedding season. Getting married is one of the most important and happiest moments in life, but the actual planning can be a hassle. There are so many things to take care of starting from the dress, the band, the flowers, the photographer and so many other details that cannot be ignored.

Back in the day, the bride and groom would get their pens and paper and write down all the details, from budgets, reminders, dates to phone numbers for various vendors. Nowadays it is so much easier to plan a wedding or, as we say, there’s an app for that as well.

The easiest way to plan a wedding is online. Most of your friends and family are already online so what better place to put your wedding together than on the Internet? Your wedding website will provide your guests with the information they need, such as the wedding schedule, directions to the venue, travel arrangements etc.  Furthermore if you have a gift list you can also link to this – making it easier for people to get organized.

So, here are a few simple steps to help you to build your wedding website:

Step 1 – Create a website

Register a domain name personalised to your wedding – so it’s instantly recognized as yours. You can build a site quickly and cheaply – you can even use our easy to use website builder if you don’t have the time or the skills to build it completely from scratch.

Step 2 – Use collaborative tools for planning

You want to have all your wedding information in one place, easy to access no matter where you are. To do that, you can use Google Docs, Dropbox or Google Tasks to manage the things on your to do lists.

Step 3 – Invites

Getting printed paper invitations and save the date cards can be very expensive. So, why not save money, and be eco friendly by saving paper as well.  Create them online , email them out and  then link Google Form to your website to allow people to RSVP.

Step 4- Registries

All major retailers offer gift list services – so it will be very easy to link to them and share your reference details saving your guests time and giving them more time to shop!

Step 5 – Photography

Search online for the photographers you like or go through online portfolios and pick the one you think would fit you perfectly. Once you get your digital wedding photos, you can easily create an album on your site and upload them for anyone to see. You can do the same with the videos taken at your wedding.

Anyone else got any good tips on what to do to help build your perfect wedding website? 

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When building a site, people focus mainly on choosing a catchy domain name and on designing a nice look for it. Deciding what type of hosting a site needs seems to be less important, although it should be a priority.

Most people, when choosing a hosting plan, go with either shared or dedicated hosting. However, there is also a cheap alternative– and this is VPS hosting or Virtual Private Servers hosting. VPS hosting offers similar benefits to those of a dedicated server, but unlike it, it’s a cheaper solution to host multiple sites on a server. On top of that, it’s more flexible and secure.

Thinking of switching to VPS hosting? Here are 6 reasons to help you decide:

1. It’s scalable, handling heavy traffic easier than shared hosting

Although VPS share the resources on a server, each Virtual Private Server is private and independent from one another. It’s scalable which means that if your site receives a lot of visitors (more than usual) between 5PM-7PM for instance, the VPS frees up resources so your site performs as smoothly as possible, with no downtime.

2. It’s flexible, allowing your site to grow

VPS hosting is perfect for those sites that are constantly growing. That’s because, unlike shared or dedicated hosting, VPS hosting is more flexible. You are not forced to share server resources with other site owners, making these resources easier to access and manage.

3. Ideal for e-commerce sites

Virtual private servers are the perfect hosting solution for e-commerce sites because no matter how much they grow, the server will accommodate to the change. For shopping sites, VPS hosting means more space and resources that are easier to access.

4. It’s more budget friendly than dedicated or shared hosting

VPS hosting is a cheaper alternative to dedicated or shared hosting, however each VPS owners has its own private space and resources. It’s like having your own servers, minus the extra costs. So, if you’re on a budget, hosting your site on a VPS is the way to go.

5. Full control over your VPS

This is one of the strong points of a Virtual Private Server. Unlike shared hosting, where you can’t access a lot of features, with VPS hosting you can easily modify your VPS specs or install new software via the control panel, whenever you need to.

6. One of the most secure hosting platforms

VPS hosting is one of the most secure hosting platforms currently available on the web, considering each user’s files and installed software is private and secure, preventing hacker attacks.

All things considered, VPS is the perfect hosting solution if you want to save money yet still allow your visitors to enjoy the benefits of a fast-loading site. So why not start now with our new VPS hosting solution from 123-reg? It starts at £9.99 a month but you can choose to configure your VPS freely to fit your needs.

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This week, Joomla announced that its open source content management system has passed the 25 million download mark.

Joomla claims some 2.7 percent of the web runs Joomla and it is not just being used by small businesses or start-ups looking for a cheap alternative. The modular appeal and proven stability means it has been used for the backend management of websites for brands including McDonald’s, eBay and Ikea.

The Joomla community has thrived over the years, with apparent competitors offering support, help and technical know-how to one another in traditional internet style. Over 225,000 developers are now registered at the joomlacode.org site where developers are encouraged to contribute directly to the development of the core Joomla codebase. Meanwhile, Joomla developer communities exist in almost every nook and cranny of the web on forums and blogging networks.

Joomla’s announcement included a rider – it may be even more than 25 million downloads. Although first released in 2005, Joomla admits it only started tracking the number of downloads for its CMS system in 2007.

You can of course build your own Joomla-based site with 123-reg web-hosting with Joomla available as one of the free to install 123-apps, 25 million others can’t be wrong.

Have you built your site with Joomla? We’d love to hear from you. Is Joomla capable of running a full corporate site?

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WordPress 3.2 or ‘Gershwin’ as it has being titled, is here, with over 330,000 downloading  the upgrade in the first 24 hours (Have you upgraded your version?) but owners Automatic  who have been promoting it as ‘lighter and faster’ haven’t been as vocal about how it may affect a blogs user base.

While 3.2 brings new features there a few things you may want to know before you hit the upgrade button.

The new default theme ‘Twenty Eleven’ is a powerful HTML5 contribution designed to keep WordPress powered sites looking cutting-edge and there is also a full-screen writing mode to allow you to convetrate on writing not links or functions around.

Yet, while looks have been improved along with capabilities, some of the back-end changes have cut compatibility dramatically. In version 3.2, WordPress no longer supports PHP4, nor versions of MySQL prior to 5.0, plus, if you are using Internet Explorer 6.0 you’ve had it, as you can no longer use the admin console.

That’s an interesting decision given that many bloggers are some of the most die-hard committed to tried and trusted software and operating systems, but I guess the reasoning is if users haven’t upgraded their browser they are not likely to be upgrading their WordPress install either.

Have you tried 3.2? What are your thoughts?

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Our support team deals with a whole variety of questions from customers. We’ve probably covered every conceivable query at some point, from changing where a domain name points and managing web hosting to getting going with a dedicated server.

We track every customer query to make sure we’re providing a good service – and we also use the information to determine what we should provide on our support site. We’re always working to improve it, so it’s the best place to go when you have a question about your 123-reg services. Chances are, the answer’s in there.

We’ve trawled back through recent support queries to identify the top questions we get asked. And the result makes for interesting reading – these four items clearly stand out:

1. “How do I make my domain name point at my website?” We get loads of variations on this question. It usually boils down to some confusion over the domain name server (DNS) settings for a domain name. These determine where a domain name points to, so it’s important you set them up correctly. And frankly, when changing them involves entering confusing strings of numbers, it’s hardly surprising people get confused. We explained how DNS works a while back, and there’s also a handy downloadable DNS guide on the support site.
    
2. “How do I set my email up?” Again, we get lots of versions of this question. Once you’ve purchased email from 123-reg, there are several ways to set it up. You can use our webmail service to log in directly from your internet browser. You can set up your email software – like Microsoft Outlook – to check for new messages. You can even get them on your mobile phone! If you’re struggling with the options, check out the step-by-step email guide on our support site. It’ll set you on the right track. We also have email video guides about getting started and setting up your email software.
    
3. “I’ve forgotten my password.” This one happens to all of us at some point. But you can probably fix it yourself, without having to contact us. Just go to our lost login page and enter either your email address, 123-reg username, or a domain name that you have registered with us. We’ll send you an email containing a link to reset your password. If you need us to send the details to an alternative email address, we can do that too – just follow the instructions on the lost login page too.
    
4. “I used to own a domain name – how do I get it back?” Many customers have questions about domain name ownership. Perhaps they’ve allowed their domain name to expire and want to get it back, want to know how they can register a domain that’s owned by someone else, or want to get in touch with a domain name’s current owner. The answers to these ones are simple: if you already own a domain and want to keep it, use autorenewal to make sure it doesn’t expire. And if you want to buy a domain that’s owned by someone else, you need to contact them. Try using a WHOIS tool to find the owners. There’s more about ownership in our domain name support guides too.

Do you have a question about your 123-reg services? Search our support site now for the answer.

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