Jude’s Eclectic Resources

New people starting on the Internet seek information from other webmasters all the time about how to make money online, how to set up a blog or website and should I use free webhosting or should I pay for it? I personally think you should pay for it especially if you are going to start a business because it looks more professional.

I know people that have used free webhosting and had so much traffic that they used up their allotted bandwidth and lost many sales because visitors couldn’t view their website for a certain period of time. As far as I’m concerned I wont buy anything from anyone that uses free webhosting. Of course it doesn’t bother some people, but I want to make sure it’s a professional site and my information is going to be safe.

Web Hosting Geeks can help you decide which web hosting is right for you because they find different webhosting companies and compare and rate them and not only that you can read other webhosting users reviews . Go read for your self what other people just like you and I have to say about a company before you use them.

It could save you a lot of time and expense if you know how a company performs before hand. I find that reviews are very useful if I’m undecided about something. If you’re a newbie you’ll like Webhosting Geeks because they have a lot of useful information all in one spot that will save you a lot of time searching. So go over and read the reviews before you make that important decision.

Visit Shop Shield® and find out how you can protect yourself online when making all those purchases with your credit card. More and more people are shopping online many places accept paypal, but not all and believe it or not lots of people don’t have verified accounts with paypal and don’t use it at all. This service is free for the time being and I just signed up for the beta testing.

It was simple to register and I also made sure I checked the VeriSign and Trustwave emblems at the bottom to verify that this site was secure and they are. So I now give my trust to this site. How many of you use your credit card and never click those emblems at the bottom? Just because you see an emblem doesn’t mean that it is authentic, make sure you click and verify before giving any personal information.

I’m convinced just from reading the site and information that is provided that this will be a very successful service for many and I know I worry often when I use my card, but with Shop Shield the information on my card never goes directly to the merchant that I am purchasing from. They encrypt  everything on my card so no one will have access to any pertinent information. Make sure you read their Faq page.

Learn More more about the beta testing and watch the short video below. If you’re concerned with identity theft then you may want to check this out for yourself. They aren’t beta testing the security of the program because that part has already passed and that’s why they are willing to open it to the public so they can make sure everyone has a smooth shopping experience and can enjoy peace of mind about their identity being stolen. 

I was going to use David’s Wordpress plugin for the EC widget to pop up to the middle top of my screen, but I’ve decided against it since my widget is fairly easy to find and not very far down, but it seems pretty cool and makes it very convenient for droppers.

I do think it’s a great plugin and a great idea. I have noticed quite a few blogs that are using it. I was able to close it on David’s blog, but when I tried to close it on a couple other blogs it stayed where it was so it might have just been my browser on those couple of occassions.

If you want to find out more about this Entrecard popup plugin and see it in action then please visit David’s blog where you can download and try it for yourself. I believe it only pops up for other people that use Entrecard and will stay where it is when regular visitors are there.

I just tried the link above and I wasn’t signed into Entrecard so it didn’t pop up. It stayed right where David had it on the sidebar. That really is a great idea and I’m sure droppers will be so happy they don’t have to track down that widget that they may even stay longer, who knows?

Todd Davis, the CEO of Lifelock was on CNNMoney a while back and he was discussing the ongoing lawsuit between Lifelock and Experian. Of course everyone knows that Experian is suing Lifelock because of all the fraud alerts that are being issued on their customers behalf and Experian claims that they are acting in a fraudulent manor, but when you sign up and pay $10. a month, you are in fact giving them permission to act on your behalf.

The lawsuit claims that it’s illegal under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and says that only the individual concerned can request the fraud alert Or (make sure you read the next part) an individual acting on behalf of the consumer. That is exactly what Lifelock is doing acting on the clients behalf, but Experian claims they are misrepresenting themselves as the actual consumer.

Experian doesn’t want to shell out money every time a fraud alert is posted to your account and yes we can file these reports for free ourselves, but who really remembers and takes the time? Most of the services that Lifelock supplies, we can do for ourselves for free, but who really takes the time to put a stop to junk mail and send for your free credit report once a year? I know I’m allowed a free credit report, but I have never sent for it.

I personally appreciate the fact that Lifelock is not backing down because I think Credit Bureaus suck and they are allowed to sale our information for profit. I don’t want my information available to companies unless I’m the one that okays it. I personally think Experian is ticked off because with the services of a company like Lifelock they help put a limit on personal information that is being sold and that’s cutting into Experians profit.

I will be very curious to see the outcome, Davis refers to David and Goliath and hopefully the outcome will be the same. Many people hate credit bureaus and have had to jump through hoops to get their records cleaned up and that’s a shame, but with someone out there able and ready to help like lifelock and make life a little more convenient for 110 dollars a year then it’s no wonder over 700,000 people have a little peace of mind.

I keep threatening to change my website hosting because lately for whatever reason they have been going down when I’m right in the middle of something and I can’t access my blogs. I get so upset with my own stupidity when I haven’t saved a post I’m working on before it goes. I know I should type it on my PC then transfer, but I’ve been taking my chances that it will hold up. I have put in several tickets in the past year and used the technical chatbox several times.

On occasion I check out other web site hosting packages to see if I can find a better deal and the link above belongs to Network Solutions. It never hurts to compare and you can check them yourself if your dissatisfied with your servers. They cost a little more than mine, but if you sign an annual contract you can pay by the month instead of one lump sum that isn’t always convenient to pay. They have 3 different packages, standard, advanced and pro, you can check those for yourself. They also promise 99.9 up time.

I always check out the about page because I like to know the company history , like how long they have been in business and who owns them and how they can be reached. I was impressed that they have been in the technology field for 29 years and online since the beginning and Network Solutions received a grant to develop the Internets domain name registration service, they were the only one till 1999 then competition set in, competition is a good thing I don’t like monopolies.

They won ”The Editor’s Choice Web Host Award” in Sept. and would like to win again this month and from all accounts judging from the testimonials and the great grade they received the last time from FindMyHost (of course I had to go over and read about that) for their customer service, value, and security and data recovery services they will probably win again. All web hosting companies are tested and apparently this company was the best of the best. I certainly didn’t see mine there so I will keep this on my option list.