I spent the morning with the printer guy from Allied Business Solutions, Boise, Idaho. I considered not naming the company; after all, I’m not a hater, but I am a dissatisfied customer. Not that the printer guy today didn’t do all he could do to help because he did; he did his part.

My frustrations go back almost three years when one of the companies that I contract with decided that I needed access to commercial printer. It seemed like a break-even financial decision at the time. What they didn’t count on was the fact that the printer was really too big for our needs, our space, and three years later, our budget. Most of all, they didn’t realize that the leasing agent, “Mr. Trust Me,” was not trustworthy.

Three tips today: 1) Don’t oversell. 2) Don’t over-buy. 3) ‘Trust me’ should raise a red flag.

I’ll start with number 3: Mr. Trust Me was related to someone who had the ability to make decisions in our organization. He professed to know all about our needs and how to provide the best solution. He outright lied about the cost and features and once the product was delivered, it was out of his hands and into the service and fulfillment department. They drug out, feigned ignorance, and declared problems solved when they weren’t. Two problems identified within the first thirty days still exist today. I work around them.

On to number 2: The printer was not in sync with our needs or market trends. Our company prints at a commercial pace twice per year. The thought was with the printer, they might print more. In the advancing world of technology and environmental awareness, who prints more? That was not a reasonable expectation and I’m sort of embarrassed to have been a part of it.

At the end of the day, the problem truly rests in number 1: Whether it is the fault of consumer or the seller, the company oversold. Furthermore, when they fully understood that their salesman had taken advantage of a customer, they did nothing to fix the problem. A different printer with fewer features would have made everyone happy. What happened to customer service?

I decided to use this story today to highlight something that I believe is great about online technology, specifically webhosting providers: scalability. You don’t have to purchase big in the beginning. You can choose features that meet your needs today and add more and different features when you discover you need them tomorrow.

It is stories like this that make me realize there is more value in the Kindle, iPad, reader and Smartphone technology. Let’s stop printing. Use your websites, blogs and networking capabilities to learn and grow instead.

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I’ve talked about Twitter a lot here, but something I don’t think I have ever mentioned is when I first started getting serious about my Twitter stream last year and looking for the right people to follow, I stumbled onto some people who were hosting their own internet radio shows. Some would use a talk format and others would broadcast music much like a radio station. All offered ways to interact with the listener by email, Twitter and other instant messaging services. I will tell you, at first I thought how lame.

It wasn’t the technology that was lame – not at all! But rather the folks seemed to be broadcasting into virtual nothingness. If there was no interaction from the audience or listeners, how would you know if anyone was listening?

And that is just the point, I guess as with any social media tool, the user has to generate a following in order to be social; in order to be heard.

So knowing I can host a membership website or blog where I can write and espouse my views, and I can take videos of my presentations and upload them to YouTube so that you can see me at your leisure, my next step to ruling the world might very well be my own radio show. Imagine mellow music, interspersed with dialogue leading into rock, more talk and then slowing down with some soft rhythm and blues. Music soothes the savage beast. Music awakens our senses. Music is in the background of every story.

So I think my next step into the social media world will be a Shoutcast Server. With a Shoutcast Hosting Server, I can broadcast one audio stream from my office PC to the Shoutcast Server hosted on a high bandwidth connection. It will relay the audio then to any clients connected.

Sounds simple enough, but what makes it work? MP3 technology is what drives the system. Aha! Now I’m beginning to understand the process even better. Please take a look at Shoutcast Server Hosting from 24Shells and you’ll understand why you need to connect too.

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Crazy question: can you believe that stores are gearing up for back-to-school drives? That means that summer is almost half over and in about 30 to 40 days, students will return to their educational pursuits. However I believe with the ubiquitous internet, students today never stop learning. They no longer take a summer hiatus because they are constantly connected to news, games, and friends via their telephones, computers and even their Wii or Playstation video games.

What does this have to do with webhosting plans? Plenty! I was reading a study recently about students that will enter college in 2010. According to the Beloit College Student Mindset List, those entering college this summer have never known a world without the internet. When the real world was too much, these students have always had the opportunity to retreat into a virtual world.

That tells me that businesses have to be online. Schools should be online. Friends will be online. Most of all, young adults will be online both as end users and creators. They will create their own networks, write their own blogs, and many will develop their own online businesses even if it is only used to enhance their products they are selling on eBay to raise enough money for tuition.

Students are in essence a target market. They are a target market with expanded knowledge, defined needs and limited budgets. They are tech-savvy. As a webhosting provider, 24Shells is ready to meet their needs. Take a look at the affordable webhosting plans, scalability with VPS hosting plans and even the ability to be an entrepreneur with reseller hosting plans.

What a great way to put yourself through college and build your résumé at the same time.

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I am traveling again this week and that gives me the opportunity to log-in to my different online accounts from many different places. I have to say that I am somewhat in awe of the people who travel for a living and use their technology without incident. It always seems that I have at least one workaround every time I stay at a new hotel.

My thoughts today are about that invisible network backbone that allows us to be mobile and those patient tech support gurus that help us through our trials. I cannot emphasize how important your web hosting provider’s customer service department is to the success of your online business.

Web hosting providers serve businesses of all sizes from one-person entities to businesses with thousands of employees. Web hosting providers also serve individuals often with similar needs. The difference between the customer, from small business to enterprise, or one person to many is that the small business owner or individual doesn’t usually have an IT department to fall back on and therefore, their support needs vary.

I am usually pretty self-reliant. As I said in the first paragraph, I can workaround most situations, but just knowing that tech support is there when I need it is comforting. Better still, knowing that it is free with my webhosting plan provides an extra layer of comfort. Best yet, knowing that my webhosting provider has a redundant layer of support above them that keeps the entire system functioning at top rate gives me a sense of security.

Secure, with 99.9% uptime and great customer service. Don’t accept anything less from your webhosting provider.

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Every small business has one and if they don’t then they are looking for one. What is it? A website. The sad truth is, the smaller the business, the smaller the budget and that creates more need for the business owner to be a jack-of–all-trades including website designer, webmaster, copywriter and more. This post is to help identify some of the beginning tasks that your webhosting provider can do for you to help you get started on your way to a successful internet presence. It will also outline some next steps for you to take to make your online business successful.

Let’s begin with what will my webhosting provider do for me?

1) Your webhosting provider will help you register your domain name. No need to go to another site and in fact, it is easier to allow your webhosting provider to do so. That way you will avoid unnecessary transfer time.
2) Your webhosting provider will offer various hosting packages. A beginner package will most likely have a free website design template or starter package that gets you online in a day or perhaps even a matter of hours.
3) Your webhosting provider will provide technical advice. This includes learning about FTP, DNS, and other acronyms that are commonly used when publishing online.
4) Your webhosting provider provides the server where your website resides and serves as an intermediary between your business and the “cloud.”
5) Your webhosting provider will facilitate your email accounts with your personal domain name.

Let’s move on to what do I need to know to get started?

1) Choose your domain name before you sit down to register it. Give this serous thought; your domain name becomes your online sign. Choose something that resonates with the customers that you want to attract and is self explanatory to all others.
2) Decide what you hope to do with your website. Some websites sell, others provide directions or information. This is an important part of your business plan.
3) Research keywords associated with your business. Practice writing what your business is about in 100 words or less using those keywords.
4) Prepare the content of your basic pages. Know what your home page and about us page will say. Most starter websites have five pages: Home; About Us; Products; Services; and Contact Us. Some will have only three pages. All will allow you to expand, at a price.
5) Be ready and open to learn. Website design is simple and if you spend a lot of time online, it is almost second nature.

Let’s end with what comes next?

Content and Search Engine Optimization: What you say on your website and how you say it is important. Your webhosting provider will help you get started with your initial directory listings. Google and Yahoo and other search engines will be made aware that you are there, but it is up to you to write dynamic content that is search engine friendly.

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I was travelling yesterday as President Obama was accepting the resignation of General Stanley McChrystal and instead of watching the scene roll out on CNN and internet sites replete with Twitter commentary; I had to hear about it on the radio. I find it rather odd that two years ago that would not have even seemed unusual to me, but off and on throughout the day I found myself wondering about the opinions of others that I have included in my online social circle.

At the end of the day, when I opened my Facebook and Twitter streams only to find venom and hate against our President, I was glad that I was not included in those discussions. I would have surely responded with a different view, entering into an argument that wasn’t mine to win.

And that is both the beauty and challenge of our omnipresent social media. Traditional websites have blossomed to include social media streams discussing their brand and products ad infinitum. I like it on most days. But I like the old way too, when my opinion was truly my unencumbered opinion, not shaped by others who liked or disliked something before me.

So how does the traditional website owner embrace social media in a way that allows their customer to feel empowered in their choices? Should they limit comments on their website? Should they allow comments at all?

It’s a tough call and that is why for traditional businesses, I favor using both a website and a blog. The website allows the company to offer its product and services in their voice. The blog allows opinions of salespersons, communications staff and customers to be heard. A website and a blog offer the prospective buyer the best of both worlds. Your best webhosting solution will allow you to integrate the blog into the website. Those who want to participate will jump to that page, read and comment without disturbing the flow.

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