Additive manufacturing (AM) known as 3-D printing or Direct Digital Manufacturing (DDM) makes teleporting a reality. Not people yet, but soon– though at best it would only be a copy.

BAM (Biomedical Additive Manufacturing) however, is a reality, and according to a recent  University of Texas  publication, real meat AM organs are projected to arrive in under 15 years. Had they arrived a little sooner, Steve Jobs could have printed himself the liver he needed. Already, AM hips, joints and artificial limbs are digitally manufactured and successfully installed in and on people.

The manufacturing of the humanoid is inescapable since the same printing machine could make lunar landing gear components and hip acetabula indiscriminately. Materials including titanium and multiple varieties of polymers are applied in micron thin layers and forged using Selective Laser Sintering (SLS). The original technology grew out of Stereo Lithography (SL) that used polymers for quick prototypes. Now AM is the rapid manufacturing of single fully customized objects, both humanoid and otherwise.

This is the most disruptive gig going: No more shipping. And the AM printers are becoming cheaper. Currently some can be homemade for under a few thousand dollars, whereas those under development to assemble complete airplane wings are of course vastly more expensive. AM is the ultimate fax, fax on crack, and Computer Assisted Design (CAD) is the engine of it all. What’s digitally designed can be stored in the cloud and rained down– or up– to any one with the appropriate printing machine. Think Guttenberg’s printing press changed things? This is bigger. Printing DNA (yes, the stuff of genes!) is on the horizon. Digitized objects or progeny in the clouds delivered to outer space or inner space. We’ve arrived: virtual reality to real reality. Beam me up my perfect fitting jeans or a kneecap or even designer human ova. “In the future,” says the National Center for Manufacturing , “90 per cent of all products will be developed virtually.” Fax is a feminist issue now. Study CAD!

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Responsible responsive design demands responsive images—images whose dimensions and file size suit the viewport and bandwidth of the receiving device. As HTML provides no standard element to achieve this purpose, serving responsive images has meant using JavaScript trickery, and accepting that your solution will fail for some users.

Then a few months ago, in response to an article here, a W3C Responsive Images Community Group formed—and proposed a simple-to-understand HTML picture element capable of serving responsive images. The group even delivered picture functionality to older browsers via two polyfills: namely, Scott Jehl’s Picturefill and Abban Dunne’s jQuery Picture. The WHATWG has responded by ignoring the community’s work on the picture element, and proposing a more complicated img set element.

Which proposed standard is better, and for whom? Which will win? And what can you do to help avert an “us versus them” crisis that could hurt end-users and turn developers off to the standards process? ALA’s own Mat Marquis explains the ins and outs of responsive images and web standards at the turning point.

The formal definition is, well “formal” and we’re inclined to think it like a definition that has been made specifically to confuse rather than explain, but we will start with it and further explain everything one by one.

American National Institute of Standards and Technology gives the following cloud computing definition:

“Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”

This definition gives us the five characteristics of cloud computing:

1. Ubiquitous, convenient access,
2. On-demand access,
3. Shared pool of computing resources,
4. Rapid provisioning,
5. Measurable

Let’s make these characteristics clearer as follows:

1. We have a pool of computing resources: the processor, memory, network, storage etc.,
2. Users of these resources can conveniently access them,
3. Users of these resources can access them whenever they want, and deploy them on their own,
4. The IT personnel can quickly deploy these resources, whether automatically as in item no. 3 or with minimal effort,
5. Both the IT personnel and the users can meter their usage.

The underlying concept of all these is the abstraction of the applications from the underlying hardware.

Let’s stop and think for a moment: everyday we access tens or maybe hundreds of websites on the Internet. We just type an address and hit Enter, and we’re done. We do not, just for once, think about whether the website is hosted on an IBM/HP/Dell server, or whether the website is hosted on a physical/virtual server, or whether the website is hosted on a Windows/Linux/BSD platform, or whether the server uses an SAN/DAS/NAS as its storage. It’s just this point that the website – or the application – that matters. It is abstracted from the underlying hardware: we don’t care about anything as long as we can reach the the website.

Let’s dig a little bit more with the website: the underlying hardware is a pool of computing resources: the network that you access the hosting company, the webhost’s switches, network cables, servers (which are made up of CPUs, memories, ethernet adapters, mainboards), load-balancers are pooled, provisioned, deployed and managed by the IT staff. And that website we just visited? It is running on just a portion of these resources. It’s not uncommon for the webhosts to host tens of thousands of websites in a datacenter. And what do we do as the users? We access them whenever we want from our desktops/notebooks/tablets/mobile phones.

From the users’ perspective, the application is there -no matter if the application is a website, an e-mail application, a photo editor or an online radio and he does not care how and where it runs as long as he accesses it whenever he wants from whichever device he chooses.

Just take this idea and extend it further in your company: now you can provision a server for your department in a couple of minutes, ready with the software of your choice:

• Things getting slow? Need one more server? Up and running in a couple of minutes!
• How does the IT guy do it so fast? Basically, he just approves your request, the system provisions the server in the background and returns you the IP address and the hostname.
• How will your department be charged? The usage metering and reporting is transparent and already there: no surprise expenses in your department budget!

Yes, this is the cloud.

This is the transformed IT infrastructure that enables you to receive it as a service and you do not care what is running in the background. You do not care about the IT staff’s downtime, you do not have to think about the server upgrade budget, you do not have to bother about the peaking demand for your servers in certain times of the year. You just want to come to work, sit down at your desk and mind your own business, not IT’s confusing, tecchy business.

Welcome to the cloud.

References:

1. National Institute of Standards and Technology, The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing, http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf
2. Featured Image, Wikimedia, Creative Commons, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cloud_applications.jpg

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When I speak to students about business, I always make sure to point out that they just can’t sit by the phone and wait for the calls from prospective clients to pour in. This is when their eyes glaze over.

The worst argument I ever heard from a student in response to my talk on steps to market oneself was, “I thought I’d just get an agent.” It seems the teacher of the class gave the students that sage advice. I wonder how many took my advice and how long it took the others to realize that advice was sound. How many careers, I wonder, never took off at all.

It doesn’t matter what business you’re in – marketing is as important, if not more important, as what you know and how well you do it. There are horrid incompetents who do extremely well and talented people who go nowhere due to their marketing efforts, or lack thereof.

Some people believe that search engines will help people find them on the web and that’s true to a certain point but at its best, it won’t replace marketing. In any business, you need to encourage growth and new customers. Don’t wait for prospects to find you – go out and find them!

The question is – what kind of marketing tools do you need? The answer is not what tools are out there but what tools fit your business. Social media is free or costs less… well, can be cost effective in most cases. As with fresh, young students setting their first step into the business world, the challenge is knowing what to use, how to use it and what NOT to use.

Is Your Site Really Ready To Promote?

No matter what business you are in, you need to show your services, product(s) and in some cases, the price(s). What’s more, you need to do it quickly as people will spend less then a minute on your site if they are surfing several different competitors. Make sure your site has the most important information in the space that will come up when your site loads. If people have to scroll excessively or your navigation is difficult, then your site is weak and marketing will be a waste of time. Your site is the foundation of your marketing and it has to be strong and reliable.

Let’s say you have a great site and you’ve allowed a seasoned and talented designer or design team to create something great for you without mucking up the design by asking your 12 year-old niece, who won a fourth grade art contest at her school, for her opinion on the design and then forcing the designer to put in prancing glitter unicorn gifs all over your site. In other words, don’t tell your doctor how to remove a malignant growth by telling him/her that your seven year-old son plays the game, “Operation” and will be assisting during the operation. You will die! Have your niece help with design and the site and your business will die!

Aside from that, design blogs LOVE to spotlight the best and worst of web design. Under which label do you want your site appearing? It won’t help when people search out your site. Let a professional design and code your site. They want to do their best so you’re happy and keeping coming back for more as technology changes web applications and technology.

Do You Sell, Process Or Manufacture?

What is it your business does for customers?  Do you sell hard goods through a store and an ecommerce site? Even if only through an ecommerce site, be sure, once again, to listen to your web designer so the proper SEO (Search Engine Optimization) will allow people surfing for your type of products will show up and best if they show up within the first page of a search and even better if they show up within the top five.

What else can you use for selling hard goods? By having a tight and focused Twitter following, you can announce new products, sales and specials. Twitter is your billboard and even though it’s free, you have to know the optimal times to post your tweets to catch peoples’ attention without multiple tweets to the point of aggravation to your followers.

When are the best times to tweet? According to an article in Forbes.com, “Twitter gets busiest between 9am and 3pm Monday through Thursday (EST).

An article on Mashable.com also uses the same information compiled by bit.ly (URL shortener and link tracking), writing, “the company revealed that posting links to Twitter between the hours of 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. ET (or 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. PT) will give you the highest click rank, especially on days earlier in the week. Meanwhile, sending a tweet with a link after 8:00 p.m. should be avoided — as should posting links after 3:00 p.m. on Fridays.

I disagree only on the basis of what they point to as “peak times.” I deal with a global clientele and followers, so I have to plan tweets for the same working hours in different time zones. I have noticed that even tweets at 2:00 a.m. (EST), have drawn responses from people in (PST) as well as those just starting their work day in western Europe as well as eastern Asia.

The key is to know your targeted audience, tweet at times they are most likely to see your tweet in their feed, which can fill up with 500 tweets within a minute, pushing yours far off the page. Tweet at optimal times, but not so much that your own tweets sent page looks like an endless list of the same tweet. Bit.ly, to its credit does note, “by understanding the simple characteristics of each social network, you can publish your content at exactly the right time for it to reach the maximum number of people.”

This also brings up the practice of mobile marketing. Have you made your site mobile friendly? If not, you are sorely behind the times and being left behind quickly. Think of it as jumping off a speedboat at night. Within 60 seconds you will be lost and either drown or be eaten by sharks… the sharks being your competition.

With a mobile site and mobile marketing to smart phones, an opt-in list will give you a willing audience who will read your messages sent directly to them. Better then a tweet, more ROI then email marketing and simple to maintain an active database.

SMS (Text) Marketing is the popular way of using mobile marketing as almost every single person is an active text user. Many of these people prefer texting to most other forms of communication and most people carry their mobile device with them at all times. With text marketing, you have the opportunity to contact multiple customers at the same time and they receive the message in real time. SMS message delivery can be guaranteed which makes it a preferred method to email in many instances and there is a greater open rate for texts as opposed to emails.

SMS marketing can also be “location-aware,” so that if a potential consumer is nearby, you can send them a coupon or make them aware of time-sensitive specials. Foursquare is a site/application that you should check out if you want to offer pop up specials and sales.

Developing an application that promotes your business to a mobile user is another great way to harness the growing power of mobile marketing. Mobile apps are one of the hottest items available and you could apply the same concept to mobile games as well. Any application that builds your brand into a potential buyer’s mobile experience is a great way to increase your business.

If you manufacture products, the same techniques apply. The main difference is you are marketing business to business. Mobile marketing will not fit your efforts as well as email marketing and print catalogs. If you specialize in small runs in, say a firm that manufactures promotional items, having a fan page on Facebook with Google ads (which are also good for retail sales) is quite effective.

If you sell services based on intellectual properties, such as web design, consulting or copywriting, there are different choices that must be made. Your site, naturally, must show samples of your work and contact information. Unlike ecommerce sites that show a product and the price, most freelance designers and photographers would rather field requests from prospective clients and price projects accordingly. There has been some discussion if it’s a good idea to actually offer a price list so people surfing for design services can see costs upfront. By the same token, although it commoditizes design work, it also offers upfront payments of 50% or higher before the work begins and terms of sale the customer must accept before the project proceeds.

A design firm in England has found a unique middle ground to this question. Promo Design hits the “process,” “value,” and samples of their work right up front on their home page. Their contact page asks the PROSPECT to layout all of their needs AND budget before the first contact is ever made. The pull down menu of budget will act to weed out the clients looking for a bargain but it still gives the salesperson at Promo a chance to negotiate the work and fee.

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But how do you bring prospects to your site in the first place? Creatives tend to be drawn together in life and on social media. We follow other creatives, connect with them and spend an inordinate amount of time-sharing our work, dreams and disappointments. Misery does love company but how much time is spent on this commiseration as opposed to searching for solid business contacts?

When it comes to business, other designers aren’t the number one source of work for us as freelancers or referrals. The dark side of relying too much on connections with other designers is that they can sabotage others. People can be petty and the current financial and competitive environment is fierce. Learn to trust your own efforts!

While your trusted friends, whether designers or “normal” people, are great connections and should be treasured and nurtured, you need to seek out those who BUY your services.

LinkedIn is a purely business site for networking. It allows you to connect with some legitimate heavy hitters who buy creative services.

Build a list of a hundred dream clients. Search companies, identify the right people (not the CEO; try people who are in a position to book design projects) and build a list. Make sure you respond to every accepted connection with a personal note (via LinkedIn) to thank people for connecting with you and include your site URL for “more on me.”

LinkedIn has thousands of groups you can join and even more “questions” that you can answer for awards for “best answer.” Search for questions on marketing and answer how design helps marketing initiatives or advertising. Become an expert in the eyes and minds of possible leads who will need your services. There are some members of LinkedIn that like to give one-sentence answers that usually make no sense or don’t even address the question. They like to have the “most questions answered” title for all to see. Their reputations aren’t the best on the site so think quality and not quantity! Good, sound answers show others you are knowledgeable about your field. Building trust with prospects is an important step in gaining new clients.

Groups allow you to create closer connections with prospective clients. Are you going to join the “Lovers of Joomla” site or the “Small Business Marketing Ideas” group? The latter is filled with people who need your services. The idea of marketing yourself is to reach out to prospective clients, not to be friends with other creatives. Leave that for local design group bitch sessions. The biggest mistake a creative makes is failing to network which, in its most simple state, is sales or selling yourself and your service. If you attended a college or university for the art program, you will have an alumni group that will contain members that were not art students and they have businesses that need design services. So, why not urge them to use a fellow graduate? Surely you talked to other people at that school… right?

Were you a member of a fraternity or sorority? Your brothers and sisters are no doubt members of a LinkedIn group. If not, then start a group. Starting a group puts you in charge and number one in the spotlight.

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Both LinkedIn and Twitter have intuitive feedback that help you connect, join groups, hashtag to hot trends and see who is following you or viewing your profile. Use this information to connect with the right people who will become clients and customers.

Blogging is a great way to reach prospects but very labor intensive. This is why many firms start to ignore their blogs – they don’t want to have an employee using their time to update the content or pay for someone to dedicate the time and effort. I have several clients that pay me to write blog posts for them. The big danger with a blog is having it show that it hasn’t been updated for months or over a year. It reflects badly on you and your company. Update it at least once a week, even if it’s just one little blurb. Ignore it and it is a blot on your company’s ability to keep up with marketing, which is not a good sign in our business.

We are in a Googled world of information flying left and right. With sites like Stumbleupon and Digg, just to name two, and aggregators by the hundreds, your blog will cross someone’s path at some point, either via a shared link, Facebook “like,” or just showing up in a search for some odd term. The key is to bring that person BACK to your blog again and again.

While the internet offers many ways to connect with other people, don’t forget another effective marketing tool – face-to-face networking. You are more likely to do business with people who have met you in person then any other way. The old tried and true firm handshake and confident smile still works.

What Fits Your Needs?

All of the avenues mentioned in this article are dovetailed to work together. One is not better than the others and some just may not be necessary for what you want to accomplish. Any small business needs to advertise, market, brand and reach out to prospective clients. Target your clients and go after them. The idea is to use what works best for your needs, keep at it and make everything count towards gaining clients and business. When using social media or any active marketing solution, be sure you can dedicate the proper time and effort to keep at it. It’s better to have one active and effective marketing outreach then to have six that go nowhere.

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There is a debate about what is the best way to show one’s creative work to clients. Web designers, graphic designers, illustrators and photographers struggle with the question of what is best for ME? Throughout the painful quandary, there is the nagging anxiety of what other creatives will think of a person’s web site. The truth is, it shouldn’t matter what other creatives think of your site. It’s not a competition – it’s about reaching prospective clients and having the clear message about why they should hire YOU!

In art school and certainly in my professional career, I have been constantly reminded that it is the client as the end user. Please the client, make it easy for them to see the message and get it right away. When I worked in magazine publishing, the desire to use grunge fonts was compelling but, as driven by the choices of editors and marketing people, grunge was unreadable and although pleasing to designers, it was quite true that the average person would not like something hard to read and skip over that article or advertisement. It’s not easy to separate one’s creative desires with what is needed for marketing reality. Often creatives fight the advice or direction of marketing people’s suggestions – and yes, they can be power-plays and ego trips at times but often there is a vision that is more that of the average consumer/reader/user then it is of the creative vision of beautiful design.

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Jim Carrey’s site is wild, wacky, high tech and really hard to navigate. Does he really need to be sold as a product?

It is of the utmost importance to learn, “what will sell my work to the client?” All the kudos in the world from your peers will not help your career or increase sales. Having your web site spotlighted on a design blog or magazine will not reach clients. The saying, “living well is the best revenge” is akin to what you must do with your site – please those who are NOT creative – the clients.

If you’ve ever posted a creative piece and asked fellow creatives what they thought, you’ll get as many different opinions as there are voices giving them. Ignore it all.  What makes other creatives right? When a prospect contacts you and says, I saw the work on your web site and want to hire you, that is the mark of a successful web site.

Why WordPress Themes Have Become Popular

People find the familiar comfortable. Why are the best selling electronics similar in how their controls are engineered and laid out? Because the consumer wants something they already know how to use. Electronic and car manufacturers found this out a long time ago and that is why you know, almost by second nature, how to turn on your TV and start your car. You can do it with your eyes closed.

WordPress, just to get the technical jargon out of the way, is a free (although many themes are for sale, too – some are free but charge for support) and open source blogging tool and publishing platform powered by PHP and MySQL. It is often customized into a content management system (CMS). It has numerous features including a plug-in architecture and a template system. WordPress is used by over 14.7% of Alexa.com Internet’s “top 1 million” websites. If you doubt the popularity, figures claim that as of August 2011, it powers 22% of all new websites and is currently the most popular CMS in use on the Internet.

WordPress has a rich plugin architecture, which allows users and developers to extend its functionality beyond the features that come as part of the base install. WordPress has a database of over 17,000 plugins with purposes ranging from SEO to adding widgets.  It has native applications that make it mobile friendly as well as search engine-friendly with a clean permalink structure. You may have noticed that the popular design blogs all use WordPress.

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Hundreds of WordPress themes are available and fairly easy to build with a little coding know-how. Many sites, being blog-centric opt for these themes.

Generally, WordPress themes are clean and well designed but it has, as mentioned, familiarity of use and is easy for designers, photographers, illustrators and web developers to use for personal sites. The ease of use as well as the ability to update information, new samples, link to Twitter and RSS feeds is very attractive to creatives who also use social media for marketing purposes.

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Once you’ve plugged a WordPress theme into your hosting site, it’s easy and intuitive to change the preset widgets, headers and other elements.

All of this, of course, is why WordPress is also attractive to small businesses as it negates the need to hire a web designer (although professional design is still needed to arrange columns, widgets and to keep prancing glitter unicorn gifs off the web).

The Downside Of Themes and Templates?

There are only so many themes in the WordPress library, so you will share the same theme as a million other people. Most are simple enough that it won’t matter but some of the more unusual themes stand out and people will recognize that you have a pre-designed template. Only you can decide if it truly matters to you. The content on your site will differentiate your site from others; so don’t fret too much about using one of the more popular themes.

Despite the user-friendly nature of templates, some people just can’t manage the simple HTML to fill out fields and make them look good. As a creative, this will not inspire prospects to trust your abilities.

The Delicate Balance

The challenge in creating your own site from scratch is that you must have many strengths. You can be the greatest programmer but not very good at designing type. Like the best team environments at any art studio, the best teams play to the strengths of each team member. Put together a team of a designer, programmer, type designer, someone with a great color sense and you can have a web site that will grab attention. There are too many examples out there of really bad web sites created by people who have one or more strength but not all needed for an impressive site. Starting with a theme or template can inspire you and, most of all, give your prospects an easy to use avenue to view your design samples with links, your own words on the project (many prospects and art directors also want to hear/see the stages in developing a design and the thought process behind it) and sections to divide different types of work you can accomplish.

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Another great thing about WordPress themes is that if one isn’t working for you, you can replace it with another and most of your content will automatically fall into place. Sometimes you just need to test a theme or two until you strike a cord with clients.

Only you, with some honest soul searching, can decide what is best for you. Think about how you feel about your own site. Do you have doubts? Are you REALLY proud of it and feel it’s your best work? Sometimes, you just need to use another avenue to show the work that you have created – the work of which you are really proud. As mentioned before, other creatives might turn up their noses at the use of a template – as they might do for a site you created from scratch, but in the long run, they don’t pay your bills and they don’t lie awake at night, worrying how you’ll be able to sell your work to the clients who help you pay those bills!

Some sites that have free themes for you to download.

http://www.wordpressthemeshock.com/free-wordpress-themes/

http://wordpressthemesgallery.org/

http://www.fabthemes.com/

http://www.wpskins.org/

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The importance of your business’s web site is not a point to discuss. But on the other hand some common mistakes and pitfalls can easily make this essential element of your business work against you. There are two ways that you can get your company website online: you can either go for cloud-ready packages from Microsoft (Office 365) or from Google (Google Apps) or you can build your own website. Although cloud offerings provide a seemingly quicker way to get up and running, building your own website has its own benefits. You will have a website that is tailored for your business, which will make you stand out from the similar-looking sites, you will have a total control over the design, you will have a total control over the presentation and the like. Let’s see how you can successfully build and bring your small business website online.

First, you need a simple and sensible web address. It should be something like www.mycompany.com (or yourcompany.com.tr, yourcompany.ru depending on your preference) and not something like www.PleaseBuyFromMyCompany.com. People call you with your name in real life and with your Internet address in the online life, which means a web site is your name, your brand on the Internet. Once you decide on the name, decide on the domain: will you choose com, net or org domain? If your company is a commercial entity, go with the com domain. If you are an organization, then org domain will be a better choice. A friendly note: avoid dashes and numbers unless they are part of your company name.

Next, define the content of your website. Ask yourself some basic questions and make sure that you find the answers on your site:

• Why would I come to your website? I am coming to your website because I want to know your products/services better. That means, when I hit your site on the web browser this information should be readily available. Don’t forget: the average attention span of a web surfer is less than 5 seconds. Make sure that your website does not make people trying to find information.

• What do I do now? If I liked your products/services what do I do next? Place a visible action call to your website: “Call now for more information”, “Call now to schedule a meeting”, “Leave your phone to allow us to call you back” are examples of action calls on your website. Psychologically we, human beings easily respond to this simple calls. Use it to your advantage, but don’t overdo it. Making excessive calls will make you look like a spammer.

• How can I contact you? Would you feel comfortable if a visitor is happy with your products/services but she is leaving because she could not find how to contact you? Make sure that there is at least a clear “Contact” link visible on your website (friendly note: make sure it is either in the top right corner, side bar or footnote). In the contact information make sure that you include e-mail addresses, telephone, fax numbers, address and an embedded Google map showing your location. Make sure that the visitor is able to contact you from wherever place on your site and she can contact you with whichever channel she chooses: e-mail, telephone etc..

• OK, I learned about your offerings, so why should I come back? This is an often missed point on the websites. Everything is clearly presented and there is no point in visiting the website again except for the contact information. You can change this by offering fresh, up to date and quality content. This not only gives your website a personality but also will make you benefit on the SEO side, which we will see in the next section.

• I am a social creature, are you? Facebook, Twitter and Google+, when used properly will magically work to your advantage. First, it will make your customers your “friends.” Second, it will dramatically decrease your response time, which will make your “friends” even happier. Third, any announcements you put on the social media will travel faster than the speed of light on the Internet. Fourth you can feel the pulse of the market in real time, which will place you steps ahead in the competition. I definitely advise you to appoint one person in the company whose job is primarily working with social media.

• I am still not convinced? Customer testimonials is the answer. The experience of the previous customers, honest feedback will build trust way quicker than you can imagine. Just think about yourself: if you are planning to buy a car, and if you have narrowed your choices to a few brands, then you will speak with your friends who own cars of those brands. A good feedback about a particular brand will shift your thoughts to that brand. Your small business website is the same; customer testimonials about your products/services to your visitors are what your friends’ positive thoughts about a particular brand to you. Plus, they tell your customers things that you haven’t said on your website.

Then comes the technical part. Unless you are an enthusiast or you are a high-tech company, you might be hearing the following for the first time:

• Site navigation: This is crucial for your website. You have to provide the visitors an easy, visible way to find the information they are looking for. At the very least, you can do this with drop-down menus, but there are lots of very creative sitemap and navigation examples you can find. I also recommend using breadcrumbs so that the visitors can see where they are at a glance.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): In a world of Internet search, the ranking of your website in the search engines is particularly important. You do not need to employ various twists and ninja techniques to rank higher. Make sure that at  the very least your website is developed and coded correctly, correct keywords are used, links are properly put and tags for the images and videos are correctly used and you provide fresh and up to date content as I have just said. These all will add to your positive marks in the search engines, helping your small business website to receive higher ranks in the searches.

All these boil down to your website design: how your identity, your company’s products/services, contact information is presented to the visitor. Since your website visitors have an attention span of less than 5 seconds, the following items are especially important to deliver them the information about your company:

• Slow loading website: Nobody will wait for minutes for your website to load. Make sure that it loads quick, preferably in a couple of seconds. If not, your visitors will leave your website and will not come back.

• Complex website: If they cannot find the information they need in seconds, know that you lost them. Make the information visible, let them go where they want to quickly.

• Broken links: If you have a link that does not work, either delete it or correct it. How do you feel when you click on a link on a website and see “Error 404: Not found” error? Don’t frustrate your users the same. There are various tools that check broken links. Use them.

• Fully functional elements: After the “not found” error, I think the second most frustrating thing on a website is some element not correctly functioning. If that small application is looking good but not working, either remove it or make it work.

• Poor design: This is the most obvious of all but still worths mentioning. There are two sides to this item. First, your website should be designed friendly, allowing easy access to content. To accomplish this, you can present information in small paragraphs and/or bullet points, highlight important elements (words and phrases) or present them with graphics. Second, your website should be easy on the eyes. Your visitors want to focus on the information they need, so that dancing cat at the side or the music running in the background will not make your website better, it will make hundred times worse. Use simple and basic colors. Even paint companies do not employ lots of colors in their websites. I strongly recommend working with a professional web designer; you will have a very quick return on your investment.

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The website is dokimos.org. Although an exaggeration in itself, it shows you what you should not do.

Now comes the deployment. Make sure you have a secure host to deploy your website; the top 10 companies that we mention on our <a href="http://www.argonhosting.com/”>front page will be a good starting point. Not only you want to be your website to be available all the time (about 99.9% availability) but also you want your website to be secure. Cheap providers will offer you very good prices but you need to consider think about the future: what prices will they quote for additional storage space? What prices will they quote for the additional bandwidth? Will they be able to handle the traffic? How about the support? A cheap provider can easily turn out to be more expensive then a trusted host.

After all these steps, you have successfully brought your site online but you are not finished quite yet. You need to follow your web analytics. If you are an existing Google user, you can check Google Analytics and see which keywords point to your site, which page visitors land, from which page they leave your site, how much time they spend on your site, what is the rate of the returning visitors etc.. These all will help you analyze, change, improve, reevaluate your website and in turn your online “identity.” And it is not only Google who offer Google Webmaster Tools, Microsoft also has its own Bing WebMaster Tools and probably your web host will also offer you some tools.

I agree that all these is hard, sometimes non-ending, oftentimes tedious but it is your business, your website, your online identity and it is you (and your employees’) duty to keep it in top shape in today’s online world.

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Viral is such a buzz term now.  Every where I turn, I’m getting questions from people asking, “How do I make my content go viral” and “How do I take my business and brand viral?”

It always leads me to ask the question in return, what is viral and is it a good or bad thing. The first essential step in becoming viral is simply understanding your medium.  Whether you have a blog you want to become more “sticky,” a Facebook business page you want people to “like” or a Twitter account you covet thousands of followers for, you have to understand where you are in the continuum of understanding.

The first level is awareness.  Five years ago or so, you asked someone what Twitter was, not everyone knew.  They perhaps had heard of it but really had no clue what it did and how it worked.  Now, the argument is easily won that everyone is aware of social media and blogs.

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The second level is acquisition.  Many were deciding three years ago if they truly wanted to step into the technology/social media pool.  Now, many have been forced to acquire the technology due to the consumer demand and common use.

Aptitude comes next. This means you have a good understanding of your preferred medium and know the basic principles.  If it’s Facebook, you know how to post a status and upload a picture.  If you’re on Twitter, you’re comfortable with tweeting and using hashtags.

Ability takes it to the closest, best level.  You understand the technical aspect of your medium.  You can create Facebook groups and lists and manage who to send out your information to the correct, targeted groups.  You can dig on Twitter and find the information you need and tweet without worrying about the content at the basic level.

Actualization is where we all need to be and soon.  It’s that moment that we forget about technology and just live as if we are in real life. It’s a harmony that few in the on-line space will find in their lifetime but today’s digital natives will as they grow older.

Today’s tech savvy or tech savvy aspiring businessperson must find actualization before anything can truly go viral in the online space.  When we look at viral, however, is that something you truly want to be? Viral is typically quick spreading and short-lived, almost a microwave dinner instead of a strategic long-term garden and meal plan.

As you are looking to go viral, a few important aspects should remain at the forefront. What messages are you placing out there in your social media world?  I suspect just as in every part of life, there are social media personality styles.  I happen to be an “entertainer.”  I’m always saying something to make people laugh or engage in a unique way with me virtually. I tend to attract Gen Y and Gen X females in my on-line behavior.  News consumers and Baby Boomer men are usually turned-off by my content.

Other personality types vary from the “motivator” to the “ebb and flow.”  Each type attracts and repels friends and consumers. The key is to understand who you want to touch and work to refine that technique.

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If you’ve been poking around in the world of shared web hosting for long, we’re willing to bet you’ve heard of a few of the more common names: <a href="http://www.argonhosting.com/blog/2012/01/18/inmotion-indepth-analysis/”>InMotion Hosting, <a href="http://www.argonhosting.com/blog/2012/04/14/greengeeks-indepth-analysis/”>GreenGeeks, <a href="http://www.argonhosting.com/blog/2012/02/19/fatcow-indepth-analysis/”>FatCow, <a href="http://www.argonhosting.com/blog/2012/02/27/ipage-indepth-analysis/”>iPage, <a href="http://www.argonhosting.com/blog/2012/01/08/hostgator-indepth-analysis/”>HostGator, etc. However, we’d also be willing to bet you’ve heard of another name, one renowned for supplying clients with superior business performance and industry-ready tools—BlueHost. The hosting provider has been around almost as long as we have, and during that time, they’ve taken great strides towards becoming an industry force to be reckoned with. As of typing this, the services they offer are nearly without equal, but we don’t expect you to just take our word for it! If you’ve been hoping, wishing, and waiting for a full, in-depth review of the services and features that BlueHost has to offer, then step right up, Pilgrim! You’ll find all that and more listed below, including a full rundown of who the company is. We’ll be diving into that bit first, so without further ado, head on below to take an initial look at our full review and summary of BlueHost! Starting with:

Who is Blue Host?

If you aren’t familiar with the company, we have to admit we’re a bit surprised. Perhaps you just don’t run in the same business-oriented circles as the rather prestigious hosting provider, or maybe you’re new to the game. Either way, BlueHost is a name that’s tossed around often, and for good reason. We could do our best to help summarize their services, but have a feeling their mission statement will do that far better than we ever could:

Bluehost has been providing quality web hosting solutions to businesses and individuals since 1996. Our goal is to provide outstanding services for the best possible price. To achieve these goals we are constantly innovating and upgrading our services at no additional cost to our customers. Come and join the millions of other website owners that have already chosen Bluehost and see how we can help you with your site.

Sounds like a solid line of logic, right? And for the most part—as far in as we can gather it—BlueHost lives up to the promises it makes, and perhaps even a bit more. The company is based out of Utah, and features a full roster of on-site, highly-trained technicians to handle its technology. Furthermore, the provider claims it takes unprecedented strides to ensure that you’re getting the latest in features, services and technology. And with a warehouse totaling 50,000 square feet with two secondary HQs totaling more than 20,000 square feet, we’d believe they at least have the room to meet their guarantees!

On an interesting note, they company has recently reached out to its customers by offering up a founder’s blog. You can follow fonder Matt Heaton’s quips, thoughts, and travesties out at his blog here.

All of this is brilliant, if you’re taking the company at their word, but what if you need a little outside assurance? If you’re wondering exactly what kind of awards they’ve managed to earn over the years, then you’ve come to the right place.

BlueHost Awards and Accolades

Through the years, BlueHost has done quite well for themselves. They’ve won a number of awards in a number of categories, including Best Budget Hosting from HostReview every year since 2006. From the same reviewer, they’ve also earned Fastest Growing Company, Best Affordable Hosting, Best Cloud Computing Providers, and Best Web Hosting—albeit a few years back on that last one.

They company has also earned the prestigious Best Linux Hosting award for 2012 by Customer Hosting Reviews. All in all, we’d say the provider isn’t boasting quite as many awards as we’ve seen decorating the walls of other hosts, but that could mean they simply aren’t paying as much for fake awards—you didn’t hear us say that. Either way, you can decide for yourself if their services are any good! What’s the easiest way to do that? To keep on heading down below, as we dive right into the actual hosting plans offered by the company, as well as how they can benefit you and your business. So without further ado:

Shared Hosting Plans with BlueHost:

So you’re looking to sign up with BlueHost, are ya? If so, then you’re in luck where the budget is concerned. A basic plan with the host will only run you $6.95 a month, and for that money, you’ll be winning quite a lot of features. A shared hosting account with BlueHost comes stock with 24/7 US-based technical support, a free drag-and-drop site builder, a free domain name, support for international domain names, subdomains, a cPanel interface, FTP access, SSH access, hotlink protection, MySQL databases, and a host of other tech language and tech interface add-ons. This includes support for modern platforms like Perl, PHP5, MySQL5, HTML5, Ruby on Rails, and many more. It’s really quite the power punch package, and you will, of course, also receive unlimited disc space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited email accounts, unlimited add-on domains, unlimited parked domains, and unlimited subdomains.

If that weren’t enough, or if you’re looking for options that aren’t quite so technically inclined, then you’re also in luck. Obviously BlueHost has tended to focus more on the business needs of their consumers, but they also include a full load of site building and scripting utilities. You’ll get poll and survey software, Moodle, Tikiwiki, Drupal, Joomla, and of course, WordPress installation at the touch of a button. You’ll also obtain a wealth of eCommerce features, in case you’re looking to start your own online store. Among these are SSL secure servers, OS commerce shopping cart, Agora shopping cart, a free generated certificate, password protected directories, and OpenPGP/GPG encryption.

But don’t think we’re quite done yet! No, we’re just warming up where BlueHost is concerned. You see, with their shared accounts you will also gain access to a host of multimedia options, allowing you to deliver your media to your customers with increased efficiency and better design. Among these tools you’ll find support for streaming video, streaming audio, real audio and video, MIDI files, and even custom MIME types. No matter what you’re looking to deliver to your audience, with BlueHost it appears you’ll be successful.

The Technology

We mentioned earlier that BlueHost has taken great strides to stay up to date and efficient with their technologies and services. We aren’t just going to drop out a cliche like that and not back it up, so if you’ve been waiting to hear exactly what the company has under the hood, you’ve come to the right place. For instance, we’re proud to announce that BlueHost is rocking dual quad core processors, as well as UPS power backup. This not only increases the amount of power your site will be allowed to draw from, but also ensures that your data is protected from unexpected power failures or surges. Additionally, the company safeguards its network with a diesel-powered generator.

All of the servers BlueHost runs are, of course, using the latest editions of the Linux kernel, and provide a far superior performance to any comparable Windows boxes. Each account also includes access to customized Apache web servers for all your more tech-inclined needs. Add to this 24/7 network mapping, which safeguards your account against unwanted modifications, and you’ve got one seriously comprehensive technological package on your hands. But best of all, the company also provides its users with complimentary site backups for protection, and 10 gigabyte ethernet connectivity for increases in speed and security.

The BlueHost Affiliate Program

However, BlueHost doesn’t just offer basic shared hosting. They aren’t quite as comprehensive as we might like to see—there’s no VPS or dedicated server management for the more serious business consumer—but they do offer <a href="http://www.argonhosting.com/blog/2012/02/19/make-money-from-web-hosting/”>one of the best affiliate programs in the game. If you’ve been looking to become a web hosting affiliate, there’s really no better place to start your search than with BlueHost. The provider offers a substantial amount of rewards, having given out nearly $5 million dollars in referral fees last year alone. So what’s the full detail on the affiliate program? Head on below the break to find out!

First out of the gate, it’s incredibly easy to sign up as an affiliate with BlueHost. A few simple fields about you and your site, and you’re up and running. Once the easy sign-up process has been completed, the provider hands you the keys: A personal tracking link and banner set to refer customers with, as well as the option to create custom tracking links to manage multiple campaigns. With this, you can also view the click-through ratios of your links and banners, as well as track your clicks, conversions, and commission payments. BlueHost doesn’t want to leave you in the dark about the profits you’ll be making, and it’s quite refreshing to see an host that’s willing to keep the affiliate informed about the status of their income.

But what is the income? We know we’ve been dancing around the issue, but between you, us and the walls, we’re teases like that. We’ll stop pestering you, now, and dive right into the numbers: A referral with the company earns you $65 dollars in cash, right then. That means that, for every person you refer to the site, they hand you sixty five bucks no questions asked, and it’s yours to put away immediately. Combined with hundreds of referrals, that quickly adds up to one heck of a lot of money. In other words, if you’ve been waiting to become an affiliate, BlueHost is a tried and true way to start making money sooner, rather than later.

Reseller Hosting with BlueHost

But what if you don’t want to be an affiliate? What if you’re looking to get your hands a little dirtier within the world of web hosting? What if you feel you’re ready to take on the big dogs yourself and deliver web hosting to your own, personal clients? If so, then BlueHost has a plan for you within their reseller hosting accounts. If you aren’t familiar with the technology that is reseller hosting, don’t worry. We’ll be covering the details in just a second, starting with:

What is Reseller Hosting?

The simplest way we know how to describe reseller hosting is this: Imagine that you’re renting an apartment from an apartment complex. However, you suddenly decide to purchase a few of the apartments from the landlord. The landlord hands over the keys, you sign the lease, and then resell those apartments to your own customers, exactly as if you were the proper landlord. This is, more or less, how reseller hosting works.

When purchasing a plan from BlueHost, the customers are given a specific portion of the company’s servers. With this portion, you can subdivide up the space and then resell it as if you were selling your own web hosting. It’s <a href="http://www.argonhosting.com/blog/2011/03/17/how-to-start-a-web-hosting-business-from-scratch/”>a brilliant way to do business, as it pays for the company’s servers, allows you to make a profit, and provides solid web hosting to the customer. However, for a reseller business to be successful, a lot has to be done or given by the primary hosting company. What we mean is, the prices must be low enough that the reseller can make a profit, and the services must be incredible enough that the reseller has something high-quality to sell to the consumer. In the case of BlueHost, is any of this true? To find out, continue on below to our full rundown of the host’s plans, and exactly how they stack up in comparison to the ideal reseller host.

BlueHost Rates and Services

Like most web hosting providers, BlueHost doesn’t offer just a single reseller hosting plan. Rather, they offer three distinct tiers designed to meet the needs of a variety of resellers.

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Firstly, there’s the rock bottom plan, which offers 100 gigabytes of storage space, as well as 15 megabytes per second of bandwidth. You’ll get unlimited accounts, though the amount of divots you make in the sever will of course affect the performance your customers in turn receive. Still, we like the fact that BlueHost gives us the freedom to partition out our customer services as we see fit, rather than saddling us with four, six, or even ten customer portals. And, of course, the lowest tier also comes with a free domain name to park your new business at. As far as reseller plans go, the lowest tier is certainly a bargain, clocking in at only $19.95 a month. For 100 gigabytes of space and that much bandwidth, you’ll be getting your money’s worth to say the least.

The second tier is, of course, quite a bit more advanced. For $49.95 a month you’ll get a whopping 250 gigabytes of space to work with, as well as an increase to 25 megabytes per second in data transfer. That’s a substantial leap up from the first tier, and if you’re looking to get pretty serious with your new business, you’ll greatly appreciate the difference. And, as always, you’ll get the same unlimited accounts guarantee, as well as the free domain we talked about earlier. Both of these plans are bargains, and come with solid services, but neither compares to the top-ranked tier of reseller hosting with BlueHost.

For $99.95 a month, BlueHost is prepared to hand you 500 gigabytes of their server space, 35 megabytes of data transfer, and the same unlimited accounts and free domain name. At this level, the unlimited accounts becomes infinitely more of an asset, as you’ve got ample room to create tiered services of your own, or to create partitions that maximize your profits.

But no matter what tier you choose as far as reseller hosting goes, BlueHost promises to give you unlimited domains, subdomains, cPanels, MySQL databases, FTP accounts, email addresses, etc. You’ll also gain a private name server, free billing software, a free spam protector, a free website builder, and SimpleScripts to help both you and your clients. If you’re looking to take your business international, BlueHost’s servers are also multi-lingual right out of the box, making them an ideal candidate for the world-ready consumer with an eye on the global prize.

All in all, BlueHost looks to be a solid choice for reseller hosting. But what we haven’t talked about yet can make all the difference in any web hosting experience. When things go wrong—and we assure you they always do—you’ll be calling the BlueHost tech support for assistance. Which looks a bit like this:

Technical Assistance with BlueHost:

The CGI-based help interface BlueHost is supporting comes stock with a number of features designed to make the tech assistance process easier. Firstly, there’s the guaranteed 24/7 tech support agreement which we like to see in any web host. If the host isn’t willing to be around when you have problems, we have a problem with the host. Additionally, we’re pleased to see that BlueHost offers a ticket-based tech support system, as well as a live hotline for the individual to call upon. You can also email in your complaints, as well as chat with a tech support rep directly from your computer via live chat.

All of this is fairly stock, but what really gets us about BlueHost is the wealth of additional tutorials and information the host offers. For your money, you’ll get direct access to server status, as well as the knowledge base. This base contains information on everything from installing WordPress to optimizing your site for SEO purposes to uploading content via FTP. We like to point out that knowledge base does not replace competent technical support, but in the case of BlueHost, if your problem can be fixed on your side of the server, we’d be willing to bet there’s a solution somewhere in that databank of knowledge.

Overall, we’re really quite impressed with the amount of forethought the provider has put into making their tech support a viable source of solutions to common problems. We especially appreciated the fact that server status and video tutorials are included. Still, there’s really no way to know how good a hosting provider is without looking at some of the testimonials. Thankfully, BlueHost has provided us with quite a few of them.

We’ll be closing out with a list of testimonials for you to peruse, but before we go, we do want to encourage you to check out the user-submitted reviews posted here on the site. They’re a great resource for anyone looking to find a competent web host, and they’ll keep you out of a lot of trouble further down the road. With that in mind, here are a few choice words provided to us by BlueHost themselves.

Testimonials:

When I’m shopping for a product or service, I research it to death. I recently indulged my obsession while choosing a new Internet provider. I had been satisfied for many years with [another] domain host, but my feelings changed after they outsourced their technical support overseas. I suddenly found myself speaking with people who were robot-like, often difficult to understand, and not particularly creative in finding solutions to my problems. I was also paying a separate annual bill for my domain name. I thought there must be a company that provided both hosting and a domain name for a single, reasonable price. In doing my research, I spent hours roaming the Web and reading reviews from reputable sources. I finally settled on BlueHost, which has been hosting business and personal web sites since 1996. I have been very happy with them. Now, when I call my provider for assistance, it’s truly a pleasant experience. I’m often connected with an associate within 30 seconds, and have never waited longer than two minutes. If I do need to wait (for perhaps a couple of minutes), I am kept updated on my position in their queue (no more waiting for what seems like forever!). I have found every associate to be extremely professional, polite, and genuinely interested in helping me. I believe a company can only survive on the quality of its customer support. … BlueHost has a live demo feature, which really helped me to assess the available features. If you’re looking to switch providers or start a new service, look no further than BlueHost!

Read our <a href="http://www.argonhosting.com/user-reviews/bluehost/”>user reviews of BlueHost.

Website: <a href="http://www.argonhosting.com/go/index.php?host=BlueHost” target=”_blank” onclick=”_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/Lead/Blog.php']);”>http://www.bluehost.com.

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When faced with the ever-growing horde of content delivery network providers, it becomes increasingly hard to pick the one that’s right for you. Whether you’re looking for top-notch cloud computing, a solid edge network, or just a company that’s willing to listen to your personalized needs, we have a recommendation that we’re sure will knock you off your feet. For all your content delivery needs—especially those that require lots of streaming video—might we lead you to BitGravity?

BitGravity Offers Innovation

We rank the provider highly on our list of preferred content delivery networks for a number of reasons. First and foremost, BitGravity is almost certainly the industry leader where innovation is concerned. They’re cutting-edge network seeks to provide the utmost in the latest file management trends, including absolute optimization for large front-end video streaming, as well as denser media management.

This kind of innovation and personalization is made possible because of BitGravity’s stellar support for modern routing and hardware technology. Rather than creating a cache and proxy based edge network for its consumers to draw from, BitGravity has instead invented a whole new form of cloud-based networking that removes the need for such clutter. Rather than messing about with constant cache updates and DNS request routing, the provider has opted to store most of its users’ data on the cloud. This data is also stored at a central hub, and can be pulled from that location at any moment.

What this means for the end-consumer is simple: Because content is stored on the cloud, it is only engaged when requested, and is placed almost immediately in front of the end-user. BitGravity’s network is capable of increased speeds over its competitors because of its unique architecture, which gets media to the viewer with less delay and far less computation. It’s rapid, snappy, and comes with a guaranteed up-time the globe over.

Utilizing the Cloud to Control Pricing

But not only does this cloud architecture benefit the end-user, but it also aides those who decide to sign a contract with BitGravity. Because data is only engaged when called for—this is performed in much the same way that your electricity at home is used—the purchaser has much more control over the pricing and structure of their CDN use. BitGravity prides itself on offering a by-use pay tier that only requires the contractee to pay for the content delivery that is actually performed. This provides a budget way to utilize the benefits of a content delivery network, but all while increasing the performance of that network. For this reason in particular, we’re big fans of BitGravity’s services.

We also greatly appreciate the breadth of the BitGravity network itself. The company offers processing servers in a number of locations the globe over, including North America, Europe, India, Australia, Asia, and the Pacific. With data centers situated in such major cities as San Jose, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Adelaide, Perth, Mumbai, and Chennai, BitGravity has ensured that there are zero gaps in its services, and that all of its user content is delivered efficiently, no matter the geographic location of the end-user.

We also find BitGravity to be a superior service because of its custom attention to devices other than the traditional desktop environment. They’re unique focus for providing content on mobile devices and set-top boxes makes them a custom fit for the web master that needs peripheral support. Alongside this rich feature set, we also find BitGravity’s unique dedication to video streaming a refreshing offering. BitGravity has worked far and long above its competitors to ensure that its customers receive only the finest video streaming and content delivery around. The company’s BitGravity player has been designed from the ground-up to support large files, high quality formats, and a vast number of locations around the globe. No matter what format of video you’re working with, the company is willing to work with you to ensure that no quality is lost during media transfer, and that all of your users receive the same, top-notch experience.

If you’re looking for a cloud-based CDN with a budget face and rich features, BitGravity is by and large your product solution.

Website: http://www.bitgravity.com.

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When looking for a quality way to decrease the lag on your web content, you may quickly find yourself inundated with, shall we say, less than satisfactory options. Providers are a dime a dozen out in the wild, so how is the discerning business manager to choose the best option for their company’s needs? What content delivery network offers the best mix of professionalism, features, and overall quality? One could easily spend days researching the issue, but considering what AT&T’s network is offering, we feel there’s no reason to look any further than the global telecommunications giant. If you’re in need of a reputable, prestigious, and above all reliable provider to deliver your web content, AT&T is guaranteed to have a plan and pricing scheme that will satisfy you and your board.

Quality Brand with a Plethora of Features

We’re enamored with AT&T’s content delivery network for a number of reasons, but most importantly, we’re impressed by its dedication to the business market. Where other services might strive to offer cheaper, cloud-based edge networks for the lower-end consumer to draw from, AT&T instead works hard to lay a superior cable network, flawless service, and quality features unique to the corporate need.

This excellence in features begins with the company’s industry-leading cable network. As a global provider of telecommunications services, AT&T has a unique repository of fibre-optic technology to draw from. The provider has capitalized on this opportunity by laying a network of over 932,000 miles across 163 different countries. Every inch of which, of course, is composed of the highest quality material, guaranteeing the fastest speeds of any content delivery provider where basic hardware is concerned.

These benefits are also compounded by more traditional statistics, such as AT&T’s 3,800 service nodes across the globe. Each of these nodes comes tied to one of 38 Internet data processing centers located strategically for maximum edge capacity. All in all, at the end of the day AT&T supports one of the most technically advanced and widespread content delivery platforms of any provider.

Because of their quality in hardware, AT&T also offers simply one of the best HD video streaming services of any content delivery provider we can name. Their fibre-optic cables ensure the fastest downloads speeds, the highest streaming quality, and the fewest pixelations per minute. Their excellence in streaming is also compounded across all spectrums of digital media, thanks to the company’s Intelligent Content Distribution Service. This service routes DNS requests quickly and efficiently to the data processing center or node closest to the user, maximizing end-user satisfaction while decreasing load times dramatically.

Software Further Bolsters Convenience and Productivity

From a software perspective, AT&T also offers one of the best analytical suites in the business. These consumer-oriented tools come stock with each and every CDN account, and provide an ideal look at network traffic, server load, and content distribution the world over. If you’re looking for an effective way to track and critique your network strategy, AT&T makes this easy with their online storage and web analytics software suite.

However, we recommend AT&T as a content delivery network provider for more than just its size or quality. If you’re a business professional looking to establish a corporate presence in an existing location, AT&T is by and far the best solution. This is because of the company’s unique dedication to businesses both large and small.

In comparison to every other CDN service of note, AT&T is the only provider to offer SSL caching based around a single corporate network. The company’s extensive Internet grid can be utilized behind a dedicated corporate space designed to bring you your content quickly and securely. This network can also be kept behind a certified Firewall for maximum encryption. All of this is umbrellaed under AT&T’s Private Content Distribution Service, and provides a unique opportunity for corporations to create and manage a worldwide network dedicated to their content and their content alone.

And, of course, AT&T also offers unparalleled options in both scalability and network load. All in all, if you’re looking for a secure, reliable, and comprehensive way to host your content with a corporate focus, AT&T is the ideal solution.

Download AT&T CDN Presentation in PDF.

Visit AT&T CDN on the web at http://www.business.att.com/enterprise/Family/content-delivery/distribution/

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