Need a good looking website but you don’t have time to learn how to create your own one, and you’re on a tight budget? Don’t know too much about on-page SEO, except that its important? While this used to be a real problem, we’ve got a great solution for you.

We have developed easyCMSlite, the free, easy content management system. easyCMSlite is, as its name implies, a lite content management system. That is, lite, yet powerful. We’ve tried hard to take away the complexities of so many of the CMS systems available. I personally have tried using some of them, and I couldn’t fathom them. I am a web / software developer, so I can’t imagine what it must be like for non technical users.

easyCMSlite avoids that. For instance, to add a new page, you don’t need to be in some admin menu where you add text to a list. In easyCMSlite, you are in the actual web page, and when you want to add a page you see it as it would appear to your users. This is termed ‘What you see is what you get’ (WYSIWYG).

Another important consideration is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). This is the important task of optimising your website so that the search engines can find you faster and hopfully rank you higher. Most CMS do have SEO capabilities, but you need to download and install plugins for that, then you need to configure and enable them. For instance, many CMS’s allow you to install a plugin to convert the URL’s they produce to one which is search engine friendly (and human friendly). So, using a plugin, you might be able to change your url from www.yoursite.com?cat=12&subcat=6&pid=34 to www.yoursite.com/category/sometitle.php. With easyCMSlite, this is automatic. If you have a main menu item called ‘Products’ and a product page you are linking to called ‘widget’, then your URL will be www.yoursite.com/products/widget.php. This is automatic and requires no plugins or configuration.

easyCMSlite has an easy to use text editor, very similar to word and excel. In fact, you should be able to copy and paste most content from word or excel into this editor, making  it even easier to manage your site.

To give easyCMSlite.com a try, go to easyCMSlite.com, the free, easy content management system, or go to www.demoserver.co.za to test the CMS in a live test environment. The username is [email protected] and the password is demo.

Any business these days requires a website. It has become an expectation. Herewith, a list of 24 questions that you should ask your web hosting company before you purchase web hosting.

Technical Support:

Technical support must be available to you.

1. What do they provide?
- SoftSmart.co.za provides live chat (link available through all pages of our site).
- We provide telephone support (numbers on our contact page).
- We provide email support which is tracked via a support ticketing system.
- Knowledge base with FAQs.

2. When are they available?
- Telephone and live chats are available from 8H00 till 17H30, Monday to Friday, and usually beyond that.

3. Does tech support cost extra?
- There is no fee for tech support

Storage:

Ensure that you have enough space to expand in the future.

4. How much storage do they offer? (A typical Web site uses between 20-30 MB)
- LOADS. Our smallest package is 500Mb of disk space

5. Do they offer enough extra space for your business to grow into? 100MB is a good starting point.
- Sure. Our largest package has 10Gb disk space. If you need it, please email us to find out about dedicated hosting.

Domains:

Getting a Domain name for your business is one of the most important things you could do.

6. Will they register your Domain name on your behalf?
- Yes, when you order your hosting package, you enter the domain name of your choice.

7. How long will it take?
- Average time is < 2 hours.

8. Is there any extra cost to you?
- Most packages include a free domain name for the first year. Thereafter domain names cost R100 (+- $15) per year.

Design:

There are 3 basic website design options. 1) Hire a web developer to design the entire website. 2) A template solution that is inexpensive, but designs are not unique.

9. Do they have a builder that you can manage easily?
- Yes, we have Site builder (link to demo here).
- We have thousands of FREE web templates within our CPanel area.
- We have a great online tutorial for web authoring (link here).

10. What type of computer background do you need to design your site?
- Dependant on what option you prefer above.

11. Do you have control over content and updates?
- Yes, your site is loaded via FTP, so you control every step.

Email:

12. How many email aliases comes with your package?
- This differs with the packages, from 5 to unlimited.

13. Will your emails have the domain name in them for a more professional appearance (eg, [email protected])?
- Is there any other way???

14. What is the cost to add extra emails?
- You can easily add up to your package maximum in CPanel at no cost

15. Are there any additional costs?
- No!

Cost:

Make sure there are no hidden costs.

16. What are the initial setup fees and what do you get exactly?
- We charge no setup fees.

17. Are there any additional charges?
- Not really… If you go over your data allowance (which is huge, 5Gb on the smallest package) for 3 consecutive months, we will require you to upgrade your account.

Contract:

18. Am I locked into a contract?
- No, you pay per month.

19. May I cancel at anytime?
- Yes you can! (to paraphrase president Obama).

20. Are there any penalty fees for switching or closing my account?
- Only that you loose out on great service.

21. What happens to my content?
- Your content is yours. You can simply get it all via FTP (or as a backup from CPanel) before cancelling. Your      domain will also be transferred (note that some registrars charge about $10 to transfer domains, so you may need to pay that to them directly).

Value:

22. What makes them better than their competition?
- We provide great support. We use our own servers for our own websites and we have all the value added services, like web development, custom software development, graphic designers, etc. Because we are software / web developers we can answer technical question which extend beyond just hosting support

23. What exactly sets them apart?

- We believe the old adage that the “customer is king”, give us a try. Mail us and ask about your first 3 months ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!

24. Does the web host provide the features that you need for your web site?
- We have many free scripts like ecommerce applications, WordPress, etc for free and easy to setup in CPanel.