HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing

Free Wordpress Theme

At HostGator, one of the most popular web sites created on our servers these days are blogs. People use blogs not just as a diary, but as a quick way to publish information and articles. The most popular blogging software is Wordpress, which happens to be the platform of choice for Gator Crossing (this blog) and can be installed with a couple clicks directly from the HostGator Control Panel.

We had a custom HostGator inspired Wordpress theme drawn up recently and would like to make it available for free to our customers and non-customers alike. Below you can view and download the theme made available in four different color schemes:

View Free Theme 1	View Free Theme 2
Download Theme	Download Theme
View Free Theme 3	View Free Theme 4
Download Theme	Download Theme

You can see our Gator Crossing blog viewed in the different themes by the theme switcher plugin on the upper right side of the blog. Enjoy!

5 Tips On Branding Your Website

Branding livestock goes back to around 2700 B.C. Even paintings in the tombs of Egyptians show hieroglyphs of people branding oxen. This branding confirmed the ownership of the livestock. You may not be branding livestock, but this certainly applies to your website. It needs to be brandable so people will connect your website with a product, service, or other type of value.

Do you know how many people call HostGator and refer to us as GatorHost? A good number of people, but its our logo that people will never forget, this is just another part of branding yourself. If you surf the internet on any given day you will see the HostGator logo at some point. I can almost guarantee you that because it has been established across the internet. There are many aspects to branding your business besides the obvious sometimes. With that in mind, the following 5 tips will help you get on the right track to branding yourself better on the internet.

1. Branding With A Domain

   Have a domain which describes the name of your business as best as possible. Shorter domains are easier to remember. People can return to your website if the name is catchy and memorable. Avoid long domain names if possible, which detracts from the professionalism of your business.

2. Create A Logo Thats Memorable

   Make or have someone create a logo for you. This is also key for branding yourself. Remember, A picture is worth a thousand words. A logo, or image on your website will help connect customers, as well as potential customers with what your website is selling or promoting. You want to brand an image in peoples minds so they think of your business first when there is a service or product they need, or that their friends need.

3. Have A User Friendly Website

   Make your navigation simple and easy to use. A lot of people don’t realize that the user friendliness of a site is a part of branding. When you go to a website that is disorderly as well as looking and feeling complicated, would you rather stay and figure it out or find another resource that is simple and user friendly? If your website is simple and easy to use to purchase something, then people will come to you first over your competitors.

4. Coin A Phrase

   A motto is another great thing to be known by. Almost every large company out there that you can think of has a motto. The HostGator motto is, “We eat up the competition”. This phrase just makes perfect sense, and connects people with the HostGator image. If you have a Logo for your website, then it might be a good idea to create a motto that is easy to remember as well.

5. Set Yourself Apart And Specialize

   Setting yourself APART from the rest really encompasses everything from the last 4 tips. Make sure to be different from your competition. Know what you want to be known for. What aspect of your company do you want people to recognize when they think of your business? If you are selling a wide variety of power tools, would you want people to recognize you as a leader in the industry of drills? That would certainly be easier as a niche than competing with larger companies which offer power tools as well.

From the last 5 tips, you can see that branding is huge! If you are starting an E-Commerce site or have one already, but are lacking the success, then this is one of those things you have to take a serious look at and ask yourself, “why would people come to my site over my competitor”. Until you think like your potential customers, you may find that your business is lacking. If you follow these tips on branding, you will be building upon something that will have a lasting effect far into the future.

Beef Your Blog With Super Cache Plugin

WordPress is one of the greatest and simplest tools for bloggers today. WordPress uses PHP and thats great, but can at times not so great too. Why so? Receiving a lot of traffic over the period of a day is generally not an issue, however it can be an issue when you start getting a huge amount of traffic that is coming all at once. Unlike normal html webpages, PHP pages are dynamically generated. This means the server frequently re-compiles each page before displaying it to each visitor. This consumes more CPU than a standard webpage, so very popular blogs can quickly consume all available processor time.

Making Things Better

One of the best ways to combat against unnecessary recompiling of php pages (and thus greatly reduce cpu use) is to install and activate the WordPress Super Cache plugin. A cache is a temporary storage place for frequently or recently accessed data, and this is exactly what this plugin is designed to do. It takes the dynamic content in the form of php pages, and presents the results using low-overhead, generally static pages.

I think anyone that installs WordPress should always get this plugin no matter who you are. For the simple fact that when blogging, you may hit a subject or post something that catches on rather fast with social media based websites. The Super Cache plugin is based on the original cache plugin which was created by Ricardo Granada, and is just an overall solid wordpress plugin that is in my top ten favorites. Whats so great about the new over the old?

Difference Between Old and New

The larger difference between the original WordPress Cache plugin and the WP Super Cache is that the original, required manual work for whichever page you wanted to be cached, whereas the Super Cache is automatic. Keep in mind this plugin is not the solution to all your WordPress problems, but it will make a major difference when you are receiving larger amounts of traffic, especially in a shorter period of time than normal.

I would highly recommend that you would read thoroughly over the guide to this plugin to understand what it is intended for. You can read about and install the WP Super Cache plugin HERE.

5 Reasons Your Business Needs a Blog?

Blogs have in more recent times gained a ridiculous popularity. A lot of people previously thought that blogging was just for kids or for people that wanted to just talk about the goings on in their lives, but not so anymore. Businesses as well as people creating niche websites are using blogs more than ever. Wordpress being the popular choice. So why should you use a blog if you have a E-Commerce website or just a simple site promoting your business? The following list covers these points.

1. Announce new products or Services to your customers.

One of the best things about a blog is the announcing of new products which will be available for purchase, or bring attention to new services that you will be providing. This can be good especially if you do not plan to update your website as frequently, and want to make a simple blog post about it to inform current and potential customers.

2. Mention upcoming sales or special events.

What better way than to announce on your blog that you will be having an upcoming sale. If the content of your blog is good quality articles, then adding in a special sale that your E-Commerce site will be having in the near future can be a nice touch. This can lead to people coming back to your website more often to check on deals you may be offering. The more you get someone to come back to a site, the the greater potential for a sale increases.

3. Get on a more personal level.

Your blog gives you a great opportunity to build relationships with customers on a more personal level. It helps to give you more credibility and shows customers what you are about. This is especially important when it comes to repeat customers, and those who really do want to know who you are.

4. Help guide public image.

The fact that people have an image defined of who you are from looking at your website, or from what others say is Big. A blog will allow you to not only clear up possible misconceptions, but guide persons view of what your company is all about. This helps you in the branding of your business and making a name for it.

5. Create more quality content to drive traffic where you want.

This is a key factor with a blog and is good because it allows you to put more emphasis on different areas of your website. Internal linking to specific pages of your website will help with Search engine placement as well as targeting areas of your website you want more traffic to get too. The more articles you write, the more content you have which is relevant in search engines. This means more organic traffic for you, which in turn leads to sales.

As you can see, a business blog can be very essential and add to the overall value of your website. A blog is very easy to set up as well. As I mentioned previously, Wordpress is the tool by choice for most bloggers today, as it has more functionality and ease of use. If you have a HostGator Account it is very quick to set this up in the Fantastico option of Cpanel. With this function you can be up and running your Wordpress blog in no time, so make good use of it.