Exabytes Web Hosting New Website Preview

A few weeks ago I got to know that Exabytes will be launching a new look website and I am one of the lucky 100 bloggers who get to preview and review it first. It is just one of the perks enjoyed by bloggers nowadays beside free event invitations and movie tickets. Don't you want to start blogging too?

Anyway, back to the topic in hand. At first look, the new Exabytes website does not differ too much from the current one. It is not a complete redesign, and I believe it is a modification and improvement to the current design which has been serving them so well all this while. Look at the screen shot below before proceeding further (click to enlarge).


Don't they look similar? I think the new website is still based heavily on the old design and from the way things look, I guess the same designers are involved in the new website project.

Overall
To Exabytes' credit, the new website is as attractive as the current one. Exabytes website design team are extremely creative and they have used various objects in their advertisements such as an obese man indicating the gigantic size of webspace offered in one of Exabytes' web hosting plan, or a huge truck or a road sign. The designers like to keep the site simple and fast-loading, the images used are attractive but no flash is embedded. To achieve the effect of moving texts, they use either animated GIF files or Javascript. The navigation options are well integrated and are user-friendly. Links to important information and core products of the company are prominently displayed. There are plenty of payment options provided for the convenience of customers. The search function utilizes Google search engine to search Exabytes' website for content.

Comparison with old website (the current one)
First of all, it seems that the old website is using fixed width layout while the new one is a fluid width layout (I am not sure, have to check the code before confirming). This results in a better positioned layout of the new website, it is properly aligned in the middle point of your browser. As for the old website, there is too much empty space on the right hand side of the main layout (refer to the arrow in the screen shot above!). Some navigation links are also removed from the topmost area and integrated into the main navigation bar or footer links. Another most noticeable and excellent addition to the new website is the "Express" pull-down menu for quick selection of web hosting plan suitable for different individuals. This is especially helpful for people who have no idea what plans to sign up to with the budgets that they have. Lastly, the form for interested websurfers to subscribe to Exabytes' newsletter is also displayed prominently, on top of the page and just to the right of Exabytes logo, this feature certainly help individuals to keep themselves updated about Exabytes happenings and offers.

Comments and Suggestions
Have to do this in a numbered list, to get my points across more accurately.

1. Reduce file size of animated GIF file, your logo-cards.gif alone is about 300kb!
2. If necessary, your team could try using Flash instead of animated GIF (not sure if it helps to reduce the file size and server load though).
3. Improve the layout of your blog, the old one feels more like a daily journal of a supervisor rather than a blog. You could probably publish more useful information in that blog, anything related to web hosting, not just Exabytes, that will help to market your brand. Insert more social networking and bookmarking widgets and buttons, install a community feel to it and make people return for more information even if they don't currently need a webhost.
4. Put in an accessible direct line telephone number in your contact page. A personalized and instant support will immediately convert a prospect into a paying customer.
5. I can see from both old and new website that your designers like to keep the site colourful, attractive, simple and not too much of text. I appreciate that, but if they could add some AJAX like during search results loading time, it will make your site so much more professional.

I think that is so much input that I could contribute so far. The website is far from complete, many pages are not ready yet, perhaps I could do a more complete review when the new website is ready to launch. In the meantime, look out for these gems of the pages when the new website layout replaced the current one:

http://www.exabytes.com.my/about/testimonials.php
http://www.exabytes.com.my/about/awards.php
http://www.exabytes.com.my/about/

These pages may or not be there when the new website is launched. If you managed to access these pages when they are available and like them, please do comment on this post what you think about those pages.

I wish to take this opportunity to wish Exabytes all the best in its quest to be one of the best web hosts. It is already our national champion and I am proud of its achievement as well as the resourcefulness shown by its CEO, Mr. Chan Kee Siak, kudos to you!

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Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition

Just found out about this Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition Internet Tablet today. Yes, I think in the future all smartphones and PDAs will be called Internet Tablet or if some companies want to be creative, they could name their gadgets ezyTablet or something.

You can look at the specifications of this Internet Tablet through the above link. While many people are in a frenzy to own iPhone, I am looking queitly for something better. No doubt, iPhone is a cool gadget to own, especially when it has an unrivaled touch screen feature (no offence there, Samsung!). However, apart from that, the technologies in it are not really new or unique (surely other phone company's motion detector feature is much cooler than just touch screen).

Now look at this Internet Tablet. I especially like its WiMAX capabilities and full QWERTY keyboard. This would be blogger's dream gadget. They could enjoy mobile internet, they could type blog posts easily with the QWERTY keyboard and they do not stain their screens with their fingerprints.

Imagine being able to enjoy IPTV and TV on demand, have access to anyone in the world with VOIP and able to live blog about any events that you desire, anytime, anywhere thanks to WiMAX's capability to deliver high-speed internet access and related applications.

I am seriously considering to get this gadget for myself because WiMAX services have been launched in Malaysia. Unfortunately like many other phones and gadgets, this tablet is only available for sales in USA. I supposed this WiMAX equipped tablet costs about $500, seems like a good price but if it ever reaches Malaysian shore, I bet its price would be inflated, just like iPhone (do you know that Malaysians pay more than $500 for the first generation iPhone?).

Anyone frequent between US and Malaysia and could possibly buy and sell me this tablet at cost price? I am not even sure that Malaysian simcard will work with it, though.

Question of the day: Given a choice, would you like to own an iPhone, this Internet Tablet, HTC phones or other iPhone wannabes like Samsung Omnia, LG Secret?

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Why I don't make money from Advertlets!

No, the title is not a question, and this is certainly not a ranting post, rambling on about why Advertlets is a bad advertising network, so on and so forth.

I repeat, I have no intention of bad-mouthing Advertlets. Instead the title of the post is a statement, a shockingly electrifying statement after I discovered the possible reason why I am not making good money off Advertlets advertising network.

If you are even remotely interested to join this advertising network and make some decent money off it (sorry to foreign bloggers, I think this advertising network currently accepts only Malaysian and Singaporean bloggers) or you yourself are not making good money off this network, then please read on.

Let's look at how much money I have been making from Advertlets since joining them in February 2008.

Click on the image to enlarge but in case you cannot see the amount of money I earned, it is RM0.642 and that is the total since February 2008, that amount is about $0.20. In between February and now, I have dropped the Advertlets ads on my blog for 2 to 3 months because I was discouraged by the low earnings. It is even less than what I am earning from My Search Funds (now known as homepages friends).

I began thinking that it was weird that I do not receive a single advertiser since signing up with Advertlets. Then when I visited the support section of Advertlets site, I found this:

Question: Do I need to have at least 50 demographic poll submissions to get advertising on my blog?

Answer:Nope. Nada. No. The demographics submissions has always been more of a recommendation than a requirement - however, you will not be eligible for ALL advertising opportunities available IF your demographics submissions are NOT filled in.

Generally, the more demographics submissions you have the higher your chances. Some advertisers like to use demographics to determine which blogs they should advertise on, especially if its a product/service that applies to one gender. However, some would like to reach a larger audience, with some targeting options (eg, as long as they are Malaysians).

Please read the bold text of the answer part. Now I know what is the use of the poll code given by Advertlets. Apparently, if we have a complete demographics submissions profile (minimum 50), we have a higher chance to be selected by advertisers to run their campaigns. I will be blogging about the types of campaigns advertisers could run through Advertlets in another post. The answer above seems to imply that bloggers who have not completed 50 demographic submissions will not have their profiles available for network wide advertisers to choose from. It is sort of you are an invisible publisher with Advertlets, where they do not list you in their internal list of publishers to be chosen by advertisers.

Duh! No wonder I don't get a single advertiser yet, going to work on that...

I have not inserted the poll code into my blog template yet, but now that I know the importance of demographics submissions, I proceeded to add it immediately. You can see the widget (or gadget?) on my sidebar under the title "Help Me Get Advertisers".

If you have some time to spare or appreciate knowing about the importance of demographics submissions from this post, kindly help me fill in my demographic submissions. If you did that, and would like me to return a favor by submitting YOUR demographic submissions (even if you are in nuffnang network :) ) or commenting on your blog post or dropping on your EntreCard widgets, do leave a comment here please.

Thank you to anyone who read up to this point. Hope we all have a better chance to make money now, have a nice day by the way :)

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WiMAX on TV

I am a self-proclaimed techie, may only be peanuts in the eyes of the true techies but I am the one my friends and family turn to when there are technical problems with their computers (only computer OK, no other electrical stuffs, not even mobile or PDA!). However, a few months ago I was really embarrassed to let a fellow blogger know that I have not the slightest idea what WiMAX means, my first guess when he mentioned it - a gaming console similar to Sony PSP or Nintendo Wii.

Well eventually I did learn more about WiMAX. From a techie's perspective, a broadband internet connection plus WiFi is absolutely not the same as WiMAX (which is also wireless). I admit there are some differences between the two but whenever friends enquired me, "What is WiMAX?", I'll like to keep it rather simple, just what consumers need to know, my reply - "WiMAX is a new technology which promises faster (and more stable) internet." The technical part, I will just leave it to the service provider and people who are involved in the industry.

Apparently, my opinion is also shared by the marketing department of a certain WiMAX service provider. The people in the department decided that they should keep their advertisement simple and appeal to potential customers in the most pleasant and inviting ways, which means no hard-selling or sending salespersons to (persistently) persuade you to sign-up to their services in supermarkets. Here's how they decide to appeal to the consumers:

Bollywood WiMAX

Commentary: Have you encountered the frustration of being disconnected when you are viewing a live internet broadcast or when you are chatting happily away on your Instant Messenger (IM)? Free yourself now and get connected when it matters and even when it does not...

The Flasher

Commentary: (Imagine sports commentator Hasbullah Awang) Ohh no! The Flasher is doing it again, this is outrageous! Ohh no, not again, please not again. Especially not in Central Market! Hehe :)

Do you enjoy watching the WiMAX advertisements? I wonder whether there will be more of those coming. Perhaps to continue the momentum through humour, Phua Chu Kang can be enlisted to say his favorite phrase - "Best in Singapore, JB, and some even say in Batam!"?

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Who's the Fairest of Them All? Browser war!

Currently I installed 4 different browsers on my computer: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari. If I were to install Opera, I would have 4 of the most popular internet browsers, Chrome is the odd one but perhaps not for long.

The browser war is heating up now. There is a new challenger in town: Google Chrome. I will summarize what I feel and know about each of this 5 browsers below.

Internet Explorer (IE)
I have already updated IE to version 7, there is a new version coming out soon, IE v8. We have all read about the security flaws of older versions of IE, in particular version 4 and version 5. However, although I rarely use IE anymore (seriously, who's not using Firefox daily now?), on the rare occasions that I fire up IE, I can feel that Microsoft has put substantial efforts into improving IE. Version 7 is very stable and fast, it has tabbed browsing support and I regret to say that my IE now looks much cleaner than my Firefox, it has only the necessary toolbars and no other bulky add-on. Let's see what Microsoft can come up with IE v8 :)

Mozilla Firefox
I believe Firefox is the industry standard browser now. One of the reasons why this browser has enjoyed one of the fastest improvement is due to its open source license. Various programmers, users and add-ons builder contribute to the improvement of this browser. Not necessary the best looking browser in terms of interface now, also crashes occasionally. However, Firefox has unrivaled amount of useful add-ons, which makes it extremely powerful and can be customized according to individual users' needs. The no. 1 most popular browser for several consecutive years. Shame to say, I have very much abused the add-ons and installed a few additonal unimportant toolbars, to make my Firefox look bulky and clogged.

Safari
The browser names just get weirder and weirder, no? Who know's maybe there will be some new ones called Chocolate Fudge, Elephant Pie or even Ice Lab? OK, I made up all those name but I think the last one is pretty cool, anyone want to develop the name, please ask for my permission. Safari is produced by Apple, and like its other gadgets, the interface of Safari is the most beautiful among all browsers (my opinion). Some independent tests also indicate that Safari may be twice as fast versions of Firefox 2. I don't use it that much, period.

Opera
Opera has been pretty successful, look at how it maintained its position as the top 4 most popular browsers despite being in-direct competition with technological giants like Microsoft, Apple and open-sourced Mozilla Foundation (which has enjoyed substantial funding from search engine giant, Google). However it is currently only enjoying a very small slice of the browser users market. At first Opera is sold as a shareware, but I suppose to remain in the top 4 most popular browsers category, Opera has to be offered free of charge to consumers. There is little hope for Opera to regain more userbase, its best hope is to cling on to the top 4 most popular browsers category while going all out to be recognized as the best mobile Web browser.

Google Chrome
This browser has been secretly developed for over a year and no word about it got out at all until early September 2008. Still in beta status, heavily based on Mozilla Firefox's codes. It could have been prettier but like most other Google tools, I guess usability is more important to them than aesthetics. One of the advantages is that each browser tab is opened by separate memory threads, making it more stable and less prone for the main browser window to crash (and thus prevent loss of data). Chrome is predicted to be involved with a fierce three way struggle with Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox in the race to be the top and most popular Web browser.

Do you like reading about Web browsers? I will write more about Web browsers in general, I am also planning to write more in details about Google Chrome and Opera.

Question(s) of the day: What is your favorite browser? Why?

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Exabytes Moving Out Sale

In recent times, the price of commodities are rising and rising. Despite the reduction of world oil price, we all know better that the inflated price of other commodities would not be following the oily big brother down this direction.

You know, about a decade ago, there was a campaign in my beloved home country, which translated into English would roughly sound Zero Inflation Campaign. It was rather successful and I was curious why the current crop of leaders do not aspire to implement similar campaign again. Perhaps in the 21st century, zero inflation is not possible? Well, I suspect given the record high inflation rate this time around, zero inflation may not do much good either, we should instead strive for a reduction in the price of the commodities, just like in the good ole times, somehow we need negative inflation now.


Anyway, back to our topic. There's some good news, out of nowhere, Exabytes is offering discounts up to 70% in its hosting plans products. Apparently, Exabytes would be moving out of their present location to a new office. Congratulations to them! By the rate at which they are expanding and their (seemingly) good management and promotions, I can see only 1 local webhosting company giving them any challenge at all in their quest to dominate Malaysian webhosting scene. I have not done any extensive research into this, it is merely a hunch, but I might blog about the other company in other posts.

The hosting plans at discounted prices are limited and if you have been planning to get a reliable hosting, you should probably grab your chance now, which will only be available up to 15th of September. Here's a preview of what's left:
EBiz Plus Plan - original price USD68/yr, now only USD49/yr (Coupon Code: MovingPlus)
EBiz Gold Plan - original price USD116/yr, now only USD99/yr (Coupon Code: MovingGold)

The EBiz Plus plan is sufficient for a starting personal blog and some small projects (up to 3 domains or so), you don't want to be stingy and invest in Exabytes student package, that will only retard your growth. For the more ambitious, EBiz Gold plan will hold strong even if you are expecting a few millions visitors per month. You can view the features of both the plans here.

Finally, to take opportunity of this promotions, I have signed up with Exabytes as an affiliate. I will get paid a certain amount of money as commission for referring you to buy Exabytes' web hosting plan(s). If you like what you have read and are planning to buy a hosting anyway, why not buy it through my affiliate link below to benefit me?

Buy Web Hosting Plans From This Link

Don't forget to use the coupon codes provided above to enjoy the discount rates. As a bonus, anyone who signs up with Exabytes through my affiliate link will get my assistance FREE to help them set up a WordPress blog complete with the most important plugins. Those who signs up under me can also opt for 5 free unique 500 words articles of their choice if they don't need the WordPress setup.

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