Hosting suggestions in UK/Europe with cPanel

2010-06-24T18:39:56Z

Could anyone give me a suggestion for a good webhosting server that

HE HAS BEEN USING SO FAR
it is located in UK (so server are in UK/Europe), not in US.
it uses cPanel

Thanks!

Bylaws for a startup corporaton

2010-04-14T05:28:58Z

Are there any resources to help a startup to customise their bylaws?

Often when one uses a service to form a corporation they provide a boiler plate set of bylaws as part of the package, but I would assume that it would be appropriate to customise them to meet specific requirements.

Domain name starting with "get"

2010-09-07T11:30:11Z

What do you think of domains that have the word "get" before the actual product name, just like getclicky.com or the domains used by 37 Signals products (basecamphq.com, campfirenow.com)?

Does it look good? what does it say to customers?

Viral marketing - call to action for free service

2010-05-01T19:14:08Z

We're starting a service with a specific value for many home owners, still don't know if many will subscribe. Social networks such as Facebook and others don't work for the profiles that we target. We'd like to encourage participants to invite their friends through email to subscribe too, but since the service is free I'm not sure how we can push them to take action soon. How would you formulate a call to action for a free service?

Top 20 US banks payment processing applications

2010-08-22T15:27:37Z

Are there any research papers showing what applications the top 20 US banks are using for their credit card / payment processing application?

For example, Citi is using Visionplus and so is GE. Wells Fargo is using CSC CAMES II, etc.

Thanks!

UserVoice or GetSatisfaction?

2009-10-10T09:09:06Z

These two services seem quite similar and from reading around on the internet I can't find a definitive reason why one is better than the other or a comparison of their strengths/weaknesses.

Has anyone here used either of these services? If so, what made you choose the service you did?

The Founder Conference is in 2 Months (Tell OnStartups community)

2010-06-17T16:44:31Z

A quick note to let you know that the Founder Conference 2010 will take place on August 17 in Mountain View. Members of the OnStartups community receive a 15% discount at http://founderconference.eventbrite.com/?discount=onstartups

This conference is for anyone planning to start a startup in 2010. We have an amazing lineup of speakers: Aaron Patzer (Mint.com), Guy Kawasaki ("The Art of the Start"), Adeo Ressi (TheFunded) and more.

Topics cover finding a co-founder, refining your pitch, how to launch and get buzz on a budget and more topics critical to entrepreneurs.

Please pass the word around!

Starting travel business in Massachusetts?

2010-08-11T04:53:43Z

I currently run a home based travel agnecy in WA state, and will be moving to MA next year. I looked around the MA gov't website to try and find out what I need to transfer my company, but it's very confusing.

Anyone know what the general liscense requirements are (fees, forms, links to websites, etc), and if there are special licenses I'd need as a "Seller of Travel"?

Thank you in advance for any and all help.

Outsourcing "product development" for Tech startups

2010-09-07T16:55:32Z

what are the most crucial steps to be taken by a new tech startup when outsourcing major part of the tech to IT firms or outsourcing "product development" eg new social media website project?

How do I find websites that offer image ad option via google adwords?

2010-08-24T19:49:37Z

I need websites in a certain geographic area (Long Island, NY) that have image google ads

Business banking outside home state?

2010-05-04T10:47:52Z

Hi all,

I am starting an internet service business, which I have registered the LLC in Wyoming. Although I reside in Illinois, I travel all the time for work and would like to maintain my Wyoming corporate tax status (no corporate income tax). I was thinking that I should try to find a business bank account outside of Illinois at the very least, and preferably an account in Wyoming.

Does anyone know of a bank that will allow me to open and conduct business via fax and email? I'd prefer to find one in Wyoming.

Thanks.

What to do with a semi successful side-project?

2010-09-04T20:08:26Z

Beside my two startups I invest 99% of my time in, I have several side projects I started just for fun. Trying out new programming languages, those kind of things.

One of these side projects is a community (basically just a phpBB installation) geared towards a VERY specific niche, a specific type of equipment underground music producers use.

The website is mostly self-managing (we have some volunteering moderators) and I only check in every month or so to see if everything is still running smoothly.

The website has been running for a few years now and it's a really tight and friendly community. They love the site so much some members proposed to donate money to cover the hosting. (I turned it down, because in all fairness the webhosting costs are minimal.) The site has about 20k visits/100k views a month. No revenue, since we don't have any ads or user subscriptions.

I see tons of possibilities to improve the site and turn it into a business. Not because the traffic is that impressive, but because the target group is so specific and we could provide them with other related services they might want to pay for.

However, I really don't want to divide my time by 3 startups so I guess my question is if there's a way to leverage the potential without putting in a lot of time in it myself.

Perhaps I could try selling it to the manufacturer of the equipment (they already sponsored us once) or am I better of finding someone that can develop it for me? (in exchange for shares or money).

I have thought of just putting advertisements on it, because it's such a specific niche. This way I could develop the site based on its revenue, but the community seems very adversed to this idea. They are bit 'anti-commercial' if that makes sense. The advertisements would have to be highly targeted which again means I have to curate them which I currently don't have the time for.

Any ideas on this?

Sources of industry and benchmark information (free or inexpensive)

2010-08-03T21:44:48Z

What are some of the best free (or almost free) sources of updated and historical industry data, analysis, and comparative benchmark information?

For example: Restaruant industry average food and labor cost, or average occupancy rates and average daily rooom rates for hotels, etc.

I have access to Standard & Poors reports and data via the investment firm that is host to my retirement accounts. However, for those who do not have such access, the cost to obtain the info from S&P is quite expensive. I wonder if there are in-depth sources out there that are free or nearly free.

How much do you worry about keywords when blogging?

2010-08-25T22:40:44Z

I'm relatively new to blogging - only been doing it for a few months. The common advice is to make your posts keyword rich for high search engine ranking. But I don't normally worry too much about that. I do take it into consideration, and make an effort to include keywords if it makes sense, but I don't go crazy if I can't. My biggest concern is making my posts informative and easy to read.

Just curious as to what your thoughts are on this topic. How do you approach your writing? Do you try to make your posts as keyword rich as possible? Do you not worry about it at all? And how successful (i.e. increasing readership) have you been with your approach?

Also, do you have any recommendations on how to increase the use of keywords in blog posts?

Is there service to create books(pdf) from web pages?

2010-09-07T07:41:56Z

im looking for service that let me create pdf out of selectable web pages
with some basic editing capabilities. so i could read it later or send me by email
is not , is it good startup idea?
p.s
i dont mean simple html2pdf kind of stuff.

What happens when the startup gets bankrupt?

2010-09-05T18:39:21Z

Hi,

When you have shares on a startup, what happens if the startup runs out of money, has debt and bankrupts?

thanks

How much can you trust website worth value calculators?

2010-03-07T23:35:24Z

Hi,

While bulding my Business Plan for my future Website, I am trying to collect some relationships between traffic and online advertising monetization.

I know that we cannot really trust numbers given by website calculators but I wanted to know how far they are from the reality and which one seems to be the more accurate.

For instance, stackoverflow.com is evaluated at:

80k$ worth by www.valuemyweb.com
700k$ worth by www.yourwebsitevalue.com
5.5M$ worth by www.cubestat.com !!!

You see what I mean?

But I believe that one can be more trusted than others. So do you know which one is the most accurate?

If you are a website owner, could you try cubestat.com and check if they "daily ad revenues" is far or not from your own real ad revenues?

Thank youy very much,

Fabien.

How to set Option Exercise Price?

2010-09-06T23:17:07Z

I just incorporated a Delaware C Corp a few months ago and have no significant activity yet.

I have 2 Advisors that I need to issue options to, and my question is how do I set the option exercise price? I've found a very good white paper here: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww-bcf.usc.edu%2F~kjmurphy%2FHallMurf6.pdf&ei=IHCFTPLUOIK6sAOC0Mn2Bw&usg=AFQjCNG8YQwUJdPP4QIbQ8FBsjDQW9DFRw&sig2=_jE-0g8snG0vhkjrFsw08A

The paper suggests to set the option exercise price at-the-money, i.e. at the price of the share on the grant date.

Based on your different experiences, do you have any comments on suggestions on this? I'd like a perspective on tax issues too if possible.

Thanks!

WhoIs- what is the meaning of "Record expires on 06-Sep-2010"? The domain name is still unavailable

2010-09-07T03:39:46Z

I'm looking to buy a domain name that is currently held by someone. The record info (WhoIs) on GoDaddy says:

"Record expires on 06-Sep-2010.
Record created on 06-Sep-2006.
Database last updated on 6-Sep-2010 23:12:47 EDT."

I thought that meant the name would be available for purchase, but it doesn't seem to be. What I am missing?

Thanks!

Is there a resource where I can find the top 50 blogs written in Nassau County, Long Island

2010-04-16T22:29:33Z

Hoping to find the top 50 blogs that are written in this county. Blogs that have a predominate audience of Long Island residents.

MBA LEcturer-fresher to teach effectively

2010-09-07T01:03:24Z

How to teach a MBA student?I m a Fresher-Lecturer..Give me ideas and tricks

How to do smart advertising on the Internet?

2010-09-06T02:31:40Z

The requirements is free and effective.

Do you think SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is promising?

2010-09-04T02:56:14Z

What do you think of the future of SEO?

Please recommend native US English proofreading/editing/copywriting service providers

2010-02-05T05:39:10Z

We need a few technical whitepapers and some Web content proof-read and edited for style by a native US English speaker, most preferably with background in software engineering or a closely related discipline.

We used to use EditAvenue, but their best editor is no longer accepting new work, and there are not many editors with technical background.

I have seen this question, but the recommended services do not look very technical either.

We may also consider copywriting services, so finding a one-stop shop for all our content needs would be terrific.

Service providers are welcome to contact me directly at dleskov@domain-in-my-profile.

key levers in B2B marketing

2010-05-03T12:01:33Z

Hi I have my own financial services firm. and now i am looking forward to market the niche investment products like Private Equity, Art Fund etc. and advisory services to the distributor community.Can you please suggest me how to go about it and what will be the key levers in marketing these services and products?

How to find leads for a bootstrapped SaaS business?

2010-05-15T09:57:42Z

Although Internet is huge and there are millions of users - this fact doesn't mean all of them would suddenly find your site and begin to purchase your product or service. It's an overcrowded megalopolis and your business' starting position is somewhere in the suburbs. To find some leads you must be as close to the center of the city as possible.

But how can a bootstrapped small SaaS business solve this problem?

It took me some time to understand that for SaaS business there are no free marketing channels (marketing through Twitter, Social Networks, Blog etc. takes a significant amount of time to pursue, so it's not free anyway).

And regrettably, I don't know a 'sure fire' way to attract a reasonable number of leads to a site even by the means of aforementioned time-consuming techniques.

At this moment I have found the following techniques (I list them here, because they seem to be working due to the experience/authority of people who mentioned those). I don't list the approaches that were provided without any measured results ("You must write new post twice a week! It can help").

Check the following:

A blog. A blog with unique and interesting content. No SEO, no Social hacks. Just post interesting essays for about a year or two to get some readers. As Jason Cohen wrote in his blog, it took him more than a year to gain a reasonable amount of readers. So if your content is unique and interesting, there is some probability that someday you'll be noticed and people will begin to read your old posts, comment on them, share, etc.
Niche SEO. A very interesting interview with Patrick McKenzie reveals some real numbers and practices. In two words: find a niche search query (e.g. 'Easter Bingo Cards') that (a) has a very few incumbents in the search results page (first 10) and (b) has unsatisfied demand, e.g. 1000 search queries per month. Create a page on the EasterBingoCards.com domain and get listed in the top 10 search query results, because your domain name coincides with the query and your site is all about Easter Bingo Cards. Ah, place a link to your main site there.
Ride a hype: a recent post from a Russian tech blog Habrahabr exemplifies an interesting case. An entrepreneur noted that due to the launch of iPad that uses microSim there would be a demand from users who want to interchange a sim between their iPad and iPhone. Here goes the microSim adapter. He found a manufacturer of these adapters in Germany (500 pcs for 400 Euro), made a simple 5-page site (design template - 12 euro) and added Paypal payment option. Then he started to comment on blogs and forums that are in the top-10 search results page for 'Microsim, Microsim Adapter, Micromsim IPad'. (example: http://gizmodo.com/5532572/make-your-own-microsim). He got first order on the first day, the second order a few hours later, and after a couple of days he was mentioned in a blog post by some Brazilian blogger and that was a real start. On the iPad 3g introduction day he processed orders every ten minutes. The result - 15 000 Euro of net profit for the first month. No SEO, no AdWords, just a few comments on blogs.

Another thing that I consider worth mentioning is the notion of a 'missed boat'. As I can see now the most successful blogs (size and quality of audience) were started a long ago. The 37signals example that has already set everybody's teeth on edge was started in 2000 (http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://37signals.com/svn). If we follow Jason Cohen's experience with his own blog we can infer that the more time passes the more quality audience you get.

The same thing about Twitter: those who've started to tweet in 2006 have more tweets, more followers than an average 'belated adopter'.

And above all of this 37signals advise to exploit free marketing channels (blog) instead of paid advertisements.

So, my question is the following: How can one gain a certain audience for his site where one sells some bootstrapped software?

Here are the constraints:

One doesn't need huge traffic. 4000-5000 unique visitors (from target audience) per month is enough for the directly paid (not free) service at the beginning.
One doesn't have much time: about 5-6 months to find those users.
Paradoxically one will prefer to spend time on some marketing activities than to pay for those (yes, the budget is vanishingly small).

Is that possible?

Best resources for learning Wordpress?

2009-11-13T19:53:46Z

I am in the process of (re)learning Wordpress. General searches return a plethora of resources for learning, but it's difficult to cut through the clutter. What resources do folks here recommend?

Also, any recommended sites for good, free templates / plug-ins / etc.?

How to write an advertisement?

2010-07-14T03:35:53Z

Any tips or guidelines? Or is there a great book on that?

Is There A Service I Can Use For Cheque Mailing?

2010-07-16T19:46:40Z

I am keeping track of commissions earned by my customers in a database. Each month, I have the amount they earned and their Names and Addresses.

I can easily automate the generation of the lists of people and how much to send. What I don't know is an easy way to send the cheques out to these people.

Is there a way for me to automate this, to minimize my time involved?

If one exists, I'd be happy to use a service and send them one list each month if they would send out cheques in the amount I specify to each person, with my business listed as the payer.

how to start with restaurant reservation startup in india ??

2010-08-27T00:28:47Z

I am in the process of starting a restaurant reservation service which will book tables on real time and on weekends it will add users name in the guest list which will reduce the wait time of the customer. I want to know how do i get seed money from VC's if not how is the indian market where to find free research reports for people who order food online and book a table online in india.

thanks nimesh khiara

Top Questions - OnStartups Answers

Hosting suggestions in UK/Europe with cPanel

Bylaws for a startup corporaton

Domain name starting with "get"

Viral marketing - call to action for free service

Top 20 US banks payment processing applications

UserVoice or GetSatisfaction?

The Founder Conference is in 2 Months (Tell OnStartups community)

Starting travel business in Massachusetts?

Outsourcing "product development" for Tech startups

How do I find websites that offer image ad option via google adwords?

Business banking outside home state?

What to do with a semi successful side-project?

Sources of industry and benchmark information (free or inexpensive)

How much do you worry about keywords when blogging?

Is there service to create books(pdf) from web pages?

What happens when the startup gets bankrupt?

How much can you trust website worth value calculators?

How to set Option Exercise Price?

WhoIs- what is the meaning of "Record expires on 06-Sep-2010"? The domain name is still unavailable

Is there a resource where I can find the top 50 blogs written in Nassau County, Long Island

MBA LEcturer-fresher to teach effectively

How to do smart advertising on the Internet?

Do you think SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is promising?

Please recommend native US English proofreading/editing/copywriting service providers

key levers in B2B marketing

How to find leads for a bootstrapped SaaS business?

Best resources for learning Wordpress?

How to write an advertisement?

Is There A Service I Can Use For Cheque Mailing?

how to start with restaurant reservation startup in india ??