Possible Locations for Your Web Site

Virtual Site.

When server space and communication capacity is rented, it can be allocated in a form that makes the space appear to be a single server to the entire Internet. This is called a virtual server. Virtual servers behave as if they were a computer that was not a part of any other computer and receive their own Internet connection number so they can be found by the communication system. If desired, just like the actual computer server, the virtual server can be assigned its own domain (alias) too. Since the domain name is only a way of making the connection number easy to remember, and is not actually related to the Internet connections. That means a domain can be changed to other connection numbers. Hence, domains become the property of the person or business that purchased it (or already owned it due to a names relationship to a registered trademark). All this makes a virtual site a very safe environment for a business to place the web site portion of its business. If the business that owned the server fails, they just rent space on another server and transfer the domain to the new connection point number. People will not have to learn a new name for the site and all the investment to attract people to the site will remain as effective as it ever was.

A virtual server acts just like a real server. That means the business that rents space assigned as a virtual site must operate it and maintain its software very much as the actual server owner does. The virtual server is less expensive than an actual physical server. You don't need to ever replace the hard drive, power supply, or attach a communication line, the owner of the virtual server must maintain and operate the software that uses these things. Our virtual domains have everything a typical business needs to succeed on the Internet. You can control it fully. Combined with the control panel, the control is fairly easy and does not require an expert to run it.

Common vanity sites.

Vanity sites are the real name for most types of web sites. The technical people named them that because the only person they really expected to see the site was the person that leased it. Several sites fall into this category.

Internet Service Providers Access Space. An ISP must maintain a the largest and highest level of acces type expertise in their people. To give people and businesses an incentive to use them as their connection to the Internet, the owners of these servers give away some of their servers hard disk space to people that signed up for access with them. They call it personal space. They don't market it, and don't usually want it marketed. Often they restrict the material in that space to noncommercial information. Even if they don't, they often limit the amount of people that can access it. The reason is that if the site becomes too attractive to others, it will mean that they will need to purchase more communication equipment and maintain it. They usually don't want that because it hurts their capacity to meet service requests to the backbone from people calling in on their communication line. That why they call the personal space a "vanity site." They only expect the person that purchases it will ever really see it. If you put a good business site on it, they usually require a much higher fee, to cover the added communication (traffic) costs; or demand the removal a the material causing the demand. If you market it and it becomes successful, they may be forced to remove it to stop the overload it may cause to their overall system. Thus, a vanity site is usually a risky proposition for a business. All the work put into the site can become lost if the doors to the site are closed. People just assume the worst. That you went out of business or were unprofitable and closed one of your business locations. Either way, it is bad news for a business. We offer 5Mb space with our dial in too. We just don't consider it business space. It doesn't have the required services.

Business site. The business site host generated a virtual or actual server to meet their business needs. If they have excess capacity, they rent the excess to other businesses. Again, the main space is generated for their business. If one of the businesses in the space they rent is generating large amounts of traffic or they grow to the point they need the space, they may decide to cut their losses and refuse to renew the agreement for renting the space. If they change the name of their business and its domain, the name of every business in the domain will change and the old site name will appear to be closed. Again, all work put into the site could be lost. If the host's business is very different from the business renting space, it creates conflict in peoples minds and hurts the message the web site is intended to generate.

Cyber Mall sites. Cyber malls are shopping locations that give access to many businesses from one domain location name. Some cyber malls fall into the business host category. Many do not have any sites that they actually host. Businesses register with them and the cyber mall has software that makes their site look like it is a part of their mall. They sell ad space that appears on the screen of visitor that come to the cyber mall to shop. The more businesses they have that appear to be present in the mall, the more people that visit, and the value of the ad space increases. To obtain a showing on the screen that really promotes your business, you pay the advertising fee to get it there. Often, to be in a cyber mall, you must pay to rent space, then register with the mall, then pay to be placed at the top of the mall lists.

OfficeOnWeb and MallOnWeb Concepts.

Virtual Domains. Our virtual domains include everthing a business needs to succeed on the Internet, even the things they don't know they need yet. Logs, value added services, instant controls, and one of the largest support sites of any provider around.

Common Use Malls and Offices. Physical buildings, malls, and streets are a part of everyday life. We are comfortable with them and like them because they help us order our lives. When we are looking for a particular item, the ordering helps us find it. When things are close together it is more convenient. We can get more things done in a given amount of time. That is a large part of why we visit malls.

Beyond the fact that people like to visit malls and generate good traffic, the mall also offers businesses other advantages too. People in a mall go in to find one item, notice others, and often make impulse purchases. People also go to the mall to have a variety of things to look at. We call it window shopping and we buy a lot of things when we do it. Most small businesses, and many large, ones don't own the buildings they use as their storefront. I.businesses within the mall obtain the building maintenance and other support services through the building manager and their staff. That lets them avoid the technical details and concentrate on their true business. All businesses hosted with OfficeOnWeb as a virtual domain obtain free listings in the various malls and offices we operate. We are not aware of any other provider that offers such a benefits.

MallOnWeb Concept. MallOnWeb type "suites" are customer maintained web sites within a mall that is marketed throughout the Internet similar to a cyber mall. The difference is that the mall is maintained and operated for the benefit of the businesses that are place their. Each suite receive an extensive list of support features that make operating the Internet portion of their business much easier and more profitable. For example, they don't need to have someone generate a local search engine, they already have one available within the facility. A directory and many other support features are also provided.

The OfficeOnWeb Concept. OfficeOnWeb is a new concept in the Internet business. OfficeOnWeb is a virtual building that does all the above for the customer. It does not require the business know anything about the Internet to be successful on it. It uses the successful concepts behind the common use office and mall. It has directories, ordered in a variety of ways, and has a local site search engine to help people locate businesses, products, and services. It advertises throughout the Internet to generate good traffic for all the businesses. Each business that obtains a suite adds to its appeal as a one stop shopping spot and the arrival of that business is announced to business listing services and Internet-wide search engines. All the businesses within or using OfficeOnWeb host services are promoted. While advertising is accepted, care is taken to not present it in a way that is to the determinant of the other businesses within the site. Support services are provided by the OfficeOnWeb manager and staff. Businesses don't need to be bogged down in the technical details and can concentrate on their businesses activities and the purposes of their web site augmentation of it (service, support, advertising, etc.).

A little advertising about our approach

The Technical Details. We are a virtual domain site that serves as a Host Provider only. OfficeOnWeb's job is to host and support the web portion of the businesses that rent space within OfficeOnWeb. The OfficeOnWeb address is more stable as it conveys the purpose of the business. The spaces within the site are referred to as suites and addressed in a form that allows computers and people alike to remember. They don't change every time a business moves in and that adds to the stability. While we think we have made the best server choices, we have minimize the risk of server problems for OfficeOnWeb and its tenants. If the physical server that OfficeOnWeb uses ever became a problem, we could change to another physical server anywhere in the world without affecting hosted businesses in the suites.

ISP Service Details. We have cooperative agreements to provide dial-in type access for our customers, with added benefits and at a discount, for the area that we expect will be the source of the majority of our customers. This way we avoid the problems of being an Internet Service Provider, don't need to impose its communication restrictions, and can provide business serves at a lower cost and with more responsiveness. (After all, it you obtain business host services with an ISP and their communication line stops working, fixing that is, by necessity, their first priority. If your business web site needs to be changed, corrected, or anything else, it cannot be tended to until the communication crisis is over.) Again, this allows everyone some flexibility and security. While a tenant would lose some added benefits we have obtained for OfficeOnWeb customers, no one is obligated to use the ISP we selected. In the unlikely event the ISP service became unacceptable, a new ISP could be selected with little to no change for the tenant businesses. All OfficeOnWeb tenant mail addresses are stable. They forward to any ISP the tenant chooses. Thus the web site portion of the business stays stable to those in contact with you.

Flexibility. In addition to the flexibility of changing servers, ISP's and the other factors mentioned, OfficeOnWeb offers one more benefit that no else can. Every business has the potential to grow so large that it needs its own "building". Should your web site business grow to the point that your own virtual server is a good choice for the business, you can make the transition without damaging your existing investment. The virtual site of the business can be mirrored ( it a copy) as a suite in OfficeOnWeb. That way you retain the benefits of the mall traffic while obtaining the independence of a virtual site. When the virtual site space is rented from OfficeOnWeb, in most cases, there is no additional charge for this service.