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Normally, if you want to have professional designers custom build your site, you must be prepared to dish out at least a few hundred dollars. All this can change if you know where to find the best deals, the best designs for the lowest price. Here’s a rough guide:

First, you must understand that it is a rip off to get companies to design websites for you. Have you ever seen those advertisements in newspaper classified ad sections that offer a 5-page website at $500? These companies are established companies with physical locations, therefore they have to increase the amount they charge to pay off some overheads: office rent, designer’s wages, advertising costs and so on.

Therefore, it would be wise to find freelance designers who work from home. These people are often working from home so they do not have a high operation cost like that of a company. On the other hand, they will be able to design images with quality similar to those of designers from big companies, so it’s a “no-brainer” choice.

However, choose freelancers with care. The best way to do this would be to go to elance.com. There, you can post the abstract of your project and get thousands of freelancers to bid on your project, so you will surely get the best deal. On top of that, you will be able to choose the designers based on their experience, past transactions and ratings, so your value for money is secured.

Another route you can take is to design your website yourself. Think about it, if you only need 5 simple pages to present some simple information, why waste hundreds of dollars for it? Just spend a little time to sit down and do it yourself. You’ll be able to design your own sites even if you do not know a single line of HTML code with the help of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs such as Microsoft Frontpage, Macromedia Dreamweaver and so on.

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Offers for free stuff abound on the internet and many of them are completely legitimate. While it might be nice to get a free sample of mocha coffee or a free pair of baby booties, what do you really do with all that free stuff? Why not earn some cash with it?

Free samples are so prevalent online that you can literally order five or six things every day and be getting free stuff in the mail for a month! These samples are available for everything from coffee creamers to baby wipes and antacids. The idea behind them is to turn you onto the products so that you will begin buying them, but you can also turn free stuff into cash in your pocket by reselling it.

Let’s start with samples. If you package similar items together, you have the perfect “sampler kit” or gift basket. All you need is three or four related items and you are good to go. For example, you could get together some baby products, a sample of Dove soap, a couple mini packs of baby wipes, a formula sample and maybe even some talc powder or baby perfume. Put those all in a cute basket along with a bow and cellophane and you have the perfect newborn gift basket.

To create a sampler pack, you need items that are even more similar, like coffee. If you can get eight to ten different coffee samples, they can be packaged together in a neat little box, perhaps along with a mug or creamers and sold as a sampler pack. No one will ever know it was created from free stuff!

Larger free stuff like baby booties and T-shirts can be resold online, on Ebay or Craigslist, for example. If you get together several T-shirts or other items that are similar, you can sell them on Ebay as a package deal, charging only a few dollars per item. Let’s face it after all, this was free stuff, so even a few pennies are pure profit!

Often, for free stuff that is actually worth something, like a necklace or book, you will have to do something in exchange. This might be signing up for an email newsletter or giving some kind of information, but there will be an exchange required. In most cases this is completely worth it since you can resell the item for a small profit.

To get really great free stuff, look for 100% rebates. This means that you actually buy the item, but with the rebate, the cost of the entire item is refunded, leaving you with high quality free stuff. You can find great rebates at places like buy.com, or search for them on Google.

Not only is it fun to get free stuff, but if you can also earn from it, what’s stopping you? Start ordering your free stuff today and in 4-6 weeks, you should have all the product you need to get your own free stuff business off the ground!

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When you are first starting up your e-business, it can be difficult to decide which webhost to go with. While free looks appealing, it does have it’s setbacks and you might prefer to go with paid, but it is good to get all the options before making a major decision! For e-businesses with a very low budget, starting off on a free webhost can be the best choice, but you need to know what you are looking for.

Free webhosting for e-business has obvious appeal because you don’t have to pay, of course! However, while free hosting can be nice, you do usually get what you pay for. They aren’t just giving away space for nothing, the webhosts still need to earn money and most do that by placing ads on your website.

Having banner ads or a notice that says “Get Your Free Website Here” on your e-business site is not very professional, so you might want to look for other options in this case. There are free webhosts for e-business that allow for ad-free websites, but they are usually extremely limited in the way of space and bandwidth. As long as you stay small and don’t need to upload videos or major files, you can use these providers for your e-business.

Most e-businesses prefer to have their own domain name as it appears far more professional than a website hosted under a subdomain such as www.freehost.yourbusiness.com. If you decide to go with a free webhost, you need to make sure that you select one that allows for outside domain names. There are free hosts out there that allow for this and it really is your best option. If you are doing marketing and promotion for your e-business, you don’t want to lose all that traffic simply by moving to a new webhost later on. A domain name allows you to switch hosts without losing your traffic, you can simply redirect your domain.

Another thing to watch for when you are searching for a free webhost for your e-business site is upgradeable hosts. This means that if you like the webhost and everything is going well, when you need to expand, you can easily do so by simply starting to pay a low monthly fee. This gives you more space, bandwidth and other options for your e-business.

If you plan to monetize your e-business website with Adsense or another type of ad, you will probably be banned from doing this on any webhost that already runs Adsense themselves. An ad-free site is more likely to allow your ads to be placed, but make sure you check this out before signing up. It’s no fun having to redesign your entire e-business website just because you missed a “no ad posting” clause!

If you find a host that offers free webhosting without ads, with paid upgrades, allows for domain names and your own ads, plus the space that you need to get started, you have the perfect webhost for your e-business. It really does pay to shop around.

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There are companies such as Picky Domain Names that specialize in finding the perfect URL for your business, but there is no reason why you can’t do the same thing yourself, for free! All it takes is a good imagination and some time to brainstorm. If you have friends who can help, all the better.

Most of the regular domain names have been bought up and used now, so it is a real challenge to find ones that are unique, describe your business and are easy to remember. That’s why you need to get creative.

-First off, there are a few general ground rules to ensure that your visitors remember your domain names. This is obviously the most important part of choosing an URL, so keep the following in mind:

-Limit yourself to a maximum of three words. Longer phrases tend to be difficult to remember and also they take too long to type in. People want information fast and if they have to try and remember a twenty letter URL, they probably won’t bother.

-Use words that are easy to spell. If you use weirdly spelled words just to get the domain names you want, you will lose a lot of visitors. For example, if myspace.com is taken, don’t go for myspayce.com, you will just end up sending traffic to the other domain name.

-Think carefully before using anything apart from .com as an ending for your domain names. It is the most common and often people will forget if you use a more unusual ending such as .name or .tv.

Now that you have the basics in mind, it is time to brainstorm. Start by writing down all the words you can think of that relate to your business. For example, if you have a diaper service, you would end up with a list of keywords that include “diaper, diapers, baby, bottom, cloth, wet, dirty, clean, service” etc. Include any slang or nicknames as well, such as “nappy, stinky,” etc.

Once you have a good long list, start trying to put the words together in a form that would work as domain names. You should be able to come up with at least a dozen that fit the description of your business. For our diaper service example you might end up with nomorestink.com, dirtytoclean.com, nappybottom.com, etc.

Next, you need to go to a domain names registrar such as GoDaddy and check to see if your domain names are available. Start with the ones you like best and work your way down the list. Chances are you will find at least two or three that are available. These are then your choices for domain names!

This whole process works best if you have two or more people to bounce ideas off of. Domain names that are wacky and outrageous are sure to come up as you work your way through a brainstorming session with friends or coworkers! And at the end of it all, you should have a handful of domain names that you can go with.

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The DVD region code identifies a DVD’s compatibility with the players typically sold in a particular region.

Region 0 (or “region free”) is compatible with DVD players from any region.

The majority of all current titles play only in one specific region unless otherwise noted. DVDs sold by Amazon.co.uk are encoded for Region 2 or Region 0. Region 2 DVDs may not work on DVD players in other countries.

Region 1 DVDs sold by Marketplace sellers

Region 1 discs are intended for use with standard DVD players in North America (Canada and the USA). In most instances they can also be played on compatible “multi-region” DVD players (also known as “chipped” or “region-free” players).

They also require an NTSC-compatible television. NTSC is the standard picture format in North America, and differs from the PAL format adopted in Britain and Europe. Region 1 DVDs are usually presented in NTSC format, so you should ensure that your TV is capable of reading the NTSC signal before purchasing Region 1 DVDs.

Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE)

Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE) has been added by some film studios (specifically Warner and Columbia) to selected Region 1 DVDs, with the intention of preventing these discs from playing on some multi-region DVD players. We are therefore unable to guarantee that all Region 1 discs will be compatible with all multi-region players.

Global DVD region countries

This is not a definitive list and is intended only as a guide.

Region 1 - US, US Territories and Canada

American Samoa, Canada, Guam, Palau, Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, Puerto Rico, Micronesia, United States, U.S. Virgin Islands

Region 2 - UK, Europe, Japan, South Africa and Middle East

Albania, Andorra, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Vatican City, Yemen, Yugoslavia

Region 3 - Southeast and East Asia

Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Phillipines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam

Region 4 - Australia, New Zealand, Central and South America

Antigua, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Barbuda, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, New Guinea, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad, Tobago, Uruguay

Region 5 - Former Soviet Union, Indian sub-continent, Africa, North Korea and Mongolia

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, India, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, St. Helena, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Region 6 - China

China

Region 7 - Reserved for future use

Region 8 - International Territories (ships, planes, etc)

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