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T
he first thing to make note of in your BlueHost control panel is the stats column on the left. This area contains important information related to your account such as the amount of disk space you're using, the monthly bandwidth you have used, and the number of sub domains, parked domains, add on domains, etc. that you have created for your account. You will want to monitor this area from time to time to make sure you are still operating within the allowable parameters for your account. The nice thing about BlueHost is that you receive a generous amount of disk space, bandwidth, sub domains, etc. to operate a large professional website.
The right column of the BlueHost control panel is loaded with various features and tools. I will point out some of the main items that I utilize often.
Mail Category
Email Accounts
With your BlueHost account, you can set up numerous email addresses on your domain name. For instance, when I setup www.WebByShore.com, I created the email address
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
. Note that I could have created any name before the "@" symbol. For example, I could have established the email address "
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
" or "
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
". BlueHost allows numerous email addresses on your account. In fact, as of this writing, you can create 2500 email addresses! That should be enough email addresses for a significant company operation!
Spam assassin
Unfortunately, having a website of your own means that you will be susceptible to the spammers who relentlessly search for email addresses (listed on websites) that they can send their crap to. Although most people who have e-mail receive some amount of spam, having a website with your email address seems to increase the amount of spam received.
However, BlueHost includes a program called SpamAssassin that will filter out much of the spammers sewage that they flood you with.
Email Filters
A couple of other useful tools in the mail category is the account level filtering and the user level filtering. These will allow you to set rules in your email that will filter out certain senders or words. For instance, if you continue to receive spam with the same text in the subject line, you can have the filter automatically discard any unwanted email that is received with that particular text in the subject line.
Auto Responder
A very nice feature in the email category is the auto responder tool. This allows you to set up an immediate automatic email response to anyone sending a message to any email on your BlueHost account. This is sort of a courtesy message that says something like "Hello, this is an automated reply to your request for more information from XYZ, Inc. We appreciate your interest and will get back to you as soon as possible".
Files Section
File manager
The file manager works much like the file manager program on your computer for viewing and accessing folders and files. Thus, you can see all of your website directories and files on the BlueHost server. Note that there are two file manger icons- Legacy File Manger and File Manager. I use the Legacy File Manager only because I am used to it! I was using Bluehost back when the Legacy File Manager was the only one available!
Logs Category
Awstats
This tool will be used often once your website is up and running. You will want to analyze the traffic statistics of your website such as number of unique visitors, who is linking to your website, and the keywords that are used to find your website on the search engines. Note that you will have to activate Awestats from "Choose Log Programs".
Domains Category
Eventually you may want to expand on the Internet and create new domains for other websites. A sub domain creates a new website that works off of the original domain name. For instance, my main domain for this website is www.webbyshore.com. If I decided to expand my operation to include graphics design, I could create the sub domain www.graphicsdesign.webbyshore.com. Since graphics design is related to my web design website, a sub domain may be the right choice for a new website.
However, if I wanted to start up an entirely different operation (e.g., an astronomy website), then it might be more logical to create a brand new full domain name. In this instance I would choose an add-on domain. Both the sub-domains and the add-on domains are established through your main BlueHost account. Note that you can add sub-domains for free through your BlueHost account and the add-on domains are only $10.00 per year (as of this writing).
Software/Services Category
Fantastico De Luxe
 This is a great feature of your BlueHost account. Within Fantastico De Luxe is a number of useful programs that you can implement on your website. These programs include blogs, content management systems, discussion boards, ecommerce tools, image galleries, auction tools, etc. Later in this series, I will show you how to implement a content management system that will serve as the backbone of your website.
Part 7: Installing your Content Management System- Joomla
Table of Contents for this Series
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