Last week we asked what would be a good impulse purchase during the checkout for web hosting and it was a tie, 40% of you said Hacker Safe and 40% said SEO would be a good idea.

This week we have a question that relates to what software you use to develop your site. This weeks question is…

We are still working on our article and customer blogs section of our site. Anyone go in and test it out yet?

I think we will be calling it the BlueFur Library. A place to go and read articles and share knowledge but of course you can be as noisy as you want to be. What do you think of name BlueFur Library?

So moving forward are we ready to have our own Social Network?

There is lots of software available and have seriously considered using SocialEngine for creating our own Social Network on BlueFur.com.

From current usage of our community tools I’m not sure we are ready to move on to having our own Social Network.

What do we need to do get Forum and Wiki usage up?

This philosophy applies both from the consumer’s and from the business owner’s point of view. It’s understandable that most people want to shop around for the best price on whatever product (or service), but at the same time, you have to realize that you often get what you pay for. In this way, while you may find a cheaper price at a different location, a store that sells something for a little more may actually be the better bargain.

Gary wrote last month that any given business should never compete on price, because you will inevitably cut into the quality of your product (or service) and possibly cut significantly into your bottom line. Following the same line of thought from a customer’s point of view, there’s got to be a reason why a particular company has the cheapest price. They necessarily had to cut corners somewhere.

Take web hosting, for example. There are other hosts that may sell plans for less than BlueFur, but they also come with more restrictions. Part of the reason why I decided to migrate Beyond the Rhetoric to BlueFur is because they offered better value than my old host. For about the same price, I am offered better reliability (uptime), easier admin access, and the ability to have as many mySQL databases and domains as I’d like. The cheapest plans with most web hosts limit you to a single domain.

If you host multiple websites, it actually works out much cheaper to go with a single hosting plan (that allows multiple domain) than to opt for several cheap plans (one for each domain). This concept can apply to just about any industry and business, from freelance writing to web design. For example, if one designer charges $100 for a design but does not give you any edits, whereas another designer charges $150 for a design but is willing to adjust the design a certain number of times, the second designer sounds like a better value to me.

Last week launched our 2007 Wrap Up Contest which ends in 5 days. Lots of great ideas have been submitted. If you did not submit your idea yet then there is still time.

This week John Chow has launched his TTZ Media Affiliate Referral Program which pays you 10% of each account you have signed-up under you for 12 months.

As part of the launch we have ponied up 2 monitors to be drawn for. To enter the draw you can…

1. Sign up for TTZ Media. All accepted sites that run TTZ Media ads get one entry. If you are already signed up for TTZ Media and are running the ads, then you can skip this step.

2. Refer other sites to TTZ Media. Every site you refer that are running the ads equals one entry. Plus you get 10% of what they make for 12 months!

3. Making a blog post about this contest and the launch of the TTZ Affiliate Program will get you two entries.

4. Buying our $10 a year Managed Blog Hosting Blow-Out package will give you five entries.

If you do all 4 that’s 9 entries towards winning your monitor.

It’s not always convenient trying to find an available USB port. For example, the Apple iPod typically only comes with a cable that forces you to charge its battery through a USB port and you’re not always right next to your computer. Well, some of us are, but most people don’t want to tether themselves to their computers. And it’s not just the iPod. There are all sorts of technological gizmos that pull their power from USB ports and these gadgets don’t always come with a conventional power cable that plugs into the wall.

For times like those, you can consider an incredibly simple and presumably cheap solution like the Bi-Plug pictured above. Soon to be available from Brightonnet Co., Ltd. of Japan, the Bi-Plug is a colorful gizmo that plugs into an available wall outlet, sending that electrical power through a normal USB port.

What this means is that you don’t need to find a computer to juice up your iPod, USBCell rechargeable battery, or whatever other USB-powered gadget is currently tickling your fancy.. Heck, you could even use it for those USB-powered fans.

No price has been announced by Brightonnet just yet, but the product page mentions a launch date of November 28th. That’s only two days away! Look for it in pink (purple?), green, yellow, and red.

Congratulations to this weeks geek Matt. This weeks questions are:

1.  What does VoIP stand for?

2.  What is e911?

3.  What is a DID?

4.  Who created Asterisk?

5.  What does PBX stand for?