Most control panels are split into sections, to help you become acquainted with the various features as quickly as possible. If you have never dealt with a control before, then it would be best to go with a web hosting company that offers control panel video tutorials. Many web hosting providers give their clients access to a plethora of instructional video clips, so there is never a moment when you’re lost or don’t know what to do.

Email Accounts Module in Your Control Panel

Perhaps one of the most important parts of your online business is communication with your clients, which happens through the email module of your control panel. In the email module of your control panel you can create accounts at your domains, which creates a sense of credibility when establishing communications with prospective clients. You can also assign email addresses to members of your company, setting up individual passwords and and login credentials for each employee. The amount of email addresses you can create will depend entirely upon your web hosting plan and the limitations your web hosting provider has set.

Setting up Email Accounts

To set up email accounts in your control panel, simply go to the email accounts module and begin typing the credentials for the new email account. Some control panels are different, however the most popular control panel (cPanel) will let you begin creating the email account as soon as you enter the email accounts section of your control panel. If you’re hosting multiple domains on a single hosting account, then you’ll need to select which domain you’d like to install the email account for. Once the account is setup you can login and decide which email viewing application you would like to use.

Setting up Email Access

Once you have created your email accounts and logged in using the drop down menu to the right of your email account name, you can then choose which email processing application you’d like to use to view your email. The three most popular email viewing applications are SquirrelMail, Horde, and RoundCube. Out of these three, most people use SquirrelMail. You can setup your favorite email viewing application to open automatically when you check your mail, simply clicking on the enable autoload button below the name. You can also setup the appearance of your inbox, autoresponders, and other personalization features that help you increase your productivity with email. You can setup filters, folders, and even mail forwarding to several accounts for maximum control over your employee’s emails.

Conclusion

Having your own private email address is absolutely imperative if you own an online business, especially if you have several employees that receive support mails on behalf of the company. Any serious online business owner will need to learn how to use the email module in their web hosting control panel.

The basic screens in cPanel are:

1. Accessing cPanel
2. The cPanel home screen
3. Setting preferences
4. Mail
5. Files

Logging into cPanel

The most basic step is actually accessing the cPanel interface. To do this, type: https://(your website’s IP address):2083 in an internet browser. After one week of starting the website, replace your IP address with the domain name. Enter your login information (cPanel username and password) and click login. On the first login, a cPanel startup page should appear with the getting started wizard.

Navigating cPanel

Once logged in, the cPanel home screen will appear offering numerous functions. These include; help, logout, trademarks, switch theme, switch account, notices, find, frequently accessed areas, the status menu, the server status page and the preference links. These boxes can all be moved by clicking and dragging the box to a new location. To revert back to the cPanel home screen at anytime, simply click the home button.

The preferences area offers two options, the getting started wizard and all other features. The getting started wizard is available upon first login to set basic preferences. Other features include video tutorials, change password, update contact info, change style, change language, shortcuts and branding editor.

Email Options

The next segment is the mail area. There are many mail options available through the cPanel. The mail options include access to all email accounts, SpamAssassin, Boxtrapper, mail forwarders, webmail, auto responders, default address, mailing lists, account level filtering, email delivery route, user level filtering, important addresses/forwarders, MX entry, email authentication and additional login methods.

Accessing Your Files

The final section of cPanel is the files area which allows the user to manage, upload and move files. More specifically, users can access backup files, a backup wizard, the file manager, the legacy file manager, web disk, disk space usage, FTP accounts, FTP session control and anonymous FTP.

cPanel is one of the most popular web interfaces offered by many of the premier web hosting providers. Due to the numerous functions available, cPanel makes it easy for newcomers and novices to create and maintain a website. As cPanel continues to upgrade and expand, the interface will be more efficient and easier to use.

Although every control panel has the basic capabilities that one would expect, not all of them can provide the consistency, compatibility and simplicity that the top web hosts are looking for. Instead there are only a handful that would be considered industry standard control panels. These control panels are briefly summarized below.

cPanel

cPanel is  by far the  most popular control panel in the web hosting industry. Although cPanel does have somewhat of a learning curve, it is a very easy one, as there are unlimited video tutorials available online, teaching you how to use virtually every feature of the software. If web host’s had to choose one control panel, it would most likely be cPanel based on it’s sheer popularity alone! The web hosting providers have one primary focus in mind, and that is customer satisfaction. As long as customers continue to demand cPanel, then you can bet that the top web hosts will continue to offer it as a primary control panel solution. Cpanel’s ease of use combined with its feature-rich interface make it by far the web’s most dominating control panel.

Plesk

Plesk is right behind cPanel as a top contender in the control panel industry. Many web hosts choose Plesk based solely on it’s compatibility. Plesk is one of the only control panels that support both Windows and Linux, which is definitely a selling point for web hosts. Many web hosting providers choose to offer Plesk exclusively, in order to target the large group of webmasters that operate their website on a Linux server.

ServerCP

One of the most popular control panels offered in dedicated and virtual private hosting packages is ServerCP. This solution is a Linux solution that supports the hosting of unlimited domains, which it makes it perfect for a webmaster hosting multiple domains on a Linux server. Similar to the above control panels, this control panel is also extremely easy to use, and includes a one step installation process that even the most novice user can perform.

Using Complex traffic Analysis Tools

The cPanel control panel comes with three incredibly useful traffic analysis tools; Webalizer, Awstats and Analog. All of these tools provide a different level of insight and can be used in various situations accordingly. The Analog tool is the hard est to use but provides the most comprehensive overview of website traffic analysis. Analog bears it’s name because it presents information in text format rather than images or graphs. If you can learn how to use Analog, then you won’t have any need for the other two tools provided in cPanel.

Using Basic Traffic Analysis Tools

If you are not interested in surpassing the steep learning curve for Analog, then you may want to try a simpler solution such as Awstats. Awstats is relatively easy to use and lets you schedule comprehensive analytical reports for maximum productivity. This tool is perfect for webmasters that are experimenting with more immediate forms of traffic generation such as social bookmarking. The final tool, Webalizer provides detailed traffic reports on a monthly basis via graphs. Although the reports are infrequent they provide great insight to the long term progress of your website.

Using the Analytical Data to Generate Traffic

Once you have learned how to use the tools mentioned above, you may wonder how you’re going to use the data to generate traffic. The answer is actually quite simple; you are going to remove most of the error from “trial and error!” Virtually all traffic generating techniques require patience, including search engine optimization. The problem is, it can be hard to find out what works and what doesn’t. Which could cause you to waste tie promoting methods that are ineffective. In order to get the best results possible out of your efforts, you’ll need to know how much traffic is coming in and where it is coming from. Once you have this information you can use it to scale up and create a formula that consistently brings your website the desired amount of traffic.

Database Management

Managing databases and managing your website might as well be interchangeable phrases, as the databases of your website basically comprise it’s existence. Without the right database management skills, you could find yourself staring at a cluttered unorganized mess of date. Using a control panel to maintain cleaned and up to date databases is a good way to improve the speed of your website.  Using database servers like MySQL will let you use several databases for multiple reasons, thereby balancing some of the load placed on the web server. Using a control panel like cPanel will let you manage all of your databases with ease.

Controlling File Transfer Protocol

Uploading files to the server can be a daunting task, especially when you have a lot of content for your site. To lessen the amount of time it takes to upload, it is best to become familiar with your control panels FTP module. You’ll also want to outsource some of the work eventually, especially if you have people producing content for you in large quantities. A good control panel will let you create new FTP accounts for each user, so they can upload the content straight to the website, saving you a lot of time and frustration. Each FTP account can be given limitations or permissions that allow certain users to handle certain tasks. For example, a writer would only be able to upload written content to the site.

Analyzing Traffic with Your Control Panel

Another way to boost productivity and manage the loaf placed on your website is to use the traffic analyzing utilities that are included with your control panel. Using these tools you can find a plethora of statistics that lend insight to the nature of your website’s traffic. This information can help you make decisions in regards to upgrading your web hosting plan, and judging when it is time to expand your server capabilities. The number one reason why website owners suffer from poor website performance is because they fail to upgrade when it is time to do so. Staying on top of your website’s traffic habits not only lets you monitor your servers capability, but you’ll also be able to see what traffic generating techniques work for you by analyzing daily and weekly traffic statistics.