The Best Web Hosting Services and Why They Are the Best

Looking for a web hosting service? The top web hosting services out there are not always at the top because they are the best out there. A lot of them spend more of their money marketing than they do providing a good service. In order to find the best web hosting service you have to look at a variety of factors.

To make it easier for yourself, consider writing a list of the top 20 or so companies out there and comparing their services by writing a chart. That will give you a visual of what some companies have that others are lacking hence assist you in the decision-making process.

The Best Web Hosting Services Offer Excellent Customer Support

It is expected to run into some problems every now and then when you are using a web hosting service. That is where customer service and tech support comes in. Ideally you would email customer support and they would answer your emails in a timely fashion, providing viable solutions to your problems.

Unfortunately for consumers, there are many companies out there that don’t make it a priority to offer good customer support. Before choosing any company, make sure to read reviews by real customers to find out whether they are responsive to their customers needs and provide good tech support. The best web hosting services will respond to your needs immediately, 24/7.

Server Performance Makes the Best Web Hosting Services Stand Out

In order to attract visitors and keep people coming back to your site, the server’s performance has to be very good. If your site has a lot of uptime, it means that it experiences minimal time in maintenance or offline. Visitors will give up on visiting your site if it always down when they try to access it and for online businesses, this could mean a bad reputation and less profits.

Most web hosting services guarantee between 99% to 99.9% uptime. 0.9% may not seem like a huge difference but it can be significant so take that into consideration when shopping around for a web host.
Trying to find the best web hosting service can be overwhelming with all the companies competing to be at the top. What is important to remember is that certain “bonuses” offered by companies are none other than that; extras.

When you get down to business, the most important aspects are server performance and good customer service. If a web hosting service lacks either, it simply cannot compete with the best. Now that you are armed with this information, it will be easier for you to narrow down your options and find the best web hosting service out there.

What Is The Best Web Hosting Service?

Is there really a magic formula to determine the best web hosting service? I’m sure thousands of people want to know the answer to this question if there was one. To be honest, there is no absolute correct answer to this. As you know, individual results will vary from person to person in terms of what they want out of a service.

If there was a way to find the “best” web host to ensure you made the right choice, would you be interested?

Hopefully the answer is yes!

I want you to understand that there is no “best” web hosting service but there are some measures or steps to help find what’s best for you.

The tips that follow should help someone new or experienced choose the best possible host the first time around. It can even help those looking to switch hosts avoid making the same mistake twice.

Here’s a checklist to help you get started in choosing a great host:

* Look at what’s in front of you
* How is the service and support?
* Testimonial test

Let’s take the first point; look at what’s in front of you. No, really. Look directly at what’s in front of you. When you visit the web host, how does it present itself visually? If it doesn’t look up to par in terms of presentation you may want to avoid them.

Low-quality graphics may indicate your typical “fly-by-night” type of company that won’t be around very long. Even though anyone can produce high-quality looking websites, this should raise a red flag if identified. While we’re on the look of the website, another turn off should be misspellings.

Misspellings can indicate a business that doesn’t take pride in how they operate. Would you trust your website in a company that doesn’t take pride in their business? There’s no excuse for misspellings when a lot of applications contain spell checkers.

Service and support

This is by far the most important thing to have no matter what type of product or service you get. After all, things do fail or break down and you may need extended support. A way to check the reliability of a web host is to put them to the test.

Find a contact number (some even provide a toll free number) or send them an email to inquire about something they offer. That way you can see how long it takes before you actually talk to someone or for them to respond to emails. A good response time for emails should be within 24 hours. Especially with the large volume of inquiries they may receive on a daily basis. Doing this will allow you to see how friendly and helpful their support staff is as well.

Testimonial test

I’m sure you’ve seen many websites post testimonials to help give credibility to their products and services. A good cross check you can do is send the person who gave the testimonial an email to find out what they like and don’t like about the web host.

You should be able to contact the individual since websites will usually include the person’s URL back to his or her site as an incentive for giving the testimonial. Doing this task will help you make a better decision whether or not to invest in the hosting service according to the feedback received from the customer.

Using these three points is a great way to gauge whether or not the host is a good choice for you. Taking the time now to research the service will save you headaches and disappointment down the road.

I know there were 3 tips mentioned above, but I wanted to throw in a fourth way to help you get the best hosting solution possible. A word of mouth recommendation is one way you can’t go wrong. Ask a few friends or colleagues if they have used a particular host and for how long.

You may want to ask if they’ve switched from another host and the reason for changing. Be sure to inquire why they continue to stay with the current host. This is a great way to gather the pros and cons of certain hosts based on the first-hand experience of others. It will also help you make a better informed decision before deciding to invest your hard earned money on a host provider.

Why Linux Kicked Windows Out of Hosting Game

In Web hosting there are two different worlds. One that uses Windows OS and the other that is powered by Linux systems. There are many differences between them but here are a few that are crucial for deciding which hosting type to choose.

1. Supported technologies
If you use some of the following languages or databases you need a Windows hosting:
.NET scripts
Microsoft SQL
Microsoft Access databases
ASP or ASP.NET scripts

There is a simple reason they will only work on Windows servers.

On Linux on other hand you will be able to run:
PHP scripts,
MySQL databases,
Python,
XML and many other languages yet to come.

The main reason for that is because Linux is an open source system where anyone can contribute to development.

2. Price
The fact is that Linux hosting plans are much cheaper than their Windows fellows. Why is that? The reason hides in price of the software that hosting companies have to buy. Windows server software is quite expensive while Linux is free of charge. Smaller costs for hosting company means smaller costs for you.

3. The open source

Linux is an Open Source code, which enables people from all around the world to contribute to its development. That fact has given Linux the leverage to kick out Windows out of hosting game. Because of its extreme versatility Linux has become a platform for many new technologies that became widely used in hosting industry. This means that Linux is giving you far more options as an user that Windows does.

Conclusion

Many people even don’t know what their page is hosted on. Currently (2006) Linux servers are dominating the hosting world. If you do not need support for Microsoft products or use ASP go for Linux hosting. It is cheaper, and gives you more freedom.

Copyright © 2006, http://www.EasySiteGuide.com – The Easy Site Guide

Hostgator Shared and Reseller Web Hosting

What are the benefits of Hostgator Shared and Reseller Web Hosting? For a start, you get a free billing manager, a free merchant account, free optional hosting templates and a free eNom domain reseller account! How is that for just some of the benefits?

This offer gives you the ability to host unlimited sites where you can create your own packages and prices. Your customers do not even have to know who you are. You can be anonymous, which allows you to act independently as a hosting company.

This offer is not limited to just English speaking people either. In fact, the Control Panel supports 23 languages and 52 scripts are available for free use. Simple to follow instructions are found on the home page of this web site to get you started on entering into the reseller hosting industry.

The latest buzz on the hosting coupons web site is Hostgator’s offer of Roundcube Webmail integrated in its web hosting plans. Roundcube is built on Ajax technology and the great benefits arising from this is enhanced interactivity, and through it’s interface offers spell checking, message and contact list search, multiple sender identities, multi-language support, unlimited users and messages, built-in caching for accelerated mailbox access and custom message folders.

The constant development of open source projects is strongly supported by Host Gator which helps keep the costs down for reseller customers and web hosting customers.

I understand that it can be hard to run a business and that extra help cuts into the profits, but from a customer’s perspective it is very annoying to have to wait around while the only person in the shop takes care of everything. I love being around artists. They have a wonderful perspective on things and can make everyday life a little more enjoyable. But if they don’t have a clue how to run a business they are only going to upset their customers and lose out on prospective repeat customers and referrals. It seems like a better idea would be to go into it as a partnership where one person runs the business and on person does the tattoos, and then add people as needed. I for example have little to no artistic ability, but I am great at customer service. I would love to own a tattoo shop, mostly because I could get work done anytime I wanted, but I would never be able to be the artist and the owner and the front desk person etc. And I don’t think any one should do all that, unless they want to limit their shop’s potential. Both place my family and I visited were doing well enough, but I bet they would benefit from a little more organization and forethought.

TV show reviews: On the Lot

If I had to sum this review up in one sentence it would be this: I have never been so let down by anything in my entire life. I am sure there have been things in my personal life that were an even bigger letdown but in terms of movies, shows, and any external form of entertainment I have never seen such a good idea get so thoroughly wasted.

The format was such that we would see a handful of the contestants compete against each other with a short film, usually around two minutes and all in the same chosen genre. Then America would have a two hour or so window to vote and the next week one person would be eliminated based on the vote. The eventual winner would get a one million dollar development deal with Dreamworks Pictures and work under (presumably far under) Spielberg himself!

I wanted to love it. I loved the notion of filmmakers getting the same shot that people who can karaoke have been getting for years. I wanted it to work.

That desire just made my eventual distaste for this show all the stronger.

Let me count the ways in which this show failed.

The host was atrocious. She would flub about five lines a night. She looked good and had energy but there was something just not right about her presence. The show started out with over fifty contestants which is far too much. In a one hour format there was no time to develop any of them and everything felt rushed.

The show soon moved to a format of showing no behind the scenes action and the shorts only. I liked this idea but of course that leaves the quality of the show entirely up to the shorts themselves.

I think a huge problem with this concept was that the directors had to come up with their own material. Directors hardly ever write their own material. Most of the greats such as Spielberg-whose name was attached to the show and never mentioned after the second episode, I presume on request-never write their own scripts. So why should we expect these people to do what even their idols do not?

It became obvious quickly that even if some of these people had talent behind the camera that none of them were strong from a writing perspective. And that of course made it hard to tell when a film was well directed as the script influences what a director can do…

I think the element of judging a director on writing should have been eliminated entirely. There would be two ways of doing this. One, by giving each of the contestants a professional script and having them film it. But then

Linux Hosting vs. Windows Hosting

If you’re an amateur to the web world specially web hosting then there are many decisions you have to make. Hosting provides the concrete base on which every E-business works as well as blooms. There are numerous choices available in the market but it’s the Linux and Windows hosting which heads the list. Everyone has their own knowledge bag according to which they govern their business but which is profitable to you may not be profitable for someone else. That’s why majority of the people are in trouble waters while choosing the hosting server for their business. Let’s delve into each hosting and get the clear picture. The usual cost involved in running a server generally doesn’t affect the cost of complete web hosting package. Windows Hosting is owned and developed by Microsoft whereas Linux is an open source and free too. The crux is that using Windows Hosting can be more expensive at times but it has its own benefits too.

According to the common myth people assume that because their computer runs Windows they too have to buy Windows hosting package. But this myth is absolutely wrong. You can normally access your web account through FTP or a control panel and both the servers support these methods. But the major difference lies in the FTP commands that are somewhat different in Linux and Windows. In short, occasionally when you try to get your FTP program to do something it returns an error message. Still, this won’t happen very often. Linux and Windows Hosting provide same features that include PHP, mySQL, POP3 and many more. The major difference arises when you want to create your site using Access, Windows Streaming Media, ASP, .NET environment, FrontPage or any other Microsoft technologies. Then you’re bound to use a Windows as your hosting server. However, in Linux there is a limited support for these technologies and what all are available are very expensive. That’s why it’s wise to think twice before selecting a hosting server as shifting from one server to another can be very hard.

The next points to argue are the reliability and stability of the servers. Windows is far more insecure in comparison to Linux. Windows is widely used operating system for home PC’s but not Linux. However, Linux is equally insecure as whooping number of successful hack attempts have been made on it till now. Thus, in the end we can say that the security of both the servers usually depends upon the competency of the system administrators. Herein, if you’re security minded then you’ll choose the best and secured hosting company irrespective of the chosen server. Now discussing the performance there isn’t much difference between the two. Linux is faster than Windows as Linux is loaded with extendable implementation. Whereas Windows tries to provide “‘all in one” package which isn’t fruitful at times. There isn’t much difference between both the servers but in terms of performance Linux outshines Windows.

Thus, if you’re hunting for the server for your E-business then think before you jump on any conclusion and don’t leave any stone unturned.

CPanel features what does all this stuff do? Getting started.

This is the first in a series of posts on how best to use CPanel and the major features it offers, in plain english so it won’t be necessary to know any technical jargon for it to make sense. This series will assume that you are hosting with Hostmonster since they have one of the most straight forward installations of CPanel avalible most other hosting companies that have CPanel will work the same, if you don’t already have a host Host Monster is Highly recommended and can be found here. http://www.hostmonster.com/track/maxx777/[b2blog]
The first thing we will cover is getting into the Cpanel itself, then we will cover both setting up an email program in CPanel and then in a number of email programs like outlook, thunderbird (a free email client from the same company that brought you the free browser Firefox)
If you don’t need this much help, just so to the summary near the ens of this article, it will list the steps required and not explain things.
The first thing to do is go to hostmonster and enter your domain name and password, on the right side, then just click on control panel login. The next page you see is a page of 4 choices, cPanel hosting, Postini Anti-Spam filter, domains, and Common actions (we will cover these in a later article) for now we are going into cPanel hosting click the link that says Click Here to login to your yourdomain.com cPanel account. now it will log you in and a pop-up window will ask you if you need help. if you click yes, cPanel will ask you to choose a language, and then select from a drop down menu that lists, introduction to hosting, web disk setup, new email account setup, and webmail. for the sake of this tutorial click no thanks, and you will be taken to the main CPanel menu, in the fourth section down the first choice is email accounts, just click on that and pick out any email address you want and a password that you want for that account and click create, the system does the rest for you. now all you have to do is add the new email account to your email program and your’e all set! setting up the email client works pretty much the same on windows machines here are the things you will need to know.
Type Of Mail Server: POP or POP3
POP server: mail.yourdomain.com (for incoming mail)
POP username: (your full email address)
POP password: (the password that you selected when your account was setup)
Here are the settings that you’ll need to send email:
SMTP server: mail.yourdomain.com
SMTP username: (your full email address)
SMTP password: (the password that you selected when your account was setup)
For a Mac it’s as follows.
Step 1:
Open MacMail and click on Mail and choose Preferences.
Step 2:
Click on Add Account.
Step 3:
Type in your name, email address, pop3 and smtp settings, and the login info. For the username, use the complete email address.
Step 4:
Click Get Mail.

Here’s the summary for adding an email account. from any web browser.
1. go to hostmonster.com (or your webhost).
2. log in to your account.
3. log into CPanel.
4. click email accounts 4th section down.
5. enter the name you want to use for your new email account.
6. enter the password you want to use for that account.
7. click the Create button and you have set up an email account!
For instructions for setting up email clients for hostmonster account follow this link http://helpdesk.hostmonster.com/kb/index.php?mod_id=2&kb_keywords=email and follow the instructions for your particular email client, and if you have any questions, email us at
hosts@weryd.com

How to Select and Buy a Domain Name

What Is A Domain Name?

A domain name is the address that people will type in their browser to find your website.

Example: www.google.com

Select A Good Domain Name

Here are a 7 things to keep in mind when selecting a domain name:

1. Keep it short. People should be able to easily remember your domain name.  All domain names of 4 characters or less have already been taken so I recommend a name of 5 to 15 characters.
2. Dot com.  When people already know a domain name but are unsure of the extension, they will almost always try .com first.  The .com extension should be your first choice.
3. Easy to spell. Choose a name that is easy to spell.   People should hear your domain name once and know exactly how to spell it.  Avoid double letters, dashes, long names and be careful with plurals. You should also buy the domain with a close alternative spelling. For example, I tend to type istockphotos.com but the site I am really looking for is istockphoto.com. The company istockphoto.com really should have purchased the domain istockphotos.com as well.
4. Brand Vs Keywords. Using keywords in domain names can increase the ranking  of your website in search engine result pages for those keywords. For example,  a dog clothing business might buy the domain uniquedogclothing.com.  Although this website is in 4th position when you google “dog clothing”  the top two sites don’t even have “clothing” or “dog” in their domain names.

   The ideal situation is to have your primary keyword (in this case it would be “dog clothing”) in your brand name and to use your brand name as your domain name.

   If your primary keyword is not in your brand name, use your brand name as your domain name (ruffknits.com, for example). Avoid using a keyword-filled domain such as buy-dog-clothing.com. You can always use a few keywords in your page and directory names instead.

5. Avoid Trademarked Names. Do some research online to make sure your domain name is not already someone else’s product or business name.
6. Ask Friends & Family. Ask your friends and family what their thoughts are.  Your domain name should be self-explanatory. If they don’t get it right away, visitors probably won’t either.
7. Don’t waste time. Don’t wait for your website to be ready to buy your domain name. There is nothing more frustrating than finding out your great domain name idea was  purchased by someone else a few days before!

 

Where To Buy a Domain Name?

I have tried many companies over the years, including the popular GoDaddy.com but at the time of writing, I buy all my domain names at Netfirms.com. I choose and recommend this registrar because it has four unique qualities:

1. Price – At $9.95 per year, it is one of the cheapest places to buy domain names.
2. Control – You have full control over your domains: DNS admin, MX Record, CNAME, A Record and sub-domains.
3. Free Privacy – You can make your contact information private at no additional cost.
4. Transparency – There are no hidden fees.

 

Let me explain reason #3 a bit more: when you register your domain name, your postal address and phone number appear in an online database called the WHOIS database. Everyone has access to this database and can look up any domain they choose. With Netfirms you are entitled to your privacy at no extra cost.

NOTE: Many hosting companies offer a free domain name with their hosting plan. So do not buy your domain name until you have verified if your hosting company offers a free domain name!

Make your Domain Private for Just $4.95*/yr!

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Make Money With Search Portals

You can easily make extra income or residual income with search portals. All you need is a domain name and to find a good parking company. Pretty simple. These are the steps you should take in making money from a search portal:

Find a good domain name. A good domain name is usually one that has one to three good keywords in it. For a quick search on whats popular, go to Google, enter a keyword and see how many results come up. I’m not kidding! This is one of the easiest and quickest ways of finding popular keywords. If you don’t already own the domain name, see if its available and or buy it on a domain registrar. Try GoDaddy, or NameCheap. *Note: You can use ANY domain name. But the people that make really good money, have really good keyword infused domain names. If you cant think of a domain name try a few domain name generators. This will be VERY helpful to you.

Once your done buying your domain name and setting it up (make sure you do the whoisguard), then you can find the parking site you want to go with. These sites are %100 free and if you see one that isn’t, I suggest staying away from it. Always follow all the Terms Of Service when joining these sites. You can get deleted if you go against what they tell you. Simply park your domain and direct traffic to it. You can contact the parking company and ask them what traffic you are and aren’t allowed to send. Try parking sites like Parked, Fabulous and Sedo.

Depending on a lot of different attributes, you can make anywhere from $1.00 to $1,000+ a month. It doesn’t depend on just one thing. Its a multitude of things. Is the domain good enough, is the parking site good enough, are you sending quality traffic, did you pick good keywords when setting the site up, did you optimize it? Most sites will help you with setting your account up. After all if you make money, they make money!

In order to find good info on domain parking, try DigitalPointForums & NamePros, they have lots of different information and people there that will help you out. Or do a search on Google for “Domain Name Help”, or “Domain Name Information.” To find domain parking sites, go to Google and try search terms relevant to Parking. Try “Domain Parking”, “Monetize Domains”, “Park my domain.”

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