No Such Thing as Free Lunch (or Web Hosting)
You don’t need to be computer wizard to own a website. You don’t have to know much about XHTML, servers, or SQL injection attacks. “Great!” you say. However, as with anything that costs your business money, you should make sure you understand what your actual needs are, prior to writing the check.
Free Hosting!
Wouldn’t that be great? There actually are companies you can find on the Web that will “give” away hosting and let you get your website up and running without having to pay a penny. The problem is that it’s not really free. In exchange for not charging you for the hosting, your website will be required to display advertising which the hosting company then sells (of which you don’t get a penny.) Many “free” hosting companies also require that your site’s address (domain name) be an extension of their own. For example, www.example.com/sites/yourcompanyname/ instead of www.yourcompanyname.com. This dilutes your own company’s image and branding.
Even if you’re okay with not having your own domain name, and sharing advertising space on your site, you may want to consider the full effect this could have on the image of your business. The next time you visit your favorite restaurant, imagine what it’d be like if, to save on costs, they’d sold advertising space on their signs, menus, table-tops, napkins, and windows. Then imagine if their competitors had purchased some of that ad space. Not a great impression. And like a restaurant, your website is an experience (good or bad) for each visitor.
The same arguments can be made for email addresses. While using the free email services available through AOL, Yahoo, Gmail and others can be great for individuals, why waste the marketing opportunity for your business? Every time you send an email out from your Yahoo email account, you’re advertising for Yahoo, and reinforcing Yahoo’s brand instead of yours. Why not let your business benefit instead? Make sure all your email comes from you@yourcompanyname.com. (Well, not literally. Use your own company’s domain name.)
How About UNLIMITED Bandwidth And Disk Space?
Nope. It’s a popular trend in the very competitive hosting business to set up hosting plans that offer unlimited (usually shown in capital letters to make sure you see it) disk space and monthly bandwidth. (Bandwidth is the measurement of the amount of traffic your website can use each month.)
While it sounds like a good deal, it is an impossible promise for the hosting company to keep. No hosting company in the world has an unlimited number of servers, or an unlimited capacity to handle unlimited bandwidth. What they are counting on is that most people don’t use their full monthly allotment of bandwidth, or all their available disk space that comes with their hosting plans. That means the companies can “oversell” the number of people on their servers, by pretending there’s more space and bandwidth than are technically available. However, if you tried to take them up on the offer of “unlimited” you’d quickly find out (and it’s usually in the fine print of their service contracts) that there are phrases like “reasonable use” that will suddenly apply to you and cause limits to suddenly exist. Technically this amounts to false advertising, but no one seems to be calling the hosting companies on it yet.
Don’t be fooled. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and you do typically get what you pay for.
How Much You Should Spend On Hosting
Does your business need to have website access and functioning email 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Is it critical to your business that large numbers of people can visit your site at one time, without crashing the server? If you’re a small business but answered “yes” to these questions, you may be disappointed to know that the most commonly used hosting solutions are probably not for you.
Dedicated Hosting
If your website is “mission critical” you should probably invest in what’s called a “dedicated” server. This means that your website gets it’s very own server, and doesn’t have to share resources (memory, performance, etc.) with other websites. Dedicated servers are not cheap, and start around a couple of hundred dollars a month. The differences in cost are most often the quality of the hardware, and the amount of monitoring and service that come with the package. These types of hosting plans will often include setup fees and software licensing fees.
Virtual Private Servers (VPS)
A slightly cheaper version of these types of plans are “virtual private servers” (or VPS). These are created by taking a dedicated server and setting up several virtual servers running side by side—each with it’s own website and operating system supporting it. While you share the physical server, each site still gets its own resources. The cost is less because you’re sharing some of the expense, but you still have individual control over the complete environment your website lives in.
Shared Hosting
Most of the hosting you see advertising for is called “shared” hosting. It’s cheap, because essentially you share the server (both physically and all the software resources) with any number of other website owners. While the cost is nice, it’s less reliable than a dedicated server, because you never know if one of the other site owners you’re sharing the server with is sending out tons of spam, setting up phishing websites, or otherwise misbehaving. Since your website shares the same server IP address as these unknown potential hooligans, you share in that IP’s reputation around the Web.
People who abuse hosting can also cause the server to freeze by running memory intensive scripts and programming, and if the server crashes, your site does too. Even someone doing nothing illegal can bring a server down, just by creating a site that becomes wildly popular. If your website shares their server, the more their website uses of the server’s memory and performance, the less there is available for yours.
Which Type Of Hosting Is Right For You
So how much to spend? It depends on what you need. Most small business websites will do just fine on a shared hosting plan. How much disk space and bandwidth you need will depend on what your website does, and may change over time. But if your business relies completely on your website, or you find yourself featured in national media (so now everyone in the country wants to visit your site) or are a fast growing company, you may want to go in for a dedicated server.
Make sure your hosting is part of the conversation you have with your website designer or development professional, and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Nathan Lyle
http://www.articlesbase.com/web-hosting-articles/no-such-thing-as-free-lunch-or-web-hosting-697449.html
WordPress Hosting and Plugins?
I’m wondering if there are any web hosting companies that host wordpress blogs for free, or for very little money. I’m working to create a photoblog and want to install my own plugins onto a wordpress site but most of the free hosting companies will not let you install your own plugins.
Help?
Check out http://buywebspacetoday.com/recommended-web-hosts/ for good web hosts. Their plans are affordable, as low as $3/month, and they all have application installers that enable one-click WordPress installation. Once installed, you can use whatever plug-ins and themes you want in your WordPress site.
Does anyone know a good free web host?
I am looking for a free web host that can:
-Handle lots of traffic.
-Has a FTP server option
-Provide me with a CPanel
-Provide me with Linux OS systems
-Provide me with PHP
-Provide me with unlimited MySQL Database’s
-Provide me atleast 100MB of web space
There is no free host that will give you unlimited mySQL databases.read the article here for a list of sites
http://kenyanguru.blogspot.com/2008/08/free-web-hosts.html
Some of the Best Web Design Software
Web design software has become as plentiful as almost every other type of computer program on the market. Nearly everywhere you look, you’ll find another option. That doesn’t mean all of those options are created equal. There are definitely some examples of web design software that stand above the crowd.
Determining the best best web design software, however, requires knowing what you’re looking for. What might be the best software for a professional web designer would probably not be the best software for an amateur with limited HTML knowledge or for someone just wanting to start an online blog.
For example, one of the consistently best web design programs is Adobe Dreamweaver. With the program, you can make complex web sites, including the always popular e-commerce sites. It can help you integrate multimedia elements into your site, work with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and even create database interaction. It’s fairly simple to use and is distributed by one of the biggest names in software. However, it costs around $400 so that puts it out of the ballpark for anyone but the most serious web designers.
Outside of Dreamweaver you can also use Microsoft FrontPage. Although Microsoft might eventually discontinue supporting this software in the near future, it is still one of the easier tools available to create a website quickly. I personally didn’t like using Frontpage years ago since it had the habit of rewriting some of my html code, but if you don’t go into your site’s source code and fiddle around with it than Frontpage might be a good solution for you.
Some other tools to consider when making your website are blogs. A blog can be used as a part of your site or the main part of your site. There are lots of sites online now that are using blogs as the main format of their business and most users are not even aware of it. Plus it is very easy to setup and use. The hardest part might be the setup, but most hosting providers offer one click installs where the setup is so automated that a monkey can do it. There are several types of blogging platforms available such as WordPress and Blogger. The really nice thing about these two is that you can even host your site with them for free, but this will limit the features and customizations that you can do. But if you wanted to get online quickly for free and not deal with software this is a good choice for you to look into.
On the other hand, if you just a simple web site for your small business then you’d be better off choosing Coffee Cup 2006 or Homestead Sitebuilder. Neither of these choices allow you to have an elaborate e-commerce site, but if you pay a little extra you can get a Homestead package that allows you to accept Paypal. Coffee Cup still lets you put together a fairly professional looking site, although without as many bells and whistles, but for only around $50. With Homestead, you’ll get web hosting and the tools to create a WYSIWYG site, but you’ll pay a monthly fee of $5 to $50 per month, plus an initial $20 set-up fee.
Roger Cochran
How to Find the Best Budget Web Hosting Service
The meaning of web hosting in the terms of a novice is the use of the server space which is provided by the web hosting company through the internet and taken on rent by the website owner so that he can display the web pages of his newly opened website. There are various types of packages that is` provided by the web hosting companies which can include a full package of setting up the website or just availing the space that is provided by the web hosting company on the internet. The web hosting company also includes some applications or programs to their basic service.
Budget Web Hosting Service
The web hosting companies have schemes like low cost web hosting and cheap web hosting for availing their services. It depends on the website owner which type of service he wants to choose so that he can launch his website within the budget that he has laid aside for spending on his website. The companies also have the schemes for budget web hosting and affordable web hosting which means that the company is providing the web hosting service at a very nominal price.
These schemes are excellent for people who have to launch a new website as a beginner to establish their new business providing their products or services on the net. These schemes can also be availed by the companies and businessmen who already have established business on the internet but want to launch a new website for spreading their business throughout the world which will help them to flourish. This way the established companies of businessmen can very easily get a new website within the amount that has been set aside while preparing the annual budget.
Benefits of Budget Web Hosting Service
The budget web hosting service is quite beneficial as the money that has been saved due to affordable web hosting can be utilized for other expenditures which are required to expand the business on the net. Budget web hosting service is a good scheme for those people who want to start a new business on the internet with a small capital as it will help them to launch their website which is an utmost necessity to reach out to the people who surf the net online for services and products that they require.
This way the low cost web hosting service will help you to attract more traffic towards your website which is very important for your online business. The success of your online business totally depends on the type of company that you choose for web hosting. There are many companies which provide all the services of web hosting at low cost due to the high rate of competition that is going on between the web hosting companies. The monthly scheme of the budget web hosting service is profitable as you can easily change the company if their services are dissatisfactory.
Precautions in choosing Budget Web Hosting Service
Though there are many benefits of budget web hosting service but as the website owner you have to take initial precautionary measures while choosing the company whose web hosting services you are going to purchase. There are many web hosting companies on the net which are new and provide low cost web hosting or cheap web hosting so that they can get more customers which will help them to establish their business. The first thing you have to see if the duration and experience of the web hosting company in this business. The services of the company should include all the tools free of cost that you will require for your website.
It is quite simple to find out about all the facilities that the web hosting companies provide to the owners of the website by opening their home page where you will get all the details about the services that they provide through their affordable web hosting scheme. You should also verify about those companies which have discounted web hosting service where they provide different types of discounts on their services from time to time. You should choose a company that has the free installation system which will help you to save the extra cost that you have to pay for installation.
Bill McNulty
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/how-to-find-the-best-budget-web-hosting-service-688825.html
How to Choose a Reliable Web Hosting Company When you are an Internet Newbie
Reliable web hosting is vital for anyone attempting to earn money with a business website.
Choosing a host for your website is not easy when you are an Internet newbie and don’t really know bandwidth from Band-Aid. What selection criteria do you use? If you are a total newbie, about the only thing you will know how to compare is price but if you do a search for web hosting you will have ads coming at you for all prices from $10 per year to $25 per month. Should you go for the most expensive on the basis that you get what you pay for or should you go for the cheapest because saving money is a priority while you are getting your business running?
The first thing to rule out is free web hosting. There are many great free resources to be found on the Internet including excellent anti-virus and anti-spy ware software. Free hosting is fine if you have a hobby website but, if you are running a business online and wish to achieve credibility with visitors and search engines, free web hosting won’t do the job.
I discovered the hard way that cheap web hosting is not necessarily the bargain it might seem. When I started looking for hosting for a new website, I already had top class hosting that had come with my first website. There was an option to add on further domains for an extra $5 per month. That was cheap enough but I thought it would be a good idea to have my new website hosted completely separately (you know, the old eggs in one basket caution).
When I started checking around, there seemed to be millions of web hosts all offering what (to my untrained eye) seemed to be the same thing but at wildly varying prices, so I settled on a cheap hosting package. The cost was £1 per month (which was about $1.70 in those days) and I certainly got what I paid for!
At first everything was fine: I paid up, they hosted my website. The trouble is, you don’t realise you have bought rubbish hosting until things start to go wrong.
The first sign that all was not well came a few months later when I was unable to locate my website. I raised a support ticket and waited. Four days later came the reply “everything seems ok now”. Four days of downtime without a sensible word from support made me feel more than a little uneasy.
Things seemed fine for a while after that but then another problem arose: when I tried to log into my control panel all I got was a message telling me the licence fee had not been paid. This time the reply to my support ticket was quicker, it only took two days. Unfortunately, however, it was completely unhelpful. The reply was “It seems to be a site-wide issue”. Was I supposed to feel better because the whole site was messed up and not just my bit? They must have got round to paying the licence fee because after a few more days, login was available again.
After that, I wanted to move to a new host but I had never moved a website before and assumed it would be really difficult and technically challenging (actually it is extremely simple). As a result of this fear my website remained where it was.
The crunch came when my domain name came up for renewal. In response to an email from the hosting company, I visited their website to make the required payment. Their PayPal link and credit card options did not work and there were several error messages showing on the pages I visited.
Emails to their support and billing departments went unanswered. My only means of arranging payment was via their website, so I kept trying. Each time I visited, there were more error messages, nothing worked and it began to look as if the site was actually melting bit by bit. It seemed the company had just packed up and left their website to self destruct.
Enquiries revealed that the only way I could renew my domain name ownership was through the hosting company because they had registered it on my behalf and they retained control of it. As they could not be contacted, there were only two options available. The first was to pay an agent a pretty hefty (and non-refundable) fee to try to contact the hosting company and negotiate the purchase the domain name from them. The second option was to lose the domain.
When you have to choose web hosting, the first thing to look for is quality of support. To keep prices low, the easiest way for the company to economise is to provide sub-standard support. Forget the offers of unlimited bandwidth, hundreds of email accounts, spam filters and other freebies. If support is non-existent, give the company a miss no matter how good their other terms might seem.
Elaine Currie
http://www.articlesbase.com/web-hosting-articles/how-to-choose-a-reliable-web-hosting-company-when-you-are-an-internet-newbie-108348.html
WordPress and Godaddy Economy Hosting Problem?
I Have a really big issue with my godaddy economy hosting account where the website runs WordPress, I installed it and the installation was awesome. then i logged in and my admin panel was mangled and everything was messed up. What do i do? i can’t upgrade because we are a non-profit organization. Thanks!
Use a web host supporting simplescripts to set up your wordpress website.
http://www.threehosts.com/publish/wordpress.html
Hope this helps.
Webhosting?
I found a great hosting company, but at the moment they only have Linux web hosting. Im not sure if linux is another os or not.
But i have windows xp. Will i still be able to register under linux web hosting or do i need a linux machine?
If not can someone suggest a good, cheap hosting company that supports php, mysql and has a cpanel, and allows adult content.
cheers
You can use linux web hosting but it is always better to use windows web hosting.
I am using http://aplis.net/ you can also give them a try.
How To Prevent Comment Spam With Google’s No Follow Attribute
Putting up and maintaining a weblog of your own could be done for free or built into your paid domain site. Either way, whatever you put up on your blog becomes accessible to practically anyone on the World Wide Web. Your blog has the potential to gain many regular followers and once-in-a-while visitors, given that you deliver content that is relevant and interesting, making it an excellent medium for advertisement or promoting products, services, or other websites relevant to its general area of discussion. Thus, it is a reason for companies paying blog owners to publish their ads on their blog sites.
What happens, though, if a certain company or enterprising individual tries to get onto your blog through the comments page with an active link to their site? That’s what’s called comment spam, and a business enterprise can be the least of your worries when it comes to this underhanded way of getting Google search ranks up. Enterprising entities do this not merely to promote the site to those who access that particular comments page, but more importantly to increase their ranking in search pages to that the site will stay on top of the search return page.
Another version of comment spamming involves a website owner who only copies the content of his or her site from a different website that ranks high on the Google search page. That way, this dishonest site owner doesn’t have to work as hard, to promote the site and gain a considerable following. The good news is that, finding out if one’s site content has been copied, has become very easy, as copy detection programs can be found online. Now, let’s go back to the links problem.
Fortunately for blogs and sites that allow trackbacks and comments from others, Google has announced their development of a way to decrease the occurrence of comment spam. It’s a feature known as the “nofollow” attribute, which allows site owners to add an additional attribute in the form rel=”follow” to any href code active link. This added part of a href link commands Google spiders to disregard a link that leads outside of the host site. The objective of this new development is to keep those who abuse open Internet sites from reaping the benefits of their misdeed.
While distressed blog owners may rejoice at this good news, some may opt to weigh the pros and cons of this new feature. To a business owner, a positive implication of using the no follow attribute is that, he or she will be able to avoid freeloaders trying to ride on his own site’s Google ranking. Google’s new tag can offer you an increased control on the effect of a link posted in your site by someone else without your prior permission. This has the potential to increase the possibility of that someone moving on to trying other possibilities that will increase traffic for their website. When issuing comment spam loses its benefit, then the spammer can hopefully try other things that are potentially laden with honesty, for a change.
Also, the new development will help strengthen the notion that bloggers and site moderators must make an effort to ensure that links that lead to their site will not disappoint, and their content are beneficial to the users of that particular site hosting the link. In addition, site owners must try to focus on outstanding and read-worthy content that will have enough impact to the online community that other sites will want to provide a link to their site by their own choice.
Perhaps the only Internet users who will find this new attribute disadvantageous are those who have become accustomed to using comment spam as a means to promote their own site. However, it should instead be a challenge for them in putting up worthwhile content for their site, such that Internet users will be searching for their site by name, and not clicking on its link by accident. For best results, have the service add the nofollow attribute to links that other users themselves created, such as those within their comment, and the link attached to the name of user who wrote the comment. Other areas where the attribute can be used include visitor statistic sections, guestbooks, and referrer lists.
Among the first weblog software creators that signed up for this service are LiveJournal, Blogger, WordPress, Flickr, and MSN Spaces. Users of these blog services and others need not do anything themselves. The free blog host only needs to keep the attribute version updated to ensure its full effect.
This concept of having better control over outgoing links isn’t all new, however. Forward-thinking programmers have been able to devise ways to prevent search engine spiders from detecting outgoing links for quite a while. Yet this new Google tag gives power to the common website owner over his or her site’s outgoing links.
Some may have doubts on the effectiveness of this new service. One notion is that this will not be fully efficient unless it becomes a default option for bloggers and webmasters. Perhaps it also does not help that there are skeptics, not to mention dishonest users that will try to get past this obstacle and even devise a tougher-to-beat approach to comment spamming and link campaigns.
In addition, those who do gain in search engine ranking through referral links by those who really, wholeheartedly support their site have the most to lose. The possibility of search page rankings being a thing of the past presents itself in this scenario. Then again, it would not hurt to pose a challenge to those whose sites and products have yet to gain popularity. Perhaps businesses need to make a habit of improving, and have faith that those Internet users, who know exactly what they are looking for on the web, will find them eventually and be satisfied with what they have to offer. Besides, the really great ideas are the one that stand the test of time.
Danny Wirken
http://www.articlesbase.com/communication-articles/how-to-prevent-comment-spam-with-googles-no-follow-attribute-68973.html
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