Web Hosting

Finding Quality Cheap Web Hosting for your Business

Cheap web hosting services exist for those webmasters that need to work on a budget. As a result there are thousands of companies on the Internet with a variety of offers. However, prior to saving money, you must consider some details. Selecting the right plan for your needs at an affordable cost is not an easy task. Saving money should never substitute for the proper functioning of your website.

Extensive Budget Hosting Plans

Budget hosting plans are available for almost every type of website. Even with several domain names you can often acquire add-on domain rights. Modern budget hosting companies have become reliable due to the cutthroat competition that exists in the industry. Despite the reliability of the provider, they must suit your hosting requirements.

Comparison Shopping

A critical step toward finding a high-quality but inexpensive hosting provider is to comparison shop using the Internet. With regards to inexpensive web hosting, there is not a large gap financial and service gap between companies. Therefore, you can easily select several providers within your budget and compare them.

Reliability with Excellence

Since web hosting is the lifeblood of your online operation, do not allow the price to circumvent quality. Look for a host that has an excellent reputation for providing reliable services, even if the cost is slightly most expensive. It is pointless to have a cheap host that does not consistently deliver the services they promised. One method of cost cutting is to have the domain name and registration offering hosting services.

Other Considerations

Other important factors to consider include the company’s uptime percentage and the amount of resources it can offer you. Also, you need to ascertain information about future upgrading. With any startup it is acceptable to begin with the basic plan. However, the hosting provider must offer upgrade options to cater to your business as it grows. Furthermore, know if the company hosts multiple domains on a single server and the number of email accounts given with each plan.

There are so many important aspects to finding a high-quality web hosting provider that it can become a tedious task if you do not know what you are searching for. However, to be successful in eCommerce, your website must always be available and that begins with the provider. Your road to eCommerce success begins with thorough research and will end with you selecting the right provider for your hosting needs.

Ongoing Battle over the new .Music Domain Extension

Critics continue to argue over the new domain name extensions that will be available in January 2012. The most recent battle is with the potential creation of the .music top-level domain name. The music industry recently announced their concerns with the new extension. However, instead of simply complaining online, the industry is bringing their concerns to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) which is part of the Department of Commerce.

New Regulations

ICANN is the current organization that administers the domain extensions process under contract from the NTIA. Therefore, any new regulations set by the NTIA must be followed by ICANN in the U.S. market.

Newly Proposed Rules

The new rules proposed by the music industry would require ICANN to document how the proposed extension has receive support from relevant stakeholders and can safely be supported by the global public interest prior to introducing new domain names. In early 2011, music industry groups such as the RIAA, ASCAP and A2IM sent a let to ICANN listing their concerns regarding the domain name change.

Initial Concerns of the Music Industry

Their main apprehension was the lack of direct control over who could register a .music extension. The industry does not want unlawful online music services to acquire a .music extension. Since the sharing of illegal music across the Internet is a current issue, an illegal website acquiring a .music domain name extension could significantly affect revenues within the industry.

Reiterating Concerns

This same group of advocates recently reiterated their trepidations to the NTIA to support the agency’s proposal to enforce stricter measures for the purchase of any new domain extension. The group released a statement informing the public that they do not feel as if ICANN has adequately address all concerns raised by relevant parties with regards to the sale and launch of new global top-level domains.

Awarding of the Domain Extensions

Also, the organizations want to be clear that they do not have an issue with the .music domain. Instead their concern is how the extensions are being awarded. The heart of the issue relates to who owns music online. There are many music companies that allegedly operate on the Internet outside the confines of the rules.

Small battles such as that with .music domain name extension are beginning to pop up across the globe as the launch of new top-level domains approaches. Hopefully ICANN can address all issues to ensure a streamlined launch.

SEO 101 : Focusing on Backlinks

When devising a strategy for SEO, many webmasters place a huge emphasis on the website itself. They are typically concerned with Meta tags, keyword density, titles and headings. While these aspects of SEO are important (especially with regards to content), they are insignificant when compared with links. SEO practitioners spend their time obsessing over link building while site owners ignore them completely.

Creating an Equilibrium

This is due to the fact that a website is a tangible object that can be seen many millions of visitors. On the other hand, links are a vague concept that does not have associated tools. Therefore, building backlinks is usually secondary. Luckily there are several tools that will create equilibrium of website design and SEO.

Google Webmaster Tools

The first key point to consider is not use search operators to check your links. This method will produce inaccurate results and is commonly regarded as being used for entertainment purposes. Instead, utilize Google Webmaster Tools which provide a wealth of information about what exactly Google knows about your website, how it performs in the search engine rankings and, recently added, +1 statistics.

Independent Tools

There are two additional competing independent tools outside of Google Webmaster Tools, SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer (OSE) and Majestic SEO’s Site Explorer. If your run your website through both programs you will find that they conflict with one another. Ironically, neither agrees with Google Webmaster Tools either.

The Collection Process

Although all three programs work by crawling the web, they are programmed differently and discover different links. Each then filters the collected links and remove those they see as spamming or lack relevance. Unfortunately, the three programs follow different criteria to make a judgment. You will also notice the two independent tools provide limited functionality for the free versions.

Viewing Trends

In the free versions of all three programs you are given two numbers for your sites that will usually differ. Always keep in mind that none of these figures is the absolute number, which would be extremely difficult to determine. Instead these figures should be viewed as representing exactly how other sites link to you. When viewing trends over a long period of time the numbers will begin to paint a picture of how your site is doing.

These three webmaster tools were developed to be more of a guide for focusing on backlinking than a concrete answer. A great way to use these tools is generate a report from each on a monthly basis and chart their change over time. If you see the numbers are increasing then you are on your way to success.

Top 10 Ways to Market Your Web Hosting Business

Congratulations! You are the proud owner of a web hosting business. You’ve  got a great website, you’ve got great products and the only thing you’re missing  is customers. There are so many businesses competing for consumer eyeballs these  days that it can feel pretty overwhelming. But fear not! With a few simple  techniques, and a little persistence, you can get your web hosting business the  traffic it deserves.

1. Social Networks

You  are probably familiar with social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. What you  may not realize is that these social networks can be powerful marketing tools,  when they’re used wisely. Start by setting up an account for your business on  each of the major social networks. Before you start adding friends or soliciting  followers, make sure you populate your profile with information about your  company, images, and links to your website. As a general rule, don’t start  posting promotions right away. Establish yourself as an interesting person to  follow. Post links to relevant industry news articles and build a following in  the tech community. This takes time but, once you’ve got loyal followers, you’d  be surprised how many of them turn into customers.

2. Search  Engine Optimization

SEO is a term that is bandied about all  over the place these days, and for good reason.  The higher up your site  appears in searches, the more customers you’ll get. It’s a one-to-one ratio. If  you’re not familiar with SEO, head over to one of the many SEO forums and start  reading up. It’s not complicated, but improving your SEO is a skill. A good way  to start is by using a tool like Google Analytics to see what
search terms  people are using to find your site. Once you know what people are looking for  you can start seeding your site with those terms to boost your relevance in  searches.  You can also boost your SEO by earning backlinks from other  websites in your industry.

3. Backlinks

A  backlink is just what it sounds like: a link back to your site from another  site. Backlinks are heavily indexed by Google and a few high-profile backlinks  can send you right up the search result list, fast. The more popular the site is  that links back to you, the better. Consider soliciting backlinks by offering  products or services, or by reviewing other providers. Backlinks grow naturally  as you grow your business, so the real grunt work comes at the beginning. Don’t  despair if you don’t see immediate results. Chances are, when you do start  seeing results, they will snowball quickly.

4. Press  Releases

Press releases will get you immediate attention, and  they can be great for marketing specific products or promotions. There are many  websites where you can post press releases for free, and some where you can pay  for your release to be indexed faster and more comprehensively. If your release  is particularly newsworthy, you can submit it to local papers and radio and  television stations.

5. Email Newsletters

Email newsletters get your message out to the people who care to  hear it: your opted-in subscribers. There are many email newsletter platforms  you can use to manage your contacts and automate your messages. Most of these  cost under $30/month and include widgets for your website. Start sending out a  monthly newsletter about happenings in your company along with special  promotions just for newsletter readers.

6. Ad Buys

Ad buys are a classic, tried-and-true advertising tactic that work  best in conjunction with other forms of online advertising for grabbing consumer  attention and driving sales. Ad buys work best on forums or magazine websites,  where readers are spending a lot of time. Ad buys can be expensive, so, in order  to maximize your ROI, you should wait until you have a special promotion or a  new product line before purchasing them.

7. Classifieds

Classifieds are free, there are a ton of them out there, and they  are thoroughly searched by consumers on a daily basis. You probably won’t be  able to post a straight-up ad without getting flagged, but free giveaways, free  trials and contests are all fair game for most classified sites. Work classified  posting into your weekly schedule and the benefits will accumulate over time.

8. Articles

Well written, well researched  articles may not be easy to write, but the results can be exponential. If you  write something people want to read (and include a link back to your website)  people will follow it just to learn more about you, the esteemed author. There  are tons of free article-submission websites where you can build a following  fast. A single article can continue to drive traffic for months, and it gets you  noticed, both good things for your business. Writing one really good article  that impresses readers is infinitely more powerful than twenty mediocre articles  nobody wants to read. Take your time. Think it out. It’ll pay off.

9. Forum Participation

Forums are communities and, as  such, participating in the discussion and making friends is just like networking  in person. Build trust with the people you meet. Contribute interesting or  helpful information. Establish yourself as an expert in your field and be sure  to include a link to your website in your signature. Many no-follow forums may  not get indexed directly, but if you do your job, they will get followed.

10. Customer Reviews

Customer reviews are a  critical part of any established business. Reviews allow current customers to  express themselves and share their experiences and they allow new customers to  learn about your business. As a business, you can learn a lot from the  experiences of your customers. If you strive to deliver top-notch customer  service, you will see it reflected in your reviews. You may want to consider  partnering with a third-party review service. This lends authenticity to your  reviews, so your customers know they are real and unbiased.

Visit us at www.webhostsummit.com for more great articles, news and  podcasts.

Lifetime Hosting Plan: Too Good to Be True?

Is really it true that there’s a legit web hosting provider that actually offers customers a life time hosting plan that is available for a minimal lifetime fee of $99?  The short answer is yes! Lifetime Host, a San Francisco, California, based web hosting solution offers both small business owners as well as individual seeking an affordable lifelong web hosting plan for a one-time lifetime fee of $99.  The web host offers everything a website owners needs for a lifetime to support small business ventures as well as personal website endeavors.

Lifetime Host’s main objective is to eliminate monthly or yearly recurring web-hosting fees; thus eliminating the need for online businesses to shell out reoccurring monthly fees; ultimately focusing on business revenue instead of recurring web hosting payments.  Additionally, Lifetime Host is proud to lead the industry in setting new standards when it comes to setting new standards for small business venture success.

What’s Included in the Lifetime Hosting Plan?

Although many skeptics may believe that such a gimmick means the quantity of services are compromised when it comes to securing web hosting services, however, this is not the case with the Lifetime Hosting plan.  Customers enjoy a domain name, unlimited bandwidth, 10,000 MB (10 GB) Disk space, Pop e-mail accounts, web-based business class e-mail accounts, auto responders, free domain transfer, sub domains, FrontPage Support, cPanel control panel, Outlook support, free domain name transfer (however, no dedicated IP address), sub domains, online file manager, as well as support for ASP, Perl, PHP, SSI, FTP, SSL, Web Stats, MySQL, Javascript, AJAX, and Dream Weaver support.  Other beneficial add-ons include advanced polls, blogger, photo gallery, counter, and web chat.

Customer Support

Customers can test Lifetime Host risk free with a 90 day money back guarantee with no questions asked with an additional 99.9% uptime guarantee.   Any customers that are not completely satisfied receive a full refund upon notifying the provider of their dissatisfaction regardless of the reasons.  Furthermore, Lifetime Host offers 24×7 customer support services to answer users’ questions and assist with technical assistance.  Additional help features include client area, submit ticket, announcements, server status, domain checker and network issues.  Interested customers can also expect a monthly plan to be available soon for those not ready to commit to a lifetime hosting plan.

Conclusion

While it’s very likely that lifetime hosting plans will be an emerging trend of the future with the many benefits they offer.  The brainchild of Lifetime Host, Doktor Gurson, founded @Com Technology as the 31^st ICANN Accredited Registrars over 10 years ago with now over 50,000 registered domain names to date.  Gurson realizes that paying a one-time life fee for web hosting is not only a cost-effective method of launching and supporting a web presence, but also ensuring accounts aren’t terminated due to expired credit cards or disregarded auto renewal notifications.  Perhaps Doktor is certainly leading the way into providing risk-free and reliable web hosting services at a phenomenal value.  Kudos to Lifetime Host!

SENDtoREADER – deliver web content to Kindle instantly

SENDtoREADER is a simple web application that allows you to send any webpage to your Amazon Kindle Reader instantly. This gives your Kindle the flexibility to be your work or leisure time companion with a simple click of the mouse.

This web app is extremely easy to use. It’s just a bookmarklet (or favlet) which works well in all modern browsers including: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Opera. Version for Internet Explorer is coming soon. Once it’s added to your favorites, you can start sending web pages to your Kindle with a single click. By default, Kindle is a book reader, but with SENDtoREADER you can also make it your personal Magazine.

Pretty cool stuff. If you are a Kindle fan, you should check it out – http://send2reader.com/.

RankCheck.org – free tool to check rank of your website

RankCheck.org is a free tool to check rank of your website on the web and social media.

The results include:

• Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, Compete Rank, Technorati Rank
• Indexed pages by Google, Yahoo, and Bing
• Inbound links by Google, Yahoo, Alexa, Digg, Delicious
• and some other semi-useful values.

Go check it out. The rank check for WebHostingGeeks.com is here.

Website Restore Business Launched for Business Hosting Customers

Myhosting.com recently launched their newest service that caters to business hosting clients: “Website Restore”. In the modern digital world, the wrong click of a mouse button can destroy hours of work or expose sensitive information unless secured by a reliable provider. Now website owners have the ability to move in reverse to a secure restore point with the new Website Restore service from myhosting.com.

Requirements for Implementation

The add-on service is available to all clients with shared hosting accounts that are running on the Windows 2008 or Linux platforms and MySQL, PostgreSQL or Microsoft SQL databases. The data from these websites is independently stored on secured server so robust storage is available at each determined restore point.

Familiar Interface

The website is user-friendly an easy-to-use interface similar to Window System Restore or Mac Time Machine. The system essentially allows user to create a snapshot of their website. Corrupt tables, lost files and other database errors have become a problem of the past. The restore function easily allows clients to revert back to a safe point with only a few clicks.

Creating Customized Restore Points

Also, users will have the ability to create unique restore points which allow files to be available before and after any major change to the website or database. Through secondary storage, myhosting.com has added another layer of data protection that businesses can rely on. The service is available for a nominal fee to shared hosting business customers on the onCloud platform.

Improving Affordability

The new service creates a road map with various benchmarks or restore points allowing users to recover any aspect of their website from a corrupt file to an entire database. Coupled with a shared hosting account, businesses will have an affordable method of secure their data. Hosting customers have complete control over the secure restore points to ensure the information they need is available when they need it.

Company Information about myhosting.com

Owned and managed by SoftCom Inc, myhosting.com is a privately held organization with headquarters in Toronto, Canada. Established in 1997, the company provides cost-effective, reliable shared web and email hosting services to over 10 million customers in 140 countries.

This amazing new service will not only give webmasters a piece of mind but protect the sensitive information and files that are stored on databases. This will significantly improve uptime thus increasing revenue for online retailers who trust in the system.

Secure Shell Security Tips

Secure Shell or SSH is a security measure that was designed to protect websites from external threats. In the past, users would connect to their servers using Telnet. Now that servers a no longer just down the hall, SSH adds an extra layer of encryption to the transmission ensuring you will be able to connect to your equipment with little risk. SSH is much more secure than Internet protocols but there are ways to improve the security.

Install Brute Force Software

Web attackers utilize Brute Force Detection software to reveal your password and create havoc for those on the server. At the same time, the software can be used to neutralize attempts as soon as they begin.

Establish the Timeout Interval

Another important method is to set the timeout interval in the SSH configuration file. This will allow you to establish the amount of time users remain logged in. After that time the user will automatically be kicked out, even if they forget to logout. This keeps the server clean and prevents cyber criminals from sneaking into user accounts that are always logged in.

Restrict Root Logins

To further increase security, never allow root logins to your server. The system administrator should be the only individual with access to the root. There is never a reason to risk your root account by directly exposing it to the Internet. When these logins are restricted, hackers will have a difficult time gaining access even if they uncover the password.

Require Secure Passwords

As the system administrator, you have the ability to set the required password strength. Therefore, requiring a mixture of capital and lowercase letters with numbers is critical to protecting the accounts on your server. Furthermore, it is vital to demand the periodic change of passwords.

Quarantine Users in Chroot Directories

The final tip to a more secure server is to utilize chroot which restricts users to their own home directories. Linux server does have configurable permissions in place to thwart a regular user from deleting all files or some other crazy action. However, these users will still be able to see the files. Therefore, chroot completely restricts the viewing of files on the server.

Secure Shell security is an excellent layer to add to any server. At the same time, the aforementioned tips will make your server much more secure resulting in difficulty for attackers to access and take command of the equipment.

Readability.com – Web & Mobile App for Reading Comfortably

Readability is a web and mobile app that zaps online clutter and saves web articles in a comfortable reading view.

Readability turns any web page into a comfortable reading view right in your web browser. Transform any article into a clean, comfortable reading view—instantly. Too busy to read right then and there? Readability makes it simple to save your favorite articles for reading later.

Check it out: http://www.readability.com/

New Services Launched by Evalice

Spanish web hosting provider, Evalice, recently announced the launch of its new website and service improvements. The company will now offer reseller, VPS and dedicated server hosting to its customers. All three new offerings are fully managed so the company is responsible for all aspects of the hosting including management, monitoring, security and update installation to allow the client more free time to focus on their business.

Maintaining a High Level of Quality

Evalice currently has servers in three countries in Europe; Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. This is a strategic move to provide high-quality hosting services to customers worldwide. Also, Evalice is planning to improve its services at night so it can deliver the same level of service during daytime business hours. Since their clients are all across the globe, it is night somewhere on Earth at all times. Therefore, it is important to cater to those customers as well.

New Website Information

The CEO of Evalice released a statement discussing that the new website will provide customers with more information about all the new servers the company has to offer. Also, it will display company news, organizational information and material regarding the new infrastructure used by all servers. This information should allow potential clients to become customers.

Evalice in the European Web Hosting Industry

Evalice is a leading provider of innovative enterprise web hosting solutions in the European marketplace. The company has an excellent reputation for looking to improve all services to its customers at an affordable price point. The improvements will certainly increase traffic to the website.

Three Dedicated Server Hosting Packages

The dedicated server hosting package provides three different plans: Managed Web, Managed Pro and Managed Max. The Managed Web plan features AMD X2 Dual-Core servers with multiple configurations and DirectAdmin software. The Managed Pro package delivers Intel i7 Quad-Core servers. Finally, the Managed Max also boasts Intel i7 Quad-Core servers 12GB of RAM. All packages are equipped with around the clock support and guaranteed uptime of 99.9 percent.

The expansion of Evalice appears to be an excellent advancement for the web hosting industry in Spain and surrounding European countries. The new services should attract many new clients from across the globe. Also, the new website will turn potential customers into monthly account holders due to the amount of available information regarding services, cost, company information and other critical content.