1. Serve Your Static Media from a Cookie-Less Domain

About 80 to 90% of the time, your users are spending their time loading static content from your WordPress blog. This means that far more than the majority of the time a user is viewing your site, they’re waiting for items like images, stylesheets, scripts, Flash, etc. to load and present themselves on the screen. As such, you can optimize this content to arrive more quickly by telling WordPress to load it all from a cookie free domain. This eliminates a few precious micro-seconds of load time, which may not seem like much, but can really amount to a whopping time loss when added to other delaying issues.

Thankfully, it’s not hard to set up this kind of arrangement within WordPress. To do so, simply set these two constants within your wp-config.php file as so:

define(“WP_CONTENT_URL”, “http://static.yourdomain.com”);

define(“COOKIE_DOMAIN”, “www.yourdomain.com”);

After you’ve done that, just check to be sure you’ve marked “bloginfo( ‘template_directory’ )” to load your static content within your theme files. That’s it, allowing us to move onto point two!

2. Set-Up Cached Headers to Expire for Your Static Content

Serving up cached media is another great way to reduce load times. Thankfully, creating expiring headers for your static content is also fairly easy to do within WordPress, and can save you a lot of lag-based headaches. The best way to do so is to use the following code form the HTML 5 Boiler Plate. You can append it to your .htaccess file for immediate results. This, essentially, tells your server to expire headers at a future date, saving them in a cached format until that expiration date. So without further ado, here’s the code to get the job done!
—————————————————————————————————————-
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive on
# Perhaps better to whitelist expires rules? Perhaps.
ExpiresDefault      "access plus 1 month"
# cache.appcache needs re-requests
# in FF 3.6 (thx Remy ~Introducing HTML5)
ExpiresByType text/cache-manifest "access plus 0 seconds"
# Your document html
ExpiresByType text/html "access plus 0 seconds"
# Data
ExpiresByType text/xml "access plus 0 seconds"
ExpiresByType application/xml "access plus 0 seconds"
ExpiresByType application/json "access plus 0 seconds"
# RSS feed
ExpiresByType application/rss+xml "access plus 1 hour"
# Favicon (cannot be renamed)
ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access plus 1 week"
# Media: images, video, audio
ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/jpg "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType video/ogg "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType audio/ogg "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType video/mp4 "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType video/webm "access plus 1 month"
# HTC files  (css3pie)
ExpiresByType text/x-component "access plus 1 month"
# Webfonts
ExpiresByType font/truetype "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType font/opentype "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-font-woff   "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/svg+xml "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-fontobject "access plus 1 month"
# CSS and JavaScript
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType text/javascript "access plus 1 year"
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
Header append Cache-Control "public"
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
—————————————————————————————————————-

3. Optimize that Database!

Another great way to fix your server up to deliver your WordPress site with the most efficiency is to optimize your database. How does one do this? With mountains and mountains of code that take hours to append—We’re kidding! WordPress makes this unbelievably easy, thanks to a number of free plug-ins. You can search the plug-in database for server optimization, but some of our favorites are Yoast Optimize DB and WP DB Manager. Keep in mind too that most caching plug-ins also help with a lot of this, so you may find most of the workload being taken care of by your already extant caching softwares.

4. Use Cached Media As Much As Possible

On that note, creating cached .html files saves your server a mountain of database queries, and can easily be accomplished through any number of quality plug-ins. Essentially, these additions turn all those queries into static pages that load easy, saving your viewer from horrendous lag on the front-end. So what plug-ins do we recommend? Thanks for asking! Here are our favorites, though as with the database optimizers, there’s plenty more to be found in the plug-in database!

Our favorite caching utilities include: WP Super Cache, Hyper Cache, and W3 Total Cache. These generate .html files, but we also use DB Cache to cache the database queries themselves, saving even more time on the front-end.

5. Use a Content Delivery Network

We’re quite tremendous fans of the content delivery network. Everything about the technology gets us excited, and though we tend to evangelize the service to everyone we know, adding a CDN solution to your WordPress site is extremely easy, and can really save you a lot of load time. There are several freely available plug-ins that offer a fair amount of content distribution, but if you’re looking for a quality option, you really aren going to need to spend a little. However, we should mention the benefits of signing up for a CDN tend to far outweigh the cons, making the following services every bit as useful as they are expensive. If you’re hung-up on the price, though, we’ve also included a free option!

Our favorite content delivery providers are: Amazon S3, Max CDN, Media Temple CDN, and Free CDN.

6. Compress and Adjoin All Those JS and CSS Files Where Possible

Generally speaking, it’s a fantastic idea to compress both your JS and CSS files, as this reduces the overall size of your website, and allows for speedier load times at the end-user level. However, if you’re looking to take your optimization to a whole new level, we also strongly suggest you combine the two where possible. Combining multiple files into a single offering can greatly reduce the number of HTTP requests from your web server, saving your viewers precious seconds in load time. And—you guessed it—we do happen to have a number of plug-ins ready to help you out!

Our favorite JS compressors include Closure Compiler and Minify JavaScript. Our favorite CSS alternatives are Minify CSS and CSS Compressor. Alternatively, you can also use the wp minify plug-in to combine your JS and CSS files directly from WordPress.

7. Compress Your Image Files

On the subject of compression, it’s also a pretty fantastic idea to compress your images, too. This reduces the overall size of your website, and can knock off quite a few moments during your site’s load time. The plug-in we favor uses the API of the smush.it site to compress your images for optimized use. It’s a brilliant bit of coding, and we can’t speak highly enough of it. So without further ado, go ahead and snag WP Smush IT to increase the speed of your site. You can also use CSS Sprite to reduce the number of HTTP requests, if you’re feeling particularly gung-ho.

8. Compress Your Static Content into a gZip

One more compression tip, and then we promise we’ll stop. You see, just as it’s generally a good idea to compress your CSS, JS, and image files, so is it also a great idea to shrink down all of that extraneous static content we mentioned earlier. Just as most of your load time comes from grabbing this junk, so too can it be relieved by downsizing the overall cost of the HTTP request. Thankfully, there’s an incredibly simple way to do this within WordPress: And taking the time to add the following code snippet can dramatically reduce your wait times. So without any more babbling, here’s the code you’ll want to add to your .htaccess file. In case you were wondering, this is yet another bit of genius straight from the HTML5 Boiler Plate:
—————————————————————————————————————-
<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
# force deflate for mangled headers
# developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/posts/2010/12/pushing-beyond-gzipping/
<IfModule mod_setenvif.c>
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
SetEnvIfNoCase ^(Accept-EncodXng|X-cept-Encoding|X{15}|~{15}|-{15})$ ^((gzip|deflate)\s*,?\s*)+|[X~-]{4,13}$ HAVE_Accept-Encoding
RequestHeader append Accept-Encoding "gzip,deflate" env=HAVE_Accept-Encoding
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
# HTML, TXT, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, XML, HTC:
<IfModule filter_module>
FilterDeclare   COMPRESS
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/html
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/css
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/plain
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/xml
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/x-component
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/javascript
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/json
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/xml
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/xhtml+xml
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/rss+xml
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/atom+xml
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/vnd.ms-fontobject
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $image/svg+xml
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/x-font-ttf
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $font/opentype
FilterChain     COMPRESS
FilterProtocol  COMPRESS  DEFLATE change=yes;byteranges=no
</IfModule>
<IfModule !mod_filter.c>
# Legacy versions of Apache
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/css application/json
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml application/xml text/x-component
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml application/rss+xml application/atom+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml application/vnd.ms-fontobject application/x-font-ttf font/opentype
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
—————————————————————————————————————-

9. Disable eTags

eTags are generally a great way to aide the development of cached content within WordPress. However, if you’ve shrunk down all of your media and are using expiration headers for the majority of your static content, having them enabled isn’t nearly as good of an idea. As such, you should turn all of them off by adding the following line of code to your aforementioned .htaccess file. It’s a single line:

File ETag none

and with all the other improvements we’ve made during the course of this article, it will tie the bow on your load time savings.

Related posts:

• March 31, 2010 – Wordpress and Search Engine Optimization – Facts to Consider
• January 16, 2012 – Top 4 Ways to Optimize WordPress for Search Engines
• January 11, 2012 – WordPress Website and WordPress Hosting
• January 1, 2012 – Fastest WordPress Hosting in Town
• December 9, 2011 – WordPress vs. Blogger
• October 7, 2011 – The 13 Best Free WordPress Plugins
• October 3, 2011 – WordPress Plugins – Making the Most of the Your Site
• September 19, 2011 – Get Out of the PHP Memory Error Rut with WordPress
• September 15, 2011 – Add-Ons That Will Save Your Web Hosting Business
• September 15, 2011 – Alternative’s to WordPress – Other Content Management Systems do Exist

We’ve awarded Green Geeks the honor of the Best Green Hosting for a number of reasons, including the service’s excellent pricing scheme and top-notch feature set, but before diving into those details, let’s talk about the green!

Why Green Geeks?

To kick things off, Green Geeks uses the latest generation of Intel processors to power its servers. These bad boys are streamlined to use as little energy as possible while still delivering the power-punch you deserve. Not only that, but the company even has its tech support specialists telecommute into work, saving carbon emissions on morning commutes. There’s also the 300% wind-powered hosting network that Green Geeks uses. No small feat, this marvel of modern hosting engineering ensures that the company returns three times the energy it uses every time its servers are fired up.

As a cherry on top, Green Geeks is also one-hundred percent certified by the EPA as a compliant Green Power Partner. All in all, the provider takes the most steps to ensure its hosting network is green-capable, making it a shoe-in for the Best Green Hosting category.

With Green Geeks, though, that’s not the whole of it. Considering the provider has pricing schemes that start at a scant $4.95 a month, users are also getting a tremendous bargain in hosting while preserving the planet. For that low price of five bucks a month, all of Green Geek’s consumers enjoy unlimited disc space, bandwidth, add-on domains, IMAP, and POP3 email accounts. Not to mention the fact that Green Geeks offers several other amenities to help ease the process of moving your site to their servers: This includes free site migration, free domain registration for life, and a customized, 100% free site builder.

And, of course, Green Geeks comes stock with all the bells and whistles you want, including support for Python, Perl, PHP, and cPanel. The provider will also handle as many MySQL databases as you want to throw at it, making it a solid, eco-friendly, and comprehensive way to host your professional website without harming the planet.

Visit http://www.greengeeks.com | Read Green Geeks customer reviews.

Related posts:

• February 18, 2009 – Fasthosts Takes on a New Green Initiative
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• December 14, 2009 – Site5 and Mokugift Combined to Help Reforestation
• November 23, 2009 – Carbon Offsetting Versus True Green Hosting
• January 14, 2009 – Digital Realty Trust Honored by Datacenter Dynamics
• October 14, 2008 – The Gator Goes Green

Entire internet domains could be blocked because of infringing material posted on a single webpage or blog. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act would be taken to a completely new step if SOPA were to be passed. Many are worried that facts could be skewed and misinformation could lead to dissemination.

Proponents of SOPA include those who think that the legislation is designed to protect intellectual property online. However, the opponents of SOPA include websites, programmers and much of the entertainment industry who say that the bill will lead to internet censorship.

On January 18, 2012, many websites around the globe staged a protest and went dark to show just how important the internet is to its’ users, and what would happen if SOPA were to be approved.

Beyond SOPA is the PROTECT IP Act. This is preventing real online threats to economic creativity and theft of intellectual property. It is often referred to as PIPA which will give the U.S. government tools to curb access to websites that are dedicated to counterfeit goods, specifically those that operate outside of the United States. This will cost the government a significant amount of money and could present a lot of enforcement problems.

The bills originally started as COICA in 2010, but failed to pass. PIPA came next and SOPA was introduced in October 2011. There have been plans to postpone SOPA and PIPA again, though the House Judiciary Committee is still trying to find a solution that focuses on online piracy.

The tech industry isn’t against all attempts to fight online piracy – they simply don’t like the current solutions that have been suggested. OPEN is an alternative to SOPA; and is endorsed by Google, would focus on policing websites with links to internet pirates that are foreign-based.

A guest post by Lindsey Harper Mac.

Related posts:

• January 20, 2012 – Data Backup and Recovery Solutions
• December 5, 2011 – SOPA: A Reflection of a Mighty Battle
• December 2, 2011 – Is Cloud Computing Worth It for Your Business?
• November 8, 2011 – SOPA – The IP Hammer Has Swung

What is A/B Testing?

The best way to think about A/B testing is through ye olden, brick and mortar advertising techniques. Let’s imagine you own a bakery on one end of town, and another branch at the far side of the city. Your advertisements have not been driving as many sales as you might like, so you decide to create a new campaign. However, you’ve got two fantastic ideas, and you’d like to know which is more appealing to the end-consumer. Obviously, you could do some polls, but a better way would be to simply initiate one campaign at one branch, and the other at the second store. By closely monitoring which branch enjoys an increase in sales and traffic, you’ll have a very good idea about which campaign is worth pursuing.

In much the same way, A/B testing allows you to use your website and emails to perform similar tests. With the technology at hand, you can change the banners and graphics of your site in multiple variations, and then market those changes to targeted groups of visitors. By monitoring which set performs the best, you can decide which direction(s) should be a permanent addition.

And if you hadn’t guessed by now, we’ve got a great place for you start, if you’re interested in using A/B testing: VisualWebsiteOptimizer.com.

What is Visual Website Optimizer Is, and How Does it Help?

When creating variations of your Web content to perform tests, you’ll quickly find yourself up to your eyeballs in complex HTML editing and performance code. Visual Website Optimizer makes the creation process much simpler, allowing you to visually and directly edit any element of your site. Once the changes have been put into action, you can then specify your target goals and groups, as well as what you’d like those individuals to do.

It’s fluid, dynamic, and supremely easy, especially when compared to other A/B testing platforms. Still don’t believe us? We don’t blame you. With that in mind, let’s dive a bit deeper into the visual editor at the heart of the software.

Cutting and Pasting Made Easy

With Visual Website Optimizer, creating variations of your site is simple. All a web master needs to do is load the site into the software’s WYSIWYG editor (that’s a complex acronym for “visual HTML editor,” a bit like WordPress) and then get cranking. Any aspect of the site can be altered, whether it’s a photograph, banner advertisement, piece of text, or link. These changes are integrated directly into the variation, and if you have a need for more complex modifications, Visual Website Optimizer also fully supports direct HTML editing. However, none of this is too inventive, is it? After all, programs like WordPress do make it easy to alter code.

If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re right. However, the beauty of Visual Website Optimizer is in its visual nature: You can directly see the changes as their made, and as each and every modification is stored as a unique variation, you’re free to review all of these modifications in real time. This is an unbelievably powerful platform, especially if you’re not into digging through lines of code on your day off.

The Tests Are Golden

Additionally, Visual Website Optimizer also makes it easy to define and monitor tests. Each and every variation of your website can be attached to a specific goal: Whether this is an increase in page visits, clicked links, or even just form submissions, Visual Website Optimizer allows you to track it. And again, all of this functionality is served up with a wonderfully visual presentation. You’re free to look directly at the tests as they’re being performed. And trust us, there’s nothing cooler than having your goals laid out directly on your screen, resting in front of your eyes.

We also appreciate the mountain of available testing formats, as Visual Website Optimizer covers just about every measurement you could ever hope for.

To provide a short list, Visual Website Optimizer offers:

• Multiple conversion goals
• Heat map reports of visitor clicks and views
• Segmented and targeted group dynamics
• Cross-domain tracking
• Revenue monitoring
• Integration with Google Analytics
• Multiple permission-based logins for collaboration with your new schemas

And with an HTML test editor, the sky is the limit, if you’d like to create your own parameters. You make it, Visual Website Optimizer will track it: Guaranteed.

But How Does it Compare to Google?

If you’ve been in the business long, you’ve likely heard of Google Website Optimizer. The software provided by the Big-G provides a roughly equivalent experience to Visual Website Optimizer, but with a few notable differences.

Sure, both softwares will track your website variations, providing you with analytical data to use in your next marketing campaign. But only Visual Website Optimizer provides you with a rich and visual editor to create your new variations. Google, on the other hand, relies entirely on your knowledge of code, as well as your ability to successfully implement market segmentation and targeting.

Visual Website Optimizer instead does most of the work for you. The software allows you to visually compare changes, attach hardwired goals to those modifications, and then effortlessly track the results. Sure, there’s a $49 per month charge attached, but where Google Website Optimizer might be free, it can never provide the same quality of experience as Visual Website Optimizer.

Learn more about Visual Website Optimizer at http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/.

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For many business owners, finding the most suitable backup options for their specific needs and organization can be a nightmare, without first knowing the basics, and inner workings that go in to the various options that are available to them. Thus, it goes without saying, that proper research and homework should be the first step any organization makes when even beginning to consider what type of service they want to use to protect their valuable data with. In the modern day world of IT, being in charge of backing up data generally implies two main tasks in particular: backup administrations and operations. A backup operator is in charge of completing daily tasks, such as ejecting tapes from a library and replacing them with scratch tapes or ensuring that all backups have been completed.

The most common types of backup services available include a full backup, differential backup and incremental backup. Other types may include cloud backup services, reverse incremental, mirroring, synthetic full backups, and continuous data protection. Virtual tape libraries also gained some traction in recent years due to an absence of new software and little reconfiguration required. However, this is not the best option for everybody.

Testing Backups

Testing and configuration is all too frequently the main missing link when it comes to making backups. Far too often, a company will take the time to back up their data with cloud backup services or other available options, only to find out that there was something wrong with the configuration. Backup reporting tools are designed specifically to analyze backups and report back on them, and these can help as a preventive measure to faulty backup recovery.

Such tools have evolved in recent years, so many now include additional analysis features, including trending features, in order to provide better planning for growth in backing up data – this is a valuable asset for companies who back their data onto tape, as well as to disk media.

Security for Data Backup

Whenever data backup enters the mainstream news, it often features stories regarding data breaches, and security holes. Thus, it is also very important to keep up to date with the latest solutions for backup security that are available at the time. Storage administrators are more frequently relying on tape encryption as a means of protecting highly sensitive data. Using encryption can affect the backup process in a number of different ways, depending on whether it is done with a host, tape, or appliance based scheme.

The question of how, where and when encryption should be employed is best only answered after first answering the most critical question: Why are you encrypting data?

VMware Backup and Data Protection

Data protection has been changing, and this is due in part to VMware virtualization. However, though there are a number of benefits provided by VMware, there still exist numerous challenges of backup and recovery services that must be addressed. In addition to being a costly and time consuming type of backup service to manage, desktops can create data recovery and security vulnerabilities as they are arguably one of the least protected assets of IT.

Virtual machine backup has always been a bit of an issue when it comes to backup administrators. However, VMware vSphere has offered a number of improvements for backup and recovery.

Data Deduplication

The technology known as data deduplication is perhaps one of the hottest topics with regard to backup services in today’s world. However, though global data deduplication offers many advantages, there still remain many different myths and misconceptions that surround data deduplication. There exist several different sorts of data deduplication technologies, which means it can be a bit difficult to figure out which one is the best suited for your particular organization.

Many backup administrators wind up so focused with backing up data that they lose sight of how important recovery is. After all, your backups do not mean anything if you cannot recover them – the same is true with deduped data. This means you must focus on having a good recovery setup whether you intend to go with data deduplication or not.

Online Data Backup

One popular alternative to tape-based backup is online data backup. There are numerous online cloud backup providers that allow companies to store their data online to avoid physical damage that could come with tapes used for backup; after all, tapes are a good means for backing up your library until the tapes are damaged along with your servers. Cloud services take this into consideration, storing them elsewhere and even allowing them to be accessed anywhere with the proper authorization.

Though a relatively new idea, there are a number of well-known companies which provide such services, like Box, Amazon, and Mozy.

As a final note, before you jump to any conclusions and make up your mind on what is the right type of backup and recovery system for your business, do make sure that you have done the proper research, and have at the very least consulted with a few third party sources, to know what you are getting into before it is too late to change your mind.

A guest post by: Gaelen Hallenbeck

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• December 2, 2011 – Is Cloud Computing Worth It for Your Business?
• November 19, 2011 – A Dark Cloud: Anonymity and Privacy Fall Further Before a Cloud Computing Experiment
• May 18, 2011 – A Look at Security in the Cloud
• October 14, 2009 – How Secure is Virtualization Technology?
• June 2, 2009 – Windows Server 2003: Still Getting the Job Done
• January 26, 2012 – Controversial SOPA and its Siblings PIPA and OPEN
• January 3, 2012 – Battle of the Giants: Linux and Windows Compared
• December 19, 2011 – Cloud Backup & Online Storage Services
• December 14, 2011 – Avira Antivirus Features
• November 28, 2011 – Bit-Defender Internet Security Review

InMotion Hosting is one of our favorite options for personal, business, and dedicated hosting, offering a wealth of plans, features, and support designed to keep your Web presence running smoothly. But then again, all of that stuff can be ascribed to just about every web hosting business in the book. So, when the quick hits the bone, who in the heck really are InMotion? Read our InMotion Hosting user reviews.

Who They Really Are

InMotion first took on its name and business way back when in 2001, arriving out of a merger between business and Internet capability. As such, the provider offers a unique focus to the business consumer, bringing an unparalleled level of services and support aimed at keeping Web-necessary content online at any and all times—even during periods of extreme stress.

Todd Robinson, president of InMotion Hosting.

InMotion Hosting Awards

The company has been winning awards for these stellar services since as early as 2003, racking up a truly astonishing number of commendations since. Among these are the Drupal Association “Organization Member” aware, a CNET Certified Service Provider, an A-Rated Accredited Business with the BBB, the “Best Business Web Hosting“, the “Best Ecommerce Web Hosting“, the “Best VPS Hosting” awards from WebHostingGeeks.com, and the “Best Business Hosting” award from 100WebHosting.com—all of these given in the latest 2011 year. In other words, the company has existed for more than a decade, but has not slacked off on its duties during any time in that period.

To see all awards of InMotion Hosting click here.

InMotion Hosting Customers

Backed by a team of experts with diverse technical backgrounds, the company claims to be committed to its customer base, and according to its continued growth, it seems to be living up to all the talk.

As mentioned before, InMotion comes absolutely loaded to the gills with all kinds of awards, commendations, customer testimonials, and general pats on the back. The company has been turning heads since its initial inception a decade ago, and now supports a track record few—if any—other web hosting providers can match.

That all might be well and grand, but when it comes down to things, what in fact are those services that are so award-winning? Is it possible to knock them down into only a few bullets? In fact yes, yes it is!

Blazing Fast Hosting

One of the things we love most about InMotion is that it allows the user to choose their server of origin, an unprecedented level of control that we can’t match to any other web host. Typically, a shared hosting experience assigns the user a databank somewhere in the country. This datacenter may or may not be closest to the user’s home demographic, potentially stripping the consumer’s site of all useable performance. In comparison, InMotion offers two East and West coast oriented options, based on their Max Speed Zones system.

West Coast Data Center

East Coast Data Center

This system provides unparalleled protection and performance across the board, no matter what market you’re attempting to reach within the continental United States. In addition, for those hard to reach spots (like our native Denver) InMotion offers peer-based connectivity to give extra boosts as needed.

Green Like A City-Slicker Rancher

Believe it or not, server banks are actually one of the premier causes of pollution in modern times. InMotion is one of only a few select companies to recognize this fact, and to have taken measures to lessen their initial impact. For example, the company now runs its technology and cutting-edge cooling systems that reduce server grid drain by as much as 70%. There’s also the fact that InMotion plants 5,000 trees a year to offset any negative impact it may put into the ecosystem. All in all, InMotion is green as it gets, and that’s an incredible thing.

InMotion Hosting Support

However, it isn’t just features, or general overviews, that get our goat about the web hosting company. In fact, almost more than anything else, it’s their unique dedication to solving and preventing customer complications as they arise. InMotion offers a fully operational 24/7 chat line for customers to call, day or night, for resolutions to their web hosting conundrums as they appear.

Should you find yourself without a telephone, there’s absolutely no reason to panic. In fact, InMotion offers more than enough additional ways to get the job done, and have your website back up and running in no time. This includes a dedicated email support ticket system, live chat to aide you day-or-night directly from your computer, traditional email, and of course, the social networks.

Telephone Sales: 888-321-4678 x1 or 757-416-6575 x1
Telephone Support: 888-321-4678 x2 or 757-416-6575 x2

Email Sales: sales@inmotionhosting.com
Email Support: support@inmotionhosting.com

Live Chat: click here

Google+: https://plus.google.com/109777154476249834137/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/inmotionhosting
Twitter: https://twitter.com/inmotionhosting

More ways to contact InMotion Hosting: http://www.inmotionhosting.com/contact.html.

InMotion Hosting Help Center

In addition, InMotion also offers a full support center that’s loaded with a knowledge base of Alexandrian proportions. There’s website and email tutorials, as well as domain name set-up information, and even tutorials on general website education. It’s as if InMotion secretly has an hidden agenda, and it’s to make you smarter than you were when you went in! And when all else fails, there’s also a community support forum where you’re free to ask other customers for their time-earned and trial-and-error advice.

All in all, InMotion offers quite an impressive package on paper. They’re award-winning, have lasted over a decade, and offer a set of features that can be boiled down into a simple list, yet still strike the reader with a sense of overwhelming pizzazz. But don’t think we’re done with the company just yet: In fact, we’re only just warming up! Stick around, as we now change gears, and head directly into the hosting plans themselves to look for even more reasons why InMotion is one of the premier choices in online Web hosting.

Web Hosting Plans

We have detailed a few of the ways in which InMotion might appeal to the carefully selective web master, and we have given a few of the ways in which InMotion is prepared to help its customers with any technical problems, should they arise. However, what we have not yet discussed was perhaps the most crucial part of the whole scheme—the hosting plans themselves! To this end, we are now prepared to dish the full details on the topic. So without further ado, dive on below to peep the full details on what makes InMotion’s web hosting plans absolutely essential for the conscientious business with a desire for a firmer Web presence.

Shared Hosting (For Personal or Business Use)

Without a doubt, shared web hosting is certainly the largest part of the market, and we have a feeling most of our readers will be looking for a quality package in this category. Shared web hosting is, after all, a great way to save on initial overhead while still garnering an incredible level of performance and Net presence. But how does InMotion stack up? Is it possible to achieve this level of success with the web host? The short answer: Totally yeah!

Right off the bat, InMotion promises to deliver the performance you want at the price you need. Just take this quote, which we’ve pulled directly from the company’s shared hosting page:

“Rest assured, you will get the best quality hosting from InMotion – even if you are shopping for cheap hosting.”

We’re willing to take InMotion at face value, but the facts are all there to support exactly this sort of claim. Consider the fact that the company offers not one, but two different shared hosting plans.

One, the Value Class Hosting is fast, offers SPAM protection, 2 MB attachment size, and even a web site builder. Should you need a little more oomph, there’s also the Business Class Hosting tier, which offers 50% faster server speeds, thanks to the Max Speed Zone capability, as well as increased attachment size, daily backups, 5 bandwidth providers, and a premium-style website creation tool.

And across the board, InMotion offers a mammoth amount of functionality, including MySQL support, dedicated email accounts, FTP access, shared SSL, additional sub domains, and even support for popular coding and development platforms like WordPress, PHP, HTML5, and CSS. All in all, it’s an impressive package, and one that starts at as little as $3.00 a month.

Visit http://www.inmotionhosting.com for more information.

VPS Hosting (For Ecommerce Websites)

But what if you’d like just a step-up, but aren’t quite ready to commit to a full-on dedicated server with your business? What if you’d prefer to have your data physically separated from all the other tenants of the server, but can’t quite cough up the budget to get it done with a unique hardware set? With InMotion, it’s no trouble at all! The hosting provider offers a wealth of comprehensive and powerful virtual private server hosting options that are guaranteed to meet your needs and then some. Best of all, these plans start at only $39.95 a month—a cheaper price than we’ve seen just about anywhere else on the market.

For that money, users can enjoy a bevy of ground-breaking features. These include 24×7 managed support, exactly as we mentioned in the previous articles. This means that, day-or-night, InMotion is available via phone, live chat, or email to help you with your virtual hosting needs. In addition, the company also offers burstable RAM for when peak periods creep up, as well as full data backups to preserve and protect your site from unwanted down-time. Not to mention a full cPanel and WHM license, granting you unparalleled access to the inner workings of your site—without even any need for complex HTML or CSS coding knowledge!

To throw some last numbers into the mix, consider this: A virtual private server hosting experience with InMotion comes stock with up to 1024 MB of RAM, 3 GB of burstable memory, 1500 GB transfer limits, and 160 GB in RAID 10 Fault Tolerant Disc Space. And if that doesn’t sound like a bargain to you, we don’t know what else we can say (except move on to the next category, Soldier).

More information: http://www.inmotionhosting.com/vps_hosting.html.

Dedicated Servers (For Large Portals)

And finally, the big one. If you’re looking for the utmost in performance, security, and personal web power, there’s no better option than dedicated server hosting. Typically, this kind of hosting would run you a quick bundle to own. But with InMotion, it’s nearly a walk in the park! Starting at as little as $199.95 a month, you can own and operate your very own server without even having to lift a finger. This process is made even more powerful by the fully-capable 24×7 support mentioned earlier, which guarantees your server is managed and operated personally by trained professionals. Should you be dissatisfied with the server’s performance, though, the company offers a full, 30-day money back guarantee: An offer we have not seen anywhere else but InMotion for dedicated hosting.

To round out this part of our InMotion overview, have a look at some of the raw statistics (and power) behind the servers. A dedicated server with the company earns you up to 2.53 GHz, Intel Xeon Quad Core performance, tied to an 8 MB CPU Cache, and 8 GB RAM. In addition, pans max out at a whopping 500 GB disc space, and a 2500 GB monthly transfer limit. Add to this a full cPanel license, 2-Hour hardware replacement, and no set-up fee, and you’re looking at a solidly budget way to experience top-end performance.

More information: http://www.inmotionhosting.com/dedicated_servers.html.

InMotion Hosting Reviews

Whether you require a simple personal or business website, a more powerful virtualized environment, or your own dedicated server, InMotion Hosting definitely makes a fine choice for your web hosting needs and our visitors have confirmed that over the years. If you are still not sure about signing up with InMotion, check our user written reviews at http://webhostinggeeks.com/user-reviews/inmotion-hosting/.

I hope you liked this review. Stay tuned, more hosting reviews coming soon!

Related posts:

• September 7, 2011 – Pros and Cons of Shared Hosting
• February 3, 2009 – Benefitting From VPS Hosting
• January 16, 2009 – The Many Faces of Web Hosting
• October 31, 2008 – Shared Web Hosting vs. VPS Hosting, Part 1
• September 25, 2011 – What To Remember When Moving To A New Control Panel
• January 13, 2011 – Shared and Dedicated Web Hosting
• January 13, 2011 – Different Types of Web Hosting
• January 13, 2011 – Difference between Shared and Dedicated Servers
• January 13, 2011 – A Sundry of Options for Web Hosting
• August 25, 2010 – Cheap VPS Web Hosting vs. Cheap Shared Web Hosting

1. Tell WordPress to Rearrange Itself

As much as we like WordPress, we have noticed it has one or two nasty habits. The most notable we’ve come across is its tendency to put the name of the website itself in front of the title of the blog post. This is problematic for a number of reasons, but we would simply like to mention right off the bat that there is a quick fix: So, in other words, don’t panic and bring your towel. But why is this such a big deal? Well, for starters – search engines use your titles to determine what the blog post is actually about. Typically, a search engine will only crawl (that means search and record) the first 50 to 64 characters of your title, too. With that in mind, having your blog name in front of your blog post title can cause some problems. You’ll want to reverse this, that way sites like Google get an accurate picture of your newly minted content, rather than a repeat of the blog’s name. A quick way to do this is to swap the title and name sequence within the All In One SEO pack. On another note, if you don’t have this plug-in yet, you should go ahead and snag it, as we’ll be referencing it often.

2. Create Unique and Accurate Meta Tags

A case in point, we will again be using All In One SEO with this point, as well. The idea here is that the automatically created meta tags published by WordPress are typically not specific enough to warrant any interest from the larger search engines. Usually, these self-created tags are somewhat generic, and lack any kind of specificity sites like Google desire. With that in mind, the easiest way to correct the problem is to add meta tags yourself. How does one go about this? Well, the easiest method is through that handy plug-in we mentioned earlier. Using the keywords slot, you’re free to add as many meta tags as your heart desires. Just try to be specific, avoiding generic terms like “iPhone,” “Android,” or “Mac.”

3. Stick Around with Permalinks

When WordPress creates a new post, it typically does so with a URL that’s less-than desirable for search engine optimization. This is because, more often than not, WordPress attaches an incomprehensible string of numbers to each and every new piece of content, allowing URL crawlers no added access to what in the heck your post is about. However, this isn’t hard to change, and typically only requires a quick jaunt over to the WordPress admin panel.

Within this panel, look for the settings tab, and then “Permalinks.”

You’ll see a list of various URL methods, but the only one you want is called “Custom Structure.” Yes, you’re going to have to enter something here, but lucky for you, we’ve already written the appropriate string. Click this box, and then type: /%category%/%postname%

Now, every time you create a new post, it will be listed in the URL as http://sample.com/your-category/the-proper-post-name. This makes your post infinitely more readable to search engines, and can go a long way toward fully search engine optimizing your content.

4. Make Meaningful Connections

Another fantastic way to optimize your site for search engine use is to link related sites and content pieces within your article.

This means that words like “phone” should be linked to other articles about similar models, operating systems, etc. Your goal is to create a map within the blog post that directs the user—and search engines—to other content that’s closely related to your own. With that in mind, blindly adding links with no regard for what they mean will not help you at all. If you’ve written an article about how to cook a turkey, and you link it to an animal rights page, Google won’t get much out of it, and may even scrap your site in its ratings. There’s also a limit on how many links Google is willing to stand. If you attach a URL to every word in the post, most search engines will treat it like spam.

A great way to avoid this is to use a “Related Posts” plug-in. There are about a thousand in the WordPress plug-in library, so we won’t offer any specific suggestions. Just know that these create a separate box for these helpful links, alleviating the need to bugger up your viewers’ reading experience with bothersome links. Likewise, there are plenty of plug-ins out there that will automatically generate in-text links, should you decide you’d rather have plenty of those. Typically, they work quite well, but the only way to guarantee your optimization is to add these links yourself.

Related posts:

• September 15, 2011 – Add-Ons That Will Save Your Web Hosting Business
• January 26, 2010 – Search Engine Optimization: Keywords vs. Content
• January 18, 2010 – Search Engine Optimization – The Basics Explained
• July 24, 2009 – Avoid These Five SEO Mistakes
• July 23, 2009 – Seven SEO Myths Debunked
• January 1, 2012 – Fastest WordPress Hosting in Town
• December 1, 2011 – The Importance of SEO
• September 25, 2011 – Search Engine Optimization tips for Bing
• September 21, 2011 – Are Search Engine Optimization Companies – Worthy of the Cost?
• September 14, 2011 – The Dummies’ Guide To SEO

And why shouldn’t it be? WordPress makes it incredibly simple to manage, produce, and distribute content on the Internet through your site. And at the heart of things, that’s really what the Web is all about, right? Here are some stats about what people do on wordpress:

Philosophical pander aside, though, there are a few things you’ll want to really look for in a web host when you’re shopping for WordPress compliance. In fact, if you don’t snag just the right features, you may find your CMS blog in high water before the ink is even dry on your contract. With that in mind, here are a few of the top features you want in a web host with WordPress in mind, as well as a few quality places to find WordPress hosting, beginning with:

In-House WordPress Transfers. Often times, we see webmasters start a blog on the traditional WordPress site, only to suddenly find their content inundated with fans and adoring readers. If you’re in a similar boat, and are looking to make the swap to a truly dedicated domain and website, you’ll want to be sure of a few things. First and foremost, you’ll want to be sure your new web host can directly transfer your domain from WordPress, establishing it as a proprietary DNS. From there, you’ll also want to ensure they can port most (if not all) of your content. You worked hard to create it, so why should you have to leave it behind on that old, stuffy WordPress blog? If your new web host can’t help you with your baggage, it’s time to shop more.

Speed and Performance. On a similar note, if you’re swapping your old WordPress account for a dedicated number—or even if you’re just starting from scratch—you’ll want to find a web host that offers totally comprehensive performance and top-notch hardware. WordPress is a lightweight web application, but you’re still running an additional software engine over the server’s operating system. This requires processing power, and if you go with an anemic web host, you may find your blog is no better off with a dedicated location than with your original WordPress spot. And besides, signing to a web host is like buying a new car. If you have the money, why not spring for that souped-up model that packs a real punch? Get the most bang for your dollar and look for speed in a web host.

Easy Installation. Lastly, you’ll want to be sure your web host can provide an easy WordPress installation for your site. A good web host makes this a one or two click process, max. If your web host instead wants you to do a long string of complicated terminal commands that may jeopardize the entire system, it’s time to move elsewhere and cancel the contract.

That’s by no means a survival guide for WordPress shopping where web hosts are concerned, but instead of talking about finding a web host until the cows come home, we thought we might instead offer up a few of our choice suggestions. Beginning with:

InMotion Web Hosting

Customer Ratings & Reviews

As an industry leading web hosting provider, InMotion Hosting provides all of the features we mentioned above and more. With the company your WordPress installation takes only a click, thanks to the brilliantly inventive, server-side gem Fantastico. Furthermore, InMotion also boasts secure suPHP, the latest versions of both MySQL 5 and PHP 5, as well as free domain transfer. If you’re looking to port over your old WordPress account, like we talked about earlier, InMotion also makes it a smooth process, bringing along your old content and name without any additional hassle on your part. All in all, InMotion is a brilliant (and cheap, clocking in at $5.95 a month) option for your WordPress-based site.

Visit www.inmotionhosting.com or read our Inmotion Hosting review.

HostGator

Customer Ratings & Reviews

Another industry veteran, HostGator offers even more features than InMotion, and at a lower price, to boot. Plans with the provider begin at only $3.96 a month, and come loaded with 100% WordPress compatibility, a one-click installation of the latest WordPress software, 99.9% up-time, and a full 45 day money back guarantee. Another feature unique to HostGator is its focus on unlimited features. With the provider, users can enjoy fully unlimited disc space and bandwidth, even at the lowest possible plan. And, of course, signing with the provider also earns you the latest versions of Apache, MySQL and PHP. Best of all, transferring your old WordPress site to the provider is easy-peasy using their ready made transfer service.

Visit www.hostgator.com or read our HostGator review.

WebHostingHub

Customer Ratings & Reviews

Last, though certainly not least, is WebHostingHub. The provider offers unparalleled support for the modern WordPress blogger, besting both HostGator and InMotion in our user review polls. First and foremost, those who choose to sign with the provider gain the full benefits of the latest software, including Apache, MySQL 5, and PHP5. And, of course, all of this technology comes ready loaded with a one-click WordPress installation that requires no additional effort on your part. Add to this about 1,000 unique and custom-made WordPress themes to choose from, as well as simple transfer of old WordPress materials, and you’re looking at a truly impressive offering. However, WebHostingHub is also notable for its unique dedication to hardware optimization. The provider has taken great pains to fully prepare its systems for WordPress, including a full PHP caching overhaul that maximizes available RAM, a reduction in overall I/O requests, and blazing fast base connectivity. All in all, if you’re looking for an incredible, simple, and efficient way to host your new WordPress site, there’s no better option than WebHostingHub.

Visit www.webhostinghub.com or read our WebHostingHub review.

Related posts:

• January 1, 2012 – Fastest WordPress Hosting in Town
• December 9, 2011 – WordPress vs. Blogger
• October 3, 2011 – WordPress Plugins – Making the Most of the Your Site
• September 21, 2011 – Drupal – An Essential Primer
• September 15, 2011 – Alternative’s to WordPress – Other Content Management Systems do Exist
• September 7, 2011 – An Overview of PHP-Based Content Management Systems Beyond WordPress
• September 2, 2011 – When to Transition to a Content Management System
• June 15, 2011 – Drupal 7 to Further Simplify Website Management
• May 6, 2011 – New Content Management System Released by TYPO 3
• January 17, 2011 – Understanding the Benefits of CMS

What is Crowd Sourcing, Anyway?

To begin with, you may be wondering just what in the name of all things holy crowd sourcing actually is. (By the way, we’ve also seen it spelled “crowdsourcing” but to avoid any jargony turn-offs, we’re going to opt to spell it in phrase format. No matter the orthography, though, the idea behind the concept is relatively simple: In times gone past, you would hire a specialist to deal with your problems. Do you have a pipe that needs fixing? Hire a plumber. Have to buy a house? Get a realtor. Need a new logo for your business? Find, hire, and coax a graphic design firm into giving you what you want. But what if we took this idea of need-and-purchase and stretched it out over the entire Internet? What if it were possible to use a mountain of producers, instead of a single firm?

Essentially, this is exactly what crowd sourcing does. The whole idea is that a business can access a crowd sourcing site, start the contest of its needs (logo design, website design, t-shirt design, banner design, etc.), and then accept bids and proposals from a sea of Internet-based designers. From this slush heap, the original purchaser can select the best deal, send out a single payment, and then receive the goods. This cuts out entirely the need for complex contracts, messy payments, and long waits at the firm. It’s a beautiful system, but DesignContest.com makes it even more appealing.

How Does it Work?

By nature, DesignContest.com works in the same format listed above, but with a few important distinctions. First and foremost, not just everyone can apply and begin posting on DesignContest.com. All contributing designers must first be pre-qualified for quality, ensuring that the proposals users acquire are professional and of the highest caliber. This is hardly a problem for you, we’re assuming, as we’d be willing to bet you create truly top-notch stuff on a regular basis. If you’re interested in joining DesignContest.com, simply bring along a few choice portfolio pieces, and you’ll have no trouble at all.

Also in direct contrast to other sites, DesignContest.com does not work off of bids and proposals, but finished projects. The company in need posts a project and monetary reward. Then, designers create the project in its entirety, and submit the results. The company then selects the one they feel best fits their needs, and the designer is instantly thrown the reward money. In essence, DesignContest.com takes crowd sourcing and turns it into a contest—it’s like that’s in the name somewhere, you know? And, of course, with each contest there’s only one winner. So what does that mean, you might be asking. If so, you’ve come to the right place:

What if I Don’t Win?

Sadly, not everyone wins all the time. In fact, it is but one lucky designer who happens to pump out the winning design. Thus, what happens to your submitted work when it doesn’t succeed? In essence, nothing! It’s yours to keep, and as the piece was not paid for, there’s no legal implications or issues. In a sense, it’s like you never even submitted it. However, there is an upside to all this, and it has to do with your portfolio.

Every piece you create is worth something, even if it’s just as a showcase of your talents. Theoretically, every piece you submit on DesignContest.com is a testimonial to your prowess, and as each unsuccessful bid is your property, why not throw it in your book? You’ll quickly flesh out your portfolio in no time, and best of all, you may find working on DesignContest.com quickly stretches your creativity and limits in ways you never thought imaginable. Think of it as boot camp for your designs, creating stronger muscles, finished works, and honed skills.

What Else is Essential About DesignContest.com?

There are a few other important features worth noting about DesignContest.com. For example, the company manages a dedicated knowledge-base of design information for you to troll through, expanding your horizons with a better education. Likewise, there’s also a dedicated design forum used by other designers like you. It’s a great place to talk about contests or get feedback from your last project. Add to this superior moderation, a fully updated design blog, and the aforementioned pre-qualification, and you’re looking at a first-rate community of nothing but designers.

All in all, DesignContest.com is an incredible way to hone your skills, expand your creativity, experience new projects, and potentially win a lot of money for your efforts. You never know what doors will open with the site, making it an indispensable tool in our eyes. If you haven’t been already, consider using DesignContest.com for your next design project.

Related posts:

• August 17, 2011 – DesignContest.com – Perfect Design or your Money Back (100% Guaranteed)!
• September 7, 2011 – Getting by as a Web Design in our Down Economy
• December 11, 2011 – Top 5 Necessities For a Sales Oriented Website
• December 7, 2011 – Top 5 Common Web Design Mistakes
• December 2, 2011 – Adobe Dreamweaver CS5.5 Review
• November 30, 2011 – Top 10 Tips for Web Design
• November 23, 2011 – The Evolution of Web Design
• November 4, 2011 – Crowdsourcing – what it is, and how you can use it.
• October 23, 2011 – Web Design: Do it Yourself or Outsource?
• September 17, 2011 – To Blog Or Not To Blog: That is The Question

But today we wanted to talk about HostGator.com (read our HostGator user reviews), another great web host with pretty solid background. All of this excellence begins with their lineage starting in 2002, the year of HostGator’s birth. Since that first initial step in Houston, Texas, the company has grown to support a whopping 12,000 servers, all under direct, controlled management. In addition, HostGator proudly services and aides a network of some 400,000 customers in more than 200 countries. No other web hosting provider can claim to support such a varied network of people, much less put their name to half the global presence HostGator offers. All in all, the company’s track record alone is enough for us to hand over our digital keys. However, we know you might need a bit more convincing. With that in mind, below you’ll find a few of our choice reasons to sign with HostGator, though its hardly a comprehensive list: With HostGator, its hard to find an end to all the pros!

Varied Web Hosting Solutions

First and foremost, HostGator offers every kind of hosting imaginable and then some. Furthermore, if you’re a bit lost about which hosting variety is best for your needs, HostGator can help with that, too. For example, let’s say your business already has a shared hosting plan (that’s a plan in which you share a server with potentially thousands of other users) and needs a more stable environment. As such, HostGator offers, and will suggest, their dedicated hosting plan, which provides you with a fully managed server of your very own to place your website on. Though, if you require traditional shared hosting, HostGator is more than happy to provide this level of service as well. Likewise, should you need the localized control and stability of a virtual private server, which blocks your content off from outside abuse through operating system virtualization, HostGator is ready out-of-the-box to help. Not to mention the company’s extensive support for reseller hosting, which allows you to take a chunk of the HostGator network, and redistribute it for a profit to others.

Support When You Need It

HostGator also offers 24/7, round-the-clock technical support for any and all problems you may encounter. This support can not only be reached when you need, but also where you need it: With phone lines, chat rooms, and email inboxes open all day long, HostGator is sure to return any complaints with a speedy solution—every time!

Bookmark http://www.hostgator.com/contact.shtml just in case you ever need to contact HostGator.

One of the Best Shared Hosting Around

In terms of sheer quality and performance, no one out does HostGator’s shared hosting plans. To begin with, choosing to sign with HostGator will only cost you $3.71 a month with a new contract. That is a special offer for WebHostingGeeks.com visitors! And for that low price of less than four dollars a month, HostGator offers truly unlimited service from the ground up.

HostGator 25% OFF Coupon Code: “GEEKS“.

With unlimited disc space and unlimited bandwidth, you will never again have to worry about size or data transfer limitations. In fact, at the next price range—which begins at only $6.36 per mont—you can also enjoy unlimited domains, making shared hosting a definitive reality for your multi-domain business.

Lastly, HostGator’s shared hosting plan comes stock with a wealth of additional features including a 99.9% up-time guarantee, as well as a no contract 45-day money back guarantee. Add to this a world-class cPanel experience, a free website builder, and almost 5,000 free Website templates, and you’ve got one seriously incredible shared hosting plan on your hands.

Unbeatable Reseller Options

If you’re a new web hosting provider looking to take a superior chunk out of your peers, HostGator’s reselling options will give you an instant leg-up on the competition. The provider works hard to make your reselling experience an easy and efficient one, providing you with the tools you need to please clients and turn a profit. For starters, HostGator provides each and every one of its reseller accounts with fully functional client management and billing software. These tools are indispensable when it comes to managing your growing business, and make the difference in your livelihood as a reseller.

In addition, HostGator also offers a bevy of unlimited options, including unlimited domains, sub domains, email accounts, MySQL databases, cPanels, and FTP accounts. And with plans starting at only $19.96, becoming a reseller host has never been cheaper, as well as easier.

Visit HostGator.com for more information about their reseller hosting services.

Virtual Private Servers With a Punch

If you’re looking for a dedicated server experience without the budget bite of the real thing, there’s no better option than virtual private servers. And if you’re looking for a quality VPS host, there’s no name worthier than HostGator. The provider’s comprehensive VPS plans start at only $15.96 a month, earning you a wealth of additional features for far less the cost of a physical dedicated server.

As with its other hosting plans, HostGator offers a menagerie of unlimited options for its VPS costumers. These include unlimited domains, sub domains, email accounts, MySQL databases, and FTP accounts. HostGator’s VPS accounts are also fully managed with cPanel or Plesk, and support several different levels of experience, working to meet your  needs where they are.

Yes, the list continued and don’t turn that dial just yet! there is much to say about HostGator. Thus far we have not quite covered all of the critical elements, a fact that should come as no surprise, considering the mountain of features and feature sets that HostGator offers. With that in mind, let us continue to examine the host and offer you, the reader, a deeper look into the incredible services the company offers.

If you’re considering a quality VPS host, shared host, dedicated host, or even reseller host, HostGator is one of the best in the business, and we’re about to show you how! Starting with one of our favorite aspects about the provider, its incredible dedicated hosting potential.

Visit HostGator.com for more information about their VPS hosting solutions.

Linux Based Dedicated Hosting

Within the realm of dedicated server hosting, HostGator splits its services across two unique operating systems. The first of which is Linux. All HostGator dedicated servers in this category come stock with a free and secure, server edition of CentOS that’s guaranteed to manage your files easily and with the tightest possible safety. Best of all, those with the technical knowledge can benefit from HostGator’s full root access that’s allowed to the webmaster, as well as the available choice between either a 32-bit or 64-bit hosting experience. Even better, all HostGator dedicated servers with a Linux flavoring come loaded to the gills with the latest in web hosting software: This includes cPanel with WHM, Apache Web Server access, MySQL 5, PHP5, Perl support, Python ready hosting, Ruby on Rails, FFMpeg support, and even free WHMCS or WHM client management and billing software. All in all, signing with HostGator for your Linux-oriented dedicated server needs is a great way to get the most bang for your buck, right out of the box.

HostGator’s Linux dedicated server plans begin at only $139 a month, a rock-solid bargain for the business or personal user looking to form a dedicated presence on the Internet. For that money, users can enjoy a full Intel Xeon Quad Core processing experience, 2 GB DDR3 memory, a dual 250 GB hard drive, and 10 TB in bandwidth. At a lowly one-hundred and forty dollars a month, that much functionality is an incredible steal, regardless of the budget you’re operating on.

Visit HostGator.com for more information about their linux dedicated servers.

Windows Dedicated Servers

Like HostGator’s Linux dedicated server hosting, the Windows side of the company’s dedicated options sports an impressive array of features and hooks designed to obtain your business and trust. For example, all HostGator Windows servers come stock with Windows Server 2008 R2, complete with remote desktop and a 64-bit system on demand. Likewise, the latest in Parallels Plesk is offered here in conjunction with IIS Web Server, MSSSQL, MySQL, FTP Server, DNS Server, and even a SmarterMail Professional Mail Server. All of this functionality, of course, is kept under guard by a secure Firewall and IPsec Policy. And like HostGator’s Linux servers, all Windows dedicated offerings are fully managed, requiring no additional overhead for you or your board to worry about. All in all, HostGator is simply one of the best places to find secure, stable, and up-to-date Windows dedicated hosting.

Visit HostGator.com for more information about their windows dedicated servers.

HostGator Superior Control Panels

And it’s not just server excellence that HostGator is offering: The company is also responsible for some seriously killer control panels, too! With every Linux-based shared hosting account, users are given full, unrestricted access to the latest edition of the popular cPanel platform. This platform comes totally loaded with Website statistics thanks to such quality plug-ins as AWStats, Webalizer, Raw Log Manager, Referrer and Error Logs. There’s also support for popular services like Fantastico, password protected directories, and custom error pages for all of your sites. In addition, users who choose such an account can benefit from an easy-to-use and graphic file manager that makes moving and creating files a cinch.

If you recently purchased a new account with HostGator, you should type the following information into the address bar of your browser:

http://yoursitesIPaddress/cpanel (For example, type http://50.22.22.170/cpanel).

If your domain name is already pointing to HostGator, then you can use the domain name to log into cPanel. Here is an example:

http://www.yourdomainname.com/cpanel or http://cpanel.yourdomainname.com/

Try HostGator’s cPanel Demo.

HostGator Web Host Manager

For everyone else (Reseller accounts, VPS hosting, and Dedicated subscribers) the same cPanel quality can be obtained, even with many of the same features. This includes the latest WHM Control Panel with multi-language support, server status monitoring, package limiting, disc space distribution, and complete control over passwords, DNS accounts, tenant restrictions, and even branded materials like client panels. And, of course, the Windows side of this server coin comes loaded with the extremely popular Plesk control panel, offering all of the above features and more, including an application vault and redirected URLs.

There are a few ways to log into WHM. The best way depends on if your domain name has propagated yet.

If you recently purchased a new account with HostGator or have run out of bandwidth, you will type the following information into the address bar of your browser:

http://yourIPaddress/whm (For example, type http://50.22.22.170/whm).

If the domain name is already propagated, then you can use the domain name to log into WHM. Here is an example:

http://www.yourdomainname.com/whm or http://whm.yourdomainname.com/

Extensive Application Support

Lastly, we’re blown away by HostGator’s unprecedented support for popular dynamic web applications like WordPress, Joomla, Magento, Wiki Hosting, and phpBB Hosting. Specifically, they’re unprecedented appreciation for the power and potential of WordPress is to be applauded. The company makes it quick, easy, and affordable to create a WordPress-powered website in only minutes, even allowing users to port their old WordPress blog along, adding it to a dedicated space with no additional wrangling. The same applies to other content management systems like Joomla and Drupal, allowing the blossoming blogger to fully realize their potential with hardly a scratch on their budget.

HostGator Awards & Reviews

All in all, HostGator looks to be one of the largest, most trusted, and most feature rich hosts around. If you’re looking for quality shared, VPS, dedicated or reseller hosting, there’s (on paper) hardly a better choice. The plans are cheaper, the features unbeatable, and the customer support truly rock-solid. The performance itself also looks to be absolutely superb, when compared to other industry leaders. The company has won hundreds of awards over the years, including some of the most prestigious from WebHostingMagazine, FindMyHost, and WebHostDir.

However, our users here at Web Hosting Geeks have had some other things to add. If you’re looking for a quality web host, HostGator looks a fit to us, but before diving into the provider, be sure to check some of our quality, user written reviews at http://webhostinggeeks.com/user-reviews/hostgator/.

Feel free to inspect the provider yourself at HostGator.com. And, of course, their trained representatives are always standing by, at the ready to field your questions as they arise. In other words, don’t just take our word for it: Let HostGator dazzle you as it’s dazzled us.

If you decide to sign up with HostGator, don’t forget to use our 25% Off Coupon Code “GEEKS“.

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