This week we are doing things a little different. Since I am going to take next week off from writing and doing this show, I figured it was about time we rolled out what I would like to call The Web Hosting Show, Unplugged. Hope you enjoy!

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I will still be checking my E-mail during my break from blogging, so be sure to keep sending me segment ideas, interview requests and anything else you might have on your mind.

Hello and welcome to the Web Hosting Show, the voice of the Web hosting world. This show is sponsored by Web Hosting Chat, your number one place for Web hosting discussions. Check them out at www.webhostingchat.com. Who am I? I am the man behind the voice of the Web hosting world, Mitch Keeler.

Last week I received my first issue of The Web Host Industry Review magazine. I haven’t gotten to read the whole thing from front to back, but what I have read so far has been really great. As far as a comparison between The Web Host Industry Review magazine and Ping! Zine, I don’t think I can make one. Both are very good magazines, and I belive both offer their content in their own way. Neither is an exact copy of the other and that my friends is a very good thing. Both have their own personalities, and so I can see myself enjoying both of them for a very long time indeed.

There will be no Web hosting show next week, because I am taking a ‘bit of a vacation. Doing seven of these shows so far has taken more out of me than I thought it would in the first place. Lets just say I need a little break time. Don’t worry though, The Web Hosting Show isn’t going anywhere. If you are really hard up for something to listen to, you could always go back and listen to this show next week or any of the previous show I have done so far. I had thought about doing a “Best of” episode, but heck you could always just go back and relisten to what I already have. Maybe there will be a little more of a demand for a “Best of” once we start hitting show 50 or 60.

Since I am going on a vacation, I guess you could say, I wanted to do something a little different for this week’s episode. We are going to move away from the format a little and I’m just going to talk with you, one on one about a few Web hosting topics. Just think of this as The Web Hosting Show, Unplugged. So sit back, grab a loved one and listen as I give you some of my thoughts about the Web hosting world.

There are a lot of Web hosting businesses out there and a lot of them look the same. Most of them have the same layout with just a few names and graphics changed to protect the innocent. It has been a long time since I’ve seen a Web host come around with a really different and new way of looking at your basic Web host Web site.

I don’t exactly know what you could do differently. Maybe try not doing your standard long table of features and prices? Maybe adding an RSS feed or two to update on new server situations or company news? The Web hosting world is behind everyone else when it comes to public relations. We like to stay with what works.

Just look at the most popular ways of searching for Web hosting out there. You have portal type pages like Browse Hosts that list Web hosts. You have places like Find My Hosting that allow you to type in a few features you want and hunt down a Web host from there. Then you have hundreds of other Web sites that copy those two methods. I want to see something new, something different, something innovative come out.

I’m a big fan of the Web site digg.com. The reason I like it is it lets folks submit their own interesting news, and if other people find it interesting, it moves up the list. In effect the ones on top are the “most interesting”. At least that is how it is suppose to work in theory. Why can’t somebody put together a Web site that does that with Web hosting? Let Web hosts submit themselves to a Web site, then the more folks who also submit or vote for them, the higher that Web host is raised. No long lists of features, no sales jargon. Just give me a name, a short description and a link to vote them up higher in the rankings. You could even have another link to vote them lower as well. That would give the folks who want to rant and rave something click when their Web hosts does them wrong.

Now you would need some type of checks and balances in there as well, like limiting a person to being able to vote only one time per Web host, or something to that effect. Overall though I think that would be a really neat idea. So if there are any Web hosting firms out there who’d like to give it a shot, make sure you let me know about it.

Going back to Web hosting and RSS, I belive that is another innovation that just hasn’t caught on among folks in the Web hosting world. I am spoiled to checking FeedDemon, my feed reader of choice, several times a day. Yet, there are few “web hosting” based Web sites out there that provide RSS feeds to syndicate their content. Why? I’m not sure, right now I’ll just have to go with ignorance of how much RSS can increase your readership.

I don’t care who you talk with, but RSS is on the rise. Even places like CNN and The New York Times are getting into it these days, why is the Web hosting community still in the dark? Well, there are a few Web hosting news and commentary Web sites that “get it” out there, but not many. The same goes for Web hosting forums too. It is easy to add an RSS feed for each one of your forums. This way somebody with an feed reader can subscribe tot the link and now know when the forum they like has a new post and if they want to check it out or not.

There are a lot of folks now that spend more time in their feed readers than their Web browsers. Why shouldn’t the Web hosting industry try to market to those folks as well? Hopefully even more Web hosting sites and Web hosting forums will catch up with the trends soon.

In the recent edition of The Web Host Industry Review magazine they talk about Texas being pretty much the place to be if you want to be involved in the Web hosting world. Since there are so many data centers and hubs down here, it makes it the perfect place for a Web hosting professional to live. I couldn’t agree more. For those of you who haven’t figured it out by my accent, this show is coming to you from the lone star state itself! Yes, I am proud to say that I am a Texan. I also agree that with places like Rackspace, The Planet, CI Host and EV1 Servers down here it is a very smart place to live if you want to be apart of the Web hosting world.

Another article that got my attention in this edition of The Web Host Industry Review magazine is the one that covers what you should do in the case of your death and how it might effect your business. I wonder how many Web hosts out there have a backup plan in place and what they would do just in case of an emergency like this? Would the comparison go to your wife or husband? Could you be liable if a server went down and you were too dead to do anything about it? It is a pretty interesting topic. You really should have some sort of backup plan for any Web comparison, heck any comparison just in case you reach your final due date. So if you haven’t, now might be the perfect time to call up your lawyer and get something on paper about it.

I got asked something last week through the ol’ E-mail format, and I thought I would discuss it on today’s show. What do I think about free Web hosting as far as it being a profitable comparison? I know what you are thinking, “Free Web hosting by definition isn’t profitable, is it?”. Well, there are ways at making money with it. In a whole though, I would say you’d have to have a lot of free hosting accounts and a lot of traffic going through before it becomes really profitable.

There are two ways of doing things. You can either place ads on a person’s Web site or use your own error Web pages with ads on them. Either way isn’t going to be profitable if you have 5 or 10 free hosting accounts set up. The numbers just aren’t there. Now if you had 1,000 to 10,000 or so then it might swing back around to your favor.

What is the cost though for keeping those free Web hosting accounts up and running though? See, that is where they get you. They’ll either have to cut down on the reliability of these free hosting accounts or they will have to raise their own costs. There goes the profits, back out the window again. Wave “Bye-bye” at them, because you’re not likely to see them again.

So is it profitable? I would say only if you have a way of signing up thousands of accounts and cut down on the support and reliability for each account. Personally, I’d say don’t bother. These days if you are offering something good, most people are willing to pay for it. For the rest of the folks out there, there is always an Angelfire or a Geocities to keep them happy.

Well that is it for The Web Hosting Show – Unplugged. Let me know what you think of this episode or any of the past six I have done so far by sending me an E-mail at mitch@mitchkeeler.com. Remember to mark your calendars because The Web Hosting Show will be back on the air on April 11. Next week will be a little vacation time for the one and only voice of the Web hosting world.

If you have any segment ideas or want to get on the show yourself, now would be a great time to drop me that E-mail and let me know what is on your mind. Also, don’t forget to keep an eye on The Web Hosting Show’s Web site as you never know what I might add onto there next. Check out the official forums for The Web Hosting Show as well.

I’m Mitch Keeler and this has been The Web Hosting Show, the voice of the Web hosting world.