Archive | May, 2007

Best Web Hosting Podcasts – Mitch’s Picks

May/28 in All Posts

Servers Love the Web Hosting Show!Well due to a busy weekend and a little less time on my hands, there will not be a show this week. Put your pitch forks and torches down for a second though – because I got something that is almost as good.

I figured since it is Memorial Day, this would be a good time for me to list some of my favorite episodes of the Web Hosting Show we’ve done in the past.

Become a Better Hosting Client – Podcast 85

Marketing Talk with Lunarpages – Episode 106

Two Year Podcast Anniversary – Episode 97

Ecommerce Web Hosting Guide – Episode 93

Web Hosting for Blogs – Podcast 70

Check ‘em out and download them again. If you missed them the first time around – this would be a good week to play catch up so you can see why I liked them so much.

Looking for a list of hosts sorted by user reviews and other factors that you get to pick? Try Web Hosting Unleashed’s Best Host Section or their search and compare tool.

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WordPress Themes and Plugin Help

May/26 in All Posts, Web Design, Web Hosting Tutorials

Now that we have gotten WordPress ready to go, you can now start working about plugins you need and themes you can use. One really nice resource for WordPress themes can be found at themes.wordpress.net. There are dozen there to choose from.

Just make sure if you do decide to use one of those, you pay attention to the author’s notes. Some require that you keep certain links on your Web page back to them – and others have “sponsor links”. I would suggest to stay away from the “sponsor links” ones because that is just a little slimy in my opinion.

Now for plugins – there are a lot of good ones for WordPress. A good resource for WordPress plugins would be wp-plugins.net. You can also find a good plugin directory on WordPress.org as well under /extend/plugins/.

Here are a few good plugins I use to get you started right:

Now for most themes and plugins getting them installed it a pretty easy process. You will need to startup your FTP client and get yourself into the “wp-content” folder. From there you will see a folder for themes and a folder for plugins.

The rest of this pretty much explains itself.

Put themes in the themes folder and plugins in the plugins folder.

Plugins are often just one .php file so getting them in there should not be a problem. When uploading a theme, make sure you grab the entire folder for the theme and upload it. Themes have multiple files inside them so if you don’t grab them all – often they won’t work. Each theme and plugin should have a “Read Me” file with it to give you more specific instructions if needed.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 108!

If you need hosting for your WordPress blog just try our WordPress Hosting Guide! Recommended hosts for WordPress and other great info!

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Configure Your Freshly Installed WordPress

May/25 in All Posts, Web Hosting Tutorials, Web Hosting Tutorials

Alright we got WordPress up and running but you are not ready to blog just yet. I have a few tips and tricks to hope you get the most out of your WordPress experience. Here are some of the first things that I do after installing WordPress for the very first time.

Edit the Default User – Login to WordPress and then click on the “User” Tab. After that you should be brought to a page that has the default “Admin” user. You need to go into here and customize it for you. Set your own password, your name, your link, your nickname and more. This way when you post something it won’t show up as “admin” it will show up with your own name.

Make SEO Friendly URLs – From inside of WordPress click on “Options” and then “Permalinks”. By default WordPress has a pretty crappy way of setting up your links. You want to use something that is a little more search engine friendly. Click on the radio box for “Date and name based” and then hit the “Update Permalink Structure” button. You might have to set your .htacess inside of your WordPress install. You must chmod the .htaccess file to 666 to allow WordPress to write its rules to it automatically. If not, then you can download or create the .htaccess file by hand and do it yourself.

Check the Other Options – After getting into the “Options” tab inside of WordPress you might check each tab under that section to make sure things are configured the way you want them to be. You might have to use WordPress for a while before you start noticing little things you’d like to change here or there. Click each sub-tab under your options to get familiar with where to find what also. This way you won’t be left hunting for a half hour to figure out how to change one little configuration.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 108!

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How to Get WordPress Installed Right (Video Tutorial!)

May/24 in All Posts, Web Hosting Tutorials, Web Hosting Tutorials

How do you install WordPress? We are getting to the meat and potatoes of all of this. Now that you have WordPress downloaded to your desktop and a Web host ready to host it on we can start worrying about how we are going to get it installed on to the server. Before we get started make sure you can or have these ready:

  • You Have Access to MySQL via Your Control Panel
  • You Have a FTP Client Handy for the Uploading and Downloading
  • You Have a Paper and Pen Ready to Write Down Your MySQL Database and User Information (and password!)

Now sit back and learn with this very informative video tutorial:

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 108!

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Pick a Publishing Engine for Your Blog

May/23 in All Posts, Web Hosting Tutorials, Web Hosting Tutorials

Now this is where the real fun starts to happen. There are a million and one different content management systems or CMS scripts you can pick from. If you need a good resource on where to find the one that will work best for you I would highly suggest checking out OpenSourceCMS.com.

Here are some other good content management system resources to check out:

Now for the sake of keeping things simple – for today’s show we are going to go with my favorite WordPress. Now should you download WordPress from its Web site and install or install via your control panel’s easy “one-click” install? I would say do it the hard way. Navigate your favorite browser towards WordPress.org, hit the download link and pick up the .zip download file.

Here are a few other suggestions for blogging scripts you could use:

You want a blogging script that will be easy enough for you to manage and that has plenty of other users. The reason you want to use one of the more popular choices out there is because when you run into trouble, figuring out a problem is often easier to do in a group. There are a lot of WordPress resources out there so that would be why it would be my suggestion for the best script you could use.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 108!

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Find a Blog Friendly Web Host

May/22 in All Posts, Beginner Help, Web Hosting Tutorials

When it comes to picking a good Web host for setting up a blog, there are a few things you must keep in mind.

You want to first make sure that they are going to deliver you enough disk space and bandwidth to keep your head above water for a while. If you expect to write five or more posts a day – you could fill up that space pretty quick. Also make sure that you have an upgrade you can make when you need it.

It might be to the next largest plan – or it might be to a VPS or dedicated account. If you are a nobody just starting your first blog, you could probably just go with the least expensive plan and move on from there. Find some of blogs out there and see who they use for hosting.

Uptime is always important too – because you never want your readers to be left looking at a “this site is not available right now” message too long.

Even though we haven’t picked our blogging engine yet – you must keep in mind you need a Web host that will support the features you need. So you might pick a few good candidates first, and then go on to finding the content management system you need.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 108!

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Setup a Blog (with WordPress) Guide – Episode 108

May/21 in All Posts, Specials, Web Hosting Podcasts

When it comes to setting up a blog or any other content management system some people find themselves a little lost.

From CHMODing the right files to uploading things to the right spot, it can be a headache in the making. Well on this special edition of the Web Hosting Show I’ve decided to step you through the process of getting a blog setup on your own hosting space using WordPress.

The Web Hosting Show is now on the air.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 108!
Running Time: 17 minutes | File Size: 7.75 MB

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Here are just a few topics that we discussed on this week’s episode of the Web Hosting Show.

  • How to Find the Right Web Host for Blogging
  • Tips on How to Pick the Right CMS for You
  • The Fun of Installing WordPress by Hand
  • A Few Post Installation WordPress Configurations
  • WordPress Themes and Plugins – Get Them Going

Blog hosting is a big part of what made the Web hosting industry grow by leaps and bounds in the past ten years or so. Everybody and their grandmother wanted a place to tell their stories, post their options and share their thoughts. Now just about everybody has one.

The only problem is that some of the best tools out there are intimidating. I’m here to hopefully take some of the intimidation away and get you started with your own blog about whatever your passion is.

Link of the Week: Customizing and Using WordPress 101

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7 Ad Design Tips and Tricks

May/17 in All Posts, Commentary, Web Hosting Tutorials

Running a successful ad campaign isn’t an easy thing to do. You have to do a lot of experimenting and a lot of trial and error before you find something that works best for you. Both Web hosts and any other person on the Web today can run an advertisement so here are my top 7 ad design tips and tricks.

Seven Ad Design Tips to Learn From and Try Out

1. Decide if you want to keep it serious or make it a little zany. Serious ads hold a lot of respect, but funny or creative ads might lead to more clicks.

2. If your not a well known name inside of the business that you are advertising to, include your domain name on your ad somewhere so at least if the people don’t click on your ad they now have that domain in the back of their head.

3. Try something different. Most Web hosting ads have a picture with a server on it and the world “unlimited” plastered all over it. You could go down that route, but try something new as well.

4. Experiment with four or five different ads and see how they do. You might even want to try more than that if you have the cash to do so. This way you can see which one works best.

5. Talk to and target your audience. If you are running and ad on a Web development forum for a Web hosting company, you could focus the user on the fact that after they learn the basics, they can come to you for the hosting. Now the only hard part is to figure out a way to put that into a 160 x 600 ad space.

6. Put up some text link ads as well and try them out. Graphical ads are highly ignored these days because people are used to them and tune them out on Web pages. Text link ads give you yet another alternative and space to try to capture somebody’s attention.

7. Don’t ask me to punch a monkey, midget, baby, Paris Hilton or George Bush.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 107!

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What Do You Need, Customer Service?

May/16 in All Posts, Beginner Help, Web Hosting Tutorials

Web hosting, along with many other companies out there today is largely based around the relationship of a business with its customers. Without one, you can not have the other. Just think of it as the yin and yang of how our economy works.

Douglas is one of the customer service experts or gurus out there that does his best job to improve that relationship between a company and its clients. Think of him as a therapist for customer relations. I just recently started reading through his Service Untitled blog on the subject and honestly I can not stop reading it.

Here are some of his most recent posts that I found interesting.

From Web hosts to Web hosting clients – I promise everybody will walk away from listening to this Monday’s interview with him with a ‘bit of knowledge you didn’t know ahead of time.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 107!

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Web’s Worst Hosting Companies?

May/15 in All Posts, Commentary, Web Hosting Tutorials

Well, who are the worst Web hosts in the world?

That is a pretty strong claim to make against any company, but if you have the information and proof to back it up, well that is a different story all together. Ben over at Web Hosting Unleashed sent me an E-mail a little earlier this week wanting me to check this list he put together out.

While it isn’t shocking for me – if you are a customer of any of these hosting companies it might be shocking for you. Ben is a brave man to put this list together – and I have to say I trust it as much as I trust his top Web hosts list as well. Here you have the top five worst hosting companies, by the reviews given on WebHostingUnleashed.com.

Top 5 Worst Web Hosts

1. RegisterFly – 4% Recommend – 107 Negative Reviews – 5 Positive Reviews
2. 1T3 Online – 9% Recommend – 50 Negative Reviews – 5 Positive Reviews
3. Globat – 6% Recommend – 46 Negative Reviews – 3 Positive Reviews
4. DataPacket – 9% Recommend – 41 Negative Reviews – 4 Positive Reviews
5. Dot5 – 6% Recommend – 31 Negative Reviews – 2 Positive Reviews

You can check out the full list of thirteen worst Web hosting companies on Web Hosting Unleashed. If you are one of the 13 on the list and you want to say something in defense of yourself or to point out something good – I will given you an open mic and open invitation to come on the Web Hosting Show podcast and give us your thoughts.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 107!

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