From coast to coast, and all around the web hosting world. I can’t promise you you’ll be a millionaire if you listen to this week’s show. I can’t even make you better looking. What I can do for you is to make everything from server farms to domain name registrations make a little more sense and I can do so with what some may say is a funny accent.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 156!
Running Time: 18 minutes | File Size: 7.85 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode of the Web Hosting Show.

• ICANN Wants to Give You .Anything?
• Where to go to Get 30GB of Disk Space Free?
• Free Billing Software for Web Hosting Resellers?
• Best Tool to Update Your Blogs?

Podcast Exclusive - Part 4 of Our “How to Purchase a Web Hosting Business” Series with Web Strategist Errett Cord. Download the podcast to check it out!

I’m back again, and sad to say ICANN is still turning down my application to be the official spokesperson for the organization. Maybe it is because I have no boobs? If I did, I know at least I’d get work from Bob Parsons. Time to start answering some questions, and to make some sense out of all this web hosting lingo.

Not every web host out there has a multi-million dollar budget to spend on software, so I have come up with a few free alternatives for you to pass around your office next time your searching for the right tool for the job.

Foxit Reader (for PDF viewing) - Out of all the PDF reader programs out there, Foxit gets the job done and is not half as annoying as Adobe is.  If you want a PDF viewer that will not ask that you download updates for 20 other programs you do not have, Foxit is the best.

OpenOffice.org (for word processing, spreadsheets and more) - Microsoft Office is a program I have never really used.  Why?  I have always been a fan of the free alternative, OpenOffice.org.  This bundle of a word processor, spreadsheet, drawing and more might even be better than the expensive Microsoft bundle.

AutoHotkey (for helping with those quick responses) - In my bag of tricks, AutoHotkey is most likely to be the most used one of them all.  Thanks to a little simple script writing I can now type in a few characters instead of a two paragraphed e-mail each time I answer a customer’s question.

Thunderbird (for e-mail management) - I have tried a number of different e-mail clients and Mozilla’s Thunderbird wins out head over heels each and every time.  Manage multiple e-mail accounts and with the add-ons, you can build onto the functionality of the product.

Google Calendar (for dates and appointments) - Can’t tell you what I did for a calendar before Google’s came around because Google was the one who turned me onto using it.  Before Google Calendar I was stuck with ripped off sheets of paper with notes scribbled down.  After Google Calendar, I can quickly click a date, add a note and I’m done.

Now sure, those big web hosts might have the thousands of dollars to spend on programs but the budget web hosts out there have to count their pennies.  If you have any other suggestions feel free to leave a comment or drop me an e-mail.

To tell you the truth, there is not much difference (if any at all) between working for a web host and working for a fast food joint.  Sure, web hosting workers get paid a ‘bit more and don’t have to worry about hot meat grease running down their pants when cleaning the grill (true story).

As somebody who has worked for both I can say they are an awful lot alike.  Customer service is probably what comes to mind first.  You have to be quick and you have to do it with a smile.  Sure the guy who want his backup restore for the fourth time in an hour can’t see I am gritting my teeth, but you have to watch your tone as you work with the customer to solve the issue.  Your job is to make their day, and make it their way.

Another aspect of fast food and web hosting that go hand in hand would be the guy behind the counter you just made mad, and in return he hocks a loogie in your cheeseburger.  Web hosting customers - you have to keep in mind that you are looking for support from a person, and not a robot.  You treat the customer service representative with respect and they’ll be more than happy to help.  If you act like a spoiled brat that isn’t getting his or her own way and well, I won’t say they won’t help you but they sure won’t do it with a smile.

For once a term in web hosting that says what it means and means what it says.  Type-in traffic is when somebody types in a word or phrase and just adds .com (or some other domain name extension) to the end of it into the address bar instead of searching for it.

For example, if you were looking for web hosting you might try typing webhosting.com.  Who owns that?  It redirects to AT&T.  So anybody who takes this route would have an instant gateway into AT&T’s web hosting services.

These days when you type in a phrase into the address bar and hit the “enter” key you are taken to a web search.  Before 2002 though, most people were taken to that phrase with a browser placed “.com” at the end.  That is how this practice of Type-in traffic began.

If your looking to move into this marketing tactic yourself, you may want to keep a few things in mind:

• Stay away from copyrighted names. Trying to buy, for example “hewlettpackard.com” might get HP’s legal team after you for cybersquatting.
• Your wallet better be pretty fat. Getting a generic phrase top level domain name is not going to be cheap. Get ready to pay top dollar.

Type-in traffic, if you can get it going, can be a great way to get people to your domain with little to no work at all.

Free photo or image web hosts come a dime a dozen these days.  EchoPic.com is another provider that gives you another choice to your image sharing.

They provide image and photo sharing services that make life easy when you need to upload and share files on your web site, blog or social network profile.

You can either upload or enter the image URL and “grab it” to host on EchoPic’s services.  All in all EchoPic isn’t doing anything really different but they are providing a quality free image hosting solution and when it comes down to it - what more could you ask for from your free hosting solution?

You can only do so many silly intros to a podcast before you run out of idea.  Let me just say I got lots to talk about this week from domain marketing to somebody spitting in your web hosting fast food.  Confused?  Good I like to leave you wanting more and well, here it comes!

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 155!
Running Time: 14 minutes | File Size: 6.41 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode of the Web Hosting Show.

• Photo Sharing with EchoPic
• What is Type-in Traffic?
• Don’t Spit in the Hosting Cheeseburger
• Free Office Downloads for Budget Web Hosts

Podcast Exclusive - Part 3 of Our “How to Purchase a Web Hosting Business” Series with Web Strategist Errett Cord. Download the podcast to check it out!

Time to put on our party pants and do that web hosting dance we all do so well.  No matter if you move like you have two left feet or not, let me be your “getting down with your bad self” instructor though the wild and wacky world of web hosting.

From time to time it is handy to know what your IP address is.  Now it is no secret that there are a hundred and one different ways of getting this done.  From looking in your PC, to putting a widget on your desktop to even visiting a web site.

WhatsMyIP.us is the newest of those Online resources that will let you know what your IP address is.  The difference here is that they do so without any annoying interface or loopholes to jump through.  You just have your IP address there and you are done. If you’d like to share this functionality with others, it is easy to do with their embeddable JavaScript code.  Just copy and paste it to give your own visitors their IP address back at them.

Now back on the notion of why this is handy to have?  Well with some remote workers out there in the hosting arena, you may need to pass your IP address along to your boss to gain access to their technical support center.  For others, it might help you troubleshoot a home networking issue.  Your IP address is what could be likened to your “home address” on the Internet.

So add WhatsMyIP.us to your own hosting tools bookmark folder.  You might not need it today or tomorrow, but when you do need it you’ll be happy you saved it to the side.