Archive | April, 2009

First Virtual Web Hosting Conference

Apr/23 in All Posts, Hosting News, Web Hosting Tutorials

logo Are you going to be a part of the Web Host Boot Camp?  This conference for those people out there interested in or apart of the web hosting industry looks to be a lot of fun, and very informative.  Where’s the twist?  No conference hall or long trip will be needed.  The boot camp will be all virtual.

Now how is this going to work?  From their press release:

Attendees will have access to vendors, sponsors, exhibit booths, and other web hosting enthusiasts through live chat.  There is no software to install.  Attendees log in from their computer and listen to the sessions directly, pick-up a chat, read about exhibitor’s product and services information and network – all through the live chat.  Representatives will be available via live chat to answer questions and provide further information.

If you are interested in reserving your spot, you can do so free here.  Now I haven’t been contacted by anybody involved yet, so that is pretty much all the details I know, however I do have to say it is nice to see people trying to something new out there, and the more we can all share and learn from each other the better the web hosting industry will be.

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Best Way to Find Web Hosting Coupons

Apr/21 in All Posts, Beginner Help, Web Hosting Tutorials

Making MoneyHave you found the web hosting company you are interested in, however haven’t yet sealed the deal, because the price is still not within your budget?  I have a quick and easy tip for you that will get you the price you want.  All you have to do is know how and where to find the web hosting coupons.

Web Hosting + Coupon = Win for Everybody!

This is a secret I have been sharing for a number of years, and now I want to let you know.  Search for them.  That’s right, any web host worth his disk space will have coupons and rebates out there on the Web.  All you have to do is search for the web hosting in question, plus the word “coupon” or “rebate”.

For example, let say I search for Random Fake Web Hosting Company #5 and coupon.  Via Google, I find a page that says I can get $50 off if I sign up with the coupon code “50OFF”.  Now, all I need to do is go to Random Fake Web Hosting Company #5’s web site and try the coupon out.  If it works, I just saved $50, if not – then I’ll go back out to the search results to find the next best deal.

Ok, so I am sure some of you might be a little disappointed with this tip, however you would be amazed by how overlooked it really is.

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Compare Linux Dedicated Servers and Deals

Apr/19 in All Posts, Online Tools, Web Hosting Tutorials

Looking for an easy way to compare Linux-based dedicated servers and deals?  Look no further than your friendly HostMonk.  This relatively new service gives you a number of different options to search from to find the perfect dedicated hosting environment for your needs.

You can sort the dedicated hosting offers by:

  • Dedicated Hosting Comparisons by HostMonkManagement
  • CPU Type
  • Bandwidth
  • Memory
  • Disk Space
  • Platform
  • Price

The HostMonk web site was founded by a group of IT professionals who found themselves spending way too much time sifting through hosting plans to find the best deal.  So what did they do, they built a tool that helps you sort dedicated web hosts more easily.

Here is more on why and how they think they are different in comparison with other web host ranking tools:

Choosing a hosting service is a decision that will affect the way you work and impact your customers’ experience. The choice should not be made on the basis of which provider buys the largest banners or spends more money getting your attention. The choice should be made according to the facts.

HostMonk is committed to bringing you a thorough index of the world of hosting services. We present the facts for you to make your decision. What you see is impartial, based on the cold hard facts with nothing added or removed.

The beta web hosting tool currently compares 2,901 different dedicated hosting plans.  Go check it out at HostMonk.com.

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Find Out Who is Copying Your Content

Apr/17 in All Posts, Online Tools, Web Hosting Tutorials

logo Do you know who CopyGator is?  He’s catching duplicate content and plagiarism in and around the blogosphere.  Always keeping an eye on your content, the CopyGator service is an interesting one to use if you feel like others are stealing your works.

How Does CopyGator Work?

The service aggregates data from other two million blog feeds, and parses over a half million blog posts in a day.  The servers then crunch the data and are able to evaluate if one post resembles another post just a little too much.  Once you sign up, you can get notices by RSS feed, or e-mail when somebody is using your content without your permission.  The service is simply fast, simple and pretty darn accurate, to boot.

You can see an example report I got for webhostingshow.com here:

When you compare the blog posts from within CopyGator, you get a percentage score on how likely it is they copied you.  For anybody who wants to protect their content online, CopyGator is a web site you just have to save to your bookmarks.  For another alternative to web site plagiarism searching, also be sure to check out Copyscape.com. It also does a good job at catching online content thieves.

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What is the nofollow Link About?

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

You may have seen some links out there on the Web that have an attribute value that is “nofollow”.  What does this mean?  Well, this is a way a web sit can instruct some search engines that the link should not influence the target site’s rankings.

For example, lets say I wanted to link to webhostingtalk.com, but I didn’t want them to gain any SEO rankings for me linking to them (or have any of my own SEO rankings taken away).  So, I write the link out like this:

<a href="http://www.webhostingtalk.com" rel="nofollow">Web Hosting Talk</a>

Now how this attribute is being interpreted differs between the various search engines out there. Here is a ‘bit of interesting information from Wikipedia on how the biggest search engines handle the information:

  • Google states that their engine takes “nofollow” literally and does not “follow” the link at all. However, experiments conducted by SEOs show conflicting results. These studies reveal that Google does follow the link, but does not index the linked-to page, unless it was in Google’s index already for other reasons (such as other, non-nofollow links that point to the page).
  • Yahoo! “follows it”, but excludes it from their ranking calculation.
  • MSN Search respects “nofollow” as regards not counting the link in their ranking, but it is not proven whether or not MSN follows the link.
  • Ask.com ignores the attribute altogether.

Now, where and why this got so much attention was when it comes to paid advertising links.  Some search engines have kind of re-purposed the nofollow attribute for disclosure of paid links.  They want you, as the webmaster, to use the rel=”nofollow” code when you sell a link, so that the link in question does not get any search engine optimization benefit.

Since it was announced in early 2005, the attribute has been surrounded in debate and controversy.  Should you use it or should you not?  I’ll let that be your judgment call to make.  At least now, you know what all the fuss is about.

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Blazing Web Hosts – Episode 185

Apr/13 in All Posts, Web Hosting Podcasts

whs185 Time to hop back in the saddle and find out what is going on across this great web hosting land of ours.  From the Web Hosting Talk hack aftermath to the first all virtual hosting conference and everything in between we have a podcast here you should all get a kick out of.  So get listening, and join in on the fun!

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 185!
Running Time: 13 minutes | File Size: 5.94 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 from this week’s episode:

  • What is the nofollow Link All About?
  • Find Out Who is Copying Your Content
  • Compare Linux Dedicated Servers and Deals
  • Best Way to Find Web Hosting Coupons
  • First All Virtual Web Hosting Conference is Coming

Here are this week’s web hosting news headlines:

  • Credit Cards Compromised in WHT Hack – Dedicating this week’s news segment to more coverage on the webhostingtalk.com hack, the recent announcement that credit cards were compromised and what you need to do to protect yourself.

Trivia Question – The first version of the Apache web server was created by whom? (to find out the answer, be sure to download and listen to this week’s podcast!)

Hope you enjoy this week’s broadcast.  Thank you all for tuning in!

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Google Offers Services to Hosting Clients

Apr/07 in All Posts, Online Tools, Web Hosting Tutorials

google_sm Google is working with hosting companies to offer quicker and easier access to their special tools and more via the Google Services for Web Sites service.  This is great news for any web host looking to provide a little ‘bit more to their hosting customers. This is a win-win for everybody.

This is a great ‘bit of new for hosting customers who can have an easier one stop shop where they can get all their web site and web hosting tools.  It also offers a perk to web hosting companies, cause they can draw people in by offering these services. Google is offering web hosts the ability to have quick and easy access to Google Webmaster Tools, Google custom and site search, and Google AdSense.

  • Google Webmaster Tools – helps customers understand site traffic and diagnoses potential problems by giving the user information on how Google crawls their web sites.
  • Google Site and Custom Search – helps customers improve user retention and conversions by customizing the search experience on their sites.
  • Google AdSense – allows customers to provide relevant ads with search results and contextual ads to match their content.

The perks for the web hosts are the ability to integrate these Google tools into their control panel, and display a Google badge to generate referral fees.  To find a list of web hosts providing the service, check out their partner success stories. Some of the web hosts included are Dot5Hosting, eHost, FatCow, PowWeb, DomainHost and more.

I would highly suggest any web host interested, go check out the Google Services for Web Sites page and sign up to give your customers an easy, one-stop access to Google’s services for web sites.

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Become a Better Web Hosting Client

Apr/05 in All Posts, Beginner Help, Web Hosting Tutorials

Did you know that you can become a better web hosting client?  No wait, isn’t the web host suppose to be bending over backwards to suit your needs?  Well, yes – however a good customer service relationship works both ways.  Make sure you don’t fall under one of these types of hosting customer stereotypes.

Bad Hosting Customer Stereotypes

The Baby – This is the customer that cries or throws a fit when he doesn’t get things his way.  Making the proverbial checks his rear end can’t cash and saying things, such as, “If you don’t fix this, I am going to the police to report you!”.

The Negotiator – This type of hosting customer thinks he can wheel and deal his way into or out of any situation.  Now while making some negotiations and compromises is a good thing, The Negotiator takes it a step too far.  Watch out for his stereotypical, “Well, I can upgrade but if I do I want you to cut the VPS price in half and give me a pony”.

The Know it All – Be very careful when it comes to arguing how to fix a problem when you come to support to fix your problem.  The Know it All thinks he knows more than the web host and likes to point it out in every occasion he can.

Be a Better Hosting Customer

Now with that said, I don’t want to color all hosting customers with the same broad brush.  There are many out there that are perfectly fine.  However, just keep these tips in mind next time you contact your hosting support team.

  • Be Nice and Courteous – you’ll catch more flies with honey, than you will with vinegar.
  • Show You Are Willing to Work – sometimes, a problem will be solved faster if you work with and not against support to get it fixed.

The customer is always right? Yes, but sometimes the customer can be more unwelcomed than a midget working in the men’s big & tall section of your local mall.  If you work as a team with your hosting support, and try to relate with them, and then do the whole “give and take” dance you will have a higher success rate when it comes to getting quality hosting support.

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Make Your Hosting Support Better

Apr/03 in All Posts, Commentary, Web Hosting Tutorials

ghandi = great support The core foundation of any web host is a great support team.  With that, almost anything else can be overlooked.  What is the reason for that?  Well, good support is hard to find these days.  So if you are a web host or a worker in the industry, I am going to give you some advice that will make sure you provide that support, in a way that the customers will enjoy.

Getting Ahead of the Web Hosting Support Curve

The first bit of advice I have for you is to provide the support, before it is even asked for.  This preemptive strike will cut down on your quantity of customers coming and looking for a answer.  Providing proactive support can be achieved a number of different ways.  Two of the ways I like the most are posting tutorials and articles explaining how to tackle anything you might need when it comes to your web hosting business and the second would be to send out announcements and updates when big changes come.

Provide Tutorials and FAQs – Many web hosts have a help site or tutorial database where they can cover some of the most frequently asked questions.  This will cut down on your ticket time, because the answer is already out there.

Get Ahead of Big Changes with Announcements and Updates – Now, with getting ahead of the curve with big changes, like a server going down or something else to that effect, make sure you announce as much information as you can about the problem, and be there with your customer to give updates.  No matter how small they are, you customers will appreciate it.  Things you should be telling your customer include ongoing maintenance, advance notice of maintenance,  or new features.

Get to the Point, but Give All the Details

No matter if you are answering a ticket desk or working the phone system, you have to realize people (for the most part) don’t want to talk to you.  It is nothing against you personally, people (in general) already feel like they are wasting time when they reach the point of reaching out to a support team for help.  So remember to get to the point, but give all the details you can.

Don’t waste time, if you don’t need a ‘bit of information, don’t ask for it.  Try your best to troubleshoot the issue, find out all the information you need to gather to get the issue fixed or to find out more, and then get that response sent out.  Also, do your best to stay kind, no matter how big of a jerk the customer is.  You should consider yourself the web hosting world’s version of Ghandi or Mother Teresa at all times.

Keep those response times as low as possible, so you can keep your work load light, and spend more time with the customers who need your attention.

I have really just scratched the surface, but hopefully this will help to inspire somebody to give a little more when it comes to web hosting support.  Now this one is aimed all of of those out there who give the support, not the ones that receive it.  However, when push comes to shove I think we all are responsible for supporting our projects, businesses or jobs so hopefully the lessons learned here will be something everyone can be educated from.

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Find Special WordPress Tags Faster

Apr/01 in Online Tools, Web Hosting Tutorials

Fast WordPress Tag Lookups

If you have spent any time working with WordPress, and trying to customize it to make it your own, you know that finding the right tag for the right job is a pain at times.  WPLookup.com allows you to quickly find WordPress Codex documentation for a function or template tag.

Once you search there, the web site will take your query and send you to the corresponding codex documentation page on the topic you searched for.

You can also add the search to your browser:

I am looking forward to seeing what this tool will bring to the WordPress development world in the future.  If you need a way to find functions and template tags fast in WordPress, WPLookup is the place to start searching.

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