Since I now have 200 podcasts under my belt, and with a new year coming up quick, I thought now would be the perfect time to introduce to you my new project.  I want to help you with marketing.

Mitch Does Marketing!

Now, I will not create a new podcast or a blog.  Instead I am going back to my roots, and diving back into producing another book – shades of the long forgotten Lockergnome’s Guide to Web Hosting, which was the inspiration for this podcast four years ago.

So what can you expect? I’m not really sure just yet, other than I am looking to offer to the public at large tutorials, tips and advice on how to market your web site or online business, with as little cost to you as possible.  Think of it as a good ol’ southern boy’s guide to marketing.

As soon as I have more information on the project, I’ll be sure to share it with you here.  I hope it is as successful as my other projects are, and that most of all, you will get plenty of use out of it.

Like This Article? Listen to it and more like it on podcast #200 of the Web Hosting Show!

Yes, it is really that simple!  Here is what I want you to do right now.

1. Visit the new “Submit a Question” page
2. Give me your name (first name is fine), web site address (if you have one), and question about web hosting, marketing, search engine optimization or anything else web site related
3. Hit the “Submit” button

That is it.  Simple right?  Oh, it gets even better!

Once you have done so, I will get your question, mention you on a future Web Hosting Show podcast, and answer the question along with giving you a plug for your web site on the web hosting industry’s number one web hosting podcast.  How can you beat a deal like that?

With podcasts #199 and #200 coming up pretty quickly (both will be delivered this month!) I hope to be able to answer a lot of questions, and help you get your web site “out there” by mentioning it on the show, and linking to it off the site here. Web hosts, web hosting clients or people who don’t even have a web site are welcome.  This new feature to show is something I want to open up to everybody out there.

Help me help you, and get your questions of any shape, size of form submitted today!

Instead of doing a weekly show, like we have now for the past four years, the main podcast will change to a production time of ever other week.  So this will roughly average two shows per month, instead of four.

Now why make the change?  The first and most important reason is so that I can be sure I am giving myself enough time to get a quality show together.  Slapping things together last minute, and trying to hurry up and get it done is no fun.  The idea is by giving myself a two week window of production, instead of just one, I can spread out the workload on myself a little more.

Who knows, this might even launch or inspire some more unique content between the podcast episodes.  I am always open to suggestions!

This site and podcast is very much still a fun side project for me.  The only money I make off of it, is when you click the ads on the web site.  Of course, four years ago I was unemployed and only had two web sites to work on.  These days I am all over place with projects, work, and more.

So if things change a little in the weeks to come, don’t be scared – it is just an evolutionary track to make sure that even after four years we can keep this podcast and web site an entertaining and informative web site for everyone (web hosts and webmasters alike) to enjoy.

Mitchelaneous

This is my blog filled with geek candy.  More personal and of the wall in nature, this is my personal spot to rant and rave about any miscellaneous thing that might cross my mind.  From web development help to custom desktop icons – I am sure there is something for everybody to enjoy here.

My Favorite Mitchelaneous Posts of the Year:

• 10 Tools to Turn Firefox into WordPress’s Little Helper
• Open Google Notebook in Firefox’s Sidebar
• 37 WordPress Free Theme Databases and Blogs
• Free Mega Man 9 Desktop Icons
• 10 Best Paint.Net Tutorials (and 10 More Paint.Net Tutorials)

You can subscribe to Mitchelaneous.com for free by plugging it’s RSS feed into your favorite news reader of choice.  Here are a few subscription buttons to help you in that process:

Firefox Facts

Firefox Facts is my daily blog about all things relating to Firefox.  It started out as an e-book project, but has expanded by leaps and bounds since then.  Find reviews for useful extensions, great looking Firefox themes and a whole lot more.  I even toss in an occasional roundup of the best tools for this, that and the other.  If you use Firefox, you need to subscribe.

My Favorite Firefox Facts Posts of the Year:

• Darkest Popular Themes for Firefox 3 (also have the lightest)
• Freshest Top 10 YouTube Greasemonkey Scripts
• Change the Default Search in Firefox
• 25 Tweaks for Your Firefox Statusbar (also 25 more tweaks too)
• Give Firefox 3 Firefox 2’s Address Bar

You can subscribe to FirefoxFacts.com for free by plugging the RSS feed into your favorite news reader of choice.  Here are a few subscription buttons to help you in that process:

Thank you all for listening to the Web Hosting Show this year, and I hope this holiday gift of amazing posts from around my little network of web site will at least give you something to do while you are in between football games or wanting some along time after all the in-laws have gone back home.

Added a new “Extras” page – Wanting to check out some of the special projects, deals and tools we have brought to you since the beginning of the Web Hosting Show?  This is your new one stop shop to pick them all up for free.

Fixed “Add This” Buttons – The sharing buttons you see on the bottom of each post here on WebHostingShow.com have been updated to give you a menu choice when you hover over it, and also will open up in a new pop-up window once clicked.

Added Contact Form – Want to get in touch with me?  I have added a contact form (powered by Google Docs) back to the contact page so that you can do just that, very quickly.  So if you have a suggestion, offer, question or request – use it and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

New Feature – Hosting Directory – Are you one of the elite web hosting businesses to make it onto the new Web Hosting Show hosting directory?  Check the list out for yourself to see if you made the cut!

Have any other updates or features you’d like to see?

Any and all feedback is appreciated and you know I am all about making you all happy so if there is something you like, hate or would love to hear about let me know.  Take the Web Hosting Show Podcast Survey!

If you have ever wanted to share your opinion to me about what I do this would be the time to do it.  Also happy post 4th of July to all of you and thanks in advance!

See what happens when you make fun of The Planet explosion?

Alright, I know this probably is not the good news you were looking forward to starting your Monday with, believe me – it wasn’t in my plans either.  Due to the Thursday night storms we had here in my area I had been knocked offline.  Just got power restored late yesterday afternoon.

The good news is all is fine here, just a few broken tree limbs and a big mess to clean up.  Bad news is that a new episode of the Web Hosting Show podcast may be delayed another week.  Last week the PC was being repaired, this week the power was out.  Now next week, even if there is an earthquake, flood or some other natural disaster I promise I’ll et something recorded for you all.

Thanks for your understanding, it is greatly appreciated!

I apologize to anybody looking forward to downloading the next edition, but I can promise you that after I get my PC back from getting the power supply replaced we will be back up and running again.  While we are in this unexpected hiatus – would be a great time to go browse through the archives.

Also would like to open this post’s comments up to feedback about any and all aspects of the podcast to get some of your feedback. What you you like, what do you hate, what do you want to see more of?  If you have any thoughts, get to leaving a comment!

Here are some of my favorite interviews I have done with the elite of our business.

• Emory Rowland of Clickfire.com – Episode 152
• Errett Cord of eCord.us – Episode 149
• Mario Rodriguez of R1Soft – Episode 139
• Alex McMillen of Sliqua – Episode 121
• Gary Jones of BlueFur Hosting – Episode 120
• Ben Welch Bolen of WebHostingUnleashed.com (2nd Interview) – Episode 118
• John Hughes of HostSearch.com – Episode 113
• Dan Garon of Press Advance – Episode 112
• Troy Augustine of iNet Interactive and Web Hosting Talk – Episode 111
• George Roberts of HostingCon – Episode 110
• Ben Welch Bolen of WebHostingUnleashed.com – Episode 109
• Amy Armitage of Lunarpages – Episode 106
• Julien Szemere of Wormly.com – Episode 105

Interested in hearing somebody on the show or being on the show yourself?  Drop me an e-mail and I would be more than happy to hear about it.

Unlike other eBook deals, you get an extra perk with this setup.  You can download both the digital eBook version, or head over the the official page for it and pick up all five chapters as audio downloads too.  I wanted to give to you the best of both worlds.  The topics covered in the eBook cover all aspects of the web hosting world:

• Moving from Web Host to Web Host
• Getting going with your own Ecommerce Store Online
• How to Find a Job in the Web Hosting Industry
• Best Methods and Tips for Setting up a New Blog
• The Ever Popular Handy Guide to Domain Names

Download the PDF and let me know what you think.  Also as far as distribution goes, please feel free to share the link to download it to anybody and everybody you know.  This is a project of mine I have been working on getting together for some time now and I want everybody to know it is free of charge. 

I often get asked a few general questions about this show and how I do things so I thought this week’s show would be a perfect time to answer some frequently asked questions.

When and how did this podcast start up?

This podcast was a project I wanted to do after writing Lockergnome’s Guide to Web Hosting. After that eBook was finished, I needed something to spend my time on – and with podcasting still being an infant those days, I thought I would try to put together a weekly show. Three years later, I have yet to find a reason to stop yet.

Who are you to tell me about web hosting?

I’m just a guy who has a passion for the web hosting business. I’ve been described as a cheerleader by some, but personally I don’t think I look that good in a skirt. I started in the hosting industry back in 2003 – working as a level one support guru. Then I worked my way up to becoming both a customer service director, then manager. In late 2004 I was fired from my day to day hosting duties and decided to give freelance writing a shot. From there till 2006 I wrote about the hosting industry and worked for several Online juggernauts till I came back to customer service work at Lunarpages in September of 2006. I guess if you wanted to consider that a “day job”, my role there is the forum mod and “sales guy”.

What advice do you have to give other podcasters?

If anybody else out there wanted to do what I do about any topic out there under the sun, I would tell them to just give it a shot. You’ll never know if your any good unless you stop being afraid of failure and get of your rear end and try. I have been far from successful at everything I have done (everybody has a bad idea from time to time) but get an idea, grab a mic and talk. If the listeners come, they come. If they don’t then you at least can say you gave it your best shot.

What is next for the Web Hosting Show?

Well, with 400 to 500 episode downloads a month I am happy to say the Web Hosting Show’s audience continues to grow day after day, and podcast after podcast. As an example, here is my feed stats from day one to the present:

I want to keep doing what I’m doing, hopefully do it well.

Now I know not many people like the blogs or podcast on the blogs or podcasts. Talking about yourself talking about yourself can get a little confusing for some and a little boring for others. I just have a little ‘bit of news to share.

Here recently, within the last few weeks it seems that the listener base for the Web Hosting Show podcast has grown by leaps and bounds. Where we were getting the average download rate of 500 or so a week – you are now doing three times as much listening. At the time of writing this, last week’s podcast in the span of seven days had been downloaded 1,600 times. That’s a big mile stone for me and should be for you as well.

I think a big part of it has to do with the new flash player that I embeded on the WebHostingShow.com layout. This makes it easier than ever to listen to the show right there on the web site.

Now other podcasts or big-wigs in the hosting industry might laugh a little at that number. Sure, I’m not exactly the Ted Turner of web hosting yet and I’m not sure I’d ever want to be. I’m happy being your “web hosting industry media rock star” a guy that has a fun weekend hobby that people enjoy.

Feel free to continue spreading the word though on and about this show. Every mention, link and listen is appreciated.

Ping! Zine has recently moved over from being a free publication for the Web hosting industry to a paid one. The price really is not all that bad. You can pay $24.95 for 8 issues of the magazine to be delivered right to your doorstep.

Need something a little better? Now, if you have never subscribed to Ping! Zine and you want to get it for free all you need to do is enter this coupon code during your checkout process.

WHS011907

Now who says I can’t find some darn good deals for you folks? For more information make sure that you check out our special Web page for this at webhostingshow.com/pingzine. Feel free to pass the word along about this free subscription deal, just make sure that you let them know it was the Web Hosting Show that got them the great offer.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 104!

With the new tag search and media player on the Web Hosting Show’s Web site, you can see that I am still finding things to upgrade and improve on even two years down the road. Creating this podcast and WebHostingShow.com – it always seems like there is something else to do, that is why I like it so much.

While we are on the subject, I’d also like to thank all the Web sites and people out there that have helped support this hosting podcast from – well whenever they started to help. The folks over at FastServers.net are the ones who keep the server up and running. WebHostingChat.com has always been a great help as well.

Thanks also goes out to some of the people I have met and who have given me ideas or inspiration for continuing the podcast each and every week. Ron Dunlap, Amy Armitage, Pinny Cohen, Keith Duncan, and many more have dropped me E-mails or talked to me personally and have contributed to this show’s success in one way or another.

Now there is no way I am going to be able to mention everybody and anybody I have met over the past two years because of this show – but I just wanted to thank each and every one of you right here and right now because without you, this podcast would have never become a success.

As always, this will remain a radio show, podcast, netcast (whatever you want to call it) for the people – so if there is anything you want to see or if you ever feel like I am getting off track, let me know about it! Hopefully the first two years here are only a glimmer of what the Web Hosting Show will become and mean to the hosting industry in the coming years ahead.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to the Web Hosting Show, Episode 97!

First things first, let us knock the date out of the way. The actual two year birthday of the Web Hosting Show will be celebrated on February 26.

That will be the last Monday of the month for those of you who might not have a calendar handy.

So what am I going to give away this year? Well since we had such good luck with giving away one free hosting account the year before, I thought this year we would do the same – but on a much bigger level. That is right, I am going to be handing out even more free Web hosting accounts.

This year’s big sponsor of the free hosting plans is Plzhost.com. They have offered up the following:

Disk Space: 200 MB
Bandwidth: 10 GB

They want to give away two free plans for life and three plans for six months of free hosting. On the six month plans – after the six months is up you will get $1.00 off the monthly fee or the yearly fee.

So how do you get in on this offer? All you have to do is drop me an E-mail at mitch@mitchkeeler.com and let me know why you have enjoyed the Web Hosting Show for however long you have been listening to it.

If you have been listening for four weeks – let me know why you have liked it over the four weeks. If you have listened since day number one, then let me know why you have stuck it out with me for so long.

Out of everybody that sends me an E-mail, I’ll pick a winner at random. The two free plans will go to the first two I pick, and if I still have some people needing hosting after that, then we will give away the other three plans that will provide you with six months of free Web hosting.

Tell your friends, tell your family – because the deadline for sending in your E-mails to me will be next Monday, February 12, 2007.

+ Check Out the Podcast This Was From! Listen to the Web Hosting Show, Episode 95!