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Find Available Domain Names

Mar/04 in All Posts, Online Tools, Web Hosting Tutorials

Are you searching for available domain names?  DomainPigeon.com lists available domain names, which you can then turn around and use for your own web sites.  The service is really unique.

find-domains

Once you visit their web site, you put your mouse over a domain name for additional information. The color of each domain listed (and there are hundreds to choose from) is color coded based on availability and popularity.  Over 12,000 domain names listed to pick from, with 1,000 more added daily at 2 PM EST.

If you sign up for a Domain Pigeon account, you can effortlessly keep track of all the domains you are interested in.  For anybody who loves to collect interesting domains to use at a future date and time, Domain Pigeon is a resource well worth checking out.

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Uptime Monitoring with HyperSpin

Feb/04 in All Posts, Online Tools, Web Hosting Tutorials

phone_sms Do you want downtime to ruin your business?  Neither do I.  This is why I want to tell you about another great uptime server monitoring service, I am sure you are going to love.  HyperSpin does web site and web server monitoring from worldwide locations.

If your web site goes down, they can give you alerts via e-mail and SMS.  They have multi-protocol support for ping, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SSH, SMTP, DNS, POP3, IMAP, MySQL, and any arbitrary services running on TCP/IP.  You can also user their service to automatically send email to your provider during downtime, to request for a reboot or any additional investigation.

Not to sound like a game show host, but really – that is no all.  They also provide:

  • Add “Live Status Report” to Your Site
  • False Alarm Elimination
  • Uptime & Performance Reports
  • Maintenance Scheduling

If you want to become your own uptime monitoring service, they also have reselling options for their services too.  Just slap your logo and domain on, and set your prices.

To learn more about HyperSpin’s services, be sure to go check out HyperSpin.com.

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Making Money with Google AdSense

Jan/23 in All Posts, Beginner Help, Online Tools, Web Hosting Tutorials

Google AdSense Help There are a number of different ways to make money on your web site, however, Google AdSense might be the most popular choice of all.  Google has made it a brain-dead simple process to get up and running their their ads, so there is no question why they are number one at what they do.

How do you Sign Up and Use Google AdSense?

Signing up is a pretty easy process.  All you need to do is sign in with your Google login, and follow the on screen instructions.  Once that is done, you can create the ads you want to use, then grab the code for them to place them into your web site.  I have been using it for so long, I don’t see where this could be seen as a complicated process.  They make it all pretty easy.

You also have several different ways you can setup ads.

  • AdSense for Content – your run-of-the-mill ads you are used to seeing.
  • AdSense for Search – use Google to power your web site’s search and make money from it.
  • AdSense for Feeds – Place relevant ads in your RSS feeds.
  • AdSense for Domain Names – Park your un-used domains with Google.
  • Video Units – add YouTube partners’ video content to your site, and earn extra revenue.
  • AdSense for Mobile Content – create ads for special “mobile” pages.

What Are the Rewards of Using Google AdSense?

The good thing about Google AdSense is that it automatically crawls the content of your pages and delivers text and image ads that are relevant to your audience and your site content.  Relative ads are what you want in the long haul.

Now you will not become rich over night, so if you want to quit your day job – you had better set your goal a little lower.  However, aiming at small goals first (such as having the ads pay for your $5 a month hosting bill) is a good start.

Want to learn more?  Here are some Google AdSense resources worth checking out:

Overall, I would say it is definitely work checking into. If you are looking for a name you can trust, Google has won many people over in that aspect too.  Sometimes, I don’t want to sign up with some company I have never heard of, especially when I need to get or receive important information from them (thinking about tax related stuff).  So overall, I would say Google AdSense will not make you uber-rich but it is a trustworthy choice out there.

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Quick Web Site Uptime (or Downtime) Alerts

Jan/09 in All Posts, Online Tools, Web Hosting Tutorials

Uptime or Downtime Alerts

There is no doubt that uptime is one of the most important factors to running or owning a web site.  So if a web site goes down, common sense would tell you that you want to know about it, right?  A new service called Ding It’s Up! will help you keep track on your domain or any other domain you give it.

Here is how the service is described via the official web site:

Ding It’s Up is a free service that alerts you via text (SMS), twitter or email when a website goes down or when it comes back up. We will never send you a text/email unless it is to inform you about a website you requested information for – you can unsubscribe at any time.

Now I would not rely on just using this tool to keep tabs on your web site, but it does make a nice accessory to other tools you could use.

To learn more about or to use this service, go check out dingitsup.com.

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Web Page Analyzer

Dec/24 in All Posts, Online Tools, Web Hosting Tutorials

Speed Statistics When your web site is running a little slow, there could be a number of different reasons.  It could be your design.  It could be your server.  It might even just be an issue with the connection between yourself and the web host in question.

One of the better free web site performance and speed analysis tools I have used in a while is from WebSiteOptimization.com:

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/

With this free test, you can quickly get a number of statistics about how your web page loads.  Just put in your domain name for the “URL to diagnose” and hit the “Submit Query” button.

As an example, here are the connection times I got for WebHostingShow.com:

Connection Rate Download Time
14.4K 210.97 seconds
28.8K 109.29 seconds
33.6K 94.76 seconds
56K 59.90 seconds
ISDN 128K 23.62 seconds
T1 1.44Mbps 8.99 seconds

There are tons of more details there via the web site too. You have:

  • Global Statistics
  • Object Size Totals
  • External Objects
  • Download Times …and more!

If you like this tool, you might also check out some of the other Web Site Optimization services that they provide too.  If your looking for a prettier alternative, then I would also highly suggest Pingdom Tools.

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Use Photoshop Online for Free!

Nov/18 in All Posts, Online Tools, Web Hosting Tutorials

I have never actually owned a version of Photoshop, due to the ridiculous price.

As a matter of fact, I am still using Paint Shop Pro 7 if you really want to get into how “old school” I am.  However, when I heard that Adobe released a free online version of Photoshop, I had to try it out.

free-photoshop

The thing that I like about Photoshop.com is they have made the interface really simple to understand and use.  You may want to play around with a few images before you get too in depth with it, but you’ll be editing images like a pro in no time flat.  You can crop, correct, and edit your images in many different ways.  Professionals might find it a little light weight, but I liked the simplicity of it all.

The little extra mile with this tool is that they provide hosting for your images too.  You will be given a special URL to share with friends and family, such as yourname.photoshop.com. This a a very nice extra touch.

To try it out for yourself, visit photoshop.com and sign up.  It does not cost a thing, so you will at least have a fun alternative to save for a rainy day, if nothing else.

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Multi-column CSS Layouts with YAMAL Builder

Nov/12 in All Posts, Online Tools, Web Design, Web Hosting Tutorials

Need to quickly build a CSS powered web site, with multiple columns?  Well, you could do things by hand.  However, it would be better if you had a tool that would at least lay out the basics of designing the multi-column layout for you.  YAML Builder is an easy to use site builder you can use Online for just that.

You fill in the basics that you need, and this web site will take care of the rest for you.  Based on web standards, accessible and easy to use, this is the best online layout creator I have used in some time.

yaml-builder

So what does YAML stand for?  With this builder, you can create Yet Another Multi-column Layout.  To try it out for yourself, go visit:  http://builder.yaml.de/

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Clean up Your Messy CSS

Nov/11 in All Posts, Online Tools, Web Design, Web Hosting Tutorials

Clean CSS

Take a look at the CSS file for your web site.  Is it a little on the messy side?  If so, I have the perfect web site for you to add to your bookmark collection.  CleanCSS.com is an online tool that will optimize and format your CSS.  Why would you need to do this?  Well, a clean CSS is a happy CSS!

To use it, just visit the web site and then copy and paste your code into the CSS box.  If needed, you can also just post the URL to your CSS file too.  Then, under code layout, you can select how clean you want it to be (based on readability and size).  Here you can see all the options you will have at your fingertips:

Clean CSS in Action

One thing that CleanCSS doesn’t do is validate your CSS code.  For that, I would still recommend visiting the W3C CSS Validation Service.

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Outsourced Hosting Support with CliffSupport.com

Oct/30 in All Posts, Online Tools, Web Hosting Tutorials

Are you a web host looking for a cheap and effective way to expand your support services?  Although some of us don’t like the phrase, “outsourced support”, the truth is it can be a very effective way to cheaply expand your hosting support team.  CliffSupport is a technical support company that provides technical support, server administration, server security and remote server management for linux servers.

They offer plans covering the following services:

  • Complete Server Solutions
  • Server Monitoring and Response
  • Per Ticket Plan
  • Server Hardening and Setup
  • Dedicated Admins
  • Hourly Server Administration

To speak for how great their service is, they promise a response in 20 minutes or less and also have a 15 day money back guarantee.  They have been in the support field for over two years too, so they are not a fly by night operation.

If you are looking for another alternative to outsourcing support, you might also check out BobCares.  I did an interview with them a few weeks back on their business and support.  Of course I welcome the CliffSupport team on the show as well if they would like to talk with me too.  To learn more about CliffSupport be sure to go check out CliffSupport.com.

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The Secret of Finding Unique Domains

Oct/29 in All Posts, Online Tools, Web Hosting Tutorials

The bookmarking service, del.icio.us started an entire trend of unique looking domain names that has continue to this day.  Mixing domain names, with extensions (and sometimes tossing in a subdomain) has made for some memorable and unique domains.  So what is the secret?  There are two services that allow you to type in a phrase and then figure out different ways it could be registered and setup.

Domai.nr and domainfinder.geekfg.net both offer this service.  My favorite out of the tool is Domai.nr – so let us focus on that one for now.  For example, lets say I typed mitch into the search box and hit enter.  Some of the domain name suggestions I got were:

  • mit.ch
  • mit.tc/h
  • m.it/ch

They also give to you the registers for that domain type, the wikipedia entry for that top-level domain type and tools, where you can see the web site (if the domain is taken) and a link to do a quick WhoIs lookup.  They also have a blog and Twitter account to follow, so you can stay inside the loop with development.

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