A web site visitor should never be confused by your web site’s navigational layout.  Every web page out there should have an easy way to navigate both to new web pages and categories, but also back out of them.  Think of it as reaching a fork in an old country road, choosing to go down the left road – and then turning around and finding a pink hippopotamus in a tutu.  While that might sound ridiculous – many web sites leave visitors with the pink hippo more often than not.

Keep it Clean, Simple and Easily Recognizable

Every web site should start off with a clear, upfront way to navigate from one section to the next.  A web site visitor is not going to stick around long if they can’t find their way around the site.  The web site navigation should be around the top and stick out enough so it does not get lost in your web site’s content.

Don’t Use Crazy Names for Navigation Links

You should also use obvious names for each navigational link.  Don’t use the name “Ice Box” if you want to give a link to your page about yourself.  Instead, use the word, “About” or something to that effect.

Less is More

Keep it simple.  Less really is more when it comes to web site navigation design.  Giving your users too many buttons, links and sub-links right from the start will just lead to confusion.  Rather than link after link, you might consider using a drop down list to give your web site visitors access to pages that fit under that specific category.

Never Leave Your Web Site Visitors Lost

My last ‘bit of web site navigation advice would be to remind people where they are.  Each web page on your web site should be labeled telling the user where they are at.  If they are looking through your list of articles on bugs, then at the top of the page it should say something to the effect of, “Bug Articles”.  Also, always leave your web site with a path back to the front page – just in case they need to start over navigating through your web site.

Now, I want you to investigate your own web site’s navigation.

Is it simple enough to use?

Are you using obvious link and page names?

Are you keeping things nice and simple?

Do you remind people on the page of what they are looking at and where they are?

If you answered, “no” to any of these questions it might be about time you invested some of your time in making your web site navigation better.

Like This Article? Listen to it and more like it on podcast #202 of the Web Hosting Show!

Inspiration for a web site’s content is often hard to find.  So when I find myself in trouble, I turn towards my own list of six different content writing ideas that should help inspire you to get that new page up and running.

I would suggest you bookmark this list of content ideas, and save them for a rainy non-creative day.

1. List – A list comes in handy in a number of different ways for a number of different reasons.  Give the the top 10 reasons why this is great.  Give me the top 4 reasons why you shouldn’t do that.  Lists are also easily scan-able, so web site visitors love to check them out.
2. Quote – A great man once said something or another, and you can use that to inspire you as to why what they said was right or wrong.  Often, a quote makes a great way to start a web page’s content section – because it often breaks the ice in an article or web page, giving your reader something to think about.
3. Interview – Do an interview with somebody about something relative to your web site.  I’ve done a number of different interviews on this very podcast, found only at webhostingshow.com.  It is always interesting to hear what somebody else thinks, so reach out to people around you that might be cool to interview on the topic your web site is about.
4. Story – Tell me a story about that one time, you did that one thing, and how it is relative to the web page we are on now.  Story telling is one of the oldest forms of communication we have, so sharing that on your web site is a great way to produce interesting content that people will be sure to read.
5. Tutorial or Definition – When in doubt, show somebody how to do something.  I would say 90% of the time, when people are searching online, they are looking for a tutorial on how to do this, that or the other.  Being the source for that tutorial goes back to the idea of supply and demand.  You want to be the source for the content relative to your topic, and have people come back to learn how to do this, that or the other.
6. Argument – Now you should not fight with your web site visitors.  Rather than fighting, I want you to give an argument why something is good or maybe why something is not so good.  Get creative and passionate about your side, and then give facts to backup your opinion.

So there you have my secret six ideas for content inspiration.  I hope you bookmark this list, save it for later – and when you run into your own web site content writer’s block, you pull it out to help inspire you.

Like This Article? Listen to it and more like it on podcast #202 of the Web Hosting Show!

Do your web pages flow?  By flow, I mean can you read through it without asking yourself what is this about again?  If you find yourself stopping and starting when reading your own web pages, take this basic writing advice and try it out on your own web site content.

There are 3 Parts to Any Good Web Page

Everything I know about writing, I learned in grade school.  When writing, you want to break your content up into three parts.

• The Introduction
• The Story
• The Conclusion

How Do You Use These 3 Parts of a Web Page?

In the introduction, you want to introduce what you are talking about, and give a summary of what will be found inside, if the reader chooses to dive any deeper.

The story would be the meat and potatoes of your web page.  There, you talk about what you mentioned in the introduction.

The conclusion should do a quick summary again of what was in the story, and give you one last “sell” on why it was great.

By breaking your web site’s pages into chunks like this, you can help your writing flow better.  After reading the introduction part, I should know what to expect, in the story I get the information, and in the conclusion, I get a summary of what has been covered and why it is important.

Like This Article? Listen to it and more like it on podcast #202 of the Web Hosting Show!

The title tag might be a feature many people overlook, but it is just as important as having a nice looking web site layout.  Some might even say it is the most important thing, because it is often the first thing a web site visitors sees.  Today I’ll be telling you what the title tag is and what you can do to make yours better.

What is so Important About the Title Tag?

The title bar is important because it tells your readers what they can expect on that page.  If you are missing a title tag, often the Internet browsers out there just name the actual file name as the title.  If that happens, the title tag is not doing the job of telling the web site visitor what that page is about. Title tags are also used by search engines. The title tag is typically used as the first line of the search result.  Once again, this is another reason why it is important to use a title tag.

How do you Write a Better Title Tag?

Now that we have gone over the importance of a title tag, let me tell you how to write a better one.

Keep the title under 65 characters. This is mainly for search engine optimization reasons, so your last few words or your title don’t get replace with a “…” when showing up on the search engines, like Google.

Use keywords phrases specific to your web site. Now this one might seem overly obvious, but some people still forget it.  Use your most popular keywords that lead people into your site, or that best describe your site in the title tags.

Put your web site name at the end of the title tag. Now some people put the site name at the end, some people put it at the beginning and then some people leave it off, all together.  Unless your site name is keyword rich, like “Best Coupons for Hosting” – I would say bump it to the end of the title.  It helps to identify what page you are on.  Then you can put the web page title before it, such as:

How to Write a Better Title Tag – Web Hosting Show

There you have the page’s name first, and the web site’s name second.  Both are relevant when describing the web page in question so both should be mentioned in the title tag.

Re-use your title tag in your web site too. Your web site’s title should mirror your headline title on the web page you are editing.  This is easy to remember to do with blogs, however it might be overlooked with hand coded HTML web sites.

There you have it.  Those are my own personal tips to help you write a better web site title tag.  Have any other advice or tips to share?  Give me your feedback in the comments.

Like This Article? Listen to it and more like it on podcast #202 of the Web Hosting Show!

Today I’ll hand to you four areas of your web site you can improve to get more web site visitors, have the search engines love you, and get more visitors to your web site, right here on the Web Hosting Show.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 202!
Running Time: 13 minutes | File Size: 5.92 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode:

• How to Write a Better Title Tag – The title tag might be a feature many people overlook, but it is just as important as having a nice looking web site layout.  Some might even say it is the most important thing, because it is often the first thing a web site visitors sees.  Today I’ll be telling you what the title tag is and what you can do to make yours better.
• Basic Writing Advice to Improve Web Page Flow – Do your web pages flow?  By flow, I mean can you read through it without asking yourself what is this about again?  If you find yourself stopping and starting when reading your own web pages, take this basic writing advice and try it out on your own web site content.
• 6 Different Content Writing Ideas – Inspiration for a web site’s content is often hard to find.  So when I find myself in trouble, I turn towards my own list of six different content writing ideas that should help inspire you to get that new page up and running.
• Effective Web Site Navigation Rules – A web site visitor should never be confused by your web site’s navigational layout.  Every web page out there should have an easy way to navigate both to new web pages and categories, but also back out of them.  Think of it as reaching a fork in an old country road, choosing to go down the left road – and then turning around and finding a pink hippopotamus in a tutu.

Quick Tip #3 – Your web site’s Meta Description should contain between 70 and 160 characters (spaces included).

Delays aside, I hope this web hosting podcast is one you can enjoy.  Feel free to send me your web development or hosting questions on the submit a question page, and leave a comment to let me know you listened.

Shameless Plug of the Week – Web Hosting Show Coupons – Looking for a great web hosting deal or steal?  This is the place to check!

When it comes to web hosting for podcasts, a lot of this specialized hosting field has yet to be figured out.  Sure, you have your specialized plugins, content management systems made for podcasting, and a better understanding of it around the world.  When push comes to shove though, which is better, hosting everything from one place, or splitting your web hosting up between a shared host and a specialized audio hosting service?

That is just about the question Charley posed to me the other day:

In your opinion, is it preferable to have your blog and podcast mp3s hosted on the same server, or would it be better to keep the audio files with one host, and the web site files with another host?

For many years, I did this very podcast in a two host setup.

I was using Blogware as my blogging engine, then donated hosting space from a friend to host the audio files from.  Back then, there weren’t a lot of dedicated podcast hosting solutions, and the whole process was new to all of us, I think.  Of course now I host both the audio files and the web site files in the same place.  So being one who has done it both ways, let me tell you which method is best.

Let Your Wallet Have It’s Say

For the most part, you should do whatever set up is best for your wallet at the time.  You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars in the effort to look like a professional.  Go for the cheapest setup that works best for you.  So with that said the “all in one” hosting would be my choice out of the two.

Now, that is not to say that specialized podcast hosting, like they provide at libsyn, does not have its place.  You might find your web site host is giving you issues after a hundred episodes or so, due to the fact that your using up so much disk space and bandwidth for those files.  In that case it might be better off going with somebody who specializes in hosting your audio files for you.

So if you can get away with getting started on a shared hosting plan at any web host out there, I would do it – however if they give you fits, then moving to a specialized podcast host would be the next best route before moving into something like VPS or dedicated hosting.

Thanks to Charley for the excellent question – and be sure to check out his podcast – Cross Driven Radio.

Like This Article? Listen to it and more like it on podcast #201 of the Web Hosting Show!

For remote web hosting technicians, trying to remember what time it is where your business is located can be a pain.  Thankfully, I have an easy to remember bookmark that should save you both trouble and time when it comes to remembering when that next big meeting is for you and for your boss who lives across the country.

The web site to remember, bookmark (or both) is whattimeisitthere.info.  This web site takes care of the time conversions for you.  For example, many of you know I work remotely for Lunarpages, and they are based out of California.  So, with me being in Texas – that is a big shift in time. So, let us say my boss wants to have a meeting at 4:00 PM Pacific time.  All I have to do is pull up this web site, type in “at 4:00pm pacific”. I would then know that the would be 6:00pm central time, which is my own time zone.

For a handy tool to do quick US time zone conversions, go visit whattimeisitthere.info.

Like This Article? Listen to it and more like it on podcast #201 of the Web Hosting Show!

Before you claim that I am just overly suspicious of bad thing happening, let me make my case.  What would you do if your web site went down?

You’d contact your web host to find the problem.  Now let us say they lost your web site, and have no active backup.  Well, you could then turn to your own backed up files.

How Should You Backup Your Web Sites

What if your own backup went bad? What would you do then?  Your entire web site, and for some of us that is years of data, would be lost.  So what is the perfect backup solution?

1. Find a web host that does local backups, and make sure you have access to them.
2. Do a backup of your hosting files to your own computer, or to an external hard drive you might have handy.
3. Sign up for an off site backup service. Places like Carbonite.com specialize in offering you unlimited disk space and bandwidth for backing up any files on your computer, including your web site files.  This way you have one more location to get a backed up copy of your web site incase the worst might happen.

Online Backup Providers

Now, I only use Carbonite as an example backup service.  There are many others to choose from, such as:

• Mozy.com
• KeepIt.com
• Amazon.com’s S3 Service

All four of these are great off site backup solutions.

So now that we have a new year, it is time to make one more resolution.  Make sure you backup your backups, because it never hurts to have too many copies, especially right after you lost the one you are looking for.

Like This Article? Listen to it and more like it on podcast #201 of the Web Hosting Show!

When it comes to extensions, Firefox is king – with thousands upon thousands to choose from.  However, Google Chrome is just now starting to gain ground with the idea of having an extendable interface, so how many good web development extensions are there for this alternative browser from Google?  I did my search and found five of the best web development related extensions for the browser.

Speed Tracer

Speed Tracer is a tool to help you identify and fix performance problems in your web applications. It visualizes metrics that are taken from low level instrumentation points inside of the browser and analyzes them as your application runs.

Lorem Ipsum Generator

Chrome Extension that generates random dummy text.It uses a minimalist and well looking design. Many other extensions of this type – in other browsers – simply complicate this task, using really extensive code, XHR, etc. The main purpose of this one, is to use the less amount of code (and also memory) and help the developer/user to get the job done.

Kuber PageRank Checker

This handy SEO tool shows you the Google PageRank of web pages beside the address box. If the PageRank of the page in current tab is not available, the tool shows the PageRank of the domain instead, prefixed with ‘S’.

Chrome SEO

The Google Chrome SEO extension provides easy access to Search Engine Optimization Tools that can help you with Competitive Analysis, Keyword Research, Backlink Checks and other daily SEO tasks.

IE Tab

Use Internet Explorer to display web pages in a Chrome tab. Some sites can only be displayed using IE, and with this extension you can now see those sites without leaving Chrome.

Know of any more that I might have missed? Be sure to drop then in via the comments, and help us all learn a little more about the web development tools the Google Chrome browser provides.

Like This Article? Listen to it and more like it on podcast #201 of the Web Hosting Show!

Even in web hosting, the new year can often be a great time to start out fresh, get a new look on your online life, and try to make things even better than they are.  That is what this podcast is here to help you with, as long as you promise me one of your resolutions will be to listen to this episode of the Web Hosting Show.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 201!
Running Time: 13 minutes | File Size: 5.58 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode:

• How to Backup Your Web Site Backups – Speaking of resolutions, everybody should be making the resolution to backup their web site backups.  How can you do so cheaply?  I’ll let you know.
• Easier US Time Zone Conversions – This week I will share with you a tool I use to help me do quick time zone conversions.  It is a great resource for remote web hosting workers.
• Best Audio Hosting Solution for Podcasts – Which method is better, hosting podcasts with your web site or with an external hosting provider?
• 5 Best Web Development Extensions for Google Chrome – With the introduction of extensions to the Google Chrome browser, which plugins do I find most handy for web design or web development work?

Quick Tip #2 – Remember, keep your web site file names and file paths all in lowercase when working on your web site.  Web servers are case sensitive, so better to get yourself using one method from the start, rather than having to do a lot of redirection fixing in the future.

Hope this is the greatest 201st podcast you have ever listened to.  If it is, drop in a comment and let me know or drop me an e-mail at mitch@mitchkeeler.com.  If you want to ask your own question on the podcast, it’s an easy thing to do – just go to the submit a question page, send me your inquest and I will be happy to help on next week’s podcast.

Shameless Plug of the Week – Web Hosting Show on Facebook – Come by and say hello to your fellow Web Hosting Show listeners!

Here are the ten most popular web hosting podcasts from 2009:

Click the image for the show you want to check out, listen to and/or download.  2009 was a great year for the Web Hosting Show podcast.  We not only celebrated four years of bringing podcasts about web hosting and web development issue to all of you, we also celebrated the 200th podcast posted. 

Also, I’m not going crazy – I did say “we” because without your downloading, dedication and support, this podcast would not be the one and only voice of the web hosting world.  Thanks to you all, have a great New Year!

Anybody who has worked in technical support for a web hosting company will tell you that keeping all your tasks and windows organized on a day-to-day work schedule is very hectic and not a lot of fun.  You have to keep this window open to check out help desk tickets, you have to look over here for forum replies, you have to go way over there to look at the recent tweets coming in from web hosting customers.  It is enough to drive a person insane, unless you follow these simple organizational tips.

Divide Your Tasks, then Conquer Your Tasks

Most people multitask online by opening one Internet browser with multiple tabs.  While this comes in handy, your tabs can become overwhelming very quickly.  Rather than opening up one Internet browser with multiple tabs, I want you to open multiple browsers, with fewer tabs.  Look at your daily responsibilities and divide your running Internet browser windows up by that.

For example, if you are responsible for feedback inside the web hosting company you work for, one Internet browser could be dedicated to that. You would open up the feedback help desk, the forums for the web hosting business you work for, their Twitter account perhaps, and so on and so forth.  The next Internet browser window you could dedicate to another responsibility, such as support.  Inside there, you could load up the customer records in one tab, the help desk in another tab, and your quick replies in a third tab.   As you can see – you start to organize your work differently.  You organize it by the jobs you need to do instead of dumping everything into one single Internet browser.

Once you have mastered this web hosting help organizational technique, you will find yourself working faster and jumping between each task you are responsible for even faster than you were before.  Your supervisor will thank you, the customers will appreciate you, and all it takes is a little time and organizational skill.

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

However, many people might still be confused on how to get started with WordPress, so I thought it would be a good idea to go through the steps with you, to make you feel more at home with the process.

How to Install WordPress on Your Hosting Account

The first step would be to download and unzip the WordPress package to your computer.  I often like to put it on my desktop, as I use that as a workspace for all my various projects.

Setup the MySQL Details

Next, you will login to your web hosting control panel and create a MySQL database user, a MySQL database, and then assign that MySQL user to the MySQL database in question.  Various web hosts and various control panels will have different ways to get this done.  My advice would be to check with your web host, if you are unsure how to do so.

Now, open up that WordPress folder you saved earlier, and rename the file wp-config-sample.php to just wp-config.php.  Open the wp-config.php file, and fill in your database details (the database name, user name and the password assigned to the user).

Important: Never use a word processor like Microsoft Word for editing WordPress files! You need to user a simple text editor, such as Notepad.

Upload WordPress to the Hosting Server

After you have saved the wp-config.php file with all the settings it needs to use to connect, it is time to upload the WordPress files to their new home.

• If you want WordPress to show up under your main domain, be sure to upload all of the files into your public_html folder.
• If you want WordPress to show up under a folder (such as /blog/), be sure to upload all the files into a folder located in /public_html/blog/. I’m simply using “blog” as an example.  You could name the folder whatever you want to name it.

Last, but not least, run the WordPress install script by going to yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php, or if you installed it into it’s own folder, go to yourdomain.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php. Remember that “yourdomain.com” and “blog” are just examples here, be sure to change them to fit your own web site preferences.

Now simply follow the on-screen instructions and you are all set!  I hope this tutorial comes in handy the next time you install WordPress on your own web hosting space.

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

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!

You do not have to drastically change the way you do business though.  If you are successful in one area of business, do not toss it aside to do something else that is more popular.  I got a question submitted to me the other day from Matt, which touches on this very topic.

Here is what Matt had to say:

I run a free hosting site, and I’ve been at it for 4 years, and we’ve got very high rating, and uptime, and server speed, but I’ve still got this problem where everyone expects our service to be a sort of scam or not very good because of the price. If I start charging for it, I have to say goodbye to a lot of people who I’ve been helping for a long time, and if I don’t, it seems to me there’s always this group of people who wont choose it. I mean, if you want to pay money for your hosting, I’ll gladly take donations, and I have many people who do donate. If you have time, because I know you’re very busy, could you give me your honest opinion of our service and what we need to do to appeal more to small businesses and community organizations?

How can a free host become successful?

People are always skeptical when it comes to getting something for nothing, so as long as you give free services – you’ll always have somebody out there dismissing your claims of success because they think you’re a fraud.  Thankfully, they might also think we never landed on the moon or one of the muppets assassinated JFK.  The fact of the matter is there will always be somebody out there to complain.

My question is, do you have to pick one business plan, free hosting versus paid hosting, or can you have your cake and eat it too?  I would suggest you keep your free hosting in place, it sounds successful, and you have happy customers – which is something many web hosts, free or not, can not claim.  As a secondary service, roll out a paid hosting solution that offers a few perks over the free version.  It could be in features, support or anything else you feel like you could offer a little more of to the people willing to pay for it. Then, once that is in place, start marketing your new paid hosting service to those customers you do have, and let them know that it is an option you are providing for them.

Some might bite at the proverbial worm you are tossing out there, and others may say no thanks.  Past that point you can sell your new paid hosting option to the masses using the free service as a way to get your foot in the door, as far as seeing how great your hosting setup is.  You might even sell it as you are so confident they will enjoy their hosting with you, you are willing to give it away for free.

Thanks to Matt for the question, and to check out his web site – or maybe send some more suggestions his way, be sure to check out ismywebsite.com.

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

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 200!
Running Time: 15 minutes | File Size: 6.53 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode:

• Maximize Work Space with More Browsers – Learn how to simply reorganize your customer support responsibilities, to get more work done in less time.
• How Anybody Can Install WordPress – I am here to help you get WordPress installed for the very first time.  With WordPress 2.9 out this week, figured it would be a good time to reintroduce you to this great content management system.
• Mitch Launches a New Top Secret Project – In celebration of podcast number 200, I wanted you to be the first ones to learn about my new top secret project I have started production on.  Hear it here first!
• How to Turn a Complaint into a Feature - We help Matt take complaints about his free hosting business, and turn those complaints into a brand new feature to his online business.

Starting this episode, I am going to also give you one quick tip on each podcast to help you out with your web hosting ways.  Keep an ear out for them on each podcast from here on out.

Quick Tip #1 – Keep your domain name registrations and web hosting accounts separate.  This way if your business relationship fall through with one, it won’t effect the other.

Do me a favor and help thank our sponsor! Via Twitter, tweet to @LayeredTech thanks for supporting webhostingshow.com

Hope you enjoy the podcast.  If you do, drop in a comment and let me know or drop me an e-mail at mitch@mitchkeeler.com.  If you want to ask your own question on the podcast, it’s an easy thing to do – just go to the submit a question page, send me your inquest and I will be happy to help on next week’s podcast (plus give your web site a free plug!).

How would you like to drive down town and pick up a web hosting account?

The web host Slamdot hopes you’d very much like the idea of doing that.  They announced they will begin selling professionally designed web site packages very soon through a retail store.  The first store will be open in Knoxville, Tennesee offering web site design packages, support,  and in-store training.

Other specialty stores like this, such as the Apple stores across the nation have done very well because they not only give a local and familiar face to the product, but they also create a different sense of community that you can not give online. Dropping an e-mail to a support team is very different than walking into a store and asking for help.

This is the type of new, innovative, out-of-the-box idea I really like to see, and I wish them the best of luck.

To learn more about Slamdot, be sure to go check them out at Slamdot.com.

Like This Article? Listen to it and more like it on podcast #199 of the Web Hosting Show!

My good buddy Barry, from Layered Tech posed an interesting quandary to me the other day.

As someone who works for a major player in hosting, one of the biggest problems I see on a daily basis is people having their server hacked and used for some nefarious purposes such as spam, DOS attacks, and more. There are many ways to combat this costly threat, what is the most cost-effective way for the small to medium-sized business?

It is important for everybody to have a good offense and a good defense when it comes to all the proverbial “natural disasters” that can happen in the web hosting world.  My best advice would be to have a good strategy in place first, so you can prevent the problems from happening in the first place. You have to be proactive, and not reactive.

Now, I know that might be hard to do in a tough economy, cause we are all short on money, time and man power.  If you can keep an eye on a couple of important things, you should have less problems to deal with, and more time to devote to your web site and business.

Here are a few key things everyone should keep in mind:

Monitor your server usage, no matter if you are on a shared hosting plan or a dedicated server.  Check in once a day or once a week to make sure your usage stays on average, and if you see a steady increase, you talk with your hosting provider to make sure you are ready for the time that increase means you need more computing power.

Stay on top of the latest updates for your scripts and plugins. Once a hole is found in a third-party script, it doesn’t take long for holes to be exploited. If you have a script installed, like WordPress or SMF, stay up to date on when it is updated.  The faster you get updates done, the less likely your web site or business will be compromised.

Get help when you need it. For web hosting clients that go down the dedicated or VPS hosting route, find a web hosting partner that will be able to get with you quickly to tackle your problems.  I have often said you can’t judge a web host by the cliché 99.9% uptime guarantee.  A true test of a web host is how they react to a tough situation.  In a shared hosting situation, it might be harder to get the attention needed 100% of the time, due to the fact that you are one in a hundred or more people on a server.  That is one of the drawbacks to the shared hosting world.

Making sure your offense is as good as or better than your defense can solve a lot of problems before they happen.  Small businesses should try to be proactive about problems in the long run, rather than reactive when the going gets tough.

Big thanks to Barry from Layered Tech for such an awesome question.  Be sure to check them out at LayeredTech.com and give them a big thank you for being the number one supporters and sponsors of the Web Hosting Show podcast.  If you have a web hosting or development question, give me your name, URL and question over on the submit a question page and I will be more than happy to help!

Like This Article? Listen to it and more like it on podcast #199 of the Web Hosting Show!

This bookmarklet is perfect for anybody who spends any time working  on web site layouts.  XRAY is used to see the box model for any element on a web page.  It will dim the area not selected, and give you statistics such as the CSS id or class assigned to it, the interface hierarchy, and the CSS code assigned to that section.

With that said, it is the perfect browser companion for people who pull up a web site and wonder, “how did they do that?” because it tells you everything right there on the web page.  It works with Internet 6 and up, and every Webkit and Mozilla-based browser out there today (that includes Safari, Firefox, Camino and more).

To use it, all you have to do is drag the bookmarklet to your bookmarks toolbar.  When you are on a site you want to see more about, click the bookmarklet and the semi-transparent XRAY window will pop up with all the information you could ever want. Go give the XRAY bookmarklet for webmasters a test drive yourself (then save it for your own CSS snooping) over at westciv.com/xray/.

Like This Article? Listen to it and more like it on podcast #199 of the Web Hosting Show!

Is there a way to have decent statistics for how many times a podcast has been downloaded?  That is the question the guys at Watir Podcast had for me.  Since I to do a podcast for the masses, this is an issue that has bugged me for some time too.

The problem isn’t with having a script, plugin or service count the downloads because everything tries to do that.  The problem is that nothing counts all the downloads.  For example, if you push your podcast through FeedBurner, it will tell you how many people downloaded a podcast from the RSS feed, but no where else.  Same could be said for some podcasting plugins out there for WordPress and other publishing platforms, but in reverse.  They tell you how many people downloaded the podcast from the web site, but not those who got it by other means.

Server Side Statistics

So with all that confusion, the best you can do is find an estimate of downloads.  You need something to look at the server-side statistical data, so you can be sure nothing is missed.  The best way to get this done would be the statistics scripts that come with your web hosting account.  This is usually AWStats or Webalizer.  You could also download your log files, and then plug them into a desktop statistics analyzer.  The problem is  I haven’t found one I like that doesn’t cost one million dollars.

Podtrac Measurement Tools

The people at Podtrac have a free third-party measurement service you can use too.  The way it works is you rewrite the way your podcasts are linked so that the link gets pushed through their server-side counter first.  For all mp3 episodes, you would have to use the prefix:

http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/

I never used it myself because I was always afraid of the negative effect it might have on other services like iTunes that scopes out my RSS feeds for data automatically.  Might be worth trying out again.

Thanks to the Watir Podcast for the question, be sure to check them out at Watirpodcast.com. If you have a web hosting or development question, give me your name, URL and question over on the submit a question page!

Like This Article? Listen to it and more like it on podcast #199 of the Web Hosting Show!

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 199!
Running Time: 12 minutes | File Size: 5.41 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode:

• How to Track Podcast Download Numbers
• Find CSS Element Stats with XRAY Bookmarklet
• Small Business Solutions for Big Web Site Threats
• Selling Web Hosting and Design at Retail

Help thank our sponsor! Via Twitter, tweet to @LayeredTech thanks for supporting webhostingshow.com

Hope you fully enjoy this week’s podcast, and if you do – drop in a comments and let me know.  Also don’t forget to check out two new additions to the Web Hosting Show web site:

• Web Hosts on Twitter (every host on Twitter listed here!)
• Web Hosting Coupons and Deals (only the best web hosting discounts!)

If you have a question you’d like to ask on the show, be sure to leave me your name, web site address, and question on the submit a question form.

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!

It isn’t very often you see hosting personalities being covered in the news. I don’t know why, because they are often some of the most successful out there.  That is why I was happy to find this video of Lanham Napier, Rackspace Hosting’s CEO, talking about how is company is competing with the likes of Google and Amazon.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 198!
Running Time: 3 minutes | File Size: 5.14 MB

Brand new to the Web Hosting Show is the Web Hosting Show Coupons and Deals page, which – if you are browsing along at home, can be found at:

• http://www.webhostingshow.com/coupons/

What makes this page so great?  Well, it is my own hand selected web hosting coupons and deals I have found from around the Web.  That means no cutback to me, no wacky affiliate links, just straight forward links to hosts that are offering some amazing web hosting offers.

But wait, that’s not all!

If you act from now, until the end of time, you will also receive an RSS feed to subscribe to so you never miss a web host’s coupon or special deal.  Also, you can follow the Web Hosting Show’s Coupons and Deals page on Twitter too.  Just go to this link:

• http://twitter.com/whscoupons

and then click the, “Follow” button.

For web hosting clients this page offers a simple place to check and find the best deals for some of your favorite web hosts on the Internet.

For web hosts this page offers a clean and simple way to feature your coupons, specials and deals out there for the entire world to see.  Contact me, with your web hosting special, and you could see your own deals listed here too.

I really hope this is a new tool you will love, bookmark, visit often and share with your friends.  It is my goal to put together an honest list of coupons and offers for all of the Web Hosting Show’s listeners out there.  So, until next time – stay tuned for more great tools, more great offers and more great web hosting podcasts from the Web Hosting Show.

Find Files and Folders that Do Not Belong

Remember that old childhood game of figuring out, which one of these does not belong with the others?

Search through your web site files and folders to make sure that you don’t have anything that is strange or alien in there.  Look for files that are not apart of scripts you have installed, or that may have odd names.  Your web host will be able to tell you what files are safe to delete and which files are an important part of your web hosting account.

Try to view the source code of your web pages too, and look for anything that does not look familiar or is related to the problems you are having.  For example, many iframe injection attacks will attach the iframe code to the bottom of your web site files.

Make Sure Your Permissions are in Check

You should also check to make sure your file and folder permissions are in check.  Folders should be set no higher than 755, and files should be set to 644. You can check or change folder and file permissions through your web host’s file manager or through most modern FTP programs.

Now, for those of you who say this sounds like a lot of busy work, I have a special tip to share.  If you have a recent backup of your hosting account files, you can compare it with the files and folders on your hosting account to see which ones do not match up.  Also, depending on when your web site was infected, your web host may be able to restore your web site from and older back they have too.

Here is what I want you to do.  Make a list of scripts you have installed, and put them in two categories – the ones that you use on your web site and those you just installed to see what they look like.  You should remove any scripts that are not fundamental to your web site’s operation.

Choose, Update or Delete? - Keeping out of date scripts that you do not use on your web site is probably the number one way people can gain access to your hosting account.  Once you are sure the script you don’t use are gone, then you need to make sure you are using the latest version of and scripts you do use and that are a part of your web site.  Go to that script’s official web site to make sure you are running the latest version of the script.

Update Your Installed Script’s Plugins - Also, with some content management systems like Joomla, WordPress, or Drupal, you will want update any plugins you might have in place too.  Think of those as little installed scripts that can also be compromised.  The same thing could be said for any forum software, e-commerce script or more.  Many scripts out there use plugins to extend the original script, however each of these are security risks that you need to make sure you keep up to date and patched with the most recent version.

General rule of thumb time here, you shouldn’t keep any script installed on your web hosting account if you are not using it.  For scripts that are a part of your web site’s operation, be sure to keep the main script and the plugins that are apart of the script up to date.

Which Log-ins Should I Check and Change?

Here are some of the related log-ins you need to check and change, if you have found your web site has been infected by a virus, a trojan, or any other web site security issue there is out there.

Hosting Account Passwords – First, update your hosting account password, and the passwords for any e-mail accounts or FTP accounts you have created in your web hosting account.

Installed Scripts Passwords – You also need to make a list of every script you have installed and you are using on your hosting account.  Update your passwords for each of these scripts you are using.

Customer Service Passwords – The last series of passwords you need to change are those that have to do with your customer service level support with your web host.  If you use a different series of log-ins to get into your account settings with your web host, you may also need to update those log-ins too.

The important thing to remember is you want to lock out any way a person could gain access to your web site files and settings.  Think of this as going through your house and changing all the locks, after you have had a burglar break in.

How to Scan Your Personal Computers

You might think that time is of the essence, however it will do you no good if you rush to fix your web site, if you are the one infecting it.  You need to run a combination of a anti-malware and anti-virus on your computer to make sure you are not the source of your problem.  I would recommend scanning your PC like this:

• Scan Your PC with an Anti-Malware Program
• Scan Your PC with an Anti-Virus Program
• Scan Your PC with an Online Anti-Virus Program

You could use a number of different anti-malware programs however I wouldn’t recommend installing more than one anti-virus program.  You get your second opinion there with the online anti-virus service.

Here are some great free anti-malware and anti-virus solutions:

• AVG Free (free anti-virus scanner)
• Trend Micro Housecall (free online anti-virus scanner)
• Avast Home Edition (free anti-virus scanner)
• Panda ActiveScan (free online anti-virus scanner)
• Spybot Search and Destroy (free anti-malware scanner)
• AdAware Free (free anti-malware scanner)
• Microsoft Windows Defender (free anti-malware scanner)

There are others out there, this should help you get started finding the best combination of scanners for you though. Another important tip to mention is that you need to scan each computer that has had contact with that web site, either by visit or because you used it to work on your web site.

Just like you lock your door at night to prevent somebody breaking in and stealing all your stuff, you need to make sure your web site is kept as secure as possible so you do not have these problems in the future.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 197!
Running Time: 11 minutes | File Size: 5.14 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode:

• Web Site Hacked? Scan Yourself First!
• Be Proactive About Password Theft
• Update or Remove Out of Date Scripts
• Fixing Files and Folders After a Web Site Hack

Here is this week’s web hosting news headline:
Web Host Boot Camp 2009 – Another Web Host Boot Camp is coming up.  December 7th through December 9th, attendees, exhibitors, sponsors and guests will come together for three days to discuss, learn, share tips and techniques and much more.

FastServers.net is Now LayeredTech – I would also like to welcome the Web Hosting Show’s new supporter and sponsor, LayeredTech.com.  LayeredTech specializes in enterprise, cloud, and dedicated server hosting.  I look forward to having as good of a relationship with them as we had with FastServers.net.

From iframe injections, to virus or trojan installs, we all need to make sure we are prepared for the worst, or at least know what to do when the worst might happen.  That is what today’s show is all about.  I hope you enjoy, and if you have any other web site security tips to share, be sure to leave them in the comments!