Now, cPanel is by far the most popular control panel option out there these days.  Do you really know what makes it stand out from the rest of the crowd though? Here are the top 5 reasons why cPanel really rocks.

1. The File Manager is easy to understand and to use.  It doesn’t limit power users by making things too simple and it doesn’t confuse new users with a lot of controls they might not understand yet.
2. It can be customized by a web host to no end.  You can quickly view a server’s PHP configuration, install Ruby Gems, setup custom error messages and more.
3. cPanel does it all when it comes to email configurations.  Right out of the box, you get support for POP, IMAP, and SMTP.  Webmail is there too, and you can get into your mail with or without SSL encryption.
4. Everything is one click away.  Now this might depend on the theme you use, but in most cases – you can get the information you need in one to two clicks.
5. With additional tools like Fantastico, installing and updating scripts is really easy to master too.  Takes a lot of boring work out of the equation and just makes playing with a lot of third-party scripts a lot easier.

There you have it.  Love it or hate it, you have to admit that its dominance in the world of web hosting has to be admired. I have a feeling cPanel will be around for many more years to come, and how dominant it is will be up to cPanel and the web hosting community at large.

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If you ask just about anybody what control panel their web hosting account is using, nine times out of ten you are going to get cPanel as the response.  While cPanel has always seemed to be the proverbial, “big daddy” when it comes to controlling hosting accounts – I do have to say the company has done a great job at sort of remaking its image to seem more up to date and awesome.

It was not too long ago that people picked cPanel because it was pretty much the standard when it comes to web hosting control panels.  It might not have been the prettiest or the best, but it got the job done.  For Pete’s sake, it has been around since 1997 – so I would be willing to bet it is one of the oldest control panels out there too.

What is New with cPanel?

Over the past couple of years though, cPanel has gone beyond being the ugly old reliable control panel we have to use to the flexible and pretty control panel we want to use.  The cPanel website also offers much more when it comes to teaching you more about the company and the product.  Here are just a few of the more recent innovations you might not have seen yet:

• Webinars
  Join the technical marketing team and learn about product roadmaps, new features and topics you suggest. Hosted by David Grega and Mario Rodriguez
• Dev Blog
  Are you integrating your application with cPanel? Read tips, discussions, and how to’s related to integration, API’s, and tools by cPanel developers!
• News
  Catch the latest happening at cPanel ranging from software updates, press releases and general talk about the industry in the news section.
• Podcast
  Listen to cPanel technical writer Lindsey White as she discusses web hosting and interviews industry superstars.
• Social Media
  Follow cPanel on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or the forums and become part of the 1000′s of followers that engage in these communities.
• Events
  Find out where the cPanel team will be at next. This include various conventions, events and seminars across the globe.

So if you haven’t spent some time on the cPanel website in a while, I recommend you go check it out today.  Both the “Interact” and “Support” areas are well worth your time.

What is your favorite memory of cPanel? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 212!
Running Time: 6 minutes | File Size: 2.54 MB

For many people out there, cPanel has been the best control panel for a number of reasons.  The question I have for you is what are those reasons?

Here is a summary of the topics we will be discussing this week:

cPanel – Fresh, Bold and Fun Control Panel

If you ask just about anybody what control panel their web hosting account is using, nine times out of ten you are going to get cPanel as the response.  While cPanel has always seemed to be the proverbial, “big daddy” when it comes to controlling hosting accounts – I do have to say the company has done a great job at sort of remaking its image to seem more up to date and awesome.

Top 5 Reasons cPanel Rocks

Now, cPanel is by far the most popular control panel option out there these days.  Do you really know what makes it stand out from the rest of the crowd though? Here are the top 5 reasons why cPanel really rocks.

Feel free to leave your own thoughts, suggestions and feedback on or about cPanel in the comments.  I would love to hear them.  Hope you enjoy the show, and if you do – consider sharing it on Twitter, Facebook or even subscribe to the RSS feed so you never miss another episode!

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 211!
Running Time: 7 minutes | File Size: 3.14 MB

Meilena Hauslendale personal development author, and has been providing life guidance and insight for over 11 years.  She has published six books and in those books, her style of writing really gives the reader a step by step guide to achieving success.

Her most recent book, Stop Complaining: Your Guide to Living Life Instead of Complaining About It, really brings home the idea that you can live a much happier life if you curb your unproductive complaining and how to really redirect your energy towards bettering your life, rather than depleting it.

On today’s podcast I talked with Meilena one-on-one about not only her projects but the frustration we sometimes have when it comes to web hosting and customer relationships, or the other way around.

You can check out more of Meilena’s work on iMotivate.org and also you can pick up her book Stop Complaining: Your Guide to Living Life Instead of Complaining About It at Amazon.com.

Hope you enjoy this special edition of today’s show.  I hope it serves as a reminder that we don’t need to get all stressed out and worried about silly situations in the web hosting world.  There is always a better solution, you just have to go out there and grab it. 

What things do you complain about when it comes to web hosting or web development these days?

Not sure who these indy wrestling stars are, so if you know – please drop in a mention via the comments.

Yeah, I am a little offended nobody asked the web hosting industry’s media rock star to do the play by play of the action – but it does look like it was a lot of fun.

How should you handle somebody else out there stealing content from your website?  This happens a lot with blogs, because the content is so easily ripped from one source so it can be reproduced somewhere else.  Most of the time, it is best to content the copyright thief first before going to the web host of the thief.  So here is a better way to stop copyright theft of your website’s content.

The first thing you will want to do is find some contact information for the person who is stealing your content.  This can often be done by looking at their about page, the contact page, in the footer of the website, or even in the meta tags or source code.  Once you have a name or e-mail address, you can take the next step.

Note: A Whois search on their domain name could be used to,  but it is not recommended since it could be privatized or providing false details about the person.

Now, you are ready to contact the thief.  Remember, your main goal is to inform them of the theft, open discussions about it, gather information and save everything you do – just in case you need to turn the conversation over to the webhost of the thief.  Also, keep the conversation professional and to the point.  Do not go out of your way to be mean or rude, because then chance are you will be even less likely to get a response.

Remember, you want to:

• Ask them to remove the plagiarized material as soon as possible (give them a 4 to 5 day window of time to get this done)
• Show them the source of their copyright theft, and your proof it came from you and it is your content
• Maybe let them keep the content up if they link back to you or by some other deal you could negotiate between the two of you

Now if this route does not work, and you do not hear anything back in a week or two it might be time to move into sending a cease and desist and also contacting the web host for the offending website to start discussing the DMCA violations at play in your situation.

For more information, I would suggest checking out this great guide that Lorelle on WordPress has put together.

This should at least help you get started (and take care of about 75% of the content theft you deal with) when it comes to protecting your unique content online.

Want More? – Check out the rest of the DMCA conversation in Podcast 210!

The DMCA is an abbreviation for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was signed into law in 1998.  Now the big reason most people do no like this law is because it put in place questionable laws about circumnavigating copyright protection for personal backup use or the overall vagueness of the law in general.  However, that really has nothing to do with web hosting – so I will not be discussing this issue today.  The issue we will be talking about is the way the law made it easier for copyright holders to get stolen material off a website that doesn’t have the right to distribute it.

Are Web Hosts Protected in DMCA Cases?

What you might not know is that the DMCA has built in protection for web hosts, so they can not be held liable if a client is hosting a website breaking the DMCA.  In exchange, the web host has to promptly remove or block access to the content in question.

What Are DMCA Take-down Notices

If you go from web host to web host, you will see the pages detailing how they deal with the DMCA and DMCA take-down notices are very similar.  They will often ask for these details:

• The signature of the person claiming their copyrighted material was stolen
• Links or details about the copyrighted material that have been used elsewhere
• Your address, phone number and other contact details
• A statement by you that the copyrighted material is yours, and you wish for it to be taken down

Most of the time, in small claim situations, that is enough to get the infringed content off the website in question and you can go along your merry way.  However, sometimes this will lead into a legal battle between the two parties (especially when the copyright of the material is not clear) but at that point you need to really be talking to a lawyer, and not to me.

I hope that helps to explain what the Digital Millennium Copyright is and how it pertains to web hosting companies.

Want More? – Check out the rest of the DMCA conversation in Podcast 210!

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 210!
Running Time: 8 minutes | File Size: 3.50 MB

So how does web hosting, the DMCA and copyright protection all mash up and what do you need to know?  I am glad you asked.

Here is a summary of the topics we are covering this week:

Web Hosts and the DMCA

What is the DMCA and how does it pertain to web hosts?  I will go into detail about how parts of this law do have to do with web hosting, and how that might effect us all.  Also, learn what each web hosts needs to ask for before a DMCA claim will even be looked into.

How to Handle Website Content Theft

So, you have somebody stealing your articles, photos, artwork or something else.  How can you use the DMCA and the US copyright laws to your advantage?  I will let you know.  Also, learn how and what you should do when your confronting those who have stolen your content for the best results.

Hope this week’s podcast comes in handy in your own copyright battles, or to help you better understand how the DMCA, copyright theft and website hosting all meshes together.

Apple TV Giveaway Contest!

Ping! Zine and the Web Hosting Show have teamed up to offer you a chance to win your very own Apple TV.  Where is the catch?  There isn’t one.  All you have to do is subscribe, for free, to Ping! Zine.  For more details on this fantastic contest be sure to check out webhostingshow.com/pingzine.

Feel free to leave your comments, thoughts and suggestions for future show topics or your own feelings about the DMCA and copyright theft in the comments.  This podcast is here to help anybody, from big web hosts to small web developers – so I want to hear back from each and every one of you.

Now, anybody who has been following my websites over the years should know by now that I like to go down the, do it yourself route most of the time.  However, if you are a company with a budget to spare, hiring a search engine optimization expert or firm might be a worthy investment.

However, before you sign on the dotted line and hand them over your hard earned cash, I would suggest you go over these seven important factors when it comes to the search engine optimization business.

1. Don’t Fall for Getting Listed
   If a company simply says they will get you listed in X number of search engines, run away.  You can simply do that yourself for free at each search engine’s website.
2. Know What You Are Paying For
   Be sure they you get it in writing, each service that they are doing to be doing for you, and get details on each as far as how exactly it will be helping you become more optimized for the search engines out there.
3. Beware Link Exchanges
   Stay away from any company that says they will do link exchanges for you.  Most of the time you will just become a part of a large network of websites that link to other websites, and the search engines don’t like the whole link farming idea.
4. Stay Within Your Budget
   Do not get talked into spending more money than you have put aside for search engine optimization.  Stick to your budget, and find an SEO firm that will work with you and you financial status.
5. Ask for References and Results
   Always be sure to ask for a list of clients websites they have done work for in the past, and where they were able to help.  This is another way they can prove to you they are a legitimate operation.
6. Stay Away from Guarantees
   Do not do business with people who guarantee things that sound too good to be true.  Nobody can promise the number one spot in Google for your favorite keyword.  If they do offer a guarantee, ask for proof and examples.
7. Read Customer Reviews
   Make sure you read all the reviews you can from the company and from other resources around the Web about the company to see if they have ever had any complaints about them.  Now you have to take each review with a grain of salt, but overall you should be able to get a good idea of if they are a good or bad SEO company.

Last but not least, expect to pay a hefty price when it comes to hiring an SEO expert or buying into a SEO business’s services.  They don’t come cheap, and that is why most of the time I personally like to go down the “do it yourself” route when it comes to optimizing my own websites for the search engines out there.

Want More? – Check out the rest of the SEO conversation in Podcast 209!

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an often talked about, yet rarely mastered trait that gets brought up in web hosting discussions.  Most people usually come down on SEO tips and tricks one of two ways.  They think it is legit and the business works, and others think it is all nothing but snake oil.

The truth of this age old debate is that search engine optimization is a legitimate business and way to get more traffic to your website.  However, there are SEO snake oil salesmen out there that have given the business a bad name.

Search engine optimization is the art of maximizing the volume or quality of traffic to a website from search engines via regular or unpaid search results.  The higher your webpage is in the results, the more traffic your website will get.

Is it Wise to Invest in Search Engine Optimization?

Now there is no secret voodoo at work with this.  Any one of you out there right now could do the same thing that any SEO expert could do.  Then again, you could also all build your own house brink by brick too.  The point is, SEO as a business is there to do the work for you, that you don’t have the time to do.  You may not have the desire or knowledge on how to build a house, so you go buy one instead.  The same could be said for buying the services of an SEO expert to make your website rank higher on the search engines out there. So yes, you can pay somebody to optimize your website for the search engines.  It is just like hiring the kid down the block to mow your lawn.

The big search engines out there have also come to realize that this business, in the most part, is there to help them and have provided webmasters with information on how to get a higher search engine ranking.  They all try to nail the fact that you need quality content to succeed too.

I would suggest that any small business out there that does not have the budget for an SEO expert to learn more about what you can do to optimize your website yourself.  This is just one more hat out of the many that you or somebody inside your business or website will have to wear to be successful.  Focus on the positive things you can do to increase your website rank – and you should have noticeable success.    Speaking as an example, I have learned a lot by reading up on articles and blogs about the SEO topic enough that my websites do fairly well.  Am I an SEO expert?

No, I am just the sort of guy who would rather build his house himself – brick by brick.

Want More? – Check out the rest of the SEO conversation in Podcast 209!

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 209!
Running Time: 9 minutes | File Size: 4.15 MB

So what should you know and be aware of?  Let me do what I can to help.

There is no doubt that search engine optimization is a tricky business.  Rather than give you a handful of SEO tips as I have done before, I want to help you learn what search engine optimization really is, and what you should look for if you are in the market for hiring our own SEO expert.

Truth About Search Engine Optimization

On the Internet, it can sometimes be hard to tell what is true and what is not true.  I will go over all the basics and history about what search engine optimization is, what it isn’t and what you need to know to become successful at it.

7 Questions to Ask a SEO Company

Some of the larger web hosts out there might be looking to hire an SEO expert of their very own.  Before you sign up with any search engine optimization firm though, I would highly recommend you check out this list of seven things to watch out for when hiring an SEO firm or expert.

Apple TV Giveaway Contest!

Ping! Zine and the Web Hosting Show have teamed up to offer you a chance to win your very own Apple TV.  Where is the catch?  There isn’t one.  All you have to do is subscribe, for free, to Ping! Zine.  For more details on this fantastic contest be sure to check out webhostingshow.com/pingzine.

Hope you enjoy this search engine optimizing version of the Web Hosting Show podcast.  I am always looking for ways to help make the wacky world of web hosting and web development come alive.  So if you have any ideas, suggestions or feedback make sure you leave a comment.

I hope you enjoy, and stay tuned for even more great web hosting tutorials, podcasts, videos and more right here on the Web Hosting Show.  I have some great things in store for all of you – so hope you will jump aboard the Web Hosting Show bandwagon and enjoy the ride.

Let me share with you my tips on how you can faster web hosting support, with any web host out there on the planet.

There are three central points you need to make when you contact your web host when you notice a problem with your web site.

• Verification
• Details About the Problem
• What You Have Done to Troubleshoot the Problem

I can guarantee you that if you include these three things in your e-mail or help desk ticket to support, you will get a faster resolution to your problem.

Verification

The reason verification is important is because every web host wants to make sure they are talking with the account owner or somebody that has the authorization to give the thumbs up to them mucking around with the website to fix the problem.  Always include your primary domain name on the account, your first and last name, and whatever the web host uses most often for verification.  This can sometimes be the last four digits of the credit card you have on record, the first and last digits of your password or some security question like, “What is your mother’s maiden name?”.  If you are unsure, it might be a good time now to check with your web host to see how they handle account verification when support issues come up.

Details

Next, you want to include the details about the problem.  Do not just write, “I can’t see my website, fix it!”.  Give exact details about the problem.  Include details like:

• Exact Error Message You Got
• What Time Did the Error Happen
• What Changes Did You Make Prior to the Problem
• What Scripts and Services are You Running

Think of it as reporting a crime to the police.  You do not just tell police, “Hey, a guy stole my wallet”.  You tell them where your wallet was stolen, what your wallet looks like, what the thief was wearing, and more.  The more details police have about the situation, the faster they can find the guy who robbed you.  The same could be said for giving information to a web hosting support team, so they can fix your problem.

Troubleshooting

Now, this last nugget of information is one that is often overlooked by many when discussing problems with a web hosting support team.  What have you done on your own to troubleshoot a problem.  You want to make a list of things you have tried to fix the problem, so the web host does not turn around and suggest things for you to try that you have already tried.  Make it clear that you have already tried to do this, that and the other, so they can be eliminated as solutions to the problem.  This helps the web hosting support team to narrow down the issue causing the problem and the troubleshooting steps needed to be taken to find the problem.  Rather than tell you to do A, B and C – you have already done A and B, so they only have to suggest C now.

They key thing to remember when contacting any support team is that information is the most important thing you can provide. Remember to always verify you are the account owner, give details about the problem, and tell them what you have done to fix the problem.  This will make for shorter back and forth conversation with a web hosting support team and will lead to your problem being fixed faster.

A web hosting company can not keep a customer base happy with sloppy support habits.  Think of your reply back to a web hosting customer as a sandwich.  You start out with the slice of bread introducing yourself, you have the goodies inside which represent your reply and you have the second piece of bread to finish things off.  If you learn how to build your sandwich reply, then you can handle support situations in a much faster way than the web host down the block is doing it, making your web hosting company just a little ‘bit better.

Introduce Yourself

First impressions are important, so you never want to jump right into the reply without letting people know who you are.  In the first part of your reply, you need to state who you are, what company you are working for and thank the customer for doing business with you.

Here is a perfect example:

Hello Bob,

Thank you for hosting your site with the Web Hosting Show.  My name is Mitch, and I will be helping you with the problems you detailed for us in your help desk ticket you sent earlier today.

In those two sentences, I was able to greet the customer, tell them who I am, what company I am working for and generally start the customer/client conversation on a happier foot.  Also note that I used the client’s name too.  This is very important.  If you know the customer’s name, make sure you use it to start the message.  This makes for a much more customized reply to the client.  They feel like they are talking to a real person, and not just reading some pre-defined message you send out for these types of situations.

Meat and Potatoes of Support

Next, you will want to give the proverbial meat and potatoes of the reply.  You want to make sure you give the impression that you understand the problem, clarify the issue (if needed) and then give suggestions for fixes they can do or thing you need for them to do.

Now this is highly flexible depending on the situation at hand.   Just make sure you read and re-read your reply before you send it back to the customer.  Make sure this makes sense to not only you, but to somebody who might be less knowledgeable on the topic than you are.

Wrapping Up Communications

At the end of a reply to a customer, you want to hit some of the basics you touched upon in the introduction.  You want to thank the customer for doing business with your company, and you want to leave the proverbial door open, just in case they have any other problems.

Here is another example:

Thank you for your time today Bob, and I hope this helps to solve the problems you were having.  If there is anything else we can do for you, please feel free to contact us again, anytime.

See what I did there?  I called the client by his name again, thanked him for his time and told him if he needed anything else, then to please let us know and we’d be happy to help out.

The golden rule comes into play in any customer/support team contact. You do not just want to get them the answer.  The golden rule says, “treat others as you would like to be treated”.  You must put yourself in that person’s shoes and think, what kind of reply would you like to see if the shoe was on the other foot?

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 208!
Running Time: 10 minutes | File Size: 4.69 MB

Having been on both sides of the web hosting support fence, both as a client and as a web hosting customer support guru, I will give you all the insight I know about this topic today, in a handy mp3 format.

Now some might say a lot of what I suggest on today’s show is common sense.  This is true.  Sometimes though, common sense gets thrown out the window when it comes to just getting the job done.  I don’t want to just show you how to do the job.  I want to share with you my advice on how to get the job done right.

How to Get Faster Web Hosting Support

You might not know this, but there are plenty of ways you can get faster support from any web host out there.  You have to learn how to ask your question, give as many details as possible, and do so in a way that covers all the bases and speeds up the web hosting support response times.

How to Give Faster Web Hosting Support

Your web hosting company is only as good as your web hosting support team.  Make sure your support replies are built like a brick house, and not like a sloppy sandwich.  Company to client conversations are always delicate, so best not to get sloppy when your customers are having a problem.

What do you have to say about this topic?  What advice would you have out there for the web hosts or the web hosting clients when it comes to making the entire support experience better?  Feel free to share your questions, comments and suggestions in the comments.

Nobody likes having their web hosting account suspended for any reason.  Going through a server resource usage suspension though can be on of the more stressful combination of web site hosting problems because of the many factors that come into play.  Let me see if I can help you, to make your next server resource suspension at least go a little smoother, or at least let you know what you can expect.

Notification of the System Resource Usage Problem

Now the situation starts with getting some sort of notification via e-mail about the problem at hand.  Often, web hosts will give you details on where the script is hosted on your site that is causing the problem.  It is often up to you to decide what that script is though.

Next, you have to figure out a way to disable that script or disable the part of the script that is causing the problems.  For example, if you were using WordPress to manage your web site, turn off all the plugins.  I wouldn’t disable WordPress all together, but switching off the plugins or changing to the default theme might help find the cause of the problem.

Fixing a Server Resource Usage Problem

The truth of the issue is you will have to turn things on and off, disable this, delete that and more.  It will take some detective work to find the root of the issue that is causing the shared server’s RAM and CPU to go up so much.

Your web host will often review your account status ever 24 hours or so, to see if your changes are having any real impact in reducing your server resource usage.

Although it sounds like a way to get more money from you, upgrading to a VPS or dedicated hosting plan are a reasonable fix for the problem too. Your web site might have grown in popularity and usage so much, it is time to look for a hosting plan that will give you more proverbial “elbow room” when it comes to RAM or CPU usage.

I hope that helps with fixing your own server resource issues or, at least, lets you know what you can expect if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.  Feel free to post your own tips or questions in the comments, would love to hear what you have to say about this debatable topic.

What exactly does it mean to be using too many server resources in a shared web hosting environment?  Web sites can often get suspended for using too many server resources, such as RAM or CPU usage.  To put in the simplest terms, your web site might be overloading the server to an extent where no other accounts on the same hosting server can continue to function.

How Many Server Resources Do You Have?

When your web site is hosted on a shared web hosting server, you share certain elements of the web hosting with other people that are on the same server you are on.  The metaphor might be a little old, but think of it as being virtual neighbors with other web hosting clients like yourself. Each neighbor has to share the same amount of the server’s RAM and CPU processing power.

Now the limits on how many sever resources you can use might vary from web host to web host, so check with your web host for the hard numbers and statistics.  Now the next question is, how do these problems happen?

Causes for Server Resource Usage Suspensions

There are many different events that could cause you to use too many server resources.  Here are just a few common examples:

• Hacked or Security Related Issues
• Script or Plugin Vulnerability
• Sudden Burst of Popularity
• Out of Date Script or Plugin
• Badly Written Script or Plugin

Anything that is over working the server could be considered a cause.

I hope that helps to explain what it means to use too many server resources in web hosting.  As long as you are proactive about how much RAM or CPU power your web site is using, you should never run into a big server resource usage problem.  If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 207!
Running Time: 8 minutes | File Size: 3.39 MB

Learn on this week’s podcast how to reduce your impact on the shared hosting server your web site is hosted from and have a little fun.

Has your web site gotten suspended due to you using too of the server’s memory or processing power?  Here’s some of the topics we discussed on today’s show:

Website Using Too Many Server Resources?

Before you can fix a problem, you have to know what the problem is.  So what does it mean to be using too many system or server resources?  We will discuss this in detail, so you know exactly what the problem is your web host is trying to explain to you.

How to Fix a Server Resource Site Suspension

Now that we know what it means to use too much RAM or CPU power of the server, how can we fix the problem?  How long will it be before your web site is back up and running?  I will let you know, from my own experience, how long this might take and what you can do to help lessen your own downtime.

Would also love to hear what you have to say on the topic.  Make sure you leave your comments to let us all know your questions, answers, suggestions or tips when it comes to getting your web site back up and running after being shut down due to a server resource suspension.

There are hundreds of web hosting providers out there that provide affiliate programs for you to join.  The questions now are, what is an affiliate program? Why would I want to join one? What can I do to make my affiliate links more successful?  Well, I hope to bring you up to speed as I discuss the benefits of affiliate programs for your average webmaster.

The simplest way to define an affiliate program is to say that you get paid for bringing a web host more customers.  For example, say your friend needs web hosting space and asks you for a suggestion.  You, in turn, give them your affiliate program link to click through.  When they sign up, you get the credit for bringing them in, and the web host gets a new customer.  It is a winning situation for everybody involved.

Affiliate Ad Placement

Once you have signed up in a web host’s affiliate program, you will be given a way to bring new customers in.  This is most often done though a link that is unique to your affiliate account with them.  You can then use this link to put up either text link advertisements on your web site or banner links.  Some people love these types of systems because they get paid more when/if somebody signs up for the service in question than they do when they run the more traditional web site advertisements.

When placing you advertisements, you should follow the general rules:

• Make sure you put it above the scroll line (so people don’t have to scroll down to see it).
• Put it in close with your web site’s content, so it blends in well and will more likely be seen.
• Only use one or two banners per web page, because using any more than that tends to look tacky.

Who’s affiliate program is the best? There are too many out there to rank them all.  Usually when somebody asks me this question, I would say check with your current web host first, to see it they offer one.  If not, you might search Google for, “Web Hosting Affiliate Programs” and do some research.  Just because there is a high payout per sign up does not mean they are the best.  You will want to look at the quality of the hosting experience too.  By advertising that web host, you put your “seal of approval” on it.  So if you do not want your name tarnished, make sure you team up with a respectable web host.

So what affiliate program questions do you have?  Leave your thoughts, questions and comments and we will all be here to help you out.

Are you a web host looking for a way to bring in new customers, and reward current customers or web site owners for doing the dirty work for you?  Then you might want to look into setting up an affiliate program.  It takes some capital stored up to get started, but once you do – you will see your new accounts list grow and grow every single day.

Most of the time when a web host starts an affiliate program they either host and setup the script themselves or they let a third party control things.  If you go the self hosted route, you can always search Google for, “affiliate program scripts” to find some script suggestions.  I have not had much experience with scripts like this, so I will leave that as homework for you to do.  For smaller web hosts, letting a third party handle things might seem more efficient.  You have less to worry about and all you really have to do is dump some money in, and then decide who gets paid for what referral.

Two third party affiliate program providers you might check out are:

• Commission Junction
• Google Affiliates

Both have their own good and bad points, but have also established themselves as leaders in their field. I would highly suggest either one of them (or both!).

How Much Should You Pay Per Referral?

Now, how do you determine how much to pay out per referral?  On average, I would say pay out half the yearly price of your most popular plan.  So if your most popular web hosting plan costs $120 a year, you should pay your affiliate partners $60 per referral.  Not going to say you have to play by that rule, but I have seen it as a success time and time again.

Unless you have an endless supply of cash you will need to make sure you are still making enough profit in the long term to meet the discount you are providing now.

I hope that helps any web hosts out there listening with their own affiliate program questions.  Now I have to ask you, what have you seen that works as far as setting up an affiliate program?  Please give us all a few suggestions in the comments.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 206!
Running Time: 8 minutes | File Size: 3.48 MB

The world of affiliate hosting, for both web hosts and web hosting clients is surrounded with a lot of buzz words and scariness.

Today I will cut through the clutter to help you understand it all.  Here is what I have lined up for this week’s show:

Earn Cash on Web Hosting Referrals

There are hundreds of web hosting providers out there that provide affiliate programs for you to join.  The questions now are, what is an affiliate program? Why would I want to join one? What can I do to make my affiliate links more successful?  Well, I hope to bring you up to speed as I discuss the benefits of affiliate programs for your average webmaster.

How to Setup an Affiliate Program

Are you a web host looking for a way to bring in new customers, and reward current customers or web site owners for doing the dirty work for you?  Then you might want to look into setting up an affiliate program.  It takes some capital stored up to get started, but once you do – you will see your new accounts list grow and grow every single day.

This week’s podcast should be a lot of fun.  Hope you enjoy listening to it, and let me know some of your favorite affiliate tips and tricks too.  By sharing our ideas and opinions we can all make the world of affiliate hosting a better place for everybody to make money in.

Hello citizens of the web hosting world!  I know as of late updates have been few and far between, but I come with good news.  Rather than saying there will still be at least another week with no new podcast, I will say new podcasts will go back in production in May (next month, for those of you without a calendar handy). 

I have a few personal and career situations to be worked out first, and in the long run this will be good news for one and all, because I am going back to spending more time with all my great, wonderful listeners right here.

So, with that said if you have any podcast suggestions or questions you would like for me to answer on the show, please be sure to use the Submit Your Questions form on WebHostingShow.com and also make sure you are subscribing to the RSS feed so you never miss a week’s episode.  It is free to do, easy to do and most of all important to do if you want to get all the great web hosting and web development related tips, tutorials and more that are featured here every day.

Thank you all for your continue support, and you will be hearing more from me (yes, very literal pun) next month.

Forums are a great way to give a community a way to communicate with each other Online.  However, there are a lot of forum scripts out there that each have their own personality.  So which should you choose when you are starting up your own set of message boards?

Traditional Free Message Boards

SMF (otherwise known as Simple Machine Forum) is a good script to start out with if you want that generic look and feel of your average set of forums.  The custom made template engine puts you in control of the layout, look and feeling.   Written with PHP and MySQL in mind, the requirements are low – so it should run on just about any shared hosting plan out there – without a  problem.

Forums That Are a Little Different

Now there are some unique forum scripts out there that really deserve more attention too.  Both Vanilla and bbPress are worth checking into.

• The Vanilla script does not provide the traditional look and feel of the forums your grandmother was used to using.  It is hard to put into words, so I will say say it has a much cleaner interface and way of showing the most recent discussions.
• The bbPress script is developed by the minds behind WordPress.  So, this means if you are already using WordPress, the bbPress script should be pretty easy for you to learn, customize and edit to suit your needs.  It might not get the same amount of attention as WordPress does – but it gets the job done.

Watch Out for This Script!

While phpBB is still a popular selection, you might want to think twice before using it over some of the other scripts I have suggested here.  The reason being, it is very susceptible to security issues and hacking, due to the fact it has been out the longest, and it is a bigger target than some of the other scripts I have named.

I hope this helps you at least get started comparing the best free forum scripts out there, so you can see which one is right for your online project or web site.

If you can remember the word M.I.D.G.E.T. you too can run a successful set of forums.

M ight Need to Setup the Rules First – The most important part of your forums are the rules.  They set the mood, and the guidelines for what people can and can not do.  Keep the general rules short and simple (under ten would be nice) so people will actually take the time to check them out.

I nactive Forums Are No Fun – Try your best to keep your forums active with new threads and topics every day.  If needed, you might ask a few of your friends to stop by and post here and there to help you get started, ‘till you have your own community built up anyways.

D on’t Forget Contest and Promotions – A good way to start building some free press for yourself, and to get people interested is to start a contest, giveaway or promotion.  People like free stuff, and they will flock to you for giving it to them.

G et Some Interactive Topics and Discussions Going – Whatever your forum’s main topic is, try to start some topics that encourage contributing to. Asking for people favorite this, that or the other is a great conversation starter, just as one example.

E void Controversial People and Ideas – OK, I know Evoid isn’t a word, but I had to make it fit.  People who like to pick fights should be dealt with quickly.  While some debate is healthy, make sure you run things, and you kick people who are ruining the party for everybody else.  Don’t let the inmates run the asylum.

T hanks for All the Fish – It might sounds cliche, but going to say it anyways.  Remember to have fun with your forums.  Enjoy what are building, and the community you are helping to found.

So there you have my few suggestions on how you can make your forums a little more successful from the start.

If anybody else out there in Web Hosting Land has any suggestions – feel free to leave them in the comments or drop me an e-mail.  Would love to hear your thoughts on this issue.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 205!
Running Time: 8 minutes | File Size: 3.57 MB

I want to help you when it comes to web hosting, forums and everything in between.  One of those things in between is a midget, but there will be plenty of time for that later.  Here is a summary of the topics for this week’s broadcast.

Comparing the Best Free Forum Scripts

Forums are a great way to give a community a way to communicate with each other Online.  However, there are a lot of forum scripts out there that each have their own personality.  So which should you choose when you are starting up your own set of message boards?

The MIDGET Rule to Forum Success

Anybody can set up a forum script and host it somewhere, but what does it take to make a set of forums on the Web a big success?  Well, I might not be able to help you build the most popular set of message boards you have ever seen (because if I could, I’d be doing that – earning millions in Google AdSense ads, and not still going on and on here).  I do have a few suggestions though how you can get off the ground after having setup your forum script.

So what advice to you have to forum newbies out there?

The comments are open and ready for your suggestions.  Let me know what you think about this week’s podcast, and any other advice you might have for the web hosting world.

With any web site or online business, it is important to change things up a ‘bit every so often.  You don’t want to be seen as becoming stale, or yesterday’s news, so bringing new web site concepts or ideas could be the perfect diversification tool you need to keep people interested in what you do and what you have to offer. There is not a web site out there today that could not be helped by adding one of these four web site service ideas.

Here are four different ways you can branch your web site out:

Blogs – Many people use blogs to extend their web sites.  To keep people coming back several times a day, weekly, monthly or more you need to deliver fresh innovative content.  A blogging script is the perfect give you the perfect delivery tool to make that happen.

Forums or Message Boards – Setting up a forum script will give the fan base that your web site has a place to discuss issues or issues related to your web site.  For example, if I added forums to WebHostingShow.com, they would be for all of you to discuss web hosting and web development issues among yourselves.

Social Sites – It might not be a hosted service, but it is certainly a little something extra you can do to bring more eyeballs in to see your web site.  Look into setting up profiles on Twitter, Facebook and the like to bring mention of your web site outside your own domain.  Use them as a way to socialize with your fan base, and keep them up to date on the latest and greatest things you have to offer.

E-Commerce Scripts – Finally, you have e-commerce scripts (also sometimes called shopping cart scripts).  By adding an e-commerce section to your web site, you will bring in a new way to bring in revenue and sell your unique products and ideas.  Make sure you start off small, and you sell something that is unique to your web site or business.

There are your four different ways you can diversify your own web site or online business to attract new eyeballs, and keep the current eyeballs you have coming back for more content, news, and services.

Get the Podcast! Listen to this article and more on Web Hosting Show, podcast #204!

Domain Name Registration – This one is the most obvious additional service a web host can provide.  Who doesn’t want to give customers the ability to register a domain and buy the hosting in one place?  By doing so, you keep you customers from looking elsewhere for one of the most important add-ons you could branch out into.

Backup Hosting – Many web hosts move into backup hosting too.  You could provide off site personal backup as a secondary service, or you could offer a subscription based service for the customer’s web site backup and the process of restoring that backup.

SEO or Marketing Services – When it comes to selling search engine optimization or any sort of marking packages, make sure you have the support team to back you up.  This sort of service has a bad reputation, because many people see it as selling snake oil.  It is a tricky one to show real results from, so if you do move into the SEO and marketing business, just make sure you provide your customers with the goods.

Gift Cards – Providing gift cards can be an excellent way to make yourself look more compassionate about the customer’s needs.  It might not make loads of money, but providing a way to give your services as a present is never a bad thing.  It could help out beginning web hosting gurus, and help young webmasters in getting their first works on the Web.

Affiliate Programs – Why sell your web hosting plans yourself when you can get somebody else to do it for you?  By giving people a “finder’s fee” when they bring you a new customer, you give your community a reward, just for sharing their opinion.  Now it might be hard to lure affiliate professionals, when some companies pay 95% of their profit to affiliates, but start out low and work your way up.

Web Site Design – Like domain name registration, offering a web site design service or an internally built WYSIWYG editor is another nice extra service to add.  It is one of those web hosting necessities that everybody needs, and not everybody has the time to do themselves.

Other Flavors of Web Hosting – When it comes to adding extra services, do not just look at things outside web hosting.  You could offer more web hosting plans.  For example, if you only provide shared web hosting right now, you could move into VPS or dedicated web hosting services.  You could even make shared hosting plans that are a little cheaper (with less extras) or a shared hosting plan that is a little more expensive (with more extras).

There are many ways a web hosting company can diversify.  The important thing to remember is to keep your quality of the service as high as possible for each new service you provide.  I have seen web hosts launch a new product, then forget about it the next month, too many times.  Make sure you give yourself ample time to build up each new service you decide to provide.

Get the Podcast! Listen to this article and more on Web Hosting Show, podcast #204!

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 204!
Running Time: 9 minutes | File Size: 4.00 MB

If I had to pick one, I would say “diversify” would be the word of the week for this edition of the Web Hosting Show.  Here is a summary of this week’s show.

7 Extra Service Ideas for Web Hosts

There comes a time with every web host, when they feel they have outgrown their current services they provide, and they want to do more than just web hosting.  When a web host diversifies into other things, they often branch out internally or with the help of a third party into other services.  If you are a web host out there looking for a way to branch out, I have a few suggestions that you might want to look into.

4 Ways to Branch Out Your Web Site

With any web site or online business, it is important to change things up a ‘bit every so often.  You don’t want to be seen as becoming stale, or yesterday’s news, so bringing new web site concepts or ideas could be the perfect diversification tool you need to keep people interested in what you do and what you have to offer. There is not a web site out there today that could not be helped by adding one of these four web site service ideas.

Now it is your turn. Do you have any extra tips or something to say about diversifying a web hosting business or any personal web site out there on the Web?  Leave you comments or feel free to pass your thoughts to me at mitch@mitchkeeler.com.

It is always a good thing when you can share some positive news about web hosts joining web hosts for a good cause.  Hosting for Haiti is all about the biggest and brightest web hosting companies in the world coming together to support the victims of the earthquakes that happened in Haiti last month.

Here is a little ‘bit more about the project from the web site:

Although normally fiercely competitive, as members of the hosting community we know that the power we wield as a group is much more than we can wield individually. And so we’ve come together to help assist those affected by this disaster. With the generosity of all our combined customers, we hope to make a difference. And you can too. One dollar helps. One hundred dollars helps one hundred times more.

Any donations given through the web site go directly to the American Red Cross, and their web site and servers, so you know the donations you give are not going through a third party before they go to those who need it most.

If you are interested in donating, or learning more about this fantastic cause, be sure to check out HostingforHaiti.com.