Oh no, the sky is falling and it is all Google’s fault! There has been a lot of talk the past few days about Google stepping into the domain name business.
Now is it as big of a deal as everybody is making it out to be? I say no – and I’ll let you know why on today’s show. Also I have found a great new Online DNS tool that would be handy for both Web hosts and Web hosting clients to have. All that, and your usually Web hosting goodness is now on the air.
This is the number one Web hosting podcast in all of the land and I am more than happy to bring it to you each and every week. As the end of the year draws near, I hope to keep entertaining you and informing you about the Web hosting industry for the rest of 2006 and on into 2007.
Alright, it is time for me to do a little bubble bursting, I do not care who you are or what you do inside of the Web hosting industry – you are not perfect. No matter if I have a Web host that just started up tuning into me or Bob Parsons from GoDaddy, none of them are perfect. There is no such thing as the perfect Web hosting company.
Now I bet you are asking yourself, “Mitch, why are you being so depressing?”. Now I am not trying to ruin the mood for your holiday season, I am trying to talk straight with you. Every Web host out there needs to realize they have one or more places where they could stand to do some improving.
Since we are at the end of the year now is as good of time as any to look at several areas of your business to see what is working and what might not be working. Here are some questions you need to ask yourself if you are a Web host.
Are your sign up numbers going up?
Does Your customer support answer questions quickly enough?
Is there any public anger towards your company?
What could you do to make your business even better?
Now, of course, that is only the beginning of things. What you need to do is find aspects of your business that are not “up to snuff” and fix them. If you are not sure which areas of your business need work, do not be afraid to ask your clients. They will be more than willing to tell you about any problems if they have them.
Dear Web host, you are not perfect – so lets get to work and get things fixed before the new year comes rolling in.
When was the last time you did something nice for somebody else? You know, this time of year always makes me start thinking about charitable events and what we can all do to make the world a better place. One thing that you may or may not know is that many Web hosts get in the holiday spirit as well. There are a number of Web hosts that provide what you would call “charity hosting” for organizations for free.
Now this is a good idea for Web host to do. It not only shows that you have a compassionate and human side, it also helps the community. Now no matter if you consider your community your local area or the entire planet – there is always somebody out there that needs a Web site and some Web hosting.
For the Web hosting clients out there that might be searching for some free hosting for their charity, finding it might be a little tricky. Sure, there are a lot of Web hosts doing it, but sometimes it can be kind of hard to figure out if they do or not. If there is a Web host that you are interested in – it would not hurt to drop them an E-mail or contact their live chat sales agent to see what deals they might have for an organization like yours.
Just last week, Web design and development product database BoxedArt announced it has released a set of six premium Web templates free of charge to charities and non-profit organizations. So as you can see, hosting is not the only thing you might be able to get for free.
The thing to remember is to not be afraid to ask questions, because if you do not, the Web host might not think of letting you know they offer free hosting services for your situation or charitable need.
Those wacky Web hosting overlords that control your domains, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said last week that it is considering eliminating some outdated domain name extensions, according to reports.
Now which domain names are on the cutting block? Well it mainly has to do with eliminating domain names that are associated with countries that no longer exist. ICANN currently controls 265 domain name extensions, so as you can image – they are a little over due for a house cleaning.
The corporation says the Soviet Union’s .su is on the top of the list for deletion and the former Yugoslav republic’s .yu is also being taken into consideration. Some domain names that have already become obsolete include Great Britain’s .gb, which has been replaced by .uk, East Germany’s .dd and Zaire’s .zr after the country became the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Personally I think they could do away with .mobi as well for mobile devices. Nobody from ICANN or anywhere else has been able to answer my question about it. If you want to make a domain name extension that is easy to type in via a mobile device, why make it four characters long?
Typing those one or two extra characters just seems a little silly and it is not making my mobile experience any better.
Now back on podcast 86, I did a lot of talking about how Web hosts need to make sure they have some sort of knowledge base for their customers and workers to get quick and easy answers to questions that may come up more than once. I guess you could consider it a type of Web hosting help site that the Web host runs itself.
Well, I have found a very nice back end for you to make that knowledge base into a reality.
KnowledgebasePublisher is an open source publishing tool that will allow you to export the brains of your customer support and put it all on the Web. It is so easy to use that you can be managing knowledge base on your Web site right from your own web browser.
KnowledgebasePublisher allows a content administrator in your company to easily add/edit/delete and post current information to your website at any time, day or night.
Some of the included features are:
Related Articles
Users Can Ask Questions
Protection for Categories
Unlimited Categories
There is a lot more to love from this tool as well. Who knows, I might install it and get it running for the Web Hosting Show sometime soon. It has been a long time since I have been this impressed with a Web site back end script. All you need to do is install it, personalize it a little, and the rest of the work is done for you.
Well it looks like there are a few domain name extensions that are going to visit that big DNS server up in the sky. A few of them are on the chopping block and I’ll let you know who they are and why they are. Also, it is the holiday season, so how can charitable organizations find free hosting? I’ll let you in on that industry secret too right here on the Web Hosting Show, podcast 88.
Here are just a few topics that we discussed on this week’s Web Hosting Show podcast.
Knowledge Base Software to Help Your Web Hosting Company
Some Domain Extensions Are Going to the Old Folks Home
How to Find and Why You Should Give Free Hosting for Charities
Time to Clean House, You Are Not the Perfect Web Host
If you are looking for the sewing hour with Aunt Betty, I am afraid you have tuned into the wrong show. Now if you are looking for a podcast that sneaks you under it’s coat so you can get a look at the inside workings of the Web hosting industry – you folks can stay.
Customers of MediaTemple’s GridServer, which received widespread attention upon its debut last month, experienced significant downtime Tuesday.
GridServer is among the many cluster-based grid hosting services, offering the promise of enterprise-level reliability and scalability in an affordable web hosting plan.
Now that I got the “I told you so” out of the way, let me say something in the defense of Media Temple.
Bad things happen, no matter who your Web host is.
Media Temple’s advantage is also it’s disadvantage. They are host to a lot of popular blogs out there, so when things are good they get praise ten times more than anybody else. When things go back – the same thing happens in the negative sense.
Are you going to be the person who launches the next big thing but you are a little low in cash? All the best projects out there have had a little backing to get started. There is nothing wrong with looking for a sponsor of your latest and greatest project. One group of folks you probably have not given much thought to turning to is the Web hosting community.
It makes perfect sense if you think about it, they have plenty of disk space and bandwidth to go around. They have everything you are needing right now. When you take away the cost of hosting, you can now spend that cash in other places. You could be hiring talent, programmers or whatever you need.
Now what is the best way to contact the Web hosts about your next big thing? Well, I would post out there on every Web hosting forum out there. If you have any luck, you will be getting folks falling over each other to help you out. You could also contact the Web hosts directly – tell them about your project and then cross your fingers.
One helpful tip to remember when you are doing this is try not to sound like a jerk. Don’t tell them that they are lucky they are talking to you. Tell them you would be lucky if they partnered up with you. You don’t get favors by pretending to be the best thing going.
Now what will you have to give up in return? Well, most Web hosts or project backers will want to see something for them in the big picture. Offer them a link back on every Web page. Tell them when you are profitable, you will pay them back. Let them know you will give them a little free buzz or feedback for free. There are many different ways you can pay back the Web host for being so nice to you.
Finally, just realize that this is a market that is not being looked at. The quicker you act, the more likely you will get somebody to take you up on your offer. Get your next big project off the ground – and keep a little cash in your wallet as well.
Well this might be the first time I know of that Web hosts have been in a big legal battle, but hey at least we won! This is a good day for any and all Web hosts, because of the ruling that happened a few weeks back in California.
According to industry sources the California Supreme Court ruled that Web publishers (In our case, that would be the Web host) are not liable for the defamatory statements made by site contributors and plaintiffs must look to the original source of the statements to seek recovery.
That means if little Johnny down the street signs up for your Web hosting account and then says something horrible about somebody else, the Web host is not to blame. Personally, I think this is how it should have been all along. The reason it was not this way, was because little Johnny did not have any money. The Web host did.
Some analysts say the ruling, while probably correct, might be less than ideal. The idea that Web publishers could, in some cases, be complicit with the comments posted on their sites creates a need for further legislation on the subject.
So maybe it is not set in stone just yet – but it is nice to have at least one case that has set itself out to protect the content hosters and punish the content suppliers.
Now it is not very often that I find a free download for the Web hosts and Web hosting clients to use out there. Sure you have your FTP clients and log analyzers, but I have something for you that is even better than that. How would you like to do simple and quick Whois searches from your taskbar? That is what Project Whois promises to deliver.
Here is a little more information about the project from the Web site:
Project Whois loads the domain names from all open Firefox and Internet Explorer windows into the one-click menu and gives easy access to the whois records from the system tray. Don’t worry about what browser you are in, access the DomainTools.com whois record with one click.
This tool comes from DomainTools.com, my absolute favorite place to do domain name lookups Online. I could see this being the perfect tool for any Web hosting worker who needed quick access to whois domain name lookups. Just click, type, and find. Anything I can do to make Web hosting support’s job easier to do, I am happy to help.
Want more information? Want to know where you can find this freeware download? All the information you need can be found at ProjectWhois.com.
