Just have a quick update for you for now.  Just finished up putting together the first (of hopefully many more) web hosting eBooks for you to enjoy.  The Best of the Web Hosting Show Guides is a collection of some of the most popular guides I have posted and talked about here on the podcast.

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

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

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

There are tons of goodies on and about the web hosting world if you know where to look Online. Here are a few gems I scrapped out of the blogging dirt this week.

The Hosting Industry Organization

This new virtual posse of the hosting industry promises to be a socialized group of hosting professionals. Based off a list from LinkedIn - there are many that have already joined (including yours truely) and I am looking forward to seeing what becomes of this just budding project later on down the road.

New Blog! Web Hosting Topics Rocks!

Here is yet another good hosting blog worth subscribing to. Brought to you by the same folks as the DAW Web Hosting Blog and HostingBookmarks.com it promises fresh content for the web hosting addicted. Yes, that would be both you and me!

Blog.Verisign.com? (I didn’t know either)

Did you know that VeriSign had their own collection of blogs from insiders in the company? The company is based around providing secure SSL certificates so, I mean, how exciting can the blog be? Well I was delightfully surprised by a few so the list here is well worth checking out.

Have you found any hidden treasures in or on the web hosting blogs out there? If so drop me an e-mail or leave a comments and let me know about it.

Last week I gave you five quality blogging tools and scripts and this week I am going to finish the job by giving you the second half of my favorite blogging scripts list.

Previously, WordPress was leading the charge as the best of the best, but how do these solutions stack up to that titan of the digital publishing world?

b2evolution - An old one, but still a good one - and can hold it’s own weight still with the other selections out there. Dated, but still works.

Serendipity - This is a PHP-powered weblog application which gives the user an easy way to maintain a weblog or even a complete homepage.

Joomla - Like Drupal, might be too feature rich for the casual blogging fan - but a good engine for in depth web sites or basic blogs.

Sblog - Another one similar to WordPress, looks like it is playing catchup too. Once it gets there though, might be worthy competition.

Simplog - Simple, yet powerful - the name says it all here. You want basics without the fluff - go with Simplog.

No matter which of these selections you decide to choose, you should be well off in your own content producing ways. All of them have their benefits and their drawbacks so best thing to do would be to try them all out and see which does the best job for you.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 118!

There are a lot of blogs out there, many more than you could count on your hands.. even if you have that freaky four extra fingers on that left hand of yours.

With that many blogs out there, there is a lot of backing up that needs to be done. BlogBackupOnline.com will do it for you.

You’ll hear no argument from me that backing up a blog can be very complicated and tedious. Having an external hosting account to do this on can be a lifesaver. At this time they support these blogging platforms:

• Blogger
• WordPress
• TypePad
• Friendster
• LiveJournal
• Serendipity
• Windows Live Space
• Movable Type
• Terapad
• Vox

They also provide a restore solution as well. With many of these online backup solutions they have an easy way to upload, but not such an easy job downloading what you’ve backed up. I’m happy to see they have this under control as well.

Backing up your blog is free while they are still in Beta. The bottom line is the storage space though. You get 50 MB of storage space is allocated to your account.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 111!

Want to know the top ten hosting RSS feeds you should be subscribing to to stay on top of the industry? Now there is a slew of information out there, and subscribing to the best of the best makes your job just that much easier in tracking what is going on.

From news, to press releases, to conversations here is the best of the best as far as hosting RSS feeds go.

1. Web Hosting Talk [RSS Feed!] - Yes, WebHostingTalk.com does RSS feed output now. You can click on the RSS Feed link on the main page to get a selection of good ways to keep track of things there. This is probably the biggest overall improvement they made in the last big update they rolled out.

2. The Web Hosting Show [RSS Feed!] - Ok, go ahead and call my an egotistical manaiac, I can take it. If your listening you know this is a great resource for all kinds of hosting news, interviews, help and random fun. If your not subscribed then what are you waiting for?

3. The Web Host Industry Review [RSS Feed!] - The WHIR is the big hosting resource for just about everything. From news, to interviews to everything else under the sun. They have a lot of feeds as well so you can pick and choose your favorite things to read.

4. Google News Search for “Web Hosting” [RSS Feed!] - Google is a great source for web hosting press releases and general information you might not see anywhere else. It combs a lot of the hosting resources out there and is one of the first places I check for the latest and greatest happenings.

5. The Hosting News [RSS Feed!] - TheHostingNews.com is another one of my favorite hosting news resources. The RSS feed is a little hard to find (hidden away on the sidebar) but it still well worth subscribing to. Yet another good place to get hosting news and interviews.

6. Netcraft [RSS Feed!] - Netcraft.com is a good place to get updates from the geekier side of the hosting indutry. From following server OS trends to getting uptime and downtime news, they are worth subscribing to for anybody because it is a good way to learn about some of the more advanced hosting trends.

7. Web Hosting Finds Blog [RSS Feed!] - The blog that the Web Hosting Finds web site puts out there is one of the more entertaining hosting feeds I have subscribed to. Covering a lot of random yet interesting news and links inside of the industry - you can not afford to pass it up.

8. The WHIR Blogs [RSS Feed!] - Wasn’t the WHIR already on this list? Well contrary to even my first thoughts the WHIR Blogs have bloomed into a really neat source for all types of industry opinions and coverage. This is one the best “brand extentions” I guess you could call it that the WHIR team has been apart of.

9. DomainTools Blog [RSS Feed!] - You can’t have hosting without domains, it is like peanut butter without the jelly. DomainTools.com is already my favorite domain.. well, tool and resource. Now they are delivering me my favorite blog about domains as well.

10. Web Host Blog [RSS Feed!]- Although I wish it was updated a little more often, WebHostBlog.com is a good source for more general hosting information and news. Put on by the team behind the Web Host Magazine and Buyer’s Guide this is a resource that might be light on quantity but high on quality.

A Few More Worth Mentioning…

Here are just a few more that are worth mentioning:

• Reseller Hosting Guide - [RSS Feed!]
• Web Hosting Unleashed - [RSS Feed!]
• Isabel Wang’s Blog - [RSS Feed!]

Have a favorite that didn’t get added to the list? Leave it in the comments or send it my way!

If you only read the top blogs or resources out there on the Web, you are missing out on so much information and interesting personalities. I always have folks asking me to suggest a few good resources or feeds to subscribe to so they can learn more about the web development world.

This is a new one I just found out about - and I am more than happy to share it with all of you.

DavidAirey.com is the blog of - you guessed it - David Airey, an Edinburgh graphic designer. He caught my eye after linking back to my story about taboo topics in hosting from last week’s episode.

Here are a few of his past articles that I think you’ll find more than interesting:

• How I Improved my Alexa Rank
• 6 Tips to Improve Your Blog Articles
• What’s Your Logo Worth?
• 5 Important Design Aspects of Any Web Site or Blog

Have another Web site, blog or resource that I should be keeping my eye on? Let me know about it.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 110!

When it comes to picking a good Web host for setting up a blog, there are a few things you must keep in mind.

You want to first make sure that they are going to deliver you enough disk space and bandwidth to keep your head above water for a while. If you expect to write five or more posts a day - you could fill up that space pretty quick. Also make sure that you have an upgrade you can make when you need it.

It might be to the next largest plan - or it might be to a VPS or dedicated account. If you are a nobody just starting your first blog, you could probably just go with the least expensive plan and move on from there. Find some of blogs out there and see who they use for hosting.

Uptime is always important too - because you never want your readers to be left looking at a “this site is not available right now” message too long.

Even though we haven’t picked our blogging engine yet - you must keep in mind you need a Web host that will support the features you need. So you might pick a few good candidates first, and then go on to finding the content management system you need.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 108!