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.

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.

There are a great number of web hosts using Twitter for social communication, support and marketing.  If you get any big group of web hosts geeks together though, on this topic, the argument usually goes one of two ways.  Either people are really for it, or they are really against it.

For those of you who may not know, Twitter is a micro-blogging service that lets you post message under 140 characters online to your own page, (like the great and wonderful twitter.com/mitchkeeler).

Let us take a look at both sides of the argument.

Wasting your time? Some may say that your time is better served doing one on one support with customers, rather than virtually pimping your goods on Twitter.  Others might also not really understand what Twitter is all about, since it is highly referenced as that site where you type what you are doing, such as “about to mow the lawn” or “I’m really bored”.  There is a good side to this coin too though.

A helpful marketing and support tool? I have seen a lot of tweets that pretty much can be summed up as “_____ sucks”.  Now I ask you, wouldn’t it be handy to be able to go out and communicate with that person if they think you suck, and ask why?  Twitter can be used as a quick and easy customer service tool.  Also, posting news about your web hosting company,  links to your blog articles, or even coupons and deals can lead to a lot of new eyeballs seeing those, and coming into your digital empire.  Think of it as one more proverbial driveway they can drive into, to get to your services.

• Check out the large list of web hosts on Twitter!

My final opinion on the matter would be to go for it.  I think that it always helps to get your name and brand out there in every way possible.  I would really be interested to hear what you think though – do you think web hosts should tweet on Twitter?

Free Hosting – Two free web site elders that might someday share the same fate as Geocities are still around.  Both Angelfire and Tripod are still around.  Here are a few more to choose from:

• 50Megs.com – Offers users 50 MB of disk space to host their files.
• Bravenet.com – Also offers 50 MB of disk space and 1.5 GB of bandwidth.
• 110MB.com – You get 110 MB of disk space with them (who would have guessed?) and 10 GB of bandwidth for free.

Specialized Hosting – For those people wanting to host their own blog, you might look into wordpress.com and their free blog hosting service.  If you want to get started with a forum, check out freeforums.org.

Shared Hosting – For those people moving from Geocities to another location, it might also be time to look into shared hosting plans.  There are many low-cost web hosting plans out there to choose from, and they will give you much more disk space, bandwidth and resources to work with.

One more place to check out for free hosting suggestions would be TheFreeSite.com.  Hey have a lot of suggestions when it comes to free web site hosting.

Have a free favorite host you would like to plug?  Leave a comment!

BONUS! Here are a few other Geocities alternatives:

• Jimdo has a special deal for Geocities users!
• Lunarpages has a special coupon to use too!

If you find any more, let me know!

Be sure to catch the rest of our Geocities Tribute on Podcast 186 of the Web Hosting Show!

Web Hosting + Coupon = Win for Everybody!

This is a secret I have been sharing for a number of years, and now I want to let you know.  Search for them.  That’s right, any web host worth his disk space will have coupons and rebates out there on the Web.  All you have to do is search for the web hosting in question, plus the word “coupon” or “rebate”.

For example, let say I search for Random Fake Web Hosting Company #5 and coupon.  Via Google, I find a page that says I can get $50 off if I sign up with the coupon code “50OFF”.  Now, all I need to do is go to Random Fake Web Hosting Company #5’s web site and try the coupon out.  If it works, I just saved $50, if not – then I’ll go back out to the search results to find the next best deal.

Ok, so I am sure some of you might be a little disappointed with this tip, however you would be amazed by how overlooked it really is.

• Lunarpages.com – for $4.95 per month, you can get unlimited space and bandwidth!
• FastHosts.com – They are offering free unlimited reseller hosting for a year.
• HostColor.com – Host Color’s “THANKYOU2008″ promotion offers a 25 percent instant rebate on all Web hosting services to its present and prospective customers.
• GoDaddy.com – They are registering domains for only $1.99 with any new, non-domain purchase.  Regular .com registrations are marked down to $9.99.
• HostGator.com – You can get 20% off any order, if you use the coupon code “GREEN”.  On the site it says it was good till Oct. 1, however I just tested it and worked for me.

If your a web host with a special deal or offer going on, please let me know and I would love to get it featured on the Web Hosting Show.  We will all be spending plenty on presents and holiday cheer this year, so if we can get a little discount in our hosting – I do not see the harm in that at all.

Bonus! The fine people at aplus.net have also clued me into some of their great deals they have going on right now.  You can check them out here:  http://www.aplus.net/promos/

110MB.com

With 110MB Hosting you get 5GB of free no-ads hosting to setup shop.    So where is the catch?  They seem to get all of their income from upgrades and other related services.   You also get PHP 5, 300 GB of Bandwidth and MySQL 5.

AgilityHoster.com

Agility Hoster looks to use the free hosting account they provide as a gateway into other services too.  On the free plan, you get 2 addon domains, 5GB of bandwidth, and 200MB of disk space.

DotEasy.com

When looking for free web hosts out there, doteasy was the only one that stuck out as a name I had heard before.  The free plan they provide will give you 1GB of bandwidth, 100MB of storage and up to 10 e-mail accounts.

FreeHostia.com

I hate to say it, but Freehostia is probably one of the cheesier looking out of the bunch.  They do provide 250 MB of storage, 5 GB of monthly bandwidth and hosting for 2 domains.

HostWQ.net

HostWQ.net calls themselves the ultimate source for free and premium web site hosting.  Do they deliver?  Well for free you can get up to 300 MB of disk space and 10 GB of bandwidth a month.  Very promising, to say the least.

Are you a free web hosts or do you know of a free web host that can do any better?  Drop me an e-mail at mitch@mitchkeeler.com or leave a comment and let me know.

It offers a unique service for one.

Think about it like this, if you are comparing two web hosts and one has a special offer for you only good for 24 hours and the other has nothing special going on, which one excites you more?  I have said it time and time again, to get “buzz” in the hosting world we live in you have to strive to be different and unique in every way.

This is a way you can make yourself stick out like a sore thumb in a good way.  Not like that time you wore the sombrero to your high school reunion.

The first place I saw doing this was GoDaddy.com.  They have a special “Today’s Offers” section that is well worth checking out if you are needing some inspiration.  Last marketing tip for the day would be to also use this to pitch offers and specials to your current customer base too.  Try to find something you can offer them that is new and they would be happy paying for.  Perhaps you give them a special deal for being current customers or yours?  Now you are thinking along the “today’s special” line of marketing.

That isn’t all though, but this intro is running a little long.  Only other thing I am telling you right now is the Web Hosting Show is on the air.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 161!
Running Time: 9 minutes | File Size: 4.07 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode of the Web Hosting Show.

• Deeper Look at the Hosting Industry Organization
• Media Temple does Cloud Spam Filtering
• .Pro Domain Registrations Running Wild
• Why You Need to Launch a “Today’s Special” Deal
• Verio Hands out Hosting to the Needy

Been doing a lot of socializing talk the past few weeks on the podcast, and today we’ll talk a little more about the LinkedIn group everybody is talking about.  We got that, plus a ton of hosting headlines and, well let me stop pitching the show and let’s start doing the show.

Ask About Current Coupons

Web hosts always have special promotions going on, so if you have been a customer for a while, and haven’t seen the benefit of any of these special offers yet, ask your web host about them.  More often than not, they will be happy to extend the coupon to existing customers who ask about it.  Look at it from the web host’s point of view.  They get money and they keep you as customer for a while longer.  It is a winning combination for all parties.

Do Comparison Shopping for Your Domain

While mentioning the idea of special deals, you might see what your web host can do as far as your domain name registration goes.  First, ask them how cheap they can get it for you.  Some web hosts out there even have free domain registration for some hosting plans – so that will save you some dough right there.  If they don’t have any domain name special offers, go check out some dedicated domain name registers.  They often have specials or coupons for registrations.

Signup for Multiple Years

The last tip I have for you to save some money on your web hosting bill would be to sign up for multiple years.  Web hosts will be happy to cut off a significant amount of your final bill if you pay for it all at once.  Ask your web host for a comparison for the month by month billing and the yearly billing.  Knocking a few dollars off per month might not sound like much now but it does add up over time.

Web hosts out there are not dummies.  They know your having a hard time with filling up your gas tank, and they will be more than happy to cut you some slack if it means you will remain a paying customer for a while longer.  Don’t be afraid to ask for a special offer.  Asking a question is one of the few things that is still free these days.

Now why shouldn’t you use your web hosting disk space to backup your personal documents and files?  It is your space, right?  Well yes and no.  You see, uploading or downloading large chunks of data to and from your hosting account can often cause the server in question to go a little, how do you say, bonkers?  You have time out issues, connection problems, server resources and a whole truckload of things to worry about.  Not to mention there is no real security there (unless you put it there yourself, and do you trust yourself with being your own security expert?). If these documents are important put them in the hands of somebody who will guarantee you’ll get them backed up right and backed up securely.

If I haven’t won you over yet – I am about to.  There are already services out there that specialize in this type of Online storage.  Web hosting in the traditional sense, from places like BlueFur, Lunarpages or the like are for web sites, scripts and things of that nature.  For personal backup and storage I could recommend going to a place like Amazon S3, Carbonite or Mozy.

I was starting to use Carbonite myself before my PC melted, and from what I saw I liked it a lot.  Definitely better than trying to FTP everything I have up to a web hosting account.

The thing to remember here is to always read your terms of service and acceptable use policy.  Web hosts often spell out what you can and can not do with that hosting account you bought from them in black and white.

That includes approximately 14,000 Domain Direct, NetIdentity ItsYourDomain.com customer accounts.

That is a ton of cash changing hands.  One has to wonder why Tucows wanted to get out of the shared web hosting game and what will they do now with this extra surplus of cash on their hands?  Colin Campbell, the CEO of Hostopia release the usual quote out to the public saying they had high hopes and more…

“Our plan is to provide customers with numerous upgrades and additional value-added services to earn their loyalty and continued business. Traditional web hosting is fast evolving to the SaaS (software as a service) model and Hostopia is perfectly positioned to offer these services to these customers.”

This is a big buyout for sure, and big congratulations deserve to be sent towards Hostopia for getting the deal.  If you were Tucows, what would you do now being the actual “cash cow”.

To give you a summary of things, there are usually two routes you can take. You can purchase a reseller account from any web host out there that you choose or you could decide to go the affiliate route and resell a web host’s shared hosting plans. So when should you do one over the other?

Reseller Web Hosting

If you want to act as your on “mini” web hosting company, then I often suggest going with the reseller hosting plan option. For much cheaper than it would cost to rent out a data center and worry about all the legalities of starting a business you can act as the web host for your friend or clients. You charge them some to help pay for the reseller hosting account and they go to you with their support questions. This is also a great way to beta test becoming a real web host too.

Affiliate Hosting Deals

On the other side of the scale, as an example lets say you don’t have a lot of free time but your friends are always looking for a suggestion as to where they should do their web hosting. Now if you have no real need to support them 24/7 and you would rather get them the web site hosting they need and be done with it an affiliate plan might be the thing you need. Many web hosts have them (just have to look around) and they will pay you a “finder’s fee” for bringing in new hosting customers to them.

Now I know somebody out there might suggest VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting or a dedicated server but those both might be out of the budget of your “guy on the street”. In conclusion, if you want to be a web host yourself for your clients and friends – get a reseller hosting plan. If you want to hook them up with hosting and then be done with it, a good affiliate deal with a web host you can trust might be the better way to go.

Look for Affiliate Codes

The first thing to look for is affiliate codes in the links. When you hover over the link for the web host on the top of the list, you should just see their domain name right? Say I am hovering over a link for Host Monster, I should see in my browser’s status bar that is is going to http://www.hostmonster.com. You know there is an affiliate code there when you see something trailing that address such as http://www.hostmonster.com/coupons/tophosts.php or something to that effect.

Sneaky Links!

Some top ten lists are getting sneaky though. They will link you to a page that looks like it belongs to them, but really they are hiding the affiliate code when redirecting you to the web host you are interested in. Very tricky indeed.

Ugly Web Site Design and Layout

Another sign that you are looking at top ten web host list gone wrong is the web site design and layout is ugly as sin. Need an example for that one? Check out web-hosting-top.com. Visually the layout here is bad enough to make any CSS guru die a little ‘bit on the inside. There is no color scheme, everything is too close together, you have random caps all over the place and different colored text. This page was not designed to be useful, it was designed to be at the top of Google. You want to know the sad truth? type in “top 10 hosts” into Google and you will find this guy is the third result down.

Prices for List Position

You can also keep an eye out for the obvious mention on their contact us or about us pages of how to get yourself on this list. Some places out there will go as far as putting up prices for position on the list they provide.

As you can see these people can get rather tricky when it comes to trying to make a buck out of your need for web hosting.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 144!
Running Time: 11 minutes | File Size: 4.83 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode of the Web Hosting Show.

• FreshBooks Offers a Better Billing Solution!
• Another Web Hosting Union to be Organized?
• Xdrive Delvers a Delightful Desktop Client!
• Know Anybody who Does Plesk Shared Linux Hosting?
• Another of the Free (no string attached) Web Hosting Deals!

The tower of podcasting power, to sweet to be sour, funky like a money the Web Hosting Show is ready to go. Got tons of new stuff to share with you and send your way, so why haven’t you started downloading yet?

Now usually with an offer like this, I would be pretty mad because they are selling a service they can not possibly deliver. There is no such thing as unlimited anything in the web hosting world. Now why has Yahoo still not gotten on my bad side yet? Well, unlike other hosting companies they spell out what “unlimited” really means.

What is the Catch?

First thing first, they prohibit hosting any files that are not linked with your web site your hosting. That is a good thing. With unlimited disk space they spell it out like this:

You can now create as large a site as you like (you won’t face an upper limit, or “ceiling”), but we will place some constraints on how fast you can grow. In other words, you can add as much content as you want, but maybe not all at once. The vast majority of our customers’ sites grow at rates well within our rules, however, and will not be impacted by this constraint.

The explanation for unlimited bandwidth is also along the same terms. The FAQ for that says…

In most cases, if you use our service appropriately, visitors to your web site will be able to download and view as much content from your site as they like. However, in certain circumstances, our server processing power, server memory, or anti-abuse controls could limit downloads from your site.

So I have to give Yahoo’s web hosting division a pat on the back for actually putting it down in writing what unlimited means.

In their pitch from the front page, that do make it sound worth looking into deeper for sure:

Webnode brings you a brand new innovative way of creating and editing advanced websites by just using a web browser. The system is very easy to use and is fully interactive. Real-time fast editing as you see it in the browser. By using Drag-and-Drop from the toolbar you can add new content such as polls, forums, articles, catalogues, widgets such as PayPal and much more.

Here are only a few of the many features they provide:

• Real Time Editing
• Drag and Drop Technology
• Gadgets and Widgets
• 40+ Design Templates
• Polls, FAQ’s, RSS, and Webmail

So where is the catch? I have yet to find one yet – but to monitize the service, I can bet they will be adding down the road higher disk space and bandwidth limits for a fee or other services to get you to fork over your cash. If your low on cash and want to build yourself a simple/yet pretty web site, Webnode is worth checking into.

Take this as an example. Tom had a pie that he cut into six pieces. Tom’s problem is that he wants to give pie slices to twelve of his friends. When all of his friends show up to eat some pie, he gives each of his twelve friends a half of a pie slice and promises them if they need more pie they can have it. Tom’s problem?

He only had one pie – so he hopes his friends get full off that half a slice.

Now why does this happen? Well with prices for hosting getting cheaper and the offers for hosting as far as disk space and bandwidth go getting bigger, some web hosts don’t have any other choice.

From a purely visual side by side comparison if one place offers you 50 GB of space for five dollars and another offers you 150 GB of space for five dollars, most people are going to take the bigger offer.

Is there a real future for overselling? In the long haul – I don’t think so. Eventually web hosts are going to run into a bottle neck of what they can really promise in comparison with the technology that is out there. My hope is that people actually start to grow suspicious of such offers and rise up against it. When your getting a gift though – you don’t want to ask why or how your getting it, you just take it and smile.

For that one simple fact, the future of overselling might be a little longer in the tooth than expected.

There are some providers out there that have the business plan in place to handle it. They just might be harder to find.

Do You Pay for it in Perks?

Some web hosts will get you in the door with the low prices, and then when it comes to addons or accessories to your shared hosting account they stick you with the true costs of hosting. This can often happen with upgrades for JSP and ASP support and other upgrades some, but not all, will need.

Keep an Eye on How Long Your Signing Up For!

For an example, lets say Dummy Example Web Host is offering you a hosting deal you can not beat. It is $3.50 a month for 500 GB Disk Storage and 5 TB of Bandwidth. Now when you get on the order page you notice that this $3.50 a month price is only good if you sign up for the 10 year hosting plan. To get this, you must pay up-front: $420. Now if you know they are good then you have no worries but if you have no history with the company do you really want to sign up with them for the next decade? Better yet – will they even be around that long?

The one thing you have to remember (and I have said it time and time before) you have to do you homework when it comes to signing up with any web hosting company. Don’t be fooled by the special deal – and find out if they really are the best of the best or just another guy with a server in his basement trying to make a buck.

Do I Blame the Web Hosting Companies? No!

I can not blame the web hosting companies, because they need to compete with the next guy down the street and make money while doing so. Thanks to the fact that we have so much competition out there for the proverbial bottom dollar; almost everybody undercuts and over-provides. The secret of cheap hosting is to find the one that does so the best.

TheWebHostBiz.com
This web site wants to be your guide to starting and running a successful web hosting business. Whether you are just starting out, or you have been around for some time, TheWebHostBiz.com features the tools, applications, service providers and resources that will make your web host business a success.

ServerADay.com
Well the short story for this web site given on the web site itself is “We think all those ‘deal-a-day’ websites out there are cool so we thought what the heck. We have something to sell, so why not give it a shot.” Also being a division of OLM means you don’t have to worry about any shady deals coming forth.

iWeb’s Server Warehouse Clearance Deals
This is another server deal finder that will allow you to hunt for a server of your own. You can list by price and “time of posting” for your deals. The inclusion of an RSS feed for the deals is also a winner. This looks like a great new way for the iWeb people to market themselves to the bargain hunters.

Remember you can always send me your hosting related links at mitch@mitchkeeler.com. New or old, I always love to check them all out.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 130!
Running Time: 12 minutes | File Size: 5.30 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode of the Web Hosting Show.

• CP Site Saver – My New Favorite Backup Tool
• 50 GB of Free Hosting With ADrive.com
• Resource to Teach About the Web Hosting Business
• Cheap Server Deals from Brand Name Dealers
• Quick Hosting Holiday Ideas and Suggestions

I am your web hosting suggestion master here to sort through all the crap so that you can get the best of the best, better than all the rest as far as new and exciting resources go.

Reseller Hosting

With a reseller web hosting account, you can earn a little extra income on the side reselling a web host’s services to your friends, family and clients. With the money made, you can turn around and pay your own hosting bills so you can get out of the red and back into the green.

Affiliate Account

Many web hosts out there today offer affiliate accounts where you place a link on your web site, a person clicks through it and buys hosting from them, and you get credit for the sale. Might not be the easiest way of making money but with the high payouts some web hosts give you might only need to sell to one or two a month.

Put up Advertising

The best way of earning some money to pay for your web site is to put up advertising. Services like Google’s AdSense make the process brain dead simple. Now if you think your going to be earning millions – you are in store for a rude awakening. If you want to pay that $5.99 a month web hosting bill, then you should be covered.

Ask for Donations

You might laugh, but begging for cash can go a long way. How many years have we seen that “Donate via PayPal” button on web sites? People like to support services or web sites that they enjoy. The only hard part about this one is it is also kind of a crap shoot. You never know if people will donate or if they do, how much they will give.

Find a Backer for Your Business

Get somebody else to pay your hosting bill for you. If you have an interesting idea or project you want to get started ask around to see if you can find a sugar-daddy to pay the hosting bills for you. You might have to give something back in return (such as advertising and the occasional plug) but it is a lot better than going in all by yourself.

Many of the big boys in the hosting business (and ever a few of the little ones) seem to be rolling out affiliate deals so that you can help them get more clients to host. Now the questions I know a lot of people have are how does this benefit the web host and how does it benefit the web hosting client?

First let me tell you what an affiliate deal is and how it works in web hosting. You see you have a web host and you have a hosting client. The hosting client usually puts a link on his web site or is given some sort of tracking code so that when he suggests to his viewers or buddies to sign up with the web host, he gets some cash back.

What is in it for the web host?

So what does the web host get out of this? The web host in question gets a new client, which in the short term might be a loss because they had to pay out a little to get him, but in the long term will end up being a success because the new client will be paying in each time to the web host when the billing comes up again.

To a web host, the most important thing is to bring in new clients and that is what the end user has just helped with.

Are customers making money with these deals?

Is there really money to be made by the end user? You can kind of think of this as bounty hunting – but everybody has the same bounty on their heads. Wanted, new clients – dead or alive doesn’t sound too “PR friendly” but in all honesty this is what is going on. Some other web hosts let you credit the affiliates you bring in to your current hosting account too. So say you bring in Billy, Bob and Frank that would be three months off your hosting bill.

All in all, I’d say it is worth looking into if you think you can persuade enough people to come make the jump and sign up with the web hosting company you are pimping out. The more sign ups you get – the more money there is to be made. These days web hosts are happy to get clients by any means necessary. So if that means shaving some of their income off so you get a perk or two, then that is a worthy trade off for them.

Subscribe to the link list via E-mail!

• Promo-Code.net – Great Resource for Hosting Deals
• Inside View on Reviews at the Web Host Magazine and Buyer’s Guide
• The Planet Announces Free Fall Savings Campaign
• Host Department Offers Free .info Domain Names

No reason to make the same mistake twice though, subscribe to the Hosting Hoopla RSS feed so you can stay up to date with the latest and greatest happenings around the wild and wacky world of web hosting.

From the first time you ever remember seeing commerce in action, you learned that one thing rang true. You want to look for a cheap deal. When it comes to web hosting though, the cheapest deal is not always the best deal to go with. If way pay a lot for something, we feel like we are cheated. That is just human nature.

Now when it comes to web hosting and shopping for web hosting you can toss this rule out the window. No mater if you are paying $200 a month or $2 a month, that does nothing to speak for the quality or service that you are getting.

The Benefits of Low Cost Web Hosting

When it comes to getting rock bottom prices, there are a few things you can look at and be happy about.

• It is not going to hurt your wallet. You can save that cash for other site related expenses.
• Good support – most web hosts realize these hosting packages need a lot of hand holding.
• Loads of “one-click” scripts to install and use from your control panel.

As you can see this type of hosting is aimed at the new kid on the block. If you want to do more advanced things or have more control, a more expensive plan might be the way you need to go.

The Drawbacks of Low Cost Web Hosting

With every positive there is a negative. Here are some of the bad things about going the low price route.

• Server resource usage (RAM and CPU) is often very limited.
• You might find some of the more advanced server needs are not met. (Telnet, SSH, ect)

So before you go out there and go with the cheapest deal, you might want to consider the type of hosting you need before signing on that virtual dotted line with any web host or reseller out there.

You don’t want cheap hosting, you want cheap prices! To find quality hosting companies with cheap prices try our Cheap Hosting Guide.

This is one of those ideas that you just knew was bound to get released by somebody, it was all just a matter of time. Want to browse through hosting deals, and see which ones are voted to the top for being the best of the best? A new web site hopes that you will make them your web hosting deal finding home. Hostigg.com takes a familiar idea and puts a web hosting twist on it.

Yet Another Digg Clone?

It is run using the “digg clone” content management system, Pligg so I won’t focus too much on how neat the back end of the web site is. So if you don’t focus on the mechanics, then where do you focus on? The content is what will make this web site a winner or a loser.

Good Points?

One the good side I like the fact that it exists for one. I think we need more “new” ideas in the web hosting industry. It also looks like it is getting some users in as well because there are people voting on hosting deals as we speak.

Bad Points?

On the bad side of things, I think they need more real content and description to the deals – not just “limited offer, get now”. Maybe each time a web host is mentioned, link back to the number or links back that they have so you can see other offers they might have.

Final Thoughts?

All in all, Hostigg.com is worth giving a shout out to and a shot. It will be real interesting to see how they progress over the first year or so. Will it be a success or just another shot in the dark? Only time will tell.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 110!

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 110!
Running Time: 26 minutes | File Size: 11.6 MB

Here are just a few topics that we discussed on this week’s episode of the Web Hosting Show.

• George Roberts Interview on HostingCon 2007
• A New Digg Clone for Hosting Deals
• New Segment – Social Review of Globat Web Hosting
• Web Development Resource Review – DavidAirey.com
• My Thoughts on Hosting Reviews and This Podcast

Do we have any web developers in the house? How about web hosts? web hosting customers? If you have raised your hand at least once in the last five second I want you to stick around because this podcast is just for you.

Now for the rest of you – you might want to hang out for a while as well, because each and every week on this show I do my best to help make you into one (or make you a better one) of those three selections as well.

Link of the Week: Build Your Own Server!

Domain registrar and Web hosting provider Go Daddy announced on Tuesday it has expanded its sponsorship advertising agreement with Internet television network Revision3 to include all of Revision3 Internet television shows.

I am happy to see that GoDaddy realizes this is a big market that has an audience and it just looking for somebody to toss money at them. Of course, since Revision3 has a few more A-listers and Web celebs, I bet they are getting a better deal that the one GoDaddy tossed my way a few weeks back.

All and all though, I think this is a very good thing for Web content. It is also a big check mark in the ol’ alternative advertising world as well.

“We’ve been happy with our podcast advertising,” says Barb Rechterman, executive VP at Go Daddy. “Promoting Revision3’s new TV network is a natural extension for us. These guys are onto something big. At Go Daddy, we recognize the importance of innovation and the folks at Revision3 are leading the pack.”

This is an audience that is captivated enough to download a show and watch it. They are not going to mind one or two ads jumping in there from time to time. I think it will be only a matter of time before you see more companies like GoDaddy jumping in for this type of marketing and advertising.

+ Check Out the Podcast This Was From! Listen to the Web Hosting Show, Episode 96!