podcast about web hosts and web hosting topics
It is not often that I highlight other sources of hosting information here, but I do feel like something should be said for the hard work and dedication that has gone into turning The Hosting News website around. For years, the Hosting News was a good source for finding hosting information – but the website interface was badly designed, ugly and hard to navigate through.
It might be easy to find a free photo gallery script you can get up and running on your website. However, not all scripts are created equal. Sometimes you might want a simple page dedicated to photos, and other times you might need an entire domain dedicated to the idea of showcasing your images. I have searched the Web high and low to bring you the best free image gallery tools for big projects, medium sized projects and lightweight projects.
Now I do not plug my other projects very often, however I think this is an important enough update to share with the rest of my fans (even my wonderful podcast subscribers)! I just finished up with a brand new redesign of my layout over at Mitchelaneous.com – and I would love your feedback on it.
What is Mitchelaneous? It is my personal blog, with tutorials helping with tech tips, web development and geeky entertainment. Pretty much everything else I want to post about is posted here, that does not fit under the web hosting category of WebHostingShow.com and the Mozilla category or FirefoxFacts.com.
Need to take a screen shot of a web site to show off to somebody? By far, one of my favorite programs to take screenshots is WebShot. It is almost the perfect screenshot and web page thumbnail generator utility. How do you use it? You put the web site address you want to get the capture of in the URL text box, and then hit the button labeled, “Start”.
Diving deeper into the download you can also set it up to capture multiple URLs, a specific size image, edit the default browser sizes and more. For most people the free version should get the job done – however if you want even more features you might look into getting the personal or server edition.
To pick it up, or get more help on how to use it – go visit WebSiteScreenshots.com.
I have heard about Squarespace from a number of different sources the past few weeks, so I thought I would give it a look. For those of you who may be new to the service, it is a fully hosted, completely managed environment for creating and hosting a web site.
The service really does a great job a breaking down the parts of your web site down into bricks. You kind shift and move the bricks around, make make your web site look the way you want. The designs to choose from are great too, and you can customize them to suit your needs.
Along with hosting, and design – they also provide you with real time visitor analytics and stats about all of your pages. That way you can work on marketing yourself better too.
Squarespace Tour Video from Squarespace on Vimeo.
At $8 a month, the service really has a lot going for it, if you are looking for a mix of hosting, plus a quality content management system. Try them out for free, at Squarespace.com.
Well this most recent Easter break kicked my butt as far as time goes, so afraid my time to do a podcast this week was cut a little short. However I was able to go through the segment archive for all the past segments we have done on this show and organize them a ‘bit more.
This is one complaint out of many I hope to give worked on this next week or so. As you can see on WebHostingShow.com I have things divided up into:
If you have any other suggestions for the podcast or the podcast web site, please feel free to let me know.
Looking to put up a simple site for free? One new service that caught my attention is Webnode. They promise that you can use your own domain, create an awesome personal page or blog, and that you can do this from anywhere.
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:
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.
Web design is a mysterious art that some can do and not many have mastered. When it comes to a Web hosting web site – people expect to see certain things as customers and if your lacking in these areas it could hurt you down the road. Sure fancy flash and really hot pictures of server racks are nice, but they won’t win you any clients.
Keep it Simple
Some web hosts out there like to fit as much content, flashing banners and overdone graphics on the front page as they can fit. This is not the best way to go. Personally, I like it when web hosts keep it simple.
Give me the Basics
I do not need to know every single detail about every single plan. Here is a basic forumula for what I want to see on your front page:
Finding the right balance between hype and helpful details is hard to do. Once you have done it though, I promise your current and potential clients will really thank you.
Sell Yourself in a Few Words
If you doing something great it shouldn’t take that long to convey the message to others. As much as having paragraph after paragraph about how good plan number one is or how great you are in general might look, keeping things short and sweet will go a long way.
Here are a few examples of web hosts who do follow all my rules:
Hostgator.com | Lunarpages.com | HostMonster.com | StartLogic.com
It might take a while before you find the layout or design that is just right for your particular business. The basics you need to remember though are to make sure you are different from the rest, touch base with everything that you cover and don’t be afraid to try something a little different.
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Mitch Keeler is nothing more than your average Joe trying to leave his mark on the world though both his professional work and his online projects, articles, podcasts and more.
10 SEO Tips for Anybody to Use
1. Don’t overuse or “spam” the meta keywords or description with content that is not related to what is on your actual page.
2. Contact other webmasters that deliver content much like your own and get them to link back to you. The social aspect of Web popularity can not be forgotten about. Chances are if somebody like something you do – they will link to it to share with others.
3. Make sure your title tag changes depending on the page you are viewing.
4. Make good use of your headlines, and keep them in order. Your main headline should be h1, then go to h2, and then to h3. Also toss a couple (one or two) keywords in your headlines.
5. Use common sense. If you hear about an awesome SEO tip online somewhere, and it sounds kind of fishy – don’t do it. I’ve never met anybody who made it to the top of Google and said it was all thanks to his free 101 SEO dirty tricks handbook he bought of a page that looks like it was designed in 1995.
6. Create a XML sitemap and learn to keep it updated. Many content management systems offer plugins for creating them too. The best one for WordPress is Google XML Sitemaps.
7. Use relevant keywords in the content of your web page, but do not go overboard. If you try to go over the top with the keyword usage – you are often labeled by the search engines as a “keyword stuffer” and that can hurt more than help in the long run.
8. Use Google’s webmaster tools and also submit yourself to Yahoo’s site explorer. Both offer ways to submit and watch your status in those two search engines.
9. Keep tabs on the search for your web site’s name. I often search for “web hosting show” just to keep tabs on who else is showing up for that search phrase.
10. Get use out of title tags for links and anchor text for images. Use them to describe where they go and what they are though.
Be patient, your search engine rankings are not going to change in a day. As long as you are delivering good content that is relevant to your topic of choice the search engines should love you.