Looking for a new site to measure the effectiveness of your web site in a number of different ways? BuildStats.com will give you all kinds of details about your domain, or any domain name out there from around the Web.

Some of the statistics included are:

• Indexed pages in Bing, Yahoo, and Google
• Onsite Information
• Rank on Traffic Scoring Sites
• Popularity Graphs
• Social Popularity on the Web

Using tools like this will help you determine where you might need to spend more time working on your web site.  For example, if your web site is not the popular across the social sites, you might look into seeing what needs to be done to get your domain mentioned there more.

BuildStats.com is a handy domain scoring tool that you should keep handy.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 194!
Running Time: 10 minutes | File Size: 4.80 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode:

• What is FTP and how do you use it?
• A great domain scoring web site resource!
• What is so bad about collocation hosting?
• How to take better web site screenshots!

Here is this week’s web hosting news headline:
Brinkster Launches URL Shortener – Web hosting provider Brinkster announced this week that it has launched a new URL shortening service it is calling br.st!, throwing its hat into an already quite well-served market associated with several of the most popular social networking services.

Bonus! Check out br.st and see if it is better than the rest!

Trivia Question – True or false, Brinkster’s CEO Jared Stauffer is on Twitter.  (to find out the answer, be sure to download and listen to this week’s podcast!)

Tons of fun and useful tools packed into this week’s show.  Don’t forget to leave your feedback in the comments or contact me anytime at mitch@mitchkeeler.com.  Also, if your like what you hear, and you want to get more subscribe to our RSS feed (it is free to do!) so you never miss another post, interview or podcast!

Once you visit their web site, you put your mouse over a domain name for additional information. The color of each domain listed (and there are hundreds to choose from) is color coded based on availability and popularity.  Over 12,000 domain names listed to pick from, with 1,000 more added daily at 2 PM EST.

If you sign up for a Domain Pigeon account, you can effortlessly keep track of all the domains you are interested in.  For anybody who loves to collect interesting domains to use at a future date and time, Domain Pigeon is a resource well worth checking out.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 182!
Running Time: 11 minutes | File Size: 5.01 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode:

• How Payment Processing Works
• Find Available Domain Names – Domain Pigeon
• Virtual Private Server Advantages and Disadvantages
• Faster Domain Search with DomainTyper

Here are this week’s web hosting news headlines:

• Aplus.net Provides Google Webmaster Tools to Clients
• Japan Cybercrime Grows by 15.5 Percent

Welcome to my web hosting school of hard knocks. On this very podcast, week after week, I do my best to help make the wild and wacky world of web hosting make a little more sense for everybody out there.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 181!
Running Time: 12 minutes | File Size: 5.19 MB

Here are this podcast’s domain name terms:

• Domain Parking
• Kiting Domains
• Domain Name Warehousing
• Type-in Traffic
• Domain Front Running

Click a link above to learn more about that particular term in detail.  Remember, I didn’t coin any of these phrases – so send your hate mail for their absurdity elsewhere.  I am just a web hosting guru here to help you learn a little more about their meaning.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 180!
Running Time: 10 minutes | File Size: 4.57 MB

Here are this podcast’s domain name terms:

• Domain Name Hijacking
• Cybersquatting
• Domaining
• Domain Name Speculation
• Sniping Domains

Click a link above to learn more about that particular term in detail.  I guess none of us can choose how or why a web hosting term is coined.  What we can do is work together so that we all know what each wild and wacky world really means.

Makes me wonder what ever happened to these two guys, Doug and well… the other one.  Seems like GoDaddy wanted to make them a staple as well in the ads, however the GoDaddy girls seem to still get more attention.

Best GoDaddy Ads Countdown: #5,  #4,  #3,  #2,  #1

Now you might watch that and say it wasn’t that funny.  I will give you that, but at least it had a point and told a story a little better than most of them have.  In comparison, you have the Basic Instinct knock-off ad which, well – there is nothing funny there.  They just tried to rip on that movie’s most famous seen but do nothing to make it their own.

Best GoDaddy Ads Countdown: #5, #4, #3, #2, #1

So where should we start?  How about in the shower?  Starting with number five on my best list would be the Danica Patrick “extended” shower spot from the 2009 Super Bowl.

Overall, it didn’t make me laugh out loud – but didn’t annoy me either, so it belongs on the list.  It is “T and A” meets the three stooges.  So what do you think about this one, was it a hit or a miss?  Share your thoughts, and there will be another look back at the GoDaddy commercials tomorrow.

Best GoDaddy Ads Countdown: #5, #4, #3, #2, #1

How do you Sign Up and Use Google AdSense?

Signing up is a pretty easy process.  All you need to do is sign in with your Google login, and follow the on screen instructions.  Once that is done, you can create the ads you want to use, then grab the code for them to place them into your web site.  I have been using it for so long, I don’t see where this could be seen as a complicated process.  They make it all pretty easy.

You also have several different ways you can setup ads.

• AdSense for Content – your run-of-the-mill ads you are used to seeing.
• AdSense for Search – use Google to power your web site’s search and make money from it.
• AdSense for Feeds – Place relevant ads in your RSS feeds.
• AdSense for Domain Names – Park your un-used domains with Google.
• Video Units – add YouTube partners’ video content to your site, and earn extra revenue.
• AdSense for Mobile Content – create ads for special “mobile” pages.

What Are the Rewards of Using Google AdSense?

The good thing about Google AdSense is that it automatically crawls the content of your pages and delivers text and image ads that are relevant to your audience and your site content.  Relative ads are what you want in the long haul.

Now you will not become rich over night, so if you want to quit your day job – you had better set your goal a little lower.  However, aiming at small goals first (such as having the ads pay for your $5 a month hosting bill) is a good start.

Want to learn more?  Here are some Google AdSense resources worth checking out:

• Google AdSense Blog
• Google AdSense Help Forum

Overall, I would say it is definitely work checking into. If you are looking for a name you can trust, Google has won many people over in that aspect too.  Sometimes, I don’t want to sign up with some company I have never heard of, especially when I need to get or receive important information from them (thinking about tax related stuff).  So overall, I would say Google AdSense will not make you uber-rich but it is a trustworthy choice out there.

So what does a domain sniper do?  This is when somebody registering a domain name as soon as the domain name expires.  For an example, let us say I really wanted the domain name webhostingradio.com.  After doing a WhoIs search on the domain name, I find out it expires on February 19, 2009.  So I wait until that date, and then pick it up myself as soon as the registration runs out.

The fact is though, that this can pretty much be considered extinct, for now.

Thanks to ICANN’s Redemption Grace Period (RGP) registrants are allowed 30 days to reclaim their domain name.  Before the RGP went into effect, the money made in domain name sniping was done when the sniper would try to extort money from the original registrant to get their domain name back.

Now let us fast forward, because unfortunately GoDaddy refuses to raise the bar…

• 2006 = Another Super Bowl Controversial Commercial
• 2007 = Another Super Bowl Controversial Commercial
• 2008 = Another Super Bowl Controversial Commercial

Ok, so GoDaddy has kind of run the idea of having a pretty girl in a controversial commercial into the ground.  They shoot a commercial, tell us the Super Bowl commercial gods refused to air it, release that one Online and then give us a “censored” one for the Super Bowl.

So that brings us to today, and myself reading a press release on theWHIR’s web site:

For its fifth consecutive year advertising during the NFL championship, discount hosting provider Go Daddy has shot two racy new ads this week featuring IndyCar driver Danica Patrick, to appear in the Super Bowl, following NBC’s approval.

Oh joy, another couple of racy ads for the Super Bowl.  Let me guess, one is “too hot for TV” and the other one is “just right for the censors”.

“We have two options and they’re both absolutely ‘GoDaddy-esque,’” Go Daddy chief executive officer and founder Bob Parsons said in a statement. “They are fun, edgy and slightly inappropriate; surely network censors will have a sense of humor, people could use a good laugh these days.”

Come on GoDaddy, I was behind you the first year, waited for the encore the second year – but after that I think you have run this idea into the ground.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 174!
Running Time: 12 minutes | File Size: 5.45 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode:

• What is Domain Sniping?
• GoDaddy Shoots Super Bowl Commercial, and Fails to Raise the Bar
• The List of The Greatest Web Hosts That Never Made It
• 10 Alternatives to Free Rapidshare Hosting

Here are this week’s web hosting news headlines:

• Aventure Host Launches Web Hosting Affiliate Program
• Hivelocity Offers Customers Unlimited Bandwidth and Double the RAM

Yes, as of late – I have been on a movie-title themed podcast naming trend haven’t I? Well, I can’t promise Jack Nicholson, but I can promise you that listening to this podcast weekly will make the wacky and wild world of web hosting make a little more sense to you.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 171!
Running Time: 10 minutes | File Size: 4.26 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode:

• Where is the Good in Clustered Web Hosting?
• An Online Tool to Clean up Your CSS!
• Problem Finding FFmpeg Web Hosts?
• Multi-column CSS Layouts with YAMAL Builder

Here are this week’s web hosting news headlines:

• Global Internet Solutions accused of Hijacking Sites
• News Story on Global Internet Solutions – Video from Fox News

Sorry I missed you last week, but I had a bit of a lingering cold, and didn’t think you’d be able to stand a show I was sniffling all the way through. I promise you this is a sniffle-free zone now!

The bookmarking service, del.icio.us started an entire trend of unique looking domain names that has continue to this day.  Mixing domain names, with extensions (and sometimes tossing in a subdomain) has made for some memorable and unique domains.  So what is the secret?  There are two services that allow you to type in a phrase and then figure out different ways it could be registered and setup.

Domai.nr and domainfinder.geekfg.net both offer this service.  My favorite out of the tool is Domai.nr – so let us focus on that one for now.  For example, lets say I typed mitch into the search box and hit enter.  Some of the domain name suggestions I got were:

• mit.ch
• mit.tc/h
• m.it/ch

They also give to you the registers for that domain type, the wikipedia entry for that top-level domain type and tools, where you can see the web site (if the domain is taken) and a link to do a quick WhoIs lookup.  They also have a blog and Twitter account to follow, so you can stay inside the loop with development.

Domain hijacking is the process by which domain names are stolen from the rightful registrant.  The way to pull it off is to trick the domain name register into allowing the hijacker to change the registration information so that they can steal control of the domain name from the legitimate owner.

The most recent case of domain hijacking I can remember, is what happened to graphic designer, David Airey.  A domain name thief gained access to David’s e-mail account, then used that account to gain access to his account with his domain name register.

Reverse domain hijacking is another shady practice you have to watch out for in the web hosting world.  It is the practice of unseating domain name registrants by accusing them of violating weak or non-existent trademarks as it relates to the domain name they want to take from you.

This is a fight to look forward to when your company and another company might share the same want or need for a particular domain name.  Back in 2002, Nissan Motors, the Japanese car manufacturer, was suing Uzi Nissan, the then current owner of nissan.com for $10 million.  As you can see, they had conflicting interests here.

The thing that can be remembered in both of these situations, if be very careful to monitor your domain name registrations and be sure your own information as it relates to the registration is secure.

All that and a bucket of chicken on this week’s edition of the Web Hosting Show.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 165!
Running Time: 13 minutes | File Size: 5.66 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode:

• How to Read Bad Hosting Reviews
• Domain Hijacking, Not for Gangsters
• Best FeedBurner Analysis Tools
• Free Performance, Availability and Traffic Monitoring

Here are this week’s web hosting news headlines:

• Google to Build Data Centers that Float?
• EstDomains.com Involved in Hundreds of Online Scams?
• Hostway Gives Away More Apple iPhones
• GoDaddy Races Sing This Song, Doo-dah! doo-dah!

Web hosting world, you had better get ready cause we got yet another great podcast from pillar to post to share with all of you. Give a download, listen to it, and let me know what you think!

You can read more about the mission and goals of ICANN here:

http://www.icann.org/en/about/

What Does ICANN Accreditation Mean?

ICANN accreditation in layman’s terms would be a sort of “seal of approval” for all domain name registers.  The primary objective of ICANN is ensuring the stability of the Internet’s system of assigned names and numbers.

Who is Registered by ICANN?

If you are a little worried you are dealing with a company that claims they are accredited, but they are really not, you can check.  Use these two links to do some fact checking of your own.  Just click on the site index link from the icann.org web site and search down for the phrase “Accredited Registrars”.

• ICANN-Accredited Registrars
• All Businesses That Have Qualified for ICANN Accreditation

How Can I Complain About a Domain Name Register to ICANN?

The first thing you must do is visit internic.net.  Next, click on the link that says Complainant Form.  As stated on the web site form though, “ICANN itself does not resolve individual customer complaints. Instead, we refer your complaints to your registrar or other appropriate party, and follow up with them to make sure they are working with you to resolve your issues”.

To learn more about who ICANN is and what they do, check out icann.org.

The main focus of this type of practice would be domain names that have some sort of keyword in them.  Having some sort of generic term in there promises a greater reward such as insurance, travel, poker and the like.  Just look at situations like what happened with broadcast.com.

Yahoo purchased that domain name for $5.04 billion.

Since it is the largest top level domain, .com has gotten a lot of business as far as domain name speculation goes.  Everybody wants the .com version, due to the fact it is the domain name extension everybody knows.  Other extensions are growing in popularity though so grabbing the right one mixed with the right keyword could (keyword could) gain you a lot of the green stuff down the road.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 159!
Running Time: 10 minutes | File Size: 4.61 MB

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

• Joyent’s Tool for Online Collaboration!
• China has more Web Users than US?
• HostingCon Gets Going!
• What is Domain Name Speculation?
• For Web Hosts: the Best Live Chat Providers?

Back again for episode 159, and I think I might be getting the hang of this… almost. From HostingCon to some great live chat suggestions, there is yet again a little for everybody to love and learn from here on today’s show.

Have you taken the Web Hosting Show’s fan survey yet? If not, listen to the show and then get it done. Your feedback given there could dramatically change the production of this podcast! Be heard and give me you thoughts!

GoDaddy has also released this response to the claims that there was some wacky stuff going on during the first day of .me domain name registrations:

We knew the .ME Open Registration response would be tremendous, but it went beyond even what we had expected. As a result, we experienced some system issues in our communication with the registry.

As soon as we became aware of the issue we began taking steps to correct it. It is now resolved.  For our customers, if we did not successfully register the domain name requested they will receive a full refund.

Now that the first week’s hype is over, it might be a little easier to search around and see what .me domain names you can register from GoDaddy.  Only problem your left with is, are all the good names taken already?

Domain name front running would be the practice of using insider information to register domains for the purpose of re-selling them to the pubic, or by placing ads on the page in question and making money cause you know the domain is in demand.

For example, lets say I want to go register MitchKeeler.com, and I go search for it at well, insert slime-ball domain name register here.  Ok, so I use their domain name “check for availability” tool and they say it has not been registered yet.  Something happens though, I get distracted or move away from the idea and close the browser.  That is when the slime-ball domain register with go ahead and register the domain name themselves.  The next time I go to check, I see it has been registered but for $40 the slime-ball domain register will sell it to me.  In most cases the domain name register can do this for up to five days without having to pay for the registration of the domain name themselves.

The previously mentioned Network Solutions has defended the action by saying, “This protection measure provides our customers the opportunity to register domains they have previously searched without the fear that the name will be already taken through Front Running.” Still seems rather slime-ballish to me, how about you?

For example, if you were looking for web hosting you might try typing webhosting.com.  Who owns that?  It redirects to AT&T.  So anybody who takes this route would have an instant gateway into AT&T’s web hosting services.

These days when you type in a phrase into the address bar and hit the “enter” key you are taken to a web search.  Before 2002 though, most people were taken to that phrase with a browser placed “.com” at the end.  That is how this practice of Type-in traffic began.

If your looking to move into this marketing tactic yourself, you may want to keep a few things in mind:

• Stay away from copyrighted names. Trying to buy, for example “hewlettpackard.com” might get HP’s legal team after you for cybersquatting.
• Your wallet better be pretty fat. Getting a generic phrase top level domain name is not going to be cheap. Get ready to pay top dollar.

Type-in traffic, if you can get it going, can be a great way to get people to your domain with little to no work at all.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 155!
Running Time: 14 minutes | File Size: 6.41 MB

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

• Photo Sharing with EchoPic
• What is Type-in Traffic?
• Don’t Spit in the Hosting Cheeseburger
• Free Office Downloads for Budget Web Hosts

Podcast Exclusive – Part 3 of Our “How to Purchase a Web Hosting Business” Series with Web Strategist Errett Cord. Download the podcast to check it out!

Time to put on our party pants and do that web hosting dance we all do so well.  No matter if you move like you have two left feet or not, let me be your “getting down with your bad self” instructor though the wild and wacky world of web hosting.

It is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The cybersquatter then offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark contained within the name at an inflated price.  At least that is according to the United States federal law on the issue, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.

Now when people are squatting outside of the digital realm we live in, it usually means they are living in an abandoned building or some other space that the squatter does not own.

Back to the Online side of things, cybersquatters will actually register and pay for the domains in question and then wave it in the face of the copyright holder and sometimes even put up really bad things about them in hopes that they will want to give them a big ol’ check to shut them up and buy the domain.

For more information on domain name squatting I would highly suggest checking out ICANN’s uniform domain-name dispute-resolution policy.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 153!
Running Time: 13 minutes | File Size: 6.73 MB

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

• Poll – Do Web Hosts Need to Provide Phone Support?
• What is and Who Does Domain Name Cybersquatting?
• Hostopia Buys Out Tucows Shared Hosting Services!
• Quick Domain Searching with Domize!

Podcast Exclusive – Part 1 of Our “How to Purchase a Web Hosting Business” Series with Web Strategist Errett Cord. Download the podcast to check it out!

Back in the saddle ready to giddy up with you, and you and even you back onto the wide open plains of web hosting land.  From cybersquatting to hosting news we have a ‘bit of everything to deliver this week, so lets ride.

On today’s special edition of the Web Hosting Show we have in the studio Emory Rowland of Clickfire.com. Emory has been an insider in both the web hosting and web development worlds for a long time – so there are many topics I would like to pick his brain about. Today though we will be cover from head to toe the world of web hosting reviews.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 152!
Running Time: 11 minutes | File Size: 5.00 MB

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

• The Background Story Behind Clickfire.com!
• What Gives a Web Host “Staying Power” These Days?
• How to Stay Honest with Your Hosting Reviews!
• What Happens When the Web Host Bites Back?
• The Most Important Factors of Web Host Reviewing?

Some web host reviewers are shady or down right scammy, but Emory is a guy I know and trust so when he says a web host is good or bad – I know I can believe him. What should and should not come into play though when seeking out and shopping for your next web host?

Time to open that proverbial mailbag to see what type of questions you have been sending me. Now I do my best to answer any and all questions sent my way but here today I have picked some of the frequently asked ones to help one and all, any and everybody who might also find themself stuck at a brick wall. The Web Hosting Show is on the air.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 151!
Running Time: 15 minutes | File Size: 6.73 MB

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

• Are There Social Networks in the Hosting World?
• What Are My Thoughts About Those “Green” Web Hosts?
• Do I Know of Any Blogging Alternatives to WordPress?
• What is Domain Name Kiting and Will it Hurt Me?

Here we are again. You, me and this make-pretend bag of mail I have. Ok, technically I don’t have a real physical mail or real letters, but I do have e-mails from a lot of you and as you know I do my best to tackle each and every question you send my way. That is one reason I got into the web hosting business. Getting to help others with their problems is something I just really enjoy to do.

Just don’t think I would have gotten the same thrill out of being a circus clown, a fireman or that guy who tosses midgets at the fair.

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. 

Some people do it because they heard a friend to tell a friend that advice. Others do it to sell ten page eBooks on the topic that cost the end user $65 a pop. I am going to help you get something done though by sharing the answers to some of these frequently asked (and answered wrong) questions.

Will having a dedicated IP address help you with search engine optimization?

The simple answer is no. It is a myth that Google or any other search engine will penalize you for hosting on a server that shares an IP address or for not having a dedicated IP address.

Is having static addresses better than having dynamic ones?

To explain, a dynamic address would be one used by a service like WordPress does by default, giving you something like article.php?post=543 after your domain in the addresses bar or something to that effect. When you see a static address, it looks much more like the one you see at WebHostingShow.com when you click on a story to read where it has in the address something like /archive/story-about-hosting.php.

In most cases, search engines would search either one but I would tend to go with the static addresses if you can, because it is more user friendly to the visitor and for keyword reasons. Now having good related keywords in the address, this is a search engine optimization tip that is slowly fading away but is still relevant right now.

For search engine optimization, what is the best way to change a domain name address?

You want to use what is referred to in the business as a 301 redirect. There are a number of ways to get this done so by searching Google for 301 redirect you are bound to find a lot of methods. Easiest would be to put this in your .htaccess file:

redirect 301 /old/oldpage.htm http://www.yourdomain.com/newpage.htm

A 301 redirect is telling the world that your page has moved permanently, that is what the 301 code stands for.

You should get away from your previous hosting company as quickly as you can?

This is not always the case. You may want to wait till you see your search engine spiders and bots crawling over your new content before you go back to your old web host and cancel your web site’s old hosting account. Not doing so could lead the search engine spiders to a dead end a few times (during domain name propagation) and it might cause your web site to get dropped from the search engine rankings. This is because from the spider’s point of view, you no longer exist.

Have any other SEO myths that need to be de-bunked? Drop me a line or a comment.