So which one of these two web hosting plans gives you the best value?

VPS Hosting Value

VPS is an acronym for virtual private server.  I won’t go too deep into the dictionary definition, but in a nutshell this type of hosting plan is a virtual machine setup on a server.  A web host can run a series of VPS accounts all from the same server (as they do with shared hosting) however, VPS hosting gives you more server resources to work with (such as RAM and CPU power).  If you are just running a series of websites and have no idea how to be a server administrator – VPS is the best upgrade you can make.  You can get the power of a dedicated server environment at a significantly cheaper price.  The drawback with VPS hosting is that you might not be able to do some advanced server side configurations.

Dedicated Hosting Value

A dedicated server or dedicated hosting plan would be you renting an entire server to do the work you need to have done.  Unless you get it fully managed (which will be costly) you will be responsible for keeping all the server side things like the control panel, PHP, MySQL and other things of that nature all updated yourself. If you know how to do all that, this isn’t a problem.  Your average guy on the street might have no clue how to do this so this is already the first drawback for the service.  The advantage to dedicated hosting is that you get to set things up however you see fit.  The window of customization is fully open for you to tweak and configure things to fit your needs.

Overall, I think most people will find that VPS hosting offers more value than a dedicated server hosting package. The one thing it comes down to for me is that you can get the best of both shared hosting and dedicated hosting all wrapped into one package.  You can get the server side things totally managed by the web host, as you would with shared hosting.  VPS hosting also offers you more RAM and CPU usage, which is necessary for any popular website of any type. If you have another opinion though, feel free to share them in the comments.  Would love to hear a viewpoint from the other side of the fence.

HELP!

It is your good friend, the web hosting industry’s media rock star, here with a ‘bit of a problem that I hope you can help me with.  You see, the podcast has been on a ‘bit of a hiatus as of late – and I am sorry for that.  However, I have just about run out of ideas and topics.  To me, it seems like I have covered just about everything there is – so I need your help.

Let me know, what new topics would you like to hear talked about on the Web Hosting Show? You suggest it – and I will do it.  It is as simple as that.  This podcast isn’t for me, it isn’t for them, it is for you – so if there is a topic you would like to learn more about, and it has something to do with the web hosting industry, please send it my way.

Even if you have never commented here or left a message on any website before, I want your opinions, your ideas.  Let me know how I can make this resource better for you and I will do it. So how can you send me these ideas? You can either leave them as a comment on this post or use my nifty contact page to send your message along.

Thank you for your support and for your ideas for future episodes of the Web Hosting Show podcast.

- Mitch

On today’s show we will be talking about one of my new favorite forum scripts out there.  Vanilla is definitely not your ordinary message board script.  It takes your traditional ideas of what a forum should be, takes out all the bad parts and leaves you with a functional flow of information – guaranteed.

Now, that might be a big claim to live up to, but I think the Vanilla forum script is more than capable to get the job done.

I want to share with you my thoughts on why Vanilla is one of the best forum scripts out there and a really easy way anybody can use it – no matter if you have a web hosting account to install it on or not.

Vanilla Forums 101

I have talked plenty of times with you before on free forum scripts you can easily setup and run from your web hosting account.  By far, the most unique one I have seen is Vanilla.  The Vanilla Forums script is a great open-source, standards compliant forum script.  However, that is not what impresses me.

Get Vanilla Hosted for You!

If you think Vanilla looks like an awesome forum script, but your not sure if you can get things together as far as installing it yourself – you are in luck.  If you don’t have a web hosting account or you would rather get Vanilla as an all in one package, try out their hosted installs of the script.

Love Vanilla or does another forum script work better for you? I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments!  Hope you enjoyed this week’s podcast and stay tuned because there is definitely more to come.

Welcome to the first Web Hosting Show for 2011.  So what is the first thing we have to talk about in the sixth year of this broadcast? I want to touch on the topic of getting your own YouTube clone set up.  We will tear apart the basic necessity you need (FFMPEG hosting) and give you a few good scripts to try out so you too can get on the social video sharing bandwagon.

You can make a clone of about any popular website service out there, and YouTube is no exception.  You basically need the FFMPEG tools to help convert the video or audio into a digestible web format and a script to organize it all.  Sounds pretty simple, right?

Here is what we have in store for you on today’s show:

What is FFMPEG Hosting?

Time to take a look at another hosting term you might have heard of but didn’t really know what it means.  FFMPEG hosting is the word up for review today. This is a term that is used to refer to any time of hosting that provides an assortment of of recording, converting and streaming tools for audio and video on the server side.

Best YouTube Clone Scripts

So, you want to start your own website where people can upload videos of dogs of skateboards? A few years back, this would be nearly impossible. These days though, finding a script that will clone many of the best features a video sharing service like YouTube has is pretty easy.  There are a lot of duds out there though in the world of YouTube clone scripts so I have gone through the trenches to find you the three best scripts for the job.

That is it for today’s show.  Hope you enjoy – and if you have any feedback be sure to use the contact link above or leave a comment and share with me your own thoughts on FFMPEG hosting.

As we enter year six for the Web Hosting Show, both as a podcast and as a website project of mine, I thought it was about time I apologized to you, said the unsaid and give you a look into the year to come for this very website.  It is hard to believe this website has been around over half a decade and let me start things off by saying that I am not going anywhere soon.

The Apology

First, let me apologize for the lack of content in 2010.  I had a big change in my own life when I switched jobs and with that and keeping my other projects up to date, I am afraid the Web Hosting Show got bumped to the sidelines more times than once.  Going into 2011 I have a great outlook for the new year, I am totally recharged and I am really wanting to put a lot into this project and I hope you will join me along for the ride.

The Unsaid that Needs to be Said

Every so often my professional life and my side project life kind of clash, and this podcast might be where that happens the most.  When I started this podcast I was only doing freelance writing at the time, and I thought my career in web hosting was probably said and done with. Things don’t always work out the way we think though.  Since then, I have enjoyed a very prosperous career at both Lunarpages and now Site5.  This website will never be an advertising platform for whomever I work for.  Rather than to tell you, this web host is the best – go with him I would rather teach you what to look for so you can find the best web host on your own. 

Now that is not to say other webhosts are not welcome to be apart of the Web Hosting Show.  I want to hear from web hosts both big and small.  However, from this point on I am more interested in what you have to say and not so interested in delivering a platform for a sales pitch. I think there is an honest and open debate we can have about how best to do this or how that might be changing the world without the worry that somebody is in anybody else’s pocket.  My job here is to help teach you how to fish, not to point you at the fish that will give you unlimited disk space and bandwidth.

The Future

I have spent some time looking long and hard at where I want to take the Web Hosting Show in 2011 and think I have a pretty good idea of how to get it done.  I want to do more video tutorials, more podcasts and more regular content that you can learn from.  I always love to hear your thoughts on what you want to hear, see and read so please feel free to contact me at mitch@mitchkeeler.com with any ideas you might have. 

Before I sign off, I want to thank all of you who have made hosting the podcast and running this website such a delight over the past six years.  Without you, I would have put the nail in this project a long time ago.  You are the ones who keep me going though and keep this website alive.  So thank you for your support.

Believe it or not, there are files you probably should not upload to the server you host your website from.  Not only could you get in trouble with your web host by doing so, but you could also be putting your own security at risk.  On today’s podcast we will go over some of the files you should not host and my favorite way to back up personal files remotely and securely.  The Web Hosting Show is on the air.

There are a lot of unsaid rules that you must learn when it comes to mastering the world of web hosting.  Knowing what files you should or should not host is one of them. While it might sound like common sense to some – sometimes it is the things that go unsaid that get you in trouble, so let me save us all a lot of trouble and let you in on this.

Here is what we have in store for you on today’s show:

Files You Should Not Host

Having a web hosting account is handy at times.  It allows you to practically upload anything you want to share with friends, or to store online.  This is a blessing and also a curse when it comes to the web hosting business though.  While it is handy to be able to upload anything to a web hosting account, it is not always practical.  Sometimes, it might even be against the rules.

Better Off Site Backups with Carbonite

I have been a big fan off keeping files backup off site for a while now and the best tool I have found to get that job done is Carbonite.  Out of all the other solutions, Carbonite does the best job at making backing up automated so I don’t have to worry about it.  For the webmasters out there, it is also a great way to store your website backups too.

Hope you enjoyed this edition of the Web Hosting Show podcast.  Feel free to share your own thoughts about hosting in the comments.  I would love to see them!

For those of you who might have missed my tweets about it, I was recently a guest on the official cPanel Podcast. I introduced you to the cPanel podcast some time ago, via podcast 212 of the Web Hosting Show. It was a real honor to be asked to appear and give my views on podcast, the web hosting industry and of course cPanel.

You can listen to the interview here:

I really like what they are doing over there – and the more unique content the web hosting industry gets, the better off we are all going to be.  Make sure you drop them an email at podcast@cpanel.net to let them know you enjoyed the show – and to continue the great work they are doing!

Getting started with Stitcher is easy.  The best way to get started is to click that "Listen to us on Sitcher" link you see on the Web Hosting Show’s website via your mobile device.  Now, just enter your e-mail address into the empty box – and get your download link.

By streaming the best in news, sports, talk and entertainment straight to mobile phones, Sticher is the easiest way to stay connected to the world on the go – receiving only the information that’s the most important, in a format that fits into people’s busy lives. Go check it out, if you need an easier way to follow the Web Hosting Show podcast on your mobile phone.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this podcast has to be worth at least eight minutes or so of your time.  On this edition of the Web Hosting Show we will be taking a look at both online photo gallery hosting services and three different types of photo gallery scripts you can install on your own web hosting account.

There are hundreds if not thousands of great ways to showcase your artwork, your photography or any other type of images you have created and share them with the world.  I have done my best to check them all out – so you can finally know which ones are the best of the best.

Here is what we have in store for you on today’s show:

3 Best Image Gallery Services

There are thousands of free image host out there, but not many that focus on providing you a cheap or free place to host an online gallery for your photography, images or artwork.  If you do not want to upload a script and run it from day to day, you might try one of these three free image gallery hosting services to get your own portfolio hosted online.

3 Free Photo Gallery Tools for Any Occasion

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.

Also, I would love to hear your experiences with the best gallery hosting services online or the best album scripts on the web.  If you have any other great resources worth sharing, be sure to leave a comment and share it with the rest of us.

Blog hosting is big business these days in the web hosting world.  Everybody provides it, but do you know what exactly you should be looking for when it comes to finding the best blog host?  No matter if you are shopping for a new blog host or your very first one, I have a few suggestions that will help you find the blog host you’ve always dreamed of having.  Also, why pay for blog hosting – when you can get it for free? The Web Hosting Show is on the air.

Time to share your opinions with the world, and get your own blog off the ground or preforming better. With all the features, tools and inspiration around there has been no better time to start a blog – and I’ll help you get the hosting side taken care of on this week’s podcast.

Here is what we have lined up for today’s broadcast:

3 Free Blog Hosting Solutions

When it comes to starting up a blog and finding web hosting for it, many people turn to some of the free services on the web first. Getting yourself established on a free hosting service, before moving up to a paid one can save you some money – if you are willing to trade off some flexibility and features along with it.

Basic Checklist for Blog Hosting

Search for “blog hosting” and you will get millions of pages and thousands of web hosts that would love to have your business.  What features, scripts and more should you be looking for when it comes to moving your blog to a new web host or starting one from scratch?  Here is my own personal must-have list when it comes to blog hosting that I hope comes in handy next time your searching for real blog hosting help.

Got any more great blog hosting tips or advice to share? Leave your thoughts in the comments!