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.

Now, cPanel is by far the most popular control panel option out there these days.  Do you really know what makes it stand out from the rest of the crowd though? Here are the top 5 reasons why cPanel really rocks.

1. The File Manager is easy to understand and to use.  It doesn’t limit power users by making things too simple and it doesn’t confuse new users with a lot of controls they might not understand yet.
2. It can be customized by a web host to no end.  You can quickly view a server’s PHP configuration, install Ruby Gems, setup custom error messages and more.
3. cPanel does it all when it comes to email configurations.  Right out of the box, you get support for POP, IMAP, and SMTP.  Webmail is there too, and you can get into your mail with or without SSL encryption.
4. Everything is one click away.  Now this might depend on the theme you use, but in most cases – you can get the information you need in one to two clicks.
5. With additional tools like Fantastico, installing and updating scripts is really easy to master too.  Takes a lot of boring work out of the equation and just makes playing with a lot of third-party scripts a lot easier.

There you have it.  Love it or hate it, you have to admit that its dominance in the world of web hosting has to be admired. I have a feeling cPanel will be around for many more years to come, and how dominant it is will be up to cPanel and the web hosting community at large.

Now, anybody who has been following my websites over the years should know by now that I like to go down the, do it yourself route most of the time.  However, if you are a company with a budget to spare, hiring a search engine optimization expert or firm might be a worthy investment.

However, before you sign on the dotted line and hand them over your hard earned cash, I would suggest you go over these seven important factors when it comes to the search engine optimization business.

1. Don’t Fall for Getting Listed
   If a company simply says they will get you listed in X number of search engines, run away.  You can simply do that yourself for free at each search engine’s website.
2. Know What You Are Paying For
   Be sure they you get it in writing, each service that they are doing to be doing for you, and get details on each as far as how exactly it will be helping you become more optimized for the search engines out there.
3. Beware Link Exchanges
   Stay away from any company that says they will do link exchanges for you.  Most of the time you will just become a part of a large network of websites that link to other websites, and the search engines don’t like the whole link farming idea.
4. Stay Within Your Budget
   Do not get talked into spending more money than you have put aside for search engine optimization.  Stick to your budget, and find an SEO firm that will work with you and you financial status.
5. Ask for References and Results
   Always be sure to ask for a list of clients websites they have done work for in the past, and where they were able to help.  This is another way they can prove to you they are a legitimate operation.
6. Stay Away from Guarantees
   Do not do business with people who guarantee things that sound too good to be true.  Nobody can promise the number one spot in Google for your favorite keyword.  If they do offer a guarantee, ask for proof and examples.
7. Read Customer Reviews
   Make sure you read all the reviews you can from the company and from other resources around the Web about the company to see if they have ever had any complaints about them.  Now you have to take each review with a grain of salt, but overall you should be able to get a good idea of if they are a good or bad SEO company.

Last but not least, expect to pay a hefty price when it comes to hiring an SEO expert or buying into a SEO business’s services.  They don’t come cheap, and that is why most of the time I personally like to go down the “do it yourself” route when it comes to optimizing my own websites for the search engines out there.

Want More? – Check out the rest of the SEO conversation in Podcast 209!

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 192!
Running Time: 12 minutes | File Size: 5.29 MB

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

• Was I Snubbed by HostingCon?
• How Should Web Hosts Adapt to the Social Web?
• How to Create a .htaccess File
• How to Install a WordPress Plugin
• Dead Body Pose Bring Stress Relief to Web Hosting Workers
• Why I Don’t Do Web Hosting Reviews!

Here is this week’s web hosting news headline:
HostingCon Kicks Off – Media company iNET Interactive will host HostingCon 2009, the premier conference and trade show, at Washington, D.C.’s Gaylord National Resort on August 10 to 12.

Trivia Question – True or false, Tucows started in 1993? (to find out the answer, be sure to download and listen to this week’s podcast!)

Hope you enjoy this week’s podcast, and check out the archives where you are sure to find many more.  Also, if you have any feedback, comments or complaints – you can contact me at here.  Enjoy the show, and share it with your friends!

As your palms get sweaty, you think to yourself, “Should I read it?”.  Well, I am here to tell you that you should, but take it with a grain of salt.  A healthy dose of skepticism never did any harm.

After reading a bad review, the first thing I want you to remember is that every coin has two sides.  Your only hearing from the ticked off customer in many of these cases, and you don’t know what they did to to the web host in question.  Something else I have learned over the years of working in the hosting world is that happy people usually don’t post reviews.  If you are happy, and you know it you usually don’t do squat.  Is it beyond belief?  Well, when was the last time you wrote Oscar Mayer to tell them you love their baloney?  I promise you though that the guy who found a human finger in his baloney wrote them a nasty letter.

Not to say there is anything wrong or bad with leaving good reviews.  Heck some of those are the ones that really make people excited, due to their lack of actually happening.  It is kind of like finding a duck dressed up like Abraham Lincoln.  You don’t know how he got there, he probably won’t come back again, but he did put a smile on your face.

So remember, not all bad reviews are as bad as they seem.  Sure, they may be rooted in some truth, however you should get a wide variety of opinions to see if this was just one guy out of the blue having problem, or if you can spot a trend.

Any and all feedback is appreciated and you know I am all about making you all happy so if there is something you like, hate or would love to hear about let me know.  Take the Web Hosting Show Podcast Survey!

If you have ever wanted to share your opinion to me about what I do this would be the time to do it.  Also happy post 4th of July to all of you and thanks in advance!

Not every web host out there has a multi-million dollar budget to spend on software, so I have come up with a few free alternatives for you to pass around your office next time your searching for the right tool for the job.

Foxit Reader (for PDF viewing) – Out of all the PDF reader programs out there, Foxit gets the job done and is not half as annoying as Adobe is.  If you want a PDF viewer that will not ask that you download updates for 20 other programs you do not have, Foxit is the best.

OpenOffice.org (for word processing, spreadsheets and more) – Microsoft Office is a program I have never really used.  Why?  I have always been a fan of the free alternative, OpenOffice.org.  This bundle of a word processor, spreadsheet, drawing and more might even be better than the expensive Microsoft bundle.

AutoHotkey (for helping with those quick responses) – In my bag of tricks, AutoHotkey is most likely to be the most used one of them all.  Thanks to a little simple script writing I can now type in a few characters instead of a two paragraphed e-mail each time I answer a customer’s question.

Thunderbird (for e-mail management) – I have tried a number of different e-mail clients and Mozilla’s Thunderbird wins out head over heels each and every time.  Manage multiple e-mail accounts and with the add-ons, you can build onto the functionality of the product.

Google Calendar (for dates and appointments) – Can’t tell you what I did for a calendar before Google’s came around because Google was the one who turned me onto using it.  Before Google Calendar I was stuck with ripped off sheets of paper with notes scribbled down.  After Google Calendar, I can quickly click a date, add a note and I’m done.

Now sure, those big web hosts might have the thousands of dollars to spend on programs but the budget web hosts out there have to count their pennies.  If you have any other suggestions feel free to leave a comment or drop me an e-mail.

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?

Well it looks like the web hosting industry made its way through yet another HostingCon. From what I hear it was a very big and exciting event. I’ve been talking with about a dozen people who went to the event – and I have to say I might just have to make the trip next year.

The major positives from an event like this is it allows one to socialize with their peers. Web hosting can be a very cut throat business, so taking some time to meet fellow industry workers and socialize a ‘bit is a good thing. From the perspective of an outsider looking in for the most part HostingCon looked like a big ol’ party which can be a positive and a negative.

The one thing I didn’t see from the coverage I have read thus far on it is an idea. You would think with this many web hosting people grouped together you could see something emerge as a whole to make the business better. Maybe we start a conversation about not hosting splogs. Maybe somebody suggests that we all hosting companies try to hire more American workers. Those are only a few examples of what one hopes would come from an event like this. If it happened it either has not been covered or it wasn’t “buzz-worthy” enough for anybody else to pick up on.

From reading people’s thoughts on forums and blog posts it seems that the experience was an overwhelming success. Everybody from the presenters to the participants seemed to give it two thumbs up.

Now that I have given both my positives and negatives on the event, I hope to hear options and thoughts from other folks that attended the show. Was it worth the trip and will you be doing it again next year? I think overall HostingCon is something good for the industry because it gives us all something to get excited about and a real meeting place just in case the web hosting gurus out there ever plan on world domination.

I think that just about covers it. Now while I start to filter out the e-mails I’m already starting to get from English teachers from around the world you listen to this episode of the Web Hosting Show.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 112!
Running Time: 13 minutes | File Size: 6.12 MB

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

• Some Hosting News and Gossip
• Interview with Dan Garon from Press Advance
• A Little ‘Bit of News on Intenet 2
• Even Hosts Are Getting into iPhone Hype
• Calling Out This Podcast’s Haters

Link of the Week: WHT Rejects Try to Review This Show

Howdy there, salutations and all that good stuff. We’ve all met back at the same spot and I know exactly why your here. You browsed in from the Web or your a dedicated fan, and the topics I tease you with – they make you want to listen. Hey, I don’t blame you – I’d be enticed too by legal threats from English teachers and press releases.