Micro Services and Micro Service Information

Consider ISPmanager When Starting a Web Hosting Business

Micro Services — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:01:35 +0000

New hosting companies crop up every day it seems. So what separates the hosting solutions that make it from those that fold? If you’re thinking about starting a web hosting company of your own, this question is forefront in your mind. Keep reading for 4 tips to enjoying success with your hosting business. /> id="more-5117">

Start with the set-up

Starting a hosting business initially is much like starting any other business – basic building blocks must be set in place. It is necessary to create a business model taking into account the legal and organizational aspects of getting up and running. Don’t forget the marketing – carefully consider your service positioning and what your main benefits to the end user are.

What type of a web hosting provider will you be?

Generally web hosting providers can be categorized into 3 main types of businesses. The first is companies that have web hosting solutions at the core of their service offering – web hosting is their bread and butter. Another common type of provider is a company that has decided to bundle web hosting into existing services, such as design studios, web developers, and communicative and interactive agencies for example. The third type of provider does not have web hosting as its main offering, but has added hosting to its services in order to diversify its portfolio. Internet providers, for example, often tag on web hosting services.

Just getting started? If you want to get into the web hosting business, do your market research and prepare your business plan. Find out how much it costs you to get a new customer. For many, the best thing is to start small. Get a reseller account, something you can justify as a “waste” in your budget, because, as with startups in general, it’s probably going to be a long while before you turn a profit. Patience and perseverance are the name of the game and gradual growth is what you can expect.

Choose your technical support model

As a hosting provider, you can either have your own technical team, or you can outsource hosting management. Having your own experts on staff is a popular business model, but does come with various expenses such as wages for highly qualified specialists, training, social security, and other operational costs. Not every new web hosting provider is able to incur these expenses, so for them, transferring technical support functions to an outsourced IT staff is the better customer service alternative.

Choose your control panel

There are many different options available to you when selecting a control panel to manage your web server. ISPmanager is an excellent and affordable control panel option – it is packed with a wide variety of powerful features and boasts plenty of administrative tools such as reseller options, a trouble ticket system and a notification system, amongst other important functions. /> src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/ispmanager-control-panel.jpg" alt="ispmanager control panel" title="ispmanager control panel" width="660" height="495" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5119" />

ISPmanager offers full control – you can set up and manage hosting packages or manage customer access and permissions, all from one easy to use interface. ISPmanager accommodates different hosting options, such as shared, reseller, DNS and mail hosting. It also works with the most popular operating systems, can handle mixed-platform environments and can manage a wide array of third party software. As a web hosting provider, you need to be sure that the control panel you choose can meet all your business requirements.

ISPsystem offers a variety of hosting automation and hosting management solutions to help your company grow business and improve efficiency. ISPmanager software is a hosting control panel for web-server management, automating the creation of user accounts. One of the many shared hosting software solutions offered by ISPsystem that allows you to automate business functions.

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Consider ISPmanager When Starting a Web Hosting Business is a post from: Micro Services and Micro Service Information microservices-fr.com

2012 Award for the Best Budget Hosting

Micro Services — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:20:47 +0000

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/images/awards/best-budget-hosting.png" alt="best budget hosting award" title="best budget hosting award" width="125" height="200" class="left p20" /> /> Cheap web hosting plans are a dime a dozen in the hosting jungle. But what’s the absolute cream of the crop, the pinnacle of success, and the perfect synergy between steady up-time, quality technical support, and expansive features? The answer is Web Hosting Hub (www.webhostinghub.com).

There’s a tremendous amount of competition in this sector, but Web Hosting Hub provides you with a feature-rich experience that is light on your wallet. We’re impressed by the service for a number of reasons, but first and foremost, we’re enamored with their bargain pricing scheme. /> id="more-5002"> /> The lowest priced plan offered by the host starts at a mere $ 3.95 a month, a rate we found directly comparable to even the stiffest of competition. For that money, users can also enjoy nearly unlimited everything, including disc space, bandwidth, websites, and email accounts. In other words, if you’re at all concerned about bloating out your email accounts, or about hogging up all your bandwidth in the first few weeks of each month, Web Hosting Hub is a perfect solution – at a perfect price.

Another large factor in our decision to award Web Hosting Hub is the service’s absolutely stellar 90-day money back guarantee. It’s simple: if you’re not happy with the hosting quality offered by Web Hosting Hub, you have every right to cancel your account for a full refund, even three months after the beginning of your service term. That’s an incredible deal, and one that’s invaluable to the budget conscious web-user.

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/webhostinghub-website.jpg" alt="webhostinghub website" title="webhostinghub website" width="202" height="152" class="right p20"/>Another nod in Web Hosting Hub’s favor is its rich feature set. Whether you want to use WordPress or build your own website, it’s easy to create your web property, even if you don’t have any programming experience. If you do speak HTML, Perl, PHP, etc., these languages are, of course, supported.

For your money, you’ll also get the always convenient and easy to navigate cPanel, which is a dealmaker for us. We love the shell service, and considering Web Hosting Hub’s other stellar benefits, adding cPanel to the mix is just icing on the cake.

And last, though certainly never least, we’re impressed by the quality of tech support offered by Web Hosting Hub, especially considering the bargain-bin pricing. Their US-based tech centers are around 24/7 to answer questions, are always responsive, and will genuinely offer to help. Considering the price, the tech support alone is reason enough to give Web Hosting Hub a try! No matter how you slice it, the company is indeed the Best Budget Hosting option around.

Visit http://www.webhostinghub.com for more information about Web Hosting Hub.

Read Web Hosting Hub user reviews.

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2012 Award for the Best Budget Hosting is a post from: Micro Services and Micro Service Information microservices-fr.com

Make Money From Web Hosting

Micro Services — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:45:44 +0000

Web hosting is, generally speaking, a critical element to your online endeavors. It allows us to get our website out and to the masses with little to no fuss, it can keep our eMails churning, and it can even better the quality of our lives. However, up until now you may have been unaware of just how much money you can personally make from the world of web hosting. In fact, if you’ve never been told, one can make a fortune without hardly dipping a toe into the market. How on Earth is that accomplished, you might be asking? Don’t fret, we’ve got the details ready to roll, offering the three top ways you can make money from web hosting, starting now. It’s not a full-proof plan, and you are going to have to work to make your dough, but with a little initiative, any of these are entirely possible. Starting with one of our favorite methods to make a little extra spending money – reseller hosting. id="more-4599">

1. Make Money with Reseller Hosting

Here’s how web hosting works: Large companies like HostGator, CoolHandle, JustHost, GoDaddy etc. all have massive databanks of hardware connected servers that service all of their clients. These servers are each partitioned up into tiny chunks that can be sold individually to new users looking to start a website. When a single server is split into multiple, yet conjoined, part, this is called shared web hosting. This is typically how most websites are started, and these companies tend to make a lot of money out of the technology. However, with a reseller account, you too can profit from the arrangement.

If shared hosting is like an apartment, where the purchaser leases a room in a much larger complex, reseller hosting would be like purchasing an handful of rooms from the landlord to redistribute. You buy a chunk of the hosting provider’s servers, allowing you so much disc space, bandwidth, and processing power to work with. Then, you partition this chunk into exactly as many pieces as you like, before reselling it to someone else. Essentially, it’s like founding your very own hosting company without having to start from the ground-up, developing a server and then fixing up the technology yourself. An even better way to think about it is as if you’re leasing digital ground. The hosting company gives you the space to work with, and then you build the units on-top at half the cost of a total operation.

This is a great way to make money from web hosting, particularly if you deal with clients through your own business who need web hosting—this would be jobs like graphic design, web development, etc. Best of all, these reseller accounts are typically pretty cheap, starting around $ 30 a month. Of course, though, the amount of profit you make depends on how many of your units you can actually sell. There are a couple of ways to ensure you land yourself at maximum occupancy, though, all of which are key.

The first is networking, which is vital to any business. The more people you know in need of web hosting, the better off you’ll be with your reseller account. If you’re somewhat lacking, try placing text and graphic banners on sites likely to draw traffic. Also, be sure to mark up the personal nature of the hosting experience, as it’s what differentiates you from the rest of the pack—and there’s quite a pack, we promise!

2. Hosting Affiliate Programs

However, becoming a reseller host isn’t the only way to make money from the business. Another fantastic method to make some additional spending money is to become an hosting affiliate. Let’s assume you already have an account with a site like GoDaddy to host your own website. With a hosting affiliate program, you can take a small portion of your site to add a tiny banner (or a larger one, we suppose) for the hosting company you use. This banner rests on your site, and when users click it, they’re taken to the sign-up page for the company. Once there, if they choose to purchase an hosting plan themselves, the company you’re affiliated with kicks you back quite a lot of money: Potentially as much as a couple hundred per sale.

There are a couple of ways you can optimize your traffic for this kind of program. For starters, it’s best to not become affiliated with a multitude of companies. Most hosts pay you for the number of users you recruit, making it a better practice to send all your referrals to one location.

You can also write about the host on your blog or personal website. You never know when a reader might be in need of web hosting, and will take your word over anything the Internet says. Word of mouth, in general, is a powerful tool, making your friends and family potential dollar signs, too. All in all, hosting affiliate programs are a quick way to make money without much effort on your part.

3. Create Web Services on a Dedicated Server

Another way to make money from web hosting is to purchase a dedicated server from a company like InMotion Hosting, and then use it to create a free web service. This could be a free blog, subdomain, or email service. Regardless of what it is, though, make sure it’s something a large portion of users will want to use. The idea is, after all, that you will start serving adverts to your users, making up for the overhead costs you’ve sunk into the dedicated server. This method requires a bit more cash on the front-end, but if you can develop a following for your service, you’ll quickly find yourself making a tidy bundle off the ad-revenue. It’s also a great first step should you want to later found your own company, or explore other Internet-based options.

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Make Money From Web Hosting is a post from: Micro Services and Micro Service Information microservices-fr.com

FatCow In-Depth Analysis

Micro Services — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 02:02:11 +0000

If you’ve been in the business long, we’re guessing you’ve likely heard of FatCow: They’re a top pick of ours, and have been for quite some time, at that. However, if you’ve heard the name but aren’t sure who the company is—or have no clue whatsoever about FatCow—then you’ve come to the right place. We feel it’s about time we sat down and took a good, hard look at the provider, especially as we’ve already covered some great hosting options like HostGator and InMotion. We’re particularly excited to be detailing FatCow today, though, as it happens to be one of the simplest and most customer-oriented hosting brands on the Web. We’re big fans, but don’t think we’ll be getting all biased on you! No, we’ll stick to the straight skinny, letting you decide for yourself if FatCow is the company for you. So without further hubbub, let’s dive right into the meat and potatoes of the matter, starting with a few points about the history of the company. id="more-4746">

Who is FatCow?

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/fatcow.png" alt="fatcow" title="fatcow" width="210" height="211" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5102" />

As far as hosting providers go, FatCow (www.fatcow.com) has been in the industry about as long as most of the more venerated brands, and certainly longer than about 75% of the million start-ups that have appeared since the early 2000’s. The company was founded more than a decade ago in 1998, planting their roots in Albuquerque, NM. They’ve only grown since then, too, gathering quite the following on the web, as well as within their employee groups. Since its inception, FatCow has always had a focus on providing simplified, easy to understand, and easy to own web hosting. With the company, you won’t find much by way of complex techno babble, nor will you discover any complex pricing agreements or schemes. FatCow likes to cut straight to the bone of web hosting, offering plans that meet their consumer’s needs without all the frilly talk, some, or mirrors.

However, that does not mean FatCow has neglected the tech! Underneath the hood of each and every FatCow account is one of the best servers on the market, guarnateed by constant supervision and near perfect maintenance. The host doesn’t rely on outdated and old-hat models, but makes a real effort to maintain their position on the cutting-edge of web development. As such, the company has completely swapped to wind energy. Very few hosts have made the transition, and the fact that FatCow now totally supplies its servers with energy produced locally, and by natural sources, is quite the achievement.

FatCow also focuses on offering a wealth of plans designed to supply web hosting to any possible need—and on a budget, too! They’re the only host we know to include plans for those that want no website, but still require a domain name and email address support. From the ground-up, FatCow is a unique provider, and though we dig their style, our review would be nothing without a more earnest look at their plans and prices. Skipping right along, then:

The FatCow Marketplace

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/fatcow-marketplace.jpg" alt="fatcow marketplace" title="fatcow marketplace" width="660" height="316" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5103" />

First and foremost, it’s worth mentioning that FatCow tends to operate a bit differently than most other hosting posts we’ve seen over the years. Rather than offering several tiers of hosting plans that combine various aspects of necessary features, FatCow keeps things as simple as they come.

When you buy a car, you’re first shown the basic model with no additional options. From there, you specify what you need to keep your life running smoothly. These add-ons are included at an extra cost, and when all is said and specified, you walk out with your new car and title. In much the same way, FatCow offers users a basic web hosting plan—a one size fits all, if you will. Then the user browses the FatCow Marketplace for additional services their site will need. FatCow makes this experience even simpler by including several packages aimed at targeted groups. If you’re running a business, there’s a business package supporting secure backups and additional design features. For the personal user, there’s also the option to backup data, as well as include blogging utilities. All in all, it’s a quick, simplistic, and money-saving way to have your site up and running in as short an amount of time as possible.

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/fatcow-ecommerce.jpg" alt="fatcow ecommerce" title="fatcow ecommerce" width="660" height="212" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5109" />

However, it’s not just an easier way to do things. By segregating the various features that most web hosts would simply dump on a new user, FatCow allows the web master to build their own experience from the ground-up. This is most noticeable with a new eCommerce site. Using the eCommerce Web Essentials packet in the FatCow Marketplace, web masters can add support for such necessary features as PayPal credit card support, customer security, and of course, shopping cart functionality. Taking things step-by-step ensures no services are added that aren’t wanted, and also allow the new user to efficiently manage the start-up of their Web presence.

Additional FatCow Products and Services

This fluidity in the way a FatCow website is designed doesn’t just make it simple on the user, however. It also allows the company to aggregate a full retinue of services that meet the demand of the modern webmaster. These services can be dropped, added to, substituted, etc. as new technologies emerge and older methods improve. Nowhere is this more evident than in the additional products and services FatCow offers to its clients. First and foremost, the FatCow website management utilities offered by the company provide a comprehensive sweep of everything one could want to run a website.

To start with, the provider offers a bevy of design options, allowing users to outsource the management and creation of their website. Would you really rather not manage your website yourself, and wish someone else could do it for you? It’s no problem with FatCow! The host offers several stepped service plans, allowing you to choose the level of management that best fits what you’re willing to do yourself, as well as what your not.

Additionally, FatCow also makes it simple and easy to add other services your site may require. This runs the gambit from adding PayPal Credit Card payment support, all the way down to task management and efficiency optimization. In-between you’ll find site creation utilities, eCommerce solutions, MySQL databases, and extra disc space and bandwidth. All in all, if your website needs a creative management solution, FatCow has the answer ready made and priced.

However, if you’re just looking for domain services and registration, FatCow has that problem worked, too. The provider will not only sign your domain and park it—allowing you to keep squatters off that valuable web space—but will also assist you in the creation of an eMail server. If you’re not quite ready for the full load of a website, this is a great way to opt out of signing onto an expensive hosting plan through simplistic reorganization. FatCow will also help you transfer and park a domain from another host, should you desire a change from your current hosting scenario.

And last, though hardly least, FatCow offers a comprehensive suite of full marketing utilities to keep your site gaining traction. Rather than putting the search engine optimization of your site on your shoulders, FatCow will tackle the task should you ask them to. They’ll also manage any eMail-based marketing campaigns you were looking to pursue. Even better, the site also offers each of its members full synergy with popular advertisement services, including an host of free ad credits right out of the box. In other words, if you’re confused about online marketing or optimization, and would rather not tackle the stuff yourself, FatCow is the perfect body to handle the work for you.

The Hosting Plans Themselves

Up until now, we’ve largely been talking about the various add-ons and services FatCow offers as an addendum to its singular hosting plan. However, we haven’t yet talked about the plan itself! Rather than keeping you waiting, we’re ready to dive into the matter now, and though we mentioned the company really only offers one shared hosting plan, we weren’t exactly telling the truth: With FatCow there are actually two unique plans, one based on a traditional shared hosting experience, and one for domain parking only. We’ll explore both, though, starting with:

The Shared Hosting Heifer:

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/fatcow-hosting-features.jpg" alt="fatcow hosting features" title="fatcow hosting features" width="320" height="530" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5101" />

Before we go any further, we’d like to keep you from worrying about the price of all this. So, to keep the matter short, FatCow’s plan costs only $ 3.67 a month, adding up to a grand total of $ 44 a year. Compared to almost any other host on the market, this is an unbelievable value, but FatCow doesn’t like to keep things basic. These accounts, even without any of the add-ons mentioned earlier, are up to their gills in incredible features.

Firstly, we dig the unlimited disc space, bandwidth, domain names, and email accounts. We practically demand our readers ask their web host of choice for these features, and we can’t be more tickled pink they’re here with FatCow. Secondly, we love the full compliance with popular web hosting softwares. Looking to create a WordPress blog? With FatCow, it’s no problem! Even if you’re looking for phpBB, Joomla, Gallery2, or GBook support, you’ll get all for less than four bucks a monty. Add to this support for PHP5, CGI Directories, MySQL Databases, Python and script libraries, and you’re looking at one seriously technically proficient web host.

When it comes to money, there area a few other areas worth mentioning about the company’s hosting plan. To kick things off, you’ll receive more than $ 200 in advertising credit just for signing up. FatCow’s referral programs also start at $ 10 payouts, and affiliate programs at $ 100. And lastly, you’ll be given a full 30 days to decide if you like the FatCow experience or not. Should you desire another host, they’ll refund your money completely, assuming you’re still within the month-long trial period.

Domain Parking:

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/fatcow-domain-parking.jpg" alt="fatcow domain parking" title="fatcow domain parking" width="472" height="484" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5100" />

As we mentioned, there’s yet another plan worth considering where FatCow is concerned, though. If you’re not looking to found an entire website, but would still like to register a domain name for either reselling or naming purposes, you’re more than welcome to do so within the dirt-cheap framework FatCow has created. The host’s domain parking plans start at only $ 5 a year: That’s half the cost it would require to simply register you domain with another host. With that, you’ll also receive full support for emailing functions, allowing you to use the domain as an eMail hub without requiring a full Web spread.

However, if you’d like to create a single holding page of your own design, FatCow makes it easy to do so with the built-in site builder. You can also choose a pre-created FatCow design to hold the fort, should you so desire. Best of all, you’ll still enjoy the full benefits of being a paid member of the FatCow community. This includes receiving email newsletters and brochures, 24 hour and seven days a week technical assistance, as well as auto-enrollment in the company’s referral and affiliate programs. Should you desire to become a hosting reseller, FatCow also promises deep discounts to those that have already created a domain parking account with them. In other words, having a domain parked and ready with FatCow is a great way to get your foot in the door, and potentially open up a vast number of opportunities not previously available to you. At the very least, you’ll be able to enjoy full eMail support, including autoresponders, spam filtering, and newsletter management. Even if you’re just looking for a quick pitstop on the Web, FatCow is still an ideal choice to consider.

Pricing Rundown: So, now that you’ve had a closer look at the two offered plans by FatCow, we feel we might owe you a quick review of the prices discussed thus far. All in all, the basic shared hosting plan with FatCow will run you about $ 44 a year—quite the bargain, compared to most other web hosts we’ve seen recently! Additionally, if you’d much rather avoid the bloated website, but still want a registered domain and eMail address, the domain parking services offered by the provider will cost approximately $ 5 a year: A deal we absolutely cannot recommend enough, as very few companies offer this sort of parking, much less at this price range.

That ought to do as a fairly comprehensive rundown of the pricing schemes offered by FatCow. And with all of that out of the way, there’s really only one place left to go: When looking for a quality shared hosting provider, it’s absolutely vital that you learn about the customer support and technical assistance. With that in mind, we’ll be diving next into the wealth of abundant support files FatCow offers, as well as their technical assistance lines themselves.

Fattest Cow Support

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/fatcow-support.jpg" alt="fatcow support" title="fatcow support" width="660" height="297" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5111" />

Direct Contact:

In the modern day and age, we just don’t see many web hosting providers offering direct, immediate contact with a customer service or technical representative. We aren’t sure why this is, but at the least, it certainly makes us appreciate a company that does offer this level of immediate problem solving. As such, if you’d like to contact FatCow right now to discuss the possibility of opening an account with them, you’re more than welcome to do so here. Otherwise, those looking for support (who already have a FatCow login) can access this through their ticket system here. And lastly, should you wish to leave some feedback or offer up a few quality suggestions, the company also provides an handy way to do this here.

Enough of the links, though! As we mentioned, FatCow really doesn’t mind if you decide to drop a line—even here in the United States. Give them a ring at either of the numbers below, or feel free to access the Live Chat function. And though we’re quite enamored with any company that lets us raise issues without a telephone via a chat panel, these digits below will put you in direct contact with a FatCow agent in seconds:

Sales Number: 1.866.544.9343 /> Support Number: 1.888.278.9780

Other Support Materials:

All of that being said, direct customer service and support isn’t the only way you can get your hands on a FatCow learning experience. The provider also offers a number of means to safeguard your site with a more do-it-yourself approach. First and foremost, the company offers a wide ranging knowledge base that can be accessed here. This repository supports articles on everything from optimizing WordPress for your daily use, all the way down to customizing jQuery scripts from the shell. No matter what you’re looking to accomplish with your website improvement time, FatCow’s knowledge base makes it easy and effective to learn—and with information that’s custom-tailored for the provider’s servers!

Secondly, the provider also offers what we’ve been affectionately calling the instruction manual. This user guide is similar to the aforementioned knowledge base, but instead of offering detailed instructions on more complex topics, opts to instead get you up to speed on what’s required as far as maintenance goes within your new website. Additionally, if you have any newbie questions or concerns, they’ll likely be addressed here. The guide covers everything from managing your domain right down to setting up and optimizing your eCommerce options.

And lastly, though hardly least, FatCow offers detailed analysis and step-by-step guides in the form of tutorials for a vast majority of the functions you’ll be needing to cover during the first few weeks of your new site ownership. They’re all collected here, and even if you’re not hosting with the company, this repository is a great way to catch up on your site maintenance.

All in all, with phone lines that are open 24 hours a day and seven days a week, as well as a wealth of online information and chatting options, FatCow certainly doesn’t appear to be concerned about customer interaction. But when the rubber meets the road, what are others really saying about the hosting provider’s services? For that, we’ll have to take a look at the awards and commendations, as well as reviews from you, our readers.

Awards and Roundup

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Over the years since its inception, FatCow has really been making quite a name for itself. In 2009 they won the BigHosts award for Best Low Cost Host, as well as the Host of the Year award from Hosting Review. The company was also featured in 2009 as Best Host of the Year by Best Hosts.com and Consumer Rankings. And lastly, in 2010 the company was rewarded with the MBRW second semi-annual hosting award for the quality of its services. All in all, FatCow comes with quite a few recommendations, though between you and us, not as many as we’ve seen with other hosting options. But at the end of the day, these awards can be bought: Customer reviews cannot, so what are our readers saying about FatCow?

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/fatcow-user-reviews.jpg" alt="fatcow user reviews" title="fatcow user reviews" width="509" height="173" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5107" />

From what you guys have told us, it appears that FatCow may not be quite as good as it looks on paper. We’ve heard horror stories of bait-and-switch pricing, laggy performance, less-than immediate customer support, and just downright atrocious behavior toward customers. However, we’ve also heard of quality hosting with near constant up-times, low pricing agreements, and friendly support during the middle of some sever crises. All in all, the host still enjoys a 4-star rating across the board, though with mixed reviews.

With all of this in mind, we’d strongly suggest you consider another host like InMotion Hosting or Web Hosting Hub before signing with FatCow. However, the features seem solid, the performance great, and the customer service agreeable. If you host with them and experience otherwise, though, leave us a not below, or in our ratings section. We learn from your mistakes, and we promise to help others do the same!

/> Visit www.fatcow.com for more information.

Read FatCow user reviews. />

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February 11, 2012 – WebHostingPad In-Depth Analysis

February 11, 2012 – 2012 Award for the Best Shared Hosting

January 8, 2012 – HostGator In-Depth Analysis

December 30, 2011 – Comparison of Popular Web Hosting Methods

September 27, 2011 – Why Your Site Would Be Better With a Virtual Server

September 25, 2011 – What To Remember When Moving To A New Control Panel

September 13, 2011 – A Look at the Top 3 Cheap Web Hosting Providers

September 10, 2011 – Top 5 Full Featured Web Hosts

FatCow In-Depth Analysis is a post from: Micro Services and Micro Service Information microservices-fr.com

Closed Captioning Will Make Your Media Hit Pay Dirt

Micro Services — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:41:30 +0000

Closed captioning is often used by the deaf, hard of hearing, or people like myself (too many people in Hollywood seem to think mumbling is acting and I often lose words because of this whole talking under the breath craze). It is a full transcript of the video given in subtitle form. Although it’s mainly used in this capacity, closed captioning has several uses that can greatly aid ALL users whether they require captions for understanding or not.

Let’s consider video for a moment. Video can present complex ideas and thoughts, it can teach, and it can entertain. It’s no secret that video searches are becoming very popular, and that the growth in video searches is continuing to grow. However, despite this growth search engines cannot parse the video to search for context. Instead they rely on titles, tags, and other information available on the same page as the video. Through closed captioning, if you present the full transcript of the video on the same page, the search engines now can parse ALL of the words used in the video and thus your videos will be ranked far better and more accurately.

More over, closed captioning provides a means to navigate your video far easier. If there is a complete transcript of the video available, than anyone can search for words and phrases they want to watch within the transcript and jump to the appropriate time in the video and view it.

Lastly, new laws are coming out that dictate that a lot of online video needs to be closed captioned. Some might say I should have opened with the “you have to do it or else” bit, but I figured I will start with how it will help you.

For a practical demonstration of the benefits of closed caption we can look at CNBC. CNBC has a lot of video: news, interviews, etc. To get it all up to snuff would take a monumental amount of work. So CNBC contracted to a company called RAMP and what RAMP did was automate the process of transcribing the video. The benefits of this process are many. First it allowed a rapid way to add captioning to all of CNBC’s media on the fly without the aid of a poor intern slaving away in front of the computer constantly hitting pause, rewind, play. Secondly, the transcript was datamined for keywords, terms, stock tickers and the like. Thus the search media was found and added. Next the service includes a full searchable transcript that allows the user to skip to whatever they are highlighting. This adds a high level of navigation to the video.

And the pay off? According to RAMP, the added features increase session length by almost 90% and video completion by almost 70%. Video is not something easily interactable. However, by adding closed captioning, not only does the video become interactable, but it becomes navigable and searchable.

So if you don’t want to do us a favor, do yourself a favor and add closed captioning.

Closed Captioning Will Make Your Media Hit Pay Dirt is a post from: Micro Services and Micro Service Information microservices-fr.com

2012 Award for the Best Blog Hosting

Micro Services — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:47:58 +0000

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/images/awards/best-blog-hosting.png" alt="best blog hosting" width="125" height="200" class="left p20"/>

When searching for a top-notch solution for your personal website and blog, there’s a multitude of options in the industry. But which service caters up the absolute best solution for your blogging habit, both professional and amateur? The answer: Web Hosting Hub (http://www.webhostinghub.com).

We thought long and hard about it, and we have to say—even with so much competition around—Web Hosting Hub is an easy winner. We like the provider for a number of reasons, but first and foremost, we’re absolutely floored by their extremely competitive pricing plan. If you’re looking for a budget way to crack the blogosphere, Web Hosting Hub is a fantastic option to be considered. /> id="more-4636"> /> Their hosting plan starts at a scant $ 3.95 a month, which is every bit on par with their competitors—and even better than some other providers we could name. For that money, you’ll get unlimited everything, as well. If you’re looking for a budget way to blog, four bucks a month with Web Hosting Hub earns you unlimited email accounts, disc space, bandwidth, and even unlimited websites. If you’re concerned about maxing out your website with too much content, or about running out of bandwidth for your blog readers, Web Hosting Hub is the ideal solution.

One of the other factors in our decision is Web Hosting Hub’s excellent, fully certified 90-day money back guarantee. Are you unhappy with the SEO-optimization available for your blog, or are you finding your blog simply too difficult to update with each new entry? No problem! Web Hosting Hub will refund your money completely, even 90 days after the start of your service agreement. That’s a better deal than we’ve seen absolutely anywhere else, and we can’t speak highly enough of it.

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/webhostinghub-320x240.jpg" alt="web hosting hub" title="web hosting hub" width="200" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-4037 right p20" />Not only that, but Web Hosting Hub also comes with one of the nation’s best hosting tech support services. For such a low price each month, the provider raises the bar with US-based tech centers open 24/7 and available via both the Internet and telephone. Their technicians are ready to help, and each member of Web Hosting Hub’s team is fully certified to help you with any WordPress problems you may have, making the provider the ideal guiding hand when your blog goes awry.

Saving the best for last, the real reason we’re in love with Web Hosting Hub for blog hosting is their killer WordPress support. Everyone’s favorite blogging utility is ready-to-roll with each new domain registered at Web Hosting Hub. Not only that, but the provider also features hardware and software optimized to manage and run the blogging front-end.

With Web Hosting Hub, it’s never been easier, or cheaper to set up your own, personal blog. That’s why Web Hosting Hub is this year’s winner in Web Hosting Geek’s “Best Blog Hosting” category.

Visit http://www.webhostinghub.com for more information about Web Hosting Hub.

Read Web Hosting Hub customer-written reviews.

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February 11, 2012 – 2012 Award for the Best Business Hosting

January 11, 2012 – WordPress Website and WordPress Hosting

January 1, 2012 – Fastest WordPress Hosting in Town

September 25, 2011 – Linux and E-Commerce: The Top 5 Best Hosts for Two Long-term Trends

September 23, 2011 – The 5 Best Shared Web Hosting Account Deals This Week

September 21, 2011 – A Look at Dirt Cheap, Quality, Web Hosts

September 13, 2011 – A Look at the Top 3 Cheap Web Hosting Providers

September 10, 2011 – Top 5 Full Featured Web Hosts

2012 Award for the Best Blog Hosting is a post from: Micro Services and Micro Service Information microservices-fr.com

WebHostingPad In-Depth Analysis

Micro Services — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:10:55 +0000

When it comes to shared hosting, there seem to be too more offerings out there supporting many thousands of additional services, all adding up to one maddeningly complex decision when it comes down to actually signing an host for your new website. However, if you’ve done much research at all into the industry, you’ve likely seen a few choice names appearing again and again in the top ten lists. We’ve already looked at two of these heavy-hitters in the last few months, and now that we’re done performing an in-depth look at HostGator and InMotion Hosting, we feel it’s time to move onto yet another substantial hosting provider: WebHostingPad. The WebHostingPad reviews are mixed, but no matter how you slice it, the company’s plans are cheap, making them easily worth considering. But without further ado, skip on down below the break to learn more about the web host, their plans, and the services they offer. /> id="more-4697">

Who is WebHostingPad?

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/webhostingpad-features.jpg" alt="webhostingpad features" title="webhostingpad features" width="576" height="436" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4792" />

As a web hosting provider, WebHostingPad (http://www.webhostingpad.com) was founded almost a decade ago in 2005. From the very outset, they have had one goal, and one goal only: To provide quality web hosting so cheap that absolutely anyone and everyone can enjoy their own, private space on the Internet. Since their inception, the company has been on a veritable warpath, carving out a niche for themselves and garnering the attention of several key awards. Their customer service in particular has been lauded as one of the best in the industry, as have their ultra-low shared hosting plans. To date, the company hosts more than 150,000 domains, and claims a 99.99% guaranteed uptime. The company is also very well known for its lack of any sort of hidden fees, as well as its dedication to the latest hardware and software. All of their server units come with name-brand security, offering superior performance.

However, all of this could very well be a sales pitch from the company. What do they really look like once the bonnet’s been cracked open? To find out, keep reading, Solider. We’ll be taking a look at their shared hosting plans first, before diving into the thick and sticky of their extended plans.

Shared Hosting with WebHostingPad

The Price

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/webhostingpad-pricing.jpg" alt="webhostingpad pricing" title="webhostingpad pricing" width="297" height="268" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4793" />

Before we do anything else, we feel we absolutely have to mention the lowest price WebHostingPad currently offers for its shared hosting services. Plans with the host bottom out at an unbelievable $ 1.99 a month, a full two or three times less expensive than some of the other, industry leading hosting companies. This price is only offered as a discount with a full five year service agreement, but even with just a single 12-month term, the company’s rates begin at only $ 3.99 a month for the basic shared hosting services. Power Plus plans are also offered at twice the usual rate. Still, no matter what tier of hosting you select from the company, you’re still getting a tremendous value, especially when compared to companies like Amazon, Host Gator, or In Motion.

Lastly, if you’re worried about inflation with your accounts renewal charges, you can throw that discontent right into the rubbish bin! WebHostingPad is the only hosting company we know of that offers a full price-lock on each and every one of their accounts. This lock guarantees that, for the life of your account, the provider will never once inflate your renewal costs. If you sign an account for $ 3.99 a month, that’s the price you will pay for as long as you lease the space from the provider, bar none. Considering every other host we know has raised their prices slowly but steadily over the years, this guarantee is a tremendous advantage, as well as a great reason to sign with the company. Truly, it’s a unique boon for WebHostingPad.

The Features

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/webhostingpad-hosting-features.jpg" alt="webhostingpad hosting features" title="webhostingpad hosting features" width="300" height="267" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4794" />

However, all the lowest prices in the world can only go so far. Without quality features and feature sets to back up their low price selling point, WebHostingPad is just as useless as free hosting. So what does the company offer in terms of features that make them worth considering?

First out of the box, WebHostingPad supports all of the unlimited and unmetered performance you’d expect of an high-caliber hosting service. There’s unlimited disc space, as well as unmetered bandwidth support for both your own FTP accounts, as well as foot traffic from viewers. Likewise, the company welcomes your email accounts, allowing you to host as many accounts desired, complete with an unlimited number of email forwarders, auto responders, and POP access points. In addition, WebHostingPad will also allow you to park as many domains onto your account as you’d like, alongside as many subdomains as you can create within your framework. It’s one heck of a package, but it doesn’t end there. Add to the list an unlimited number of MySQL servers and CGI-Bins, and you’re considering a whopping amount of features for not a lot of bank.

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/webhostingpad-software.jpg" alt="webhostingpad software" title="webhostingpad software" width="573" height="147" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4799" />

If you’re concerned about website builders and tracking tools, WebHostingPad supplies each and every one of its accounts with a plentiful number. There’s unlimited support for popular blogging softwares like Drupal and WordPress, alongside built-in message board and forum tools to help develop your website into a conversational powerhouse. eCommerce offerings include an advanced firewall, a ready-to-roll shopping cart, password protected directories, and even 24/7 server monitoring. All of this, of course, is only under the most basic of hosting plans.

WebHostingPad also offers a second tier of pricing schemes called the Power Plus plans. These accounts offer all of the features already listed, in addition to a wealth of statistical and analytical utilities to help you track the progress and growth of your Web presence. Another selling point with these more expensive accounts is their remote hands-on support, allowing WebHostingPad’s representatives to access your account directly should you need assistance with un unexpected problem.

All in all, WebHostingPad offers all of the selling points we typically look for in a shared hosting service. There’s the unlimited and unmetered account points, as well as the superior support for modern coding languages and softwares. However, that’s no guarantee WebHostingPad performs as well within the realm of VPS hosting: So without any more babbling on, let’s take a look at the virtual private server services offered by WebHostingPad, as well as what they mean for you!

Virtual Private Servers from WebHostingPad

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/webhostingpad-vps-hosting.jpg" alt="webhostingpad vps hosting" title="webhostingpad vps hosting" width="582" height="517" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4791" />

If you’re looking for an in-between option stuck directly between a shared hosting account and a full-on (and pricy) dedicated server, there’s really no better option than a virtual private server. The technology makes it unbelievably easy—and cheap—to have your own, dedicated unit with which to run your Web presence and media. However, not all VPS hosting plans are created the same, and if you’re not careful, you may find your host scalping you for these kinds of plans. So how does WebHostingPad stack up?

First and foremost, the pricing: Virtual private server plans with WebHostingPad start as low as $ 9.95 a month, which is a fair five to ten dollars cheaper than almost any other hosting provider we can name. Additionally, this low price earns each and every consumer that decides to sign with WebHostingPad 10 gigabytes of disc space, 100 gigabytes monthly bandwidth, and a guaranteed 128 megabytes dedicated memory. Setup is also free, and comes with a free dedicated IP address.

Like all the other pricing tiers in WebHostingPad’s VPS hosting experience, this low level offering can be billed at a variable rate, either monthly, quarterly, or semi-annually. We really appreciated this flexibility, as it allows the consumer to pay their web hosting bill whenever it is most convenient for them, while still not running out their budget.

If you’re willing to spend just a little more per month, WebHostingPad’s VPS plans allow for as much as 100 gigabytes of storage, an unlimited amount of bandwidth data transfer per month, and 512 megabytes of dedicated memory. Another selling point we look for with virtual private server plans is burstable memory: This is the additional performance power that works to bail out your server when demand on your data is unbearably high, such as during a peak traffic moment. The lowest amount of burstable memory one can find with WebHostingPad starts at 512 megabytes—a decent size for the middle tier price—and the highest possible is a whopping two gigabytes. That’s one heck of a lot of memory, and if you’re willing to pay the (still cheap) price of $ 39.95 a month, that quality can be yours.

All in all, if you’re looking to host your site with a quality virtual private server offering, WebHostingPad appears to be a decent way to do it. Aside from raw statistics, the company also offers reseller ready and fully managed VPS hosting, allowing you more freedom on the front-end with less initial work. And to us, that’s always a bargain!

Money Back Guarantee and Money Upfront

So, we’ve now had a look at the various hosting plans offered by WebHostingPad, but we have yet to talk about everything else involved with an hosting experience. First and foremost, we tend to look for some kind of money back guarantee within a company’s hosting plans, and thankfully, WebHostingPad does not disappoint in the slightest. All of the hosting provider’s plans come backed with a full 30-day money back guarantee that will refund any and all money put into your hosting investment, barring the cost of the domain name itself. What this means for you, the consumer, is simple: The host is willing to stand by their uptime, service, and customer support claims. Should you find any of these lacking—or entirely false—the provider offers you the option to return their service at no charge, even a full month after first signing. This is an incredible value, and if you’ve been hesitating to sign onto a virtual private server or optimized shared hosting experience, there’s no better time to get on the band wagon.

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/webhostingpad-bonus.jpg" alt="webhostingpad bonus" title="webhostingpad bonus" width="650" height="121" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4790" />

If you noticed in our heading there, we mentioned money offered upfront, as well. We weren’t kidding, as WebHostingPad offers all of its users, no matter what plan they’re signed onto a full $ 200 in free advertisement credit. This includes Google AdWords, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, and even WordPress blogging tools. The provider even throws in a wealth of AccessGuardian credits to keep you safe and secure in your hosting decision. Typically, we’re used to seeing $ 75 to $ 100 in advertising credit, making a value of $ 200 nearly unprecedented. No matter how you slice it, it’s a lot of free money to work with, and if its the dealmaker in your decision to host with WebHostingPad, we wouldn’t blame you.

WebHostingPad Support and Help System

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/webhostingpad-support-system.jpg" alt="webhostingpad support system" title="webhostingpad support system" width="600" height="230" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4789" />

When it comes to web hosting, especially shared web hosting, we tend to have one, all-important rule: Know your hosts support will be great, because no matter how good the service or the experience are, you’re going to encounter problems during your first few months of service. WebHostingPad is no different, and as such, we took great pains to investigate each and every nook and cranny of their support and help system. Thankfully, we’ve got some pretty good items to point out—at the least, it’s a mark in their favor.

First and foremost, WebHostingPad offers a multitude of ways to contact their representatives, which is always a good sign. Most quality hosts offer at least these methods, and WebHostingPad has them all covered in spades: Live chat, email support, live customer service lines, and an email ticketing system. We especially dug the email ticketing system, which uses a separate log-in panel to mange all of your open tickets. Through this management, it’s unbelievably easy for users to upload their problems for inspection. Along the way, they’ll receive updates when their ticket has been opened, as well as information on when they can expect an end delivery of a solution. It’s smooth, fluid, and works like a charm.

We also loved the option to live chat with a technical support representative. We’ve used live chat services for everything from our cell phones to our automobiles, and we love the fact it’s here with WebHostingPad. If you’re in need of a speedy solution during normal working hours, it’s a quick and painless way to find an answer.

If you’d like to go ahead and contact WebHostingPad about any of the points we’ve already discussed, or about some other question we haven’t yet covered, feel free to do so at any of the points listed below:

Physical Address:

WebHostingPad.com, Inc. /> 5005 NewPort Dr Suite 503 /> Rolling Meadows, IL 60008

Email

Technical Support: support login center /> Sales: sales@webhostingpad.com /> Billing Support:billing@webhostingpad.com

Telephone

Toll Free: (877) 998-4678 /> Local: (847) 346-1801 /> Fax: (847) 342-6299

Before moving on to a few more points about WebHostingPad as well as our final roundup, we’d also like to mention the incredible knowledge base the provider offers. We like any company that’s willing to help educate their users, and WebHostingPad is a prime example. Users are free to peruse and add to the provider’s extensive databank of server-side issues, common coding practices, and general web maintenance manuals. If you have a solution you’d like to work out on your own, WebHostingPad is more than willing to help you do it.

On a similar note, the company also boasts an extensive web glossary designed to get the new web master up to speed in as little time as possible. Keep seeing terms you’re unfamiliar with while shopping for a good web host? WebHostingPad understands your pain and wants to help, offering a full compendium of some of the more commonly uttered phrases and words in the business. If you’d like to learn a little bit more about Ajax, or just forget forget the difference between a CDN and a CMS, WebHostingPad is there to help.

Overall, we found ourselves very impressed with the sum total of WebHostingPad’s support and help system. Obviously, we haven’t got any way to test the service over a period of years, but initial expectations are set very high. We like the face of the package, and we have a feeling the inside rocks, too.

The Softaculous

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Softaculous.jpg" alt="Softaculous" title="Softaculous" width="600" height="400" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4788" />

Another selling point we particularly like about WebHostingPad is its unique dedication to supplying consumers with as much critical data about their server-side software as possible. The provider manages this through their control-panel based auto-installer Softaculous. This plug-in behaves in much the same way that a Linux distro’s package manager does, serving as a sort of repository for any number of add-ons and programs the average user might need or want to use. Furthermore, the provider isn’t just content to serve up the latest stuff, but makes an effort to include ratings, suggestions, and detailed information about each package too. In other words, WebHostingPad worked to create a utility that simultaneously makes the end-consumers web hosting experience easer, while also providing a utility for the discussion and advancement of the technology itself. We’re tempted to geek out over that, but long story short, it’s a level of commitment we just aren’t seeing anywhere else in the industry.

WebHostingPad Awards and Recognition

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/webhostingpad-awards.jpg" alt="webhostingpad awards" title="webhostingpad awards" width="574" height="268" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4787" />

Since its inception, WebHostingPad has been winning a number of awards consecutively, including Best Budget Hosting from Web Hosting Awards and Web Hosting Directory, as well as Highest Recommended Hosting from Upper Host. Lastly, the company has also been recognized and awarded with the Editor’s Choice Award from Web Host Magazine and Buyer’s Guide, in addition to the Top 10 Budget Hosting Award from Host Review. Most of these awards and accolades have also been received within the last two years, meaning WebHostingPad is not content to rest on its laurels, but has been striving with each new year to better its services.

The Final Roundup

In our eyes, WebHostingPad looks to be one of the best options out there for cheap web hosting. The company offers nearly unbeatable prices, or at the least, we haven’t found any providers willing to go much lower than WebHostingPad. Their feature sets look promising, as do they technical support avenues, should some of the features go awry within your first few months of service. On that note, the 30-Day Money Back Guarantee safeguards you from any unwanted commitments up to a full month after the ink on the contract has run dry. Add to this an impressive number of hosted domains, as well as a continued stream of awards and a lengthy history, and we feel certain we can safely recommend the host to those still in need of a budget option.

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/webhostingpad-reviews.jpg" alt="webhostingpad reviews" title="webhostingpad reviews" width="539" height="165" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4786" />

Still, our WebHostingPad reviews have been mixed, leading us to believe you should consider a few of our other choice favorites before signing onto the WebHostingPad experience. We particularly favor Web Hosting Hub and InMotion Hosting. Considering other hosts may be just as prudent, but when it comes to features and guarantees, we can’t promise any other hosts will be on-par with what WebHostingPad is creating and doing. All in all, the company still looks quite promising on paper, and if you decide to sign with them, be sure to let us know how things actually pan out!

Visit http://www.webhostingpad.com for more information.

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December 28, 2009 – Factors to Consider When Choosing a Web Host

October 29, 2008 – Webhostingpad.com lowers it’s prices

January 18, 2012 – InMotion Hosting In-Depth Analysis

January 8, 2012 – HostGator In-Depth Analysis

September 29, 2011 – Guarantees – Separating Fact from Fiction

July 20, 2011 – First Deployment of R1Soft Data Protection by Servers Australia

June 6, 2011 – Surviving Website Downtime

February 17, 2011 – When to Cancel a Web Hosting Plan

January 16, 2011 – What Makes a Top Web Hosting Site?

January 16, 2011 – Web Server Uptime – a Key to the Selection of the Best Web Hosting Company

WebHostingPad In-Depth Analysis is a post from: Micro Services and Micro Service Information microservices-fr.com

2012 Award for the Best Business Hosting

Micro Services — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:27:32 +0000

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/images/awards/best-business-hosting.png" alt="best business hosting" width="125" height="200" class="left p20"/>

InMotion Hosting is this year’s winner in Web Hosting Geek’s “Best Business Hosting” category. The service provides above average customer attention, especially to business-based clients in need of a fast server, reliable up-times, and industry-grade performance.

The web hosting provider (http://www.inmotionhosting.com) was chosen over its competitors because of its innovative software and hardware system, its above-average technical support, and its affordable business hosting plans. /> id="more-4656"> /> InMotion Hosting uses a unique network of West Coast/East Coast data centers that provide “Max Speed Zones” to users within the continental United States. Those within direct proximity of a data center can enjoy email, bandwidth, and networking speeds that clock in at up to six times the speed of InMotion Hosting’s competitors. The provider also makes it easy for business owners to select the most efficient data center using their proprietary File Download Test.

In addition to supporting multiple data centers, InMotion Hosting also includes one of the most advanced peer-based networks available of any shared web hosting provider. The company strives to create a stable base of peer networked computers for businesses to use, increasing up-time, stability, and connection speed in a cost-effective manner.

InMotion Hosting was also selected for its business friendly pricing and feature set. The provider’s monthly rates start at only $ 5.95 a month, before topping out at $ 13.95. For their money at the cheapest rate, business managers can enjoy two distinct websites, up to six domains (as well as 25 subdomains) dual MySQL databases, and 1,000 free FTP accounts.

InMotion Hosting also comes with unlimited disc space and bandwidth across all of its pricing schemes, making it easy for businesses to scale up with demand, or keep network drain at a modest rate during off-periods.

src="http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/inmotion-website-320x190.png" alt="inmotion website" title="inmotion website" width="250" border="1" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-4662 right p20" />The provider is also 100% compatible with industry standard coding environments and languages. Businesses are free to connect their accounts with Adobe Dreamweaver for easy updating, while InMotion Hosting also supports WordPress development. The service also supports coding languages like PERL, PHP, Python, Javascript, and of course, HTML.

Lastly, InMotion Hosting was selected as “Best Business Web Host” for its stellar, 24/7 technical support. The company’s support network is available at any time of the week or day via toll-free telephone, making it one of the most cost-effective and supportive services around.

Overall, InMotion Hosting is easily a shoe-in as “Best Business Hosting.” Its rich feature set and support for industry standard coding and environments makes it a ready-made, cheap solution for the business in need of a quality web host.

Visit http://www.inmotionhosting.com for more information.

Read InMotion Hosting customer reviews.

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2012 Award for the Best Business Hosting is a post from: Micro Services and Micro Service Information microservices-fr.com

Top 9 Ways to Optimize Your WordPress Server for Blazing Fast Speeds

Micro Services — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:09:51 +0000

When it comes to content management and coding efficiency, WordPress tends to be one bad mother. Where other content management systems might chug and chortle, WordPress tends to serve up your content with a markedly improved efficiency that makes the folks over at Drupal shiver in their boots. However, just because WordPress is built from the ground-up to be faster does not mean it is optimized out of the box for your server: In fact, if you neglect to modify a few key parameters early in your blog or websites installation, you may find your content getting stuck in the pipes. This translates to longer load times, and if you’re especially neglectful, unhappy end-users. That’s a fate we’d very much like to help you avoid, so with that in mind, we’ve prepared a few of our top ways in which you can dramatically increase the speed of your already quick WordPress server. /> id="more-4694"> /> To get the most out of our handwork, we suggest you simply work your way through the list, modifying your server as needed, and skipping the areas you’ve already completed. If you follow our directions to the letter, we promise you’ll emerge with a much faster system—Or your money back! So before you realize we’re doing this at no charge to you, let’s jump straight into the heart of the matter with:

1. Serve Your Static Media from a Cookie-Less Domain

About 80 to 90% of the time, your users are spending their time loading static content from your WordPress blog. This means that far more than the majority of the time a user is viewing your site, they’re waiting for items like images, stylesheets, scripts, Flash, etc. to load and present themselves on the screen. As such, you can optimize this content to arrive more quickly by telling WordPress to load it all from a cookie free domain. This eliminates a few precious micro-seconds of load time, which may not seem like much, but can really amount to a whopping time loss when added to other delaying issues.

Thankfully, it’s not hard to set up this kind of arrangement within WordPress. To do so, simply set these two constants within your wp-config.php file as so:

define(“WP_CONTENT_URL”, “http://static.yourdomain.com”);

define(“COOKIE_DOMAIN”, “www.yourdomain.com”);

After you’ve done that, just check to be sure you’ve marked “bloginfo( ‘template_directory’ )” to load your static content within your theme files. That’s it, allowing us to move onto point two!

2. Set-Up Cached Headers to Expire for Your Static Content

Serving up cached media is another great way to reduce load times. Thankfully, creating expiring headers for your static content is also fairly easy to do within WordPress, and can save you a lot of lag-based headaches. The best way to do so is to use the following code form the HTML 5 Boiler Plate. You can append it to your .htaccess file for immediate results. This, essentially, tells your server to expire headers at a future date, saving them in a cached format until that expiration date. So without further ado, here’s the code to get the job done! /> —————————————————————————————————————- /> /> ExpiresActive on /> # Perhaps better to whitelist expires rules? Perhaps. /> ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 month" /> # cache.appcache needs re-requests /> # in FF 3.6 (thx Remy ~Introducing HTML5) /> ExpiresByType text/cache-manifest "access plus 0 seconds" /> # Your document html /> ExpiresByType text/html "access plus 0 seconds" /> # Data /> ExpiresByType text/xml "access plus 0 seconds" /> ExpiresByType application/xml "access plus 0 seconds" /> ExpiresByType application/json "access plus 0 seconds" /> # RSS feed /> ExpiresByType application/rss+xml "access plus 1 hour" /> # Favicon (cannot be renamed) /> ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access plus 1 week" /> # Media: images, video, audio /> ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 month" /> ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 month" /> ExpiresByType image/jpg "access plus 1 month" /> ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 month" /> ExpiresByType video/ogg "access plus 1 month" /> ExpiresByType audio/ogg "access plus 1 month" /> ExpiresByType video/mp4 "access plus 1 month" /> ExpiresByType video/webm "access plus 1 month" /> # HTC files (css3pie) /> ExpiresByType text/x-component "access plus 1 month" /> # Webfonts /> ExpiresByType font/truetype "access plus 1 month" /> ExpiresByType font/opentype "access plus 1 month" /> ExpiresByType application/x-font-woff "access plus 1 month" /> ExpiresByType image/svg+xml "access plus 1 month" /> ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-fontobject "access plus 1 month" /> # CSS and JavaScript /> ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 year" /> ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 year" /> ExpiresByType text/javascript "access plus 1 year" /> /> Header append Cache-Control "public" /> /> /> —————————————————————————————————————-

3. Optimize that Database!

Another great way to fix your server up to deliver your WordPress site with the most efficiency is to optimize your database. How does one do this? With mountains and mountains of code that take hours to append—We’re kidding! WordPress makes this unbelievably easy, thanks to a number of free plug-ins. You can search the plug-in database for server optimization, but some of our favorites are Yoast Optimize DB and WP DB Manager. Keep in mind too that most caching plug-ins also help with a lot of this, so you may find most of the workload being taken care of by your already extant caching softwares.

4. Use Cached Media As Much As Possible

On that note, creating cached .html files saves your server a mountain of database queries, and can easily be accomplished through any number of quality plug-ins. Essentially, these additions turn all those queries into static pages that load easy, saving your viewer from horrendous lag on the front-end. So what plug-ins do we recommend? Thanks for asking! Here are our favorites, though as with the database optimizers, there’s plenty more to be found in the plug-in database!

Our favorite caching utilities include: WP Super Cache, Hyper Cache, and W3 Total Cache. These generate .html files, but we also use DB Cache to cache the database queries themselves, saving even more time on the front-end.

5. Use a Content Delivery Network

We’re quite tremendous fans of the content delivery network. Everything about the technology gets us excited, and though we tend to evangelize the service to everyone we know, adding a CDN solution to your WordPress site is extremely easy, and can really save you a lot of load time. There are several freely available plug-ins that offer a fair amount of content distribution, but if you’re looking for a quality option, you really aren going to need to spend a little. However, we should mention the benefits of signing up for a CDN tend to far outweigh the cons, making the following services every bit as useful as they are expensive. If you’re hung-up on the price, though, we’ve also included a free option!

Our favorite content delivery providers are: Amazon S3, Max CDN, Media Temple CDN, and Free CDN.

6. Compress and Adjoin All Those JS and CSS Files Where Possible

Generally speaking, it’s a fantastic idea to compress both your JS and CSS files, as this reduces the overall size of your website, and allows for speedier load times at the end-user level. However, if you’re looking to take your optimization to a whole new level, we also strongly suggest you combine the two where possible. Combining multiple files into a single offering can greatly reduce the number of HTTP requests from your web server, saving your viewers precious seconds in load time. And—you guessed it—we do happen to have a number of plug-ins ready to help you out!

Our favorite JS compressors include Closure Compiler and Minify JavaScript. Our favorite CSS alternatives are Minify CSS and CSS Compressor. Alternatively, you can also use the wp minify plug-in to combine your JS and CSS files directly from WordPress.

7. Compress Your Image Files

On the subject of compression, it’s also a pretty fantastic idea to compress your images, too. This reduces the overall size of your website, and can knock off quite a few moments during your site’s load time. The plug-in we favor uses the API of the smush.it site to compress your images for optimized use. It’s a brilliant bit of coding, and we can’t speak highly enough of it. So without further ado, go ahead and snag WP Smush IT to increase the speed of your site. You can also use CSS Sprite to reduce the number of HTTP requests, if you’re feeling particularly gung-ho.

8. Compress Your Static Content into a gZip

One more compression tip, and then we promise we’ll stop. You see, just as it’s generally a good idea to compress your CSS, JS, and image files, so is it also a great idea to shrink down all of that extraneous static content we mentioned earlier. Just as most of your load time comes from grabbing this junk, so too can it be relieved by downsizing the overall cost of the HTTP request. Thankfully, there’s an incredibly simple way to do this within WordPress: And taking the time to add the following code snippet can dramatically reduce your wait times. So without any more babbling, here’s the code you’ll want to add to your .htaccess file. In case you were wondering, this is yet another bit of genius straight from the HTML5 Boiler Plate: /> —————————————————————————————————————- /> /> # force deflate for mangled headers /> # developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/posts/2010/12/pushing-beyond-gzipping/ /> /> /> SetEnvIfNoCase ^(Accept-EncodXng|X-cept-Encoding|X{15}|~{15}|-{15})$ ^((gzip|deflate)\s*,?\s*)+|[X~-]{4,13}$ HAVE_Accept-Encoding /> RequestHeader append Accept-Encoding "gzip,deflate" env=HAVE_Accept-Encoding /> /> /> # HTML, TXT, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, XML, HTC: /> /> FilterDeclare COMPRESS /> FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $ text/html /> FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $ text/css /> FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $ text/plain /> FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $ text/xml /> FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $ text/x-component /> FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $ application/javascript /> FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $ application/json /> FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $ application/xml /> FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $ application/xhtml+xml /> FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $ application/rss+xml /> FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $ application/atom+xml /> FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $ application/vnd.ms-fontobject /> FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $ image/svg+xml /> FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $ application/x-font-ttf /> FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $ font/opentype /> FilterChain COMPRESS /> FilterProtocol COMPRESS DEFLATE change=yes;byteranges=no /> /> /> # Legacy versions of Apache /> AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/css application/json /> AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript /> AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml application/xml text/x-component /> AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml application/rss+xml application/atom+xml /> AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml application/vnd.ms-fontobject application/x-font-ttf font/opentype /> /> /> —————————————————————————————————————-

9. Disable eTags

eTags are generally a great way to aide the development of cached content within WordPress. However, if you’ve shrunk down all of your media and are using expiration headers for the majority of your static content, having them enabled isn’t nearly as good of an idea. As such, you should turn all of them off by adding the following line of code to your aforementioned .htaccess file. It’s a single line:

File ETag none

and with all the other improvements we’ve made during the course of this article, it will tie the bow on your load time savings.

class="related_post">

March 31, 2010 – WordPress and Search Engine Optimization – Facts to Consider

January 16, 2012 – Top 4 Ways to Optimize WordPress for Search Engines

January 11, 2012 – WordPress Website and WordPress Hosting

January 1, 2012 – Fastest WordPress Hosting in Town

December 9, 2011 – WordPress vs. Blogger

October 7, 2011 – The 13 Best Free WordPress Plugins

October 3, 2011 – WordPress Plugins – Making the Most of the Your Site

September 19, 2011 – Get Out of the PHP Memory Error Rut with WordPress

September 15, 2011 – Add-Ons That Will Save Your Web Hosting Business

September 15, 2011 – Alternative’s to WordPress – Other Content Management Systems do Exist

Top 9 Ways to Optimize Your WordPress Server for Blazing Fast Speeds is a post from: Micro Services and Micro Service Information microservices-fr.com

Top 9 Ways to Optimize Your WordPress Server for Blazing Fast Speeds

Micro Services — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:29:29 +0000

To get the most out of our handwork, we suggest you simply work your way through the list, modifying your server as needed, and skipping the areas you’ve already completed. If you follow our directions to the letter, we promise you’ll emerge with a much faster system—Or your money back! So before you realize we’re doing this at no charge to you, let’s jump straight into the heart of the matter with:

1. Serve Your Static Media from a Cookie-Less Domain

Thankfully, it’s not hard to set up this kind of arrangement within WordPress. To do so, simply set these two constants within your wp-config.php file as so:

define(“WP_CONTENT_URL”, “http://static.yourdomain.com”);

define(“COOKIE_DOMAIN”, “www.yourdomain.com”);

2. Set-Up Cached Headers to Expire for Your Static Content

3. Optimize that Database!

4. Use Cached Media As Much As Possible

5. Use a Content Delivery Network

Our favorite content delivery providers are: Amazon S3, Max CDN, Media Temple CDN, and Free CDN.

6. Compress and Adjoin All Those JS and CSS Files Where Possible

7. Compress Your Image Files

8. Compress Your Static Content into a gZip

9. Disable eTags

class="related_post">

March 31, 2010 – WordPress and Search Engine Optimization – Facts to Consider

January 16, 2012 – Top 4 Ways to Optimize WordPress for Search Engines

January 11, 2012 – WordPress Website and WordPress Hosting

January 1, 2012 – Fastest WordPress Hosting in Town

December 9, 2011 – WordPress vs. Blogger

October 7, 2011 – The 13 Best Free WordPress Plugins

October 3, 2011 – WordPress Plugins – Making the Most of the Your Site

September 19, 2011 – Get Out of the PHP Memory Error Rut with WordPress

September 15, 2011 – Add-Ons That Will Save Your Web Hosting Business

September 15, 2011 – Alternative’s to WordPress – Other Content Management Systems do Exist

Top 9 Ways to Optimize Your WordPress Server for Blazing Fast Speeds is a post from: Micro Services and Micro Service Information microservices-fr.com

Micro Services and Micro Service Information

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Top 9 Ways to Optimize Your WordPress Server for Blazing Fast Speeds

1. Serve Your Static Media from a Cookie-Less Domain

2. Set-Up Cached Headers to Expire for Your Static Content

3. Optimize that Database!

4. Use Cached Media As Much As Possible

5. Use a Content Delivery Network

6. Compress and Adjoin All Those JS and CSS Files Where Possible

7. Compress Your Image Files

8. Compress Your Static Content into a gZip

9. Disable eTags

Related posts:

Top 9 Ways to Optimize Your WordPress Server for Blazing Fast Speeds

1. Serve Your Static Media from a Cookie-Less Domain

2. Set-Up Cached Headers to Expire for Your Static Content

3. Optimize that Database!

4. Use Cached Media As Much As Possible

5. Use a Content Delivery Network

6. Compress and Adjoin All Those JS and CSS Files Where Possible

7. Compress Your Image Files

8. Compress Your Static Content into a gZip

9. Disable eTags

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