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web hosting explained for absolute beginners. It is easy to forget that the whole subject of web hosting is a complete mystery to many people and this video, covers the absolute basics, explaining in simple terms what web hosting is and the basic mechanics of how it works.

Whilst most of our visitors are probably a lot more knowledgeable about the subject, this video will benefit anyone who really is at the very first rung of the ladder and looking for a non technical explanation of how web hosting works. Obviously it does not cover a great deal, but as an introduction it serves its purpose.

If you are new to the world of web hosting, we hope it will be helpful. Please have a look around the site for more useful video tutorials and articles on a whole range of topics connected to the world of hosting, domain names, blogging and webmaster tips tricks and tools.

webhostingsleuth.com The basics on what web hosting is and how to use it.

Did you know you can get your first hosting account with Hostgator starting at only $4.95 Per Month? Click Here To Find Out More Now

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MK Hosting USA is a relatively new name to me here at TCH but one I am going to become very familiar with in the weeks ahead.

This review is being written after only having signed up for an account a matter of days ago and in that sense it is perhaps too early to speak much about negatives, because in all honesty, I have yet to find any. That’s not to say that there won’t be any problems, ever; this is web hosting after all.  However, I thought it would be good to share my very positive experiences with the company so far and explain a little more about them and how I came to be a customer.

For many years I used Kiosk.ws as my hosting company and I’ve been pretty happy, as regular readers will probably already know. Their bundled web hosting and marketing services were, for many years, pretty hard to beat in terms of service, support, reliability and value.

In recent times Kiosk transformed into GVO and they have invested a great deal of time and money in upgrading and adding to their core services and embarking on a very high profile relaunch after moving from Canada to Texas and a brand new data center. During the course of all the upheaval however, all in the GVO garden was not rosy and after countless issues and problems I felt it was time to start seriously looking for new pastures. To be fair, GVO is not a bad company but like many relationships one party outgrew the other and the changes, whilst essential for one to grow, left the other feeling disillusioned and wanting more from life.

Having built several websites and mailing lists with GVO, as well as earning recurring affiliate commissions with them, it seemed a lot to give up and also a lot to try and replace.

Discovering MKHosting was one of those happy accidents, the circumstances of which are hard to recall. On seeing their website however, I was certain I had found a real contender for my hosting and marketing requirements.

The company are, in many ways, similar to GVO and whilst direct comparison might be unfair to both companies, the similarities are hard to ignore and their target market is indisputably similar. GVO offer a reseller hosting account, unlimited email autoresponders, lead capture templates and systems, video hosting and marketing services, VOIP conference rooms and a multi tier affiliate program paying recurring monthly commissions. The charge for their package is, at the time of writing, $45.00 per month.

MKHosting provide shared hosting with no limits on storage, bandwidth, email accounts, domains, FTP accounts or MySQL databases (no reseller account). For a full list of MKHosting’s web hosting features click here.  They also offer a complete email marketing service with unlimited autoresponders, a multi tier affiliate program paying recurring monthly commissions, a free domain for new customers (.biz) and  around $150 in PPC advertising coupons.  You’ll also get some basic rebrandable lead capture pages that can be easily integrated with your autoresponder service and for those wanting to build a site using templates, the company have teamed up with Hostgator to offer a library of over 4500 quality themes. All this comes in at under $20.00 per month.

The following video gives a brief tour of the company’s website and Service Features and Live Demo Accounts Features (Please turn on annotations when viewing the video below -- see button bottom right of YouTube player)

This was well worth a look for me and I tested the waters, as I recommend all potential new customers of a hosting company should do, by firing off an email enquiring about the services and asking a few questions pertinent to my requirements and situation. I had an answer within twenty minutes (on a Friday afternoon) and it was positive, well written and to the point.

I began a series of questions via this ticket and replies came very promptly and were all from the same support guy who was knowledgeable and very efficient. It seemed that I had found a little gem and although I had decided to think carefully about my decision to move, I was so reassured by the responses that I decided the next day to pay my first month’s fee and initiate the transfer of my sites and domains.

This is always a nail biting time for a webmaster but the smoothness and simplicity of the move was impressive indeed. The fact is that the same support guy I had spoken to from day one, handled the entire move for me. I did not have to do a thing aside from provide him with required login information and the like so that he could access my various sites. All I did was kick back and answer a couple of emails and my sites were seamlessly moved to the new server, the DNS changes taken care of and in the space of a Saturday morning and early afternoon, the job was done.  More to the point it was done with no ill effects whatsoever, nothing was broken and to an outside observer you would never have known anything was happening.

I spent most of the day configuring my new autoresponder and email marketing toys, which, I have to say, may not be quite as user friendly as those at my previous host but are certainly way superior in terms of features. These tools are the best I have used and the statistical information is a match for any third party service. After a day of messing around I had pretty much mastered the system. The company were quite happy to allow me to import all my existing opt-in subscribers and the only reason it took a bit longer than I would have liked was due to the imperfect export facility from my previous autoresponders rather than anything else.

In addition to the autoresponders you also get a proper email marketing set up that provides a large number of templates for your broadcasts or newsletters . They cover countless niches and they are very easy to use.

As far as the hosting goes I have zero complaints so far. cpanel is the control panel of choice and I would not use anything else. All the features of my previous cpanel are there, including Fantastico Deluxe, plus a few new ones I didn’t have at GVO. OK, there is no reseller facility but I gave that game up a long time ago so it’s no loss to me. I have more of everything for less monthly cost.

Aside from the conference rooms and the Easy video Producer tools (Neither of which were important to me personally) MKHosting are providing me with the options to do way more than I could have done at GVO where I paid $25 per month for all services due to grandfather rights as an old Kiosk Platinum customer. However this came with pretty stringent restrictions on storage, bandwidth and things like MySQL databases (that last one is a real pain for a webmaster in 2010).

And so to the affiliate program -- GVO’s much hyped opportunity is a genuine program and does reward active affiliates very well, as well as those who are fortunate enough to join under a big name networking recruiter and benefit from spillover. However, the pay plan with MKHosting is also very good and they actually pay a higher percentage to their affiliates for direct referrals at $6 a head. The earnings potential with both companies is good but in light of all the MLM focus recently over at GVO, I tink it’s become a harder thing to sell in all honesty and when times are tough, even if it does represent good value, close to fifty bucks a month is something a lot of people can’t or won’t commit to. I have sacrificed my monthly Paypal deposit from GVO in the quest for better service and a better user/customer experience. I no longer felt that it was worth holding onto the commissions when the trade of in recent times has been downtime and an indifferent attitude towards me as a customer.

If you would like to know more about all the features and services of an account at MKHosting, the marketer’s package is the sole option. Everything is laid out clearly and neatly for all to see, so you know exactly what your monthly hosting fees will get you. At this price point, you really would be hard pushed to find anything better.

If I have any criticism at all, I would say that the payment options could be explained a little more clearly on the site. You can choose to pay via AlertPay or Paypal but at the moment, Paypal customers have to do things manually and send a purchase receipt to the company to get set up -- it’s no big deal, just a minor inconvenience. AlertPay users will have no problems but the site suggests that you must pay via AlertPay every month (as someone with little experience of the payment processor I found the issue a little confusing, wanting as I did to pay with my debit card). As it turns out of course, this is not a problem, and although the website showed the major credit/debit card logos the insistence on AlertPay was a little disconcerting -- then again maybe I was just having a senior moment Ultimately it is easy enough to set up a free account with AP and you will need it if you want to receive commissions earned as an affiliate.

After a couple of days of exploration everything seems to work just as it should and, it seems to me, my sites’ load times are improved too. The MKHosting servers are located in the US, with the Planet, so in terms of data security and server monitoring etc. there should not be too much to worry about. This was one of my major bug bears with GVO in recent months where security issues were plaguing many customers and causing downtime of varying levels of seriousness. Unfortunately for me I suffered at the extreme end of the scale and whilst much of it was not directly the fault of the host, the responses to the issues were not good at all.  Combine that with very inefficient support and, to be frank, some pretty uncharacteristic bad attitudes from GVO staff in general and it starts to wear on you and your business after a time.

I’m hopeful of a much better experience at my new home and so far, they have certainly not disappointed me.

To sum up, if you want a very well featured shared hosting account along with a superb email marketing system, a great affiliate program and excellent 24/7 customer and tech support, you could do a lot worse than check this company out.

I will report back after a few months have gone by on how the glow of newness as stood up to the rigours of day in day out web hosting but for now, all is good and MKHosting win a big thumbs up and vote of confidence from TheCaymanHost.

Sign Up With MK Hosting USA Here - There are no contracts -pay as you go or pay in advance by arrangement. Your monthly cost with MK Hosting will be just $19.99 and will not increase.

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For a long time the sole platform option in hosting was between low- price shared servers or higher- cost dedicated servers. Now there is a sensible third choice – mid- priced Virtual Private Servers or VPS.

Virtual is the key description here. A VPS offers most of the advantages of a dedicated server whilst actually running on shared hardware. It is achieved with the aid of modern clever virtualization software that creates and manages a number of ‘virtual servers’ on a single box.

Each ‘virtual server’ appears to the customer’s applications, databases and so forth as if it really is a dedicated server, which includes a predetermined memory size, disk size and network data transfer. It even allows the customer to fully configure the environment for their specific application and security needs.

The computer software then protects that ‘virtual server’ from the activities of all other ‘virtual servers’ which are operating on the same physical hardware. So, should another customer’s application go rogue because of a coding error or get swamped with internet transactions or be in any way compromized, other ‘virtual servers’ would carry on as normal. Even a significant crash within one virtual server won’t affect the the rest. Each partition is autonomous and to both inside and outside visitors the server partition appears to be is a stand alone server to all intents and purposes.

The software that makes VPS viable is becoming very advanced indeed and recent times have seen the entry of  companies like Microsoft into the marketplace with what they dub their Hyper-V product. That is strong evidence that the concept of VPS is swiftly becoming mainstream, not merely for hosting companies but also for large IT users trying to optimize the effectiveness of their hardware utilization.

There are multiple advantages of VPS compared to shared servers, some clearer than others. The greatest disadvantage to using a shared environment for your websites or applications is the possible impact on your system’s efficiency and stability of those that you share space with.

All you need is one of the other user’s applications to crash badly and the whole of the shared server is likely to quit and need re- booting or even repair. In addition another user’s website becoming very popular might slow the system down for your programs as they would use up a disproportionate amount of the shared system resources.

If you have a breach in security it can often affect a lot of or all of the sites on a shared server, meaning that every client has to hope that the hosting company are quick to respond and have enough expertise to resolve such problems quickly and effectively.

You will have less responsibility for your server’s security on a shared hosting account(virtually none in actual fact) in comparison with a customer on a VPS account but if those who own and/or manage the box you are on are not on top of their game, the consequences might be very frustrating.

Under the VPS approach these shared hosting issues just go away. It’s as simple as that.

The software protects each ‘virtual server’ from the others and isolates the key resources which have been configured. So if one VPS has been configured with 512Mb of RAM, then it always has that level of memory available to it irrespective of what other ‘virtual servers’ are asking for(despite the fact that the total pool of RAM is shared amongst all ‘virtual servers’). It is this protection and isolation that justifies the use of the word “private” in the VPS label.

What are the benefits of  VPS over dedicated servers? Consider that before the latest VPS software became available the only alternative to the performance ‘lucky dip’ of shared servers was a dedicated box, a server that you owned/leased exclusively for your own use.

This required the hosting provider to purchase and configure new hardware for each buyer. This in turn meant a significant capital investment upfront from the hosting company and the swift usage of their data center space, power, network connections and so on. Thus the fee for dedicated servers is usually pretty high.

The VPS process adjusts the web host’s costs significantly. Now, they can provide a near- dedicated server quality of service and features using shared hardware, which reduces the consumption of their data center racking, power and network connections. This cost reduction may then be passed onto their clients by way of reduced fees.

One other cost- associated matter that using VPS technology changes noticeably only comes into play after several years of use … hardware renewal. In the traditional dedicated server setup, when the server hardware attained a certain age, typically around three years, it made sense to lessen the risk of failure whilst also allowing the customer to obtain developments on processors speeds and so on, to renew or “refresh” the hardware.

The idea of renewing the hardware after a cycle of continuous use still holds true for a VPS, but the big distinction is in who pays for the new equipment. For a dedicated server, the full cost of the replacement hardware was borne by the client through the fee levels, sometimes including a new set- up fee too. With the VPS model, the price is distributed across a number of customers and as a consequence the fees can stay low throughout multi- year plans even when hardware refresh is involved.

Virtualization is being quickly embraced by both hosting companies and large IT using organizations because it makes strong financial and technical sense. There will, obviously, still be complex computing needs for which true dedicated servers are a requirement but for many commercial computing demands, virtualization offers considerable resilience and performance improvements over using shared servers with no technical disadvantages. VPS has certainly come of age.

As a VPS hosting customer you will effectively be allocated a partition within a server that’s exclusive to you. That partition is a self contained server where you can run all your applications as well as your own operating system, all customized to your requirements and wishes. It offers you the efficiency of a dedicated server at a more affordable price but the VPS option usually includes more tecnical and financial responsibility than a shared hosting plan.

One of the key advantages of leasing a VPS is the ability to have more resources allotted to your web pages. With shared hosting you’re restricted with resources and must share it with many other websites. All of these websites compete with each other for the resources of the server. When you lease a VPS, you’ve got the peace of mind that a set volume of memory, and hard drive space is allocated to you. This will be significant if you are running websites which are resource- intensive or that have particularly high visitor traffic. Not only do you have those set resources, but you can customize the VPS to match your demands.

The customization feature of VPS is perhaps the best selling point. The ability to run your own operating system and software as you wish, setup your own version of PHP, and MYSQL, and having full root access to your partition gives you an invaluable edge on shared hosting and a degree of autonomy and control that rivals those on a truly dedicated box.

Another great benefit of VPS hosting is the ability to handle growth. Most websites begin small, and then grow with time. By using a virtual private server, you’ll have the resources available to handle your growth. This is due to the fact that you are not on a shared web hosting environment. With shared hosting when you reach a certain point, the web host may request you upgrade to another plan since your site is using too much of the server’s resources. Always keep in mind that with shared web hosting you are literally sharing resources. With your VPS, you can grow as needed.

Prices for VPS hosting at the time of writing start at under$20 per month, or around $40 for a fully managed plan, which is a very inexpensive solution. It’s a lot more affordable than using a dedicated server, but also offers similar functions. You can now see why VPS hosting is very attractive for anyone seeking affordability backed with power and excellent customization choices.  As to whether or not you need it is going to be a very personal decision depending as it does upon your need for the features it offers – however, with prices now at almost shared hosting levels from many providers it is definitely more attractive to a much larger percentage of webmasters.

As with any hosting plan, remember that some are going to be better than others in terms of service, support etc. so we would advocate doing your homework just as you should for an hosting plan. Remember too that a VPS is likely to be a little more hands on in terms of server maintenance and configuration so it’s important to know what the hosting company offers in terms of support and management of your shiny new VPS and what the associated costs there will be for the level of server management you require.

We welcome your comments and questions along with any experiences you may wish to share.

TCH

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I have been a customer of GVO for around four years, long before the recent face lift, when my hosting provider was a Canadian based company called Kiosk.ws headed up by an amiable and hands on guy called Joel Therien.

A lot has happened in those four years and you can read my recent post about the resulting changes since the re-branding of the company to GVO, or Global Virtual Opportunities, for a little more on the background.

In this post I wanted to comment on a few more things that I either forgot or didn’t have time or space to mention in my last post. The gradual process of morphing from Kiosk into GVO has been a fairly lengthy one and, to be honest, the way it dragged on got on my nerves a little. There is only so much you can take when it comes to all the rah rah rah of such a relaunch, prelaunch and never ending cheerleading.

I think it is safe to say that most of that is now behind us and I for one am glad. GVO definitely brought in a fair number of some so called “heavy hitters” who have probably cleaned up by getting involved and whilst I do not doubt the experience and marketing power of some of these folks it does not mean you have to like them or their methods even if their involvement has ensured a substantial influx of new customers for GVO. One unfortunate side effect of the sudden growth is the plethora of ads, articles, blog posts and landing pages all selling GVO that are plainly written by people who know very little about web hosting, which is after all the core business of the company. I’m sure if you have studied most of the search results in google you have found very little hard information about the pros and cons of their hosting plans aside from a few brief “it’s great value” or “I’m pretty happy” type sales efforts.

So let’s move on to the GVO services and look at what has changed from the perspective of a Kiosk customer.

GVO still offer three shared hosting plans, although you almost certainly wouldn’t realize that from any recent advertising. The old Silver and Platinum plans still exist, priced at $18.95 and $24.95 respectively. But, and this is a big but, there really are no good reasons to buy either one of them any longer as all incentives to do so have been removed, basically making the Titanium plan at $44.95 the only real shared hosting option on offer. Neither the Platinum or Silver plans include any of the additional services, so they are effectively dead in the water.

GVO’s Titanium bundled marketing and hosting package is really good value, just as many of the “reviewers” are saying but unfortunately at such a price point, many experienced webmasters are going to see a managed VPS as a much more attractive option if they have no need for the autoresponder service, video hosting and conference rooms. This is one of the major stumbling blocks because ultimately, shared hosting is shared hosting and it’s simply not good enough for those with a lot of domains and a lot of traffic. Conversely, for newbies who see only monthly $ signs and who are starting from scratch, a sub $10 shared hosting package with someone like Hostgator or Bluehost for example, is rightly or wrongly, a lot more tempting.

Don’t get me wrong, GVO offer a very competitively priced package, but convincing people of the fact is not always an easy task in view of the aforementioned considerations. I would guess that there might be a fairly substantial attrition rate in the early stages after the relaunch amongst those who joined in the belief that there were easy fortunes to be made through the affiliate program and the promises of spillover. Some will have done well already by signing up under the top recruiters, but many will not see the “money for nothing” they no doubt believed they would get and they will soon tire of paying each month unless they are willing and able to put the excellent tools to good use.

Existing customers, even those on the old Silver and Platinum plans of Kiosk.ws still get to enjoy the marketing tools due to grandfather rights, but for new customers, if you want the whole shebang it’s Titanium or nothing.

Many of the big marketing names associated with GVO and who recently marketed it so aggressively to their lists are obviously not using shared hosting but are on dedicated servers. This distinction is important because whilst Kiosk offered webmasters a pretty flexible set of dedicated server options, including one off custom builds for example, most of those now seem to be gone at GVO. Looking at the site, the only dedicated options at the time of writing are a fully managed Dell box at $299 per month with a one time $99 set up fee or a slightly cheaper box at $199 per month. Not bad, but only for those with deep pockets already.

One more thing worth mentioning on this topic is that if you outgrow a shared reseller hosting account, even one as good as GVO’s, the way things stand at the moment, you would have to either cough up for a costly dedicated server, or change hosting companies as there is currently no VPS plan available. This could be a real headache if you have built your lists and all your web real estate with GVO. Some people would no doubt argue that keeping all your services under one roof is never a good idea but again that will depend entirely on your outlook and your own forecasts of business expectations. As things stand, GVO can definitely save many webmasters a good deal of money with their packaged services.

Moving on to other changes, one of the major ones as been the outsourcing of many areas of support to India. For me, this as been one of the more disappointing aspects of the GVO re-branding. Whilst I appreciate that for the growth of the company to be sustainable there had to be investment in staff, premises and hardware, the end user experience is definitely not what it once was. When the old Kiosk.ws team in Canada were at the helm of tech support you were pretty much guaranteed fast responses, great service and experienced systems administrators. In recent times, whilst support as been available, the quality of that support as deteriorated. That is not to say it is really bad, just that the very high standards of old have slipped. Maybe it will not be permanent and things will settle down but like so many other industries rapid growth invariably results in  the customer experience suffering to a certain degree. This is something GVO must work on if they want to retain webmasters.

There have been several hiccups along the way but in view of the rapid expansion some of those have to be expected and I still feel very comfortable in recommending GVO if what you want is good solid shared hosting and some invaluable business and marketing tools. The new eResponderPro autoresponders are very good although they still lack one or two features offered by the established big names. The service is a massive step up from the previous Kiosk autoresponders and there are no graduated price points dependent upon the size of your list either – you get as many autoresponders as you want or need as a Titanium customer. With other third party services, the more subscribers, the higher the monthly fee.

Promoting GVO itself can be lucrative, but it is going to take work if you want to earn money as an affiliate. The compensation plan is very good but that does not mean you will get rich just by joining. I just think that should be made clear to anyone who is considering signing up with this as their primary motivation. You can learn a great deal about the compensation plan through the GVO Academy presentations and I would recommend these to anyone looking for a great overview of GVO as a whole.

Ultimately, when it comes to your webhosting and online business needs, GVO is either a good fit or it isn’t, just as with most web hosting, it’s not about which company or offer is best, it’s about what is best for you.

I hope that this honest summation will help my visitors in making that decision. What I will say is that Joel Therien has always been, and remains, an honest and trustworthy guy and consequently you can certainly feel comfortable dealing with his company. You will never need to worry about sharp practices as you sometimes do in the world of web hosting.

Overall, I would still recommend them to anyone except maybe those who are reaching the point where a VPS is close on the horizon because your hosting needs might not be best served by GVO at this moment in time. As an affiliate marketer, I would say that the affiliate program for GVO remains one of the best in the industry and will reward those who actively promote it. Resellers will also find GVO a good company to partner up with and a Titanium account with GVO still represents a solid investment for a lot of webmasters and online businesses.

(If you don’t want or need a reseller hosting account and can live without a conference room and video hosting a solid alternative at half the price is MK Hosting USA – we moved to them from GVO and have been very impressed to date, and would say that the email marketing tools are superior and support faster and more knowledgable).

You can try the GVO services for 14 days risk free with your $1 trial membership – no contracts, no catches.  I think you will be impressed with what you find on the inside.

As always I would love to hear what you have to say so please leave your comments below.

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We came across this video recently which explains how to host your own webpages from your home PC.  This will enable you to host a site without the need to pay a hosting company and all the software used is free to download and use.

We tried this ourselves and after a bit of fiddling around we got it to work OK although for some reason, initially we could not get the domain name to work and only by typing the IP address into the browser could we view the webpage. Then, without changing anything, the site started to load OK. We only uploaded a simple lead capture page for testing purposes and the biggest problem was that the page was sometimes very slow to load indeed. This could be for a number of reasons but the DYNDNS service seems the obvious culprit in view of the fact that the IP address loaded fine.

If all you want to host is a simple webpage or site, this solution could be worth it for you. Remember that it means you will have to have your PC and internet connection running 24/7 so that people can access your site. There is no reason you cannot use this process to host your pages yourself, although some ISP’s don’t allow it so you need to know where your access provider stands on such issues.

We would not necessarily recommend hosting your primary website in this way, it has several drawbacks, but having your own server for testing purposes is a useful tool to have, so installing Apache or perhaps something like XAMPP which includes Apache, PHP and MySQL is cool if you want to do a lot of testing of sites as you build them. Also, the technical barriers for many non technical minded users can give you a lot of headaches and you might be better advised to find a simple free hosting service if your site/pages are simple and not mission critical.

Whilst the instructions given are pretty clear, if you would like a good reference for setting up a server on your home PC one of the best publications out there at the time of writing is Setting Up A Web Server – How To Host Your Website From Home which will give you everything you need to know and costs less than $16.00. It also includes a piece of troubleshooting software to make life easier if you should run into any problems.

If you can follow the instructions in the video below and don’t have any problems, all well and good. Enjoy, you could soon be hosting your own website from your own home PC! For more comprehensive help the above mentioned product will be of immense help – following the instructions in the video will not necessarily work for everyone because of all the variables involved and then you can experience all kinds of frustrations!!

How to host a Web server, Web page server from your home PC. website Using free programs from Apache and DYNDNS.

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Most webmasters and bloggers will start their online hosting careers with a shared hosting package. It is usually the best path for new sites unless a huge amount of traffic is expected because it is affordable and perfectly sufficient for those building their first site or blog.

Shared hosting is a good thing and has enabled far more people to get their fledgling sites up and running with minimum outlay but the market is swamped with shared hosting providers, making that first purchase decision a very difficult one. Information overload is also a very real problem when it comes to researching shared web hosting, particularly for those just starting out.

You will for instance find huge amounts of conflicting opinion about almost every hosting company out there. Just when you find a few positive comments about a particular company you will be confronted with others saying that they are to be avoided at all costs and citing a truckload of bad experiences. The tough thing for customers is knowing who and what to believe.

So, what can you do to maximize your chances of finding a good shared hosting plan that meets your needs?

The hosting companies themselves will woo you with all kinds of wonderful sounding facts, figures and statistics but finding impartial advice about web hosting is what you really need and it is not easy for the reasons mentioned above. Many of the hosting review sites are little more than paid advertising boards and the forums can be an intimidating and confusing place for first time buyers.

You need to consider several different things when shopping for shared hosting so we are going to give you a few useful pointers.

There is no such thing as the best hosting package – what you ideally want to find is the best shared hosting plan for YOU and this can be affected by many different things. For example, if you are planning a Wordpress blog, some people will advise you to choose a host that is reputedly a specialist such as Bluehost, but that if you are setting up an ecommerce site, they may not be the best choice. Then again, others will tell you to avoid them because of their own experiences. You see how confusing it can get? Most people who provide good or bad feedback on a host are speaking entirely from their own perspective and your needs may be completely different making that bad host for one person a perfectly good one for another.

Photo Credit : Jaxmac on Flickr

So, it is important to know what you are intending to build. Once you have established that, there is no harm in visiting some of the hosting forums and asking for some recommendations from others. Having said that, just use this for making a shortlist and remember that some of those giving the advice may not be as impartial as they might appear.

Do your own research. This is a pain, but you will probably be glad you spent a little time on it in the long run.

Let’s say you have narrowed down your choice to three or four hosting companies based on the monthly cost and the features they provide which seem to fit what you need quite nicely and seem to be reasonably well thought of by the majority of customers. One of the companies is Hostgator and you’ve visited the site and like what you see. You might want to try contacting the company to ask them some probing questions that you have prepared in advance. This will give you some idea of a) How quickly they respond and b) how knowledgeable they seem to be. Of course, new business departments may be a whole different ballgame compared to services provided for existing customers because, after all, they want to sell you their services. However it does no harm to test the waters in this way and to repeat the exercise for each of your shortlisted companies.

Having run this little exercise you may or may not feel you have narrowed your choices down even further. As you are going to be sharing a server with others, wouldn’t it be nice to have some idea of how many other customers will be on the same “box”? Of course, you could make this one of your questions to ask them, but you can get a good idea of just how many other tenants there might be by using the neighborhood IP lookup service. All you need is to find a site hosted by one of your chosen companies and enter the URL. You will then be presented with a list of all the sites hosted on that server. (You can find out who hosts a website using a service such as WhoIsHostingThis)

Whilst this is not 100% accurate or cast iron proof of anything it will give you a good idea of how many other sites are likely to be on the same server as yours. The lower the number the better because although not all servers are the same in terms of capacity, memory etc. the law of averages says that less neighbors means less likelihood of your site being affected by problems arising from those other sites. Simplistic but true. You might be surprised by the results too.

If you run this site through that test you will see that we share server space with around seventy sites but it is not uncommon to see 200 or more on some shared plans. We host with Kiosk/GVO who have always provided excellent reliability and uptime. They cost a little more, but when you look at their services and know that they do not overcrowd their servers, it becomes a little less expensive looking. Even firms like LiquidWeb who have a good reputation will often have a lot more sites on one box. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because the hardware involved can be very different but  it’s just interesting to know. If you see a host offering “unlimited everything” on their sales page boasts however and find that they are cramming 500 customers onto one box, you might well be seeing evidence of “overselling” and want to be a little circumspect. (Note – if you use the IP Lookup service and it shows only one site or a handful of sites, you are probably looking at a dedicated server, i.e a server that belong exclusively to one webmaster, which is not what you need for comparison purposes)

So, deciding on a host because of price is often not a reliable way of doing things. You often get what you pay for and a plan costing $1.99 is not going to be as good as one costing $12.99 as a general rule of thumb. Do your research and know exactly what you are getting for the price.

If you follow these simple steps you will be more likely to find a good deal that fits your needs and your budget from the outset. Anyone who has a bad experience will tell you that moving hosts after you find out you’ve made a bad choice can be a real hassle, even though it really shouldn’t be. It’s much nicer to find a good company from the get go and to be able to grow with them.

If you are an existing web hosting customer please consider taking a few minutes to complete our web hosting survey, the data from which will be used to give guidance to others when choosing their web hosting. Respondents will also earn a link back to their own sites.

I hope that you find this article useful in your search for shared web hosting and as always your comments are welcomed.

TCH

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Following on from my recent posts regarding the free web hosting experiment I recently conducted, I went information gathering for other people’s experiences and, as I have always suspected, there is a lot of bad news out there.

The aim of this post is to prevent you from making an expensive mistake with the false economy of free hosting for your websites or blogs. It is probably the most common mistake made by new webmasters and online entrepreneurs when they think about building their first web page.

There are thousands and thousands of people out there who are considering setting up a website for the first time and anyone who has learned the process from scratch, knows that it is not altogether simple. Having said that, the technology available in 2009 does make it far easier than it was back in the ealry 90’s when I first started out, coding my first webpages using Notepad while at home recovering from an operation.

The results of those early attempts were, I have to admit, pretty horrible, but the web was a very different place back then and my first site was just one of many horrible sites to be found on the internet. It was a hobby site and I hosted it using the space allocated by my ISP, which was a pretty common offering back before the days of broadband and high speed internet. Of course, when I changed my ISP, the site, in all it’s clip art glory was, to all intents and purposes, dead. Probably a good thing, but those early efforts were a hugely valuable learning experience.

I think those days were the last time I ever used a free hosting solution until the recent failed experiment with another company claiming to provide the equivalent of a paid service for nothing.

If you are serious about running a website, particularly with business overtones, good web hosting is essential. This is hardly news to you I’m sure and you’ve probably read it a hundred times already if you are researching how to start your own online business. The reason for this is that it is absolutely true and until you are ready to accept this, you will remain stalled at the starting gate.

Take a look at this video from Lisa, an experienced affiliate marketer at  2 Create a Website where she explains why free hosting of any kind is really not the way to go for anyone thinking of going into business online.

I think that sums up pretty well my own views on free hosting. It simply isn’t worth the potential price you may end up paying in terms of lost revenue and time. (as for her comments on building a site, don’t let that phase you too much. Building a dynamic site on a platform like Wordpress is really simple, even if you start from a base of zero knowledge. Sure you will learn a lot as you go along, but nowadays you can learn as you go, tweaking your sites as your knowledge grows). You don’t need to invest money in expensive web authoring programs.

Here is another great video showing you just how simple it is to do a simple Wordpress installation using cpanel and Fantastico. When looking for hosting, I strongly recommend you find a provider who gives you both of these features, particularly if you are just starting out.

The cost of setting up a website nowadays is really minimal. For those starting out there are shared hosting plans available for less than five dollars a month -- that’s less than $60 per annum. Add the price of a domain name and you’re good to go. Way less than $100 for a year.

If you are hoping to earn money from any online venture, this is the starting point. Buy yourself a domain name and a hosting account. The rest of your journey will then be that much easier.

I know that there will be contrary views and that some people will tell you that there is no need to invest money in a fledgling website and doubtless there are users out there who have used and are still using free services quite happily but until the axe drops on all their hard work, as it so often can when relying on “free” services, they will remain unconvinced. If you want to own your own business, you really do need to own your data and your work, and with free services that just isn’t going to happen and you risk losing everything you have worked for at the whim of a person or company outside of your control. That is the harsh bottom line.

If you’re not sure about buying a domain name or finding a hosting provider, stay and have a look around our site, where you will find answers to most of your questions or concerns. You will find hosting deals ranging from the cheapest shared options all the way up to dedicated server providers costing hundreds of dollars per month, so there is something here for every level of user.

TCH

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Honest hosting reviews: is there any such thing? There are plenty of people who will have you believe that there is not and some will go as far as discrediting virtually any hosting review website. As a site that obviously falls under that banner I thought I should address the issue here on these pages.

Before I go any further, check out this video. For some this will be an eye opener whilst for others it is probably old news. However, before refuting any claims or arguing the case for web hosting review sites I think it highlights some very important facts.

Interesting huh? But hang on you’re saying to yourself, why would a web hosting directory site want to highlight such alleged rottenness in the hosting review game? Well, I think it is important for people to understand the pitfalls, misdirection and even dishonesty that is sometimes associated with review sites of all kinds. Review is often synonymous with “selling” on the internet and the way some sites go about this, unfortunately reflects badly on some of the decent operators out there.

The video illustrates quite clearly that some sites sell rankings to hosting companies, at at quite a considerable premium. The examples given are quite staggering to a small website owner like myself. $2000 per month for a top spot is a pretty lucrative slice of real estate and proves just how much money and competition exists in the hosting sector. Make no mistake, it is very big business. Is it wrong for the review sites to operate in this way? Some would say emphatically “YES”, others would agree that it is certainly misleading and some would perhaps shrug and say, “that’s business”.

Personally I think that if you profess to be a review site, you should endeavor to provide impartial comments and critiques from people who have had first hand experience as a customer.

The other aspect the video focuses on is affiliate links, and this is where I often find myself taking issue with the anti advertising brigade. If you read my disclosure policy, it is made perfectly clear where I stand on this point. My website is commercial in nature and I see no reason to be ashamed of trying to earn a living. This site is designed to earn affiliate commissions, and it is done openly and honestly but it is also designed to give people a forum for discussing and rating the companies we feature. Comments, both negative and positive are given an airing on this site and it is my hope that these will help others when they are trying to make a purchase decision. Hopefully the service provided will encourage them to buy through one of my links, but that is entirely their choice.

Interestingly, reviews are very thin on the ground to date. We are not one of the big boys with huge budgets to spend on advertising and design, but I do hope that the site provides a platform for people to have their say. I have only ever declined one comment regarding a hosting company as it had obviously been written by a very angry customer and publishing it could have been damaging to all concerned. It is only on occasions such as that when I consider editing or removing feedback.

The producer of the video alleges cases where any positive reviews of competing companies (i.e. those competing with their paying advertisers) were being deleted. This sort of practice is really a thorn in the side of sites that try to offer genuine customer feedback and is sad that it goes on, but I have no doubt that it does, just as I have no doubt that some reviews are posted by representatives of hosting companies as a form of shady marketing.

I suppose I have made this post in defence of my own humble site. I do not have the clout to pull in huge advertising checks from anyone and am like many small time affiliates attempting to make money by providing a useful service and platform for webmasters, bloggers and hosting customers. To this end, there is no table of top hosting companies. I do not believe any hosting company can be in “the top ten” or twenty or whatever, because every person buying hosting has uniquely individual needs.

There are no fake reviews or comments posted here and I am often surprised by the large number of reviews some sites manage to pull in. I’m sure that in some cases the ability to leave a review on a high ranking site is abused by those with an interest in tooting their own horn but then again maybe I’m just a tad too cynical! I myself have only written one review from first hand experience of my own hosting company who, I am pleased to say, have always performed admirably and never given me cause to shop elsewhere.

My recommendation for anyone shopping for hosting is to do your homework. We have links to many of the top forums as well, so you can ask your questions about particular companies and other people’s experiences. Be warned though -- like all forums they can be populated by trolls, snake oil salesmen and cheerleaders and you shouldn’t assume that all advice received in forums is either impartial or sometimes even very accurate.

If you have found this post useful, please leave us your own thoughts and comments, and if you have something to say about any of the companies promoted on our pages, we’d love to hear from you.

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Lunar Pages basic hosting starts from only $4.95 per month with their latest offer but like our other featured hosting companies they offer a range of services including business hosting, reseller hosting, VPS, dedicated servers and more. All annual plans include a free domain.

cpanel, Fantastico, Ruby on Rails and SSH access all come as standard with all shared plans and if you need more powerful features than the basic plans provide, or than shared hosting can cope with, dedicated servers from Lunar Pages start at $99 per month. For all plans in detail, please visit the company’s website.

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web hosting providers are in abundant supply. Learn what to watch for to avoid getting scammed.

It’s hard to separate fact from fiction in advertising, and certainly no less so when dealing with web hosting providers. Bold, broad-sweeping claims are endlessly repeated in a shameless effort to keep you from reading the fine print. In an age where it seems there are almost as many web hosting providers as there are websites to be hosted, competition is fierce, and competing web hosting providers will say almost anything to get you to sign up with them.

That’s why you need to know what to look for, how to read between the lines, so that you don’t fall victim to any of the most common scams that plague the internet in the guise of once-in-a-lifetime offers you absolutely can’t refuse.

Free Web Space: Yes, some web hosting providers will give you 5 or 10 MB of web space for no charge, however (and we know you’ve heard this phrase before…) certain restrictions apply. Make sure you know what they are.

Unlimited Bandwidth: There’s no such thing, plain and simple. The web hosting providers themselves have limitations imposed on their bandwidth; how can they offer you any more than that? They can’t.

When web hosting providers offer “unlimited” bandwidth it means they’ve estimated how much usage their average customer could ever possibly need, thereby giving the illusion of unlimited bandwidth.

Free Domain Names: Sure, they’re free, but so’s dirt. You want some free dirt? We didn’t think so. Free domain names are about as valuable. First of all, they look something like this:
www. webhostingprovidersname.com/user/usersname.html (or some equally excruciating variation thereof).

Now, consider this:

First, most internet surfers are wise to these types of URLs; people know that companies with domain names like these are not usually the most well-established or reputable businesses online.

Second, the more slashes your URL contains, the lower your page rank.

And third, no one will remember the name of your website!

These are just a few of the reasons why free domain names aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

Domain Registration: Now, this by itself is no scam; to the contrary, it’s a useful and convenient feature many web hosting providers offer. Some, however, will actually register your domain in their name. This way, they locked you into service with them as switching web hosting providers now means losing your domain name.

Web Templates: Don’t mistake us, web templates are great. How else can the average computer user whip out a website that looks halfway decent without spending a fortune? But what web hosting providers don’t tell you about these templates could end up costing you later.

Any images or page designs or web forms or any other objects that originated from your web hosting providers database belongs to them. They own the copyright. If you ever switch web hosting providers, you can’t take any of it with you.

Not to mention, if you ever decide to hire a professional webmaster, many will refuse to work with template-driven websites, as they’re (ironically) harder to manage.

No Contact Information: If you can’t find on their website at least one way – email address, query ticket, phone number, mailing address – to get in touch with the web hosting providers you’re considering, stop considering them.

Discounts for Long Term Contracts: Before falling prey to this alluring gimmick, ask yourself, even if your website lasts as long as your contract, are you sure your web host will? Web hosting providers (like websites) are born and die every day, and they know it. That’s why most of them include somewhere in their Terms of Service that they won’t be held liable if they can’t fulfill their end of the contract.

So, if they go under, so does your website. And if you go under first, say goodbye to the money you paid for the long term contract. Either way, it’s no bargain. Stick with a year or two at most.

No Guarantees: Whether for web hosting providers or wetsuit manufacturers or weight loss programs, they’ve got to have a money-back guarantee. These days, it’s essential. And there’s zero reason you should ever pay for a product or service that doesn’t offer some form of money back guarantee or another. Really, now.

Hosting-Review.com is the premier resource on web hosting. Visit http://www.hosting-review.com for comprehensive reviews and rankings of over 50 web hosting providers, as well as informative articles about everything to do with hosting and the top-rated picks for different types of hosting packages.
By Sage Kalmus

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