July 29, 2006 at 10:52 pm
· Filed under Hosting, Internet, This Site
How would you feel if Eddie Van Halen, Brad Pitt, Jay Leno or–insert your favorite celebrity–called you up and said that you rock? Well, that’s sort of what happened this week when Mitch Keeler, the undisputed rockstar of web host podcasting let it be known that WebHostingFinds.com was the choice for the Web Hosting Show podcast number 70’s Site of the Week. The show’s theme covers the subject of blogging and Mitch seems to like WordPress a great deal–my favorite blogging software by far and the what we use here on this blog. If you have the slightest interest in web hosting or just want to hear a creative voice in the industry, I recommend giving this unique podcast a listen here.
Or, better yet, you can listen to the current show here I believe:
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July 28, 2006 at 9:32 pm
· Filed under Blogging
Do you ever get blogger’s block? I do. Well, I just happened to fall upon this brief but poignant article by Donyell Nelson that inspired me to escape that problem. She is a business oriented blogger and host of Bold Business Talk. Read on for more…
A lot of people want to blog because they see it as something they should have, but they don’t want the chore of maintaining one. You have a business to run, you have a family to manage, and perhaps you really don’t enjoy writing. That doesn’t mean that you can’t create interesting blog content to post on a regular basis.
Here’s how:
1.Think of something that really bothers you. Consider why it bothers you and think of how it can relate to your business. There’s your first blog post. For example, I don’t like it when people send me rude emails that I perceive to be short in tone so I wrote a post about how to jerk-proof your emails.
2.For post number two think of a few questions that people ask you about your business. Write down the questions and the answers and there is your second blog post.
3.Did you read something interesting lately? What was it and why was it interesting? Can you find a copy of it online? Find the link and post it along with a quick summary and commentary of why you find it interesting.
4.What’s going on in the media? Think of a popular headline, movie, or TV show and come up with a plan for writing a blog about it. For example, when The Devil Wears Prada came out, I wrote a post called “Are you a Devil in Prada?” which discussed how people should strive to treat each other in business environments.
5.When all else fails, make a list! Think of a topic that you know about and come up with a top 5, top 7, or top 10 list. For example, look at this article.
Donyell (DJ) Nelson is an entrepreneur, writer, and speaker who gives people the inspiration and information to create successful online businesses. She is the host of Bold Business Talk and the author of Jump Start Your Success: 9 Insider Secrets to Running an Online Business. Find out how to jump start your business at http://www.Donyell.com
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July 26, 2006 at 10:29 am
· Filed under Web Site Building
A digg.com poster says the difference between a good web designer and a great one is the ability to know how to take short cuts and save time without compromising the quality of work. Pixelsurgeon’s Jason Arber has put together 20 top tips and tricks you should be using to give your work that all-important professional edge. I’ll say that the first, planning, is a great start.
read more | digg story
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July 25, 2006 at 3:26 pm
· Filed under 1and1, Hosting, This Site
One of the most perplexing things about 1 and 1 web hosting is not they their control panel is not user friendly or that they separate everything into “packages” or that they are not ostensibly as “hip” as Godaddy, but how do you spell the name correctly? I’ve narrowed it down to the below from references on the company site and other references on the Internet. Which one of these is the correct way to refer to the company?
- 1&1
- 1 and 1
- 1and1.com
- 1&1 Internet Inc.
- “2″
I’ve decided to go with 1 and 1 because I don’t like the “&” character (must be the SEO in me). At any rate, we’ve made some notes about the company’s web hosting offering and here’s a taste:
The 1 and 1 services offered to the small and medium enterprise are impressive. Their strength is their excellent value for money, in offering a very large array of services and features with their web hosting products for an extremely low monthly charge.
The 1 and 1 homepage is attractive and is set up to give clear information about their products and services and what they offer. There is a graphic showing very clearly the extras to be had for each package, helping reveal what stands out. This is definitely a plus in deciding which package to choose. The company track record is also clearly stated with financial summaries, and is rock solid.
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July 22, 2006 at 6:00 pm
· Filed under ISP, Internet
Some are saying that AOL’s PR Is Broken these days. Just when it seems things can’t get worse for AOL, it appears they have a mole leaking information to Consumerist.com. The Consumerist has been on AOL like a boxer pup on a meatloaf since the “cancel my account” snafu, digging up internal memos and employee manuals. The public relations nightmare continues.Add the revelations in those internal documents to a bevy of other incidents that includes consumer backlash, a renewed Eliot Spitzer investigation, Geronimo-ing subscribers, pottymouthed Netscape employees, worst-of-the-worst product reviews, and seeds of distrust sown during the Goodmail fiasco, and you have a company whose hot water has reached boiling. Soon after Vincent Ferrari went national with his recorded phone call to AOL, where he was badgered by a retention consultant ignoring Ferrari’s demand that his account be cancelled, the Member Services team was sent a flurry of memos and policy changes. According to the memos, EVP of Member Services, Scott Falconer called the aftermath of the incident “severe,” and employees were instructed to assume that any call could be recorded and posted on the Web. Falconer pleads with his staff to be extra helpful to all incoming callers. The Member Services crew also received an update instructing them that they were only to pitch the canceling member two offers before acquiescing if the member declines both. The new instructions to be nice to customers, even if they’re canceling, does not seem to apply to AOL-owned Netscape employees, especially if they’re dealing with a former customer who caused all this trouble to begin with.
Read the rest of this entry »
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July 22, 2006 at 12:30 pm
· Filed under BellSouth, Hosting, ISP, Internet, This Site
Most folks think of BellSouth in terms of telecommunications or ISP services and that probably will not change anytime soon.
The BellSouth web hosting web site is one of the least surprising of the hosting home pages. The offering contains every feature required to set up and run a fully functional web site. Since Bell South is a telecommunications behemoth, the customer can be assured that they will be served by a stable and robust web host. As expected, the support for the web hosting is offered 24 by 7.
A few bullet features bullet points from BellSouth:
99% Server Uptime Guarantee
High Levels of Bandwidth
24×365 Technical Support
Convenient billing to your BellSouth Telephone Number or a credit card.
A reputation for excellence built on reliability, stability and customer service.
More of our look at BellSouth Web Hosting…
Source: http://hosting.bellsouth.net/
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July 21, 2006 at 2:20 pm
· Filed under Internet, Web Site Building
As a professional web designer, the author of this article points out a consistent trend in the majority of the projects worked on: The more time that is spent dissecting, analyzing, and critiquing a design by the wrong kinds of people, the worse that design gets. The same trend applies to the number of people involved in the design process. I am not sure if I agree entirely with this because of the subjectivity of right and wrong kinds here.
read more | digg story
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July 20, 2006 at 10:24 am
· Filed under Hosting, Rackspace, This Site
We’ve taken a brief-and I mean brief-look at Rackspace web hosting and put a few thoughts about their goals and what they have to offer. This is general stuff, a mini-review that may help you if you’re thinking of going the dedicated server route.
Rackspace is a provider focusing almost entirely on the market for 100% uptime for web hosting. If their hosted services go down for network of hardware reasons, they will refund a percentage of the monthly costs to the customer on a ‘per minute of downtime’ basis, capped at 100% of the monthly fee. This is certainly putting their money where their mouth is, and it generates a great deal of confidence in their service offering.
More about Rackspace web hosting…
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July 19, 2006 at 3:51 pm
· Filed under Internet
Get ready to scratch your head. This is a list of dumb online business ideas that somehow turned out to be successfull. Business ideas implemented such as Million Dollar Homepage, SantaMail, Doggles, etc.
1000000 pixels, charge a dollar per pixel – that’s perhaps the dumbest idea for online business anyone could have possible come up with. Still, Alex Tew, a 21-year-old who came up with the idea, is now a millionaire.
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July 18, 2006 at 3:39 pm
· Filed under This Site
Well, if you’re a site builder, you know that it’s never really done. Never-the-less, I’d like to say thanks to everyone who contributed to building Web Hosting Finds. Todd Bemis created the ubiquitous blood hound graphic of the dog that will be forever sniffing, tracking and pointing out the most palatable hosts. Tristan Bergman contributed to the content. The mysterious “Suzana” (last name withheld by request) whipped up some of the buttons and other graphics. Also, I’d like to thank Google, Yahoo and MSN in advance for sending us lots of visitors who will enjoy the fruits of everyone’s labor–bring em on guys… 
On the back end of things, I and many others are deeply grateful for the work of Internet rock star Matt Mullenweg in developing the excellent WordPress blogging technology that powers the blog and news portions of the site. Also, the WordPress theme called Almost Spring, by Rebecca Wei is used here as well (although with the shakey CSS modifications, it looks more like Almost Fall).
Thanks also to Josh for the comparison idea. I could go on and mention others who made this possible (our web host, bosses, and the writers of the U.S. constitution for the free speech amendment, etc). But, in the interesting of preventing this post from sounding like an academy award ceremony speech, let’s stop here!
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July 18, 2006 at 3:31 pm
· Filed under Funny, Hosting, This Site
Several ideas for a web hosting logo were tossed around by the design folks. After a few mockups were created, it became apparent that the current logo looked the best and conveyed the Web Hosting Finds message the most accurately. Not that it’s going to change, but what do you think of the logo itself and more importantly what should the name of our beloved mascot dog be? I’ve got some ideas but want to turn them over in my head a while before I post them. Do post yours here.
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July 18, 2006 at 3:02 pm
· Filed under Hosting, Internet, This Site
I seem to be in the minority, but I really like the Toolbar button functionality that Google introduced many months ago. It allows site builders to throw together a 16X16 favicon-like button which appears on the Google Toolbar itelf as you surf. Of course, it’s not just for aesthetics, the button can be designed (like this one) to display news feeds from a site after it’s updated. So, this means you will be aware the site has been updated without even having visited it. You can get the latest Web Hosting news by clicking below to install the button to your Internet Explorer or Firefox browser. Okay, enough. Just click something and see what happens. If you like it keep it.
- Add the Web Hosting Finds button
The button that should appear on your toolbar looks like the above icon, which you may recognize as the tail of the Web Hosting Finds mascot, the bloodhound who ever sniffs out the most delectable hosts.
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July 17, 2006 at 1:43 pm
· Filed under EarthLink, Internet, This Site
RSS feeds are a big part of the Web Hosting Finds site experience. As one who has tinkered with many a RSS aggregator, I was pleasantly surprised after testing the myEarthLink Reader. I confess that I was not expecting to like the product. After all, aren’t there a slew of RSS Readers like Google, Yahoo, Rojo, Bloglines, etc. that should be light years ahead? Actually, the idea behind getting and reading your news with a RSS feed reader is seems simple
Some positives I noted about the myEarthLink Reader:
- myEarthLink Reader is free
- There are no ads on the interface page
- myEarthLink Reader is very simple, straightforward and uncluttered
- It features an OPML import/export list - this means you can bring in your existing news link list or take it with you
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July 16, 2006 at 11:32 pm
· Filed under Hosting, This Site
It’s simple, but sweet and I suppose it should be called a mini guide. This is the start of our web hosting guide:
- What is Web Hosting?
- Difference in Registrar & Host
- Types of Hosting
- Getting a Web Site Online
- Choosing a Web Host
- Glossary
The goal? To demonstrate web hosting basics tp aid newcomer site builders and hosters discern among the many hosting provider offerings. If nothing else, this should give some good questions to ask before buying.
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July 12, 2006 at 11:57 pm
· Filed under This Site
This is insanely trivial but I wanted to mention that the Web Hosting Finds site is listed on Google China. Now, if each person in living in China would please click in, we’d get about 1.3 billion visits! What was this English speaking webmaster and web hosting enthusiast doing surfing Google China? Ahh, too many late nights in front of the computer…
Do you see it here?
http://www.google.cn/search?hl=zh-CN&q=webhostingfinds
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July 12, 2006 at 8:49 am
· Filed under Funny, Hosting
Josh Jones at the DreamHost Blog posted a comic pictorial musing of whey web hosting is here to stay. It starts like this:
Sometimes, I get a little nervous about this whole business of web hosting.
Not just nervous about the blank looks I’ll get when I tell pretty ladies what I do, either.
More nervous about the tingling feeling in the back of my neck that someday, perhaps not too far away, the entire web hosting industry is going to go the way of the betamax. Or, perhaps, that some collllooooossssssus will get into it and give it all away for free as a means to “capture eyeballs”.
http://blog.dreamhost.com/2006/05/31/why-web-hosting-is-here-to-stay/
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July 11, 2006 at 8:18 pm
· Filed under Hosting
Web Hosting Reviews - Can You Trust Them?
I just discovered this article by Kai Virihaur that asks a great question about reliability of the source of web hosting reviews. I think most Internet users can discern a trustworthy review site when they see it, but sometimes it is really difficult. Kai has done a lot of research in this area and points out exactly what sites you should not rely on for “customer opinions.” Thanks for the article, Kai.
Imagine doing a search on Google for “web hosting company”, and coming up with around 1,700,000 hits! How can you possibly find the best web hosting plan for your needs among all those? You may look at the prices, thinking: “I will get a good deal by looking for the cheapest web hosting plan”. Read the rest of this entry »
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July 10, 2006 at 5:13 pm
· Filed under Hosting
Whether you desire a simple brochure-style site with three e-mail accounts and 50 megs of storage or a fully functional, high-end e-commerce platform, keep in mind that reputable Web hosting providers will take the time to educate customers as to what they need and what they don’t need.
“If you’re looking for a Web hosting service provider? All vendors are not created equal. A little consumer education goes a long way toward ensuring you get a host that offers the right combination of products and services — and at the right price.”
read more | digg story
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July 5, 2006 at 2:18 pm
· Filed under Funny
Recently we blogged about the Vincent Ferrari AOL video, a hilarious but true demonstration of the Vincent Ferrari attempt to cancel his AOL account that was met with a sadistic response by an AOL customer service rep. Since then, the story has received more publicity. Art and video parodies are springing up all over the Inernet. Why does a blog about web hosting care about this video, you might ask? We think there is room for improved customer service in the web hosting industry and love the don’t mess with the customer philosophy.
“With the enthusiastic help of users of Digg, the much-visited site that lets readers rate news stories, the online world found its way to Mr. Ferrari’s door. (Actually, too many curiosity seekers arrived that day: the server that hosted his blog crashed hard when about 300,000 visitors tried to push through the door at about the same time.)”
read more | digg story
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July 4, 2006 at 10:16 pm
· Filed under This Site
July 4th seems to be an appropriate and symbolic day to declare WebHostingFinds.com’s independance from the monarchy of betadom. All the major components for phase one of the site are hereby declared free. What are they?
- The Blog - If you’re reading this blog post, I think you’ll agree that the blog is done.
- News - Web hosting news that the editor deems worthy can now be posted.
What’s missing?
One the very coolest accomplishments was the ability to work in RSS feed submission. So, now you can submit your own web hosting find to the directory and if the site has an RSS feed, we may be able to display it along side the other site info. Here’s an example for Web Hosting Gear. There are no guarantees that we can display a given site’s feed but we’ll certainly try. There are one or two cases wherein we were unable to get the feed items to display for some sites.
- Review content - We added a few feature hosts reviews that we’ve been looking at over time. For starters, there is an extensive look at EarthLink Web Hosting and other ISP related products.
What about phase two?
I want to sit back and catch my breath, but under consideration is:
- User web hosting news submission
- Top Ten host list rated by editors and hosting community experts
- Articles and tutorials to help you build and host a web site
Please comment on this post to tell us what errors or glitches you see and what else you think is needed.
Happy Independence Day!
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