If you don’t already know, many hosts offer additional features with their cheap web hosting plans. Of course they cost an extra fee, but in many cases they are very worth it. Even if a host doesn’t publically display add-on features, they probably have the ability to add them, so if you really want something, send your hosts support team an email and ask.
One popular add-on is a dedicated IP. Basically what a dedicated IP does is make it so your hosting account is viewed as a seperate and independant thing by Google and other search engines. While this may not sound significant, it plays a major role in SEO and other things. See when Google evaluates your sites, they look at not only your main site(s), but also at every other site that’s on the same IP. This means that, unless you have a dedicated IP, you are placed in the same category as everyone else on your server, which could be anywhere from 50-200 people, or even more. Now most of those people are probably just hosting clean, normal content sites, so they don’t have any negative effect. However, no matter how good a host is at monitoring their clients, there is almost always someone who is hosting a malicious or otherwise harmful/illegal site on your server. So, when Google sees those bad sites, they assume that you own them, and penalize your other sites in the search engines.
Many hosts also offer some sort of “upgraded” cheap web hosting. Basically, you can get something that’s better than normal shared hosting, but still not as good as a VPS or dedicated server. This is good for people who want more than standard shared hosting, but can’t afford and/or don’t need a huge server.
Written by Web Hosting Expert on Oct 31, 2009.
What many people don’t know is that you can host quite a few sites on a single hosting plan. So, if you get an idea for a great new site, there’s no need to buy a new hosting package, unless your current plan is limited somehow. I recommend looking closely at a cheap web hosting plan before you buy it. Some plans don’t allow you to add more than one site to your account, so be careful. You need to look for how many “add-on domains” you can have. If you can’t find an answer, try emailing the host and asking.
Once you do have cheap web hosting that allows for more than 1 site, setting things up shouldn’t be too hard. All you need to do is log into your hosting control panel and find the “add-on domains” section. From there, enter whatever domains you want, and then start uploading your files. Be careful while uploading however. Make sure you’re putting them in the right place. A misplaced file can mean the difference between a functional site and a broken one. Also, make sure your file hyerarchy stays intact. If files are placed in the wrong order or place, your site will not function correctly.
With most cheap web hosting plans, you can add up to 5-10+ domains, which means 5-10+ sites. However, remember that your storage limits and bandwidth limits do not change, and every site you host will contribute to storage/bandwidth usage. So be sure to watch your bandwidth. Some hosts have been known to shut down accounts that go over their bandwidth limits, sometimes without warning. If you find that you are reaching your limits, it may be time to upgrade to a VPS or dedicated server.
Written by Web Hosting Expert on Oct 30, 2009.
If you own a small business, you should have a website, regardless of what kind of company you run. The web is huge these days, and if you don’t have a website yet, you are probably losing valuable customers. You need as much exposure as you can possibly get, and the Internet is a good place to start.
Especially in this economy, most business don’t have too much money to spare, so many avoid setting up a website. Fortunately, building a website doesn’t have to be an ordeal, nor does it have to be expensive. Cheap web hosting costs only $5 a month, and if you do the website yourself, that’s really the only expense you will have, besides $10/year for a domain name. If you get the website built it could cost more, but it’s usually still pretty affordable.
Hosting companies will always try to convince you that you need to buy their most expensive product in order to host your site. I’m here to tell you that that is all lies. All you really need is cheap web hosting and a domain. There is no need to buy a VPS or anything bigger, unless your site gets a ton of traffic, which it probably won’t. I recommend buying cheap web hosting right now, and then learning as you go with HTML. HTML is the simplest language to learn, and once you’re used to it you can build a decent site in a couple hours.
Some people will tell you to build the site before you get the cheap web hosting, but I say the other way around. This is mainly because you want to test your site out on the Internet as you’re building it to make sure you didn’t do anything wrong. Also, already having everything ready often motivates people to do work.
Written by Web Hosting Expert on Oct 29, 2009.
If you plan on running a video site, and you have high goals for it, you’re going to need some decent hosting. Video sites take up a LOT of space, and if they become popular and get a lot of vistors, they also use up a lot of bandwidth. So, cheap hosting usually won’t be enough for video sites.
If you are just starting out with your site, I recommend you start with cheap web hosting, and then update later when it’s necessary. It’s not worth it to buy a VPS or dedicated server this early, as you don’t know where your site will be over the next few months. So, just keep it simple and affordable for now, and get some cheap web hosting. If you plan on having lots of videos, maybe look for a larger shared plan – somewhere in between cheap web hosting and a VPS.
Once traffic begins to pick up on your site, make sure you’re monitoring bandwidth levels. Generally speaking you should never be using more than 75% or so of your allotted bandwidth. Any more than that and your site might start loading slow, and too much more and you could cause a server crash, or your host might shut down your account. So just keep an eye on things and upgrade as soon as it’s necessary.
When you do upgrade, you should get either a nice VPS or a dedicated server. At this point it really depends on your budget. Obviously a dedicated server will serve you beter, but they are also much more expensive. If you can’t afford much, look for a fairly cheap VPS to host on. You can usually get a decent one for about $50/month.
Written by Web Hosting Expert on Oct 28, 2009.
When it comes time for you to choose a kind of hosting to purchase, you will be presented with several options. For the untrained eye, choosing the right thing can be very difficult. Not only is there a lot of variety as far as different types of hosting, there is also a lot of variety in individual features and perks. Generally speaking, if you’re new to being a webmaster, cheap web hosting will work just fine. Now that’s not always true, but in most cases it is, and it’s better to save money than waste it.
Cheap web hosting is obviously cheaper than a dedicated server, but there is a lot of difference in features. Cheap web hosting costs about $5/month, while dedicated servers cost anywhere from $100-$5,000/month, depending on the size and options. Cheap web hosting doesn’t have many features, and is generally just a basic package. It will work for most websites, but it may not support all web languages, and it’s never as fast or reliable as a dedicated server.
If you are really serious about getting your websites to a high level of traffic and content, then purchasing a dedicated server might be worth it. However, I recommend not springing for a dedi unless you are quite sure you’re going to need it. I’ve had more than 10 different decent-sized sites hosted on a single cheap web hosting account, and it ran just fine. Of course most of the sites were low-traffic, but still, generally cheap web hosting will do just fine. If you have a lot of traffic, and I mean A LOT (at least 5,000 UV/day or so), then you may want to get a dedicated server, just to speed up load times and satisfy your visitors. If not, I would stick with shared hosting for now.
Written by Web Hosting Expert on Oct 26, 2009.
When you’re first buying hosting, you probably will have to make some decisions. There are a lot of choices in the hosting field, and in order to benefit the most, you need to know which one is best for you. This article will compare and contrast the two most common forms of hosting, cheap web hosting and VPS’s.
We’ll start with cheap web hosting. Basically, cheap, or shared, web hosting, is where you purchase a very small percentage of a server. You share this server with about 50+ other people, sometimes up to several hundred. Obviously this isn’t as good as having your own server, but it’s much cheaper. Cheap web hosting costs only about $5 per month, which makes it a good choice for webmasters on a budget.
VPS’ on the other hand are more like dedicated servers than anything else. When you purchase a VPS, you’re basically buying a mini-server. Technically you are sharing one large server with about 10 other people, but it’s much more separated. You will usually get your own dedicated IP with a VPS, and you will be able to manage your VPS just like it was a real server. VPS’ are usually managed, which makes them much easier to maintain than dedicated servers. However, VPS’ are usually at least $50/month, so if you can’t afford that, get cheap web hosting.
In reality, most people will do just fine with simple cheap web hosting. A lot of webmasters get overexcited and end up buying things that they really don’t need. For instance, if you are JUST starting out, you will definitelly do fine with cheap web hosting, and a VPS is just a waste of money. If you’ve been a webmaster for about a year or so and you have large site(s), then a VPS may be a worthwhile investment.
Written by Web Hosting Expert on Oct 25, 2009.
When you first purchase cheap web hosting, you won’t exactly be all ready to go instantly. First you will have to set it up. The amount of work you have to do will depend on where you bought your hosting from, and how much they chose to do for you. Some cheap web hosting providers actually set everything up for you, while others leave you on your own.
The first thing you should do is make sure everything is working on the server end. To do this, upload something to it (a simple HTML file or something) and try to view it over the internet using the temporary URL they gave you. If they didn’t give you a temporary URL, you might have to just wait until your domain propogates to the right server.
Once you know the server is all working, you need to set the nameservers on your domains. Keep in mind that you should only set the nameservers on the domains that you want to host on your new cheap web hosting. If you have more than one hosting plan and want to seperate your domains, pay attention to which ones you are changing. If you registered your domain(s) through the host you just bought cheap web hosting from, your domains should already be propogated correctly. Otherwise you’ll have to do it yourself. Keep in mind that this process can take up to 48 hours or so.
After that’s all done, you should check the speed of your cheap web hosting. To do this, get a full site up on the Web, and try loading it in a browser. Also try this on different computers, preferably with different ISP’s or internet speeds, so you can get a good idea of how your site loads on a variety of different set-ups.
Written by Web Hosting Expert on Oct 24, 2009.
If you have a website, you probably understand that the more traffic you get, the better. Whether you’re making money currently or not, I’m sure you know that more traffic almost always means more money. And, if you have good cheap web hosting, you won’t have to increase your costs, unless you get a LOT of traffic (like more than 5,000 visitors/day). There are several ways to increase your traffic, read on for some ideas.
1. SEO
SEO, or search engine optimization, is most likely the best way to get traffic. However, that doesn’t mean it’s the easiest. In fact, it might just be one of the hardest methods of generating traffic due to competition. But if you know what you’re doing, the time spent on SEO will pay off nicely. SEO is basically just optimizing your website for search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Generally it’s wise to focus on optimizing for Google, because Google is bigger and drives the most traffic overall. SEO consists of on-page optimization (which involves targeting proper target keywords within your page), and off-page optimization, which is best done by getting backlinks to your site.
2. videos
If you know how to make decent videos, you have an opportunity to drive some serious traffic. To do this, all you need to do is research things in your niche (the subject of your website) that would make good videos. Then, make them using whatever software you have, and upload them to Youtube and other video sites. If allowed, put your URL into the description box of the video. If that’s not allowed, put your URL in the video, or just watermark the entire video with your URL. Also, if you’re doing a voiceover or anything like that, make sure to say your URL at least once.
Written by Web Hosting Expert on Oct 23, 2009.
Each webmaster has some sort of monthly expense, but some end up paying way more than they’re making, and therefore lose quite a bit of money. If you have discovered that you’re just spending too much money to be profitable, there are a number of ways that you can reduce your monthly bills.
First and foremost is getting rid of whatever hosting you have and switching to cheap web hosting. See cheap web hosting, unlike VPS’s and dedicated servers, cost only $3-$6 per month. Cheap web hosting is the most affordable hosting available, and in most cases it’s fully operational and nearly as good as a VPS, at least for the needs of most webmasters. Many people get a VPS or a dedicated server because they think they need it, when in reality they’d do just fine with cheap web hosting. Wasting money is pointless!
Another thing you should do to reduce costs is sell off old unused domains and/or sites. Unused domains do nothing but collect dust, and every year you have to renew them. While $10/year doesn’t seem like much, it can add up very rapidly when you have several unused domains. Plus, when you sell your unused domains/sites, you get some cash back to spend on bills or other things. Also, when you sell off your lower-quality sites, you have more time to focus on your main site(s) and make it/them better.
Another huge cost for many webmasters is outsourcing. If you outsource a lot, whether it’s writing, design, or coding, you can majorly reduce your costs by reducing the amount of work you outsource. I’m not staying stop completely, because outsourcing is a very good thing. I’m just saying don’t outsource EVERYTHING, unless you really can afford it. Do the stuff you can/want to, and outsource the rest.
Written by Web Hosting Expert on Oct 22, 2009.
Being a webmaster is not free. In most cases you’ll have to pay some sort of reccuring fee in order to have a website. First and foremost there’s the cheap web hosting. Now this isn’t a huge cost, but it can be if your financial situation is not as stable as you’d like it to be. Generally cheap web hosting costs about $5 per month, but you usually have to pre-pay for a year, so it’s really more like $60/year. Of course you may have to pay a bit more or a bit less depending on where you buy it from.
Then there’s domains. Most domains cost $10 to register, and $10/year to renew. This may not seem like much, but many people end up having 5, 10, even 20+ domains in their portfolio, each costing $10 per year. If you have trouble paying for domain renewals, you can always sell some of your portfolio. As long as you’ve got some decent names you can usually find buyers for more than the reg fee, so you can actually make some money.
Cheap web hosting and domain registrations/renewals are usually the only mandatory expenses, but there are plenty more. Outsourcing is probably the largest expense for most modern webmasters. See, there comes a point in your career where your time is more valuable than whatever busy work you need to do. So, outsourcing comes into play. Outsourcing is basically just hiring out small to medium sized tasks to other people. Obviously you shouldn’t pay them more than what you value your time to be. Don’t go hiring professionals for $30/hr if you can do the work yourself! Obviously if you have no experience with whatever you’re doing and don’t think you can handle it yourself it may be worth it to hire a professional, but try to find cheap workers whenever possible.
Written by Web Hosting Expert on Oct 21, 2009.
