3 Benefits of Cheap Web Hosting to Get Your Site

If you're thinking of signing on with a virtual host for cheap web hosting, you might receive more long-term benefits than you realize. Cheap web hosting is more readily available today because there is so much competition in the web site hosting arena. You can still find great domain hosting for only a fraction of what companies once paid. Even with low cost web hosting, the benefits are tremendous if you choose the right virtual host. Here are three benefits of cheap web hosting.

1. Save Money for Now and the Future

When comparing cheap web hosting plans, you should carefully consider the cost of your virtual host payments. You'll likely be paying every month or year for many years to come if you plan to build a solid online business. Therefore, you'll need a host that's dependable as well as affordable. The benefit of cheap web hosting is you will save money every month or year over a long period of time.

If one company charges $9.95 per month and another virtual host charges $6.95 per month with similar features, then you'll save $3 per month by choosing the cheap web hosting. In one year, you'll save $36. In five years, you'll save $180. It doesn't seem to be much, but from a business standpoint, any savings are worth the effort! You can also save even more if you need more than just basic web page hosting.

2. Minimal Overhead Costs with Cheap Web Hosting

Where else but the Internet can you open a store for only a few dollars per month? Imagine opening a store on Main Street in your town. You could incur thousands of dollars in monthly bills (rent, water, power, repairs, etc.)

With cheap web hosting, you can open a store for only a few dollars per month and add pages to it any time you wish with very little or no increase to your web page hosting bill. It's the lowest overhead you could ever have, and the profit potential is tremendous. Even using features such as PHP and MySQL integration for databases adds very little (if any) extra to your monthly bill.

3. Reseller Hosting Benefits

No matter what type of business you own, you might benefit by offering reseller hosting. Reseller hosting enables you to sell cheap web hosting packages to your customers. You can sell all types of hosting, but be sure to narrow your ads to reach your target audience. For example, if you own a wholesale candy store, you can advertise to your customers (candy retailers) that they can have their very own candy website. Of course, they can choose a low cost web hosting plan from your site, and you earn hosting payments every month! You might even provide web design templates they can use to get their site up and running quickly. The possibilities are endless.

These benefits and more are valid reasons to search for dependable but low cost web hosting. Start saving with cheap web hosting today!

Facts about PHP Programming Language

PHP which is officially known as ‘Hypertext Preprocessor’ was released in the year 1995. Initially written as a set of Common Gateway Interface (CGI) in ‘C’, PHP was originally designed to replace a set of Perl scripts to maintain his Personal Home Pages (also known as PHP). PHP was originally designed to create dynamic and more interactive web pages. It is the most widely-used, open-source and general-purpose scripting language. It is a server-side scripting language often written in a HTML context. PHP code in a script can query databases, create images, read and write files and talk to remote servers. The output from PHP code is combined with HTML in script and the result is sent to the user.

It is possible to use PHP in almost every operating system. PHP can be used in all major operating systems including Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and RISC OS. PHP uses procedural programming or object oriented programming and also a mixture of them. PHP is used mainly in server-side scripting, command line interface and writing desktop applications. PHP also supports ODBC, the Open Database Connection standard which allows you to connect to other databases supporting this world standard. Server-side scripting is the most traditional one for PHP development. In order to use PHP for server-side scripting you need a PHP parser, a web server and a web browser. The PHP codes entered with the parser on a web server will be translated into a PHP page that can be viewed on your web browser.

PHP is a popular language because it can be embedded directly into HTML coding. It has more benefits such as the following - it can be used on all major operating systems and can be supported by most of the web servers. The latest version of PHP development is a very stable and grown-up language used for web programming like Java and Microsoft C#. Both the PHP engine and the PHP code can be used on any platform, which makes PHP extremely flexible.

PHP has many features designed specifically for use in websites. PHP can be used to make your website secure by implementing mandatory sign in feature – asking the user or the administrator to enter a valid username and password. Adding such a feature is easy as PHP can display a HTML form and process the information that the user types in. This ‘sign in’ feature can be an excellent way of getting to know about your customer’s profile.

The popularity of PHP Development continues to grow rapidly because it has many advantages. PHP is fast because the time needed to process and load a webpage is relatively low. PHP is also versatile and it runs on a wide variety of operating systems. PHP hosting is a server-side scripting environment that is used to create dynamic web pages. It is an open source language which is widely used by programmers and web developers. Open source gives a lot of advantages over proprietary programming languages. Due to this reason, PHP has been the one of the most popular server-side scripting language so far. Almost all the hosting providers offer PHP hosting services these days. PHP is especially strong in relational databases, which are used for dynamic content and e-commerce applications.

5 Tips When Choosing Multiple Domain Hosting

If you have or are planning to have several domains running on the web, then you should consider getting a multiple domain hosting. Multiple domain hosting allows you to host several domains under a single hosting plan. Most web hosting companies call it shared hosting.

The main advantage of multiple domain hosting is it helps to consolidate all your domains under one hosting plan. It makes domain management a breeze. It also makes it easier to modify any settings since you are doing it from the same control panel.

Here are a few tips you might want to bear in mind when looking a shared hosting service.

Hard Disk Space

Nowadays most shared web hosting plans provide more than enough disk space to satisfy your needs. It is important you know before hand how much disk space your web site will be using not just currently but projected 6 months, 1 year and 2 years down the road.

Some web applications requires more disk space than others. One example are file hosting sites. Also remember to check the cost of upgrading your disk space in case you need one. Most web hosting providers charge on a per GB basis.

Bandwidth

Most web hosting providers cap a limit on each hosting plan’s bandwidth. Check to make sure it provides sufficient bandwidth for your current websites and also room for growth. Most web hosting providers will charge you on a per GB basis for exceeded bandwidth.

The speed is also important for websites. No one wants to visit a website that loads slowly. File hosting and video sites for example requires an acceptable speed in order to deliver file download or streaming video.

Number of Domains Allowed

Some web hosting limit the number of domains for each hosting plan. It is best to get one with unlimited domains so you have to worry about the limit.

Emails/FTP accounts

You probably will need separate email accounts for each domain you have. Most web hosting services provide webbased or as well outlook based email accounts. Preferably try to get one that has unlimited email/ftp accounts.

Ease of control panel

With many domains, emails, ftp accounts etc to manage, it is important that the control panel is easy to use and all information can be accessed easily. Most web hosting services provide cpanel. Some web hosting services do use their own customised control panel. A good example is godaddy.

Whichever control panel you are using, familiarize yourself with the interface and get used to it as fast as possible.

Make the Move to Multiple Domain Hosting

As a webmaster, you must have been familiar with what the industry calls "shared hosting plan" which is a cheap way to put your website. A hosting provider can offers that service cheap because you only use a small amount of the storage capacity of a server which is shared among many other users.

Unfortunately many of them only let you host one domain under one account. It will not be a problem if you don't have a plan to build more than one websites. But the story could be different when you want to do it in the future where you will have to open an additional hosting account everytime you host a new domain name. Imagine how much money you have to spend every month just for paying your hosting service.

On the other hand, using a hosting provider that allows you host all of your domains under one account will save your money over a host that insists that you open a new account for each site. That way you can create several websites to promote different products without having to be upset about any extra fees.

It is entirely up to you what kind of websites you intend to build. You can build online directories, websites that full of contents and/or websites that consist of one long sales letter that you can promote with PPC or ezine. Of course you can promote unrelated products using only one website but it would not look professional in the eyes of your site visitors. Keep in mind that a good domain name is usually related to the content of a website.

Some multiple domain hosting companies also provide Fantastico. Building different type of websites such as classified ads, online directory or blog can be accomplished very easily by using this feature.

To make it better, you can even register your additional domain names through a cheap registrar such as GoDaddy. After registering the domain names with the registrar don't forget to setup the DNS addresses provided by your host. Then go into the "add-on domain" sub menu in your hosting Control Panel and fill in the blanks with the name of your new domains and the subdirectories for them. Do it for each of your domains. Wait a few days (usually less than 48 hours) before the master list the domain registrar updates will be shared throughout the internet and all name servers know where to find your new domain.

With multiple domain hosting you can go about setting up specific email addresses, subdirectories, databases and FTP accounts for each of your domains. In fact there are no real differences between using a multiple domain hosting plan and a conventional shared hosting plan.

You can find multiple domain plans starting at about $10 a month. Compared with a conventional shared hosting, the price is not much different and even might be cheaper than the price of your current hosting service.

With so many profitable products you can sell online, the move is one you will never regret. So, the question now becomes, are you ready and willing to use a multiple domain hosting service and save yourself some hard earned cash? The choice is yours.

Backing up Your Website With Cpanel

Backing up with Cpanel

The most important task of any system administrator is backing up the systems they are responsible for. Not putting the system up, not keeping it running, backing it up and being able to restore is primary.

A system with no backup cannot be relied upon for any real purpose, because if anything goes wrong your data is gone.

Something always goes wrong eventually, and without good backups all of your work, and possible your entire business is just plain gone.

A good backup strategy is composed of backup, storage, verification, and restoration. The backup component covers selection of method and which data to backup (all of it by choice).

Storage covers both what media you back up onto as well as where you keep them (if your building burns down, tapes kept in the server room will be useless).

Verification is a crucial component of a backup strategy, you have to know you have usable data.

Lastly, you need to be able to get the data back to where it can be used.

There are two main strategies for backups: Disaster Recovery and Archival.

DR backups are designed to restore a system to a working state. To do this you backup the entire system so that you can restore it onto another machine to get a working system.

An archival strategy is concerned with retrieving historical data ('give me the customer database as it appeared at the end of last year') and not with restoring a working system.

Both strategies can, and probably should, be combined. An archival-only strategy requires the system administrators to reinstall and reconfigure the operating system prior to restoring the data; this takes longer and is more error prone.

Any backup strategy must be tested.

A DR backup is tested by restoring a system backup onto a fresh system to make sure you can recover from an emergency.

Archival strategies are tested by retrieving files and verifying that you can find the files you need and that they are readable once restored. An untested backup strategy is usually a complete waste of time and money.

For web hosting clients, you will usually do your backups with the cPanel administrative interface.

cPanel will let you backup your entire hosted site, your databases, or your home directory (which will contain your website but not the data behind it).

To perform a backup you simply access the Backup control panel and select a type of backup. The system performs the backup and downloads the file to your local system.

These backups can be restored through the same interface.

To test, you would create a new hosted site and restore your backups to it.

The downloaded backup files are important (possibly confidential) data and should be integrated into your local backup strategy.

Essential Ingredients of Every Linux Hosting Plan

Linux Hosting Plan - Essential Ingredients

Any website mainly comprises the following - Domain name, Web space, WebPages. After getting the Domain Name the next step is to check for a good hosting service provider to have one's own files uploaded in the domain. The following are the important features one must consider while selecting a Linux Based Hosting Plan.

1. Control Panel - This is the most important feature that is mainly required if one wants to maintain his/her website by own. With Control Panel, popularly known as CP, one can do anything means any sort of modification. The moment one signs up for a Hosting Pack, he/she must be immediately provided a control panel for managing the web space.

2. POP3 email Ids & Aliases - One must be provided with plentiful of POP3 email ids and it depends on the Package size as well.

3. FTP Accounts & Virtual FTP - This is the place where one can make any modifications like uploading of files, deletion, updating etc. This is again provided along with the control panel. One must be sure that he/she must have plenty of FTP sub-accounts also to provide his/her clients/users password protected directories. This is the most important feature wherein the clients / users can use the FTP to upload /download files from particular password protected folder of one's website.

4. Backup - This the feature which is mostly overlooked by the users but is quite important .One must check if the Hosts take Automated Backups.

5. Web Statistics -Visitors plays a key role in the success of one's website. One must review the report using Statistics Application that run in the server backend in order to see the number of visits each day so as to take proper action.

6. Bandwidth -One must choose the Hosting Plan that offers sufficient Bandwidth for one's website. As it is not possible to judge the exact requirement in the beginning, still there is facility to deduct the bandwidth required with the passage of time.

7. PHP & Mysql Support - All the Linux Plans support PHP & Mysql. One must make sure that he/she must get this free of cost along with the hosting plan. There are some Hosting Providers that charges extra for MYSQL Database Support & PhpMyAdmin therefore one must check this is advance.

8. Web mail & SMTP - Email forms a most important part in launching the website. One must check if the Hosts provide with WEBMAIL in order to check mails through a web based interface using Squirrelmail or Horde. Corporate Users mostly prefer downloading mails through Email Clients such as Eudora or Outlook Express. One can avail this option only if SMTP or IMAP support is enabled. Therefore one must check in advance if SMTP support is provided or not.

9. SPAM ASSASIN - This is the most important component as no email user is free from a Spam attack. Therefore one must ask for Spam Filters installed on the server where his/her website resides.

10. IP - Dedicated IP is required if one's website prefers SSL Support (https://) with a passage of time. Most of the websites are hosted on shared IPs.One must ask his/her Hosting Provider for the extra charges involved in getting a dedicated IP and SSL Support. There is important to note that for SSL (https://), one needs to buy a Digital Certificate.

How to Get the Ultimate Web Hosting Deal

We all need web hosting whether our sites makes $100,000/day or $0/month, however, we don't always have to pay full price for it. Now I know there are several hosting companies offering such low hosting plans that some people might feel that it doesn't matter if they pay or not but I will assume you are not one of those people since you have continued to read past the title of this article :-).

A common misconception with hosting companies is that they will only offer deals and discounts on their small hosting plans, this is not true. Hosting companies are in business to make money just as most of us are and they weight the Pros and Cons of business arrangements just as we do. If something makes sense to them then there is a high chance that they will do it whether it be a budget hosting plan or a top notch dedicated server.

How does this work? Well, it is very simple really, all you need to do is contact your web hosting provider, try to speak with the person in charge of business development or billing and let them know that you are currently hosted with them and would like to know if they would be interested in a barter arrangement where you add "Your Site Name hosted by Your Host Name" with a link to their website on all pages of your website.

This can be a very attractive offer to a host since a referral from a website that is currently being hosted by the hosting company is far more convincing than many of the alternatives such as searching through web hosting directories or using search engines. If you have loyal followers of your site then the "hosted by" message becomes even more powerful as a means to provide additional business to your host.

Have a few bits of information on hand when calling your host:

* Prepare a brief summary of your website and its audience. Make this as short as possible and keep it in a regular conversational tone.
* Have your traffic stats ready as this is one of the main things your host will be interested in find out to help determine if the deal will make sense for them or not.
* Know your Google PageRank. Your host may be interested in knowing this to help determine the reputation of your site.


If your host seems a bit reluctant to go ahead with your offer you can suggest a trial period during which they can track the results and see if the deal will infact be beneficial to them.

Choosing The Wrong Server Will Literally Make Or Break You

I am going to talk about two types of servers, one is Virtual Web Hosting and the other is Virtual Private Servers.

Over the last couple of years Virtual Web Hosting has been the only way to go when choosing a web server. One of the reasons that Virtual Web Hosting became so popular was because they supported the necessary files and allowed you to have more freedom than other conventional web hosts. But now you can have more freedom than ever before with Virtual Private Servers. Moreover, Virtual Private Servers should not be confused with Virtual Hosts, because they are completely different.

Before I go any further I must explain what the difference is between a Virtual Host and a Virtual Private Server, so that you can fully understand. In this article I will also go over the advantages and disadvantages of both types of servers, to help you decide which is right for you and your business. Let's get started with Virtual Hosting.

Virtual Hosting

Virtual Hosting is also known as Shared Web Hosting, where you are sharing the physical server and a single set of software applications with other users. Virtual Hosting has been extremely popular in the past for it's fast deployment, strong resources, and most importantly for having a very reasonable price. Another advantage to Virtual Hosting is that you have a powerful, reliable, and professionally managed server without having to have advanced technical skills, making it ideal for an individual, small business, or even a beginner webmaster.

The disadvantage of Virtual Hosting is that you are sharing the server with other users, which are configured and controlled by an administrator, not you. So basically you have your hands tied behind your back, because you have to contact the administrator everytime you have to adjust or change your configuration settings. Even if you managed to get a hold of the administrator, they may not fulfill your request. It's up to them, they are the administrator. If you were the administrator you wouldn't have these limitations and would have full control.

Virtual Private Servers

Virtual Private Servers are a hot topic these days and for a good reason. Before I get into the advantages of a Virtual Private Server, let explain what it is first. A Virtual Private Server is a single server that is partitioned at the root into multiple dedicated servers. This allows you to share the cost of the network connectivity, hardware, and system maintenance with other hosting customers, while maintaining your flexibility and freedom.

The real advantage of Virtual Private Servers is that they allow you to have complete control and they have the security advantages of a dedicated server at the fraction of the cost. You have access to the virtual root, Telnet, web configuration files, and full CGI-BIN access. I can't forget to mention that you also have access to your password, aliases file, and sendmail configuaration file. For many reasons you can see that a Virtual Private Server is an excellent solution for small to medium size businesses that have an increasingly complex needs.

Moreover, there is one disadvantage with Virtual Private Servers, you need to have some program knowledge to control and configure the settings. Sounds overwhelming, most businesses that offer Virtual Private Servers have very detailed manuals making them easier to configure and control no matter what your program level is.

Which one is right for you? Well, that all depends on you and the size of your network.

If you have or plan on having just one web site and have absolutely no programing knowledge, then Virtual Hosting is the recommended and economical way for you to go. A Virtual Host can cost anywhere from $20 - $50 a month for an account, rather than a $100 or more for a Virtual Private Server.

On the other hand, if you have a larger network that requires multiple web sites, like ours, and you have some programing knowledge, then a Virtual Private Server is ideal for you. You can host up to 50 web sites on a Virtual Private Server account, instead of having multiple Virtual Hosting accounts, which is not as economical.

When it comes time to get a web server, make sure that the server fits your needs and that it supports the essential software for a prosperous online business.

Unlimited Wealth Creation Through Reseller Hosting

Web hosting can be an exciting business start up for aspiring entrepreneurs. All you have to do to set up your business is become a hosting reseller, i.e., provide hosting facilities to website owners. Here as a business owner, you are buying space from a big hosting company, and redistributing the hosting space to other website owners.

Resellers are nothing but entrepreneurs acting as middlemen, offering you hosting services by leasing time and space from another Web host's server rather than owning their own. Most of the times, the quality of services offered by resellers are so good that consumers do not even have the idea that they are dealing with resellers who do not have servers of their own. Resellers, since they can pick and choose their servers, are basically in a position to provide the customers with the best of services.

Reseller hosting business can be quite a profit making venture once you understand the figures and profit margins involved. Let us go through them. One can buy around 1000 MB space from a major web host at a cost of $25 per month. This 1000 MB space that you now own can in turn be redistributed to site owners who need space for uploading their site. Here you can give about 25 MB space for around $5 per month. Which means your monthly income comes to around $200 when you sell 40 hosting packages. Want more. some hosts allow you to oversell the space and do not charge you extra unless the actual usage of your account exceeds 1000MB. It is seen that a typical user uses less than half of the allotted web space. which means you can double or even triple sell your quota and make unlimited wealth.

And mind well, this income is residual income. It will keep coming to you month after month, year after year. You do the work once. and get paid for it over and over. All you are doing is buying space from a major web hosting company and becoming a reseller host. Your efforts are focused towards selling hosting space and the rest is handled by your web host. Some of them even handle customer service to your customers for a nominal fee. which makes it even easier for you.

If this is not enough. you can earn additional residual incomes by adding recruiting more resellers through you. By doing this you will earn regular commissions on their monthly sales. isn't this smart business. The profit margins in the business of reseller hosting is quite good and you can start on this exciting business venture even if you do not have the required expertise and access to funds for setting up the required infrastructure. Strange as it might sound, there are also times where a reseller can also be more scalable than a typical hosting firm. A true Web host is limited by its hardware; if a client suddenly requires an upgrade the host is not prepared for, the only way the host will be able to satisfy the customer is by upgrading its hardware - expensive and time consuming for both sides. The reseller host, however, can simply choose to locate with a different Web host that will better suit the customer's needs.

The problem with free web hosting plans

In my opinion, free web hosting is one of the most misunderstood concepts on the web today. Free web hosting plans are becoming increasingly popular as new webmasters bite into the idea without actually analyzing the consequences. I myself spent many years, at the start of my webmaster career, using free web hosting plans. This experience has giving me an insight into the down-side of free web hosting plans that many people seem to miss.


Would Coke promote Pepsi on their website?
Although the rhetorical question above seems ludicrous, this concept is one of the fundamental problems with free web hosting plans. Forced advertising is the way that hosting companies can afford to provide “free” hosting. Whether it be through pop-ups, pop-unders, headline ads, or implanted adsense you will be hosting advertisements on your website that generate revenue for your hosting company. Not only is this annoying it can also ruin the look of your page; the majority of the time you cannot control what the ads look like or where they go, they are simply dropped down onto your site and there is nothing you can do.

Traffic Jams
The bottom line in web hosting is that bandwidth (data transfer) costs money and if your plan is free it is most likely your bandwidth will be limited. Too many times I have attempted to access a web site hosted on a free server and been given the message: “This user has acceded their bandwidth limits, please try again next month”. As a webmaster this can be infuriating. Imagine building a solid page, marketing it, gaining an audience, and then losing that audience because your page is not allowed anymore hits that month.

SEO woes
This is a problem that caused me a ton of frustration, but in the end taught mea lot about how search engines work and how search engines handle name resolution. In almost every case free web hosting plans do not allow you to point a domain name (www.yoursite.com) to an actual page. Instead you are forced to use a concept called URL redirection. URL redirection allows a webmaster to identify a site that the URL should point to. So if a user types in www.example.com and we have configured it to redirect to www.freehost/users/mysite.html it will end up on that page. This does not seem like much of an issue until you begin trying to get your website indexed in the search engines. So you submit your site (www.example.com) to some directories and you make some good link partners and then you start to wonder, why am I not being listed in the SE’s? I have 100 solid back links pointing to www.example.com, what is happening. The problem is that www.example.com has no data, it has no content, it simply redirects to your actual page at www.freehost/users/mysite.html. SE’s not only will not index a page with no data or content but they may even view this as an attempt to fool their algorithm, thus banning your domain name. The only work around is to forget the domain name and optimize for your free hosting address, which is not really an acceptable work around.

But wait!
Although I am a strong believer that free web hosting is not the way to go it is possible to find a free web host that works for you. There are some out there that do not force advertising, do not limit your bandwidth, and will allow pointed domains. The problem is finding one that does all three. If you are a serious, or even only slightly serious, webmaster take the hit and pay the money for web hosting. In the end you can get an awesome web hosting plan for as low as $5.95 a month, and trust me this will be WELL worth the money.

Free Website Hosting Vs. Paid Website Hosting Basics

Web site hosting service companies on the Internet permit the user to make their web site accessible through the World Wide Web. There are huge numbers of companies that offer web space on their server for their customers and also offer Internet connectivity in general in a data center. There can be various types of web site hosting companies. The main classification is the free web site hosting and the paid web site hosting service companies.



In case of free web site hosting, the user has the right to upload his or her web site content on the server space that is provided by the web site hosting company without any cost. This type of web site hosting service is great for people who are new to to internet and plan to get familiar with web site creation and functionality of web servers. On the other hand, to get your web site uploaded on a web space that is provided by a paid web site hosting company, you need to pay the company periodic fees. The fee amount may vary from company to company. The paid web site hosting companies are best suited for professional web site owners. People who need large web space to upload their web sites and who expect a certain amount of web site visitors which is restricted on free hosting accounts to a minimum.

The revenue that the paid web hosting service companies get is through the fee that is paid to the company by the web site owners. In case of free web site hosting companies, the main source of income are the ads and banners that can be placed on their clients web pages.

The main advantage of using a free web site hosting service is that they are free of cost and hence make a perfect choice for people who are new into the business and are just looking to start out. They are perfect for people who just want to display a minimum content on the World Wide Web in small amount of web space. The other advantage of using the free web site hosting service is that most of these companies provide integrated, easy tools to upload the pages on to the hosting account. They do this realizing the fact that the free web site hosting services are generally utilized by the newbies.

There are also certain disadvantages of using the free web site hosting services. When using the free web site hosting service, you are forced to place the ads and banners by the web site hosting company on your web pages. Also the revenue that is obtained by the ads goes to the web site company. In case of paid web site hosting service, ads and banners placed on your web site are according to your will and the revenue of the banners and ads placed on your web site goes in your pocket. Also in some case of free web site hosting, the domain name of your web site starts with the web site hosting company name followed by your web site name. This is not the case of paid web site hosting service. You get a unique web site domain. The web space provided by free web site hosting service is limited whereas in case of paid web site hosting service you can buy the web space according to your requirements.