A Look At The HostGator Web Hosting Service

The HostGator web hosting company has a reputation within the industry for providing best hosting services. It has specialized in reseller and budget products that enable the operatives to increase the profitability of their businesses. The organization was started in 2002 and was primarily based in Dallas within Texas, USA. Their hosting is undertaken primarily from the jurisdiction but they have an international perspective. The support network is particularly effective and they offer different options for their clients. Their reputation within the industry is virtually unmatched. Nevertheless you have to be prepared to pay that little bit extra in order to get the service. 

The Site Builder is a great bit of help to the users who are not experienced in the more technical aspects of their work. According to an Independent Review Panel, this was as good as it gets in terms of budget hosting.

Services: The HostGator web hosting service enables the client to transfer lots of data within the month. The support network is provided on a 24/7 basis and there are multiple channels for the purposes of communication. A strong network means that this service can help even larger businesses to improve their competitiveness. If you want to make use of the site builder then you have to pay a bit more. It uses the Red Hat Linux 9 platform which is great for handling large volume transactions. There is a stepped series of categorized services that start at Budget. They then move on to Dedicated Servers and Reseller products. You will not be short of web space if you decide to use this product. The critical elements in the delivery include template designs, an ENOM domain reseller account and WHM Auto-Pilot billing managers. There are no restrictions on the amounts of principal domains and subdomains that you can use.

The MySQL database is expansive. It perfectly complements the CRON, PHP 4.3.1 service as well as the Curl facilities. There is the GD. Spam Assassin which is useful if you want to control the amount of communication which is available to you. Finally you get RV-Skin and Fantastico perks. A C-Panel is used to control the operations of your business. The action list includes the DOT Project, Master Flex, PHP-Auction and Nucleus. You also get the OS-Ticket and the Coppermine Photo Gallery. A multi-language platform improves the international credentials of this product. You get a multi-theme skin management software package which is particularly effective. The customization model improves the usefulness of system. The usage policy is somewhat restrictive. For example you are required to pay an extra $2 in order to gain access to the site builder. That figure is attached to every single website. However a non-reselling account can use this service for free. The confusion is not helpful.

Pros: We love the email ticket service. Other communication perks include the instant messenger and toll free phone service. The members of the team are very conversant with the technical details.

Cons: There is absolutely no reason why anyone should pay extra in order to enjoy the privilege of the site builder. The company has lost a step in terms of giving flexibility to consumers.

Rating: The HostGator web hosting service gets 4 stars out of 5. They could get more if there is a coherent pricing strategy.

Jonathan Griffin is the editor of Best Host News, a site dedicated to reporting on web hosting related consumer news. He is particularly keen to provide a place where people can find honest and up to date information on hosting providers.

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New Choices for Domain Names for Your Website

In the spring of 2014 a vast range of new domain name extensions are going to open up, with industry specific extensions becoming available after the dot, such as .photography, .london and .wedding.

It's likely that in time what's after the dot could become as important as what's before the dot and it allows for the whole of your domain name to have meaning.  Some of the most popular domain extensions that will be available are:

• .photography
• .london
• .web
• .services
• .ltd
• .blog
• .hotels
• .football
• .wedding
• .training
• .media
• .holiday

The Business Week article - New Domain Names are in the Works has more information on the latest domain names.

This gives you a wealth of extra choice in deciding what you want to name your website and it's likely that these extensions will be become important for SEO (appearing high with search engines) too.

Given that there's more choice in what to call your website, how do you go about deciding on your domain name?  The infographic gives some suggestions that are important to consider when deciding what to name it, both from a user-friendliness perspective and from an SEO perspective, whether you're looking to launch your website locally, nationally or internationally.

The "New choices for domain names for your website" infographic was designed by Allison Carmichael at Indigoextra Ltd, a creative multilingual web design and SEO company.  Allison has 2 boys and created the infographic to compare naming a new baby with choosing the name of your website.  It wouldn't surprise me if people put as much thought into both!

Allison lives in Montpellier, South France and is a film fanatic of all genres (although there's only a few French films she likes) and is home educating her two boys.  For work, Allison is the Art Director of Indigoextra Ltd and runs the graphic design team.

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Web Hosting Consumer Tips

Introduction

Having your own website equates to having a superb web hosting service, for very obvious reasons. A web hosting provider that could assure you of continuous services, without downtime could very well spell great success to your website. A few minutes of downtime could mean lost sales. If you are concerned about business survival and online presence, you need to choose the best host provider that could answer to all your needs. What comes to mind is, how do you this?

Guidelines on Choosing a Web Hosting Service

• The Lure of the Free Domains

There are many hosts today that offer free hosting service. They look very enticing, since you can just plunge in and your site is ready in a flick of a finger. This can lure the most naïve among us, and it may take a while before you start asking questions – “What if your site becomes successful? Will the free service still continue?” Always remember that even if the domain provided by them is free, the web host still retains ownership of the domain name. What this means is that in a few months or years from now, though the present arrangement may sound appealing ---there may be may be need for you to ask some serious questions. For instance, who owns the domain? Even if it is free now, the host still retains ownership of it. This means, that a few years down the line when your site may have become successful, there may be a need for you to buy the domain name. Either you buy it or you go both ways – you get stuck with it or it gets deleted from cyberspace.

• Bandwidth Problems

Most newbies who are on the lookout for online presence often ignore disk space and bandwidth requirements when it comes to public domains. Just because it is free, this very critical feature is often disregarded when making decisions on what host to choose from. Problems may crop up later on or if in case your site becomes popular. At this juncture, you go running to your host to inquire if they may have an additional disk space that you can pay at an equitable price. Good if they do, and bad for you if they don’t!

• The Unlimited Storage Fallacy

We get to see many flyers and come-ons online that tend to get the attention of many netizens. It is the concept of unlimited storage, that is dangled around us like some carrot on a stick. This is a fallacy, a creation of their mindless think-tanks --- since there is no such thing as unlimited storage. If you read the fine prints on their terms of service, exceeding their prescribe amount of storage will mean a violation of your agreement. Hence, your account can be terminated for cause.

• Required Back-Up of Files

To seduce consumers into their fold, many hosting companies give off guarantees to protect your data. These come-ons come with stipulations that they have a reliable backup plan to ensure that all your documents are protected. While this may be true for some companies, it is still prudent if you do your own backups, especially if you opt to use a public server. Doing your own backup of documents would mean having an off-site alternative, so that your files are safe even if the public server crashes, as they are wont to do. It is also advisable to only enter into a short-term contract with hosting companies, so you can get out right away in case problems arises in the future.

Conclusion

Finding a good host is often times hard to do. Even professional webmasters can still fall prey to a web host that suddenly goes under. Hosting is a complex business and can experience both ups and downs in the trade. If you get lucky in finding a good host, stick it out with them through good or bad times. But if they go down for more than 24 hours, you should research other hosts in preparation to moving out. There are pros and cons to using private and public servers. The choice would eventually depend on your specific needs and budget.

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