Jim Hansen 75th Birthday Google Doodle

And I have to say this is the B-E-S-T Google Doodle, ever! Hurry, have fun with the Muppets before it’s too late.

Happy birthday dad; happy birthday Jim!

I have been reading quite a lot these days and I wanted to share some of the good ones in this post. Listed below are some hand-picked articles/blogposts WHSR readers might be interested in. Some of these are sort of old while some are freshly published – nevermind, the important part is that each of these articles comes with information as valuable as gold. I am seeing a very busy days ahead for myself thus I doubt that there will be any updates at WHSR this week.

So in case you are in the mood of reading… have fun clicking these links.

On Inspiration

Everyone loves list-post and need some visual inspiration, eh? Selected Web Design runs a great gallery of websites at its homepage; and for WP users, here’s some nice WP theme demo published on DesignBeep.com – When WordPress And jQuery Plugins Go Together.

On Web Marketing

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is not only about links, title text and keyword research. As search and social media converge, "social signals" are playing a more and more important role when it comes to search rankings. This leads us to Moore’s interesting article about How to Leverage Social Content For SEO. Bing maybe going absolutely nowhere in the near future but it does provide tons of handy tools for webmasters. To leverage these tools, you need The Ultimate Guide to Using Bing’s Webmaster Tools.

As a WordPress users, I love learning new tricks and hacks. But we don’t need to do everything by ourselves, right? After all, that’s what Plugin is designed for. I bet you’ll be thrilled with some of the 10 Great SEO Plugins For WordPress listed.

Social Network Marketing

Also, if you are like me, wondering why the heck everyone is talking and blogging and tweeting about Google+, read Google+: Don’t Fight It and Google+ Has Made Twitter Boring.

On Website/Blog Interactions

Web design is not only about creating beautiful website. Getting the desired result is another important challenge for all web developers. Smashing Magazine has put up yet another a round-up of resources on Responsive Web Design Techniques and Strategies. And also, check out Ailsa’s guide on How To Develop Your Website’s Tone Of Voice. I just read this earlier and trust me, this lady knows what is she talking about.

On Web Design and Development

Web Design In General

We all have bad habits and make silly mistakes all the time, perhaps it’s time to run a reality check and see if you are doing any of the list of 30 bad practices of web designers? One-page websites are trending pretty fast recently. I’m not a big fan though; but in case you are making one for yourself (or your client), Kendra’s 6 Tips To Create Better One-page Websites is a must read.

And, for list lovers, here’s another round-up of 18 Free Online Resources In Web Design.

HTML 5 and CSS

You can’t learn HTML 5 via just a few blogpost (you need a book and some practice the least) but Steven’s recent post would be a very good read if you wish to Understand HTML5 Content Model. Seriously, HTML 5 is not from Mars. In case you think otherwise, Mark’s Create A Basic HTML 5 Page With The New Layout Tags should be your next stop. There’s also a great list of learning sources I compiled earlier in Learn HTML 5 – I bet you’ll love them! Further on that, newbies might also want to check out Little CSS Stuff Newcomers Get Confused About. It’s a very well-written article by Chris that helps you avoid some common mistakes before it happens.

Website Enhancement

Do you ever know web files are related to your website as well? (What?!) Yeah I know, I was as confused as you now when I first read 5 Little-Known Web Files That Can Enhance Your Website. It’s an eye-opening reading and I love it very much to be honest.

On Web Hosting

Web Hosting Basics

Confused with domain names and web hosting? James’s Domain Hosting Explained should be your next stop then. Real case examples are given to explain the differences between domain names and web hosting server – you should be able to understand every necessary key point upon finish reading it.

Web Host Shopping

And hey, last but not least, I had hours of research and wrote a very detailed guide on How To Take Advantage Of Cheap Web Hosting Deals and I strongly encourage web hosting shoppers to check it out.

I am sorry that I cannot fulfill most of the inclusion request in my review list as WHSR is an one-man operation (hey, I need to play some StarCraft 2 too!). In case you are hoping to get your hosting company listed here at WHSR, I am opening up a few extra alternatives recently and here’s how things can be done.

Web Hosting Interview

Most hosting providers will opt for this options as the interview posts here are often tweeted and referred by other bloggers. I believe this is the best options for new hosting company as it improve ‘brand visibility’ and you are often allow to introduce your company in details throughout the interviews.

Examples, check out my past work with Hostgator, GreenGeeks, CoolHandle, HostColor, WP Engine, StratoGen, and SingleHop.

Send Me A T-Shirt!

Not long ago I did a post for Atlantic.net when they sent me a free T shirt and some free shopping coupons. I find it’s fun doing this so I would be happy to do more. To get a free writeups about your hosting company, simply send me your company T shirt and I will write a post introducing your company with a photo of myself wearing that tee and couple of free links to your company website.

Web Hosting Coupons

I am opening a new section to collect hosting coupons and special discount links (hey, everyone loves special discounts and exclusive deals, right?) For now, the listing is absolutely free-of-charge. Just give your best deal to my readers and I am happy to feature your company on the page.  

Also, I am not having a lot to list right now – in other words, if you are in now, you’ll get a bigger part of the attention from that page.

To check out the coupon page, visit: WHSR Web Hosting Coupons.

Cloud Host Listing

I am collecting a list of cloud hosting providers at this page: A Brief On Cloud Hosting. It’s a piece of article written a few years back and it’s ranking very well in several generic, cloud host related search terms at Google (ie. cloud hosting). At this time of writing, the page itself received around 2,800 unique visits monthly.  

For the listing, I am now charging a one-time admin fees of $400. In return, you will get banner link (your company logo, sized at 225x55px), a text link (preferably your company name) to your company website, and a short intro sentence introducing your company. Note that the fees is for life-time listing, I will not charge you anymore after the first payment but your company will be mentioned or linked from time to time in my blogposts if relevant (no promises but I do like to give more whenever possible).

A few who have enrolled in this listing include: Cloud.bg, VPS Net, Relia Cloud, HPC Host, and Atlantic.

Sounds Good? Let’s Talk.

Well that’s all for my updates. For those who have already contacted me in the past, thank you very much for your time and supports. I hope WHSR does help improve your business a little while bringing extra information to the readers.

Others, I’d LOVE to hear from you soon. Let’s talk over at jerry [a] webhostingsecretrevealed.com.

But, I think you guys should know more about this awesome website – Web Hosting Break (http://www.webhostingbreak.com).

About Web Hosting Break

When I first starting WebHostingSecretRevealed.com a few years ago, there was literally zero website that is doing what I’m doing now (buy a web host account, test it as a user, and write reviews on it). I believe Ian Mason saw the same thing and started WHB. Like WHSR, Ian writes his hosting reviews based his real experience. There were more than 10 web hosts tested and reviewed at WHB; and Ian had created a lot of tutorials and videos (which is something you can’t get on my blog) in order to help his readers to get started with the new host.

So… in case you are need a second view on a web host besides mine (and would like to watch more videos), I suggest you have a look on WHB.

I hope this short post helps you a little. I am currently working on a couple of other in-depth articles on web development and web marketing – hopefully I can get them published soon. Till then, take care!

Sound familiar to you? Well, This happens all the time when I’m working late from home. Sorry, if you’re a web designer or developer or freelance webmaster, not many will take your work seriously. But still, we enjoy what we’re doing, right? So to hell with what others think about us and have an awesome Monday!

More of this at Web Designer Depot.

Some say yes.

And, some say no.

This is the question I have been asking myself for the entire evening. Opinions?

By the way, check out some of the tutorials and lessons I read recently on the subject: 10 Must Read HTML5 Lessons.

A quarter million, worth it?

A website with $0 profit and a potential lawsuit for a quarter million – Isn’t this amazing? (If you read financial news frequently, that’s a “business” is sold with infinite PE aka price-to-earnings ratio.)

But of course, ReTweet.com is not just another Uncle Joe’s website. The website gets roughly 12 millions visits per month with 26 millions page loads; and the deal comes along with its own URL shortener service (RT.nu). Furthermore, the operational cost (around $500/mo) for such a heavy-traffic site is relative low – thanks to the efficient Amazon EC2 web servers. I have been following the auction quite closely and find it very entertaining.

In case you wish to know about this record-breaking deal (for Flippa.com), check out this blogpost: How Retweet.com was built then sold for $250k.

Recent tweets at WebHostingJerry

Here are my 10 recent tweets.

• RackSpace CEO talked about cloud hosting and all the related matters in a recent CNBC blogpost – http://bit.ly/aWUd5
• 90 Free or Paid Websites File Hosting and Sharing Sites http://bit.ly/uhu00
• Tips to Write Better CSS Code http://bit.ly/1CH4YL
• Flickr image – Plastic life gallery (it’s a bit off topic but it’s really good) http://bit.ly/4bo1i4/
• 50 Beautiful and Creative Blog Designs http://bit.ly/34QZTw/
• A Wired.com Farewell to GeoCities http://bit.ly/4sOxBz
• iPage review – my experience with iPage so far (one month) http://bit.ly/2egGjI/
• Top 10 Apps that Boost Your Media Center http://bit.ly/2M9hTu
• 20 Linux Server Hardening Security Tips http://bit.ly/2V9Fgh
• WordPress 2.8.5 released, version 2.9 coming soon! http://bit.ly/WSvWB

Get industry news and latest hosting promotions from me on Twitter!

Confession: I am new to Twitter, I started the Twitter account 3 weeks ago. But yet, I find it extremely convenient and useful to share information and to search for inspiration.

As I mentioned in my Twitter profile, I don’t tweet about my cats or my underwear color. I tweet about industry updates, web development guides, latest hosting promotions, and frivolous (but related) information about the WWW.

If the these topics sound interesting to you, please follow me on WebHostingJerry. I’ll see you on Twitter!

“The Final Countdown” + “Ponies in the pink” – Is this Microsoft’s strategy to develop a new market segment (the children) for the operating system?

* See the real search result page here. Sort of a good humor for the geeks, eh?

In summary, here are the ‘In-and-out’ of my web hosting reviews.

The winners: FatCow and Hostgator

FatCow hosting is the biggest winner for the past 6 months. Not only that the hosting company grew exponentially in the first quarter of 2009 (user base up 29%); the company also took a huge leap in term of brand image with the introduction of HeiferCratic Oath (credo for customer support) and the recent ‘FatCow Goes Green’ policy. The web host is now rated as the best web host (rated A+) alongside with Hostgator.

Reliable web server, responsive customer supports, wide hosting features, reasonable pricing, and eco-friendly – it’s hard not to like Hostgator on the other hand. I’ve been hosting with Hostgator for more than 4 years, the experience (through out these years!) is nothing but pleasure. Without doubt, I rate them as one of the best and would recommend them to all my friends and family.

(Hmmmm coincidentally, both of my top rated web hosts are related to animals! )

The loser: Lunarpages

Lunarpages is the only web host with major drop in term of rating – their score dropped from A- to B.

Why? Mainly because they changed their pricing quietly (I’m an existing customer and heck I don’t even get a notification e-mail!). As for now, their original $4.95/mo hosting deal is only available for shoppers who are willing to signup 5 years in advance (which sounds ridiculous to me).

Sum up with the fact that Lunarpages provides no livechat/phone supports, I’m convinced that Lunarpages doesn’t deserve to be in my A-list anymore.

Bluehost is another web host with dropping scores, falling slightly from A to A-, mainly due to my bad experience with their server in January and February. Everything is fixed and alright now; but I’ll just observe them a little longer before revising their rating.

New Kids on the block: InMotion, JustHost, and GreenGeeks

Both JustHost and InMotion hosting services are amazing – both grabbed the seats in my top 5 hosting list.

InMotion provide supreme quality hosting service – which is best for business web hosting. They are one of the very few that allows users to select their server location (Los Angeles, CA or Washington, DC). Also, InMotion has the longest full-money-back trial period – up to 90 days.

JustHost, on the other hand, is a new web host name that focuses in shared hosting service. Managed by a group of young talented entrepreneurs (a few directors in JustHost have experience in owning and running their own web hosting companies), business is growing ultra-fast at JustHost. They hit the 50,000 customers in first year and at this time of writing, they are looking at the 200,000 mark.

GreenGeeks is a hosting company that focuses on clean energy hosting. In fact, they are the “Greenest Hosting Company” as GreenGeeks replaces, with wind power, 3 times the amount of energy consumed by their web servers. This makes all their customers’ websites “300% green”.

To learn more about these hosting services, check out my detail reviews on InMotion Hosting, JustHost, and GreenGeeks. Also, I conducted an Interview with Sunil Saxena, co-owner and EVP of InMotion Hosting not long ago – the Q&A tells a lot about InMotion, go read it.

Check out WebHe.com ($4,088). $817.6 per alphabet – that cost of the single alphabet is higher than GDP per capita for some African countries.