In case you are one of them who needs clarification, this article explains (and compares) the distinctions between Hostgator shared hosting plans.  

Hostgator Hatching, Baby, and Business Hosting Plan: What’s different? And which should you choose?

Hostgator Hatchling, Baby, and Business Plan in a quick view

Here’s a quick view on Hostgator Hatchling, Baby, and Business Plan. Figure below is the print screen from Hostgator website. Not much different, eh?

Compare Hostgator Hatchling, Baby, and Business Plan

Well on a closer look (referring table below), you can see that the three plans are quite different and this means a detail inspection before making any purchase decision is in fact necessary. So let’s check in details on each options.

Ref: Hostgator Shared Hosting Plans

When you should go with Hostgator Hatchling Plan?

Hatchling Plan is relative cheaper and it is the better option for those with only one website.

However, in long term the Hatchling Plan is not very practical and I do not recommend any webmasters who are serious with their website to stay long with it. Think about it – domain name is so cheap nowadays that its cost is nearly neglectable when compare with other website operation cost.  Do you think you will own only one domain for the rest of your time on Internet? Absolutely not! A new business idea, a forum for your hobby, a website for your family members, a charity website for the community, a personal blog – there are unlimited reasons for your second domains/websites.

In fact, why limit yourself in one or two domains? Most webmasters, myself included, own (and operate) dozens of domains/websites and we are still buying domain names regularly! So, take the Hatchling Plan as the starting point in your Internet venture but never stick too long with it.

When you should go with Hostgator Baby Plan?

Answer: 99% of the time. The differences between Baby and Hatchling Plan is that Baby Plan is slightly more expensive and it allows unlimited addon domains; the main differences between Baby and Business Plan is that it doesn’t provide Toll Free Number, Anonymous FTP, and Chilisoft ASP*.

So unless these extra features are absolutely needed, there is no reason why you should pay $60 extra every year for the Business Hosting Plan.

*Note: You can add private SSL and dedicated IP features to your Hostgator Baby Plan with a little extra cost.

When you should go with Hostgator Business Plan?

Hostgator Business Plan is at its best value when you need all the addon e-commerce features (toll free number, dedicated IP, ChiliSoft ASP, and private SSL). It is most suitable for (well?) medium-large business websites owners that process their own money transactions.

Do note that while I agreed Hostgator offers the Best Business Hosting, the Business Planis only recommended when you are going to use all those addon e-commerce. It’s not worth it to pay extra $60 per year if you only need an extra dedicated IP address or the private SSL. These features can be bought (at $2/dedicated IP address/year) or substituted with other web services (go with PayPal to bypass the need of a private SSL).

Hostgator Shared Hosting Plan Upgrades

Another question I got frequently from the readers: Can I upgrade/downgrade my Hostgator plan from time to time?

The answer is absolutely yes. All upgrades with Hostgator (eg. Baby-to-Business, Shared-to-VPS, VPS-to-dedicated) are free of charge. All you need to pay is the prorated price after upgrades and you are done. On the other hand, downgrading to a lower level plan requires a $10 processing fees (which I think is reasonable).

A little more about Hostgator Hosting Services

In case you have never heard about Hostgator, the hosting company is one of the top players and currently hosting more than 2.5 million domains. The company was founded in 2002 when Brent Oxley (HostGator’s founder and current CEO) started the company in his dorm room with about $1,000. At the time, Brent was a student at Florida Atlantic University and a webmaster and had a few extra servers, so he decided to make use of the servers and start a web hosting company. His side venture took off and Brent later dropped out of college to run it full time.

Now, almost eight years later, the company that Brent founded in his dorm room occupies a four story office building in Houston and has more than 300 employees. Hostgator was voted as the fastest growing company in Texas (and ranked #21 in America) by Inc. Magazine’s Inc.5000 Awards in year 2008.

If you haven’t read my Hostgator review, make sure you do so because it is one of the very few updated write-ups that reveal the reality; alternatively, you can always visiting Hostgator online at http://www.hostgator.com.

I’d say it is the Internet and automation capabilities.

There are 1,7 billion Internet users today and this number grew 300% since 2002. A lot of these people have hosting accounts for their personal blogs, pages, forums, web sites, e-shops and so on. So if you are one of those people, think about how often you find yourself in need to repeat simple operations numerous times a week to keep your site clean, optimized and safe. If your answer is “often” and you are tired of this – here you’ll find a tip how to make your life a bit easier. This article is about the cron – a unique automation utility for Unix based servers.

Cron daemon

To describe the concept of a cron job we should first of all consider a service running on a server. Most things executed on any computer are processes, browser being the most familiar one. If you open your browser and then go to your Task Manager, you will discover that it is running as a process.

Simply speaking process is an application, your computer is handling at the moment. The service, on the other hand, is a long running application, that is usually started automatically on system start up. It runs in the background, consuming as little resources as possible when it is not needed. When the time comes for it to perform an activity it "wakes up", does what it must and then returns into sleeping mode? again. Examples of server processes are http service, MySQL service, ftp service and so on. On Unix servers (i.e. servers powered by Unix, Linux or FreeBSD) such services are usually called daemons.

The Cron Daemon is a special service capable of executing tasks at specific points in time without user’s intervention or control. It can be called an automatic scheduling machine. The name cron comes from the word chronograph . By using cron scripts, you can create sets of commands you want executed on a scheduled basis automatically.

Crontab and commands

Cron commands are stored in a special file. It is called crontab(which stands for cron table). The list of commands you can execute manually can be performed with a cron as well. Normally cron tasks include the following:

• making backups;
• any kind of file operations (deleting, copying, moving, renaming etc.);
• sending and receiving updates emails;
• installing software updates;
• checking links on other websites;
• optimize databases;
• many more;

The mentioned crontab is a file that usually has the following content:

01 * * * * interpreter-1 script_path-1
02 4 * * * interpreter-2 script_path-2
22 4 * * 0 interpreter-3 script_path-3
42 4 1 * * interpreter-4 script_path-4

In the example above the first 5 items in each line are the time scheduling parameters. First number stands for the minute field, second – for the hour field, third – for the day field, fourth – for the month field, fifth – for the weekday field. The possible values and field descriptions are shown in the table below:

Working with precise time and dates may be somewhat uncomfortable. Therefore, a special syntax is introduced: "*" – stands for any (so called wildcard symbol). If you want to configure the script to run at 15th minute of every hour you simply use the following sequence:

15 * * * *

If you want the script to run every 15 minutes you use the sequence like this:

15/* * * * *

The interpreter item in this example defines the shell or program you want to run the script with. For example, to a run a regular shell script daily with the bash shell, you use the following line:

* * 1/* * * /bin/bash /scripts/script1.sh

Here "/scripts/script1.sh" (script path from the cron tab file example) is an absolute path to the file your script is located in.

To edit crontab, use the command "crontab –e"in console. Editing crontabs in the console as well as using console itself is usually very inconvenient for regular users. Therefore, almost every hosting control panel contains a graphical user interface (GUI) for working with crontabs and configuring crons.

Crontab GUIs

The number of hosting control panels is quite large today, but there are a few most widely used by hosting companies due to their friendly interface and good integration with operating systems. Let’s take a look at how to configure the crontab in the two very popular panels: cPanel and DirectAdmin.

The GUIs of these two panels use the same concept as a regular cron table file. The time scheduling parameters remain the same, as well as their syntax. To specify months, days, hours and minutes, you still have to use numbers and the approach described earlier in the text. The interpreter and script path are defined in a separate field in these GUIs. This is also true for the email address for sending logs (available only for cPanel, while DirectAdmin will send the logs to the default e-mail address of the user). If you want no logs sent at all, you need to add the following command after the script path: ">/dev/null 2>&1". DirectAdmin’s panel has a special button for this, as shown on the screenshots below.

cPanel Cron Job Menu

To get to the crontab GUI, find the Cron Job button in the home of your cPanel:

Figure 1: cPanel "Cron jobs" menu icon

Figure 2: cPanel Cron Jobs menu fields

DirectAdmin Cron Job Menu

Locate the Conjobs button to enter the DirectAdmin crontab configuration GUI:

Figure 3: DirectAdmin Cronjobs menu

Cron scripts

When you know how to correctly configure the crontab scheduling, all you need to do to run a script. You can either write one yourself, using a regular text editor (like notepad on Windows), or you can search for it on the web. What’s good about cron scripts is that they can easily be modified and can be used with almost any software installed on your server. Writing your own scripts requires knowledge of the commands of the specific interpreter you are planning to use; thereby, before searching for specific instructions, decide which interpreter you’ll use. C shell is the most widely used interpreter, so if you are interested in creating your own scripts, then the best place to start is Linux Shell Scripting Tutorial.

Bottom Line

Automating tasks performed for a hosting account can save you a lot of time and ensure the safety of hosted data. One of the best and easiest ways to schedule autonomous execution of various actions is to use the cron job utility available on most Unix, Linux and FreeBSD servers.

Great advantage of cron jobs is the fact that tasks are performed without any intervention from the user’s side. Distinctive features of cron jobs include easiness of configuration, solid execution reliability and ability to use any installed interpreter for scripts. Additional comfort comes with the use of hosting control panels, as they provide GUIs for scheduling tasks. For more information on crons check the crontab manual page.

Guest post by Smirnovi4 from SiteValley blog.

About Sergey Smirnov.

Smirnovi4 graduated from Ukrainian National Aerospace University in 2010 with Master’s degree in “Propulsion systems and power installations of spacecrafts”. Currently he enjoys working as a writer for the SiteValley official blog and occasionally assists with marketing tasks. Author likes extreme sports (skateboarding, snowboarding, parachuting and scuba diving particularly). Music of his choice is punk and indie rock. His free time he dedicates to reading news of IT industry and music. Two of Smirnovi4’s greatest weaknesses are Dr. Pepper and flight simulators.

Q&A with David Packard of Hostpapa

Hello David, thanks for making this interview possible. Let’s talk about your history. How did you get into HostPapa?

I’ve been with HostPapa since the beginning. And from the beginning I was impressed with the service and the support, but mostly the people. HostPapa personnel go the extra mile for their clients and this personal touch has helped HostPapa grow, while maintaining high quality.

What can we know about the company – HostPapa?

Combined, HostPapa’s top executives have over 70 years of experience in web hosting services. From this experience they have built HostPapa into an established and award-winning web hosting leader, known for high-value, low-cost hosting.

We provide a fully-featured hosting package, backed by world-class customer service and powered by 100% green renewable energy.

Although HostPapa has experienced considerable growth, one thing has never changed: we treat each HostPapa customer as part of the family. And with HostPapa you truly feel like you are getting the family discount.

There are a lot of similar hosting services out there. What do you think distinguishes HostPapa from the competition?

That’s an easy one! Our world-class customer service puts us ahead of the others. We provide professional support through phone, chat and email service. We also offer a wide range of video tutorials and online help documents. Our features include a choice of shopping carts, a website builder, unlimited add-on domains and, of course, MySQL databases and everyone’s favorite cPanel control panel.

To make it easy for HostPapa clients to find solutions, we have built an extensive knowledgebase of FAQs, with hundreds of answers. We update and add to this knowledgebase regularly.

We want our clients to succeed in their online endeavors. We provide a 99.9% uptime guarantee, $150 FREE marketing credits and all the tools needed to develop an exciting, accessible and quality website.

Let’s talk about the servers and data centers. What can we know more about the technology behind Hostpapa hosting?

The heart of HostPapa is the web hosting infrastructure, powered by Intel server products and a fully featured Cisco-powered network. Our data centers have all the security features you could want or imagine: climate and temperature control, raised floors, fault protection, security, fire-suppression systems, water detection systems, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), standby and redundant power generation and diesel backup generators. HostPapa still believes in adding a human touch, and ensures 24×7 manned security.

HostPapa is one of the earliest hosting companies to start with green hosting. What can we know more about the company’s green policy?

Actually, HostPapa was, and still is, a pioneer in green web hosting. For years we have purchased green energy certificates to offset power used not only in our data centers, but in our offices as well. So far we have removed roughly 100,000 kg (over 200,000 lbs) of CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases from the environment. That’s the equivalent of taking 20 cars off the highway each year! There are a number of accredited green energy providers and if you contact us we would be happy to point you to a few.

Based on your experience in the hosting industry, what are the key factors when shopping for a web host? Can you offer some shopping guidelines for those who are planning to start a website?

I recommend consumers review the reliability and customer support of each hosting service they are considering. Cost should always be a factor, but reliability and support will help you gain a competitive advantage online. At HostPapa we have the perfect mix of price value, reliability and customer support.

Well that’s all for my questions. Is there anything you would like to add?

We’d like to invite your visitors to take a look at our site (www.hostpapa.com). If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our friendly customer service representatives.

Thanks again for your precious time. Good luck and I wish you and HostPapa all the best.

*Side Note: If you wish to learn more about Hostpapa, remember to check out my recent updated Hostpapa Review.

1. Is your hosting account suspended?
Did you make your hosting payment on time? Did your website exceed the bandwidth limit? Is your site throttled for some unknown reason? Check your inbox and see if there is any account suspension notification.

2. Is faulty node causing the outage?
Make a Traceroute and Ping check to see if there is a faulty node somewhere in your connection. If so, there is nothing much you can do but wait.

3. Is your site down for everyone?
Visit DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com (awesome web tool) and check if your ISP is having connection problem with your name server. If so, contact your ISP to rectify the problem.

4. Is your site down because of planned maintenance?
Check with your web host server status report and see if there is any maintenance outage announcement. If you are using Bluehost or Hostmonster, you can visit serverstatus.bluehost.com/ or serverstatus.hostmonster.com/, see if your server is affected by regular maintenance.

What if none of the above is the cause?

If all of the above do not resolve your problem, then things are not looking good for you. Your web server outage is most probably an unplanned event and it is time to get in touch with your web host supports. Shoot an email or get on to the live chat system and communicate with the support staffs.

In this article, I’m going to share with you a few frequent asked questions about domain names and I hope it will helps you to make better judgment.

Domain Name vs Web Hosting

A domain name is not a web hosting. Newbies often mix things up between domain names and hosting, these are two different things. A web hosting is where you get to store your data online; whereas a domain name is the ‘address’ of these data.

Domain Name vs Top Level Domain

All domain names end with a Top Level Domain (TLD), which consists of short set of letters. Take this website for example (WebHostingSecretRevealed.com), WebHostingSecretRevealed is the domain name whereas the ‘.com’ is the TLD. .net, .info, .org, .edu, and .biz are some of the common seen Top Level Domain.

Besides these generic TLDs, there is also another type of Top Level Domain that is normally known as the Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD). ccTLDs are meant to indicate a website’s location; for example website ends with .co.jp indicates that the site is based in Japan. Registration of ccTLDs is restricted for the citizens of the corresponding country; and the activities with such domains website are ruled by local regulations and cyber laws.

Subdomain vs Addon Domain

An addon domain refers to the additional domain name to be hosted in a hosting account; on the other hand, a subdomain refers to the secondary domain that is created on top of a ‘parent domain’.

Example: uk.yahoo.com, uk is the subdomain (with yahoo.com as the parent); if flickr.com and yahoo.com is hosted on the same hosting account, then flickr.com is the addon domain. Note that creating a subdomain is totally free of charge, while for addon domain you’ll need to pay just like when you are registering your primary domain.

How domain name works?

When the user requests a connection to your domain, Domain Name System (DNS) servers will ‘communicate’ with the corresponding registry for the requested domain; the registry then responds by informing which name servers (address of your web host) this domain is registered with; the request then goes to the name servers to obtain the actual IP address of the requested domain; the user then establishes connection (via web browser) with the said IP address.

Long story short, a domain name, with the help of DNS, tells the location of your website.

What is a domain name registrar?

A domain name registrar is the party that provides domain registration services to the public. A domain name registrar has to be accredited by ICANN; and when it is a matter of ccTLD, the registrar needs approval by the national ccTLD authority.

It is impossible for an end-user to register a domain name directly to ICANN – a designated registrar must be chosen. Each accredited registrar must pay a fixed fee of $4000 to ICANN as well as dividing a fee of $3.8 million among all registrars.

Should you own a domain name?

Some website owners (mostly bloggers) host their website or blog on a free platform and run it on a third level domain (like http://www.myblog.blogspot.com and http://www.myblog.wordpress.com). The question often raised is: Should you have your own domain name.

My answer is yes, absolutely.

Having your own domain name makes it easier to market your website. Furthermore there is less restriction with your own domain name (for example WordPress.com normally does not allow advertisements) and the cost of owning a domain is just $10/year.

How to choose a right domain name?

A good domain name plays a vital role in your web marketing effort.

Generally, you want something sticky (easy to remember), meaningful (related to your website content), and keyword-rich (not a must, but important if SEO is a major part of your web marketing strategy). Avoid long URLs and overuse of hyphens. Write your selected domain name on a piece of paper and check carefully if there’s any spelling mistake or unwanted pun. Remember the example of www.dicksonweb.com – a temperature instruments manufacturer’s website. The boss, Dickson, wasn’t aware that www.DicksonWeb.com can be read as www.DicksOnWeb.com. This created much PR tensions for the company and they had to change their site name to www.DicksonData.com (which doesn’t look very good too).

Do keep in mind that although your domain name is important, there are also another 99 things that make up a good website. It makes no sense to sweat too much in selecting the ‘best name’ for your website as eventually what users need is the quality of your web content or service.

Does a good domain name improve search engine rankings?

Some believe that search engine optimization (SEO) is nothing but stuffing keywords in the Meta tags and content. Well that’s the story for year 1998. Nowadays you need to do a lot more than that in order to win the search engine wars. Domain names, for instance, plays an important factor when it comes to SEO nowadays.

A domain name should be easy to memorize and related to the theme of the website. It is often highly recommend to have your primary targeted keywords included in your domain name as one, it tells your first time visitors what this site is about; and two, it allows search engines to group your website in the right category (and thus giving better opportunity to rank in related search result pages).

Does an aged domain helps in search engine rankings?

There are no clear-written guidelines or rules that an old domain will improve search engine rankings. As you can see from the video (April 2009) below, Matt Cutt (representing Google) did talk about the relationship between domain age, years of domain registration, and search engine rankings; and asked webmaster not to worry too much about site age.

HOWEVER, SEOs generally are convinced that search engines value older websites than the newer one. From my experience, search engines (namely Google) simply put more weight to an aged domain and tend to rank them better.

So to answer the question, yes, an aged-domain does help improve search engine rankings.

What else you need to know about domain names?

Basically, this article covers pretty much everything a normal webmaster needs to know about domain names. In case you think there are other points I had left out, feel free to ask questions or share your opinions in the comment section.

What is VPS hosting?

A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is like a server in a bigger server. I know the statment is a little confusing but please don’t get panic about it.

The actual concept behind VPS is very simple – basically what VPS hosting providers do is to split a server into multiple smaller size individual servers (using virtualization technology) and rent it out to different customers. Each of these virtual servers looks and feels the same like a dedicated server except for one thing – they share the same hardware with one another.

What’s good about VPS hosting?

From a customer’s perceptive, a VPS hosting is the perfect stepping stone between shared and dedicated web hosting. When shared web hosting is no longer sufficient and you are not ready to go with dedicated – VPS hosting is your answer.

Advantages of VPS over shared hosting

What’s best about VPS is the isolated hosting environment that secures your website’s performance and safety. As mentioned, a VPS-hosted website will operates independently like a dedicated server – you do not share disk space, RAM, processes, TCP/IP stacks, operating system, or whatsoever. What’s going on with your neighbors (other private servers that run on the same machine), either it’s overloaded with heavy traffics or severely hacked, will not affect your website’s performance.

Another pro of VPS compare to shared hosting is flexibility. With VPS hosting, you will get access to the system root. This means you are free to install any custom software or to tweak your system files in order to fulfill your website needs.

Advantage of VPS over dedicated hosting

When compare with dedicated hosting, VPS has only one advantage – it’s cheaper. In fact, it’s much, much cheaper. In many cases, while the features are more or less the same, a VPS hosting is 30-40% cheaper than a dedicated hosting deal.

For example, table above shows the price different between dedicated and VPS hosting.

What to look for when shopping for a VPS hosting?

Basically there are five main consideration points when choosing the right VPS hosting, namely – pricing, RAM allocation, customer supports, control panel, and hosting plan flexibility. I’ll get into the details one-by-one.

1. VPS Hosting Pricing

Money is always the main factor when we are purchasing something. When comparing the price of VPS hosting, do not aim for the cheapest deal, go with those with a reasonable price tag instead. The reason behind this is because we do not want our host to run on a thin profit margin. Yes I know it sounds crazy but it’s true. Think about it – we want stability when it comes to web hosting and shifting web host is certainly the last thing we want to do after settling down. A hosting company running on a thin profit margin is simply… instable (the risk of going out of business due to deficit accounts).

So again, if you are serious with your website, go for those with a reasonable pricing but not the cheapest.

2. Server Memory Capacity (RAM)

In my opinion, memory capacity (RAM) is the most important features in a VPS hosting. In fact, how well (or bad) your VPS hosting performs depends greatly on how much RAM you have on hand. The memory capacity simply influences everything in your virtual server – from server efficiency to speeds, and to power consumption. It’s so important that in many cases, RAM allocation actually serves as price determiner of the entire VPS hosting package.

Here’s rough idea on how much RAM you need. In brief, for a single website operation, you need at least 512 MB of RAM in order to run cPanel and Plesk on your VPS. Though cPanel states that it only needs 256 MB but as it is with other applications, 512 MB will ensure everything runs smooth. In case you are operating multiple websites on a single VPS, higher RAM is a must. Expect to go up to 2 GB if your websites are heavy trafficked.

Another term you should take heed of is the ‘Burstable RAM’, or in certain cases, the backup RAM. Burstable RAM is the temporary backup resources over your standard memory quota. Burstable RAM is extremely important to protect your website from sudden traffic-surge (for instance, a Digg- or Stumble-effect).

Generally for starter, a VPS plan with 512 MB RAM plus a burstable RAM of 1 GB should be more than enough.

3. Customer/Technical Supports

You should always communicate with the web host before making any purchase (especially when you are new). It’s not about checking which web host provides the fastest response; it’s about getting to know the people working inside the hosting company and check if you are comfortable to deal with the support staffs.

See, VPS hosting is unlike shared hosting where 90% of the operations are standard case. In VPS hosting, most of the things are ‘non-standard’ thus a technical support department that really care about their customers (and with the right knowledge) is extremely important.

4. Server Control Panel

VPS providers will normally offer you several options of control panels where the normal ones are either Plesk or WHM/cPanel. These control panels offers similar functionality where they enable you to edit files in the server for a web interface rather than manually and both are equally good.

A user-friendly control panel as it makes day to day server management easier – tasks such as adding domains, debugging, and setting up email accounts.

5. Flexibility

Do not go with VPS provider that has limited sets of hosting plans. As mentioned, VPS hosting is unlike shared hosting – where most of the operations are similar. Before purchase, you should check if the web host allows you to customize your VPS hosting plans.

For example, if you need 500 MB disk space and 5 GB monthly data transfer (something relative small), and 512 fixed RAM – it really makes no sense to sign up for a 80 GB disk space, 1000 GB monthly data transfer, and 512 fixed RAM for $74.95/mo. I mean, why settle with high server specs that you will never use when all you need is some extra memory capacity?

Which VPS hosting you should go with?

In case you are looking for the right VPS hosting, Hostgator and VPSNext are two of the ‘must-see’.

What’s good about VPSNext?

• Reasonable Pricing From my research, VPSNext’s pricing is always slightly cheaper than other similiar VPS hosting services. If you are searching for some bargain deals, VPSNext is your answer.
• Reliable Network Custom firewall, DDoS protected network, daily backup policy… VPSNext has, in fact, one of the safest network.
• Powerful Reseller Capabilities VPSNext allows customers to rebrand and resell their hosting capacity. As a customer, you can allocate separate resources for each one of your users (or clients), run your own private name servers, and have the ability to completely rebrand your control panel so you’re promoting your own business and brand identity.
• Valuable Addons VPSNext offers a couple of addon features that you don’t get elsewhere online , namely – Free $50 Google Adwords credits, $50 Miva Search credits, eNom Domain Reseller Account, and Merchant Account.

To learn more: http://www.VPSNext.com/vps-hosting

What’s good about Hostgator VPS hosting?

• Topnotch hosting services Based on my extremely good experience with their other hosting services – shared and dedicated hosting (see my Hostgator review).
• High Flexibility Hostgator VPS hosting plans are very flexible – 9 pre-set plans, managed/unmanaged options, different pre-installed operating systems, optional IP addresses, wide in house software supports, etc etc.
• Stability Hostgator is one of the fastest growing companies in United States (Won Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies Awards for a couple times).
• Room to expand As you might already knew, Hostgator also provides reseller and dedicated hosting plans – this gives room to expand when your website grows.
• Eco-friendly Last but not least, Hostgator is green. This means all servers are powered with recyclable clean energy.

To learn more: http://www.Hostgator.com/vps-hosting/

Final words about VPS hosting

There, I have put down all the important points about VPS hosting and I hope it helps you to understand and to choose your right web hosting.

Before you move on, there is still one last thing you should know – Do you need a VPS hosting? This, question, unfortunately, can be only answered by you. You’ll have to justify if a VPS hosting is necessary (or sufficient) for your website. What’s your 12 months plan for the website? How busy do you estimate your website will be? What are the custom applications to be installed? These are some of the must-ask questions and prevent yourself from overspending.

With that, I’ll end this article and good luck if you are shopping for the new VPS hosting!

PacificHost is a new player in hosting industry. While the company is still relative small, I’ve read quite some good things about them. For instances here’s one of the customer reviews I read on a third party platform (http://www.ratepoint.com/profile/16559):

These guys (PacificHost) are the BEST! I had been through MANY MANY MANY hosting companies including Cirtex, Anhosting, Hostgator and a few other local hosting services etc but these guys were always causing me some problem of the other.

When i signed up with Pacifichost my life became a pathway to heaven, i’ve had almost no problems with my hosting since, i used to have a few issued with the email service but since i put up complaints they worked hard on making sure the problem would get corrected.
When i needed help of advice i could go to their online chat and just ask the support person directly and get a lightening fast response. But if the problem required more assistance then the person would get me a support ticket and with a few hours my problem would be solved. At most i have had to wait for 24 Hours.

They really take care of their customers. Pricing wise they may not be the best but they do certainly have great service, worth the extra i pay.

– Feedbacks by James Prado, Nov 27th, 2009.

In this article, we are going to have some Q&A with the man behind PacificHost – Thomas Perry.

Q & A with Thomas Perry, Owner of PacificHost

Hello Thomas, thanks for being with us here today. Let’s get things started with some introduction. What can you tell us about yourself and your company – PacificHost?

As a kid, I was always interested in hosting and I built my first hosting company when I was only a teenager. Since then I’ve graduated from the University of San Diego with a degree in Arts and Sciences. I continued to follow my passion in the hosting industry and since then I’ve created 2 more hosting companies. I recently sold off my last company and plan to focus all my efforts on building PacificHost.

Last year I bought PacificHost from it’s previous owner and have turned it around with an international focus on providing high quality hosting services. I plan to grow Pacifichost rapidly into the next year while keeping a close eye on the quality of PacificHost from the techs we hire to the servers we run.

What can we know about the web servers? Where does your data center located at?

PacificHost co-locates several servers with the Gigenet datacenter in downtown Chicago, IL. Gigenet has a reputation as a high quality provider catering towards business’s. We use SuperMicro hardware and have somebody on site in case of any issues.

PacificHost’s shared hosting services come in two different packages – the Web Hosting and the Premium Hosting Plans. What are the main differences between them?

The Premium Hosting are more less Semi-Dedicated hosting plans. This means that they are essentially just shared hosting plans, however with much fewer accounts. We’ll only put a handful of accounts on the Premium Hosting servers. Physically the servers have very similar specs to the Shared servers, however with less restructions, fewer accounts and overall more processing power allocated towards each account. Therefore the Premium Hosting caters to websites using more than what Shared Hosting can offer, while maintaining a price that is affordable.

I like the idea of Website Migration Assistance. Can you tell me how things work when I wish to transfer my web host to PacificHost?

The Website Migration Assistance is something we offer to all new clients at no additional cost. When a client signs up, he or she can fill out an Inbound Transfer Request Form which gets sent to our Support Department. Normally within an hour or two we’ll start the transfer process and we will transfer over all aspects of any Plesk, Ensim or cPanel account. From the files, Database, Emails and even the cPanel settings and arrangement will be copied over. This transfer process doesn’t require any further action from the client.

Even if the client isn’t using one of the supported control panels we can still help the client manually transfer over files, databases and emails to his or her account as a courtesy.

Based on your industry experience, what is the most important element in a good web host? Please give some shopping advice to those who are new to the web hosting world.

One thing that almost all visitors tend to overlook is the actual quality, support and uptime of the host itself. Most visitors may simply shop for a host based on how cheap they can get a good hosting plan for, which is far from the best way to shop. If you get unlimited disk space and bandwidth for $5 a month, but your website is down for sporadic periods in the month, the deal isn’t that great. This is where buyers remorse comes into play and some hosting providers make it quite tricky to leave. You should always do your research when looking for providers, not only checking reviews from multiple websites, but searching for company comments on sites like webhostingtalk.com for example.

You should also test a host’s support before signing up, send an email to the support department or give them a call to see if anybody picks up. Having a good support team can make all the difference with having a successful website. So, to get to the point, one shouldn’t base a host simply on price, but should look at the overall appearance of the host.

At PacificHost, we not only offer a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee but offer a 7 Day Free Trial that requires no up-front payment information, so a visitor can test our services virtually risk-free.

Where do you see PacificHost in 3 to 5 years time? Is dedicated hosting part of the plan?

In my experience, PacificHost will grow rapidly in the next few years as we’re tackling a variety of niche markets. In addition the standard we set for quality will be rippled across the hosting industry. I have another hosting company that will be launched later this year. HostGalaxy.com will be offering unmanaged/managed Dedicated Servers and VPS Hosting services. This will be a subsidary of Pacifichost and will be heavily advertised as an affordable and reliable vps and dedicated server provider.

That will be all for my questions, thanks again for your time! Is there anything you would like to add?

You’re very welcome! Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns. We’re more than happy to help.

Interviewer’s sidenote: What I think about PacificHost?

Overselling seems like a norm nowadays and we are seeing unlimited hosting offers everywhere online. PacificHost, however, is not one of them. In fact, PacificHost’s hosting plan is sort of expensive when you compare to others (see table below).

But hey, we all know what unlimited hosting is more like a marketing gimmick nowadays and how an unmanaged-overselling can jeopardize a website’s performance. It’s just nice to know there are still hosting company like PacificHost that is not practicing overselling.

Long story short, PacificHost’s honest way of doing business is what I like (and respect) them the most. If you’d like to know more about them, visit PacificHost.com online at: www.PacificHost.com.

* Important Updates: Hostpapa promotion coupon code changes from time to time (eg. For March 2010 it’s AS89), please check my HostPapa review page for latest coupon code that works.

How this HostPapa coupon works?

First, click here to visit HostPapa online. Click ‘Get Started Now’ to make your order.

Next, assign the domain name to be hosted – Domain registration for new HostPapa customer is free; or alternatively you can transfer your existing domain in this page.

Moving on, you’ll have to select your hosting package and decide with your subscription period at HostPapa. Also, here’s where you apply the coupon code I mentioned earlier – Simply type in ‘WHSR36’ in the ‘Coupon’ section and press ‘Calculate Totals’.

There you go, a sweet $36 price cut from your bill!

But wait, there’s a catch-22 behind this promotion – This coupon code will be expired by end of February (Feb 28, 2010)! So make sure you don’t wait too long, ya~

About HostPapa Hosting

HostPapa is a privately-owned company operating from both United States and Canada. According to my record, the company is based in Niagara Falls, NY; while for Canada, it’s in Oakville and Ontario. The hosting company first started business in year 2006 and is hosting ten of thousands of domains at this time of writing. What’s interesting about HostPapa is that they are one of the earliest web host that went green (since 2006) by purchasing renewable (wind and solar-powered energy) energy unit to power our data centres, web servers, office computers, laptops and office space. These energy sources supply HostPapa’s entire equivalent energy consumption into the power-grid with certified 100% renewable green energy sources, such as .

To learn more, visit HostPapa online: www.HostPapa.com.

The Infamous Ping Test

Some so call ‘tech shoppers’ like to act smart and run ping test on hosting provider’s website.

“This will show how fast the web host server is.” – that’s what my friend once told me. The ping test method is so popular that even experienced webmasters will think it actually works.

How to do a ping test?

A ping test is done when a short request is sent to the web server via your local machine. For example if I wish to ping-test Bluehost, I simply open my command prompt and hit ‘ping bluehost.com’. The ping results will come back in a time figures (normally in ‘ms’) to show how long it takes to get reply from the web server.

Why pinging the web host website will not work?

First of all a ping test is NEVER a good method to check on a web host server response rate. This is due to the fact that how well a web server response on a ping request depends on many factors that are not controlled by a web host (for example: distance between your computer and the servers).

Most importantly, you are (most of the time) hitting the wrong horse when you ping the web host’s website. Hosting providers are smart nowadays; they simply do not host their website on the same server as their customers. In fact, some web hosts even operate their websites on a different network system! Now tell me, how can you determine server response rate by pinging the web hosts’ websites?

How to check the speed of a web host?

If you would like to know how fast a web host is, the better way is to find a website that’s hosted on the web host instead of the web host’s website. Download a few files and wandering around the website should reveal what’s the web host response rate.

Another good way to check a server response rate is to run a website speed test online. Website speed test tools (like what you have on Top-Web-Hosting.com and WebsiteGoodies.com) are handy to check and compare web hosts’ speed performance.

Example of test results:

A few more words on website load time issue

Who’s responsible for a slow website?

A website’s response rate is dependent on many factors; including the hosting server CPU load, RAM usage, network speeds, and the web program’s efficiency. Do note that not every one of these factors are web host’s responsible.For instance, it’s the web owner’s responsibility to assure that his/her website is coded efficiently to avoid server resources wastage. Sometimes, it can be your ISP that’s responsible for the slow website.

How slow load time will affect your website?

Slow website load time is a problem that you cannot afford to overlook. A few critical consequences with slow website load time, including permanent lost of website traffics and increase of advertising cost are simply destructive.

1. QuickRibbon

QuickRibbon helps generate custom site ribbon. Input your link details and styles selections; and the tool will take care of the necessary Javascript coding. This great tool is best for lazy webmasters who wish to attract users attention to some important update/message.

Make some ribbon today at www.QuickRibbon.com

2. TabsGenerator

Need some cool tabs in seconds? Well, then you need TabsGenerator. TabsGenerator is a convenient design tool that allows users to create highly-customizable tabs (tweak size, colors, corners and borders) in CSS.

Generate some cool tabs now!

3. Web 2.0 Bullshit Generator

Okay, I admit Bullshit Generator is not that useful; but, I am sure we have time for some web 2.0 humor. Let’s “integrate undefined synergies”, anyone?

Start bullshiting.

4. UNIQUE

Gender, face features, wearings, skin colors… UNIQUE is a free web tool that allows users to create highly-customizable, human-like, avatars. Mind you, this web tool is kinda addictive – I spent more than 30 minutes playing non-stop with the features while writing this post.

Create your unique avatar at Unique.RasterBoy.com.

5. Stripe Generator 2.0

Stripe Generator 2.0 is a free design tool supported by Pop Minds Web & New Techs Studio (long name huh?). It helps generate (almost) any kinds of stripe you want for web background.

Try generate some stripes now!

6. Web 2.0 Badges

Web 2.0 Badges is a very popular badge generator (mainly because of their beautiful pre-designed badges, I guess). Any webmaster who is too lazy to design their own badges should check them out.

Let’s put on some badges for Web 2.0!

7. FreshGenerator

FreshGenerator is a pretty cool web design tool which helps to create small design elements like boxes or tabbed menus of different sizes, styles and colors.

Visit www.FreshGenerator.com

8. Loader Generator

Equipped with a set of pre-designed loading icons, Loader Generator allows you to customize and generate your own loading ’spinner’ in a fraction of second.

Visit www.LoadInfo.net

9. FavIcon Generator

DynamicDrive’s FavIcon Generator is perhaps the most popular favicon maker. This tool allows you to create various sizes of favicon (as well as icon) based on the your own image.

Try create your own Favicon now.

10. Button Maker

Button Maker is a free tool provided by Adam Kalsey that creates simple square-shaped site sticker. The sticker designs is pretty fixed; however the tool does allow users to tweak several design parameters (such as text margin, border color and background).

Visit: www.Kalsey.com/tools/buttonmaker.

11. AjaxLoad

Like Loader Generator, AjaxLoad is another free tool that generates cool loading icons. What’s good about AjaxLoad is that the tool comes with a huge set of indicators in different shapes and designs.

Check out AjaxLoad now!

12. RoundedCornr

RoundedCornr is another web design tool that auto-generates CSS codes for a box with rounded corners and a color gradient.

Click here to visit RoundedCornr.com.

13. 3D Pack

3D Package is a great tool for e-book and web templates sellers. It lets you instantly create 3d-box images online for free. Simply upload pictures (JPG, GIF, orPNG) for cover andyou’ll get a 3d-box in your favorite image format.

Check out 3D Pack, click here.

14. LogoCreator

Not good with logo designs? Try LogoCreator for some quick logo design works. This free web tool comes with 7 preset logo designs and allow users to customize various design parameters.

Care for some logos? Visit Creatr.cc.

15. CoolText

CoolText is another logo design tool that transforms texts to graphics. A point worth noting is that CoolText had been running online for a very long time – the free tool is online since year 1998 and it has rendered over 300 million of free images.

Check out this antique and make some ‘CoolText’.

16. FreeFooter

FreeFooter is an easy and fast tool that simplifies how you personalize your web site / blog page footer – definitely a great tool for lazy blog designers.

Visit FreeFooter.com.

17. ThemeRoller

Want some cool jQuery features on your site but not good with programming? Check out ThemeRoller – a free jQuery generator that allows you to create custom themes for jQuery components. Change font properties, colors, borders, hover variations, etc all very easily. It will show you a preview of what your settings would like like when applied to jQuery’s accordion, tabs, slider, date picker, and dialog box.

Find out how ThemeRoller works here.

18. jQuery Function Builder

jQuery Function Builder is a handy tool to quickly build up a collection of jQuery functions. While using this tool might need some basic knowledge in jQuery; it is, nevertheless, a great way to reduce programmers’ work time.

Build jQuery functions on the fly here!

19. TartanMaker

Fancy some Tartan-stripes background? Check out TartanMaker – a free design tool that helps create Tartan designs instantly.

Visit www.TartanMaker.com, click here.

20. ColorWizard – ver 3.0

Lack of good color? Use color wizard to do color-matching for you. The color wizard lets you submit your own base color, and it automatically returns matching colors for the one you selected. It returns a set of hue, saturation and tint/shade variations of your color, as well as suggests color schemets to you, based on your color’s complementary color, split complementary colors, analogous colors and other variations.

Check out ColorWizard.

21. Color Scheme Designer

The Color Scheme Designer is a brilliant color-matching tool for those who are selecting colors for their designs.

Try this design tool at ColorSchemeDesigner.com.

22. Post-It Note Generator

Fans of sticky note? Embbed it into your web design using Post-It Note Generator. Post-It Note Generator helps create eye-catching Post-It Note with customizable text designs, message color, and paper styles.

Make some Post-It note right away!

23. Genfavicon

Genfavicon is another favicon maker that helps generate favorite icon on the fly.

Visit www.GenFavIcon.com/

24. Gradient Texture Maker

Gradient Texture Maker is a free web tool that allows you to generate a graphics with gradient colors. This design tool is highly recommended for those who need to create website background with gradient color.

Check out Gradient Texture Maker.

25. Favicon CC

Favicon CC is not exactly a web generator tool. However, it enables you to draw and create favicon easily online – which I think most of y’all would be interested to look at.

Let’s draw some favicon at Favicon.cc.

26. SimWebSol Logo Generator

SimWebSol Logo Generator is another simple logo generator.

Visit online: www.SimWebSol.com/ImageTool/

27. Textorizer

Textorizer is a nice piece of web application that allows you to create cool graphics using text of your choice. The tool takes jpeg, png, gif, or xpm file less than 128K in length and produces an SVG file which reconstructs the original image using parts of the text scattered around.

Check out Textorizer.WhatFettle.com/

28. Buttonator

I used to spend hours working on Flash and Fireworks for web buttons. Well I wouldn’t do the same if I heard about Buttonator back then. Buttonator is a great button generator that helps create stylish buttons instantly – a great tool for lazy web designers and webmasters.

Make some buttons with Buttonator now.

29. Idee’s Multicolr Search Lab

Searching for the right images on Flickr to match your web design or blogpost? Try Multicolr Search Lab, a free web tool that helps you to sort out Flickr creative common images based on color.

Try out Multicolr Search Lab now!

30. BgPatterns

BgPatterns helps create classy background (see image). There are dozens of cool patterns to choose from and it’s a must see tool for all web designers.

Visit BgPatterns.com.

Well that’s all for the list. If there is a web generator or tool that you think should be listed here, feel free to shout in the comment box.

In Tutorial 2/6, we used the Blogger.com’s standard template “Minima” and our blog looks like this now:

Yes yes, I can hear everyone complaining how dull it is already! But fear not, we are going to transform this blog into something much more interesting and wonderful at the end of this post. Before that, let’s look at how other people tend to customize their website/blog template. How about we begin with this site – WebHostingSecretRevealed.com?

Design of Web Hosting Secret Revealed

1. Blog Title with Logo (should be easily interchangeable)
2. Home button to let reader return to the main page
3. Other useful links to be put at the top

Actually, this is a much adopted approach for the web nowadays. This layout gives the reader a totally neat and “user-friendly” feeling. You could see many more examples around:

Design of EnGadget

Site link: http://www.engadget.com/

Design of CNN

Site link: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

Getting into action: Installing K2

We are going to use this approach to customize our blog. To begin, let’s head over here to have a look at a very popular blog template called K2. This is what we want! Customizable title and background picture with tabs underneath it, awesome. Now download the template:

The file downloaded is “k2-blogger.xml”.

Now, from your Dashboard, you’ll need to get to Layout>Edit HTML. Before we begin any modification to your blog, let’s be on the safe side and backup your current template, haha! Just in case any “unfortunate” events occur, at least we could revert back to the old one.

1. Backup a copy of your current template (the file would be “template-somenumbers.xml”)
2. Choose the file “k2-blogger.xml” that you’ve downloaded just now
3. Upload the new template to the system

OMG!!! Your blog just magically transformed into a beauty!

Still, this is not perfect yet. The downloaded template consists of some tabs and links that we will not require for our blog. Hence, some minor modifications are still needed. We could even change the title background to something we fancy. Just follow the below tips to make everything go your way.

In Edit HTML page, tick the Expand Widget Templates checkbox, and be in the Edit Template column to do this:

Change the highlighted link to the link of the title background image you would like to use.

Edit these codes to change the tabs to the links that you’d like to display.

Tada! Have a look at the customized blog now and compare it to the previous layout. Wonderful isn’t it?

To experiment with a variety of different templates, give these links a try:

• Eblog Templates
• Cheth Studios
• Mint Blogger

In the next and final installment of this Blogger Tutorial, we’ll be learning how to use some analytical tools/statistic counters to analyze and understand where our blog readers come from, what they are interested in, and how all these data could help you improve your blog contents and increase your readers. Till then, adios!

About the author

E-quan graduated from Technological University of Malaysia as an Electrical and Electronics Engineer.

He is now attached with an MNC specializing in power and automation technologies. In his blog (Confirm Cekap), he describes himself as a full-time procrastinator although in reality, he is “not”. He likes 80’s music especially Cantonese pop songs. He plays the Electone and wishes to own a grand piano (amongst the many things he would like to own) soon.

*Side Note: This is the fifth article of E-quan’s Blogger Tutorial series. You can read the first four articles here, here, here, and here. Also, if you are interested to write for us, read how to guest post at W.H.S.R..

The company was pretty popular in the 2000s but went inactive for the past few years. Recently, the company went thru series of restructure and is making a strong come-back (See Google Insights chart).

Sure, iPage doesn’t have strong history background like Bluehost or Hostgator; however their hosting offer are simply too good to be ignored by budget hosting finders. At this time of writing, iPage’s pricing is one of the lowest – $3.50/mo and they are offering anytime money back guarantee. (More on iPage Review here.)

If this sounds good to you, make sure you read this interview with Thomas Gorny, founder and the current top man of iPage.

Q & A with Thomas Gorny, founder of iPage

Hello, Thomas. It’s great to have you here with us! Without wasting any more time, let’s get things started with some introduction. Can you tell us more about yourself and what your role is at iPage?

Sure. My involvement with the company goes back to its roots, when the company began in 1998. The company has evolved since then, and I’m committed to building upon our success as a leading web hosting provider.

Please enlighten us more about the technology behind iPage’s hosting services. What kind of servers and networking systems are you using at iPage?

Our hosting platform consists of a pooled server architecture, which ensures website requests are fulfilled by the first machine available. This type of network infrastructure allows our customers to benefit from faster page loads, reliable uptime, and rapid email service.

I see a huge chunk of tutorials available at iPage that look extremely helpful for newbies. What other help we can expect at iPage? Please tell us more about the Customer Support Team at iPage.

In addition to providing technical assistance, we’ve trained our staff to listen carefully to customers in order to provide effective solutions. Then, after we’ve been contacted about a particular issue, we use follow-up measures to learn how well we’ve addressed it. This helps us identify areas where we can improve training for our entire Support Team, as well as the products and services themselves.

We’ve also included a QuickStart feature in the control panel that helps customers get started by taking them through domain registration, mailbox setup and the web design process.

From the website, I learned that iPage provides eco-friendly web hosting. Can you tell us how iPage has gone green? 

Of course.  Since generating wind power onsite wasn’t a feasible option, we offset our energy use through the purchase of wind-generated Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).  In other words, for every KWH of electricity we consume, we purchase an REC that’s attributed to the supply of wind energy. As a result, we’ve prevented the annual release of 2,660 metric tons of carbon dioxide in to the atmosphere.

It’s good to see iPage is tailoring a custom hosting plan for bloggers. What choices do we have in blogging and photo gallery software?

The blogging plan provides everything customers need to create a successful blog. Blog and photo gallery options are available for free installation, including WordPress, Gallery2 and more. The plan also offers a free domain for the first year, 10 email accounts, and marketing services that help customers get their feet wet with search engine optimization.

iPage provides more than just web hosting services. How can business owners leverage your products and services to start an online business? And, will it cost a lot?

We’ve structured our e-commerce selection to cover the essentials for a successful online business – a website where visitors can shop and purchase easily, with convenient, secure payment options. Between ShopSite Starter and additional open-source shopping carts available for installation, customers can create an online store at little or no cost. And PayPal is also available to customers, along with SSL certificates, so business owners can provide convenient payment options their customers can trust.

Customers can also take advantage of a free 14-day trial with Doba to expand their product offering. Doba provides access to over 1.5 million brand-name products. Customers decide which products they’d like to sell, and Doba’s suppliers manage the inventory and shipping, requiring payment only after the end customer pays.

iPage considers the Carbonite Online Backup service, free for the first year, as one of its strong selling points. Can you tell us how site backup is done at iPage with the help of Carbonite?

We can’t stress enough how important it is to back up your files, so we offer 2GB of free storage space with Carbonite, for a year. By installing the free application, customers receive an automated file backup service for their website. Carbonite searches for new and updated files, saves encrypted copies, and maintains the files so their ready to be restored should you run into trouble with your computer.

Shared hosting plans are like dedicated web hosting plans back in the year 2000. In fact, there are more and more companies offering unlimited hosting services, including iPage. Should your customers be concerned with overselling?

Our customers should not be concerned. Since our hosting and blogging plans are designed for individuals and small- to medium-sized businesses, the unlimited plans are appropriate for the intended type of use.

As we speak about shared hosting services, can you provide some shopping guidance to our readers? In your opinion, what are the important factors to look for when searching for a shared web host?

From my perspective, the most important things are my website, email and online security, so I’d look for quality website building tools, rapid email service and access to security software. When we created the iPage hosting plan, we focused on meeting customers’ needs in these key areas, offering flexible website building options, email perfected by vigorous throughput testing and an extensive security suite at no extra cost.

Where will iPage hosting be in the next five years? Is VPS or dedicated hosting in any part of the plan?

We’re constantly working on evolving our products and services, but adding VPS is not a specific focus at this time. However, based on iPage’s history, we certainly wouldn’t rule anything out.

Thank you for your time with us. Is there anything you wish to add for this interview?

Thank you. We certainly appreciate what you do for the web hosting community, and it was a pleasure to be here.

Special promotion link, iPage hosting – only $3.50/mo!

GreenGeeks is one of the few hosting companies that focus on green hosting from the very beginning and the web host is rated as the Best Green Hosting in many hosting review sites. In this article, we are going to learn more about GreenGeeks by going thru some of the frequent asked questions.

Frequent Asked Questions on GreenGeeks Hosting

GreenGeeks is one of the few hosting companies that focus on green hosting from the very beginning and the web host is rated as the Best Green Hosting in many hosting review sites. In this article, we are going to learn more about GreenGeeks by going thru some of the frequent asked questions.

What are my choices with GreenGeeks?

GreenGeeks provides two types of web hosting services – shared hosting and reseller hosting. There is only one package (named EcoSite) for the shared hosting service; while reseller hosting services come in five different packages (named Seed, Sprout, Plant, Tree, and Forest).

What’s in GreenGeeks shared hosting services?

GreenGeeks shared hosting plan offers unlimited hosting – users get unlimiteddata storage, data transfer, addon domains, POP3 E-mail support and MySQL databases.

The unlimited hosting is pretty much the same with other hosting plans… but do know the real meaning of unlimited hosting, right?

How does the reseller hosting work?

After signing up for a reseller hosting account with GreenGeeks, you will receive the login information for the GreenGeeks reseller control panel called Web Host Manager (aka WHM). WHM allows you to manage and provide your customers with their own end-user control panel (aka cPanel), which will allow them to manage e-mails, web site files, statistics, domain names, etc without requring you to do these tasks.

The reseller hosting comes in five different packages:

Do I get any trial period with GreenGeeks hosting?

Yes, GreenGeeks offers 30 days money backguarantee trial period. If you decide to cancel within the money back guarantee period of 30 days, GreenGeeks will provide you with a full refund (excluding any setup fees, and domain registration or transfer costs). You will own the domain after you cancel, with or without GreenGeeks as the hosting provider.

Is there any differences in term of pricing for different subscription period at GreenGeeks?

Yes, GreenGeeks shared hosting prices are different for different subscription period: 12 months subscritpion $7.95/mo; 24 months subscription $6.95/mo.

Can my site get hosted on a dedicated IP address at GreenGeeks?

GreenGeeks do offers dedicated IP address to customers; however it will cost an extra annual cost of $30. To purchase, simply send an email to sales@greengeeks.com with the subject line: Purchase Dedicated IP. 

What’re the available payment methods for GreenGeeks?

Visa, Master Card, American Express, and PayPal.

Does GreenGeeks operate on their own servers?

Yes. In my recent interview with Trey Gardner (GreenGeeks founder), Trey told us that GreenGeeks is operating on its own servers with the data center located at Chicago, IL.

Can I do CGI scripting on GreenGeeks?

Yes.

What kind of after-sales support is provided at GreenGeeks?

GreenGeeks provide 24/7 live chat, email, and telephone supports.

How long will it take to get my website online with GreenGeeks ?

Basically your GreenGeeks account will be ready as soon as you make your payment. However it normally takes 24-72 hours for the DNS system to sort out (which is out of GreenGeeks’s control), so please expect one to three days waiting time before your website is fully in function.

Does GreenGeeks support Windows Hosting?

No. Green Geeks is a Linux/Unix web hosting provider and they do not offer Windows servers hosting or any web hosting which would require .asp/.net support.

Does GreenGeeks provide any free shopping carts?

GreenGeeks provides three shopping cartsfor free: CubeCart, OSCommerce and Zen-Cart. These shopping cart can be integrated into most common payment gateway, such as Paypal, 2Checkout, Authorize.net, and so on.

What version of cPanel does GreenGeeks offer?

At this time of writing, GreenGeeks support cPanel 11.

What version of MySQL does GreenGeeks offer?

GreenGeek currently uses MySQL version 5.0.81-community MySQL Community Edition (GPL).

What version of PHP does GreenGeeks offer?

At this time of writing, GreenGeeks is currently using 5.2.11. Generally, GreenGeeks is pretty keen in updating their software so you can rest assure that you can run on the latest stable version of PHP (and MySQL).

Do GreenGeeks support auto-installation scripts?

Yes, GreenGeeks support most popular web apps auto-installation via Fantastico. In general, here are the web applications you install with just a few clicks.

How is "300% green" possible with GreenGeeks?

Green Geeks pulls energy from the grid just like every web hosting company.

In order to compensate for the power they pull from the grid, GreenGeeks purchases wind energy credits for the energy they consume from the grid. The web host replaces, with wind power, 3 times the amount of energy used by theirweb servers – this explains why GreenGeeks is "300% green".

Do you recommend GreenGeeks?

Yes, I do recommend GreenGeeks hosting. Although the hosting company is relative new compare to others but there are quite a few plus points with GreenGeeks that make them stand out from the competition – nightly backup, 300% green hosting, high server uptime record, and reasonable pricing. To learn more, read my updated GreenGeeks Review.

How can I order GreenGeeks?

Easy, the ordering process takes less than 5 minutes at www.GreenGeeks.com

The promotion details

For a limited time frame, all InMotion Business Class Hosting customers will enjoy a $1/mo discount. Signup during this special offer period and you get to save extra $1 each month (or $24 for 2 years) for all Business Class Hosting (Launch, Power, and Pro) packages.

Visit InMotion Hosting online, click here: www.InMotionHosting.com

Quick Interview about this promotion: Q&A with Alyssa Hastings

When asked about the promotion, here’s what InMotion personnel Alyssa Hastings told me:” We decided to do this promotion over the holidays to help reduce cost when people need a little extra money in their pockets. We know that money is tight for a majority of people during this economic recession and decided it would be a great chance to help our customer’s wallets out.”

How will the recent price drop affects the quality of InMotion’s services?

Hastings also assures that the price-cut will not bring any negative impacts to InMotion hosting services:” The $1.00 off promotion will not in any way affects the quality of the service or support we offer. InMotion Hosting is and always will be dedicated to providing the best support and service possible. In the web hosting industry we know how important support is to our customers and that is why we offer 24×7 U.S. Based Support by phone, online chat or email.”

Is InMotion seeing its business coming back as the global economy recovers?

When asked about the global economy impact on InMotion’s business, Alyssa answered: “During this economic recession we have been fortunate to not have our sales effected too much. Web hosting is an industry that is fairly resistant to the market changes because the need to have an online presence is so critical.”

What I think about this InMotion promotion

If you are considering InMotion Hosting at this moment, don’t think too long and grab this discount before it’s too late. Frankly, I was a little surprise when I first heard about the news – as, you know, InMotion is sort of ‘premium web hosting’ and it is very unusual to see them doing such a price-cut offer.

For your reference, here are the updated pricing.

Other InMotion related readings

Do note that InMotion is my pick of Best Forum Hosting and you can always learn more about them via InMotion Interview: Q&A with Saxena and my InMotion Hosting Review.

Push Notifications on Pingdom iPhone app 2.0

Here’s the quick print screen to show how the iPhone app works.

Uptime in graphical view

Also, the new Pingdom iPhone apps added a couple of graphical tweaks. Users (both free and paid accounts) can now examine website uptime and response time trend directly from their iPhones. As you can see from figures below, graphs are shown in various date range.

How much does Pingdom iPhone app cost?

This application is totally free if you have a Pingdom account (which can be created for free as well).

However, the free account allows you to monitor one website only. To go further, you will need to purchase a Basic or Business Account. The Basic membership allows you to monitoring five websites concurrently at the cost of $9.95/mo; while for Business Account, users get to monitor 30 websites and receive up to 200 sms alerts for a price of $39.95/mo.

Sidenote: What exactly Pingdom does?

In layman term, Pingdom is like a watchdog for your website. The service monitors websites and servers from multiple locations on the Internet to make sure that they are working fine. Pingdom are often used to monitor uptime for websites, FTP servers, mail servers, as well as any other kind of services that should be accessible from the Internet.

Do note that I do not receive any credits from Pingdom writing this post. It’s just because that I am very impressed with their service and think you should at least give the free account a try.

Get the Pingdom iPhone app (App Store link).