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samedi 12 novembre 2016

10 Awesome WordPress Features That You Probably Didn’t Know Existed

WordPress comes with so many awesome features and is continuously changing. Some of these features may not get the attention they deserve and remain a little hidden. In this article, we will show you 10 awesome WordPress features that you probably didn’t know existed.

Hidden WordPress Features

1. Show/Hide Things Using Screen Options

You may have noticed the Screen Options button on some pages of your WordPress admin area. This Screen Options button allows you to show and hide items on the WordPress admin screen you are currently viewing.

Screen Options menu in WordPress

Many beginner WordPress users are unaware of this feature. It allows you to simplify your admin pages like post edit screen to meet your workflow.

2. Move, Add, or Delete Dashboard Widgets

By default, users are redirected to the dashboard page in WordPress admin area when they login. The dashboard page has several handy shortcuts pointing to different sections of your website.

Rearrange dashboard boxes

These sections are divided into different boxes called dashboard widgets. You can click on the Screen Options button to show or hide these boxes. You can also drag and drop them to rearrange items on your WordPress dashboard.

3. Paste URL to Make Links in Visual Editor

WordPress 4.5 introduced inline link editing in the visual editor.

Many users didn’t realize that instead of using a popup to paste a link, they can just select a text and press CTRL+V (Command+V on mac) to paste the URL. The visual editor automatically converts it into a link.

Select text and paste URL to create link in visual editor

4. Accessibility Mode for Widgets

We all like how easy it is to just drag and drop widgets into sidebars. However, for many users it is not easy to drag and drop things using a mouse or trackpad.

WordPress also comes with a hidden accessibility mode for widgets. This accessibility mode makes it easier to add widgets without draging and dropping the items.

Accessibility mode for widgets

Accessibility mode for WordPress widgets can be activated by clicking on Screen Options button on the Appearance » Widgets page.

5. Preview Themes Without Activating Them

Many users worry that changing their WordPress theme will have unwanted consequences for their website. Their concern is genuine, that’s why we prepared a checklist of things you must do before changing your WordPress theme.

One of the things you can do is to test the new theme without activating it. Simply install your new WordPress theme and then go to Appearance » Themes page.

Live preview theme without activating

Take the mouse to the newly installed theme’s thumbnail and then click on Live Preview button. WordPress will launch the theme customizer showing preview of your website using the new theme.

6. Edit Images in WordPress

WordPress makes it easy to add images to your posts and pages. What many beginners don’t know is that WordPress also comes with some basic image editing features.

Editing images in WordPress

Simply visit Media » Library page and then click on any image. From the image details popup you can click on the Edit Image button.

In the image editing mode, you can crop, rotate, and resize an image. You can also flip an image in horizontal or vertical directions. These image editing features come in handy when you need to quickly crop or resize a large image file directly from WordPress.

For more details, see our guide on how to crop, rotate, scale, and flip images in WordPress.

7. Split Single Post into Multiple Pages

Want to split a lengthy post into multiple pages? Simply add <!–nextpage–> tag in your post and WordPress will split it into two pages. Add the tag again if you want to split it into more pages.

post pagination

This feature is particularly helpful if you are writing an unusually lengthy article and don’t want users to scroll to much.

See our guide on how to split WordPress posts into multiple pages for more details on post pagination.

8. Embed Links, Videos, and Multimedia

WordPress automatically embeds content from some of the most popular websites like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc. All you need to do is paste a URL from one of the supported sites and WordPress will automatically embed it for you.

Auto embeds in WordPress

Since WordPress 4.4, all WordPress sites have become oEmbed service providers themselves. This means you can paste URL from another WordPress site into your post and WordPress will embed the post for you.

9. Hidden Secret Options Page in WordPress

Hidden options page in WordPress

WordPress comes with a hidden master page for all your blog options. This page is hidden because users can easily mess things up here, so we don’t want you to use it. But you should definitely check it out. You can access it by visiting this URL:

http://example.com/wp-admin/options.php

Replace example.com with your own domain name. You will see a page with a long list of options. For more details see our guide on the hidden secret options page in WordPress.

10. Markdown and Keyboard Shortcuts Help you Write Faster

Most WordPress users spend more time writing content than anything else on their site. This is is why WordPress developers are always trying to improve the writing experience in WordPress.

WordPress comes with a whole range of keyboard shortcuts that you can use to write faster. Apart from these shortcuts, you can also use Markdown like formatting shortcuts. Just enter the formatting shortcuts and WordPress will convert them into HTML.

Text pattern shortcuts in WordPress

Using * or – will start an unordered list.

Using 1. or 1) will start an ordered list.

Using # will transform into h1. ## for h2, ### for h3 and so on.

Using > will transform into blockquote.

You can also disable these formatting shortcuts if you want.

We hope this article helped you discover some awesome WordPress featured that you probably didn’t know about. You may also want to see our list of 10 WordPress plugins that will quickly help you get more traffic.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 10 Awesome WordPress Features That You Probably Didn’t Know Existed appeared first on WPBeginner.

What you need to know about domain names?

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When starting up a website there is a couple of basics that you cannot avoid, href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/web-hosting-guides/domain-tips/">picking up and registering a domain name for example, is a must-do for every website owners. While it seems straight forward to select and purchase a domain name, there are quite a few fundamentals that you must know before making any decision.

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 href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/web-hosting-beginner-guide/">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.

class="border" alt="Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD)" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2010/0222-1.jpg" width="750" />

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?

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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 00 to ICANN as well as dividing a fee of .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 /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 style="text-decoration: underline;">www.dicksonweb.com – a temperature instruments manufacturer’s website. The boss, Dickson, wasn’t aware that www.DicksonWeb.com can be read as style="text-decoration: underline;">www.DicksOnWeb.com. This created much PR tensions for the company and they had to change their site name to style="text-decoration: underline;">www.DicksonData.com (which doesn’t look very good too).

Do keep in mind that although your domain name is important, there are also href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/compare-best-five-hosting/">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.

width="560" height="340" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0">name="allowFullScreen" value="true" />name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" />name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y1_1NQWQJ2Q&hl=en_US&fs=1&" />name="allowfullscreen" value="true" />width="560" height="340" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y1_1NQWQJ2Q&hl=en_US&fs=1&" allowFullScreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" />

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.

Page 29 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

9 must know pitfalls in web hosting

alt="9 must know pitfalls in web hosting" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/shopping-choices-500x214_c.jpg" />

It’s no secret that not all web hosting companies run their business with honesty and dignity. Shoppers should be aware that some research works are necessary before buying a web host. Forums and blogs can be good places to ask for advices but nothing’s better than understanding the hosting industry yourself and making own purchase decision.

By revealing the nine most common pitfalls in web hosting industry, I hope it clears your doubts and helps you to make better decision.

1. Web host with short or no trial period at all

Do not be surprise to see hosting companies that offer no trial period at all. Be sure to check on a web host’s return policy for its trial period. Any hosting companies with less than 30 days trial period are simply unacceptable. I suggest you to avoid them at all cost.

2. Outdated software and web application

No kidding – there are still hosting companies that limits their users using PHP 4, WordPress 2.2 (Fantastico installation), and Joomla 1.2(Fantastico installation). Outdated software are weak against hacking. So in case you are stuck with a web host that’s reluctant to upgrade their software (or in Fantastico), simply snub them.

3. Hidden charges or enormous cancellation fees

The most common catch-22 behind cheap hosting deals is hidden charges (extra cost for scripts usage and stats reporting) and enormous cancellation fees. Unfortunately, it’s impossible for you to determine such pitfall yourself. All you can do to avoid this is to read around the Internet and look for recent testimonials for a certain web host.

id="floatright">alt="Web hosting customer supports" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2009/0222-2.jpg" width="250" height="265" />

(This is why href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-reviews/">independent hosting reviews are important.)

4. Terrible customer supports

Ask presell questions, check with related forums, ask around on your social network friends – these are some of the methods to determine whether the hosting companies are responsive in term of customer supports.

As experienced webmaster, you might not need much supports from the hosting providers; but how well the company performs in customer supports reveals their service quality.

5. 100% uptime guarantees

No web host can sustains its server uptime perfectly in long run. There are too many factors (power, networks, human errors, software errors, equipment failure) that decide a server’s stability and it’s just impossible for any hosting company to assure they will have 100% uptime in long term (yes, not even Google!).

Thus, hosting companies that promised 100% uptime are actually lying – avoid them at all cost.

6. Unlimited hosting

It’s common nowadays to see an unlimited hosting offers. You should understand that such unlimited hosting is only ‘unlimited’ because the hosting providers are managing their servers usage closely and avoid any significant shortage of hosting capacity. These unlimited offers, after all, are offered based on combination of style="text-decoration: underline;">limited resources.

As most hosting companies (good and bad) are using unlimited hosting as their marketing gimmicks, I can’t tell you to pass on all of them. However, as a smart consumer, you should take time to learn about the issue and avoid over-trusting your web host.

More readings: href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/the-truth-about-unlimited-hosting/">Is unlimited disk storage and bandwidth for real?

7. Use of green hosting as marketing gimmicks

Nowadays ‘Go Green’ is a heated phrase in marketing. Beware of irresponsible web hosts that use ‘Green Hosting’ as marketing gimmicks and make sure the web host is certified by related authorities.

8. Overpriced hosting plans

How cheap is cheap? Apollo Hosting is telling everyone that they are href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/ultimate-cheap-web-hosting-guide/">offering cheap hosting but their hosting plan is extremely high when compare to others.

Please guys, don’t get fooled by the marketing words and always look with your own eyes.

Check the hosting price with other companies and review their hosting plans thoroughly. How much disk storage are you getting; how many MySQL databases are allowed; how many FTP accounts are allowed; how many addon domains are allowed; what is the inodes limitation – these are the questions to be asked before handing out your credit card information.

9. Unmanaged overselling

I’m fine with well-managed href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/inmotion-hosting/">overselling web host; but not with unmanaged overselling.

The differences? A well managed overselling web host allows you to enjoy low cost and reliable hosting service; on the other hand, an unmanaged (or terribly managed) overselling web host is a nightmare – you’ll get hosted on a server that’s unreliable and slow.

To learn if it’s well managed, pay attention to its server load, memory usage, and disk storage capacity. Such figures reveal how well is the hosting company managing their servers when you first subscribe to a new hosting service. Stay away from web hosts with irrational figures and ask for a refund if you already subscribed to their service (this is why a long trial period is important in the first place).

More readings: href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/web-hosting-guides/whats-about-cpanels-service-status/">Understanding the numbers in server status report.

Wrapping things up…

Well, that’s 9 items to be added in your shopping check list. Do keep in mind that hosting companies are in the business of making money. As a smart consumer, reading reviews and comparison guides are a must. Considering that I have been hosting websites for more than 5 years and testing web host services for more than a year – I believe reading my hosting review is a good place to start. These reviews are written based on my true hosting experience and I offer nothing but the truth.

Page 30 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Do you know the way to HostingCon 2009?

alt="Do you know the way to HostingCon 2009?" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/default-image-500x308_c.jpg" />

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2009/0812-3.jpg" alt="HostingCon 2009" class="border" />

href="http://www.hostingcon.com/2009/">HostingCon 2009 is happening right now in Gaylord National Hotel, Washington DC href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Gaylord+National+Hotel+and+convention+center&sll=44.150681,-95.712891&sspn=70.366958,186.152344&ie=UTF8&cd=1&ll=38.816439,-76.996651&spn=0.151407,0.363579&z=12&iwloc=A">(how to get there). Today is the last day of the event and if you’re around – don’t miss this once-in-a-year big event of web hosting industry. Learn about the latest news, ideas and technology affecting web hosting and other related businesses. Whether you are showcasing your new services, or you are simply checking the pulse of the industry, this is style="text-decoration: underline;">T-H-E opportunity to meet and network with your business partners, in a fun and educational atmosphere.

Learn more about HostingCon 2009.

The exhibit hall is open today from 10:30am – 4:00pm. To get involved, you can register yourself at the registration desk within the Gaylord National Hotel and Conference facility.

href="http://www.hostingcon.com/2009/exhibit/list.php">List of exhibitor for HostingCon 2009
href="http://www.hostingcon.com/2009/attend/floorplan/">HostingCon 2009 Floor plan
href="http://www.hostingcon.com/2009/files/ScheduleGrid.pdf">On-Site Show Schedule

Page 30 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Track Your Twitter Influence: 6 Must Know Twitter Analytic Tools

alt="Track Your Twitter Influence: 6 Must Know Twitter Analytic Tools" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/0208-4-500x235_c.jpg" />

When using Twitter for business, the second most important tasks, next to actually being active, is measuring how you are doing. If you have spent any time researching Twitter analytics resources you are well aware there is quite a plethora to choose from.

Let’s break a few down so you can make an educated choice about what tool (or combination of tools) will work best for you.

target="_blank" href="http://www.klout.com"> Klout

width="750px" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1122-1.jpg" alt="Klout screenshot" class='border' />

Gaining a lot of publicity, and rightfully so, Klout works great to measure your social media influence (your ability to drive action). It isn’t limited to just Twitter but rather takes all of your social media accounts into consideration. Scoring you on a scale of 1 to 100, Klout specifically measures:

Your reach: How many people you influence
Your amplification: How much you influence them
Your network impact: The influence of your network

They provide really easy to read graphs that track your score. My favorite feature of Klout is the “Klout Style”. They have developed several different social media styles and, based on how you rank within their algorithm, they place you into a 4×4 matrix. This gives you a visual idea of where you are at and how to get where you want to be.

Visit online: target="_blank" href="http://www.klout.com">http://www.klout.com

target="_blank" href="http://www.peerindex.com/">Peer Index

width="750px" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1122-2.jpg" alt="Peer Index screenshot" class='border' />

Peer Index is very similar to Klout, but not quite as visually appealing (in my opinion at least :)). Peer Index ranks your social presence (again, not just Twitter) using a different algorithm, so it can serve as a great complement to Klout to give you more of a complete picture of how influential you actually are.

I have two favorite features of Peer Index: 1) It shows your fingerprint of influence is a variety of benchmarks (8 to be exact) and 2) you can compare yourself to others giving you an idea of where you stack up to others in the industry.

Visit online: target="_blank" href="http://www.peerindex.com/">http://www.peerindex.com/

target="_blank" href="http://twitalyzer.com/">Twitalyzer

width="750px" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1122-3.jpg" alt="Twitalyzer screenshot" class='border' />

Twitalyzer offers a lot of great information (impact, engagement, generosity, followers, reach, and several more), but all of the information can be a little overwhelming. If you are a friend of statistics this may be the tool for you, but if you just want someone else to do the calculating of where you stand in the Twitter world, one of the other tools will probably be best for you.

Visit online: target="_blank" href="http://twitalyzer.com/">http://twitalyzer.com/

target="_blank" href="http://tweetgrader.com/">Tweet Grader

width="750px" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1122-4.jpg" alt="Tweet Grader screenshot" class='border' />

Unlike the previous tools, you don’t need to sign into Tweet Grader to retrieve their report on your twitter influence. However, this means it doesn’t track your history either. If you are looking for a quick report on where you stand, this is a great option. If you want something that tracks how your rankings change over time this isn’t the best option for you. The site ranks how well you are doing on an algorithm that takes followers, influence of followers, updates, engagement, and a few other elements into consideration.

Visit online: target="_blank" href="http://tweetgrader.com/">http://tweetgrader.com/

target="_blank" href="http://tweetreach.com/">Tweet Reach

width="750px" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1122-5.jpg" alt="Tweet Reach screenshot" class='border' />

Like Tweet Grader, there is no need to sign up for an account with Tweet Reach. It’s a very straightforward tool – type in your Twitter handle and they will populate the reach of your Tweets. The coolest part of this tool is that you are able to download a report of the results so you can track your progress.

Visit online: target="_blank" href="http://tweetreach.com/">http://tweetreach.com/

target="_blank" href="http://tweetstats.com/">Tweet Stats

width="750px" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1122-6.jpg" alt="Tweetstats screenshot" class='border' />

Tweet Stats has a lot of room for design improvement, but that’s not the main reason we are using it, right? Once you enter your Twitter handle it populates several graphs visually depicting your Twitter usage. This information could serve as a great compliment to another tool but doesn’t provide a lot valuable information for a standalone tool.

Visit online: target="_blank" href="http://tweetstats.com/">http://tweetstats.com/

So, how do you track your Twitter influence? Make sure to leave your handle, I’d love to follow you.

Page 26 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Everything You Need To Know About Choosing A Domain Name

alt="Everything You Need To Know About Choosing A Domain Name" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/dot-com-500x332_c.jpg" />

You have a great business opportunity, and you want to share your ideas with the world. Before you can create the website that you’ll use to do this, however, you need to choose a suitable domain name. A domain name (also called a host name) is the same as the website’s URL. It’s the section that comes after “www.” and is usually followed by “.com”, “.org”, “.net” or another extension.

The domain you choose could have a huge impact on the success of your website, as this is what visitors will need to remember in order to find your business online. If you’re in a hurry to start building the actual site, it can be tempting to purchase the first domain your think of from the first seller you find, however by doing this you won’t necessarily get the best domain for your website, nor will you pay the best price.

This article covers several important factors you should consider when choosing and purchasing a domain name for your new website. Follow these steps, and you’ll have a successful, SEO-friendly domain up and running in no time. In case you need more technical info (and the ‘how it works’ logic) about web domain, you can also check out Jerry’s recent article href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/featured-articles/all-you-need-to-know-about-domain-names/">The Technical Details Behind Domain Names.

Choosing Your Domain Name

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter" alt="Domain Names" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2012/0926-2.jpg" width="600" height="292" />

Choosing the actual words and phrases that form your domain name is probably the hardest part of the process. It requires creativity, marketing savvy, and the ability to look at your website from the point of view of a visitor.

Let’s start with the hostname. This should contain keywords that are relevant to your business and, ideally, your business name. If the name of your business isn’t available as a domain, try selecting a domain that communicates what your business does. For example, if you run a business called “Carpets4Home” in Los Angeles and the domain “Carpets4Home.com” isn’t available, you could purchase “bestLAcarpets.com” instead. This demonstrates what you’re selling, and has SEO potential when you’re writing your web copy.

The Shorter The Better

As a general rule, the shorter your host name is, the better. The more people are likely to remember it, the more likely they are to remember and return to your website. For the same reason, you should also choose a name with an obvious spelling. If the exact name you want isn’t available, think carefully before substituting letters or words, for example choosing “skool” instead of “school” or “catz” instead of “cats”.

No Numbers For Letters

Another domain no-no is replacing letters with numbers (except when you use numbers as part of your business name), for example writing “4” instead of “for”, or “2” instead of “two”. Even if a potential customer or client remembers your domain name, they are more likely to use the correct spelling of the word, and could end up on someone else’s web page.

SEO blog rel="nofollow" href="http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-choose-the-right-domain-name" target="_blank">Seomoz suggests additional tips that can help you minimize the risk of losing web visitors, like excluding hyphens, and avoiding using the number 0, as it looks very similar to the letter O.

Copyright Issues

When selecting a domain name for your new website, it’s important to check you’re not infringing on another website’s copyright. This is illegal and, if you use a copyrighted website name, you could find yourself in trouble, and lose your carefully nurtured brand, further down the line. You can usually tell whether another website has copyrighted the same site or brand name with a quick Google search. If you want to look into the matter more thoroughly, visit rel="nofollow" href="http://www.copyright.gov/" target="_blank">The United States Copyright Office and search their directories.

The .com’s Bias

Once you’ve selected a hostname, you need to decide which extension to choose. Many web developers are divided over this issue. Some are adamant that you should choose a domain with a “.com” extension at all costs, while others say that the extension doesn’t matter as long as you have a good hostname.

The arguments for choosing a domain with a .com extension include that it adds more credibility to your website. Additionally, people are more likely to assume the extension is “.com”, and could end up visiting a competitor’s website if you have the same domain name but a different extension. The arguments against only choosing domain names that have a “.com” extension include that you’re limited in your selection, and could end up compromising on your domain name in a way that won’t be helpful for your branding or SEO.

Christopher Heng, founder of rel="nofollow" href="http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/domainname.shtml" target="_blank">thesitewizard.com, advises website owners that it’s a good idea to promote the website using the full domain name if you’re using an extension that isn’t “.com” to minimize the chance that web users will end up on a competitor’s website.

Purchasing A Domain

class="alignright" alt="Selecting A Domain Name" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2013/0115-11.jpg" width="235" height="156" />
Once you’ve chosen a suitable domain name for your business, the next step is to compare pricing from different domain sellers. The average price for a domain hovers around per year, however if your domain is only available through an auction, this could be a lot more.

If someone else currently owns the domain you want, you can try purchasing it through auction, or by making an offer to the owner. There is no guarantee that either of these methods will get you the domain you want, and they could end up costing you a lot more than registering a normal domain would, but if you have your heart set on it then it’s worth trying.

Research domain registrars. You might have initially found your ideal domain through a specific seller, but the same domain could also be available through other services at a lower price.

As well as purchasing the core domain you intend to use for your website, you should also try to purchase variations on your domain name, recommends rel="nofollow" href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/05/28/should-you-secure-com-and-net-for-your-domain/" target="_blank">ProBlogger author Darren Rowse. This means that if your new website is happycat.com, you should also consider purchasing the same domain with different extensions (“.net”, “.org”, “.co.uk”), and the plural, happycats.com. Then, you can redirect all these domains back to your original website, increasing the likelihood that potential customers will find you.

Domain Resources

If you’re stuck for a domain name and need some inspiration, or you’re not sure where to purchase your domain of choice, here are a list of websites that can help.

rel="nofollow" href="http://ajaxwhois.com/" target="_blank">Ajaxhois 2.0 is a useful service that enables you to check whether a domain name is free or not. You can also look at any available statistics for the web address to see how many people visit that URL.

href="http://www.domainnamesoup.com/" target="_blank">Domain Name Soup, rel="nofollow" href="http://www.namestation.com/?utm_expid=604578-0" target="_blank">Namestation and rel="nofollow" href="http://www.domainfellow.com/" target="_blank">Domain Fellow are a free domain name generators that can help you through creative blocks. They are particularly useful if you don’t know what you want to call your website or business yet, or are stuck for which keywords you want to include in your domain name.

href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/go/godaddy" target="_blank">GoDaddy and rel="nofollow" href="http://www.register.com/" target="_blank">Register.com, for example, are domain registrar companies that also offer web hosting services. You can select and buy your domain through these websites without signing up to a hosting package, however if hosting is something you also need, some people find it easier to purchase a domain name and hosting from the same provider.

Even if you’re in a hurry, comparing the prices and terms of different domain registrars will help you get the best long-term deal on your domain name, so you can focus on building your website and moving your business up to the next level.

Page 21 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Internet Users and the Cloud: What Do People Really Know? (Infographic)

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A look at this infographic on Internet trends among American adults underscores an interesting and perhaps unexpected fact about Internet users.

While the mass majority uses the cloud, most are unaware that they are employing cloud hosting networks. This infographic highlights the findings of two surveys of American Internet users, including the demographics of Internet users, their online activities, and how perceptions of cloud computing match actual use. It underscores a fascinating division between href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/web-hosting-guides/shared-vps-dedicated-cloud-hosting/" target="_blank">what people know about the cloud and how much of their online activities utilize the cloud.

51% Survey Respondents Believed That Stormy Weather Could Interfere Cloud Computing

The majority of American adults use the Internet to look something up on a search engine (91 percent), send or receive an email (91 percent), look up a hobby or interest (84 percent) or search for maps or driving directions (84 percent). An Internet user is also likely to check up-to-date weather forecasts on his or her device (81 percent), do online banking (61 percent) or upload photos for sharing (46 percent). Though many use these online services, most remain unaware that these online processes run on various cloud computing platforms – everything from online banking, shopping and photo sharing to the use of social networks and playing online games. In fact, 51 percent of respondents believed that stormy weather could interfere with cloud computing, perhaps envisioning it as an antenna that sways in the wind and rain rather than an elastic host service which uses the Internet.

The infographic reveals that low education levels are not the likely reason for this confusion, as the higher level of education one has achieved may lead to higher Internet use but does not lead to greater Internet understanding. For instance, only 61 percent of those surveyed without a high school diploma used the Internet regularly, while 80 percent of high school graduates and 97 percent of college graduates used the Internet regularly, though the majority could not articulate the connection between the cloud and the Internet.

Why People Can’t Get It?

The question remains why cloud computing and cloud hosting is a foreign concept for many when it is almost universally used. The answer can be found in the complexity of cloud computing itself and its varying definitions, as well as missing means of public education on the issue. For instance, there are numerous types of public cloud computing (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, to name a few) as well as various service models. Because of the varied uses of the cloud, from email to gaming and file sharing, it is difficult to come up with a definition which is both explanatory and clear and which encompasses all of the characteristics of cloud activity. Combining this with the vocabulary of servers, network attached storage and virtualization is more likely to lead to confusion than understanding.

Notwithstanding the barriers to understanding, this infographic highlights that even if people don’t understand the details of cloud hosting, they are certainly aware of its growing importance. With mobile devices like cell phones, laptop computers and tablet PCs on the rise, and stationary items such as the desktop on the decline, the mobility of information is becoming increasingly prized, and it is cloud hosting services which allow for the easy movement of information for daily Internet users.

Page 22 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

5 Trends in Web Hosting That You Should Know About

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Here at Web Hosting Secrets Revealed, we spend a lot of time thinking about web hosting.

Generally speaking, we look at how href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/compare-best-five-hosting/">individual web hosts stand up in terms of cost, service, and reliability. These are real and important factors when you’re considering a host for your site. But there’s a whole industry here, with dynamics and factors at play that effect the kinds of services you can access as consumers and how those services are delivered.

Downtime means lost money, unhappy visitors, and potential damage to your search rank. When issues arise, the ability to reach a competent human being can be the difference between speedy resolution and hours of frustration. And cost is straightforward: when you’re working on a limited budget or just trying to maximize profit, you want the most bandwidth, storage space, and loading speed that your dollars can buy. Understanding the changing hosting landscape can help you make informed choices about providers that will meet your technological needs over the long haul.

Like every other space, hosting is continually evolving. Technologies are changing and improving, and as a result the technological boundaries of hosting are being pushed as well to meet the changing demand. This creates opportunities for consumers: not just to search for the href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/ultimate-cheap-web-hosting-guide/">cheapest hosting deal or the most flexible hosting model, but to think about what kinds of business models they want to support and whether or not they need specific features in their packages.

But where is the hosting industry headed in 2012 and beyond. At the recent href="http://www.hostingcon.com/blog/hostingcon-2012-attendance-information-guide/" rel="nofollow">HostingCon 2012, a number of the industry’s key players gathered to talk about the latest concerns and areas of innovation for the industry. Here are 5 big trends that are worth paying attention to as we move into the next twelve months.

1. Improving Security In The Cloud

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From Amazon’s href="https://read.amazon.com/about" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Kindle Cloud Reader to Apple’s href="http://www.apple.com/icloud/setup/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">integrated cloud allowing extensive Mac device communication, even the most casual user is aware of the power of the cloud. Small and medium sized businesses are slowly adopting cloud hosting in even the most staid markets. Major enterprise cloud solutions have been in development for years and are being deployed at a high rate. But the href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/featured-articles/what-might-go-wrong-with-cloud-hosting/">security aspects of the cloud are still being worked on. Many suggest that hackers are focused on big potential breaches in cloud security. Therefore, it’s increasingly important for hosting companies offering cloud products to anticipate weaknesses in cloud security and address those aggressively.

Customers are also becoming savvier with respect to potential security issues connected with the cloud. As a result, hosting companies are developing stronger communications around this issue in the form of copy, collateral, and training for their sales teams. The need to fight malware and abuse is a major theme affecting all kinds of hosting companies, not just the cloud hosts. Continuing investments and upgrades in this area remains a major theme for hosting companies.

2. Increased Differentiation Among Cloud Providers

The last few years have seen hosts focused in on providing infrastructure needed to support cloud hosting* and rolling out basic services.

In the coming year, prices are likely to increase as providers layer differentiation and additional services on top of existing hosting plans. An important trend is the degree to which individual providers are able to do so in an automated way that minimizes the need for human intervention. The more automated this process is, the higher margins will be on individual accounts. As a consumer, it’s helpful to understand how efficient your potential host’s processes are in this respect – it will save you tremendous amounts of aggravation when an issue does occur.

In addition, cloud providers seeking differentiation will need to find other avenues for communicating their advantages to customers. Quality customer service is important, but it’s not enough. Instead, cloud hosting providers need to find real points of differentiation and market those effectively. 2012 so far has proved a big year for marketing spending in the hosting industry, and this is likely to continue as hosting companies work to educate the public. Differentiation is especially key as cloud hosting companies compete against Amazon, which has to a certain degree commoditized cloud services.

Example: Atlantic.net is offering ‘VPS Cloud’ service to less-techie hosting users

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* Note: Cloud and VPS are two very different things; href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/vps-hosting-guide/">read our VPS hosting guide to learn more.

3. Increased Reseller Activity And Partnerships

As more big players like Amazon and others move in to the hosting field, it’s growing increasingly important for smaller players to have strong partnerships. Affiliate and reseller relationships are becoming a mainstay of how these businesses profit, as a number of small to medium sized hosting companies become bundlers for the specific services packages needed by small business users and online companies.

Competitive pricing, niche specific approaches, and stellar service will all play a key role in how this growing class of middlemen continues to evolve. Some speculate about whether hosting companies will actually phase out their own infrastructure altogether in favor of acting as straight resellers with lower infrastructure costs and therefore higher margins for Amazon and other larger players.

4. Companies Like Yola And Weebly Are Changing Mass Market Hosting

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Major hosting and domain registration companies like href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/go/godaddy" target="_blank">GoDaddy have been offering website building tools for ages. But new players on the scene such as href="https://www.yola.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Yola and href="http://www.weebly.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Weebly are changing the order of things. Instead, the company is positioned around solving a specific need: companies that need a cheap, easy, simple to manage website. They then advertise their easy to use website builder, which is free, and bundle in hosting, domain registration, and other services. But angling their marketing in a specific way, these companies are smartly repackaging hosting for the small business market in a way that’s not overly technical and therefore is accessible. While this is largely a marketing spin, it has directly impacted the way in which consumers purchase hosting and is a trend that bears watching.

5. Changes To Domains Offer Opportunities

Finally, recent changes to the domains available have created additional profit centers for hosts. From registration to hosting, many companies are taking a specific position on hosting non-US extension sites. Gone are the days when every site was either a .com, .net, or .org. Today, users can choose from href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">more than 100 different extensions and experts say hundreds more are on the way. As a consumer, understanding whether a host charges more or offers a specific advantage when hosting less common but popular extensions such as .co and .me is an important step.

Major trends in hosting are continuing to push infrastructure development, the companies that are offering services and how those services are presented to consumers. As consumers, it’s beneficial to understand the dynamics of the industry in order to help you make your best decisions. We encourage you to check back as we continue to cover major trends and technologies in the space, as well as take a look at our detailed href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-reviews/">hosting reviews to help you make the best choice for hosting your site today.

Page 22 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

All You Need To Know About Domain Names

alt="All You Need To Know About Domain Names" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/dot-com-500x332_c.jpg" />

class="border" alt="Domain Names" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2012/0926-2.jpg" width="750" />

It’s perhaps the most essential part of getting online, buthref="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/web-hosting-guides/domain-tips/"> obtaining a domain name can be a bit more complex than the novice user is accustomed to. The process is dominated by several large companies (for instances href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/godaddy.php" target="_blank">GoDaddy, href="http://www.namecheap.com/" target="_blank">Name Cheap, href="http://www.name.com/" target="_blank">Name, and so on), known as domain registrars, and it’s littered with domain names that span the gamut form corporate to country-based, organizational to multinational. Choosing between these companies, and these domain names, is only the beginning. After the domain has been registered, customers will need to configure it to work with their href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/compare-best-five-hosting/">web hosting plan, their email server, and other aspects of their online presence. All told, it can be a dizzying array of considerations and configurations that the amateur shopper simply can’t manage without a little information beforehand.

The good news is that most domain registrars have been working diligently in recent years to make the registration process far more user-friendly, especially as href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/web-hosting-knowledge/what-is-the-difference-between-a-domain-and-web-hosting">domain ownership and web hosting has gone from a mere niche to a mass consumer market. Combined with a little forethought and proper preparation, obtaining a domain name is exceedingly easy.

And, with the right knowledge, maintaining that domain name’s records and settings will be quite easy over the long-term for well-educated buyers.

The Domain Name Registration Process

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Registering a domain name is essentially like owning a small slice of internet real estate and, just like in the real estate market, consumers will be expected to cough up a good deal of information about themselves and pay for the privilege of claiming their corner of the internet’s public space. Domain registration guidelines are not set on a pre-registrar basis, but are instead determined by the href="http://www.icann.org" target="_blank">Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. This governing body is essentially a global regulator of best practices for registrars, web hosts, and the clients who interact with them. Read more at href="http://www.icann.org/en/about/learning/faqs" target="_blank">ICANN FAQs.

According to the body’s standards, all customers registering a domain name must be prepared to furnish contact information for themselves, their organization, their business, and even their employer in some cases. For those customers who are seeking to register a href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/web-domain/country-code-for-top-level-domains/">country-specific domain name option (like “.us” or “.co.uk”), a good portion of the registration process will be dedicated to determining whether or not the customer is a resident of that country and therefore legally permitted to purchase one of its country-specific top level domains.

And that should hammer home a secondary point to consumers. While there are hundreds of available domain name suffixes (like “.com” or “.net), many of these domains have specific registration requirements. For example, only organizations can register a “.org” domain name, and only American citizens can register a domain name that ends in “.us.” Failing to meet the guidelines and requirements for each type of domain during the actual registration and payment process will result in the domain name being “released” back into the pool of available domain names; the customer will have to pick a top level domain for which they actually qualify, or cancel their purchase altogether.

During the signup process, it’s also important to have information directly from a web host, as this information will be need when filling in the href="http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/dnsrecords.htm" target="_blank">DNS and href="http://dnsdb.cit.cornell.edu/explain_mx.html" target="_blank">MX record information during registration. These two records determine which web hosting server’s content is displayed when a user navigates to the domain, as well as how email is addressed, sent, and received using that hosting package and the associated domain name. In accurate information will result in errors and page-load failures.

DNS and MX Records

Every web hosting company enables domain names to connect to its servers and display user content through the use of DNS records, which stands for href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3467" target="_blank">Domain Name System. To understand how this works, it’s best to think of a domain name as a sort of “mask” that the browser’s address bar wears in order to hide the very long and potentially confusing URL to a site’s content on a remote server. That longer URL would be full of numbers, periods, symbols, and folder names, which would make the website’s address nearly impossible to remember. Domain names are the way to bypass this confusingly long list of numbers and letters.

About Domain Name System

A domain name essentially overlays that long path of numbers and letters with an easy-to-remember phrase between the “www” and “.com” indicators. However, it still needs to know where the actual website’s path is located and how to display that information. This is what a DNS, or Domain Name System, record accomplishes. It instructs the domain where to look for a site’s file and it communicates the site structure to the domain name itself via the registrar and the web host’s servers.

This makes the DNS record one of the most important parts of domain registration and ongoing maintenance. Because DNS records necessarily vary on a per-host basis, they must be changed every time a new host is chosen and migrated to. Failure to do so will cause the domain to look in an old location for the site’s files; that most often results in a “404” error page or a page loading timeout error which will display no content at all.

When signing up for a new web host, pay special attention to any email which lists new domain server records for the new account. These DNS records often start with something like “NS1” prefixed before the web host’s domain. They’re often paired with an IP address and, in some cases, are only given as an IP address rather than as a special domain name. These must be changed immediately upon receipt, as the global domain cache is updated only every 12-24 hours. That means it can take a full business day for DNS record changes to take effect around the world.

About MX Record

A less-important, but still crucial, aspect of domain registration and ownership is the so-called “MX record” associated with the domain .This stands for “mail exchanger” record and it determines where and how email is sent and received when using the domain as the sender’s address (or example, sending mail as “you@domain.com”). Typically, the MX record mirrors the DNS record, allowing for POP-based and web-based email to be sent using a domain owner’s hosting package. But many people prefer to customize this so that they can use a different third-party service.

For those who would like to use an href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/featured-articles/email-hosting-guide/">email service that is hosted on remote servers, like the Google Apps suite of applications or Microsoft Exchange servers, the MX record will need to be modified; this will tell the domain to look at one server for web content and a second server for communications. Every registrar must permit their users to modify this record, as set out by the ICANN governing body, and changes take effect within the same 12-24 hour period that applies to DNS record changes.

Buying a Domain Without A Web Hosting Plan

While the vast majority of domain purchasers are buying a domain because they wish to host and share their own content, a large and growing contingent of web users are simply out to buy a domain name that directly mirrors their name, organization, or business name so that it cannot be used and abused by a third party. This is known as “identity protection” or “brand integrity buying” and it is done as a preventative measure to guard against fraud, counterfeit products, and damage to a brand’s good standing.

Domain Parking

This process is done without a web host; known as “domain parking,” it essentially uses the DNS servers of the registrar itself rather than relying on those supplied by a third-party web host. This allows the parked domain to display a brief and standard page indicating that it has been registered with a certain registrar, is not available for sale, and could be put into use at any time. It will send the thieves and agents of fraud elsewhere, it will protect a person’s or brand’s identity, and it will be a great way to get online only when the person or their business is ready to do so.

When signing up for a domain which is intended to be parked, be sure to indicate this preference on the registration form itself. This will allow the registrar to automatically popular the DNS record fields with their own information for parked domain servers and it will instantly configure the domain to company standards. The domain will go online with the placeholder page almost immediately and the process will be completed.

Alternatively, domain registration customers can indicate that the domain will be parked on their own servers, serving as a sort of redirect to existing content that is housed under a different domain name record. This form of parking is known as a “domain redirect” and it, too, can be setup during the registration process. Customers can simply tell the registrar to redirect all traffic to their primary domain name; or, they can setup a redirect using their hosting plan’s control panel software and give their new domain name the same DNS records as the one which is already in use. Either way, it’s a great way to protect an individual or corporate identity and ensure that the right content is displayed to new and existing customers.

Choosing the Right Domain Name In A Crowded Marketplace

There’s really no easy way to put this: Almost every great domain has already been registered. In fact, things have gotten so crowded online that the ICANN governing body itself is coming up with new “top level domain” suffixes on a near-yearly basis. Each time a new domain name is released, people line up to get the most semantically-sensible domain they can settle on before all of the good options are snatched up and gone for good.

What Is A Good Domain Name?

When choosing a domain name, it’s important to make semantic sense but to also be a little creative. Indeed, in a marketplace this crowded, only great creativity will yield an available, sensible domain name. Perhaps the most popular method of making sure a domain name is available is to include the actual domain name suffix as part of the brand’s name. This can best be seen in websites like “href="http://del.icio.us" target="_blank">http://del.icio.us“. The person behind the domain name simply registered “icio.us” as a United States resident and then created the “del” subdomain. Semantically, their website appears as “delicious,” but it required creative thinking and registering to accomplish.

Securing a unique domain name which is easy to remember can be a difficult process, so those registering their first domain name are encouraged to set aside a few days or even a few weeks to crafting the perfect name for their new online address. Most registrars offer suggestions of an alternative domain name if a customer’s idea has already been taken, and these suggestions may also help to hasten the process of selecting and buying a new domain name for a business or individual pursuit.

No matter what, it’s important not to get discouraged when domain name after domain name comes up as “taken” or “unavailable.” Everyone goes through this and, eventually, everyone overcomes the writer’s block that accompanies the registration process. Be creative, be persistent, and allow plenty of time, and it’ll be easy to make a splash with a semantically-sound domain name registration.

If you need more help on this, check out Danielle’s href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/web-domain/tips-tools-on-selecting-the-right-domain-name/">Tips and Tools On Choosing The Right Domain Name and my href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/web-hosting-guides/domain-tips/">recently updated domain tips.

Attention to Detail is the Key to Success

id="floatright">alt="Domain Name Registration" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0410-3.jpg" />

When registering a domain name for individual or business use, the key consideration during the process is to be attentive to detail. Domain name registration requires a good deal of information, from personal addresses and phone numbers to information that specifically relates to the customer’s present web host and communication preferences. Getting all of these details right during the first attempt will lead to an easier registration process and a more immediate presence online. Remember that most changes to domain name records take up to a day to process, so any inaccuracies during registration can delay the debut of a customer’s online presence by several days.

With the right information on hand and a keen eye for detail, customers can set their information, DNS records, and MX records properly on the first attempt. They’ll be online in a few minutes with a domain name that is easy to understand, type, and remember — and that’s a big indication of but current and future online success.

Page 22 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

How To Know When It’s Time To Change Your Web Host

alt="How To Know When It’s Time To Change Your Web Host" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/better-option-500x186_c.jpg" />

Your website or blog is an investment that’s starting to pay off, but it’s hit a few snags and you’re wondering if your web host could be the problem. Or, perhaps you have a free web host or low cost services and you’re wondering if it’s time to upgrade to higher quality services. This may be a good time to consider switching hosting providers, but how do you know when it’s time to change your web host?

It may be time for a new web hosting service if…

#1 … your site is constantly going down.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6980" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/site-down.jpg" alt="web hosting down" width="750" height="280" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/site-down.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/site-down-300x112.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

This is the number one reason I left my last web host.

While it’s true that into each website a little down time will fall, if your site is down or unavailable for reasons beyond your control more than roughly once a year, it’s time to seek higher quality services. In my case, the company couldn’t explain what was causing the situation. They even switched and upgraded servers, but there were still too many site outages in too short a period of time. I did some research and discovered that many others were having the same issue with this provider. That’s a red flag to move on.

#2 … your site is toooooooooo slow.

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This was my second reason for changing providers.

In my situation, I had some files that were difficult to remove clogging up the system and the host helped me to remove them, fairly quickly. That was good customer service, and it sped my site up a little – but it didn’t last long. A week later, I was again experiencing slowness that made it difficult to work on my site at all. None of their solutions helped and they finally stopped calling back and started emailing general information memos. Their inability to fix the problem led to poor customer service.

#3 … Customer service is not helpful.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6982" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/bad-customer-support.jpg" alt="bad customer support" width="750" height="280" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/bad-customer-support.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/bad-customer-support-300x112.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

style="line-height: 1.5em;">While I did experience problems in this area, in ten years of running a blog I have not had some of the horror stories I’ve heard from other site owners about poor web hosting customer service. I’ve seen problems from unanswered questions to the inability to fix a serious problem. Your data is precious and if a company can’t be bothered to service your web site problems quickly or take the time to respond to you by phone or chat, you have to wonder how much effort they will make to safeguard your data at all.

style="line-height: 1.5em;">A quality web hosting service will have a clearly marked way to provide you livestyle="line-height: 1.5em;"> support. They should respond to your request in 24 hours or less and back that service up with useful documentation. A good wiki or answer database is helpful, but if you can’t get a live person to handle an issue beyond your control or when your site is down, compromised or damaged, it’s time to move on.

#4 … you need more space, functionality or other resources.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6983" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/more-space.jpg" alt="more hosting space needed" width="750" height="280" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/more-space.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/more-space-300x112.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

My problems with my former web host were solved once I moved: site slowness was completely fixed.

However, you may be experiencing problems because you’ve run out of space on your host. I’ve run my blog for 10 years without ever needing to upgrade the space. If you do run out of space quickly, this means you have a LOT on your site such as video or podcasts. I’ve never had to upgrade the size of my hosting package, but I’ve always had comprehensive packages. In fact, the last two times I purchased web hosting, I was given sales event pricing, which means I got a lot of value for my dollar. If your site is data-intensive and you need more space, then go for the upgrade. However, if you are simply writing blog posts and running a few plugins, and your host wants to charge an exorbitant fee to upgrade, it may be a time for a new web host.

Buyer beware though: href="//localhost/the-truth-about-unlimited-hosting">learn the in’s and out’s of “unlimited” web hosting.

#5 … you’re paying too much for web hosting.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6984" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/too-pricey.jpg" alt="too pricey" width="750" height="280" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/too-pricey.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/too-pricey-300x112.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

Everybody’s definition of “too much” is different, but if you are simply running a blog, you should be able to get quality web hosting, including great customer service and enough storage, in a reasonable price range. Of course, pricing depends on how much storage you need. If you are running a video or podcasting blog that updates daily, you’re going to need a lot more space than the average blog . However, a website or blog that’s predominantly text and images can run you per month or less. As mentioned, look for discounts and sales – some of these will run for the life of your blog – or talk to a salesperson and tell them your budget. If you are a new customer, they may be willing to work with you. Learn how to select an affordable host at our href="/ultimate-cheap-web-hosting-guide/">Web Hosting Guide.

Budget Hosting Choices – Reviewed at WHSR

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#6 … you are regularly inconvenienced.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6985" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/inconvenience.jpg" alt="inconvenience" width="750" height="280" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/inconvenience.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/inconvenience-300x112.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

style="line-height: 1.5em;">I used to have this amazing web host that I’d used for years and it was everything I’d hoped for: instant customer service, comprehensive packages, affordable price, web professional recommended. They even had an easy referral service. One day, they changed their billing software. I had set up my system to automatically pay my monthly bills so I could set it and forget it. Then one month, I got a notification that they’d shut down my site if I didn’t pay in a few days. I called customer service and they told me they’d made change in their software and that I’d have to make adjustments on my end. I did and thought the problem solved – until the next month, when I was asked for payment again. This went on for months and, despite my complaints and requests, nothing seemed to solve the problem. I have a lot on my plate and remembering to manually pay a small bill for a service I’m always going to need is a waste of time. Since I had another hosting services at the time, I simply moved my blog and discontinued services.

style="line-height: 1.5em;">Convenience is definitely a consideration when you are a serious blogger or website owner.

#7 … you’ve been hacked, more than once.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6986" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/hacked.jpg" alt="hacked site" width="750" height="280" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/hacked.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/hacked-300x112.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

style="line-height: 1.5em;">Having your website hacked is painful but it happens. Hopefully if it does, you or your web host will catch it early, before any real damage is done. Once a site is hacked, I would expect any web hosting company worth its salt to do everything in their power to make sure it doesn’t happen again – from revisiting and improving their security measures to guiding you in how to better protect your site once it has been restored. There is no excuse for getting hacked twice or more. If it that happens, your security has been compromised. Of course, security issues could be your fault, so if you do get hacked, style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="//localhost/blog/blogging-tips/the-pitfalls-of-hacking-and-spam-7-ways-to-protect-your-blog">take all the recommended measures you can to protect your blog style="line-height: 1.5em;">.

#8 … you’ve heard about a great service elsewhere.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6987" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/better-option.jpg" alt="better option" width="750" height="280" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/better-option.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/better-option-300x112.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

If you’ve ever said, “Wow, my web host doesn’t do that,” it may be time for a change. Web hosting on a budget can only offer you so much, but we’ve all heard stories of amazing services or support that can make it better. My current web host, for example, switched my blog over safely and soundly while I slept. I awoke up to website that functioned quickly and reliably without a single glitch in service. If you don’t feel that level of comfort, or are bothered about negative reports you’ve seen on your web host, it may be time for a change.

The guidelines above will help you determine if it’s time for a change, but only you know if the time is right. Your website is only as good as your web host so take your time and do your research when href="//localhost/choose-the-right-web-hosting">choosing a new web host.

Page 17 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed