Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, setting up a website seemed so confusing. The materials offered were very basic and to a lot of people confusing. Yahoo! Geocities, Tripod, and other free webhosts were a bit difficult for the common Internet user because it meant you had to have a basic understanding of HTML or you ended up having a strange design generated from what the free hosts offered.

Today, it is much easier to set up a website. WordPress.com, Blogger, Typepad, and a few others offer a much friendlier means to have a presence online.

How easy is it to set up a website?

This is the easy part – Establishing a host, a site name or domain are just the very first steps. It is designing, and creating content that is what is a bit more challenging.

First time bloggers may want to start off with a free host as it might be a good base to make sure that they are serious enough and have established a readership.

So, as a summary of how easy it is, here are the general steps:

1. Brainstorm what you want your site to do and who you want to reach.
2. Choose a web host.
3. Come up with a site name or select a suitable domain name for the website.
4. Start creating content.
5. Choose or create a design.

Why did I list creating content before design? Well, you can set up a site in WordPress and start writing right away. This is important as when your site is beginning, it is often that the content is the most difficult part to continue maintaining. If you can jump start your site with a couple posts, you will be able to give visitors a clue to what you want them to get from your website. The design can come second and be a nice surprise. Technically the design will probably change as you grow into your own brand.

I know some would not agree on this, but frankly, your visitors, even if your site has an awesome layout, will find more value in what you have to say. Why not start that first and grow into your brand. A lot of interesting people have grown or are still growing into their sites and brands. Just some examples: Kim Castleberry of Just Ask Kim, Ileane Smith of Basic Blog Tips, Kristi Hines of Kikolani, and Hesham Zebida of Famous Bloggers.

However, once you have a web host in mind, you can choose to install a free theme or pay for a premium theme in the case you are not design savvy. Remember that you control what your site will be. When you put your content together, you are paving the road to your own success.

Also remember that there are a lot of great places out there giving awesome FREE advice to people wanting to become a successful blogger, online business owner, or great webmaster. Use that to your advantage.

Setting up a website is not as difficult as it use to be.

What tips would you like to share to others looking to start their own website?

Web Hosting is one of the first thing you should care about, it’s the foundation. Foundation should be strong and healthy in order to get long term benefits. During selecting web host companies, one should always remember that buying hosting is the first step that will determine your blog/website popularity. A good web hosting company will give you secure blog and weak hosting will give you weak blog.

1. Price

Price is the first thing you should care about. Newbies can’t afford expensive web hosting plans.  If the web hosting company you are going to select is providing limited features as compare to price, then don’t go for it. Search the web for all web hosting features and prices and then decide to select your hosting company.

Currently I am using HostGator because of its superb features and reasonable prices.

2. Support

As a newbie, you must select a web hosting company that provides Live Chat and 24 hours customer services. In case of any problem (example: blog hacked, crashed, log-in info lost, etc..) instant customer service is needed. During selecting web host don’t forget about this.

3. Promotions

Check previous promotional offers offered by the web hosting company. If one is good in term of Prices and Support + Offering Promos, then go for it. Promotion offers are normally related to renewing your existing package, free domains, free IP, free email clients, free software etc…

4. Reputation

Well it may be possible that a web hosting company will have all the above qualities, but still you can’t decide whether to choose or not. You will have to check if the company has its own blog, uses social media,  optimized for search engine, created official profiles etc. Such factors will tell you that the company has good reputation and people trust on their service.

The above tips will help you to decide if a web hosting company is good for you or not. Think strategically and go for things that give you benefits for long terms. Hope these tips will help you in deciding a better web hosting company.

For those who have been with web hosts for a while, what other tips do you have for newbies?

There are people who I talk to a lot from my local area that ask me this question…. well a variation. I have seen some blog posts out there that blog about this, but issue their affiliate links to webhosts and such. Of course, I webhost at Host Solutions and I believe even as a small business, I have a great product that runs people $25/year for 5GB diskspace and 25GB bandwidth.

However, I would like to emphasize a few ways you can either have a type of website at little or no cost.

First off, for the people html-challenged and who are not familiar with putting together a page, there are many places you can get free templates for your site – for free. Just search for them. For example, you can use ‘free website templates’ to search and there are many sites that will come up in your search on Google.

1. Of course, actually purchasing a webhost. I have been a small business webhost with Host Solutions since 2004. I recommend mine as my servers are with Host Gator (by the way, that is a direct link and not an affiliate link) and even I would recommend them if someone is looking to host with a bigger business. The are professional and have made hosting easy for both myself and clients.]

2. Free sites like WordPress.com. The only thing is that there are limitations and you cannot do to many things on a free WordPress.com account. I really recommend this as a beginning for those who have heard of WordPress and are interested on how it works. It is not really that hard to go from a free host with WordPress.com to being a self-hosted WordPress.org site

3. Etsy or Ebay – these sites are auction based sites. Etsy is really cheap, but everything has to be DIY (do-it-yourself / totally handmade.) All you need to do is put your shop description, logo (optional), and your products. Other than that, this is not a really flexible way.

4. Subdomain Hosting: So-Pink is small, but they offer subdomain hosting. I would not recommend domain hosting with So-Pink in case you want to take your domain elsewhere.

I even offer free subdomain hosting on my domain Pixelled.com as long as people link back to my site. You can use my contact form here to inquire. However, I do not host commercial sites for free.

Please note that these places do not usually have anything but FTP access, but you can host a self-hosted WordPress blog.

Making a website is not difficult, nor finding a good place. This is just for those who need an easy and low cost way to do it.

What other places do you suggest?

For well over 5 years, I have been in the webhosting industry. I do not press it. In fact, some people think I do, but truthfully, I am the type of person that just leaves a link or banner out. If someone clicks on it, great! If not, oh well.

For hosting, I have purchased well over 8 years, as long as I have been designing professionally (for pay.) Yep, for those haters, I have been designing that long, and my resume (forgive the lack of accents and correct spelling on that word) contains almost 100 sites I have played part in the design. Not only that, my free graphics have been used on numerous sites. Personally, I enjoy more that people love the free graphics I give out. In fact, I encourage people to make suggestions on what they would like to see. It is practice for me and something else that is free for anyone.

People often forget the simple and honest things, especially in hosting, hence why I began a bit awkwardly in this post. It is to prove my honesty. With over 400 pages, I better be honest about what I do!

So, here is a guide to how to select a webhost:

1. Choose several webhosts before you begin. There are so many, that you should choose at least a dozen and go from there.

2. Look up the host in search engines. As much as some people like to be positive, you need to be careful. No matter if a webhost has a thousand or ten thousand clients… as they say, you need to look up their company name and words like “scam”, “bad webhost”, “reported to Better Business Bureau.” Trust me, after a personal learning experience, I can attest that you really should.

3. Look up the company you want to webhost with in the Better Business Bureau.

4. Read the forums, that is, if that webhosting company has a forum. Even if you have to sign up, it is better in the long run.

5. Check out what kind of services it offers. If the company offers a special admin panel other than cPanel or Plesk, you may run into the fact that you are limited on creating databases or other features. You could even have troubles moving to a different host later on if you choose a host with a different control panel platform (like Powweb… sorry, I do not even link them because I do not like their services.)

These are just general considerations when you select a webhost. Although price may seem great, in the end, you could get screwed. Do your research first before choosing.

I always encourage people to visit sites that offer more information to consumers looking for web hosting. Why? Well, these sites are important in allowing people shopping for a new webhost a single place to check out reviews submitted by their peers. There are webhosts that open and close every day based on your input.

I cannot count the times I have had bad service since I started purchasing webhosting in 2003. Since then I became my own webhost.

It is not easy, but these web hosting review sites really do help. Consumers want to trust the service they buy. If a host is not genuine, or has a lot of technical problems, these review sites will reflect that in what the clients say about a company.

I recommend checking it out. If you are hosting with anyone, you should submit a review for them today at Webhosting Choice.

For most, hosting is really a big deal. When you pay to have your own domain and webspace, you expect to have your money’s worth. Web Hosting Geeks allows you to review your webhost.

Why is it important to review your webhost. Well, for one if they are giving decent services, the reviews work like ‘word of mouth.’ These reviews could be something that may entice others to purchase the same services. If your webhost was under par, well… it can alert potential clients to beware when making transactions with a particular webhost. Also, these reviews can serve as a learning experience with the webhost.

Web Hosting Geeks also offers an informative blog to educate their users on all sorts of subjects concerning hosting, from finding the right host, and even news about webhost companies.

I really liked the article SSL For Your E-commerce Site a it not only explains what SSL is, but also how to purchase a SSL certificate, install and design for SSL. Even if you are not new to the hosting scene, this is a wonderful resource to share with your friends.

Have you submitted a review about your webhost before? If not, would you consider reviewing them? If you have, what other webhost review sites do you recommend submitting reviews?

I remember a couple years ago participating in a website that gave website owners that had extra space and bandwidth the ability to offer some of it to others. Usually this was done by the host of the domain allotting a subdomain or subfolder for another to use for their own website.

The site was called Pick-Me.net This of course was a movement that was started in hopes of allowing people the following:

• To connect with each other
• To get away from free hosts like Freewebs, Piczo, and Yahoo! Geocities, and similar site
• To try to encourage better web standards in design

After some time the site had issues with the mods with time constraint and the script was falling behind because of the popularity of the website. However, it hs once again risen and is accepting applications for both hosts and hostees.

The brilliant part of the site is its two main lists: hosts and hostees. A host can look at the list of hostees needing a website, while hostees can surf around and find a host with a domain name and requirements that suit their needs.

As a note, I offer 100MB diskspace/ 5GB bandwidth of free webspace at Pixelled.com. Hostees would receive a subdomain, email account (forwarder or can be used for popmail), have WordPress installed, and can put up links from text ads. However, I require a link to Pixelled.com, Webhost-Solutions.net, and Blondish.net in a very visible spot. I also require 4 visits a month to my blog here at Blondish (which means they should comment.) My only huge requirement is that I do not allow commercial based websites. Otherwise, I allow most websites.

Not sure if anyone has come by the site and has seen the 500 Internal Server Error. It was the WordPress, but I am not sure if it is the 2.7 installation or one of the plug-ins. I installed the NextGen Gallery so I could put my pics of my son, myself, and my stock photos. I think I have pinpointed the issue to this particular plugin, but I cannot be certain as of yet. I have been tackling this issue the past few days. It sucked getting online to find out this issue. I may have to go back to the technicians at HostGator to try to tweak my server if this is the case.