Dedicated web hosting ha become the standard for many small and medium-sized online businesses, due to its enhanced performance, functionality, reliability, security and support. While dedicated hosting plans are generally better than shared web hosting plans, not all dedicated hosting plans are the same. Each web hosting company offers different solutions for different customer needs, and each web hosting plan should be examined thoroughly before you decide to go forth with a plan subscription. Knowing the features of each web hosting plan provided by each company will ultimately help you make a more informed decision.

Inmotion Web Hosting

Perhaps one of the most renowned dedicated web hosting providers is Inmotion. Inmotion offers a variety of plans to accommodate all of their customers needs by providing dedicated IP addresses, friendly customer service, and easily expandable web hosting packages.

InMotion Support

Having a good support staff on call at all times is extremely important in the web hosting industry, as problems can occur at all ties of the day and night. Inmotion takes this into consideration by offering 24/7 support, 365 days out of the year. The Inmotion support staff is extremely friendly and knowledgeable, and the company has an incredible track record of 99% uptime. That is very impressive, as it means your site stands a very small chance of experiencing downtime at any point. The support staff at Inmotion will go beyond what is asked of them, even helping you set up your websites firewall, add new PHP modules, and aiding in the completion of other extracurricular server configurations.

Inmotion Servers

Inmotion uses nothing but Dell servers, which are known for being reliable servers. Instead of offering low-end servers like many web hosting companies, Inmotion is known for giving its customers access to premium technology and hardware. It is this commitment to quality that has made Inmotion one of the most recognized web hosting companies in the industry.

Inmotion Security

The bandwidth and diskspace offered by Inmotion is virtually unlimited as their network is one of the most reliable in the industry. Each user receives there own dedicated IP address which lets them conduct online business with absolute assurance that their site is safe from the actions of other  irresponsible websites. By owning their own dedicated IP address, users can rest assured that the responsibility of  running a professional and trustworthy website is left in no ones hands but their own.

Inmotion Guarantee

Aside from the above features, Inmotion also offers a money back guarantee on all of their web  hosting products, which gives you a good idea on how much they believe in their ability to please and support their customers with quality services. Any web hosting company that does not offer such a guarantee is most likely not confident in their ability to offer the same level of service. By knowing that you are opting into a risk free endeavor with no obligations, you can be assured that your money is being used to fund a quality service that will provide your website with the resources needed.

In Scottsdale, Arizona, one of the best places to work since 2004 and repeating for the sixth year in a row is GoDaddy.com.  Business Journal ranked the Internet’s largest combined domain registrar and web hosting provider among the “Valley’s Best Places to Work”.

GoDaddy.com

Proclaimed the world’s number one domain name registrar by Name Intelligence, GoDaddy.com provides services and products enabling businesses and individuals to create and maintain an online  presence.  The company provides domain name registration covering a large number of suffixes (.com, .net, .org and many others), web site design, web hosting and many other on-the-fly services.  Customers with GoDaddy.com may purchase SSL certificates, domains by proxy and privacy registration, e-commerce hosted web sites, fully designed and software installed blog web sites, and even podcasting and online photography web hosted accounts are made available.  With over 38 million domain names under its belt, GoDaddy.com estimates a domain is either newly established, renewed or transferred every second.

Rated

Quantum Market Research compiles data on companies being rated for the yearly “Valley’s Best Places to Work” honor.  The ranking is based on surveys completed by GoDaddy.com employees which measure retention rates, the effectiveness of the managerial team, efficiency of work teams, company and employee goal alignments, trust levels of employees in their co-workers and senior staff as well as other performance-based criteria.

Success

With over 2,400 employees, GoDaddy.com has its work cut out for them keeping everyone happy and enjoying their work with the company.  The company does this very adeptly with incentives and prizes being given to its top performers.  Mortgages paid for a year, new cars and motorcycles purchased, all expenses paid vacations, and chances to step inside the GoDaddy.com “cash-blowing machine” are just a few of the ways employees are rewarded.

It seems there is no stopping the success of the top domain name registrar either.  Even in the economic times being felt the world over, GoDaddy.com has seen increased growth and a 22% revenue gain over the course of the year.  The company has recently thrown a no-expenses spared holiday party in downtown Phoenix, Arizona to celebrate and further reward its employees.  As GoDaddy.com has offices not only in Arizona but Iowa, Colorado, Washington DC and the Netherlands, all out of the area employees were flown in and given hotel accommodations – again, all on the company’s dime.

Honors

GoDaddy.com’s CEO and Founder, Bob Parsons, has stated he learned quite some time ago that employees that are happy create customers that are happy.  Bob has always desired that the company be a fun, rewarding place and offers an employment package matched by very few other companies in the same class.  It is this attitude that has garnered GoDaddy.com many other honors including CNN Money’s list ranking for Best Perks, Arizona Business Leader of the Year and the Alfred P. Sloan award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility on three separate occasions.

Currently the company has more than one hundred jobs available for the taking.  With as much as GoDaddy.com gives to its employees, it is hard to imagine these jobs staying open for very long.

Blogging is one of the easiest way to express yourself on the internet. Anyone can start a blog for free and discuss anything they’d like with ease. For this reason it is now wonder there are tons of new blogs created everyday.  Blogging can be done on free sites, or even on your own hosted domain. If you decide to make a serious blog related to your business, then you may want to consider a hosting package that will suit the needs of your blog.

Blogging Platforms

Blogging platforms such as Blogger and WordPress are extremely popular ways to host a blog. WordPress is actually considered the best by countless bloggers and their testaments may be a factor to consider when choosing your blogging platform. WordPress is extremely user-friendly and customizable, offering the user a wide variety of themes, “widgets” and plugins. These blogging applications will take your blog to the next step, and can help you make the entire process of setting up and creating a blog completely automated. In fact, some people utilize these blogging applications to initiate autoblogs.

Free VS. Paid Blog Hosting

There is a choice of either free or paid hosting services for your blog. For most people, a free blog host will suffice, as they are not looking for overly complex features or high amounts of bandwidth. However, you should remember that if you are serious about blogging, then sooner or later you will reach a limit in what you can do with free hosting. If you want your blog to grow and expand into a very large and highly visited blog, then it may be in your best interest to consider a paid web hosting package that includes blog support. It is not hard to find such services at very affordable prices in today’s competitive market.

Choosing a Paid Host

Choosing a paid host means that you will want to weigh your options carefully, as you do not want to pay for a service that does not meet your needs fully. It used to be quite difficult to find the right match for your web hosting needs. However it is now far easier as the market is more competitive and there are more resources available that will help you choose the right web hosting service.  Once you have chosen several prospective web hosting services that are interesting to you, you can then search for a review on each company to see which one is most suitable for you.

Regardless of whether you use free or paid hosting, blogging is an excellent way to share your opinions with the world. Blogging is also a great way to make money if you know how to market your blog in an efficient manner. If you are not comfortable using paid services in the beginning, then you can try using free services until you are ready to upgrade to a more comprehensive hosting plan with better blog support. Most of the time you can add your existing free blog to a paid hosting account, so your hard work is not really lost.

E-commerce web hosting solutions are designed specifically for the online business owner and most of them will be able to accommodate your site’s needs. However, there are some very basic differences between each plan, and these differences need to be scrutinized carefully. Without knowing the importance of each feature, it can be difficult to prioritize and make a decision based on performance. Instead, most customers choose their ecommerce hosting plan based on price and popularity.

Basing your decision on these factors is a poor decision, because in the need you still don’t know what you’re paying for. Ecommerce hosting solutions are supposed to be all-inclusive packages that help your online business thrive, yet many of them are basic packages that only provide frustration and a long learning curve.

Although the popularity of a web hosting company is a good indicator of it’s service, basing your decision solely on price and popularity will almost always result in mishap, and in the end the performance of your hosting endeavors will suffer. In the world of ecommerce hosting, there are several main attributes that comprise the performance of a particular plan: Reliability, Features, and Cost Effectiveness.

Reliability

Perhaps the most important attribute an ecommerce hosting company can have is the reliability and support it provides. Without proper support you could find yourself dealing with confusing dilemmas on your own. This can result in loss of time and money, and even downtime for your website. When it comes to testing the reliability of a web hosting company, you should take the initiative yourself, rather than relying on the opinion of others. Make a few phone calls to the customer service department and ask a few questions. This way you can see how long it takes them to address your issues, how friendly they are, and how knowledgeable their service representatives are.

Some companies may require you to have an account with them before they provide customer service, however you can always make an inquiry about their services, which will serve the same purpose. Only once you’ve tested the customer service for yourself should you rely on the opinions of others. Customer reviews on forums may be helpful, but you don;t want to base your decision solely on this information.

Features

All good ecommerce hosting plans should include a variety of features that make your job as an online business owner easier. Although there are many features to consider, the only one that should be noted here is the shopping cart. Shopping carts make the shopping experience more convenient for your customers, which ultimately translates into more sales and a greater return on your investment. Without a convenient shopping experience, many of your customers will leave your site and find another online business to spend their hard earned money with.

Cost Effectiveness

While price should not be a deciding factor, you also want to make sure you aren’t overpaying for a solution that may prove to be incapable in the long term. Be sure to compare the cost effectiveness of each ecommerce solution before making your decision. If you notice that a particular company is charging more than another, then make sure you understand why the price is higher. If there is no logical explanation for the raise in price, then they may be overcharging you, which is a good indicator that they are not a trustworthy business.

Having a good content management system is crucial to the success of any online business. With so many to choose from, it can be hard to decide which ones will live up to their promises. In fact, it can be difficult just to find the top three! Below we’ve given you an overview of the three best content management systems; Drupal, Joomla, and Mambo. The information below should aid you in conducting your own thorough investigation, based on your needs.

Drupal

Drupal has quickly become one of the most popular content management systems. It’s recent popularity boom is due to the fact that it is an open-source software, which means it can be improved by any developer with an interest in doing so. Drupal has been said to be a perfect solution for people who are building community-based websites such as forums. This is because one of it’s most notable features is it’s user permissions system. With it’s extensive administrative control, webmasters can control every aspect of their forum. Drupal is also preferred over Joomla in terms of development because it is easier to interact with and expand.

Joomla

Joomla has also gained popularity because of it’s powerful features and easy user interface. While Joomla also includes forum managing features, these features are not it’s strongest points. Among the more notable features of this CMS is it’s administrative functionality for image galleries, search engine optimization, shopping carts, and forum management. Some users choose Joomla over Drupal due to it’s user-friendly interface. Although there is some learning curve involved with Joomla it is often described as the easiest CMS around.

Mambo

The Mambo content management system was one of the first popular open source content managements systems. While it has been around for quite some time now, it still have a group of developers backing it that maintain it’s functionality and reliability. Even though it was one of the pioneer content management systems, it has fallen somewhat behind the newer CMS softwares available. The primary reason for it’s recently decreased popularity is it’s code incompatibility due to it’s age. For this reason many developers shy away from developing applications that can be used with Mambo. With each new advance in the consent management industry, Mambo becomes more obsolete.

Making the Decision

The first thing you’ll want to do when investigating your options, is go to the main site of each of the content management systems above. Make sure you review all of their features and ensure you’re going to be able to fulfill all of your needs by using the software. Even though one of the softwares may be more suitable for you it is still likely that you will need to install additional applications. It is very unlikely that you will find all of the desired features within one CMS, therefor you’ll want to do some research and find out which CMS has the compatible applications you need. Once you’ve made your decision, you can install the CMS of your choice simply with the Fantastico program.

A lot of web hosting companies use the terms bandwidth and data transfer interchangeably.  While they are very closely related, they are not one in the same.  To clarify the matter, bandwidth refers to how much data can be transferred at a given time.  Data transfer is the actual amount of data being transferred.  Think of bandwidth as a bridge.  The bigger the size, the more vehicles can pass through.  In the same scenario, data transfer would represent the number of vehicles able to pass through in a certain amount of time.  When a web hosting company talks about bandwidth, they are usually referring to data transfer.

How They Affect Your Website

Bandwidth and disk transfer are both vital to the performance of a website.  A site that has less bandwidth will run noticeably slower than one with more.  This is the case regardless of the visitor’s connection speed.  Without enough data transfer, your site could eventually become inaccessible once you reach your monthly quota.  This basically means that your website will be out of business until the a new month begins or you upgrade your hosting plan.

Unlimited Bandwidth and Transfer

Many companies today advertise plans with unlimited bandwidth or data transfer.  However, you should keep in mind that bandwidth is a very costly resource.  There is simply no such thing as an endless supply.  Unfortunately, you typically have no control over bandwidth whether it is labeled unlimited or expressed in specific numbers. The hosting company handles the allocation.  This is even true when leasing a dedicated server.  Some providers are known for throttling, which is the practice of limiting the number of simultaneous connections.  This is something that can make your site run incredibly slow and even prevent some users from gaining access.  If this is something you are worried about, ask the hosting company how they control usage or invest in package with a tremendous amount of guaranteed data transfer.

Reducing Usage

There are quite a few ways to reduce the amount of transfer your website uses.  The easiest way is to optimize your site to run efficiently with less.  This can be done by minimizing the use of Flash or streaming media applications.  It would also be a good idea to limit the use of META tags to those that are absolutely necessary.  While this may seem as if it is hurting your SEO efforts, using too many keywords actually does more harm than good.  Another way to optimize your site is to cache it and set an expiration date in the HTTP headers.  This will make certain that the browser refreshes your content after a certain amount of time.  Taking note of these simple tips can help you preserve as much as 40% of your bandwidth.

Final Thoughts

Bandwidth and data transfer may be different, but they are both equally important to a website. If you are not sure about how much you need, try reaching out to a few hosting companies for some guidance.  The ones who don’t mind helping out could make finding your ideal host much easier.

iPage web hosting has been in business for over ten years providing customers with hosting accounts full of options and features.  The company knows there is no such thing as a typical web hosting client and offers as much flexibility as possible without making things over complicated.  iPage does all this on top of being a “green” web hosting company – something that sets them apart from its peers.

The facts

iPage web hosting currently manages and hosts over 1.5 million domains and serves over 1 million web sites.  The company has customers in 150 countries around the world and 6 worldwide locations.  With over 800 total employees ready to serve customers at any time, iPage web hosting is a company that stands ready to assist hosting clients where ever and whenever needed.

The plan

Instead of offering a half a dozen or more plans making things a bit confusing for prospective and new web hosting clients, iPage web hosting offers one simple plan – the iPage Essential Plan.  For $3.50 per month, hosting clients have access to a wealth of features that include unlimited hosting space, data transfer and much more.  Each account is designed to work with the complete novice or the experienced web hosting user.

The features

The unlimited features do not stop with mere web space and bandwidth.  iPage also gives its customers unlimited domains allowed with each account and unlimited MySQL databases.  Building and designing a web site with this company is a breeze with a choice of either a drag and drop site builder or a template-based site builder.  Each account is set with e-commerce solutions, marketing tools and a nice assortment of tools for sending and receiving e-mail.  One click installations of the more popular web host programs are also included with each account.

The secure

Each account with iPage is equipped with a free malware and spam scanning program protecting and securing web site data.  The team at iPage works hard to ensure firewalls are in place, databases are locked down and proper encryption tools are up to date and running smoothly.  At the first hint of any security hole, everything is locked down and dealt with immediately to prevent sensitive data from being unwillingly released to nefarious hackers.

The support

When it comes to help, iPage has it covered.  The web hosting company’s help center sports a knowledge base, FAQs, tutorials and a support ticket system.  Toll-free telephone support is offered 24×7 and a live chat support button is available throughout the web site for on-the-fly assistance.

The green

iPage web hosting does its part for the environment by offsetting the electrical energy it utilizes.  The company purchases wind-generated Renewable Energy Certificates in the amount of energy it uses on a regular basis.  This prevents the atmospheric release of approximately 2,600 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.

The end

Inexpensive, highly secure, full of features and options, great support and all eco-friendly to boot – these are just a few great reasons to check out the web hosting offered by iPage.

When searching for a new web hosting company, one thing that is on many minds these days is if the hosting company in question runs on clean, renewable energy.  Of the types of green energy available, solar power is one of the most used energy resources for web hosting companies.  Hosting with a solar powered web hosting company does not mean one has to give up any of the standard options normally available with non-green hosting companies.  A quick check on Google shows quite a few solar powered hosting companies with a lot to offer.

AISO.Net

AISO.Net uses 120 on-site solar panels to power not only their data centers but their office as well.  Simply by using solar power, this company estimates that it saves over 34,000 pounds of CO2 emissions yearly.  If solar energized hosting wasn’t enough, this company also uses the power of the sun for natural lighting throughout its facilities.  The company’s building is outfitted with over 7 solar tubes meaning there is no need to use standard lighting fixtures during the day – a savings of another 600 pounds of CO2 emissions yearly.

AISO.Net offers seven different hosting plans (3 Linux OS and 4 Windows OS) starting as low as $9.95 a month.  Each hosting account offers a good amount of web space, monthly bandwidth and a variety of standard features.

Solar Energy Host

Saving over 19,000 pounds of CO2 emissions yearly, Solar Energy Host is another great hosting company utilizing the power of the sun.  The company determined that the amount of battery usage during the night hours caused greater environmental damage as compared to using electricity from the grid.  So, at night grid energy is used but during the day enough energy is created from the solar panels installed at its facilities that any nightly grid energy used is more than replenished.

Solar Energy Host offers three Linux OS based accounts filled with plenty of space, monthly data transfers and all the bells and whistles one would expect from any web hosting company – all starting at just $9.95 per month.

GrayMatter

Located in one of the sunniest states around (California), GrayMatter is able to maintain its 99.9% up-time through redundant solar powered servers.  With 120 solar panels located on two arrays, this company is able to generate the power it needs even on cloudy days.  In case of a power outage, the company is able to pull power from a back up generator.

Starting at just $7.95 a month, GrayMatter offers four great plans with more than enough web space, monthly bandwidth and a host of features and add-on software – just as one would expect from a standard web hosting company.

Final Thoughts

Being ecologically friendly is increasingly important these days.  When choosing a green web hosting company run by solar energy, it is comforting to know that for the same low monthly fee as non-green web hosting companies charge one can receive the same level of service and features one expects out of a great web hosting company.

With all the belt tightening going on around these days, it’s simply a matter of time before businesses online with web sites will need to do the same.  There are a variety of ways to streamline a budget and one of the best ways is to research and locate a web host that not only offers a low monthly cost but doesn’t skimp on reliability in doing so.

Up-time and reliability

When conducting a bit of research on web hosting companies, there are a few things to keep in mind.  First and foremost is reliability.  If the hosting company in question does not have an easy to find link to information regarding the equipment used, the speed of said equipment and some details on up-time and reliability, one can safely file that hosting company in the “do not bother” pile.  That being said, nearly every reputable web hosting company online will be more than happy to show off their up-time, guarantees and facility information.  While not all of the details may be easily understood, the important thing to remember is a 99.9% up-time and a money back guarantee should the company fail at this up-time be information that is quick and easy to find.  Nothing is more disappointing than to have a business web site fail and become invisible to the rest of the web browsing community.

Unlimited features

Next on the list of things to look for in an economical web host is that a lot of unlimited features are offered.  Many hosting companies are able to offer unlimited amounts of web space, monthly data transfer and often can offer unlimited e-mail accounts to boot.  Restrictions on space or bandwidth will mean a business will have no room to grow and will have to limit resources that should be available to the public.

Customer support

It is the fervent hope of every newly created web site that support won’t be necessary.  However, even in the best of circumstances, something within the web site just may not want to work properly.  Being able to contact customer support then becomes paramount.  Research web hosting companies that prominently display a customer support area.  What should be present within this section is a toll-free number that is, at a minimum, available during regular business hours.  Ideally 24×7 would be the perfect solution but this isn’t always the case with some hosting companies.  Knowledge bases, FAQs and searchable support documentation should be present within the hosting site’s customer support section.  The absolute best hosting companies also offer live chat options for support – allowing customers quick and live access when they need it the most.

Pricing

According to research, the average budget hosting accounts run from between $3.45 a month to $6.95 a month.  There are other hosting companies not listed with this site that offer even lower monthly deals but, more often than not, these are special offers and usually only last about a year.  It is the best option to choose a hosting company that consistently remains at a set monthly price.  After all, nothing is more inclined to cause a loss of customers or clients than a web site that is moved constantly to accommodate for cheaper hosting prices.  The point is, choose a good low-cost hosting company and stick with it.

Final Thoughts

There are many other minor details one should look into when choosing a cost-effective web hosting company.  The main basics to look at are reliability, features, customer support and overall pricing.  A little bit of research with this bit of knowledge will go a long way in helping new businesses find the perfect budget-friendly web hosting company for their needs.

One of the most inaccurate statements within the web creation world is that web design and web development are essentially the same thing.  In actuality, web design is one subsection of web development.  Web development encompasses many different activities that culminates in the creation of an online web site.

Web Design

According to Wikipedia, web design is “the skill of creating presentations of content (usually hypertext of hypermedia) that is delivered to an end-user through the World Wide Web”.  Web design tasks include animation creation and implementation, content creation for web pages, style sheet creation, and working within the HTML/XHTML/XML of web pages.

Good web design requires great planning.  Not only does a web designer actually create the pages that go into an online site but he or she also needs to plan out the web site prior to the actual creation.  This involves brainstorming the context, audience, purpose, content and compatibility issues.  Once these essential needs are fleshed out, the fun of web design can commence.

The simplest way to look at what exactly web design means is to think of the overall creation of a web site.  The planning and page creation are the end results of what a web designer must accomplish.

Web Development

Web development is a much broader term than web design and covers all the aspects of creating a web site.  E-commerce, web design, content creation, scripting and server configuration are all pieces of the larger web development puzzle.

A new web site about to be launched on the World Wide Web may entail not only informational pages but also product or service pages, a means for customers or clients to be able to purchase those goods, a merchant solution to process payments, support methods and even software or programs that allow online interaction with customers and clients.  Even more detailed web sites may include social networking and media widgets or animation and graphic-centric information.

All of the different needs and web technologies that can be part of the creation of a web site can be neatly placed under the umbrella of web development.  When a business desiring to place their web site on the internet looks for assistance in this matter, often a web development teamed is hired.  This team will have e-commerce experts, designers, server administrators, hosting companies or personnel, and may also include social media gurus and other technology-specific experts.

Conclusion

What it all comes down to is knowing the difference between a designer or a development team.  If a business already has a web site up and running on the internet and simply needs some minor modifications or additions made, hiring a web designer is the ticket.  However, if the business in question is not already on the internet and needs to create an entire web site, the business then needs to look for a web development team that may include a web designer.  The former is just one piece of the later.