Free Web Hosting Really Exists?

Yes. You can get free web hosting from many different  companies, the only set back is you’re not going to be able to build your business with free web hosting. However, you can become acquainted with the web hosting industry and you can learn how to build and operate your site with a basic free web hosting solution. Instead of spending your money on a plan that you’re not sure about, you can opt to test the waters with free web hosting instead. If you are looking for a free web host, just do a web search for the term “free web hosting.”

What Can I Do With Free Web Hosting?

The answer to this question is a broad one, in that you can do pretty much anything you would do with a regular hosting plan, except you are limited by the amount of server resources. Free web hosting provides a sample of what web hosting is like, and it let’s you site up a small site that you could use as a personal profile or a small personal blog. Free web hosting is similar to the food sample you’ll find at the food court in the mall – you can get a taste of what is on offer, but don’t expect to make an entire meal out of it!

Can I Upgrade My Free Web Hosting Plan?

One of the best aspects of free web hosting plans is that most web hosting companies will let you upgrade your free plan to a more inclusive paid plan. Many times upgrading is as simple as sending an email or making a phone call. If you are looking for a way to test the waters before you set your boat a sail, you may want to consider free web hosting with a company that offers the option to upgrade. Since free web hosting is such a limited solution, you are undoubtedly going to have the need for an upgrade in the near future, so you’ll want to leave this option open and make the transition as smooth as possible.

Looking for a great way to edit images, photos and more without having to install any sort of program to your PC?  The best online image editor out there these days is definitely Aviary. 

It does much more than just your basic image editing.  Here are some of the tools they provide:

• Image Editor
• Color Editor
• Effects Editor
• Vector Editor
• Audio Editor
• Image Markup
• and much more!

Until just recently, people were required to pay a monthly membership to use all the tools Aviary provides.  Thanks to some funding from outside sources, we all get to use every tool they make available.  It is 100% free to use!

Give it a shot, play around with a few images and see if you like it.  Who knows, you might have just found your own Photoshop for free that you can use online.  You can learn more at Aviary.com.

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don't forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Even after you have decided upon a specific kind of web hosting plan, you then have to consider the sub-types of each type of web hosting. For example, you may choose dedicated hosting, however you then have to decide whether you want managed or unmanaged web hosting. Some of the web hosting types are very similar, and to the untrained eye there is seemingly no difference. If you;re having trouble deciding between colocation and managed web hosting then this article may help you make an educated decision that you won’t regret after the fact.

Managed Web Hosting

Managed web hosting is actually a form of dedicated web hosting. With managed web hosting you’ll have a dedicated server that is used only by you, however you will not have full administrative control over this server. In other words, the web hosting provider will be responsible for maintaining the integrity, performance, and reliability of the server. Since you will not be responsible for the administration of your server, you’ll have an added cost as you will essentially be paying for the continual service of the web hosting company. Many people choose this solution since it is much more convenient than having to manage the server themselves. This solution is especially optimal for novice users. Managed web hosting is considered one of the most expensive types of web hosting plans, right behind colocation hosting.

Colocation Hosting

Colocation is similar to dedicated hosting, as you will also have a server that is used only by you. However, the main difference is this server will actually be yours and will not be leased by you but will be owned by you. In other words, you will have to actually buy your own server which will cost thousands of dollars in startup capital. With dedicated hosting you’ll be leasing the server which is far cheaper than colocation hosting. Colocation hosting lets you store your private server at a facility that is specifically designed for server security. Therefore, colocation hosting is basically a server storage solution for larger corporations and businesses. For this reason, colocation hosting is the most expensive kind of hosting available.

The Main Differences

The primary difference between colocation and managed hosting is the amount of control you have over your server. With colocation hosting, since you actually own the server, you’ll have complete control over the server, however you’ll also need the ability to do so. With managed hosting you’ll be leasing the server and you won’t have to worry about the hassle of maintaining it. For most people managed hosting is the desirable solution between the two.

It is not at all common to see someone begin their mission in search engine optimization with great zeal, only to become overwhelmed by the vast amount of information that needs to be learned and applied to reach success. Much of this information cannot be found in a single location and it takes weeks if not months to become familiar with the entire process of optimizing a website for search engine success.

Finished from the Beginning

Unfortunately even with all of the experience in the world you will not always be able to achieve the success you desire, especially if you’re trying to capitalize in a heavily competitive market. The fact is, maybe the single most important aspect of search engine optimization is keyword optimization. If you are not targeting the right keywords then your plan is doomed form the very beginning. This means you need to do keyword research before you can actually begin your endeavor.

Once you know what keyword you’re promoting you can find all of the related keywords and begin designing your site around that list of keywords. If you have already built your site and it is based on a keyword that you cannot change, such as your physical business, then your search engine optimization efforts are going to be twice as difficult. In fact you probably won’t be able to achieve the success you are looking for without hiring a professional, doing extensive research, and/or completely rethinking your gameplan.

SEO Experts

The sad fact is many of the so called experts in search engine optimization are no more certifiably qualified than you are to optimize your website. In fact, you probably know your website better than anyone ever will, and that gives you an instant advantage as it is. If you do decide to hire a search engine optimization expert, you would be better of paying a tutor to teach you how to do it yourself, as this would yield a much greater return on your investment. This way you would be able to use the knowledge gained for your future endeavors, instead of wasting your money on an operation that is not even guaranteed to bring success.

Finding Good SEO Services

So how can you find a good service that will actually help you increase your traffic with search engine optimization? The answer is actually quite simple -You need to understand what is a realistic expectation, and you need to find a company or an individual that will help you achieve that expectation. A reliable and experienced search engine optimization expert will give you a realistic quote for realistic results, whereas the “gurus” will try to charge you thousands of dollars for results that sound too good to be true. If you use this simple method to find help, you will be able to achieve realistic goals in a relatively short amount of time.

There are tons of things you can do from the .htaccess file inside of your web hosting account.  From redirecting the users to controlling who can get in and who can get out, it is a very useful file to have on your hosting account.  To help out the new web hosting clients and to act as a reminder to the old pros around here, I thought I would go through five of the most popular .htaccess tips I know.

Redirect to a Maintenance Page

This is a great one to use if you need to make some quick web page edits, and you don’t want the public to see you edit your web site, while it is still live.

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/offline.html$
RewriteRule .* /offline.html [R=307,L]

This will redirect anybody who checks out any web page on your web site to the "offline.html" file.

Force the Use of “www” in Front of a Domain Name

If you want to keep the www in front of your domain name, no matter how somebody types it in, here is the ‘bit of .htaccess magic you will need:

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^mydomain.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.mydomain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

Once you have done so, both mydomain.com and www.mydomain.com will both send you to www.mydomain.com

Remove the “www” From in Front of a Domain Name

You can also force your domain to drop the www from the address when typed in, if you would rather have it the other way around. In that situation, you would need to add this to your .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.mydomain.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://mydomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

This will make both mydomain.com and www.mydomain.com send you to just mydomain.com.

Manually Create Custom Error Pages

Ever check out some of those customized error pages and wonder how it could be done? Just use these snippets of .htaccess code to tell people where to look for your error pages.

   ErrorDocument 400 /errors/400.html
   ErrorDocument 401 /errors/401.html
   ErrorDocument 403 /errors/403.html
   ErrorDocument 404 /errors/404.html
   ErrorDocument 500 /errors/500.html

This tells the server to look inside the “errors” folder and that specific page for each of the different error types. That is not all of the error codes, but they are the ones that will be ‘hit by your users 99 percent of the time.

Block Visitor By IP Address

Need to keep somebody from checking out your web site?  This next tip will give you the ability to deny somebody based on what their IP address is:

order allow,deny
deny from 123.45.6.7
deny from 012.34.5.
allow from all

The above blocks access to the site from 123.45.6.7, and from any sub-domain under the IP block 012.34.5. (012.34.5.1, 012.34.5.2, 012.34.5.3, etc).

That is it for this round up of tips.  For more help with the .htaccess file, and many more things you can do with your web hosting account, be sure to check out the Lunarpages Web Hosting Wiki.

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don't forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Protect Your Website to Protect your Business

With all of the work that goes into building a comprehensive website over time, it may actually be more devastating to lose a website than to lose a PC or even an operating system. When a website is brought down by a virus, it cannot be quickly replaced like an operating system or  PC. In fact, the damage that is done can take months to repair, especially when you consider how many negative events can transpire as the result of a worm attack. The most obvious effect will be the loss of traffic that will be seen soon after the worm has infected your website.

Losing Traffic Due to Site Viruses

Website viruses are different than operating system viruses, as they are actually responsible for many of the local infections that end users experience. In other words, if you have a virus on your computer, it was most likely downloaded from a website that was carrying the virus. Most people don’t realize that many of these websites are not intending to give their visitors a virus, as they are a victim of the virus themselves. The virus attaches itself to the sites server and then uploads itself to all of the visitors’ computers. When this happens the visitors are quick to assume the site is unsafe, and thus will hesitate to return to the website. This can result in the loss of visitors in therefore business for a website owner.

Protecting Your Site From Viruses

To prevent the aforementioned issues, you should take the proper precautions to ensure the full safety of their website. One way you can do this is to use only secure web applications. Web applications often contain loopholes that lets hackers infiltrate the websites administrative interface and plant a virus. Another way to protect your site is to password protect all of your pages. You can do this in your hosting control panel. If you are having trouble with ensuring the safety of your website, it may be wise to consult with your web hosting provider for more info. Simply give them a call and ask them what kind of measures are in place to protect your website form worms, and ask thenm what you can do on your end to ensure maximum protection.

Why Are There Different Types of Managed Web Hosting?

There are various types of managed web hosting plans available, all of which give the end user a certain degree of control. For the highly inexperienced user on a lower budget, there are completely managed plans that involve little to no administrative work. Depending on the package, the amount of work that needs to be done by the end user will vary greatly. For the users that demand the least amount of work, there is fully managed hosting, while other more experienced webmasters may opt for partially managed web hosting.

Fully Managed Web Hosting

Fully managed web hosting may sound as if it web hosting on autopilot, however this is often not the case. Therefore it is important to make sure you know what you are paying for before deciding on a particular plan. In general, fully managed web hosting is the easiest type of web hosting you could purchase. Users usually need only to specify their needs and make whatever adjustments they see fit, and the server is autoconfigured to take care of the rest for them. As mentioned before, this is most definitely the most beneficial form of web hosting for novice users.

Partially Managed Web Hosting

Partially managed web hosting is a bit different than fully managed web hosting, as the end user will need to perform more administrative functions to keep their website performing optimally. While this may sound as if it is a disadvantage to fully managed web hosting, ultimately the user has more control over the server with this kind of web hosting. While inexperienced users may not want the burden of control, more capable webmasters will find it absolutely necessary to possess full or at least partial control over their web server.

Control vs. Convenience – Which is Right for You?

If you can’t decide which kind of managed web hosting would be right for you, you may want to use this simple  comparison to decide – control vs. convenience. If you need as more control then you may want to consider partially managed web hosting. However if you are looking for the simplest web hosting plan available, then you will undoubtedly benefit from fully managed web hosting. If you are going to purchase a fully managed web hosting plan then you should make sure you are paying for a fully automated service. Likewise, if you decide upon a partially managed web hosting solution, you should make sure you fully understand what aspects of your web server you’ll be able to control.

Regardless of the decision you make, be sure it is an informed decision that you will not regret after the fact. Making the right decision the first time around will save you a lot of time, money and frustration.

Who doesn’t love a cupcake or two? 

In celebration of National Cupcake Day, I give you some web site tips that will be sure to leave your web development sweet tooth wanting more.

Socialize Yourself

There are many easy ways you can plug your social profiles or micro-blogging services out there.  Here we have a source that will give you cute icons for the following social networks:  Delicious, Digg, Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, MySpace, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Technorati, and Twitter.

How to Embed a YouTube Playlist

Thanks to relist.tv, you can now deliver a nice flash playlist player for your YouTube videos.  How does it work?  Well, after visiting relist.tv, you just fill out the options and then grab the code to copy and paste into your site’s design.

Tons of WordPress Fun

For our WordPress using clients, these tasty links will be the icing on the cake.

• 25 Most Popular Twitter Plugins for WordPress
• Add Fixed Social Buttons to WordPress
• 4 Great Wooden WordPress Themes

Is that not enough?  Ok, let us top it off with 55 of my favorite WordPress plugins and the best blog hosting guide out there.

May you all have a very fun and fattening cupcake day!

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don't forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

SEO Benefits

Search engine spiders love text, and the more you can fit in your domain name, the better.  This shows the search engines that your website is most likely related to the keywords or phrases incorporated in your domain name, a factor that gives you a huge advantage over similar websites that have chosen not to take this route.  It is quite obvious that the longer your domain name is, the more keywords you can insert.  You have up to 64 characters to work with, so use this space wisely and make the most of it.

Easier to Remember than You Might Think

One reason many are against longer domain names is because they can be more difficult to recall than their shorter counterparts.  While this is often true, it is not always the case.  For example, if you just throw a bunch of keywords together for the sake of higher search engine rankings, then not only is your domain name likely to be difficult to remember, it probably will not make much sense either.  One way to get around the memory issue is to incorporate a sensible sentence into your domain name.  Because they have a better flow, sentences tend to be easier to remember.  So if you have targeted three keywords, try composing them into a short sentence and see how they would fit in your domain name.  Remember, you have the maximum size of 64 characters to play with and this could give you the leverage needed to come up with a domain name that is both easy to remember and effective.

Greater Impact

Another reason to choose a longer domain is because they stick out and can truly resonate with your audience.  While the same can be said for a shorter one, a long domain that carries appeal can provide a degree of uniqueness that allows you to stand out from the crowd.  This betters your chances of increasing the popularity of your website and thus, attracting more qualified visitors.  Some of the most frequently visited websites can attribute a great deal of their success to long domain names.

Conclusion

The short domain name offers numerous advantages.  However, when compared to longer ones, the most distinct may be that they are simply easier to type into a user’s address bar.  Because a large number of internet users rely on the search engines to find what they need, that value decreases even more.  When used correctly, longer domains can help improve your search engine visibility, increase traffic and help you stand out from the crowd, all of which are key ingredients to a successful website.

What is a Virtual Private Server?

A virtual private server is the next best thing to a private server, and it does not require nearly as much capital as a private server. By using a virtual private server you don’t have to worry about any limits being imposed on your hosting account as far as your website resources are concerned. This means your needs will be definitively met with regards to bandwidth and disk space. In addition your site will be able to operate at peak performance virtually without limitation. Therefore you won’t have to concern yourself with constant upgrades or multiple hosting accounts unnecessarily.

Who Needs It?

If you’re a personal website owner with a blog or a personal site that does not contain many files, then you probably would not benefit much from a virtual private server. However, if you are a business owner that is looking to expand in the near future, then you may want to expand your horizons by considering a virtual web hosting service. Virtual Private Servers are especially beneficial to business owners because they provide comprehensive administrative rights to the user which gives them complete control over their business website.

A virtual web hosting plan is also more reliable than your standard shared web hosting plan as the customer support is more personalized and the web server is not being used by other websites. With shared hosting, the web server is being shared by other websites, and if these websites conduct illegal or questionable activities, it is not uncommon for the entire block of IP addresses to be brought down. This could result in down time and even the loss of many potential customers.

Choosing a Virtual Web Hosting Plan

Choosing a web hosting plan of any kind requires a thorough process of elimination. Through deductive reasoning and a bit of research you can find the information need to make an informed decision in a timely manner without hesitation. Perhaps the most important factor in any web hosting plan is the companies reliability and the support they provide their customers. Try giving each prospective company a call several times and see which one answers your queries as quickly and as friendly as possible. Since this will be your first private hosting experience you’ll need to be sure you have access to all of the information you need this first time around.