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5 Web Hosting Tips for 2009
"Are you planning your web hosting needs for 2009? Then it's a great time for your company to consider the following tips for a successful year of hosting! By following these simple steps, you can not only save money, but also ensure that your website has ...
How to Find a Dependable Web Host
Your new website is ready to upload, and now you need a web host. Or perhaps you already have a web host, but uptime and support are lacking. Of the thousands of web hosts to choose from, how do you find one that you can depend on? Know what can go wrong ...
How to Sell your Website
How to Sell your Website There are hundreds and thousands of websites on the internet today being bought and sold and there are many places you can sell your website such as ebay and website brokers. Though this article we will explore each of these ...
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Free Web site Hosting without the Banner Ads?
Looking for free web hosting with no annoying pop-ups, pop-unders, buttons, banners, headers or footers? And as well as this, you'd like 99.8 percent up-time, fast servers, access to the cgi-bin for scripts, FP extensions, PHP and MySQL databases and FTP access?
We went out searching for the best "no ads" totally free site hosting space deals around. The results: disappointing, they are very few and far between. Many have come and gone, or as in the case of Bizland, quite suddenly withdrawn their free service and demanded that all their customers begin paying. We took a look at the promotional information for over 300 free web hosting companies, but then also looked at customer reviews. There was usually a major difference in opinions.
There is still a plethora of free web hosts around, but most require that you carry their advertising or offer you a limited time for the free service, usually a year. On the up side of this, many of these companies do supply quality hosting with many services in exchange for having their banners served up on your pages. We did find that many of the non-banner supported free options were hosted on very slow servers. In a number of cases, the server failed to respond at all!
How do non-banner free hosting companies make their money?
These companies try to survive by enticing the freebie customers to take out their paid hosting space options, which is fair enough. Quite often, their paid hosting options are quite cheap. You'll find that if you utilize this kind of free site hosting, the services available are rather limited and you'll need to pay for things like Front Page extensions and access to the cgi-bin for scripts. The other way that they survive is through regular newsletters containing offers from companies that pay them for the ad space.
Strategies in using non-banner supported free hosting options
One of the common patterns for these companies is that when they first set up shop, customer support is fantastic, server response times are great, shared scripts function well and file transfer interfaces are reliable. But as time goes on, "gold fever" hits, and people begin flocking to these companies with inevitable results - things start slowing down and falling over.
If you do find yourself in the position of needing to use free space due to financial restrictions; here's a couple of things you can do:
Buy a domain name first Register a domain name first - Many domain name registrars give you a stack of free services with each name registered. Costs for domain name registrations can be as little as US$10-$12 per year. One of the services that you want to look for is a domain name control panel and free http/URL forwarding or framing. This allows you to redirect the name as you wish, changing its destination every day if you want to! If your free web-hosting provider goes belly up or isn't functioning correctly, you can move your site to another provider and redirect the domain name to point towards it.
A word of warning - be very careful whom you register your domain name with. We recently assisted a client who registered a domain name for a couple of dollars, but had very little control over the name without having paying huge fees to the registrar. It took approximately 2 months to wrest control away from the rabid registrar and transfer the name to a more ethical company. Always read the fine print.
What if I can't afford a domain name?
You could always use a free, no-banner, no-popup URL/HTTP redirection service from providers such as:
http://www.shorturl.com/
http://www.has.it/home.php
http://www.777i.net/
http://www.ipfox.com/home.html
The only issue with using these free URL redirection providers is the question of continuity of service. Also bear in mind that when it comes to being listed on the search engines, nothing beats having your own domain commercially hosted, rather than a redirection to one.
Free web space may be right under your nose!
When you sign up for Internet access, it is not uncommon for you also to get some free web space thrown in with the deal. We receive 10 Megs of space, including Front Page extensions from our Internet Service Provider which has been invaluable for creating a mirror / backup version of Taming the Beast. Net. Email your ISP to check out what is available to you.
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USA TODAY |
Internet stocks bounce backUSA TODAYApple has been a huge driver for the Internet 50 index. Apple has been a huge driver for the Internet 50 index. The market's surge that started in January has now pushed the Dow Jones industrial average to its highest point since May 19, 2008, ...and more » |
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