Hosting Your Blog

Filed Under (web hosting) by Matt Hedges on 07-08-2008

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by Matt Hedges

There have been many crazes that swept internet users across the world into a frenzy and the latest is blogs and weblogs. For those who don’t know, a blog can be like a personal diary published online where the person can bare their soul and opinions to the world. If there is anything major in that person’s life or whatever emotion or feeling is filling their life, they can tell everyone about it. Publishing a blog is meant to be a true reflection of the bloggers’ life that they choose to share with the internet community and world. Although most blogs feature writing, they can also include images and videos about a whole host of topics.

A great thing about blogs is that they are designed to encourage interaction and other people to get involved with their thoughts and feelings too. This means that most blogs steer clear of anything too controversial in an attempt to attract more people.

The amount of companies providing blog hosting services is extremely large. Basically, a company that hosts blogs is one that will host or make arrangements to have your blog contained on their server. Serious consideration about which type of host really needs to be made by those undertaking a blog for business reasons. Getting the right or wrong blog host can hugely impact on the success of the blog and if there is money or business at stake, this is obviously a vital decision. There is no doubt that a great blog is a massively useful marketing option for any firm.

Such is the seriousness of some blogs that many firms look to employ professional writers to compile their blogs for them. The blogs can focus on any subject at all ranging from films to sport to products to anything at all. The ultimate challenge remains to find the right host for your blog and everything else slots in afterwards.

There are three main types of blog hosts: blog hosting providers who are exclusive, providers of web host services and resellers of web hosting services. Exclusive blog hosts and web hosts will offer a choice of paid for services or free services.

Understanding Your Options about Blog Host Providers

Before choosing a blog host, first figure out what your blog’s needs are most and what do you actually want to achieve through your blog. Depending on these goals and intentions choose a blog host that suits your purpose best. For example, most bloggers blog just for personal use and pleasure and therefore are satisfied with the most basic requirements, but if you are looking to use your blog for your business purpose, then your requirements and therefore choice of web hosts will be different.

If you are not computer savvy and are scared by technical issues, choose a hosting provider which doesn’t rely on technological issues. If you have internet skills, do not be afraid to choose a host where you can utilize your talents and have your blog customized the way you want.

This may sound strange but you can get more exposure by using a free-of-charge blog hoster as opposed to one you pay for. This is because the free hosts that are always found near the top of the search engine lists get there by including encoding which relates to better exposure. If you aim to make from the blog, this level of exposure could be a great boon.

The advantages of going with a web hosting provider to host your blog are numerous too. In this case you will have complete control of the look of your blog, the template, interface, and add-ons to include and other features of your blog. The slightly difficult and specialized nature of web hosting providers makes them out of the reach of those who are not familiar with HTML or encoding methods etc. At the hands of someone who has the know-how, a blog hosted by a web hosting provider can be a potent marketing weapon.

In order to make the right choice about what blog host is right for you, bear in mind any technical issues alongside any marketing skills or deficiencies you or your firm may have. If you have the skills to efficiently use HTML and other similar techniques and wish to add a personal touch to your blog then a paid for web host is right for you. If this is not you though, and you want a straightforward blog choosing a major host of blogs will alleviate the hassle of using HTML and other technically minded techniques.

How can you get your blog hosted?

When it comes to software for your blog, it is all about Wordpress or B2 Evolution. After choosing one or the other, the following choice is to decide which company you want to host your blog. The following information should help you with this decision.

Determine if paid or free hosting is best for you: This choice is a primary one. There are always plus points of a free service but will it offer everything you need? There are a lot of adverts imposed on these sites and this may detract from the message you wish to give visitors. This is why if it can be afforded a paid host on a sharing system is the best option after you have chosen B2 or Wordpress.

Is your host compatible with Wordpress or B2 Evolution?: As the popularity of blogs are continuing to rise, and most of them use Wordpress or B2 Evolution, you will find the majority of blog hosts will provide their service with these products already catered for. This is of benefit as it does not require you to do as much in the way of setting up and in a few clicks of your mouse; your blog will be ready to go.

Which is the best host to choose: It can be a tough task to find the best deal from the huge range of B2 and Wordpress hosts. One way to gather information to make the best choice would be to surf the net for views, reviews and opinions of other forums and blogs. This information will allow you to make a choice based on bandwidth sizes and guarantees how much disk space can be relied upon to pricing and customer service issues. User reviews of your potential web and blog host suppliers can be vital in making a good choice.

To choose the best host, do not forget the reviews: Always read reviews, be they praising or critical of the sites that make up your short list. As an additional thought, if you believe your blog will be a success you may wish to consider a dedicated server to host you. Equally, before you decide between B2 or Wordpress, try and evaluate both products and get to know which your prefer. Other areas to be aware of include consumer satisfaction and any guarantees about uptime a host may promise. No matter what type of blog you want, make sure you make the right decision.

About the Author:
This article is published with permission from http://www.webhostingmadness.com, a provider of hosting company ratings, articles and helpful guides on the web hosting industry.

Benefits of Web Hosting Scripts

Filed Under (web hosting) by Matt Hedges on 07-08-2008

Tagged Under :

by Matt Hedges

Just as php scripts have the ability to increase the functionality of a website, so do web hosting scripts. Some web scripts are offered free of charge by web hosts and these include the Word Press script. These scripts can be used to allow website owners to increase the functionality of their site at a low cost and with the minimum of time.

Some of the web host scripts are mentioned below:

Fantastico is a script library used for commercial purposes, and it helps in automation of the process of installing web applications to a given site. These scripts can be executed only by the website administrator, from the Control Panel. The website of Fantastico has it that they have been installed on more than 10,000 servers and they have millions of users throughout the world, which is a major factor in making them the leading product in this regard.

The Fantastico scripts are executed upon the creation of a new website, or addition of an application to a current website. These scripts installs software helps in modification of web server file configuration, creation of tables in form of a database, etc. Though one may normally relate Fantastico to an open-source soft ware, there are some scripts available for installation of commercial products as well, and once they are installed, they can be used by every domain which a server hosts. For instance, we can site SohoLaunch’s website builder, the software for customer support by PerlDesk, and the software by Account Lab Plus for interaction with registrars of the internet.

There are over 50 applications that can be associated with Fantastico scripts with the more common ones featured below:

* the software for shopping carts

* blogs

software to enable picture sharing

the enabling of a reliable web content management system

information sites like Wikis

It is difficult to make a selection between the web hosts of LINUX and Windows. You must be aware of the language used in the website prior to selecting a given operating system or the server for your requirement. If your website is a simple one having HTML content, or even an e-Commerce website or one with any programming database feature which is php or MySQL crated, then go for the LINUX platform. However, for ASP or ASP.NET sites, a Windows server is required.

In order to get the best for your site, we shall discuss some issues about PHP, MySQL and ASP.NET.

Hypertext Preprocessor is the full name for the term PHP and it is a server side scripting language or a language used for programming. One of its advantages is the ease you can place a HTML code in it. PHP is commonly found beside APACHE on a number of operating systems, and it is commonly found on LINUX. PHP has a strong role as a filter and it eventually showcases a specific flow of data after it has filtered information from files storing content and instructions coming from PHP. PHP is provided free on the majority of servers, platforms and operating systems.

MySQL is a multi-threaded and a multi-user computer language, and it is mainly made for managing and retrieving data. It also allows access to the data and helps in modifying it. In short, MySQL is an SQL database management system which has ten million installations. It is most commonly used for web application, open sourced tracking of bugs, and in MAMP, LAMP and WAMP, it acts as its database component. There is a close relation of MySQL to PHP and “Ruby on Rails”. Almost all the sites like WordPress are able to run only on a combination of MySQL and PHP.

ASP.NET [ASP - Active Server Page] is Microsoft’s .NET platform’s division, and Microsoft markets it as well. It is a successor of the ASP technology, and ASP.NET is a web application set which can be used by programmers for building up websites, web applications and XML web services. ASP.NET web hosting helps in making the building of web applications a simple process by bringing down the number of codes required for it. It provides greater flexibility in the selection of language since it supports many .NET languages. Due to HTML and source code being together, web pages can easily be written and maintained in ASP.NET web hosting. Also, it’s not mandatory to register the components since the configuration information is already built-in. Besides, this application is very fast, and can manage a big number of users with a consistent performance.

Now you are armed with knowledge about these technical descriptions, you can make a more informed decision regarding the server. Although there may be some problems in trying to use CGI scripts to automate the website, there is no doubt that repeated use will make it a far easier task over time.

Starting with a simpler script is the way to begin. You can visit cgi-resources.com for some CGI scripts. You will find some free and paid scripts for mails, website management, banner rotation, classified ads, protection of password, polls, mailing lists, having a search engine for your site, shopping carts and a host of other activities. Though a fee is charged for some of the scripts, you can save money by using a less expensive script and instead of calling on an expert from the company to set it up, you can do so yourself. Remember that costliest is not always the best since some of them may have more features than what you may require.

The most important hindrance in webmasters not using scripts is because they have the impression that a thorough knowledge in computer science is required for setting it up, which is false. For CGI scripts, however, access is required to your server, but some free providers allow users the chance of uploading CGI scripts. You can try many combinations of these CGI scripts before going ahead with any one of them.

Running a CGI script is not difficult if the scripts contain a config file or a setup file. After these files have been loaded onto the server, gaining access to the setup or config files will enable the script to set itself up automatically after content is placed in it. An alternative to this is using a variable file. This type of file will ordinarily have the majority of the information that is needed for the script to run and the most used scripts are likely to have a number of files which require configuration before working.

If the script is provided with a setup or read-me file, which it generally does, then it used with HTML text and the user will be descriptions to follow when it opens up. Some script writers will provide quality instructions whilst others make an assumption that the user knows what they are doing. If your script confuses you, you could try to find a similar acting one.

If you want to maintain your site more easily and would like to have interaction on your site, CGI scripts would be the best choice for you.

About the Author:
Republished with permission from http://www.webhostingmadness.com, a publisher of hosting company ratings, articles and helpful guides on web hosting.