Archive for October 2011
Free Vs Paid Hosting For Blogs
As we all know, a blog is a variant of a website which is maintained by a single person who frequently enters information about an event or a happening. It can also be a blog with personal contents. On the whole, blogs are space for individuals to express their views and opinions. Thousands and thousands of blogs are being created each and every day. Many of these use a free hosting platform while the others used a paid server. You need to decide upon a host before you host a website. The 2nd most important thing you need to consider is what software or blogging platform you are going to use. Let us take a comprehensive look at both the free and paid versions of webhosting.
Free Hosting
Free web hosting for blogs generally uses a blogging platform like WordPress.com or Blogger.com. Both of these platforms boast of an easy sign-up process. After just filling out a few blanks you can get your own blog up and running. Getting the service of a free host suits a person who is a beginner. They can learn about blogs and all other aspects and then decide upon whether they can continue the services of a free hosting company or a paid one. The drawbacks far outweigh the benefits with free blogs. Some of the disadvantages are:
• The foremost factor is that you are not the actual owner of the blog or the contents; the free web hosting company is the owner of your page.
• Since you are publishing your contents you should abide by the rules put forth by the website hosting company.
• Given that the hosting is done free of cost, you have to put up with the advertisements that are either on the top or bottom of your page.
• These advertisements may not at all be appropriate for your website.
Paid Hosting
There are different packages when it comes to paid web hosting. Plans are generally charged on a monthly basis. Packages start from a minimum of $5/month. The price typically differs based on the term of the contract. If you have cataloged your domain name for 12 months, then signing up for a 12 month web hosting plan would be useful as it would be at a much affordable cost. One more issue that may serve as a cause for variation in price between different plans is the features in which you receive. The most basic web hosting plans are typically adequate when you are 1st starting out on the Internet. Some of the advantages of paid hosting are:
• The major pro of having a paid host is that you can decide upon the advertisements that you put up on your page.
• You have the ultimate control over the domain of the blog.
• Every aspect of your blog can be controlled with the help of web hosts control panel.
• You get to enjoy control of more features like the bandwidth, disk space, traffic, databases etc.,
Based on all the aforementioned aspects, you can decide whether you need to get the services of a free or a paid web hosting for your blog.
Did You Say Free Hosting?
Free Hosting
Free Hosting is a type of web hosting service in which you receive free web space on your hosts server to create and host your web site for free. The main advantage to Free Hosting is the cost. Nothing! No money. No credit cards needed. Ever!
Wherever you see advantages in anything you must have disadvantages as well. In the case of Free Hosting, limited features, and in some cases but not all, forced ads. Typically these are ads that you have placed on your website in exchange for free service. Not bad huh? Well in doing some research for this article I found so many bannerless free hosting sites that I almost did not include the ‘forced ad’ factor. Just wanted to note it to let you know you definitely have a choice. More and more Hosting Companies are content to let you use their forums as a way to write content for their site. It makes sense. This is also where you would draw support if you needed it. You may also notice some ads in your cPanel that the Hosting co. would like you to view. Either way you slice it, there are some amazing Free Hosting sites with some really cool add-ons! As always, take your time and choose wisely! Many free website hosts provide a sub-domain or sub-directory of their own domain name as an option to keep you from paying the cost of your own top level domain name. Remember, no matter how big or how small your business, a website can give it that much needed boost.
Look for a Hosting site that will offer you a promise of no ads or banners to clutter your website. Make sure you are also getting completely free web hosting BUT you also get free space up to 10GB and a bandwidth of 150GB to store and access your data and files with ease. Some will provide servers located in different areas around the globe, to ensure 99.9% uptime. All free web hosting offers need to have MySql support along with PHP, webmail and domain add-ons support.
With the free web site builder and a wide array of free templates, you can easily build and host a website absolutely free!
Free PHP Web Hosting
PHP, an open source Web development language, was created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995. Originally it meant ‘Personal Home Page’ but has evolved to mean ‘HyperText Preprocessor’. PHP was adapted from Perl and C. As an Open source, PHP is completely free. PHP Hosting uses and fully supports the PHP programming language. It is typically used in the popular LAMP or WAMP structure. It is commonly used in building dynamic websites. If you are knowledgeable with programming languages, PHP should be a breeze. If not, then PHP is a good starting point and there are tutorials everywhere. Just one thing to keep in mind. Some PHP extensions are not compatible with some Web Server software. This can lead to crashes. An example of a platform built with PHP would be the ever popular weblog, WordPress.
Free MySQL Web Hosting
Free Hosting offering free MySQL databases to use on their web server. When combined with PHP or CGI scripts, this type of free hosting is very useful to your new website. For instance you can run web apps on your free website such as phpBB message board or even PHP-Nuke. MySQL is an Open source database known for its speed and reliability. As mentioned with PHP, the popularity of MYSQL makes it easy to find tutorials anywhere. Your free hosting service should provide an already installed phpMyAdmin script. Look for FREE MySQL tools to help you such as forums, galleries, blogs, shopping carts, etc.
Free cPanel Hosting
Tight budgets call for smart solutions. cPanel Hosting is the ideal solution for just such a situation. Ideal because it is so budget friendly. Smart because you get to make use of the best the market has to offer. cPanel is the control panel of choice. It is so easy to use yet seasoned clients enjoy it as well. cPanel is widely known round the world and support is easy to find. Many tutorials are available with instruction on how to use cPanel and its many features. And yes! CPanel is made available to you free so make sure your Host provides it. When opting for a free cPanel Hosting account, make sure that basic features like file manager and domain manager are included. Also see to it that your package includes the following:cPanel; Apache; PHP; Fantastico; Fast Network; Fast Servers; Frontpage Extensions; CGI Access; PERL.
Free File Hosting
File Hosting, as far as hosting goes, is relatively new. Free file hosting is everywhere and is used as a stand-alone devoid of other hosting accounts. They are easy to use and allow you to upload your large files. You simply store them to be used later to send to family or friends or clients and co-workers. Depending on your website and what you are offering will depend on whether you want to have free file hosting or go with a paid account. Still extremely inexpensive, a bigger business may want to use file hosting that offers the ability to give each client his own file space with private access and passwords. Free file hosting services make their money from advertising on the interface.
Free Sub-domain Hosting
A sub-domain is a more specific portion of a domain name, typically located to the left of the domain name in the URL. Ex: ourwebsite.com would be the domain name and webdesign.ourwebsite.com would be the sub-domain. In the event you don’t have your own domain name, you can get a subdomain name absolutely free! They are very short and easy to remember and it looks exactly like a real paid domain name. Because they are short and easy to remember, sub-domains are a great choice for your new home. Some search engines will even give sub-domains a slight boost over conventional free hosting addresses. If you have decided to go with a free website host and have no desire to own a domain, sub-domains might be just what you’re looking for. You can even find sub-domain hosting that does not place unwanted ads on your cool site. Create Unlimited free sub-domains and point them to your other web sites or where ever you wish.
Free FTP Hosting
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) A process for transferring files over a computer network. Uploading photos or downloading software are just a couple of great examples of things you can do with FTP. If you wish to publish a web site on the internet, FTP hosting is a must. It allows the uploading of web pages directly to your website without having to upload them through a web-based file manager. That can be a slow process as only one file can be transferred at a time. With the array of services offered by free FTP Hosting sites, your only real job is placing good content on your site. A couple of these services include free page counters and guest books. Signing up for free FTP hosting is a simple process. It puts you one step closer to sharing your personal web pages with the rest of the world. For FREE!
Free eCommerce Hosting
eCommerce is the buying and selling of goods, products or services, electronically. Ecommerce has taken the global market by storm. This of course does not come as a shock, considering the Internet is used for just about everything known to man. eCommerce has become the most promising business today. It allows people to create and conduct their business in a way that doesn’t involve travel or time restriction. No matter the time of day or your location, you can do business. 24/7/365.
Visitors can enjoy shopping for a product or service, placing an order, making a payment, and delivery of their purchase all with the click of a mouse.
Serious lack of overhead (no building maintenance, rent, electrical billing or water costs) makes ecommerce inexpensive. In many cases, the savings get passed down to you, the consumer. When involving yourself with ecommerce, considerations might include things like online transactions and internet marketing. You will most definitely need the help of a good web hosting company. There are some great eCommerce hosting plans out there. Some even free. You will want to go with a practical yet quality plan.
Note: There are so many free types of hosting that I could have gone on all day long. The above are just a few of the many types of free hosting you can enjoy. Others include green hosting, photo, reseller, email, forum, blog and many many more. There is nothing stopping you from having any kind of website you would like to have. Go for it!
Website Hosting – How to Choose a Hosting Company
A website hosting is the service that makes your site accessible to the general public and lets them know what you are selling or trying to communicate. Website hosting can happen in a variety of ways. Therefore, it is recommended that you research the features that are available and that you need and then you can make the best possible choice in which service to have host your site.
If you are planning to put up your own personal website, then the most important to take into consideration first is what kind of web hosting service you want to avail. There are various web hosting services available online that have varied qualifications. You could easily search online about web hosting services and some of these are offered at no cost.
It becomes clear very quickly that web hosting firms provide different sorts of package deals and have features that differ from those of their competitors. The particular features we are about to discuss should be checked as soon as you consider using a web hosting service, since they can simplify the entire process for you.
Initially, you must check the amount of web space they will give you. This is measured in terms of the quantity of files that can be stored on their server. Clearly, the more space you get, the more sub-domains that can be hosted there. If space is not a problem, the installation of more programs in the future won’t pose any difficulty either.
The next consideration you have to turn your thoughts to is the total sum of permissible traffic. Frequently firms track the traffic on each of the sites they host. For your purposes, you would really like to have no limitations on your traffic. When a limit exists, a potential visitor who registers on the tracking system as being above that limit never gets to see your website load. This can create a very bad impression of your site in the would-be visitor’s mind.
Third is the concern over server uptime. If in your control, you want to keep your site up all of the time, which is what all businesses want. This trait is reliant on the server of the company hosting your site. You should take steps to guarantee that you do business with a reputable company that can keep your server running.
The fourth component to be taken into consideration is to make sure that software, applications and other things are included. This is generally where the perks start coming as there are many hosting companies that will provide application and software installation. There are a variety of web hosting scripts and programs available today. Try to look for which programs the web hosting service supports to find out if your web page will work with their service.