Archive for the ‘Reseller hosting’ category

InterWorx – The Only Control Panel that Provides High Availability

September 28th, 2011

When it comes to true high availability, there is only one control panel that provides a proven high availability platform, and that is InterWorx. High availability refers to systems that are continuously operating for a desired length of time.  InterWorx, configured in a high availability cluster, will ensure that a server failure will never affect your website’s operation.

InterWorx is a control panel with a wide array of features for user and domain management as well as management of many other aspects of your virtual environment. If you are looking for a better way to manage your virtual environment, then InterWorx is one of the best control panel programs on the market, especially for high availability. Additionally, InterWorx provides a vast amount of other features and resource management options, such as configurable bandwidth usage and concurrent connections to vital services such as MySQL, IMAP, and other shared resources.

InterWorx may not be as well recognized as other programs on the market, but the feature set on this program is comprehensive and allows full management capabilities for web masters, administrators, or hosting providers. No matter what your management needs are in terms of high availability servers, an InterWorx license will provide you with all of the necessary tools that you need to completely automate and manage your control panel.

A high availability cluster is really only possible with an InterWorx license because there are very few control panel programs on the market that are equipped to handle high availability. An InterWorx license will give you access to all of the features that you need to effectively manage your virtual environment. Since the needs of each administrator, hosting provider, or webmaster will be different, InterWorx has anticipated this and designed a program that is scalable and adaptable, and the fact that it works well on high availability servers makes it an excellent control panel.

How to estimate your website hosting needs

September 26th, 2011

I write this article especially for people who are new to web hosting. This is why I will only talk about the basic needs (in a shared hosting environment): space, bandwidth. Most of the people looking for advanced features (scripting, databases) already know what they want/need anyway.

So let’s start with the space. Web space (disk space) is the amount of data you can store on the hard disk of the web server. Each web hosting accound comes with a certain amount of space, usually over 50 MB and less than 1000 MB.

Obviously, the amount of needed space depends on the size of the website. Most websites are composed of html (text) pages with a few images (gifs or jpegs) or even a little bit of Flash animation. Text is very economical; it occupies very little space. Images and flash are more expensive; they require a lot of space. If you’re new to the web you might think it’s great to have a lot of colorful images to make your website really beautiful. Don’t make this common mistake!

Your aim should be to say as much as you can on a page while maintaining it’s size under 50-60 KB including images. The reason? There are still lots of people using slow dial-up connections of under 56 Kbps. For them a 150 KB will take more that 21 seconds to load. A 60 KB page will take more than 8 seconds to load. That’s still a lot of time! A good page size is under 30 KB. A maximum page size is 50-60 KB.

Considering an average page size of 30 KB, you can put approximately 33 pages on 1Mb of space. If you have 10 MB of space available, you could host 330 pages. I only wish I had so many pages to put online. Don’t worry, I’m working on it!

The idea is this: unless you run a busy forum your needs for space are likely to be rather modest. Just keep in mind to achieve an average of 30KB/page and you should be more than fine even with 10 MB of web space.

Bandwidth is the amount of data that you’re allowed to transfer per month. It includes all uploads and downloads regardless of the protocol used (HTTP, FTP, POP etc.). Bandwidth depends very much on the average page size, but it also depends on the number of visitors your website will have and the average number of pages they visit. For an average page size of 30 KB, 20,000 visitors per month and 3 pages per visitor your website will need about 1800 MB (1.8 GB) of bandwidth per month. Most low cost hosting packages include that amount of bandwidth. Not to mention that 20,000 visitors per month is only a dream for most websites. Most don’t even have 2,000 visitors per month.

I took you through all those numbers just to give you an idea how to estimate your needs. If you’re just launching your website you will not need neither a huge amount of space, neither a huge amount of bandwidth. For 99% of people a hosting account with 10MB of space and 1Gb is more than enough.

Conclusion: Unless you have reasons to believe that your website will definitely have lots of visitors and unless you’ll offer movies or music for download (legally of course ), I see little reason for you to worry about space and bandwidth.

Just make your own calculations and also try to make sure that the host you choose allows account upgrades. That is to make sure you will be able to get more space and/or bandwidth if/when you need it without going through all the trouble of changing hosts.

Starting reseller hosting business.

April 5th, 2011

The world of reseller hosting may be a little confusing to some. Though with the right tips in hand anybody can be a reseller hosting success. In a nut shell, reseller hosting is a form of web site hosting where the account owner has the ability to use their allotted space and bandwidth to host their own or a third parties’ web site.  The account owner can sell the allotted space and bandwidth to the third party in question, and (in most cases) make a profit.

To help you get started in the world of reseller web hosting, here are a few tips you may look into or follow:

1. Act as a referral partner for the parent company.  This is a safe and easy option for reseller hosting, since it doesn’t involve you having to run customer accounts.  Instead, you earn commission for every customer you refer to the parent company who then signs up.  The downside to this option is that you need to have an online marketing presence, through a review website or ad campaign

2. Start small.  One of the great advantages of reseller hosting is that you only need a computer and an internet connection to get started – you don’t need to invest lots of money or get to grips with complicated technical applications.  For that reason, you should start by concentrating on reselling web space.  This is simple and straightforward, and a good way to earn whilst building a client base and gaining experience.

3. For the same reason, it’s also a good idea to start with shared hosting, since this is the simplest form of web hosting that you can resell.   As your business expands, you can look at offering more advanced reseller services, such as dedicated and co-located hosting, domain name registration and merchant accounts.

4. Work towards getting your own server.  This will give you a greater share of the profits over time.  However, it also involves greater responsibility for maintenance, back-up and repair, so you should only consider this option when you are confident that you can handle these technical requirements.

5. Don’t neglect your marketing and sales strategy.  Your reseller business won’t make money if nobody can find you.  So be very clear on who your target customers are, and how you can reach them.  This means constructing a well-optimized home site for your reseller hosting business, and running a well-targeted ad campaign.

6. Finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help, guidance and customer feedback.  There is plenty of free advice available on the web to help you decide on the approach that will best suit your purposes.  Remember, you may need to try several approaches before you find the reseller hosting strategy that works for you.

Web hosting review.

March 28th, 2011

We don’t want to blame any one; we want to give you an honest web host review, that makes sense to you before choosing a web host provider that is right for your business.

All web host are formed equal in our view, with the intention of or that used to be providing good hosting, until we got shut down without warning. It was very hard for anyone to understand how I might start a new website from scratch and eat up 40 Gigs of bandwidth in that short span of time (3 months, and I was shut down).

You should do a web host review, before you make a choice. The problem online today is, how can you make a sound web host review with all the thousands out there.

It is impossible to review the thousands of web host out there, but it is in your best interest if you base your web host review on high in demand providers. Many of the top marketers have their own server, and you can’t afford to pay $200 or more monthly for your own server.

For you to prevent web host shut down, you will have to learn how to use the forums to find recommendation for choosing your web hosting provider. We didn’t do our own research and that is why our web host shut us down without notice.

After being shut down, We went to forums, blogs etc. read a couple of post regarding on hosting companies, and realize that no one had any great experiences with that companies. They gave poor web host review grades for that host, well life is a learning process, and I know what not to do when choosing a web hosting provider.

Here are four tips you should follow to get a web host review:

1) Don’t ever go for unlimited domain names.

One other point worth mentioning, don’t ever go for unlimited domain names, whenever you create a new account they automatically divide up your hosting bandwidth. That means that if you have just 40 Gigs of bandwidth and you divide it up by four domain names, you have used up all your bandwidth.

So, any other new domain name you add will make you go over your bandwidth, please understand I am just showing you the rip offs that takes place with some low cost web hosting providers. They say that they will warn you when your exceeding your bandwidth, but they just never do. They make you pay extra for unlimited domain names, but you being new to the Internet, you won’t ever need more than three to six domain names to get you started.

2) Don’t go with any web hosting provider that requires the full amount in advance.

They offer low cost web hosting if you pay the yearly price in advance. Well, once you have paid for the year, you are tied to this company, should their service be not worthy, you will loose your primary yearly payment. Go with a company that has a 3 month or monthly payment plan, with a money back guarantee.

3) Test by sending a simple email to your web host first.

Just send off a simple email telling your web host that your interested in their hosting, this is a must for you to review web host that are unknown. The response time to your email will let you know what type of service they offer.

4) Ask for a charge back.

As you know, the client is supposed to be king, keep all your receipts in place, and should you ever be shut down by your web host after paying a yearly plan, just go to your credit card provider and file a complaint for a refund. Don’t let anyone scam you out of your money.

The final conclusion, your the one to blame if you get scammed, so make sure you follow these web host review tips before handing out your credit card.

http://www.version-next.com

Email Hosting.

March 24th, 2011

Every business knows the importance of email as the fastest and cost effective way of communication. Since most small businesses cannot afford expensive means of communications like overseas phone calls, fax etc, communicating through emails is definitely a bonus.  Email marketing is obviously very popular, and you have no doubt been sent a large number of emails since opening your first email address online. Although there are many genuine email marketing campaigns that are sent out on a daily basis from online retailers such as Amazon, there are unfortunately a lot of bogus ones containing potential phishing attacks and harmful data.

1)   Protection from virus, spam and phishing: Nothing spoils the functionality of your mailbox as a virus or a spam does. In addition, phishing endangers your business mails by stealing your identity, thereby causing huge loss. Setup an anti-virus – Although this may sound like a very simplistic one that you are likely to see on any security checklist, an anti-virus is incredibly important, especially if you are using a desktop email client such as Microsoft Outlook or Thunderbird (online email providers such as Gmail and Hotmail tend to have built-in virus protection software).

2)   Improved business position: Look out for a email hosting provider who holds vast expertise in picking and implementing the right messaging systems aligning with your business. Also, ensure the features like high availability and high scalability of email solutions offered. They must be customized to cater to your specific email needs.

3)   Best in class communications: Check that your email hosting provider has cutting-edge infrastructure to be able to lessen all your email hosting worries.

4)   Reliable, Customizable Offerings: Find out if your email hosting services include exclusive features like email back-up, data recovery, disaster recovery, 24×7 technical and customer support to ensure that you make the most out of your emails.

5)   Cost efficiency: The key reason for outsourcing the email hosting services to an external vendor is to reduce the unexpected expenditures and get the maximum output without increasing costs. A good email hosting provider will not only meet these needs, but also suggest you the ways to increase the efficiency of your messaging applications in every required way.

6)   Improved availability: Check out if your email hosting provider employs professionals to host and manage your messaging applications, ensuring high-availability of your applications as well as optimal performance.

7)   Be careful when clicking: Once you’ve received an email it can be tempting to click straight through to a website if you see an interesting deal or image – but that’s exactly what you have to be careful of doing. Hover over or copy the link to your clipboard if possible, allowing you the opportunity to examine the destination URL before you proceed.

8) Avoid entering details:   Some potentially harmful emails will encourage you to enter your personal details (credit card/address) directly into a form embedded into an email – and this should be avoided at all costs. Forms that are embedded into emails are done so for a reason, and that is because the destination in which the information is sent is often hidden.

9) If it’s true good to be true, it usually is: If you receive any emails containing promises of fantastic deals that you believe seem too good to be true, then be very wary. Use your favourite search engine to run a quick search to see if anybody else has mentioned the promotion anywhere, and the chances are you will be given an answer one way or another.

10) Be wary of forgotten password emails: Unless you know you have specifically requested your password to be reset on a website, you should delete any emails you receive that claim to be resetting your ‘forgotten password’. These types of emails are often looking for you to enter personal details in unsecure locations.

11)  Ignore unsolicited emails: If you receive an email out of the blue from somebody you have absolutely no connection with, be immediately wary. There is the chance your email address could have been picked up online by a potentially harmful sender, meaning you may receive unsolicited emails relating to various topics. Do not reply, and do not open any containing attachments.

12)  Avoid providing any private details: A final but yet hugely important tip is to avoid providing any personal details via email at all costs. Don’t send credit card or PayPal login details to anybody via email no matter what the circumstance, and if you have to provide somebody with a password or piece of secure information, provide this in person or over the phone where possible.

With the above tips in mind, you should be relatively free of would-be phishing attacks via email marketing campaigns online. One thing to remember is always is wary – always. There are unfortunately a lot of people who make their money online by scamming others, so it’s important to stay on your toes and report and doubtful activity.

Green web hosting.

March 24th, 2011

There is a recent rise in the popularity of Green Web Hosting because of the concern for the nature. Many industries have taken action and play their part in helping by reducing energy consumption and recycling. The same goes for the web hosting industry.

Recently even industries in highly commercialized countries have held meetings regarding the impact of Global Warming. The harmful gases produced from industries in clouds of dark black gases and ashes have caused a lot of ecological disasters. Therefore, industries have been asked to take measures in order to reduce the destruction caused by heavy industrialization worldwide. Similarly some web hosting companies have decided to play their part in preserving the ecosystem. When they join this cause – they are called “Green Web Hosts”. Firstly, let get a better idea about green web hosting. This type of hosting is a kind that uses nature-friendly power source for their daily activities. As we all know, servers are like appliances that requires electricity.

Not all companies have the resources to generate their own renewable energy. Therefore, those companies can turn to supplied energy by choosing to buy Renewable Energy Certificates. By doing this, they can get energy generated by wind, solar or even biogas. Companies that generate their own energy also use energy generated by either solar power, wind turbines or other methods. This gives them ability to power their machines with this renewable energy.
So, what does this entire means? It means that web hosting companies are saving the planet by reducing carbon emission. It also allows companies to purchase offsets enabling them to mitigate their own greenhouse emissions. So, this can ease the hosting company from starting their own wind farm or solar power generator.

Another added value that the green web hosting has is their special offers on packages to non-profit organizations. It is their act to not only encourages organizations to use web hosting but also encouraging the use of renewable energy and paperless working environment. Some web host with green hosting also provides web host services to companies that have telecommuting being used by their staff and workers.

However, does green hosting cost more? Well, this is a question that we all need to think deep about. Green we hosting companies may run at a higher daily operation cost compared to other web host provider companies but the idea of having a paperless company using renewable energy is something that is encouraging. With a single company operating in this way, it can reduce a whole lot of waste and reduce a lot on energy consumption which will directly help in preserving the nature. So, saving the earth does come with a price and it is not a big one to pay if you’re supporting a green web hosting company. Not only do you play your part in saving nature, you also get you web hosting needs.

There are several misconceptions on green hosting among the consumers. One of the mistaken beliefs that are prevalent among people today is that green hosting does not offer stable solutions. This however is far from the truth. You can confidently choose these services without having to worry about the stability or about the reliability of the services. Today the hosting services offered by green hosting companies are in par with companies that use conventional energy.

So go green put your hands together to preserve plant earth.

Reseller web hosting.

March 19th, 2011

In reseller web hosting, real hosts are able to generate bulk businesses and hand over individual clients to reseller servers. In turn, reseller web hosting businesses look after some individual client needs. This is a win-win situation for both, since real hosts will have an intermediary in the form of reseller web hosting to individual customers without having to attend to them one by one. The reseller is also able to put up a business and earn income without having to shell out capital expense. Although in some instances they do compete with each other for a fair share of the web hosting market, the real hosts can still benefit from this set-up considering they do charge a certain amount from resellers.

The services offered by a reseller web hosting service do not really differ from a real host. As a matter of fact, reseller web hosting offers more features to the customers. Due to the added value services, reseller web hosting can offer web design and programming services to each customer that are often times not possible from real hosts. Real hosts tend to focus on bulk accounts and corporate clients. Reseller web hosting offers value added services to customers in order to maintain a competitive edge against bigger web hosting services.

Reseller web hosting is also better able to establish friendly relationship with their customers that go beyond the contract terms. This is the secret for those successful reseller web-hosting services. They fill the need that bigger hosting servers cannot provide.

Benefits of reseller web hosting

The reseller web hosting concept is useful in its own way.  The usual hand out of resources for a reseller hosting option is possible through a partition of storage and bandwidth.  Of course some of the modern options make it possible to have “unlimited” resources but this can be limited in some ways and may cost much more to implement and have available.  The reseller hosting makes it possible to have several websites with separate IP addresses on a single hosting plan.

The other benefit that is available with reseller web hosting is the possibility of reselling the resources in the plan. A client using the reseller hosting that will not be using the entirety of the hosting can actually partition it and sell the hosting to a client underneath them. This makes it possible to have access to a possibility of making money as a small hosting company.  This makes the hosting economical in a way that it can be paid for by reselling the hosting to other clients.

In case the needs of the individual’s website(s) are the main concern whenever they are choosing reseller web hosting options. For sites that do not need to have as much dedicated resources available for them the use of reseller web hosting may be the best choice. Others which will require more performance and stability will want to be hosted through a dedicated option.  Budget may be a concern and a deciding factor for the client as well so choosing the option which is most affordable may be the course of action to take.

Choose your realm (domain names)

March 4th, 2011

According to some studies, there are more than 40-50 domain names being registered worldwide per second. No hesitation it is very important to be creative and choosy in case of domain name selection. Being short, logical and accurate does make the domain name catchy and memorable.

During the process of domain registration, it is very important to register a name that logically matches the theme or purpose of the website. For example, if a site is all about web hosting, one should register besthosting.com. One can even use the name of the enterprise as a domain name. For instance, if the name of the company is XYZ, one should register as xyz.com.

Lean to use ‘.com’

Always prefer to use .com extension to your website name because people most commonly search a website with ending on .COM, although if you prefer any specific country’s traffic then use respective country’s extension i.e. .uk for UK or .us for USA.

Do not use Slang language

Avoid using shortcut words in your domain name i.e. “u” instead of “you”.  Because it can confuse the website users. So try to use proper language which can be easy to remember too.

Always give short name to your domain

The long domain names can be forgotten by people easily. They don’t prefer to tell other people as well and may be they do not try to visit the website again. Short domain names are easy to remember and overcome the chances of typing errors when you enter the URL as well.

Do not use the numbers

If you use the numbers in your website name, it will not get popularized and known by the people and marketers. Versionnext.com is the best example in which numbers or digits are not being used instead of “versionnext7463.com”.

Try to Use Plural forms

The plural domain is mush recognized instead of singular form words. E.g.”debtloans.com” has more reliability on “debtloan.com”.

Try to use more keywords

Try to use more and meaningful keywords by using the Google Keywords or Word tracker to have success. Keep your domain name in long lasting Strategy of Search Engine Optimization.

Sometimes one may not be enough

You must make sure not to loose your site’s identity so get registered with other domain names as well. Such as “Google” has also registered www.gogle.com, so that people get linked with the Google if by mistake, they type gogle.

Besides, it is essential to know the different aspects of domain registration to acquire a new domain name. A good knowledge about the domain name registrar is important, which is an organization that acts as middleman between the registry and the client website. Your domain name registration service provider helps you by offering the right options for selecting a suitable web address or host name.

Being accurate with domain name is crucial, especially if the domain name registrar has a minimum qualified period for refund. One should always spell check before the domain name registration process. However, registrars refund within 5 days of registration if there is something wrong.

These are the few tips which you can apply to your domain name and promote your website which will lead to a successful business track.

Be a reseller web hosting provider.

March 2nd, 2011

Just as people have to have a place to call home, websites also must have a “residence.” As individuals seek housing, internet entrepreneurs seek hosting for their websites. These days there is an enormous demand for web hosting services and becoming a web hosting reseller to try to help meet that demand can be an easy business to operate from home.

Opening a web hosting reseller business is one of the wisest ways to put up or expand your internet based business. However, do not take this step just by deciding overnight and getting into the web hosting reseller market, the very next morning. Whenever you start a new web hosting reseller business you must be aware of the inside and the outside of it. The various points that you should work on, before you start a web hosting reseller business is as follows:

Market research and planning: The first important point to be considered in a business is that you must do a proper market research. Planning is also one of the primary factors for the success towards your new web hosting reseller business. There is little scope for people who start their business without setting specific goals and objectives.

Marketing research: Don’t fall in the race. Just try to be a good service provider. Research how other companies provide good services to their customers. Take from advice that is in that business; because experience is always a good teacher.  If you want to get ahead in your web hosting reseller business, you must get to know which companies are more successful and which are the ones who have achieved least success in their business. This information will act as a feedback and it will guide you to decide what to do and what to avoid with regard to your own web hosting reseller business.

Have a market plan: You can develop a successful business plan for your new web hosting reseller business by collecting the required information from your initial research. Also, you need to be aware of the fact that just by having a sound business plan does not mean that you will definitely achieve success in your web hosting reseller business. Writing a business plan will only act as a guide and it will help you tackle the challenges and obstacles that come on your way towards starting your web hosting reseller business.

After starting service:

Give your customers better service. As a reseller provider, your number one priority should be customer service. This is where you can shine above the larger companies, since they likely have many customer service representatives who are likely not monitored regularly. Even more, they may even hire overseas representatives to keep their overhead low. By providing excellent customer services, you have the best chance at building a strong customer base. The number one rule a reseller should live by is MAKE SURE YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE HAPPY.

Know how to grow. As a reseller, you will be responsible for growing your own customer base. For this reason, it is important to know where to market and who to market to. Small business owners are a good start. You can advertise that you, the owner, will work directly with them whenever they have any questions, concerns, or need technical help. This is give them the comfort of knowing that they will not have to deal with a customer service representative if something happens with their account.

Customize your hosting plans. If you are able to split your ‘plans’ up how you want them, advertise that you can make a customized plan specific to the customer’s individuals needs. You can also let them know that, as their business or website grows, their plan can grow with them. You may also want to split up some very tiny plans and sell them for $1-2 a month. These would have just enough space for a 5-10 page basic personal website and include no extras. To someone who needs a very small amount of space, such as a parent whose child wants a website, $1 a month will look much better that $5-$10. If you are able to gain enough customers via this method, it may be much more profitable that selling larger plans.

Offer discounts for current customers who refer new customers. To make sure you come out ahead, you can always specify that the new customers must remain a customer for so many months before the discount is given to the current customer. A good idea is to offer 1-3 months worth of free service in exchange for a customer that buys a 6-12 month plan. Remember ‘honesty is the best policy’, please doesn’t full your customer by offering something unmanageable that you can’t manage. It will hurt your customers & they won’t trust you after that.

Choose a reliable service. As a web hosting reseller, you have a responsibility to your customers if you want to keep them around. This responsibility includes making sure that you are reselling services from a reliable company. If you choose a bad company that has significant downtime and does not have enough resources to support all of the customers that they have taken on, you are liable to lose most of the customers that you bring in.

Do your homework. Lastly, if want to run a reselling business, it is always a good idea to know something about servers, scripting languages, and other issues that may arise with your customers. This will allow you to respond to their questions and concerns quicker than if you have to look up the answers yourself.

Reselling is a great business to start and offers a lot of profit opportunity if you know how to market your business correctly. You have the potential to grow a booming business quickly with very little overhead and everything is done online. No building maintenance, employees (unless you choose).

Minimizing Download Bandwidth.

February 14th, 2011

The limitation of bandwidth is something we cannot escape. Whether you have a single shared hosting account or a data center filled with servers, you still have to deal with bandwidth limitations. For those of you who lease or own dedicated servers, keeping your bandwidth numbers down may be a daily struggle.

The following are four steps you can take to lessen the sting of high data transfer for one or multiple websites on your server.

File compression – Bandwidth is calculated in bytes and finally in gigabytes (GB). While HTML and CSS files are generally smaller than Mp3s and other media, multiple downloads can add up. Fortunately, you can save bandwidth with file compression. Most modern web browsers support gzip compression, meaning that users will download your content and then uncompress it seamlessly within their browsers.

P2P File Sharing – Although this is generally thought of as a tool for software, music, and movie pirates, peer-to-peer networks are great for reducing bandwidth, as they offload some of the data transfer to users. Bit Torrent is a very popular file sharing technology that you can use for large file downloads.

File Hosting – If P2P file sharing does not work for you, there are plenty of services that will host your files remotely at a fraction of the cost of bandwidth.

Cloud Storage – Many services such as Amazon S3 offer long-term cloud storage, web application caching, and/or Content Delivery Networks (CDN), all of which can reduce your server’s direct bandwidth and at last save’s your money.

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