The Bowdon Bulletin

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October 15, 2015

Is High-Speed Hosting Expensive?

Concept of high speed represented by passing cars on city street.
High-speed hosting is exactly what companies need to impress potential customers who visit their websites. In a world of instant gratification, patience is a thing of the past. Internet users expect web pages on the websites they visit to open instantly. If a web page takes longer than a second or two to open, internet users may navigate away from the website. If your business relies heavily on the internet to sell products and services, having fast web hosting is a key requirement. Unfortunately, many people think the cost of high speed hosting is beyond their reach, so they shy away from high performance hosting services. Is high-speed hosting expensive? The answer is a resounding no. Read on to find out why.

New Technologies

Computer server technology has evolved significantly over the last two decades. For instance, state-of-the-art servers have been developed. They are smaller, more energy efficient, powerful and offer a lot in terms of functionality. These servers come with SSD solid state drives, as opposed to the traditional HDD technology. They also emit less heat, which translates to reduced cooling costs. Since they consume less energy, hosting firms can save a lot of money from reduced energy consumption. These cost savings have been passed down to consumers who can now enjoy blazing fast hosting speeds at a pocket-friendly price.

Stiff Competition

Originally, high-speed web hosting would cost you an arm and a leg. In fact, it was the preserve of a lucky few who could afford it. Today, however, there are thousands of service providers offering fast website hosting services. This has led to intense competition in the industry, which has brought down prices. High-speed webhosting services are now affordable.

Special Offers

From time to time, hosting companies normally run promotions and offer huge discounts on their products and services. For instance, you would find web hosting plans on offer at a tiny fraction of the original cost. Taking advantage of these offers will accord you the chance to enjoy fast web hosting at a pocket friendly price. Before you decide to take advantage of special offers, be sure to check the original price or the cost of your preferred hosting plan once the offer expires. If the price is higher than the price quoted by other hosting providers, the offer may do you more harm than good, so you should consider finding a better service provider.

Coupon Codes

The vast majority of hosting companies offer coupon codes. Redeeming these coupons during checkout can reduce the cost of high-speed website hosting significantly. Some codes offer discounts on domain registration and renewal costs while others offer discounts on both domain and hosting services among other things. These codes can offer either a percentage discount or a fixed amount of money off the quoted price. They can make it possible for you to get affordable high-speed web hosting services. So, is high-speed hosting expensive? Now you know the answer.

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August 31, 2015

The 2015 Web Hosting Awards Presented By NCM Online

2015WebHostingAwards240x320NCM Online is one of the leading authorities on the quality of various web hosting services, including the search engine rankings and site usability resulting from individual hosting packages.

Each year, the organization hands out web hosting awards for a number of categories, and the winners are publicized online soon after the awards are given. NCM currently has nine different award categories given to web hosts, and more are anticipated in the near future.

Determining the best quality of hosting features is a painstaking process, but representatives from NCM carefully compile and analyze collected data to determine which of each web hosting category stands out the most in quality. To ensure objectivity and a lack of bias, the organization uses independent third-party testing services. The resulting data is then sorted and interpreted to select a winner in each category. The nine categories of the NCM Online Web Hosting Awards are:

  1. Best Web Hosting
  2. Top 10 Web Hosts
  3. Fastest Web Hosting United States
  4. 100% Uptime Rating
  5. Fastest Web Hosting Worldwide
  6. Best Web Hosting Coupon Codes
  7. Best Affiliate Program
  8. Best Online Marketing
  9. Best Budget Web Hosting

NCM has established affiliate relationships with a number of web hosting companies, so the use of third-party data is also important for helping to maintain those relationships. Due to the time and effort NCM Online puts into the criteria for award selection, this organization has also become a trusted and authoritative source for unbiased information on different web hosting companies. In addition to recognizable names of established web hosting companies, NCM publicizes information and reviews about smaller, lesser-known web hosts with beneficial features.

The list of winners from the NCM Online awards has become a trusted source of web hosting comparison information for small business owners, bloggers and other individuals who want to set up a high quality self-hosted website. Along with NCM’s data-driven process of hosting service testing, the company also offers hosting package coupon codes, reviews of inexpensive hosting plans and comparative testing results for the average load times of various hosted web pages.

The 2015 Web Hosting Awards Results

For the 2015 awards, NCM thoroughly tested and reviewed more than 50 web hosts for each of the nine available prize categories. The winners for each category are as follows:

  1. Best Web Hosting: A2 Hosting
  2. Top 10 Web Hosts: Certified Hosting, HostRocket and various others
  3. Fastest Web Hosting United States: A2 Hosting
  4. 100% Uptime Rating: Numerous low-cost hosts
  5. Fastest Web Hosting Worldwide: DreamHost
  6. Best Web Hosting Coupon Codes: HostGator
  7. Best Affiliate Program: A2 Hosting
  8. Best Online Marketing: GoDaddy
  9. Best Budget Web Hosting: HostNine

At the beginning of the selection process, NCM Online purchases the least expensive available hosting package and evaluates it for speed and quality. The company then performs a standard test for load times, average uptime speeds and several other factors. The uptime test is conducted on each hosting company for cycles of 15 minutes each, and the entire testing period lasts a total of 10 days. The data is then complied and evaluated for the best quality speeds, along with other evaluated features.

Along with page loading speed, each of the 50 web host candidates gets evaluated for customer support, available bandwidth, disk space, ease of use and monthly price compared to offered webmaster features. With the established parameters, NCM testers then average all the ratings for a given web hosting company and create a cumulative rating for each web host. The hosting company with the highest rating for a given category receives that respective award. The winners of each category enjoy the online publicity and the credibility of endorsement from NCM Online. The web host ranking method details, the speed testing results and the current published promotional codes are also available on NCM’s official website. Individuals comparing the speed, quality and pricing of different web hosts often find it well worth the time and effort to review this published information from the NCM Online awards.

Click here for the NCM Online 2015 Web Hosting Awards

August 27, 2015

Finding and Using Web Hosting Coupon Codes

Shopping with promotional discounts illustration.
Many web-hosting companies offer coupon codes in a bid to attract more clients. However, these coupons come with all manner of incentives such as price discounts, bonus points, and free domains. All this makes it hard for one to choose the right hosting service provider. Here are five tips for finding and using web hosting coupon codes:

Cash Versus Percentage Discounts

Almost all web-hosting coupons offer cash or percentage-based price discounts. Percentage-based discount coupons typically range anywhere from as low as 10% to as high as 70%. Cash discounts also vary widely depending on the type of hosting package and range from $10 to more than $200. Nevertheless, selecting a web host based on this information alone is not a good idea because discounts can blind you from investigating other important aspects such as a hosting company’s infrastructure.

In addition, some seemingly attractive discounts tend to be valid for only one month meaning you may end up stuck with an expensive hosting contract. With this in mind, find out how long you can expect to enjoy discounts on offer. It is also wise to find out more about the figures used to calculate a percentage-based discount to avoid becoming a victim of a deceptive marketing campaign. For instance, a 50% discount on a hosting package priced at $8 per month translates to $4. In comparison, a cash discount of $5 on a similarly priced package translates to a percentage discount of 62.5%. In spite of this, many people tend to go for percentage discounts when cash discounts may be the best choice. In fact, many businesses use this trick to exploit unsuspecting consumers.

Free Domain

You should be wary of promo codes that offer free domains because some web hosting companies use this attractive and enticing benefit to keep clients locked into hosting contracts for years. In the real sense, web hosts register these so-called “free domains” as their own without revealing this fact to unsuspecting clients. When dissatisfied clients try to migrate their sites to new hosts, they find out that they have to pay expensive domain transfer fees. As such, many site owners are stuck with hosts who offer crappy services because they cannot afford prohibitively high domain transfer fees. In addition, they do not want to lose brands that could have taken years and lots of capital investment to build. To avoid similar problems, register your domain with a business entity other than your web host.

Hosting Package Features

Before using a hosting coupon code, find out more about the hosting package features you can expect to access. This is important because it determines the type of “user experience” web users can expect after logging onto your site. Since most promo codes published online come with names of participating web hosts, it is easy to learn more about package features. All you have to do is visit a host’s site and browse through packages on offer and their features.

Repeat this procedure for all other coupons that you come across. After exhausting all available options, cross-compare features and pick the candidate who best suits your hosting requirements. Standard hosting package features include:

  • Easy to access and use control panel
  • Round the clock technical support
  • Email accounts
  • Regular or continuous data backups
  • Compatibility with popular applications
  • One-click application installation

Money-back Guarantee

Do not focus too much on the price discount a hosting coupon code offers and forget about an important element called money back guarantee. You should be able to get your money back within a given period if dissatisfied with services offered by yourweb host. The period within which you can claim your money back varies widely in the web hosting industry and ranges anywhere from one month to more than three months.

Uptime

Another factor to consider carefully before using a coupon code is uptime. This refers to the amount of time you can expect your site to be accessible by web users over a given period. The acceptable industry standard is 99.9% uptime. However, you will come across web hosting service providers who claim that their infrastructure is so good they can guarantee 100% uptime. Do not take such claims seriously because it is almost impossible to build IT infrastructure that is so flawless it cannot develop a fault. In general, uptime ranging from 99.9% to 99.999% is good enough for any site owner regardless of business niche.

Conclusion

When scouring the web for hosting coupon codes, there are certain aspects you should consider carefully. Firstly, evaluate the savings accruable by choosing a cash versus a percentage-based coupon code. In addition, be wary of free domain offers. Other aspects to weigh carefully include the features of a hosting package, money back guarantee, and uptime.

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August 21, 2015

Is iPage Hosting Any Good?

screenshot-ipage-004

There are a number of hosting companies that promise to provide optimal value, rapid page loads and 99.9% uptime. Moreover, many of these providers have nearly identical pricing schemes, making it difficult for companies to determine which options are best for the money. If any of this sounds familiar, you may be asking the question, “Is iPage hosting any good?” Following is everything you want to know about this hosting service and the different hosting plans that it currently provides.

Pricing

With their high-value, introductory offers, iPage offers some of the lowest priced hosting services in its class. More often than not, people only need to search the home page of this company in order to locate the latest, limited-time promotions. As soon as old offers expire, new discounts are added and thus, new subscribers rarely have to pay full price for the plans and special features that they purchase.

Standard Offers

There are a number of impressive features that come standard with all iPage hosting plans. These include free site building tools, free security suite, free domain registration, free online store and unlimited email addresses and disk space. Among some of the core features supplied by their web hosting packages are unlimited MySQL databases, unlimited domains and scalable bandwidth. The Drag and Drop Builder is also available to make site creation simple and hassle free. Subscribers are also given a free, personalized domain name for one full year. Packages even come with the Photo Gallery Setup Wizard and the Blog Setup Wizard. Thus, no matter what your intentions may be, you’re certain to get a comprehensive hosting and site building solution when working with this company.

Online Store

This is one of the best hosting companies to work with when setting up an online store. You will get your choice of shopping cart. Your store will also come with PayPal integration.

Customer Support

A hosting service is only as good as the level of customer support that it provides and this remains true even when a company like iPage offers an expansive array of impressive features as standard. iPage has a variety of ways for subscribers to connect with its support team. These include an online ticketing system and support center, guided tutorials that show new customers how to use their accounts and email, phone and chat support 24 hours per day and seven days per week. Customer service team members undergo rigorous QA testing and iPage asserts that support calls are typically answered in about one minute.

Marketing Tools And Advertising Credits

iPage also provides its customers with a number of impressive marketing tools and advertising credits. They routinely provide up to $250 in advertising value for both Yahoo and Google. The also supply access to comprehensive, online marketing guides, a free toll-free phone number for US clients and a free Yellowpages.com listing. Thus, not only can you count on this company to give you the tools you need to build an impressive site, but you can also rely on iPage to help you market your new website as well.

Drawbacks

There are, however, a few drawbacks of working with iPage hosting, particularly for those who are less technically inclined. This site and its services are primarily catered to people who are familiar with the nuances and demands of web development. Those who have never built their own websites before and who haven’t used hosting services and hosting tools in the past, will likely find themselves growing frustrated at some point in the design process. This is largely due to the fact that iPage does not have cPanel and instead uses its own panel interface which takes time to learn.

Bottom Line

Even with its impressive discounts, iPage is not the cheapest hosting service out there, but it is among the lowest priced. With a wealth of features being offered as standard, this company also provides extraordinary value. The only real drawback is the lack of cPanel and the fact that iPage is best-suited to seasoned designers. Thus, if you happen to be tech-savvy and want to get an amazing range of features with a basic, affordable hosting plan, this could be the best company for you.

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August 19, 2015

Why Hub Web Hosting Hub is a Good Choice

Click to visit Hub Web hosting.

A web host is the most important link between site owner and site visitors. If hosting services are less than stellar, a site’s user experience is highly likely to be low and vice versa. A bad user experience is known to cause once loyal visitors to leave in droves with little or no likelihood of ever returning.

As such, selecting the Hub Web Hosting company should be a well thought out process. Here are four important considerations when selecting a web host:

Security

In the past, security was more of an afterthought in the web hosting industry trumped by factors such as pricing and bandwidth. However, recent high profile data breach events have refocused the spotlight on security. According to data published by the Ponemon Institute in September 2014, 43% of companies in the US had experienced a data breach in the preceding 12 months. Worryingly, this figure had increased by a staggering 10% year-on-year. With this in mind, select a Hub Web Hosting firm that offers real-time data protection. This should include daily malware scans, continuous traffic monitoring, denial-of-service mitigation, SSL and HTTPS, robust firewall, and the best anti-virus technology.

Continuous Maintenance and Updating

The tech industry landscape has a legendary reputation of moving at a speed unmatched by other industries. A good example is the Docker containerization technology, which was unheard of a few years ago. However, it has taken the tech industry by storm becoming more or less a standard/benchmark in its own right. For this reason, it is wise to choose a web host who keeps abreast of industry developments and continuously updates applications, software, and other tools required to provide seamlessly smooth services to clients. Remember, failure to update tools that developers use to keep their sites running such as PHP, Perl, Joomla, and MongoDB degrades site performance and increases likelihood of data breaches.

Data Backup

The most important resource a site has is the data stored in Hub Web Hosting servers. You can think of this data as the attraction that keeps visitors coming back repeatedly. If it were lost irretrievably due to hardware/software failure or hacking, there would be no reason for web users to visit the same site. To avoid becoming another data loss statistic, choose a hosting company that offers data backups. This makes it easy for host to restore clients’ data and resume operations even after losing all data stored on servers at a specific or across multiple locations. The general rule of thumb is to make sure hosting firm persistently backs-up data in more than one location. Such a host can recover client data even if it is irrecoverable from servers and primary data backup point.

Features

Before signing up for a web-hosting package, find out more about the feature you can expect to access. In addition, make sure those features suit your site’s current technical requirements and future growth needs. To start with, find out amount of disk space allocated to Hub Web Hosting package you are eyeing. For a newly launched site that does not yet have a lot of content, disk space of about 10GB would be enough. Another important feature is bandwidth, which largely depends on site architecture and traffic. Other features to evaluate include pre-installed apps and widgets, email accounts, database support, frameworks, shell access, Cron jobs, ability to add .htaccess files, language support, and easy third-party app/software/framework installs.

Conclusion

The company you choose to host your site literally holds the key to success or failure of your web-based venture. For this reason, the most important factors to consider when selecting one include security, features, data backup, as well as continuous maintenance and updating of server hardware/software.

Learn more about Hub Web Hosting.

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