Top 3 Free Web Hosting Services

Nowadays, there are many free webhosting services available on the Internet. Sometimes it can be difficult to choose which one is best for you. First of all, you need to bear in mind free wehosting usually have some limitations such as not allowed email accounts, no mysql databases, no perl etc. It varies from each web host.

There are sometimes hidden cost as well for free webhosting. For example, you need to register a domain name from the web host before you can have free web hosting. Other place restriction on bandwidth, disk space and if you exceed them, expect to pay some money.

Another type is some web host will place banners, text links etc on your webpage. Some only occupy a small amount of screen space while others can be as large as one-third. Geocities.com is an example of a free webhosting service that places banners, text links on your webpage.

With that said, if you really have no money, then there is no choice but to get free webhosting. It is also useful if you are new to web design and can use it for testing purposes. I still have one hosted on geocities with my first designed personal webpage.

There are literally thousands of free webhosting services out there but I will recommend the top 3 which I have used before.

#1 Champshost.com

Champhost is in my opinion is the best free webhosting service. They give 1000MB diskspace, no ads on your webpage and allows php, cgi, perl. The only thing they ask for is you contribute some post to their forum which isn’t so hard.

#2 – 100webspace.com

100webspace get my vote as the second best. They offer 100MB space, all full features as a paid web hosting, that includes, email, ftp, php, mysql etc. The only thing I did not like they have ads on your webpage but it isn’t too big to be a distraction.

#3 – Neopages.net

I like neopages because they are actually one of the few webhosting services that do not make any kind of money from offering free webhosting. They offer 150MB space, no ads as well as PHP, cgi, mysql, email, ftp etc.

The only issue is approval is on a case by case by members voting and you must have an existing website published already. It is pretty hard to get in since they only allow 3 each week.

As you can see, these 3 are just my favorites and there are a lot more free webhosting services available. Do remember to read the terms and conditions carefully to make sure you are actually getting free web hosting

Also, once you have some money do consider upgrading to paid hosting as they offer a lot more features and better support. You can go to any web hosting or webmaster forums where from time to time, webhosting companies offer big discounts for web hosting.

Written by: Ricky Lim.


Article Source: http://www.ArticleStreet.com/

Should I Use Lunarpages Hosting?

# Way back in 1995, I was one of the first customers of a company which considered itself to be the very first company specializing in web hosting. My site was fairly simple, and everything worked, so I kept my site with them even after they were bought out and raised their prices.

Big mistake!

A few months ago I happened upon a web page reviewing web hosting companies and learned I was overpaying by quite a bit, so I decided it was time to move.

A little research led me to LunarPages. Now I'm saving over $200/year and getting more features and better service than I dreamed possible. And through LunarPages I can improve my own skills by experimenting with cutting-edge web technology, because Lunar Pages accounts -- even the inexpensive Standard Plan I have -- include high-end features like MySQL, PHP, ASP, and other alphabet-soup that I've only read about but now have the opportunity to use.

And there's actually a real person available by phone. Really. I've called a couple of times, for what I thought were kind of minor problems. Not only did I get through to a technician almost instantly, without a wait, my questions were answered immediately and I wasn't made to feel like an idiot --even when the problem was in the "wetware" between my ears. (In other words, I screwed something up, and the support tech was just that: supportive!)

That they have real, live people available by phone, at no additional charge, is evidence of how well they manage their service, and how easy it is to use. There's just no way they could offer live support like this if there were frequent problems or the service wasn't straightforward and simple to use.

There's also a genuine community of users online at LunarForums.com where fellow subscribers, as well as tech support folks, share their experience with each other. People with absolutely no 'net experience are made welcome, and I've never seen a single case of someone being told to "rtfm" (read the "fine" manual, or documentation -- a common, rude, 'net response to basic questions). The Forums aren't just available to subscribers, they're open to all. People considering LunarPages can see the type of questions current subscribers ask and the type of answers they get, as well as ask their own questions -- *before* subscribing themselves!

I'm so pleased with LunarPages that I mention them on the first page of my own web site, even though they don't have a referral program (at least, not that I know of). The service is just so good that I want to let others know about it.

Not affiliated with LunarPages in any way other than being a *very* satisfied customer.
Andy Funk

# I've always found the time to make a phone call or write an email of complaint when the service or product I have received has been poor, but rare is the time any of us, I think, stop to write a letter of thank you for superior service.

So, I just wanted to let you know that your service is by far the best I've worked with in my life, and I'm not just talking about webhosts. I have never had my questions answered so clearly, quickly, and courteously by any company or service provider I've dealt with. The email correspondences have been concise, easy to understand but not condescending, and polite. My phone contact was expedient, thorough, and patient as I repeatedly asked for clarification.

As an educator currently working specifically on team efficiency and effectiveness, I am simply amazed at the fact that EVERYONE I've interacted with from Lunarpages has been so consistently excellent. And, if there is parent company you'd like to see this, let me know and I'll be happy to give them a copy.

Author : Tom
http://www.articleclick.com/Article/Should-I-Use-Lunarpages-Hosting-/924107

Want To Start A Website? The Basics

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is big business. If you rely on search engines to bring visitors to your business website, you need to rely on more than luck. Your business will lag far short of its potential unless your site is optimized and re-optimized for search engine results.

What is search engine optimization?

SEO is optimizing your website for search engines, acquiring inbound links, and monitoring your traffic and referring links to use them optimally. SEO is also studying and monitoring your competitors' techniques.

The goal of SEO is to bring in targeted traffic that is organic, i.e., from search results. When people type in a keyword or phrase that you've optimized your site for, you want your site to appear on the first page, preferably high on that page. Good SEO results in increased traffic without the cost and time spent on advertising.

The SEO industry

Where there's a need, there's an industry ready to help you spend money on that need. SEO firms charge from a few hundred dollars up to six-figure amounts to optimize your site for search engines.

If paying thousands of dollars to an SEO firm isn't in your budget, consider using SEO packages to optimize your site yourself.

A combination of SEO tools is needed to get the best results. The SEO packages described below offer a variety of tools to help you optimize your site for search engines.

SEO tools compared

While we've listed numerous features of each SEO tool, these comparisons are summaries only.

Internet Business Promoter (IBP)

Known for their link popularity tool ARELIS, IBP also produces a three-step suite of tools to help you promote your website:

1. Page optimization

* Generate, analyze, and edit keywords
* Optimize for the top 10 search engine rankings
* Optimize the title, link texts, and other parts of the web page
* Validate the HTML
* View the site via a spider simulator

2. Page promotion

* Submit your site to search engines and directories
* Search for sites that might add a link to your site

3. Results tracking

* Verify search engine positions automatically

Price: $179.95 or $349.95.

LinksManager

Links Manager is designed to help users manage reciprocal linking. It doesn't require any software downloads, and current links pages can be imported into it. Some of its features:

Link organization and formatting

* Organize your links into multiple categories, subcategories, and “most popular links" lists
* Store the links on your own server
* Highlight newly added and featured links

Link management and tracking

* Remove dead links temporarily via a dead link checker
* Check whether or not reciprocal links at other sites exist
* Rotate links automatically
* Deny link submissions according to the criteria you set via a blacklist
* View the most popular keywords on your links pages

Price: $19.95 a month.



SEO Administrator

SEO Administrator automates website promotion with tools that can do these tasks:

Keywords and site visitors

* Track your site's position for your keywords in over 30 search engines
* Report on the keyword weight and density of your site as well as of competitors' sites
* Suggest keywords that are relevant to each page
* Analyze your site logs to find out about site visitors, keywords used, referrers, and more

Search engines and directories

* Check which pages at your site have been indexed by various search engines
* Check Google PR, the number of inbound links, and whether or not the site is listed in the DMOZ and Yahoo directories
* Show the automated descriptions that search engines display for your pages

Price: from $70 to $150, depending on the version.

SEO Elite

With SEO Elite, you can find out exactly what your competitors are doing and copy their strategies. You can find out about your competitors' web pages:

* Keyword density and prominence
* Their h1 and h2 headings
* Their meta keywords
* Whether their site is listed in the Yahoo directory
* Which websites your competitors are advertising on

Concerning link partners and search engines, SEO Elite can:

* Find thousands of possible link partners
* Track details about pages with inbound links
* Check whether or not reciprocal links at other sites exist
* Indicate which of your pages search engines have indexed
* Keep a record of where your site is ranked for search terms

Price: $167.

SEOToolset

The focus of SEOToolset is to provide data to help with website promotion. The toolset includes:

Your website

* Keyword density analyzer
* Keyword selection tool
* Reports on rankings for keywords, page names, and indexed page counts
* Link partner finder

Search engines and directories

* Engine-specific keyword research
* Traffic checker for keywords
* DMOZ category selector
* Search engine submission tool
* Search engine ranking monitor

Your competition

* Keyword research summary
* Link analysis of inbound links to competitors' websites

Price: $90.00 per quarter per site.

Web CEO

The 10 tools in the Web CEO package are designed to help you promote and maintain your website, improve search engine results, and analyze site visitors. A summary of these tools:

At your website

* Keyword research
* Website optimization
* Inbound link tracking
* WYSIWYG website editing and file uploading
* Link checking
* Website monitoring
* Stats analysis to track visitors, ad campaigns, transactions, and more

Search engines and competition

* URL submission to search engines
* Search engine rank checking
* Tracking who links to the competition

Price: $295 for one person. A free version is also available.

WebPosition

WebPosition, one of the oldest and most popular SEO tools, offers a five-step SEO process:

Determine your position in search engines

* Create search engine ranking reports
* Monitor your site's placement in search engine results

Research and choose keywords

* Identify the most searched and least competitive keywords

Optimize your pages

* Compare your pages to those of top-performing sites and specific competitors
* Detect when your competitors' pages have changed
* Be alerted to changes that could affect your site rankings

Design and submit your pages

* Use Page Builder and Upload Manager to design and maintain your site
* Submit your site to search engines with the Submitter tool

Analyze your results

* Track the correlation between search rankings and revenue
* Import top-performing keywords

Price: $149 or $349.



How to hire an SEO firm

If you'd prefer to hire an SEO firm instead, do your research. You'll be spending a minimum of a few hundred dollars, more likely thousands of dollars for a medium-sized or larger website.

While many SEO firms are good at what they do, the field unfortunately has its share of scammers as well. They may tell you that a variety of tricks such as hidden text or cloaking will improve your site's position in search engines. In reality, these techniques may get your site banned from search engines.



If you're considering an SEO firm, ask how they measure success. Will your site hits be organic? Look at the sites of SEO firms' clients and the site for the SEO firm itself. Do the sites rank well for keywords at these sites? The search engine results for relevant keywords will indicate how successful an SEO firm is.

Author :David
http://www.articleclick.com/Article/Want-To-Start-A-Website-The-Basics/919707

Improperly Utilized Statements of Work in IT Contracts

As an independent IT consultant you've just landed another client. You've taken the time to get the proper insurance and had the client review and sign your contract. But does the contract contain enough detailed information within the statement of work? A statement of work should clearly define the scope of the business relationship and the rights and responsibilities you have while providing your services. Often, too few details can result in a contract going sour.

For example, a web designer was hired to create an online management system for a client so they could keep track of each of their accounts and the status of their projects. A Web design statement of work was drafted to outline what the management system would include and how much it would cost. The web designer delivered the completed system several months later. However, after the client had requested enhancements, the original delivery date was missed. The client not only refused to pay for the additional time involved in developing the enhancements, but requested a discount because the deadline was missed. The web designer was at a real disadvantage because there was no statement of work to refer to and there were no provisions to account for a mid-project change of scope. The client ultimately paid the bill, but the business relationship was severely damaged.

In another example, an IT consultant was hired by an auto repair shop to create an application. The IT consultant included the cost of his services in the statement of work, but he ended up spending more time than anticipated. He sent an invoice to the auto repair shop reflecting the extra billed time. The auto shop refused to pay. In this case, the IT consultant was not entitled to the additional payment because he failed to note in the statement of work that any overtime would be billed accordingly.

In both cases these issues could have been avoided had the contracts included more clearly defined statements of work. In today's dynamic business climate, it is increasingly important to include as much detail as possible in contracts. Independent consultants and individuals should refer to sample statements of work to gain a better understanding of the level of description that should go into it. There are also statement of work templates business owners can utilize. These will save time and money, and ensure all of the essential components are included.

Below is a sample statement of work that outlines what should typically be included. Specific statement of work templates, however, are available online for specific fields.

* Scope of Work - Describes the work to be done in detail and specifies the hardware and software involved and the exact nature of the work to be done.
* Location of Work - Details where the work is to be performed.
* Period of Performance - Specifies the allowable time for projects, such as start and finish times, number of hours that can be billed per week or month, where work is to be performed and other scheduling-related issues.
* Deliverables Schedule - Lists the specific deliverables, describing what is due and when.
* Applicable Standards - Describes any industry specific standards that need to be adhered to in fulfilling the contract.
* Acceptance Criteria - Specifies how the client will determine if the product or service is acceptable and the criteria that will be used to state the work is acceptable.

Author : James
http://www.articleclick.com/Article/Improperly-Utilized-Statements-of-Work-in-IT-Contracts/1180443

ADSL Web hosting - Excellent Hosting that Has Much to Offer

When it comes to web hosting today, there are a variety of different options that are available. Many people end up choosing ADSL web hosting because they feel that it is the very best option for their needs. Most experts say that this type of hosting is excellent for meeting the needs that businesses in the modern world need to meet today. There are a variety of different companies that actually provide ADSL web hosting services and the great thing about these companies is that they provide service and assistance around the clock so businesses can get the help they need whenever they may need it.

Quick and Reliable HostingBusinesses always need to have quick and reliable hosting and ADSL web hosting definitely can provide that reliable hosting that they need to keep their daily operations running smoothly. Vendors of these solutions offer great ADSL solutions and they are well trained to deal with all the pressures that modern businesses go through today. The professionals have the knowledge and have quality professionals themselves that can provide the structure and hardware that is needed to help businesses get the best reliability needed when dealing with a web hosting company.

Concerns About CostWhile this type of web hosting is indeed reliable and powerful, businesses who want to use ADSL web hosting are often a bit concerned about the costs of using this type of service. However, as the competition in this market has grown, cost is not such a big factor, since you can now get various services that are offered at costs that are reasonable. Because of the different costs that are offered from different companies, it is important that companies take the time to consider a variety of companies and their prices before making their final choice of a provider.

Consider Speed of ServersAnother thing to consider when picking out the company to offer your ADSL web hosting is the speed of the servers. Companies should ensure that the servers have great speed. Connections and bandwidth are also important concerns as well. The last thing you want to deal with is a block or choked server and one way that you can check out these servers is to actually ping a site. This way you can easily see how fast the server is working. If you find servers that have great speed, then it's a wonderful choice for your business that you will definitely appreciate.

Author : Balva
http://www.articleclick.com/Article/ADSL-Web-hosting-Excellent-Hosting-that-Has-Much-to-Offer/1029090