As you know, toptut.com has moved from one web hosting service to another — already 3 times. Coming a long way from a small shared account to a powerful dedicated server, I learnt a lot about what one needs to think off, when picking a hosting service and here is what I can share.

As we live in the era of blogs and CMS, bandwidth isn’t really an issue anymore since it’s cheap and mostly left unused in hundreds of GB’s, something we couldn’t even dream about 5-7 years ago.  There are much more important things to be taken into account, for example — other user’s satisfaction…  Believe it or not, but there is nothing like honest feedback from other people who used a certain host because they also needed their disk space, bandwidth, quick support and after a short or long-term test drive, they are able to recommend or warn you.

So, where can you get honest reviews? Surely you are not going to rely on the “testimonials” posted by a mythological “John D.” on web hosting site’s sidebar! You need something sincere and genuine. For me,  webhostinggeeks.com has always been the ultimate source of hosting service  reviews. Instead of making a comprehensive research on each and every host (which is what I did back in 2006 when toptut.com was launched), in just a few clicks you can see all the best web hosts sorted from best to moderately-good.

Each and every one of us has different needs, some are interested in cheapest possible shared hosting, others want to go with green hosting and support the environment, while people like myself need the most powerful dedicated server out there. All you need to do is follow the sidebar navigation on webhostinggeeks.com to choose the top rated service.

You will also find plenty of useful articles dedicated to web hosting, which will tell you why having a reliable host is so important and how can you make money with web hosting. If I knew all these things a few years ago, it would have saved me a lot of time and trial-and-error tactics.

So my point is, if you are a beginner webmaster considering to start your website on a quality (even the cheapest but paid) host,  or — if you are unhappy with your current hosting service and thinking of migrating to a better server, I strongly recommend to use webhostinggeeks.com in order to avoid wasting time and money on a low quality service. Do your homework, see what others recommend, learn which host meets your needs and what bonuses or special deals you can get if you chose them. Good luck!

T

1. Hosting

Let’s start at the beginning. You may think the first thing to do is downloading the WordPress software. Right? Wrong. Before you even start thinking about that there is one thing you need to do – get hosted! Thanks to the rise of WordPress you will easily find WP customized hosting plans, so called WordPress hosting that support PHP script language, MySQL databases and pre-installable scripts that installs WordPress for you at no additional cost.

Getting top web hosting is essential for any aspiring website and perhaps one of the hardest things to pull off. The web hosting industry is growing larger by the day with thousands of hosts and resellers offering server capacity from all corners of the world. Do not fall for a so called Unlimited web hosting. There is no such thing. Except mentioned WordPress requirements above, when choosing blog hosting, you should base you decision on three ingredients:

1.      Bandwidth – the maximum amount of data (bits per second) that is allowed to transfer between web server and browser. The more data your website has (heavy images, files etc) in relation to website traffic volum the higher bandwidth you need.

2. Disk space – If you need a high bandwidth span you probably will need more disk space. However, even the cheapest hosting plans nowadays offer more than enough server space (around 30000Mb)

3. Domain registration - you’ll need a domain name to go with your WordPress website.

2. Plugins

You get one included plugin when you install WordPress – Hello Dolly! And though we love Luis Armstrong as much as the next guy this plugin does little difference. Amongst the thousands of plugins available, we have selected two that qualifies as essential components for the perfect WordPress site – Akismet and All in One SEO Pack.

Akismet

Once your blog has been indexed by search engines and starts getting traffic, spam will find its way to your site. Actually, increasing spam comments is perhaps the first indication that people are finding your site. Before you know it, there will be hundreds of spam comments waiting for your moderation. Akismet is the best spam-filter WordPress plugin and will save you a lot of moderation time by efficiently separating spam from unique visitor comments.

All in One SEO Pack

Assuming that you have heard about search engine optimization this plugin is a must have. Although WordPress already is optimized for search engine robots to crawl, this SEO plugin will enable you full control. Adding meta tags to every post and page, the All in One SEO pack let’s you do your own search engine optimization. Google’s Keyword Tool is a great service where you can find the best keywords to implement.

And there you have it. Be sure to include these components when setting up your WordPress site. They will save you time and bring you peace of mind when we all know how bothering website administration can be. Regarding the plugins there are many more that will fill a useful purpose. We have limited this article to merely two but if you care to explore the world of plugins, feel free to visit WordPress.org.

When it comes to web hosting however WordPress hosting is a plan worth sticking to as it includes all necessities for setting up and running a WordPress website.

Paid to post community is becoming a trend recently, most people ask themselves, why to post for free, while in many forums you can get paid for it. There are normally 3 types of paid to post communities.

First, those who have a fixed rate for posts and pay by paypal or any other online payment method. The price varies from 1 cents, up to 20 cents, depending on the size of the board and admin’s pocket.

Second are the “shared revenue” communities, where a member can input his AdSense code into a specified field in his cPanel, then when he makes a new thread or replies the last, there are 50% of chances for his Adsense ads to show up.

Third is a more general type of “paid communities”, as the member do not get a direct monetary payment, but are provided with miscellaneous goods in exchange for their participation, such as free (quality) web hosting, domain names, etc.

It’s up to you, what types of communities to join. I personally tried them all, but can’t come up with a good and overall review, as I was not participating equally in all of them, some grabbed my attention and I stayed just for fun, then even became a moderator of the board, while in others I have 150+ posts and can’t really tell how profitable is the business. I will start off with my personal experience though and hope it will be useful for you.

Paid to post communities that pay on a fixed rate are a great way to make fast money, especially if the minimum post count and word count is not too big. 10 cents per post of about 30 words would be a decent deal. Mostly you will find such offers in other big forums, such as DigitalPoint.com, where new forums owners are looking to boost activity and pay people to join and participate in their board. Once the forum grows, the pate per post gets lower, and then normally been done away with completely. So if you are after such a forum, just look for related offers on other huge forums and carpe diem.

Shared revenue communities can boost your AdSense revenue, however, there are a few “but’s”. You need to have AdSense account, where minimum payout is 100$. If, for whatever reason, Adsense will ban you, this type of revenue will no longer exist for you, as Yahoo publisher and Adbride aren’t an alternative in this case. I joined 2 forums that share income with their members, but not out of greed, only because the forums happened to interest me. In one forum I have 150 posts and earnt… just don’t die from envy! – 5 cents. In the other forum I have about 100 posts, and joined the revenue account only on half way, made about 3$. Bottom line is that I’d not count on shared revenue board if money is all you are after, as you will need to post a lot just to get your ads displayed, then again, it will be in rotation of 50%, and then, go and hope that someone will click it. Notable forums in this category are Digital Point and Webmasters Talk
Last type are the forums that provide their members with hosting and domains, as this is the most common thing you get. Most forums do provide quality hosting without ads, some demand a link back to the forum, while others go further and provide ads supported hosting. If the hosting provided is ads supported, then you shouldn’t waste your time posting, there are tons of free hosts out there, some do not even place ads on your site. If, however, it’s a respectable and established website that indeed delivers what their promise and provide high quality professional hosting, you should consider giving it a go. Remember that average host will cost between 5$ and 10$, so as long as you don’t feel like overworking yourself for this monthly price, it’s ok. Some people do not have credit card or paypal,and cannot pay for online service because of it, so for them it will be the perfect solution. Same applies to domain names, which can be registered in exchange for particular amount of earnt points or “stars”. Notable forum that provides domain names and cash by paypal in exchange for point earnt for posting it HostBidder.com

This is more or less my coverage of paid to post communities. Of course if you don’t feel like selling out you can always join my forum – Lorelei Web Forum where the participation is free and volunteer. Hope this pours some light on the paid to post communities and on how you can earn money at home, enjoying talking to your friends.

Lets start with this – if you sign up to hosting service with www.dreamhost.com and enter the promo code: lorelei in the coupon field, you will get 90$ discount off the price. So… if annual price is 119$, using this coupon will reduce it to 29$ per 12 months, during which you get 200 GB space and 2000 GB bandwidth. + Free domain.
I recently moved to Dreamhost.com because it was the only hosting provider on the Internet who seemed to offer enough bandwidth for my needs… 2TB, to be precise. This very blog is hosted on Dreamhost too.
So far my impression from dreamhost is more than positive. Before I signed up I had my doubts because it seemed to be too cheap and most of us afraid to get what you pay for. I won’t try to entice you away into signing up, but will only share my host experience.

Good sides:

1. 200GB of space and 2000 GB of bandwidth is more than you could ever wish for, especially if you get it for less than 3$ per month! Just think about it, it’s a damn good deal.
2. Stable host. They have been around for a few years, have a reputation to maintain, it’s not a host that will disappear tomorrow.
3. Money back guaranteed. (only if you pay with credit card)
4. Excellent support. I emailed them a few times regarding different issues and always got a quick and very detailed response.
5. The free domain you get is transferable, plus it will remain free as long you keep hosting it with them.
6. You can participate in their referral system and earn up to 97$ commission from referring other members.
7. Every week your disk space and bandwidth limit increases in a few GB (during the month, then drops back to the regular limit).

Bad sides:

1. The interface of the cPanel (which is their custom work) is a bit hard to get used to, it’s confusing and hard to follow. Won’t be easy to use after cPanel X, but, 1-2 weeks and you will get there.
2. No Fantastico. One click installation only included some basic scripts like phpBB, images Gallery, blog and a few more
3. you ever decide to cancel your hosting, you would have to pay the 9+ dollar for the domain you got free. (if you cancel before the year expires, that is).
4. In order to get the promo code discount, you have to pay with credit card, not paypal. Also, they will ask you to send them a fax with a copy of your card, so remember to have fax at hand. And printer.

I think this sums it up more or less. Overall, the up time is fantastic, same is the speed. Proved to be very stable with different scripts I tried to use, so… I’d say the advantages are far bigger than the disadvantages.

So, don’t forget, input the word lorelei.

Good luck!