Why Are There So Many Bad Web Hosts? (Part 1)
One of the most aggravating aspects of having a website is dealing with a web host. Excessive downtime and slow servers can tank your search engine rankings (and aggravate your users), while slow or gibberish tech support adds stress to your day.
But this isn’t caused by random bad luck. Poor web hosting service is a direct result of having a poor business model (or no business model), de facto lying, or cheaping out — or a combination thereof.
Avoiding bad hosts is as easy as understanding how and why bad hosts exist, as well as learning how to spot the tell-tale signs of a potentially unpleasant hosting experience. Part One of this three-part editorial series examines the issues of misrepresentation and the lack of industry oversight. [Read more]
VPS Hosting is like a Take-and-Bake Pizza
As a person that tries to eat healthy, pizza is something I purposely avoid. Most pizza is greasy, over-filled with salty marinara, and topped with fatty artery-clogging meats. It’s a commodity glop for the masses.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can eat pizza without needing a bottle of Rolaids for dessert.
All it requires is a few extra dollars, and a small investment of time. I refer specifically to two options: (1) the popular take-and-bake pizza chains, which serve healthy made-to-order pizzas, or (2) the grocery store, where I can hand select ingredients and make a custom pizza from scratch.
Tonight, as I sit by the dining table with a freshly-baked Mediterranean deLite pizza from Papa Murphy’s, reading some new web-related forum posts on an iPad, I can’t help but to draw a correlation between the two industries — web hosting vs. pizza. Just as it is with pizza, a person willing to spend time or funds on quality can avoid mass-made slop hosting. [Read more]
Blog Comments vs. Forum Posts – Which To Use?
The choice between using blog comments or forum posts to communicate with your readers can be narrowed down to a single question:
How much control do you want to have over your message?
That’s the question you need to ask when trying to decide between these similar-yet-different approaches to creating an online community.
Both styles of feedback are part of two-way communication — a system that exists not only for feedback, but as a way to receive approval and create advocacy within your community. However, if you use the wrong style for your site, it can come at the cost of cluttering the message and disrupting the proper flow of site traffic. [Read more]
A Public Thank You to EuroVPS, Our Web Host
Too often, online comments and reviews are reserved for scorn, disappointment, or even revenge. Anger causes your adrenaline to rush, and you turn into a red-eyed keyboard monster, ready to semi-libel (or outright libel!) the company or person who has aggravated you.
Have you ever heard that myth that it only takes one muscle to smile while it takes 43 to frown? Well, I don’t know about 43, but I do think it requires twice as much effort to leave online praise.
Today, consider taking 10 minutes of your time to leave a detailed praise of a company online — be it on your blog, on Facebook, or at a review site.
Today, my thanks goes to the web host EuroVPS. Read on, to learn why this company deserves my praise… [Read more]
