CloudFlare Free Content Delivery Network Service Review

A reader recently asked me if I have ever used CloudFlare, a free and paid Content Delivery Network service. I had never used it but recently put it to the test on a few sites without any problems. It is very easy to set up and point your nameservers in their direction. It honestly took me only 15 minutes from, start to finish. I am putting it to the test on a few moderately heavy traffic sites along with the W3 Total Cache plugin and am impressed with load times. I will let this run on these sites for a few months now to see how it goes. Here is the promo video below and a full tour here.

Us in 90 Seconds from CF Vimeo on Vimeo.

Black Friday Hostgator Firesale 50% Off

You have a little over 4 hours to take advantage of the HUGE Black Friday 50% off firesale that Hostgator is offering right now.

HostGator is currently offering 50% OFF EVERYTHING until 12:00AM CST

This applies to ALL Accounts and ALL Term Lengths. So you will have the opportunity to receive 50% off of up to 3 years worth of Hosting! That would come out to $35.64 for 3 FULL YEARS on a shared hosting account.

I have used Hostgator for many years as one of my many host and if you are looking to add another host to your portfolio, now is the time to do. It is always good to have at least a couple of host should one go down or an emergency happens.

GO HERE NOW TO GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!

If You Auto Blog You Need A VPS Host

The discount code for the Auto Blog Blueprint 2.0 has been quite popular and a few that bought have emailed me questions. As Michael Johnson suggest, you will not want to set these up on shared host like Hostgator. Now there is nothing wrong with Hostgator mind you, it is just when you get a few of these going, they will set off a red flag and they might suspend your account or shut your sites down until you stop the auto blogging. You might get away with one, two or even three, but they will catch you. I use 6 different hosting companies and the best choice for auto blogs is Servint Essential VPS. They are great with phone call support and getting you set up as well. Make sure whatever hosting you use, make sure it is a fast VPS that allows auto blogs. You have been warned.

Are you Ready For WordPress 3.2 Using PHP5?

When WordPress 3.2 comes out it will be dependent on your host running PHP 5.2 in order to install or upgrade to WordPress 3.2. Now is the time to make sure you know for sure if your host is with the times or not. I came across this PHP 5 testing tool that is designed to help you find out whether or not a certain site is ready for WordPress 3.2. The tool simply looks at the information returned by your server. If the server you test doesn't identify the PHP version being run on it, instructions for an alternate method will be provided. This tool is more of a point and click type tool and if you have any real concerns, you should contact your host to ask them the hard questions. If the server is not ready for the new version of Wordpress, you should consider switching host as by now, most should be able to accommodate this. HostGator is currently running either PHP version 5.2.13 or 5.2.14 and is fine for lower volume sites that are not auto blogging.

Last Time You Did Server Maintenance & Cleanup?

I am using today to go through and check all my servers and do some clean up of unneeded files, plugins and sift through some non-emergency type error codes to straighten up. Over time this stuff can build up and it is good to set aside a day every few months if possible to just run through each site completely. I like to thumb through each root directory to give it a visual as well for anything that may not belong there. I do use a server monitoring script to alert me to all files uploaded, just in case I am hacked or something is exploited. it has happened once before to me and I have caught it. I also use this time to visit all my sites one by one and make sure everything looks good and loads fine from a visual standpoint. It is quite time consuming depending on the amount of sites you have, but is pretty mindless work and good to do. You would be surprised at the things you will stumble upon that need to be addressed or have been forgotten to be taken care of. Back at it now!

Hosting Next Door To Spammy Websites

I was catching up on some Matt Cutts webmaster videos today and came across his video reply to a question regarding hosting your site on a shared hosting account that also host a ton of spammy sites and if it penalyzes your site in any way. Cutts explains a situation where you might be concerned, but it is pretty far fetched example. For the most part, Cutts explains, you should be just fine as only he can do. Watch the video below:

Hostgator Coupon Code St. Patricks Day Special

Hostgator is running a St. Patricks Special from now until April 1st. If you follow this blog, you will know that I am a huge fan of them. They are one of my many hosting companies that I use and they are especially very user friendly for newbies. Just enter in coupon code: LUCKY and receive 20% off of your initial order. Get your spring off to a great start with Hostgator. Host Gator provides Shared, Reseller and Dedicated web hosting packages. Their hosting platform is designed for both beginners and experienced professionals. All of their shared plans include a 99.9% uptime guarantee, 24/7 support and a 45-day money back guarantee.

Open Apology To Hostgator

Just because you do a task quite a few times, still does not mean you can't mess it up one of the times. That was the case for me last night as I was working on beefing up security on one set of Hostgator accounts. I made an htaccess change on the master account that resonated to all of the add on domains. I failed to check my results and did not notice until right before bed time. When I found I had massive 404 pages across several sites, I clearly thought it was a Hostgator problem and not one I caused. Hell I even forgot I made changes, so i knew it was Hostgators fault. After a few nasty emails I went to bed and did not sleep well. When I woke up this morning I went over notes of what I wanted to get done yesterday and then found that I made htaccess changes. After looking deeper in to what I changed, I found my mistake. Hear that? My mistake. So let me just say publicly...

I AM SORRY HOSTGATOR!!!!

I use several host for all of my online marketing and Hostgator's up time is amazing and they are quick to fix any problems that happen to be on their end, which is few and far between. If you are looking for a new host or an additional host, give them a try.

Hostgator Upgrades To Apache2

Let me start by saying that of all the host I use now and have used in the past, Hostgator is head and shoulders above the rest. They now have upgraded to Apache2 on all most all blocks of the servers. There is also a brand new cPanel look as well with great links to video tutorials included. Make sure to check ALL of your sites on Hostgator and be sure everything is running fine. Log into your cPanel and get acquainted with the changes so you will know your way around. If you are un happy with your current hosting, you should really look into giving Hostgator a try. You will absolutely love them.

cPanel Guide Tutorials

Most of you are likely using a host such as Hostgator or another type host using cPanel. Sometimes it can be quite confusing on how to use some of the various features. Here is a great link to some cPanel Guide Tutorials that will hopefully clear up some questions and provide some documentation for you on the use of it. Here are some cPanel slide tutorials as well. They also have message board forums as well for those hard to find answers. make sure to bookmark the links for future use.

Niche Store Hosting And You

I wanted to dedicate a post to the seriousness of choosing a good host if you are indeed serious about your online niche store business. If you are a veteran webmaster or are comfortable with configuring host in and outs, feel free to stop reading here. If you are a newbie to webmastering I highly advise you to read on and promise me I will not hurt your feelings.

If your site is not loading fast and working 99% of the time you will not be successfulness. Also you run the risk of the search engines indexing a down page.

I deal with tons of emails and private messages from the BANS forum every week and it amazes me how many times it ends up being a hosting problem. If you are indeed new to all of this, there is a reason the manual says to use Hostgator. Hostgator is the host of choice and many many people use it and are accustomed to it. You will get better support with any other small problems by the forum if you are using them as so many are using it as well. I currently use 5 hosting companies for all of my websites and can only recommend 2 to newbies because of the ease. Those two are Hostgator and Lunarpages. Both these host use almost identical setups and both run BANS flawlessly. If you insist on using Godaddy or another host, do not expect much help. After you learn the ins and outs, by all means move to other host or VPS hosting services.

Below is a breakdown of the two plans I suggest.

Hostgator - Baby Croc plan gives more than enough space and unlimited domains, subdomains and databases. It cost 7.95 a month and I suggest buying a year at a time.

Lunarpages - If Hostgator is not for you then Lunarpages Basic Plan is quite similar with a little less storage for the same price. The FTP process is a bit slower, but very usable.

Once again these two host are very friendly for newbies and trusted and endorsed by a ton of BANS users.