When looking for a home for your wordpress blog you want to make the right decision the first time. This comes to anyone looking for a cheap web hosting company but one of the complaints I hear the most is about having to move a blog and domain registration from host to host when they realize that the hosting company is not a great fit for them. The top two companies i recommend are ANhosting.com and Mariehosting.com Anhosting.com specializes in small business hosting and their prices have been the lowest in the industry for years. Their admins and even level 1 staff have a wide range of knowledge when it comes to wordpress hosting. the majority of their customers are small business who utilize the servers to sell their business ideas, brand identity and blogs. As small business companies get use to the idea of blogging and realize that this is the best way to get traffic from search engines wordpress becomes a more popular solution. It is easy to install through tools such as fantastico, which is included in most cpanel hosting companies control panel. Anhosting is one such company that utilizes fantastico’s ability to install popular scripts and keep them up to date. This allows the cusotmer a great experience in installing and keeping their wordpress script up-to-date.

Mariehosting.com is a niche market hosting company that has just started out their customers are also mainly only wordpress customers as they are looking to provide additional services for wordpress bloggers besides just hosting. My sources there have told me that they have some great wordpress tools in store for the very near future. Including automatic wordpress backup from the control panel. Currently customers through cpanel have to manually backup their files and databases for the whole cpanel account, or retrieve the backup from hosting companies at a price or convenience. Most hosting companies do not guarantee backups as things do happen and by time a customer needs a backup it may be related to the issue at hand.

You should backup your wordpress template themes, plugins, php customizations and databases at minimum. these things can be done by hand through an FTP program and mysql tools. You may also do these through the control panel but this will backup your entire account, takes longer and can be a big file to download. I recommend you log into ftp and retrieve a backup anytime you make changes to yrou theme and create a mysql backup at least every three months. I ask my customers “How much data are you willing to lose”, “If you made a post today and you lost everything except that one post you wouldn’t be extremely upset,” “But, if you lose three years of data you would be very upset.” Most of my customers are happy to log into their account through cpanel and creating a mysql backup every three months and backing up their theme templates and plugins when they add new features or make changes. Int he worst case scenario you would install a new instance of wordpress, upload your template files and plugins, import your database and could be up and running in the amount of time those tasks take. Don’t forget to reactivate your original theme.

When choosing a cheap web hosting provider it is important to ask them about how often they provide backups, how much it costs to restore a backup, how long it takes to restore a backup. I recommend createing yoru own backups on a regular basis do not depend on someone elses backup and servers as you may lose data, or have to wait a long time to get yrou data restored.

The easiest wordpress hosting I have seen so far is by hosting companies using cpanel with fantastico. Fantastico has an autoinstaller for wordpress that gets you up and running after you answer a few questions. And if you have troubles with that tech support should know how to do that with no problem. In order to get cpanel and fantastico you need to find a linux web hosting plan.

For a wordpress site you don’t need a lot of filespace or bandwith. You need one mysql database and one domain. If all your going to do is a wordpress than just about any linux web hosting plan with fantastico will do fine. If you want an ecommerce store, want to host any other sites or if you need to install other scripts you would need more than the basic web hosting plan. For ecommerce and other scripts you will need a plan with one database for each script you are going to install. So wordpress and an ecommerce store such as oscommerce would be two databases. Fantastico includes an autoinstaller for oscommerce as well as other programs that would be helpful in running your site.

What are the benifits of using a hosting company to host your wordpress blog instead of using wordpress.org to host your blog?

Here are a few limitations to hosting your blog on wordpress.org:

1. No Advertising - This means if you wish to make money online from your blog using advertising programs like Google Adsense, Kontera, Chitika or Text link ads, it is not allowed. One discreet link to Amazon per blog is okay. Read more about their advertising policy and how they may occassionally show ads. To earn money by displaying advertising, you need to buy VIP hosting.

2. No Sponsored / paid posts - Another popular option for bloggers is to earn money via paid reviews using services like ReviewMe and PayPerPost. Wordpress.com does not allow you to blog paid articles.

3. Limited Theme Customization - You need to select your themes from a preselected number of themes. You cannot hack and edit these themes as per your liking. You can edit and save the CSS as a paid upgrade. Currently you can select from a large number of beautiful themes, but if you want your own unique design, you need to pay.

4. No Plugin Uploads - A major limitation is the inability to upload plugins. Wordpress plugins are amazing tweaks developed by the vibrant Wordpress community that adds improved functionality to Wordpress for free. Plugins can automate lots of stuff and take your blog to a new level. Here are some Wordpress plugins I use.

5. No WP Code hacking - If you like editing PHP files in your wordpress installation to create new functionality for your blog or showcase your PHP skills, then it is not possible at Wordpress.com. You cannot edit the core wordpress files to suit your needs.

6. Paid Upgrades - If your popular blog grows in site traffic and branding beyond the imposed limitations, you need to buy paid upgrades

# Custom CSS - lets you style the blog or use an existing stylesheet, but does not allow direct theme editing.
# Domain Mapping and Domain Registration to get the ‘wordpress’ out of your url.
# Space upgrades - to get more space for all your uploads
# Unlimited Private Users who can see your private blog.

You can also get VIP hosting which will let you use your own domain name, host ads and help survive lots of traffic. Check out some notable Wordpress bloggers hosted on Wordpress.com

7. Violate TOS and Get Deleted - It is essential you read up the terms of service carefully. They will not tolerate copyright infingement, spamming, commercial use, machine generated blog etc. and people can easily report spam blogs and you might wake up to find your blog deleted one fine day!

# the Content is not spam, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing);
# the Content is not obscene, libelous or defamatory (more info on what that means), hateful or racially or ethnically objectionable, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party;

Wordpress has great features for blogging. You can write your own php and embed the code into your theme or you can install and activate other plugins some developers have written. When customers call me about web design dometimesbi have to point them in the right direction instead of writing just about the same code and reinventing the wheel.

Sometimes as a provider of services it is better to point the customer in the right direction.

When searching for a webhosting company you should see what resources they have. Are they easy to get to? Are they targeted towards your level of expertise? I believe that in order to give tech support you have to be able to gain a customers perspective. For example I know how to set up domains and email accounts in our control panel, but I didnt the first day I started my job three years ago.

Does your tech really understand what your website means to you? Even if your site has a picture of your two dogs, or you only use your email to talk to your sister, your website should be as important as the next persons website. When you have problems does your tech support have empathy or are you just another call? Yes, there could ne downtime for any number of reason, I try to make sure I can point a customer to where we will be posting updates about the situation, or I take down thier ticket number and keep an eye on the situation.

Is there someone who knows how to use this? While there are a lot of open source applications the most used tools should be things your tech support should know about. For example I have a passion for wordpress I am the go to guy when customers have questions about wordpress such as plugins, where to get themes or transferring an account from wordpress.com to a hosting account.

Your offering 24 hour support?

24 hour support Is exactly that. Check the hosting providers website for normal hours of operation such as when you have billing or sales questions. Support is the most important department to you as a customer. Typically a customer will contact support for the first two weeks of thier account and if there are server issues. On average customers only call billing or sales about three times a year.

WordPress is a blog publishing system written in PHP and backed by a MySQL database. WordPress is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matt Mullenweg.

The latest release of WordPress is version 2.3.2, released on 29 December 2007. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License.

Wordpress Plugins

“Wordpress Plugins allow you to extend the features of a standard Wordpress installation”

Maybe you always wanted a feature that hasn’t been available in the latest release of Wordpress. What you can do is either install a 3rd party plugin or write your own custom code to extend the features of Wordpress.

Wordpress plugins are programming code that enhance the features of a standard installation of Wordpress. A well written plugin will be basically “drag and drop” without modifying the core code of Wordpress. As Wordpress has been designed in a modular way, plugins allow you to customize your site to your specific needs without modifying the core of Wordpress.

Ever since Wordress version 1.2 plugins have been available. Wordpress plugins can be categorized according to the feature it provides. Here a list of various features that you can implement for your web site through Wordpress plugins.

* Administration: Install Wordpress plugins to customize features like Admin Tools, Anti-spam, Comments, Meta, Restriction, Statistics, Syntax Highlighting, Syndication, Tweaking, etc.
* Design, Layout and Styles: Change the look and feel of your blog by implementing plugins that modify Archive, Calendar - Event, Navigation, Randomness, Styles.
* Graphics, Video, and Sound: Add plugins that create Audio - Mood and Images for your blog.
* Posts: Implement plugins for Editing Posts, Formatting Posts, and other Miscellaneous Post related issues.
* Links: Setup Wordpress plugins that change the default behavior of linking.
* Miscellaneous: You can install miscellaneous plugins that shows weather information or other outside information from external websites.

Installing a plugin for Wordpress is not difficult. Here are the list of steps that you need to take to install most plugins. Some plugins may require additional steps.

1. Upload your plugin to the wp-content/plugins folder
2. Go to your Wordpress site using a browser and login
3. Click on the Plugins link from the main menu at top
4. Scroll down the list of available plugins to find the plugin you just uploaded
5. Click “Activate” to make your plugin active

Wordpress Plugin Sites
We found the following sites with a comprehensive list of Wordpress Plugins:

* Wordpress Wiki - Plugins: http://wiki.wordpress.org/?pagename=Plugin
* WordPress Plugin Repository: http://dev.wp-plugins.org/
* WP-Plugins Download Interface: http://redalt.com/external/plugins.php
* Wordpress Plugin Database: http://www.wp-plugins.net/

About the Author
Sanjib Ahmad, Freelance Writer and Product Consultant for Business.Marc8.com (http://business.marc8.com). You are free to use this article in its entirety as long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content, and include the resource box listed above.

Blogs & SEO
by Pete WissnerIf you have been keeping up with the latest internet marketing and SEO trends, you might already be aware that, for many… the Adsense bonanza has come to a screeching halt. The glory days of page and directory generation software has come and gone, as the search engines have caught on and struck back with a vengeance.

Hundreds of millions of pages, created by this type of software, have been banned forever. Once high flying websites have fallen back down to earth with a resounding thud… leaving their owners with only a memory of those sweet dollars-for-clicks and a big fat PR 0 for their troubles.

So is that it? Game over?

Or could there be some new magical SEO technique, that can once again give marketers the upper hand in capturing those elusive contextual advertising dollars?

Well… I have some good news and some bad news.

The bad news is that it’s become near impossible for website owners to get their pages indexed by the search engines. Used to be, you could just purchase a couple of high PR links and the search engines would come-a-calling in no time. Not anymore. And we all know that automated page builders are a losing proposition… although some marketers figure they can spit web pages out faster than the search engines can find and de-list them. Even time tested favorites like cloaking seem to have lost their efficiency.

But… the good news is, that there still remains a relatively easy way to get your pages indexed by the search engines. And we’re talking in a matter of days to a few short weeks.

How? BLOGS baby!

Blogs? You bet.

More specifically, a blog farm or network of blogs…. all niche or topic related. You know… ordinary stuff, like: unusual baby names, tasty casserole recipes, facial care, motorcycle racing, tropical fish, antique watches… all sorts of things that people like to discuss.

And do you want to know what’s really awesome?

Search engines absolutely LOVE Blogs!

In fact, the “king” of search engines, Google, even has their very own search tool dedicated to finding content on blogs. It’s in beta now, but will be in full release soon.

So, if Google thinks that Blogs should have their own unique search engine… doesn’t that tell you something?

And just why do Google, MSN, Yahoo and other search engines love blogs so much? Simple really…

1. Blogs are where people like to hang out.. kind of like an online coffee shop.
2. Unlike web pages, blogs can’t be spit out by the tens of thousands.
3. Blogs are always changing and updating, as fresh new content is added.

Which all adds up to one thing. One very important thing. Blogs get spidered (visited by search engine robots)! And spidering leads to indexing, which leads to rankings, which leads to page views, which leads to clickable ads, which leads to clicks, which leads to $$$… if you get my drift.

Now, let’s suppose that you had links on these blogs… links that pointed back to your website(s). Wouldn’t it make sense that the search engine spiders would gleefully follow them back your domain(s)? And don’t you think that you just might get some PR brownie points for all those non-reciprocal keyword relevant links?

Off course!

I know, I know. You’re thinking that most blogs have that darn “no follow” tag in their links to prevent that from happening?

And you’re right… they do.

Which is exactly why you must treat your blog farm, just like a real farm… by planting good seeds and by using the right tools.

Done correctly, you can once again have an abundant harvest… if you know what I mean.
Want to learn more about using blog farms to get your sites indexed? Visit http://www.easy-wordpress-blog-builder.com and view videos of our new automated blog building software in action.

Wordpress is an easy to use blogging software, that is sometimes tricky to install unless the hosting provider provides an easy installer such as the one provided by fantastico. Moving a wordpress blog from one hosting company to another is a tricky task as wordpress needs an active domain in order to access the admin functions of wordpress. You can install wordpress but not actually use it until your domain is live on the web server.

You can now find wordpress hosting easliy. Go to our homepage and click on wordpress hosting to find the best providers offering the easy install. Otherwise you will have to download the files and create the database and users and permissions. Fantastico does all this for you.

This blog was made with wordpress and took about 5 minutes to install. We recommend a linux (php with mysql) plan for any php scripts as windows hosting handles them differently. Installing a template is as easy as unzipping the template with winzip ftping the files to your account and then going into the admin portion of wordpress to choose your new template.

You can also edit the site using dreamweaver and CSS. This was used to change some of the font sizes and add static links that I didnt feel like managing through teh admin section.

Let me know if you have any questions on Wordpress hosting.

Timothy Rhoads aka solarbluseth

Betterwebservices.com