Three things essential for hosting provider

• Strong technical infrastructure – The design of your data centre and implementation of the server software which powers the hosting service are the two main pillars of any hosting business. These software are complex, created by multiple vendors and regularly updated. Some companies maintain such a strong infrastructure that there is no need for customers to even call them, because admins never face a problem. More about this later.
• Customer care which listens – Maintaining a website is a daunting task even for technically qualified geeks. So imagine you are confronted with an uncaring and annoying customer care. Being polite will not help here. You need solutions and all you get is unpolished Queens English. Not to mention the staff shortage and waiting time.
• Power to you – During the pandemic and subsequent lockdown, small business were looking for ease of business and working with constraints like 50% manpower cuts. Now when you login the hosting account, imagine restrictions and limitations. A badly designed and planned interface will create more problems for you, new ones.

Avoid resellers at all cost

There is absolutely no advantage provided by a reseller. I have seen so many brand owners buying hosting from resellers saying that he or she is my friend. The reseller story is short-lived and ends up mostly with problems to you.

Maintaining a reseller business requires advanced skills and it is not a single person venture. So until you want to really help someone or you know someone good, stay away from small hosting providers.

The technically helpless customer care

Many hosting providers outsource their tech to outsiders. This greedy behaviour ultimately puts the customers in trouble. Here is unfolding of one tale.

Trouble begins after this particular hosting provider marks a saved credit card as inactive. The domain name cannot be renewed. The site admin misses the email prompt informing that the domain has not been renewed. After the site goes down they contact customer care. One possible solution is to add another credit card. Other solution is initiate a domain transfer. But because the domain name is expired, they are not ready to display the EEP code. First pay and then we shall cooperate. Because the customer care has no idea on technical matters, they have to place a request with the tech team and wait for a response for up to 72 hours!

This hosting provider has just one payment option. Credit card only. It is only after you contact customer care, they give you a link for Paypal. The client finally paid through Paypal using the same inactive credit care. The domain was renewed, site was live and then EEP code provided by email. This is perhaps the only hosting provider which does not display the EEP code, they only send it by Email.

The long waiting time

So this bot keeps you waiting for about 50 mins till it has to be woken up again. But this is so wrong. Let us understand why.

Hosting providers made huge profits during lockdown

There were entire companies and business which had to shut down during lockdown. Take for example of hospitality and tourism industry, the worst hit. But along with the IT industry, it were the hosting companies who made tons of profit with business growing multifold. The entire hosting business is work from home, it has been like that since it began. So there was no excuse for hosting companies to work with reduced staff and longer customer care waiting times.

One of the top hosting company of India is facing one such problem. A strong technical infrastructure, top of the line offers and products, great tech and tons of payment options, all so user friendly. But the one thing that they need to work on is customer care. Why I have the feeling that they are not going to invest there.

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A class with students is identified by a list of Roll Numbers and Names.

A hosting provider like HostGator or Hostinger provides you with a 3 in 1 account which provides a domain name, website and hosting space. Here is how you can understand how this concept works.

Hosting space is like a class room. Once you buy hosting space, you will get a blank class room. Your package can have just one student in a class room or there can be three students or there can be unlimited students in a class. But just like in a regular school, you cannot have unlimited students, similarly you cannot have unlimited websites in one package. There will be limitations and we shall come to that later.

Website is the physical student. The actual person who is going to put on the uniform and will be identified by a Roll Number and a Name.

The Name of the student is like the domain name of a website. It is linked with a Roll Number which is the IP address. Since you cannot remember a Roll Number, you remember the student by name. But numbers are easy to process, hence there is a Roll Number list too.

What to know as an owner of a website

Many times small brand owners will need a website and they will hire professionals to do the same. There will be some tech aspects to it. Here is how each thing is linked and processed.

Your hosting package is registered with an Email address. You need access to this email and no one else should have access. If someone wants to steal you hosting package, the email is the first barrier. Then comes the password. So if any person wants to steal it, the first thing on the agenda is to change the email address.

The hosting provider can give additional security to the account by enabling two factor authentication. That means every login will happen only after password and a code. While the password remains same, the login code will change every time and will be created at the time of login.

One hosting account just like a classroom can have multiple websites, like students. Each website if created in WordPress will have an admin username and password. There are different role enabled for a WordPress Website. So as per that there can be multiple accounts within a website. An admin account will have full control over the website. The account can be in the form of a username or email and a password.

Lastly the domain name also like a roll number is registered within your hosting account. It is registered against your name. If domain privacy is enable, this information is not available to view in public. If someone wants to steal your domain name, they will have to login in your hosting account first and then generate a transfer code from within. All this information will be send to your on the registered Email Address.

A periodic backup of the website is important so that if both the hosting package and the domain name gets stolen, you can still get the website up and running with another domain name. At least your data is safe.

If you are hosting websites on Blogger, it is a good idea to activate two factor authentication on your gmail account.

So here is the master list again

• Hosting package – Username and password
• Website – Admin account username and password

Both Hosting and Website admin details have to be under the control of the owner of the brand.

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• Hosting service provider
• Domain name
• Hosting package
• Addons like SSL, etc

All these can be purchased as a single package from a hosting service provider. These components are well integrated. Here is what you will generally go through.

• Selection of domain name with the suitable package.
• Creation of account with hosting provider and payment process.
• Installation of WordPress though a single install software.
• Housekeeping.

Hosting service provider

Service providers give you a combination of tools so that you can start with a website. There are various types of hosting. Primary are Linux hosting, Windows hosting, cloud hosting and dedicated WordPress hosting. WordPress hosting is a bit expensive but worth the extra bucks. Hosting account provides with Cpanel access with total and easy access to hosting account. You can create subdomain, SSL certificates, Mail addresses, File manager, edit php files and so on. Sometimes you get a choice of location of servers. US servers are the least expensive. Most important we get a single click WordPress install like Softaculous. Popular hosting providers are Siteground, Bluehost, Hostgator, Godaddy, Hostinger and a few hundred more. Once you have shortlisted you service provider, you move on to the next step.

Domain Name

This is the most trickiest part of the whole thing. A .com domain name is the ultimate prize. But all the common name and combos are gone. A .in name may or may not be desirable as you might find, traffic going to your .com counterpart. Select and shortlist number of options before finalizing getting the one of your choice. As part of the freebie, try to get the hosting package which gives a free domain name, even if it is for a year.

Domain name should be catchy, simple to pronounce and remember, should reflect the nature of your blog and preferably should not have a spelling mistake. There are a ton of extensions available now, but remember, .com is a top level domain name.

Hosting package

All vendors give a 50% discount over the entire package when buying for the first time. Check the freebies carefully. GoDaddy still does not give a free SSL certificate. Check for the best deal with freebies like SSL, Business mail and domain name. Also go for the maximum duration say three or five years. You get the 50% discount either way. So go for the best package. Take help of a technical expert if required because this is going to be the deal of a lifetime. Package integration is a breeze with most of the top hosting providers. But the very reason why I always recommend top hosting providers is that their technology integration and programming is top notch. The tier two hosting providers have integration issues which leads to headache for all th ethree years you take the package. Once the domain and rest all are set, you can go to install the website.

Single click WordPress website install

Automatic installers usually take care of the technical aspects of WordPress installation. You should keep details like email address, blog name and description handy. A few clicks and your WordPress website is ready. It might take anything between a few minutes to an hour for your newly created website address to propagate through the DNS servers. After that you can login to the admin account.

Post WordPress install

• Secure your account with a strong password.
• Anything can go wrong, so choose the best option for a backup and take regular backups of your blog.
• To not overdo with plugins because they are a security risk and also slow down the website.
• Choose a theme which meets your requirement.
• Get the basic pages ready and apply for adsense as soon as possible.

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Free & too good to be true

000webhost has been here for a long long time. It was established in 2007 and later acquired by Hostinger. Among the number of free host offers by scores of websites, this one is solid. And now it has the solid backing of Hostinger. Infact, if you have a basic account with 000webhost, you can upgrade it anytime to Hostinger account.

https://www.000webhost.com/

What exactly is free

Domain name will not be free. There are always going to be technical issues while giving away a free domain name. But rest all comes free with the usual limits.

The best part of the free package is access to Cpanel and no Ads. Free hosting packages are known to bomb the user with flashy ads. But 000webhost is clean and professional at it. Opening an account is a breeze and your website is up and running in no time. You also get the full suite of Cpanel tools as they are in a professional setup.

You may even consider continuing use of this free hosting service if you have a light traffic website. Whatever the reasons, 000webhost provides an easy and professional way to try out a web hosting service for free.

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Creating an account

https://www.weebly.com/

Once you open weebly website, your choice is between two options

This options are cleverly laid out. Many entrepreneurs are setting up online stores. They need something easy and fast to work with. Next option comes the type of blog or website you are looking for.

Once you are through, you get the standard interface which straightway shows you how the website will look. The blue button on top can be clicked to start editing.

Choosing a sub domain

Weebly provides a free sub domain. The first paid option begins with a custom domain. A TLD is perfect choice for starting a professional website or blog. The interface allows you to pick up the correct name of your choice.

Tools for site building

Drag and drop blocks are listed on the left side. Menu is on top. This makes the interface predictive and user friendly. There is hardly any learning curve. All types of basic blocks are available at hand. Blocks can be moved, resized and dragged around.

One of the killer feature of Weebly is Google Adsense integration, which is also block based.

Once you are satisfied with the look and feel, you can hit the publish button.

Concluding remarks

Weebly is awesome. Websites like Weebly, Wix and so on, provide ease of use and convenience. Setup is matter of minutes and integration is good. Apps help to boost the productivity of your site. Though it lacks greater flexibility, the advantages overcome everything.

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Understanding Shared Linux Hosting

Shared Linux Hosting is the easiest way to mass host number of websites on a single server. The server in question is a Linux based Web Server. A Web Server is a machine or a computer which does the job of hosting a website or serving web pages to visitors on the Internet.

A single Linux Web Server can host multiple WordPress type websites. The upper limit is only the hardware capacity of the server. The resources used by blogs with light traffic is very less. Hence hosting companies try to pack as many number of blogs on one server.

Virtual Private Server and Dedicated Server

As traffic increases, so does the resource usage increase on your shared server. This is the time when you get a call from your hosting company asking you to upgrade your plan or best go for a dedicated server. Buying a dedicated server is still very expensive. So as an intermediary, you can also buy a VPS or Virtual Private Server. This technology uses virtualization to divided a physical server into multiple virtual servers. Each virtual server can then be sold to each individual client. The client gets full access and freedom as if it is working on a dedicated server. Each virtual server shares resources from the physical server where it resides.

What is a cloud

The definition of cloud has changed over the years. Any data which is stored in the local hard disk is local storage. If the data is stored some place else on the network it is called as cloud storage or only Cloud. But this is the old definition. Now in recent times instead of providing just storage, cloud offers you a complete computer with the Operating System and Software Tools. This is cloud computing.

What is cloud computing

A photographer wants to use Adobe Photoshop to edit images. For this a PC with Windows OS and Photoshop is required to be installed. All this hardware and software has to be purchased and licensed.

Next Adobe decides to upgrade the Photoshop software to include revolutionary features. Our photographer has to upgrade to the latest version to remain in contention with his employers and clients. He pays for the software upgrades and to upgrade the hardware which has become obsolete with the newer version of Photoshop.

Next year Microsoft decides to upgrade. He again has to invest in the hardware upgrades to his PC. After the necessary upgrades to RAM and Processor, he discovers that there are some compatibility issue and Adobe Photoshop wont start. The troubles of our photographer have just begun.

Adobe Photoshop CC

CC stand for Creative Cloud. Here our photographer moves his PC, OS and tools, all to Adobe premises. Adobe takes care of maintaining the hardware, software and its upgrades. Our photographer gets access to his work though a common web browser. All his work is saved on the PC on Adobe premises. He can access his work from his notebook, tablet or mobile phone. He can also share his work with his team. The place where the hardware and software reside is called the cloud.

For a detailed article on cloud computing check out the following URL

So what is cloud hosting

For shared hosting, servers are kept at the hosting company location. You are accessing the Cpanel remotely. So it is the cloud. Not really.

The servers provided by your hosting company only provide you with a Linux Server configured as Web Server. The client has to install any additional tools or software as required.

Cloud Hosting on the other hand will not only provide you with the Linux Server but a range of all available software tools to host your own web application or website. All these tools are the part of the hosting package. No need to buy separate software development tools.

Cloud Hosting is scalable. Come back to the concept of shared linux hosting. If you want to upgrade your plan or move to a dedicated server there is a lengthy and technically challenging migration process involved which is full with risks. For subscribers of cloud hosting plans, upgrades are a breeze. The website never goes down even for a second.

Is Cloud Hosting for bloggers

Cloud Hosting will give your blog the edge with better and seamless management and amalgamation of hardware and software. But the present costing for cloud hosting does not justify the features which cloud hosting offer.

Web Programmers and App developers will use cloud hosting to offer services to their customers though their websites. But they are not bloggers in the true sense.

Even if your blog is attracting heavy traffic, a shared hosting or dedicated or virtual server should be able to handle it.

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