Cheap Web Hosting

I have mentioned on numerous occasions, the great web hosting package that I bought last year - it is an unlimited package allowing me to add as many domains as I want to the single-priced package. I wrote an article on my website called 'cheap web hosting' which looks at using different suppliers for hosting and domain registration. Since then I have purchased more domains, set up a few new sites and just recently ended my long-running expensive hosting package that I took out about four years ago.
I think it's true to say that once you take out your first hosting package, you are more than likely to stick with them. However, for my main (cassette to CD conversion) site, I have tried to get the best prices and tried not to be put off by the miserable prospect of trying to move hosts on a live site.
This last move however, was the smoothest simply because I now know what to expect. I now know that if I use a nameserver to redirect my site that the email will go with it, and if I use the IP address of the server, it will not....
With this in mind (and bearing in mind this is the most important of all the sites I have) I arranged to transfer the domain to 1and1 internet (the best price I have found for registering .co.uk domains) - this entails obtaining the 'IPSTAG' of your preferred domain registrar, and passing this on to your 'old' registrar.
Whilst I was waiting for the domain to be transferred, I copied all the files from the old site onto my super new unlimited hosting server, and added the domain on my 'CPANEL'. Then I went over to my 1and1 account dashboard and entered the nameserver of my hosting service against the domain I was expecting to transfer. Then I went back to my hosting CPANEL and opened accounts for all the email addresses I would be likely to need (three in all) - I then configured OUTLOOK to pick up mail for these email addresses.
Al that remained was for me to sit back and wait - I put up a note on the old site that over the next day or two, mail or web pages might go missing - and sure enough one test mail that I sent from the contact form on the site did not get through during this period. Nonetheless in about 24 hours or so, the site was showing on the new server (I made an adjustment to the copied web files so I would know when the transfer had taken place), and over the next 24 hours, the mail started to come across into the OUTLOOK accounts I had set up.
Now I have saved myself a lot of money in hosting and domain registration fees, although admittedly all my 'eggs' are in one 'basket' when it comes to hosting, domain registration is kept separate which makes a lot of sense when you control multiple domains. My whole online 'operation' is now completely streamlined (funny 'cos my expensive hosting service was called 'streamline'...), and I am happy that I am working as efficiently as possible with the money that I have available.
The learning curve with unlimited hosting is steep, but very rewarding when you realise just how much you can achieve with it - and I am thinking of maybe doing some tutorials for the tasks that I have done so far,to encourage others who are planning to go down the same route - believe me, if you plan to ever have more than one website on the go, then unlimited hosting is for you... to learn more about the services I use click the link to go to my web hosting and domain registration article.

Domain Registration bonus

I had my first affiliate sale for 1and1 domain registration this week, quite a surprise because although I had done some work to promote this affiliate, I tend to have low expectations of affiliates as a rule.

Affiliates are tricky because often you know you are not promoting the best possible deal, but with 1and1 internet, they genuinely do offer a good competitive service and decent commission at the same time. I have yet to find out the details of the sale, but am pleased to report this small success with a view to having (hopefully) more in the future.

Affiliate sales are something I have only really dabbled with so far, but nonetheless I am aware that opportunities in this area are real and profitable if pursued properly. There is a recent article written on livewyre.NET, that gives a small insight into the world of affiliate marketing.

International domains

I have posted a lot recently about mu new webhosting and domain regsitration services that I am using. The reason is two-fold, firstly I am committed to bringing you the best information I can to help my visitors make money online, but secondly because each of these services have affiliates!
Having said that, I would also add that I am genuinely supportive of each of these companies as I truly believe that they offer great value for money which is why I use them...
The company that I have been using the longest is the one that this domain (munny4hunny.com) is registered with, and in fact ALL my blogging domains are registered with GoDaddy.
Now, to be absolutley clear, it is their domain registration service that I am praising, I do not think that their webhosting is particularly cheap. The domain registration is second-to-none, and the only reason that I ever use a different service is that GoDaddy are not really set up to handle .co.uk domains. Their control panel is comprehensive and allows you to change DNS records, configure your email and re-direct your domains wherever you want them. Added to this, the prices they charge for .info domains are crazy, often no more than a few pence a year....
They are constantly coming up with offers and cheap deals, sometimes even including free hosting as part of a package. nevertheless I think it definitely pays to treat hosting and domain registration seperately - having control over your domains in the way that a good domain registration service offers, means that you can always redirect to another host with very little disruption. If you want to check out Godaddy's pricing, feel free to click below:

The plan is coming together

I am so pleased with my new hosting package that I am planning all sorts of changes including a new Livewyre.NET button badge... Livewyre.NET is my main domain which all my projects will link back to. This badge will effectively be the trade-mark that appears on all my sites. My long-term plan is to move all the content onto a Wordpress platform - I don't plan to move my blogger blogs at all, but the option is always there...
I now have a comprehensive package for domain registration and webhosting which I believe is a world-beater in terms of pricing, and I will post about these separately over the next few days. In the meantime, I am clearing out some defunct affiliates and will be replacing them with affiliates for my hosting & registration services - the beauty of these affiliates is that I am confident that they genuinely offer great value - which to be fair, is not always the case with affiliates (especially the better-paying ones).
Major changes (including moving domains and hosting packages) always come with their fair share of problems and traumas and I will be also talking about how I have overcome the problems of uploading (via FTP) to a new host that requires Secure Shell encryption (SSH) when your copy of Dreamweaver doesn't use SSH...!

Latest developments

I should be posting my earnings today, but I am in the (long-awaited) process of changing my web-hosting plan. So far, I have moved my main domain (Livewyre.NET) to a new server, and am waiting for additional domains that I own to come over to the same host. The beauty of my new plan is that I can host multiple website through a 'cpanel' configuration tool at no additional hosting costs!! Not only that, but I can also set up as many subdomains (of my main domain) as I need - at no extra cost!!
This is going to revolutionise the way I have been operating on the web and will allow me to add domains for fun!
I will post more about this as I progress, in the meantime I will post April earnings shortly, although offsetting them against my setting-up fee for the hosting has actually reduced by earnings to a negative amount in April!

domain or no domain?

I am aware that having a blog domain eg: www.myblog.com is preferable in terms of being taken seriously by readers and paid to post schemes alike, but having a free domain is central to my study of what can be earned via the web without investing a cent.
I have sites that I have considered using, and if I get to the point where I thought it was really possible to earn a decent second income (or even a primary income) from this type of activity I would certainly use a domain. So far this is an experiment, if I find that I can achieve PR4 and that I could make let's say a regular $500 a month, I might switch from the 'hobby' approach. Right now, my hosting on blogspot is free so I don't have to justify any investment.

So, how do you blog on your own domain? One easy option would be to enter your URL into the blogspot dashboard (settings/publishing/custom domain). The better option would be to go for a wordpress blog. Why use wordpress? There are a whole host of very nice free wordpress templates available to you to use. These templates are instantly recognisable as being the sort of template that pro-bloggers use, and can give your blog a bit of extra 'kudos'.
The templates have a nice 'clean' look and have a whole host of plug-ins available to customise your blog just the way you want it.
Although you can host a wordpress blog for free on their own domain, if you are going to combine it with your new domain, it would make sense to find a hosting service which already offers wordpress on their servers. Many hosting services do this, check the specifications of the service to see what options are available.
How to choose a domain name? Many people just use their own name which is fine if you are going to use that as a kind of brand name, alternatively an SEO-friendly option would be to use a name which contains keywords that you would like to use to bring visitors to your site from search engines. It is worth noting that SEO for blogs is only really important if you are intending to drive visitors from search engines. Personally I think social bookmarking and social sites are probably a better way to gain traffic.
(more on this later...)