One of the biggest things that we face in the IT industry is the pressure that’s put on us to go green wherever we can. The reasons for this can go on for days with one of the most popular ones being global warming.

The hosting industry is evolving to fit this growing need and many reputable hosts have done what they need to do in order to offer green web hosting. Let’s take a look at how they are able to do this and how it can benefit you.

You’re not going to see a datacenter with windmills on the roof.

While this may be a sight to see, for many datacenters it’s realistically impossible to have windmills on site. Many hosts actually purchase what is called renewable energy certificates.

Renewable energy certificates simply offset the amount of energy that a company consumes with clean energy. This is done by pumping the amount of energy that the company uses into a power grid via clean energy sources.

With clean energy in its beginning days, this helps fund the efforts that are being made in order to help preserve the planet that we live on.

How do I know if a host is offering green hosting?

Usually web hosting providers actually publicize this greatly. You can think of it as a marketing technique that they use to their advantage, as more and more people are simply demanding green hosting.

Also, web hosting providers who purchase renewable energy certificates will have an emblem on their website providing that they do indeed shed out the bucks for energy credits.

How can you benefit from green hosting?

The possibilities are endless so to speak. By being hosted with green hosting, you usually have the opportunity to place a badge on your website which shows that you have a green website. Believe it or not, this will win the hearts of many people when they see you actually care about the environment that you live in.

Also, you can sleep easy at night know that your hosting provider isn’t just pumping a bunch of pollution back into our world. If you’re like me, this truly says a lot about them and persuades me to choose them over one of their competitors.

While you may not see a bunch of green hosting these days, the numbers will surely rise as our government officials push for cleaner air. It’s never too soon to hop on the green hosting bus.

Over the last year I have been actively researching ways to create my own website. Not really understanding HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) I started reading books and scouring the internet for tutorials. I found quite a bit on YouTube and learned how to read the language but not being the most creative, I was coming to the reality; you need expensive software or buy into a site that offers all the tools needed to complete your website. I didn’t want to jump in to the pool with both feet until I learned how to swim and rather than put out a big expense, I started looking for alternatives.

PageBreeze

Getting free web hosting is quite easy and most of them have website builders but you are limited without some type of HTML editor. I was determined to find something and recently I came across PageBreeze. PageBreeze is free but it does offer a paid version…I currently use the free version and am quite happy with the results.

Ease of use

With PageBreeze you pick from one of their default templates, use one of your own templates or create one from scratch. Once you have decided on a template you have all the tools you will need to create the perfect website to suit your needs.

With PageBreeze you can:

• View the page normally. (Makes editing a snap)
• Adjust the properties of the page. (Style sheets, Description, Meta Tags, and adjust the overall coloring)
• Look at the HTML code. (With a little experience you can tweak the code to your liking)
• Preview the page in Explorer. (Shows you the exact look in the browser as well check to make sure everything is working.)
• Publish to an FTP site. (With all the correct credentials, this makes uploading you site a breeze)
• Create forms. (From drop down menus to validation codes)

The interface reminds me of Microsoft Word which makes the text editing very easy to use. Check out PageBreeze, it is worth the price.

When it comes to the importance of finding the right web hosting for a small business, we can’t ever be too careful. After all, what’s best for the business ends up being the best for you as well as any employees that you may have.

I compiled this miniature guide to help you understand what you can look for when trying to get your hands on the best business web hosting.

Reputation Matters

You can check around on web hosting forums to get an idea of what kind of reputation a web hosting provider has built during their existence. This will help you understand what you can expect from them and what kind of experiences their customers have had with them in the past.

Are they going to be there when you need them?

24/7 support is something that has become a standard in the web hosting industry. Does the web host that you’re considering offer support around-the-clock? If not, you may want to look for one that does, as those are the ones who are really serious about hosting.

Will your website be online 24/7?

An uptime guarantee is critical. The internet is always going and so should your website. You don’t want to lose a potential customer just because your website is down, do you? The standard uptime guarantee is usually 99.9%, while some providers offer a 100% uptime guarantee.

What kind of internet marketing bonuses do they offer?

When you want to make the most out of your online presence, internet marketing is the way to do it. Many of the bigger web hosting providers offer their new customers free marketing bonuses to help them get their feet off the ground. This is priceless when you can get your hand on it.

Is there a guarantee?

When it comes down to it, how sure is a person about what they are selling? With so many web hosts these days, it’s hard to find the one that is actually going to get the job done right. If they don’t satisfy your need, you need to make sure they guarantee that they will give your money back to you.

These were just a few of the most important things that you should look at when choosing a business web hosting provider. However, keeping these in mind and following them will lead you towards making a wise decision.

The internet has grown tremendously in popularity over the years and it has many people as well as businesses scrambling to get a website online. However, many find a roadblock when they learn how complicated the coding of a website can get.

It doesn’t have to be complex, the internet has become very user-friendly over the years. With that said, I wanted to show you two options that will allow you to have a website without having to memorize a bunch of code.

Blogging

Blogging is one of the most popular ways of easily getting a website online. The most popular blogging software is WordPress, which is very easy to use.

Basically, WordPress provides you with the opportunity to make posts via a text editor in the admin area. It also has many other benefits that you can take advantage of.

Another great thing for beginners is that there are tons of free blog templates online that makes it possible for one to create an attractive blog that’s tailored to the exact needs of the website.

Overall, blogging is not only favored due to its simplicity, but it’s also deemed more useful by search engines. The reason for this is that the code is usually always clean and blogs are updated more often than most static websites.

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Editors

This is a type of HTML editor which provides users with the opportunity to input content without having to code the website itself. This is a pretty popular option for beginners, but it doesn’t seem to be as diverse as blogging.

These types of web design programs usually come with various templates. This provides you with the opportunity to create a website without having to pay a designer and coder tons of money to give you something to work with.

As you can see, there is hopes for those who want to have their own website without having to know all of the coding that’s required for a website to function properly. I wish you the best of luck and hope that this post inspired you to get your own website, regardless of your coding knowledge.

Is cloud hosting the next biggest thing? In the hosting industry, it’s talked about every time you have a chance to turn around.

There are many reasons for this massive amount of popularity and we’re going to show you some general cloud hosting information, so that you can have a better understanding of what is quickly turning into a web hosting revolution.

What is cloud hosting?

Cloud hosting, also known as cloud computing is a modern hosting technology (well, it has been around for a few years, don’t get me wrong) that supports the ability to share the resources of multiple servers.

This provides one with a lot of benefits, which we will go over in this next section.

How can cloud hosting benefit you?

This is something that everyone wants to know when they learn about a new way to get things done. Here’s the main benefits that caught my eye when using this new form of web hosting.

• Redundancy
  Think of it like hosting your website on multiple servers, when one goes down, the other is ready to step up. This is exactly what cloud hosting does and it’s intended for critical applications/websites that demand 100% uptime.
• Fast Speeds
  This is accomplished by multiple servers working together to suit the demand for speed when one uses cloud hosting.
• Great Amount of Storage
  Think of it this way, you’re not going to run out of hard drive space when using cloud hosting. The amount that you have access to is ridiculous!

Cloud Hosting Summary

Cloud hosting has already won me over personally. It’s like having the latest in technology without having to dig into your retirement funds. Without cloud hosting, many websites wouldn’t be possible simple because of their high hosting demands.