HostGatoris an independent hosting company created by Brent Oxley. Today they are one of the world’s 10 largest hosting companies, but despite the growth, he still takes personal involvement in customer satisfaction and will often handle concerns personally.

• Customers: 90,000 +
• Hosted domains: 700,000 +
• Created: 2002
• CEO: Brent Oxley

User experience

Our Host Gator test site showed good response and uptimes.

Follow up:

* Control panel: cPanel 10 — We would have appreciated cPanel 11.
* Fantastico Deluxe – Up to date

PhpMyAdmin is not available through cPanel so if you want to administer your MySQL databases online you will have to install it yourself.

We were able to perform up to 6 simultaneous FTP upload which makes sites updates fast and easy.

Customer satisfaction

Overall, customers feedback shows they are generally satisfied with HostGator.

The one distinctive feature that makes them choose HostGator is being able to pay monthly.

Technical specs

• PHP version: 5.2.5 — Up to date.
• MySQL version: 5.0.45 — Up to date.
• GD library: 2.0.34 — Up to date.

(Section updated on May 1st, 08)

Security

HostGator is running mod_suPHP and there is strong isolation between user accounts.

SFTP is not available.

Overall security is good.

Hosting Plans

Warning: HostGator’s pricing does not necessarily vary linearly with the length of the plan. Refer to the table below for details.

	Hatchling	Baby	Swamp
Monthly fee (× 1 mo)	$8.95	$9.95	$14.95
Monthly fee (× 6 mo)	-	$9.95	$14.95
Monthly fee (× 12 mo)	$6.95	$9.95	$14.95
Monthly fee (× 24 mo)	$5.95	$8.95	$13.95
Monthly fee (× 36 mo)	$4.95	$7.95	$12.95
Disk space	350 GB	600 GB	1,000 GB
Transfer (monthly)	3 TB	6 TB	Unlimited
Included domain name	0	0	0
Domains per account	1	Unlimited	Unlimited
MySQL databases	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
b2evo auto install	yes	yes	yes

HostGator is one of the few hosts allowing you to pay monthly without being tied in into a long term contact.

eMusic is a subscription-based music download service that offers more than 3.5 million DRM-Free titles in almost every genre we looked for, including Audiobooks. This service also offers the option of a music-search toolbar for your Internet browser for increased convenience and includes a free MP3 every day, just for subscribing.

All songs are in MP3 format, which means they are compatible with all MP3 players including iPod and Zune. For $11.99 a month, you can download up to 30 songs. That averages about $.33 per song. However, eMusic’s library is largely independent and it’s likely you won’t find the same songs and artists you hear on the radio.

Unlike most subscription services, the songs you download are yours and you can burn them to CD or place them on as many MP3 players you like. Even if you cancel your subscription, there is no expiration date on your music.

This is a great download option for those who like music outside the mainstream.
Get 25 FREE MP3s at eMusic.com Choose from over 3.5 million songs!

FatCow first started in 1998 and has been offering web hosting services for more than 10 years. Today, the hosting company is a well-recognized brand name in shared hosting solutions for small to medium-sized businesses and individuals. Unlike most other web hosts, FatCow offers only one hosting plan – which is their trademarked Original FatCow Plan.

At this time of writing, FatCow offers one hosting plan, the Original FatCow Plan, and one domain parking plan, the MiniMoo.Their hosting plan, which is shared web hosting, offers unlimited disk storage, bandwidth, and addon domain in one single hosting accounts.

*Special note: We offer special promotion on FatCow. With our special promo link, customers get up to 35% discount on FatCow hosting plan – translate that to montly cost, that’s $4.83/mo for unlimited web hosting.

$10 Off “MooPon” for The Original FatCow– LegenDairy Hosting!

FatCow – Editor’s Review

There are both advantages and disadvantages in FatCow hosting. In overall, we think FatCow hosting is a great webhosting company. On a side note, we would like to mention that the user experience at FatCow website is remarkably good. The hosting company provides concise information as well as simple and direct hosting plan. We think such approach is extremely useful for the not-so-technical webmasters and beginners.

Listed below are the pros and cons of their service.

What’s good about FatCow Hosting?

• Cheap! FatCow cost less than $5/mo under our special promotion scheme.
• Quality budget hosting – one of the best hosting services in this price range.
• Reliable web servers with good uptime record.
• Unlimited hosting capacity – host all your websites and blogs in one hosting account.
• Supreme 24/7 customer supports – service quality backed by HeiferCratic Oath, where the company pledge to answer phone calls in 2 minutes andresolve issues on first contacts.
• Simple and direct hosting plan – smooth ordering process that cut most confusions for first timers.
• Clear trial and refund policy , customers get up to 30 days of trial period.

What’s bad about FatCow Hosting?

• Limited database capacity – users are only allowed to setup 5 MySQL databases in default (you might appeal and ask for more though).
• Does not provide different level hosting – customers who wish to upgrade to semi-dedicated or dedicated hosting will need to move web host.

Conclusion: Is FatCow a good host?

FatCow hosting is recommended for those who are looking for cheap but yet reliable web hosting. FatCow has a long trackable history (more than a decade!) and we are strongly convinced that they are one of the best budget web host. However, due to constraints of its business nature (limited MySQL and limited hosting choice), we think FatCow is not recommendable for large business website.

FatCow Uptime Review

We host website on and track its server uptime constantly. As from what we observed, FatCow hosting has a remarkable server uptime record where the low cost hosting is averaging more than 99.7% server uptime all year long. We think such performance is very much accpetable for its price range and we recommend them to anyone who are searching for a budget web host.

For your reference, figure on right side shows FatCow Hosting uptime statistic for the past 7 days.

There is tons of cheap hosting nowadays. But make sure the support doesn’t match the price. Forum support by itself is not good enough. I’ve now switch all my and customers domains to JustHost purely because of their customer service, as it’s second to none.

When a high earning clients website when down a 4am and I sent a request to JustHost around 8am. At 8:07am I had reply and the problem was fixed. This is the support I’m talking about, not sending a support ticket to a system already overloaded by tickets. JustHost have real people dealing with your tickets, not some automated answer from machines that scans your tickets (sadly this is what my last hosting company was using).

If like me you see the light, use the coupon code JHSL20 to get 20% off.

About AnHosting

AnHosting was founded in early 2001. Its growth has been wonderful & in a quite short time it has become a multi-million dollar web hosting company out of a small company. Even now it has three offices in two countries but it is hosting sites for thousands of customers over a hundred countries. They aim at total customer satisfaction. If you are switching on to them after having a bad hosting experience then they profess to keep your website smiling & so as you.

Unique Hosting Features

The company provides all inclusive hosting where there are no hidden charges or set-up fees. If you are new to web hosting & don’t have much idea then AnHosting provides you total help to build & run your website effectively. If you are switching from another host they will help you to transfer your domains, files, databases, etc. all for free. The company also offers free domain name renewal for life.

Benefits of Hosting with AnHosting

The company’s flagship plan: MegaPlan is one of the best packages available. For $6.95/ month it offers 500,000 MB personal disk storage and 5000 GB bandwidth. You can host 10 domains on one account. It also offers free domain for life along with unlimited sub-domains, emails accounts 7 Auto Responders. Other features included in the packages offered by the company are MySQL databases, IMAP, POP3, SMTP support, web mail support, Spam Assassin, PHP, Ruby On Rails (RoR), Python, CGI-BIN, CGI Library, full.htaccess Control, IP Banning, Fantastico; Wordpress & Mambo (Blogging tools), OS Commerce Shopping cart, SCSI, RAID-5 Technology, & many more such features.

Support Options

AnHosting has a special customer service cell MPCustomer. This customer service offers support to the customers & also manages the billing system. It features advanced reporting, easy email & ticket based interaction with skilled staff. The service is fast & is the best option to upgrade your account or ask queries. The service connects users to the best data center. The company offers “Live Chat” also; this helps in quick resolution of customer queries.

Reliability

AnHosting is a reliable service provider. It is certified by BBB OnLine Reliability Program. The company has one of the best reputations on the net from professional and leaders in the web hosting trade organizations. It offers its customers value added services. It also has to its credit many of the industry awards which stress the level of its service.

Money Back Guarantee

The company offers 30 days money back guarantee. If you don’t find the services provided by the company up to the mark then you can easily get the refund.

Click Here to signup
Conclusion

AnHosting is a very reliable service provider which provides all the best features that help the customers to smoothly operate their web sites. All the packages are provided with security & spam control. The company provides quick services that are understood & easy to use. The staffs are quick & provide fast solutions to all the kinds of queries or problems posted by the customers. Thus, AnHosting is a user friendly service-provider which provides its customers all the facilities needed by them. Click Here to signup

Featuring original downloadable and online games such as Super Collapse!, Bounce Out, Shape Shifter, and TextTwist, GameHouse offerings are varied and simple to learn and play. The interface isn’t exactly flashy, but we hope RealNetworks—which recently acquired the site—will put a new face on it.

GameHouse’s interface, which uses numerous pop-up windows, has a few problems, such as rules that get cut off. You have to download certain titles each time you restart, but they load quickly, and you can play without logging on. Fast fun is most definitely in the GameHouse.

Ok, now that we have a niche, it’s time to figure out the psychographics of your target market.

According to Dictionary.com, psychographics means “the use of demographics to determine the attitudes and tastes of a particular segment of a population, as in marketing studies.”
In simpler terms, it means looking deeper into your niche market, so you can serve them better by customizing your products.

Answer a few questions… but I warn you not to answer them too quickly. This takes a lot of thought and consideration to do correctly.

Question: Who would like to buy what you have to offer?
Don’t just say ‘Women’. That is a gender identification, not a target market. All women are not alike. They have a wide variety of lifestyles, values and interests.

Don’t just say ‘Golfers’. That identifies a group of people who partake of a sporting activity but it’s not a target market. Among golfers there are huge differences. Are you targeting the ever so often golfer with a cheap tips video or are you targeting the lifestyle golfer who travels regularly to play in competitions.
Be very specific. ‘Start up Fundraiser Coaching Professionals”

Question: Why is he/she interested in what you have to sell?
Don’t say ‘She will like it because she is a Mom’ because there are no products that ‘all moms’ are interested in. (Unless it’s an Artificial Intelligence Housekeeper and I think even then you’d get a few naysayers.)
Be very specific. ‘Start up Fundraiser Coaching Professionals” will want to secure this product because it contains the tricks and skill builders they need to attract their first clients.’

Question: What stage of life is she in?
• Young & Single
• Young & Married
• Young Motherhood
• Middle Motherhood
• Late Motherhood
• Empty Nest
• Older & Single
• Older & Married

These stages of life are important factors in identifying a target market. How you choose to communicate with your potential clients, you will need to take this information into consideration.

What motivates a young married woman isn’t going to motivate an empty nester.

For example, if you want to reach young singles you’ll probably want to use graphics and promotional materials that look trendy and highly relative or popular to modern day media.
On the other hand, to reach older married people you will choose a more traditional style and convey a stability that will resonate with older consumers.

Question: How much money does he/she have to spend?
• Frugal
• Average
• Upper Middle Class
• Wealthy

Financial income brackets are one of the most important issues in choosing and communicating with your target market.
The financially strapped customer will be attracted to messages that imply that they’re getting a great value or saving money.

Wealthy customers will be more interested in hearing that your product is made of the best ingredients and created for distinctive tastes.
Some individuals will only be interested in products that clearly demonstrate that they’re cheaper than everything else. They’re so driven by their tight budget or their personal commitment to frugality that they’ll choose one product over another on price point alone.

And in the other extreme, there are consumers who will purposefully choose the most expensive service provider on principle. Maybe even just to be able to say that they hired the priciest ‘most exclusive’ provider – or perhaps because they believe that the higher cost surely means that they’ll get the best quality. (Which may or may not always be the case!)

For some, impressions are everything.
Can you see how it would be literally impossible to create one sales message that rings true with all markets?

Well, that’s it for this section. Now you should have your niche and understand who it is you’re targeting. Next we’re moving on to setting up a website and finding ways to monetize it. I’ll write that thread tommorow, so for now – GET BRAINSTORMING!

It’s called Niche Marketing and I’m sure you’ve all heard it before.
The information detailed in this series are all part of the system and specify the exact process you need to go through in order to start profiting from these tiny Niche Markets.

So…

PART 1 – Finding A Niche

The first step to creating your Niche Empire is to find some profitable niches.

When selling a product, a lot of people make the mistake of developing their product first, and then trying to find a market for it.

Of course, the process should be reversed.

First, find a market that spends money, then find out what they want and give it to them.

Deciding on what product or service you will promote in a niche market should be based on a simple principle. There should be a demand for your product or service. You want to offer something that people actually need, something that will make their lives better, make them feel better physically, make them look better, or help them solve a problem.

The process I go through when looking for new niches to enter is as follows.

For starters, I’m always aware of trends and current events in the real world. I read several newspapers each day, many magazines, both general and niche-specific, I watch the news, I listen to the radio. Occasionally something that I hear or read will stick with me. I may jot down some notes, or draw a diagram to help me remember it. Sometimes I’ll call my phones voice mail and leave myself a message.

But at some point I’ll have several broad ideas to research. I want to look deeper. And I want to make sure there is a good market for them before I even think about creating a product.

To begin with, I check out the hottest search trends at Google’s Hot Trends. At this point I am just looking for ideas.
If I see that a particular topic is hot, I’ll make a note of it and look at more targeted sub-niches later on at more specialized sites (which I’ll show you in just a minute!).

The Lycos Top 50 is another site, like Google’s Hot Trends, where I will review the latest trends and look for hot topics to explore further. I will also look at Yahoo! Buzz for ideas as well.

The eBay Pulse site is a great place to start looking at sub-niches. What I will do is select the category first (using the topics I’ve gathered from looking at the previous sites), then look for profitable sub-niches by then selecting a sub-category.

The best chance for success is if I am as specific as possible with my niche selection. In the example below, I don’t want to sell to the “crafts” niche.
I want to sell to grandmothers who enjoy giving their latch rug hooking gifts to their families and friends. Whatever. You get the idea.

Also, I’ll always check the largest stores as well to see what they’re selling. There has to be a reason they are the largest stores. They must be doing something right.

TIP: eBay also puts out a PDF report of their hottest categories each month, available at http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/hotitems.pdf.

Now that I have some potential sub-niches to work with, I want to see how much of a market there is there.
Just because a sub-niche is popular doesn’t mean people spend money on it.

Amazon is a great place to see what currently exists for any given sub-niche.
Chances are, the more books there are written on that subject, the more that market spends on those topics.

For example:

First I specify “Books” to search. Then I enter my niche, in this case “crafts.”
Uh oh. There are WAY too many books returned. This niche is not targeted enough. It is too “mainstream.”

Much better! There are possibilities here.
We now suspect the following:

1) This sub-niche may be targeted enough.
2) This sub-niche may spend money.

Once you have an idea of which niche you want to target, it’s time to determine its profitability. For this, you would have to use the tools found at:

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
Or…
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Simply type in the idea you have in mind, and press the submit button. You will then be presented with a list of keywords and key phrases that are related to the subject you have entered. Each keyword or key phrase would have an indication of the number of searches that they have gathered from search engine users. The number of searches made for a particular keyword or key phrase is a good barometer of the demand. You’d want at least 5,000 searches for your main keyword.

Here are several other sites you can use to get niche ideas:

Nichebot – http://www.nichebot.com
Shopping.com Top Searches – http://www2.shopping.com/top_searches
AOL Hot Searches – http://hot.aol.com/hot/hot
Google Groups – http://groups.google.com
Craig’s List – http://www.craigslist.com
Delicious Popular – http://del.icio.us/popular
Dig – http://www.digg.com
Google Catalogs – http://catalogs.google.com
Google Suggest – http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en
Technorati – http://www.technorati.com

Also, I’ll do several targeted searches in both Google and Yahoo (for example, on the subject of “hobbies”).

And of course I will always Google my keywords and check out the competition in the Adwords ads. In this case I pay special attention to the ads that sell information products (or services like mine if I’m selling a service).
Some of the ads will be irrelevant as far as competition goes.
Ok, the next thing I’ll do is check how many magazines there are on the subject of my chosen niche.

Ok, the next thing I’ll do is check how many magazines there are on the subject of my chosen niche.
There are two places I go online for that:
Magazines.com – http://www.magazines.com
and
Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/599858/
At each site, I search by category to find the magazines in my niche.

Obviously the more the better, up to a point.

For example, golf has a lot of magazines, but it’s not a good niche by itself. It needs to be more targeted. But in that case I can always get more targeted sub-niche ideas within that topic by looking at the types of magazines for that topic.

The next thing to do to find out more about a niche is to visit the forums. By visiting forums and taking note of what people are most concerned about you can search the Internet for products and services that will help them solve those problems. Gather the information about the topic. Do some spy work.

Ok. By now you should have found a profitable niche market.
There are plenty of sites I use for research in addition to the ones above, but they are usually niche specific. These sites will help you to research practically any niche market effectively. Once you have this process down, you’ll be able to do this very quickly.

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