Last week I wrote about how to find the different web hosting for your needs. From reviews to simple recommendations, agonizing over which web hosting company to go with can be stressful. What if you are just looking for something cheap or new?

One of our readers mentioned looking for a second host, to build links to his blogs and not have it on the same server. Running a different host can be expensive, but I think I found the solution.

Free Web Hosting!

Lime Domains is offering free web hosting! when you register a domain with them, you can get on their basic web hosting plan, absolutely free. It includes: 500MB Storage, 1GB data transfer per month, 10 emails, and of course ad free web pages.

This type of offer sounds good if you are trying to build different niche sites. Having the websites on different servers can make your links carry more value if you choose to link to your other websites on a different host.

Of course you can chose to use their “standard” or “premium” hosting to fit your growing websites. The standard package is $4.99 per month, and the premium is $9.99 per month.

Domain Registration

As I mentioned the free web hosting plan comes when you buy a domain name. For a standard .com you pay $8.99 each, which is pretty competitive from other registrars. I know my current web host charges more per domain than that.

Alternatively if you already have a domain name you can transfer it to Lime Domain for $6.99. If you do that you will still get the free web hosting.

Not only do you get free web hosting with each domain, you can also try the premium web hosting plan for 15 days free, just to try it out.

One Click Installation

Almost more impressive than the web hosting offer, is “one click installation”. I remember when I first made a Wordpress, I was pretty lost. I had to find where to install it, how to do it, and where to put it.

At LimeDomains.com they have and application page where you can see all the different platforms. This includes Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, and phpBB. With just ONE CLICK you can install whichever application you choose.

Lime Domain

Usually you get a free domain with your web hosting, but I’ve never heard doing it backwards. What do you think? Is the free web hosting sufficient enough to host your site, or would you end up having to buy the hosting regardless?

I’ve raved about Logical Media in several reviews. Not only on this site, but I’ve guest blogged about it as well. Enough to get about 50 referrals in total. And because I earn 5% of every referral, I will continue to promote them! The support is good, the offers are decent…

However, lately I’ve been having a problem with their payments.

Logical Media Payments

With so many different networks, affiliate support is huge. Market Leverage actually uses Fed-Ex to send checks, regardless of the amount.

The only option Logical Media has for payments is checks. That can be fine, but the problem I have is it takes forever! Okay not forever, but from the date that it is posted to my account, it generally takes over two weeks to get in the mail. The minimum check is $100, so it’s not like it’s a small amount.

Also it isn’t Logical Media’s fault for this one, but I always receive it on Saturday as well! That just adds to the irritation.

I did inquire about a direct deposit option and was told I need to make around $1,000 per month. For most of us that simply isn’t very realistic. My affiliate manager tried to even lower it a bit for me, but I’m not even close to making that much per month.

Months Behind

Another issue is the fact that they are very behind in the payments. Most of the networks I belong to pay out for the previous months earnings on the following months 15th. So for Septembers earnings, I would get it on October 15th.

With Logical Media, just a few days ago I received JULY’s payment! Basically I had to wait 4 months to get July’s payment! If it keeps getting pushed back like that, they could get almost 6 months behind, which in my opinion that isn’t acceptable.

Do you have any problems with your affiliate networks?

A while ago “link trains” were very popular. They were used to gain links for Technorati as well as try to build links to get a Google PR. I wrote about the effect link trains can have on your blog, and now they are pretty much non-existent.

With everything moving into social media, a Twitter or Facebook idea like this could be very beneficial.

TweepML Share Twitter Lists

I haven’t visited the importance of Twitter yet, but I did give some tips on Facebook and how you can increase traffic with Facebook fan pages. However I’ve recently explored Twitter. For me personally it’s not as successful because their are no images to pull you in. But for others, Twitter is huge!

A great thing I found was TweepML, where you can add Twitter user names to a list and make it easy for people to “follow” them.

I was lucky enough to get on the MomDot Mafia list, which is a list of great mom (and dad) bloggers. Within 48 hours I was able to gain 100 new followers.

Another TweepML list I used was a follow-back list. About 250 people are on the list, so I added them all and most of them followed me back.

There are tons of lists you can find for any topic.

Great Bloggers List

I wanted to make my own group strictly for blogger’s. I currently don’t do too much with Twitter on my “blogger” Twitter, so I thought this would be a good way to get started!

If you are a blogger and want to be added to our list please visit:  Great Bloggers to Follow on Twitter.

There you can “suggest” your Twitter username and I will add it. After you do that please follow everyone on the list.

You can share your list with your Twitter or Facebook fans, as well as those on your blog!

I personally love online contests, it can definitely help either brand or promote your business and website. Everyone loves free stuff, it’s not hard to sell someone on something free.

Have you heard of idooble.com? Me neither, but they are making their splash with a huge contest! It’s a great way to get users interested in their brand and already grow a base before they even really launched yet.

Win a Mac Book Pro and More!

The iDooble contest has 100 prizes to giveaway! Here is a list of the contest prize breakdown:

• 1st – Mac Book Pro
• 2-4 – iPod Touch
• 5-10 – iPod Nano
• 11-25 – iTunes Gift Card
• 26-100 – iDooble Tee

To get started, simply create an account. You will be asked to complete a short 12 question profile with a few of your interests in social media. Then the next step is just to start referring people!

For each referral you will receive 10 points for 1st tier, 3 points for 2nd and 1 point for 3rd. You can invite your “friends” via your blog, forum, or any social networking.

Right now the #1 person has close to 10,000 points, but to at least get a t-shirt it looks like you only need to refer about 1-2 people, so it may be worth it just for that. To get an iPod nano or touch is still very attainable if you have reach on your website or social media.

This contest runs through November 2009 so you have plenty of time to start recruiting.

Please join as my referral here.

What is iDooble.com?

iDooble looks to be a social media shopping comparison site. What I think is kind of odd is that they are doing so much promotion for this, but don’t have much information as to what it is.

Right now you can sign-up to be a beta tester and see some screenshot’s as to what the website is going to look like on iDooble.com’s homepage.

It looks like you will be able to shop, compare, review, and share all in one place. Maybe like a super Amazon, with all the stores in one place.

iDooble will give you ways to instantly compare prices for whatever product you are searching for. It will show you the price, reviews, shipping cost for all the different online stores selling the item.

You shopper profile brings in the social media aspect. You can add friends, favorite stores, your twitter updates, make lists of items you may want, as well as display your reviews.

Are you ready to take your online shopping to a social media level?

The end of this week has been focusing on web hosting. Mine just expired and I renewed again with Hostmonster, mainly because I don’t have the time to switch everything over to another host.

However some of the forums I participate on, the constant topic is web hosting and the different options available.

Using a web hosting resource like Web Hosting Geeks can save you a head ache.

Web Hosting Geeks

I’ve reviewed Web Hosting Geeks before, and it’s still my favorite site for information on hosting. It’s easy to navigate and find exactly what you want information on.

What I didn’t notice before (maybe it’s new?) is the Green Web Hosting section. That could be a HUGE factor to some bloggers moving forward in a more eco-friendly world. SuperGreen is rated the #1 Eco-Friendly Host and at $3.95 that’s good. Can I coin the term Organic Web Hosting?

The first thing I did notice though, was it’s outdated! This is such a good site to keep updated, it’s disappointing to see that their awards aren’t updated for 2009 yet.

Still…

It’s easily the best in my opinion. Not only is their information on the web hosting you are looking at, there is information ABOUT it. Say you were interested in Multiple Domain Hosting, you could scroll down to find out about it, learn, and see if it’s something you need.

It is interesting to see however how each web hosting review site ranks these companies. The top 10 always seems to be about the same, but the order is always different.

Who do you think belongs in the #1 web host slot?

And I’m not even a customer!

When I first purchased my web hosting, I went by what friends said and ended up going with Hostmonster. So far they’ve had pretty decent support, I’ve had to call in a few times. The price isn’t bad, it’s not cheap or high.

As a novice blogger and growing internet “entrepreneur” thinks like support and customer service become increasingly more important. Sometimes it may be worth paying more or making less to work with a good company.

Hostgator Online Support

As I mentioned I do not have a hosting account with Hostgator, but I have personally experienced their great online support.

While working for a client she decided to go with a magazine theme. Those can be tricky to get all of the features started, especially for someone brand new to Wordpress, so she hired me. Magazine themes are definitely not my favorite to configure and it took me a while to get it right.

I finally found the problem with a particular imaging set-up and it was something I needed the hosting company to fix. After logging in to the online chat I told them the problem and they made sure it was fixed, all was well.

The next day I woke up to an email stating my client had decided to change her theme (lol) to yet another magazine theme. Of course things needed to be changed internally on the hosting again, so back to the online support.

I told them the problem, while waiting for them to fix it I accidentally got disconnected. They must of still followed through with it, because the problems were fixed within a few minutes.

Hostgator’s online support not only saved me time, but a lot of frustration!

Do you know of an online company that has great customer service or support?

This week along with exploring social media I wanted to touch on web hosting. One of the biggest concerns for new bloggers, or bloggers looking to move to Wordpress is hosting.

Should you go cheap? Should you go with support? Should you host on your friends account? Essentially which hosting is right for you.

Well websites like Web Hosting Rating allow you to find reviews of web hosting as well as sharing your own reviews.

What’s The Best Hosting?

Well it depends on what you’re looking for. On the front page of WebHostingRating.com you can see #1-10 based on reviews. It shows the price and how many “thumbs up” it has received.

But what about if you want the hosting for something in particular? Maybe a forum? Or maybe you are on a budget?

On the sidebar of WebHostingRating you can see their “awards” for the different web hosting.

For example, Globat (never heard of them) is the best blog hosting, and Bluehost is best for forums.

However, what I’d LIKE to see is WHY. What makes them better for each particular award. Is it votes? If I was a newbie blogger I wouldn’t understand half of the stuff that is on there.

You can always help out your fellow blogger and go review some of these web hosting sites that you may have used, so they know if it’s good or not. I have a review coming up about a web hosting site I haven’t used personally, but really impressed me!

When shopping for web hosting, do you consider “reviews” or do you research it yourself?