iPage Review

iPage is one of the most well-known green hosts around, but being well-known and actually being good are two different things. Before you even think of using the iPage hosting, read my review and see if it’s really something you want, or a host you should avoid.

At the most basic level, iPage is an unlimited host (read my post on unlimited hosts) with a simple interface. They offer low-priced hosting, at less than $4 a month, and a website builder if you don’t know anything about HTML and CSS.

iPage also offers plugin management to install blog programs like WordPress and PixelPost. They also have FrontPage support, and scripting support for Perl, PHP and Server Side Includes (SSI).

And of course, the fit the green agenda, iPage runs on 100% wind energy, so unlike other hosts, this host is joining the green revolution.

All that’s great, but let’s see how it works.

The iPage website generator has a lot of good looking templates, and runs off of the Weebly website generator (a free host). Some are alright, but a lot are actually professional looking. However, if you have your own website CSS, it can take you a while to find out how to insert your own coding because there is no straight forward way of using your own coding.

To insert coding, go to “Templates,” “Blank Template” and begin typing in your code.

However, when I used the generator, either for a custom website or a template, I found the drag-and-drop interface to be clunky. If I wrote an article in Word and copy/paste it into the page, the paragraph spacing gets messed up and I have to go back and fix it.

You have to click the components several times before you can really work with them, and sometimes the toolbar gets in the way and you can’t see what you’re typing.

I also noted that in some instances (such as when building a table) with the HTML component, the spacing and padding looks fine from the preview window, but when you publish the page, the table (or any HTML element) will look different.

In my example, I built a simple table with blue and white alternating rows and a padding of 5. In preview this looked fine. When I clicked “Publish” and looked at the page, the padding was gone. Now I could understand there being a problem if I looked at the page in two different browsers, but this is not the case.

Overall the iPage host isn’t bad. It has a simplified website management tool that beginners will probably find easier. However, if you are used to the cPanel interface and know how to manage a website, this simplified interface will end up annoying you.

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Wix Review

If you need a website fast that is both functional and displays your content without overpowering the page, you should check out the Wix website. They offer a free website builder that can make a website in less than two minutes (check out the movie from their main page to find out more).

It sounded like a lot of hype, so I tried it out real quick, and you really can make a professional looking website in a few minutes. When I say professional I don’t mean “professional.” I mean they actually look good.

The generator is also easy to navigate and use. If you can move a mouse and click buttons on your keyboard, you can make a website.

Now I am usually an advocate of building a website on your own after learning the basic codings of HTML and CSS, but at the same time there is nothing wrong with using a template. Using a template will help you get your website up and running now, instead of waiting to learn and understand the programming languages.

After making your template, you can also use Wix free hosting. You will be registered as a subdomain (mywebsite.wix.com) and Wix does place it’s own ads on your page in the sidebar and the footer.

If you want to get rid of the ads and use a proper domain, Wix offers real hosting as well. For about $5 to $20 a month (depending on your plan) you can use a real domain and get better hosting with higher bandwidth and memory caches. All of the plans, except the cheapest one, also get rid of the Wix advertising.

The gripes I have about this website is that they place advertising on your websites, but in the free hosting world this is pretty commonplace. I also don’t like how you have to pay about $20 a month for the ecommerce package which really only gives you a shopping cart. Aside from that addition, the package is worthless compared to the $15/month unlimited package which gives you all the same features except the shopping cart.

If you need a website fast, Wix will help you out. If you already know how to design, Wix really won’t offer you anything you can’t already get with better hosts.

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Constant Contact Review

The Constant Contact company is an email marketing business that helps you reach customers and increase your business, without having to throw away thousands in marketing expenses. Unlike the old philosophy of sending out postcards and printed materials, Constant Contact is run by the modern philosophy of digital marketing to greater efficacy.

When you sign up for Constant Contact, you have to pay a monthly fee (unless you use their 60-day free trial) in accordance with how many email addresses you want to purchase. You can email them everyday without increasing your fees.

The fee ranges monthly from $15 (for 500 email addresses) up to $150 (for 25,000 email addresses).

While email marketing is their primary product, they also help setup online surveys and event marketing to help you gather business intelligence and make your event a success. They also offer email templates, so even if you are terrible at designing you can send a professional marketing email.

With the intro out of the way, let’s examine the website. The design is nice and modern, using only a few colors and is straight-forward. I had no problems at all navigating through their features, reading up on what they do and how everything works.

Speaking about working, does Constant Contact work? The short answer is yes, but of course you need to offer the people you are emailing something, so be sure to write an email that will bring them to you. Even the best design falls flat if the content is boring and unappealing.

There is also tracking tools so you can see your results and find out if the world of email marketing will help you thrive, or if you’re better off with the old postcard philosophy.

The only thing I can say as a con for Constant Contact is that, without marketing information, you will be swamped from this website. If you don’t already know how to use blogs and social marketing effectively, then you will get lost in all the information Constant Contact offers. I suggest you read up on marketing before you try email marketing.

However, if you are already well-versed in the digital marketing world, then there really aren’t any problems starting up your marketing venture with them.

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JustHost Review

If you’re starting out with your website and need a host, you may wanna check out JustHost. They are an unlimited host, so they function best for small websites or websites that are memory hungry. If you don’t know what unlimited hosting is read about it here.

Pricing ranges from about $6.95 a month to $3.45 a month, depending on what plan you choose. The more hosting you pay for upfront, the less the overall price will be per month.

But price isn’t everything, you need a good host, not a cheap one that won’t offer you any uptime or features. JustHost has a 99.9% guaranteed uptime percentage, so their servers very rarely leave you flat.

They also come with the “Fantastico” program, so almost any CMS you need (Joomla, Drupal or WordPress) can be installed just with a simple click. You won’t have to worry about any manual installations or forgetting to upload a file, everything is done for you.

Another great feature is their domain policy. You can host unlimited domains, but that’s not the good part. When you sign up, the first domain you register is free for life. There are no registration fees after the first year. As long as you stay with JustHost, they will cover the annual fees for you.

Along with being FTP enabled and using the advanced cPanel website management tool, JustHost also supports a variety of scripts. PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, Flash and more, so no matter what coding you use, JustHost will support it.

Now there’s isn’t much bad to say about this host, but just a few minor things. One, I don’t like how you have to pay for hosting six months, a year or two years upfront. While this makes it cheaper, I usually prefer to pay month-to-month, as paying all upfront increases the startup costs sligthly.

However, because of this, the overall charges I will be paying for hosting are significantly less, so this is more of a preference than something bad about the company.

There is also the fact that they are an unlimited host. But if you know what to expect from an unlimited host and don’t overstep your boundaries, you will find JustHost is one of the most reliable and best priced hosts online in the unlimited realm.

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Vistaprint Review

Vistaprint is a small-volume printing service that has been online since 2001. They offer most of the printing necessities, along with other products and services to help you market your business and propel your marketing.

In my Vistaprint review I found a few good things about Vistaprint, but overall the company is overrated.

On the good side, Vistaprint offers a lot of products that you expect a print shop to offer. However, they also sell non-standard item likes websites, phone numbers and email marketing campaigns.

They also include many, many different templates for business cards, letterhead and so on so you don’t have to worry about making your own custom design. Along with this, there are free printing options (like free business cards), but Vistaprint prints their logo on the back of the card.

This is where the good ends. I found many aspects about Vistaprint that I found irritating, annoying and down right bad. As someone who has been in the printing industry for four years (as a print supervisor) I see a lot of things I don’t like about their printing.

But first, let’s talk about design. I find the Vistaprint homepage to be cluttered and confusing. Even when I know what I am looking for, I get dizzy trying to find the item. There are so many items that most people wouldn’t need (how often am I going to get caricature products?) that it clutters the list of what people do need.

Let’s get onto the printing. I am fond of business cards, they have always been my favorite printing and marketing material. The standard paper thickness for a business card is “12pt” paper. Vistaprint, however, offers 10pt paper as their standard option. This paper is thin and not durable.

You can get 12pt paper, but you have to pay extra. So you have to pay more money, just to get real business card paper.

The next thing I don’t like is the ordering process. I know I want business cards, and after pushing the “Order” button I expect to order my business cards. However, Vistaprint has to offer me other products.

I don’t mind being offered a business card holder, but it seems a little pushy that with each order you have to go through four or five different products which may have nothing to do with what you ordered. It’s irritating and takes forever to go through. By the time I’m really at the order page I’m ready to drop the order and leave.

Overall, Vistaprint does have its place in the printing world. If you aren’t too worried about paper quality and want cheap printing with some pretty good templates (I have to admit, they offer some of the best free templates), then Vistaprint will help you out.

If you are looking to get good printing and thick paper, then Vistaprint really isn’t for you.

Making a Good Domain

Domain names are one of the lifeblood aspects of your website. It is your street address on the Internet and people need to remember it. While many Webmasters name their website after their domain, there are a surprising amount of Webmasters that do not do this.

Think for a moment. Your domain is “mycompany.com.” If your brand is “Computer Parts” people aren’t going to search for your domain name, but your brand. Aligning your brand and domain is paramount to online success, both for a business or a content website.

In the realm of domains, there is a debate about what type of domain is better. A long or short one, or a generic or specific one. Each one has their own strengths and weaknesses.

When it comes to length, both can be good. Let’s look at two content websites. “Ehow.com” is a short domain that gets millions of unique visitors. However, “AssociatedContent.com” is a long domain that also gets millions of unique visitors. What really matters isn’t length, but the domain itself.

If you can manage a shorter domain, it can be easier for people to remember, but if you need a long one, make sure it makes sense. Put words together that make sense. If you make a nonsense domain, no one will find it.

Now, what about generic or specific domain names? A generic name like “Computers.com” will probably do great. Many people will search it out of curiosity and it will get a good search engine ranking. Here’s the problem: you’ll have a hell of a time finding any generic domains still around.

If you want one of these domains, you will have to either find an obscure word or pay hundreds, thousands or more to purchase the domain from someone selling it.

Specific names have their own power as well. If you have built your brand up outside the Internet, then a domain named after your business will have inherent value as it will already be well searched online, and it will probably be easier to find.

If you are new to building websites and getting online, you may wonder where you can get a domain. Most hosting companies offer domain registration, and it is a prerequisite before you can even get hosting.

There are also many different domain extensions at your disposal. “.com” is the most popular and stands for “commercial.” Other common extensions are “.org” for “organization,” “.info” for “information” and “.net” for “networking.”

When you search for your domain, think about your business and what domain model will fit it best. Doing this before searching will make it much easier to find a domain when it comes time to buy one.

What is Unlimited Hosting?

Unlimited hosting, it sounds amazing. For less than $10 a month you can get all the bandwidth and memory you would ever need. Why bother buying expensive dedicated hosting (which can go for $50 to $70 a month) when you can get unlimited storage?

If it’s starting to sound too good, then you’re right.

Let’s say it right now, unlimited hosting is not unlimited. There are heavy restrictions on the amount of hosting space you get and on what your website can and cannot have. Now, if you follow these rules, it is very unlikely that you will surpass your alloted server space, but you should still watch out. If your website grows too large your host just may cut it from their servers.

So, what restrictions are placed on your website? Do you like music? Do you like movies? Do you like games? I hope you don’t plan to add them to your page, because adding such memory-heavy files will get you banned from your host.

What these unlimited hosts are planning on is that you use very little memory or bandwidth. For most websites, this will be the truth. Most websites use very little memory until they start expanding or gain a loyal fanbase.

Does this mean you should avoid unlimited hosts like the plague? No, it doesn’t. Unlimited hosts have their place in the digital world, you just have to plan yourself, and your website, accordingly.

Unlimited hosts are meant mostly for smaller websites. If your website is starting up, or if you are planning to make a website that doesn’t require much resources, using unlimited hosts will help you out. It’s a waste to get dedicated hosting if you are just beginning.

However, if you plan to make a large website with memory-heavy files, then you can’t use unlimited hosting. You will quickly eat up your ambiguous storage space and will lose your hosted status.

When looking for an unlimited host, look for all the same things you would with any other host. You still need FTP access, scripting support and reliability. Unlimited hosts can supply this, as long as you research your host appropriately.