How to Switch Hosting Account Without Any Down Time

Switching to a new host can be a very smooth process or it can be very complicated. Following our steps will ensure that your move is a painless one.

The first step is to find the new hosting accountyou want to be with and join them. Make sure not to cancel with your old hosting provider, and do not tell them you will be canceling. For the time being you switching host needs to be kept a secret from them, or they could terminate your site early and cause downtime.

At this point you should have hosting accounts with two hosting providers the old and the new one. You will now upload your entire site from the old host to the new one. This can be done by connecting to their ftp and downloading all your files. Then connecting to the new hosts ftp and uploading all your files. If you choose to make us your new host we will transfer your entire site over free of charge!

After you have all your files on both hosting accounts you will change your domain names dns. Your new host should have provided you with their domain name servers (dns). If they haven’t contact them to find out what dns you should use for your domain name.

Dns usually looks like this:
ns1.thehostsnames.com
ns2.thehostsnames.com

Once you know what dns to use on your domain name you will go to wherever you purchased the domain name from to make the changes. If you purchased your domain name from your host you usually will need to ask them to make the dns changes for you. You will tell them this…. “Hello my domain with you is ____ my username is ___ and my password _____ please change my domain names dns to ns1.thednsyoureceived.com and ns2.thednsyoureceived.com

If you have any questions we would be more then happy to help you, or even make the dns changes for you.

Once your dns changes have been made you will need to wait two days before your site will load off the new host. During this two day period your DNS is prorogating world wide, and your site will be bouncing from the old host to the new host every other minute randomly. Once the two days is up your site will only be loading off the new hosting account.

48 hours should have passed now since you have updated your DNS. If it has you will now contact your host you were moving from and cancel your account with them.

If you completed all the above steps you have successfully switched hosts, with no downtime at all!

Beware of Web Hosting Scams!

1. Support

Do not join a host without testing out their support first. The best way to test out a host’s support is calling in. You’ll be surprised how many hosts with an 800 number never answer their phones, or have long hold times. E-mailing a hosting company or submitting a ticket to their sales department is not the way to test a host! Many of the companies have incredible response times when contacting their sales department, very few have good times when contacting support. After all they don’t make money by supporting you. They only make money by selling to you.

2. Scam Plans

If it sounds too good too be true it usually is! All hosts have the same basic limitations when it comes to server resources and specs. There is no magic server that has a never ending supply of RAM and CPU. If a host ever claims to give unlimited space or bandwidth DO NOT JOIN THEM.

The thing to remember is that the average web site uses about 50 Megs space and less then 1 gig bandwidth a month. So what hosting companies do is they lie! They make up scam plans with tons of space and bandwidth for around $8 bucks a month. It’s a numbers game… Only one or two of every 100 people that signup on the plan are going to use all the bandwidth advertised.

So what do they do? They usually terminate the sites that use it saying “your site is using too many resources.” They aren’t lying about the resource usage. IT’S the truth! Most people don’t realize that bandwidth and space used have nothing to do with the server resources being used. Resource usage has to do with the amount of CPU and RAM a site uses.

If a site uses a lot of bandwidth they aren’t kicked for using their bandwidth they are kicked for using up most of the servers cpu and ram. Another thing to remember is that the cheaper the plan is, and the more space / bandwidth included the more sites per server the host will have to pack in to make their money back. So the lesson here is don’t shop for a host based on their plans! You should shop based on recommendations and experience!

3. About Paying Yearly

Another thing you’ll notice is that most of these incredible scam plans force you to pay for a year up front to get the good pricing. Why would a hosting company care if you pay monthly or yearly? After all if you’re happy with them you’re going to end up staying much longer than a year. Merchant fees aren’t that much so why? It’s because most have horrible support, slow servers, or even tons of downtime.

If you were paying month to month you’re not going to stick around, but if you paid for a year up front what are you going to do? You won’t get your money back so you have no choice but to stay with them. ONLY PAY MONTHLY! We have one plan that requires a year payment up front (hatchling) Why? because most hosts advertise a low monthly fee if paid yearly and a much higher price if monthly.

We still need to be competitive so we made one plan showing this option. We would however prefer you sign up for a monthly plan. Remember paying yearly to anyone is always a bad idea, but the choice is yours. We would do everything in our power to honor the year but anything can happen to anyone. The state of Texas where our servers are located could be wiped off the face of the earth. If this happened we would most likely be out of business instantly and have no way to honor your payment. All we’re saying is no matter how good a company is anything can come up, and you could lose your upfront payment.

4. Domain Name Tips

Do not join a host that includes a free domain name with their hosting package, and never purchase your domain name from a hosting provider, unless you are positive they will be putting your information in the WHOIS (We do, most don’t). If your information isn’t in the whois they could blackmail you into staying with them.

For all technical purposes whoever has their information in the whois is the owner. A domain owner doesn’t go by who paid for it; it goes by whose information is on the whois. To check a whois on the domain go there and type “domainname.com” and click submit. Whoever’s address, email, and phone number shows up is the domain owner.

We recommend purchasing a domain from www.namecheap.com or www.godaddy.com after you purchase the name all you would do is put your host’s dns in and your domain name will then point to your hosting company. If you aren’t sure how to change the dns just watch our movies on it.

5. A few more tests to check out how legit a company is

Do a whois on their domain name. Then look for the creation date of the domain name. If the domain name was created less then a year ago it’s more of a risk to join that hosting company. They could be a great host, but considering more then 95% of new hosts go out of business within a year that really isn’t something you should be taking a chance on.

It’s too easy to become a hosting company. All someone has to do is join our reseller plan and they are now a host. Sure the hosting may be good, but that doesn’t mean they are going to provide good support nor does it mean they are going to pay their hosting bill. We end up kicking resellers of ours all the time for not paying their bills (after many warnings) and in many cases their unsuspecting customers lose their site.

You could also test the speed of a host’s network to your location by…

Clicking start > run > type in “command” enter, and then type “ping hostdomainname.com” wait for it to finish and look for the average ping. The lower the number the better, and chances are the faster your site will load if you should host with them. Any number around an 80 average would be good. Anything over 100 is very bad (unless you’re living in another country from where the host is based.)

6. Customer Reviews

Don’t believe anything you read on the hosting directories. They don’t care who they recommend as they are all paid listings. The highest bidder gets the spot. What you should do to find reviews is search google using the company’s name. If they have been around a year you should find many real reviews of people who use their hosting.

Another good place to check would be the company’s forum, but don’t always believe what you see. If someone writes something bad in the forum most hosts will delete their post and ban the user… Our customer testimonial forum is located here we can proudly say we support freedom of speech.

7. Uptime

If a hosting company claims 100% uptime they are lying. All servers need to be rebooted every now and then for security and software updates. If they never reboot that means their server is insecure and they will eventually be hacked.

When a company guarantees an uptime, that doesn’t make it true. A host has as many uptimes as they have servers. It all depends on what server they put you on, and how well they manage it from the time you’re put on it. We guarantee a 99.9 uptime but that does not mean we will hit it every month for eternity. Our guarantee means we give you a 100% refund for the month if we should not hit it.

Many hosting companies will give you a prorated refund based on the amount of downtime. So say you pay $10 for a month of hosting and your site is down for 24 / hours. They will refund you for one day of downtime which ends up being about 33 cents. A guarantee is worthless! What is worth something is how they define the guarantee, and if they do in fact honor it.

Affordable Web Hosting Service Provider

Any newbies looking for affordable and reliable web hosting service provider that is hosted in the United States of America?

Hostgator offers 24/7/365 phone support, 99.9% uptime, and have a 30 day money back guarantee. Your site will be on a top-of-the-line Dual Xeon server that can provide instant backups of your site (this is available via the control panel). Our control panel is one of the best in the industry, and has over 52 scripts that can be installed with a click of the mouse.

Click above for their control panel Demo: cPanel Demo demo login: demo / demo

What is E-Commerce Website and its Advantages?

E Commerce Website

Ecommerce websites or selling online websites as they are commonly named are becoming popular. An online e-commerce store can provide many advantages. Selling products online means that your website works for you 24 hours a day 7 days a week and as more people are buying online you may wish to take advantage of this.

Your online shopping website allows your visitors to purchase your products/services, making payments using their credit cards. Whether or not you already have a merchant account - there are options available to you which will enable your company to sell online.

E-Commerce is the undeniable future of retail in the UK or anywhere else in the world. As more and more consumers turn to online purchasing for its convenience and value, it is more vital than ever before to invest in an E-Commerce website that not only attracts new customers to your business, but also ensures that they return time and time again.

Ecommerce Advantages

Q: What is “E-commerce” ?

Ecommerce is the term used to describe the selling of goods and services over the Internet. Creating a Web site that advertises and promotes your products is considered to be “ecommerce.” Ecommerce actually is the shortened version for “Electronic Commerce” - its true definition is “the paperless exchange of goods or services through the use of electronic data”

What is an “Ecommerce Website ” or “Shopping Online Website” ?

An ecommerce website is a website which includes it it’s design the facilities for products or services to be ordered or sold online. An online store enables visitors to browse through the products, select which items they wish to purchase, add them to their shopping basket or shopping cart and when they have completed their shopping they can then proceed to the checkout to pay for their purchases online.

Ecommerce businesses in the recent years now offer elaborate online shopping stores where customers can browse thousands of products, place orders, selecting the desired shipping method and pay for their purchases using their credit cards.

Why sell online?What advantages are there in providing selling on line facilities on my website?

There are many advantages of selling online or ecommerce websites.

Here are just a few advantages.

1. You are able to conduct business when it is convenient for your client. Whether it be during the day or in the middle of the night. You are never actually closed. If you choose an e-commerce website, your customers can shop with you 24 hours a day.

2. You can reach a wide market. Your ecommerce website can bring in customers from a worldwide market. An ecommerce website enables you to place your products in the largest market place in the world.

3. Keep your existing customers happy! Existing customers increasingly expect online shopping facilities to be available for them. They may wish to place orders using the internet throughout the day and night. They will use your ecommerce website at times which suit them. Shopping at their convenience instead of yours is much often much preferred.

4. New Customers - Consumers search for products and services online before making purchases. Being found on the Internet will give you an advantage over your competition when they call you instead of the competition. Online shopping facilities will ensure that the prospective new customer has the opportunity to buy your goods there and then.

5. Can I display as many of my products as I wish?
You can display as few or as many products as you wish. Your online ecommerce website can present your customer with your entire stock range. Could you display all your products in the front of your shop window?

6. Saves Your Customers Time.
As your online shopping website can include Website Search features - your customer can speedily, identify precisely which product it is that best suits their requirements - much easier than them having to look at each individual product in turn.

7. Running Costs.
Opening a new online store is a lot cheaper than opening a new shop. An ecommerce website - the design provides you with the ability to manage your own content with built-in content management to reduce your costs.

8. No need to print new catalogue!
There is no need to print a new catalogue - simply point your clients to your new online store.

9. Reporting - or Visitor Tracking for Your Website - Web Traffic Monitoring
With our website statistics reports you’ll be able to make better informed business decisions regarding your website.