I honestly belive that when you enter and leave the world of Web hosting support they should give your a surgeon general’s warning about the hazards that might happen. It has been a long while since I was answering Web hosting questions and earning an income from it, however I am still feeling the side effects of working in the Web hosting industry.

Out of all the side effects that might happen, the biggest one has to do with my E-mail. You see when your a Web hosting support person you are taught to check in your E-mail and the Web hosting company’s help desk every five minutes to find a new question or a new help desk ticket. Once you find one, you need to get it answered and cleared as soon as possible. That way the customers stay happy and you stay busy. Some old habits are really hard to break.

Thanks to the work I did in Web hosting support I can not leave my E-mail unchecked for more than thirty minutes. I have to keep coming back to my computer or any computer in general to check up on my E-mail to see if I have received any new messages. Most of the stuff I get these days has to do with The Web Hosting Show or one of my writing jobs, so it isn’t like it couldn’t wait just a little longer. Last night is when I realized I was really a victim.

It was late and I was relaxing after having watched my two nephews and niece for around thirteen hours or more. For some unknown reason though I just could not leave those six or seven E-mails I had in my inbox unanswered though. I sneaked back here to my office and cleared them all out one by one. Did I have to get them answered last night? No. Did I? Yes. Who do I blame? The Web hosting industry for making it so hard for me to leave unanswered E-mails waiting.

I need help. Maybe I can create a new group for folks who are also ex-workers in the Web hosting world. We shall be known as Web Hosting Workers Anonymous.

As long as I have been in the world of Web hosting, both as a client and a worker, the Web hosting business seems to be the last one on the block to follow big technology trends. It seems like most people in Web hosting wait till it is very safe before climbing out onto that limb of innovation to try something new and different.

Here recently though, it seems like The Web Host Industry Review is breaking that stereotype. A few weeks ago I mentioned that they are now releasing RSS feeds of some of their content. Now they are taking one more step on that branch.

What is the new and exciting step this time? Web hosting television! The Web Host Industry Review launched a new service called, The Web Host Industry Review TV. Each and every Saturday they promise to update it with the latest news from around the Web hosting world. Right now your probably going to say that streaming audio and video is nothing new to the Internet. This is true. It is however new to the world of Web hosting.

The Web Host Industry Review, in conjunction with Netasis, is pleased to bring you WHIR TV – an engaging online broadcast featuring the latest news and trends from the Web hosting world. Each Saturday, WHIR TV lets you sit back and take in the key developments of the week in one convenient package, providing viewers with a unique perspective on the rapidly evolving Web hosting industry.

Each broadcast will include updates on security developments, products and services, and other insights that will keep you informed with what’s happening in Web hosting. Join us every Saturday at theWHIR.com/TV, to experience the only video news webcast in Web hosting.

Viewers can contact WHIR TV with story ideas by emailing news at thewhir.com.

Sponsorship packages are an innovative and dynamic way to brand your business — and also very affordable. It’s easier than you think! If you don’t have the means to produce a 10 second Flash ad, simply provide us with some images and a voice-over script and we can do it for you! For more information, contact ads at thewhir.com today.

Now my Web hosting podcast has been going on for around ten weeks now. That covers the radio aspect of Web hosting. The Web Host Industry Review has now covered the visual future of the Web hosting industry. What is next? A Web hosting movie?

You can stream the news segments on the Web site one by one or you can watch them all in a continuous broadcast. Each is very professionally done and doesn’t leave you with that, “a few guys did this in their basement” kind of feeling. I have also asked the folks over at The Web Host Industry Review about adding RSS feeds to let us know when it has been updated each week, and they say that it is in the works.

There are ten news stories up right now, so go check them out and let me know what you think! I’ll be sure to pass any reviews good or bad back to the folks at The Web Host Industry Review.

These are exciting times for anybody who is even kind of interested in the Web hosting world. I can not wait to see what comes next.

Another Monday, another episode of The Web Hosting Show, the voice of the Web hosting world. Here is just a small sample of what we have going on in this week’s edition of the show.

E-mail Limits

George via Hotmail wants to to about the limitations of e-mail accounts you might get with a Web hosting account. He says that he has been shopping at several diffrent places but notices the higher the price for the account, the more e-mail accounts he can create. Why is this so?

Well some places choose to limit the number of e-mail accounts to just put a control over your hosting account. Honestly though, these days more and more Web hosts out there are allowing for people to have “Unlimited” E-mail accounts set up. The thing to remember is if you are given an “unlimited” number that really means you can create as many as you want, as long as it fits in within your disk space and bandwidth for the account in question.

Domain Names Registrations and Web Hosting

Mike wants to know a simple answer to a simple question. It seems he just signed up for a Web hosting account, but noticed two diffrent companies comming up on his credit card statement. One was from his Web host and the other was from some company he had never heard of. After some detective work he figured out the other mystery charge came from his domain name registration. He wants to know why his domain name was registered with these folks when he thought he was doing it with his Web host.

Some Web hosts out there resell domains through bigger companies. Since not every Web host can be an ICANN domain name register, they have to find loop holes to work around. There are several domain name registration companies out there that work like this. They give the Web host a pretty interface to work with so it looks like they are doing the domain name registrations, but really they aren’t.

It really isn’t a bad thing though. You might just have to go through a few extra steps when you go looking for domain name support. Most Web hosts will then direct you to the support team of the domain name registration company since they have little control over the backend of the domain names on that end. This is just one of the reasons why I usually recomend that folks get Web hosting and domain name registrations at two diffrent places.

Want to find out what else we are talking about? Then go visit The Web Hosting Show and download this week’s podcast. You will not be sorry!

Alright, I have been E-mailed about this more than one time so I am going to make it official now. I am coming back Online as far as instant messaging goes so I can get more feedback, thoughts and ideas from you, the person who is reading and listening to my content out there. So here is everything you need to know:

AIM: hurrifreak82

MSN: webhostingshow@hotmail.com

Yahoo: tru_cerealkeeler@yahoo.com

The reason this is such a big deal is because I pretty much cut myself off from instant messages when I quit working Web hosting support. Just think of it as me being gun shy. After getting 40 to 50 messages an hour from folks needing help I was scared away from the whole instant messaging experience. I’m coming back though. I have seen the light and now I want to hear what you have to think.

Come talk to me about Mitchelaneous, The Web Hosting Show or any of my other various projects out there. I am looking forward to hearing what people have to say when they are able to talk to me one on one! Everybody is free to get ahold of me so shoot me a message over and lets start a conversation!

Now I have heard folks say time and time again that podcasting doesn’t have much of a future because so many of the people who do it aren’t that interesting. Now I’ll give Paris Hilton credit, she is interesting. I just don’t think that she swims too deep on the intellectual pool.

This does go to show you that more people are starting to see the potential in podcasting, even if it is to over-hype what will probably be a bad remake of a good movie. The one thing I was most surprised about when watching the commercials for House of Wax was how little Paris was in the thing.

I figured they were going to play it smart and realize that horror fans are not going to just go see it because they slap her name all over it.

Back to the “Paris Hilton Podcast” though. Apparently podcasting is hot.

Podcasting is hot. But it just got hotter. Paris Hilton invites you to join her on “The Paris Hilton Podcast — Countdown to House of Wax,” beginning on April 29. Join Paris and friends as she shops, parties, poses and publicizes in the days leading up to the May 6 opening of House of Wax.

“The Paris Hilton Podcast — Countdown to House of Wax” may be played back on your iPod or any portable media player.

To get “The Paris Hilton Podcast” and download a custom House of Wax Podcatcher, select your OS: WINDOWS or MAC. If you already have a podcast client and would like to subscribe to “The Paris Hilton Podcast” simply copy and paste the url below into the subscriptions window of your podcast client.

So will I be tuning in? No, I have better things to listen to. On the other hand, blogging, podcasting and marketing seem to be getting closer and closer in relation. Just look at Pamela Anderson, she’s got a blog now to help promote her new show, Stacked.

Having a service that you must be invited to before you can use is not a new idea. Just look at how popular Gmail was because of it and Yahoo! 360 as well. Both have had or have invitation only status which makes even more folks want an account. It is just human nature.

If you can’t have something then you want it. We can not control the urge, but you can bet there are companies out there that will profit from it. Never though have we seen a Web hosting company go down this route, well until now.

Have you Moved.in?

Moved.in is a web hosting service giving free CPanel hosting and including PHP and mySQL support and services. The catch is that the only way you can join moved.in is if you receive an invitation from a current user. They seem to also be giving out invitations for certain contests on their forums as well. Sound familiar? I thought it would.

Now how well will this all work in the long run? It is really hard to tell. Sure there are a lot of free Web hosting companies out there today. Most of them aren’t that great though. I’d like to see how the folks at moved.in plan to make a profit on this idea. Till then though, you can try to get in invite and if you do, let me know what you think. I am really excited about this new way of looking at free Web hosting. If any of the moved.in folks are reading this right now, I’d love to see what you guys are offering to people.

Update! I just received an invite from the folks at moved.in so give me a few days and I should be able to tell you how well this service really works.

Never the less, it is still a pretty neat toy to play with!

Who ever knew that writing an essay could be this easy! Thanks to the Essay Generator, all you need to do is enter in a subject and then the Web page takes care of the rest. Don’t trust me?

After typing in “Mitch Keeler is awesome” I got a long essay about how awesome I really am. Here is just a short sample of what it had to say about me:

‘Brilliant’, ‘Quite Good’, ‘What?’, these are just some of the comments made recently in the press regarding Mitch Keeler is awesome. Underestimate Mitch Keeler is awesome at your peril. Given that its influence pervades our society, it is important to remember that ‘what goes up must come down.’ The juxtapositioning of Mitch Keeler is awesome with fundamental economic, social and political strategic conflict draws criticism from those politically minded individuals living in the past, many of whom fail to comprehend the full scope of Mitch Keeler is awesome. With the primary aim of demonstrating my considerable intellect I will now demonstrate the complexity of the many faceted issue that is Mitch Keeler is awesome.

Social Factors

Society is a simple word with a very complex definition. Back when Vealinger remarked ‘the power struggle will continue while the great tale of humanity remains untold’ [1] he, contrary to my learned colleague Sir George Allen’s recent publication ‘Into the eye of , could not have been referring to eighteenth century beliefs regarding society. While deviating from the norm will always cause unrest amongst ones peers, Mitch Keeler is awesome raises the question ‘why?’

Special care must be taken when analyzing such a delicate subject. On the other hand anyone that disagrees with me is an idiot. Society is powered by peer pressure, one of the most powerful forces in the world. As long as peer pressure uses its power for good, Mitch Keeler is awesome will have its place in society.

This is just way too much fun. Go play with it yourself and make up your own essay!

I think I still have my old cassette tapes of all his albums hidden away in one of my filing cabinets as I write.

I miss those days of passing time by listening to Weird Al when I was younger. Truth be told, I wasn’t really that big of a fan of music till I started listening to some of his stuff out there. Then there were the several AL TV specials on MTV that I recorded and then watch over and over again. I even named my pet hamster Harvey! Sure, I was just a little fanatical, I’ll give you that much.

I am happy to see though that I am not alone. It seems like this Web site has raised over $5,000 so far and I hope that keep that number going up.

Your help is needed to honor the musical parody genius, Mr. Alfred Matthew Yankovic, aka Weird Al. Weird Al has been making us laugh for more than 25 years. Over the course of his long and successful career, he has released 11 full-length comedy music albums, been honored with 3 Grammy Awards and 9 Grammy nominations, and received more than 20 gold and platinum album certifications in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. He has appeared in numerous television specials and written and starred in his own full length feature film, “UHF,” and that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

But there’s still one accomplishment Al hasn’t achieved yet — a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. So, let’s give Al the star treatment! It’s time people took Weird Al seriously and started walking all over him.

Our goal is to raise the $15,000 it takes to sponsor a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We need the help and support of each of you to do so!

No donation is too small! If 15,000 “Weird Al” Yankovic fans donated $1 each we would meet our goal. We also gladly accept fives, tens and twenties.

The mission of the Weird Al Star Fund is to solicit, collect, and raise the necessary money, and to compile the information needed for the application to nominate “Weird Al” Yankovic for a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

So go visit the Web site, contribute and help fight the good fight!

What kind of wacky Web hosting fun will we be having this week? Go check it out for youself and then make sure you send me your feedback on the show.

The world of Web hosting gets rocked one more time as the ninth episode of The Web Hosting Show hits the server today. With the passing of each and every show, I just seem to get more excited about what I am trying to do here. Over the past ten weeks or so we have gained an audience of over 100 listeners that tune in to hear what I have to say about the Web hosting world every single Monday. Now if that isn’t something to get excited about, I don’t know what is.

So what is up for today’s edition of The Web Hosting Show? Here is just a small sample of what we have in store for you.

Web Hosting Billing Problems

I got an E-mail from Glen and it seems like he had some billing problems with his current Web host. If I only had a dollar every time somebody had a billing issue. I’d be a rich man! It seems his Web hosting company didn’t give him much notice when it came to having a billing problem and shut down his Web site. Then his E-mail was down because his Web site was turned off so he had no way of contacting them with the address on record.

First things first, you should always give more than one E-mail address to your Web host for them to contact you. Also make sure that the E-mail addresses that you give them are not connected to your hosting plan you have with them. Other than that, it takes a lot of crossing your fingers and luck. Some Web hosts have better billing departments than others so you might take this chance to go find a better Web host.

Should You Purchase Template Designs?

I recently received an E-mail from a fan of my Web hosting articles over at Lockergnome, Rodrigo. Glen asks if he should purchase a template design? There are many companies out there that do great work when it comes to Web site design and I wouldn’t stop anybody from using that type of service. Just make sure you read the fine print. Make sure that after you buy the template, it will not be sold anymore.

Let us just say you drop $150 or more on a Web site design. You’d be pretty mad if Bob down the street ended up with the exact same look, wouldn’t you? So yes, I would say it was okay.. just check out all the facts before you hand over your bucks.

Want to read more? Better yet, do you want to listen to more? Then head on over to The Web Hosting Show’s Web site and take a listen to the show. Find out why The Web Hosting Show is the one and only voice of the Web hosting world.

I wonder how many folks can say they have written for both of the biggest Web hosting magazines out there today?

Yep, the rumors are true! All the paperwork has been done and starting next week you are looking at the newest member of the writing team at The Web Host Industry Review. Putting the big bucks to the side for the moment, I just have to say that it is really an honor to become a member of this team. Working for The Web Host Industry Review is like the Web hosting world’s version of becoming a writer for TIME magazine. I am still a little overly excited about it all, even though I signed all my final paperwork on it yesterday.

Ever since day one, I’ve wanted to write for two reasons. Number one was to help as many folks out there as I could. I have done my time working for the Web hosting companies out there and I know what kind of confusion is out there. The second reason is I really want to become the stand out “Web hosting guy”. I know, it might sound a little egotistical but it is true. The Web hosting world doesn’t really have a different face that is shaking things up from the inside out. I hope to some I can be that guy. If not, then at least I can say I had fun on the way.

Anyways, this ranks right up there with working for Lockergnome and writing for Ping! Zine. Hopefully more Web hosting jobs and projects will be in the future as well. I am far from done climbing up the proverbial Web hosting ladder of success.