Soon it might pay to know a little more about Web hosting than most folks. It seems like the people over at Hosting Discussion are going to be giving away $3,000 in prizes.

Third largest independent web hosting forum on the Internet HostingDiscussion.com will award its most valuable members of the year 2005 with over $3,000 in prizes.

Up to five lucky winners, as decided by community leaders (administrators, moderators and professional advisors), will share a pool of amazing prizes of over $3,000 value at the end of 2005. Prizes include cash, services and products from well established Internet companies, including HostingDiscussion.com.

The 2005 “End-of-Year Most Valuable Member” contest will be the biggest contest HostingDiscussion.com has ever run. Its representatives say it is not a conventional contest found on many other forums where members compete based on the number of posts they make. This one is content-driven.

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Now I don’t personally spend too much time over at Hosting Discussion myself. I tend to spend more time over at the BrowseHosts.com forums and Web Hosting Chat. However, this might be one more good reason to be helping out forums around the globe. You never know when your expertise might pay off.

Knowing how many key words to put in your Web site to make a mark in the search engine rankings is a sweet science that nearly nobody understands. How do you keep yourself from looking like a keyword stuffer? How do you know if you are using too many keywords or too little? One good starting point would be to keep balance between your content in my opinion. Here are three examples.

Too Many Keywords:

Web Hosting is fun and can be Web hosting enjoyed by any Web hosting fan.

Too Little Keywords:

That is fun and is enjoyed.

Just Right:

Web Hosting is fun and can be enjoyed by any Web hosting fan.

That is only my humble opinion though. I don’t claim to be a search engine expert though. So who do you turn to? The folks over at SEO Chat have posted a great article on frequently asked questions when dealing with keyword density that is worth checking out.

How frequently should you use your keyword to rate highly for it in the search engines? How can you avoid penalties for keyword stuffing? Do the different search engines have different standards for the amount of times you can use your keyword on your site without invoking a penalty? Wayne Hurlbert tackles these and other questions in this article.

What is keyword density?

Keyword density is a combination of the number of times a keyword or a keyword phrase, in proportion with other words, appears on a Web page. The more times the keyword appears in relation to the total number of on page words, the greater the overall keyword density. The more times that other words appear, the lower the proportion of keywords, resulting in a lighter keyword density.

Does keyword density make a difference?

The various search engines, including Google, Yahoo, and MSN Search consider keyword density as part of their search algorithm. Each search engine has a different mathematical equation regarding the density of keywords that is rewarded with higher search ranking placement. There is also a different level of tolerance between the different search engines as to the degree of density permitted before a penalty is imposed.

Okay, so what are keywords anyway?

Keywords are the terms that searchers enter into the search engine’s search interface when seeking information, products, or services. The keyword is entered into the search engine algorithm as a mathematical calculation, to determine relevance of the many billions of Internet pages to that particular search. The pages the algorithm deems most relevant to the search for those keywords are ranked accordingly.

How are keywords different from keyword phrases?

A keyword can be one single word or a phrase including that word. Searchers use both types of entries when seeking information. As a general rule, the longer the phrase, the more specific the returned information will be from the search engine index.

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Now I have never claimed to be a professional in Web site design. I know there are many more folks out there that are better than me and many more folks out there that are worse than me. I would consider myself somewhere in the middle. However, I can remember back when designing for 800 by 600 screens was the standard. Is it still the standard anymore?

The more redesigns and new designs I see, the less 800 by 600 designs I notice. Why? I’d would like to think that the average computer user is at least using 1024 by 768 by now. As for me, I am bumped up to 1280 by 1024. The main reason I bumped up so high was my purchase of my 19 inch Samsung monitor.

How many of you are still using 800 by 600 if any? I’d like to expand some on my Web sites, but I still have a tiny fear in the back of my head that I might be shutting somebody out if I design my layouts more towards the 1024 by 768 crowd.

So am I right for being worried or am I just being paranoid over something trivial?

You tell me.

HostingCon is coming soon! The event will take place June 6 to June 7 at the Hyatt Regency O’ Hare in Rosemont, Illinois. Over the past few weeks my friends and fellow workers in the Web hosting industry have asked me two questions.

“Why are you not going?”

“Are you going?”

I am not going to be able to make the festivities this year, but hopefully by the time that the 2006 HostingCon rolls around the corner I’ll be able to rub shoulders with the Web hosting elite out there. At one time I thought that the Web hosting industry was filled with nothing more than a bunch of money hungry scum bags that just wanted to make a dollar or two. Over the past few months though, I am happy to say, I was wrong.

Web hosting professionals, no mater if you are a Web host or a Web hosting writer are some of the nicest people you can know. Maybe by the time 2006 rolls around I might even be able to broadcast the Web Hosting Show live from the event? It has been talked about, but don’t get too excited yet. Right now it is still just an idea.

The WHIR just posted a good round up of what to look forward to and what to expect.

HostingCon 2005 revealed details on Monday about the four keynote addresses to be delivered at the Web hosting industry conference scheduled for June 6-7 in Chicago.

Sandip Gupta, president and CEO of Ensim Corporation, will present “The Convergence Revolution: Hosting Beyond Web Sites and Email” on June 6 at 9:00 a.m. At 2:30 p.m. on the same day, Robert Marsh, founder and CEO of EV1Servers will present “You, Too, Can Achieve Web Hosting Growth and Profitability.”

Serguei Beloussov, CEO of SWsoft will provide an overview of the market at 9:00 a.m. on June 7 in his keynote titled “Short and Long-term Futures in Hosting and Automation.” The final keynote address, by Pascal Martin, general manager for hosting solutions at Microsoft, will be held at 3:00 p.m. “The Benefits of Web Hosting,” will discuss the advantages and benefits of hosting for service providers and small and medium-sized businesses.

HostingCon 2005, with over 50 vendor booths and 24 conference sessions, will be held June 6-7, 2005 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Rosemont, Illinois. Web host Interjuncture is producing the event

So to all my buddies that will be there, I hope you have a great time and I hope to see you about this same time next year!

It has been a long time since I have visited the tucows.com Web site. A few years ago it was my one and only stop for downloads but then it just got so hard to navigate through the Web pages I had to give it up. Now I am ready to give it a second shot though because it seems like they have changed a few things around.

Via the WHIR, I found out that they have redesigned many aspects of the Web site to better suit the visitors out there. After taking a look at it now compared to the last time I visited, I have to agree. Things are a lot easier to look at and navigate.

Software download provider and Internet service wholesaler Tucows announced on Tuesday it has launched the new design and mirror network architecture for its software download Web site.

“This significant redesign of the site and of the mirroring process was precipitated by growing demands from each of these constituents,” says Elliot Noss, president and CEO of Tucows, “such as, the growth in the average file size of a software title, the increase in the number of titles requesting distribution, the variety of applications demanded by users and the growing attractiveness of the site’s technically sophisticated audience to advertisers.”

Among the site’s many changes are the addition of supportable library categories, IPod software and soon to be available PSP software, RSS feeds, and the increase of editorial content. These improvements will help users achieve maximum benefit from their computer, the Internet and the software that they download.

Looks like I’ll be adding Tucows back to my bookmarks!