I was reading through a great article about alternative ways of getting Web hosting information by Terri this morning. It really is an excellent article covering two of the big hosting conferences this year, plus some of the hosting related podcasts out there.

Sounding rather like a young Fred Rogers with just a hint of a Southern drawl, Keeler has created more than 50 podcasts covering various web hosting topics, all available from his website.

That has to be the best compliment anybody has ever given me. Now all I need to do is find a sweater!

I’ve been pretty busy trying to build up my other various projects and Web sites I’ve been working on. With the difficulties of building a readership aside, I thought I’d share some of what I’ve been writing and recording.

+ Web Hosting Hall of Fame – Podcast 56

+ Domain Tools

+ Building a Better Web Host

+ Firefox Memory Leak Fixer – Maybe

+ Cooliris – Google Search Previews

+ Web Hosting Resources and RSS Feeds

What would you like to see me do?

In the Web hosting world, everybody is looking into the whole .EU domain name deal. Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is. Who really wants a domain name extension that ends with “ewww” anyways?

+ Listen to my Thoughts on this Week’s Web Hosting Show Podcast

+ Read Bob “Mr. GoDaddy” Parson’s Thoughts

I woke up to a not so friendly list of comment spam in my inbox this morning. It seems like all the Web sites I run are being hit with comment spam from gnethosting.net. Now I usually don’t like to be too hard on Web hosts or tell people to stay away from anybody. These folks are just annoying the hell out of me though. I would say stay away from them, far away from them.

I tried to contact somebody from the company, but I have yet to get a response back.

I don’t care who you are or what you say, there is no better way of getting your Web site known than word of mouth advertising. There is a bond there from person to person that just can not be bought. By putting an ad up on a Web site, you can’t duplicate that trust that word of mouth advertising brings to the table.

So how do you get people to start talking about you?

Well, the best way of getting yourself and your Web site known is by telling your own social network of friends. By telling your friends and associates about your Web site or idea, you are spreading that out to your friends’ friends.

As we travel out, it gets spread even further and further. The entire globe we live on is made up of social circles that link in one place or another. You just have to hope that your Web site or idea is good enough that it keeps going outword to other circles.

Another good way to get your Web site known through word of mouth, is find somebody who folks respect. If I was going to do a Web site about Web hosting, I would want to find the top guy in the Web hosting industry and tell him about my idea. If you do that, then he might tell his friends about it as well. This way you are exposing yourself to a “more elite” circle even faster.

Last but not least, I would suggest that you write about it. Set up a blog or some other personal publication for yourself so that you can put the idea out there to the people. Some people might pick up on it and run, while others might pass it by. Blogging about an idea is really a lot like fishing. Sometimes you get the big catfish, and other times you might just get a lot of sardines.

So as you can see, there are plenty of ways to get your idea out there to the public. It might be a little more work than purchasing an ad, but the results will be worth the effort.

So when should you use a 301 URL redirect and when shouldn’t you? For the most part, I would say it depends on what the situation at hand is. I got this question via E-mail just a few days ago.

Hi Mitch, I have been surfing your site and was reading about the various ways to 301 redirect… found it most informative – thank you! I have a quick question for you, seeing as you stated it was fine to fire questions your way regarding any web site problems!

I have a client who currently owns four domains lets call them:

www.domain1.co.uk

www.domain2.co.uk

www.domain3.co.uk

www.domain4.co.uk

They were bought through, and are being hosted by, a company who offer Web building tools through a Web based control panel, ie. they are a business that are selling domains as well as offering hosting and web building packages all in one.

He has asked me to do a redesign (I am unsure yet if this means on all four domains – but we can take it as being so for the time being). Anyway the point is, at the moment the four domains all contain the exact same content. He is a watercolor artist and he just wants to advertise his paintings. So if you went to any of the four domains you would receive the exact same webpage for each – basically a page with some info on the left and the gallery of images on the right. I don’t think that they are being redirected at the moment. Is it ok to have various domains all containing the exact same html ie. Is this not duplicate content and would search engines catch on to this?

Basically, if I am going to be redesigning the site – probably to consist of 5 pages – about us page, gallery page, contact page, etc etc, I don’t want to have to take up more server space with the exact same files and directories. Also i have a limit on the amount of domains i can actually host on my Virtual Server. Couldn’t i just redirect the other 3 domains to the main site which I design. Appreciate any advice.

Now there is a lot to cover there, but now let me see if I can get the question answered.

I wouldn’t do the 301 redirect without asking the client first. If he is “scamming the search engines”, doing a 301 redirect would turn those four domains he has separate right now, into one. If you pointed the other three domains, at the first one then the only Web site that would be seen by the search engines would be the first one.

Now if that is what he is doing, that is a little shady. If that makes you feel uncomfortable or you really don’t want to host four clone Web sites, ask him why he is doing it.

So yes, I’d say it would be okay to do it. You wouldn’t have four different Web sites after doing the redirect though. You would have one Web site that has three domains pointing to it.

Related Links:

Lockergnome – Optimizing Dynamic URLs

Lockergnome – Renaming/Moving A Page? 301 Redirect It!

Since I’ve been doing the Web Hosting Show for some time now, I often get asked to give tips to other folks who want to start podcasting. Here are a few of my favorites, but feel free to comment and add your own.

Podcasting tip number one is to try to sound like you are at least half-way interested in what you are talking about. Ben Stein already has the market on boring and monotone speech patterns. Don’t steal his shtick.

For podcasting tip number two, don’t get off topic too much. A little off topic discussion can be fun. Listening about your foot fetish when I tuned into hear your thoughts on Windows Vista is not.

Podcast tip number three is a little tricky. Watch how you say your “F” and “P” words. Sudden booms on my speakers frighten me. If you look at this as a solution to waking people up after not following podcasting tip number one, please don’t podcast anymore.

Do you enjoy writing about Web hosting? If you do, then I have an offer you can’t refuse. I’m looking for a few more article submissions for HostingHoopla.com. I can’t promise you money for your work, but I can give you a little short bio about yourself trailing your content (think of that as a little fame). Something to the effect of:

“Mitch Keeler owns and runs blahblah.com and loves puppies. To see more of his work, check out blahblah.com.”

So send in your submissions to the contact form on HostingHoopla.com. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible and let you know when or if the content will be put up.

I got this interesting E-mail yesterday, that talked about Evoca being a good podcasting tool.

Greetings Mitch. I am fascinated with your site. I have just been alerted to it and I am finding much to read. I have to admit that the post on Odeo giving you some pains really caught my attention. I have seen that same comment in quite a few blogs. I am not an Odeo user. I have no personal complaints. However, I am a blogger too and there is nothing worse than to see another blogger have unresolved issues with a service.

Have you seen any resolve? Whatever the case, I invite you to check out http://www.evoca.com. It is new audio recording/podcasting site that offers similar services but far more reliable. I am an Evoca user and before I hit the soapbox about it…..well, I encourage you to give it a try.

You can post by computer, cell phone, skype, etc. You have instant RSS feed and edit options for archival. You can also upload to your free account. I am interested in what you think and perhaps other readers are too. Let me know what you come up with.

All my Odeo issues have been fixed, but I do have to say Evoca does look like a nice solution for folks who might not have all the resources Online to get a podcast up and running (such as recording software or hosting space). My main problem with Odeo was not my own use of it. I mainly wanted to make sure that my 77 subscribers that listen to my show via Odeo were getting the best service possible.

A Web host has been fined for somebody else’s hate speech.

Two white supremacists have been fined for spreading hatred on their websites. It’s believed to be the first time a Canadian internet web-hosting service has been found liable for hate messages.

The Web host in question is AffordableSpace.com. Is it right that they had to pay a fine of $3,000? No matter how good of a Web host or how bad of a Web host they were, I don’t think that was fair. From the sound of it, they had to pay the fine for hosting the material.

Now I don’t know how many customers they have or how many servers they are running, but keeping tabs on all your clients can be hard work. Will this lead into a better Internet for all? No. This will lead into Web hosts having to comb the servers they run (for objectional content) instead of running the servers they own.

Sure, nobody likes hate speech of any kind. I just don’t think the Web host should be mixed up in taking the fall.