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Why HostGator Makes Perfect Sense for Internet Marketers

Whenever an Internet marketer asks me, “Who’s the best hosting company?” the answer is always the same. Whenever they come to me with hosting problems (and it happens daily), whenever they ask me:

• Why won’t this plugin run on my site?
• Why won’t this theme work on my site?
• What does ERROR: Memory limit exceeded mean?
• How do I set my folder permissions to 777?
• How come my server keeps getting hacked?
• Why won’t my host answer my support ticket, it’s been days?
• What can I do about my web site regularly being unavailable?
• Why does my free or one buck a month hosting company not provide this or that or the other service?
• Why is my web site so sloooooooooooooooooooooooow?
• And on it goes…

I respond with a couple of questions:

“Why aren’t you hosting with HostGator?”

“Why not just make life easy for yourself?”

Plugin and Theme Installed and Activated Successfully…

Because with HostGator the plugin will install and run on your site. That’s because they set up their servers correctly and in a way that serves your best interests rather than their own. So many hosts lock down your installation claiming they are providing “security benefits” by not allowing you to do the things you need to do as an Internet marketer. But what they are really doing is making things as simple as possible for themselves by putting you in a cage so you their whole operation can run on autopilot and they can focus on taking your money, month after month. It’s an easy life for them and at your expense, literally and in terms of the restrictions placed on you.

And with HostGator that theme will certainly work on your site, unless it’s garbage downloaded from those freebie theme listings on Google (you know not to do that right?) Again, it’s all down to how the server is set up, how much freedom you are granted to do your thing. It’s entirely possible to give you flexibility while still maintaining good security and HostGator has the balance just right. So if your theme wants to do something a little more than just display pretty pictures then you’re in luck if you are a customer of HostGator.

Memory of an Elephant, not a Goldfish…

One of the most common reasons for themes and plugins failing on lesser hosts is the limitations they place on the amount of server memory your scripts can consume at any given time. If you are with a dirt cheap host using weakling servers then they are going to lock you right down, I’ve seen instances where only 8 megabytes (MB) is the limit.

You can’t even effectively run a bare WordPress installation with those sort of restrictions in place!

32MB is more common but it’s still not enough if you want to run multiple plugins and advanced themes. WordPress will try to grab as much memory as possible, all the way up to 256MB if it can. Yes indeed, WordPress is an intensive application especially when loaded up with plugins. You won’t always (or maybe never) need that 256MB but on the off chance you do HostGator just cuts to the chase and allows the full 256MB by default.

Enough Already, What Do I Get?

If you really don’t get this techno-jargon and you really don’t care either, look at it this way. HostGator will allocate 8 times more memory than a lot of hosts but you won’t even notice because everything will just work as intended. Hosting’s like that, you only notice it when it collapses and your income dries up as your money sites hit the deck.

Security and Flexibility

Security is of paramount importance when hosting a web site on the Internet. The net is almost infinitely huge and billions of people use it every day. Some of those people will stop at nothing to take control of your web site so they can load it with spam link or hide scripts on it to perform malicious tasks when your customers visit. Your reputation could be ruined as a result, you could have your site blacklisted from the search engines, confidential information could be stolen and used in criminal activities. The risks are real and the consequences can destroy a business.

This is why it’s essential your hosting company properly protects the web server on which your sites resides. There are no short-cuts here, no paying a couple of bucks and trusting to fortune. If you don’t take security seriously and if you aren’t dealing with a host that is just as deadly serious, if not more, then you are rolling the dice and hoping to come up lucky each and every time.

Who Knew the Door was Swinging Wide Open?

Have you ever seen one of those plugins or themes that politely requests you set the permissions on a file (or worse) a folder to 777 so some feature will work correctly? Do you know what setting a permission to 777 means in plain language?

It means grant full read, write and execution access to this file or folder for the whole world! No kidding. Now some will say this isn’t a risk in itself, not in most cases a least. Because malicious users would have to first compromise the server or somehow gain access to take advantage of the security flaw willingly put in place by so many users who trust software developers. True enough.

But that’s what hackers do isn’t it? Hack your server.

And if you’ve left a juicy unprotected file or folder they can modify or upload their malicious scripts to then they’ll be grinning all over at how easy you just made it for them.

So why would a theme or plugin ever need to request 777 permissions on a file or folder? Why do some developers play so loose with security? It’s simple really and again it comes back to your hosting company.

If your host has the server and your account set up correctly then you’ll never need to set 777 permissions in order to get your software to operate correctly. But if the set up is incorrect then it may be impossible for scripts to perform routine tasks such as writing log files or uploading images unless very loose file permissions are set that allow just about anybody to perform those functions.

It’s Not Always Good to Share

A common sign your server and account is not set up in the optimum way (in a shared hosting environment at least) is when you try to update your WordPress themes and plugins and WordPress prompts you for FTP account details.

WordPress is saying, “Hey, we can’t write files to the server so I can’t upgrade that plugin, but if you share your FTP account details in the clear and bounce them all over the Internet before they get to us, then we can do the job!” Because FTP is insecure and passwords are broadcast in the clear.

You are hosting your business on the Internet so isn’t it a good idea to know how secure that hosting is? If you ran a bricks and mortar company you wouldn’t leave the back door unlocked, you wouldn’t hide the alarm code under the mat just to make life easy. But a lot of hosts are requesting their customers do just this.

HostGator Gets it Right

They set up your account correctly. They set up their servers correctly. And then they place a phalanx of security services around your server and give you special tools to bump security to the maximum. And all without restricting your legitimate usage or ever asking you to set weak or suicidal permissions on your files or folders.

With HostGator your plugins work – securely. Your themes work – securely, and you don’t ever need to use FTP for routine operations such as upgrades. But when you want to communicate with the server directly HostGator offers simple to set up SFTP, a secure form of FTP where your account details are heavily encrypted before being broadcast across the Internet.

Playing Your Part…

Now that’s not to say your server can’t be hacked. It’s up to you what plugins you want to install and what themes you want to use. It’s up to you if you get your software from reputable sources or settle for knocked-off versions from black hat sites. You think you are getting a deal when a black hat offers you expensive software for free? Did you ever stop to check what might be in that software that’s so generously been donated?

So security is a two way street, if your host is up to specification then you need to play your part too. You need to keep your WordPress installation up to date, you need to keep your themes and plugins updated. Every door needs to be locked and bolted.

When the pre-Sales Blurb has Faded Out…

How many times have I had people come to me because they can’t get a satisfactory answer from their hosting company? How many times have I had to correct what the hosting company is reporting to the customer when they do respond?

Answer is… Never with HostGator, but plenty of times with certain other hosts.

A poor host will even go as far as to blame their problems on you before leaving you in the lurch. Have you been there? Is your host a guy in his garage renting third party servers and covering the support desk when he’s awake, potentially leaving you to fend for yourself for hours when your site hits a bump? Don’t laugh, it’s so easy to set up as a host these days, but not so easy to provide the levels of support that should be standard whenever you agree to have your business hosted with a third party.

Sleep Easy

24/7/365 coverage is a minimum requirement. Many claim it, not so many deliver it. Response times should be in minutes rather than hours and certainly not days later or never at all. The support you get should come from a technically competent individual who has the required knowledge to properly understand and address your issues. Have you ever dealt with the support night shift only to be told somebody else can help you later, when they arrive in the morning? Because the guy on the late shift is little more than a security guard or glorified receptionist. It happens, and you won’t know just how good support is going to be until you need it yourself. End up on the wrong side of a poor support desk and you’ll be tearing your hair out as revenue drains from your business.

HostGator has competent staff (who often go way beyond the call of duty to help you) manning the support desks around the clock. My experience with their customer support, which is extensive having hosted with them for years, is they’ll get back to you within the hour when you encounter a problem. Faster on critical issues. Of course priority is a factor. If your server is down you are likely to get a faster response, if you are asking them something totally irrelevant to your hosting plan, such as how to change the colour of your home page background, then expect to wait or be justifiably ignored. There are limits and sometimes people push them.

With HostGator you can raise a support ticket, phone them, use their live chat, even use their Twitter support functions or you can dig into their vast knowledge base or community support forum if you want to help yourself.

They have you covered, right down to the video clips inside your hosting panel that demonstrate how to achieve the various server tasks you might want to perform, like setting up email addresses or add-on domains.

Industry Standards

Talking of cPanel, that come as standard with all HostGator plans and is by far the most common and easiest to use administration solution for your server.

Virtually every marketing course or training program out there will focus on cPanel when discussing your hosting, often adding the caveat, “If you don’t have cPanel then use whatever features your host offers, they’ll be similar.” But sometimes they are wildly different, non-intuitive and limited by comparison.

With a HostGator account you’ll have full access to email account set up, add-on domains, sub-domain, domain parking, database management, easy script installers like Fantastico so you can literally install WordPress with a couple of clicks. It’s a long list of functionality, everything you could need to configure your server just the way you want it is right there in the cPanel. You won’t be asking, “Why doesn’t my server do that?”

Give Me Room to Breathe…

In the end though it’s all about your web sites. When you have purchased your hosting plan and configured your server, installed WordPress and configured it – what happens when your site starts to build traffic? Will the server perform at the expected levels or will it crumple in a heap? Are there 10,000 other users jammed on to your server fighting for resources? This type of over-selling is typical of profit hungry hosting companies who turn and burn their client list.

HostGator has monitors in place to ensure no single site is hogging all the resources or tying up the database for protracted periods. So this naturally limits how many accounts and the type of accounts that will be found on a typical shared server.

Static web pages (pages that don’t change and don’t need to be generated on each request by a script) use very few resources. Processor intensive scripts from one site could consume as much processing power as hundreds or even thousands of simple static sites. So there’s no hard and fast rule that applies when deciding how many sites should reside on a shared server. It’s the total resources being consumed that matters and HostGator will protect you by sending warnings to users who are abusing a shared service when really they need a dedicated solution.

The upshot is your site won’t run like glue, it should zip along at a brisk pace – again dependent on a two way agreement that you aren’t doing crazy stuff like scraping Google all day long. Or running dreadfully inefficient plugins or other scripts.

GreenGator

Did you know that HostGator drives their whole operation using green energy in the form of wind power? So while you and your customers are enjoying the resources on your server you aren’t burning up other precious resources elsewhere. This may not be high on your agenda but it’s a nice finishing touch to an all round excellent service.

What Are My Options?

Are there other hosts out there as good as HostGator? Sure, a few. But HostGator gets the job done extremely well at exceptional value for money and thousands of marketers have already made the choice, along with thousands more culminating in millions of web sites being reliably served by HostGator day in, day out, all year round.

And no long terms contracts, unless you want one (in which case it’s even cheaper). You can cancel at any time. If you are a first time customer they’ll even transfer you from your existing host for free (in most cases).

I use and recommend HostGator because whenever I want to create a new site it takes me literally minutes to get it up and running using their services. I don’t really thing about it much any more, I just point the domain, create some space, set up and email address, fire Fantastico to build my WordPress install and then it’s down to the business I’m really interested in, creating my marketing sites, offers and ultimately revenue.

I suppose that’s the biggest compliment you can pay to a host, you take them for granted and always assume things will just work out. I guess some people take their existing host for granted too, right up until the moment something goes wrong, then it’s a different story.

Here’s the deal.

If you aren’t already with HostGator or you are thinking of hosting for the first time, I want you to either transfer or sign-up today. And apart from all the reasons discussed above, here’s a few more…

• I get to offer you a discount so you end up paying less than if you went directly to HostGator themselves. 25% off any of their plans. I win and you win and the end result is a great service for you. That’s a no-brainer, right?
• I’ll transfer your existing site for you, completely free of charge. You sign up, send your account details (which you can change after set up if you are worried about security), I transfer everything across and make sure your site is fully operational, I change your nameservers and a few days later (in order to let DNS propagate so your site is available throughout the whole transfer process) you close down the old host and cancel.
• If you are a brand new customer hosting for the first time I’ll set up your email addresses and WordPress for you so you can just log-in and start creating content right away.
• I’ll send you some cool bonuses that are genuinely useful, rather than the rehashed garbage you often see. So the value of the whole deal gets even bigger for you.

All you need to do is make a note of the coupon code below then click the coupon image, sign up to whichever plan you require (I recommend the “baby” or “business” plan so you have room to grow) and then send your receipt to the secure help desk which you can access using the Support tab at the right edge of the page or by sending an email to support@hostmarketer.zendesk.com. The whole process should take no longer than 5 minutes.

Yes, good question. Indeed I am qualified to handle your transfer and set up. I guess I have been in the I.T. game for about 20 years now in one role or another. But you can always ask around the Internet marketing forum MarketingEasyStreet.com if you’d like to do a bit of research. My screen name is DannyUK

Moving Up!

If you want to be hosted with one of these best companies in the business, with access to some of the best support in the business, using industry standard tools to manage your server and waving goodbye to all the potential issues you may or may not have even been aware of with your old provider…

…now’s the time to make the move, because it’s painless, fast, you save money and you get some goodies thrown into the mix. That’s the definition of a good deal and I encourage you to take me up on this offer right now and put your hosting on a firm foundation so you too can enjoy taking it for granted – but in a good way.

Houston, We Have a…

Got questions, need more info, not sure about something, simply contact me on the help desk using the Support tab to the right of the page or send an email to support@hostmarketer.zendesk.com and I’ll help you out however I can.

I know some of you may be locked into annual deals with hosts you can’t wait to get away from but can’t afford to leave either. That’s understandable. If I was in that situation I’d take the hit because I just wouldn’t want to go a moment longer with a host that presented more problems than solutions. Or maybe I’d hang on and use the old host for less critical web sites while moving my main sites across to HostGator. There can be marketing advantages to hosting with two different companies, even if one of them is a dead loss. But you have to make the call.

Make it Happen!

That’s it. If you want to take advantage of this offer then click the coupon image and get signed up. I’ll have to withdraw the free transfers and site set up once I reach a certain number of requests because there are only so many hours in the day. But even if you miss out, you’re still getting a great deal with the 25% discount and additional bonuses on top.

Smart marketers host with HostGator

Go ahead, click the coupon image and 5 minutes from now you’ll be a lot better off than when you started reading this page.

A Bonus You Get When You Act Today…

Free Site Transfer or Free Site Set Up

If you already have a site hosted elsewhere then send me the details and I’ll transfer it across for free to your new HostGator account. If you are hosting for the first time I’ll get WordPress up and running for you including creation of the necessary site email address.

But this bonus is limited to the first, let’s say 50, responders because even though I can get each site transferred quickly the time still adds up.

One more time. All you need to do is make a note of the coupon code then click the coupon image, sign up to whichever plan you require and then send your receipt to the secure help desk which you can access using the Support tab at the right edge of the page or by sending an email to support@hostmarketer.zendesk.com. The whole process should take no longer than 5 minutes.

So don’t hang about, click the coupon image now and get things started. As you can see, there’s nothing to lose here but plenty to gain. I’ll talk to you again when you are ready to pick up your bonuses.

You prefer a button? Well here you are, hit the button instead and get the hosting your business deserves…