If you are looking for a good cheap Web Host to host your web site you will literally find 1000 s of sites with reviews and awards for web hosting providers. Be careful with how much trust you put into these reviews and awards, a huge percentage of them are not serious and are nothing more than a creative marketing trick to get you to buy hosting.

Reviews of existing customers are of course very valuable when buying any kind of product, and definitely for web hosting. You know this, I know this, and advertisers know this which is why they use fake reviews. Most often it is not the web host company itself that stands behind such fake reviews, instead it is some middleman that stands to earn a buck by referring customers to a host.

So how do you know which reviews are fake and which are real? Well, if they sound to good to be true they probably are. No company can deliver 100 quality 100 of the time and make 100 of it s customers happy. Unhappy customers are always the loudest ones, if you like a product you are less likely to go online and say so than if you hate it. So if all reviews are super positive then that is a good indication that they are either fake or that the reviews are at least very carefully chosen to hide the unflattering ones. To see a good mix of good and bad reviews just check any book on Amazon, as much as a book can be loved it can be hated, and it is the same with web hosting. The bad reviews are usually more useful since they tend to tell you the weaknesses of a certain web host, and knowing these makes you a smarter consumer.

Another giveaway is fake hosting reviews often sound very similar, suspiciously like they were written by the same person. If a hosting review site has the review “Great host, great service. A great buy that I really recommend!” for 10 different hosting providers then something is wrong. Use your common sense and be a bit careful of how much trust you put into reviews like this. Also be aware if there positive reviews for all hosts listed on an “independent hosting review” site, surely some hosting providers must be better and worse than others. They can not all be great.

Another thing to be arware of are all these Web Hosting Awards that you bump into when you are researching your hosting. Keep in mind that all you need to create a Web Hosting Award is some design and some marketing skills. There is no government controlled Central Web Hosting Awards Association that guarantees that each web hosting award actually awards the best host and that the award is anything more than a fake marketing ploy. Before you trust any award make sure that you who is behind the Award and what criteria that has been used to award a certain host (“paying most for banner space” isn t that useful for you as a consumer). Just as for reviews, common sense and a healthy bit of skepticism will enable you to look behind the marketing hype quite easily.

To get the best insight to what service a web hosting company really provide the best way is to take a look at the hosts support forums. Usually these can be found via the hosts homepage, otherwise just search for them on Google. In the forums you will be able to read about the problems people really have and what the hosts customers really think about the service provided. Again, be aware that the unhappy customers will be loudest, so there will always be more negative than positive posts. The key for you at this point though is that you know for sure that the information you are getting is real and not just marketing language.

To sum up…

Be careful on who you trust when it comes to web hosting reviews and awards

Be aware that there are a lot of sites that use reviews and awards as advertising and not to provide a good independent service

Use your common sense when you do your research of web hosts

Being a smart and informed consumer will get you good hosting that you will be happy with for a long time.

Author Resource:-> http://www.WebHostNinja.com is a web hosting price comparison site, where it is easy to compare the offering from several hosting providers based on features and price.

Article From www.ItWasSoEasy.com/

It’s no secret that a short, memorable domain name is what is needed to help visitors to a website.  It also helps if the domain name contains keywords that are likely to rank high in search engines.  So, what does a webmaster do if they are promoting an affiliate program or a website created from a free web hosting service such as Geocities?  The most affordable answer lies in taking advantage of a domain name redirect service.

What is a domain name redirect service?  It is one in which a long, cumbersome URL is ‘masked’ by a more memorable domain name.  Instead of having to type in the longer URL, the website visitor would type in the new domain name.  This domain name would then redirect to the original URL.  The visitor would then see the original URL in their browser.  However, most won’t pay that much attention.

Domain name redirect services can be free or paid.  An example of a free service is Tiny URL.  In order to use this service, all a person has to do is enter in whatever URL they need to have shortened.  Tiny URL would then return a domain name that is much more convenient for website visitors.  This URL would have ‘tiny url’ as part of the domain name followed by a number.  An example is the following: tinyurl.com/3.  Granted, it’s not perfect, but it is a lot better than what one would typically get with an affiliate program or a free web hosting service.

If a person wants a more customized domain name, they will need to use pay for a redirect service.  One of the best is Namestick.  The process for using Namestick is similar to Tiny URL except webmasters must first choose the domain name they want to use for their redirect.  They can choose any domain name they wish, just like if they were getting it through their web host or a domain name company.  Namestick even provides suggestions if a person’s desired domain name is taken.  Once that is done, a person will have to enter in their URL they want redirected.  After about 72 hours, the new domain name will be ready for use.

Can a person get away with not using a domain name redirect service?  It depends on how they do their marketing.  For instance, if a person does a lot of offline marketing, a short, meaningful domain name is essential.  However, if a person uses a lot of hyperlinks, a domain name redirect service may not be as important.  What are hyperlinks?  They are simply words or phrases that are linked to a particular URL.  When the visitor clicks on them, they are taken to the website that is hyperlinked within.  Hyperlinks can easily be created in HTML editors or by use of the anchor tag.

In conclusion, a person’s life can be made easier if they decide to hide their long URL with a more normal-looking domain name available through a domain name redirect service.  This is if they aren’t marketing through hyperlinks, which do not require an official domain name.